by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
We drove west for an hour before we turned southward. That was when the stench began.
I’d taken a different route to get to House Quyn and hoped to avoid having to struggle through the spongy layers of decomposing plant life. The last time we travelled south, we’d taken a generally southwestern course, and although we’d managed to take down the three sphinxes that hunted us, I wasn’t eager to fall into the same circumstances. At least the different route would provide more sturdy terrain in case of an attack.
So, we headed straight west on Bobbie from the city of Rhoemir and kept to the dirt road until it split off toward the north. Then we turned south and continued for another half hour before we noticed the smell. It was only a little foul at first, and I figured some creature’s half-eaten remains were left amongst the giant ferns that blotted the jungle on either side.
Ten minutes went by though, and the smell only seemed to linger stubbornly, until I was sure it was getting more pungent by the second. Aurora had one hand clamped over her mouth and nose, and as I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the disgusted looks on Cayla and Shoshanne’s faces.
“It smells like death over here,” Cayla called over the growl of Bobbie’s engine.
“I thought we’d have passed whatever had died by now,” I called back, “but it seems to be getting stronger, right?”
The three women nodded vigorously.
“Great,” I groaned. This jungle only ever seemed to get more outrageous, and I frowned as I scanned the undergrowth and slowed Bobbie down a bit to be cautious.
The sharpness of the smell burned in my throat, and I began to wonder if whatever rancid thing was in the air could harm us just by breathing it in. I decided anything was better than rotting from the inside out, so I kicked Bobbie back up a gear and hoped we could barrel straight through to the other side of the stench.
Eventually, the smell became so strong my eyes began to water, and I drew in a desperate breath and nearly threw up from the taste in my mouth. Then Cayla grabbed my arm, and I followed her finger to the direction she pointed.
I brought Bobbie to a stop so fast her metal tires ripped up the moist dirt, and she stuttered across the surface for several feet before we finally came to a full stop in the middle of a clearing.
All four of us stared at the grotesque scene surrounding us, and I was almost distracted enough by the sight that the smell took a back seat.
Four sphinx corpses were suspended high above us in the boughs of the trees, and their partially decayed bodies slithered with maggotish worms and swarms of bright green flies. The beasts’ jaws were all parted in vicious snarls, but they were frozen there with their eyes mostly eaten away, and their flailing limbs were stiffened with rigor mortis. It looked like a crazed hunter had forgone the taxidermist and mounted his prey moments after killing them.
I slowly dismounted, turned to take in the various states of decay around me, and decided each of the sphinxes must have died at a different time. One’s furry flesh was nearly entirely decayed and looked a bit blackish with mildew, and its limbs were shriveled to nothing but boney stumps. The freshest body still had its intestines, but its shriveled appearance was oddly disproportionate to the amount of uneaten meat on it. The beast couldn’t have died more than a day ago, and yet its face was sunken beneath its half-eaten eyes, and its muscular build looked shrink-wrapped.
The women walked behind me as I approached the curious creature. It smelled like a sickening mixture of gasoline and rotted meat, and I buried my nose and mouth in the crook of my arm as I got closer. My stomach protested violently, so I had to swallow down my bile every few seconds, but I wanted to know how the bodies were being held in the air like that.
Somehow, they’d been mounted so their rear paws hovered a few feet above my head, and their bodies were forced upright as they clawed out in anger and pain.
Stout plants I didn’t recognize encircled the strange clearing we’d come in to, and as I peered up along the back of the sphinx’s corpse, I saw that the thorny stalks of the plants I’d taken for undergrowth actually grew to nearly half the height of the trees. The more mature stalks were as thick around as my arm.
The thorns on these heftier stalks were an angry red color and surrounded with white hairs as bristly as a toothbrush, and I stared in horror as I realized the thorns were what held the giant bodies of the sphinxes suspended. The full length of the beasts’ meaty backs were impaled with the thorns, so they held the bodies there like a torturous Velcro. As unnerving as this was, it honestly seemed like overkill compared to the head of the flower.
Head seemed like the only word to describe it, because it had distinct fangs protruding from the center, and its pale yellow petals opened wide like a mouth where it latched onto the neck of the sphinx.
The plant looked like a vampiric death trap that had sucked the blood of the sphinx, and I assumed the thorns latched the victim in place as its life was slowly drained.
“Holy shit … ” I muttered, and Aurora ducked under my elbow to peer up along the back of the sphinx. Then her emerald eyes went wide, and she drew back several feet.
I glanced over my shoulder and smirked at the stunned expression on the half-elf’s face as she kept her hand clamped over her nose and shook her head.
“Let’s go,” she mumbled against her palm. “This is too gross.”
Shoshanne looked intrigued as she pinched her nose and got a look for herself. “Amazing … ” she mused. “This plant must be over a hundred years old.”
“You think?” I asked curiously as I considered the girth of the stalks. “Is it all one plant that got the four of them, or different ones?”
Shoshanne shrugged. “I don’t know anything about this species,” she admitted. “I’ve only seen a picture in a book once, but there wasn’t any information. It’s been documented, but not studied.”
