Crossing Into Esles

It was a short night.  The sun had not even crested the horizon when Nayeli became aware of the cold spot beside her in the bed, and heard someone rummaging through the offerings piled outside of the tent.  She sat up wearily a moment later, rubbing her eyes, as Oro returned with a handful of valuable baubles that he dropped next to their packs...loudly, so as to startle the rest of his wives awake.  “Up, all of you.  Dress, eat, and make ready to move,” he commanded empirically, “They’ll be here soon.”

No one needed to ask who he was referring to.  If anything, Nayeli found it surprising that they had not been approached earlier in the night.  Perhaps the reinforcements from Coras really had met some of Nazeen’s routed soldiers and been forewarned of the kobolds and potential for a dragon.  Regardless, they all rose and dressed hastily, while Oro finished adding things they could barter with to their packs.  He was deliberately avoiding anything with a national stamp on it, which naturally included any sort of coin.  Outside, the kobolds had already prepared breakfast for them.  Nothing as lavish as the previous night...most of the food had already been consumed or consigned to the fire...but it was hot and adequate to fill them in preparation for a hard day’s march ahead.  Oro brought five packs out of the tent as they were scraping the last bites from their plates.

“Do not drop these, you two,” the Rabbit warned sternly as he put a pack each into Diya and Kylan’s hands.  The twins were a little surprised (and much relieved) to find them tolerably light, and quickly shrugged them onto their shoulders.  “And this one’s for you, Princess,” Oro chuckled, slinging over her leonine back the same pack-saddle that had previously belonged to their horse.  The Sha'khari almost fell over under the weight of the thing, and looked more than a little offended at how quickly he buckled her up like some exotic mule, but bit her tongue and accepted the burden.  Trotting over to the offerings with it on her back, she also equipped herself with a long, sturdy spear, equally suited to her as a walking staff and protection on the road.

Tuli and Nayeli started to lift the remaining two packs onto their shoulders.  “Leave them,” Oro barked, interrupting them, “I’m not done with those two.  I’ll bring them along when I’m ready.  Right now I want all of you on the road north.  Start walking until you can’t see the camp anymore, then wait for me there.”

Nayeli tilted her head, face once more hidden behind the veil of her habit.  “What will you be doing besides packing?”

“I have a promise to keep to the kobolds,” the Rabbit reminded her with a smirk that the priestess decidedly did not like, “And you don’t want to be here for it.  If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to stay.”

She considered him for a long moment, while he barked orders to a handful of the aforementioned minions to go round up the rest for “the ceremony”.  Nayeli did not like the thought of leaving him here alone, unsupervised...but also did not doubt his word.  “If you have not joined us in an hour,” the Lioness advised him, “I will return to check on you.”  Then, reluctantly, she began to lead their little party off down the road.

“Any idea what he has in mind back there?” Sarahi asked as they got underway, each step heavy with the weight of the bundle on her back.

“None,” the priestess admitted, “He said yesterday that he would ‘make dragons of them all’, but I don’t have any idea what that means.  Perhaps it is some power of Gorgorond he has not yet shown to me, and wishes to remain a secret yet.  That thought concerns me...but there is precious little I can do about it except to stay and see.  Given what else he said, I strongly suspect that would lead to unnecessary misery on the part of the kobolds, regardless of what else he intends.  Though they entered the camp as an enemy, they have been generous to us, so I would show them this meager mercy, if I may.”

Sarahi frowned, casting a wary look over her shoulder as the ominous sound of kobolds chanting together rose up behind them.  “I cannot say that I trust him in any way,” the Sha'khari sighed, “But I think it would be a mistake for you not to.  That man...,” she shook her head, and concentrated her attention on the road under her feet.

The priestess smiled under her veil, drawing closer to the Sha'khari as they walked.  “What about him?”

