***Tirnanog, The Plains***
***Magnus***
Sweet dreams.
I smiled, hovering at the edge between sleep and wakefulness. Laying on top of me I felt Astra's body delightfully against mine, meaning everything was right in the world. My hands naturally wandered south to squeeze that which shouldn't be squeezed.
Then I gasped in shock when my hands were suddenly pulled to the side. The same happened to my legs until I was spread-eagled on the bed.
“Perfect!”
My eyes shot open and I gasped when Astra sat up on top of me. She rotated her hips, then moved up and down, catching my morning wood within her in a single motion. Her devilish expression immediately morphed to one of naughty bliss once she sat down fully.
The feeling had my brain going in two different directions. On one side, this was the best way to be woken up by my woman. On the other, being bound to the bed was a bit too forceful.
Was it stupid to complain about your girl impaling herself on you?
Well, it certainly was, but I also didn't like surprises.
“What the fuck, Astra!?” I tugged at the filaments which bound me to the bed and Astra's hips to mine. She had also attached her filaments to the walls and ceiling, making it seem like we were caught in a spider's web. “What the fuck?”
Astra pouted. “Is it that bad? I thought you would like it. Thalia was surprised when I asked her about this bondage thing.”
I groaned, remembering the inquisition I thought to be successfully repelled. My Precognition was right to tingle at the thought of introducing Astra to this type of play. “By Gaia, so that's it. Forgive me, but you just can't wake me up like this!”
“Can we at least try it?” Astra pouted and circled a finger on my chest. “I've put so much effort into the weave and our daily activities got a little boring to be honest. Thalia's description of the concept sounded interesting. Not sure whether I am going to like it, but I would lie if I said it hasn't piqued my interest.”
“What the heck were the two of you talking about while I was busy with the drakes?” I asked, a little bit miffed. I hoped Astra had forgotten about this 'bondage' issue, but it wasn't in the stars.
“Oh, this and that,” Astra replied innocently and winked at me. “She also mentioned there were vibrators back on Earth, but I've to say you are way better than a vibrator when you get up to speed.”
She halted to think about the discussion with her friend. “Thalia got a little jealous when I pointed out how fast you can be. You are even voice-operated. No need for a switch.” She winked at me and purred, “Definitely better than a vibrator.”
I scoffed. “I don't know how to feel about having my wife discussing our sex life with her friends.”
“Don't complain. Do me,” Astra urged and wriggled her hips, stirring me around inside her. Knowing exactly how to provoke me, she also began to bounce. “Or we might be late for morning exercise!”
“Ahem,” I raised an eyebrow while I fought to retain my composure despite how good her movements felt. “You bound me to the bed? What am I supposed to do when I am the 'bound' one? This type of thing is all about one party getting to live out their fantasies while the other is helpless.”
Astra thought about it with a contemplative expression without halting her movements.
Then she stopped and cursed. “Darn, I might've misunderstood this bondage thing. Though, I don't believe being helpless is a necessary part of this type of play.”
After a moment of consideration, she shrugged with confidence. “Anyway, my version is way better!”
“Better?” I asked.
“Yes!” she replied cheerfully and leaned in to nibble at my collarbone. “Try pulling on my filaments.”
I did, this time more forcefully, and soon realized something kinky. When I pulled with my right arm, Astra's hips were raised. Pull with my left, and we were joined back together.
My feet could also pull her from side to side. She had created something like an armour weave around us. Her filaments were guiding our position like strings on a doll. And if I did my job right, I was the puppeteer!
It took some getting used to, but I soon went to work, spurred on by the writhing temptress on top of me.
Afterwards, we went over our new training regime which now included holding a ball of superheated plasma for as long as possible. The goal was to stabilize the plasma's circulation, at which point the lightning ball was ready to be launched at an unsuspecting enemy.
