“What the fuck are they wearing?” Liam said as he slowly walked down a dirt street of the village. Thorn stood just behind Liam as they moved through a crowd of amazons. Kenyanire had made Liam ‘willingly’ breastfeed off her to get energy back. Due to her “defiantly not” forced feeding of her, as soon as Liam could stand, he took the opportunity to go for a walk. Now he walked through the dirt streets, Thorn guarding him against any attackers. Serval Huntresses also lined the top of the nearby buildings. Liam understood why the amazons were now so protective of him after the assassination attempt. But still…

Liam glanced over his shoulder to see Yantraki and Kenyanire watching him from behind a building. Cringing slightly, Liam was getting some second-hand embarrassment from the two amazons. He knew amazons were stealthy creatures, but God they were so obvious it was unboreable. Jotting up their idiocy to stress, Liam carried on his walk. Knowing they were probably going to be following him for a while, Liam decided to go and check on Chillcali farm before checking the food stocks, then visiting the town hall.

What though held his attention now was the amazons. Each wore their usual grass skirt and top, but what was unusual was the paint they had on their skin. Many had painted onto either their abdomen, back, or breast was a grey feather wrapped in a green vine. Off to the side then sat two red stripes, these were then accompanied by the rest of the usual paint that the amazons wore. This paint always acted almost like a layer of clothing to them. It was incredibly rare to see Amazons without a few strips and patterns of paint on them.

Still, though Liam felt a little embarrassed as he passed each amazon. All were painted with the same grey feather locked in chains of vine surrounded by stripes of red paint. It was so weird seeing something that represented his family name painted onto the bodies of the amazons. It was one thing making the feather confined by vine into their flag, but seeing it painted onto passers-by felt off to Liam.

“It is simply markings that represent the tribe,” Thorn said as she watched Liam blush slightly at the looks, he now got from passing amazons. Many giggled or laughed at the fact it looked as if he was staring at their bodies rather than the markings. Serval amazons even stopped to quickly get a quick kiss or lick in on Liam’s cheek before retreating as Yantraki threw a rock at them from her hiding place.

Today was the last day before they left for the Daughters of the Moon village. Liam was only just informed that morning. Annoying yes, annoying that they would be stuck in unfamiliar territory during the mating season, but it was a necessary annoyance. They needed their flanks to be protected as much as possible. Shivers ran down Liam’s spine. The Sun Sisters were highly religious people, this was the reason why they insisted on attacking them so ruefully so far. If the Daughters of the Moon were anything like their sun-worshipping counterparts, Liam dreaded having to meet them.

Slowly Liam walked out into an opening. Looking around to confirm that his assumption that he had been going the right way to be true, a smile came across his face as realised he was only maybe a few meters from where he wanted to be. Now he stood at the edge of the village that lead to the Chillcali farm. This was to be the last time he was going to check them for hopefully a month until the mating season ended, and he could return home. Ha, home, is this what they called Stock home syndrome?

Not wanting to waste any amount of time today, he started to walk towards the dirt path that led to the farm. Boruma shot past him. Yell and chirping in their native tongue as they charged down the path towards the farm. A flick of brown hair swept past Liam’s face as a Boruma bumped into his arm. Looking to his side he saw a Boruma pressed against his arm, a small red bird in her arms. It didn’t take long for Liam to realise it was Andreaka with one of the red birds he had taken in. Looking to Liam, her eyes flickered for a few seconds before she recognised him. Without warning, Andreaka gripped Liam’s arm. Liam stumbled slightly as she started to sprint, still holding onto him. Thorn yelled for her to slow down but Andreaka had already dragged Liam to her group of friends as they all charged down the path towards the farm.

Thorn and Yantraki (who had now broken out of her poor hiding place) protests were soon drowned out by the sounds of the Boruma charging away with Liam towards the farm. Liam struggled to keep up with the speed of the Boruma. Andreaka and Icaria seemed to notice this as they lagged behind the group to stay by his side. Panting Liam came to a stop, just as they had finally reached the field. The Boruma quickly set to work tending to the Chillcali. Andreaka sat down on the ground next to Liam while Icaria sat in front of Liam, watching him as he panted for breath.

A finger prodded into Liam’s face. Looking down he saw Icaria sitting just in front of him.

