Chapter 16:
Desert Nights
Milly and Kala pulled the wagon through the woods together, even burdened as it was with water and supplies it proved no match for their strength, though more than once they had to enlist Nina’s help to pull it through a stubborn bush or outright lift it over a babbling creek as there were few trails and no roads this deep in the wilds.
Even after everything he had seen her do, the casual displays of her enormous strength still made Nameless wonder.
They traveled for several days from the Saenga village without seeing another living soul. The terrain changed dramatically in that time; the mighty cedars tapering off in the first few days, and they found themselves crossing great fields of waving wild grass.
Nameless didn’t even realize how much he missed the open space until they left the last of the trees behind. Milly certainly appreciated the change as she didn’t need to eat much for the next several days, simply pulling up the long bladed fodder and munching happily while they walked.
But the fields of wild grass soon became patchy and water became scarce as they found themselves winding around foothills with sparse vegetation and the temperature rose.
Within a few days of leaving the trees behind the arid foothills dropped away as well and the group found themselves looking out into endless shifting dunes of sand, the sun-blasted landscape completely devoid of life. Erica whistled and even Kala looked intimidated.
“I didn’t know that there was this much sand in the whole world.” Nameless breathed in awe.
“The Sansee Wastes.” Nina declared; “Five hundred miles across and twice as many north to south.”
“You’ve been here before?” Erica asked.
The heat of the day had matted her hair to her head and caused her black-furred ears to droop.
“I crossed it years ago, with Marcus. My home was on the other side.”
“Was?”
Nina glanced up at Ophelia’s questioning tone, and noticed that the Flutterby’s wings were drooping just like Erica’s ears. While the last few days had been hot, even at their hottest they weren’t this bad and it was still only morning.
“My home is wherever the little guy is, and wherever my sisters are.” She spoke without sarcasm or irony.
“Truly a warrior’s journey! We shall brave this wasteland together and prove our merit!” Kala spoke with determination, recovering from the awesome sight.
“Didn’t you prove it yesterday?” Jan muttered.
“And the day before that?” Erica added with an impatient huff, she glared out at the shifting sand with a frown.
Kala smiled, unperturbed by their cranky words.
“The way of the warrior is one of endless challenges to overcome, brave sisters.”
“Some are better avoided.” Nina’s voice was serious; “Honestly Master, I’d hoped we would have found her before getting this far. Are you sure she is out there?”
Nameless closed his eyes and shifted his focus to the beacon that was Volka’s mind.
“I’m sure. East, she’s still to the east.”
“I am fine with the heat, but Marcus nearly died crossing this place.” Nina spoke with concern.
“Is she at least closer now? We’ve already come so far.” Jezebel ventured.
The poor frog girl was suffering the most, her skin already dry and flaking.
Nameless’s eyes were still closed.
“Yes, I can’t say how far, it’s hard to explain but her light is much brighter then it was even just a few days ago.”
“Can she speak to you yet? Maybe we can get her to meet us halfway.” Miranda remarked sarcastically through chapped lips.
Nameless shook his head with a pained expression.
“Right, we’ll rest here until nightfall, our best bet is to travel at night and sleep during the day. Also, no more sex.” Nina crossed her arms and gave them each a stern look.
Miranda nodded, though the others looked surprised at her words.
“Sex wastes energy, not to mention fluids. And no drinking from Milly either, I don’t know much about Minotaurs, but taking any kind of fluid from someone in the desert just isn’t a good idea.”
Erica pouted at Nina’s words but nodded, unwilling to risk harming her sister just to get at her favorite meal.
“We’ll follow your lead Nina.” Milly promised.
“The Amazons geared us up well enough. I honestly thought that all these jugs of water were a bit much, but given how thirsty I am already…” Jan trailed off.
“Yeah, speaking of which, everyone take one of these.” Miranda doled out small capsules from a metal container in her bag.
“What are they?” Nameless asked.
“Salt tablets. I just hope I brought enough.”
Nina looked at her curiously.
Miranda shrugged.
“I wasn’t crazy enough to cross the whole damn thing, but I have been to Karmest before.”