The former princess gnashed her teeth, hating to admit something seemingly positive about the infuriating creature.  “He’s strong enough to drag me around like a rag-doll, if he has a mind to.  He demonstrated that last night.  But he doesn’t resist you at all, outside harsh words, even when you are pushing him to do something he detests.  I think...despite a whole mountain of evidence I’d consider to the contrary...I think he does love you, after all.  Or at least doesn’t hate you.”

They continued walking quietly for a while, the sound of chanting growing first stronger and then fainter behind them.  “...Thank you,” Nayeli said finally, so softly that Sarahi almost missed it.  There was a wet shine in the Lioness’ eyes above her veil, and for once she seemed glad that her face was mostly hidden within her habit.

Behind them, the chanting had grown faint.  The number of voices seemed to be dwindling more than their fervor.  The group paused to listen to the last few repetitions, though none of them knew what was being said.  It was several minutes after the voices fell silent before Oro came jogging down the trail.  He had one of the remaining packs in each hand...and a small kobold jostling in the straps of each of those packs, one with scales a reddish hue and the other a dark green.  Catching up with the group, he dropped the pair to the ground, to the surprised looks of his companions.  They weren’t much larger than Diya and Kylan, but their lean reptilian frames were significantly stronger, and the packs on their backs obviously heavier.  They took a second to get their balance steady, then looked ready and eager to be on the road.

“And what is this?” Nayeli asked gently, gesturing to the two as she eyed Oro.

“Extra hands,” the Rabbit answered immediately, already striking up a steady pace down the road, gesturing for all of them to resume walking, “Congratulations, pipsqueaks: they’re going to split your part of the load.”

The twins cringed slightly, knowing full well who he was referring to, but were also quietly grateful that he’d decided to lighten their load.  Neither of them held any illusions about the limits of their strength, though they were determined not to slouch and hoped to make up for it in other ways.

Nayeli seemed to have other concerns, though.  “...And what of the rest?” she asked, insistently, “What is the rest of their tribe doing now?  Have they, as you put it, ‘become dragons’?”

Oro smirked, “Undoubtedly.”  Seeing she was not at all satisfied with that answer (and neither was Sarahi, for that matter), he elaborated: “According to their customs, their dragon will eat any kobold it recognizes as a threat, which is a sign it is ready to become a dragon itself.  The kobold will then be reborn in an egg and hatch as a dragon.  It is the highest honor known to their culture.”

Diya stopped in her tracks.  “You...ate them?  All?”

The Rabbit flashed a toothy smile over his shoulder, even as the kobold coming up behind her gently nudged her pack, urging her to resume walking.  “No: These two runts are young, and have had no opportunity to bring their dragon glory in battle or honor him with great offerings.  They were deemed unworthy to become dragons...yet.  So they will continue to serve.  They’re also brother and sister, like you pipsqueaks.”  Ignoring the horrified looks he was receiving all around, Oro turned his eyes back to the road and the mountains ahead.  “You know, it’s been years since I was as well-fed as I have been these last two days...”

Nayeli shook her head, which was bowed in a brief prayer for the souls of the deceased.  Even if the kobolds’ idea of reincarnation were true...she doubted Gorgorond’s maw lead to anywhere a soul could reincarnate from.

“What are their names?” asked Tuli, glancing back at the scaly additions to their party with the friendliest smile she could manage, hoping they could at least interpret her body-language somewhat until they learned each other’s tongues.

“Hell if I know,” Oro shrugged.

Sarahi scowled.  “You have an absolute aversion to proper names, don’t you?”

The Rabbit arched a brow in her direction.  “Did you name your biscuits before you ate them at breakfast?” he chuckled smugly.

“What’s mine?” Tuli asked suddenly, earning a surprised look from Sarahi and Nayeli.  “No, I know my name, but,” she pointed to each of them in turn as she labeled them how Oro addressed them, “Priestess, princess, pipsqueaks, and runts...what am I, so I know when you’re calling for me?”

“Patsy,” Oro laughed, “Whose perception I may have underestimated.”

“Why ‘patsy’?” Tuli blinked, confused.

