by Jamie Hawke
It only slightly registered as weird that a ghost had fondled me, then used that as an assault while her friends attacked up here. There would be time to dwell on that later. For now, I needed to join in the defense, to help these cat people, as I now saw all three of them were.
One had already started to flee, another saw me and followed suit.
The female, however, was putting up quite the fight. Her back was to me still as she twisted her hands, waving them in circle and then coming back around to push out. A blade was in one hand, I saw by the flash in the firelight, and then I noticed the blood on it. She paused, silvery forms almost imperceptibly pushing through some sort of barrier to get to her. With a quick motion she sliced into her hand and then thrust, splattering blood outward. Only it wasn’t blood anymore, but little creatures that formed in the air and flew at the ghosts. They collided, the air rippled, and then a blast went off that sent the female back toward the fire.
Three more ghost outlines shimmered, moving for her mid-air as if to force her back so that she ended up in the flames. It was time to act. Throwing myself forward, I thrust my arms out and then clapped them together, using more energy than was probably wise to thrust the shadows into the light. It had always been draining, but oddly, this time a glowing screen popped up, showing something called mana as being depleted.
Nothing about that made sense, so I had to figure it was the ghosts’ doing. But my attempt had worked, shadows throwing off the ghosts so that I was able to leap up, grab the female mid-air, and land with her in my arms.
A quick glance down showed her to be unconscious. Another glance, this time at my surroundings, showed a new line of ghosts appearing around the edge of the clearing from the direction I’d come. Shit, how many of them had been watching as I’d been about to throttle my meat?
Her best bet was for me to get her to her companions, so I called upon my shadows to stall the ghosts, turning to run with her in my arms. Only, the shadows didn’t respond. That only meant I had to run twice as fast, I supposed, running and leaping, doing my best to try and figure out where they’d gone, and in which direction.
A wind blew, that same cold from before brushing my cheek, and then that ghost was there, floating as if she were the wind. She circled me, white fog blown around, a voice as if whispered from far away but completely audible.
“Why do you help her?”
I didn’t falter, even when the fog that was the ghost became too dense for me to see through. I nearly slammed into a tree, and the next I hit but plowed right through, shoulder into it. The female woke then, groggily processing what was happening.
Her eyes met mine and I was intoxicated. She, however, looked horrified and fainted again. My foot hit something hard, sending me flying, her rolling away as I hit the ground on my face.
The ghost was there again, now rising out of the fog like a nude form of pure silver and white, as if the fog itself were her body and moonlight reflected, in spite of the lack of moon.
“She’s not one of you,” the ghost said, hissing, and then turned with a clawed hand ready to attack the feline mage, only…
…the mage was gone!
I scrambled up, swatting at the fog, trying to move it so I could see where she’d gone, trying to push out with my shadows, but apparently I still didn’t have mana. It seemed that was some sort of gauge of my powers, now.
The ghost vanished, a flash of light zipping around, searching for her too. Fog was forming, but in one place it had not. A spot just past where I’d last seen the feline mage had been, the fog seemed to be unable to fill a gap. A gap that, as I stared harder, rippled.
“We’ve found another,” the ghost hissed, and I turned to see more of her kind zipping over.
In a blink of an eye I decided that, if the feline mage had vanished somehow with the help of this shimmer, I’d give it a try, too. Leaping forward, I was vaguely aware of the ghost trying to stop me, of latching onto me, of others trying to pull but being pushed off, and then I was gone from that world, emerging into another.
At first I was too confused to know what was happening. I hit something soft, rolled, and came to a stop. Hellfire was bright, but the light here was on a whole new level. For a moment I thought I was surrounded by an angelic horde and would lose my head, even held my arms up in defense. But when nothing happened aside from feeling a pleasant warmth and a cool, calming breeze against my skin, I lowered my arms and squinted, trying to see.
Imagine being a demon your whole life, living in darkness ninety percent of the time, and then suddenly being thrust into a world with two suns. Well, this place didn’t technically have suns, but it did have light sources moving through the sky in strange patterns, each as bright as a sun. The effect was that the land felt like what I’d imagined Heaven would be like, but without the angelic beings intent on removing my head.
As I sat there trying to understand, a sprinkling of rain moved across me, wetting the ground slightly before moving on. The result was a calming sensory overload of fresh air in my lungs, the sound of birds—I imagined they were birds, anyway—and a distant roar of a waterfall.
“Where could she have gone?” a voice said, and I started, pulling back and looking around.
Unlike before, there was no sign of any ghost, but it was that same whisper.
Cautiously, ready to pull on my shadow magic, if there were any shadows here—none that I could see—I asked, “Where are you?”
A pause, then. “I think… inside you.”
“What. The. Fuck?”
“Your guess is good as mine. When you were going through, I somehow latched onto you. See, we can’t leave through the portals, and—”
“We?”
“My kind. Ghosts, I guess.”
I frowned, rubbed my temples, then ran my fingers along my forward horns. Doing so helped me think, and was calming. “How do I get you out of me?”
She laughed. “Go back through the portal, I suppose.”
“I didn’t say this is okay. I never approved of you being in me!”
