Emissary- Beasts of Burden

by Silas Post

  “I think,” Jarah said, “we are steady. I can handle the ship after all.”

  I exclaimed in joy and pulled Rikki close for a celebratory kiss. She obliged at first, then shook her head free as my beard rubbed against her chin.

  “Let’s find a water closet and get you cleaned up,” she said. “I miss your handsome jaw.”

  “We must check the nets first,” I said, rushing toward the boat’s starboard side and the long knots of netting that tied captured sea creatures to the boat’s edge.

  I strained to lift each bundle of living cargo, raising it from the water as entire schools of fish thrashed against the sea air. Each time, the fish inside were a dark and pulsating mass of terrified little bodies, but none of these nets were large enough to hold a full woman, and none showed a hint of the lush pink tentacles I had witnessed that afternoon.

  Rikki cut each net open to release the fish once I had assessed them, and while hundreds — maybe thousands — of fish swam to freedom, that’s all they were. Mackerels and cod.

  “And with that,” I said, “we have touched our sight to every life this ship sought fit to steal.” I was left to hope the captured maiden broke her own bonds and catapulted herself into the ocean of welcome freedom. The alternative was something I could not bear.

  “I suppose,” Rikki said. “Unless this boat has water traps below deck.”

  “Below deck!” I yelled. “Of course.” I ran then, toward the boat’s rear and found a rectangular shape, like a wooden door built into the deck. I had walked across it several times without realizing the surface boards might work doubly as a hidden passageway to the ship’s inner cabin, and as protection from the elements for any who dwelt below.

  A latch handle lay in the floor, and I popped it from its depressed position. With a hearty tug, the door swung upward, revealing a narrow set of steep stairs.

  I took the first few steps, allowing my eyes to adjust further. There was no moon to light the way here.

  In the corner sat a few barrels, likely fresh water to keep Dineel alive amid the salty seas. A pile of clothing sat folded on a small stool, next to tools and a mop. This couldn’t just be a storage compartment, not when my hopes had leapt so high and this was their last opportunity to soar.

  A slight movement from the room’s other end lured me the next step down.

  A breath of revelation passed through my lungs at the sight of the woman I had seen before, still tangled in the net that contained her. She was suffering, but alive, and present on this very boat. She would find her way into no cruel soup or exotic ceviche. She was safe.

  This piscine marvel did not glance back at the sound of my boots against the wooden steps that descended into the boat’s belly, nor at the thumps of Rikki’s hooves against the same sturdy slats. Instead, she reached a tentacled arm toward a porthole window set in the ship’s outer wall, pressing her limb against it and tugging the net that surrounded her. The slight pop of small suction cups against the glass rose and fell as she traced the glass.

  “We have one more net to dispatch with,” I said.

  Rikki paused and reached for my shoulder. “This was a human vessel, but she is not a human crew hand,” she said.

  “I know,” I replied. “She needs our help.”

  “You seem to have known all along that there was a forestkind hidden on the ship we fought so hard to claim,” Rikki said.

  “She is no forestkind,” I said. “The fisher who trapped her said as much before his very timely demise.”

  “An expert on the forest’s children, is he?” Rikki asked. “I’m glad you place such trust in his wisdom, given the apparent lack of mine.”

  “I meant no offense,” I said. “This suffering woman is plainly of the sea rather than the leaves. I assumed the fisher appraised her nature as readily as we might.”

  “You have met lamia,” Rikki said. “Their massive tails are slick and soft like the kraken’s arms, and both dwell in the waters that feed and nourish all life. A forestkind like any other.”

  “This tentacled woman is a kraken?” I asked. “How is a creature so aquatic born of the same forest as rocky golems and avian harpies?”

  “The world forest does not limit itself to continental shores,” she said. “Where it meets the land’s edge it continues beneath waters both fresh and salt. Lily pads and reeds provide refuge and breeding grounds. Seaweed tangles provide diversion and food. The forest is comprised of kelp as much as pine.”

  “I see,” I said.

