Chapter 12:
The Mountain
A bolt of fiery red light shot out of the trees and hit the rock that Nameless had leaned against with a heavy thud. A split second later the boulder exploded in a bright flash. The concussive wave from the explosion knocked Ophelia off of him and she sprawled onto the ground a few feet away.
“That was the only warning shot you get! Try to fly away and I take your pretty wings off!” The rough voice called from the trees as over a dozen figures emerged from the woods all around them.
The men were unwashed and rough looking, and there were more than a few unpleasant leers as they took in the sight of the naked Flutterby while she picked herself up off the ground.
The apparent leader came out last, holding a sinister looking rod tight to his hip, the lost-tech blaster casually aimed at Ophelia.
“What a pretty little bug! She’ll be worth a few bits, right boys? Alright, here’s the deal kid, fork over the heartstone and any supplies you have, then you can stumble back towards civilization in one piece!” He smiled crookedly, his yellowed teeth visible through his scraggly beard.
The man sauntered forwards until he stood over the smoking remains of the boulder. Nameless’s ears were ringing and he was scared shitless, but he still managed to scramble to his feet and place himself between Ophelia and the deadly weapon.
“Master no…” She whimpered and clutched at his back, trying to stop him from putting himself in danger for her.
“Oh ho! We got ourselves a hero!”
The men laughed.
“Stop! Please, just leave us alone!” Nameless shouted boldly.
The reaction he got was the leader cracking him in the stomach with the butt of his weapon.
“Shaddup kid! The girl is ours now, now give up the stone!”
Nameless retched a bit from the blow, after a few seconds he caught his breath again and stammered out.
“Please just l-leave us alone, I d-don’t have her stone!”
Luckily none of the men spotted the fabrics dangling in the branches above.
His words earned him a sharp crack across the face from the man’s fist.
“Look, clearly the nanny stole you away from mommy and daddy. She’s a demented criminal! Don’t hold out on us for her, now be a good little boy and turn over her stone, we won’t hurt her, honest.”
His flat tone of voice told a different story than his words, as did the continued laughter of the men around them.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m twenty years old you asshole!”
He’d actually turned twenty on the road to Bramblewood.
The man rocked back on his heels, surprised at Nameless’s angry words.
“Twenty? Seriously?”
“Er, boss, let’s get on with this eh. I’m losing wood over here.”
The leader shot an irritated glare over his shoulder and the man who spoke up clamped his mouth shut. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be interrupted again, the leader huffed and turned back to Nameless, still hunched before him.
“Okay, so you’re a big boy, then I got no problem with leaving your body looking like that rock. Her heartstone. Not gunna say it again.”
With that he leveled his weapon at Nameless’s face and Ophelia let out a scream.
“Please, I’ll do whatever you want! Just don’t hurt him!”
“Ophelia no!”
Once again he tried to shield her as she clung to his shoulder but the man slammed him in the temple with his weapon, this time knocking him to the ground, Ophelia dropped to his side with an anguished cry.
“Okay, lost my patience with him, here’s the deal girlie: you give me and my boys the same treatment you gave the little squirt and maybe I spare him, but only if he coughs up the stone! Now get to work!”
With that the man roughly undid his trousers with one hand and pulled free his half-flaccid penis, his other hand still gripping his deadly weapon.
Ophelia swallowed, her eyes averted from the disgusting sight to Nameless’s prone form, one hand cradling his head in her lap as the man waddled closer, bringing his foul meat in front of her face.
“If I do as you say, you won’t hurt him?” She asked, turning her gaze up to the man, resolve in her voice.
“That’s what I said.”
He roughly grabbed her by the hair while his men hooted and hollered, some of them openly stroking themselves in anticipation of their turn with their prize.
“Open wide bitch and look up at me with those pretty eyes of yours while you suck my cock.” He shifted his hips to waggle his hardening member in her face.
Nameless whimpered from the ground, utterly helpless as Ophelia grimaced at the unwashed man’s stench. The brute gave her head a shake, and she swallowed again before doing as he said, placidly opening her mouth, resigning herself to what was to come.
He laughed as he inched his cock towards her lips, clearly wanting to take his time and enjoy himself.
Even dazed as he was, seeing her treated this way was sickening to Nameless, and he had never been so angry with anyone in his life.
