After a few minutes of chatter, we ventured to find the kobolds again. Chooka had helped them move the bed and eggs out of the cave to the rooms closer towards the entrance, so she knew where to find them. With the help of the kobolds, we went through the various rooms, looting what was valuable and leaving behind the rest. Most of it was mundane things, like food, simple tools, containers, and the like, but some of the more valuable items included bolts of cloth, fine silks, spices, rare bones, and a few items of fancy furniture.
Surprisingly, the rooms at the entrance were barren. The kobolds explained how most of the furniture and such was simply props, but the paperwork was real. I pretended not to notice Chooka grabbing those forms and tucking them away in the cargo pockets of her pants. Either way, the kobolds had worked quickly in packing everything up. They had a foot locker that stored all of their stuff, most assuredly with dimensional magic at play to hold it all. I informed them that we would not be staying in this cave, so they agreed to pack things up and watch over Alterez while the rest of us performed the adoption ceremony.
Back in the main cave, we had combined the physical hoards of each dragon into one big pile and then we began sorting through it. I only took a few things, mostly curious little knick-knacks and strange clockwork baubles that didn’t seem to have any real funcion. I kept a few items with substantial material value, but mostly ones that looked mysterious or custom made with peculiar taste. Touching those things gave me brief glimpses of their stories, moments of how they had changed hands through shady deals, theft, murder, or being lost and found. Some of them had rich histories most likely going back hundreds of years. I mused to myself that perhaps some day I would have a Skill to tell me more and to appraise their historical value.
Shares were set aside for Alterez, Chooka, Skull, and Gambino for his troupe. The lion’s share remained for Princess Nanu, who looked pleased as punch at the prospect of having treasure for her [Hoard] once again. With all that resolved, the adoption ceremony remained the next pressing issue.
“Alright, I have thought up the contents for the [Oath of Adoption] you should take and have committed to memory what steps I should take, as per your tutelage. Are you certain you want to remain a Princess?”
“Yes, Emperor.” She slid towards me a bit on the bed we sat upon until our knees touched. “I am too weak to fulfill the role of a Queen, and it would take me many years to get to that point. There are social and political disadvantages to being at a level of peerage that you cannot fulfill, and I would not dare sate my ambition and pride at the cost of the safety of your flight. Likewise, you can only have children either one or two steps below you in peerage, so I could not be demoted to Duchess.”
I nodded in understanding, and straightening up and acting solemn and serious, I recited the contents of her oath.
“Do you, Princess Nanu, swear to join my family and flight, to serve me as your Emperor, to protect and hold dear all that I do and to show no tolerance for that which I do not tolerate? Do you swear to uphold my interests, to offer me sound and true counsel, to keep my secrets in confidence, and to protest my lapses in judgment? Do you swear to share in the bounty and sorrows of my flight, that all members and allies will be treated with fairness and justice in accordance with the rules that I outline? Do you swear to air any grievances fairly and to accept any adjudications or arbitrations that I or one appointed on my behalf pass onto you? Do you swear to share the concerns and desires of your person, the flight, and my allies with me, that I will not lose touch and sight with the ordeals and dreams of those around me?
“Know that in the acceptance and promise of this oath, I, too, hold a promise to you. I promise to do my best to ensure all members of the flight are protected and provided for, that none should suffer needlessly or endure senseless cruelty. I will treat you and others of my flight with dignity, respect, and grace. I will see to your education and foster cooperation and communication within the flight. I will share my knowledge and the spoils of my labor, that all will rise with me and grow in character and power. I will strive to provide opportunities that bring satisfaction and provide happiness for you and the rest of the flight. This deal may be ended at any time by either party, but it is my hope and sincere wish that such grounds for termination be resolved before relationships spoil to the point of no return. I offer you my love, trust, and respect, all freely given. I hope that I will be found worthy of it being returned in kind.”
“Now, Princess Nanu, speak your vow before me and let it be known unto the gods for their enforcement. Of all that I have spoken in this oath, do you swear it, such that we will be in an accord?”
Proud, serene, and grateful of my generous and loosely worded oath, Princess Nanu lifted her legs over mine, scooting forward into my lap, her arms wrapped around me as we sat together in a loving embrace.
“I, Princess Nanu, with gratitude and desire, under no duress or compulsion, accept your oath. I pledge before all the gods that I will keep it and honor you and our accord until such time as it is nullified or I am released from obligation. May you, my Emperor, prosper from my service and find me worthy of such terms.”
I choked back a tear, surprised that I was getting all worked up and emotional. I rubbed her back as I held her close, relaxed and safe as she returned the sentiment.
“Then let it be so. An accord has been reached between Emperor and Princess through the [Oath of Adoption]. Let it be finalized between us and before the gods through our [Ritual of Binding], performed without proxy, but rather, personally between Emperor and Princess.”