  “Do you?” she asked. “The world forest is just that: the world. Only the barren tundra, the wild desert, and the open seafloor are beyond its reach. It is no small copse of trees, it is mother and father to all of my kind. It is a living, primordial entity whose nurturing presence courses through every leaf. Its power strikes awe in all who touch its heart.”

  “If there is one thing I have learned from the forestkind, it is awe,” I said.

  Rikki glanced at the kraken, then back at me. “I never took your eye as one to wander so fickle.”

  “Does your heart not ache for so marvelous a creature trapped in a fisher’s web?” I asked.

  “You know nothing of her intentions.”

  “She intends to be free,” I said. “I intend the same.” I placed a hand on Rikki’s cheek and she nuzzled toward it. “My eye is neither fickle nor easily beguiled, and you have no worry for competition. My heart is always yours.”

  “And your mouth,” she said, touching my lips with her finger.

  “And my mouth.”

  “And your arms.” She ran both hands down my arms, left exposed from the shoulder down by the leather vest that covered my chest.

  “And my arms.”

  “And your pleasures.” She grabbed between my legs and gave a playful squeeze, though one I hadn’t been expecting. The widening of my eyes and wordless parting of my lips told her as much.

  “You knew what you got with me,” she said. “I’m a creature of the wild forest, not a dainty maiden.”

  “Nor would I ever ask you to be,” I said. “Now, can we free this poor damsel?”

  “We can.”

  Rikki and I continued down the steps to the boat’s under level. Sparse furnishings proved this a bedroom, of sorts, though one blocked from most natural light. I did have one way to mitigate the darkness here. I pulled Redelia’s pendant from my pocket and held it aloft on its thin chain.

  Prismatic light shone from the holy gem, illuminating the room in a faint gleam. It was a gentle and soothing light, yet the kraken alarmed at it. She pressed her body against the farthest wall, aiming wide eyes at me and Rikki.

  “Dineel is gone,” I said. “We collected his ship on a course to freedom, and we’d like to extend that freedom to you.”

  She gave a muffled sound, and the light from Redelia’s amulet revealed a cloth tied around the woman’s mouth. I approached slowly and she let me, holding still long enough for me to reach through the nets that bound her and untie the gag that muted her. I tossed that old rag aside and hung the pendant on a nearby lantern hook.

  This woman’s face was pale and carnation pink. Her features were every bit as feminine up close as I had appraised them from afar that first moment I saw her on the docks, with lips a blue so dark and rich it would be easily mistaken for black in this low light.

  Her short, full hair was that same dark shade, like the ocean’s swell in the deep of night.

  “They wrapped around your mouth?” Rikki asked.

  “I bit my captor’s finger,” our kraken said. Her voice was sweet, but weak. “He worried I might tear through these nets. At least, if I had the energy in me to gnaw for so long.”

  “Let me,” Rikki said, sawing through the nets with her knife.

  “How long have you been held here?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “The days and nights all blend together at sea. Sometimes Dineel would drag me up top for company and release my gag, but I refused to
entertain him. Otherwise, I was left down here, alone. And so painfully dry.”

  I shook my head in dismay and crossed the small room to find a barrel of fresh water and a clean shirt from the laundry pile. I scraped the barrel along the floor until it stood beside our kraken rescue, then I soaked the rag and brought it dripping freely as I sat. My back slid down the barrel’s wall until I rested on the wood slat floor. She lay beside me, sprawled and still while Rikki worked on the net that contained her.

  “My name is Victor Coin,” I said, wringing the water out and allowing a small stream of it to drench the woman’s tentacle arm. Water ran toward her shoulder, bringing a shine to her skin wherever it dampened.

  From what I could see, her feet were dainty and her toes webbed, but otherwise they were human in appearance, with soft supple skin to cover her less beastlike parts. Her arms, however, were long and slick, tapering to fine points with suckers on one side. While satyrkind and golemkind had fingers like mine, I knew the harpies and lamia did not. I could now add kraken to that list.

  She closed her eyes and relaxed under the gentle stream that washed over her. “And this is Rikki Silena,” I continued. “Jarah Lin steers the boat overhead.”

