I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Were those cobra-men-things?
I halted my horse, and I shielded my eyes with my hands to verify what I was seeing. They looked like six-foot-tall cobras with humanoid faces and arms, but that couldn’t be right.
Could it?
Twenty or so of the creatures stalked steadily toward us, and judging from the looks on their faces, they meant business. Long, spiked tails swished behind them, and the tips glittered in the sunlight with an oozing liquid. Their fangs and tails were both likely to be poisonous if the spikes punctured skin, and I cursed under my breath as I made a new save point.
This was going to get interesting.
I signaled to the other warriors to come to a halt, and the entire procession screeched to a stop. Serini was among the first to approach me on foot, and Mahini struggled to keep pace with her cousin. I dismounted Goliath, and I quickly crossed the distance to them.
“Twenty monsters,” I said in the Kimaku tongue. It was hard to describe what I’d seen in the language of the desert, but I did my best. “Snakes with faces of men.”
“Naga!” Mahini gasped. “They’re real?”
“They’re legends,” Serini argued. “Monster stories told to children.”
“Well, twenty of those legends are coming this way,” I said, and I pointed to the horizon. “So, how do the legends say we kill them?”
Serini shook her head as fear entered her blue eyes, and her tan face paled before she swallowed hard.
“They’re unkillable according to the stories,” Mahini said. “The Naga always win.”
“Like the sandworms?” I chuckled. “Nothing is unkillable.
Except me. I’m the only thing that just keeps coming back.”
“I do not understand,” Serini said with a confused tilt of her head. “How do you come back from death?”
“Bash says weird things often,” Mahini said in a comforting tone, but then she turned her gaze to the horizon. “We can’t face them, Bash. The people will be terrified. We have to outrun them.”
“We can’t do that,” I argued. “We have to face them and figure out how to kill them. Otherwise, we’ll be living on the run forever. We have to face our fears.”
“That would take lifetimes of study,” Mahini pointed out. “We do not have the time to waste.”
“Trust me,” I insisted. “Stay in the carriage with Zenda and Eva. I’ll handle the Naga.”
I was expecting the warrior woman to argue, but she surprised me with an agreeable nod.
“Take some men with you,” my wife urged, but she didn’t argue the rest of my plan. “Just don’t go alone.”
“I will,” I said.
I saw Mahini back in the carriage, and I caught Zenda and Eva up on what was going on, but then I sought out my right-hand man. I followed along in the path of the warriors and soldiers who followed me from the oasis, but I found Riondale near the tail of the caravan, and he was scanning over the horizon to our west and north.
“There’s creatures up ahead Mahini called Naga,” I said without preamble, and the general instantly drew his sword. “They’re
a little ways away still, but we need to act fast. Gather the bravest men you can find. There’s supposedly no way to kill them.”
“Yes, sir.” Riondale saluted with his free hand, and then he swiveled on his heels and marched away.
Ri-Guy was always straight to business, and I respected that about him.
By the time the Naga spotted our caravan, I had a small group of warriors and soldiers gathered around me, and we charged forward on horseback toward the snake-men-things.
Their scales were green and striped with gold down the spine, but I didn’t have time to appreciate their beauty before one rushed forward and tried to kill me. I dodged the massive swing of the five-foot-long tail, and I hopped over it as it returned.
Then I stabbed my panabas into the back of the Naga attacking me, but my metal merely skittered off the creature’s armored hide. A human-like laugh escaped the monster’s lips, and my skin crawled at the sound.
Then I yanked my blade back, and I swung sideways until I’d sliced clean through the beast’s head. Its skull toppled over and fell to the sand, and green ooze slimed from the wound’s entrance.
“Watch out!” Serini’s voice came from behind me, and I had just enough time to spin and duck below the wicked swipe of a tail.
The desert warrior woman leapt and somersaulted around her adversary, but as I scanned the battlefield, I noticed everyone was on the defensive against the cobra-men.
“Take off their heads!” I shouted.