Nameless knowledge of geography was just as lacking as his knowledge on everything else, but Miranda’s daily tutoring had been going on for over a month by this point so he had made some progress and knew that Karmest was a city far to the south, on the edge of the wastes.
“We should make some shade and rest up. Tonight, when the temperature drops we’ll head out.” Nina said while staring at the shifting sand.
Given that she was the only one any of them knew who had crossed the wastes before, they deferred to Nina’s judgments and set up the canvass of their tents to give themselves some respite from the scorching sun.
It was a miserable day.
Even just the day before they remembered there at least being the occasional cool breeze in the foothills, but here on the edge of the wastes the air was hot and heavy, unmoving. They all tried to catch some sleep in the meager shade, but the heat was ever present.
Nameless couldn’t imagine moving out from under the canvas for any reason. Everything they did, even talking, seemed to sap them of energy, so words were infrequent.
At last night fell and the temperature dropped considerably. They were all tired, even Milly and Kala looked ready to lie down but they gathered their gear to set out.
Nameless watched with some interest as Nina stood on her hammer and lifted the wagon up while Miranda and Kala removed the wheels, they had tried pulling it into the desert but the narrow wheels had immediately sunk into the loose sand.
Miranda broke the silence as they took their first few steps into the dunes.
“We have two dozen pitchers of water left, once we crack open the tenth, we turn back. I want a bit extra just in case.”
Nina merely grunted in agreement, no one else responded.
Soon enough the temperature could be called downright chilly and everyone found themselves putting on extra layers from their bags.
“How could it get this cold?” Erica demanded as she pulled on another shirt.
“No moisture in the air to hold the heat. Just be glad it isn’t winter, or it would be below freezing.” Miranda said quietly.
They made little progress their first night, the group was simply too tired from the heat of the day and from trying to travel when they normally slept. Despite his exhaustion the sense of Volka’s nearness spurred Nameless on well past his own breaking point but he was near to collapse when they finally stopped again.
The temperature began to rise just before dawn and they set up their tents again. The second day was worse than the first for heat, but they were all so exhausted it didn’t matter. Only Nina remained unaffected by the high temperature and their grueling journey.
She kept glancing at the others while they rested, hiding the concern on her face. Her memory turned to Marcus and how she had to drag him through the sand towards the end of their crossing.
She knew she couldn’t drag them all.
The second night was a bit better, they were more rested and with the lower temperature there was some muted conversation as they traveled. At one point Ophelia looked over at Miranda as they crested yet another dune.
“What were you doing in Karmest?”
“Aegis business.” She grunted, her attention more focused on staying upright on the shifting sand.
“We were there to bust a smuggling ring, Harpy eggs.” Jan said with aplomb.
Miranda spared a moment to give her mate an exasperated look.
“Oh come on! It was ten years ago!” Jan said defensively.
The operative’s frown deepened.
“What’s the point of having kickass adventures if you can’t brag about them later?” Jan pouted.
The ensuing spat was enough to still conversation for the next several hours.
By the third night they had adapted somewhat to travel in the desert, though they still tired easily and had to be careful not to overexert themselves.
As they walked Nameless wondered at the starry sky. The air was so clear in the desert that the stars were incredibly vibrant at night. As he marveled at the beauty above, one of the beauties below hugged him around the waist.
He looked into Erica’s face.
“I miss touching you.” She whispered as she gave his cheek a rasping lick.
The lack of sex over the last few days and nights was upsetting to the ardent cat.
“I know, but we have our whole lives for that.”
Erica took a deep breath, her nose now pressed against his neck.
“Maybe, but I miss your scent on me all the same.”
He smiled as she nuzzled against him some more.
“Soon enough kitty, we’ll save Volka and then we can go home again.”
“After we go to Garland.” She pulled back from him with one eyebrow raised.
He sighed.
“I suppose I can’t really refuse an invitation from the Aegis can I?”
She pursed her lips in thought for a moment, and then smiled.
“Well if we are guests of the Aegis they’ll have a nice big bed like we shared with Milly that first day.”
He blushed a bit, that first day had ended with a vigorous handjob from Erica and some cum swapping between both girls.
“We are going to need a bigger bed in the cottage, especially if Volka is as tall as Milly.” She continued.
