While the Gods Slumber

"How do we send it back?" Amina asked. "Sanju can't follow us into Mibega."

Zhura munched on her bland breakfast, wishing she had a well-seasoned stew in front of her instead of groundnuts and mango. "Ntoza said she could banish them, but she didn't say how."

Amina's eyes slid to the summoning stone. "Well, rutting that thing summoned Sanju, so...," she licked her lips.

Kaj chuckled. "I think I am jealous."

"Why don't we just ask it?" Zhura said, wiping viscous fruit juice from her fingers. "Sanju!"

The demon came, swishing through the ferns in its odd, four-limbed gait. "Sanju mate?"

"Persistent, isn't it?" Kaj said.

"How do I send you back home, Sanju?" Zhura asked. "You must have seen Ntoza do it."

"Speak Sanju name," the demon rasped.

"I just say your name... Sanju?"

The creature barked. It pointed a claw at Zhura. "Woman," it rasped, struggling with the word. It pointed to Amina. "Woman." Then Kaj. "Man." Then itself. "Sanju."

"Sanju is

what

it is," Kaj said, understanding. "Not

who

it is."

Names had power. Every child was named for one of their consecrated ancestors at a ceremony after that child's first year of life. That ancestor would then watch over and protect the child for all its days, assuring their good fortune.

Whose ancestor was I named for?

She pointed at herself. "Zhura." She pointed at the demon and raised her eyebrows in query.

"Sanju mate." This time it was not a question.

Zhura eyed the creature's emaciated, mildly female body. She looked at Kaj.

He made a face. "We don't need to send it back," he said. "Can't we just leave it out here?"

"It's a demon," Zhura said. "It will cause mischief. Besides, it served us. At the very least we could send it back where it came from. Amina?"

Amina recoiled. "You're the one who likes eating yoni, not me."

Zhura turned back to the sanju. "We mate with you, you give us your name, we send you back. Yes?"

The demon barked again. "Sanju mate."

Zhura sighed, with one last glance of appeal at her friends. She lay back on her mat. She was wearing only her loincloth, so she slipped it off her feet and spread her legs, trying to look and feel inviting.

The demon panted. It approached Zhura. The bristles around its waist shifted as something pushed through them. Before her eyes, a cock sprouted from what had been the engorged female nub. It continued to sprout until it was the size of the summoning stone, half as thick as the demon's thigh, stiff and trembling. A drop of clear fluid hung from the puckered hole at its tip.

"By my tight-fisted mother," Amina swore. She glanced at Kaj. "My love...?"

"Uhh..."

"Please, Kaj..." Amina took both of his hands in hers and led him to stand over Zhura. She slipped off her skirt, and did the same with his breechclout, pushing it to the ground.

Realizing what her friend had in mind, Zhura reached for Kaj's ankles, caressing his lower legs, feeling a twinge of excitement as she coaxed him.

Amina eyed the demon hungrily, fingering her slit. "Go slow, Sanju."

The demon only wheezed in response.

Amina stepped over Zhura and dropped to all fours atop her, drawing Kaj down to kneel above Zhura's head. She toyed with Zhura's breasts as she kissed her lover.

Zhura watched them embrace, caressing each of them from below. Her eager hands played over Kaj's rippling abdomen and Amina's smooth, night-dark skin. She squeezed her thighs around Amina's slender hips. She felt as if she had, finally and completely, bonded with the friends who had given her so much of themselves already.

Amina's eyes grew wide when the Sanju stepped up behind her and began to stuff his monstrous member into her cunt. She locked her mouth upon Kaj's, moaning into their kiss as the giant cock spread her open and drove itself, slowly but inexorably towards her very core.

Amina grunted, lowering her head to improve the angle, until her firm breasts brushed Zhura's torso. Zhura's fingers flicked and pinched her friend's stiff nipples. She could feel Amina's whole body shudder as their bellies pressed together. Zhura almost wished they were reversed, head to toe, so that she could see the demon's cock fill Amina, and taste them both.

