Chapter 26:
Crooked Sticks
Even though half of them were burdened with the enormously heavy Vohan, the Amazons led the way through the trees at a brisk pace, and while the Minotaur Helga was more accustomed to running through fields of wild grass, she adapted quickly to the rainforest’s undergrowth and had stamina enough to match the Amazons’.
As Alcaia predicted, there was no way that Adrian could keep up with them, not when the eager Saenga warriors finally had a trail to follow.
Luckily, or perhaps not, Olena had implemented her solution with the broom from the village.
She now zipped along, floating four feet off of the forest floor while Adrian sat behind her doing his best not to throw up whilst the uncomfortable perch crushed his balls.
After a few days of this, he was incredibly sore in some very unfortunate places, but no way would he back down now.
Just like the Amazons, he tasted blood in the air.
It grew easier for him once they exited the forest, no longer was he terrified of catching a stray branch in a moment of inattention on Olena’s part.
Instead he wondered at the terrain around them as they travelled; swaying green grass spread out as far as the eye could see, the sky above was wide open and brilliant blue, with puffy white clouds traveling across its vast expanse, providing the grasslands with the rains that Helga’s herd followed.
The sixty Amazons now followed Helga as she guided them on the unfamiliar terrain towards her herd and within just three days of leaving the village they spotted them at the bottom of a low hill in the distance.
With a forty foot worm monster amongst the Minotaurs, they were hard to miss.
The herd was resting in the grass on the bank of a winding stream, enjoying the sun while munching on the plentiful fodder around them.
The arrival of sixty bloodthirsty warriors had them standing though, and soon another Minotaur stepped out to embrace Helga and welcome her home.
Adrian dismounted from Olena’s broom in time to catch the gist of their conversation.
“-took us ages to get the mean one to sit down, she kept insisting on leaving to chase after the ones that attacked them. It wasn’t until the human stepped in that we were even able to see how badly her injuries are and give her some of Annabel’s milk. Did you find the Aegis already?”
“She did.” Adrian spoke then, injecting as much authority into his voice as he could.
When she turned to face him he realized then what a poor showing he was for the peacekeeping organization; unshaven and wearing the same worn uniform he had arrived in, he did his best to stand tall, despite the agony in his nether regions.
Alcaia interjected herself before the other Minotaur could come to doubt his identity.
“Please, lead us to these Troglodytes. We must know what they know. Though I suspect we can guess most of it.”
Without delay, the Minotaur complied, and soon they stood before fifteen lizard girls, not a one of which was uninjured, all hanging around the unmoving worm.
Clearly the travel through the grasslands had exhausted the enormous creature, its rumbling snores echoing around them.
With one hand gripping her enormous blade, one of the Trog’s knelt next to another who was staring sullenly into a bowl of water with her back to them.
“Bloodletter. Someone approaches.”
The Troglodyte leader turned and took one look at Adrian before her eyes widened and she got to her feet rapidly. Even with bloody bandages around her shoulder and side she still moved faster than he could react.
With a harsh shrieking hiss she bodily tackled him to the ground; the soft grass might have helped to cushion his fall but it did nothing for the claws suddenly digging into his neck.
“You! You did this! You killed my sisters!” She snarled at him, bits of spittle striking his face.
“Release him at once!” Alcaia barked.
In unison the Amazons leveled there spears at the Trogs, who in turn put their backs to the Sandworm, its snoring halting as it began to stir while they brought up their enormous blades defensively.
Though outnumbered, the grim-faced desert monsters were clearly ready for blood.
“S-stop!” Adrian called out, his voice cracking from the sudden stress of the situation; “Stop this Alcaia! You know what they must have gone through, have your people put up their spears!”
The claws in his neck didn’t relent their grip, but they didn’t tear his throat out either, their owner looking to the Amazons.
The warleader and the bloodletter shared a long look, each taking the measure of the other with hard eyes.
“This softskin is with you?”
Alcaia didn’t respond right away, continuing to glare at the other monster girl for another ten seconds or so.
Finally she raised her arm and gave a sharp gesture for her people to lower their weapons.
“He is with the Aegis, the real Aegis. Judging by your reaction, you encountered the ones who killed his team, as we suspected.”
The lizard hissed again, softer now as she turned her face back down to examine Adrian.
“What is the name of the woman who sent you?”