“I haven’t really thought about it to be honest.”
“Hmmm, there’s a lot of things you haven’t done yet.” She purred.
“Oh, like what?”
“You still need to give me a good spanking.”
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head as his jaw dropped.
“Oh don’t look at me like that!” She couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face in the moonlight.
His shock passed soon enough and he gave a rueful laugh of his own.
“Is that something you really want?”
She nodded then gave him a lustful look before pressing her cheek to his and whispering in his ear.
“When I’m a good kitty, I like to be scratched behind the ears. But when I’m a bad kitty, I need to be spanked .”
He cupped the back of her head and massaged at her scalp, drawing another purr from her.
“Erica my love, you’ve always been a good kitty to me.”
She leaned back and nodded with mock seriousness.
“I guess I’ll have to work on that.”
They were silent after that as Kala called out to them, they had fallen behind the others.
Traveling in the desert, though exhausting, was also monotonous.
Until it wasn’t.
If it weren’t for Nina, several mornings later their journey would have ended.
A massive wall of golden sand engulfed the horizon and raced towards them with terrifying speed, the wind coming up from seemingly nowhere.
Nameless clung to Milly and Ophelia in shock at the impossibility of the wall of death descending on them.
Nina merely reacted; she unloaded the containers of water from the wagon carefully before tipping the whole thing on its side, scattering the non-essentials as the brutal sandstorm bore down on them.
“Get to cover, all of you! And wrap your faces!” She barked.
She spent the next several hours propping the wagon up in the face of the storm while the rest of them huddled in the leeward side of it. They had soaked rags from their canteens and covered their mouths with them to keep the dust out of their lungs while they endured the desert’s wrath.
But Nina was the mountain, and she scoffed at the weakness of the desert.
They all heard her more than once, taunting the storm that had engulfed them even as the wind howled.
“Go eat a dick! I’ve punched avalanches into submission you dusty bitch! You think a little sand in my ass-crack is gunna slow me down?”
The desert, perhaps sensing that it could never conquer the tiny mountain, gave up in the early afternoon and they spent an exhausting hour salvaging what they could from their scattered supplies before they retreated under shade to rest again.
They were all bleary eyed by nightfall but set out as the moon rose; the coolness of the air once more causing them to put on extra layers.
As they walked ever deeper into the endless dunes, Nameless sidled up to Nina and reached out absently to take her hand; she turned to him but said nothing.
“Thank you, for always protecting us.” He whispered finally, leaning down slightly.
“No big.” She sniffed.
“I love you.”
She blushed in the moonlight, heat at her center. Erica smiled privately, her ears tilted towards them.
“I love you too.” Nina murmured, looking at her feet.
Nameless smiled and squeezed her hand.
“What was your home like? I saw it a bit in your mind, but it was hazy. You lived in a mountain right?”
“Yeah, I had a nice big cavern, lots of echoes.” She gave him a curious look; “Why?”
“I want to get to know you better. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been together for years, but it’s really only been a few weeks. And even after the nights we’ve spent together, I realized that what I don’t know about you far outweighs what I do.”
“I suppose.”
“You said you wanted a forge right?”
“Yeah, I miss making things other than corpses with my hands.”
He grimaced slightly at the memory of her killing the men who assaulted him and Ophelia. Then spoke with some hesitation, afraid she was going to call him an idiot again.
“Could we maybe build one? At the cottage I mean.”
She stopped walking and turned to him, eyes wide.
“You’re not just saying that ‘cause I keep sucking you off are you?”
“What!? No! Of course not!”
“Because I’ll suck your dick every day and every night if you give me a forge again.”
“That’s not what I- Nina!” He was blushing as he tried to regain his composure.
Erica stifled a laugh.
“Oh! You could bend me over my anvil!”
Nina’s eyes drifted into the distance as her imagination got the better of her.
“N-Nina!”
Erica’s laughed out loud, unable to hold it in.
“What’s so funny?” Milly asked.
“Master is going to build Nina a forge. She’s happy about it.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” The Minotaur said with a wan smile.
Nina’s fantasy ended and she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down for a deep kiss.
“Once we get out of this desert I am going to break you, tiny man.”