When Amina let loose a long sigh, Zhura knew the demon had hit bottom. Then it began to draw itself out of Amina's stretched cunt. Amina rocked back with the sanju, so that much of her weight was off of Zhura. The demon began long, slow, steady strokes, wheezing and panting.

Zhura felt something next to her head, and realized it was the length of Kaj's hard cock. She looked up at him. He watched his lover in wonder and fear. Zhura reached up to caress him, and took him into her mouth.

He moaned softly, a surprised look on his face as he fed her his turgid manhood. For one long moment, his eyes met with hers. Zhura held his hips as he thrust deeper into her mouth. She choked. But she urged Kaj on with her eyes and hands, telling him without words that she trusted him completely. She wanted all he could give.

Zhura's throat made wet, gulping sounds as he rutted her mouth, balls smacking softly on her forehead. The sweat and masculine musk of him caused her hips to thrust up involuntarily with need. Zhura's mound mashed against her friend's shaven slit.

Amina's cries matched the rhythm of the demon rutting her. Its huge cock drove all the way in, and pulled nearly all the way out, reaming her cunt thoroughly.

Zhura wished she could see Amina being rutted, but all she could see was Kaj's cock and balls above her face as he lunged more and more insistently. She knew he was thrilled to watch Amina. She felt Kaj's hands, rough and hungry, squeezing her breasts, as she writhed under him.

Finally, he cried out as he came. Zhura held him, her fingers digging into the cheeks of his butt, feeling jets of his seed pool in her mouth, swallowing as he fed her. Heat spread from her throat and belly. She continued to suckle until he gasped and pulled away, sitting back.

Amina was bent double, her eyes rolling in ecstasy as the demon clutched her hips and rutted her. Its pace and intensity had reached the point that the creature was nearly toppling her over with each lurching thrust.

Zhura stood up before Amina and braced her friend to keep her from falling. The demon continued to rut Amina until it howled and unleashed its seed deep inside her. Amina's legs trembled as it filled her up. Only Zhura and the demon held her upright. When the demon collapsed, sprawling in exhaustion in the ferns, Zhura eased her friend down to lay back on the mat.

The sanju seemed to be barely conscious, and its cock began to shrink back to that of its androgynous state. Kaj was sitting on the mat at Amina's head, steadily stroking his wet, half-hard cock.

Zhura stood over the prone demon. "What is the sanju's name?" she demanded.

"Miliki'tiki," it wheezed.

"Miliki'tiki," she repeated.

The creature's body began to smoke, letting off a dark, oily cloud that thickened and eventually consumed its entire form. The cloud wafted into the summoning stone and disappeared.

"I didn't notice that happen before," Kaj said.

"I think we were all distracted last night," said Zhura with a wink. She gazed down at Amina. Her friend's legs spread invitingly. Her cunt leaking silvery demon seed.

"Speaking of which..." Zhura said.

She knelt down between Amina's dark thighs, pressing them apart even further. Then she bent and began to lap up the creamy spend, tasting its smoky flavor and Amina's own pungent juice. Amina moaned, thrusting her hips up weakly. When she had licked all of the seed from Amina's inner thighs, Zhura spread her friend's nether lips and began to tongue her cunt. The heady scent of sex and cum was overwhelming. New power flowed through Zhura's body as she ingested more and more of the sweet and salty flow. Amina's fingers quested lovingly through Zhura's braids, massaging her scalp.

Zhura she felt Kaj's big hands gripping her thick ass, and his rejuvenated cock pushing at the entrance to her throbbing cunt from behind. She moaned eagerly, rocking back against him, welcoming him inside her.

She was more than ready.

**

Mibega stank.