Oro actually turned to walk backwards, so he could sneer at her with his arms crossed over his chest as he explained.  “Because, until the priestess here put a fusking blessing on the marriage last night, I had every intention of venting my anger on you and you alone whenever I lost my temper.”  Just as she had a moment ago, he pointed to each of their companions in turn.  “The priestess is safe for now and knows it, and I have my own reasons for keeping that promise.  The princess I intend to drag back in front of her father so he can see what’s become of her before I eat him.  She can expect to be rather less pretty by then, but secure in her survival in the meantime.  It’s boring to bully someone just half my size, so the pipsqueaks only get kicked when they actually call for it.  That just leaves you, ‘patsy’, as someone I could kill without qualm or disappointment.  So you have more cause than anyone else to be grateful for what the fusking leash did last night.  And those runts have more cause to resent her, though they’re too stupid to realize it,” he growled at last before turning back toward the road, apparently having burned off his good mood in the talking.

That left a sober silence on the group for a while, and even Tuli mildly regretted asking.  Nayeli eventually broke it for practical purposes.  “So, where are we going now, dear?”

“Same place we were going yesterday,” the Rabbit growled, “To crush Nazeen’s invaders.”

“That wasn’t what you did last night?” Kylan tilted his head.

“Are you an idiot, too?” Oro glared over his shoulder, “Meeting the kobolds and their dragon was just fusking good luck.  They probably live in these mountains and spotted an opportunity.  The real threat is just through this pass...probably.  If the dragon didn’t scare them off first.  If it did, then we’ll just have to chase them all the way back to wherever their leaders cower and piss, and finish them there.”

Sarahi nodded, having known from the start that the kobolds were not, in fact, the invaders their kingdom had been fending off.  “So it’s an incursion into enemy territory.  I see now why you left the coin behind.”

“Yeah,” the Rabbit muttered, “Even I enjoy a night in an actual bed once in a while, and since the priestess won’t let me murder the entire town before picking my favorite one, I have to have some way to peacefully convince the locals to let us stay.”

“Oh, so you do spend some time in civilization?” Diya asked, a little relieved, “I mean...after all the warnings...I was starting to think the only way I’d see a real bed again was if we drove out whoever owned the house an hour before.”

Nayeli sighed, but nodded.  “Actually, that’s still the more likely scenario.  But yes, as often as I can convince him, and we can get to an inn without being recognized, I try to spend the night under a solid roof.  It’d difficult, and rare, but some remote towns so rarely see a priestess of The Order, and so value her services, that I can keep attention diverted from Oro so long as he does not indulge his hunger.  That will be even harder now that our group has grown and several of us are very recognizable at a glance,” she gestured vaguely to Sarahi and the kobolds, “But I will still try to afford you that reprieve as often as possible.”

“Thank you,” Diya answered, hugging her hip in gratitude.

They hiked along the road through the mountains for all of the morning and much of the afternoon before they found what Oro had been seeking.  And it greeted them with an arrow, stabbing the ground between his ankles.  “Halt!” came a barked command behind it, “State your business!”

The scarlet Rabbit smirked, kicking the arrow aside.  “You state your business,” he shouted back, contemptuously eying the line of spearmen that had trotted out to block the road ahead of them the moment the demand was made, “Because it sure as Hell isn’t ‘marksman’!  Don’t think you can cover piss-poor aim like that with a stern tone!”

“Uh...Oro...,” Sarahi tried to subtly suggest a bit more diplomacy, as her eyes found the archers perched on mountain ledges to either side of the road.

“Fusk ‘em,” the Rabbit grunted, striding out ahead of the group while Nayeli whispered in their midst, “Stick close to the priestess.  I have work to do.”

“They are agents of Nazeen!” the commander behind the spearmen declared as Oro broke into a sprint for their line, “Fire!  Stop them!  Kill them!”

“Do it yourself,” Oro growled in his ear, “If you can.  Coward.”