Her heated promise made his knees shake a bit. Before he could stammer out a response though, their conversation was abruptly cut short as the ground around his feet exploded upwards and he was blinded by the spray of sand as he felt himself wrenched high in the air.
“MASTER!!” The others screamed.
The other girls watched in horror as a giant serpentine form swallowed him whole before diving back below the sand.
__________
When he came to his senses the first thing Nameless noticed was that he was naked save for his bracer. Naked and very wet. The next was a dull whooshing roar that seemed to be coming from all around him.
He was in some sort of fleshy cave, illuminated by a soft pinkish light that emanated from everywhere at once.
A woman’s voice was humming happily from nearby. He groaned and tried to sit up on the strange fleshy floor, his eyes adjusting to the odd coloured light.
“Oh! You’re awake! I’m so glad! I thought you might have hit your head when I introduced myself!” Her feminine form drifted near him and spoke over the strange rustling noise.
He was having trouble getting upright, and he realized that the entire room was shifting about as she talked with him, his stomach roiled a bit at the constant motion.
“Sorry! Let me stop moving and then we can get to know each other!”
A few seconds later the room was still, the strange roar had stopped, and Nameless was able to take a good look at his captor.
Her hair was shockingly pink, long and slick with moisture. She was as naked as he was, her perky breasts coated in some sort of thick slimy substance. Her skin was whitish pink and his eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw that her lower body terminated in a large fleshy mass that disappeared into the darkness behind her.
She hovered nearer, licking her lips as he tried to slide backwards on the moist floor.
“Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you. I’m going to take care of you!”
“N-no thank you!”
“Aw…” She pouted; “Don’t be like that! We can do so many things together, you’ll love it...”
Her eyes focused on him as she stuck out her tongue and ran it up his ankle as the floor flexed upwards, moving him closer to her.
“Please stop that!”
She shuddered in ecstasy at the taste of him.
“Mmm… sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m Jubby, what’s your name?”
“Nameless.”
“Really? That’s so sad! Well I’m going to call you cutie!”
She licked his leg again, this time not stopping as she drew her tongue from his ankle all the way up to his groin.
His hands shot down to cover himself.
“Stop that! And where are we?”
She giggled at his shyness.
“Sweet cutie, you’re inside me of course!”
His jaw dropped as she drew her length against him, her naked flesh coming fully in contact with his torso.
Her pink eyes were hooded with desire as she gazed into his.
“Wh-where are my friends?”
“Mmm…” She licked his chest; “What friends cutie?”
He flinched as she planted a sucking kiss on his nipple.
“Th-the ones I was travelling with!”
“Oh! I don’t know… I heard you talking through the sand and knew that I just had to meet you. I didn’t really pay much attention to anybody else…”
Clearly the girl was hot for him, but Nameless wouldn’t be deterred.
“Please, let me go, they must be so worried about me!”
Her lower lip jutted out in a pout.
“I’m worried too you know? You’ve been inside me for a while and you haven’t even cum once!”
“I can’t!”
“Sure you can, I’ll help.”
The feel of her naked flesh against his was unbelievable; the viscous fluid that coated them had a very mild, sweet taste to it and his tongue and lips were buzzing a bit from where it had gotten into his mouth.
His protests faltered at the intense feeling as her body enveloped him tighter, his grip loosened on his junk.
She moaned against him.
“That’s it, oh cutie, you taste so good. Please cum all over me, let me taste all of you!”
He felt a sudden stab of anxiety from the stone around his neck.
His eyes snapped open and he struggled against her.
“Milly!”
Somehow he managed to extricate himself from her lithe body as her pout returned with a vengeance.
“Who is Milly?”
“She’s my bond-mate and she’s so afraid right now, they all are!”
Focusing now on his mates, he could sense their worry, except for Nina…
She was… annoyed.
He could sense that she was close too, all of the practice trying to track down Volka made it easy to pick up on the fact that Nina was much closer than the others.
Jubby’s eyes widened and wet tears spilled down her cheeks.
“You’re bonded?”
Mutely he nodded.
“I-I am so sorry, I didn’t know!” She wailed.
“That’s alright, can you please let me go now?”
But her wail turned into a desperate sob.
