Dear readers, this chapter features quite a few references to people, events, and places in the
Lost in Eros
series. If you've read that, I hope you enjoy these callbacks. If you haven't, please consider this an invitation to read this story from the beginning. In any case, I hope you enjoy this story either way.
8. The Tribal Queen, the New Sheriff, & Storytime
"The next mission was a bit more straightforward, though there was a bit of a twist along the way," Don smiled.
"Oh?" Tascha prompted.
"It turns out there's this whole area that's set aside for people who are into less civilized things."
"I can understand that," she nodded.
"Some of these are organized into rather male dominated tribes that engage in all kinds of war games and treat their women mostly as commodities. I get the impression the women must be into that whole thing. It had a rather cave-man sound to it when it was explained to me."
"Yeah, there are women who like that whole 'throw me over your shoulder and take me to your cave' idea," Tascha said. "It's not my thing, obviously, but yeah."
"There are at least a couple of female-led tribes -- kind of like Amazons."
Tascha added, "Or like the Sisters."
"Yeah, I guess so," Don nodded. "Anyway, my next mission was to win a tribal chieftain's queen. It wasn't the queen of the tribe, but the chieftain's queen. Apparently, she didn't have any tribal authority, but as queen she was the boss of the other women of the tribe, and she couldn't be traded away."
"Traded away?"
"For, like, horses or other women," shrugged Don. "I had to win the queen of the Grey Wolves. The watcher's council teleported me to the area, which they called 'the Wilds.' I found a village on the edge of the tribal area, got some more appropriate clothing -- moccasins and a loin cloth..."
"I'd like to see that," Tascha grinned.
"Maybe later," Don laughed. "Over a couple of weeks, I was able to find out more about the tribal 'culture.' Apparently, there were just two ways I could 'win' a tribal queen: defeat the chieftain in one-on-one combat or sneak into the tribe's camp and spirit her away. I also found out that the chieftain of the Grey Wolves was a massive guy with a serious reputation as a badass warrior."
"So, stealth-time?"
"Stealth-time," Don nodded.
***
Don moved through the forest as quietly as he could. He was devoting all his attention to creeping stealthily toward the Grey Wolves' camp. For the hundredth time that night he wished he had Shelonda's skills in the woods. He was trying to bend Eros to his will, as he had done in the Manor and against the Sisters, but he was definitely out of his element here. All his time playing stealth characters in videogames hardly prepared him for actually moving quietly through a forest at night.
He hoped that the Grey Wolves had grown complacent in their long period of being the strongest tribe in the Wilds. The villagers Don had befriended had assured him that no one would be crazy enough to try to sneak into the Grey Wolves' camp. Hearing that had actually cemented his plan to try the sneaky approach.
Now, as he approached the camp, he could see the many tents and the darkly glowing pits where their fires had burned low. The chieftain, who he had been told was called Omar War Eagle, was supposed to have the biggest tent, and his queen would have the much smaller tent between his and the wooden lodge, next to which was the large tent shared by the other women of the chieftain. From the low rise outside the camp, Don thought he could make out the tent he wanted. His whole plan depended on War Eagle spending the night with one of his other women, and Don thought he could see a light glowing through the fabric of the queen's tent.
Don crept slowly through the camp, suddenly grateful that there didn't seem to be any dogs in Eros. He stopped next to the backside of what he thought must be the right tent and listened. Somewhere in the camp there were at least three couples having sex, but most of the tribe seemed to have gone to sleep. Shifting his staff over to his left hand, Don drew the sharp knife he'd procured in the village and quickly cut a long slit in the tent. In another moment, he had slipped inside.
Sure enough, there was only one person in this tent, and it was clearly a woman. Don could see a very feminine hip and the full swell of a beautiful bare breast in the reddish glow of the little fire that kept the tent warm. Don crept slowly toward the woman on her bed of furs, as he admired her sleeping form. He resisted the urge to run his hands over her legs while he decided how exactly he should manage the next part of this caper. He moved in closer to try to get a better look at the queen. Her long dark hair obscured her face, but he could tell she was beautiful.
He thought the usual thing to do in a situation like this was to clamp his hand over her mouth when he woke her, to keep her from crying out, but Don wanted to make sure he did it swiftly and gently. Hurting this woman was completely out of the question, as far as Don was concerned. It was bad enough that he was about to frighten her.
When his hand slipped over her mouth, though, her eyes opened and regarded him calmly. She made no effort to struggle or even start away.
Don suddenly realized there was something very familiar about this woman.
When Don raised a finger to his lips in what he hoped was a universal-enough sign to be quiet, she nodded as if she understood him, and Don drew his hand back.