The man’s face went pale.  He couldn’t understand how the enemy was already behind him, or why the two soldiers standing in front of him where literally a head shorter now.  The rest of the line seemed confused as the bodies slumped and fell into the dirt, looking every which way for the enemy that had suddenly disappeared from their sight.

Heedless of the situation that had suddenly arisen around their commander, the archers obeyed his last order, but not before Nayeli had finished her command to their arrows: “...approach in peace.”  To a one, the missiles turned down to plant themselves at the feet of their intended targets.  The group of Ferruda instinctively huddled tighter all the same, until their backs pressed up against Nayeli from all sides, and she patted their shoulders comfortingly.  Ironically, with a family gathered under her protection, Nayeli was now at liberty to do much more in their defense than she had ever been able to do in her own.  The kobolds shrugged off their packs and went darting between the rocks with their knives bared.

“Come on!” Oro was laughing now, “Kill me!  Stop me!  He told you to, didn’t he?”  He worked his sword with one hand, between the taunts, to deflect their spears and strike the fool that strayed too close.  His other hand had fingers tucked into the neck of the commander’s armor, forcibly manhandling him into the way of his own soldier’s strikes.  If they thrust recklessly, they would kill him.  If they were cautious, Oro would kill them, and then kill him.  It was only a matter of time before one of them decided there was no use delaying the inevitable.  But Oro was impatient.  The scarlet of his fur flowed down his hand and along his blade, lining the edges like blood, and it began to cut through whatever he struck in any fashion.  The wood of their spears, the steel of their armor, the flesh and bone that housed their souls...all of it parted like butter under a hot knife.  Six of their number fell, along with the commander, before the rest understood they had no defense against this monster.  They turned tail to run without so much as a shout of warning to their fellow soldiers among the rocks.

One of the archers fell before he could nock his next arrow.  The red kobold cut the legs out from under him before pouncing onto the rock he’d used as a perch, followed quickly by a cut across the man’s throat.  The green kobold pounced down on another, having found its way to a higher ledge without presenting a shot, and sent him tumbling to his death in the road beside the Ferruda.  With a reluctant sigh, Nayeli commanded the rocks to surrender the rest to her sight, and the mountainside shifted in several places to reveal the remaining archers and dump them from their perches into the road.

Oro was on them before many of them could regain their bearings, and cut them down with no more than one stroke apiece, leaving two halves of a body or a head several feet from its shoulders in his wake.  As the last one was dispatched, he ran the flat of the blade along his bare arm to wipe away the blood, simultaneously reclaiming the portion of Gorgorond that had lined the edge, and returned the sword to its sheath.  “...What?” he grunted at the shocked and slightly shaken expressions of his new wives, “Priestess told you how I get fed.  Get used to dead bodies.”

Sarahi grimaced, shaking her head slowly.  “That’s...I mean...blood-letting aside, that was incredible,” she admitted as if the opinion was being forced from her at sword-point, “Armor means nothing to you, does it?  They might as well have been naked...”

The Rabbit smirked, gesturing at the arm he’d just used to clean the blade.  “Gorgorond can chew through anything mortal hands can shape.  Fusking fast.  Doesn’t taste great, but the soul inside makes it worth it,” he chuckled, running his tongue over his teeth, “Most fools think the demon is my sword.  Hehe, not much breaks enemy morale like watching my bare hand swat right through a man’s head when he thought he had the sword countered.”

Diya turned away, looking near to sick, and Kylan patted her back sympathetically.  “That’s enough, dear,” Nayeli sighed, stepping between the little halfbreeds and the grisly sight on the road, “They will get used to your grim duty in time, I am sure.  There’s no need to fill their heads with such thoughts just yet.”

The Rabbit sneered at that, rolling his eyes.  “Fusk thoughts.  Here’s a sight they’d better get used to,” he warned, hefting up the nearest corpse, “I spared you of it with the kobolds.”