The new skill relied on the flow of ionized particles to induce a magnetic field which in turn held the plasma together for a short period of time. The necessary flow also wasn't a 'ball', but a set of twisting bands supporting each other. Without the help of several sub-identities, they would have been impossible to stabilize.
It was the same principle behind stabilizing the plasma inside fusion reactors.
The better this was done, the longer the lightning ball would keep its cohesion once it left our influence, which translated directly to how far it would fly without dispersing ineffectively into the air.
I figured out the theory behind it when we returned yesterday to our quarters.
To be honest, calling it a lightning ball was a misnomer. The opponent certainly wouldn't be electrocuted when struck. Maybe a little due to the induced currents from the magnetic field.
In truth, the 'lightning ball' consisted of several interwoven plasma bands. Even more accurately, a layered plasma knot with each layer trying to enforce and contain the ones around it.
Though, anyone without Second Sight would only see a ball of light.
Most of its destructive potential lay in the plasma's heat and its movement. Upon impact, the heat would evaporate or melt the target's surface while the plasma's current would carry away any weakened material until it was expended. On a smaller scale, it worked like a plasma drill.
Copying the lightelk's magnetic pattern had worked out for Astra, but it wasn't the most efficient way for us to mimic the animal's ability. Some things simply didn't apply to every scale. The elk's version was focused on raw power, so we had some work to do to perfect the concept bit by bit.
The lightelk's horns were specifically adapted to create a containment of magnetic fields for the plasma currents to spin up before the attack was launched. We didn't have the same luxury and had to use both hands to mimic the containment field.
Unlike the elk's approach of pumping as much power as possible into the effect and having a relatively slow plasma ball persist for several seconds, we would have to go for speed. We simply couldn't pump enough energy into the plasma to have it contain itself for more than a second or two. Instead, we had to optimize the 'launching process' and have the plasma ball move as fast as possible.
By focusing on speed instead of persistence, we could create a viable ranged ability despite our power limitations. Not to mention, holding the plasma so close for too long seriously stressed even our bodies' improved resistance to heat and electricity.
Thankfully, the small blisters from my first overzealous attempts weren't much of an issue.
Try as we might, perfecting a new skill within a morning's training exercise wasn't in the cards, though we were getting there.
Once the sun rose, we tabled our exercises and went to the open training area at the centre of the fortress where we met up with Elijah and his partner who turned out to be seeker Linda of all people.
The initial meeting and Linda's apologies for trying to waylay our expedition was awkward, to say the least. At least it explained Elijah's approval-seeking behaviour when he answered the challenge. Their quite pitiful apologies also meant they had lost whatever power struggle was occurring within the Caravaners.
Such was my guess at least. I wasn't bold enough to question our hosts directly on the matter.
Thanks to my vast experiences travelling the world, I had the perfect solution to awkward social confrontations: Let the women talk and the men beat each other up.
So I grabbed Elijah and dove head first into a training bout – which was also Elijah's idea of how to avoid the back and forth of working out personal grievances with words.
Astra and Linda seemed fine with talking for over half an hour before they realized their men had ditched them for the pleasures of martial exercise. Then they followed suit after a moment of awkward silence.
Despite the disparity of our mutations, fighting Elijah felt a lot better than being beaten by my father-in-law. Elijah was a lot closer to my ability level, even though his grasp on Precognition was freakishly strong.
But unlike elder Gilbert, who I couldn't touch, it felt like I was always one step away from getting through Elijah's defences.
I learned a lot that morning in regards to outmanoeuvring Precognition.
Our bout ended when some Caravaner youngsters showed up at the training area and began cheering us on. The small group of teenagers was an enthusiastic audience, but they also turned the bout into a competition when they began counting hits without really understanding neither of us was using his full power.
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So we ditched the bout in favour of simple exercises.
The morning passed and Thalia finally left her quarters to join us with her guards in tow. She still looked pale, but it was no comparison to the first day she boarded the saherna express.
