Supernatural Earth

***

Author's Notes - In case you're finding my stories in my Supernatural Earth for the first time, the recommended chronological reading order is as follows:

The Crimson Tithe (Optional)

Vampiress, Mine -- Omnibus

The Snow Maiden -- Omnibus

The Creature Below -- Omnibus

The Creature Below - Omnibus 02

Vampiress, Mine - Omnibus 02

The Snow Maiden - Omnibus 02

The Prison Creature (Forthcoming -- Optional)

The Creature Below -- Omnibus 03 (Forthcoming)

It's been eight months since my last Supernatural Earth installment and nearly two years since I wrote The Snow Maiden in Omnibus format. Believe me, I know that there have been many who have been waiting for another installment of the Maidens and I have been agonizing over this story for such a long time that I've been trying to plow through it. I tried pushing through it but the whole thing seemed rushed to me and as you know, I try my best to put out a quality piece of work for your enjoyment. I also wanted to avoid what I perceived as errors in my past installments. VM 02 didn't sit well with me and even though I have received glowing reviews from you all for it (and I thank you for it), it just didn't sit right as it felt like it was more about James than it was about Carlos.

Then I ran into multiple RL issues along with a severe case of writer's block regarding the Fae. No matter what I put down into words the story was either not meshing well with the rest of the universe or it just wasn't meshing well with the continuity. I also wanted to avoid a total repeat of what I'd done before in SM01. Once more the story was more of Daniel and Lily whereas I wanted to keep with my basic theme of introducing new characters to interact with the old as the hidden war rages on between the Supernaturals and the Hunters. I had to face the painful truth about my first attempt at a sequel for this story...

It sucked.

A total rewrite was necessary. Trust me on this. If I ever get the courage to release my infamous 'Cutting Room Floor', you'll agree with me. There are some elements from the first draft that are in here but they're few and far between.

At any rate, in addition to avoid mistakes of the past I also wanted to bring in one of the races that I've only hinted at and have only shown in bits and pieces up until now; the Minotaurs. I've deliberately been avoiding describing them in too much detail as I've been holding out for telling their story. And to be fair, I have been envisioning a race that is a mix between the Tauren from World of Warcaft along with the statue of "Theseus and the Minotaur" by Jean-Etienne Ramey (1826). The most detail I've gone into with them is in "The Crimson Tithe". Yes, I am officially acknowledging that story is in my Supernatural Earth series lore as I've inserted it into the reading lineup above. Minotaurs have been around for some time and thus far, the Minotaurs have been neutral in the shadow war that's been going on while Humans toil on in their normal lives.

But now; the Minotaurs are going to choose their side.

So, without further ado, I give you: The Snow Maiden, Omnibus 02. I do apologize for the agonizingly long wait and I sincerely hope that it was worth it.

***

"You come in peace, well I come in war.

I'm countin' corpses and I ain't counting score!"

-Elite Tauren Chieftain, "Terran up the Night" (2007)

*

CHAPTER 1: Busting in.

Blindfolded, collared, shackled, gagged, and now naked, Rose of Winter was led out of the woods and down into a cave. She could tell the change of location by the feel of the crisp leaves of the forest floor gave way to hard rock and soft dirt of a well-trodden path. The heavy footfalls ahead of her was the only indication that she currently had that anyone was still with her. That, and the constant tug on her leash to keep her going. Her body was shaking with fright and her sex was moistening and tingling with anticipation at what her fate now was.

After all, the Minotaurs didn't take Fae Maidens for their conversational abilities.

In her arrogance, she blatantly disregarded the Winter Guardian's words and his extensive training. What did a human know? She was Fae. She was time immortal. She'd been around longer than his entire lineage. While his kind were still swinging in trees, her kind had been the ushers of the seasons. Now the Guardian's dire warning made sense as they mockingly came back to her as she was led further into the cave:

Listen up; ALL of you!

This is for your benefit!

Like it or not, there are certain factions, both supernatural and mortal, that have made moves on the Maidens recently.

Yes, you have all your Champions to protect you but should the worst happen, and your Champion falls, then all you will have is yourself to rely on as aid will be far, far away from you.

