by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
“Drink!” Grot ordered again, and I nodded before I took a long, deep swig of Rosh from a stone mug larger than my head.
The ogre ruler did the same as he scratched his sweaty belly rolls, and while I did my best to match the twelve-foot-tall ogre, his four scantily clad ogre women began peeling the charred meat off his kill for him with their teeth. I tried to avoid having to look at their huge bikini-clad asses while they hunkered down on all fours beside the fire, but it was difficult to manage without Grot noticing how put off I was by the sight. So, I ended up focusing twice as hard on my mug like it was the only thing in the world to me, but still, the ogre ruler insisted I hadn’t had enough to drink yet.
Three of my own women were patiently seated in proper ogre formation behind me while I obeyed Grot’s command once more, and from the far back corner of the feasting caves, I couldn’t make out the entrance through the hoard of ogres who followed us here. Returning to Jagruel was like coming back to a frat house after being gone for a month, and the ogres chanted my name all the way through the lair and along the lava falls of the cliffs, too. They grabbed up fresh kill as we went in preparation for a feast I didn’t expect to join in on, and while I was flattered by the warm reception, I was mostly thinking of my battle dragon the whole time.
I told Deya we would only be gone for fifteen minutes when we left her in the forest beyond the lair, but I hadn’t expected Grot to insist I spend the last half hour drinking before he’d let me get to our discussion. Deya was probably content hunting in her dragon form for now, but I was still antsy to get back to my pregnant lover, and the number of things I had to accomplish before nightfall made the situation that much more ridiculous.
Still, when an ogre as huge and short-tempered as Grot orders a man to drink, he drinks. Even when the fate of the realm relies on him gathering his allies in time to dismantle his enemy’s colossal plan to unleash a possessed army on the world.
A feat which, it turned out, was more intimidating than I first thought.
After months of scrambling to defend any regions I could from the Master’s forces, I finally found an opening to form an offensive attack, but now, I’d come down from that initial high. Ever since I realized I didn’t know how much time I had to get everything organized, my blood pressure seemed to be stuck in an elevated state, and I could have sworn my left eye twitched a couple times on the way to Jagruel.
This all seemed like an understandable reaction, though, because I didn’t have time to verify my knee-jerk instinct about the underground tunnels yet, so I couldn’t even be sure my epic plan was possible.
All I knew was the Master’s fortress had looked deserted for a few days now, and attacks in the southwest were ramping up to draw my troops away from the foothills. This meant the underground tunnels branching out from the Master’s headquarters could already be packed by the hundreds with possessed creatures, and my guess was wherever those tunnels ended marked a portal to the surface.
According to the Elven Scrolls, if the Master’s troops were in close proximity to the new elemental degree, he could send an onslaught through the portals like we’d never seen. So, if my instincts about the tunnels were correct, I could ambush the whole setup with my own deadly army and take down the majority of his troops in one fell swoop.
If I didn’t get my shit in order fast, though, we’d lose this chance, and who knew how many innocent civilians would suffer for it. The Master had been gathering every creature I could imagine into his grasp, and several I’d never even known could exist, like five-hundred-pound hellcats and fire titans the size of skyscrapers. He could have possessed more ice giants by now, or have the fabled Wraith Witches poised to lure my soldiers to their deaths, but whatever he was up to within the impenetrable walls of his fortress, I knew it was enough to send this world spiraling into destruction.
Needless to say, I was prepared to do anything I could to make sure that didn’t happen.
So, I forced a second heaping mug of Rosh down my gullet before I let out a loud belch, and Grot grunted in approval as I waved a slightly numb arm at Cayla.
Then the princess rose to refill my mug from the bubbling vat beside the fire, and while I tried to keep my vision from blurring as I admired her long porcelain legs, the ogre ruler finally motioned for me to begin the discussion.
“It’s time to form an offensive attack against the Master who was abducting your ogres,” I told Grot, and I spoke carefully so I wouldn’t slur. “We’ve found a weak spot in his plans, and if we move fast enough, we can intercept his efforts and finally gain the upper hand.”
