Liberated, p.11
Liberated, page 11
part #3 of Master of All Series
“Everybody, sound off,” I told the group. “What injuries do we have?”
“Nothing major,” Shikun said, pulling bits of grey crystal from her armor plates and scarlet scales. “Just some scrapes and scratches.”
“I’ve got a flesh wound, nothing more,” Amalthea said dismissively. “I’ll attend to the other injuries first.”
“I’ve got a few scratches.” Petra hopped off of Amalthea on the other side. “It might take me some time to find good nutrients in the desert, but I can heal up by myself.”
“Does emotional scarring count?” Reggie asked. “If not, I have nothing to report besides the usual pains of age and-- Bloody hell! William, your leg!”
“What?” I looked down on my legs. “Oh.”
Sure enough, there was an arrow sticking out on both ends just behind the flesh of my knee. Those archers were better shots than I thought. I guess with all the adrenaline coursing through me dulled the pain, and I didn’t notice. At that moment, my body remembered all of the aches and pains I had been putting off since we passed through the wall. I fell over onto Amalthea, holding myself up on her saddle.
“You’re going to be fine, Will.” Petra soothed as she ran over to me. She bent down to examine the wound. “We’ll take care of you.”
“I know.” I lifted my head up and tried to downplay the severity of the moment. “It’s just an arrow.”
“Through your leg!” Shikun said, bending down to look at the arrow. “I’ll see if I can get it out.”
“Just break off one of the ends and pull the other out,” Reggie recalled his military medical training. “It pierced all the way through, so it’ll be simple enough to fix.”
Shikun held the shaft next to the arrowhead and neatly sliced it off with her talons. She then pulled out the feathered end in a quick tug, removing the arrow effectively and efficiently… and very, very painfully. It took all of my willpower not to scream out in pain. The holes left behind trickled blood over my clothes and stained them red.
Petra took me by the shoulder gently, supporting me so Amalthea could move around and place her paw on my injured leg. A calming blue glow surrounded the wound as she called on her magic. The holes tightened up, eventually smoothing over to fresh skin as if an arrow wasn’t just in there a moment before. You’d have thought it managed to poke a hole in my pants and nothing more.
“Thanks, Malthy.” I sat down in the sands and looked out into the dusk horizon.
We had managed to make it into the inside of the cragged mountain range we saw earlier, reaching the heart of Morkanna. The many monuments and mausoleums hobbled together by shoddy zombie workmanship in the far distance were proof enough that we were getting close. Khaba seemed to favor quantity over quality, as the mausoleums and crypts were so packed together and stacked so high made it look like a metropolis. Zombie New York or Tokyo, if you will.
“We should make camp soon,” I pointed out. “I can already tell that we’re not even halfway done with all of the things we’ll have to do before we can get out of here. We’ll have to keep up our strength.”
“It’ll have to be fairly hidden,” Reggie suggested. “No doubt Khaba is looking for us with that last general of his. Wouldn’t want to be stabbed in my sleep, thank you very much.”
“Where could we hide that’d be safe?” Shikun asked. “We’ll have to have a guard keep watch just in case.”
“We’ll find someplace secluded in the mountains.” I walked along the side of the mountain we just exited. “I’ll take first watch. Reggie will take second, you girls can decide who gets third. We’ll leave early in the morning. Don’t want to spend any longer here than we have to.”
“I can take the whole watch after Will,” Amalthea offered. “Sphinxes are not required to sleep as long as others. It’s part of why we’re such great guardians.”
“That settles that,” I stated. “By the way, now that we know the red mist is called Miasma, I was thinking about those Brand zombies and what to call them: Miasmadons. You know, like Myrmidons, but with Miasma.”
“What do pirates have to do with zombies?” Petra asked.
“What are you talking about?” I asked for clarification. “They weren’t pirates. They were soldiers that Achilles was in charge of.”
“Who’s Achilles?” Shikun chimed in, equally as confused as the rest of us were becoming.
