Lost Bloodline 3 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The door that Thera stood in front of was simple, unlike the ornate front door. It was made of dense wood, with iron banding that screamed ‘secure’ and ‘safe’ at the top of its lungs. The door was set in a solid log frame, and a single ring hung on one side, just above a keyhole made of black iron.

Now that Thera had focused Koda’s attention on it, rather than her own luscious frame, he could see and truly appreciate the door. It had just blended in with the blur of the walls before, and while he had known there was a door there, it hadn’t really stood out in his mind other than the general knowledge that it was closed.

“Sure,” Koda said when he realized Thera was waiting expectantly for him to speak. “I’d love to see it. Sorry, it is hard to focus on more than one thing at a time.” He flexed the arm that Thera had wrapped herself around, meaning to imply that he had been giving her proper deference by attending to her.

The goddess blinked up at him for a moment, the blush that had graced her cheeks returning in a fierce surge of color. It was obvious she had the wrong impression so Koda hurried to explain more.

“I mean, this dream realm is so strange. I feel like I’m just teleporting when I walk, and the fog from earlier. Heck, if… Pippin?” When Thera nodded he had the name right, Koda continued, “if Pippin hadn’t found me, I’d have just been wandering in the fog unable to see more than like… ten feet?”

“That’s why I sent him to find you. My sanctuary exists within a space that borders the realm of dreams and the spiritual realms. The fog is a construct that hides it away while I heal and recover,” Thera explained, biting her bottom lip. “I apologize for that, but it is the easiest way to ensure that I remain undetected. The fog clouds the awareness of those who travel through it, and lets me direct those I do not want to find me away. It couldn’t hold up to Golieas or one of the other gods looking in earnest, but for now, it keeps their agents away.”

“It’s fine, Thera,” Koda was quick to reassure, focusing intently on the goddess and letting the rest of the hallway fade out of his perception. “It just makes it a little hard to focus, is all, so forgive me if I’m a bit out of it. Everything feels extra dream-like right now.”

Either his words or the intense focus made the goddess smile once more. She nodded before using her free hand to fish in her skirt for a moment before producing an ornate, black metal key, which she slotted into the door with a click. Giving it a twist, the door made a grinding noise before it popped open and Thera returned the key to her pocket.

“This is one of the most secure rooms in my sanctuary, and I would not risk this being anywhere else. I have the only key to it, and it would take another god to break through the defenses; even then, I would know long before they reached the house,” Thera explained as she pressed on the door, causing it to swing open and reveal the small room on the other side.

Like the door, the floor and walls of the room showed quality and reinforcement with thick wood and iron banding. The floor was polished smooth enough that it reflected the light from the hallway. There wasn’t much in the room, just a pair of tables that held fragments of bone, stone, and leather on one side, and a vertical armor rack that held what Koda could only guess was the armor that Thera had promised him.

The outfit was like his gauntlets, made chiefly of dark brown leather and bone. Koda could see where the arms would overlap with his gauntlets, granting him protection from fingertip to shoulder. Just like his gauntlets, the upper arms had long bones worked into the leather and interspersed with glittering fragments of black stone.

For his feet, there were leather sabatons with the same bone and stone reinforcements running up to his knees, which had larger bone caps to protect the flexible joints.

Layered leather and more bones would protect his thighs, with a set of close-fitting leather pants, reinforced with longer strips of ivory, tucked under a short kilt of leather studded with stones to weigh it down and provide more padding. The kilt was trimmed with shimmering, chocolate-colored fur that Koda immediately recognized from Arthene’s dire-bear form. But what stole the show was the chest guard.

Unlike the mixture of flexibility and protection offered to his limbs, the chestplate stood as a resolute challenge to all comers. At first glance, it appeared to be constructed of a single massive plate of bone. A moment to study it allowed Koda to recognize the origins of that plate for what it was. He remembered before that Arthene had agreed to offer the skull of her previous incarnation to Thera to use as a material, and the goddess had made good on that. From the front, Koda could make out the thick plate of the top of that skull with the snout narrowing to his waist. A quick check around the back showed the underside of the jaw would protect his back and had long strips of rib bone attached to fill in the hollow under the jaw. It looked as if Arthene’s bear form had closed its mouth around the torso of the dummy and was protectively guarding it.