“ I want a bond-mate! I’ve been looking for so long, it’s not fair! I finally have a man inside me and he’s… he’s taken !”
Nameless tried to shift himself nearer to comfort her but the strange cave they were in suddenly pitched sideways and Jubby gave a pained scream.
“Ow, OW! Stop that! OW! That really hurts!”
They were tumbling rapidly now and the now terrified girl clung to him.
“Cutie! OWIE!! Cutie, please save me!! It’s biting me!”
He heard the strange dusty wooshing roar from all around them and suddenly it felt like gravity had given up its hold on them. Both of them screamed and grasped at each other. His stomach rose into his throat, his vision locked on the terrified girl clinging to him, they hung in the air for a few seconds.
Suddenly it was over, gravity returned with a whumph and the girl cried again in fear and pain as both of their weights settled on the fleshy floor.
Several moments later light spilled into the cave, its brightness contrasting with the pink light that Jubby exuded as it fell on the dazed pair inside. Nameless was further disoriented when he realized that dawn must have broken while he was unconscious.
“Okay bitch, give me back my weakling!” Nina’s voice came from towards the light.
Shaking his head to recover from the vertigo, he saw her silhouette at the entrance to the strange tunnel-like cave. She was holding the opening wide with one arm, her other clutching her hammer.
“N-Nina?”
She was covered from head to toe in dust and dirt, even worse than when she had weathered the sandstorm for them.
“Pinky I’m not gunna say it again, release him or die.” She said with her hammer now leveled at Jubby.
The poor girl only gripped him tighter in stark terror.
“Die it is then.”
“NINA STOP!!”
She paused, hammer raised and head tilted to one side at his sudden shout.
“You’re scaring her!”
Her tiny mouth opened and her head shifted backwards on her neck, incredulous.
“ I’m scaring her ?! She ate you! This giant worm thing burst out of the ground and swallowed you! I only barely managed to grab onto the ass end of it. I thought you were going to die!”
“Um, well I’m not so please calm down?” His words came out plaintively.
Nina gave a great huff.
“Right, well whatever, both of you get out of there now.”
Jubby sobbed at her words, still clinging to him.
“Look Pinky, either you come out or I come in and drag you out.”
The menace in her tone was painfully clear.
“Please no… I didn’t know, I’m sorry! Please don’t rip my tongue out!”
Jubby gripped at him, pawing him in desperation and Nameless couldn’t help but wrap one hand around her, his other covering his genitals again.
“Nina! Please stop, can’t you see how scared she is?”
“Bu-but she tried to eat you!”
“No! I wasn’t, I swear I didn’t! I just wanted to have sex with him!”
Nina’s jaw dropped again then worked for several seconds as Nameless and Jubby huddled together.
With the light from outside he had an obvious realization.
This whole thing is her MOUTH!
At last he managed to get to his knees and crawl his way towards the entrance in the narrow passage, Jubby softly crying as she hovered beside him, his arm held tight in hers.
The entrance widened, four triangular segments breaking away from each other as the monster girl’s larger mouth opened wide.
Nina grabbed him as soon as he was close enough, all but ripping him from Jubby’s grasp and wrapping him in a tight embrace, her cheek smooshed against his penis as he stood to his full height on the sand.
“Ugh you’re all slimy, and where the hell are your clothes?” She murfled into his flaccid cock.
He placed a hand on Nina’s head and stroked her hair, his other draped over her back returning her hug.
“I dunno, I woke up like this.”
He could see the others running towards them in the distance, stumbling through the sand in desperation to reach them.
“I-I have them, they’re right here.” Jubby ended with a squeak at Nina’s glare.
From the pink darkness within her, the muscles along the floor worked a tight bundle towards them. Jubby stooped and picked it up then brought the bundle to him in both hands.
SHE is the TONGUE of this thing!
Wordlessly Nameless accepted his clothes back from the girl, trying not to make a face at their sopping state.
“You better get dressed, otherwise Jan will make fun of your penis and I’ll have to kill her.”
Jubby squeaked again and drifted back a bit.
Nina helped to steady him in the shifting sand while he pulled his pants on.
He could hear the others shouting in the distance now, fully clothed and sopping wet he took a few steps towards them.
