Jace gulped audibly as the orc-woman’s breastplate unfastened and fell to the ground with a hollow metallic clang. Her heavy heaving breasts, stood firm on her chest, her dark pink nipples erect and perky. Deanna’s green skin was a shade lighter than Amadis.’

Making her skin seem like a dusty brownish green.

She grunted as his obvious excitement tented the bed sheets, as his cock hardened painfully beneath. Her yellow gaze ticked between his eyes and his erection, jutting at the sheets. Deanna mumbled something in another language quietly, and without breaking eye contact with his concealed dick. The orc-woman strode around the bed coming over to his side.

Jace looked up at her. From this close he see that she was indeed stacked and build like an amazon goddess. The only difference would be her dark purplish hair, green skin and the tiny tusks.

Without even looking at him, Deanna reached out and roughly rubbed her palm over the head of his cock. The roughness of her attention made him twitch and flex. He felt decidedly guilty in the fact that he was enjoying this, and that aroused him even more.

This woman wanted to have her way with him, then so be it. Jace would sit back and enjoy the ride. Suddenly the orc warrior, threw the sheets aside exposing his nakedness and throbbing erection.

He could almost see the drool in her stare, as she gaze at his wiry body. He had to admit that compared to most people he’d seen since escaping Parkers Hold; his body was pretty well put together.

The only other people he’d seen with a body type anywhere close to his, was the rest of the Fifty-Two. The majority of them had been in good condition.

His thoughts were interrupted by Deanna murmuring something as one hand began loosening the fur skirt around her waist. Once that fell, her other hand returned to his penis. She began to undo the ties on her skin tight breeches, as she stroked him minutely.

Her hand slid up and down his length, her rough thumb occasionally rubbing over the head of his cock.

Jace moaned and reaching out, he ignored the painful flare from his wound, and started to help Deanna untie her breeches. Then he gasped a loud moan, as Deanna bent over and suckered the thick head of his cock into her warm enveloping mouth.

The orc moaned in delight as well, like his dick was her favourite snack and she couldn’t wait to devour him. He did feel the slightly brush of her tusks against his shaft—as she bobbed her head fractionally—but the knowledge that they were there, made him harden even more.

The tight warm wetness of her inviting mouth. Her tongue rolling across and around his head, had Jace panting with effort, as he tried stave off his orgasm. Finishing quickly with the ties of her breeches, he fumbled to pull them down. They were so skin tight on the orc that he actually had to put some effort into tugging them.

Deanna slid her mouth further down the thick width of cock with minimal effort, taking more and more of him into her. Jace groaned and pulling the breeches down violent, he thrust his hip and felt his cock touch the back of Deanna’s mouth.

Then without hesitating, Jace fingers roamed over Deanna’ smooth slit and he pushed two of his fingers inside her. The lips of her pussy contracted around his fingers and she moaned loudly around his cock, the vibrations reverberating along his shaft. Then she took him into her throat, and began jerking her hand roughly up and down the base of his shaft.

Patting her thigh and pulling her legs towards the bed Deanna got the idea, and Jace shuffled further down the bed until he lay on his back. The orc-woman keeping him at the back of her mouth as she jerked him off. Then Deanna’ plump muscular thighs were over his head. Her wet and aroused sex above his face.

Gripping her huge ass roughly, he could feel the muscles beneath flex under his hands. Jace pulled her pussy down onto his mouth. He worked his slobbering tongue across and inside her, one hand coming over to tease her clit with his thumb, the other smacking her ass lightly.

He heard the orc warrior woman, gasp and begin muttering quietly, her voice husky with impending need as she pulled his cock from her mouth. Her hands working his saliva coated shaft. She then stuffed his entire length back into her mouth, and with a startled gasp Jace felt himself enter her throat and slide further through, as the orc warrior began swallowing his cock.

“Fucking- Christ!” he exclaimed and began to roll his thumb out the hood of her clit quickly and violently, his tongue delving into her warm inviting sex, as he lapped away at her. His other hand came down and smacked the orc woman’ ass hard and rough. She hips and rear bucked back against his face and hands.

He felt her lips and warm tunnel pulse around tongue and then a gush of her sweet nectar, hit his tongue and mouth, drenching his chin. Her legs shook and clamped around his head and neck, then she collapsed on top of him. He slowed his motion, still strumming her clit. Slowed, but didn’t stop. Her body racking moans muffled by his cock stuffed down her throat as she worked him and swallowed him down.

Her efforts becoming hasty.