“Idiot,” he said as he straightened his back, finally catching his breath. He still hadn’t had anything to eat that morning and considering he had only been awake for a total of 1 hour, it was way too early to be running. The rapid sound of approaching feet started to approach Liam. Sighing, he prepared for what he assumed was going to happen next. Strong arms wrapped around Liam. He could feel a face angrily burry into the top of his head. Nuzzling into his soft hair.

“Why did you run like that?” Yantraki said in a pouty tone as she buried her face even more into Liam’s hair.

“Sorry, I didn’t have that much of a choice,” Liam said as he looked down to Andreaka who was now playing with the red bird. Prodding and poking at its wings, then pulling it towards herself when it tried to run away.

“Anyway, weren’t you at home? How did you know I was running?” Liam asked, seeing a chance to tease Yantraki.

“Well…shut up, you're still weak, and you are still my pet. As my pet, I forbid you from asking any more questions about why I followed you here!” She said triumphantly. Liam chuckled. After a few seconds of him laughing, Yantraki started to probe what she had just said. Once the realisation of what she said came over her, she proceeded to tighten her grip around Liam to stop his laughter.

“Idiot!” She said as she started to nibble on his neck.

“Sorry, I heard nothing,” Liam said as he pulled Yantraki’s arms from around himself. He needed to keep her by his side today, mostly because he didn’t want her to get into a fight with Thorn who had been bragging to other amazons about sleeping with him. Not having sex, but simply she said she slept with him, just to make it sound like she had sex with him. Knowing that if Yantraki was to find out, she would probably try to kill her. This was all probably just a plan for Thorn to entertain herself. So, until they had fixed, or at least improved their sisterly bond then it was probably best Liam kept her by his side for a long as possible. Yantraki pulled back from Liam. Turning him around she looked him in the eyes.

“You need to stay close to me, after all, it is maybe one or two days until the mating season and right now many amazons are…you know, in the mood. So, stay by me so none of those,” Yantraki took in a deep breath, relaxing, and relaxing her grip on Liam.

“Sorry, I know you must have had a lot to do in the time I wasn’t there to help you,” Liam bit the corner of his mouth to stop himself from laughing at Yantraki for acting as if she helped him in his work. Kenyanire was far more help. She got people onto his side. She helped him to write speeches. She had helped him to come up with ideas to help people. Kenyanire was defiantly far more of an asset than her.

“But now I am here, I will do all I can to look after you and assist you in your cute little plans,” Yantraki finished, coming off a little more condescending than she probably intended to.

“Thank you very much,” Liam said, doing his best to hold back the edge to not point out the fact she had been more of a burden at times rather than a helping hand.

With the now happier Yantraki, Liam set about doing his usual check-ups on the Chillcali. As usual, the Boruma spent more time chasing the birds for fun rather than tending to them, leaving Liam to do all the work alone. Carefully he moved around the outside of the field. Watching, waiting, for a moment to strike. His eyes were fixed onto a small, newly born Chillcali.

For the past few days, the baby hadn’t been getting fed. That was one problem with raising the Chillcali, they were horrible at parenting. They had maybe two hundred or so now of the birds; most of the young ones. In all, they only had maybe thirty or so adults. Most Chillcali gave birth to large groups of young, most of which would have died in the wild but since the Boruma had been taking care of them most of the children had made it into teenhood. Sruna and Takire sat not too far from Liam. For a while now they had been the guards of the field, and the ones to make sure the Boruma balanced their training, farming, and relaxation as best as they could.

“Should we help him?” Sruna whispered to Takire.

“He is the great Liam, he should be fine,” Takire responded in English, wanting Liam to be able to hear her bragging about his newfound status amongst the tribe’s people.

“I think I should help him. What if he got hurt by the birds again?” Sruna said as she nervously moved down the slope, not wanting to go and help Liam fight the birds alone. Sighing at having to finish her break early, Takire followed after her friend.

“You need help?” Takire said as she approached Liam. Not taking his sight of the bird, Liam answered.