Neither had Nina.
There was a crash from one side as a pair of trees were toppled and, still clutching the Flutterby’s head, the man turned just in time to see the mighty Gigas bring all of her wrath down on him.
He was pounded into the rocks under the weight of her hammer. She had leapt into the air at the edge of the trees and brought it down on his head with such force that it didn’t stop moving until it hit the ground with a wet splat, his body reduced to a pulpy mess.
Everyone present was frozen in shock at the gory sight; his arm had torn free of Ophelia’s scalp, taking a few of her hairs with it.
It was one of the few pieces of him still intact.
Nina’s red eyes were wide as she shouted at the other men, her voice an earth-shaking roar.
“You think that you can take from the mountain?!”
In stark terror, one of the other men brought his own weapon to bear on the Gigas, firing several shots at her, each hitting her with the same concussive thump before exploding.
After the smoke cleared from his volley he saw that not only was she still standing but her murderous glare had shifted to him.
“You think the mountain won’t claim its due?!”
She roared again before leaping straight at him and swinging her hammer in a one handed grip into his side.
The weapon didn’t slow in the slightest as his broken body was flung into a tree, his limp form now impaled on several broken branches ten feet in the air.
Two men, terrified of sharing their comrades’ fate, tried to flee into the woods but were greeted by Jan’s teeth and Kala’s spear.
Neither lasted long.
A third man leveled yet another blaster at the new arrivals but collapsed to the earth with a gurgled scream when a trio of familiar blades sprouting from his neck and face. He struggled to rise but was trampled underfoot by an enraged Milly who charged out of the trees and made a beeline directly for her master.
With an aggressive low she shouldered another man aside, knocking him into a painful cartwheel that ended with him upside down and unconscious against a tree nearly twenty feet away.
As the men scrambled in the ensuing chaos, metallic pops and cracks sounded all around as little lost-tech canisters landed at their feet, some releasing noxious gas that caused them to double over wheezing while others blinding them with searing light.
Nameless couldn’t take his eyes off of Nina, even when she had killed the man-eater she was more annoyed than anything. Now he glimpsed the true power of a Gigas and his heart pounded in primal terror.
She laid into the men with all of the inevitable fury of an avalanche.
Fearful cries and burst of broken flesh split the air as she pulverized them with her hammer and with one bare hand, all the while cursing and roaring out her rage.
“Come here you puny little fuck !”
She seized one man by the ankle and repeatedly swung his entire weight into the ground until there was nothing left to swing, his body bursting apart into bloody chunks. Another fled from the stinging smoke only for Nina to similarly grab him by his knee, her grip instantly crushing the joint as she hurled him with incredible force across the lake, his shriek cut short when he collided with the solid cliff near the waterfall at least eighty feet away.
Meanwhile Milly wrapped herself protectively around him and Ophelia, oblivious to the gore that covered them both.
Some of the remaining men had crude weapons but all of them were too afraid to use them. Jan, Kar and Nina were taking them down methodically as they were boxed in by the smoke; several tried to flee into the water only to be taken out by massive stones hurled by the enraged Gigas.
Within a few minutes, all of the men lay dead save the one Milly had rendered unconscious.
Nina was panting, not with exertion but with rage. The fire of battle still in her blood, she wheeled around and looked for something to kill. She held her gory weapon at the ready as she scanned the bodies of the men, searching for any hint of life.
Her bloody clothes were in tatters, and the blaster had left several odd scorch marks across her body, the puny weapon not strong enough to pierce the flesh of a Gigas.
Nameless felt sick.
He clung to Milly, Ophelia doing likewise, both of them too shocked by the grisly turn of events to form a coherent sentence.
“Well, that was a thing.” Miranda said grimly, emerging from the trees with Erica and Jezebel in tow; “Everyone alright?”
Jan and Kala quickly nodded, both warriors surveying the carnage that Nina had inflicted, respect on their faces as they cleaned the blood from their weapons, Kala with a piece of a dead man’s shirt, Jan by merely licking her bloody chops.
Milly was too busy frantically licking at Nameless and Ophelia’s faces to answer.
Nina didn’t seem to hear her, her gaze had fallen on the unconscious man and her eyes narrowed as she stomped towards him with deliberate intent.