Each contraction of her throat sending a wave of pleasure rocking through him and he began to minutely thrust his hips in time with her bobbing head, and stroking hands.

Then he felt the wave of tingling pleasure coil up through his abdomen and Jace thrusted his entire length into Deanna’ mouth and a gasp followed but was cut off suddenly as he began to cum down her throat.

Shooting what seemed like a gallon of his seed as the orc woman started frantically swallowing, moaning all the while.

Finally spent, Jace panted and began to kiss and lick at her inner thigh tentatively. The orc woman, panted heavily atop him. Jace could feel her huge breasts engulf his cock. Smearing whatever cum and salvia was left onto her chest.

Then the orc warrior woman stood up and got off the bed. She turned around gazed at Jace intently. “Very goood,” she slurred, almost sounding drunk in the after glow of her orgasm and meal of his seed. Her accent was heavy, her voice husky and appreciative.

“Ye-ah…” Jace breathed, his whole body felt mellow. Not tired or heavy, just ridiculously relaxed. “You were… very good yourself, Deanna.”

The orc woman smiled at him, nodded and began to dress herself. He saw that she didn’t move to wipe off the cum smeared on her chest. Instead she simply strapped her breastplate on over it. Like it was a little memento of their fun.

“Amadis. Decide, when… next,” she told him, and Jace nodded. Once she was fully dress the orc warrior woman bowed deeply to Jace and left the bedroom. His cock gave a feeble twitch as he stared at her wide and thick muscular ass and legs.

“This… is going to take… some getting used to,” he breathed and contented himself in the after-glow.

~*~*~*~

The Nigh Dweller closed its eyes and weaved a complex spell structure with its tentacles. Weaving and wavering diagrams of runes into the walls around it. The spell it composed allowing it to instantaneously travel to the Fragments plane.

The stone walls of the eastern kingdom’s palace they had taken, shattered like shards of glass, as the world beyond became as black as the void.

Then the Nigh Dweller stepped through and out onto the Fragments plane. The area around looked as if a battle had recently taken place. A blue shimmering light radiated off a section of broken ground. Curious, it thought, eyeing the broken surface.

Its tentacles recoiling in on themselves at the prospect of going anywhere near that blue light. Then the Dweller felt the hazy pull as another of its kind travelled onto the plane. They both bowed their heads in acknowledgement of one another.

The Nigh Dweller’s pride at being called before its god slightly diminished with the appearance of another. Over the next span of time. Thirty-eight other Nigh Dwellers stepped out onto the Fragments plane.

As all settled around, the cloudy sky of the plane blackened as an enormous shape breached through it. The Fragment, their maker, had arrived.

My children. Its voice throbbed painfully, and all of the Nigh Dweller cried out at the sign of scarring on their god’s flesh. The wound looked superficial, but the presence of one on the Fragment, was heinous.

The reclaimer has finally after three hundred years sent a response. The Fragment godly chant, was angry and decisive. There is one amongst those that were summoned here. He is different and bares something of the reclaimer on him.

I know a few of you have confronted this anomaly. Two heads bowed and press themselves against the glassy floor. Their tentacle splayed out in submission. Rise my children. I do not blame your failure. This one is indeed crafty.

The deal we struck three hundred years ago. To not interfere, is over. This is your time once again. Those of you who’re still preparing the western kingdom, sweep the eastern forest completely. The anchor there is vital to your winning.

The clouds around the Fragment began to encroach once again and envelop their gods body. Now go my children. You have but a year after all. It laughed darkly and faded into the thick dense cloud coverage.

The Nigh Dweller and it’s kin, looked to one another and bowed their departure. The Dweller looked across it’s ‘siblings’—for a lack of a better word—and spotted those two who’re responsible for the Fragment being wounded. They bowed their heads in sorrow and supplication, begged their pardon and forgiveness. And retreated to their tasks.

Failure always has a price, it thought and smirked internally. Weaving its tentacles the Dweller travelled back to the world.

It had already taken the capital of the kingdom of Biddan. Where to next? it pondered.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the day flew by for Jace. He sat comfortably in bed for a few hours and slowly felt himself rebuilding his strength. His wounds burned and itched painfully, throbbing every now and then when he would twist his torso slightly. But other than that, he had gotten dress into some warm thick clothing and strolled outside.

The looks of the people of the village as they passed by were grim, and they constantly kept starring at the sky, in fear of it snowing.

He’d yawned, rubbed his hands together and came around the back of Joanna’ house. There, he found pretty much everyone. A small ring of stones with a fire at the centre blazed as the pack of women sat around chatting happily. Jace walked over to them and joined in. Joanna claiming his laps and kissing him.

