Rogan's Monsters 3: Temple, page 3
I didn’t ask for any clarification, instead choosing just to wait.
“My people are dying,” Gamma finally admitted. “There is not enough food to keep everyone fed. The lands are sick, tainted just like everything else. And even if they were not, there are not enough healthy, young people to farm them.”
I helped her up to the top of a difficult boulder without a word, then turned to help Ecco as well. Even though she wasn’t keen on flying in the dark, it didn’t stop Zera from flitting up lightly to join us at the top.
From there, we each continued picking our way up toward where we could see Camille and Ash. “Most of the people are older now,” Gamma said. “Those young enough to bear children—well, many of them are unable to do so.”
I thought I understood. “And that is why you’re on this quest?” I asked.
Lady Gamma nodded, and once again, her symbiotic companion seemed to echo her mood. But instead of flinging rocks and chittering in anger, this time, the mood seemed to be despondent. Edda clung to Gamma’s shoulder and chattered gloomily.
“It is. Perhaps the priestess can see a future where the crops do not fail, and where people are thriving. But I have to admit, it isn’t hope so much that she can, but desperation.” Gamma looked away, focusing on the uneven terrain. “I fear that it is already too late, and that, for my people, there is no real hope remaining.”
It was a somber pronouncement. Once again, I didn’t quite know what to say.
4
We had reached another plateau, much larger than the one we had rested upon after our escape from the caverns. But this plateau was different. It was blanketed in a thicker haze than we had seen until then, and the stench of sulfur had grown stronger. As the rest of us approached, both Camille and Ash turned to face us.
“This place has a volcanic feel to it,” Camille said. “I can hear the hiss of geysers, and steam raising rising from the earth. It might be perilous to cross. What would you like to do?”
By then, we had been walking for several hours and hadn’t heard the cries of the worm monster for some time. Perhaps it had wandered off in a different direction after all. Or perhaps it was silently closing the gap between us. For all we knew, it could even have decided to rest, having survived the caverns’ collapse and made its way to the surface.
Either way, with several hours yet to go before dawn, we decided to rest and resume our journey in the morning.
We found a spot at the edge of the plateau guarded by boulders, and I again built a fire out of the dried up remains of what had once been trees. Almost at once, Zera wrapped her wings about her and fell quickly to sleep, with Camille settling herself down close enough to share the butterfly girl’s body heat. Ecco smiled at me, and brought out her seed, settling it on the ground before her. Before my eyes, she faded into non-existence, and I knew that somehow she had found refuge in the seed. For a moment, I found myself feeling jealous of her ability, but knew that even if I could have done the same, I would not.
As usual, I would share the remainder of the night on watch with Ash.
As to who would draw first watch, it seemed that that decision had already been made. As the others were settling themselves down, Gamma was speaking quietly to the giant. Ash had to bend almost double to hear her, and when the princess stopped speaking, the giant nodded her head, stood straight, and without a backward glance took a couple of steps away, positioning herself so that she could see any threat approaching from nearly every direction.
That done, Gamma turned toward me with a shy smile on her face, and I knew she hadn’t forgotten the earlier conversation with Ecco about restoring her chi.
The princess had already moved her hands to her robes, but a quick look around at the others made her hesitate. She bit her lip, as if she wasn’t sure what she should do.
Without saying a word, I reached out a hand and drew Lady Gamma further away from the others. The boulders didn’t exactly offer full privacy, but there was a place that felt a little separate from where the others rested, while still being warmed by the fire.
“How is this?” I asked the princess. I saw that Edda had followed us, but not all the way. The monkey-creature was leaning against the boulder as if for protection, but was watching both of us with interest.
Gamma smiled shyly. “They will still hear us,” she said quietly.
I raised an eyebrow. “We’ll just have to be as quiet as possible,” I said, my voice almost teasing, almost a challenge. “Or do you want them to hear?”
Gamma couldn’t help it. Her expression suggested she was scandalized by the thought, yet she let out a quiet giggle at the same time. I wondered if there wasn’t some small part of her that wanted to throw off her shyness, that wanted to be as forthright as Camille… or perhaps even more.
Did she have a touch of the exhibitionist about her?
I smiled at her in return. “Because we could go back where we were, if you like. And make as much noise as you want.”
“No, no, no!” the princess replied, gesturing for me to keep quiet. Yet she was still grinning more broadly than before, her cheeks tinged with pink. “Here will be fine.”
Then she sobered, looking up at me in the firelight. “Assuming, of course, you want to?”
In answer, I caught the princess about her waist and drew her close to me. I studied her face for a moment, inhaling her scent, somehow still fresh despite how far we had traveled. She looked back at me, a picture of uncertainty mixed with both need and attraction. She swallowed, hesitated, and wrapped her own arm around me. “You do?” she asked, the domineering princess she had once been nowhere in sight.
I nodded. “I do,” I said. Then I leaned down to kiss her, just a gentle touch, my lips to hers, that didn’t come close to satisfying either one of us.