A moment of silence, then a chuckle. “Truthfully, I’d rather you be inside of me.”
“What?” I stood there like an idiot, slowly realizing this must have been the same ghost that had been involved in my near masturbation situation. “That’s—I… Get out!”
“I can’t, first of all. I won’t, second.”
I stomped my foot like a petulant child and turned, claws at the ready as if I’d somehow find her, a tail or something sticking out that I could grab hold of and yank on. Nothing.
“How long are you going to spend whining about this?” she asked. “You’re a fucking demon. Act like it.”
“No. For your information, I’m done being a demon. Those days are behind me.”
“Great, I’m stuck here with a demon in the middle of his identity crisis. At least…”
“At least what?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I glanced around, glad that my eyes had adjusted enough to let me enjoy the view of the waterfall in the distance, the lush greenery. “You’ve already violated me in more ways than I could’ve ever imagined. Say it.”
“Well, just that I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when you decide to satisfy yourself, since you never finished before.”
I frowned. “I’m not… you shouldn’t be thinking about that.”
“I don’t remember having a body, and what’s interesting is that when I’m in you, I sort of feel… you. Like, I feel what it is to be you. Strong, powerful, some crazy elephant trunk swinging between your legs. I see why you’d want to take hold of it and own it, make it release everywhere. And… I want to feel that. I want to know the orgasm as you do, and…”
“Enough.” I hated that her words were causing me to get hard right here. “I’m not doing that in broad daylight.” With a glance at the strange balls of light, I corrected myself. “Whatever light this is.”
“When we find a place… when
it’s time. I can be patient.”
I pushed myself up, looking around. “Well, this is absurd.”
“I’d call it an adventure. Aren’t you excited?”
“In more ways than you can imagine.” In truth, I was. This was about as far from Hell as one could get, unless you count Heaven—which I didn’t, because that was the opposite, and often opposites have more in common than you’d think, but in conflicting ways. Here it was simply different. “Since you’re apparently sticking with me for a while, what do I call you?”
“My name… it’s like it’s there… a distant memory. Maybe, Rellie?”
“Okay, maybe Rellie.” I paused, seeing movement. Two shapes by the tree line at the base of a mountain. “There.”
“Your lady friend?”
“I’d say that’s a stretch of words.” As a demon, I’d never exactly had a friend, and hadn’t even spoken with this feline lady, after all.
Another form appeared, crouching low, running toward me. He was coming from my left, where what looked like a swamp was surrounded by shorter, wilting trees. As he drew close, I was able to tell he wasn’t like the others. His skin was dark green, brown in blotches, and he had a long brow, small horns like a low-level demon, and wore leathers.
“What’s this?” I asked Rellie.
“A few have straggled into the Rift Plains,” she replied. “Call themselves ‘Orcs.’”
“Orcs, huh? And… Rift Plains? I’m guessing that’s where we just came from?”
“Good guess.”
I grunted my annoyance at her sarcasm, and then the strange orc was standing, hand on the hilt of a long, blunt-looking sword.
“You’ve strayed, lad,” the orc said, eyeing me up and down. “You a deserter?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My hand stayed away from my sword, but I was ready if it came to that.
“What’s an orc like you doing so close to their walls?”
“An orc like…” I almost laughed. Me, an orc? My long, curved horns compared to his inferior ones, and he’d called me lad.
“I’m no orc, boy,” I replied, taking a step toward him, hand going to my sword now. The way I figured it, this orc and his kind weren’t friendly with the felines, and maybe I wasn’t yet either, but I planned on being. Therefore, he was an enemy. “I’m your worst nightmare. A demon, straight from the pits of Hell.”
“Right, and I’m a fucking unicorn-farting rainbow.” He glared. “Listen here, demon-orc, whatever you want to call yourself. We don’t stray, so fall back. Now. You’re lucky it was me who caught you on my scouting mission—others would’ve had your head already.”
“I think he has that backwards,” Rellie said. “The unicorn thing.”
I ignored her, drawing my sword. “Go back to your home. Tell them I’m coming for them all if they don’t leave these… people, alone.”
His eyes went wide at that, sword drawn now too, and he charged. So much for my threat meaning anything here. He apparently didn’t believe in demons. A swing came for my exposed chest, but he was slow, clumsy. Clearly not much in the ways of fighting—and I understood why they’d made him a scout. My sword came up for a block, my shoulder, with its spikes, ramming into him. They grazed leather, not puncturing, but I took the advantage, tackling him and lifting my sword high.
As his mouth opened to release a scream, I plunged my sword into his throat, twisted it, and severed his head. Too easy, this one.
That same screen from before popped up, the one that had shown my mana to be at zero. It showed that I had more experience points (XP), but that I was very far away from leveling up. The easy kill hadn’t given me much. I frowned, tried to hit the thing, and then smiled to see it gone.
Having gotten rid of the stupid screen, my attention returned to the body at my feet. I stared down at the creature I’d just killed. My first kill as a free… demon? Orc? I kind of liked what he’d called me. A “Demon Orc.” Maybe I’d roll with that, for a while, until something else fit better.
“I can’t believe this,” Rellie said. “A demon with a conscience.”