“Oro!” Nayeli tried to sound stern, but even her face screwed up in a grimace as his lower jaw seemed to detach itself from the rest of his muzzle, stretching into a gaping maw lined with jagged, grey-yellow teeth.  With something between a gulp and a roar, he stuffed the body inside.  The sound of his chewing was akin to a grinder turning, and the body disappeared down the impossible throat as fast as it could pass his lips.  With a resigned sigh, the priestess turned back to their wives, gathering their attention away from the grotesque spectacle behind her.

“...Unpleasant as I find it to say,” Nayeli admitted softly, “It’s true.  This is something you will have to become accustomed to, sooner or later.  This is how the demon is truly sated: with blood, and bodies, and the souls contained therein.”  Giving them all a sympathetic look, she gestured to some large rocks off to one side.  “Wait there, if you please, and wish to be spared the sight.  I also have a duty to perform here, futile as it may be.  We will be done shortly, and will get away from this place as quickly as possible,” she promised.  Then the priestess went among the dead, ahead of Oro, with head bowed and hands overlapping in the sign of The Authority.  She whispered their last rites, and a prayer for the seventh soul of each victim, which might escape even the demon to be drawn into Heaven.

When they were finished, everyone pulled their packs back onto their shoulders and made haste away from that pass.  This had merely been the advance guard, gatekeepers of a sort.  The main force still lay ahead, and Oro looked forward to a much larger feast when he found them.

Night was drawing near, and the party began looking for a suitable spot to make camp.  A reasonably wide clearing presented itself not far from a stream, and Oro decided it was likely the best they would get for the time being.  With more than a little relief, everyone shrugged off their packs.  The twins and the kobolds went to gather firewood while Tuli and Sarahi pitched the tent and Nayeli prepared the food for cooking.

“Only one tent?” the Sha'khari asked after going through all the packs at least twice, “That’s...even if we slept on top of each other there wouldn’t be enough space.”

“Then be glad it’s not raining tonight,” Oro shrugged, sitting with his back to a tree and being pointedly, deliberately useless in making camp, “I’ll get the biggest, heaviest one I can find at the first town we come across, though I’m surprised you want to carry something that size.”  The tent had been among the bags strapped to her back, and she had no doubt that he would load any extra weight onto her four legs without the least bit of guilt...but a tent that could comfortably fit her in among them seemed a burden worth bearing.  With a sigh, Sarahi went about putting up the small, canvas shelter anyway, figuring at least the twins and Nayeli could benefit from it.

The fire was made, dinner cooked and consumed, and everything else stowed away in the packs under a small blanket to keep it dry all before the last rays of the sun had quite disappeared from the horizon.  With all that done, Nayeli quietly disrobed in the open air, and the other Ferruda took the cue and followed suit.  Oro scoffed as they piled their clothes on top of the bags.  “You sure you want me that deep asleep, out here in the middle of the woods and gods-know-what?” the Rabbit growled as Nayeli took his hand and lead him over near to the tent, “There’s still soldiers of Esles about, no doubt.”

“If something comes along, I am sure the kobolds, Sarahi, and I can handle it,” she assured him, “Now sit there.”  She coaxed him to where Sarahi, stripped even of her underwear, had settled down in the soft grass, and patted her leonine side in invitation to him.  To her credit, despite the hardship of the day and the mutual animosity that flowed between them, the Sha'khari was taking her wifely role in relatively good stride.  While she didn’t exactly look happy, she wasn’t being reluctant or half-hearted in her efforts, either.

Oro sat with his back leaning against her, like a soft, warm couch, though he looked anything but pleased.  “Have you ever done more than look at a spear, Princess?” he sneered, nodding toward the long weapon leaning against the packs, which she’d been using as a walking stick all day.

“I will learn,” was all she said in answer, curling around him while leaving just enough room for Nayeli and Tuli to squeeze in warmly on either side of him.

“That’s enough, dear,” the priestess pleaded as she took her place on his right arm and motioned for Tuli to do likewise on his left, “We are all tired.  Even you.  Let’s enjoy a few minutes of peace before bed.”