“That would be great thanks, I just need you to secure that bird for me,” Liam said, pointing out to the baby bird. After a few seconds of stretching their legs, the two amazons leapt over the wall of vines and into the field. Liam sighed, he had a plan for catching the bird, but it seemed the Amazonian way of doing things was also an option. Within about a minute the two had the bird secured and dragged the poor, struggling, Chillcali to Liam.

Pinning the bird down in Infront of Liam, the two amazons finally relaxed as they saw their job done for now. Carefully Liam placed a hand onto the head of the Chillcali.

“You mind quickly getting some food for the little guy, I think the Boruma have it,” Liam said gently as he stroked the head of the bird.

Sruna jumped up and ran over to the small group, quickly retrieving a bag of fruit from them. Chillcali usually ate fruit from trees or plants, or sometimes just plants in general. But recently this bird wasn’t getting much to eat, so Liam thought that maybe he could try to give the birds something to eat. It didn’t matter too much if the bird died, but Liam just felt like it was a waste of potential food if it was to die. Soon Sruna returned, the leather bag of food she had received in her arms.

Taking the bag from Sruna, Liam swiftly opened the bag. Reaching into the bag he pulled out a small bundle of tropical fruit seeds. Carefully Liam lifted the head of the bird. Rising his hands, he made sure the bird could see the seeds. Once the large eyes of the bird started to follow the seeds as he moved them Infront of its face, Liam placed the seeds down in Infront of the bird. Quickly he moved back, allowing the bird to start eating the seeds.

“There you go,” Liam said as he gently stroked the back of the bird with his free hand, allowing it to eat the seeds out of the palm of his other hand. Sruna and Takire soon relaxed as they saw the bird relax.

Yantraki and Thorn lay on the grass bank, waiting for Liam work. Kenyanire came and took a seat next to her daughters. Glancing behind himself, Liam saw Thorn wriggling in her grass seat as Kenyanire sat down between the two girls.

“Oh no,” Liam muttered. Liam could see now what Thorn was planning. She had waited for Kenyanire to come so that she could then tell Yantraki she had ‘slept’ with Liam. Smart diction, Thorn knew that Kenyanire would probably break up any fight that would break out between the two girls. Smiling, Liam went back to work. It seemed that he didn’t need to worry as much as he had before. Kenyanire would keep them in line. Jumping slightly, Liam turned to see a vine wrapped around Yantraki as she jumped to attack Thorn.

Seeing an opportunity, Liam waved to Kenyanire. It took a few attempts at waving before Kenyanire finally took the attention of her two daughters and refocused it onto Liam. Keeping her vines wrapped around the two amazons, who were now exchanging their versions of slurs with each other, Kenyanire walked over to Liam.

“You know this is a good opportunity for you three,” Liam said as Kenyanire approached him. Slowly Liam allowed the baby Chillcali he had been holding onto go. Jumping up, the bird sprinted away from them and back towards its parents, zig-zagging as it went.

“So, what is it?” Kenyanire said, glancing back at her two daughters as they continued to fight against their restraints.

“Just thought it could be some mother daughters bonding time,” Liam said as he dusted off some of the fruit seeds that stuck to his clothes.

“But I have already done that with Thorn, we talked about…” Kenyanire trailed off as she looked awkwardly at the ground.

“So yeah, what did you talk to her about,” Liam said, his curiosity starting to rise.

“Humans,” Kenyanire quickly said as she raised her head, glancing away from Liam.

“What about humans?” Liam asked, his morbid curiosity getting the better of him.

“Nothing I think you would want to hear about. Anyway, I’m just excited to see how the tribe has taken to your little speech last night,” Kenyanire said as she tried to move the subject of their conversation. Liam played along, allowing Kenyanire to move on.

“You know that whole thing about protecting the innocent has had many different interpretations amongst my people. Some see it as permission to take vengeance against their enemies, while others see it as you saying we all need to look after each other and the tribe. All in all, it has had a positive response from the people, just simply in different ways.” Liam smiled at her words. He wasn’t sure how that part of the speech would resonate with the tribe, but at least it seemed that they didn’t dislike it.

“I was kind of worried that I would anger them somehow, after all, I just came up with the speech on the spot,” Liam said, a little embarrassed as his lack of planning that night.