They ate a small meal, and afterwards Joanna sat him down on a stool opposite her. He noticed how the Athena, Marcia, and a orc-woman strode back into the menders house—to work on alchemy presumably—whereas the rest of the Saracae orc-women started to trail off.

Each of them going about different tasks, some playing with Gabrielle as another who was carving wood showed it off to Cain.

“Do you have your brush case?” Joanna asked, startling him out of his wandering focus.

“Yes,” he replied, patting his breast pocket. Weirdly he felt naked without it somewhere on his person.

“Good. For now, take it out and place it before you.” He did as instructed. “For your first lesson, we’re going to visualise how your Mana pool will look. Now, I want you to close your eyes and focus on your breathing.” Jace shut his eyes and breathed out slowly, purposefully. Feeling the air enter his nostrils, fill his lungs, expanding.

Then he exhaled, and with it all outside thoughts and worries drifted into abyss of a focused mind.

For a time, he lost himself in this simple pleasure. The world faded; sounds were muted except for the slow intake of his breath and its hissing relief as he exhaled.

“Now,” he heard Joanna say. But her was voice distant, soothing. Reminding of the Wakeful Plane. “I want you, to visual a pool of water. It can look however you like it. And from that crystalline pool you will take a sip, no more than a droplet’s worth though,” She warn him soothingly.

“What do you feel?” she asked him after a moment.

“I feel fine. Calm even,” he said, and his voice was quiet, as if speaking any louder would disturb the pool of water he was visualising.

“Now your pool, is it lesser than that it was after you took a sip from it?”

“N-no,” Jace shook his slightly.

“Why don’t you take a gulp then,” she nudged him.

“A gulp,” Jace murmured and stared at his internal pool. Joanna hadn’t mention anything about the size of the pool, and what Jace’s mind had provided was odd to say the least.

It was a blue and white tiled dome ceiling chamber. The walls on one side were made entirely of decorated glass and sunlight shone through. Its multi-coloured rays playing across the surface of his “swimming pool.”

Somehow he felt like this was wrong, and that Joanna had wanted him to visualise something more picturesque. Like a small garden pond.

This was all him though, and no matter how many he tried to picture something a little different, the pool was all that remained with him. Taking gulp of water, Jace saw no change at all.

“No change,” he murmured and didn’t notice Joanna lean forward curiously. She obviously couldn’t see what he was doing, this was simply a mental exercise.

He wasn’t actually connecting with his pool of Mana, or she would’ve felt it.

That came from partitioning the mind. Creating a third mind as they called it. There was the conscious mind, also known as the passive eye. Which everyone had.

The mind’s eye, or the subconscious mind. Which was often referred to for traveling to the Wakeful Plane.

Then there was the mind vault. A place in which all Magi retreated to mentally when working with magic. This was sometimes referred to as the Magi’s partition. Those that managed it usually graduated beyond an apprentice Magi.

It’s said that the High Magus’s of the kingdom, actually had several mind vaults. Where the norm was usually one. Joanna’ own was for mending. For her to take up another rune and study its implications, she would either require her to have a second mind vault. Which she didn’t.

Or she would have to unlearn her mending rune. Which was typically, illegal, and considered extremely painful. A part of her mind having to be wiped and erased.

“So you’ve visualised your pool of water, correct?” she asked him. Jace nodded and tilted head, his eyes still remaining closed.

“Yes, I do. What now?”

“I’m going to say a word, and I want you to visual—like you have done with the pool—how this word would be expressed to you. That if you were to condense it down into a single diagram. A rune of your own interpretation. How it would look. Understood?”

“Y-yes,” he said after a moment of hesitation.

“Fisa,” Joanna said, and the word bloomed in a fiery glow inside Jace’ mind. He pushed the image down into his pool of water. Seeing the word Fisa and the fire scorching off the emblazoned word. His mind spun trying to condense it down into a single symbol.

The sides of the word folded inwards, and began to transform. It surface condensing, and remodelling similarly to how his vambrace had in the Wakeful Plane. In fact his knowledge of that happening helped him to cajole the word along.

The heat wafting and trailing off the condensing word began to double and triple in intensity. His pool of water start to steam and roil as the heat grew more intense.

A sheen of sweat matted his skin and Jace threw his focus even deeper, fighting against the heat, as if he was trying to tame the slowly re-forging word.

