Chapter 13

The road from the caravan’s turnaround point, the town of Elefar, was surprisingly well maintained considering its distance from any large cities. Once Kal and Kashka caught up with the slower-moving merchants, they learned each of them paid a tax on goods passing through Elefar that went almost entirely toward maintaining the road to the seaport on the eastern coast.

Kal asked if the tax also paid for protection from bandits as he nodded toward the guard riding alongside the merchant and the man laughed at him.

Kal remembered seeing a group of large, well-armed men in town as they searched for Kashka’s new daggers but hadn’t bothered to ask about them. Out on the road, he saw quite a few of them were hired as guards. Each man carried a sword, a large shield, and a longbow at the ready as they constantly scanned the savannah’s tall grasses.

The security wasn’t for marauders, but for wildlife.

The grasslands were home to many large cats such as lions, the insanely fast cheetahs, and leopards. If those weren’t dangerous enough, there were also hyenas and wild painted dogs to worry about. Elephants, their larger cousins the oliphaunts, and the horned rhinoceros also called the savannah home. Thankfully the oliphaunts stayed in the southern end of the region, where temperatures were cooler, and water was more plentiful. Although elephants and rhinoceros weren’t predators, their size made them just as dangerous as anything with fangs and claws.

With so many threats, hiding out on the savannah while waiting for a merchant to plunder was often more dangerous than it was worth.

The savannah itself wasn’t very exciting since it was mostly grass as far as the eye could see. Kal had seen enough grass to last a lifetime while crossing the Lantaran Death Plains. Unlike the Death Plains, the savannah had some shrubs and trees dotting the landscape to break the monotony.

Another difference was the large herds of animals they occasionally ran across, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands. Aside from protecting the merchant’s wagons from predators, it appeared the guard’s other purpose was to swat the herd animals’ hindquarters with long, willowy sticks to get them off the road.

They did run across a few monster girls traveling with the herds, but the women were given the same treatment and swatted with the sticks until they left. However, the guards tended to aim for parts without a layer of protective fur. He and Kashka saw quite a few of the large, herd-animal monster girls running away from the road holding their breasts and bottoms.

After the barrenness of the Death Plains, Kal was amazed at the sheer variety of life on the savannah. One of the herds they encountered on the first day was immense. Stretching nearly to the horizon, it consisted of several different types of animals, from the wildebeest and buffalo to the striped zebras and a huge variety of deer.

While waiting for the hired hands to clear the road, the merchant explained that many of these herds stayed further south but came to the region during the wet season when the savannah turned green from the summer rains.

Once past the gigantic herd, the merchants who didn’t have people walking beside or behind their wagons pulled to the front and began leaving the slower carts behind. By sunset of the first day, the staggered line of wagons stretched as far as the eye could see.

After an unusually awkward night with Kashka, Kal started checking out the wares of merchants traveling around them. Most were carrying spices, oils, various decorative woods, and other things he had no interest in.

“Kal, do you think any of these merchants might have some boots like yours?” the cat-girl asked as the sun approached midday.

“I didn’t see anything like that. Why?”

“I’m not used to walking for so long on cat legs, and it was making my thighs and hips sore. I switched back to human feet, but they are already hurting, and I’m not sure why. I never wore shoes back in Fazal.”

“You’ve also hardly been on your feet for the past month. Let’s see what we can find.”

He couldn’t just heal her soreness away because it would also erase any tolerance she built up for the rigors of traveling on foot. They first tried the Sandwalker boots, but they didn’t get small enough to fit her. After checking around for a bit, only one of the nearby merchants had boots for sale, but nothing close to Kashka’s size. Unfortunately for Kal, his Boots of the Traveler did shrink far enough. Kal wasn’t exactly happy about the problem’s solution, but it was all they had at the moment.

Kal kept glancing at the cat-girl’s feet and frowning as they walked. The Sandwalker Boots he had on were nice, but they weren’t ‘his.’