“Thalia!” I exclaimed when she entered the training field while her guards stayed behind at the edge. “You are back amongst the living!”
I couldn't help but notice that the Caravaner youngsters who had started their training by now were eyeing Thalia with suspicion.
“Quite so,” she replied with a pale smile. It wasn't forced, but also not enthusiastic. “I am feeling better, but I heard I already missed a third of the journey?”
“You did.” Elijah stopped his exercise which consisted of air-punching imaginary opponents. “We reached the Sanguine River and passed into the plains belonging to Clan Hochberg. If all goes well, we can anticipate our arrival within two weeks. Plus/minus a few days. Even the seekers would be wary of announcing exact arrival dates when traversing the wildlands. May our journey continue without incidents.”
Astra and I excused ourselves and ended our training for the day to go give Thalia some attention.
Elijah's hopes held up for another three days which we used to socialize with him and Linda. Throughout our interactions and due to Thalia's presence, we learned that Thalia's unwilling misadventure had earned her a reputation among the Caravaners.
Family Northroute had no issues with our friend, but there were still members of Snowpath around who had some grievances about the death of their leaders and the subsequent dissolution of their family.
By rumour and retelling, Thalia had turned into a bogeyman for the Snowpaths and some of it was spilling over to the younger generation of Northroute teens.
No matter the time or culture, horror stories were always welcome among the youths.
Occasionally, Holly and her partner, Luka, also paid us visits. But now that we were traversing the marsh-turned plains most of their time was spent overseeing navigation.
The rest of our delegation was noticeably absent from the training field, with our diplomatic aides showing up only shortly to catch some fresh air.
The priestess of Gaia who had joined the expedition also hadn't left her quarters for days. Astra went to check on her once but reported the woman was fine if a little bit scared of leaving the protection of her own four walls.
Thalia spent her time with light exercises and reading in the training yard. It wasn't like we could do anything else during the journey.
My earlier assumption of the Sanguine River making navigation easy turned out to be a fallacy. Reaching the plains, the river had turned so wide it almost fused with the marsh surrounding us. The matter wasn't helped by the river overspilling and forming various side-arms due to the flat terrain.
At least the heavy storms had lessened, now replaced by infrequent rain showers.
On the fourth day, our morning training was interrupted by a thrumming alarm horn being blown from the fortress's central watchtower.
Abandoning her training duel with Astra, Linda immediately ran towards the saherna's back-end without giving explanations. She just jumped and left the training yard over the roof.
“What's going on,” I asked while the horn blew four more times – once long and three more times short. It fell into a repeating rhythm afterwards.
Elijah gestured for me to get going. “Get your weapons. The signal means the watch has sighted a swarm of parasites. They are going to attack when they realize the herd isn't already claimed by others of their kind.”
I didn't have to go far. Our guards had been holding onto our weaponry while Astra and I were training. The Caravaners had warned us repeatedly not to leave the fortress's interior without our full equipment.
A few moments later I was carrying my new spetum and a short sword as a sidearm, including a loadout of throwing spears and flechettes which I had appropriated from Etan.
“You should retreat into the fortress,” Amundsen, the leader of my guard, suggested. He was the stoic and silent type who took his job seriously. Which included not developing any sentimentalities with his charge.
Sadly, I had been running into a wall over the last few days when it came to socializing with my displeasantly professional bodyguards.
I looked towards Thalia and Astra for their opinions. “I don't know about you, but if we can help out our hosts we should do so. It's because of us that they undertook this journey so early. And if they fall, there won't be anyone to steer the saherna. Besides, after earning the title of a juggernaut it would feel bad to hide behind a wall at the first sign of trouble.”
Astra shrugged. “The Northroutes were paid more than enough to take a few hits for us, but I don't believe it hurts to take a look. Maybe it's a nice workout. No blade is forged without fire.”
“Yeah, nope.” Thalia shook her head. “I am no fighter, so I will sit this one out, given the choice. I will see whether I can help out at the infirmary instead. First and foremost, I am a doctor.”