In a blinding burst of red and orange light, his pool exploded upwards in a geyser(ing) spray of warm water. At the centre, the folding rune hummed as if it had been struck the final blow from a forging hammer.

There before him at the centre of his vastly depleted pool, was his own interpretation for the rune of fire. The Fisa rune burned with an inner molten glow, and looked to forged of obsidian.

“It’s done…” he breathed and felt himself panting distantly. Each breath was thick and heavy.

“Done?” Joanna squeaked, and finally Jace opened his eyes and looked at her.

“Fisa. I formed the rune,” he informed her. The mender simply looked at him as if he was mad.

“Not yet you haven’t,” she said more calmly this time, and rubbed her hands over her knees. “You’ve visualised an elemental rune. But you’ve yet to actually compose outside of your mental image. Tomorrow we’ll move onto partitioning your mind. A place in ourselves where we store our rune and all its knowledge.”

Jace frowned at that. He was sure he had been actually forging a rune in his mind. But guessed there were probably a lot more nuances to learning magic. Over and over and in his head he kept repeated the word, Fisa, Fisa, Fisa, as if hoping that somehow his mental utterance was cast fire.

“Okay,” Jace sighed, and felt the cold air hit his sweat soaked body. He shivered, rubbed his hands together and stood. “What now then?”

“Now,” Joanna replied, and her small mouth split into a grin that matched that of a sharks. “Now we go form our marriage contract.” With that she stepped over to him and claimed his lips with her own. A few seconds later, they parted with disappointed yet pleased sighs.

~*~*~*~

Athena was nervously pacing the room as they entered Joanna small home. Which to Jace, had become as much as his own since he’d arrived here only a few days back. He wasn’t actually sure of the date of anymore, or how long it had been since he’d been ‘summoned’ along with the others.

Marcia was sat beside her son. The quiet Cain happily using a small blunted knife as he tried to carve chunks out of a piece of wood in his lap. The mature fox-woman bounced and jiggled a bubbling Gabrielle on her knees.

Athena stopped in her tracks as they entered, “good you’re here.” The fox-woman then sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping briefly.

“Calm down, Athena,” Marcia told her stoically. “He is here, now we can begin.”

Athena shot her a glare and turned nervously to both Jace and Joanna. “We’re… still going through with it?” she asked them nervously.

Jace shrugged his shoulders, “I think so?” Apparently that was the wrong to say, and he grunted as the elven woman smacked him in the stomach. “Y-yes,” he wheezed out in a cough, “we are.”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby. Or I’ll start calling boy like Maypor does.”

“Maybe I am making a mistake,” he muttered and rubbed his belly.

“What was that, boy?” Joanna smirked at him and cocked a fine blonde eyebrow.

“Nothing,” he quickly assured her. Shooting a look over to Marcia who was staring blankly out the window. Her face dejected and forlorn. Having doubts I bet, he thought to himself, up to her in the end. He wasn’t about to stop her from doing this. It was her decision to make after all.

“Okay, how do we begin?” Jace said and clapped his hands together.

“Dah-dah!” Gabrielle squealed loudly and began to wriggle on Marcia’ knee urgently.

Walking across the room, Jace bent down and started to tickle her sides. Gabrielle trilled with laughter, “stick with your aunt for a bit stinker, okay.” He kissed Gabrielle’ forehead and dodged out of the way as the baby tried to swat at his cheek.

Marcia smiled slightly; her fangs pronounced as he played with Gabrielle. Jace gave her a small smile, and turned back to Joanna. Athena was still stood looking nervous and she began to chew at her bottom worriedly.

“First, we start with the ritual and oaths.”

For the next hour they muttered the obligatory phrases about how marriage is eternal and that the people binding themselves with their vows must be done so willingly. “Now, we cut our palms. Wipe one others cheek and brow, and pressed our thumbs in others mouth.”

“Oookay, that’s odd. Sort of went from marriage vows … to face painting each other in blood,” Jace muttered.

“I could explain how the blood-tithe for our vow is a sacred signature. And with two Magi, our blood is more potent. It’ll bind us, and when you’ve learnt the binding rune. That’ll bind our magic together.”

“Alright. I… see. I understood about forty percent of you what just said.”

Once they’d decorated one another in bloody face paint, and suckled ton each other’s bloody thumb. They stood in a circle, as Joanna began to draw a circle outline of chalk on the floor around them.

Then the mender wrote four names into the centre between them all. Then inform each of them to pressed their still bloody thumbs onto their names.

