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The Beastmaker's War

SEA

The sea stretched out before her, vast, blue, and infinite. Waves were lapping against the white sand shores, the cries of the seabirds resounded across the beach, and the sting of salt was in her nose. It was altogether beautiful, but it didn't stop Sayn from feeling increasingly annoyed as she gloomily regarded the scenery from the back of her recently-built 'golden' riding-beast. She had come here, to the shores south of Mosvaruch, in search of the tribe of Merfolk who called those coastal waters their home, but she hadn't seen fin nor scale of them.

And to add to her general discontent, she'd been forced to juggle a steady stream of message-carrying fliers, as they bounced between her and the leaders of the various south-eastern city-states like tireless, super-intelligent carrier-pigeons. The cities in that area all either owed her favors, or were terrified by her after seeing her power first-hand, so she'd expected it to be fairly easy to convince them to cooperate with her plan to march the centaurs through their territory and towards the northern battlefield where the bulk of her forces waited. She hadn't realized just how hard it would be to convince them that she'd turned the centaurs away from their usual rape-and-plunder ways. The same city-states she needed the agreement of had been the victims of centaur raids for centuries, and probably longer...

In the end, she'd been forced to dangle an extra carrot. While she'd originally planned to just have them hand over the basic supplies the centaurs would need as they traveled - food and such - she'd wound up having to promise them all that the centaurs would be BUYING supplies along the way, with good, solid gold coin. Which, of course, also forced her to send a flying messenger back to her base camp, so that she could instruct Korlin to dispatch another gold-carrying transport-beast to the centaur's camp, in addition to the one that had been sent there with the courtesan's wages and money for basic expenses. The whole thing was taking a large chunk out of her otherwise-significant war-chest, and she'd probably wind up having to offer the merfolk some major economic incentives to get them to fight for her, too... assuming she could FIND them.

Frowning, she admitted to herself that the merfolk had been a long shot. The dwellers of the great seas did not mind trading with drylanders, particularly not when it got them the kinds of goods they couldn't obtain on their own - usually fresh fruit and sweets, but also certain kinds of processed goods. And while they usually paid for these things with the treasure of the deep sea - pearls, coral and the like - they were also entirely willing to sell their services. They could provide directions to rich fishing-spots, salvage cargo from sunken ships, and even provide escorts for ships sailing through the territory of dangerous sea-monsters. But they'd always refused to get directly involved in battles between human factions, despite many generous offers made by lords eager to eliminate his rival's sea-power advantage. A rather sensible stance, in Sayn's humble opinion, but one she would need them to break - just this once. Assuming she could find them.

Her frown deepened as she gazed down on the wine-dark waters of the bay through the eyes of one of her high-flying scouts. Mermen weren't the only thing missing from the picture, now that she thought about it. The shores were dotted with fishing-villages, most of them beholden to Mosvaruch, and on a clear day like today, the bay should be speckled with the white sails of fishing-boats. But there were none. In fact, the fishing-villages themselves seemed nearly deserted. Something screwy was going on, and she needed information... more than she could get by just looking at things. Letting her gaze pan along the shore, she spotted what she was looking for - an old fisherman, sitting by a small pier, repairing his nets the way fishermen had for millenia. He was slightly isolated from the nearest village, which looked mostly abandoned anyway. And hopefully, he'd have some answers...

She approached him as casually as she could, having left her beasts hidden behind the dunes and the underbrush that grew near the water's edge in many places. Wearing her stained travel-clothes as she was, no-one who hadn't met her personally would pick her out as the feared and revered Beastmaker. And sure enough, the old man looked up as he sensed her approach, only to return his attention to his nets immediately, ignoring her. Clearly, he wasn't the curious sort - a young woman traveling alone, by foot, even in these relatively peaceful lands would normally at least raise an eyebrow or two.

"Excuse me..." she said, by way of starting a conversation. All she got out of it was a grumbling noise that might have loosely translated into 'Yeah, whaddaya want?', if one was of an optimistic bent. "I'm trying to meet the merfolk... they're usually found in these waters, I hear. Do you know where they are?" His calloused old hands paused briefly in their work. "No idea." His voice was gruff, his tone was dismissive, and his hands quickly resumed their work. Sayn, however, was determined not to take a hint. "Say... why are you sitting there, mending nets, on such a beautiful day? Why aren't you out there, fishing for your supper?"

A certain waspishness might have snuck its way into her voice, and he once again stopped his work, looking up at her with an annoyed expression. Then he gave a deep sigh, and dropped the net at his feet, turning his body around on the weather-worn old footstool he was using as a seat so that he could face her. "You aren't going to go away 'till I talk, are you? Fine. It's the bloody Leviathan, innit? I ain't going out there while it's nesting near here, and neither is anyone else! They've all moved up the coast a spell, or gone to the city looking for other work 'till this blows over! And as for the merfolk, hah! They were gone well before it showed up here - probably saw it coming well in advance, and didn't bother give us a bit o' warning, even. Bloody scalies. That bloody thing ate three boats, with all souls aboard, before we could get everyone to shore!"

The sudden, explosive rant was enough of a change from his earlier recalcitrance to make Sayn rock back on her heels, eyes wide-open. The old sailor scoffed at her, turned back around, and picked up his yarn. "So that's why I'm working on my nets. I'm too old to move, or go to the city. I reckon I'll wait here 'till the bloody Leviathan leaves - or 'till I turn to salt, whichever comes first." She nodded absentmindedly, not caring that he'd already turned his head and wouldn't see it. The Leviathan was here! Well, it was certainly no wonder that the merfolk had fled, then. They were brave and ferocious warriors, unafraid to challenge even the nastiest sea-beasts, wielding the tridents and harpoons that they forged in deep-sea volcanic vents with lethal skill... but the Leviathan was in a class of its own.

According to legends, it had been the pet of the Sea-God, Cerulec - a unique creation that symbolized his absolute dominion over all of the seas. But when the gods had disappeared, the gigantic creature had been left behind - an abandoned pet, bereft of its master, and a danger to all that got in its way. It was immortal and indestructible, and it could sink even the largest ships with a single flail of its tail... assuming it didn't just gobble them up, like it had apparently done to some of the local fishing-boats. She remembered hearing stories about it... hmm...

"Hasn't it happened before, right around here?" She barely realized that she'd said it out loud, but the old fisherman immediately froze, craning his head to look over his shoulder at her. Then he nodded slowly. "Ho, so the little missus DOES know a thing or two... even some of the young fishermen around here had forgotten the old stories. But 's true - 'twas in the time of my great-great-great grandfather. The Leviathan nested near here for nearly a decade, cutting off the sea-trade and the fishin'. Back then, the city wasn't as big or as wealthy as it is these days, and they didn't have trading-partners inland. So everyone got real desperate and real hungry..."

Sayn shivered. She was starting to remember the stories now, but the fisherman had apparently gotten a good head of steam going, and seemed intent on finishing the tale. "So the lord of Mosvaruch - they had a lord back then, 'fore the Ten Families took over - he rustled up some old priest from the Temple of Cerulec. They'd practically forgotten that the place EXISTED before then, I hear! And he sent that priest down to the shore, telling him to talk to the big beastie on behalf of his god and whatnot. And the priest, well, he didn't have much of a choice, so he did as he was told. And he went down to the cape - 's just south of here - and called on the Leviathan in the name of Cerulec, and with a THUNDEROUS roar, it rose out of the sea right in front of him! Probably browned his priestly breeches, I'd imagine!"

Belatedly, he noticed Sayn's discomfort, and cleared his throat. "Well, I reckon you know the story already. When the priest told the beast to stop botherin' the ships, it told him to give it a sacrifice in return. And the lord back at Mosvaruch, well, he was onboard with that. So every year, they sacrificed a young girl to the beast, and it left the merchantmen and the fishing-boats alone." He shook his head sadly. "Well, 'twas a diff'rent time, I reckon. Things are better nowadays. The story got brought up when the Leviathan returned, but the Ten Families wouldn't hear of any sacrifices - not this time 'round. They just told all the ships to stay in port, and started rounding up every donkey, mule, and draft horse they could get their paws on, shiftin' all their trade to land-routes, and importing the food they needed to make up for the loss of fishing. I hear 's still bad in there, though - price of food's gone way up. Well, most are managing, tightening their belts I'd imagine, but the poor folk are starving. Not that that's anything new. 'S what poor folk DO, I hear." He gave another sad little head-shake, grumbling something under his breath, and went back to his yarn.