“Wicked,” Koda muttered, tugging on the front of the chestplate to see if it would open, but the hinge of the jaw didn’t move in the slightest.

“My daughter is so hard-headed that I felt it was appropriate to use that skull to protect you,” Thera murmured from Koda’s elbow, having moved to follow him while he studied the suit of armor. “That skull’s incarnation battled with champions from multiple enemy pantheons. Never once did a blow to her head pierce it. If some of her hide had survived, I would have had an easier time and probably been able to craft something more flexible, but this will mean you no longer need to fear the blows of an enemy like the warleaders of the Crooked. While some of that boundless endurance has faded with time, it will slowly grow again as you further bond with my daughter.”

“I feel like I should defend Arthene for the comment about being hard-headed. You know, since she’s my mate,” Koda snickered and squatted down to look at the leather kilt. It reminded him of the ones he’d seen on documentaries about ancient Rome, though definitely more decorated than those, with the fur trim and glittering black stone.

“You are uniquely placed to recognize the truth of my words, though,” Thera said with a quiet laugh, leaning on Koda’s shoulder.

A soft weight pressed against the back of his head, and given the penchant of a certain ancient spirit to do just what Thera was doing right now, Koda immediately recognized that the goddess had just dropped her tits on his head.

Is she doing this intentionally? Koda asked himself internally, remaining focused on the armor. She’s certainly been more affectionate, but that might just be the loneliness. I’m not dumb enough to discount it and say that there is ‘no way a goddess would be interested in me’ because I’ve seen enough anime to know that’s a flag. Play it cool, Koda. Maybe talk to Arthene about it, if my lascivious Den-Mother can be serious for a minute or two. Or would Thera see? She’s talked about watching me.

To push the thoughts out of his head, Koda focused on the armor again. He couldn’t see any securing straps or buckles, but he knew that there had to be some way to put the garment on.

Looking up, he nodded when he realized the teeth had been removed from most of the skull, save for the upper and lower fangs that met at what would be his hip when he was wearing them. Glancing up to the eye sockets, Koda found they had been filled in with large lumps of the dark stone, too.

“It looks beautiful, Thera,” Koda turned his head to smile up at the goddess, trying to ignore the sensation of her full breasts rubbing on the back of his head.

The goddess beamed down at him, her face literally glowing with joy at his approval of the outfit while silhouettes of a pair of large wolf ears sprouted from her dark tresses and Koda saw the edge of a fluffy tail whipping happily behind her. Sadly, the smile faded into a frown a moment later.

“I wanted to include a helmet for you as well, but it would have delayed this gift. So you will need to take care to protect your own skull for now. Or would you prefer I make another weapon for you? The totemic gauntlets have served you well, but—”

“It’s fine, Thera,” Koda interrupted her as the worried goddess began to waffle and lean away from him. Taking this opportunity, Koda stood and turned around so he could wrap Thera in a hug. It was forward, and he knew it was, but he didn’t like seeing her worried like this.

Thankfully, the goddess didn’t object to his actions. Instead, she folded into his chest with a sigh.

“Sorry,” Thera mumbled, her ghostly wolf ears flicking like Sienna’s did whenever she was feeling sheepish, though the happy wiggling of the phantom tail told him she wasn’t that upset.

“I trust my goddess to decide what she thinks I’ll need the most. Regardless, I’ll still do my best for her,” Koda reassured her, and Thera gave a small snort of laughter and pushed back just enough to look up at him again.

“Like you would ever do anything less than your best. I am learning more about my champion every day, and I don’t think you can slack off. I should send another of my daughters to you, since one is obviously not enough to slow you down.”

“If that’s what my goddess wishes,” Koda shot back with a cheeky grin.