I didn't question Thalia's choice. She wasn't partnered and her abilities were too subtle to be of much help in a direct confrontation. Was she even able to influence mindless animals? Were her mental powers limited to sapient opponents?
I would have to ask her later.
A jump took me out of the inner training yard and I landed on the fortress's roof where Caravaners manned several ballistae protected behind parapets. The oversized crossbows were the fortress's main defence and encircled its entire periphery.
The central watchtower had a single, 30mm machine cannon with four rifled barrels. It looked like one of those old anti-air cannons from the world wars.
My questions had revealed it was one hundred per cent Aerie craftsmanship – normally restricted to the clan's contingent of airships.
But the Caravaners had worked out a special deal which allowed them to buy one of the weapons per saherna, including the expensive ammunition.
As I had seen first-hand, rarely anyone on Tirnanog would waste the resources for this type of weaponry. Shooting most monsters would only piss them off anyway. And if people's mutations could take care of most problems, there was simply no need to expend precious time on bullet production.
At least the large calibre gun was a little more useful than a handheld firearm. And the relatively rich Caravaners had the resources to spend on additional protection.
The gun's main purpose was to take care of small fry, and other humans, and to bring down flying opponents. The fortress's mostly flat roof also provided a perfect shooting gallery should anything manage to get over the parapet and past the ballistae.
In this regard, the machine cannon also had to be seen as a last resort should the outer line of defence fall.
Elijah landed next to me, followed by Astra and our guards.
“I would feel a lot better if you stayed in the back,” Elijah suggested. “The seekers warned me profusely of the political ramifications should anything happen to the delegation.”
I grinned and looked at my training partner. “Do you believe me to be the type who hides like a healer or a diplomat while others fight for our lives?”
Elijah shook his head. “I believe you to be the sort who does as he pleases. Please be careful, even though the parasites are just pests.”
“Don't worry, friend.” I looked towards Astra. “We promise we will retreat the moment it gets dangerous.”
Together, we approached the parapet where most of the Caravaner guards had gathered. They were looking tensely towards the horizon, but all I could see was marshland.
Then I saw a human-sized creature.
It jumped in the distance, flinging itself high up into the air before it spread a set of huge wings which it used to glide a few dozen metres. More followed with their trademark jump-gliding locomotion until I could see several dozen in the air at any given time. It indeed looked like a swarm of grasshoppers making its way toward us.
I reached for my belt and aimed a small spyglass at the incoming things.
They looked like someone had crossed a flea with a grasshopper and blown it up to human proportions. Though, there was no chitin involved. The leathery wings were more like a bat's. Except for the legs, of the six arm-like appendages four ended in bony hooks and two had spikes large enough to spear a human. Only the hindlegs served the purpose of trans-location via powerful jumps.
Taken altogether, the creatures fused several familiar features which accumulated into something utterly alien.
“At least three hundred!” one of the Caravaners shouted.
“Are those the parasites which normally infest the saherna?” Astra asked. “What are they called?”
Elijah nodded with a grim expression. “We just call them parasites. It's a small swarm which probably split off from another host. They aren't very smart and will go in a direct line for any potential source of blood. We can expect them to swarm us mindlessly until either we or they are dead. Then we will have a troublesome time removing any who latched on to the saherna's underside.”
He shook himself in disgust. “I don't envy the youngsters doing cleaning duties.”
“What's so bad about cleaning?” I asked. My mind was already conjuring up images of blood and innards painting the fortress's roof in various alien colours.
“They will have to dig the eggs out of the saherna's skin to prevent more parasites from growing right beneath our noses.” Elijah’s expression was full of disgust, probably because he remembered his past experiences with this kind of duty.
And there my mind went off in a completely different, horrible direction.
“Forget I asked,” I replied while I tried my best to banish my rampant imagination to the void.
