Anthropia 7
#12 of Anthropia Adventures
Gelnon starts to take his revenge, while Moon and Jakra meet a new "friend" in their travels.
Gelnon stood with rage pouring off him in waves. The towns folk of Ulgona recognized who he was because of how big an example his family had been made into. When he heard the news about what happened, he raced to his old family home and found it occupied with troops wearing the uniforms of the bears, troops that he recognized had once been friends or servants to his family. Despite the fact he was wearing armored gauntlets, he gripped the axe he was carrying with white knuckles as he stood outside the gate to his old family estate.
The estate had been given to the eldest son of the bear family, Ralonk, second in line to his father in rank, he sat within the family's throne room as if taunting the lion outside to make his way in. Ralonk was wearing his leather and metal plated armor from yesturday, two very large swords that would take most people both hands to swing even one of them were by his side as he waited.
Gelnon looked around the estate, the walls could hold up to 12 archers on each side, 15 soldiers could fit inside the courtyard, and the inside of the estate could hold another 50 soldiers which could take advantage of the enclosed hall ways and rooms to form choke points.
And Gelnon didn't give one shit about any of it.
"RALONK!" He roared, before unsheathing his axe and charging in, the archers atop the wall unleashing a volley of arrows as he came within range.
Meanwhile, Moon and Jakra had made it back to the village of Seaspring, and noticed it had undergone some renovations in the last six years. Apparently, there had been a raid, big surprise, and now much of the village was under land lubber control, the aquatic species had not been as prepared for an attack from the land as they were from the sea. Once the land species pushed them back into the water, it was relatively easy to hold onto the territory, as they used fishing nets to catch the aquatic beast folk before they could escape.
Now the city's docks had a large, net field that was too high or deep to swim over or under, and just enough space in the net to allow ships to block the access point. The aquatic races of dolphins, fish, otters, and the occasional whale were mostly lower class citizens now
The inn had been converted into some kind of saloon in an effort to rake in more customers, and as Moon and Jakra entered it for some refreshments, they were quickly met with the a band of music playing a variety of up beat instruments while naked slave girls and boys danced on stage for the entertainment of the customers. The otter who once worked the inn was no longer present, he had been replaced by a boar who was busy cleaning a glass, wearing an apron and dark green tunic. His bristly fur was gray colored, and his tusks were 2 inches long. When he saw them approach, he quickly asked them what their pleasure was.
"A room, some food, and maybe some light whine, we're just here to rest before heading out." Moon ordered. The boar nodded and pointed up stairs.
"The room's 5 copper per night, but I can give you a discount, maybe 2 copper for 4 hours." He offered, "For another 2 copper, I can cook you up some salmon stew, and our cheapest whine is 4 copper." He finished. For someone like Moon, that was barely considered pocket change, and he happily agree. Shame for the boar, had he known, he probably could have exchanged that copper for silver, but most unlikely gold.
"Third room on the-" the boar began to say, but a heavy crash from up stairs interrupted him. He, Jaka, and Moon all looked up at the ceiling for a few moments, before the boar snarled "That stupid slave!" Before pulling a meat cleaver out from under the table and running up stairs. Moon and Jakra passed each other a sparring glance of shock before hurrying after him to see what the comottion was.
The boar arrived at the first door on the left at the top of the stairs and bashed it open, to the sound of yelping cries, both male and female. He stormed into the room and Moon quickly followed behind him to catch the sight of a naked rat girl covering herself with the sheets, a naked cyote male laying on the floor, bleeding from the face, his erect cock present for all to see.
"I warned you what would happen if you didn't obey orders, now you're going in the kitchen, slave!" The boar snarled, grabbing the rat by the hair and yanking her out of bed as she squeaked.
"Woa, woa, woa! What just happened?" Moon said in disbelief as the boar stopped in front of him, the rat yelping and moaning as she held onto his meaty hoof, trying to make sure he didn't pull her hair out.
"This rat has been nothing but trouble since I bought her, she's caused pain to the customers and has been damaging my business reputation, now she's going to be added to your stew, free of charge." The boar explained.
