by KJ Harlow
“He’s stopped mumbling.”
Cal looked down at his craft-made stone bowl just in time to see the flakes emit puffs of light and become powder.
“OK. Keep holding your bowl. I’m going to pour this water into it.”
The bowl hissed and steam rose as the water hit the hot stone. The concoction looked just like water, except now it shimmered with traces of red, orange, yellow, green and blue in it.
“Get Javal to drink it.”
Cal stepped over to the side of the big werejaguar.
“Grand Uncle, drink this.” Kai supported his head with one hand and gently lifted the bowl to his mouth with the other. Some of it sloshed out onto his fur as he coughed violently.
Please let this work.
Kai put the bowl onto the platform. “How long does it take?”
“I… don’t know,” Cal confessed.
Kai stared at him for a moment before looking back to his grand uncle. For two agonising minutes, nothing happened. That’s when Cal saw it: the wound was starting to close in front of him.
“Kai look.”
The blue werejaguar’s eyes flew open as he watched the wound rapidly closing. Cal changed position, straddling Javal’s body. He grabbed the bottom of the spire with his right hand and wrapped his left around around the widest part. Keeping an eye on the wound, he waited until it was a fraction of an inch away from spire.
1… 2… 3!
He heaved and the spire came loose. With the giant, stone structure in his hand, he lost his balance and fell on his back, the flat base of the spire falling onto his stomach.
-10 Damage!
Cal gritted his teeth and rolled it off him. He got up just in time to see Javal’s eyes opening. The wound on his stomach had completely closed, the only trace a spire had pierced it the ripped and bloodied vest that he was wearing.
“Where did Fetter go?” He growled, looking around. He spotted an elderly man with a gash on his arm, trying to stand up. “Earl!” He rushed over, helping the man get back up.
“Grand Uncle!” Kai yelled, reaching out to the old werejaguar.
“We’ll talk later. Let’s help these people first.”
Cal winced as he got up.
“Where are you going?” Kai asked.
“You heard Javal. The sooner we help these people, the sooner we can talk to him.”
Kai hesitated, then followed the orc.
Javal stared at the brand on Cal’s arm.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of those. Soup?”
Kai accepted the offer, holding the bowl to his mouth. Cal politely declined. Javal sat in an armchair next to a fireplace, sparkflames roared merrily inside. Guess some habits followed you no matter where you went.
“How is the forest anyway, Kai?”
“It’s been good, Grand Uncle. Healthy. Its people are safe though there have been more intruders as of recent…” he shot Cal a dirty look as he slurped his soup.
“My condolences for your brother, cub.” Javal waved the letter Cal had given him.
“I… thank you Grand Uncle.”
“Your parents must be devastated.”
“My parents were killed protecting the village a long time ago.” The sparkfire popped.
“I see.” Javal took a quiet sip from his bowl and put it down. “So you are next in line to be chief then.”
“I am.”
“Who is going to look after Rawdriad in the mean time?”
“Grandmother will.”
Javal frowned disapprovingly. “If you’re not careful, one of the men from another family or even beyond the village might challenge yours directly.”
“Grandmother holds considerable sway in the village.”
Javal snorted. “Yeah, I bet she does.”
For the next few minutes, only the sound of the sparkfire crackling away and Kai slurping filled the room as Javal reread the letter.
“Callahan.”
“Call me Cal.”
The mayor eyed him. “Cal. You seek an audience with Fetter then?”
The events of the last moonshift then the battle with Hector and Laish in Gresshia replayed themselves in Cal’s mind.
“I…” he trailed off, staring into the fireplace. “Did Keizen write anything about me in that letter?” His eyes flicked to the light grey, slightly crumpled document in the werejaguar’s hand.
“All she says here is that you’re an ally to werejaguars and the Village.”
“What Cal is trying to say is, is that he’s not really an orc.” Kai finished his soup with a satisfying burp.
