Aberrations aren't beasts, they are strange things that seem to be the manifestations of dark magics out in the wilderness. They differ in size and form greatly, but the one common thing among them is the uniformity of their teeth; flat, slightly curved knife-like things about the size of a man's thumb. The flesh of aberrations is utterly inedible, causing insanity and mutations in anyone stupid enough to attempt its consumption. I've had to put down more than a few men who in the wilderness had exhausted their food and resorted to eating the meat of an aberration. It's quite possibly how the things multiply. As the greatest tangible threat in the wilderness, their teeth share universal value everywhere.
It's customary to haggle with merchants, but haggling with a woman over her company, however, isn't done.
"Ten." I agreed, glancing her up and down. She was worth ten, even if it was just pretty much the last of my coin.
I led her upstairs to my room, and she crawled onto the bed, giving me an exquisite view of her backside before turning and sitting in the middle of the bed, smirking at me expectantly. My weapons were already handing up in my room except for a dagger in my boot for emergencies. I slid off my bracers and boots, then unbuckled my belt and loincloth, placing them on the table along with her ten teeth in a neat pile, climbing onto the bed, naked. The dancer eyed my physique appreciatively, and raised her hands to caress my chest, running her fingertips across my scars.
"So many battles." she purred.
"And these are just the close calls." I replied, putting my hands on her shapely hips, feeling her soft flesh yield to my tough fingers. I pulled her to me and kissed her, and her tongue sought mine. They danced for a while, and as I caressed her body, I unfastened her dancer's garb, unwrapping her silks. She giggled and pushed me to lie back, then finished undressing herself, placing her expensive silks on the bedside table. I gazed at her naked body, her skin dusky, her tits full and high, her backside round and strong. She turned to face me and sat astride my thighs, looking down at the erection swelling between my legs, biting her lip. She leaned forward to stroke my chest, and I brought her down to my lips, kissing her again. She tasted of mint. She moaned as we kissed and reached down, lifting her hips and guided my dick into her pussy, exhaling as she slid down me, provoking a long, deep groan as I felt her envelop me. She broke the kiss and sit upright, further taking me inside her, my cock twitching as she held it deep inside her. She began rolling her hips, a practiced, expert motion as she pushed forward, rose on her knees, pushed her backside back, then lowered herself back down my length, watching her soft belly gyrate as she danced atop me. I reached up to massage her tits, pinching her nipples as she reached back to put her own hands on my thighs. She was a master of pleasure, able to react to me as easily as a change in tempo or key in a piece of music, picking up on my growing pleasure, slowing down and speeding up accordingly as she worked me to climax until she was lunging passionately, rocking the bed, a surprising amount of power in her thick body, and I had to grip her hips and hold her still as she brought me to orgasm. I thickened inside her and began firing furious volleys of cum deep inside her, making her tilt her head back, her long black hair tickling my thighs. I put my hands back on her tits as my orgasm faded and massaged them, exhaling with deep satisfaction as she gently moved on my dick, expert kegels milking me dry. She lowered herself to my face and we kissed, lazily coiling my arms around her as her tits pressed against my chest, compressing deliciously. My dick softened and slid out, a wad of cum spilling from her and splashing on my thighs.
After a few minutes of kissing, my dick began returning to life and I took her from behind, the headboard smacking the wall, my dancer moaning loudly, whorishly as I filled her with a second load.
"That's ten." she said as I withdrew, and I watched her cup her hand beneath her pussy to catch my cum spilling from her and step off the bed. She walked to the corner where a wash bucket and cloth sat on a stool and I watched her wash herself, enjoying every jiggle of her bare body, toned to perfection by her art. She dressed and took her teeth from the table and blew me a kiss as she left, the leather flap of a door swishing as she passed through.
Worth every tooth.