“I hoped this was the news ye’ had for me,” Grot growled, and he spat a wad of brown sludge at the fire between us. “No one fucks with the ogres and gets away with it. It’s past time that bastard gets what’s comin’ to him.”
“I agree,” I said with a deadly grin. “I’m already preparing my army, and with the strength and brutality of your kind behind me, we could tear through his forces and ensure he doesn’t stand a chance of retaliating. Tell me how many ogres you can spare for the fight.”
Grot let out a throaty laugh that made his belly jiggle. “All of ‘em.”
“Are you sure?” I checked as I furrowed my brow. “The Master’s army is made up of deadly creatures and magical beings, and the rune he’s branded all of them with makes them faster and stronger than they already were. This war’s gonna be a bloody one.”
“Aye,” Grot snorted. “We’ll make sure of that. Our kind don’t let up once we’ve started, and it’s been too long since we had a good brawl. If ye’ got some killin’ for us, then we’re bringin’ two hundred soldiers.”
“If you can spare as many, then I’ll take it,” I admitted. “We need all of you in Falmount Rift as soon as possible.”
Grot nodded before one of his women slipped a charred bit of bird between his yellow teeth, and I could hear Shoshanne stifle a gag behind me. When I glanced back at the healer, she forced a smile beneath a caked layer of mud, and I sent her a supportive grimace.
It was Shoshanne’s first time in Jagruel, so she hadn’t known to look out for the muddy geysers that exploded every few minutes here, but she’d done an admirable job of taking everything in stride. Even when an ogre from a passing pride dropped a dead lizard on her head, the healer smiled politely and wiped the mucus off her face, but I could tell Grot’s musty women were pushing her to her limits.
They definitely looked moldier than the last time I’d been here, but their rotten breath had become so foul, I could smell it wafting over the flames while they shredded Grot’s meat between their teeth. Then they fed it to him like he was a baby bird, and the ogre ruler grunted from deep in his gut every time. The sound never failed to make a couple of his women purr while they watched, and I had to swallow my bile down as Grot chewed his way through another few helpings.
Then he reached over to slap one of his women’s slimy asses while he let out a filthy chuckle, and Shoshanne gagged so loud, I abruptly cleared my throat to distract from her nausea.
“Tell me how soon you can leave for Falmount,” I said.
“Today,” Grot grunted as he pulled his sweaty woman onto his lap. “Should take us about two weeks walkin’.”
“Two… weeks?” I clarified. “That’s not gonna work. I was hoping to be ready in the next two days.”
“Walkin’ is slow,” the ogre ruler chuckled.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Well, maybe I can work out a faster means of travel for you guys. I’ve built a contraption called a train out east, and if I extend the tracks this way--”
“Mason, that’ll take more than two days,” Aurora pointed out, and Grot turned his attention to fondling his musty woman.
“Not to
mention, you have several others to speak with in that time,” Cayla added.
“True,” I allowed, “but it’s our best option at the moment. Maybe if I start right away and work all night, I could have the tracks laid out in only a day.”
“Then lead an attack against the Master while you’re sleep deprived?” Shoshanne asked, and I could hear how anxious her frown was without needing to turn around.
“I can probably do it,” I said with a shrug. “It’d be better than missing this chance.”
“I disagree,” Aurora countered. “Mason, so much is riding on your shoulders right now, and if you falter, we’ll all suffer for it. You need to be at peak performance if we’re going to pull this off.”
“There has to be a better option,” Cayla agreed, and I chugged some more Rosh while I thought about it, but between the alcohol and my empty stomach, it wasn’t easy.
Grot was preoccupied with his feeding while whoever he had on his lap didn’t look to be moving anytime soon, and despite the grotesque scene, the charred bird did smell delicious. I hadn’t eaten anything since I left Garioch this morning, and I kind of wished I could stick around and haul in my own kill, but my heavy buzz reminded me how long I’d already spent in Jagruel.
So, I ignored how hungry I was while I doubled down on brainstorming.