Rose wished she'd paid more attention to the combat lessons and heeded his predictions as the very next WinterFall came more attacks than anyone had thought possible. Her Champion was dead, killed fending off the Minotaur that had taken her. He too did not heed the Guardian, Daniel of Winter.

They were now paying the price for their arrogance.

Around her, she could hear the bellows and cheers of her captor's fellow Minotaurs as he led his prize through the cave. Rose knew that this Minotaur's status would rise within his tribe for bringing back a breeding mate. It was the way things were. From what she knew, the only way they could continue their line was by the abduction and impregnation of females of other races. If any female Minotaurs did exist, it was a closely guarded secret.

The cheering and bovine-like sounds diminished as her captor took a hard left to go through an opening. Judging how the cave floor beneath her feet gave way to carved stone, she figured that they were inside the beast's lair. He jerked on her leash, pulling her roughly forward where he picked her up and tossed her across the room as if she weighed nothing. She screeched behind her gag while she was in flight, landing hard in a mass of pillows and blankets.

Rose braced herself for the inevitable. It wouldn't be long now.

*

Ajax Gagnon frowned as he peered into the dark cave. He heard the strange cheering and mooing coming from inside.

Sounds like a fucking Tauren orgy from World of Warcraft...

he noted as he tried to make sense of the sounds.

As he was closing up the tourist hiking base camp in upstate Washington for the winter, he'd witnessed the entire, strange abduction. He he'd been out there for his little group within the Society of Creative Anachronisms kingdom of An-Tir. They used it as a place to practice their heavy armored combat with the blessing of his company's management. The company got cheap security twice a week and the SCA got a place to gather so it was a win-win for everyone. Ajax, being the only employee there, had the unceremonious duty of cleaning and locking the place up.

Not that he minded. He liked the outdoors which was what drew him to the job to begin with. He kept in shape and was often mistaken for a lumberjack. He'd hoped to one day get onto one of their crews but with the economy being in the toilet, he had to keep the job he had for now until one opened up.

Ajax took a moment to enjoy the serene mountain vista. He often did this until nightfall as it helped calm his mind. That's when he heard the yelling. Wondering what was going on and why there were people on the trail below he walked to the crest of the hill. He looked down the other side and saw a man and a woman, dressed like lithe little elves in anime armor, dashing across the landscape while swinging glowing white swords around and hurling bolts of light at something behind them. "What the fuck?" At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, then he thought it was an act, especially when he saw the huge man with the head of a bull fighting the couple.

When he saw the man go down from a wicked blow of the bull-man's blade, and the woman subsequently scream when she got picked up and tossed over his shoulder, Ajax knew this was real somehow.

Now knowing that something was obviously up, Ajax ran back to his car and donned his armor in record time, grabbed his rattan weapon and his shield, and went charging down the hillside. By that time the elven looking man had been ran though and was lying dead on the ground with a sword in his chest and a pool of blood expanding around him. The bull-man and the woman were gone but they weren't far. Bull-Man wasn't exactly being subtle and the woman was screeching for help. Ajax took off down the path after them.

He tried to keep a mental map of where he was going. It was easy to get lost in the middle of the Northern Cascades and the Bull-Man was taking a route that Ajax didn't go down often. Usually he took tourists up the mountain instead of down into the gorge. He knew he was getting close when he heard them stop and there were sounds of a scuffle up ahead. When he got to the clearing, he did so in time to see the Bull-Man finishing tying up the woman and leading her off by a leash.

Man, I'm into BDSM just as the next man but isn't this taking things a little too far?

he wondered. It was just more proof in his mind that this really was an abduction in the making.

He followed them to the cave where uncertainty gripped him. Then he realized that a woman's life was now at stake, even if said woman could throw bolts of magic from her hands. What was up with that? He summoned up his courage and charged in like a Knight of Old.

Here's hoping that I don't turn into a Monty Python Knight...

Ajax's view zeroed in on the Bull-Man with his prize. He just caught sight of them disappearing into a home carved and mined out of the cave wall. It reminded him of cliff dwellings that he saw in National Geographic one time. He kept his focus and ran right for the building, heedless of what was going on around him.