***
The next morning I strolled through the town. It was typical of its kind; a Druid's city, a man named Torvirax, and his ilk are very fond of naturalistic places. Their towers are huge trees in the branches of which they weave their homes. Everything is made similarly, plants, bushes and shrubs manipulated by the Druid's magic into homes, shops, inns, workshops. Sorcerers are masters of stone and fire, their cities are formed the same way dripping water alters the form of rocks; huge, single pieces of stone formed into the Sorcerer's tower, and their subjects' homes, shops, inns and workshops.
It was such a change from the wilderness. I thought back to poor Erik and the beautiful Gwen, scraping a living out in the wastes because they didn't want to live under the whims of a magician. I didn't blame them I guess. Gwen would likely have spent a few years in a harem before being allowed to marry Erik. I imagined that they left together to avoid such a thing, only to be left with no option but to have her use her body to pay me to protect them when the burned one had been harrying their livestock.
Vast fields of crops surrounded the city, with all the buildings within. Inside a city, you could faintly see a shimmering dome high above the city as the magic bringing fertility to the place caught the light. It wasn't visible at ground level, much like a rainbow, it just hung above. When it rained, the domes were even more impressive, shimmering in every shade of the magician's magic; greens for a druid, and red for a sorcerer.
I spotted a pair of sentries, leather skirts and shoulders, spears ready, plumed helmets.
"Greetings." I said as I approached them. "Might there be any work for a hunter?"
They looked me up and down, then the leader of the pair spoke.
"In fact, yes. An aberration has been seen prowling the edges of the city by several townsfolk, and a caravan that we were expecting yesterday still hasn't arrived." he explained. "Be a few teeth in it for you if you can bring us a trophy back and even more if you can find the caravan. It would have been coming from the west."
I left the city and made my way west. There were roads between many cities, some left over from the world-before, others beaten anew by traffic. This was a new one. It followed a stream that ran from the city as the hill declined, and turned away from the road to a secluded pool surrounded by cliffs. I made a mental note to return for a bathe once I had made some progress.
I caught the scent; blood. Human blood. I dashed away from the road following it, finding pieces of debris until I came to a scattered pile of wood and carcasses in a clearing in the rocks. I reached back and drew my sword, then began approaching with a grimace. The savaged remains of two drawbeasts, hulking, dumb animals used to draw carriages, and the splintered remains of their carriage. smashed boxes of trade goods, seemingly unstolen. Definitely not marauders or bandits. No human remains, whoever was driving the carriage had either escaped or been completely devoured. Looking at the remains of the drawbeasts, I determined the latter. This aberration was huge. Ah well, the bigger they are, the more teeth the have.
I sniffed, trying to pick up its scent, but I hadn't needed to, I saw it appear above a rock directly ahead of me, looking down into the clearing. Yep, huge. Aberrations are always unique, crafted by malevolent imaginations. This one had six limbs, and a huge mouth filled with teeth. A wet, slavering tongue crossed its lipless mouth, and I scaled it at about eight feet tall were it to rear on it rear legs. On all-sixes it was five feet and muscle rippled beneath its layer of sparse bristly dark hair. Its flesh was broken with horns erupting from its skeleton seemingly completely at random. Tiny, beady bestial eyes glared hungrily at me. aberrations are always hungry.
It bounded down from the rocks and was upon me, and I slashed furiously with my two-handed sword, always waiting for it to lunge for me so I could counter-attack. Dodge, counter. Dodge, counter, letting it expose its weaknesses to me with careful bestial swipes and clashes of its massive jaws.
I was soaked in the thing's black blood, teeth clenched with effort, though I was slowly grinding the cursed thing down. Its actions grew sluggish, until finally it staggered away from me, blood pouring from a dozen deep wounds. It roared with frustration and reared up on its rearmost legs, giving me my opening. I lunged forward and pushed my sword straight under its ribs and into its heart. Thankfully aberrations' bodies still adhere to normal biology.
It gasped inhaling sharply at the shock of my fatal thrust, then swiped dumbly and fell back, sliding off my sword and landing in a lifeless heap, a last breath wheezing out of it.