“Bobbie could run a few trips,” I mused, “but she’d be hauling only five or so ogres at a time, which would take just as long as laying a new set of tracks.”
“You could build another Mustang,” Shoshanne suggested.
“That would take just as much time,” I muttered, “and I have enough to build already if we’re gonna be ready before the Master puts those tunnels to use.”
“Could the automatons help?” Cayla asked, and I chuckled at the thought of the ogres piggy backing their way across Illaria.
“Not very conveniently.”
“Then we only have one option,” Aurora decided. “Deya will do it.”
I looked over my shoulder as I furrowed my brow. “Deya?”
“Yes, she could fly them out to Falmount for you in only a matter of hours,” the half-elf replied. “It took a little over an hour for us to get here, and if she makes a few trips--”
“That’s a lot of flying,” I interrupted, “and I really don’t want her overworking herself. She’s still throwing up at least four times a day, and she hasn’t been getting enough sleep as it is.”
“Mason’s right,” Shoshanne agreed. “Deya’s going to be flying all over to get to our allies, and she needs to take it easy in her condition. Especially if she’s going to help during the upcoming battle.”
“Then have the metal dragon join her for the job,” Cayla said, and her blue eyes brightened at the thought. “He cares so much for all of us and knows Deya’s pregnant, so I’m sure he would love to be useful to her. Just like Mason would.”
Aurora’s blue eyebrows crinkled. “He’s such a gentleman, I bet he’d carry the bulk of the ogres so she could take it easy, too.”
“He’s the sweetest dragon,” Shoshanne sighed. “That’s exactly what he’d do.”
I smirked as just a mention of my dragon doppelgänger made my women look like sappy lovebirds, and after I considered the idea for a moment, it started to sound like a solid plan aside from one detail.
“That’s a good point,” I allowed. “The metal dragon would certainly be happy to help, but that leaves Mors Pass unprotected, and I’d rather keep all our defenses locked down for the time being. The attacks in the south are getting more frequent, so the Master has to be gearing up to use those tunnels any day now. If he tries to brand the dragons again, I won’t have time to restore them all and lead this operation as well. Then we’ll be fighting against the dragons on top of everything else he throws at us.”
“Mors Pass won’t be unguarded for long, though,” Aurora said. “Between the two dragons, we could have all two-hundred of the ogres transferred to Falmount in three hours.”
“Dragons?” Grot grunted as he looked over his woman’s shoulder. “Tell me about these dragons.”
“Aurora was just talking about using a pair of dragons I have to transport your soldiers,” I explained. “One of them I built from metal, and it’s powered by a channeling gem, and the other is my battle dragon. Transferring two hundred ogres is a lot to take on, though, even for beasts as large as them. I’d rather not risk--”
I raised my eyebrows as the ogre ruler suddenly shoved his moldy woman off his lap, and she let out a snarl as she hit the cave floor with a heavy thud. Grot didn’t seem to notice or care, though, as he braced his elbows on his knees and leaned closer to the fire.
“No ogre’s ever managed to catch a dragon,” he growled with a greedy grin. “We’ve tried, alright, but they smell our hunger ‘fore we can get close enough to snatch ‘em. I’ve always wanted one. Not to eat, but to hunt with. I heard they can catch a wyvern in midair, instead of havin’ to stalk ‘em through the forest like us.”
“Yeah, they’re impressive hunters,” I chuckled. “The one I flew here on is--”
I jumped as Grot slammed his giant fist against the ground, and he let out a gurgling laugh that drew the attention of the ogres seated around their own fires close by.
“Ye’ hear that?” Grot bellowed across the cave. “Flynt’s brought us a dragon!”
“No!” I quickly corrected above the deafening roars of approval. “She’s not a gift. She’s essential to me, and we were only discussing the idea. The fact is, I can’t have her flying all over Illaria with hundreds of ogres on her back. It’s not happening.”
“Yes, she’s in no condition for something like that,” Shoshanne said firmly. “I won’t allow it.”