He was about to continue to tease the goddess when his whole body gave a lurch, like a ripple of static traveled through his soul. Thera’s smile turned into a pout, and she sighed.

“That is the end of our time together. Your little dwarven mate is waking you up. Take the armor before you go, though, Koda? I want to know you are better protected.”

“How?” Koda asked as another ripple ran through his body. It was unsettling, but not painful.

“Place your hand on the chestplate and state your name as my champion,” Thera instructed, wiggling to get free of his arms.

Koda didn’t release her immediately, squeezing Thera to him in one last hug that drew another happy sigh from her before he opened his arms to let her step back. As a third ripple traveled through his body and Koda felt his awareness start to drift away, he quickly turned and set his hand on the skull chestplate of his new armor.

“Koda Aegisclaw, champion of Thera Ivorycrown,” he declared, and there was a thump like a struck drum that ran through his bones before the armor vanished from view.

Inside his soul, Koda felt the spiritual garb settle into the same place that his twin gauntlets occupied, and his connection to the goddess abruptly strengthened. He felt a wave of satisfaction emanate from that link to Thera, before the mist of the dream world obscured his view completely and the world went dark once more.

The sensation of lips on his lower body was the next feeling that Koda detected as awareness rushed back to him. Blinking open his eyes, he glanced down to find Calandra had apparently seized the opportunity of waking him to get her regular morning attention in, as she grinned up at him in the dim light of the fire with him trapped in her mouth.

Shooting him a wink and tapping the side of her occupied lips in a shush gesture, she continued her task until he was fully awake and she’d finished their morning routine before snuggling up in his lap once more to get back to sleep and let him take his watch, wedged between all of his mates.

My girls are wonderful, Koda thought. And in that brief moment, he allowed himself to imagine the beastfolk goddess among their number.

<><><>

“Fascinating,” Arthene murmured as they hiked through the hills the next day. “I would not have expected her to wake Pippin next. That little miscreant causes so much trouble.”

“Who is this Pippin?” Samira asked, bouncing happily along on the bear spirit’s other side.

They’d woken with the sun and immediately set out to travel into the mountains. Despite having interrupted sleep, Calandra had no problem maintaining the spell that boosted their movement now that their group was smaller. By the time the sun had risen above the shroud of the mountains, they’d made several miles of distance into the hills already and left the trolls well behind them.

“Pippin is a servant of our Lady,” Arthene answered with a sigh. “A bundle of mischief that hides behind an adorable appearance. He is a spirit of dreams and trickery. He serves the Beast Queen as her eyes and ears, as well as a messenger that can move unseen. If you ever meet something that looks like a bundle of cotton fluff given legs, be very wary of it. If he speaks in a language you can understand, though, heed his words. Pippin does not speak often to anyone other than my Lady.”

“He made a lot of noises when I saw him,” Koda said with a snort. “Guess he didn’t respect me enough to actually say anything worthwhile, though.

He’d related to his girls that he’d had a vision of visiting Thera the previous night, and Calandra had taken an odd amount of amusement that her ‘attentions’ in the night to wake him for his watch shift had been what ended that meeting. Everyone with him was relieved to hear that the goddess had empowered him with further protections. They’d insisted that he don the armor immediately, to get used to moving and wearing it.

Drawing the armor out of his spirit was much like producing his gauntlets. A flex of his soul that, rather than unsheathing claws, was like flaring out a set of wings he didn’t have caused the armor to form around him. The weight of it had thrown him off at first, but within the first five minutes of jogging in it, Koda grew used to how it affected his body and changed his center of balance.

“So if Pippin is basically her spy-master, then it would make complete sense for her to wake him, wouldn’t it?” Sienna asked from Koda’s other side, the lithe redhead trotting with her spear slung over her shoulder. “She’d want him to keep watch for dangers. Maybe even carry word to Chandra?”

“He’s far too recognizable,” Arthene countered. “His people were lost with the Twilight Realm when we were driven out. They remained reclusive and never really spread to the other worlds, and that was their eventual undoing.”

