by Logan Jacobs
I turned to see Talise enter the room, and she watched me as I started to soap up my entire body. I ignored the dirt that came off me as I stared at the slight, black haired beauty, and a grin crawled across my face as I took in the beautiful healer.
“I thought you might want a change of clothes.” She smiled as she held up a pair of tan pants and a shirt.
“Thanks,” I chuckled. “Are they settling in?”
“Oh, yes.” Talise nodded. “The poor things are very nervous, but I tried to make them as comfortable as possible. They seem to gravitate toward Mira, so I suggested she sleep with them tonight. I think it might be a good idea for you to, as well.”
“You don’t want me in your bed,” I pouted playfully.
“Of course I do.” She grinned, and lust flashed in her eyes. “However, I would rather our guests feel safe and comfortable on their first night here. My sexual pleasure can wait a little bit longer.”
“Fine,” I sighed jokingly. “But I can’t let you wait too long. It just wouldn’t be kingly of me.”
“I would never let you,” Talise laughed.
I’d missed that sound. It was soft and musical, like wind chimes.
“Thank you for the clothes.” I nodded at the outfit in her hands. “I’m afraid what I was wearing got a little bit dirty on the journey.”
“Oh, I noticed,” she laughed.
Talise walked over to the edge of the tub and set the clothes down just out of reach of any splashes of water.
“Come to the patio when you are done,” she instructed. “We have a feast prepared for tonight.”
Freshly cooked food sounded like a dream come true after the last few days on the orc ship, where we’d had only dried meat to feast on.
“Before you go, I wanted to ask about Netta,” I said. “How is she?”
“I was just about to find George or Nixie and attempt to see if their dragon tears would help her,” Talise replied.
“Let me grab her sister, Nima, and we can go to her,” I offered. “I’ll just get dressed first.”
I dried off from the bath quickly, got dressed, and went to find Nima. She and Jemma were out on the patio, and they were enjoying the sunlight that beat down from high above.
“Nima, Talise is going to attempt to heal your sister,” I told her.
Instantly, the red-haired woman shot up and wrapped Talise in a hug.
“May I see her first?” the deer woman asked. “I have not been back since we settled her in earlier.”
“Of course.” Talise nodded. “I would like a chance to examine her again, as well.”
Talise led us through the halls to a secluded back room where Netta laid on a single bed. Her red hair splayed across the pillow, and her eyes were closed. For a second, my heart stopped. She almost looked dead, but I could see a very shallow rise and fall in her chest.
“I have never seen this before,” Talise breathed. “I am hopeful the dragon tears will work.”
“I have seen this before.” Jonas appeared in the doorway, quiet and stealthy the way he always was. “It is good to see you, Ben.”
“You, too.” I grinned at the old man.
He looked the same as when I’d left him. Old and slightly wrinkled, but with a glimmer of young life in his blue eyes.
“This is your sister?” Jonas asked Nima.
“Yes.” The redhead nodded and gulped back her tears.
“Hmm.” Jonas leaned over Netta and examined her. He pulled open one eyelid, and then the other, listened to her breathing, and tested her non responsive reflexes.
“When did you see this, grandfather?” Talise asked.
“Long ago, when I was a young boy,” Jonas mused, “a man had wandered into the jungle in the middle of his sleep cycle. Atlas was his name. He hadn’t even known what he was doing. Atlas was attacked in the jungle, and managed to make it back to the edge of the forest and collapse into this sort of a sleep. That was where my mother found him. She used tears from the last four water dragons to heal him.”
“So, it will work?” I asked as I kneaded my hands anxiously.
“Yes.” Jonas nodded. “But we cannot use just plain tears. There is a serum that must be made from them. My mother did it, and I believe I remember the recipe.”
“How do we do it?” I asked him.
Jonas looked at me, closed his eyes, and worked to remember.
“I will need a vial of water dragon tears and a few leaves from the henna tree outside the palace,” he listed off. “A pot, and a fire to boil everything over.”