“I’m sensing a bit of miscommunication here.” I stepped back from the conversation. “Tell me what you’re thinking of, first.”
“Do you mean the mermaid criminal pirate syndicate who terrorized the Vatrian Sea for decades?” Amalthea asked. “They called themselves a crime family and pilfered more than a thousand ships in their careers as pirates.”
“Have you not heard about them?” Petra said. “The Merma-Dons were legendary, even to my people in the Treison woods. Evil, but still legendary.”
“Merma-Do--” The realization struck me like a flick to the forehead. I couldn’t even get angry at them for the bad pun since they didn’t even know they were making one. It was a common cultural reference to them. “I see. No, I was not referencing mermaid pirates. I was referring to mythical warriors.”
“Oh, that makes more sense,” Petra said. “I guess it’s a good name.”
“I think it’s a good name, William.” Reggie supported me. “Rolls off the tongue a bit better than ‘Brand zombie,’ certainly.”
“Especially since we already have regular zombies,” Shikun added. “It’s a good change, even if it sounds like the undead decided to join a pirate crew.”
“How was I supposed to know about the Merma-Dons?” I defended myself. “I haven’t even been here half a year.”
“I guess you have a lot to catch up on while you’re here.” Petra nudged me. “I’m glad to help you with that.”
“I’m the living library, here.” Amalthea enlightened us. “If anyone is going to be teaching him about the world, it’s me.”
“Don’t forget about me.” Shikun butted in. “I may not have as much knowledge as you two about the world, but there’s plenty he could learn from me.”
“I’m sure I’m going to be learning plenty from all of you,” I promised all of them. “I can’t wait for the next opportunity.”
“Neither can we,” Petra said, wrapping herself around my right arm like she was trying to get me to wear her.
“It would be our pleasure.” Shikun did the same to my left.
“I’m going to have to stop you there,” Reggie said, pushing me out from Shikun and Petra’s grasps. “I would be more than happy to let you indulge yourselves in each other in most given scenarios. After all, you need to relax, unwind, and enjoy yourselves every once in a while. However, I am fairly certain that whatever space we find for our shelter will not be the most spacious in the way of sleeping arrangements. You don’t have the room for it.”
“We weren’t going to--” I started.
“You don’t have the room.” Reggie looked me dead in the eye. I couldn’t tell if he actually believed we were going to try anything here, of all places, or not.
“Alright, we don’t have the room.” I relented.
This desert full of zombies, deathly mist, and constant fear for our safety doesn’t make for the most romantic and sexy of scenarios. We have far too much to worry about to even be thinking about that right now. Any thoughts to self-indulgence could wait right now until Khaba was dead, or at least until we were out of the Miasma.
After that, though, there’s no stopping us. I planned to celebrate the victory and peace as often as I could. It saddened me that I couldn’t include Amalthea in all of this, but the biological limitations were… extensive. She’s absolutely beautiful, just like Shikun and Petra are in their own ways, and it shouldn’t matter that we can’t have that physical connection. I can be just as intimate with her emotionally and spiritually.
“You’re such a spoil-sport,” Petra said, slinking back to my arm.
“We’d be quiet,” Shikun tried to reason with Reggie, wrapping back onto my other arm.
“You know, ladies,” Amalthea said, popping her head beside mine, “theoretically, it should be much easier for me to maintain a Khalati Record connection with all of us while we’re asleep. It’d be like sharing a mind space but with a dream. In a dream space, we wouldn’t make any noise, and bodily limitations are far less… impeding.” She kissed my cheek.
“I thought you were taking watch after William?” Reggie reminded her. “You two wouldn’t be asleep at the same time.”
“You’d be taking the first watch instead.” Amalthea looked at Reggie with a glare with enough poison to kill a bull elephant. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”
“No, not at all!” Reggie raised his hands as if he was being arrested. “Absolutely, I’ll guard the fort while you… take care of things. Just be sure to wake up when there’s danger afoot.”