“But it would serve as proof of Thera’s return if one of her most recognizable agents showed up. So if she were to reach out to Chandra, it would be proof that she was alive,” Sienna protested.

“And if Golieas or one of the other gods that would happily claim her power for their own and stamp my Lady out were to spot the little fool because he can’t help but play a trick to mess with them?” Arthene shot back, her brows knitting in anger.

“Easy, ladies. We have to trust Thera knows what she is doing and won’t take unnecessary risks,” Koda intervened before an argument could break out. “It’s not as if she asked any of us for our opinions, after all. Just keep an eye out for that troublesome bit of cotton fluff, and keep his presence quiet if you see him.”

There was a bit of grumbling, but his girls all consented, though Samira still vibrated with excitement at finding out something new like this. So Koda locked eyes with the caracal woman when he spoke next.

“It needs to be kept quiet until Thera is ready to return to the light once more. So that means no records, no sharing. Got it?”

He’d expected Samira to be disappointed by the order, but her smile grew even brighter instead and she quickly bobbed her head in a rapid series of nods.

“Of course, Champion Aegisclaw. I would never dream of risking the Pack Lady’s secret. I will keep this knowledge to myself until such a time that it is safe to share with others.”

“Good,” Koda said with a sigh and ran a hand over his hair. He’d borrowed a leather tie from Sienna to get it out of his face, but as was common with long hair, several strands had wiggled free to tickle his face, so he tucked them back behind an ear for now. “Never thought I’d miss something like elastic so much,” Koda muttered to himself before putting aside his complaints to focus on the present.

The trail that they followed grew steadily harder and harder to make out. Not because the trolls had done anything to be subtle, but because the soft soil was slowly fading away to rocky ground, though the scars of the trolls' passage on the trees and moved stones were still present. Looking further up the mountain, Koda could see where the ridgeline joined the rest of the mountains and the high peaks where the snows still dwelt. He had no idea how far up the mountain they would have to go, but that wasn’t something he needed to worry about. That was why they had Samira with them.

And the caracal woman proved the wisdom of having a local guide an hour later when she gestured for them to slow down and then guided them off the path to a cliff-face.

“There, do you see them?” Samira said, pointing up at a flat section of stone that had a weathered look to it and was crumbling.

Koda was about to state he didn’t see it when the pattern of the crumbling began to look familiar to him. Blinking, he squinted and looked again before realizing that the ‘crumbling’ stone had actually been slashed out in regular rents, as if some huge animal had torn claws through the stone.

“What are those?” Sienna murmured, her eyes suddenly widening when she recognized the tears in the rock too. “Are those claw marks?”

“Yes,” Samira said, keeping her voice low. “These are territory markings for one of the prides of stonecracker leopards that live up in these hills. Many wild cats mark trees like this to scent their territory, but the stonecracker leopard does it on cliff faces. These are the marks each of my tribe’s hunters are taught to look for, so we know when we wander into a dangerous area.”

“I didn’t mention it before, but I am astonished such dangerous predators could live in these mountains and we didn’t know about it,” Hannah mumbled from the rear of the group, the cat beastfolk staring up at the marks in the stone in wonder.

“Stonecrackers follow the troll tribes, so if there are no trolls near your village, then it is unlikely you would hear of them. And those who accidentally ranged into their territory are likely hunters that simply never returned to tell the tale,” Samira said soberly, and Hannah grimaced but nodded in understanding.

“And Arthene took out the ones in the valley before, right?” Calandra asked, and Arthene nodded to confirm her previous statement.

“We need to be careful from here on out, as we are on their land now. Keep your eyes up high and watch the cliff faces. If you see one, don’t make a fuss, but point it out to the rest of us. If you threaten them, they may attack to escape. We will have to take each as they come,” Samira advised.

Koda took one last look at the long rents in the stone. They were easily two inches deep and ran for almost three feet through solid granite.

And here I thought the trolls were the most dangerous thing in these mountains, he thought wryly before turning to follow their guide.