They continued approaching different merchants throughout the morning. Even though Kal didn’t hold out any hope of finding boots for Kashka, he was still curious about what kinds of wares they offered. It was kind of like a long, traveling bazaar. Most welcomed him and were happy for the opportunity to make some coin on the road, but several waved him away after taking one look at Kashka. In Fazal, turning away a customer because they owned a slave was a quick way to ruin your business. However, they weren’t in Fazal anymore, and whether they assumed Kashka was a slave or simply because he traveled with a monster girl, they weren’t required to do business with him.

The cat-girl became more despondent each time someone shooed Kal away because of her. Then again, it would have been a lot easier if he just quit talking to her while chatting with the merchants. It wasn’t until they started wondering who he was speaking to that they noticed her

“What are you looking for?” asked Kashka after a merchant flicked his driving whip at the mage and told him to go elsewhere with his cat-whore.

“Nothing really. We have everything we need as far as I know,” he replied as they let the creaking wagon pull ahead.

“Then why keep looking?”

“Because occasionally I get a really great deal, like those boots on your feet.”

“Maybe I should stay further away. You keep asking me about things and that defeats my cloak’s magic.”

“I value your opinion more than theirs. If they have a problem with you then it’s their loss, not ours.”

“But that’s limiting who you can talk to because of me.”

Kal chuckled, “Limiting? Kashka, do you remember when we first met face to face?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember saving Shakri’s son and how we got to her house?”

“Ye—” the cat-girl’s eyes widened, “You can fly ... Why ... You should just leave me here. I’ll catch up with you later, or maybe I can just run along below. I’m pretty fast on all fours.”

“No, Kashka, I’m not abandoning you out here,” said Kal, shaking his head, “and you would collapse from exhaustion within a few days if you tried to keep up with me.”

“You should just leave me then,” she said, looking away.

Kal stopped and stared at the feline. “What is wrong with you women? First Sera and now you...” His eyes narrowed as she turned to look at him, “Wait, is this your way of saying you are ready to strike out on your own?”

“What? No! I just don’t want to hold you back!”

The mage chuckled, “If I felt like you were holding me back, I would have been gone when you first said I should leave you. I’m expecting to arrive at Ikuno’s shrine with plenty of time to spare, but if you are worried you are slowing me down, then give me my boots back, and we can at least get ahead of all the merchants.”

After switching boots and storing the Sandwalkers, Kal led Kashka away from the road. He kept shuffling his feet in the tall grass, but the gently sloping hills weren’t steep enough to trigger the Boots of the Traveler’s sliding ability.

“Looks like I’m going to have to make my own hill,” said Kal.

The mage closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, his irises glowed blue. Kal knelt and put a hand on the ground. Gathering some magic into his palm, he sent a pulse of energy downward. Not finding what he was looking for, they jogged a short way through the tall grass before he tried again. This time the pulse revealed a boulder buried nearby large enough for his idea but still small enough for him to manage.

“Get on my back, and hold on tight,” he instructed the cat-girl when they were standing over top of the large rock.

“What?” Kashka asked in confusion.

“Just trust me,” he said, kneeling.

Shaking her head, she climbed on, then wrapped her arms around his neck and gripped his waist with her legs as best she could.

“I feel like a child,” she grumbled.

Kal laughed, “I understand. Just imagine me doing this with Ikuno, except I was in your position.”

The cat-girl’s eyes widened, “The other times you’ve talked about her, I gathered she was taller than you, but not that big.”

“She’s definitely a large woman, but that doesn’t matter much to me. Are you ready?”

“I think so.”

Kal formed the thick ropes of magic and reached through the dirt beneath his feet to the rock below. His strength rune lit up, and he pulled upward. His feet sunk into the earth, but otherwise, nothing moved.

Groaning with annoyance at his own forgetfulness, he extricated his feet from the holes he just made and walked a few paces away.

“What’s wrong?” Kashka asked.

“I forgot how my own magic worked. Geomancy is like using a magic hand to shape and move rocks, but the hand is still attached to me. Lifting a boulder while standing on it is like trying to pick up a chair while sitting in it. I’m going to have to get a little more inventive.”

Anchoring himself to the ground, he sent out the ropes of earth magic once again and lifted the boulder hiding beneath the soil. Kal stopped when it formed a large bump he could slide down and was threatening to break through to the surface.