“We’ll be ready for anything,” I swore to him.
“We’re sorry, Reginald.” Shikun appealed to the knight. “This may be the last time we’ve got before we head into the worst of it, you know?”
“You know he deserves it, after all that he’s done.” Petra continued the argument. “Spearheading the resistance and saving all of Etria should have some sort of tangible reward, wouldn’t you say?”
“Alright, alright.” Reggie yielded. “We should cherish the time we have in relative safety while we have it. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.”
“Are you girls sure we shouldn’t wait until after we’re finished here?” I said, probing if they were really committed to this. It’s not that I didn’t want it, far from it. I was well aware of the situation.
“This may be our last moment of peace before the end,” Amalthea said with finality, “and I just found a way to get what I’ve wanted since you’ve freed me from Khaba. I’m taking the chance now.”
Talk about a game-changer. Here I was, writing the possibility off without trying to get as creative as Amalthea was. I honestly couldn’t believe the girls were all up for it now. Who was I to question it, though? I in no way prompted or coerced this in any way. And we needed the sleep, anyway.
Why not multitask?
13
The mind space of the Khalati Record was ours to manipulate and manipulate it we did. We were no longer bound by physical limitations here, and we could create any scenario we wanted.
As to which one of us dreamt up the elaborate tavern common room, well, I knew it wasn’t me, but I wasn’t complaining either. I wasn’t sure where any of the girls had gotten the idea from, maybe from one of the books that Amalthea had read, because it didn’t match anything I had seen in Solanna, even in the Baroness’s Solspire. No, this resembled some exotic den from the Arabian Nights.
Definitely Malthy’s idea, the more I considered.
“Your eyes keep drifting, William," Petra purred against the shell of my ear and followed my gaze. I hadn’t realized that the woman I was staring at across the room was Amalthea. She was stunning in her near-human form. Though much more… manageable in size, her upper torso retained all the same gorgeous qualities of her sphinx’s humanoid parts, while the rest had turned into something almost human. All that gave her away was the golden lioness’s tail and her feathery wings. "She does clean up nicely."
"She certainly does," I agreed readily.
Petra’s eyes grew dark. "I bet she'd look pretty taking your cock."
“Petra!” I mock scolded and pulled her closer.
She shrugged and nuzzled my cheek. "Shikun looks pretty good herself. I'd let her put her mouth on me."
I nearly dropped my drink at the suggestion, but I couldn’t deny that the mental image of that very thing intrigued me. I placed a kiss beneath the lobe of Petra’s ear and hummed
"She'd make a lovely mess of you."
"I'm always a lovely mess, thank you very much," Petra teased back. “We dryads are… primal creatures, after all.”
"That you are, and an absolutely stunning mess at that," I rebutted, this time dragging his lips along her neck. "I quite like you that way."
"Even if it isn't you making me a mess?" Petra questioned, and by now Amalthea and Shikun had figured out that we have been watching them from across the room.
"I admit that seeing one of the others turn you into such a wreck would be difficult, but such a beautiful sight should be shared, at least with good company," I smirked. “If nothing else, it would be well worth the show.”
"You speak of me as though I'm some piece of art," Petra mocked as she slipped her fingers around my drink sipped. When I had gotten a drink, I didn’t know, but it was green and fruity, and I felt fancy holding the delicate glass in my hand.
"Because you are, Petra," I replied, and there was a more serious bite in my tone now.
Amalthea and Shikun’s conversation looked to have entirely tapered off as they finally approached, sultry smirks in place. As Amalthea stepped up to the other side of me, she giggled in my ear.
"What shenanigans are the two of you getting into now?”
“I assure you that it’s nothing to worry about,” I replied smoothly and played along with the scene we had set for ourselves during this dream rendezvous, “Though I believe that Petra here has an interesting proposition for you both."
"Oooh,” Shikun cooed and leaned closer to us. “What is it, first sister?"