The tumult of the ogres died down as Grot’s wrinkly expression darkened, and he narrowed his dim red eyes on the healer.
“Ye’ speak like that to Grot?” the ogre ruler challenged in a threatening growl.
That’s when I remembered I was supposed to keep my pride in line around the ogres, and I would have played the part, but I couldn’t berate Shoshanne for looking after Deya like this. She’d done her best to follow the order of things in Jagruel so far, and I honestly appreciated her support on the matter. More than that, my healer had been too nervous to speak above a whimper ever since we arrived, but here she was, holding her ground against a twelve-foot tall ogre for my pregnant elf’s sake.
So, I shifted a bit to block her from Grot’s line of sight, and I matched his scowl as I lowered my voice.
“The dragon’s mine,” I informed the ogre, “and I meant what I said. You can’t use her.”
I could hear my women’s hearts beginning to race as every head in the dim cave turned our way, and only the sound of molten lava spilling into the sea echoed around us while Grot and I stared each other down. I didn’t want to fight the ogre ruler, especially in the back of a cave with so many ogres blocking us in, but I could already sense Aurora and Shoshanne’s powers were sparked and at the ready, and Cayla had her hand poised on the AR-15 in her lap.
I calculated a dozen different ways this moment could go, and while all of them involved Grot being the first to die, none of them ended with us making it out of this cave alive.
Then Grot smirked. “Keep your dragon for yourself, then, but if ye’ want the ogres with you on this, there’s only one way we’re travellin’, and that’s by dragon.”
“By dragon… ” I muttered as I turned to eye my women’s frowns, and my half-elf pursed her lips like she regretted suggesting anything.
“By dragon,” Grot repeated. “Never dreamed I’d get the chance to see one up close, and if Flynt’s flyin’ on one, then Grot’s flyin’ on one, too. Otherwise, it’s two weeks walkin’.”
The ogre ruler pounded his chest with a hefty grunt to close the discussion, and as I recalled everything I’d learned about the ogres on my last trip to Jagruel, I knew there wasn’t much leeway for reasoning with Grot. Unfortunately, I really didn’t hav
e a better idea, and I needed the ogres to carry out the attack I had in mind. I also couldn’t risk getting mauled in the back of a cave right now over a last-minute disagreement.
None of that mattered, though, because my pregnant elf was wrapped up in one of the dragons Grot demanded the use of, and shrugging it off and saying okay was physically impossible for me.
So, I sighed as I reached for my mug again, and I gulped down half the contents to steady the daddy demon in me before I wiped the Rosh from my beard. Then I decided to just give it to him straight.
“Alright,” I finally replied. “I’ll fly you to Falmount with the dragons, but if so much as one ogre tries to harm them, I’ll have no choice but to kill every one of you. That’s a promise.”
Grot considered me for a moment while my better judgement punched me in the gut, but with Deya’s safety on the line, it was only fair I warn the guy. One wrong move around her, and I knew I’d snap, so I stayed firm until an amused and rotting grin spread across the ogre’s face.
“Aye,” Grot chuckled. “Man’s gotta have balls to own a dragon, and Flynt’s got balls. Big ones.”
I cleared my throat and nodded in agreement, and while the ogre ruler strained to get to his feet for an announcement, I could hear Aurora trying to contain a giggle. To be fair, it wasn’t every day an ogre discussed the size of my balls, but I did my best to keep a stern expression so he knew I meant business.
“The time’s come to repay that bastard who robbed us of our own kind!” Grot roared across the cave.
His words were met with furious growls from the other ogres, and as Rosh splashed over the flames to bring the bonfires raging toward the ceiling, I had to admire the commanding presence the ogre ruler had. When he wasn’t sitting around in a sweaty lump beside his fire, he was like a sumo wrestler crossed with a Viking, and he didn’t even have to raise his eyelids above half-mast to accomplish it. The walls shook with the uproar he inspired while he hocked a loogie at the fire and nodded in approval, and when he decided everyone should shut the hell up, he ordered them to, and it was done.