Then I turned back to the beast I’d killed, but to my amazement, a new head was growing from the wound. Like a lizard that could regrow its tail, a new nose, mouth, eyes, and humanoid ears formed inside the scaled fan of the cobra hood.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I shook out my arms to dispel the creepy feeling. Then I rushed over and chopped off the snake-man’s head before it finished growing, but that wasn’t going to last forever.
But it bought us a little time.
I stomped my foot to activate the fleetness ability of my griffon feather dragon scale boots, and I zoomed around the battlefield chopping off cobra-men heads left and right. My panabas were slick with the green ooze they had instead of blood, and bodies littered
the sand everywhere I looked. Then I skidded to a halt, and a cloud of dust kicked up in my wake like a race car drifting around a corner.
“Gather the bodies!” I shouted to my warriors. “I’m going to burn them!”
Just as I was preparing my flame spell, however, a loud cry of pain pierced the air, and I swiveled to find a newly-formed Naga head biting into one of my warriors’ necks.
“No!” I called, but I’d already learned enough to reset to my save point.
Chime.
The Naga approached from off in the distance, and I halted the procession once more, but this time I faced them alone. The warriors watched with astonishment as I crossed the distance to the cobra-men beasts, and a tense silence filled the air. Then I heard the rattling sounds coming from the snake-men’s tails, and I shook my head in awe at how many different snake features were shoved into one monster.
Once the creatures were close enough together for me to be most efficient, I stomped my foot to activate the fleetness ability of
my griffon feather dragon scale boots, and I zipped across the sand like the Road Runner escaping Wile E. Coyote.
I whipped my panabas in sideways arches that sliced through neck after neck, but the beasts still had me surrounded in a matter of seconds. They were nearly as fast as I was while using my speed buff, so there was no room for error.
Their sharp tails whipped around my head, and I ducked some, jumped over others, and knocked more aside with my blades. I managed to avoid their grasping arms and snarling maws, but then they blocked my view of the warriors and the caravan.
This could get bad.
Chime.
I needed some backup to keep the monsters from encircling me so tightly, but it had to be someone I trusted with my life. My women came immediately to mind, and Riondale swept into my thoughts a moment later, but then Serini made a surprise entrance.
“What’s happening?” Mahini’s cousin asked in an urgent tone.
“Why are we stopping?”
“There’s Naga ahead,” I said. “I know how to kill them, but I need help. Are you brave enough to face your childhood fears?”
“How did you know about that?” Serini gasped, and she blinked several times before she regained her composure and straightened. “I will face the Naga at your side, Great One, even if it costs me my life.”
“It won’t,” I laughed. “How could I let my wife’s cousin die?”
I got Ri-Guy, Jorgen, and Corvis to go with me as well, but several warriors voiced their displeasure at being left out of the fight.
I described what we were up against, and the number of volunteers dwindled but didn’t die completely. I took the remaining five people with me, and we all crossed the distance toward the Naga. This time, I told my companions my plan along the way, and they agreed to keep the beasts separated and distracted while I did what I needed to do.
We approached as a group, but then we fanned out into a V
formation. My warriors and soldiers taunted the venomous beasts to get their attention, and I hung back until the Naga began to divide their ranks.
Once the moment was perfect, I stomped my foot yet again.
Serini was the closest person to my left, so I zoomed to her side, but she ducked just in time to avoid the swing of my blade as it sliced through her opponent’s neck.
The skull toppled into the sand and rolled away, but I made sure to ignite the body with my flame spell before I turned to the next monster. I repeated the pattern of chopping off their heads and lighting them on fire, and soon the air was filled with the stench of burning meat.
The warriors whooped and hooted with joy at the victory, but my Sorreyalian soldiers were more composed as they bumped shoulders and fists.
I considered whether or not I was pleased with the run through, but then my general’s voice rose above the cheering crowd.
“Bash!” Riondale called out, and I swiveled around to find him assisting Jorgen toward me. The general held the hunter’s arm across his shoulders, and the two hobbled along together.
“Shit,” I cursed. “What happened?”
“I caught one of them tails,” the hunter admitted. “I just wasn’t fast enough. By the time I realized, you were already gone to the next one.”