“Now to make this go away when we are done,” he said as he began extruding a long spike from the bottom of the rock to anchor it in place. In the void created by lifting the stone, he thinned the spike until it barely held the weight above it. Activating the flight rune, he and Kashka floated to the top of the mound.

“Why not just fly like we did back in Fazal?” she asked as they landed

“Because it takes a lot of magic, especially if I’m carrying someone. When playing around in the desert, I realized that feeding the boots magic to maintain their ability is much more efficient. Doing it this way means we can travel further. Ready?”

She gripped him tighter, “Yes.”

He began shuffling his feet over the edge of the mound until the boots’ magic activated, letting him slide gently to the bottom. Kal’s powered up the flight rune pressed against his back and used it to push them forward, continuing the slide. Kal and Kashka skated around the lump in the savannah as Kal reached out with geomancy and shattered the thin part of the supporting spike leaving the savannah as smooth and unblemished as when they arrived.

Slipping through the tall grass, they made their way back to the road where Kal increased the power to the flight rune until they whipped past the merchant wagons fast enough they may as well have been flying.

Other than startling a few people and horses, things went smoothly as they glided across the roadway’s surface to the front of the merchant wagons and beyond. By the time the soreness in Kashka’s legs and the complaining of two bladders made them stop, even the lead merchants were far behind, and the hoofprints and tracks from the wealthy caravanner’s carriages were still relatively fresh.

Kal checked his mana crystals to find two of them completely drained. He had used a significant portion of his reserves before tapping into the crystals. Touching one of the full crystals, he drew the energy into himself, draining a third one. A slight smile came to his face. Back when he started this journey, he could barely manage a quarter of that amount. His internal stores had grown considerably during his travels. The most significant jump came after Kithana’s test, where he pushed his ability to channel magic to its maximum and held it there.

The thought was also sobering. Most mages would never have this amount of power at their disposal in their entire lifetimes. Thanks to his heritage, and a fateful encounter with a mana golem, Kal had an imposing amount of mana at his beck and call.

For a human, that is.

Kal believed Ikuno still had him beat. Her horns acted as extra stores of magic and darkened as she used them, but she still had massive reserves even once her horns were depleted. Kal chuckled at the memory of claiming the oni. He struggled so hard to get her out of her magic-drunkenness back then. Now he could probably put her into that state at will.

“What’s so funny?” Kashka asked. In her hand, she held the shorts she had been wearing.

“Just a good memory. Is something wrong with those?” he asked.

Kashka blushed, “They just got a little wet. Could you clean them? I don’t want to put them back on when they’re damp.”

“Sure,” he said, taking them from her.

“Kal!” she shrieked as he held the gusset to his nose and sniffed.

Raising an eyebrow, he smirked at her. “That’s not, ‘I didn’t make it in time,’ wet. That’s ‘I was having sexy thoughts’ wet.” He briefly considered licking the fabric just to tease her, but her face was turning bright red. After the oddness of their lovemaking last night, he didn’t want to push her too far.

He was still trying to figure out what was going on with the cat-girl. They’d made love more times than he could count while crossing the desert, but last night she acted more nervous than their first time together. She certainly enjoyed herself, he made sure of that, but it almost felt like she was with a completely different woman.

Drawing a small rune in the air in front of him, he directed the spell at the shorts and handed the cleaned pair back to her.

“So, what did you think of traveling like this?” he asked, kicking off his boots and retrieving the Sandwalkers from Ria.

Kashka stepped into Kal’s boots after putting her shorts back on. “Even with your air-shield, it’s hard to talk with you when the wind is rushing by.” Still looking downward, she watched as the footwear shrunk and buckles tightened. “I am glad to be away from all the merchants. I don’t like people giving you dirty looks because of me.”

“Some of them I understood, but a few of them had slaves of their own and were still looking at me strangely. With you wearing that collar, I expected them to assume you were mine.”

“Probably because you don’t treat me like a slave, you treat me as an equal ... or a lover. I’m sure they could tell within a few seconds I wasn’t a slave. Also, you don’t quite have the aura of a slave owner.”