Moon looked at the young rat, she couldn't have been any older than 16. Chocolate brown fur, with a scruffy head tuft currently being snagged by the boar. She had a subtle B cup breasts on her chest, but under that was a smaller A cup on her abdomen. She had a young, graceful build to her. She was barely more than 3.4 in height, weighing no more than 50 lbs. She was powerless before this large, beefy swine, who was about to hack her up for meat.
"Please excuse me sir, I need to-" The boar began, but suddenly, the rat sprung a surprise. She had been holding pinches of dust and sand in her paws and flung them into the boar's eyes. He reflexively released her as he clutched at his face, and without any hesitation, the rat bolted past Moon and Jakra, turning the corner and racing down the stairs. Moon and Jakra hurried after her, with the boar shouting that if they caught her, all their expenses would be paid on the house.
It was easier for Jakra to catch up to the mouse, her strengthened legs made her a good runner when she needed to be. She and Moon chased her out into the alley way through a back exit to the saloon, where the rat dove behind some barrels and began fishing out what looked to be equipment. When she looked up and saw the wolf and otter, she swore and backed up further into the alley, which was a dead end. They were covering the escapee route.
Moon looked to the barrels she had been fidgeting with and noticed it had a change of clothes, armor, even, along with some weapons and what looked like a harp and writing utensils.
"Stay back!" The rat declared, she was holding a short bow with one arrow notched and in surprisingly disciplined form, despite being completely naked in front of them. "I'm not some sex crazed whore for you to breed as you see fit!" She boasted.
Moon held up his paws, signalling he wasn't there to cause harm, and Jakra soon followed by doing the same, as the Rat leered at them, suspisciously.
"Woa, woa, we were just curious, we didn't come here to rape or eat you." Moon said calmly, "My name is Moon, and this is my-" He began to introduce, but was quickly interrupted.
"Your slave? Seems like a pretty erotic outfit! What, you came here looking for a three way?" the rat scowled, Jakra blushing, but finally getting angry with her attitude.
"I'm his body guard, and at least I'm wearing clothes at all, four tits!" She retorted, this got the rat to flinch at the comment about her nudity, but still leered at them. "Look, we're both much larger and stronger than you. If we wanted to take you back, we could." Jakra said, sounding more compassionate.
"What's your name?" Moon asked, the rat's pose dipping as she started to let her guard down. "I'm Moon, and this is Jakra." He finished introducing them as the Rat seemed to be dropping her defenses more. A thumping could be heard from the saloon, and she beckoned for them to quickly get into the shadows of the alley, before anyone else saw them.
"My name is Skalma." She said, "I'm with the Bard's Guild." She added, "I managed to smuggle my gear out of the saloon into this alley and was going to escape today before you came along." She explained, cautiously moving back to the barrel and fetching the rest of her clothing as she changed in the alley. She was already naked, so there was little reason for asking privacy as she slipped on a pair of violet colored tights over her legs, along with some black boots reaching up to her knees.
Next she pulled down a violet dress shirt to cover her upper body, complete with a black vest and matching gloves that reached up to her elbows. The short bow and a quiver were strapped around her back, and she strapped on a black belt with a travel pack where she stored her parchment and writing utensils, while strapping the harp to her right hip.
"Bards are supposed to be warrior poets, right? How did you get captured." Jakra asked, Skalma flinching again at the memory as she turned to the two of them and began to explain.
"It was about two weeks ago." She began, "As part of our graduation exam, we Bards have to complete one epic adventure and return to the guild with a song, story, or poem about it. The group I chose to follow was ambushed by brigands and I was knocked out in the battle. By the time I came to, I was on a slave wagon and sold to that disgusting hog." Skalma finished her story, spitting on the side of the saloon, "I have no idea what happened to the rest of my group, if they even live, or if they were sold to slavers as well." She added.
"Well it looks like we're your best ticket out of here." Jakra said, "Moon here is a mage, nobody would touch you if you're with him." She added. Skalma looked at Moon in astonishment, and he cheerfully nodded at her.
"Its better than letting a musician like you be served in a bowl." He joked, offering a paw to the young mouse, who hesitantly accepted it as they shook. "A pleasure to meet you, Skalma, I was just about to head home if you want to come along." He offered.