Cal sighed, meeting Javal’s curious gaze. No point trying to hide it. He spent the next half an hour explaining who he was and what had happened that had led to this point. Javal was thoughtfully rubbing his chin as Cal finished.
“So you think Fetter might have the answers that will take you back to this Earth of yours then?”
“I don’t know.” Cal said. The King’s un-NPC-like behaviour and the insistence of being called ‘your Awesomeness’ all pointed towards two things: Fetter also being a ValorVale player and him possibly knowing how to get back. “I haven’t been able to find answers to it myself.”
Javal regarded the fire thoughtfully. “Fetter is evil,” he said quietly, not hiding the bitter edge in his voice. “He’s wanted to destroy Bracewell since he passed through here the first time around.”
“Why?” Kai said, leaning in.
The great werejaguar shrugged. “I do not know. He keeps saying that his men are bored and that they need to kill.” His face darkened. “No one knows what happened to King Fairshade. One moonshift he was leading the kingdom, the next, gone. Then Fetter shows up, claiming that he defeated Fairshade and puts himself on the throne. Of course he needed to prove that, but no one would dare challenge him.”
“So there is a King Fairshade?” Cal asked.
“Was. Assume that he is dead.”
“What if he’s not?”
Javal stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. “Well I guess that means that Fairshade is still the king.”
All three were quiet again, each lost in their own thoughts.
“You run a fine city, Grand Uncle.”
Cal raised an eyebrow at Kai; he never struck him as an asskisser.
“And I intend to keep it that way. Did you notice that there are no walls around Bracefell?”
“We did. The people here seem happy.”
“When you give people a place they can be themselves, they will never want to leave.”
“How do you manage that but still maintain law and order?”
“There are several laws here in Bracefell but only one rule: treat others how you want to be treated. Oh, we do get some people who don’t embrace this idea to begin with, but after receiving generosity from everyone who comes their way, they can’t help but be generous back themselves.”
He looked at Cal. “You would do really well in Bracefell. Helping strangers in need like that.” Cal smiled faintly.
“It is late, I’ve had a rather tiring night. If you’ll excuse me gentlemen, I am going to retire to my room.” He got up and walked to the door. “I have prepared chambers for the two of you as well. We shall speak in the next moonshift. Natasha?”
A buxom woman wearing a maid’s outfit appeared in the doorway and curtsied. She had skin as pale as the wind moon and blood red eyes, her pupils pools of navy ink. Her hair was dark red and down to her back with gold streaks running through it. Really? A French maid?
Cal laughed out loud, earning himself some raised eyebrows from the werejaguars. “I’m sorry, I’ve had a long day too, don’t mind me.”
Javal stood in the doorway, staring at Cal intently. “‘Day’ huh? Now that’s a word I haven’t heard for a very long time.” He chuckled, and then left the room.
Natasha curtsied again. “Master Kai, Master Cal. Let me take you to your chambers.” Her voice was gentle and soothing, like lying on the sand w
hile low tide waves pushed in and out of the shore.
Kai and Cal followed the Natasha through the faintly-lit halls. Cal tried to avoid it but constantly found himself watching her swaying hips.
“Hey,” Kai hissed.
“What?” Cal said.
“You like her?” He made eyes at Natasha in front of her.
“What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t been able to take your eyes off her rump since we started following her.”
Cal made to shove Kai with his shoulder, but the werejaguar took a step back. Natasha stopped and turned around. “Is anything the matter, masters?”
“Yes, Cal here just wanted–”
“For you to continue taking us to our rooms, thank you very much.”
Natasha cocked her head and smiled sweetly. “Right this way.”
Cal ignored the snickering werejaguar and tried to look anything but at Natasha. Having MD and being in a wheelchair gave him twice the charm with the ladies… in his dreams. Truth is, he’d never been on a date. In fact, besides Erika, he didn’t have any other female friends. It was frustrating to miss out on that companionship but with regards to sex, Cal had never been that interested. It was hard to be when a disease made it hard for you to get it up.