I glanced down at the foot, and it was like acid had been poured on the leather. I could only imagine how painful it was, but
there was no way I was going to let one of my best men endure that kind of agony.
Chime.
This time, I paid close attention to the movements of all the Naga, and while they were fast, I was still faster. I zoomed around in a blur of motion from one cobra-man to another, but I managed to save Jorgen from his painful fate. Once more, I stood among the pile of burning Naga corpses, but this time, no one was injured.
“Think we can harvest anything?” Riondale asked as he watched one of the Naga’s burning.
“We haven’t burned the heads yet,” I pointed out. “Maybe the fangs will be of value or use later.”
“I’ll have them all cut out.” Riondale saluted. “That was some fine fighting, sir. You really are a god.”
“Thanks, Ri-Guy,” I chuckled. “I’m just eager to create peace in Kotar. It’s been way too long coming.”
“If anyone can do it, it’s you.” My general grinned, but then he turned to remove the cobra-men’s fangs from their mouths before burning the skulls I’d cut free.
We returned to the caravan to the sounds of cheers and shouts, but everyone seemed beyond relieved the Naga were killable after all. No one knew where they’d come from, and none had seen them in real life before, but they’d been real creatures.
They weren’t some magical summoned beast, or they would have left a gray-blue ash behind instead of a corpse. Then again, the sandworms were supposed to be summoned by sorcerers, but they’d remained in their flesh after death, so I began to second-guess my initial thoughts.
In any case, I knew how to kill the Naga, and nothing would stand in my way of uniting all the tribes.
“Bash!” one of the warriors shouted. “Riders approach!”
“Ah, shit, what now?” I gripped my panabas tightly, and I started walking in the direction the runner had pointed.
Sure enough, on the distant horizon was a dust plume and dark figures on horseback. It looked like a hundred riders, at least, and I inhaled sharply. We had twice their number, but I wasn’t used to fighting with the tribal people yet, and this looked like a different beast altogether.
After the fight with the Naga, I wasn’t ready to battle humans.
The horseback warriors halted in the distance, and three of them rode forward away from the rest. I breathed a little easier at the sight of the peaceful meeting formation, and I gestured for most of my followers to hang back. Then I took Riondale alone forward to meet the newcomers in the desert.
The wind bit at my face like I was being dragged across gravel, and I squinted into the blast to get a better look at the people drawing steadily closer. Their robes were black, and their turbans and veils were white.
The three riders halted roughly a hundred paces from us and then dismounted, and I was put even more at ease. These people had not come to attack us, but I was curious about what they wanted. One stayed with the horses, but two continued on toward me.
Once I got closer, I noticed the feminine qualities of the person to the left, but the robed warrior to the right had the broad shoulders of a man. The woman’s eyes were silver, and they cut into me like daggers. The man’s eyes were darker but still metallic hued, but the corners crinkled as he gave me a friendly smile beneath his veil.
They said something in a different tongue than I’d ever heard before, but a couple of the words sounded familiar. “Snake,”
“danger,” and “help” were similar-sounding to words in the Kimaku dialect, so I pointed to the flaming corpses of the cobra-men.
“Naga,” I said.
The two exchanged a glance, but then the man nodded curtly and rattled off something I didn’t understand. I listened closely for several moments, but nothing was working, and I considered resetting to my save point. That would mean fighting the Naga again, though, and I didn’t want to have to deal with that again. Not unless I had to.
“Naga are dead,” I said in Kimaku first, but then I repeated the phrase in Trahana and the other tribes’ dialects, and the man’s eyes widened with surprise. “I killed all the Naga.”
“You… Kill?” The man frowned as he struggled with the Gupuana tribe’s words, but it seemed he knew a little of the same dialect I could speak.
“Yes.” I nodded to emphasize my words.
“Yes,” the man repeated, and he nodded as well.
I suppose I could just as easily teach him a language as learn one, but I was eager for the day when all the tribes could speak the same tongue. It would certainly make peace agreements between
them more numerous, and minimize the misunderstandings that led to violent conflict.
