Chapter 4: The Virgin Shaman

Thanks to b0b for beta reading this!

Xandra – Black Glass Aerie, The Island of Birds

The dark, misty clouds swept across the jungle below. I crouched on the ledge, watching the rain-laden clouds rush across the island. They washed like gray surf around Mount Peritito just below the lowest part of the aerie. I peered at the clouds, trying to spot the travelers through them, my fingers playing with my air totem.

The totem was carved from light balsa wood, sinuous lines reminiscent of currents of air swirling about the mountain. The air elemental my totem controlled danced before me, magnifying my keen vision. But not even my air elemental could allow my sight to penetrate the storm clouds.

The totem focused my will, allowing me to control elemental servants. I had four totems, each carved from a different wood and with different designs. My fingers never stopped moving on the totem, tracing the lines and keeping the elemental servant on task. Greater shamans, like my mentor Farsight, could summon an elemental and give it a task to perform without needing constant supervision.

My will wasn’t so strong.

The storm’s edge drifted closer. Soon, I would spy the strangers traveling the path from Baraconia. They were a welcome distraction from the preparation for tomorrow night’s marriage dance. I spotted the travelers by chance, idling my free time by staring at the jungle. They were a motley group. Fascinating.

An elf led them, naked like the stories claimed, walking beside a halfling. And then a woman in armor, perhaps a knight, in the company of a priestess. The last three were a mage in red robes and two men of races I could not recognize. One hulking and swarthy, his face pierced by bone. The other had skin as black as midnight with ears as pointed as the elf’s. But there were no male elves. They were one of the five hermaphroditic races birthed by Matar: elves, gnomes, nixies, sylphs, and the dreadful dragons.

The storm cleared. I smiled as I scanned the trail, only visible in small patches through the dense canopy of the jungle. But I knew where to look and ... I spotted the knight, her red hair spilling about the shiny shoulder plates of her armor.

Why was a knight coming here? The imps residing in Mount Peritito’s caldera were under control, held back by elemental wards. What other Quest would send—

Lightning arched from the jungle and struck the knight. She fell as my heart constricted. I gasped a single word: “Couatl.”

Xerathalasia – Collserola Jungle, The Island of Birds

A pleased smile covered my lips despite the rain hammering us. The heavy drops crashed through the jungle’s canopy. I had never experienced such a torrential deluge. It came out of nowhere, the steamy day overwhelmed. Minx laughed beside me, the little halfling’s arms thrown wide, child-like joy shining in her drenched face.

Minx and I led the party down the jungle path. Mount Peritito, at least before the sudden deluge, rose before us, a black monolith peeking through the dense canopy. I was teaching Minx how to scout. Her thieving instincts helped greatly. She knew how to move with soundless steps and the advantages of using cover. But she was clueless when it came to reading nature. I showed her tracks left by birds and beasts, pointed out disturbed brush and bent fronds, and animal spoors.

“Be aware of everything,” I had told her. “Sounds and smells are as important as vision.”

She was quick and observant. As the day went on, she spotted more and more animal signs. So it was hard not to smile at her rapid improvement. One day, I would teach my daughter these skills. She must have been born by now, looking so small in my wife’s arms.

Guilt twinged my stomach.

“Oh, I missed afternoon showers,” Minx laughed again. “I loved the rains. Made it easier to sneak on roofs.”

“Yes, I can see the advantages. Masks your sounds, and no one wants to look up in such a downpour.”

“Exactly.”

“But doesn’t the rain make for treacherous footing?”

Minx shrugged. “Added to the fun.”

As quickly as the rains started, they stopped. The cacophony retreated to near silence, punctuated only by water dripping from everything. The birds, which had been chirping loudly before the rains, were still silent. I frowned, my ears twitching. The muggy wind shifted.

“What was that?” Sophia gasped.

“Afternoon showers,” Minx answered.

The cold scent of reptilian scales brushed my nose.

As Minx said, “This time a year they’re very—” as I said, “Something—”

Lightning arced out of the brush and struck me in the chest.

