Monster Girl Islands 5

by Logan Jacobs

  So, there wasn’t really any time for us to wait around. We had to jump on this, and fast.

  “You are very deep in your thoughts, Ben,” Nadir pointed out as she sat down next to me at the campfire that night.

  “It’s hard being king,” I joked.

  “Oh?” Nadir tilted her head and raised a single eyebrow in a way that told me she knew I was joking, but she didn’t get the joke, but she still knew now was not the time for jokes.

  “I’m just thinking about how to approach this,” I continued. “Some new information has arisen that’s shown me just how important it is for us to get this egg back as soon as possible.”

  “Hmm,” Nadir hummed. “What is this new information you speak of?”

  “Have you ever heard of visions?” I asked her.

  “Like… seeing?” she replied as she furrowed her brows.

  “No, like looking into the future,” I explained. “The old man, Jonas, has those powers. So does my daughter Marella.”

  “They can see into the future!” she gasped, and her gray eyes widened. “How fascinating. What do they see?”

  “All sorts of things.” I shrugged. “Depends on what’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s nothing important, and other times it is very important.”

  “Jonas must have had this happen, then?” Nadir queried. “This vision thing. Did he see the egg?”

  I noted the way she had called it an “egg” instead of a “treasure,” but I said nothing. Still, it looked like I was beginning to change her a little bit, after all.

  “He did,” I sighed. “Jonas said we must get to the egg back before it hatches, or else the orcs are going to have the most powerful weapon, and we won’t be able to defeat them.”

  “Oh, no,” Nadir growled. “We cannot let that happen. The fat, ugly monsters must pay the price for what they have done to my mate and the Coonag people. For what they have done to all the people of this world.”

  “And they will,” I told her seriously. “We just need to get the egg back before it hatches. Any idea when that will be?”

  “Ben, we did not even know it was an egg.” She shrugged. “I am afraid I can be of no help to you.”

  “That’s alright,” I assured her as I rubbed my brow. “We’ll figure it out eventually.”

  Sela, Mira, and Jemma joined us around the fire, then, and as they all sank into their seats, I could tell they were tired after a long day of training with the other women.

  “What are we discussing tonight?” Mira asked.

  “The egg,” I told her. “And Jonas’ vision.”

  “Right.” The jade haired warrior’s face became grave as she thought about what Jonas had said.

  I had, of course, told Mira about the vision right away. She was my go-to for everything, and she was also the only woman I could really bounce my ideas off and not be met with only nods of agreement.

  “We cannot risk its destruction,” Sela said in her typical serious tone, and her green eyes darkened as she thought about what this might mean. “I know more than anyone that when Grandfather has a vision, it must be heeded exactly, or it can cause great issues.”

  “He is your grandfather!” Nadir exclaimed, completely off topic. “Do you see the future, too?”

  “I wish,” Sela snorted. “No, I was not blessed with that gift. My niece is, though. And I am hopeful my two children will be, as well.”

  “I don’t know if my heart can take three kids with this vision thing,” I joked. “Marella already acts cryptically enough.”

  “That is because you raised an independent one,” Sela chuckled. “I am raising little soldiers. Adorable ones, but soldiers nonetheless. They will follow their father and mother’s orders.”

  “So, how do we get the egg back?” Jemma demanded and drew our attention back to the present.

  Something in her expression shifted, and she grew intensely serious in a very un-Jemma like way. I would have expected to see that look in Sela’s eyes, or even Mira’s, but even in the tensest of moments, Jemma was not normally the one to look quite so down.

  I wondered if she was drawn to the egg more than the rest of us. After all, it had seemed as if the dragon had looked at her the day before in a way that was… connected was the best word I could think of to describe the dragon’s expression.

  “Jemma, what’s going on in your head?” I asked softly.

  Instantly, all of the women whipped around to look at Jemma.

  She hesitated and scratched her left horn gently, and then she pulled her pink lower lip into her mouth and searched for her words.

  All of us were absolutely silent, and I knew even Nadir could tell Jemma needed some space and time to gather her words.

  Finally, Jemma looked up, and her chartreuse eyes met each one of the women’s before they landed on my own.

  “It was as if I could feel the egg,” she finally said. “I know that sounds absolutely insane, but when those orcs took it, I was overcome with this intense wave of emotion and I… all I knew was I needed to get the egg back from them, or else horrible things would happen.”

  “Is it possible you had a vision?” Sela questioned as she cocked her head.

  “I do not know.” Jemma shrugged. “I suppose if I did have a vision, I would not quite know what it is, or what it would feel like.”

  “Did you see anything in your mind’s eye?” Mira demanded, but when Jemma shook her head, the warrior deflated in disappointment.

  “Hold on,” I spoke up. “Jonas doesn’t always see things. He told me sometimes he just gets a feeling, and then he has to try and meditate to figure out what it was about.”

  “That is because Jonas is old,” Sela explained. “When he was a younger soothsayer, he never had only feelings. He always had visions. If Jemma were to have the power of foresight, she would be able to see things, not just feel.”