So I kissed her again, with greater purpose and passion, and she responded in kind, her hands moving up to my head as if to pull me down closer to her. At the same time, she pressed herself hard against my body, her breasts crushed between us, her hips already making me hard against her.
I ran my hands up and down her back, marveling in the way she felt through her robes, until I found my hands cupping her butt cheeks. I used my grip to draw her even closer, almost crushing her against me, but gently, very much aware of the difference in strength between us.
Gamma wasn’t a muscular giant like Ash. Nor did she compare to the lithe athleticism of Camille. She was a smaller build, not as tiny as Zera, but well put together even so.
And she seemed to enjoy a little more roughness than we had so far explored.
Lady Gamma mashed her mouth against mine, hungrily questing for my tongue, standing on tiptoes as we stood together. Moments later, she broke away, already panting a little, and I could see that all thoughts of our companions had fled.
“Lie down,” she commanded, clearly but still quiet, and she shoved me back in a way that made me think more of Camille.
I was more than happy to oblige, but then the princess changed her mind. “No. First, take off your robes. And that thing you wear on your head. I want to see you.”
I decided I liked Gamma like this, and did as she asked, even laying my robes out over the uneven, sandy ground. Then I stood before her, naked in the firelight, and just watched, wondering what she would do.
She looked me up and down, unconsciously biting her lower lip as one hand moved without her conscious control to her breasts. At the touch, it seemed she realized she was still clothed. “Oh,” she murmured.
I smiled at her. Acutely aware that we could still be attacked even with Ash standing guard, I decided it was well worth the risk. And besides, I could still fight naked, if I needed to do so.
“Your turn,” I said, my voice already huskier than usual.
I noticed that Edda was still there, still leaning against the boulder, her eyes as big as saucers.
Gamma smiled at me. Her shyness was still there, still lurking in the corners, but it seemed I was right. She was enjoying this moment, the risk of exposure.
Keeping half an eye on me, she half-turned away as she slipped her robes from her shoulders before letting them fall to the ground. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her skin in the firelight, and I had to hold myself back from pouncing on her there and then. I knew my interest was more than apparent, and caught her looking at my erection, just a glance, but that was enough.
She nodded to herself as if she was satisfied with my reaction, then slipped out of the rest of her clothing.
Then her courage seemed to fail her. I thought she wanted to stand there, to perhaps do a slow pirouette, showing me all that was her. Instead, she half-covered herself with one arm, blushed some more, and took a deep breath to steady herself before she repeated her earlier words.
“Lie down.”
I had barely managed to do so before Gamma was on top of me, a little clumsy, caught between wanting to play a bit longer and wanting to move on to something more. The princess leaned forward, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, kissing me deeply even as she moved her hips so my dick rubbed against her, her breasts crushed in between us.
I lay back and enjoyed the sensation, letting her do as she wished, using my strength and my hands to help her move, enjoying the feel of her dampness against me.
Within moments, she began to pant, not loudly, not really, but the boulders beside us seemed to catch every sound and amplify them, reflecting them back in the same way they reflected the flickering flames.
“They’ll hear us,” I breathed in between kisses, and that was enough to make Gamma freeze. She pushed herself up, giving me a delightful view of her breasts, and I could see the consternation on her face as she calculated what she wanted to do.
I grinned up at her, and she blushed once again. Then she pushed a lock of her dark hair away from her face and shook her head.
“I don’t care,” she said, louder than she had spoken before, but still quietly enough to show that really, she did.
She grabbed my hands from where they rested on her hips and placed them on her breasts. Then she levered herself up just a little, reached for my dick, and rubbed it along her folds a few times before easing me inside.
As she lowered herself back down, engulfing me fully, she made that small humming noise in the back of her throat that I enjoyed so much.
Once she had me where she wanted me to be, she reached for my hands once more, and I got the message. I started to rub my thumbs, gently, in a circular motion, around each of her nipples, and she swallowed, turned her head slightly to one side, and started to gyrate on top of me.
“That’s it,” she murmured, and I didn’t need to be told more than once.
I did what I could to meet her gyrations with my own, moving against her from the ground, and letting her slowly increase her pace. In a surprisingly short time, she let out a series of small gasps, just preparing, and I knew she was close, so I maintained my rhythm but increased my effort.
“Yes, yes, like that,” she said, her grip around my wrists growing stronger, the tension in her legs doing the same. I felt Edda’s gaze still upon us, and did my best to ignore her, focusing on the beautiful woman above me.
If Gamma knew her symbiotic twin was still watching, she gave no clue, instead doing all she could, clenching tight with her legs, building to the inevitable end.
This time, when she came, Gamma clenched her whole body, and she was not silent at all. Instead, she let out a moan that the others would certainly hear, and she didn’t stop. Again and again, her body shuddered, and she voiced her orgasm out loud, until finally, she relaxed, replete and content.
I lay back and enjoyed the feel of her clenching against me, enjoying the look on her face, enjoying every moment, until finally, Gamma seemed to become aware of herself once again.