The Rabbit sneered, and muttered something under his breath too grumbly for any of them to make out, but seemed willing to let it go at that.  Twisting her torso toward them (to an almost painful degree, due to the angle), Sarahi laid her hands on Oro’s shoulders and began rubbing and squeezing them as soothingly as she could, while Tuli and Nayeli ran fingers through the fur of his chest and neck.  Diya, small and light, carefully straddled his belly and leaned forward, smiling far more warmly than he deserved, and rubbed her nose against his while her hands caressed his cheeks and brow.  Behind her, Kylan had lifted one of the Rabbit’s large feet into his lap, and begun carefully kneading the road-worn pads beneath.

Their husband looked near ready to be sick from all the sweet attention, though it seemed he would not have to endure it long.  Surrounded by their scent, his eyes were half rolled back in his head already, and the disdainful curl of his lip was weak.  He seemed on the verge of falling asleep already when Kylan quirked a curious brow at something behind his sister.  “Is that...normal?  I mean for him?” the mixed-breed asked, pointing at the small tent between his own legs though he was looking between Oro’s.

The implication surprised no one more than Nayeli.  Diya rocked her hips back gently to confirm the tight place in her husband’s pants, just behind her tail, and closed her eyes with a deep breath.  “Oh my...shall I do something about that, husband?” she asked, managing to keep any reluctance out of her voice.

“...Get...Off,” he growled in answer, loud enough this time for everyone to hear, then tried to sit up despite her still being astride his stomach.  When Nayeli and Tuli maintained their grip on his arms, his half-closed eyes flared with genuine anger, and he pulled more firmly.  “Get off me!” he repeated, this time as a command, shoving Diya backward into the grass as his limbs came free.  He kicked her brother away from his feet as he rolled onto them, then turned to level a furious glare around the entire, surprised group.  “You!” he pointed accusingly at Nayeli, “I will have a word.  Now.”  And he stomped off toward the not-so-distant line of trees.

It was the first time they had seen Nayeli look nervous.  It was the first time in a while she had truly felt nervous around him.  She probably ought to feel that way rather more often, but she had become comfortable with his harsh and intimidating personality.  This, though...this was uncharted territory.  Nevertheless, she dutifully followed him.  “Wait here,” she warned them quietly as she got to her feet, “Do not interfere, come what may.”

Oro was marching along the tree line muttering to himself.  “Too skinny...too skinny...too old...need a fat one...,” he grumbled as Nayeli approached.  She was about to ask what he was looking for when he suddenly punched the trunk of a wide hickory tree, leaving a sizable dent in the bark almost exactly level with her head.  “Stand there,” the Rabbit commanded, pointing at the dent, then began hastily gathering sturdy sticks and stones from the immediate vicinity.

Steeling her nerves, Nayeli did what she was told, stationing herself in front of the wide tree with the back of her head resting in the indention he’d made.  She did her best not to flinch...and mostly succeeded...when the first stone struck the bark beside her head, driving deep enough to disappear into the wood beneath.  “Fusking princess’ smell,” the Rabbit barked, “Is too strong!”  He threw a stick at her next, taking a chunk out of the bark beside her shoulder and splintering the projectile.

Nayeli took a deep breath.  “It’s not her fault.  None of us—” she winced as a large branch broke in half above her head...barely...and fell on either side of her, “None of us expected that.  I didn’t even know you could be—!”  A sharp rock imbedded itself in the wood beside her neck.  Taking another deep breath, she cut to the chase: “Do you mean to kill me now?”

“It was always my intent to kill you,” the Rabbit answered coldly, crushing the ammunition still remaining in his hands, trembling with a barely-contained fury she had not seen in him since their meeting with the Matriarch, “Every damned day I dream of it.”