Sayn nodded, her racing mind starting to catch up with the facts. "What about you?" She asked absentmindedly. He shrugged, not bothering to turn around again. "I get by. I can't go out there, but I can still fish from the pier. Ain't getting much - I reckon that bloody big beastie's sucking up most of the fish around here - but I get enough to get by." He chuckled briefly. "The younger fishermen, they got so scared by the bloody thing, they won't even go near the beach, let alone out on the pier! Hah. Anyone with eyes could tell, the thing's too big to get that close to shore. Bloody bunch of scared little girls." He gave a quick glance over his shoulder. "No offense. You seem like a tough sort."

She grinned at him, almost in spite of herself. "None taken. Thanks for all the information - I had no idea the Leviathan had returned to here after so long. Guess I'll be moving on, then..." He nodded absently, attention once again focused on his nets, and this time, she decided to leave him to it as she turned and walked away - back towards her beasts. The Leviathan. Well, that changed things more than a bit. If she wanted to get in touch with the merfolk, she'd obviously have to go father afield... but the tribe that lived in Mosvaruch's waters had been her best bet, what with the long, mutually-beneficial trading-relationship they'd maintained with the local drylanders. Mosvaruch was as close to a genuine ally amongst the city-states as she had - what with her having prevented Karran the Kingpin's plans to take the place over - and she'd counted on that being her foot in the door. On the other hand... perhaps she should see this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

She shivered slightly as she walked out onto the cape. It was a sharp, rocky protrusion, sticking a good ways out into the deep, dark bay, bereft of any plant-life. Near the tip, two granite pillars stood, embedded in the living rock. She could see gnarled lumps of rust clinging to the pillar's sides - the remnants of ancient chains, long-devoured by the elements. This was where the gruesome sacrifices had taken place - young women, stolen from poor families under the guise of an 'Emergency Tax', had been chained here for the Leviathan. She looked over her shoulder, up at the blue sky, and could just barely make out the flying messenger she'd just sent off in the direction of Mosvaruch. Had she gotten ahead of herself with that? Well, it HAD been a fairly noncommittal note, but perhaps she should've waited 'till she knew if this would even work in the first place.

Taking a deep breath, she proceeded to the tip of the cape, walking between the two granite pillars with a slight shiver. The view from there was as impressive as it was intimidating. The Great Bay, despite its name, was really more of a mid-sized, semi-enclosed ocean, and she couldn't see the opposite side - though, she'd heard, it WAS possible... on a clear day, with a decent telescope. The waters were very deep, enough to hide even something as immense as the Leviathan from prying eyes. The waves crashed against the unyielding rock of the cape, sending white spray into the air. Their attacks seemed futile, but she knew better - over centuries and millennia, they would beat down the solid-seeming rock of the cape, and the granite pillars would tumble into the ocean. In the end, there would be nothing left but sand. The sea was a frightening force indeed.

With that thought singing in the back of her mind like the buzz of an annoying insect, she set her foot down on the very tip of the cape, and called out as loud as she could. "LEVIATHAN! In the name of Cerulec, I call on you! Show yourself before me!" Nothing happened, and she felt rather foolish as she looked out across the wine-dark sea. Near the shore, the waves were blue, but as the seafloor faded away into the depths, it became as dark as the night sky... only, wasn't it suddenly getting even darker? And the waves crashing against the cape seemed to be getting bigger and stronger, like something was pushing the water towards it... and the cries of the seabirds had gone silent.

The sea surged, rising high enough to cover the beaches beside the cape. Before her, it rose like a dome, pushed up from below. As the dome collapsed, turning into a circular wave high enough to nearly reach the cape itself, something unimaginably huge appeared from it. The head of a being capable of eating ships whole. She gaped as it rose from the waves, water streaming from its scales - the greatest sea-serpent in the world, and almost certainly THE single-biggest living thing in existence. Its eyes, small and beady in the huge, fish-like face, were bigger than her head. Then the huge jaws opened, revealing a cavernous maw behind it, and the roar that emerged was beyond the definition of sound. It hit her like a hurricane, pushing her back across the rock, forcing her to bend forwards and dig in her heels to remain standing.

As the blast of wind died down, a stillness fell over the bay, and not just because of the temporary deafness it had induced. Panting from the shock, Sayn removed the hands she had clamped over her ears as soon as the immense mouth had opened, and saw the colossal creature peering down at her, studying her. She returned the favor, trying to get a sense of its actual appearance beyond 'immensely huge'. Its face looked like a fusion of a fish and a snake, long and narrow, with a pair of tendrils hanging down from the front like an elegant mustache - likely some kind of feelers. The eyes, while small, glowed with an inner light, and the way it regarded her indicated SOME sort of intelligence - though probably not a human-like one.

A large fin started at the peak of its skull, and traveled down its serpentine body to disappear in the deep water below, while the upper edge of side-fins were just barely visible above the surface, further down its body. From the edge of its jaws, where the skull met the rest of its body, twin sets of tendrils hung, glowing with red luminescence. Each set consisted of one fairly short tendril, and another, far longer one that disappeared down into the water. The way they were moving - waving through the air, pointing in her general direction - suggested that they were some kind of sensory organ. A way to 'see' in the absolute darkness of the deepest ocean, perhaps?

Taking the time to analyze the immense creature had given her the calmness she needed to push down her immediate, instinctive flight-response, and now she looked up at the creature - a being old enough to have seen the face of the Gods, before they abandoned the world - and nodded politely. "Greetings, mighty Leviathan. I appreciate your timely response." The tendrils stopped weaving through the air, and instead stretched out towards her, stopping several feet short of her with their tips close together. " Who are you, that dares call for me in the name of my master?" She winced at the intensity of the voice, but it had not come from the immense maw above her - instead, the sound seemed to vibrate through the air from the points of the glowing, red tendrils.

"I am Sayn, The Beastmaker, and I bear the blood of the gods. Or so people tell me..." The last bit she added under her breath. Somehow, it did not strike her as wise to outright LIE to something so ancient. The Leviathan's eyes blinked in surprise at her announcement, and the humongous head bent further still, to let the two feelers emerging from the front of its nose hover over her head, drawing circles in the air. " A half-blood? I have seen your kind before, but not for many tides. Hmm..." The nose-tendrils drew closer, until they almost touched her head, and she had to restrain herself from flinching away. Then they drew away again, and the Leviathan's head returned to its previous position.

" Perhaps you speak the truth. I have forgotten the scent of half-bloods. I have forgotten... many things. But I have not forgotten the scent of my master. Even if you have the blood of a god in you, it is not HIS blood. You have no right to command me." She twitched slightly at that. She had hoped that the Leviathan, ancient enough to have first-hand knowledge of the gods, would be able to finally shine some light on the truth of her origins. Too much to hope for, perhaps. But at least it seemed willing to accept the POSSIBILITY that she was a half-god, which gave her a starting-point for these rather delicate negotiations...

"I do not seek to command you, mighty Leviathan. I merely seek your aid. Your... support, for but a brief while. For one who has seen so many... tides, as you, it will be naught but a moment's diversion." That was really the crux of her idea. There was little she could offer something as immense and ancient as the Leviathan, but what she was asking also wasn't much at all from his perspective. The gigantic sea-creature seemed to consider her words for a minute, then his voice, as deep as the oceans, rang out again. " Why should I aid you? What have you to offer in return?"

She shrugged. "That depends on what YOU want. Why don't you tell me what I can do for you, and we'll take it from there, hmm? I have heard that you have requested the sacrifice of young women before - from this very cape, at that. Pray tell, what did you need them for? I do not think their meager meat could have stilled your hunger..." The Leviathan tilted its head, lowering it slightly as if to take a better look at her. Then the voice rumbled once more. " Human maidens. Soft skin. Soft hands. Soft lips. My master enjoyed their company often. Those that did not please him, he would give to me to play with." Its eyes blinked shut for several seconds, as if it was lost in pleasant memories, and Sayn shuddered both from the idea of what those memories might be like, and from the reminder that she was talking to someone who had BEEN there, during the long-gone Age of Myth, when the gods walked the land and took consorts amongst the mortal races.