Joanna began to mutter something that sounded like a prayer, and Jace felt a shiver tingle up his spine. It was as if something had focused its awareness on them. It reminded him of the entity in the Wakeful Plane, the Fragment. Like he wanted to look over his shoulder and see if someone was there watching them.

But this awareness was neither pressuring or malevolent, it simply just was aware and that was it.

Then they stepped out of the circle and as they did so, their names in the centre emanated a gentle green light and started to peel away, and vanish.

“What the hell?” Jace exclaimed under his breath. Their names floating into the air and erasing as the green light traced across their surface.

“Shre has blessed our union!” Joanna called cheerily, and all three women bounced in joy. Though Jace just simply shook his head. Why do I even question anything anymore? he thought exasperatedly.

“Now the right of consummation falls to Athena.” With that, Joanna and Marcia gave the younger fox-woman a peck on the lips and left the room. Dragging both Gabrielle and Cain with them.

“That has to be the weirdest and quickest wedding I’ve ever participated in,” Jace joked.

“Shouldn’t it be the only wedding you’ve participated in?” Athena retorted.

“Exactly,” he murmured and stared at the fox-woman.

Athena had taken to wearing to tighter clothing over the last day or so, almost looking like a few of the Saracae he’d seen. She wore dark brown leather breeches that hugged her long slender legs tightly. The almost dark grey cotton blouse she wore tucked in, and it barely contained her massive breasts. Over that she wore a suede light brown jacket that she often left open.

“Your staring,” Athena said with a coy smile.

“Well, yeah. Of course I am. You’re simply stunning,” he breathed and slowly walked over to her. He was surprised how fast the cuts and slices to her face and neck had healed. Now all that remained were sharp white scares. They didn’t mar her beauty, but more enhanced it. Making her delicate features and gentle personality more striking and sharper.

He cupped the back of her neck and felt Athena all but purr as their lips just barely brushed against one another. Athena ears swivelled towards left. A second later the ground shook, and an ear-piercing cry split the evening sky. Then a howling roar of hundreds of rasping voice rose to fill the silence.

“Shit!” they both exclaimed. Before they could even make it to the threshold of the room, Joanna and Marcia barged into them.

“They’re here,” Joanna cried out. She was stuffing books and small instruments into a backpack. Her satchel strung over her shoulder.

Athena rushed past him and began to help Marcia disassemble her alchemy equipment. “How long do you need?” Jace called to them.

“Five minutes,” they all shouted in unison. He noticed a seemingly oblivious Cain, holding Gabrielle as they both watched their mothers frantically moving about.

“You’ve got two-” he called and was interrupted by the door banging open.

“Master! It’s an enormous wretch horde… and something else is flanking through the forest towards our east.”

“Thank you captain obvious,” he snarked and rolled his eyes, “why the east?”

Amadis shrugged her small slender shoulders. “No idea, Master. But whatever it is, its felling trees.”

“Okay. Amadis, I need Deanna and one other to come with me. You and the rest of the Saracae are to load up as much of our belongings as possible and see that my wives and children are safe. Got it?” He ordered and marching back into Joanna’ bedroom, he grabbed his bow and quiver.

He always kept his dagger about his person now.

“Master, Deanna and Sera are here,” Amadis called as two orc-women ran up to join him as he left the house. Looking beyond them, he saw down the street of the village directly to the gate and tall lumber walls. People were milling about, fearfully watching the village gate and frightfully anticipating.

“Deanna, what’s to the east?” he asked. He knew her kingdom was rough, but hoped he would get his answer anyway.

“Nothing, Master.”

“Nothing? Like no walls or houses?” he questioned and cursed when Deanna nodded gravely. “Well, shit.”

Whatever coming through the forest is apparently big, and bad news. What’s at our gates is more pressing. Wait! “How many wretches are at the front gates?”

“Hundreds,” Amadis called from where she and another of her sister’s were pooling stuff by the front door of Joanna’ home.

“If there’re hundreds… then why are they focused on the front gate?” he asked in disbelief.

“Distraction,” Sera said, her voice was slightly a high pitch than Deanna’s. Though they shared a similar height, their builds were different.

Sera’ purplish hair was in a pony tail and it fluttered in the cool breeze behind her head. Her figure was sleeker than her sister and she had swirling black tribal tattoos rolling up her legs, thighs and onto her bare midriff.

Her ears held several piercings, and around her neck was a bird skull necklace. On her right upper arm was a band with several different large teeth, that Jace thought to actually be orcish tusks.

