Outpost 13-Part 3
#3 of Outpost 13
Fenryx goes aloft to take readings of the atmosphere using his nature skills. Just watching him makes Melody swoon. Lori watches the wolf ascend before tying a rope to his ankle and suspends himself from the crow's nest.
He remained hung there until the evening meal, which he ate in the crow's nest. While up in the nest eating sausages that were brought to him he befriended the dragonets nesting there. An act that proves fortuitous when Lori climbed up and in wearing only a leather bikini which upset the dragonets something fierce.
"Not too keen on visitors are they?" Asks sarcastically.
Fen swats her rear. "I just got them settled with my own presence, Lori. But why is it that you climbed up here?"
"I wanted to do some star gazing and get away from Melody for awhile." Lore says in response in an indignant manner. "Besides what you're thinking. Melody is afraid of heights."
"Star gazing, huh?" Fen asks in an incredulous tone of voice with a knowing glance shared with the dragonets in the crow's nest. "And you do this in such attire?"
"Actually, I should do this sky clad," Lori says as she strips off what little she was wearing to begin wth. "But the again star gazing was not my only reason."
Fen smirks knowingly and begins to strip himself but Lori stops him. She undoes his pants enough to release his telescoping phallus. Whispering a spell she knows, she proceeds to fasten a ring tightly to the base of his scrotum. To his credit Fen only grunts in discomfort before the vixen press her bosom into his face.
Happily he licks at her tits, an act that gets him even more excited. As Lorelei impales herself along his length one of the dragonets flies off only to return a moment or two later with a sack of flavored and slightly stale bread, in other words croûtons. He places his bag amid his fellows and the group of them eat the bread as they watch the show.
Fen smirks as a barrage of noises, mostly rude, are trilled happily which Lore largely ignores as she rides the wolf's pole. The band around his scrotum his sexual endurance and retards his knot so when the first light of dawn peeks above the waves it is then and only then that the wolf unloads his semen into the vixen, much to their mutual delight.
Fen was supposed to be on watch and peripherally he was. It just so happened that the night passed peacefully. Although the dragonets were not the only observers.The same creature type that Fen destroyed a few mornings ago has been observing them.
With the coming of the dawn the outline of its alien form can be discerned by those who know what to look for. Fen notices it when a pair of snakes come up to relieve him. As casual as you please he tosses one of his enchanted throwing shards for an instant kill. Down below Melody gets caught in a sudden downpour of gore as she awaits the return of Fenryx to the main deck.
"The Captain wants us for some reason, Fen," Melody fumes with her arms folded over her chest as she taps her foot impatiently. "I can only guess what you two were doing while the Baron was supposed to be on watch."
"I think you're going to get that boon you demanded, Melody," Lorelei giggles as she leaves the pair to go back to her quarters to get some sleep.
"A distinct possibility," Fenryx says in agreement before giving Melody a whiff and a queer look. "Are you sure you don't want to freshen up?"
"I'll do that on the way, Fen," Melody says with a twinkle in her eye. They pass into the interior of the ship. A marvel of sorcery and steam, the transport cruiser Excelsior has elevating platforms at several key locations.
While riding one of these platforms Melody performs a little ditty about cleanliness that magically refreshes her and her outfit. Such a frivolous use of magic rankles Fen a little but considering what a fussbudget the bard can be he lets it slide.
Midway to the cabin of command to meet the captain a pair of bespectacled otters whom both wolves recognize as the Lovecraft brothers, Howard and Phillip call Fen over with some trepidation. It seems they have been finding a new kind of fluid greasing the gears and have a bucket of the stuff that want him to identify. Fen needs only a glance and a whiff to know what it is.
"How long has this been going on?" Fen asks sternly, his stance and tone brooking no dissertion.
"It started about a week before we disembarked, Baron Objugare," Phillips the slightly taller of the pair says in a formal tone.
"You don't need to be so formal, Phil," Fenryx says plainly. "You are both engineer alchemists. Do you have any means of erecting creature wards?"
"Anti-Critter wards, Fen?" Howard the pudgier of the pair asks to which Fen just nods, which prompts him to continue with: "We have the formulas written down somewheres, we'd just have to dig them out."
"I think I know where we have that lesson filed, Howie," Phil says to his brother before returning to Fen to inquire: What sort do we need to make, Fen?"
Aberration wards," Fen says matter-of-factly. "I killed one of the buggers that makes this slime when they die this morning."
"Same nasty that we caught light of back in port?" Melody asks fearfully to which Fen just nods which makes Melody shudder involuntarily.
"Wait a second," Howard says before taking a good whiff at the bucket. "Spy Eye Juice! I should have known! We were killing scores of these in the war. Never did get a proper ward against them. Aberration wards do work somewhat though, just not as well as we'd like."