“It’s alight, I didn’t even think you had the energy or strength to even make it onto the temple, even if you were being carried by Yantraki,” Kenyanire said, still slightly worried for Liam’s health. It was incredibly odd to her how seemingly fine he had been after being stabbed with a poisoned knife. She knew the high priestess was a skilled healer, but even this quick of recovery seemed a little odd.

“Still, while I work, I think you should go and bond with your daughters,” Liam said as he stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“So, you do that while I go and finish my jobs, then we will go and meet your other estranged daughter,” Liam said with a smile as he started to wander back in the direction of the dirt path that led to the village.

Andreaka and Icaria soon followed after him. Kenyanire watched the tress as his guardian huntresses followed him in secret. Once they were on the path, Kenyanire almost wanted to follow after him, but then again… She turned to see Yantraki and Thorn still trying to get at each other’s throats. Maybe he was right, she still needed to bond with her daughters a little more.

Walking over to her two daughters, Kenyanire flicked her wrist, hitting them both on the head with smaller newly summoned vines. After a few more smacks on the head for both girls, she eventually calmed them enough to make a decent conversation with them.

“Liam has gone to go and do Liam things, and he has told me I should try to be motherly to you, you know, bring the family together a little bit at a time I guess,” Kenyanire said, her thick native accent dragging out the words where she tried to sound a little like Liam.

“Where is he!” Yantraki yelled at her mother.

“Yes, where is my mate!” Thorn yelled towards her mother. Kenyanire sighed. She could see now why Liam wanted them to try to bond together. All that was on their minds at the moment was Liam. Quite understandably as it wasn’t even a full day since the assassination attempt.

The girls broke out into an argument again over who rightfully owned Liam. After all, Liam had technically speaking defeated Thorn at the battle on the beach, so she had the right to claim him as a worthy husband, but then again Yantraki was the one to take his virginity as well as place the slave seal onto him. Another few vines slaps on the head later, and the girls both quieted again. Crossing her arms and rubbing the bridge of her nose, Kenyanire looked to her two daughters.

“What are we even to talk about, we could talk about killing humans, but considering that arguably our closest friend at the moment is a human it feels a little wrong to talk about it again,” Kenyanire groaned as she let her two daughters go from their bindings.

“He is stressed, isn’t he?” Thorn said as she rubbed her arms. Bright red stripes now coloured her arms due to her vine bindings.

“Liam stressed? Never,” Kenyanire responded sarcastically.

“Even after the day off, you gave him?” Yantraki added.

“Yes, do you not see the look in his eyes when he looks away from us. It is a look of a man who has far too much on his mind,” Thorn said.

“Yes, I hear him talking in his sleep some nights, all his dreams are off all the things he has to do but simply hadn’t had the time to,” Kenyanire said, only now noticing the large black bags that had been forming under his eyes over the past few days.

“Should we give him some rest?” Thorn asked.

“No, the mating season is coming up, and he is almost destined to have to ‘work’ then,” Kenyanire said, licking her lips slightly at the thought of a defenceless Liam.

“Do you think that stopping the training, for now, would help?” Thorn asked again.

“NO!” Yantraki said, almost a little too quickly.

“I mean, we can’t let him get unfit now, can we?” Yantraki said, quickly covering up any hidden intentions or meanings. Kenyanire smirked as she placed a hand onto her hip.

“So, you like the small abs he is getting?” Kenyanire jokingly said, as expected both her daughters immediately started to blush.

“Well, I think I have a little way we can all bond together.” Kenyanire giggled.

Shivers ran down Liam’s spine as he entered the village. He glanced behind himself, a sudden feeling of fear now holding him. The farm was fine, so Liam chose to take a wander to the training field to see how the warriors were doing. He kept his eyes down as he walked. Too embarrassed to look any of the amazons in the eyes. It seemed that every time he overcame his shyness, the amazons would always find a way to bring it back. This time the way they did it was how they now often approached him. Either they approached him to say a few words to him, but since they were in their native tongue, he decided to just simply nod and act as if he understood them. The second reason people approached him was usually done by the older amazons. They would usually glare at him before patting him on the head, and then they would simply walk away as if nothing happened. Lastly, there were then the Boruma, well you could probably guess what Boruma did. Boruma did Boruma things after, such as following other Boruma around, who then usually followed Liam around, causing a large chain of Boruma to be following him.