A long-faded slim scar crossed the bridge of her nose, from the inner corner of her left eye to her right cheekbone. She had more scars about her body, one large one ran across her chest, and another sliced down her right side and onto her hip.

Sera wore a tight wrap around her breasts, and covered her lower half in a furred skirt with a long red loin cloth. Her feet were covered by knee high thick furred boots. And one her right shoulder was a red shell pauldron, with two enormous tusk jutting out from it.

“Where’re your weapons?” Jace asked them, just as an orc woman ran up to them, and deposited three weapons and a shield on the floor before them. The woman turned to Deanna, spat something in their language that Jace realised he might have to learn at some point. Then she bowed to him and ran back to whatever task she’d been doing previously.

Sera immediately bent and grabbed the shield and a thick long sword, with a serrated edge above the hilt on both sides of the menacing blade.

Deanna grunted disapprovingly and grabbed the short hand axe, its handle curved towards the pommel. The actual axe blade itself looked to made of obsidian, and was chipped in a few places.

What was left for Jace was a sheathed sword. Bending down and picking the sword up, he was surprised by how light it was. Unsheathing a good foot of the blade, gave him an idea of what he was working with.

The pommel of the sword was a dark blue steel, and the rosewood handle was smooth and vanished. The grip was sizable enough that Jace could easily wield the sword with two-hands. The cross-guard and side ring were the same dark blue metal.

Looking at the sword as he fully unsheathed the blade, Jace realised that he was looking a large knife, or at least at something that resembled a big knife. The metal of the blade gleamed silvery, and Jace wondered where the Saracae had found it. Or, who it had belong to before him.

Sheathing the sword, Jace grunted at the two orc-warrior-women. A moment later they set off towards the east side of the village.

“Master?” Deanna called ahead to him. “Why not we abandon this place?”

“We are,” he called back as they jogged. The houses suddenly disappearing and leaving only tall fields of grass. Looking to his left he saw the village wall simply stopped there, as it reached the field. “Idiots,” he muttered.

Though in truth he was angrier with himself. He hadn’t at all felt the need to explore the Trager village’s strength—which there were none—and its weaknesses—which were a plenty apparently.

No, instead he’d simply been fucking his women, and falling unconscious because of ill-timed godly duals in a dream plane.

Wherever we end up next. If we make it. I need to do a better job, he chided himself. Walking slowly through the grass, the three of them stayed close to one another. The orc-women whispered nervously as the sounds of crashing trees reverberated through the ground.

Behind them they could still hear the roaring noise of the undead, at the gate of the village. Crack! A loud crash detonated a tall tree about twenty feet in front of them, looking up in muted amazement they stared as the tree leaned precariously their way. Its shadow swallowed Jace whole.

“Move!” he shouted and diving to his right, he felt Deanna smashed into his back and rolled on top of him. The tree plummeted into the ground and bounced once. Rolling Deanna off of him, Jace sprung to his feet and saw Sera standing up on the other side

A small fresh cut marred her upper left arm.

“You oka-” he tried to asked her, but a deafening rolling scream tore through the air. Jace had to cut the sound off by pressing his hands to his ears.

Then several more crashes emanated through the ground, each pounding and growing closer in quick succession. Drawing his bow off his shoulder, Jace plucked an arrow from his quiver with a twist, and waited.

Then a writhing mass of horror breached through the tree line of the forest before them, and crashed onto the grassy field. It was a bulbous brown blob with long sinuous tentacles of different sizes thrashing about its fat ugly brown body.

Two small arms tore feebly at the ground as it tried to right itself. Then it managed to get its hind legs and rear up beneath it. It’s like a Tyrannosaurus-Rex had sex with a brown blubber, Jace thought disgustingly, though he no idea what any of that even meant, or if it was even accurate.

Thick triangular spikes jutted from atop its bulbous body. The thing righted itself finally and let out a wail of anger, and Jace almost pissed himself in horror. It had several dozen gaping mouths all about the front half of its body, each lined in long sharp teeth about the length of his hand. Around each mouth was a collection of dull piss-yellow orbs, almost wrinkled shut by thick heavy bags of skin encroaching around them.

It roared at the three of them and its tentacles whipped about it and dug deep-long furrows into the ground. Its small clawed arms grasping in eager anticipation, as long tongues flicked through and out of each grotesque maw.

Just as Jace thought it couldn’t get any worse. Its tail swung out wide behind it. Its long thick length protruded several spikes along it, and at the end, were three hook-like pincers.

It towered over them at about fifteen feet.

“This. Isn’t. Good.”

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]