"No, not nearly as well," Phil agrees in continuation. "Well, Howie, looks like we get to experiment again."
"Oh yeah!" Howard thunders. "Thanks for the reminder, Fen, Phil and I will get to work on the problem. Come on, bro! It's fun time!"
"You got that right, my brother!" Phillip says enthusiastically. "We'll figure out how to tweak the basic generic ward to battle these pests specifically. We did pack those traps did we not?"
"I think so," Howard says as the pair wander off. "We got them in under miscellaneous equipment. Didn't think we'd need 'em till we reached the island though..."
"They're like a couple of pups who just got the keys to a candy store." Melody observes to which Fen just smirks and nods.
"Not a bad analogy actually," he states. "This is a challenge they couldn't solve in the war and now they have a chance to do just that."
"But will they find their final solution before we reach our destination?" Melody asks in a rhetorical manner.
"If they don't then depending on their progress I'll have them keep working on it. It should also have the desired side effect of keeping them out of trouble." Fen says in speculation to which Melody shoots him an incredulous look. "At least in theory. Now let's go see what the Captain wants."
As they turn to leave, Fen tosses a shard over his shoulder. It hits its mark alright but in doing so the throwing shard transforms into a small bladed wheel or spiral type throwing weapon that functions like a boomerang. The steel triskellion swastika returns unerringly to Fen's hand.
Not only that but what was a bandoleer of ten throwing shards is now five throwing wheels. Fen finds this annoying but the weapons feel natural in his hand so his accuracy is unaffected. Melody is naturally puzzled by this new development until two things happen. First she sees the weapon glow slightly in the presence of an invisible spy eye and then the ease of which Fen used the strange new weapon to take out the little monster.
"I wonder if these things detect just spy eyes, all aberrations or just those associated with the Overseers of he Labyrinth?" Fen asks idly.
"Due to the fact that your throwing weapons keep changing after you kill spy eyes it could be just them. We'll know more when we get to Aberration Island," Melody speculates. "By the way, how many of those things do the Overseers have anyway?"
"Millions, Mel, millions," Fen says through a heavy sigh. "On a solo mission I was sent to take out a factory the Horde was guarding making abominations for their war machine. The entire facility was staffed by semi-sentient constructs made by installing a humans brain into a headless metal, and some other materials I had never seen before but I learned some of it was made with a substance called rubber, they look like an insectoid centaur with an eye stalk coming out of the top. The things they grew were straight out of a nightmare."
"I've read field reports from the ranger corp from time to time when I wasn't on the front lines serving as a morale officer and medic," Melody relates. "Some of those reports were outrageous to believe. I made repeated suggestions that booze rations be kept to a minimum. I guess you weren't drunk after all."
"Why do you think some of us took to drinking so much after an assignment; even to the point where a few of us looked like we would dive into a barrel of rum or whiskey if we could get away with it?" Fen asks sternly.
"But you never got that deep into your cups!" Melody observes. "Why?"Fenryx smiles broadly. "One of my uncles was a bard. As a pup he took a shine to me and told me some the most lurid tales at bed times. Mother would chastise him for giving me nightmares but between those wild ones the lessons I learned before I failed to become a druid I grew to strengthen my mind. My own creativity became my shield. I understand more than I want to an this understanding makes me an efficient hunter."
"You were originally trained as a druid?" Melody asks incredulously. "I know you value the natural world a lot more than civilization. But I never suspected you were almost a priest. What happened?"
"I was too aggressive." Fen admits. "Too vindictive and too keen on seen the guilty punished. Especially in ways that were so brutal that it would shock a community into submission. You and Lore saw a little bit of my temper. It was decided my violent tendencies were better channeled into ranger training. My mother, who is a druid herself, was not happy. My father, her ranger companion, was elated. It was a bone of contention between them. I can only imagine what the reaction of my elevation will be."
"You're a Lord now, Fen," Melody states reprehensibly. "How can they be anything but proud?"
"Titles and political power are transitory, Melody," Fenryx scolds. "Maintaining the balance of power that allows life to flourish, tending to the landscape as its caretakers rather than its masters and destroying that which threatens peace and the pursuit of happiness are higher callings than merely sitting in judgment over others."
"Now you sound like a Druid!" Melody elates in an exasperated sigh while shaking her head. "Does all your tree hugging advance us as a species and a united people? Does it elevate us any more from the mere beasts from which we arose? What does this preservation of the land really do for us?"
"It allows us to stay fed for one thing." Fen argues. "Building cities is what the humans were Hells bent on doing. What happened to them? They allowed their hubris to drive them insane! Ultimately it led to their demise. Or did the Purge Wars teach us nothing?"
Melody opens her muzzle to elicit a rebuttal and then realizes she has none. The scars of the victory freshly won are too deep and to soon to refute. She heaves a heavy sigh under his whithering glare. Fenryx is incensed. He never told Lore nor Mel what happened at Auros's cave and he never will.