  “Victor Coin,” she said, almost dreamily. “You’re the one I saw on the pier earlier.”

  “Yes,” I said, rubbing that fresh water into her skin and rejuvenating it, bringing a lustrous shine and a smooth, slick texture back to skin that had been dull and dry. Her flesh was supple and warm, and as I worked my fingers from the tip of her arm all the way toward her neck, the suckers on the underside of her tentacle were soft and pliant. “I knew in that moment that I would save you…”

  “Sadine,” she said. “Sadine Lavar. And gods, that feels good. Thank you.”

  Sadine climbed over and spread out, placing her head in my lap and reminding me that she was entirely without clothing. Her breasts were small and pert, standing atop her chest with dark blue nipples that pointed toward my face. I squeezed the freshwater rag and allowed rivulets of water to splash onto her neck, then run down her front. They channeled between her breasts and pooled in her navel before running further down.

  “Were you alone out here?” Rikki asked.

  “Mmm,” she said, distracted as I applied the wet rag to her other tentacle. “Yes. It was that time, when nature makes her fervent demand. I was powerless against the forest’s call.”

  “I don’t understand,” Rikki said, setting her knife aside now that Sadine’s legs were also freed. “Had you strayed too far from the world forest?”

  “No,” Sadine said, arching her back and running tentacle hands through her wet hair as I continued to rehydrate her. “It was time to molt. To release the new form waiting beneath my surface. Does your kind not heed the forest’s call as well?”

  “Molt,” Rikki said. She knelt down next to Sadine, barely an arm’s length from where I sat. “The harpies use that word. At full age, they preen their early down and reveal bold azure feathers.”

  “So it is with me,” Sadine said. “I must return to the kelp where I was born. Then the world forest will tap my body with its might and unlock the woman I shall become. Kraken do this throughout our adulthood, unlike harpy chicks who improve their own majesty only once.

  “I was basking in the familiar waters that led to my private cove, my skin dazzling with grains of salt and sand caught in the sun’s noon light. That’s when Dineel’s net caught me up, and my mind was sluggish to his danger. It never dawned on me that humans would consider kraken for a meal. They value life so little.”

  “We have seen my race do terrible things to your cousins,” I said. “Though not all are so small-hearted.”

  “It was the humans’ own kind I refer to,” Sadine said. “My flesh is poison. Dineel would have killed a hundred Telapans just to line his pocket with silver.”

  “Poison,” I said.

  “To eat,” she replied, “not to touch.” She wrapped a tentacle arm around my neck then, sliding it further toward my face. “I like this. Soft and puffy.”

  “My beard?” I asked.

  “Well I love it,” Rikki quickly added.

  “No you don’t,” I said.

  “Yes, I do. I love it because it’s mine.” She turned toward Sadine. “Victor and I are a triad with Jarah. We belong to each other.”

  “I see,” Sadine said. “It must be nice for this Jarah, to own you both so fully.”

  “That’s not what I said,” Rikki replied with a huff. “We are free to our own wills. I should inquire whether— Oh. Ooooh.”

  Rikki moaned as Sadine’s other tentacle arm slid up her back and over her shoulder. The strong, tensile tip probed deep into Rikki’s flesh, flattening a row of suction cups against her skin. Each small cup popped as Sadine lifted and moved, that minor sucking sensation invoking a carnal confusion on Rikki’s face. She enjoyed Sadine’s touch, even if she had decided to compete with Sadine for mine.

  “Now that,” Rikki said, “is a massage.”

  The heavier part of Sadine’s tentacle rested against my chest while its tip continued to play against my face, her body forming a sensual bridge between Rikki’s and my own.

  Meanwhile, Redelia’s pendant grew in luminescence. Of course you are watching, I thought. Did you know this would happen all along, goddess? You’ve mentioned prophetic insight, but how far might that go?

  “I am grateful,” Sadine said. “To steal a boat and save a creature such as me must welcome certain dangers to your door.”

  “Thank Redelia,” I said, resisting the urge to slip into moaning and heavy breathing as Sadine’s arms teased under my vest and plied my muscles. “I am her emissary. She ordained the journey that crossed our path with yours.”