The eyes opened again, shining somewhat brighter now. " I am male. The master made me thus. But he made no female for me. He taught me to seek pleasure where I could find it. I have found it in various places. Human maidens are the best. They remind me of better times." The sea was churning around his body now, indicating that the rest of it - however incomprehensibly much there might be of it - was moving, perhaps in excitement. His shortened sentences were, perhaps, another symptom of that. Sayn swallowed. His words presented a possible angle of negotiation, albeit one that simultaneously terrified and aroused her.

"Tell me..." she asked, somewhat hesitantly. "These maidens... how long do they usually last for you?" The creature's eyes blinked in surprise, and the prehensile tendrils waved around for a bit in what she presumed was the gargantuan-sea-serpent-version of rubbing your chin thoughtfully. " A few tides. Humans are so brief and fragile." Sayn breathed a sigh of relief as his answer finally came though. She wasn't sure what constituted 'a few' to something that was almost as old as the world itself, but if the girls had survived for ANY length of time, it meant that he was either ludicrously poorly equipped for his size, or that the pleasure he derived from them didn't involve actual penetration. Considering his earlier comments about 'soft hands' and 'soft lips', she was betting on the later. Presumably, the women simply died from thirst and exposure after a while - the Leviathan wouldn't have any concept of a human body's needs, after all.

"Well, then, how about I help you out? I'll make you feel good, and in return, you leave the local shipping alone and help me with a small problem I have. It won't take more than a couple of tides, I promise." The Leviathan stared down at her with renewed intensity, lowering its head further, but rather than flinch away from it, she walked up closer. Lifting one hand, she touched the immense creature's scale-covered lips, sliding her fingers across it in a way she hoped was seductive. She felt sea-spray hit her face, and looked to the side to see that the longer set of glowing-red tendrils - which had previously hung limply into the sea - had risen from it, revealing that they split into two ends near the bottom. They arched up now, surrounding her on both sides.

" You would offer yourself?" The vibrating voice held a dreadful eagerness now, but she nodded anyway. "For a bit, yes. I'm afraid I have rather a lot to do, so I can't stay for very long... but I think I can make you feel better than any other human maiden you've ever been with." It seemed a safe claim to make - especially after her recent deals with the centaurs. Having sex with a willing, participating partner had been a revelation for them, and whatever interaction this ancient creature had had with human women in the past, it had most likely been driven by fear and desperation, rather than desire. The sacrificed women would have been too petrified by terror to disobey the Leviathan's command, but there was a large difference between forced obedience and willing participation.

And she WAS willing - that, she could not deny. So far, she'd had sex with numerous different races of Beastkin, several Griffons, a Dragon, a Kirin and a couple of Centaurs. She couldn't deny that those inhuman races held a certain attraction to her. And part of it was their size and natural strength - even the humanoid Beastkin often possessed raw strength that far exceeded that of a human. Feeling a large, powerful body above her, letting its strength and power dominate hers... it made her hotter than anything. In a way, that might be part of her attraction to Korlin - her first and foremost lover was not only beautiful, after all, she was also an incredibly powerful wielder of magic, like all her kind.

But what was now before her was orders of magnitude more powerful. The Leviathan was ancient, immortal, and indestructible. There was no creature or being in the world that could challenge it. It was huge, powerful, and the logical extreme of her fetish. The mere thought of being an outlet for his pleasure was making her wet. The two long, split-ended tendrils were already approaching her when his voice rang out again. " Surrender your body to me until the turn of the tides, and I shall aid you. IF you can bring me as much pleasure as you claim." She nodded, mouth dry, feeling her muscles already tense in the expectation of her impending surrender. "We have a deal, then. I am yours until then."

There was no point in trying to keep up a front this time, nor would it be possible. Teaching something as inconceivably ancient as the Leviathan that raping human sacrifices was just WRONG would be an effort in futility. And so, this time, her submissive nature was a helpful tool rather than a hindrance. Her best hope was to surrender herself completely, focusing entirely on pleasing the immense beast in any way she could - and hope that that was enough to satisfy him. Oh, and that she survived the experience. There was that too. But it was too late to think about that - far too late.

The long tendrils - thicker than the ones that had been doing the talking - seized her, and pulled her in closer where the other two tendrils could also reach. They were long, wet, and obviously carefully controlled. They invaded her clothes with rapid ease, snaking up her sleeves and her pant-legs, pushing up her shirt from below and her pants from above. She felt them against her naked skin beneath the simple clothes, and shivered. Then, with a sudden flex, they pulled away - tearing her clothes to shreds around her. Her meager underwear had not been spared either, and she suddenly found herself standing naked but for her traveling-boots, watching her clothes drift through the air in tattered fragments.

Swiftly, they dove in again, with the double-ended tendrils gripping her limbs from either side, wrapping around her wrists and ankles. The last two tendrils caught her around her waist, and together, they lifted her up into the air. Dangling from the living bonds, she found herself on eye-level with the Leviathan at last. " First, I will see you." The voice was slightly muffled, since it still came from the same two tendrils currently wrapped around her waist, and she felt it shake her entire body. His nose-tendrils - the shortest, thickest of the lot - could reach her now, since she was hanging directly in front of him, and now they stretched out towards her.

The glowing red tendrils wrapped around her waist released her, and for a few seconds, she hung painfully by her wrists. Then the longer tendrils shifted, pulling her legs forwards, upwards and apart until she hung by all four extremities - still unpleasant, but certainly endurable. It also left her entirely exposed to the two thick, gray feelers that were now caressing her inner thighs, working their way down towards her dripping-wet pussy. They felt cool and smooth against her skin - strong, dexterous and wet with salt-water. Based on what he had said, they were indeed sensory organs of some kind - ones he apparently intended to use to get a truly intimate look at her.

While the short tendrils started poking at her labia, the two longer, glowing-red ones were roaming across the rest of her body, slithering over her exposed skin, tickling her under the arms and making her twitch in the unyielding grip of the longer, stronger grippers. They soon zoned in on her chest, however, and encircled her moderately-sized tits, squeezing and pulling on them, making her buck against her bonds. A distraction soon pulled her attention away from the growing pain in her chest, however - the thick, gray feelers had gotten tired of just poking and caressing at her pussy-mound, and one of them was now forcing its way inside.

The smoothly-textured feeler, wet with sea-water, easily pushed her labia apart and proceeded into her most private place. The other feeler, meanwhile, danced lower - finding her tiny, puckered asshole between her muscular buttocks, and forcing its tip inside. The elastic hole, only barely recovered from the large amounts of rather rough anal sex she'd enjoyed during her sojourn with the centaurs, yielded easily to the muscular organ, and within seconds, the twin feelers were pushing deeper inside of her together. She moaned in pleasure, eyes rolling back in her head as the sensation - amplified by the knowledge that she was tightly-bound in the grip of an unimaginably powerful creature - consumed her. She hadn't been double-penetrated since that night almost a year ago, when she had 'entertained' an entire group of Beastkin together... far too long, she decided.

The feelers were quite thin at the tip, but rapidly thickened - and so, as they pushed deeper, she felt her labia and sphincter stretch wider. By the time the uppermost one reached her cervix and stopped, the part that was entering her had a similar girth to the centaur chief she'd entertained several days ago. The thin point, meanwhile, was tickling the entrance to her womb, poking at the tightly-shut gate of the cervix. She was used to her over-equipped lovers pushing deep enough to hit that deepest point of her pussy, sometimes with significant force, but this was new - a different sort of stimulation of a deep and sensitive point.

Meanwhile, the other feeler hadn't stopped its exploration of her ass. When the tip reached the point where her rectum took a sharp turn into her lower intestine, it simply followed the curve, going around the bend and proceeding deeper than anything else ever had. The salt-water that covered the feeler generated a slight burning sensation as it pushed ever-deeper, and her sphincter was starting to protest against the growing girth. When she opened her mouth - to moan in pleasure or complain about the escalating pain in her rear, she was not sure - the two glowing tendrils that had been massaging her breasts suddenly decided to pick different targets, and one of them quickly pushed past her jaws and into her mouth.