The town, whose name meant 'crossroads' in the Nubic tongue of the Hill Kingdoms, was built on a once-wooded plateau above a fall of the Little Mongoose. From its vantage point, one surveyed the forested rises to the south and the ribbon of the river as it cut into rocky gorges downstream. A gated wall of baked and dried mud blocks, twice as high as any man, surrounded it on all sides. Warding stones were built into the walls, poking above it like points on a crown.

A village like Boma sat upon soil that was constantly renewed, flooded with rain and stream and silt, loosened by the roots of vegetable gardens that grew around every home. Families built with grass, and when a hut blew down, it was quickly and easily replaced. Chickens and goats roamed everywhere, digging up worms and roots and offal, refreshing the earth.

By contrast, Mibega's soil grew stale and caked with accumulated years of waste. Walls kept out floods and wind, and the mud brick of homes and buildings that were stuffed within slowly sank in the buried mess. Crowds of unwashed bodies added to the stagnant reek.

As Zhura wandered with Kaj and Amina through Mibega's eastern market, it was all she could do not to hold a handful of cloth over her nose. Traders hawked antelope skins and cotton bolts and leopard furs and peacock feathers and indigo and wood carvings and amber and tea leaves and kola nuts and dozens of other wares. Herding boys led tamed buffalo and goats around and even through the stalls, trampling and shitting on goods that peddlers had lain out on the ground. Two spearmen pushed through a crowd, arguing with a merchant about thieves. A family huddled around a priestess in red face paint, cradling infants for a naming ceremony. At the edge of the market, an elephant lumbered, its back piled high with giant baskets.

"By the sacred ancestors," Zhura said, pinching her nose. "This is madness."

"How much, again?" Kaj asked.

"Forty-one," replied Amina, pushing through throngs of people.

Forty-one Nubic bits. Tiny lumps of copper that in Boma, were used mostly in the market. Amina and Kaj had pooled what money they had. Zhura had none to offer. Villagers usually paid for medicine with chicken, fruit and vegetables, or crafted goods like woven cloth.

The larger exporters had clusters of tents and roped off areas where they organized caravans to Ikanje. It was to these lots that Amina led them. They ducked into one area and stood in a short line of men waiting to enter the main tent. In a muddy yard next to the tent, a warrior was leading several men through exercises with spear, shield and sword.

When it was their turn to enter, they stepped into the tent's hazy interior. A man in flowing robes and trousers with a delicately trimmed beard sat on a stool. Upon a small table next to him were sheets of pale fabric with a small jar and pins sticking up from the jar. A second man in armor of cured hide sat to the side, smoking a long pipe.

"Afternoon, van master," Amina said, in the Kan trade tongue. "We seek passage to Namu-on-the-sea."

"Not going all the way to Namu," the bearded man said. He picked up one of the sheets and began to study it. "But we will get you within the borders of Ikanje. Twenty-five bits each, payment first. No food or shelter included."

"We have tradable skills."

"What trades?"

"I am a descendant of Kong, born of a line of market-women. I have worked in the market all my life, and can haggle and value goods," Amina said.

"So can I," he said flatly. "What else?" The man spoke the Kan trade tongue with a clipped accent. Zhura guessed from his speech and dress that he was from the east.

"He is an ironsmith," Amina gestured to Kaj.

"Already have an ironsmith. What else?"

"She is an herb-witch."

The bearded man glanced up at Zhura. "I have women with herb knowledge."

"I have more than herb knowledge," Zhura said. "I was one of the two herb-witches for an entire village. I can heal wounds, cure sickness and fever, and treat some poisons."

The man nodded. "Useful for a train of fifty souls. But not enough to waive the fee."

"She and I are also trained warriors," Kaj said.

The armored man blew smoke, eyeing Kaj's physique. "How trained?" he asked.

"Since childhood," Kaj said. "My father fought in the Impi Wars."

The armored man glanced at the other. The bearded man only shrugged.

"Show us what you can do," the armored man said to Kaj. "Maybe we waive the fee for you."