“I’ll get the tears,” I said.
“I will get the leaves,” Talise replied.
Instantly, we both jogged out the door and headed our separate ways. I found George in the garden, curled up as he watched the children and young water dragons play.
Hello, dear friend, he said.
“Hi.” I smiled at him. “I have a weird favor to ask you.”
You need my tears, he supplied.
“Yep.” I nodded as I produced a vial from my pocket and held it out for him.
I suspected as much when I saw the injured woman, he replied. One moment.
George stared off into space for a moment as he worked to conjure tears. A pained expression crossed his face, and I knew from our bond what he had thought of.
The death of his kind. He was one of the last few living water dragons, and though their population was growing, it was painful to remember the island had once been filled with them.
The emotions that swelled in him were so strong, it almost brought me to tears.
But it worked.
George tilted his head to the side and blinked twice, and three huge, crystalline tears fell from his right eye and into the vial I held out. They shimmered and swirled as they fell down into the glass. The tears were enormous compared to my own, and just three of them were enough to fill the vial up.
“Thank you, my friend,” I whispered to George before I stepped forward and hugged his neck. The heavy emotion sat with him, but I could feel it lighten with our physical touch.
Go, he ordered. The woman needs you.
I nodded and took off back to the castle.
Inside the kitchen, Talise and Jonas sat around the cooking fire. A black pot was hung over it, and the flames roared a bright orange color beneath it.
“I have the tears,” I said to them.
“Place them here,” Jonas murmured as he touched an open space on the table, and I set the vial down next to him.
Talise had gathered three large leaves for Jonas to use. They were wide and flat, almost like the leaves of a palm tree, but were a bright magenta color, with spidery blue veins that criss crossed the leaf in all directions.
Jonas took a long, sharp knife and carefully split the leaf in half down the center. Then he picked up one half and held it over the pot. Slowly, he twisted and squeezed it, and a bright blue liquid dripped out from the veins, almost as if the leaf had its own blood. Jonas repeated the process with the other two leaves, and when he was done, the pot was halfway full with bright blue, bubbling liquid. Then a soft, floral smell filled the room as it began to boil.
Jonas peered into the pot and watched for a moment, until he was satisfied the liquid was hot enough.
“Now, the tears,” he murmured.
Jonas picked up the vial of dragon tears with one wrinkled hand and, ever so slowly, let it drip into the pot. The viscous liquid streamed from the vial and merged with the blood-like liquid from the henna leaves.
The moment the last of the tears had been poured into the pot, the contents inside exploded. A puff of thick, purple smoke erupted into the air and coated us all in a strange powder, but none of us moved.
Jonas coughed once, and then he leaned forward to check on his creation.
My heart thudded against my ribs like a drumbeat as I waited for him to show some sign it had worked.
“Grandfather?” Talise murmured.
Jonas pulled back, loo
ked at Talise, and then looked back at me.
“It worked,” he murmured.
I breathed a sigh of intense relief before I realized we were not out of the woods just yet.
Jonas grabbed a ladle and poured the potion back into the vial.
“Now, we will give it to the girl and pray to Oshun that this works,” he said.
The three of us marched down the hall like Hercules, and when we entered Netta’s room, Nima and Jemma looked up anxiously.
“We have it,” Jonas told them. “Prop your sister up.”
Nima rushed to Netta’s side and sat the sleeping woman upright.
Jonas pulled her mouth open, tilted her head back, and bowed his own head to say a quick prayer.
“Oshun, we ask you to please assist us in waking this girl,” he murmured.
The entire world seemed to wait with bated breath as Jonas poured a slow stream of liquid down Netta’s throat. Only when the vial had been emptied of every last drop of the swirling purple potion did he step back.
All of our eyes were glued onto Netta’s creamy white face as we waited for her green eyes to pop open.
But we kept waiting.
Seconds passed, and then minutes. Nima let out a soft sob and turned into Jemma’s arms.