"Hello again," she smiled. "It was Don, wasn't it?" Her accent and the way she pronounced his name, as 'Dohn,' immediately refreshed his memory.
"India?" he asked in utter surprise.
"It is good to see you again, Don," she smiled, "but what are you doing here? It is very dangerous for you here."
"I'm here to 'win' you -- to steal you away," he explained.
"Oh, that's sweet," she smiled. "But wait, how did you know where to find me?"
"I was sent by the watchers council, on a quest to earn one of those rings."
"One of these?" she laughed and held up her left hand, showing the black ring Don remembered.
"Exactly," he smiled. "I was looking for you after that one night in the Jungle Room, and here they've sent me to you."
"I am sure it was not an accident," she smiled at him. She brushed her long black hair out of her eyes.
Finding her lips irresistible, Don leaned in to give her a kiss, but she stopped him with her fingers on his mouth.
"I am the queen, Don. You cannot just do what you want with me."
"Unless I steal you away, right," Don nodded.
"Yes. There are rules," she smiled warmly.
"Ah, very good," Don rose a bit and offered her his hand. "We can slip out through the back of the tent."
"Oh, Don, that is not how we play this game," she chuckled. Then she was yelling, "Help! Help! Someone has come into my tent! Help!"
***
Tascha laughed a bit and then gaped at Don, before she said, "What the hell, Don?"
"That was pretty much my reaction, too," he chuckled. "You'd be amazed how quickly a bunch of naked guys woke up and swarmed to protect their chief's queen. They dragged me out and brought me right up to the chieftain himself, Omar War Eagle. He was huge, Tascha. Huge! He was at least a foot taller than me and built like, well, like Sven from the Maidenhead, but on steroids. He didn't look at all happy to be woken up or that I'd tried to make off with his most prized possession."
"How did you manage to get out of that?" Tascha asked.
"Well, I did the only thing I could," Don shrugged. "I challenged him to a fight for her."
***
"I have to admit, that's a bit anti-climactic," Don said to himself. Omar War Eagle lay stretched out the ground in front of him, knocked out by a single strike from Don's staff.
Rather than wait until morning, Omar had laughingly demanded the duel commence immediately. He apparently thought the skinny little intruder would be so little trouble that he could finish him off and get back to bed in short order. He called for a heavy cudgel to correspond, barely, to the twig he saw Don carrying. The rest of the tribe gathered around, and Don had a moment to notice that they bore very little resemblance to one another, as one might have expected from a more traditional tribe or clan.
When Omar moved in, a bit recklessly, and swung that big cudgel in an admittedly brutally fast arc aimed at Don's head, it felt to Don as if the large man was almost moving in slow motion. It was hardly even an effort for him to duck under the swing, extend his leg out to the side as he crouched low, slipping to Omar's momentarily unexposed right side. Springing up on Omar's flank, Don leapt into the air and brought his staff down on the big man's shaved head with a loud crack.
As Omar dropped the cudgel and fell to his knees, Don was glad to see that he hadn't caved in the man's skull.
Before Omar had finished falling forward face down in the dirt, his tribe was gaping at Don and each other in shock and confusion.
Then, Don caught India's eye and saw that she was shaking her head and trying to suppress a smile. He smiled at her, held out his hand, and said, "Milady...?"
With her by his side, Don began to make his way through the crowd of Grey Wolves, when someone thought to ask, "Shouldn't one of us challenge him?"
Don turned sharply in the direction of the questioner and said quite loudly, with an imperious gleam in his eyes, "Look, I don't want any trouble with the rest of you. I got what I came for. Maybe you all need to think about some changes around here, but do you really want to mess with
me
right now?"
This seemed to be both confusing and threatening enough to distract the tribe from Don and India's exit.
Now that he wasn't trying to be sneaky, Don could make better time, just keeping his eye on the ground to avoid tripping in the darkness.
India now seemed fine with following along. Once they were well into the forest, she let herself laugh and say, "I think that was 'cheating,' Don."
He chuckled and said, "I don't see how. I'm pretty sure anybody can move that fast if they really want to, at least here in Eros."
"And your weapon?"
"Well, that is special, but I don't think that was important this time."
"Don, wait," she said, tugging on his arm.
He drew up short and turned to her. She slipped into his arms and gave him a kiss, and then said, "You did your
tarefa
, but before they take you away, let us have some time alone."
"Okay," Don smiled and leaned down to kiss her again.
Then he realized he was in a very different place. There was a jungle on his right, and a moonlit beach on his left. Behind India was a good-sized bungalow, and there was a campfire burning brightly on the beach.
"Whoa!" Don breathed. "How did you do that?"
