The full moon had blossomed and so did these flowers. From the cemetery further back from the backyard of the tavern, they could see the luminous sphere looming large and hanging just above the land like it would crash down anytime now, but in the meantime showering its pale light and colouring the otherwise black land. The flowers came out together with the moon in precise timing. For whatever reason yet to be known, these strange flowers only blossomed when there was a full moon. And they only grew near the corpses. These flowers, luminous like the moon themselves, elegantly perched at the end of their long stalks, with their ghostly white slender petals, and opalescence stamens, dancing like the sea anemones in the undercurrent, even when there was no wind, inviting their prey with their light poison. Slowly, they danced throughout the night, only to wither at first light. But they blossomed again at night and for a few nights more until the moon became too weak to stimulate them.
“Oh hell. Hell, no. Maybe, we should come back another night,” said a beastman. “The soul-eaters are about.”
“Yeah, we should go, we should go. They only bloom for a few nights and after that, we can come again. I don’t wanna get caught by anyone of them,” said another beastman, who was quite adamant about staying alive.
“No, we do it tonight. We must get the earring. The longer we wait, the more people will know. Look, we have agreed on this. We get the earring, tonight, and we can go to Staghorn. And we get the cash and split it up. We won’t need to be the henchmen for anyone anymore,” said Brun, the second-in-command after Bilfur.
“Then why don’t you go? I ain’t going. No siree. I ain’t gonna die and not spending those money.”
Obviously, Brun did not want to be dead himself. He breathed out heavily trying to think of something.
These were the personal guards of Bilfur’s gang, the ones that were seated at the table when Bilfur was shot at the head, accidentally, and got all messed up by the brain of that said person. They had sat down and they had discussed and they had concluded. Rather to be caught in the crossfire in the power-grab, they would take the money, split it equally among the five of them, and each would go their own way, trying their luck elsewhere.
“Bilfur is not at the dumpster. We’ve checked all of them. And they stink like the shit of a thousand men,” grumbled a burly beastman walking towards the group.
“Why are you guys just standing there, go and dig,” said the other incoming beastman. He was skinny and tall and hunching, a good contrast to the other one. “We’ve done our part. We’ve looked through the garbage. Now, do your part.”
“Shut up! Can’t you see there’re soul-eaters here!” said Brun.
“So? The three of you won the draw and chose to dig up the graves. Now that it turns out to be a ghostly affair, and you want to back out.”
“No one is backing out,” said Brun. “And keep your voice down. You want the whole tavern to know.”
“You got to do it man. It’s your end to the bargain,” said the burly beastman, Ghella.
“Just don’t look at the flowers. They can’t hook you if you’re not looking at them.”
“I’m not going in there. You want me to die and take my portion? Hell, no,” said Oudag.
Thus, an argument broke out and they argued quietly for some time. Suddenly, a voice came from the midst of a tree or from somewhere within the darkness, no one could be certain at this moment.
“Aren’t you guys going to kill each other? It’s late. I got to sleep. I got a morning coach to catch.”
All five of them looked towards the blackness that was on the farther side of the graveyard. The Oxtrail servants usually buried their dead customers here, about a hundred feet away from the resplendent backyard. If they were too busy or that too many were dead, they would just pack them up and put them in the dumpsters and let the dumping crews to deal with them.
It was a familiar voice. They knew who it belonged to. But they could not see her however hard they tried to look.
“Show yourself Rika. Where are you?” said Brun.
“Hmm, why I’m behind you.”
******
Darius’ world was turned upside down once again when he heard that.
“Four hundred years old! You are so old. But you are still a child. You grow so slowly!”
Elena was annoyed by his remark. It touched her on one of her sensitive side. “It’s not me that grow so slowly. I’m cursed.”
That brought on even more question marks to Darius’ confused head. They literally popped out of it lighting up like a gas lamp. “What? You are cursed? When? How?”
“Stop asking. I don’t want to talk about it.” Elena was annoyed and she looked the other way, towards the trees beyond which indistinguishable shadows played. “You should light the fire now.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
It was the first time Darius saw her in a different mood. She had always been rather neutral, controlled, indifferent to the happenings of the world like she was not a part of it, like she was a spectator of this grand drama, putting up a sad look when the scene demanded it. He decided to have a little fun and pushed her a little more.
“Couldn’t Oldbark help you? Just Sanctify you.”
“Sanctify doesn’t work on this curse.”
“But you said Oldbark knows a lot of things. Can’t he find some way to cure you?”
“You cannot cure a curse. It’s not a poison. And there’s no way to neutralize the curse.”
“But what is a curse? Is it different from a charm? Why did you say that you’re cursed and not charmed?”
“Because it’s a curse. Not a charm.” The more Darius asked, the more annoyed she became, so much so that she did not feel like answering his confounding questions anymore.
“But you said that I was charmed. Why am I not cursed?”
“The really bad stuff is called a curse. Yours is a charm. Get your vocab straight,” she snapped.
“Well, you called me a fish. Whose vocab is not straight?”
“You are a fish. It’s getting tiring to talk to you. Light the fire, it’s already dark.”
“I told you I’d lost my firestarter.”
“Well, light it in another way.”
“I don’t know any other ways. I’m not magical. I’m just a fish.”