He didn’t answer right away, confused by the question.
“Her name!” She insisted, neither her claws nor her warriors relaxing as she grilled him; “If you are truly with the Aegis, you will know the name of the woman who first came to our digsite!”
It took him a few seconds but he eventually figured out what she wanted to know and why.
“Holt, the first onsite contact was Miranda Holt, special operator first class. I don’t know her personally, but she has a solid reputation.”
The angry Trog grit her teeth slightly, clearly wishing her grip was on the throat of her real enemy, but finally she relented and got off of him, one hand pressing to her bloody side as she rose.
Behind her, the worm turned over, its segmented jaws opening as a nude pink girl emerged to take in the sight of the new visitors.
She smiled brightly despite the shadows under her eyes and the tense atmosphere around her.
“Hello, I’m Jubby! What-”
“Bask, you’re bleeding again.” The lanky man with the broken glasses fretted, interrupting the enormous Sandworm.
But the Trog shrugged off her bond-mates concern as she stumbled away from Adrian’s prone form to lean against Jubby’s side.
“I will live, Martin.”
“You will not.” Alcaia pointed out; “That wound is deep, and needs proper tending. Minotaur milk is wondrous indeed, but it has its limits.”
More than a few of the Minotaurs surrounding them pouted a bit at her words, but said nothing to interrupt the drama playing out before them.
“We take care of our own.” Bask’s voice was guarded at the Amazon’s words.
Alcaia crossed her arms over her breasts.
“As do we, but we have a common enemy that we would both see dead. You are needed for that and are therefore no use to me if you succumb to your injuries out of stubbornness and pride.”
“Let them help you.” Martin insisted quietly While Jubby’s tongue stretched out, vainly attempting to see the pair of them against her side.
Alcaia didn’t wait on consent from the intractable lizard, instead she nodded her chin towards Olena.
The Witch had been utterly calm throughout the whole encounter, practically oblivious really, as she plucked individual wildflowers from the deep grass around them.
“Spring’s first bloom.” She muttered as she considered them one at a time before discarding all but three; “Not overly potent, but with many uses.”
Alcaia sighed.
“Elda?” She hinted; “Could you properly dress the bloodletter’s wounds?”
The Witch looked to the lizard and tilted her head.
“She is in no immediate danger.”
“All the same Olena.” Adrian said cautiously as he rose to his feet and brushed off his pants, wincing slightly at the stinging pricks in his neck left by the angry lizard’s claws.
The Witch shrugged.
“Very well, but her blood is too full of hate right now to serve as a foci, I don’t suppose one of you boys would be willing to release yourself onto her injuries? Both at once would be best actually.”
Adrian’s jaw dropped at the absurd request while the bespectacled man blinked several times as he parsed her meaning.
“You want me to... what?”
“I could make up a poultice, and apply it with bandages like you want, but that would take time to heal.” She looked the lanky archeologist up and down; “You are perfect. You care deeply for her, yes? I would use an extraction of your love from your urine to bind her wounds with magic. It would last as long as you loved her or until the wound closed.”
“That’s... idiotic!” Bask hissed, blushing fiercely.
The Witch nodded.
“It is. As was tackling my friend Adrian to the ground like a temperamental child. It took some effort on my part to make him whole again and I am somewhat annoyed that you’ve damaged him again.”
Looks of confusion were shared by all as the Trog’s blush deepened from the rebuke.
“Wait, Olena, are you... fucking with us right now?” Adrian asked.
The Witch considered one of the flowers she had selected for a long moment.
“A distinct possibility.”
“You would make a fool of me?” Bask hissed, her warriors tensing around her.
Abruptly the world flipped on its head, the sky turned black with tendrils of green snaking across it like frozen lightening. A deep rushing sensation filled the chests and ears of all present while their bellies flopped as if they had been turned upside-down.
Dreaded anxiety and fear blossomed into their minds as they looked upon Olena’s form, her shawl flying in ethereal winds as her power filtered out of her.
She glared directly into the bloodletter’s eyes for the first time, while her own glowed with the same eldritch light that tore through the sky as her words echoed out from behind closed lips.
