(Hi folks, sorry for the delay of this chapter. Just fyi, this past month I have been super busy with work and also removing old flooring in my home and installing new floors myself on the weekends. I'm not quite done yet. Still have my office to do, but my son came home with covid and some how I'm the only one that got it! So, I've been sick in bed sleeping more than anything else. Anyway, thanks for your patience.
Oh, and be safe out there, this covid shit ain't the end of the world, but it ain't no picnic in the park either. -Pinkender)
Chapter 31- The Bos and the Bear
Laughing. Drinking. Eating. Celebration of life and living. The Dining Hall of Jordmodirbaer, the true name of Earthmother's Den, built from mountain rock, large rough hewn timbers, and a sod roof, was bursting with the sounds of merriment. A large fellow. One of the ursidae-alfari, also known simply as a bear, came running into the light of the already overly packed dining hall. He pushed his way up before the massive U-shaped table where I sat beside Orsa, where her mother Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda sat on her left side and Chief Fyrsil sat just on my right. The man stood better than nine feet tall. A full head taller than Fyrsil who was a head taller than Orsa.
The man, like all of his people, was built thick and wide, and was covered in long brown fur. He wore a thick leather belt plated with small metal discs and had a hoop for a large mace on his left hip. On the right hip, dangling from two iron rings hung a large leather bag. From two more rings hung a long loincloth of leather covered with more small iron discs.
"Chief!" He yelled so as to be heard over the merriment.
"Yes Torben, where have you come from, and what is your report?" Chief Fyrsil chuckled but then grew more concerned when he saw the man was serious.
"Chief, they came from the north," Torben said.
"From the north? Who?" Fyrsil asked now his tone more concerned but kept calm. He didn't want to panic his people carelessly.
"A small group." Torben answered, "A bos'taurine family, a hare, a rabbit, and... and a goddess! They seek permission to enter the village. There is a goddess at our gate, Chief, and she's asking permission to enter!"
Having overheard, I nearly choked on something that tasted like pumpkin pie but without the crust. Swallowing, then chuckling, I asked, "Does the goddess glow as brightly as the moon? Hair that floats above her head and gives a glimpse of the heavens themselves? Walks on hooves, has a long tail, and has four arms?"
Fyrsil cut his eyes to me, and seeing that I was not upset, visibly relaxed.
"That is not a goddess," I pronounced, "Rather, she is the Oracle of the moon goddess Seline. She is my wife, and she is my mother."
With a sharp nod Fyrsil stood and raised his hands for attention and silence. Once he had everyone's attention he commanded, "Torben, hasten back to the Oracle of Moon and escort her Holiness here with all speed!"
Torben nodded, and then ran back the way he came. This time he didn't have to push at all, a path opened before him. For the first time since the end of the battle with the army of the dead there was complete silence. Celebrating could be heard all around the village, except in the dining hall. As the time dragged out for Torben to make his way back to the north gate and then lead the party back to the grand dining hall, whispers began to sprout and circulate. Questions on who was coming. Was it really a goddess? No, it was a priestess. No, it was the High Priestess of the Moon. No, it was Seline herself in the flesh. No, it was traveling merchants come from a nearby village. Whispers murmured and rumors spread, but all were curious as to what was going to happen next.
----(!)----
Whispers spread out, moving constantly in front of Glenna and her party like a wave. Pointing fingers were raised in her direction as mumbled comments and speculation were shared between companions. Who is she? What is she? Why is she here? Why wasn't she here before? There were almost as many different answers for each question as there were questions.
She was disturbed by some of the questions. Some were just natural curiosity. Of course she knew who she was, but she was as baffled as they were when it came to other questions, like. What was she now? A nottalfar to be sure, but what else? Seline changed her. Now she had hooves for feet, a long tail, and four arms. All she lacked were horns and she would look like most succubi. If given wings, she would look like one of the Fallen, or the goddess herself. With the exception that Seline had four massive breasts while Glenna still only had two. Thank the goddess she hadn't given her two more!
It was strange though, Jordmodirbaer was nothing like Tunglljosbaer. She felt nothing here. There was no sexual exstacy from prayers and worship to Seline in Earthmother's Den like what she had experienced in Moonlight's Burrow. Though Usagi and Tsukino's constant prayers to Seline did keep her belly constantly warm with arousal. Which, in turn, caused her to give off pheromones that affected Bartlett, Maha, Tampa, Usagi, and Tsukino, sending them all into a breeding heat.
Bartlett and Maha stopped the journey three times so that they could disappear into the forest and quail their desires. It sounded like giants wrestling with bellows of ecstasy that sounded more like blasts from giant horns. When they returned from their third mating, both blushing and grinning with embarrassment like a young couple newly married, they kept upwind and a hundred feet between themselves and Glenna.
Tampa, Usagi, and Tsukino were worse off. The longer the trip took the more impatient Tampa became. Usagi and Tsukino became delirious with sexual euphoria. Giggling and sharing naughty innuendos they tried several times to follow Bartlett and Maha into the forest so that they could watch and satisfy themselves. They became overly friendly with each other to the point that Usagi hip-bumped Tsukino so hard that she knocked the woman's weapons out of her hands, which led to more giggles. Thankfully, by comparison Earthmother's Den was gloriously quiet and Glenna immediately chided herself on thinking such a sacrilegious thought.
It was late, the moon having risen and set by the time they left the dense mountain forests north of Earthmother's Den. Everyone was exhausted, even Usagi and Tsukino. Dry dead grass crunched beneath Glenna's hooves, and she knelt down and touched the grass and the soil in curiosity. The grass was dead. Beyond dead. So was the soil. It felt... wrong.
"Something feels wrong here," Bartlett mumbled to himself.
"Yeah," Maha agreed with a nod, "I think we should hurry."
Tampa nodded, and Glenna found herself agreeing wholeheartedly.
As they drew closer to Earthmother's Den large bonfires lit up the clearing in front of the north gate where the forest had been cut back for some distance. Dark splotches littered the ground all around them and as soon as they came near to one they saw that it was an emaciated, half decomposed, body of a canis-alfari. A wolf! They moved past and saw more bodies, none of them were the same. A Boar. Orc. Dokkalfar. Bear. El'dwea, and so many others.
"What happened here?" Usagi asked in a hushed whisper.
"A battle," Bartlett answered, not realizing the question was rhetorical. Of course there was a battle. That much was very self evident.