Journeyman Mage Faoril

I jumped as the lightning bolts arched out of the jungle. The hair on my arms stood up, and a stomach-turning scent of burnt air filled my nose. Thrak, Angela, and Xera all dropped, hit at near the same instant. Sparks danced around Thrak as he collapsed hard on the ground, muddy water splattering about his face.

My hand shot down into my robe’s pocket, grasping the vial of Thrak’s cum. I pulled it out, my thumb popping of the cork and breaking the magical seal preserving the seed’s potency. I didn’t have to think about grabbing it. I had done it so many times. I brought the vial to my lips and downed it, the thick cum flowing down my mouth.

As warm and as salty as drinking it from the source.

The power filled me.

Movement slithered out of the jungle. A thick-bodied serpent, vibrant-green scales and a collar of purple feathers about its neck. Its mouth opened. It hissed. Lightning danced along its fangs. As I stared at the monster slithering closer, knowledge danced through my head. Couatl. Feathered serpents thought to have been bred by avian shamans to guard their aeries. Many have escaped into the wild. Feral. Dangerous. Use lightning to stun prey.

It flicked its tongue at me, coming closer and closer.

Couatl have been known to mate with women. Netavias in his “Travels across the Nimborgoth” speculated that avian females would use the monsters for sex, skirting the rigid monogamy laws and customs of their race while their males were out hunting or on war parties. Of course, Ventaries ridiculed Netavias in his “Treaties on the Avians of Roc Isle.” According to him, no avian woman would even think about violating her marriage oaths with man or monster. It went against their very nature.

Why was I just standing here recalling what I learned? I should act.

I trembled. I had to do something. Its tongue flicked again. It tasted the air, smelling with its tongue instead of with its nostrils. Couatls were thought to be created by merging rocs with serpents. Often shamanistic creations were created in that fashion, using elementals to create the effect. Kobolds created warg in a similar manner, merging kobold and wolf, making intelligent, deadly predators.

No, focus. What was wrong with me?

I seized the power within me. I would wrap the serpent in air then open a hole in the ground and bury it. Two more of the foul couatls slithered out. Sophia screeched as one crawled over Angela’s unconscious form.

I sent out the power of elemental air, seized the wind and...

Nothing happened.

Nothing flowed out of me.

I gasped, trembling. Relaria’s yowl echoed through my mind. My palms grew clammy. My stomach roiled. I tried to seize my magic. I grasped the power, and it spilled through my metaphysical fingers. I shivered. It was so dangerous. What if I lost control again? My breaths came faster and faster. The world spun about me.

I pictured Thrak hurtling from me, almost killed.

It was too much. To powerful. I couldn’t be trusted with it.

The couatl lunged at me.

Chaun

As the couatl crashed into Faoril, I fell to my knees. I slung my lyre’s case off my back. I did not want to expose the strings or the wood of the instrument to such humidity. After the deluge, the air swam with moisture. If the damp warped my instrument or weakened the strings, the music would not be perfect.

But I had little choice. Whatever magic Faoril tried to use had not been effective. She screamed as the couatl wrapped its sinuous body about her. At the Bardic College of Az, I had taken classes on bewitching monsters. Different beasts required different techniques to placate them. Lullabies worked well on ogres while trolls were susceptible to befuddlement. Griffins could be befriended and hippogriffs scared. But many monsters were primal, responding to only the most basic of drives.

And none were more basic than lust.

My fingers strummed across the strings, chords of low, throbbing notes pulsed through the air. The couatl, crushing Faoril’s body and bringing strangled screams from her mouth, paused. It lifted its head and looked at me. A pink tongue flicked out. Another hissed. The one coiling about Angela’s unconscious body bobbed its head, its crimson feathers undulating.

The couatl wrapped about Faoril’s body pulsed color down its scales, a rippling mottle of violets and blues. Its body flexed, coiled loops sliding about Faoril’s body. Electricity danced about its scales, bringing gasps from Faoril.

Not gasps of pain, but pleasure.

Being fucked by the couatl was better than being eaten until a more combatant member of our party recovered from the stunning lightning.