The sacrifice he had to make for their lives and all beastlings haunts him. Melody doesn't know it but she touched a raw nerve. Fenryx does not blame her. In his heart he has already forgiven her for her ignorance.
In her dream state Lorelei meets Valerie crying in an idealistic beach setting. As the vixen approaches the human attacks her. Murder plays in Valerie's eyes as she sees in Lorelei what she has lost.
Fenryx chose Lorelei and his fellow beast folk over her. The beach turns into a blood soaked field of battle. Lorelei wears the ultra light chain mail of a battle mage and wields a bill as her weapon while Valerie is a war priest with heavy chain, a large shield and a heavy mace. Lorelei makes a broad swipe with her polearm to force Valerie back.
"What the fuck is your problem, Val?" Lorelei growls. "You can't come back even if you got the help you went gallivanting off to collect."
"You, Lorelei!" Valerie screams and charges only to be battered aside. "Fen chose you! Max and Mal are dead! Fen killed them!"
"When was..." Lorelei starts to ask before she buries the blade of her bill in Valerie's skull. "Oops!" She awakens bolt upright in the bed she and Melody are sharing with Fenryx. "Gotta talk to Fen!" She says to no one although a spy eye does wink in and out of view in front of her.
But not before the Spy Eye strikes forehead with a tentacle. The memory of the dream she just had is stolen from her mind. A surge of bio-electricity stuns her severely. Wen the the tentacle is retracted she collapses on the on the bed and slips into a death like coma.
Howard and Phillip Lovecraft stalk the hallways of the ship wearing goggles they enchanted themselves. Phillip carries a staff of polished steel with a crystal ball that looks like one of those electric spheres that seems to have a purplish globe within and tendrils connecting the glowing core to the outer shell. Howard carries a crystal cage.
Together they hunt for spy eyes. The staff holds them in place and the cage encapsulates them. Once caught the brothers experiment on the things, a process that invariably destroys the test subject.
Doom and gloom messages are recorded but not given much credence as they heard similar messages during the war. But beyond the usual deterrents to observations there is nothing new that they find. However they did find varying levels of tolerance for the usual irritants.
Information gathered in this manner will be used to construct the wards they were ordered to make. Although after the first hundred captured and disposed of the spy eyes became harder to find. Partially because the invisibility screens are getting better and thus they are getting harder to detect, and the only one better able to sense them than the brothers is Fen himself, but also because there are less of them to find.
In fact the brothers have begun to rethink their strategy instead of just warding off spy eyes the brothers start working on methods to render the ship and all aboard invisible to the spy eyes. In doing so they will be depriving the intelligences behind them of a subject to study. It is while in pursuit of this goal that they are attacked.
As the brothers work in the make shift lab aboard the ship a thing rolls in like a huge tire. It unfolds before them. Segmented like a centipede it sports chitinous legs, a great stinger with spinnerets encircling the spike and rising like a scorpion's tail behind it. Scissor blade like claws are prominently displayed as it rears itself into a centaur-esque posture. Crab like mandibles form the mouth of the thing above which is a compound eye the size of a child's head orbited by eight smaller eyes which look as if they could have originally belonged to a bunch of humans.
While the brothers act like mad scientists at times they were aware of the monster when it first rolled in. And when it unrolled into an attack position they took out rods of blasting they were working on and attacked it. Blue white beams lance forth from their iron rods topped with crystal pyramids of clear quartz. Their initial blast causes the beasty to recoil.
But it quickly recovers and wraps up Howard in alien spider silk. Once it had safely cocooned the one brother in its webbing it does the same to the other brother. And after it had mummified them both the thing stabs each repeatedly in the face and chest until all movement appears to stop and life signs seem to fade away.
Upon becoming satisfied that it had killed the alchemists the monster rolls itself back into a spherical position and rolls out to find new prey. While rolled into a ball the plates on its back make it hard to injure. Arrows and crossbow bolts just bounce off the tough hide like rain water washes off a duck's back.
It can also extend its claws to attack those it rolls by. Sixty warriors lost their lives as it makes its way throughout the ship as if on some sort of mission. Whether this mission was to kill Fenryx or that he was simply in the way may never be known. But when the ranger saw the monstrosity he pulled out his bow and fitted an arrow to it fast.
Whereas other archers could not find the chinks in the thing's armor, Fen knew from experience what kind of arrow to use and where to aim. Melody is transfixed like a deer in head lights, mesmerized by the sight coming at them as Fenryx takes careful aim. Perilously drawn and awaiting its firing the arrowhead smolders with hateful light.
A red streak of light marks the arrow's passing through the air. When it strikes the beast while said monster is mid way through its transformation from roller to crawler, the location is that evil looking central compound eye. It roars in anger and pain as Fen switches from his bow to a weapon that features a quartet of long hooked blades held together like a steel claw by a series of rings.