  “So, then, w-w-what does it mean?” Jemma stuttered. “Am I too emotional for my own good?”

  “I do not think so,” Mira comforted her. “You have a very good head on your shoulders, dear Jemma. It is not your emotions that are to blame.”

  “Then what is it?” Jemma groaned as she dropped her head into her hands. “Because all I can think about is that egg, and every time I relive what happened when those horrid invaders took it, I want to cry all over again.”

  Mira looked up at me with worried gold eyes, but I shook my head to tell her I didn’t have an answer, either, possibly for the first time ever.

  Still, I couldn’t bear to see the auburn-haired deer woman so distraught.

  “I know how to solve this,” I told Jemma after a long moment.

  “You do?” she gasped as her head snapped up, and she looked me straight in the eyes.

  “We need to get that egg back.” I grinned. “The question is how are we going to do it? We could attack the ship first to disable their cannons first, since it’s too damaged for them to get away on. Or, we can just go straight for the egg.”

  “We cannot barge in with our weapons raised and expect the orcs to just hand it over,” Mira pointed out. “They would rather fight than do such things.”

  “True.” I nodded. “So, I’m thinking we stage a good, old fashioned robbery.”

  “What is that?” Nadir wondered, but just from my tone, her gray eyes were already lit up.

  So, I knew what I was about to say would be her favorite thing in the world.

  “It means we sneak in there and take back the egg, and those orcs won’t even know what hit them,” I explained. “People do it all the time where I come from. If they plan well and are smart about it, they never even get caught.”

  “Well, then, I suppose we must be smart about it, huh, Draco Rex?” Mira grinned.

  “Always,” I laughed.

  “Why do we not just go in there with all of our troops and show those orcs whose army is really mightier?” Sela protested. “I long to see orc blood dripping from my sword once more.”

  �
�Trust me, I share your bloodlust,” I told her sincerely. “But the problem with attacking them like that is it’s too risky.”

  “They would never intentionally destroy the egg,” Jemma said with a furrowed brow. “Right?”

  “I doubt it.” I shook my head. “That’s not actually what I’m worried about, though. Battles are messy. Without meaning to, someone could break open that egg, and without knowing what stage of development the fetus is in, we could lose the dragon. It could be the orcs, or it could even be one of us. All it takes is one good blow, and this could all be for nothing.”

  “So, you are proposing a rescue mission of sorts.” Mira grinned. “Where we will get in and out, right under their noses, and they will never even know we were there?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m proposing.” I nodded my head vigorously. “How fucking satisfying will it be to travel right next to them, steal their precious egg, and they’ll never even know it?”

  “Very,” Mira agreed. “But how do we do it? The beach and plains are very open. They will see us coming before we can even see them.”

  I turned to Nadir as I thought about the seemingly miraculous tunnel system her women had created underground.

  “How did you guys make those tunnels?” I asked her.

  “We dug them.” The woman shrugged. “It comes naturally to us. Our people have used tunnels for as long as we have existed.”

  “So, do you think you could dig some of those tunnels under the orc camp?” I grinned.

  Nadir thought it over for a moment, and I could literally see the possibilities turn themselves over and over in her mind as she tried to decipher the best way to go about it.

  “I think so.” She finally nodded. “We will have to know exactly where to put them, though, so we do not alert the invaders to our presence.”

  “Right,” I said. “It sounds like we might have to do a little reconnaissance mission.”

  I turned to look at Jemma and Mira, who were both well versed in reconnaissance missions. We’d had to do one on Jemma’s island, back when we needed to figure out the best way to attack and destroy the orcs’ encampment.

  This would be a different scenario, of course. We didn’t want to completely destroy the orc encampment, at least not yet, but a recon mission was a recon mission, and I needed my second in command at my side.

  “Oh, hell, yes.” Mira pumped her fist up into the air excitedly. “Did I use that phrase correctly?”

  “Yeah, you did,” I laughed before I turned to the other women. “Everyone, get some sleep. We’ll go in the morning and get a clearer picture of how the orc encampment is set up, and then we’ll figure out how we’re going to position those tunnels.”

  “How will you get there without them noticing?” Sela asked.

  I looked over at George, who already knew what my plan was. It was so damn nice to have a telepathic bond with my dragon.

  “We’re going to swim,” I told the women.

  Their eyes all widened at the prospect, and Mira clapped her hands in excitement.

  The next morning, we all rose just before dawn, but Mira and I were the only ones going in, in addition to George, of course. Jemma and Nadir had decided to stay back, since they weren’t the biggest fans of the water, and Sela wanted to remain in camp in case Mira and I were somehow caught. I trusted her to take care of everything and also manage to get us back from the orcs if we were their captives.

  So, just as the sun peeked its head up over the horizon, Mira, George, and I waded into the smooth, warm ocean water and set off to go look at the orc camp.

  How would you like to travel, dear one? George asked.

  “Can we ride on your back?” I asked him, since George cut through water like it was nothing more than air.

  Of course. George dipped his massive head in a nod, and then he spun around in the shallow water so Mira and I could climb up onto his back.