Minx

The dull-brown scales of the couatl glistened in the sunlight streaming through the canopy as it rushed for the unconscious Xera. A flash of anger surged through me. The couatl were a problem for the halflings who settled on the Island of the Birds, and one the avians refused to accept responsibility for creating and letting escape into the jungle.

I pulled my knife from my sheath and stabbed the couatl as it reached Xera’s twitching leg. “No, she’s mine to play with.”

My knife scored along the thick scales of the serpentine monster. It hissed, a thin line of oozing blood trickling down its body and reaching its crimson feathers. The collar of feathers expanded around the head, forming a hood. The couatl opened its mouth. Lightning danced on sharp fangs dripping with saliva.

“Cernere’s nimble fingers,” I gasped as I dived behind a thick tree.

Lightning crackled. Smoke burst, rolling about the tree trunk. Sap sputtered and boiled. The couatl hissed again, and another flash of lightning scored the tree I hid behind. The thing slithered across the mud, making a squelching sound as it circled me.

I ran deeper into the jungle.

Lightning exploded behind me. I yelped, the hairs on my arms standing up as another bolt arced past me and struck a tree in front of me. Sparks danced on the wood, and flames sputtered for a moment then snuffed out, leaving curling, gray smoke behind.

I dodged to the right. Bushes rustled behind me. Twigs snapped and wet leaves squished. I splashed through a puddle and jumped over a root. I ducked vines as lightning shot over my head. Fire flared to my right.

My heart hammered.

“You think you can eat me?” I laughed. I had to lead it away from Xera and the others. I couldn’t let any of them die.

How could I steal the sword from them then?

Fear twisted in my stomach. If any of them died, the quest might fail. Especially if Xera perished. She was necessary. Her keen senses and wisdom were vital to get the other sword pieces. One was lost in the Mirage Gardens. A place even harder to get into than the Doge’s Great Vault.

The couatl hissed in frustration as it slithered after me. I threw looks over my shoulder as I dodged through the jungle. It crashed through the underbrush, head raised. Lightning danced across its skin. When it splashed through puddles, the current arced in blue-white lines from its body, like the wiggling legs of a centipede. When it crashed through plants, they shriveled from the electricity, smoking and almost catching fire.

They would burn if the jungle wasn’t soaked in water.

“Is that really the best you can do?” I laughed, flashing a grin. Despite my fear for my companions well-being, exhilaration ran through me. It was a chase. I was the best at escaping. Only Xera had ever caught me.

But I needed to do more than escape it. If it lost me, it would double-back, go for Xera while she still lay stunned. Halflings were known to be knocked out for a half-hour or longer. Maybe elves, who were even bigger, would recover faster, but I wasn’t sure.

So what could I do? I had my alchemical bombs.

I shoved my hand into my pouch, shifting through the supplies. I brushed the clay balls. I had my alchemist mark each one with a different symbol. I brushed one with a spiral, a damiana bomb. I didn’t need to drive the creature mad with lust. How would that help? The next ball also had a spiral. I dug deeper, ducking a low-hanging vine.

I brushed a one with an X carved onto the side. Chamomile. My sleep bomb.

I laughed, “Oh, you’re going to love this.”

I whipped out the sleep bomb and spun as I jumped. The couatl burst out of a brush, feathers spreading wide, mouth opening to discharge lightning. I hucked my bomb with a sideway throw, snapping my arm around.

My aim was true. The bomb struck the couatl right in the mouth. Purple smoke erupted, covering its face for a moment. I hit the ground, one foot in a muddy puddle. I almost fell as my foot sank into the mud, throwing me off balance as it gripped me.

The couatl emerged from the smoke, hissing in anger.

“Vedr’s queef,” I groaned. The creature was not asleep. Sleeping bombs worked great on humans and halflings. I assumed they would work perfectly on everything else.

The couatl lunged at me. Its body coiled into a spring and launched through the air so swift. I gasped and dived to the side. Every hair on my body stood up as it surged past me. I felt the electricity humming around it. A hands breadth closer, and it would have stunned me. I would have made a small meal, an appetizer.