These tendrils were thinner than the tentacle-like feelers attached to his nose - but blunt-ended, without the gradual tapering those had. As it pushed into her mouth, she found herself gauging its girth against her by-now extensive collection of references, and determined that its proportions were rather similar to the equine dicks she'd been tasting amongst the centaurs - but smaller overall. In thickness, it actually reminded her rather a lot of Korlin, her Kirin lover - somewhat bigger than human, but not excessively so. Unlike any of those, however, it tasted like salt and fish, and it lacked any marks, veins, contours or openings. Nonetheless, she instinctively started to suck on it, licking the blunt tip with vigor. Since the glowing-red tendrils had seemingly served the Leviathan as a speech-organ of some kind, she chose to think of them as tongues - thus making the current situation a passionate kiss.

Which, presumably, made the actions of the OTHER tendril a literal 'tongue-lashing'. It struck her exposed, helpless flesh like a thick, wet whip, repeatedly and in many different places. It wasn't carrying anywhere near the kind of force the Leviathan probably COULD put into it, but she definitely noticed as its 'caress' found the various parts of her anatomy. First her recently-released tits were slapped around, sending them jiggling despite their modest size. Then it moved down to her belly and her thighs, before slipping around to her back and working its way down that, finally settling on alternating strikes between her two buttocks, rapidly reddening them. The pain of each stinging blow surged through her body, mingling with the pain of her stretched-open ass, which mingled with the PLEASURE of her stretched-open ass, which mingled with the pleasure of her filled pussy... and what finally reached her mind was something other than pain.

She'd never endured something like this before - previous lovers of hers had dominated and even bound her, using her body in ways that were, at times, outright painful. But nobody had ever done anything like that - whipping, spanking, punishing her. And as she struggled - instinctively and futilely - against the tendrils that bound her, she had a revelation: She enjoyed it. She couldn't begin to guess WHY the Leviathan was doing it. Perhaps it sensed something in this manner - perhaps it was gauging her response. Maybe it was just learned behavior, and his old 'master', Cerulec, had enjoyed tormenting his women in such a fashion - she'd certainly seen enough proof of the casual cruelty of the gods to believe so, at this point. But whatever his reasons or intentions, it was making her cum.

Well, granted, the two muscular tentacles lodged up her nether orifices could probably claim part of the credit too - she'd had her first orgasm within minutes of the first one hitting bottom and starting its tickling-campaign against her cervix - but once the fourth tendril had started tenderizing her flesh, the rhythm of her breathing AND her climaxes had climbed sharply. It was as if the pain it was inflicting fed into the pleasure somehow, boosting and magnifying it. It also drew attention away from the ring of agony that her sphincter had turned into, allowing her to enjoy the sensation of her asshole being filled like it never had before, undistracted by the fact that the entrance to that hole was near bursting from the severe stretching.

At least said stretching wasn't going to get any worse. With a solid two feet of the lower feeler threaded into her intestine, leaving her ass gaping wide around a point that was thicker around than her arm, it had stopped trying to push any deeper. Meanwhile, the upper feeler had managed to get its very tip - no thicker than her little finger - lodged into her cervix, and was not moving it around in sharp little motions that she could feel all the way up into her womb. Neither of the two were doing any thrusting, once they'd reached the deepest point of penetration they could achieve - but they were in constant motion, flexing and vibrating inside of her like live snakes.

The blunt-ended tendril in her mouth, meanwhile, DID start thrusting - pushing past her still-dancing tongue, deep into the back of her throat. She gagged briefly as it pushed past her tonsils, but she HAD tried deepthroating before, and she quickly suppressed the reflex and held her breath lest she choke. Fortunately, while the Leviathan might have been otherwise perplexed by the 'fragility' of human women, he apparently DID recognize their need to breathe - and the phallic tendril did not stay long in her throat before pulling back into her mouth. She had time to take a deep breath before it thrust into her again, faster and more violently than before.

Even while cumming repeatedly from the full-body stimulation she was receiving, she was able to adjust the rhythm of her breathing to the thrusts - but while the rhythm of the thrusts was steady, each was an escalation in terms of speed and depth. Within a handful of jabs, it was pushing deeper than anything else ever had - even when she'd swallowed Korlin's cock right down to the balls (while, incidentally, hanging upside-down just like now), it hadn't reached this deeply. And to get there, it was assaulting her throat with brutal force.

She had no idea how long she dangled there - two long tendrils writhing within her pussy and ass, another invading her throat with a speed and energy that was rapidly rubbing it raw, and a fourth slapping her ass cheeks with bruising force, when it wasn't being diverted to other parts of her body for a few quick slaps. She only knew that she enjoyed every minute of it, and that she had more orgasms than she could count. Finally, however, the tendrils withdrew from all three of her orifices, with somewhat uncomfortable speed, even, and the whipping of her behind seized. She found herself hanging by her hands alone again, upright in front of the Leviathan's eye, as the two glowing red tendrils vibrated in the air before her. " I have seen you. Now, it is your turn to act."

As the overwhelming sensations of pleasure and pain receded, Sayn looked around for the first time since it had started, and suddenly realized that she was a long way from the cape from which the Leviathan had snatched her. He had apparently been moving while he 'inspected' her, and they were now out somewhere in the middle of the bay - and significantly higher up than she remembered, too. The Leviathan had pulled itself out of the water, and rose like a mountain into the air by now. Looking down, she could see two sets of fins attached to his sides, waving lazily in the air. And he was still rising... and yet, falling at the same time.

The head, which she hung in front of, was moving back and down, while the rest of his body continued to rise out of the bay, sending circular waves flowing out from it. The gigantic sea-serpent was bending itself double. And as she watched, transfixed by the sinuous motion of the impossibly huge body, something new emerged below her. Whether it was the middle of his body or just a short way down, she could not say - but it was obviously an important area of his physique, judging by the 4 new tendrils - all glowing red with bioluminescense like the ones that held her - that emerged from his flanks in that region, in lieu of fins. Of course, the notable bulge right between them, creasing the otherwise smooth, scaly skin, helped draw the eye too.

As she approached that spot, the tendrils rose to meet her. They looked more advanced than the ones currently gripping her - one set was similar to the long grippers she was already (intimately) familiar with, splitting in to halfway down, while the other set was even longer, and split in two places - thus creating two shorter 'branched' tendrils. Both these branches and the split ends of the other set of tendrils were covered in short, wriggling mini-tendrils, presumably to provide a better grip. These now wrapped themselves around her body, while the ones that had previously held her shifted to new locations. She almost instantly lost track of which bit of glowing tentacle came from where - her body simply hung from a supporting web of them.

And as she continued to be lowered - with surprising gentleness - towards the bulge between those tendrils, it rose. It was her first glance at what the Leviathan was packing, and it was far more alien than any dick she'd ever beheld before. She had, by now, sampled the tools of a fair number of different races, but this was something else - far beyond the fur, skin and warm blood of mammals. This belonged to a king of the deep, dark sea. It was pale white towards the bottom, but gained a slight purplish-red tinge towards the head. The front of it was ripples, as if to blend in with the surrounding scales - it had not been sheathed, so much as nestled in a slight indentation, flattened against his body. The backside, hidden from view until it rose with his arousal, was strange and muscular, characterized by several large bulges clustered around a central vein running up the middle - presumably his urethra. The tip was pointed, and vaguely resembled a snake's head.

It was actually rather small, relative to the size of his body. Of course, that didn't change the fact that it was somewhat larger than her ENTIRE body. She couldn't help but gawk at it as the gripping tendrils deposited her in the small hollow behind it and pulled back. By then, the fog of pleasure had receded from her mind, and she was thinking clearly again. As he had said, it was her turn to strut her stuff - and the entire deal now hinged on her ability to pleasure a completely unfamiliar and severely oversized penis. However, she refused to show the trepidation she felt, and confidently stepped forwards to run her hands over the bulging, pale-pink surface of the Leviathan's cock.