“Thank you,” the man said in halting Gupuana. “For dead Naga.”
“You hunt Naga?” I asked with a little bit of a smoother accent than he’d managed. “How do you kill them?”
“Fire,” the man said, and he held up the palm of his hands to show me a small flame blooming in his fist. “We are shamans.”
“Magic users!” I grinned. “That’s awesome news. I had to burn the bodies, too, but I cut off their heads first.”
“Your blade must be big strong to cut a Naga neck,” the man argued, and his Gupuana seemed to improve the more heated he became. “You must lie.”
“No lies, look for yourself,” I said. “I’ll wait.”
The man nodded to the woman, and she dashed off to inspect our Naga kills, but it only raised more questions about this tribe of fire mages who hunted the legendary creatures.
Where did these people come from?
The Kotar Desert was a mysterious place, but I was beginning to get a feel for it.
The woman was incredibly fast, and she returned a moment later to mutter something in their language. The man’s wide eyes flicked to my face, and he searched my eyes for any signs of falsehood. I knew he would find none, so I held my chin at a proud angle beneath his gaze.
“Who are you?” the man asked at long last.
“I am Bash, the God of Time, Archduke of Sorreyal, and a whole bunch of other things,” I said. I had to use some words in the common tongue of Sorreyal, but then I decided to simplify. “You can call me Bash.”
“Bash, you are immortal?” the man asked in increasingly improved Gupuana.
“Yes, I’ve told you who I am,” I pointed out. “You should do the same.”
“Mikino,” the man said immediately, and he folded in half to give me a stiff-armed bow. “And this is Akina. We are from Kanuaki Tribe, the Night Hunters.”
“Good.” I grinned. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yes.” Mikino bowed again, but then his gaze flicked to the woman, and he jerked his chin toward their mounts. “But now Naga
are gone. We must move on.”
“Wait,” I said, and I lifted one hand to stall him. “Take me to your chief.”
“Why would we do that?” Akina snorted, and I realized she was speaking in the Gupuana dialect with a perfect accent. “We do not know who you are, even with all your names. Men with many faces have many names, and they cannot be trusted.”
“I have many names because I have saved many people,” I argued, and I held the woman’s gaze with my own until she looked away. “I am a god among men, and you will take me to your chief.
Under a banner of peace, of course.”
“Of course,” Akina snorted again, and she crossed her arms over her chest.
Riondale gave me a look like he was completely lost, but I batted a reassuring hand in his direction to soothe his worried expression.
“My sister-in-arms is right,” Mikino interjected. “But so are you.
Let me ask the chief to meet you here.”
“Very well,” I said, “but we both get a sizable entourage. A show of good faith.”
“I will let our chief know,” Akina said, and she flashed me a hot glare before she remounted her horse.
I chuckled to myself at the fiery beauty, but it seemed there was more than one mystery in the desert.
“Where are they going?” Riondale’s curiosity finally got the best of him.
“They’re going to get their chief,” I said. “Get some more men to form an honor guard around me.”
“Yes, sir.” Riondale saluted, and then he trotted away across the sand back to our caravan.
By the time I had my full entourage around me, the line of people supporting the chief began to file across the desert toward us. We watched in silence as they came forward, but a covered litter bore the chief behind black and white curtains. The people carrying the structure placed it gently on the ground, and they all wore the same black robes and white headpieces as the first two warriors I’d met.
Then the chief of the Kanuaki tribe emerged from the palanquin, and his robes were made of fine silk fabrics, but his turban scraped against the domed ceiling of the litter he rode in.
Akina stepped forward, and her eyes shot a warning in my direction.
“Chief Kuaki,” the warrior woman said. “This man wants to speak to you.”
“I am more than a man,” I reminded the fiery beauty. “I am a god.”
We both spoke in the Gupuana tribe’s dialect, and I wondered what ties they had to the fire mages. The mysteries continued to pile up, but at least I had a chance to get to the bottom of things.
“What do I call you, More Than Man God?” The chief chuckled to himself at his own joke.
