This story is a bit wordy and fairly long, so if you are looking for immediate gratification, you might want to look elsewhere. It contains heterosexual and lesbian sexual activity.
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The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between actual persons, living or dead (or just confused) is entirely coincidental. Please do not copy/redistribute the story, in part or in total, without the author's permission.
This story takes place in the entirely fictional city of Springfield, California, so don't go looking for it on a map. And in my little fictional world, there are no unwanted pregnancies or STD's, except as plot driving devices. The author encourages the practice of safe-sex. Finally, as the name implies, this is part of an ongoing series. It would benefit the reader greatly to examine the earlier stories for background information and descriptions.
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". . . shit!" Robbie shouted. He, the Strays and the Raptors were fighting for their lives in the jungles of South America trying to capture a magical jewel called the Heaven's Eye from a maniacal shaman. The adversary conjured up a set of massive earth golems to aid his followers in the defense of the jewel, and all hell had broken loose. Robbie found himself lying on his back, scrambling to get out of the way of the descending foot of a golem before it crushed him like an insect.
'If I let that thing step on me, Red will have my hide,' he thought absently. Then he felt hands on his shoulders and was pulled out of the way just before the foot came down.
"I'm not explaining to your sister that I let you get killed," Natasha said as she helped Robbie to his feet. She looked pissed. The Strays and Raptors were generally too fast for the golems but the golems were too tough to be readily destroyed. Most of the shaman's followers had been incapacitated or had run off, leaving a kind of roaming stalemate.
Besla and her Raptors had taken to trying to drop heavy objects on their earthy enemies, but they weren't able to lift anything big enough to do significant damage.
Natasha was strong but not strong enough to take on those things. She didn't much care if they hit her. The shaman himself had watched her casually let one step on her and she just got up afterwards.
"This guy is pissing me . . . off," Natasha said, trailing off. She noticed one of the golems step in a fire pit. Shortly thereafter, it took a step and she saw several chunks dropping off its leg. "BESLA!" she shouted. She looked at Robbie. "Fire," she said excitedly. "These things are flexible. Fire 'em up and they'll go stiff."
Robbie stared at her.
"What? Am I the ONLY one around here who took a ceramics course in college?!"
Robbie dodged a clumsy blow from the golem. "Never went to college, remember? And where are we supposed to find that much fire? I left my Greek Fire in my other pants."
"Is that what you told Besla?" Natasha said jokingly as she ducked another swat from the golem.
Robbie saw Besla bashing another golem over the head with a heavy stick, mostly to no avail. The quetzalcoatl were having limited success by constricting and crushing the enemy, but it was a slow process that left the feathered serpents vulnerable. Robbie waved at her frantically. After a moment she flew over, obviously exhausted.
"Yes?" she snapped.
"Sorry," Robbie said. "Didn't mean to interrupt your lack of progress!"
Natasha stepped between the two hotheads. "Besla, we think we've found something we can use. Can anyone in the Raptors produce fire? The dragons maybe?"
Besla snorted. "Dragons breathing fire? Where do you humans come up with these ideas?"
The three of them put some distance between themselves and the fray. "How about Lothar? Can he conjure fire?" Robbie asked.
"I don't know. He's been trying to get at the shaman and he's sweating up a storm. He's not used to this," Natasha said nervously. Lothar was well hidden, but eventually the shaman would find out where he was and send a golem after him. "We need to either take care of some of those things out or find a way of getting to the shaman. Where's he drawing all that power from? Lothar is no slouch, but he's sweating like a pig."
"The jewel maybe?"
"I don't think so. I don't think that's what the jewel does, from what Lothar told me." She looked at Besla. "See if you can get a good look at his surroundings . . . see if he's standing near anything or is protecting something." She turned to Robbie. "Sneak over to Lothar and see if he has anyway of conjuring fire. Tell him what we saw with the golem."
Natasha watched her comrades take off. She figured she'd make another play at the shaman. It wasn't like he had anything that could actually hurt her. She tore off across the field, dodging her earthy adversaries. She got within fifty yards and ran into a new problem. More specifically she sank into it.
"Holy fuck!" she shouted. The ground around the shaman had been softened, and Natasha quickly sank up to her knees. It seemed to have little effect on the powerful golems, but the ground-based attackers were slowed anywhere in the shaman's vicinity. "I'll give the bastard credit. He's clever," she muttered. Then she almost smiled. 'It's VERY soft,' she thought.
Meanwhile, Robbie had found Lothar hidden in a grove of trees. He had a narrow view of the field of battle, but it was all he needed. The nerd-turned-hero was sweating from pores he didn't know he had.
"I can't get through, and he doesn't even seem to be getting tired!" Lothar gasped.
"We think he may have some kind of power-source," Robbie said. "Besla is looking for it. Listen, can you . . . like do fireballs and stuff? Fire makes the golems brittle. We might be able to start breakin' 'em up."
"Fire is tricky and potentially dangerous. It'd be easier to localize it than to try to fill the air up with it."
"There's a bunch of ceremonial fire pits out there. Will that do?"
"Yeah, but I don't have much juice left. If you can get them all close together . . ."
Robbie nodded. "Leave that to us. Don't worry about the shaman for a bit. Let's take his guards out. Keep an eye open. I've got an idea." Actually, he didn't have an idea. He just wanted to sound like he did. 'Fuck, how am I gonna manage this?'
He bolted out into the open, headed straight for one of the golems. He kept an eye out for the biggest of the fire pits.
"Do you have a plan YET?" came Besla's screech as she swooped in next to him.
Robbie was annoyed. Couldn't she at least wait to be critical of him until AFTER they had won? Or died? "We need to get 'em near a fire pit," he told her. "As many of 'em as possible."
"Very well," she replied. "He seems to be drawing power from three stones on the alter, but he has golems doing nothing but guarding them. And . . . wait, your friend!"
They both stared as a golem raised its foot and prepared to squash an unsuspecting Natasha. They tried to yell at her, but she didn't seem to notice them. The foot of the creature came down and smashed her into the muck. The last he saw of her was her hand sinking down into the mud, grasping a handful of some kind of straw.