“Nina! Alive! I need to question him!”
Miranda placed herself between Nina and the downed man, but the Gigas simply walked through her.
“Dammit Nina, I need him alive!” She stumbled back from the giant, tripping over the uneven rocks.
Nameless wiggled free of Milly’s grasp to see the tiny giant with her hammer raised, prepared to crush the helpless man.
“Nina! Stop! Please!” He all but sobbed at her, his head pounding from where he had been struck.
His voice was the only one in the world that could have given her pause at that moment, and even then she considered ignoring his words.
Reluctantly, she lowered her hammer to her side.
There was a collective sigh. Nameless was pulled back into Milly’s arms.
After recovering her knives Erica joined them, her own anger had been a match for Nina’s and just as Kar had told her, she didn’t hesitate.
“Wh-wha-” Ophelia dazed voice emerged from Milly’s breasts.
“Don’t look lover, it’s not pretty.” The Katje said quietly as she caressed the Flutterby’s hair.
“These men hurt our master, I-I will not mourn for them.” Ophelia’s voice was thick with emotion but despite her brave words she paled at the gory surroundings.
“Nor should you.” Miranda muttered and then glared at Nina, arms crossed in front of her; “I told you to wait on my order.”
Without taking her eyes off the unconscious man the Gigas pointed towards Nameless with her bloody hammer.
“I wait on no order but his. These men earned their deaths, I was happy to oblige. Wake this one up and ask him what you will Miranda, then he gets the same.”
Ophelia was clinging to Nameless now, her breath coming in gasps as she tried to come to grips with what almost happened and what had happened. Erica and Milly both were bathing her face with their tongues, comforting her the only way they knew how.
“Shhh, lover you are safe, Master is safe. Nina saved you.”
“You’re both okay.” Milly added, as much for her own benefit as for her bond-sister’s.
Erica leaned back suddenly and licked at her lips, recognizing the taste.
“Lover, what were you two up to?” She purred at the Flutterby who looked a bit sheepish, her shaking subsiding somewhat.
Ophelia leaned in for a hug and whispered in the Katje’s ear.
“Oh you naughty bitch!” The pair giggled together, though Ophelia’s laugh was tinged with hysteria.
She had regained some of her composure faster than one would expect, certainly faster than Nameless did: the only thing keeping him sane was his concern for her!
“Let’s get you lot cleaned up and dressed and get away from this mess, leave these fuckers for the buzzards.”
Miranda had sifted through the belongings of the men and gathered up each of the three lost tech weapons. Two were broken by Nina’s hammer, but the third was intact and she frowned before bundling them all together in a spare blanket and strapping it to Kala’s bag.
Studiously avoiding looking at the carnage around them, Ophelia, Nameless and Nina washed up in the water while Jez climbed up and brought down their mostly dry clothes. They walked a ways into the trees, Kala hefting the unconscious man over her shoulder before Nameless and Ophelia ducked into the privacy of the trees to dress, closely followed by Nina, Milly and Erica.
“So, you got your first titty-fuck today Master?” Erica bumped her hip against his while he buttoned his pants with shaky fingers.
Nameless was numb, he wanted to laugh, to cavort and play, to make love to his girls. But he couldn’t shake the feeling of helplessness he felt on the ground looking up at that man about to force himself on Ophelia. At the same time he was sickened by the brutality of the man’s end, the way Nina had utterly pulverized him.
He began to shake again, so his Flutterby stepped in front of him and put her hands on either side of his face.
“Dearheart, I am alright, the ordeal ended before it could even begin. Please, try to calm down.”
He nodded and swallowed.
“I’m s-so sorry.” He managed to stutter out while tears seeped out of his eyelids.
She shook him, her grip on his head painful.
“Don’t you dare!” Her eyes were wide as she snapped at him; “You are no more to blame for the actions of those men then I am!”
Startled at her vehement response he was held in place by her stern look until he gave a shaky nod. She suddenly hugged him tight, whispering in his ear.
“I was so afraid for you dearheart, please don’t make it worse by trying to take on the blame for all of the evil in this world.”
“I won’t.” He promised, his voice muffled by her breasts.
Nina wanted to say something, but didn’t know what, so instead she just finished changing into a pair of bloodless clothes, her eyes on the trees where Miranda and the others were waiting with the unconscious man.
