Majutsu-shi no Chikara loosely translates to "Sorcerer's Power"
*** THIS VERSION IS TRUNCATED. Approximately 45% has been redacted from the original. I'm sure there are those who will find this more agreeable.***
CHAPTER TWELVE: Where Blood Lies
Naenia's eyes were open before Abhilash moved to kick her awake. The cold, clinging wet of the pre-dawn had invaded the hut where they lay together by the hearth, and Naenia's nose wrinkled as the hungers of her body growled noiselessly within.
"Up." Abhilash grunted, righting herself and prodding Naenia's gray-brown hip with a booted foot.
"Your heat will be on you, without..." Naenia stopped herself, remembering the life she abandoned the night before. "...without the Betrayer's magic. Keep your womb full, and it will not cloud your mind."
"Up." Abhilash kicked again, this time Naenia snarled her pained reply as the younger walked out of the hut without a backward glance.
Rising to her feet, Naenia sniffed deeply, looking at the shrouded human bodies on the narrow bed at the far side of the hearth opposite where she'd slept on the ground. Damon's face was nestled into Ginga's hair, his left arm cradling her to him protectively. The two had entered the hut in silent haste, the rasp of their shoes quiet enough but their fear-stink too strong for Naenia to sleep until they had settled onto the bed. The male human, too spent, had pleasured the female with his mouth until her fear-stink washed away in the sweet-almond and cream odor of her climax. Naenia's mouth had been wet with renewed hunger at that, but the humans quickly fell into snoring sleep -- leaving their ork companion in frustrated arousal. Abhilash had masturbated to the sound of their sex; Naenia resisted that temptation.
Now, Naenia regretted the choice, her body's lust felt to have doubled on waking and it took much of her focus to keep her hands off herself. She followed Abhilash, already halfway to the stream on the far side of the pepper field whose blossoms were beginning to sprout well ahead of season. Naenia wondered at this, for she had not seen what terrors and wonders had accompanied the old wizard's last storm, but gave no further thought to it as she submerged herself in the icy water and let the chilling current dull her body's appetite.
"Can you make his cock larger?" Abhilash looked Naenia directly in the eyes as the elder ork surfaced and wiped the water from her face.
"I've no skill at changing flesh." Naenia shook her head. "Some small magic that lets me see the nature of things, bloodlines... and power to command the mind."
"That was the Betrayer's trick, I think." Abhilash scowled, nodding thoughtfully.
"It was." Naenia shrugged. "It did not let her change flesh."
"Hmph." Abhilash snorted, dunking herself back into the water to cool her own ardor before climbing back onto the bank and donning her ill-fitting clothes.
Now, cockerels crowed loudly and goats bleated in the corrals. South-wold was stirring ahead of the dawn, just behind the orks. The cough and snort of distant humans clearing night phlegm, coupled with the muttered cursing and shuffling of two score hungover revelers rose and fell in a sussuration - a tide of autumn leaves stirred by the first cold winds at the last of that season. Weary and wary eyes peered from cowls or doorways, glancing over shoulders and from beneath frowning brows. Already, South-wold was alive with the morning's business. Cooking fires, drawing water from the stream, and herding goats away to one of the further pastures. Dour, fearful, angry glances flicked over them, whizzed by their faces. A daring few struck them full in the eyes before the humans wielding them blanched and withdrew along with their thorny suspicions.
Abhilash returned to where she'd left Damon sleeping, finding Akuji waiting outside the hut and frowning deeply at her as she approached.
"Bring him to Elder Shaum's home by sun-up." Akuji tilted his head toward the doorway, then turned to walk away. "There's much to discuss."
She answered with only a grunt of acknowledgment, watching him depart with canny interest. The dark pits beneath his tired eyes aside, Akuji was not ugly for a human. Admitting to herself, Abhilash realized that her taste for flesh had been recently canted toward a particular human male with a similar look. Likely Akuji was not possessed of the same magical seed as Damon, and Abhilash sighed dismissively before ducking back into the hut to rouse the humans slumbering there.
"Get up." Abhilash kicked the side of the bed, cracking the frame and causing the whole construction to sag toward her with the weight of its occupants. "Sun-up, be at Old Shaum's hut."
For no reason beyond the sound of it in her ears, Abhilash gave a crooked grin. Damon and Ginga, however, were startled awake; fumbling about to untangle themselves from blankets, bedding, and each other.
"What in the hells?" Damon groaned, finally standing and rubbing sleep from his eyes. Abhilash noted the identical smudges beneath his dark eyes that made him look more like his father as he squinted at her.
"Didn't need to break the damn bed." Ginga snarled, pulling her dress over her body and cinching her belt high around her waist. "And a fine morning to you."
Abhilash had only a few moments to admire Ginga's bare form again. She was small, smaller than Damon (which might be why he chose her, or she him), but her body had healthy fat from years of plenty and strong muscles honed by the labors yielding such a surplus. The width of her hips was a bit wider than Damon's, perhaps, which meant she could straddle him easily and would likely birth her young more easily than a female with a narrower frame. In all, Abhilash found Damon's tastes to be adequate (as far as human flesh was concerned). If Abhilash had not known better, she would have thought Ginga's teats already swollen with milk. They could well be the same size as Abhilash's own breasts -- but on the smaller human they looked gigantic and cumbersome. The she-ork licked her lips and stared at each of the humans for several moments until some other thought took her attention.
"Shaum's, you said?" Damon pulled his tunic and breeches on, tying his shoes on his feet and glancing up to the nodding she-ork.
Naenia was now standing outside, leaning near the edge of the doorway and looking in with muted interest. Her hand idly stroked low across her stomach, eyes unfocused and staring at a low angle through the wall opposite.
"By sun-up." Abhilash stooped to recover the Thirsty Blade. "Not long."
Nodding, the male rubbed his eyes again and looked toward the entrance. Naenia met his gaze, then glanced up to the distant mountains and the shafts of morning streaking high overhead.
"Now." Naenia turned her gaze back to Damon and huffed with boredom or irritation. Where orks were concerned, it seemed to be either... or both.
"Get something to eat." Damon leaned down to kiss a very irritated-looking Ginga, her blue-gray eyes narrowing at him dangerously as she caught his wrist in her hand.
"You'll not be rid of me, Damon." Ginga stood, marching with imperious purpose toward Shaum's home and dragging Damon behind her. "I'm sure one of your servants can manage to bring us something."
With a roll of his eyes, Damon matched the angry stomping gait and shook his head.
"They're
not
servants, Ginga. You
know
that." Whether genuine or not, his chuckle garnered a growling rebuke from the woman leading him to Elder Shaum's.
"Your brood mares, then." After that, Damon thought better than to risk offending Ginga any further -- her tone biting much the way he imagined of an ork's tusks.