Chapter 1

SOL Site: Story Blurb

This is the third installment in Von Solon’s series and can be read as a stand-alone; but, it will make more sense to those who already have some familiarity with the other stories. Either way, I hope you enjoy Von’s adventure. Thank you to my editors and proof reader for sticking with me.

“Lord Wolf is home!” squealed a young fisherwoman who towered over me, standing just inches away. All the people on Haven were rather tall.

Her perky, bare breasts bounced in my face as she hopped up and down. She bounced backward a foot or so and in a circle, which lifted her short skirt rudely, fleetingly revealing much of her reddish-brown skin.

I’d remember her exuberant greeting for the rest of the day.

The dawn’s breaking light cast a few rays around both us and the log cabin threshold which she stood upon. Fortunately, I’d dropped my bright glow stick on the ground after landing safely, which gave me plenty of additional light to enjoy her show. I’d missed my landing target, not taking into account the planet’s lighter gravity when guiding my gravity board down from the butte, after leaving my shuttle companions to set up our base camp. We wanted it out of view of the town for fear of spooking their primitive culture.

I had just slid the straps of the high-tech device through my arms to carry it on my back, and free up my hands again for my staff, when she stepped out of her home. It was clear she recognized my white face, black station clothes and short, six-foot tall stature.

She scampered back inside the cabin, happily shouting, “The wolf is back. The wolf is back!”

I smirked at her animated greeting, leaving her behind to stride towards the smoke of the Women’s Center’s morning fire, a central gathering spot for the cooking of meals and the hub of gossip. Most of the original cabins, often called strongholds, were small and lacked fireplaces. When we founded Juniper Hills we had limited manpower and resources, so creating a community hall was a necessity. However, most of the village men couldn’t fathom any reason to enter the building, fearing their friends would tease them about helping in “woman’s work.”

Many of the original fishermen and older women who joined me in building this community lived near the butte, under the forest canopy, so it wasn’t a surprise when I almost immediately ran into a pair of sea-wives I recognized. The two women were affectionately holding hands and carrying some of their fishing gear. They hadn’t seen me as they passed behind a large, log building and out of sight to the main path that led down the hill towards the coastal beach and the sailboats. I paused, thinking about the time we gave them their first boat; the women had been in tears at the gesture. Sea-wives weren’t well loved by the nomad people living in the Great Marsh. It was one reason I had no trouble gathering so many of the net-fishing, sea-wives under our clan banner. The word of their warm treatment spread among the lesbians and other outcasts, such as former slave-eunuchs, which expanded our fledgling village. Of course, the promise of a cabin to married couples, regardless of sex, was like giving them keys to a palace, since the marsh people lived in reed huts. Thus, getting people to move west, further into the frontier, was easier than I had thought.

Seeing the town warmed my heart; however, my focus was getting to Swarta and Palus, the two women in town that had the tightest hold on my heart. They were the first women in the marsh to look out for me after I crashed on Haven. Derwen had quickly attached herself to me too; however, the merchant ship owner lived on Convoy, an island not far over the horizon.

I whipped around when I felt a woman’s presence. “Von?” Laudus hesitated. “I’d hoped ... I just followed the pull of my body.”

The light breeze tossed her black hair and simple dress. A mother of my children, Laudus was a foot taller than me with a square and lean face. My black lover’s small mouth and thin lips tightened as I looked her over. She had a royal nose, long and thin, that flared nicely when she breathed. Not long ago, her impressive cleavage had seemed small for her frame, but less so now that she was breastfeeding. We rushed each other, hugging and kissing. We leaned against the Women’s Center log wall as she started to cry happy tears.

“What happened? You disappeared. Sparrow said you were bloody and bleeding badly. We found the witch’s body,” Laudus said in a rush. “The children told us how they were forced to lead her to you.”

“Now, now, it’s over, I’m back. Let me explain it all once to my dearest loves.”

“It’s been ten days. There were no tracks...” I put my finger to Laudus’s lips and kissed her forehead.

“Fine!” she smiled, not really mad.

The fisherwoman who initially spotted me rushed up to us with her older, sea-wife partner in tow, clapping in glee. Male town folk followed them. They exhibited the same behavior--a crescendo of greetings and shouts followed us. The crowd grew in our wake as women rushed out of the Women’s Center at the sounds of shouts. I turned and waved, often seeing a familiar face, before moving a few more feet and repeating the requisite acknowledgments to other people. They were happy to see me, and they asked about my fight with the female assassin and my disappearance. Little did they know I’d returned on a shuttle with more wives who were atop the butte. Two of those women, Kate and Merritt, were sisters who had looked for my crashed escape pod on Haven and found me near death; they had thrown me in their shuttle’s healing bed and unwittingly took me from my family to their spaceship through a wormhole. After healing me and having to fight off space pirates, the sisters had agreed to move to Haven and join me with a few of their friends.

Laudus’s younger sisters, the twins Key and Hannah, mothers of my children found us. Their cries of joy stopped me for a moment; I grabbed them in a bear hug as they peppered me with urgent kisses. They were particularly pretty, ebony, noble ladies, and had unique eyes that were the result of my medical nanomites healing them. The twins blabbered over my head, as the reality of my sudden return hit them, pressing their ample breasts into my face with each sob. I could feel my wives’ auras in the wooden tower ahead of me, my desire to see them almost tangible. My mind had been expanded and adjusted without my knowledge by my guardian A.I., Webster, and one of the abilities that I possessed was a spiritual-like connection to my lovers. When my lovers were completely infected with my medical nanomites I could sense their presence. The connection was real and the auras were something that the local mystics already knew existed on Haven. I was added to the ranks of the rare few who had a mental link that could sense emotions. They didn’t know of any other adult males with my gifts, which had frightened a few of those in power. Shockingly, all my children had sensibilities to auras too.

“Snap out of it,” Laudus whispered, finding her way between her sisters to my ear to break my reflection and their hugs. As senior concubine, she was prone to making declarations and I loved her for it. “Make way for Lord Solon. Our white wizard has returned, rejoice but make way to the family tower. Who will run to Tharin’s Tower and alert him?”

“I will,” a man said.

“Who will alert Coven?” Laudus demanded?

“I will,” another man answered, his reddish skin wrinkled with age.

“Ring the warning bell in the lower town while you’re at it,” Laudus added. “While you do that, we must take our master to see Swarta and Palus. His chief wives must know of his return.”

The crowd parted, allowing me to see the Wolf Pavilion, an open area shelter we’d built near the family tower where my wives lived, which was also equal distance to the main concubine barracks. The concubines were mostly former slaves we’d freed from a coal mining operation. A stone path guided me towards our family, Laudus proudly had my arm and her sisters walked in lock step behind us. The excited crowd followed.

I saw Grimm walk into view from among the pine trees, near the west palisade wall. Her warrior eyes expressed all I needed to know. She ran to me, out of the dark shadows into the open light of the grass plaza. My lover’s small armor-encased breasts swayed along with the sword on her belt, closing the distance before Laudus had noticed her. I pulled Laudus to a stop and got out of her grasp just in time to receive the solid impact of Grimm’s welcome. The raw power of her muscular legs drove me back a step as she hit, wrapping possessive arms around my body; she was every inch a warrior capable of holding her own in a fight