Once they were all clothed, Ophelia walked up to the Gigas who turned to meet her.
“Nina, dearheart.” She knelt to bring their faces to the same height; “Thank you for saving us, for saving me.”
Nina looked surprised, as if she expected a rebuke instead. Her surprise increased when Ophelia gripped her face just as she had Nameless’s and pulled her in for a deep kiss. After a few moments of kissing, her rigid posture eased somewhat.
The Flutterby pulled away, and Nina’s lips following her of their own volition, not quite ready for the passionate kiss to end.
“And I think that this has gone on long enough, don’t you?” Ophelia tilted her head at the Gigas.
“What do you mean?” She breathed.
“You failed to have sex with him one time, and that was weeks ago! We aren’t just going to give up on you. You deserve our master’s love just as much as any of us. And I for one am through waiting for you to act on that. You and Master: Tonight.” She declared with a note of finality as she got back to her feet.
Nina was about to argue, and for that matter so was Nameless, but Ophelia actually stomped one delicate foot.
“Tonight!” She repeated at the pair of them; “None of us sleeps until we figure this out!”
Erica stepped up beside her and wrapped one arm around Ophelia’s waist.
“We’ll help, with whatever you need lover.” She promised Nina.
“That’s what bond-sisters are for.” Milly murmured, flanking Ophelia on her other side.
Nameless stood apart from them, all of their attention on Nina. He pictured her as she was not fifteen minutes ago, covered in gore and raging.
He shook his head, Ophelia was right. This had gone on long enough.
Tonight.
__________
While the others got themselves clothed and sorted in the relative privacy of the trees, Miranda and her girls contemplated the problem of the unconscious man.
He had groaned a few times while Kala carried him but was otherwise unresponsive.
Miranda paced a bit while Kala and Jez poked, prodded and slapped at him, Kala with her hand, Jez with a stick.
“You’re worried Mistress.” Jan said.
“You’ve read the same reports as me.”
Jan sheepishly scratched the back of her head.
“I may have skimmed them a bit.”
Miranda stopped pacing to give Jan a withering look that had no effect on the incorrigible Wolfen.
“Barely a month ago we lost one of Lilly’s pack to a flamer, or did you forget?”
Jan flinched, and then nodded, subdued at the memory.
Miranda softened her tone somewhat.
“Sorry puppy. I didn’t mean to snap at you, but this is something that the council is very worried about. It’s a growing problem all over the city states, and now here ? In the middle of bum-fuck nowhere, we find not one but three functioning blasters?”
“Yeah, I guess we should be worried.” Jan admitted.
“We need answers, and this guy is our only lead.” She threw a thumb at the unconscious man, whose eyelids twitched slightly when she referred to him.
Kala’s eyes narrowed and she began to speak loudly.
“It is useless, he suffered a terrible blow and I doubt he will awaken ever again. Stand aside. I can at least spare him a lingering death in the woods.”
She motioned Jez away then pressed her spear against the insensate man’s chest and prepared herself to drive the weapon home.
“I’m awake!” The man stopped pretending at the Amazon’s threat.
“Obviously.” Jezebel rolled her strange eyes: “Not gunna save you though, this time we actually get to kill a rapist!” She hopped in place excitedly.
“Hey now! None of that!” He stammered out, trying to get to his feet.
Miranda roughly kicked his legs out from under him.
“Stay on the ground! Kala if he tries to get up again, go lethal.” She ordered.
“As you say, my love.” Kala said, planting her spear on his chest again.
“Hey, fuck off with that shit! You ain’t got no jurisdiction out here! This is the wilds!” He bravely declared.
“Oh noes, we have no jurisdiction? We better let the attempted rapist go then.” Jan said in a falsetto voice, her hands on either side of her face and eyes wide in pretend fright.
Jezebel halted her hopping in indignation.
“What!? We can’t let him go! Just look what he and his friends tried to do!”
The Wolfen gave her a long look, then leaned in and licked her from her chin to her hairline.
“Jezebel, my sweet little froggy, how is it that we’ve been together for over a decade and you still haven’t mastered sarcasm?”
Miranda pursed her lips, hiding a smile.
“So wait, you aren’t letting me go?” The man was perplexed.