No sooner had the last words passed my lips than Nanu pushed me down onto the bed, her hands roaming to more interesting places than my back as a hungry and impassioned moan left her mouth.
“I think that went rather well. You sure are eager to get right to it,” I commented as clothes started to be ripped off or removed.
“Less talking,” she commanded. “I have better uses in mind for that mouth of yours,” she promised with a grin as she moved to kiss me passionately along my neck.
I don’t know how long that whole process lasted, for it was pure bliss. Draining bliss. Skull looked on with longing, albeit obedient, restraint, as Chooka fervently scribbled notes and examined our courtship rituals with enthusiasm. Nanu showed no shyness at the presence of an audience, and if anything, she seemed emboldened by it. Sometime after our fifth or sixth bout, the other two were allowed to join in.
Now, I would like to think that I am a man capable of satisfying a woman. I would like to think that my Skills and draconic heritage would have given me ample stamina to perform to satisfaction. However, somewhere in the daze of it all, and with three women eager for my attention and affection, I found the limits of what my flesh could offer. Even though they indulged in each other’s ministrations while waiting their turn with me or for me to recover, my well proved to contain insufficient water to slake all of their thirst. While Chooka and Skull were satisfied for now, and indeed appeared to be most content, Nanu remained ever ravenous for what had been denied her for the better part of two decades. She understood and begrudgingly accepted my limits, only to promise and expect more bonding to follow at a later time when I had recovered.
A drained husk of a man, sore of body and with ego bruised, but overall pleased with Nanu’s skill, enthusiasm, and creativity, I cuddled together with all of them in bed, exhausted in the sharing of my love for all of them. I normally only sleep two hours a day, but after that tussle in the sheets and indeed the affairs of the day including the battle with the count, I must have dozed off for four to six hours. And in those hours, I dreamed of something old and something new.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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Somewhere along the way, my conscious mind yielded to the demands of sleep, and within that ephemeral realm of whimsical fantasy I beheld sights too real and vivid to be normal. The reality of it harkened back memories of my time in the realm of Gulthar, that awareness and presence in the moment going beyond what mere dreams can offer.
I found myself in a city of steel, concrete, and glass. Smooth roads with colorful but consistently patterned signs filled the void at the ground level of each building, with sidewalks providing a buffer. Each building had its own unique architecture and style, many looking older than others in design and in form. People of all races walked by, each animated in the pursuit of their own ambitions and dressed in a mottled array of fashions and colors. However, each felt muted in some way, like the color saturation was lessened from normal, their faces ambiguous masks.
Curious, I walked along the streets, looking for a purpose to all of it. Entering a shop revealed nothing of note, its shelves neatly arrayed with organized and uniform boxes of some unknown product. The whole place looked too sterile and organized to be realistic, and bored of it, I returned to the street. However, the street had changed, and with it, the scenery.
Like stepping backwards in time, the city had turned to one of simple stone and brick. Chimneys pumped out black smoke that contributed to the constant smog overhead. The streets were dirty, the people sullen and quick to scurry to their destinations. The atmosphere pressed down upon me, suffocating as the joy and wonder of the previous version of the city faded away.
But then I saw people who were not so dulled out. I ran to catch up to them, having only glimpsed them out of the corner of my eye. Surprise and shock gripped me as I beheld the sight of… me. Along with me were Skull and Alterez, each dressed in accordance to the style of the city, looking more like gangsters than common folk. More people followed along, but each of them were black as night, only silhouettes of what they should be, but each clearly illuminated just like the other me, Skull, and Alterez, as if giving off a halo of light and color.
They rounded a corner, and as I caught up, the world changed again. The buildings were much taller than before, the sky filled with flying vessels of metal. Technology beyond what this world offered, each and every one a marvel in its own right, casually graced the scene. People walked about with devices covering their ears or screens before their eyes. Lights projected advertisements in three dimensions, inviting people into stores to part with their earnings. Large screens of light covered whole sides of buildings, the scenes upon them changing constantly as they entertained or promoted ideas or products.
Strange yellow tape with black words upon it separated me from the other me and those same individuals that followed him. His manner of dress suggested an inspector or city guard, and together, each in uniform, they had cordoned off an area around a dead man as they started to collect evidence and question witnesses. One looked up and pointed behind me, and I too turned, only for the scene to change again.
I found myself on a road leading to a large tent. Inside, crowds gathered to watch some sort of performance in the middle. Other me dressed fabulously, complete with a big top hat, as he fascinated the crowd with a speech. Up high, Skull and a silhouette stood on a platform, ready to swing across on a stick suspended by ropes. Alterez and another silhouette waited on the other side with their own contraption. Before I could see what happened, a tap on my shoulder distracted me, and I turned to see what it was.