“I can’t say I’m upset about the last part. But addressing your first point, aren’t we? I saved your life, and you saved mine, making us even. Yet, we still travel together, sleep together, and enjoy each other’s company. Doesn’t that make us lovers?”

“But you have all these other women you love.”

“Attention is divisible. Love is not. I have found some exceptional women who accept that they might not get much of my attention but understand that I still love them as much standing on the other side of the world as when I’m holding them in my arms.”

“I’ve never heard someone put it that way,” said the cat-girl thoughtfully. A moment later, she giggled, “It’s like we’re Sir Stormhammer and Maris.”

Kal smiled, “Except I don’t have bulging muscles and a lightning hammer.”

“And I don’t have a metal leg,” Kashka added.

“Which I am grateful for. I prefer the feel of flesh against my skin when you wrap your legs around me.”

Kashka blushed and looked away. She wasn’t sure what was happening with her the past two days. Last night as they undressed for bed, she became intensely embarrassed. The cat-girl even worried for a moment she might pass out from sheer nervousness. When Kal rolled her onto her back, she covered her face with her hands and had to reassure him repeatedly that she wanted him to make love to her. Kashka had been looking forward to last night ever since they left Elefar and was excited to have Kal all to herself for once. But as they stripped off their clothes, she found herself wishing Laika or Bala were there. It was almost like she fed off their confidence, and now that they were gone, she was embarrassed to show her sensual side to the mage. Even after Kal used his fingers, tongue, and finally his cock to drive her to orgasm, she curled up into a furry ball of embarrassment while he cuddled up behind her.

Kal thought her shyness was cute, albeit odd, but it bothered the cat-girl. She couldn’t count the number of times over the past month she and Kal had made love. Over that time, she came to love the feel of him inside her and knew his body’s every nook and cranny intimately. The only things she hadn’t done was take him in her bottom and give him a ‘proper’ blowjob, although she did give him what Laika called a ‘lazy day’ blowjob, and that was fun if she didn’t move her tongue too much.

She even missed being able to climb onto his lap and sit on his cock yesterday. So why was she so nervous last night when she was finally getting what she had wanted all day? Even as she thought about it, her breath quickened from equal parts anxiety and anticipation. Looking up at him, her face turned red as she imagined racing along the road as they had earlier, but this time clutching Kal’s chest while mounted on his prick as they skated past the merchant’s carts.

“Are you feeling okay?” Kal asked, returning her look with one of concern.

“I was just thinking about how much more relaxed our days were while out in the desert.”

“The color of your face is saying something different.”

Kashka blushed down to the tops of her breasts.

“I wish Turam hadn’t held us up,” said Kal, attempting to change the subject. “I didn’t think the stable would be completely out of ridable horses. I understand there is a village halfway between the Elefar and the edge of the jungle. Maybe there we can find a horse for us to ride the rest of the way.”

The image of sitting in a saddle in front of Kal quickly shifted to her bent over in front of him grinding her—

“Kashka, are you in heat?”

“What? No! I’m just ... just...”

“Really horny?”

“Yes,” the cat-girl mumbled, looking down.

“I understand how monster girls are, Kashka. Don’t be shy about asking me if you need some relief. You’ve never hesitated before.”

“True, but we were on a covered magic carpet, naked half the time and barely dressed the other. We were also surrounded by guards, not walking along a dusty road with high grasses on either side that could be hiding predators. It was easier then.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that. I can put the tent up if it makes you feel safer. Really, I don’t mind,” he said, pointing at the outline of his prick where it pressed against the front of his trousers. It had been that way ever since he sniffed her shorts.

Kashka blushed and looked away. “No, I can handle this. I can wait until we stop for the night.”

“As you wish,” said Kal.

As frustrated as she was, Kashka got a tiny thrill from the disappointment in his voice. After her time with Bozun, it felt nice to be wanted.