“You can call me Bash,” I said, and I flashed him my most charming smile. “I am the God of Time.”
“You killed the Naga?” the chief asked in perfect Gupuana.
“Yes,” I said. “How do you speak the language of another tribe?”
“The Gupuana are our cousins,” the chief explained. “A lot of my people marry their people.”
Mikino stepped forward and exchanged a few heated words with the chief, but the older man with the humongous turban lifted a
hand to stall the warrior’s words.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He warns me you could be pulling us into a trap,” the chief admitted easily. “He is one who worries too much.”
“We should make camp,” I suggested, “and merge our people together for an evening of shared food.”
“You would break your fast with us?” The chief tilted his head to one side, and I was worried his turban would topple over.
“It will be easier for us to get to know each other that way,” I said. “You and I have much to discuss, and this isn’t the nicest backdrop for a conversation. I mean you no harm, and you have my word none of my people do, either.”
“I see you have tribes among your warriors,” the chief noted as his eyes scanned over my entourage. “You have made peace with tribes before?”
“Hell, yeah, I just came from a raging party,” I snickered in the common tongue of Sorreyal, but the chief only looked at me in confusion, so I switched back to Gupuana. “Yes. Yes, I have.”
“The tribes are behaving oddly as of late,” the chief observed in a cautious tone. “Are you the reason for this?”
“No,” I snorted. “That would be the asshole calling himself a warlord.”
“You are not the warlord?” The chief eyed me closely for a long moment.
“Nope.” I grinned, and I stuck out a hand to shake his. “I’m Bash, the God of Time.”
The chief of the Kanuaki tribe didn’t seem to pick up on my sarcasm, but that was okay. I knew I was hilarious.
“We left our village after we received Wombutu’s warning,” the chief said. “The other tribes nearby joined his cause. His army is growing. We must stay on the move.”
“We will be safe for one night,” I assured him. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“Very well,” the chief allowed at last. “We will share our camp with you.”
I turned to give Riondale the necessary instructions, and Chief Kuaki did the same with a nearby warrior behind him. Mikino and Akina both continued to eye me closely, but I merely flashed them a wide-toothed grin.
I’d win over the fire mages soon enough, and then the pair of warriors would be eating out of the palm of my hand.
I made a new save point as we set up camp, and soon there were multiple fires burning camel and horse dung we’d dried out over a period of days. Despite the stench, I was beginning to get used to the desert dwellers’ lifestyle. It wasn’t the most luxurious, but you couldn’t beat the stars.
The sun began to set on the horizon, and the sky was filled with an array of colors. On the opposite side of the blank canvas that was the desert, the deep purple of night allowed a few stars to glitter brightly.
“That is the flame star,” Akina said as she pointed to an especially bright orb on the horizon. “It guides us home.”
“There’s a star like that where I come from,” I said.
Mahini, Zenda, and Eva approached, and the warrior woman of the Kanuaki tribe tensed. I quickly made introductions, and my women gave the newcomer friendly smiles, but then Akina made a hurried excuse and left just as silently as she’d arrived.
“Bash certainly has friendly contacts within the Kanuaki tribe,”
Eva teased.
“She’ll warm up to me,” I said. “Her name is Akina.”
“That’s all you need to know in order to charm her like you did all of us,” Zenda laughed. “After I told you my name, it was pretty much over for me.”
“Me, too,” Eva giggled. “He knew everything about me before I knew I was even in love with him.”
“He just has that way,” Mahini agreed.
We traversed the rows of tents and watched as the Kanuaki tribe set up their dwellings. Everything they owned was black and white, and I wondered why they were called the Night Hunters. They were certainly one of the more interesting tribes I’d encountered so far, and I was eager to get them to ally themselves with me.
Then I spotted the chief of the Kanuaki tribe, and I ushered my women in that direction. They all bowed or curtsied to the leader of the new tribe, but they didn’t speak Gupuana as well as I did, so they didn’t say much.