The Caravaners waited for as long as possible before they unleashed the first wave of ballista bolts. Most of them hit their targets with precision, but true to Elijah's word, the creatures didn't care about their numbers being culled. For every parasite hit, there were three more to take its place.
Worse, it was no small surprise to me when the larger parasites' jumping power turned out to be enough to catapult them right on top of the fortress!
“Form up around me!” I called out while the first creature was still in the air. “Back to back!” I was damned if I lost some of our bodyguards because I desired to test myself.
The first parasite to touch the ground was received by a group of Caravaners with spears, but more quickly followed. There was no rhyme or reason to their attack. They simply jumped onto the saherna as they arrived.
I split off more sub-identities and tasked them with alerting me as soon as someone needed help.
Then I noticed a parasite who was about to land right among our group – which would end without doubt in our formation being broken and leaving an opening for the other monsters landing all over the roof.
I bend my knees and jumped to meet the creature in the air.
Six appendages extended towards me, but my spetum had more reach. The sparking tip of my weapon snaked past the monster's natural armament and found the creature’s chest while I channelled electricity through it.
A bony spike-arm shot forward, but I diverted it with my armour's bracer and kicked out.
Four bony hooks caught my foot and stopped it cold while the creature leered at me with a row of countless eyes and a maw with too many rows of sharp teeth. Then its tongue lolled forward, revealing a needle-like bone protrusion at the tip.
But the iobeetle armour protecting me held strong without so much as a scratch.
The sound of metal moving against metal could be heard as the armour's integrated blade shot out from next to the base of my heel and retracted, leaving behind a cauterized stab wound in the monster's ugly mug.
Using Second Sight, I had aimed right for the densest concentration of energy.
I wasn’t sure whether I had hit the brain or something else important. Nonetheless, the effect couldn't be argued with as the parasite went slack.
Gilbert's hidden weaponry was integrated into the armour's lower feet and forearms, leaving the armour's bearer never truly unarmed as long as there was enough space to deploy the retractable blades.
I placed my other foot on the creature's corpse and pushed off the surprisingly light body, diverting its momentum enough to send it down into the marsh while I pulled my spetum out and landed back among my group.
“The armour blades work perfectly!” I informed Astra with a grin. “We have to give Gilbert our thanks for adding them.”
Astra let out a frustrated sigh. “Please warn me the next time you decide to 'almost' jump off the saherna. What if the parasite had dodged you? You would have landed down in the bog!”
“Ahem.” I coughed. “I would have had to climb back up? It would have been embarrassing.”
She scoffed.
“Don't worry!” I tried to assure her. “It's all water down there, assuring a soft landing. We can breathe underwater, remember?”
Astra shook her head.
She had spread out her long filaments during our exchange and used them to electrocute a parasite who had approached our group.
One of our guards stepped forward and speared the stunned creature without much fanfare.
All around us, the caravaners were fighting with a multitude of weaponry. The way they were holding their own and not panicking made it clear this wasn't their first rodeo with the parasites.
They had formed groups hunting down the parasites which landed on the fortress's roof, while others held the parapet to prevent smaller attackers from climbing up.
It was chaos but also controlled.
Elijah reached beneath his fur coat and retrieved a set of spiked knuckle dusters large enough to accommodate his paws. “It's now safe to hunt down the large ones which made it onto the roof. The parasites aren't smart enough to employ something like wave tactics. I see you should have no trouble with the pests.”
With that, he ran off towards the closest parasite who was menacing a ballista team. They were keeping it at bay with their spears, but also couldn't do their job while doing so.
Elijah's fist effectively smashed through the parasite like a passing freight train. One second there was a hale monster, in the next, guts and two bisected parasite halves were flying all over the place.
The giant didn't even pause to check on his work before he ran towards his next target.
Astra sniffed. “Messy.”
I shrugged and shouldered my spetum while I looked for opportunities to influence the fight in a similar manner. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”