It felt smooth, and vaguely warm. She could feel the pulsing of his blood underneath the thin, no-doubt sensitive skin - a slow, but powerful rhythm. Somehow, feeling this made it seem real. For all the enormously different dicks she'd known, they had that much in common - the feeling of his life-force, throbbing through it. And the Leviathan was no different. Taking the final step forwards, she wrapped her arms around the huge member - though they barely reached halfway around it. Her thighs embraced it as well, and now she felt that thunderous pulse through her entire body as she squeezed it against him.

As she began to rub herself up and down against it, she breathed deeply of his scent. It was the smell of the sea - salty and bitter, to be sure - but underneath was something far more familiar. That masculine musk, tickling her nose with something undefinable and indescribable that roused her desires. Of course, with the memories of the recent full-body stimulation still fresh in mind - her buttocks and sphincter were still noticeably sore, for starters - it didn't really take much to get her going. She could feel her pussy growing wet again, and as it began to apply its coating to the lower half of the megaphallus, she let her mouth start in on the top.

She caressed the purplish skin near the tip with repeated kisses, sliding her lips over it while her tongue danced between them. Then, she abandoned the pretense, and simply started to lick the smooth surface in long strokes, focusing chiefly on the pipe-like bulge of his urethra. The taste was strong, but she could compare it to nothing she knew of, except the overall - and unsurprising - saltiness. She could feel the throbbing within it increase as it responded to her stimuli, and let it egg her on, strengthening the pressure she was applying to its length by pushing her body more forcefully against his cock.

From the way his body was shifting underneath her feet, she knew that she was having a real impact on him. But she needed to do more than that if she wanted to be sure he'd live up to his end of the bargain. Despite the increasingly unsteady footing, it seemed like she'd have to get a bit more acrobatic to really reach his most sensitive spots... namely, the very tip. Releasing the throbbing shaft from her embrace, she used one of the bulges on its back as a handhold and swung her way around it, to the front of the huge tool. She skin there was rough, thick and ribbed - it would have to be, since it was exposed to the constant wear and tear of the ocean. With more confidence than she really felt, she grabbed one of the ridges, and put her foot up on a lower one, lifting herself up bodily as she sought to climb the towering cock.

Fortunately, her traveling-boots were designed with firm footing in mind, and despite the pulsing surface, she was able to stay steady as she lifted herself up to the pale-purple head. At the tip, the thick, leathery hide gave way to the same thin and smooth skin she'd seen on the backside - presumably, this part was safely nestled in the hollow she'd just left when not in use. And while she might have been able to reach it with an outstretched arm before, now she was eye-level with it - and with another pull, higher yet. With a good grip on his cockhead, she bent over it to peer down the small hole at the very tip - it was pulsing slightly, as if it was breathing.

Her lips closed around the very tip of his cock, surrounding the urethra completely, though only just barely. It was, in fact, just about the size of a human mouth, and her tongue darted into it almost on instinct. The taste was intense in there, but she paid it no mind as she concentrated on giving it the hottest tongue-kiss she could possibly manage, sucking gently as she licked around the edges, taking short breaks to literally tongue-fuck it for a bit. She could feel her tenuous footing shift underneath her as the Leviathan's immense body shook in response. Gripping the cockhead even tighter in response, she began to move her head and torso in circling, gyrating motions while continuing the unbroken kiss - rubbing the soft and subtle tissue of her breasts against him just above the point where the leathery hide faded into more sensitive skin.

She felt the entire megaphallus vibrate in her grip, threatening to make her lose her footing, and at the same time, the slow, powerful pulse she was feeling through the thin skin became noticeably faster. Recognizing the signs, she started to lift her head - though not quite fast enough. Her lips were barely an inch away from the pointy, purple cockhead when the first spurt of cum emerged from the gaping urethra, blasting directly into her still-open mouth and hitting the back of her throat with stinging force. Her head was thrown back by the impact, causing the rest of the blast to cover her face and hair as she reeled back, losing her footing and slipping down to the base of the shaking shaft. She still clung to it, however, refusing to fall over as she blinked and swallowed rapidly to clear away the sticky cum that had sealed her mouth and eyes alike.

The taste was like nothing she'd ever tried before - salty, of course, but almost meaty too. Primal and ancient, it made her taste-buds buzz as it slid down her throat. After wiping her eyes clean, she looked out to see successive bursts emerge into the air, creating a fountain of white liquid not unlike what one might see coming from a whale's blowhole. It was raining down on her in large drops now, too, coating her entire body. Nonetheless, the incomparable taste that had touched her palate compelled her to pull herself up the side of the giant cock again, mouth eagerly open to catch another spray.

Fortunately, the following spurts were significantly less powerful than the first couple had been, and while the sheer volume was still far too great for her to swallow in its entirety, she managed to capture several more mouthfuls, her cheeks bulging out as she sought to contain it. Even beyond the incredible taste, it seemed to be a gift that kept on giving - it laid heavily in her stomach, but seemed to fill her with a primitive energy that did little to curtail her surging desires. The last spurt dribbled down the side of the pointy cockhead like a small river, and she licked up as much of it as she could, before proceeding to clean off the other cum-stains from the smooth skin. Then, she was back on the tip, once again making out with the deep hole, sucking the last remnants of jizz straight out of it.

That was when the tendrils reached for her again. The long, multi-branched grippers surrounding his groin quickly surrounded her, gripping her limbs and waist. Other branches sought her orifices - her asshole was still gaping slightly after the tremendous stretching it had gotten from his feelers earlier, and her pussy was as wet as it had ever been, so their entry was easier. She could feel the tiny, hair-like tendrils that covered the grippers inside her, tickling and stimulating her internal tissue.

It was only when she found her face mashed up against the pale, bulge-covered surface of his cock's sensitive backside that she started to realize what was happening, however - and when her body started moving violently up and down in his grip, her guess was confirmed. In the throes of pleasure following his first orgasm, the Leviathan had lost patience and decided to take matters into his own gripping tendrils. He was simply using her body as a masturbation-aid at this point, rubbing her up and down against the sensitive skin, pulling her arms and legs tight around it. However, as the tendrils within her started moving, she lost all capacity to care.

The hair-like covering of these tendrils made a world of difference. They were in constant motion, caressing the entire internal surface of her pussy and ass as the blunt-ended grippers pushed deep inside her. And unlike the first time, these weren't just staying still - they were going in and out rapidly, thrusting with significant force and depth. Apparently, the Leviathan's in-depth study of her insides was paying off now, enabling him to send the tendril in her ass careening around the bend in her intestines without slowing down, unfailingly, on every thrust.

It was a level of raw stimulation that no simple cock could have ever managed - and she was getting a double dosage, even as more tickling tendrils wrapped around her breasts, thighs, and the rest of her body, squeezing gently yet firmly. As her mind rapidly went blank from the pleasure and sensory overload, the fact that she was being used - literally used - by a male to pleasure himself seemed like an excellent thing indeed. Most of her was completely immobilized by the tightly-binding tendrils, but her mouth remained free - and now, once again, she put it to use; licking and kissing the shaft in front of her as she was rubbed against it.

She rapidly lost track of time in the throes of pleasure, and could not say how much had passed before her situation suddenly changed. One second she was being rubbed against the gigantic cock, the next she was in the air - still held in the tight embrace of the tentacle-like tendrils. The ones that had invaded her nether orifices suddenly pulled back, leaving her reeling in the aftershocks of the dozens of rapid-fire orgasms they had inflicted, barely noticing that something broad and pointy was being poked in between her still-spread legs, parting her labia once more. Then she felt her thighs resting against something smooth and pulsing, and realization began to dawn. The Leviathan had just deposited her on top of his cockhead, with the very tip of it penetrating her pussy. It was barely stretching her, and her thighs alone ensured that it would go no deeper... but it was pulsing quite quickly by now, and the tip was also where the urethra was.