"Deffinitely." Skalma agreed, before they made their way out of the alleyway and around the corner, mere seconds before the boar finally barreled out into the alleyway, but looking around to find nobody.
"You're lucky he didn't mark you in any way. But how did a slave manage to smuggle weapons and gear into the alley, couldn't you have run away then?" Jakra asked, finally curious as to how Skalma managed to plan this escape attempt as they headed towards the exit to town, it would have been too dangerous sticking around with a run away slave.
"Ah, about that." The young rat said with a smirk, "I actually pick pocketed that fat bastard's coin purse when he wasn't paying attention. I gave a cyote the gold and told him if he bought the items I asked for, I'd let him have free use of me any time he wished." She explained, before crossing her arms, "Once I realized he got the job done, I invited him up stairs, and set my plan in motion. Of course, the idiot didn't get one orgasm from me, before I kicked him against the wall."
"Pretty clever, but dangerous. I thought that boar was going to murder you on sight, he was furious when he heard the crashing from downstairs." Moon said. Skalma flinched at the memory. It was true, her would be master was pretty violent. Had Moon not distracted him long enough, there was a chance her plan could have backfired entirely. She quickly shook such thoughts away before allowing any fantasies about him taking his rage out on another hapless slave he owned to creep in.
"Sorry I cost you a room and meal." Skalma said, "But I really didn't expect anyone to be so helpful towards me, especially not to carnivores such as yourselves." She explained before stopping and turning to them, "Uh, you're not going to eat me on the road, are you?" She asked in paranoia.
"Well, maybe not in the traditional way." Jakra said, before wrapping an arm around the otter's shoulder in a teasing manner, Skalma took a few seconds to let the idea sink in, before blushing under her fur as the other female laughed and released her.
"She's joking." Moon said, rolling his eyes, "We're not the supremicist rapists you might think we are." He assured her, "You'd have to beg us first." He added, his own joke along with Jakra, the two of them laughing as Skalma kept her head low and marched along the road.
Great, of all the sympathetic predators to sign on with, they both had to be flirty pervs. Still, it was better to be flirted with, than pinned and raped. As the three of them continued walking, she almost didn't notice as another group was approaching them from further down the road.
Grinding metal, squishy meat, splattering blood. These were the sounds that echoed through the estate as Gelnon charged through its halls. His armor had three arrows burried in the front, six more in the back, a broken sword blade lodged in the right shoulder, and still he was powering through.
Behind the lion was a squad of zombie archers, firing arrows into any target that was out of their master's reach, or who tried to blind side him from behind.
Gelnon's axe was drenched in so much blood, it was drizzling down the blade, not merely dripping. At long last, he reached the doors to the throne room and bashed them down with an armored boot, snapping the iron lock and storming inside.
"Ralonk!" He shouted, the bear sitting smugly in his father's chair, paws crossed over his chest as he smiled at the lion.
"Well I must say you exceeded my expectactions, cat. Those soldiers didn't even slow you down." He taunted, "Then again, I didn't really expect them to kill you, they were just supposed to tire you out." He explained.
As the zombies stepped in behind Gelnon and readied their bows, the bear quirked a brow in surprise before sitting upright in the throne.
"Necromancy? Well that was completely unexpected, way to catch us by surprise." He said, "Unda fia spiri" he said, and with that, the undead suddenly collapsed to dust, blue soul essence rising from their remains and dissipating quickly. Gelnon went wide eyed in surprise as he stared in shock at his former servants.
"Ezylarap!" The bear cried out, pointing to Gelnon who's body went rigid as stone and fell to the ground, snapping the arrows in the front of his armor and dropping his axe. He was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, when the bear started to laugh menacingly.
"Did you stupid cats seriously believe you were the only high class family in the village with a mage? I've been a Journeyman since before you were born!" Ralonk gloated as he slowly lowered his arms to the side of his throne and drew his two massive swords as he rose to his feet.
"Now, let's talk about this grand plan of yours..." He said, slowly advancing towards the paralyzed lion.