*

Rose heard some shuffling as the Minotaur threw off his furs and walked over to the bedding, his heavy footsteps getting closer and closer. The beast snorted and Rose could feel it's hot breath overtop of her as her legs were wrenched painfully apart. She let out a little sob as she felt his sex graze against her, sending unwanted erotic electrodes shooting up through her body. Her nipples stiffened in response as goose bumps pricked up on her skin. Yet, at the same time, she felt incredibly ready for this. Was she crying because she was about to lose her home or was she crying at the fact that she was about to be taken against her will?

In the end, would it matter? She'd be coupling and mating and wasn't that was her species was about?

Then she was screaming from behind her gag as his huge member penetrated her hard and deep in a single thrust. Her body arched as her pussy was painfully stretched to limits that she didn't even think was possible. The Minotaur's fine hair tickled her inner thighs as he took hold of her legs to pull her as close to his body as possible. Pain gave way to warmth as her pussy slowly accommodated his massive cock. Tears streamed out from under her makeshift blindfold and her chest heaved from her crying. There'd be no going back now. She cried out as she felt the Minotaur's bulk settle down onto her, driving his cock even further into her, filling her completely up.

The Minotaur then reared back and cried out in pain. The pressure and weight of his body was then suddenly lifted off of her. The thing bellowed out in surprise and she heard sounds of a scuffle. What was going on? Were they now fighting over her?

*

Ajax ducked into the home and saw the naked Bull-Man pressing its manhood down into the naked woman, who was crying underneath of him. Acting more on instinct than anything else, Ajax ran up behind the man and delivered a kick to his nuts that would've made any NFL punter proud. The thing reared back and bellowed in pain so loud that Ajax swore that his eardrums ruptured.

Pressing his advantage, Ajax grabbed the thing by the horns and yanked it back. He was half expecting a helmet to come off with a very startled man inside. Instead, he quite literally had the bull by the horns as he swung the guy past him. The Bull-Man's head made a sickening crunch into the stone wall, cracking it and leaving an impression in it. Dazed, it tried to get to its hooved feet.

Damn, calling this thing a Tauren wasn't far off the mark,

he couldn't help but thinking as he placed his armored body between the Bull-Man and his victim.

Ajax lifted his shield and placed the hilt of his rattan sword up next to his right cheek, fist curled like he was ready to throw a punch rather than swing a sword. Then he shot his fist straight forward and snapped his wrist out to the right. The Bull-Man was obviously expecting a standard attack from above as it put its hands up to block. However, the rattan sword was swinging in from the side. Ajax watched as the Bull-Man's head snapped to the side, but he wasn't done yet. He jerked his wrist back and forth in a quick left-right-left infinity motion, beating the rattan across the thing's head repeatedly.

The Bull-Man went down and it feebly tried to crawly out the door. Doing something that he'd never do in an SCA event... ever... Ajax followed him out the doorway and brought the rattan down savagely onto the back of the Bull-Man's neck. Normally at this point in the game someone would've called "HALT" to stop the action but this, in Ajax's estimate, was truly a life and death scenario. Like his father always said; "shoot first and ask questions later, the same applies in your armored fighting."

There was another sickening crunch and the Bull-man went down hard as his body went still. Not bothering to check what he assumed was now the body, Ajax whirled on his feet and went back into the stone home to see to the woman. He let the rattan sword fall loose from his hand, held in place by the safety string, as he knelt down by the woman to remove her blindfold and gag. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Who... who are you?" she asked, blinking at him in incomprehension. "You're not Fae nor are you Minotaur." Her eyes narrowed. "You're human!" she then gasped.

"Uhhh, last I checked. The name's Ajax and I saw homeboy out there kill your boyfriend back at my base camp."

"Oh... he was not my pairing mate." the girl said in a slight accent that he couldn't place.

"Eh, whatever, we gotta get you out of here. Can you walk?"

"Yes," The girl nodded, wiping tears from her eyes, as Ajax helped her up and saw to her shackles. He found the key nearby in a pile of discarded clothes and used to it get her free. "My thanks, noble human." she nodded to him.

He nodded back. "Come on, before there's more of them."

"Hold! You didn't kill them on your way in?" she asked with shock.

"It's on my 'To Do' list, okay?"

She looked uncertain. "Then there might be... complications..."