A second later, it blasted into her like a geyser, surging up through her birth-canal to strike her cervix. Her entire pussy was filled in a millisecond, and the sheer pressure of liquid stretched her in a whole new way even as she felt large quantities of the slimy liquid run out between her labia and the pointy cockhead, staining her inner thighs. It was nowhere near a tight seal, but she was still being filled with more sperm than she'd ever had to handle before. Her cervix, which had been poked, tickled and stimulated since the first feeler invaded her pussy, opened easily before the flood, and the white tide rapidly flooded her womb, stretching and inflating it in a way that was simultaneously painful and arousing.

Then, before the next spurt emerged, she was pulled away again. She could feel a tendril wrapped around her waist, widening its grip to account for her now-distented belly, and wondered if he'd removed her because he sensed the expansion of her womb and worried that any more might hurt her. Either way, the forceful ejaculation that might otherwise have landed in her already cum-packed pussy, instead fountained into the air, splattering across her belly and chest in large parts. She had enough wherewithal to open her mouth and catch a quick mouthful of the strong-tasting stuff before she was pulled down once again, and returned to her duties as a cock-rubbing masturbation-aid.

It was easier AND tastier now, though. The cum that had flowed out from the imperfect seal of her pussy had coated the bulging backside of the cock, and the thick layer that had landed on her own front helped too. Not only did the slimy layer of lubrication prevent the continued rubbing from abrading her skin, it also provided a tasty snack for her tongue to reach for as it danced across every inch of dick-skin it could reach. Meanwhile, the stimulating tendrils returned to their prior places, and the one in her pussy quickly churned the liquid contents into a thick, frothy foam. And while it continued to dribble out from between her labia, coating her legs, it was only slowly - leaving the majority of the load she'd caught to continue filling her inflated womb. Her stretched-out stomach wobbled as it rubbed against the thick cock that had filled it in the first place.

Her trip back into mindless, orgasmic bliss was only hurried by the sensations radiating from her overstuffed womb, and soon time became a meaningless concept again. Between the repeated, powerful climaxes brought on by the combination of deep, impossibly-thorough stimulation of her pussy and ass and the knowledge that she was being bound and dominated by the biggest, most powerful creature in the known world, she only barely had enough sense left in her to continue licking up and swallowing whatever cum came within the reach of her tongue. The overpowering taste and tingling energy of the thick jizz helped to maintain the sense of timelessness - it chased away the hunger and thirst that might otherwise have forced her to acknowledge the passage of time.

The rest of her bodily functions were not an issue, either. She'd fasted before calling on the Leviathan, aiming to be prepared for any sort of sexual escapades that might come of it - and when, at one point, her bladder gave out under the pressure of her bloated womb and released its contents down her legs and the shaft in front of her, neither she nor the Leviathan even noticed. It was literally a drop in the sea, after all. As before, the only thing that could wake her from her reverie was the Leviathan suddenly pulling her away from the large tool - and even then, she barely reacted. After all, this time around, she had a pretty keen idea about where he was moving her, and why.

Sure enough, she found herself seated on the huge, pointed cockhead again a split-second later - though this time, the rapidly-vibrating tip had found her recently-vacated asshole instead of her already-filled pussy. She sank lower on it this time - her sphincter had yet to fully recover from the stretching it had endured from the Leviathan's feelers, and it had never really closed tightly around the far thinner (but more pleasurable) tendrils that were now reaming both her holes. As such, several inches of the cone-shaped tip managed to enter her - stretching her sphincter taut once more in the process.

While sending familiar sensations of pain through her, this also had the side-effect of creating a fairly tight seal, as her ass naturally absorbed the giant cockhead right up to the limits of its stretchiness. Resultantly, the first, super-powerful spurt of cum found no escape but straight up as it emerged from his urethra, and surged into her intestines with shocking force. Fortunately, after two prior orgasms, the Leviathan was running low on steam, reducing both the power and volume of the jizz-burst - preventing any real damage. Instead, she merely felt seemingly the entire lower half of her body fill with hot cum. Her lower intestines were largely empty, due to her earlier fasting, and now they flooded swiftly, inflating yard after yard of tightly-packed bowels. The white flood only stopped when it reached her stomach - which was already quite full of his cum thanks to her busy mouth and tongue.

With this first spurt having been entirely absorbed by her body, filling it to capacity, the second spurt followed quickly after, and pushed beyond that. The flooded intestines labored and writhed under the pressure, expanding outwards and pushing forwards her stomach - already marked by the noticeable bulge caused by her cum-filled womb. The end result left her looking either extremely well-fed, or slightly pregnant - but fortunately, it didn't go beyond that. The sheer force of the first spurt had actually lifted her by half an inch or so, leaving enough of a gap for the pressurized cum to begin flowing out around her distended sphincter, coating the cockhead once again.

By then, somewhat belatedly, the Leviathan lifted her off of the still-spurting tip altogether... but rather than pull her aside, he just left her hanging directly above it, her asshole still gaping wide-open from the recent stretching. The next burst of cum easily covered the half-foot of air between them, hitting the bulls-eye of her dilated sphincter with unerring accuracy. Much of it simply spattered to the sides, coating her buttocks and thighs, but she could feel the force of the blast all the way up through her intestines.

She hung there like that until the last spurt of jizz emerged, barely reaching her buttocks before raining back down again. Then, the tendrils returned her to her previous position before the backside of the large tool - but rather than continue rubbing her against it, they withdrew entirely at that point, leaving her standing slightly confused for a moment. Her legs, however, were cramped and sore after spending so much time getting pulled around by the Leviathan's masturbatory activities, and would not carry her weight - combined with the changed center of gravity her bloated belly provided, she found herself stumbling backwards instead, falling into the hollow behind the large cock.

She landed with a splash. The multiple ejaculations had filled the small indentation to the rim with cum, like a particularly nasty bathtub. She floated on her back in it, feeling it soak into her hair as she watched the towering shaft in front of her begin to buckle, tumbling sideways as it shrunk. Arching her head backwards, she looked up along the immense body of the Leviathan, and saw that its head was far away indeed - from the looks of things, the entire, gargantuan beast was floating on its back on the water's surface. Worn out from their carnal activities, she gathered. Looking around for the first time since the whole thing started, she also noted that they had drifted quite far from the shore during the festivities - they were somewhere in the middle of the Great Bay by now, far from prying eyes.

The sensation in her inflated belly and womb, along with the tingling taste of cum on her lips, kept the afterglow of her countless orgasms going for a while... but gradually, they faded, and suddenly floating in a tub of cum seemed less arousing and more gross. Somehow, she wasn't anywhere near as exhausted as she should've been after such a marathon session - presumably, the effects of all the strangely nutritious cum she'd swallowed - and she now took advantage of this unnatural energy-level to pull herself out of the slimy bath. As she struggled to her feet near the edge, she started squeezing her distended belly with her palms in an effort to empty it, sending large spurts of cum bursting from both of her nether holes to splash into the natural hollow.

Finally, she simply 'jumped overboard', sliding down the smooth-scaled side of the Leviathan into the cleansing sea-water. She could not recall having been so utterly messy before in her life - her body practically covered head-to-toe in sticky, slimy sperm, her hair carrying enough of it to make her neck hurt. Fortunately, the salt-water seemed to dissolve it quickly, and she shivered in delight as she felt the thick gunk slide off her skin. Well, the rather low temperatures of the water might have contributed to her shivering too, and she found herself suddenly wondering whether the improvised bath was really a good idea. She could keep herself afloat, certainly, but she wasn't a particularly strong swimmer - certainly not good enough to reach the distant shore. The Leviathan's skin offered no purchase, and she wouldn't be able to climb back up it - if he simply left at this point, she'd likely drown somewhere in the bay. It wasn't as if any ships would pass by and rescue her, after all - they were all staying in port out of fear of the Leviathan.

She barely had time to finish formulating the doomsday scenario in her head, however, before a familiar tendril rose from the water and wrapped around her body in a firm grip. By now MOSTLY clean, she was lifted from the waves and passed upwards to the grippers near the Leviathan's head, while his whole body rotated before her, turning right-side up while submerging everything beneath his head. She could see the tendrils moving under the surface, wiping off and cleaning the residue of their sexual session - presumably in preparation for stuffing his deflated cock back into its hidey-hole.