Kaj turned to Zhura. "She is better than I," he said.

Both of the foreigners stared. The bearded man set aside his sheet. His companion rose from his stool and chuckled. He beckoned the three friends to follow him outside.

The armored warrior raised a hand, and the men stopped practicing with weapons. "Where's the farmer boy?" he asked.

A stout young man stepped from a group of nearby men with spears and swords and entered the center of the muddy lot. "Here, Lej Tabo," he said in an unsteady voice.

Farmer Boy was over a head taller than Zhura, his legs nearly as thick as her waist. He was bare-chested, wearing only tight hide britches and carrying a heavy spear with a blunt wooden tip smeared with a thick red substance. He grinned, showing gaps where teeth were missing.

The armored man, Lej Tabo, turned to Zhura. "Let's see this training."

Zhura shot Kaj a look. He was the better warrior, but for the magical energy she felt coursing through her limbs. They needed to impress, and just now she felt she could best three or four men.

She picked up her staff from where they had set their gear.

"Get her a spear," Tabo said.

"I will use my staff," Zhura said.

Tabo raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.

A boy approached her with a jar. Using a cloth, he applied a red paste to the ends of her staff. Sniffing it, she realized it was sap mixed with dye.

She stepped into the center of the lot with Farmer Boy. After a second thought, she kicked off her sandals, letting her toes sink into the black mud.

Farmer Boy leveled his spear, and they began to circle. His weapon was much longer than Zhura's staff. But a spear was a common weapon. Menga had taught her how to defend against a spearman. She watched her adversary move. He was no doubt powerful, but he was flat-footed and slow.

He advanced, making tentative jabs. Zhura noted his balance, seeing that he wasn't committed. She ignored the feints, and then struck the last away, reversing her staff for a counter-swing. Farmer Boy scrambled back, as the end missed his neck by the breadth of a hand.

The men watching began to jeer at Farmer Boy. He raised the shaft of his spear over his head with both hands, thrusting downward for an overhand strike that would have hit her in the center of her chest. She slipped in and knocked the spear away, again reversing and sweeping the end of her staff behind his near leg. Against a lighter foe, she might have tripped him, but Farmer Boy only stumbled. Bright sap stained the back of his ankle. He swung the thick shaft of the spear towards her head.

Zhura deflected the blow up and over, ducking under and thrusting to strike him full in the upper chest. This time Farmer Boy, already off balance, did fall, pitching backward and crashing into a group of hooting onlookers.

From the corner of her eye, Zhura saw Tabo gesture. A second man came from her right. This one was shorter, with a shield and light spear. He kept his shield high, so that Zhura could see little more of him than a bald head and white paint. He advanced cautiously, his reddened spearhead poised and ready to lash out at her. Zhura, unsure if Farmer Boy was down for good, needed to end this quickly. She circled away from the spearman's shield hand, feinting, drawing the man's thrust, and then countering.

Even though this man was faster than Farmer Boy, compared to her, he moved like a tortoise. She rapped him on the side of the head. He staggered from the blow. Before he could regain his balance she'd struck him twice more, in the chest and side.

"Zhura!" Kaj cried.

Zhura spun just in time to see a third man charging her from behind. She lashed out low with the staff as she dropped, knocking his near leg out from under him. He tripped, tumbling over her back and into the muck, where she tapped him with red.

She wheeled around. The number of onlookers had grown, and the van master had joined them. Zhura was surrounded by suddenly quiet men, whose expressions varied from shock to amusement. Kaj and Amina wore triumphant grins.

Farmer Boy was slowly getting to his feet, a bright mark of red on his chest. Her other two opponents were still down, mud-streaked and groaning. She recognized the bald man's white paint as a Sung village marking.

Zhura's pulse pounded. She looked to the van master and Tabo, ready for more.

The van master tugged on his beard. A slow smile spread across his face. "Ranthaman San," he said, with a tiny bow.