But there was something different about Natasha. Sure she was attractive, but it was almost like there was a gravity that kept pulling Cal’s eyes towards her shapely figure. Is this what they called animal attraction?
“Here we are,” Natasha said. “This one is Master Cal’s. The one down the hall where Katrina is standing is Master Kai’s.” Katrina was similar to Natasha: pale skin, red eyes and hair and wearing the maid uniform too. She curtsied, her shoulder length hair brushing her shoulders. Kai looked at Cal a wicked glint in his eye. “See you Cal. May Karst imbue you.” He raised his eyebrows conspiratorially then went to his room.
That dickhead.
He entered his room. In the middle was a comfy looking bed with a puffy pillow. Candles burned either side on simple tables. A full-bodied Karst shone in, casting red-pink shadows on ornaments that were placed near the window.
“Master Cal.”
Cal jumped. “Oh Natasha. I didn’t know you had come in after me.”
“I apologise.”
“…You can go now.”
“Go…?”
“…Back to your own room?”
She shook her head, a small smile on her face, long, red hair swishing side to side. “I’m spending the night with you.”
What.
“Uhhh, I don’t need you.” Geez, that sounded worse than he meant it to sound.
“Maybe we’ll just start off with a foot rub? Would you like that?”
“No…”
Natasha had left the room. Cal scurried to the door. There didn’t look to be a way to lock it from the inside.
The door opened again and Natasha came in with a shallow tub of water.
“Oh sorry!” Some of the water had sloshed onto the floor.
“Here let me get that…”
“Sit, Master,” she said gently. “Can’t you just let a succubus do her job?”
Succubus? The same succubus that would lure men into bedrooms, tempt them with their bodies and then eat their souls? What was Javal up to?
Cal retreated to the bed. This was bad. He took his shoes off as Natasha bent down. Her being a she-demon would explain why he couldn’t pull his eyes away from her ass before. Now, the same thing was happening except he was being drawn into her cleavage.
Get your shit together, son!
“Soooo what do you do for a living?”
Natasha’s hand paused just as she was about to bring the steaming hot towel to Cal’s right foot. She looked up at him, eyebrow raised.
Cal started laughing nervously, suddenly standing up. “Ahaha, sorry…” He rushed over to the window, trying to rearrange the ‘loot’ in his ‘chest’ so it wasn’t so prominent. A cool hand touched his shoulder, immediately sending electricity and fire through his arm. It felt strangely comforting.
“Are you well?” Natasha asked.
He brushed her hand off his shoulder, as if it were an insect. “I’m well, good, better than ever!”
Cal rushed back to the bed, sitting on one side. No wait, that would make it seem like he was inviting her to join him. He stood up and stared at the ceiling. In his peripheral vision, he could see her standing there, bathed in red moonbeams. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever lay eyes on, but the last shred of his sanity was telling him that it was because she was trying to put a spell on him.
“You don’t want to… play, do you?” She said alluringly. Cal kept staring up at the ceiling, before shaking his head jerkily. “Alright then. No skin off my fangs. I still get my shards.”
Cal dropped his head, looking at Natasha. He blinked a few times. She was standing there, arms crossed, pushing her bosoms up, a mischievous smile on her face. Attractive sure, but he could look elsewhere now and not be pulled back in. What had changed?
She giggled and covered her mouth. Her laughter sounded like wind chimes tinkling in the breeze. “You’ve never met a succubus before, have you?”
Cal rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. “Yeah.”
She walked across the floor towards Cal. Her hips swayed with an ease that he had never seen before in a woman, as if they were made to hypnotise.
“Come on, I haven’t activated Charm.” Cal looked up at Natasha curiously.
“Charm?”
“Yes. It’s craft that’s innate to all succubi and incubi.” She sat down next to him. Cal inched away slightly. “Wow, what stonecritter have you been living under?”
“I’m… not from around here.”
She raised her eyebrow again. “I know. Master Javal said that you were from the forest in the south. Raw-something.”
