The villages surrounding the ceremonial grounds were abuzz with talk. Soon the future high priestess would gift them with her powers of life.
One village had been allowed two recipients and there was much boasting about that honor.
Inside the ceremonial house, Kennice sat in the corner guarded by two very burly men with matching scowls.
She was dressed in a very ornate shift that hugged curves and displayed flesh in all the right spots. Yet instead of feeling sexy, she felt sick. She just knew something was going to go wrong tonight. Everything else had gone wrong this week and tonight was probably not going to be an exception. She kept her thoughts buried deep for if any surfaced about her true love, Erykia would be there swift as a hawk to punish her. So she sat, and shivered and waited for her life to unfold.
***
Brenna flew leisurely through the sky with Cyrus on her back. {{Why are we going back to the place we were told not to go?}}
Cyrus lightly held onto Brenna's horns as they glided through the skies.
{{Because there is something I must do Brenna, especially if I am ever to let go. I promised I would do this and I won't break this promise. Please understand.}}
Brenna's sigh rumbled through her body but night was falling fast and her onyx colored hide easily blended in with the night sky.
A few moments later she landed outside the town. {{I will be here if you need me.}}
Gently he stroked her snout and placed a soft kiss on the end of her nose. {{Thank you Brenna, you are my best friend, you know that right?}}
{{But of course.}} Brenna said smugly as she settled her wings down behind her back.
Cyrus chuckled and winked at her before disappearing into the town in a blur, sticking to the shadows, looking for the one who carried a necklace the same as the one Kennice had given him.
***
Tom and Donald came out laughing hard. They had both drank a little too much but were both excited for they had a chance at the beautiful high priestess. They touched their onyx necklaces and laughed.
"Go on, I'll catch up. Got to grab my coat," Tom said.
"Alrighty," Donald said before staggering away.
Cyrus smirked and walked up behind Tom, casually picking up a two by four as he walked. He weighed it in his hand and nodded to himself.
Gently he tapped Tom on the shoulder and as Tom turned, smacked him as hard as he could in the face, snapping the two by four in half at the sheer force. "Whoops, little bit too hard I guess."
Tom only grunted before crumpling unconscious to the ground.
Cyrus leaned down and snatched up the necklace from Tom, pocketing it into his clothes. "I'll take that, now to find out what I have to do next." Quietly Cyrus set off after Donald
Donald had changed clothes and staggered outside. His vision was blurry and it was the night of a new moon, which made it harder to see. "C'mon man or we will be late!" he hollered at Tom.
"Yeah am here, where is it we go again?" Cyrus kept a few paces behind, just out of recognizable sight.
"This way lunkhead! Sheesh you'd think you'd remember. I hope I get to lie between her thighs. I'd bet she'd be a good fuck."
Donald stumbled along until they reached the edge of the clearing where a huge bonfire had been lit.
"Ok here," Donald said and handed Cyrus a mask. "Remember she only gets to see our face after we bed her."
"And that's it? We just go in and bed her? Nothing else?" Cyrus quietly picked up a fist-sized pebble beside him and waiting for Donald to finish.
"Well the power will fertilize the land and we have eternal fame and glory," Donald said turning back to look at the platform that had been erected near the bonfire.
Cyrus weighed the rock in his hand a moment before clocking it round the back of Donald's head. "Too bad you won't see it." He leaned down and scooped the necklace up from Donald's body and put on his mask, heading quietly for the house he knew Kennice to be residing in.
***
Kennice felt Cyrus' presence and she let out a nervous sigh, which she immediately masked when the curtain parted to reveal Rhys and Erykia.
"It is time. The men have arrived. Your virginal blood will replenish the land," Erykia said. "This night will also prepare your body for your future husband."
Kennice looked down at the floor and not at her two nemeses for she would surely scream in fury. But she knew, at least, just this once; she was going to thwart them. She rose to her feet and followed them outside to the platform.
Cyrus stood near by, gazing up at the platform and kept his mind clear, thinking only of deflowering Kennice, the same thing the two before him had been thinking.
She could feel the heat of his gaze and it made her blush. Tonight they would finally be one. But she had to be careful. If she appeared too eager they would suspect something. She had to choose slowly and carefully.
Erykia held up her hand and the nine men before her looked at her. "Welcome. Tonight you bring honor and possibly glory to your village. Tonight, my heir apparent, Kennice, will choose one of you for the fertility rite. You will spill her virgin blood and give life back to the earth. Let the choosing begin!"
Cyrus stood with his arms crossed and looked down at the men beside him and muttered. "Why the hell didn't they just have them beat the crap out of each other? I don't know, would've saved me some work in winning."
The man next to him chuckled. "That confident are you? I heard she's an ice princess and will probably try to refuse all of us. Of course, I also heard that the high priestess had to take a cane to the younger one's backside. Something about wanting some man who didn't give a damn about her heritage," the other man gleefully imparted to Cyrus.
"Could you give a damn about her heritage? I heard half the men in the bar talking about just wanting to bed her. Hell I wouldn't mind bedding the high priestess, show her what a real man is like." Cyrus chuckled, trying to seem as much like an experienced lover as he possibly could.
"Ye ain't the only one. I'd bed them both right now but alas we only get the younger one. Oh, she's coming down to choose now."
Cyrus smirked a moment and whispered. "Ye right, I bet you'd wanna bed that guy standing beside her, you haven't even got the muscle to hold the young one down never mind break her in."
"We'll see, won't we?" the other man said before looking eagerly at Kennice who was peering at the men.
Cyrus took a deep breath and quietly cleared his throat, speaking just loud enough for Rhys to hear. "What'd you say man? We're here to bed the young one not bang her husband, sure he doesn't look exactly manly but...no you can't make him your bitch man, imagine what'd the old one would say? He's probably her boy toy or something." At the same moment his thoughts filled with fake memories of the man beside him saying just that.
Rhys let out a low murderous growl and started forward. Erykia held up a hand and blood red energy lashed out and hit the man in the chest sending him flying. "Kennice, he is disqualified. Choose three and bring them inside. You shall make the final selection then."
"Yes, high priestess," Kennice said obediently. She chose the first one in line, the fourth one in line and then chose Cyrus who was last in line.
"Come," Erykia ordered and went inside followed by Rhys, Kennice and her three choices.
The other men headed back to their anxiously awaiting friends and family to tell them they had not been chosen.
Cyrus kept his delight buried deep in his mind, silently following the two beside him into the room, his eyes watching Kennice.
"Choose wisely, Kennice," Erykia said.
Kennice gulped and then studied each man. She took a few minutes to run her hands along their arms and chest. She even grazed the middle's one obvious bulge in his pants.
"Why should I choose you?" she asked the first.
"Because I am young, strong and will be tender with you," came the prompt reply.
"And you? Why you?" she asked of the second.
"Because I will give you a great night filled with passion."
