© 2023 E.P van Gelder. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story. This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review. If you see this story on any website other than Literotica.com, it's been copied without the author's permission.
-
Lockdown, for many was a time of endless drudgery. Jogging around the block, feeding your sourdough starter, and experimenting with the right tea to make kombucha. For me and my girlfriend however, it was a time of unrivalled debauchery. Freshly moved in together, we passed the time with each other, experimenting sexually, chemically and in every other way really, while liaising with strangers online to feed the idea machine. In other words, my memories of lockdown are hazy at best.
But somehow, throughout all of that, I also wrote my first book. With no plan, no eye on the market, no idea what I was doing really. I just sat down every day and decided what happened next. What came out was... interesting.
When the first draft was done, I had my girlfriend read it. She hated it... and I parked it in the "some day" folder.
Now, a few years and a few books later, this has become little more than a vague memory, like everything else from that time. I thought it would be fun to go through it again and relive the story with you. I'll give it an edit, and hope to see if anyone on here enjoys it. If people do, I will keep editing and posting installments until the entire thing is up.
This first chapter is pretty much just the setup. If that's your main thing, the amount of fucking will definitely pick up in the next installments.
------
We are old.
Old enough to have seen a tree grow from a seed to a home-tree. Old enough to have seen rivers cut gorges into the land. Old enough, even, to see our own demise.
The lands below were ablaze with the setting sun. The world itself was burning.
It seemed like only yesterday that we roamed those lands freely. Woodland and prairie, teaming with life, from the southern sands to the frozen seas. Ours to roam. Not to own, not to exploit, but to inhabit, like any other creature.
Not like the humans, who spread across the land like a blight, cutting and burning everything in their path.
Including us.
I spun an arrow around between my fingers. There was nothing special about it. Thousands exactly like it had passed through my hands over the past few days alone. But this one was the last one.
It snapped to a halt in the palm of my hand. It was wood, and it had feathers. The steel head was crude but sharp enough to pierce leather, skin and muscle. Funny, I thought, how ineffectual an arrow really is. I put it on my bowstring, but before I could draw, Lethiana joined me on the rocky outcrop from where I'd been watching the army amassed below us. The longbow that made her so deadly gleamed in the orange light. As did her eyes, rimmed red with exhaustion and grief. She gave me a resigned shake of the head. I already knew what she was going to say. "We're done Athaniel. She's given the order."
I got up stiffly, tiredness turning my limbs to stone.
Done.
We were both silent, letting the immensity of the word settle between us.
"I wish we would keep fighting," she continued, gazing down on the army. "I'd rather die than bow to this vermin."
"Fight until we're all gone?" I asked. "Until our history is nothing but a story? Told by humans, to humans?" I peered to the tents below us. "We must stay alive. Sirinia is right. A thousand years from now, this rabble will kill each other, or die of some filthy disease they bred into their animals. We must bide our time."
She snorted and nocked an arrow. "Your mother is always right." She drew... and sent the arrow flying. We watched it disappear into the darkness below.
"Of course she is. She is our queen." I said.
She nodded, her eyes still on the army below us. "That she is. And she has called a parlay. The pig's king is already on his way up." Her eyes dropped to my hands and I realized I still had my arrow nocked. "Are you going to shoot that or keep it as a memento."
In answer, I drew silently. One can learn to relish the supple twang of a well made bow. And as I released I wondered if I'd ever get to feel it again. The arrow was lost in the darkness as soon as I released. I doubted it would make a widow of anyone.
-
Sirinia chose to meet the humans below the mother's tooth. Ritharasa, in our tongue. It was a tall, jagged spire of rock that rose from the surrounding cloud forest. There was a clearing there. Where we crowned our queen centuries ago. Even if its significance would escape the humans, it was clear to all of us. History doesn't end. Honor your roots and persevere, like the mountain itself.