Nayeli met his eyes for a moment before closing hers with an accepting nod.  “I understand.”  He gnashed his teeth so hard she could hear them grinding from where she stood.  She heard the rattle of the sheath as he seized the handle of his sword...and the sing of the steel as he yanked it free.  The tip of her right ear burned.  A small part of it fell to the ground beside her...followed slowly, and loudly, by the bulk of the tree behind her.

“I hate you!” the Rabbit shouted loudly enough for the entire forest to hear.

“I am aware,” the Lioness answered calmly.

“I have hated you from the day we met!” he growled, pacing back and forth in front of her with his sword still drawn, like a predator deciding how best to grab its prey’s throat, “Fusking sour-tasting, accepting, sympathizing, forgiving fusking saint!”  The blade drove up to the hilt in the wood beside her cheek.  Then she felt him seize the fabric tied across her breasts in his fist, twisting it painfully tight as he pulled her down level with himself, and felt his hot breath on her nose.  “And right now, this very moment, I hate you more than ever,” he growled ominously in her ear.

“...Why now?” she asked quietly, genuinely, opening her eyes to look into his when he answered.

It took him a long moment to find the words for that.  He had to actively look for them...ask himself questions he did not like asking, about topics he usually avoided.  Animalistic as he tended to be, he was not blind to the subtleties of his own mind.  “You...tempt...me,” he voiced his thoughts at last, “Tempt me...to be soft...to be gentle...maybe even kind, just for a moment.  You tempt me to be weak...to be a thing that died decades ago, and will die again if I return to it.  Sometimes...you tempt me to think...it would be good to die...before I finish my mission.”  The wrath had not faded at all from his burning golden eyes, meeting her unblinkingly, though his voice softened a bit.  “Does it please you, fusking leash, that you—might—be winning?”

“No,” was her immediate, thoughtless answer, as she searched his eyes for some sign he was toying with her in his usual, cruel way.  She couldn’t find it, though.  All she could see was furious honesty, and perhaps a hint of fear.  “No...not if that is what victory looks like,” she said again, more clearly.  Now it was Oro searching for deception in her eyes.  “You are possessed by a terrible demon.  By all rights, we ought to be mortal enemies.  But I set out on this journey to win your soul back from it...and now I come to you each night with the distant, mad hope of winning your heart.  Any end besides those two are a loss, to me.”

She could not remember a time when they had actually been dishonest with each other.  Her sense of obligation, and his peculiar sense of spite, had prevented it from the start.  But it had been a very long time since they had last been this candid, if they had ever managed it.  Nayeli felt a desperate need to seize the moment while it lasted.  “You learned, at a very young age, that men must be strong enough to do as they please.  But you have traveled with me, not killing me, long enough to understand that sometimes it takes even more strength to resist doing what you please,” she reminded him gently, “And I have long desired the touch of a husband so desperately that I have courted defilement with a demon in the hopes of it.  I am forgiving, and perhaps forgiven...but a saint I am not.”  Nayeli slowly cupped a hand to his cheek, never looking away from his eyes.  “We have trusted each other more on this long road than either of us would be comfortable admitting to anyone else.  Would it be such a detriment now to trust me also with your weakness, and you with my baseness?”

“...Fusk,” he hissed at last, “How has it come to this?”  Nayeli grit her teeth as he twisted her bra tighter in his fist, until the fabric at her back ripped and fell loose.  Seizing one breast in his hand, Oro turned, rolling her hip against his and then over it, taking her feet out from under her and all but throwing her to the ground, where he pinned her beneath his weight bearing down on that one breast.  “Don’t think this is going to be gentle.”

“If it were anything but brutal,” she nodded, relaxing submissively on the ground beneath him and stretching her hands above her head, “It would not be your touch.”

Oro nodded, the fury in his eyes momentarily replaced with...something else...and commanded, “Gorgorond...put us in Authority’s blind-spot.”  The crimson clinging to his skin burst out and surrounded them, creating a small ball of impenetrable scarlet void, like a blood-spot in existence.

