Author's Note: This story is one of a series, but they can be read in any order.
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Naka had come to hate the jungle.
When he and hundreds of other men had made their exodus from the city of Izaz, making the ultimate act of defiance against Izazi matriarchy and trying their luck alone, Naka had taken it all in stride; the swarms of mosquitos, the steamy heat, the uneven ground and the tree shoots sharp enough to pierce men's soles had all been small complaints back in the heady days when they first built their men-only settlement, the city of Standup.
But now Standup was fallen. The Standup boys were not alone in this jungle, and the females, human and otherwise, who ruled this insane wilderness had banded together to break down the wooden city's walls and claim the prizes within.
Naka's group had been fortunate. They had had his brilliant judgment and razor-sharp leadership to guide them away from the ruins of Standup untouched by female hands. Most hadn't been so lucky. Of the dozen men who followed Naka, most of them remembered seeing other men escape, but didn't know where they might be. Either way, the vast majority of the Standup Boys were captured, or 'tied to a tree,' as everyone was saying. It was a wickedly accurate turn of phrase. Between the bondage-loving tribal women, the freakishly powerful monster girls and those few musket-armed huntresses who had betrayed the Standup boys, the lost males were not captive husbands to be welcomed, but booty to be coveted, hoarded, bound and fucked raw. It was a fate Naka would not wish on an enemy.
With threats everywhere and no plan, Naka and eleven other men simply walked, on the lookout for edible fruits and with only his keen sense of direction to guarantee they were not going in circles. No one could say what lay ahead, but everyone knew they could not stay anywhere near Standup.
The greatest irony was that Naka had never needed to be here. Most Standup boys joined the movement to flee hopeless poverty, domineering mothers and abusive wives, but Naka had suffered none of those things; he had thrown his lot in with the Standup boys simply to see if he could handle it.
Naka heard movement, too big to be a mere animal. "Heads up! Something's coming!"
Three men drew machetes. Two others stood back to back, brandishing spears, and Naka's most trusted man Ruan pulled a flintlock pistol. Naka's other men held up sticks or clubs, and Intriba, the hideous, muscle-bound brute who had so recently joined the group, simply bared his fists and waited. No man was prepared to go down without a fight.
Human figures crept under the great segmented leaves of a behemoth fern. Just as Naka was about to demand that they halt, he saw to his delight that both were male.
Two men—two unmistakable Standup boys—emerged in front of Naka. One of them gawped at him, then hardened his face and tried to look fierce, not helped by his luxuriant, flowing hair.
The one beside him needed no trickery to look vicious. As thin as reeds and tense all over, his eyes burned with lethality even as he raised his eyebrows. "Men..." He said. "You're all men." He turned to his long-haired companion. "Kervin? Think we're safe."
The soft boy let his guard down. "Thank the stars," he said gently. "I knew we weren't the only men who got away, but I was starting to doubt it."
"Not much to look at here," said one of Naka's men. "We're on the run just like you are. Anywhere but Standup is better than Standup."
"I'm sorry," said Naka, stepping in front of the newcomers, "I haven't introduced myself. I am Naka, and I lead this outfit. I'm leading my men to lower ground. We hope to find water to break our trail, so we can't be tracked."
"Downhill?" The nasty, skinny boy traded looks with his partner Kervin. "Going the wrong way. Izaz is as low as the ground gets for miles. Want to get away? Go up." He jerked a thumb to his side. "That's where we're heading."
"At least that's what the huntresses told us," said the soft man diplomatically. "I am Kervin, by the way. And this is my boyfriend Vot." He shook hands with Naka, and Vot took the cue and did the same.
The name of Vot sent ripples through Naka's dozen. Back in Standup, when the threat of captivity by women had seemed permanently behind them, men had gathered factions and squabbled over control of the city, and Vot had squabbled louder than anyone. Naka had assumed—hoped, almost—that Vot was tied to a tree by now. It didn't help that most of Naka's men were looking at skinny little Vot with more admiration that they had shown for their own leader.
But Naka would deal with that later. "Men," he said grandly. "We're changing direction. We'll march uphill until we find safety."
He started marching, and Kervin and Vot fell into step with the others. In minutes, they were mumbling with the others as if they were longtime friends and allies, which, Naka mused, they were, since they had all been part of the Standup exodus. And to his credit, Kervin volunteered to keep first watch as they slept that night.
The trouble began when Naka woke up, shaking off the sticks, brush and turf he had piled onto himself as camouflage. The rest of his dozen already sat around a small fire, making a watery-looking stew in a tin pan that someone had had the presence of mind to save from Standup. Naka frowned, not because he had missed his chance at breakfast, but because he had always made a point of helping them prepare it.