Before me I saw the blackness of the void. Before I had time to panic, a light turned on, followed by another, like spotlights shining down. I walked along a brick road, and each side was lined with versions of me, each from different worlds and levels of technology. Some were young, others old, some poor, others rich, but all unmistakable in that they were me. They stood motionless, like a person frozen in time.
I passed perhaps a thousand or more before I came to a statue of the current version of me, lifelike and colorful, but likewise frozen. Behind this statue were ten others, each like the silhouettes I had seen earlier, except for two, which were noticeably Skull and Alterez. The others were all distinct, each appearing to be of a different race, but somehow so familiar that I felt as if I had known them forever. I could not make out the specifics of who they were, but I felt certain that I would know them if I found them.
One in particular I would bet my life on was Chooka. I recognized the curve of those horns, that sensual shape of that tail, and that buxom bosom anywhere, even if she were entirely black. Another, the size and shape of a certain male gnome with an all too particular top hat, spoke evidence to being Bellwright Muddlespoon. An elf, clearly female, remained too indistinct to pin down, for this one seemed to fluctuate as I moved around it to examine her, as if it alternated between two figures. One wore some kind of hair ornament, but otherwise, I had no clues to go on. One fellow was very large, bigger than an orc and taller than a remnimi. The only race I knew of like that was ogres, but none of those lived around here.
In total, the races represented were human female with Skull, male goblin with Alterez, female remnimi whom I believed to be Chooka, male gnome, female elf, female troll, female orc, male ogre (which is the only option as far as I know), male dwarf, and a a pair of what I guessed to be kobolds held together in a dancing pose. Considering I did know a pair of kobolds that looked the part, I suspected that my hunch about how these people were real and that I would be meeting them all soon held merit.
“Familiar?”
I turned around to face the voice, but I saw no speaker. The voice sounded similar to my own, but older, more mature. Instead, I found a statue of me again along with my draconic form slightly behind it, yet scaled down. Four blank spots stood behind me, and behind that, a row of eight more, one of which was occupied by Nanu and her draconic form. I guessed that the first four would be my Kings and Queen, the rest my Princes and Princesses. Looking down at my feet, I observed tiny miniatures, no taller than my thumb, of The Boys, Hopper, and Ribbette. I detected no indication for how many slots, so to speak, remained for more pets, if any.
“What are you trying to show me?” I spoke to the void, uncertain who would be there to answer.
“Past, present, future; all roads converge.” I turned to face a man, an older version of me. A noticeable difference was the thin beard along the jawline, complete with a similar mustache. “Collect, build, ascend: this is the mandate of your Destiny. You still have the power to choose, to forge your own Fate, but all has led to this.”
He turned, his cape billowing as his back faced me, the strange spiraling triangle symbol on his cape. With his arms raised, panels of light lit in different sizes and at various angles, although I could still see them clearly. Scene after scene from world after world played out. Some were primitive, no more than cavemen with clubs learning about fire, others were of civilizations spanning an entire galaxy, and the rest were anywhere in between. All showed those latent memories, of past lives lived, and perhaps, of lives yet to be lived.
The panels slid towards one another, merging in shape and color until my draconic form stood before me, albeit massive and much older, complete with fine horns and all the bony growths that made me look more mature. Something about the form was more prominent. Power radiated from it, almost overwhelming, threatening to crush me and to force me to kowtow before it, but I held fast, seemingly because I was too paralyzed to bend the knee. But that draconic form faded away, and with it, the power that washed over and consumed me.
“Who are you, Spiral-Triangle Man?”
A grin gripped his face as he opened his mouth to answer. “A question you have asked before, a thousand times at least. The answer is always given when you no longer need it, for the truth will come to you in time. For now, think of me as your guide, one who goes before you to clear the way. The path you ultimately take is still your choice. Also,” he continued, acting more casual and less serious and grandiose, “The triangle symbol isn’t, like, my brand or anything. It was just something I made up to get your attention, which clearly worked. Call me what you like. Harbinger, Guide, Sage, or,” he continued with a smirk, “Spiral-Triangle Man. It matters not.” He resumed his mysterious and serious posture and tone as he continued once more. “You are under no obligation to do as I say, for I only offer guidance. This may well be your last mortal life; use it well.”
With that, he turned, a rather dramatic flourish of his cape causing it to billow as he quickly walked away from me.
“Hey wait, I still have more questions, jackass!”
I ran after him, but despite my speed, I could not catch up to him. I tripped and fell, landing face-first on the… ground, I guess, of the void. I stood once again, now in the body I had as a child, and instead of the man, Mother walked away from me, her backless dress showing off the spiraling triangle symbol.
“Wait, don’t leave me, Mother!”
I cried out, begging her to stop, but she outpaced me, vanishing into the distance as darkness swarmed in from all sides, smothering me in its cold embrace as all awareness faded.