Kala blew out a breath.
“We should get the answers we need before the Gigas comes back. She won’t like seeing him awake.”
He paled.
“You’re right. So let’s get started. It’s pretty clear to me that you lot are a bunch of wanted crims, maybe even escaped cons judging by some of the tattoos. Hiding out in the lowlands to avoid the Aegis and prey on any girls you can find out here, so the only thing I need to know is where the hell did you get the blasters from?”
The man swallowed but didn’t answer.
“I’ll go and get Nina.” Jan said, turning towards the trees.
“Wh-who is Nina?”
“Oh you met earlier, little red girl with the big hammer?” Jan tossed over her shoulder as she kept walking.
“Wait! Wait, come on! I’ll talk!”
“Well?” Miranda prompted.
“We just had them for protection, honest!”
“And for attempted rape. Don’t try to bullshit me! Tell me where you got them from! NOW!!” Miranda snarled at him, her patience gone.
Kala pressed her spear harder into his chest, a single pearl of blood gathered at the tip and he winced in fear and pain.
“It was Georgie! The one the little red bitch squished! He had the hook up!”
“Give me a name!” Miranda demanded, not giving the man an inch.
She knew that she had to keep him talking so that he didn’t have time to make things up.
“He never gave us a name I swear!”
“Then where?”
His chest was rising rapidly as panic took him.
“If I tell you, you have to keep the red bitch off of me!”
“You tell me or I hand you to her myself!” Miranda countered.
His eyes rolled with fear, his bravado completely gone now.
“Oakridge! She was in Oakridge!”
“She? You don’t have a name but you know it was a woman?” Kala hissed in disbelief and leaned some more weight onto her weapon.
He squirmed in pain on the point of her spear.
“He said she had great tits!” He all but howled, gripping the bladed edge of the spear in a desperate attempt to relieve the pressure, blood streaming from his hand.
Miranda rolled her eyes.
“He remembered her tits but not her name? Ugh, men !”
“That’s all I know, please stop stabbing me!” He whimpered, still trying to dislodge Kala’s spear.
“Kala, enough. Tie him up until I can figure out what to do with him.”
Kala removed her spear and pulled her bag off her shoulder to get some rope. While her attention was away the man’s fear got the better of him and he scrambled to his feet, but before anyone had time to react Nina’s hammer flew out of the trees and bowled him over into a bloody heap.
“Well, that’s done.” The Gigas called as she emerged from the trees.
“Hey! That was our rapist!”
Jezebel had been the closest at that point and had to wipe blood off of her face as she glared accusingly at the giant.
“No, he was my rapist. I called dibs and everything.”
“Dammit Nina!” Miranda said in exasperation.
“What? He was trying to get away, I stopped him.” She shrugged unapologetically as she picked up her bloody weapon.
Kala crossed her arms over her ample breasts, the rope forgotten in her irritation.
“I would not have let him get two steps!”
“I didn’t let him get one.” Nina countered immediately, casually wiping the man’s blood off of her hammer.
“Can’t fault her math.” Jan murmured.
Miranda glared at the tiny red giant, and Nina matched her glare with a nonchalant stare of her own.
“I told you before: you get your answers, he gets dead. Don’t know why you’re surprised.”
Miranda drew in a deep breath then released it.
“I suppose I’m not, but I kind of hoped you would have calmed down by now.”
“Do I not seem calm?” One delicate red eyebrow rose as she casually tossed the man’s carcass into some bushes to spare her sisters the sight of it.
“You and Xalanth could be twins.” Miranda groaned.
“Aww, thanks!”
“It wasn’t a compliment!”
“How is comparing me to a Dragon not a compliment?” Nina laughed.
Miranda jaw worked as she tried to find words to reply. Finally she stomped off, Jan in tow, the Wolfen having the sense to hide her grin from her agitated mistress.
Nina blinked and called out after them.
“What did I say?”
__________
Later that evening, the stars bright in the sky, they made camp and bedded down for the night, their tents far enough apart to afford the disparate groups some privacy while some sought quiet words and sleep, and some not…
“You’re still worried about the blasters aren’t you?” Kala played with Miranda’s hair, trying to get her to come out of her thoughts.