“For obvious reasons,” Cayla added. “What’s it called?” She looped her hand around my free arm as she craned her neck to look around the splayed wings of the beast, and I saw her grimace when her eyes found the fanged flower at the neck.
Shoshanne was on her hands and knees as she strained to get a better view of the flower, and I could hear her mumbling through different species names while she tried to remember this particular one. I admired the little cleft between her legs as she stuck her ass out further, and with her perfect thighs fully exposed in the leather bodysuit, her figure formed a caramelly heart shape from the back.
The leather thigh strap that held her store of shuriken pinched tautly against the meat of her thigh, and I bit my lip and dragged my eyes along her curves as my blood began to make its way south.
It had only been five hours since I’d woken up to the three naked women already laying hungry kisses along my neck, but if we could find a place out of range of the stench, then I’d say it was definitely time for a break in our travels. Five hours was more than enough time to recover for round two. I’d start with Shoshanne on her knees this time, then move on to Cayla, but this was as far as I got with my plans.
Aurora shrieked behind me, and I whipped around to find a flower as big as the sphinx’s head slowly rising from the edge of the clearing.
“W-what the fuck?” I stammered as the head swayed there like a snake, and Shoshanne came to my other side.
“Shoot it,” she ordered.
I abandoned shielding my face from the stench to pull my revolver out, but I hesitated with my finger on the trigger.
“Does this one have any acid it’s gonna rain down on us?” I clarified as I thought back to the last time I’d shot at a carnivorous plant. This one was at least four times bigger than the Raxis, and if it had any deadly goodies inside, there was no way we’d escape the splatt
er.
“I have no idea, just shoot it,” Shoshanne ordered again, and I braced myself for the worst as I pulled the trigger.
The head of the massive flower twitched violently when the bullet tore through its center, and just as it slowly tipped back to fall into the jungle, the four lifeless bodies around us gave a sudden lurch. Luckily, only a delicate pollen began to rain down, so I turned my attention to the mounted corpses.
The fanged flowers that had latched their bites into the necks of the sphinxes now wove themselves over the shoulders of the dead beasts, and I got the impression they were actually peering at us.
Their fangs were sleek and red, and their yellowish petals were crusted with thick layers of old brown blood that spilled down their stalks. They swayed lightly as they turned their carnivorous plumes toward us, and I eyed the four of them as I cocked the hammer of the revolver.
“I think it’s all one plant,” I muttered to Shoshanne.
The healer paled several degrees and gave a curt nod. “And it’s angry,” she breathed.
Cayla pulled her rifle around from her back, and we exchanged a brief look before we unloaded on the bloodied flowers. The princess took out the first two as they dove around their victims and went straight for our necks. The jolt of the bullets seemed to make the entire plant lurch in pain, and one of the dead sphinxes slipped from its thorny hold.
The stench of the body as it broke against the ground only added to the many layers of rotting odor drifting around us, and as the waft of air headed my direction, I fought back another gag.
I still managed to kill the last two flowers before I threw up, though.
Cayla was gagging uncontrollably beside me, and I realized the fine pollen sifting down from the plumes had a smell all its own that was possibly more disgusting than the smell of the massive rotted sphinxes. The hollowed-out flower heads sank back into their thorns while I gasped for fresh air, and the pollen coated my tongue immediately.
“Go,” I managed to say between gags.
The three women sprinted for Bobbie, but my eyes stung from the stench and the pollen, so I just revved the engine once I mounted and let Bobbie take over from there.
She wove us straight ahead and out of the clearing, and I gunned the engine another measure. The breeze blew most of the pollen off us, but the smell didn’t fade. Nearly an hour later, my head pounded from the rancid stench, and my stomach churned in waves.
By the time we’d travelled south enough for the decayed surface of the jungle floor to slow our speed, I honestly couldn’t tell whether the smell was in my mind or stuck all over me. We stopped at the enormous waterfall beside the crystal bridge, and I only paused to remove my weapons before I dove straight into the raging water. All I could think of was washing the pollen off and out of me as soon as possible, and I stayed under the rolling water until my breath had nearly expired. When I finally resurfaced, the air around me was untainted again.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, and I glanced around me. The three women were just resurfacing as well, and they drew desperate breaths as their grimaces slowly faded.
“Gods,” Aurora moaned, and she scooped up more water to rinse out her mouth. “I think I know what it tastes like to die now.”
I nodded and fought back another gag. “How the hell does that plant not repel every living thing within a thirty mile radius?”
Shoshanne dunked herself under the water once more for good measure before she answered. “They must draw in carnivores with the smell of fresh death,” she mused.
“So, that smell was basically every stage of decay from start to finish,” I replied and took a huge gulp of water. “I can’t decide which was my least favorite.”
“The pollen,” Cayla assured me. Her porcelain face was a stern and displeased mask, and I tried not to chuckle at her expression.
Considering she was a princess, she really handled weird shit incredibly well.
I caught Cayla’s hand under the water and pulled her toward the bank of the river, and we all climbed out and began to wring the water from our clothes and hair. I hadn’t intended to arrive at House Quyn reeking like wet leather, but anything was better than the rancid pollen from the fanged flowers.