The chief invited us inside his dwelling, and I found a familiar array of pillows and rugs strewn across the floor. This chief had weapons hanging from the walls of his tent, and my gaze instantly flicked over the ancient-looking blades. I itched to check the stats on
them, but they were obviously prized possessions, and I didn’t want to get on the chief’s bad side unless I had to.
“So, you’re on the run,” I said without preamble once we were all seated among the cushions. “How long has it been since you left your village?”
“Two moons,” the chief answered with a sad shake of his head.
“We had to leave everything behind.”
“That must have been really hard,” I empathized. “It takes a lot of courage to leave one’s home behind and enter uncharted territory.”
“Thank you,” Chief Kuaki said as he gave me a tilt of his head.
“You must be brave as well, to face the Naga.”
“I was glad to learn there were others who can kill them,” I said. “Your warriors are fierce.”
“It is not easy,” the chief said. “But we long ago learned the secrets of the sun. We control her fires.”
“You are all fire mages?” I asked, but I had to use the Sorreyalian word for ‘mage.’
“We are all shamans of the desert,” the chief responded with a confused expression.
“That makes sense,” I said. “But you’re the first magic users I’ve encountered here. You say it’s an ancient art?”
“Yes, taught by our ancestors from father to son, or daughter.”
The chief’s eyes flicked to the doorway as though someone would hear him being sexist.
“I would like to learn your spells,” I said. “I know some fire magic myself.”
“You want to learn from us?” The chief scoffed in disbelief.
“You say you are a god.”
“Just watch.” I grinned. “You’ll see my power soon enough.”
Chime.
I redid the introductions between the chief and my women, and we re-entered the chief’s dwelling. I noticed Akina move to guard the doorway, and I was surprised I hadn’t noticed her on the first run through, but it explained the chief’s anxiety.
I chuckled as I took a seat among the cushions, and my women all gave me curious glances, but I merely waved a dismissive hand and mouthed ‘later.’
This time, I focused on ways I could prove my powers to the chief, so I questioned him in a different direction. Soon, I had him
complaining about all the problems his tribe faced, but there was more than one I could solve on my own. The main issue was the water shortage the tribe faced by avoiding the oases, but they didn’t want to attract the attention of the would-be warlord.
I could fill barrel after barrel with my water magic before I got so much as a headache, and there were lots of simple water and ice spells I could teach to the tribe of shamans.
I learned more about the tribespeople referred to as the Night Hunters, and the nickname had come from their tendency to hunt Naga in the shadows of darkness. They were fierce warriors, but they fought with magic instead of blades, so they were shunned by a lot of the other tribes. They’d developed a sense of independence that would be hard to move past, but I had high hopes I could convince the chief to join forces with me before morning.
After I learned some more, I reset to my save point with a wave of my will to put the information to good use.
Chime.
I would convince the chief to join with me against the wannabe warlord, and we would be a force to be reckoned with once we fought side by side.
Anyone who could face a Naga without fear had my respect.
We met with the chief, and I introduced my women once more.
When we were inside, I began to drop in little tidbits of information I’d learned about his tribe, and soon the chief was gushing over my knowledge of his people. His attitude was much warmer and more open than it had been on the previous attempts, and I had a good feeling about this run through.
“That’s why I want to take the fight to him,” I said after I explained what all the warlord had done to the other tribes. “He can’t stand against us all. We are stronger together than we are divided.”
“Why would a foreigner care about the Kotar Desert?” Chief Kuaki asked the all too familiar question.
“That’s a fair question,” I said with a nod. “Why do you care about the people of the desert?”
“They are my people,” the chief said in a confused voice. “It is my responsibility.”
“The same reason applies to me,” I said. “I’m a god, so I am responsible for more than just one realm. I’ve traveled across the ocean to distant islands, and I helped free their people from pirate slavers. I can do the same thing for Kotar.”
The chief mulled over my words for a long moment, and he scratched his chin beneath his veil thoughtfully. Finally, he bobbed his head, and he muttered something in his native tongue that sounded like ‘why not.’
“Is that a yes?” I grinned as he turned back to face me.
“My people bow to no man,” the chief said. “But they may be willing to bow before a god. You will have to plead your case with my people on your own behalf. I will not help you until the whole tribe says we must.”