Liam started to walk a little faster as he heard the Boruma all happily chattering to each other; in turn, this brought along more Boruma who then started to follow him as well.

“It’s like a never-ending chain of idiocy,” Liam muttered to himself as he started to walk even faster. Taking his hands out of his pockets he scanned his surroundings, still paranoid this large group that now loudly followed him would attract the attention of another assassin. Glancing back to see that there were now a group of what was probably seventy Boruma following him, Liam started to curse under his breath.

“Idiots, fucking idiots, I’m too nice to them some days,” He grimaced, wishing that the Boruma would be more aware of their surroundings. A flick of blue hair passed Liam’s face. A hand grabbed his shirt before throwing him back into the group of Boruma. The blue-haired girl grabbed onto the wrist of an amazon. Throwing the woman to the floor, she quickly landed a kick across the woman’s face. From how fast the Boruma had acted, it took Liam a few seconds to realise what was happening when he saw a knife fall from the hand of the amazon.

Other amazons grabbed the Boruma from behind. Serval Boruma jumped to tackle the women. Liam’s eyes caught the glint of a knife as the amazon who had attacked initially picked up her knife. Before Liam even knew what was happening, he already found himself stomping down the wrist of the amazon to prevent her from using the knife. Swinging his leg back, Liam aimed up the head of the amazon. Turning to see who had prevented her attack, the amazon was greeted by Liam’s boot smacking into her nose. Despite the small amount of training, he had so far. The hit wasn’t enough to do too much damage, but other several kicks from Liam sent her down, a few sounds of cracking bone even came from her nose.

Grabbing his ankle, the amazon dragged him to the ground. Her fingers wrapped around her knife. Rising the knife into the air, she aimed for Liam’s heart. Liam’s eyes widened, he was too optimistic, he lowered his guard too quickly. Because of his stupidity, he was going to die again. A few drops of red fell onto Liam’s shirt. A gush of red then covered him as Andreaka pulled her knife from the amazon’s neck. His gaze trudged from side to side as Liam watched the huntresses slaughter all those who held knives in opposition to them.

Scrambling to his feet, Liam didn’t forget to grab a knife for protection. Again, like his, if his body moved on its own, Liam found himself driving his knife into the lower back of an amazon who was deep in combat with a huntress. More hot Amazonian blood splattered onto Liam, dying his white shirt a crimson red. Spots of blood splattered onto his face as the huntress finished off the amazon with a quick slash to her neck with her short sword. Like a rock, the body slumped to the ground, its head rolling off its shoulders as the body collided with the ground.

Stumbling back, Liam looked at his blood-soaked clothes and hands. What was he doing? A daze held Liam as he glanced around. Trying his best to understand what was happening, he tried to speak, but nothing left his lips. An arm wrapped around Liam. Immediately he went to fight back, assuming it to be another attacker. A strong hand smack his knife from his hands as he was pulled from the fighting.

“Are you hurt anywhere,” the voice of Huchoece whispered to him. Turning around, Liam’s eyes met with those of the high priestess. Something was wrong though. It was the look in her eyes. A look of hatred and fear. Liam could feel the palms of his hands start to sweet as he realised this look of evil was directed at him.

“I said are you hurt?” Huchoece repeated her voice sounding cold, emotionless almost. Her eyes moved down his body to the red splatters that smothered his clothes.

“I’m fine,” Liam said quietly, a subbed feeling of impending death telling him to run. A voice yelled something in Amazonian from behind him. A hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Icaria stepped Infront of Liam, separating him from Huchoece. Huchoece said something in Amazonian to Icaria Amazonian as she stepped forward. Icaria responded by throwing her arms out to her sides, preventing her from reaching Liam.

Huchoece scowled slightly. Looking to her sides, she could see that now the battle was finished, all attention was on her. Like a switch was clicked, Huchoece beamed a warm smile at Liam.

“Don’t worry, I just want to see how you are doing,” she said cheerfully. Liam took a step back. Fear stilled held him, but the feeling of killing intent seemed to fade.

Stumbling, Liam looked down to see what had almost tripped him. The body of an amazon lay on the ground behind him. Lifting his gaze from the first death, he looked to see several more splayed around the area.

“Looks like we missed some,” Liam muttered.