Chapter 27.3: Fractious Factions

The day had come to a close before Shara and Sonja finally happened across a place that seemed to meet the standards of the red haired ninja. Everything about it from the concrete walls to the privacy fence spoke to her.

“What is this, a forgotten town?” asked Sonja.

Shara shook her head. “It looks like some sort of unfinished upscale gated community filled with apartments.”

“Apartments?” asked Sonja.

“Yeah, a place for a lot of people to live in... think of it as a small town made of nothing but inns and only one innkeeper.” replied the redhead.

“That seems farfetched... But I can see it.” replied the Valkyrie

Shara placed a finger to her lips as she took a look at the place. It was obviously owned by someone, but from the look of it they had done nothing with it for a long time. She walked onto the property and then nodded. It was declared as abandoned property.

She turned and looked at Sonja. “I think we found our transfer point. There’s even room to expand if we want.”

“That’s good. That’s very good.” said Sonja as she walked through the main gate and looked to the unfinished buildings.

They seemed to be made out of a smooth stone. The finished buildings had bricks on the outside. “There are many windows and doors in these houses.”

“True, and that can’t be helped with the buildings that are finished at the moment, but we can change the design for the unfinished ones.” said Shara.

“Is this not a bit noticeable? Won’t someone determine that we are here?” asked Sonja. They were surrounded by trees on most sides, with only a single road leading into the community area.

“Probably, but with this much space, and the fact that it’s abandoned... We can probably have it heavily reinforced by that time. My house can only go so far, but this place? We can make a stand here.” said Shara.

The redhead walked over to one of the unfinished buildings then touched the walls. Sonja watched the girl nod her head several times before Shara turned back toward her. “Yep! We found the place we need! We can definitely use this place!”

Shara called up a crystalline screen then went about laying claim to the entire area. By the time that she was done, she had claimed the community area and well over two hundred acres of woodland beyond. She then set about purchasing basic sanctuary modifications to prevent random monsters from spawning in the area.

“I definitely need to go hunting tonight after I find a decent one-off place for setting a transfer node in the dream world. My money is a little on the low side now.” said the girl.

Sonja walked over to her then asked, “What now? Do we head back, or is there something else?”

“Well, I need to pick a building for the transfer node to link to... Then we can just use that to head back.” said Shara.

“Right.” said Sonja. The sooner they returned the better.

***

On the shores of a small island off the coast of North Carolina, there stood a beach house. It was simple in appearance, with but one floor despite the fact that it stood on four wooden stilts. Like many coastal buildings it was painted in a pastel blue color.

This untidy little blue shack hid a secret. At one time it had been used as a simple criminal operation. Many small, but well-used tunnels had been dug in the rocky soil before everything had been covered over with dirt and sand. Anyone who might have happened across that island would have seen nothing but an old man, and his equally elderly wife sitting out on the front porch in those days. However, beneath them one of the more dynamic moonshining operations in Eastern North Carolina had been in full-swing.

That moonshining business had turned to gun running and then eventually into drug smuggling when prohibition ended. For a long time afterward it had not only been used to make booze and smuggle drugs, it was also the center of one of the most prolific methamphetamine creation outfits around. That far from shore and with little traffic to and from the island, the place proved to be the perfect cover for meth creation and delivery, among other activities.

Since the advent of The First Dream that highly profitable drug trade had become even more profitable, but this place no longer housed the creation of such items. No, for you see the man in charge Boss King had moved his drug production operations to the dream world. It wasn’t even illegal there, and he practiced his craft openly as a form of alchemy.

This heavily fortified island of criminal activity was no longer used to smuggle just drugs. It was now used for something even more disturbing. It was the center of the slave trade on the American East Coast. Slaves, purchased in the dream world were brought to Earth and then held on this island until they were smuggled to a different location.

Every sort of slave that Boss King could get his hands on was brought to Earth for resale at extraordinary prices, or added to his personal army. His power had grown considerably because of the First Dream, and he had loved every minute of it.

Today, he was in attendance at his slave pens because he wanted to see what his handlers had brought in. He never went out and captured them directly, that was what his money was for after all.

Boss King, a well-muscled man in a stark white business suit, was perpetually in shadow so that his facial features could not be seen. The only distinguishing facial feature was a set of horribly yellow eyes that seemed to gleam despite the darkness.

The shadowy man pointed to the most recent girl brought before him. She had small cow-like horns rising up from either side of her forehead, a bovine tails, and a small boy held tightly in her arms. “What is this thing?”

“She’s a minotaur, Boss King. The men are supposed to be good laborers, and can make strong fighters. The females are usually sold off as livestock or to brothels since their milk is considered tasty and nutritious.” said an older man who was dressed and who also acted, like a butler.

“Fine, Harold. Get one of my slaves to milk her. I’ll judge if the rumors are true.” said Boss King.

“She is currently in the end of her milking cycle, Boss King. Until she has been impregnated she won’t give much milk.” replied the butler.

“Always something.... Take her to one of the breeding pens then.” said Boss King in a lazy manner.

“Ah... but she won’t enter a heat cycle again this year since she has a child.” said Harold.

Boss King snorted. “Well, separate her from the boy then... He can be sold off to one of our contacts overseas.”

“Well, actually as long as she knows he is alive that won’t matter. There is some sort of psychological-” began Harold.

“Whatever. Kill the little brat if he’s going to cause so much trouble. Make sure she sees it, or is that going to be a problem as well?” asked Boss King in a bored manner.

Harold flashed a fanged smile at his master. “Of course, that would be the best decision. What should we do with the body?”

Boss King gestured dismissively. “I don’t care. Feed it to whatever’s hungry.”

Harold nodded to his master then relayed those desires to two wolf-eared guys who were dressed like rejects from an eighties action movie set in Miami. Those men moved toward the Minotaur woman with a dark purpose and she cried out in panic.

Another man nearby, technically her current owner, called out, “Stop struggling!” The Minotaur screamed in pain as her slave tattoo flared with light. Her infant boy fell from her arms.

The little Minotaur started to bawl. The helpless woman could do nothing but cry as they were both dragged out of the room.

“What else do we have?” asked Boss King.

“Mostly common monsters, master.” said Harold in a disappointed tone.

Boss King sighed loudly, but when the sound of a gun firing rang out throughout the area, his sigh ended. There was not a single sound in the room until the high-pitched scream of a distraught mother echoed through the area. The scream repeated several times before it became a slow, choked sob of despair.

In the ensuing quite only the dark and amused chuckle of Boss King could be heard. “Harold, you never told me that Minotaurs could scream so beautifully...”

“I was not aware, master.”

Boss King lifted one hand up then twirled his index finger around. “No matter, send her to my room in about an hour. I’d love to hear more of that.”

Harold’s eyes widened in delight. “Yes, Boss King. I’ll tell the wolfguard at once.”

In the nearly perpetual darkness surrounding the man sitting in the comfortable leather chair, a light other than the baleful glow of his yellow eyes appeared. It was light shining from gleaming pearlescent fangs as boss king smiled his wolfish smile.