And so, as the huge beast began to move smoothly through the waves towards the shore - hopefully somewhere near the cape where he'd picked her up - she found herself dangling in front of his immense face once again. Interpreting the facial expressions of something so huge and alien was difficult to say the least, but she nonetheless got the impression that he looked tired, but satisfied. The warm, orange light of the sinking sun might have been a contributing factor there, however, softening the sharp features of his scaly head significantly. " You prove as good as your word, Beastmaker. Perhaps you are a godling after all. But I remember being pleasured by a daughter of the Master before - and you have surpassed even her. So perhaps you are something else." The two short, glowing-red tendrils that apparently functioned as his tongue were dancing in the air before her, and she felt a chill at his words. Far from shining a light on her true nature, this ancient creature had merely muddied the waters further, it seemed.

"I would not make a promise I could not live up to. I trust you to do no less." It was difficult to sound imperious while dangling naked and lightly cum-stained in the grip of a gargantuan beast, but she thought she did a fairly good job of it. The Leviathan snorted in reply before answering. " I will keep my word, yes. The vessels of man will be left untouched while I nest in these waters. There is little worth eating on them anyway. And I will give you my aid, so long as it is not too great an exertion." She bit her lips as he made that last concession. Well, she had come here for sea-power, and she'd found it in abundance. There was a definite note of reluctance in his voice, however. Clearly, it rankled on him to take orders - however temporarily - from anyone but Cerulec, his creator. A shame - she would've liked to keep him around. On the other hand, the "He followed me home, can I keep him?" conversation with Korlin might have been... interesting.

Amused by that mental image, she grinned up at him, nodding. "It shouldn't take you long, as I said earlier. Just a few specific... 'vessels' I need you to destroy. It'll be near the northern tip of this bay - soon." She helpfully pointed north, taking her bearings from the sinking sun - just in case this ancient, primal creature wasn't familiar with such human constructs as the Cardinal directions. His head - with her still dangling in front of it - turned in the direction, and she saw the feelers on his nose weave and snap. " There are no vessels there." It was a simple, matter-of-factual statement, but it spoke volumes about the extent of his senses - at least when it came to the seas. She shook her head, smiling nastily. "Not now, there isn't. But soon there will be. Just not for long..."

Some time later, Sayn watched the tide ride from the safety of the beach. The leviathan was already nothing more than a vague, dark shadow on a dark sea, and with a sigh, she turned and walked back towards the small, makeshift camp she'd set up near the cape before attempting to summon the beast. Now that the sexual acrobatics were over, she was starting to notice the chill of the wind on her exposed flesh. After all, she had nothing left of her clothes but her sturdy - and by now, rather water-logged - boots.

Fortunately, she'd been foreseeing enough to pack a change of clothes. Well, several, really, if one counted the nice dresses she'd used to wow the griffons during her stay at the Great Aviary. As she entered the camp and walked determinedly towards the saddlebags containing her spare clothes, she was met by Cybra's sarcastic gaze. "Well, I can tell from the state of your undress that you managed to secure an alliance..." She ignored him with great determination as she began to pull the clothes out - another set of simple, sturdy pants, tunic and coat, no different from what any other traveler on the road would be wearing during this season.

Cybra, however, did not seem inclined to be ignored. "Well, while you were off riding the waves, the messenger you sent off earlier returned with a reply. Pretty prompt answer from that lot, isn't it? I guess the loss of the ocean-shipping is hurting them more than they're willing to admit. Sayn paused in the middle of pulling the tunic over her head. "And the contents of the note?" She asked, muffled by the tough cloth. "What, you think I'd read somebody else's mail?" Cybra's voice was obviously scandalized, and Sayn rolled her eyes as she finished getting dressed. "Anytime and every time you get the chance. Not that this was technically somebody else's, seeing as it was addressed to me and you're PART of me. So just speak up already..."

The odd, goat-like creature shrugged with resignation. "Oh, fine then. It's impossible to get a proper response outta you when you're still high on orgasmic afterglow, anyway. The letter was really flowery and officious-sounding, but it basically boiled down to 'Yes, please, help us get rid of the Leviathan if you at all can, we were too afraid of you to ASK, but if you do it anyway, we'll give you a fat sack of gold in return.' Though, from the note of eagerness in that letter, you could probably negotiate them up to at least THREE fat sacks of gold."

Sayn grinned, reaching into the saddlebags - which she was conveniently still standing right next to - for paper and charcoal. She'd been worried that telling the leading council of Mosvaruch that she might be able to deal with their Leviathan-problem, before she'd even tried to call it, was a bit overconfident - but everything had worked out well, hadn't it? The expenses that her recruitment of the centaurs had left her with would thus be compensated for by a cash infusion from Mosvaruch's rich coffers. Of course, she would've asked the Leviathan to leave the shipping alone ANYWAY, but if you could get paid to do a good deed, well, why not? Whistling merrily, she started penning a new message for the Council of Ten - they'd be happy to know that the seas were open to them, without any need to sacrifice maidens this time.

________________________________________________________________________

Lorrack the Black stared moodily out of the tower's broad windows, watching the host of soldiers milling around on the plains beneath. HIS host. HIS soldiers. A far larger force than he had ever commanded before, which would be a glorious thing indeed were it not for the sheer number of strings attached to it. Still, that wasn't what was darkening his mood. The large windows gave him an excellent view of all the resources at his disposal - that was why he'd chosen it for his strategic headquarters. The other towers of the aging castle had arrow-slits for windows, and right now he needed a good view more than he needed protection from stray arrows, especially considering his opponent's lack of ranged capabilities.

Seeing all those resources somehow drove home what he was facing. An army of such size and variety - footmen, pikemen, mounted knights, crossbow units, heavy golems and more - would not have been assembled for any old war. In fact, based on his extensive knowledge of military history, it was likely the most powerful army ever assembled - past empires had fielded LARGER armies, in terms of pure numbers, but they had lacked much of the advanced magic and technology that was considered standard these days. It was an intoxicating thought, but that elation was immediately countered by the thought of why he needed it.

The Beastmaker. That witch-woman with her unexplained ability to create entire ARMIES of beast-like golems, at incredible speed. Compared to the dumb, lumbering constructs that his own forces could field as heavy hitters, hers were infinitely more advanced. He'd seen them in action himself - fast, responsive, clearly possessing some rudimentary intelligence and instinct. She didn't need to give them specific orders, the way his golem-handlers did - she could simply command them to attack the enemy, and they'd do so on their own. He wondered if that young girl, with her complete lack of any official training in military tactics and strategy, could really comprehend the magnitude of that advantage.

He had great numbers, and strong weapons. But if those were the factors that would determine the battle, he would lose. There was a reason why the newly-minted Northern Alliance had offered him a king's ransom to lead this force: Only his strategical acumen could overwhelm the advantage in sheer force possessed by The Beastmaker. He'd done it before, after all! Of course, in those cases, he'd been angling for limited tactical goals - holding a castle against her siege, maneuvering his forces out of her reach, rescuing trapped units. And in each encounter, he'd seen her learn from their past meetings. The girl might be uneducated, but she was no fool. She would not walk into this coming battle armed with suicidal overconfidence - he already had abundant proof of that. His intelligence from the south was limited, but what there was of it all formed the same picture - she was trying her damnedest to beat him at his own game.

Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to grin at the new arrival - his personal lieutenant, Markaith. Well, technically, his personal CAPTAIN right now - like all of the officers in his original mercenary unit, he'd gotten a promotion to go with Lorrack's own temporary title of General-Marshall of the Northern Alliance. It had been fairly easy to tell that it was Markaith ascending the long, winding stairs of the tower - from the lack of huffing and puffing. The officers of his borrowed army were often in shockingly poor shape, and the stairs challenged them mightily. Which kept them largely out of his hair, just the way he liked it. Of course, HIS officers were all expected to be able to swing a sword at least as well as any of the men under their command, so they were made of stouter stuff.