At first, she looked horrified. She dropped her grip on my wrists and held her hands up to her mouth, her eyes growing wide. The skin on her cheeks was flushed, although whether from ecstasy or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell.
Then, surprisingly, she started to laugh.
She kept her laughter quiet, although really, by then there probably wasn’t much point. At first, I just lay there, enjoying the sight, still inside her, and then I joined in as well, chuckling under my breath.
Finally, she managed to bring herself under control. “Do you think they heard us?” she asked, and I couldn’t tell which answer might have pleased her more.
“I’m pretty certain of it,” I replied.
She didn’t seem to know what to think about that, and instead of saying anything more, just sort of collapsed on top of me.
“Do you think we should…” she began, but didn’t complete her thought.
“Do you think we should keep going?” I asked, and she nodded.
I smiled at her again. “Of course we should. You still need your chi boost,” I said. “And besides, the others have heard you. But they haven’t yet heard me.”
I watched as Gamma’s face betrayed first guilt and horror and uncertainty all at once, before finally settling on a form of glee.
She nodded, and I had to smother another laugh. Fully aware that Edda was still watching, I rolled Gamma off me, reveling in her sharp squeal of delight as I did, and then it was my turn to do most of the work.
5
I practiced my Divine Steps, and worked to infuse my chi into the surrounding rocks, doing my best to replicate what Ecco and her sister had done so easily. But while I was getting better, while I could infuse broader and broader areas of earth with my chi, I still didn’t feel as if I was gaining the control I sought.
If I needed to, over time, I thought I could build myself a serviceable house using nothing but chi. But that was a long way shy of growing a barrier of rock in an instant, of opening a tunnel through virgin earth, or growing a thousand spikes through a monstrous foe, like the worm thing that we had left behind at the caverns.
At the same time, I couldn’t help but think that even trying to do so was somehow wrong. As if my chi gifts weren’t meant for that sort of earth bending. I could infuse my chi into the rock, into the sandy soil with ease, but beyond that… it was as if the original Rogan Ward of this time didn’t approve of that sort of thing.
By the time the rest of the questing party had woken, I was at the point of giving up in frustration.
There wasn’t much to do in the way of preparation. Lady Gamma tried to straighten her hair and robes as best as she could, but without a source of fresh water nearby, she and the others couldn’t so much as wash their faces. My water skin was one of three in the group, the other two being carried by Ash and Camille. More than enough for the moment, but we all knew that we would have to find fresh water soon.
Whether she heard the rest of us getting ready from within her seed, or if she had simply rested enough, I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that one moment, Ecco wasn’t there, and the next, she was. But this time, instead of taking the form of a fox girl, complete with the fluffy tail and ears, she had grown wings.
Not the wings of a bird, or even the blue, iridescent wings of Zera, but the slim, transparent wings of a dragonfly, six of them, three on each side.
I wasn’t the only one to stare at her in wonder.
“I never saw the need for wings in the caverns,” Ecco explained when she saw us gaping at her. “In there, it was easier with my snake body…” Ecco frowned as she said the words, as if trying to work something out. She shook her head. “What am I saying? I was never a snake. That was my sister. Anyway, it just didn’t seem necessary to have wings in the tunnels. But out here, it’s different.”
Zera was looking at the dragonfly girl with undisguised interest. “Do they work?” she asked. “Can you use them?”
In answer, Ecco grinned broadly and began flapping her wings at an extraordinary speed. Yet it seemed she wasn’t completely confident about the idea of leaving the ground. Zera uttered a high-pitched, bell-like laugh, and took her by the hand.
“Are you ready?” she asked, and before Ecco could even come up with an answer, the butterfly girl had taken off, helping the newly minted flier into the air. For the next several minutes, the two of them flitted about, both of them laughing at their freedom.
The rest of us watched with varying expressions—Ash unreadable, Gamma with open fascination, and Camille with a touch of envy.
“Now that would be a useful chi gift to have,” the assassin said.
I couldn’t disagree. But there was more to do than just watch Ecco and Zera buzzing about. A quick scan back down the hills showed no sign of the worm monster, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t out there somewhere. And with the rising of the sun, the mist over the plateau had faded somewhat. There was no reason for us not to continue on our way.
The plateau proved to be as alien and sinister as it had seemed during the night. Yet it wasn’t uniform. To begin with, it was little more than a flat, featureless plain dotted with perfectly spherical stones of different colors that varied in size from smaller than my smallest fingernail to about as large as my head. One or two looked to be about the right size and shape to go bowling, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever get the chance to do that again.
Probably not, I admitted to myself as we made our way through the patches of mist. I hadn’t been a big bowler even before the wraiths and goblins arrived. So even if by some miracle I was able to go back, it seemed unlikely I would pick up the habit.
Even so, I couldn’t help but experience a moment of nostalgia, for the bowling, for that redhead I had met before shipping out, and numerous other small things I had never known I would miss.