Instead of replying to her, I glanced around to ensure I was alone, then sat, cross-legged. Closing my eyes, I focused on the life this creature had led, what it meant for me to have taken it.
“Please tell me you’re preparing for a massive whack-off session, and not meditating,” Rellie said. “Oh, pretty please.”
My grunt was answer enough. I imagined she was in there somewhere, pouting.
Returning my focus, I thought about what I was doing. Meditating? No, not exactly. But taking a life, even if it was in self-defense, if it couldn’t be helped, meant so much more to me now that I wasn’t a slave anymore. Now that I had a choice in the matter. So I breathed in, clearing my mind, and then breathed out.
On the next breath in, something stirred inside of me. Unexpected. Uninvited, even.
“What are you doing?” I asked the ghost.
“It wasn’t me,” she replied. “You’re feeling that?”
I opened my eyes to look around. Everything seemed normal. Closing them again, I focused as I had before, and this time it was even more intense, like I could feel the ground beneath me, an energy coming from it, like the soul of the world reaching out to connect to me. The craziest part was, my soul wanted the connection. Needed the connection.
“Please,” Rellie said, an even quieter whisper than before. And then again, “Please, do it.”
It wasn’t her that made me accept, but the intense longing from within and the fact that it felt right. If there had ever been anything that had felt right to me, this was more than that, stronger than even my desire to be free earlier. Stronger, even, than my desire to release had been before Rellie caught me back in the Rift Plains.
A warmth filled me and I opened my eyes to see red light rising out of the ground, circling me, and then moving into me. We were one, me and this world.
The screen popped up again, the words Soul-Bound appearing. Below that, a red orb lit up, one of several other orbs that were grayed out, except for black. Below the red orb were strands of red reaching out to red spells.
Finally, I took the time to look at the rest of this screen, now curious. It read:
Level: 38
Class: Demon/Orc Shadow Mage
Attack: 33
Defense: 23
Speed: 12
Mana: 20
It listed several spells, including Shadow Whisperer Level 19, and that I was soul-bound to red.
“So, your soul has bound with this place,” the feline mage said, and I looked up to see her standing over me. She glanced down at the dead orc. Back at me, an eyebrow raised.
This was the first time I’d really had a good look at her. She had a light fur in spots, almost pink, so that it mixed naturally with the bare patches of flesh. Her eyes were red with black slits, in an alluring, mesmerizing way. The hood covered her head, but perked up where I imagined her cat ears to be.
“What’re you doing here?” she asked.
“I saved you.”
“Which is why you’re still alive, for now. I’ll ask again. What are—”
“That’s not necessary.” I stood, eyeing her. “No reason other than to see you, to understand. To escape my past.”
She eyed me, then nodded. “You’re an orc?”
I glanced at the orc on the ground, smaller than me, skin a greenish brown. “Not exactly.”
“That’ll do.” Without another word, she turned, nodding for me to follow. “Call me Cahrn.”
“Where are we going?”
“I want to show you off to the others.”
“Others?” Damn my eyes for wandering to her backside, where, for the first time I had a good glimpse in the daylight, and was even more impressed. Not just by the peach-shaped ass that it was, but by the tail above it, slightly concealed by her robes. Back in Hell, tails on demons were considered a sign of a good mate. Everyone knew that the demonesse
s with the tails were the freakiest.
Cahrn turned, caught me looking and furrowed her brow.
“You’d crush her, you do realize that,” Rellie said. “She’s at best half your size.”
I nodded, hoping it addressed Rellie’s point and showed her I could see that, and came across as an apology for staring at Cahrn.
“Our tribe sent a group of us through the portal, but we weren’t sure what would be on the other side. Since you came from there, you’ll be able to tell them.”
“Not exactly,” I admitted.
She turned to analyze me. “What?”
“I’m not from there either, but from… well, somewhere else.” I didn’t want to tell her I was from Hell, because, well, it’s just not the best conversation starter when talking to someone you might want to fuck.
“Help me understand. You’re from somewhere else, but ended up in that place—”
“The Rift Plains.”
“Right.” She eyed me skeptically. “The Rift Plains. How’d you get there?”
“A portal. Another portal.”
She touched her chin with thumb and forefinger, then nodded. “What you’re saying is, there’s not only the Rift Plains, but other worlds out there with access to these plains. Meaning the need for us to either close this portal, or ensure it is incredibly well defended. It’s more vital than we could’ve thought.”
“Yes, that makes sense.”
After a moment to consider this, she waved me on and started walking again.
“And the Orc?” She motioned back the way we’d come.
“He attacked me. Thought I was one of his kind, but a deserter.”
“An orc?” She scoffed, but then looked me over. “Oh, I can see it. But my first thought was more like dragon shifter or something.”
I laughed at that. “There’re no such things as dragons.”
It was her turn to laugh. “Oh, the ignorant of this world. Er, these worlds.”
“You’re telling me there are dragons here?”
“Bullshit,” Rellie added. “I’ve seen a lot of things in the Rift Plains, but never a dragon.”
Cahrn’s expression betrayed the fact that she hadn’t either. “Rumors, but… I believe them.”