The cloud cover surrounding us was thin and sunlight filtered through the rocky spires around us, casting a multitude of glowing light beams through the misty air. The beauty seemed a harsh paradox with the brutal truth this day would bring.
Every fadal from the crags that could still walk had gathered there in the clearing. It wasn't all that remained of our kind. No, thousands still lived their lives hidden away in the rainforests behind the broken crags. But our numbers here, the seat of our queen and the gateway to our lands, had dwindled shockingly over the past months. Regardless of today's outcome, the grief would be immense. A weight to carry for decades... centuries to come.
A hushed silence descended on us as our gathering parted, leaving a clear pathway to our queen.
The human's leader, followed by a contingent of at least fifty heavily armed warriors, all men, sauntered into our midst. He wore dirty leathers and a wolfish smile that, even then, made me grit my teeth.
Lethiana was close to me, moving backwards as I was. I saw Sarlai and Isani not far away. Where Elliana was, I did not know. The fact that our [[zinthasa]] was scattered at such a moment spoke of the chaos that had engulfed us.
But we all lived. At least there was that. How many zinthasas could say the same? Whatever happened today, we would face it together. This night our family would gather in Lethiana's home tree. We would eat together, and then probably we would sleep together. Elliana would probably try something, despite the hollow-eyed exhaustion, despite the suffering and the grief. Or maybe because of it.
The thought inched its way down my belly and grew into a glowing urge. Even now, while witnessing the most devastating moment in the history of our kind, my unquenchable thirst clamored for my attention. It was my nature. Our nature. I'd bathed in the waters of Zinth. Not once, but three times. My body was a vessel for its power. It coursed through my veins with every thump of my heart. Lust, unadulterated, pure, sacred, and hopefully enough to give one of the women in my family a child.
In times of peace it was what made life in the zinthrasa a joy of the senses, a never ending dedication to rapturous pleasure. But lately, in these times of war, it had only meant torture, a constant, unabating urge that taunted us while we struggled for survival. Once or twice I had cursed the day we went to the springs of Zinth, and wished that just for once, I could stop its magic from filling my belly with that heavy throb. But wishing, as we were learning every day, had little effect.
The hollow eyed crowd scattered slowly to make space in our midst, until a path opened for the pig's king and his smelly men. They stopped in front of our queen, my mother, Irinia.
Her eyes were hard and pale as glacial ice. Her skin had the pallor of someone who had been running on fog for so long they'd forgotten what it was like to eat properly and sleep a full nights sleep.
Combined with her white hair, her white dress and the snow owl mantle that was her birthright, she looked translucent, part cloud herself, part of what shrouded this mountain, and gave it life.
She was not someone who would bend easily. But we are all tested in our own ways, and bending was what would be asked of her today. Bend... or break.
The human commander stopped in front of her, put his hands on his hips and cast about with a puffed up chest. "Where is your leader?" He grinned, looking over his shoulder at his men. They all chuckled.
"I am that." Irinia's flinty voice cut through his laughter.
"You?" He looked her up and down, his eyes pouring down her body like treacle. "You're just a girl! Pretty enough... but skinny."
The words hung there, the sheer idiocy of them, the insult. I clenched my fists and a growl rumbled up my throat. I sensed the anger crackling around the clearing. Lightning was ready to strike.
Moon's shadow, if I had known then, that the kingdom we fought was vulnerable at its core and had other, bigger enemies to deal with, I would have put an arrow through his throat myself.
But, having kept ourselves apart from the world of humans for as long as we did, we knew nothing about our enemy and the internal strife that divided the kingdoms of men.
If he was trying to goad her, Irinia didn't catch the bait.
"Can we get to the point here... General Waentsin?"
General? Not a king then. And how she knew his name, I did not know. But her words made his pretend ignorance fall flat. The grin disappeared from his face.
"To the point?" He straightened himself up, then slowly circled his arm around to encompass all of us. "You..." He paused briefly. "...are now under the rule of Kinborg."