  I hugged his warm, firm body beneath me, while Mira wrapped her arms around my middle and pressed her face to my back.

  “We’re ready,” I told him.

  Then let us go. The dragon turned to glance at us over his shoulder and grinned.

  He pushed forward like a whale and dipped further into the water, so now just our heads were above the surface.

  And then we were off.

  When George was unimpeded by slower company, the water dragon was as fast as a race car in the water. He zoomed through the warm liquid, which created a beautiful ripple effect behind him, sort of like a speedboat in a lake.

  “Wow,” Mira murmured as she looked all around us.

  I had to agree with her. This part of the ocean was calm and placid. We were just far enough off shore that the sea bed didn’t catch on George’s legs, but still close enough that we didn’t have to worry about sea monster attacks and the like. We could see small fish jump from the small waves out in the ocean, and we watched as strange birds nose-dived in an effort to catch their morning meals in their massive, turquoise hued beaks. Their pure white feathers reminded me of a seagull’s, but their webbed feet were a fire engine red that nicely complimented their beaks.

  As we started to approach the jutted rocks that blocked us from view of the orcs’ camp, George slowed to a halt.

  Take a deep breath, dear ones, he instructed us. We must go under the water so as not to be spotted.

  In unison, Mira and I sucked in the pure, clean air and filled our massive lungs up to their capacity, which would last us about twenty minutes or so. As soon as George heard our lungs were full, he dove under the surface, and we were immersed in the bright, colorful world of the ocean.

  Surprisingly, since we were on the back of a water dragon, we managed to glide through the water and not disturb the creatures that lived there. A water dragon was a part of their natural habitat, so I supposed they must have thought that’s what we were, too, and continued on undisturbed by Mira, George, and me.

  Finally, George spoke over our telepathic bond.

  This is it, dear ones, he said.

  Through the glassy surface of the ocean, we could see the orc encampment. We were about two hundred feet off the shore, closer than their ship, but still far enough away that the glare of the sun hid us from view as we spied on the nasty brutes while they went about whatever horrid business they always did.

  Thanks to our dragon vision, we could see the camp as clearly as if we stood right in front of it, without the danger of being caught. If only we could make an attack and steal the egg from way out here, this would all be easier.

  But a water robbery would take too much planning and prove to be far more difficult than a robbery by tunnel. George only had room on his back for two of us, and we’d need at least four to pull this job off well. Not to mention, with the exception of Sela, Jemma and Nadir didn’t swim very well, and they couldn’t hold their breath for more than a few minutes, which would prove extremely difficult when we needed them to stay submerged under the water for an undetermined amount of time. On top of all that, there was no way this robbery could happen in the daytime, when most of the orcs were awake. We needed the cover of night to really pull this off, and I, for one, was not too fond of the idea of being in the dark ocean at night where we’d never see if some horrid sea beast decided to come up from below us like a massive shark and snap us up in one single gulp. That did not seem to be a very appealing way to go.

  It would be easier to dig through with a tunnel, pop up just where the egg was, and then pop back out. We’d block the tunnel off behind us, and the orcs would never be the wiser until it was far too late.

  And maybe this was too much for me to hope, but I relished the idea that the cave would collapse on an entire platoon full of orcs and absolutely drown them in soil and dirty air. The only drawback would be I wouldn’t be there to watch.

  Do you see the egg? George asked Mira and me.

  I squinted in an attempt to get a better look at the orc camp and find the shiny silver egg.


  Which wasn’t all that hard to do.

  Again and again, the orcs proved they were absolute idiots when it came to smart chess moves. They could fight a whole horde in a bloody battle and make a half attempt to win, but they were the worst strategists I’d ever seen.

  The egg was prominently displayed in the middle of the camp, on a makeshift wooden pedestal, and completely unguarded. Orcs sat around the campfire and smoked their morning fish, or milled about in large groups as they talked and laughed, probably about something absolutely heinous, but not a single one of them seemed to pay any attention to their prized egg, the one they’d nearly killed a rare dragon for. It was as if the egg was nothing more to them than a symbol of their greed and imagined power.

  We watched for another few moments to see if there was anyone guarding the egg, but none of the orcs seemed to pay it any mind.

  I glanced down at George and motioned my head in the direction we’d just come to signal we should get the hell out of here. Our oxygen supply had nearly run out completely, and we’d seen what we needed to.

  George zipped back through the ocean water and popped up just behind the craggy cluster of rocks we’d hidden behind when the orcs had first shown up.

  “I thought I would never breathe again!” Mira gasped as she came up for air.

  “Did you see the egg?” I asked her through my own heavy pants.

  “Easy pickings.” She nodded. “For a group trying to build a massive empire, you would imagine they might be slightly smarter with their weapons.”

  “They don’t think they need to be smart,” I growled. “In their minds, they’ve got this all under control. There’s no way the women of this island would dare attack them and snatch the egg. Hell, they probably don’t even know Nadir and her people have seen it.”

  “At least by now, they should know to expect your arrival, my king,” she replied with a broad grin. “You have foiled them more than once, yet they do not view you as the formidable threat you are.”