Ajax found how right she was as he came out into the main area of the cave to a whole host of the Bull-Men... Minotaurs... as she'd called them, were out waiting for them. They all held torches in their hands and were all glaring right at him. "Ahhh hell..." he breathed, bringing up his rattan sword and shield for another fight.

Complications indeed.

***

CHAPTER 2: Myths, Legends, and Rituals.

What Ajax assumed was the Chief Tauren/Bull-Man/Minotaur/or-whatever stepped forward. He looked down at the still body that Ajax had killed and then looked up at Ajax. He pointed at the body. "You... did this... human?" he asked in very slow, broken English.

"You can talk?" Ajax blinked in surprise.

"You are rude." The Chieftain retorted. "You come to our home, make war, kill one of our numbers, and now you presume that we cannot speak." He shook his head in what Ajax perceived was a sad fashion.

"To be fair, your boy here did take a woman against her will to rape." Ajax pointed out. "Where I come from, that's a crime."

"Is it not a greater crime, human, to let one's species die out?" The Chieftain inquired rhetorically. "Look around you, we are not that many in number and we do what we must to survive. You humans are blind to such things as you have taken over the world that we once ruled."

"I don't even know who you are."

"We are the

min'valotauros

," the Chieftain said slowly. "Your kind call us Minotaurs after the civilization on the island of our birth across the lesser ocean." He then pointed a finger at Ajax. "But we can speak of such things later. Now, we have this issue at hand to discuss."

Ajax glanced back at the woman. "I... uh... don't suppose you could like beam us out of here or something?"

She shook her head. "Their wards at the cave entrance blocks my magic. I am helpless down here."

"Great..." Ajax grumbled. He squared his shoulders and braced himself for a fight. "Alright... talk. I'm listening."

"First you must be able to hear." The Chieftain said, reaching into a belt pouch and pulling out a green, sparkling dust. Bringing it up to his mouth, he blew the dust right into Ajax's face. Ajax coughed and sputtered despite his helmet warding away most of the stuff. "How do you hear me now?" the Chieftain asked, his voice now much clearer. He truly did sound like a noble Tauren from his favorite video game.

"I... I can understand you a lot easier now." Ajax blinked in surprise.

"That is because your brain is processing our words in a way you understand. I can speak my native tongue and you can hear it. Likewise, you can speak your native tongue and we can hear it now." The Chieftain explained. "On to the matter at hand. You have killed one of our Braves." When Ajax started to protest the Chieftain held up a restraining hand. "Peace. We do not mean you harm nor do we mean to exact any kind of retribution. You are strong and you are brave. These are qualities that we value." With that, he spread his arms, lowered his head, and dipped down to one knee. "We bow to you, Warrior Human, and salute your prowess in battle."

Ajax was taken aback. He had not been expecting that. "Uh... thanks?"

The Chieftain stood up and thumped his right fist against his chest. "We also have a saying that has made it into your human culture as many things have; You keep what you kill. Everything that was his, is now yours." he pointed to the dwelling behind Ajax. "His home, his belongings, his weapon, and..." he pointed at the girl, "his mate."

"Woah! Wait. She doesn't have to belong to me!" Ajax protested.

"It's not like I have a home to go to now..." she said sadly.

"Come, Ajax the Pathfinder," the Chieftain beckoned. "Leave your armor inside and join me by our communal fire. You might as well stay the night as it has already fallen outside."

Ajax looked back up towards the cave entrance and sure enough he could see nothing but blackness beyond. With a resigned sigh, he took off his helmet and dropped his sword and shield inside the entrance, but kept the rest of the armor on just in case. He then grabbed up a fur and draped it over the naked woman's shoulders. She thanked him with a smile and drew it around her body before falling into step with him. Ajax noticed that other Braves were taking the body away.

"Hey," he called after the Chief as he moved to catch up. "How'd you know my name?"

"We have been watching you for many years now," The Chieftain replied, beckoning them to follow. "Your name is well known on this mountain. I am Chief Kurdor of the Tahoma Tribe. I have lived here since before your white men came. Before that we lived in peace with the humans that called this place home; the Lushootseed. We used to trade furs and food in exchange for women who were willing to mate with us. They called us

Ts'emekwes

or, more commonly, 'Sasquatch'."