“You do proof that you’re a pretty useless pet.” Elena pointed her index finger to the pile of woods and her finger extended like before, changing in form to a slender branch with little leaves sprouting all around. As the tip approached the woods, it burst out in a flame lighting up the tip of the branch like a candle. “This is the candle trick I learnt from Oldbark.” She put the fiery part into the tinder pile and slowly the fire started. As before, the branch withered and fell away like dust.
“Couldn’t you just shoot a fireball into the pile? It looks much more awesome.”
The girl stared at Darius with a mean pair of eyes. She said slowly, “I couldn’t shoot a fireball. My power is diminished. I’m limited by my form. If I can shoot a fireball, I will gladly shoot one right at your dick.”
Darius was surprised at her use of language but then she was not really a little girl. “But, candle is cool too,” he said realizing also, perhaps due to the effect of Sanctify, that it was disrespectful to make fun of a girl who was really very old, approaching grandmotherhood. She was about four hundred years older than Darius. “Can you teach me? You should teach your pet some tricks.”
“You can’t learn it. You’re not magical.” The girl’s tone seemed to have levelled back to its indifferent state. “But you clearly can build a good campfire.”
“It’s called the Log Cabin. We build them in our compound quite often, whenever we have a party. We like campfires although we have the gas lamps. It feels better,” said the elf remembering the days in his village where he and his fellow elves, young and old, male and female, sang and danced around the fire the whole night with their boozes and elixirs. After that, the nightly event would surely climax in a collective copulation until tiredness and sleep overtook them all. Again, the campfire would have the indispensable role of keeping them warm, romantic and energetic when they had very little clothes on. The elf’s face turned slightly red at the thought since he was in front of a little girl and surely she would know and see the whole scene in every minute detail. They were still under Oldbark’s domain. He still had not gotten used to the new discovery that she was not a little girl.
******
The sensuous voice came from the front but some of the beastmen did look to the back. But not Brun. He was not that stupid.
“Stop playing around. Where are you? Don’t waste our time.”
“Don’t let me stop you. Go ahead and dig.”
‘You want the earring too, isn’t it Rika.”
“Want? I already have the earring. You idiots,” said Rika carelessly.
“You’re lying,” said Brun. The rest of the beastmen looked among each other not knowing what to do. This sudden event put them into disarray. Beastmen were violent and disorganized and they needed a smart strategic one to lead them. Sadly, smart beastmen were few. They would usually end up murdered by another smarter beastman or they became an indomitable leader like Bilfur. Brun was Bilfur’s little brother. He was not as smart so he did not get murdered.
“Then, go and dig. What’s stopping you,” said Rika playfully and ending it with a lusty giggle.
The beastmen stopped dead at their place. They no longer knew how to proceed. Whenever plans failed, they would be lost, disorientated, and helpless. Rika knew them all too well. She had been with them for a long enough time. She knew their strength and she knew their weakness. She often heard Bilfur yelled and grumbled at the stupidity of his gangs. But most importantly, she knew their wants, their desires, always too great to commensurate with their abilities.
“Tell you what. Follow me, make me your leader and I’ll keep you alive and comfortable.”
“You want to take over Bilfur’s position. This is not how it works,” said the gangly beastman.
“Then, how is it going to work, Kroll,” asked Rika but she already knew the answer that she was going to get.
“We have to run it through every one at the big table. Bilfur is the chairman of the coalition. Every clan leader must agree,” said Kroll.
“You know what,” said Rika, standing up on the high branch, her legs astride and her hands on her hips. The beastmen still could not see her. She was as dark as the dark night. “I don’t really care about your little boys’ club. I have other plans, better plans.” She put her hands on her tiny waist caressing it all the way to her flat tummy and looked down on them through his wholly black eyes. “What say you? Follow me, or not to follow me. No coercion necessary. Everybody is acting on his own free will, if you have one, hmmhmm.” She laughed a little laugh while her right hand reached down and gently touched her clit caressing it round and round. “Emm,” she moaned and slid her hands back to her hips.
She fired up her chromatophores and in an instance, she appeared in front of them all, high above the tree, like a goddess, smiling and wholly naked in cream colour complexion. They all looked up at her and were awed – they had never seen their boss’ girlfriend naked and never could they imagine how exalted her nakedness was – and then, they look at each other, a certain hardness at the groin and at her again in all her creaminess glory, and then at Brun, who had been keeping quiet all along. Apparently, he was still working out on what to do. The naked Rika had effectively decelerated his slow mind.
“Errghhhh, it does take you ages to make one simple decision.”
“Do you have to turn up naked? My brother just died.”
“Oh, its me that got in the way, huh, honey … oops, sorry, I can’t help it. I can’t camouflage myself unless I’m naked. And I like appearing in cream coz it gets the most attention,” and she laughed. “How’s my bald pussy? Lick it?” She really meant ‘Like it?”
“Well, if you can’t decide, I’ll decide it for you. All of you will follow me. I’ll be your leader now and wherever I go, you follow. Whatever I say, you do. Clear! It’s something like a slave,” said Rika. “What would you guys do without Bilfur?” she continued, shaking her head. “Don’t worry, boys. Now you got me. I’ll be the queen.”
“Wait! What about the money?” cried Oudag. “We were supposed to split it up.”