Jubby followed, hovering at the edge of her mouth with a forlorn look on her face.
He turned back and got a good look at her exterior body for the first time.
She was a massive dusty brown serpentine creature. Nearly forty feet long, her body was splayed out over the sand. In the growing morning light he noticed a series of nasty purple bruises against her carapaced flank and realized that Nina must have been hitting her in her attempt to save him.
“Jubby, what are you?” He gasped out.
“Lonely.” She sobbed out simply.
Nina crossed her arms over her chest.
“How come I came out of this looking like the bad guy?”
The others arrived and took in the bizarre scene, and no sooner had Nameless turned to greet them then Milly wrapped him in her arms and crushed him to her breasts, lowing desperately.
“…the dust cleared and you were both gone!” Erica was saying between frantic licks to what she could reach of his hair through the other girl’s arms.
Milly was so upset she wasn’t able to do more than hold him and lick at his face and Ophelia wasn’t much better off, her arms wrapped around them while her wings fluttered behind her, lifting herself to match the Minotaur’s height.
It took several minutes and a whole lot of hugging before the girls were satisfied that he was alright.
All the while Jubby watched longingly from inside her mouth, wringing her hands.
For her part Nina was sulking until Milly released Nameless and lifted the girl off her feet and into her cleavage. She had to release her hammer into the sand to accommodate the Minotaur’s fierce embrace.
“Milly wh-” Was all she got out before Milly pressed her lips to hers, her muscular tongue forcing itself into the Gigas’s tiny mouth.
Her eyelids fluttered from the pleasure as her tongue wrestled with Milly’s in a frantic kiss.
Several moments later Milly was holding her cheek to cheek and whispering into her ear.
“Thank you for being alright and for saving our master. I love you so much!”
Nina squeaked as Milly drew her tongue over her dirty face from chin to forehead several times.
“Not to ruin the moment but what the hell?”
Miranda gestured at Jubby, her eyes were wide.
“This is Jubby, she didn’t mean any harm I think. She was looking for a bond-mate.”
“Well then why didn’t she eat my mistress, she’s way better than y ou !” Jezebel said rudely.
The frog had been increasingly bitchy during the daylight hours, the punishing sun hitting her the hardest.
“Oh, do you have a penis?” Jubby asked Miranda, suddenly interested in the austere woman as she gave up her hand wringing.
Miranda gave her a level look while Jan sniggered and even Kala had to choke back a laugh.
“What I do have is a need to get us out of this desert alive. Your antics just cost us most of our water.”
Her voice was grim.
“What?!” Nameless pulled free from Milly’s embrace as he looked for signs of their supplies.
“She crushed the wagon when she grabbed you, most of the pitchers broke. We have enough water now for maybe two days.” Ophelia said quietly.
They had been traveling into the desert for over a week.
Jubby looked guilty again, but then brightened.
“I can get you water! I know where to find some!” She said, her form bobbing in the air in excitement.
“Really?” Hope was in his voice.
“Yes! It’s the least I can do, and then when I get back the grey lady can show me her penis!”
The speed with which she dove into the ground was jarring as her serpentine form burrowed into the sand beneath them.
A silence fell over the group as the heat began to steadily rise in the morning air.
“Erica, why are you staring at Miranda’s crotch?” Milly asked.
The Katje shook her head as Miranda, Jezebel and Jan glared at her.
“What? It would explain a few things.”
Miranda sighed.
“Well, now what?”
Nameless closed his eyes and focused on Volka.
“She is so much brighter now, I feel like I can practically reach out and touch her!”
Despair was in his voice, if they had to turn back when they were this close…
The Aegis operative gave him one of the longest looks of her life, measuring his words carefully.
At last she sighed.
“At this point it doesn’t matter what direction we go, even if we rationed the water we’d never make it out of the desert. If the big worm girl comes through for us then great. Otherwise we’re all dead. So we go on. Who know, maybe Volka will turn out to be a Naiad.”
Despite her caustic tone and the seriousness of their predicament Nameless felt a wave of relief. So they salvaged what they could from the remains of the wagon, waited for nightfall and set out into the sand once more.
Even rationing their water they ran out three days later.