Two of these rings are for him to slide his wrist and forearm through combined with a handle for his fingers to grip. Fen spreads his arms as he executes a leaping pounce on the thing. Fighting like he was possessed, Fen uses his battle claws to completely shred his adversary.
"What was that thing?" Melody asks fearfully.
Fen heaves a deep sigh before answering. "It's a roller scyther. The Overseers use them as shock troops and assassins."
"But how did it get here?" Melody inquires.
Fen flings one of his new three armed steel pinwheels like an over sized shuriken, killing three spy eyes before returning to his hand before responding with: "That's how, spy eyes acting as teleportation anchors. The Overseers have multiple uses for the blighters."
"Your training does you credit, Objugare," the disembodied voice proclaims. "But how long can you survive our onslaught? Turn back while you still can."
"Looks like you've become a target." Melody says with a smirk.Fen just shrugs. "Not the first time; won't be the last."
With that said he ushers her into the elevating platform that will take them to the command chamber and ultimately the Captain. When they arrive they find a minister of the Church of All Faiths waiting for them. Fen glares at Melody who is without a thing to say for a brief moment that comes by very few times Melody is actually speechless as Fenryx crosses his arms across his chest in annoyance and taps his foot.
"I hope this will satisfy your need of a boon, Mel," Fen growls as Mel blanches as she realizes just what is going on.
"But...but..." She starts to stammer in protest when gets a dark look in his eye.
"Is the lady ready for the ceremony?" The cobra priest says calmly. "I was told to perform a marriage ceremony for Baron Objugare and his new bride."
"Congratulations, Baroness," Fenryx growls sarcastically with a dark grin.
Melody is suddenly shamefaced as she gazes at her feet and mutters: "Me and my big muzzle!" More to herself as she takes Fen's arm and walks sheepishly towards the minister. "I'm ready." She says with a resigned sigh. Then under her breath she ruefully exhales: This is what I get for being a bitch."
To his credit, Fenryx just smirks as they begin the ceremony of declared mates. Both of them get undressed to stand naked before the chaplain. Melody would have been cowering behind Fenryx but since it wouldn't do much good (and Fenryx would masturbate her with his tail besides) she summons up the courage to stand and utter the proper responses at the proper times as he crew leers.
One stray thought steels Melody's nerves: Somewhere in a private to semi-private area Lorelei is scrying on them and masturbating. Mel would get Lorelei afterwards. Unfortunately while momentarily lost in these thoughts she missed a courtesy question which allowed Fenryx to choose for her.
Upended into a hammock kept in the cabin for special occasions Melody is bound by her newly decreed mate as the Baron gives the crew a porn show. Much to the lecherous delight of the Captain and ship's officers Baron Objugare pounds his Baroness's pussy with his prick. For her part Melody is afraid to even whimper let alone elicit the pleasure she is feeling as Fen licks and suckles at her tits while he makes love to his new bride.
But even as Melody's semi-prudish nature (at least before she gets drunk) prevents her vocalizing what she is feeling her wagging tail speaks volumes. Once Fen's knot deflates enough for them to finally separate and get dressed, Melody's face is flushed with embarrassment.
Upon getting fully dressed Melody almost flees from the chamber, almost as her pride demands that she stride out, not run to make an attempt at retaining a few shreds of dignity. Behind her Fenryx smirks and just shakes his head as he recalls a night when a stone drunk Melody did a strip tease so lewd and raunchy the madam at the brothel and inn at which they were drinking offered her a job that in drunken revelry would have accepted had Fen not dragged her from the pole to fuck her on the table while Lorelei conjured up a vat of arctic cold water to sober her up very quickly.
When the question was posed to her again she ran off streaking all the way their hostel and hid in the waterfall in back until she had to go out on maneuvers. Fenryx and Lorelei took care of her but Lore took every oppurtunity to fuck Fen in front of her to mockingly mark the occasion. On their way back Melody is reminded of this as she is obviously winding up to unleash a stream of venom his way.
"I have to watch my rum consumption," Melody sighs ruefully. "Not to mention beer, wine and other assorted beverages."
"A little hard on board ship." Fenryx observes. "But We are rationed here. Just make sure that everful mug is kept stowed."
"Actually," Melody says with a smirk, "I think I need to get drunk and have some whip practice."
The look in her eye is one of lustful vengeance. By this time they have actually returned to their temporary home on board ship. Fenryx just smiles as Lorelei gives them everfull mugs of booze before giving Melody a passionate kiss.
This elicits a mortified look from Melody as she quickly ushers them into their shared cabin. Lorelei laughs as she drinks heavily from her own mug. Fenryx is still smirking as he looks down behind them and slaps Melody on the rump as he allows himself to be ushered.