“It did not work,” the redheaded deer woman cried.
But the moment the words slipped out of her mouth, Netta’s green eyes flew open. Then she let out a long, hard cough and looked around the room.
“What did not work?” she rasped.
“Sister!” Nima screeched as she flew toward Netta, curled up next to her side, and let heavy sobs wrack her body.
Relief swelled over me. Netta was awake. The potion had worked.
There was no way in hell I would have let her die.
“Netta, Ben has saved us all,” Nima gushed, and the redhead choked back tears as she gazed at me. “He commandeered an orc ship to take us to his homeland, so we would be safe. Now, Ben is working to build up an army, so he can defeat all of the orcs, once and for all!”
Netta’s eyes widened and teared up as she looked over at me. She was still weak, and could only turn her head, but she managed a smile.
“Ben, I knew when I first saw you that you would bring wonderful things to all of us,” she breathed. “I did not imagine it would be this amazing. I am so grateful to you.”
“All in a day’s work.” I shrugged it off, but my chest swelled with pride.
About fifteen minutes later, I left Netta to rest and recover while I joined the feast outside.
I sense the injured woman fares well, George remarked as he met me at the doors of the palace.
“Yes,” I sighed. “Thank you, dear friend. Without you and Jonas, I don’t know what would have happened.
I am glad I was able to help, my dragon hummed before he leaned over me and sniffed. You smell much better, dear one. The stench that covered you upon your arrival was horrendous.
“Sorry about that,” I laughed. “That’s what a couple of days on a boat will get you.”
No, you smelled of another creature, he corrected as he shook his head. Something almost monstrous.
“Ah, yeah, that would be the wargs.” I grimaced. “Those things were nasty.”
Wargs? George asked with a curious tilt of his head.
“I have got some stories to tell you,” I chuckled. “Another time, though.”
We walked out onto the patio, where the tables were already set and piled high with the food Hali had cooked.
“Ben!” Hali gasped as she ran up to me, with a chunk of dried tarrel meat in her hands. “This is delicious. What is it? Can you get more?”
The red headed serpent woman was nearly breathless with excitement as she wagged the piece of meat in front of my face.
“It’s called a tarrel,” I replied. “And if you want more, then you shall have it. We’ll be making plenty of trips back to that island once everything is settled.”
“Yes, please!” She grinned. “Mira said there is more food for me to try. I must eat it all!”
Just as quickly as she’d appeared, Hali disappeared, breathless with excitement at the prospect of new delicacies.
George lumbered off to sit with Nixie and their children on the edge of the crowd, and I stepped up to the large table on the raised platform, where Nerissa and Ainsley were already seated. The two beautiful leaders had their heads together, and they looked like the best of friends as they whispered to each other. Since I knew them both so well, I already knew they were in the midst of an intense planning session.
“Ben, this place is wonderful!” Jemma exclaimed as she plopped down in the seat next to me, while the rest of the village sat at a few of the tables down below.
“I knew you’d like it.” I grinned back at her.
“They have water that comes out of nowhere,” she gasped. “It is as if they have their own private stream. How does that work?”
“I’ll explain it to you someday,” I laughed. “It’s called a plumbing system.”
“A plumbing system,” Jemma tested out the words. “I very much like it.”
Jemma, and a few of the other deer women down below, were just about to reach for the food, to pile their plates high with some of the freshly cooked meat, when Nerissa stood and cleared her throat.
“If I could have the attention of everyone for just a moment,” the queen requested.
Jemma’s hand sprang back, and she stared at Nerissa with wide chartreuse eyes. The deer women might not know what a queen was, but they could already tell Nerissa had a strong presence.
The deer women down below pulled their hands back as well and looked up at Nerissa, and when the queen saw all eyes were on her, she continued.
“I want to welcome each and every one of you. This is a momentous day, the likes of which neither of our populations have ever seen before.”