My heart racing, I scrambled to my feet as it whipped around and hissed. I had one other type of bomb in my pouch. Lightning crackled. I threw myself to the ground. I rolled on muddy leaves as the bolt arched over my head.

I shoved a hand into my pouch, searching for a bomb marked with the chevron.

Spiral.

The couatl slithered closer, tongue flicking.

Another spiral than an X.

It coiled to strike.

X. X. Spiral. Come on. I had four of each type. Where was the—

Chevron.

I smiled as I grasped the acacia bomb and ripped it out. I threw it as the serpent lunged. The bomb struck its belly right below the collar of feathers. A white-brown gunk expanded when the clay shattered, reacting with the air.

I rolled to the side

The serpent landed next to me, the foam expanding, tangling it up with fallen branches, bushes, and the side of a tree. Its muscular tail thrashed as its head jerked, trying to break free. It hissed as the foam spread down its body, immobilizing more and more of it.

I loved sticky bombs.

I stood, pivoted, and jammed my knife through its eye, punching into the monster’s brain. It stiffened. Its tail thrashed a final time, then it fell limp.

“I am the best,” I chortled as I tried to wrench my knife out.

But it was stuck.

“Vedr’s queef,” I groaned as I tugged again. “Don’t be stuck. You’re ruining the moment. Stupid knife.”

Angela

My armor groaned and rattled as I came swimming back to consciousness, propelled by the blessing of Gewin sunk into my skin. Chaun sung a passionate melody. Memories of the lightning bolt arching out of the trees shot adrenaline through my body and—

Something was wrapped about me.

Scaly and warm.

The serpentine monster had me trapped. Its tongue flickered in my face. A collar of feathers spread out around its neck. A couatl? Electricity coursed over its skin. I gasped as the current rippled through my body. It wasn’t the stunning bolt, but something different.

Something that tingled my nipples and clit. I gasped, my pussy flushing wet. The electricity coursed through me, awakening all the pleasure centers of my body. I moaned and convulsed, my eyes widening in bliss.

“Angela!” Sophia shouted, brandishing her glowing, enchanted dagger. She drew it back to stab the monster.

“No,” I gasped, my mind flooding with a rush of sensations. “No, no. Not yet.”

“What?” she gasped.

The serpentine monster’s shifted its body, a coil pressing between my thighs. The electricity raced up and down my legs, curling my toes and caressing my pussy. My cunt clenched, and I bucked against it, squeezing my thighs about its muscular torso. It slid up my thighs, the scales caressing me almost as deliciously as its electricity.

It pressed against my pussy, pushing my chainmail loincloth to the side. I humped against it, loving the direct, electrical current caressing my clit and labia. My sex burst with pleasure. My back arched and I moaned in bliss.

“So good!”

“Its trying to rape you,” Sophia gasped.

“Let it,” I panted, not caring. “So good. The electricity ... You have to feel this, Sophia.”

“It’s a boy monster,” she huffed. “No.”

Beyond Chaun strumming his lyre, Faoril moaned in equal ecstasy. The mage humped against the coiled loops of her couatl lover. Her robe was open, her breasts pressed against its serpentine body as electricity arced across its scales.

I wished my breastplate was off.

I kept grinding my clit and pussy against its belly scales, loving the smooth plates and the dipping valleys between each segment My clit ached as it slid over and over the joint. Stars burst before my eyes as the pleasure swelled in my pussy.

I came so hard.

My thighs tightened about the boils. I hugged the monster’s serpent-like body. Its tongue flicked my face. I kissed the snout, tasting the dry scales. Its tongue penetrated my mouth. I didn’t care. It was so hot.

Pleasure raced up my body, as intense as the electricity. My nipples throbbed against my breastplate. I humped harder, faster, smearing my juices as the monster’s body moved. Its muscles clenched, squeezing me for a moment as it shifted.

“Yes!” I gasped when something hard emerged from a hole and prodded my pussy. A cock. “Yes, yes, fuck me!”