Their shadows were beginning to lengthen when Kal and Kashka encountered another pack of savannah deer crossing the road. Unlike the massive herd from yesterday, this group consisted entirely of antelope and gazelle. A few of the animals made a honking noise that increased in volume as they approached. When the human and feline were too close, the animals bolted, many of them jumping high into the air as they bounded across the road. Two such animals were most certainly not deer and looked wide-eyed at Kal and Kashka as they sailed through the air in front of them before disappearing into the tall grass.

A few moments later, two gazelle monster girls cautiously made their way out onto the road in front of them as the rest of the deer bounded away.

The women’s markings closely resembled the herd’s dominant type of gazelle with pale fronts, tan backs, and darker brown stripes down each side of their torso. Small, ridged horns sprouted from unkempt hair that matched their torso stripes with the gazelle’s long pointed ears located just a little further out on either side. Like Kashka, they seemed able to rotate their ears to pick up sounds from all directions. White patches surrounded with horizontal pupils while dark lines ran from the inner corners of their eyes to the black tips of their noses. Another line of darker skin made a circle starting at their nose, going around the edges of their mouths to beneath their chin and back. The area around their mouth was the same white as around their eyes and inside their ears, but the rest of their faces were the tan color on their backs. The pale fur on their front came to a point at the women’s groins along with the darker stripes on either side. Their legs reversed the color scheme on their torso with tan fronts and white backs all the way up their bottoms to their small tails. The gazelle’s finger and toenails looked like they were painted at first but were merely the dark brown color of their hooves.

Curiously, they saw Kal but immediately began looking around as if searching for a trap. After a few moments they both noticed Kashka standing next to him and skittered backward in surprise.

That they could see her at all bothered the cat-girl and her tail flicked back and forth in agitation. The newcomers noticed the whipping tail and their eyes lit up. Both gazelle-women darted forward only to come to a skidding halt when daggers appeared in Kashka’s hands.

They glanced at the feline’s weapons, then at each other before one blurted out, “Can we borrow your husband?”

“We promise we won’t try to steal him away from you,” said the other.

“It’s been such a long time since our last husband was taken from us.”

“We only want him for one night, maybe two if you don’t mind.”

“Pleeeease!” they said in unison.

Still holding her daggers defensively, Kashka looked up at Kal for help.

The mage chuckled, “Your call, ‘Mistress.’ If you wish to keep your lowly husband to yourself, I will not complain.” Kal turned to the gazelles, “However, we are on a journey, and if my mistress says you may have me, it will not be until we stop for the night.”

“What are you doing?” Kashka hissed.

“Merely informing them they will need to wait if they want a turn with me. Would you instead like me to take care of them now, Mistress?”

The cat-girl jammed her daggers into their sheaths and crossed her arms before glaring at the human. “Fine. If you want to play games, then I suppose I could loan you out for the night,” she said in a haughty tone. For a few seconds, she tried to figure out where this new attitude of hers appeared from but quickly shoved her curiosity aside. Turning to the gazelles, she pointed at Kal, “Don’t forget that he is mine, and I get to decide what he does with who.”

Behind the newcomers, the last of the deer herd bounded across the road. “What about them?” she asked.

The first gazelle-woman peeked back and waved off Kashka’s concerns. “We don’t have bucks fighting to keep us in their harem. We’ll catch up to them or find another herd to run with.”

“Don’t you stay in herds for safety?” asked Kal as they started walking again.

“As fast as we run, there isn’t much that can catch us except for cheetahs and other monster girls. The cheetahs usually go after the regular gazelles, not us,” said the second gazelle as they fell in step with the human and feline.

“It’s probably because of your eyes,” said Kal

“Our eyes?” asked the first.

“Even though you have a deer’s pupils, they face forward like a human’s or a cat’s. This tells them you are a predator, and they should find easier prey elsewhere.”

“That would explain why new herds are always so skittish when we join them, Coovie,” the second gazelle said to the other.

“Do you two switch herds often?” asked Kashka.

“Only when necessary. As Rhim said, new herds take time to accept us, but they also go south for the dry season, following the grasses. There aren’t any human settlements to the south which means fewer chances to find a new husband. Since we can eat more than just grass, we stay up here and try to find a mate.

“You said you had a husband. What happened to him?” Kal asked.