We slipped and slid back up the bank and climbed onto Bobbie, and the seat was drenched within a few seconds of us settling in.
“This is classy.” Cayla smirked. “I feel ready to meet with the head of an elite elven House now.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Hey, once he sees these papers from House Syru, I have a feeling nothing else will matter.”
Aurora planted her feet on the ground before I kicked Bobbie into gear, and she turned to look at me. “You don’t think this is a bad idea?” she asked uneasily.
I cut the engine. “What do you mean?”
The half-elf shrugged. “What if what’s on those papers is the really bad side of rune magic, and they get the wrong idea about you? I mean, they already didn’t trust you with knowledge of rune magic, and here we are carrying around ancient papers from an evil sorcerer’s private chamber.”
I considered this and began to see where her concerns made sense. “It doesn’t look great,” I admitted, “but they know I killed the guy. That should be proof enough of which side I’m on.”
“Deya would back us up,” Shoshanne added. “She was kind, and I doubt she’d let them invite us over just to demonize you for having some papers with Elvish runes.”
My chest suddenly jumped a bit at the mention of the elven beauty. I’d forced myself to focus on the parchments as much as I could for the drive down, but part of me knew I was mostly avoiding thinking of Deya. Now, just the mention of her name sent my thoughts straight to her limber build and violet eyes, the way her lips pouted naturally, and how she almost seemed to float when she moved.
Then Aurora spoke, and my train of thought derailed.
“I hope she’s there when we arrive,” the half-elf muttered nervously. “She’s the first creature in all of Nalnora to be kind to me.”
I nodded blankly, and Aurora raised her eyebrows.
“I know that look,” she said with a chuckle.
“What?” I asked. Then I blinked a few times as I realized I hadn’t for a while.
“She’s also the most beautiful elf I’ve ever seen,” Aurora continued with a coy smile on her lips.
I shrugged and cleared my throat. “She’s beautiful,” I agreed, but I didn’t want to continue the subject. With her father so close now, I seriously had to hone my focus. “Shall we?”
“Gentlemen first,” Cayla muttered.
I sighed, and the three women stifled their giggles.
“I meant shall we head over to House Quyn, ” I clarified, “not shall we help ourselves to Deya.”
“Ohhh, sorry,” Aurora replied. “I wasn’t sure where your head was at.”
“Are you trying to get me into trouble?” I muttered as Bobbie roared to life beneath us.
The half-elf sent a wink to Cayla over my shoulder, but I quickly kicked Bobbie into gear and took us across the crystal bridge before they could carry on much more.
As long as I focused on the parchments, I could hopefully make it through this day without picturing Deya nakedly strewn amongst my women in our bed.
Either way, I fucking had to, because her dad was already waiting for me at the entrance to House Quyn.
I swallowed my nerves as my pulse quickened, and we crossed beneath the canopy of the willowish trees that overflowed with screeching birds. Only a few dove for us while we dismounted, and I eyed the crumbled stonework of the house across the sea of blue leaves overrunning the land. Everything was cloaked in a thick fog at this hour, but I could make out the leader’s dusty gray hair near the shadowy entrance.
Aurora giggled as her wet leathers squeaked noisily with her dismount, and I took an appreciative look at the three drenched beauties while they stooped to pull their bags from the side car. Their cleavage was slicked with droplets
of water, and the sheen of their moist thighs glistened with every step.
I let out a low whistle. “We should go swimming more often,” I muttered.
The three women smirked, and Cayla gave a little wiggle of her hips as she brushed past me. With one last deep breath, I followed the taut muscles of her ass as she made her way to the door and hooked my arm around her waist when I joined her.
The head of House Quyn looked as stern as I remembered him, and his deep purple eyes flicked toward my hold on Cayla’s waist.
When he didn’t look away, I slowly removed it.
The leader narrowed his serpentine eyes at me briefly before he finally extended his hand. “Welcome back, Mason Flynt,” he said grimly.
“Thank you,” I returned as I shook his hand. “I was honored to receive the invitation.”
The leader seemed pleased to believe I understood how gracious he’d been to offer us a place to stay. He nodded an acknowledgment to my gratitude, but I didn’t miss the tense look he sent to Aurora as he spoke again.
“It’s our pleasure to have you,” he muttered dimly. Then he eyed the water that dripped from my vest and pants. “Was the weather difficult for your journey?”
“No,” I chuckled. “We had a bit of an issue with some carnivorous plants. They apparently secrete the smell of rotted corpses when you shoot at them. Who knew?”
The leader frowned with recognition. “Ah yes,” he mused, “the grove of Putre to the north.”
Shoshanne gave a little bounce. “Putre! That’s the name,” she sighed. “I knew it started with a P. ”
I grinned over at the Aer Mage. “It’s fitting,” I pointed out, and she giggled her agreement.
The leader looked vaguely amused by the caramel beauty. “You are the healer,” he guessed.
“I am,” Shoshanne replied with a sweet smile. “How are you feeling, sir?”
The leader looked unable to resist the genuine concern of the beautiful woman, and I saw the smallest smile grace his face as he responded. “Slowly feeling back to myself,” he assured her. “I don’t have the energy I once had, but the pain has subsided already.”