  “Redelia,” Sadine said, playing with the goddess’s name across her tongue as her nose grazed my inner thigh. Her head against my lap was its own separate excitement.

  Parts of this kraken beauty were already alive again with a glistening pink sheen, but other areas yet begged for the soothing touch of hydration. I set my sights on those next, reaching over to cup her breasts from the sides and rub the droplets of water that beaded on her skin until they absorbed into her supple body.

  Rikki moved to straddle Sadine, placing a knee against each of the kraken’s sides so that she could face me. She placed her own hands just outside mine, guiding my palms as I caressed Sadine’s tender chest and rubbed fresh water into her skin, reviving her natural, smooth texture.

  Sadine released her tentacle from my body and turned both on Rikki now, gliding her slick, smooth arms up Rikki’s torso and fondling her breasts. I jolted a few inches forward, nervous Redelia’s bundled soul would slip from the red scarf Rikki wore for a top, but Sadine probed beneath that garment with expert ease, massaging Rikki’s front while her other arm worked on the satyress’s back.

  Rikki closed her eyes and moaned, lost in the tactile bliss of the kraken’s firm and probing touch.

  “A girl could get used to this,” Rikki said. “All the stresses of our journey and escape, they melt from pressure tenderly applied.”

  I leaned back again, eager to observe what might develop next, but I found I could lean no more. My tight leathers had grown tighter as my length shifted its position, trailing down the inner leg of one pant and conforming to the leather so closely the ridge of its head was also discernible.

  Sadine turned her head, still in my lap. Her eyes were mere inches from my rigid length.

  “Let me guess,” Sadine said. “Rikki loves this too, because it is hers.”

  “Yes,” Rikki said.

  “You hold your people tight,” Sadine said. “I admire that, but I wonder if a loosened grip lets love flow faster. If Victor would share you, would you allow at least that?”

  “I…” Rikki said. “I would.”

  I nodded and Sadine sent her tentacle trailing down Rikki’s front to unbutton her shorts. “I’ll need more of that cool water, for what comes next
,” Sadine said.

  I wrung the sopping cloth over her body and she scooped some of that water onto her tentacle’s tapered point. She traced her slick tip against Rikki’s outer lips, slipping inside her silky folds and probing deeper into Rikki’s core.

  As I continued to squeeze the wet rag in my hand, Sadine lifted her head to catch some of that water on her face. As it cascaded down the sides of her neck, a series of soft ridges there flexed and rippled.

  Of course. This aquatic beauty had gills. I aimed for them with the stream that left the rag in my hand and she smiled. When I reached back to drape the rag over the barrel’s edge, she nuzzled her cheek against my shaft still trapped within my pants.

  Rikki’s chest heaved with breath and she bit her lower lip. I found myself gently pumping my hips to run my sensitive length against Sadine’s face through my clothing while my thumbs played in circles around her erect nipples.

  Rikki leaned forward and brought her face close to Sadine’s. I thought they might kiss, but when Rikki’s lips parted it was to speak. “I could share Victor too, I suppose. For Redelia’s sake.”

  I unfastened my pants then and freed my shaft from its confines, the cool sea air refreshing my sensitive skin. Redelia’s pendant throbbed with light now, motes of every color darting along the wooden walls amidst the radiant white.

  My other hand dunked the water rag into the barrel overhead and whipped it back out, splashing us all with fresh water. Gone was the time for delicate drops and slow massage. Every douse of enlivening water sent a thrill through Sadine’s body and sparked a brighter energy in her deep blue eyes. I wanted her wet and brimming with life. I dunked again and sent a cascade down her chest, working the water into her glistening breasts with both palms.

  Rikki shifted her position, inching toward me while Sadine’s tentacle still filled her. She took the cloth from me, sopping wet, and flooded the space between the kraken’s legs. Then she covered Sadine’s swollen mound with her fingers, tracing the woman’s slit with her thumb before splitting her outer lips apart. Four fingers disappeared into the kraken’s depths while a thumb searched out the sensitive spot above her opening.