Across the clearing, still undressed but now gathered around the campfire to await their return, their other companions cringed as Nayeli’s screams tore through the night.  Diya scrunched her ears against her head with her hands clamped over them, then jumped up from her seat in frustration.  “I’m going to help her,” she declared, starting off into the dark, “It’s my fault she—”

Sarahi caught her wrist before she was quite out of the firelight, dragging her forcibly back into it and holding her with both arms wrapped around her.  “If it was anyone’s fault, my scent is most likely to blame.  But regardless...I think now is a time to trust her, more than any other.  Whatever trouble our ignorance might cause, she is long practiced in dealing with his temper.”  The shrill voice echoing in the woods seemed to mock her attempts to comfort them, but Diya nodded sadly in her grasp and stopped fighting it.

“I’m sorry,” the little mixed-blood whispered to the absent priestess as the sounds grew louder.

It only continued for about half an hour before the cries fell silent.  That worried them more than the screams, honestly.  But it was only a short moment after that Oro came into the light of the fire.  He was shamelessly naked, absent even of his sword, and clearly no longer aroused in any sense.  He carried a limp Nayeli in his arms, her own crossed loosely over her breasts as her head rested in the crook between his arm and ribs.  “Oh no...no...,” Diya covered her mouth with her hands, her dread obvious in her eyes.

“Do the dead smile?” Oro sneered, pointing out the more-or-less contented look on Nayeli’s face even as he handed her ankles and shoulders off to the kobolds.  They immediately scurried off to the tent with her like a wounded soldier.  “She’ll be fine come morning.  You,” he pointed at Sarahi, “In the tent.  If only one person in this whole fusking camp gets the tent, it will be you, understood?”  The Sha'khari nodded her understanding silently, and rose quickly to join the priestess in the (somewhat cramped) canvas enclosure.

“Oh, thank goodness,” sighed Diya, obviously relieved at Nayeli’s safety...if not quite convinced of her health.  Then the little mixed-breed all but flung herself at Oro’s feet.  “Please, husband!  Next time I offend you, don’t take it out on Nayeli! I—”

“Shut it,” the Rabbit interrupted with a tired voice, dropping onto his naked bottom right there beside the fire.  Glancing up in surprise, Diya noticed Oro’s eyes were already half closed and he seemed to be having trouble keeping his mouth from being the same.  “You didn’t do anything.  Where are the rest?”  He’d noticed the last two of their number were missing from around the fire.

“Um...,” she hesitated for just a second before explaining, “Sarahi’s scent was kind of strong, and brother was having a hard time.  So Tuli took him...to...”  She paused and crawled a little closer, noticing that Oro had closed his eyes and wasn’t opening them again.  Deep, slow breathing convinced her he’d fallen asleep sitting up.  Relieved she wouldn’t have to provide any more details...and thus not think about what her brother was doing with their remaining companion...the little mixed-breed carefully eased her husband down onto his side so he wouldn’t end up falling into the fire, and curled up at his back to help keep the warmth even.

Tuli and Kylan returned a few minutes later, creeping quietly next to the fire when they saw Oro laying beside it, apparently unconscious.  “All better?” Diya asked quietly from his back, letting them know she was still awake.

Her brother blushed a little and rubbed his own ear.  “Yeah.  Sorry about that, sis,” he apologized quietly, though Tuli only smiled, “How is Nayeli?”

“I don’t know,” Diya confessed, raising up on her elbow, “But he says she’ll be fine.  She’s in the tent with Sarahi.  Switch places with me?”

“Huh?  Sure,” her brother agreed, though he didn’t seem too keen on the idea of curling up against their husband’s back in nothing but his own underwear (he’d neglected to get dressed even after Tuli “took care” of him).  The larger Ferruda pulled a blanket from the packs and draped it over both of them as soon as Kylan had settled down, then got another for herself and Diya on the other side of the fire ring.  The kobolds had already curled up in a little nest of their own tails beside the entry to the tent and seemed quite asleep.  And thus did they all remain until morning...