“Chaun!” Sophia shouted. “Stop playing your lust song. It’s affecting Angela, too.”

“No, no, don’t stop,” I gasped as the couatl’s dick entered my pussy.

Spines covered its shaft, massaging the insides of my pussy. The creature’s electricity arched from its cock into the depths of my cunt. My orgasm intensified. The pleasure coursed through me. I spasmed and shuddered, bucking in its embrace.

“So good! Pater’s cock, yes!”

“Chaun, stop playing.”

“But they’ll attack,” Chaun answered.

Sophia raced to Chaun. I didn’t care. The dick pumped deep into my pussy. The monster’s body tightened about me with each thrust. Its muscles undulated down its body. It hissed and caressed my face with its tongue.

I stroked its scales down to the feather collar. My hands tingled numb from the electricity while my body heaved. My orgasm never stopped. The electricity kept it alive. It was wonderful I bucked into the thrusts, my pussy spasming on the cock, milking it.

“Cum in me. Oh, yes.”

The music died.

“Ram that dick in me. Keep up the electricity.”

Beyond Chaun and Sophia, Faoril gasped, “Oh, gods, yes. That’s it. Fuck my pussy. Pater’s cock, this is amazing.”

“Why are they still fucking?” Sophia demanded.

“So good,” I answered, my head lolling.

My brain swam with delight. Nothing could compare to the wonder of the electricity shooting through me. I kissed its snout again, my lips numbing and fuzzing. My pussy ached. My muscles spasmed so fast, so hard.

And his cock ... Such powerful thrusts lancing into my depths.

The rippling bliss washed over me. I didn’t care about anything. Sophia shouted. Chaun spoke. Faoril screamed her bliss. My world shrank to my electric lover. I hugged the monster, drinking in the ecstasy of the lightning arcing off his cock directly into my cunt.

The couatl hissed louder. Its strokes grew faster, driving his cock deeper and deeper into me. Its body clenched and relaxed on me, squeezing me tight with its passion until it almost hurt. I bucked and spasmed in its coiled embraced.

“Cum in me,” I begged.

The monster listened. It drove its cock into my depths. It hissed.

Electric cum splashed into me. I bucked hard into the creature. My hands gripped its hard scales while my pussy’s spasming milked out more and more jizz from its spiny cock. My back arched, grinding my clit against its belly scales, my orgasm intensifying.

“So good. It came in me, Sophia. It’s the best.”

The dick slid out of my pussy. A hot flood of cum escaped. I smiled as the electric current died. My head lolled. My orgasm finally reached its peak and withdrew, leaving me buzzing with pleasure. I smiled, blinking my eyes, finding Sophia’s gaze.

She shook her head.v

“It was amazing,” I grinned at her. “Just the—”

The couatl’s entire body clenched about me. The air drove from my lungs. My eyes bugged. My armor bit into my flesh. I bucked, struggling to breathe, but it was coiled so tight about me I couldn’t expand my lungs.

“Angela!” Sophia shrieked, then she lunged in with her knife.

The sleeves of Sophia’s robes billowed as she stabbed her knife, holding the hilt with both hands, into the side of the creature’s head. Her blade, enchanted by Saphique, sliced through the monster’s scales and skull like it was cheesecloth.

The couatl spasmed. I gasped as it squeezed even harder. I thought it would kill me. But then it went limp, dead. I groaned, pushing on the heavy coils, heaving them off of me. I sucked in wonderful breaths of air as I rolled out of its embrace and lay on my back, not caring I was in a muddy puddle.

“Angela,” Sophia said, shaking her head, “you really have to stop indulging your monster fetish. They always try to kill you after you’ve fucked them.”

“That’s half the fun,” I grinned at her.

Sophia rolled her eyes.

Faoril

The couatl came in me.

My pussy spasmed harder as the surge of electrified cum spilled into my body. I bucked and heaved, gasping in delight as my pussy milked out every drop of the monster’s cum. More energy swelled inside of me, two distinct reserves of power—orc cum and couatl jizz.

The monster hissed out its pleasure. The electricity stopped coursing through me. Then it strangled me.