Even that wasn’t technically right. “Natasha,” her name felt good rolling off his tongue. “Do you have to be somewhere? Or do you have work to do?”
“Well, I had someone to do, but he told me that he doesn’t want to, so I’m done for the night.” She flashed a smile, a snaggle tooth protruding out of her top jaw.
“Are you offended that I don’t? I’m sorry, I don’t know much about succubi.”
She snorted and shook her head. Even that was somehow sexy. “The ways of the flesh are second nature to us. We exist to please. We’re happy when we know that we’ve made someone feel good, but we certainly aren’t offended if someone turns us down.”
“You can go then, if you want.”
Natasha sighed. “Master Javal expects me to spend the night with you. Even if that wasn’t his order, I’d probably stay with you anyway. You’re weird and cute in an orc sort of way.”
Cal smiled sheepishly. “Thanks. You’re really hot.” He’d never called a girl hot before. It felt really easy complimenting the attractive being sitting next to him.
“Hot? I know it’s the start of Karst, but I’m not feeling the heat yet.”
Cal laughed. It was the first time he’d laughed so freely since realizing he was stuck in ValorVale. “Where I come from, ‘hot’ means that someone is attractive.”
“Why thank you.” She batted her eyelashes exaggeratedly and Cal felt a flutter in his heart.
Cal and Natasha shared a comfortable silence that lasted only a few seconds before they heard snarling and shrieking from down the hall.
“It sounds like Master Kai and Katrina are having a good time.” Natasha winked at Cal. “We can still do it, if you want.”
Cal looked her up and down, revelling in the fact that it wasn’t considered pervy. Her almond-shaped face was open and inviting, not in a sexual way, but socially. He’d never had such fun talking to anyone in ages.
“I’m OK, thanks for the offer though. I’d just like to know more about Javal and Bracewell.”
She cocked her head at Cal. “What do you want to know?”
He was an enigmat
ic werejaguar, that’s for sure. Where did he start? “He cares about his people, doesn’t he?”
Natasha smiled warmly, looking away from Cal. “He does. He’s the sort of person that no matter where he went, you would follow him to the end.”
“How did you end up working for him?”
“Katrina and I come from another country in the east called Qestia. We were a couple of adventurers, sort of like you and Master Kai. We left our homes and started making our way west. We paid our way by pleasuring people, which helped us level up our charm as well.”
Cal couldn’t help but imagine how he would feel if he saw two attractive she-demons hitchhiking on the side of the road back on Earth.
“You’re about as lost as a mercat on land when it comes to us succubi, right?” Cal nodded. “OK, I’ll keep that in mind. Succubi and incubi are masters of charisma and charm. Along with our sexual prowess, we are able to move people with our powers of speech, singing and dance. We abhor conflict and can’t wield weapons. Every so often, you get a succubi who’s born with talent outside of these areas, but they’re not encouraged to develop them.”
Cal was nodding slowly, rapt in fascination.
“We crossed the border between Qestia and Dresham and it was there that we found a bunch of soldiers – thousands of them. And wherever there are soldiers there are men.”
Cal ignored her cheeky wink. “Soldiers? Like the ones who tried to kill Javal today?”
Natasha shivered. “By the sounds of it, yes. They were actually from Qestia and Dresham. The Qestian soldiers started appearing more and more frequently as we travelled across the country. Most of them were nice, really enjoying Katrina and I. The ones that we found in on the border looked to have just finished a battle with each other. I remember seeing the weirdest thing. The soldiers that had died just magically disappeared. Light would surround them and fly up into the sky, then whoosh! They’d disappear.”
Aha! More players of ValorVale.
“The winners were from Dresham. They saw us and got all excited, like they hadn’t seen succubi before. They didn’t pay us and then started trying to undress us. Luckily Master Javal was passing by. He came in, axe ablaze with wrath, killing each one of them. He asked us if we had some place to stay. That was over four cycles ago. We’ve been living and working here ever since.”