They were sharing a bedroll, Miranda resting her body against Kala’s. Jan and Jez were both on watch somewhere outside the tent.
Miranda thought for a moment before she replied.
“The council needs to know about this, it’s the first real lead we’ve had and it isn’t much. Someone is flooding the market with firepower and all we know is that there might be a woman in Oakwood who has a nice rack.” She sighed.
“Indeed, Yana and the others told me of the weapons they faced when they rescued Nina.”
Miranda nodded seriously.
“It seems like every raid we launch encounters them, and the last few have had losses on our side.”
“Have you had a chance to speak with Lilly?”
“No. But I know that she probably hasn’t finished drinking and fucking half of Garland by now. She doesn’t handle loss well.”
Miranda drew in a long breath before letting it out with a sigh. The Wolfen pack leader was an old friend of hers and she had lost one of her warriors in a raid on a roving tent town a few weeks ago, the very same place that had turned both Erica and Nina into Tenebrae.
Miranda opted to change the subject, slightly anyways.
“But what about you? You finally got your wish. You’re a blooded warrior now.” She crooked one finger and ran it over her bond-mate’s cheek.
“Yes, I am.” Kala’s jaw was set.
“How do you feel about that? Taking a life isn’t easy.” Miranda said as she nuzzled against her Amazon.
“Honestly? I don’t know.” Kala muttered.
She had indeed been waiting for the chance to become a blooded warrior, it was one of the reasons she was so eager to join in Nameless’s quest.
“You know I’m here for you, my big strong warrior woman.” Miranda said with a loving kiss.
Kala leaned her head into the kiss, though she wasn’t in the mood for anything beyond it.
When they broke apart she pulled Miranda close, resting her cheek against her hair.
“After our mother died and Yana took over raising me, I trained so hard to be worthy of such an amazing sister. And when I met you and Jan and Jez… I trained even harder to protect my new family.”
Miranda said nothing, she knew all of this of course, but she wanted her pet to say whatever she needed to say.
“Those men, I don’t regret killing them, or at least the few that Nina didn’t get around to!” She snorted, her rapid exhalation tickling Miranda’s hair; “But, I don’t think I could do what Jan has had to do. I-I don’t think I could ever take the life of a Tenebrae.”
Miranda’s eyes widened. For years Kala had pleaded with her to join her and Jan on their missions. With the Lady Essig unable to use her power for nearly a decade, any poor girl who fell into darkness had to be killed in order to protect the world from their wrath. It was a rare occurrence but the unpleasant task of tracking and ending them had fallen to senior operatives such as Miranda and Jan.
“Three.”
“My love?”
“Three. That’s how many Tenebrae Jan and I have had to kill, Erica would have been the fourth. Well, actually she wouldn’t have been since she would have killed us.” She sighed, a lump in her throat at the memories of the innocent girls they had to end.
They were silent for a time, and then Miranda sat up, the blanket falling from her shoulders and revealing her nakedness to the blonde girl’s eyes.
“Three girls, in almost ten years. It seems like a small number, but for us it was always the most dreaded assignment and it took months for us to shake off that horrible feeling after each one.”
Kala nodded, with one comforting hand on Miranda’s waist.
“But now, with the kid in play… he saved two girls in like a week!” Miranda huffed.
Kala smiled.
“So you think we won’t have to kill any more Tenebrae?” Hope was in her voice.
Miranda straddled the Amazon’s abdomen, her hands balancing herself on the bottom of Kala’s ribcage as she looked down at the beautiful blonde woman.
“I think that the little shit nearly died today. He might be an Empath but he is also a big fat stupid idiot when it comes to his own safety. Seriously! They were having sex in the middle of the wilds like a couple of fucking teenagers!” She gave a disgusted snort; “So I need my Amazon warrior to watch out for him, to protect him, just as you have been. Because I don’t know if me, or Jan, could take down another Tenebrae either, not after that night in the woods with that bitchy cat.”
Miranda finished by leaning down and taking Kala’s face in her hands and kissing her ardently. Their kiss lasted for several breaths, when they finally broke apart Miranda once again settled herself comfortably against the Amazon.
They snuggled together for a few minutes before Kala spoke again, the last words before they both sought the comfort of sleep.
“I will, I will protect him, for you and for Jan.” Kala pledged fiercely.