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Lorenus knew that the elephant ruler would be angry enough to kick him right back out of his mind for the next day or two, so the naga decided to give the Kgosi some space. He doubted that the hypnosis that he had put into the elephant's mental world would do everything for him, particularly as Lust and Fear were nowhere near as strong as Rage was, but at the very least, he had laid the groundwork.

As he curled around his jackal, his tail coiling from the kneels to the torso, the naga considered what he would do with himself in the intervening time. There was little that might be done with the captive, and he had already set up security.

I suppose we could dream of the days ahead...

Using his coils and the muscles within as a guide, he directed Jelani to walk out of the tent, making his way to the command tent that had been set up in the middle of the camp. There was no point in mixing work and place, after all, and the Kgosi was still screaming at him as he left his own tent. Peace and quiet would not be his for some time, sadly.

The army was a strange mix of professional soldiers and converted bandits since the rescue. The naga kept his eyes on those that had been forcefully converted to the army, but none of them had shown any signs of slipping loose of his hypnosis yet. The crocodiles were kept nude, unlike the rest of the army, just to make sure that it was easy to tell which ones they were at a glance, but none of them seemed bothered by it any longer. The hypnosis he'd been doing in the background when he wasn't dealing with the Kgosi had taken full effect, and they were happy being naked.

The naga extended his tail towards one of the former bandits, flicking at a dangling dick with the tip, and he hissed in amusement.

"Quite the collection of toys, aren't they, my perch?"

Jelani did not speak back, and he rewarded the good jackal with a pat on the head and a little squeeze around the rump. He was definitely getting better at keeping to his role as a perch, though he didn't have it down perfectly. There was still a smile on the jackal's face at the head-pat.

They reached the command tent in short order. It was unoccupied, as ever; he had made it a rule that none of the other officers were to be here without his presence or that of his immediate underlings. For all that they were controlled, he didn't want to risk an oversight or any sabotage with the map and the information on it.

After all, he had more plans than merely dealing with the Kgosi.

The snake slithered off of his perch, gesturing for Jelani to take a place at the flap of the tent. The snake, on the other hand, slithered over to the head of the table, looking down at the continent, such as it was.

"A world before me...all for me..."

Lorenus smiled to himself as he traced his fingers along the borders of the Sizwe Empire. The elephants had conquered a good deal of the land, and with the power of the primates broken along their northern border, there was no way in hell that there'd be any resistance to further expansion.

Their port, here, to the south, he thought, tapping the capital of the Empire on the map. It was in a bay, protected from the sea, and he remembered the watchtowers that watched the water. True, their ships were horrible, but there were many of them, and it would be difficult for anything to come in from behind without getting ravaged by the defenses there. Considering the efforts of the Empire to convert the sharks and the orcas out at sea to their side, it would be very likely that they would have even more naval power soon.

And that was just the start. He stroked his fingers along the map, going over the vast lands of the Empire. They stretched across the five great tribes, and they were slowly spreading across those of the monkeys and apes. With that conquered, there was only the land of nomads between him and the desert, between him and the Snakelands.

I'm coming soon, father, he thought, drawing a road with his finger across the map. I'm coming, and I'm bringing an army.

An army of bandits, of another kingdom, of another land, but it would be his army, and it would be suitable to engage the slave armies and mercenaries that his father would send against him. Aside from that...

Lorenus dragged his fingers along the western edge of the map, tracing a different line. There were other lords of the Snakelands, though his father was the rising star among them. If the others were to engage him, then all the armies of the south would be hard-pressed to fight through a land not their own and take back his kingdom. But if he were to send diplomats that his father could not track...

Through the western swamps, and then up to the southern border. Father expects me at the south and east, but as long as it is kept quiet...

Yes, that would work. He could not move too quickly, but nor could he move too slowly. After all, there were only so many that he could keep a direct hold on, and if the senior Adelin prince decided to start sending 'diplomats' to the different nobles under him in the Empire, then his hold could easily start slipping.

His father was not an idiot. He had to expect anything that would weaken his grip, anything that might take what he had stolen away from him.

Lorenus leaned over the map, casting his eyes left and right over the other lands. There were few other established powers, merely the lands that were claimed by the different tribes. Some might be useful, some might not, but none were essential on their own. It was only what they added to the other numbers that he was able to gain.

And what I can hold without losing what I have now...

Unfortunately, until the Kgosi broke, he was at an impasse, and he had to wait for a few days. Just long enough for the mental barriers that the elephant had to start breaking down, just long enough to allow the embodiments of fear and lust in his mind to start turning to the snake's service. Once that happened, he could bring the boar along.

The boar.

He chuckled to himself, already imagining how it would feel to use the Kgosi's personal plaything to break him. The boar himself wasn't unattractive, though pig-people were not usually ones that aroused him. However, using this fat-bottomed one as a way to break and humiliate another ruler?

That? That was going to be delicious.

He flicked his tongue out, tasting his own arousal in the air, his own scent. The snake hissed softly, shaking his head as he ignored it, looking over the map one more time.