Petra flushed, partly out of embarrassment for being put on the spot, but she gathered the gumption and leaned over me, beckoning Amalthea to come closer with the crook of her finger. She obeyed, of course, and the two of them kissed passionately, tongues clashing as they both moan into one another’s mouths.
They were a sight to behold, finally. For so long, I suspected that they had yearned for something like this, and now it was happening. I rested my hands on both of their backs as I pressed encouraging kisses to their temples.
“We should take this somewhere more private,” I suggested, and suddenly the floor fell away, the exotic tavern was left behind, and my drink disappeared. Shame. It was a good drink, too.
Where slick black tiles had been before was now replaced with a plush carpet, like something out of a cheesy romance novel. There was a huge, circular bed that was big enough to not only fit the four of us, but at least another two people, and a fireplace that crackled with fresh cut wood. The windows outside overlooked a snowy mountain, definitely not anywhere near the arid desert inn that we had been in before.
Another difference that I noted almost immediately is that we were all naked. Somewhere between the transition of settings, our clothes were lost, and the three beautiful women who had become my lovers all beckoned me over with their bodies.
I faltered at the edge of the bed. I’d had my fun with Shikun and Petra before, but this whole idea was so that we could include Amalthea in our escapades. I didn’t want to make this about me when it should have been all about her. I could have my fun outside of the dream land that we’d created within the library.
“What’s troubling you, my savior?” Amalthea questioned as her long nails raked gently over my torso and teasingly down the length of my cock. I could see the hunger in her eyes, her need to take advantage of as much time as she could.
“Nothing at all,” I assured her with a kiss, “but I do think that we should refocus our attention.”
Shikun and Petra smirked, but Amalthea didn’t seem to catch my drift, as smart as she was.
“I’m not sure I understand, William,” she replied hesitantly.
“What he means is that he wants to make you the center of attention.” Petra giggled and kissed her neck.
“I am okay with this turn in events,” Shikun added, her scaled fingers dancing over her skin, eliciting goosebumps in her wake.
“O-Oh,” Amalthea stammered, and I couldn’t help but laugh at her shocked expression.
“That’s right,” I hummed as I leaned closer and kissed her slowly. “Tonight it’s all about you.”
Without warning, I gently pushed her onto her back and settled between her legs as she willingly parted them for me. I was in no rush to finish her off, at least not before I let the girls have some fun of their own. Still, Amalthea clung to me and arched into my touch, her body shivering with all the new stimulation of touch and affection.
“You look good like this,” I murmured in her ear. “All splayed out, like a treat.”
Amalthea shivered, and Shikun shushed her quiet moan with a finger to her lip.
“We’ll take good care of you, won’t we, Petra?” the dragon-girl purred.
Petra giggled in response again. “Of course we will. The question is, who wants to go first?”
I sat back and watched as Shikun and Petra leaned over Amalthea’s body and engaged in a hot, searing kiss that fought for dominance over her new body first. Enthralled, I had to take part, and I slid a finger over both of their clits, eliciting a harsh sound from both of them as they rocked against the digit.
“That wasn’t very fair, William,” Shikun pouted at me as she leaned into Petra, who clung to her in kind.
“Yeah, you should make it up to us,” she chided with a smirk, “by deciding who gets to be the first one to ravage this beauty.”
Amalthea flushed with such praise as she looked between the three of us. “Do I get a say in this?”
“No.” We all smirked and answered her immediately.
“I think she needs a taste of what we have to offer her,” I added as I looked her flush body up and down. “Go on, Shikun, let her taste you.”
Amalthea keened in response as her eyes fell on the dragon-girl. “Please.”
“Do not worry, I will make sure we both enjoy this.” Shikun laughed as she crawled up the length of Amalthea’s body. She stopped only briefly to roll her tongue over the pert buds of her nipples before she continued up to her lips, kissing her slowly.
As they kissed, I sat back on my haunches and watched, stroking my own cock in gradual motions. It was going to be a treat to see my harem interact finally, and I was ecstatic that I got to be a part of it.