Coovie sighed, “Humans can’t run very fast, and a lioness chased him down and dragged him back to their pride.”

Kashka and Kal both cringed. “I’m so sorry to hear that,” said the cat-girl.

“Yeah,” she said with another heavy sigh, “Those lucky bitches got an entire generation out of him before he got sick. They took him back to a human village so he wouldn’t die.”

The cat-girl rolled her eyes. “I thought you meant an actual lion, not another monster girl.”

“Are lions really that frightening?” asked Kal. “I’ve only read and heard about them. I’ve never seen one.”

“Absolutely!” said Coovie. “They’re huge cats with big fangs and sharp claws. The females do all the hunting while the male just lays around and fights off other males.”

“Since we run so much faster, they need to be very sneaky to have a chance of catching us. We have incredibly good eyes, so they aren’t much of a danger,” Rhim explained.

“And the pride of lion-girls is the same but without the lazy male?”

Rhim giggled, “Mostly, but they’re smarter and have a chance of catching us. Luckily, they are more interested in getting eaten than eating us.”

“It’d be a lot more fun if their tongues weren’t so rough. It’s not like they can even return the favor,” Coovie grumbled.

“True. But you must admit it’s fun when they chase us. I like running without fearing for my life. Also, it’s not like they aren’t good with their hands and fingers.”

“So, they ‘hunt’ you for your smoother tongues?” Kal asked.

Coovie looked over at Kashka, “Your husband asks a lot of questions.”

Kashka smiled, “I like that about him. He’s smart and keeps things interesting. I learned a lot from him as we crossed the desert.”

The gazelle-woman’s eyes widened, “You came from the other side of the desert? What was it like dealing with all that sand and heat? We’ve been to the edge but were too scared to go further.”

“Wise choice. Kal killed two of the giant sandworms that live out there. Trust me, they wouldn’t be interested in making use of your tongue and letting you go like the lions.”

“We killed two sandworms,” said Kal. “You played an important part in that fight, Mistress.”

Kashka glared at the mage. She couldn’t figure out why he insisted on keeping up this “mistress” nonsense.

“How do you keep him from running away?” Rhim asked, pulling Kashka out of her thoughts. We saw the humans go by in the wheeled things—”

“Carriages,” Kal offered.

“Care-uh-jez?”

The mage nodded, “Close enough.”

“In those things. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to catch up to them.”

Kal held out his arms. On one of his vambraces, the stamina rune glowed faintly. “These prevent me from running away and keep me doing what she wants.”

The gazelles both stared at the leather arm guards for a moment, then turned to Kashka.

“Can we see?” asked Rhim.

“Make him do something, please?” Coovie added.

“Something sexy, like take off his pants.”

“I’d advise against that, Mistress,” Kal advised. “The sun is still high enough that some delicate parts could get burned. Of course, Mistress is always welcome to ... sheathe those parts. If she wishes, that is.”

Ignoring that the sun was at their backs, so the only thing sunburned would be his butt and the backs of his legs, Kashka’s tail whipped back and forth. “Kal,” she growled.

Stepping away, he held his hands up to ward her off, “It was just a suggestion.”

Coovie and Rhim stared at the mage and cat.

“Our husbands never acted like that,” said Coovie.

“Like what?” asked Kashka.

“Joking and flirting with us.”

“And he never acted like he actually wanted to make love to us,” Rhim offered.

“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” said Kal. “How did you meet him?”

The gazelle women both smiled at the memory. “We came across his camp late at night. Some other humans were there, but he was the only one awake,” Coovie began. “We found a spot upwind and marked the area with our scent.

“It took a little while, but he eventually got up and came running after us. His cock bounced in the moonlight, where it stuck out from his pants. Mmm ... I’m getting wet just thinking about it.”

“Hmm, me too,” said Rhim with a dreamy look at Kal.

“What happened next?” asked the mage. Kashka looked up at him and saw his mouth pulled into a tense, forced smile.

“He chased us through the night,” Coovie continued. “By morning, he was stumbling from exhaustion and far away from his camp. Then we finally let him catch us, and he took turns making love to us over and over until he fell asleep.”