"Ah, Markaith... I was expecting you. Have you finished all the preparations?" The young, battle-scarred man saluted smartly and took the at-ease position before replying. "Yes, General-Marshall. The hunters have been emplaced throughout the expected combat theater, with the best concealment available. They are watching the skies, and are ready to shoot down any 'strange-looking birds' with flaming arrows once the battle starts. All claim to have enough hunting-experience to easily tell a real bird from a fake." Lorrack nodded, smiling broadly. It was only one of the surprises he had prepared for The Beastmaker, but he hoped it would be a particularly nasty one. "Excellent. That should put a finger in her eyes in the sky..." Markaith looked less certain, and Lorrack gestured at him - their personal signal for 'forget ranks, just tell me what you're thinking'.

"As you say, sir... but are you really certain that she can see through the eyes of her beasts? There've been no reports to that effect..." Lorrack just shook his head. "Sometimes, 'military intelligence' has to be taken literally, Mark. Our spies have turned up no indication of such an ability - but considering the way she dodged my ambush back during the engagement at Solarec Hill, it's the only explanation that makes any SENSE. Well, that, or she's literally psychic and can see the future, in which case we're all doomed anyway." Markaith nodded, grinning at the gallows-humor of the last joke, and Lorrack turned his back on him again as he walked over to a different window - one that gave him a splendid view of the Stormrage River. It was the biggest river on the continent, but right now, it was crowded by the fleet of heavily-armed ships moving steadily down it. The catapults and ballistae they carried on their decks would be one of his strongest cards, making it all the more important that he protected them.

"And the soldiers I requested for Marine duty?" He could practically feel Markaith fidgeting behind him, the way he always did when he was obeying orders he didn't quite understand. "There was some... complaining from the officers. Apparently, they feel that such an assignment would rob them of the chance to glean 'glory' from the coming battle. Their men were less concerned, however, so a few threats to have them executed for insubordination and promoting their sergeants to field officers instead got them to fall in line." Lorrack nodded. "Yes, well - by all means, let us hope that they prove to be right, and that their assignment on those ships really DOES turn out to be a complete waste of time."

"But, sir... do you really think she might have convinced the Merfolk to join her? You know they've never been willing to interfere in internal human conflicts before..." Lorrack looked over his shoulder in annoyance as Markaith spoke up. He hadn't actually given him permission to speak freely this time, and he was getting tired of explaining himself. Still, this WAS the biggest battle of Markaith's career too, so he could be forgiven for being a tad nervous. Sighing gustily, he shook his head as he returned to watching the fleet heading downstream towards the Great Bay, while small row-boats clustered around their sides, disgorging the armed soldiers that would protect their crews from any amphibious assaults.

"No, I do not think so. It would be unprecedented. But lots of unprecedented things seem to be happening around her, and we have fairly good intelligence to suggest that she's TRIED to recruit them. If she offers a sufficiently large payout, talks fast enough, and trades on her reputation as a presumed half-god... it's not IMPOSSIBLE that they might decide to throw their lot in with her. And as long as that possibility exists, I must act to counter it. On their own, the crews of those ships would have little chance against a merfolk strike. With those soldiers on board... the equation shifts, especially if the ambushers do not expect them." He tapped his lips with the slender index-finger of his right hand, as he tended to when thinking. "However, that is not my main concern."

"Then... what IS, sir? If you do not mind me asking." Lorrack sighed, turning around to rest his rear against the windowsill. "The unexpected, of course. It's what every strategist dreads. Our intelligence is too thin on the ground. Too many questions remain unanswered. We know that she left her camp at some point, but not exactly when. The fact that her beasts continued acting like nothing happened while she was gone opens up its own can of worms. We know of two things she's done while out and about: Arranging her fake army of Centaurs with her friends in the southern and eastern city-states, and attempting to recruit the Merfolk near Mosvaruch to fight for her. But since we don't know how long she's been gone, we cannot know if she had enough time to pull some OTHER trick that we haven't heard about at all."

Markaith nodded. The young lieutenant had seen through The Beastmaker's southern deception almost as fast as Lorrack himself - but it had been a pretty nice stratagem for a beginner, nonetheless. If they had believed the reports that an army of centaurs from the Great Plains was approaching through the southeastern city-states, they would've been forced to redeploy many of their forces to counter the threat, particularly the ranged units that they so desperately needed in order to fight the Beasts. Centaurs were, after all, superb skirmishers - and on open fields, they could harass enemy forces from a safe distance while remaining in constant motion. On the surface, the idea seemed entirely possible, too - The Beastmaker could certainly offer the centaurs much that they might want, and her origins on the Great Plains would give her the contacts and knowledge to set it up. When his spies had first started reporting sightings of a vast centaur force moving north, he'd certainly been concerned... until he noticed that his scouts had not reported any burning villages or influxes of refugees in the walled city-states. Such things would have been an inevitable side-effect of centaurs marching through human lands, no matter WHAT they had been promised, and they would have been effectively impossible to conceal.

So, she had a carefully-engineered 'phantom army' distracting him from the south, and possibly Merfolk fighters ready to strike at his ships. He had seen through the former, and was ready to counter the later. But she could have done other things too. For all he knew, she might have been rushing around all over the continent for the past several MONTHS, setting up traps and making alliances. Considering that she had a shape-changing Kirin working with her, even confirmed sightings of The Beastmaker within her camp could not be counted on with absolute certainty. But as much as the possibility of unexpected surprises from her side concerned him, it also filled him with a certain bubbling eagerness. She'd been a fearsome foe to begin with - raw power pitted against his superior intellect. Now, he had gained power like never before, and she had learned the basics of strategy. He had dozens of plans, stratagems and concealed units ready to counter whatever she threw at him. She had an uncertain number of weeks during which she'd been making plans and preparations away from the prying eyes of his spies. He had never faced a battle with so many uncertain elements. This would be the greatest challenge he had ever faced, and he could hardly wait to find out if he would be able to persevere through it.

The rising surge of excitement was rapidly chasing away his annoyance at the looming shadows of the corrupt and greedy lords who employed him, and he felt a smirk crease his lips. Then his sharp ears caught the sound of footsteps ascending the stairs, escorted by the rapid breathing of an extremely tired person. The immediate assumption that it was one of the portly generals or colonels from his borrowed forces making his way up to the tower to complain about something was chased away by the realization that they would never have ascended the stairs at such speed. Which suggested that whoever was coming was actually in very good shape, but winded before he even started his ascent. All of which led Lorrack to predict the arrival of the messenger nearly ten seconds before the red-faced, sweat-drenched man stumbled through the door.

The exhausted man made a shaky salute in the direction of Lorrack and Markaith, breathing heavily as he sought to gather enough air to pass on whatever information had brought him there. The two waited patiently, until finally the words stumbled from the man's lips. "Report from the scouts, General-Marshall! The Beastmaker has returned to her camp, and her forces appear to be mobilizing!" Lorrack's smirk turned into a broad grin. "So... you're making the first move, are you? Very well. The game is on." He nodded at the man in acknowledgement, then turned his attention on Markaith. "Mark - get down to those ships, and get them moving double-time! Put the soldiers to work on the oars if you need to! I want them all out in the bay and safely away from the shores before The Beastmaker's advance forces reach our lines."

Markaith saluted smartly and dashed down the stairs, leaving the messenger trying to work up the energy to follow him. Lorrack ignored the man as he returned to watching the river and the bay. The fastest, most agile beasts under The Beastmaker's command could, potentially, leap unto the ships from the shore the way things stood. And from there, they could reach other ships. He'd packed a lot of large boats into the river - leaving them vulnerable to such tactics until they reached the bay and could spread out. But once they were out there, on the deep, dark waters, only aquatic forces such as the Merfolk could hope to reach them, and he was ready for that...

His eyes suddenly narrowed. The waters of the bay... they looked very dark indeed. Darker than usual. With a disgusted sound, he shook his head. He couldn't allow his uncertainty to turn into paranoia. If the waters seemed particularly dark now, it was more likely to be a trick of the light than any kind of bad omen. Resolutely turning his back on the window, he walked over to the large map spread out on the planning-table, covered in tokens representing various kinds of military units, and pushed the black token that stood in for The Beastmaker and her central camp north towards his own assembled forces. His right index-finger tapped against his lips as he took in the overall disposition of his forces, looking for any weaknesses he still had time to correct before the enemy arrived...

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