“You made a fool of yourself! As you are doing now by thinking your bluster will do anything more than draw my wrath down on you! I am Olena of the Seven Crooked Sticks and Three Lost Stones! My mother was Yolanda of Oaken Ashes, she who was one with the Many Covens, who together shattered the world whilst striving to save it from Man’s folly! I follow no coven, and no man, woman or beast has claim to my soul! Nothing governs my actions save my own will, I bow to the Aegis in this matter only for the good of all! Now cease your posturing, you simpering child! Lest my words alone cause your wound to fester and you to die with their uttered curse!”
All around her were pale faces: the Amazons had all bowed their heads, the Minotaurs were thoroughly cowed and the enormous Jubby had withdrawn most of her nude pink tongue back into herself as she cringed before the irritated Elder Witch.
Even Bask and her warriors were shrinking in on themselves with dear, an unfamiliar look on the Troglodytes’ faces.
As quickly as it came the sky righted itself and the world remembered the kiss of the sun against its brow. The green light faded from Olena’s eyes and the anxiety lifted from their shoulders as she delicately sniffed at her flowers before letting out a satisfied sigh.
Her mouth opening again and her lips moving to speak like a normal person.
“In other words, take off your shirt so we can get on with this. The bandaging I mean, the pissing thing was obviously a joke.”
A tense silence hung over the others... until it was broken by someone with far more curiosity than sense.
“Fascinating!” Martin exclaimed as he vigorously cleaned his broken glasses with the hem of his shirt; “I have heard of the power of the Witches but to experience it firsthand was a real treat! I must find something to write with!”
His eyes cast about in search of materials for taking notes while everybody else looked on him as they would a madman.
“You’re cute.” Olena said with a rare smirk.
It took some time, but soon enough everyone had settled down and the Witch was bandaging the Troglodyte’s wounds while Adrian and the Amazons listened to her story, the Minotaur herd still watching on.
“Something was off about them, we all sensed it, and when they started to remove the weapons from the dig…” Her look was grim; “I interceded, and they attacked. They freed the prisoners-”
“How many?” Hila cut her off suddenly.
Bask wasn’t offended at the interruption, too focused on giving them the facts as efficiently as she could.
“We had eighty three when they arrived. They led the charge against us and suffered the brunt of our wrath. Maybe half of them still breathe, but we’re all that’s left. My clan is broken. If it weren’t for Jubby...” The furious Trog trailed off as her vision flicking to her exhausted friend looming over her.
Alcaia listened intently, her expression grave.
“So perhaps forty miscreants, to add to the thirty men and women posing as the Aegis. All likely wielding more lost-tech than they can even use.”
“That is the measure of it.” Bask agreed with a quick nod; “But I don’t care if there are a thousand of them!”
“Nor do I.” Alcaia said mildly; “But I would see them dead, not us.”
“They must be heading back to the world of men. We take them in the trees, where they cannot see us coming.” One of the younger Amazons declared boldly.
Hila shook her head, curbing the enthusiasm of youth.
“That assumes we can even find their trail and catch up to them.”
“That is the easy part.” The Troglodyte, Sila, said quietly as her tongue darted out; “Once we saw to our dead we followed them across the sand. We’re not about to forget the taste of their scent.”
Bask spoke with a hiss, her rage barely contained.
“They’re heading northwest. We need to move, they have a great lead on us that only grew once we reached the grasslands and my injury overcame me.”
“You’re not wrong, Bloodletter.” Alcaia nodded; “Except about the ‘we’ part.”
Bask’s eyes narrowed and she spoke flatly.
“What?”
“You are in no condition to continue this hunt, and I think you know that. We will not slow down for you.”
The Trog hissed, but Martin placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Bask… please.”
His was the only voice in the world she would ever bow to, so after a tense couple of seconds her head drooped.
“Fine, I stay behind.” Her chin lifted again as she looked around; “Sila.”
“I am here.”
“You are bloodletter now. Take our sisters who are able and avenge my failure.”
The other Trog nodded firmly.
“I will bloodlet- Bask. I promise you I will.”
Alcaia, now satisfied, turned away as the former bloodletter spoke to the current.
She faced the Amazon war-host, barely fatigued from their rapid journey, fire burning bright in their eyes.
“Our vengeance is coming war-sisters, we have but to chase these dogs down and take it!”
There was a great cheer from the various warriors, meanwhile Martin and Jubby shared a look of trepidation; both of them thinking the same thing: At what cost?