A murmur of agreement rose from the crowd.
“And as such, I am sure there will be some adjusting to do,” Nerissa went on. “I understand from Ainsley that you have a much different lifestyle, and I want you to know I am here to help with anything you need. All of us on this island want to make this process as smooth as possible. We must remember we have all been traumatized by the orcs, and because of that, we have a common goal: their defeat. Now, I have talked long enough, so I would like to say one last welcome, and thank Oshun for this food.”
Nerissa let her smile linger over the crowd for a moment before she sat back down.
“That was a lovely speech.” Jemma smiled.
“Thank you.” Nerissa nodded. “I learned from my father. He was most adept at giving speeches.”
“He taught you well,” Jemma praised.
A few moments later, almost total silence fell as everyone dug into the food. I watched happily as the deer women tasted the serpent women’s food for the first time. Sarayah bit into a bird wing, and her green eyes popped open as she chewed, slowly at first, and then more quickly. Theora popped a chunk of white coconut meat into her mouth, and she smiled happily with her eyes closed as the flavor swooped over her taste buds.
“This food is absolutely delicious,” Ainsley commented once she had finished her own meal. “You may not believe this, Queen Nerissa, but before Ben and Mira arrived, we did not eat meat. We thought it a terrible thing to kill one of Nira’s creatures for our own benefit.”
“Oh, no, it is not terrible at all!” Nerissa exclaimed. “In fact, we believe the creatures give their lives for us, as we are the ones gifted with the ability to create weapons and cook our food. If we were not meant to eat meat, we would not have been granted such intelligent minds.”
“We had never thought of it in that way,” Ainsley responded as she tilted her head in thought.
My heart warmed as I watched the women below and beside me acclimate to each other. I could tell from the intense expressions on everyone’s faces that they were engaged in deep conversations as they all learned about other c
ultures and ways of being.
“The beds are finally ready for tonight,” Talise announced as she came up to the table and sat beside Jemma. “You all will have comfortable and safe places to sleep.”
“Thank you so much.” Jemma grinned. “My name is Jemma.”
“Talise,” the healer replied with a smile.
“Ben has told me of you!” Jemma gasped with glee. “We have a gift for you. Actually, we have a few of them. We brought you some squirts.”
“Squirts?” Talise asked, and her brow furrowed in confusion. “What are those?”
“Creatures the goddess Nira has given us to heal,” Jemma replied.
“They’re from the sea,” I added. “They secrete a serum that helps speed up the healing process. Jemma used it on Mira and I when we were hurt on the island, and we healed in a matter of days from wounds that would have otherwise taken weeks to heal.”
Talise’s eyes widened, and she grinned at the prospect of this sort of medicine.
“How exciting,” she breathed. “What else do you use?”
“Oh, I am not a medicine woman,” Jemma responded with a shake of her head. “You must talk to Thornen later. She is down there, with the silver hair and bright smile.”
Jemma pointed to where Thornen sat with Sela and Careen.
“I shall remember to find a moment alone with her,” Talise nodded.
I smiled as I watched the two races of women come together.
My family was growing.
Chapter Eight
Now that Netta was awake, I could turn my full attention to the next task. I’d planned to sleep with the deer women that night, but Careen had especially missed me after I’d been absent for the birth of Oshuna. I’d missed her too, of course, so I decided to humor the pixie healer, and now Careen slept softly beside me after a round of passionate “welcome home” and “please impregnant me again” sex.
As the pink-haired healer slept soundly on my chest, I laid awake and planned out all the things I needed to do. We needed housing for the deer women, so the morning after Netta was healed, I wandered through the village as I searched for the perfect place to build more houses.
First, though, I also wanted to reinforce the ones we already had. During the last storm season we’d lived through, most of the huts had been damaged, and some of them had even needed to be rebuilt completely. I hated to think that would be an issue every single time storm season came through the island, and if I was out on an adventure when it happened, I knew it would be even harder for the women to rebuild.