"Good morning, men," said Naka, seating himself on a high boulder overlooking the others. "That's another night with no incidents. We're making progress. Towards the end of today, we'll need to start thinking about where we're going to resettle. We've put enough distance between us and Standup that I anticipate we'll be safe."
"Plan's already changed," said Vot flatly.
Naka's eye twitched. "What did you say?"
Without sitting up straight, Vot jerked his head at the sky to his right, where a gritty grey pall hung over the rising sun. "We saw smoke. Not a little wisp, either. Tons of it. We're going to go take a look."
Looking around, Naka saw the rest of the group all nodding lazily, and something twinged inside him. "You men..." His temper flared. "You men went behind my back! Why didn't you take it to me?"
"We just did," said Ruan. "You just woke up, and now you know."
"I should have been the first to know!" Naka snapped to his feet. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Kervin shrugged innocently. "What would you have us do, wake you up?"
"Yes! I'm the leader here!"
"Oh, don't be an ass!" The whole clearing went silent as Intriba, big, ugly Intriba, heaved himself to his feet. "You are not our leader! You talk to us like we're your children, but you're the biggest child of all!"
"Child!" Naka fought back the suicidal urge to strike him. "Who led you safely out of Standup when it was under attack! Men were being pinned down left and right, but are you chained up? Are you some woman's slave?"
"We were out foraging, you idiot! We were gone when the monster girls showed up!"
"Oh, yes? And who plunged into the fray and dragged half of these men to safety?"
"Plunged in? We crouched in the bushes, and whenever someone came to cower with us, we stuffed them into a hole in the ground and told them to be quiet."
"Who else was going to do it? You? I seem to recall you were badgering me to make a break for it and leave them all to fate!"
Naka and Intriba faced each other like gunwomen spoiling for a duel. Naka glanced around to see what reactions he was getting, and faces were disappointingly neutral. Vot looked aloof, almost confused—hardly the reaction Naka had expected from the would-be tyrant of Standup.
"I accept the decision to go after the smoke," murmured Naka. "But don't go over my head again. Any of you." On that, he began stuffing his things onto his belt, then stormed off after the fading grey cloud in the distance.
Even in Naka's foul mood, the going seemed to be easier that day. No unexpected pits sent anyone tumbling end over end, no suspicious rustling threatened a monster girl attack, and even those damnable mosquitos seemed fewer.
His first challenge came when a crag obstructed their path. Two steep and too tall to climb, the looming stone landform stretched as far to the left as the eye could see, and it extended to the right until it plunged into a frightfully deep gorge lined with the kind of needle-sharp tree shoots for which Naka still had punctures in his soles.
"Maybe we can climb around," said Ruan. "I see some handholds. And I have a hook we can use."
But Naka's sharp eyes found another way. Crouching by a fallen tree branch as thick as a strongman's arm, he hoisted it up, the bark biting into his soft hands, and hauled it aside. Twigs, leaves, earth and mossy stones tumbled down. Where they had been, a cave entrance peeked out at the world, big enough for two men to walk abreast.
"Shall we?" said Naka smugly.
Two men struggled to light a torch, and as soon as they had it, Naka led the way in.
Light-fearing mushrooms grew in the corners of the cave mouth, where dirt had settled in pits in the rock. But as the men delved deeper, the dirt became scarcer, and the rock became sharper. Naka, who walked as far ahead as the light allowed, found it suspiciously easy to place his feet. He glanced at the walls and stopped. "Everyone, do you see these?" he said, pointing to thick, straight while lines that crisscrossed the stone surface. "These are chisel marks. Someone bored this tunnel. It must go all the way through."
"But who bored it?" asked Ruan.
"Someone long gone, I should hope," said Kervin.
Naka's spirits rose when the tunnel widened out, and they rose further when it opened into a cavern, with boulders and pits and rocky shelves on the walls.
Then he saw dark shapes on the rocky shelves, gently moving. Human forms coiled up on straw beds on the rock, their chests gently rising and falling.
They were not men.
Worse, the woman in front of Naka had sharp spines like a hedgehog's trailing from her head all the way down to the small of her back, a sinister mockery of hair.
He could not suppress a terrified whisper. "Monster girls!" Here was a beast that would not hesitate to capture him and force herself on him, and it was close enough for him to touch. Fear infused him, exhilarated him and made time move faster and slower at once.
"Back!" he hissed at his men. "Get back! D-danger!"
"What is it?" asked Ruan, raising his torch.
"Put that down! Put it away!" Finally, he spat it out: "Monster girls!"
Those words worked their fearful magic on the rest of the group. Eyes went wide, voices hushed, and Ruan turned around. "We're getting out of here."
The flight was swift, quiet and orderly. Nevertheless, as they emerged into the blessed daylight, Naka quickly took a count of all his men. Mercifully, his dozen were all present, and so were Kervin and Vot.
"Well," said Intriba, panting a little. "That went to shit, didn't it?"