“Fair enough.” I shrugged. “I can convince your people to follow me easily enough. Just wait and see.”
With the deal struck, we said our goodbyes, and I set about the next part of my challenge. I mingled with the warriors gathered around the bonfires, and most of them understood a meager amount of Gupuana dialect, so communication was stilted, but still possible.
Eva, Zenda, and Mahini also pleaded my case, but the rest of my companions could only speak the common tongue of Sorreyal, so they would be no help in this situation. There were a lot of people in the Kanuaki tribe, so it took us the rest of the night to campaign with each individual warrior.
I drank more than my fair share of alcohol as wagers were placed on who would be the last drinker standing, but I always won in the end. I played card games and dice games, and overall I kicked the tribespeople’s asses at everything they threw my way. More than one agreed to join me right then and there, but drunken promises didn’t mean much to me.
I needed the whole tribe to agree to the decision tomorrow once the sun was up.
We partied with the Kanuaki tribe until the sun began to rise in the eastern horizon, and then I stumbled toward our tent. I was grateful for the entourage I’d brought with me that allowed everything to be set up smoothly with little effort for me, but I didn’t want to get too spoiled.
The next day, I continued my campaign with the members of the Kanuaki tribe, but this time I focused on teaching the fire shamans some water magic. I filled barrel after barrel as I gave examples of spellcasting and hand positioning, but soon I had a line of shamans able to perform the basics.
I felt good about my chances when Chief Kuaki called for a meeting, and I walked into the center of the campsite with my shoulders squared and my chin lifted. Whispers and questions
abounded in all directions, and the din of the crowd made it hard to hear my own thoughts.
Then the chief of the Kanuaki tribe held up his hands to call for silence, and all the curious whispers died down.
“Bash has come to lead us to a new future,” the chief announced. “But we are a people who work together to choose our own paths, so I must ask you: Do you wish to follow this man into battle?”
A huge resounding cheer erupted from the gathered tribespeople, and my heart swelled with joy. I’d added a fierce fighting force to my army, and the would-be warlord would have hell to pay.
We packed up camp and began to travel to the east as a group, but the Kanuaki tribe took the lead. Their horses were sleek black desert chargers, and the beasts stood eight feet tall at the withers, so I was surprised some of the smaller women were able to vault into their saddles.
Overall, the Kanuaki tribe had impressed me, and I was proud to be among them on this journey.
We camped each night beneath the star-filled sky, and Akina often appeared at my elbow to whisper something about a constellation before she disappeared once more. I made a habit of waiting for her at the edge of camp until she didn’t show up at all one night, and I was left with nothing but questions about the mysterious Naga fighter.
I made love to my women each night, and I knew the sounds of our bliss could be heard throughout the camp, but I didn’t care. A part of me hoped Akina heard us and perhaps wanted to experience me for herself. I wasn’t lacking in beautiful women to spend time with, though, so I let the Kanuaki woman approach me at her own pace.
It was early morning on the third day of traveling with the Kanuaki tribe when a strange voice called my name from the entrance to our tent.
“Bash, Bash, wake up,” the soft voice called out.
I rubbed my eyes and extracted myself from the pile of beautiful women I’d slept in, and I pulled on a pair of pants before I pushed open the tent flap and blinked at my visitor.
It was one of the warriors of the Kanuaki tribe, and the young man had removed his veil to flash me a wide smile.
“What’s going on?” I asked, and my gaze flicked around the camp in search of any signs of danger. Everything looked calm and still, and it seemed like not many had risen yet.
“We’d like you to train with us today,” the warrior said in heavily-accented Gupuana dialect. “The other fighters and I. We agreed, and I said I’d ask.”
“Train?” I smirked. “Sounds like fun.”
“We will meet in the sand outside the camp,” the warrior said, but then he bobbed his head apologetically. “I am Rystuni.”
“Let me grab my gear,” I said, and I hurried back inside.
Training with the fierce Naga hunters sounded like something right up my alley.
Just wait until they saw what the God of Time was capable of.