With the war in the north more or less finished, we need to make sure that it stays that way. I'll take Thulani with me and establish him as a local governor, give him power over the region. That'll keep it from sliding away, and the monkeys will be happier with a snake overseeing things than an elephant...an Adelin instead of a Sizwe.

That was what he hoped, at least. The whole thing could come crashing down in short order if he was guessing wrong. Thulani was a powerfully individualistic monkey, and if that prince was a sign of just how stubborn the rest of his people were...

The naga shook his head. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it, and no sooner.

"Jelani."

The jackal returned to him, and he coiled up the big canine's body once more. The feeling of strong muscles under him was always a reassurance. He slid his head up until it was able to rest on the jackal's shoulder, and he held himself there, looming over the world.

"Back to the tent."

And off they walked. He was tempted here and there by the naked bandits and the undressing soldiers that were heading off to the river to bathe, but he had to focus on getting his work done. He had too many problems right now, too many different things that could go wrong to afford taking time off.

But he could relieve stress in a different way.

As he returned to his tent, Kgosi Sithembile turned his way, roaring at the top of his lungs in his usual angry diatribe.

"How dare you leave me here?! I swear, I will find a way to make you pay for all of this."

"Yessss, you've sssaid that."

"Hmmph. Do you disbelieve me?"

"No, I jusssst find myssself bored of threatsss."

"Hmmph. We will see how much of a threat it is when I get free of these ropes again."

"Yessss, how long sssince the lasssst time?"

"..."

"That'sss what I thought."

It was a legitimate danger, to be fair. The Kgosi had broken the ropes more than once since he had been captured, though he had been recaptured again every time. The elephant had a great deal of muscle to him, and the only reason that he was still attached to the tent-pole had less to do with the fact that he was weaker now and more due to the fact that they had used a great deal more ropes than they should have needed to in order to pin him down. His legs were tied to stakes, his arms behind his back, everything.

And it still left Lorenus a bit concerned whenever the elephant stretched his arms, whenever he flexed his muscles. After seeing that big man bearing down on him more than once, it was hard to take it without a little threat when the elephant made to charge.

Still, it was entertaining to have an enemy ruler in his tent, and as he uncoiled from Jelani, he slithered over to the elephant with a smile on his face.

"Would you like to know my planssss for the future?"

"They will not come to pass."

"Only if you hold out. Otherwissse, yessss, they will."

"Hmmph. I don't care for your plans. They will never pass, because I will never, ever break."

"Heh...such confidence."

Lorenus slithered up around the elephant, dragging himself up the Kgosi's body until he faced the elephant directly. It was more intimate this way, his scales against the elephant's muscles. Well, mostly against the ropes, but here and there, there was some exposed flesh, and he deliberately pressed himself firmly against that.

"Look at you...ssssuch a powerful man...and ssso helplesssss."

"You lie. I'm not broken, am I?"

"No. Merely...breaking."

The naga chuckled to himself, leaning in.

"Are you looking forward to me breaking your boar?" he whispered. "Are you looking forward to sssseeing me sssshow him who the greater man issss?"

"If you lay a hand on him..."

"You know I will...and you know I will make you watch..."

That was enough to get a growl from the elephant. Yes, good, good, that was what he wanted. An emotional response, a reminder that there was something that the big guy could lose, something that could be taken from him. Lorenus chuckled to himself, stroking a finger up and along the elephant's ear.

"He will learn, you know. He will sssssee and feel what it issss to be under a sssuperior male. Ssssomething bigger. Ssssomething better..."

"Rrrrrrr."

"And he will beg you to let him come to me again...and again...and again..."

"You...will...not..."

"And how will you sssstop me?" he whispered.

"I..."

"You can't."

He had fed Lust; now, it was time to feed fear. He slowly slid further up, coiling around until his head rested on the elephant's shoulder, whispering to him, hissing to him in his soft voice.

"You are tied here, unable to move, unable to break free. You can do nothing but watch...nothing but ssstare assss I sssteal him from you..."

"I...will break...free..."

"Then do it...do it right now...and I will believe you...otherwisssse..."

The elephant's muscles bunched up, and Lorenus felt the fear rising again, the reminder of just how powerful the Kgosi was. His body was such that it had gone to war and come back again, that it had broken free a handful of times already. The ropes had been tested, yes, but they had been worn down, pushed to their limits with the Kgosi's escape attempts.

They stretched, they pulled, they even frayed slightly...but they held.

Lorenus didn't allow himself to show the relief that he felt, but rather smirked, hissing in the Kgosi's ears.

"Sssee? Helplesssss."

"Nnngh..."

"You will ssssee, ssssoon."

He uncoiled himself from the elephant, making his way back to the jackal. With that done, he felt like he had contributed a bit more to the eventual fall of the bigger, more powerful male. He chuckled to himself, pulling the jackal out of the tent. Perhaps there was time for a bit of fun with the rest of the army; he had yet to put them through the more naughty 'maneuvers' that he had been fantasizing about, after all.

The End