Lost Bloodline 3 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I really hope that this isn’t an indicator of how much trouble there is out in the world, Koda thought wryly as they marched. I saved Silverstone, and then interceded to help save Amberpost. Now I’m committing to trying to help these people reclaim their village from trolls.

Despite his worries, Koda felt the steady pulse of confidence within his soul. Not the blind confidence that this would be easy, but the steady thrum that told him this was the right path. 

As if she could hear his thoughts and wanted to add her own reassurances, Arthene leaned over and gave him a lick that ran from his jaw to the top of his head, mussing his hair and making it stand upright on that side in a bizarre shape.

The damage was only exacerbated by the fact Arthene was in her bear form currently, so that tongue was large enough that it got the entire right side of Koda’s head.

“Arthene!” Sienna scolded from his other side, getting a huff of laughter from the dire bear. “You are ruining our mate’s noble image.”

“I don’t know. View isn’t changed for me,” Calandra laughed from her spot behind them. Koda could tell she was clomping along and staring at his butt while she worked with her wind magic to help their speed.

“Of course you wouldn’t complain,” Sienna grumped at the shorter woman, but the anger didn’t have anything to hold onto, so it melted into amusement and then a devious grin. “I think it is only fair that, since Arthene was the one who messed up your hair, you use her brushes and combs to fix it.”

The pitiful whine that came from the dire bear was heard by them all and got a laugh from those of the Ivory Spear tribe. The cat beastfolk—whom Koda had learned called themselves the Silent Plains tribe—watched on with a mixture of horror and confusion as a being from legends was teased like a naughty child.

Even Cyrus had been mutely staring for the last several hours after the revelations thrown at his feet the previous night and what he was witnessing now.

“It’s fine. Arthene was just expressing her affection. Weren’t you, love?” Koda said, reaching up to scratch behind one of Arthene’s wide ears.

The happy grunting of the dire bear was his answer. She didn’t slow her steady pace, the improvised harness on her back wouldn’t let Arthene move at her normal lumbering run even if she wanted to.

In the wake of Sienna’s statement, the Silent Plains warriors had retreated into a whispering conference amongst themselves. Without asking any more questions, they’d all eaten and set watches the previous day, before everyone packed up to follow Cyrus’ directions to the refugees.

Before they’d left, Arthene had taken down two more bison, dragging the massive bovine animals back to the camp for cleaning and preparation to help preserve the meat. When Koda and Calandra had worked to rig up the harness on the dire bear so she could carry them, it had plainly horrified the Silent Plains warriors to see a goddess being used as a beast of burden.

Arthene had simply ignored their complaints and trundled off with her burden, forcing the others to come along or be left behind. Calandra had gotten enough of a hang of her wind magic that she’d spread it out to envelop their group, making steps lighter and strides longer, under Sienna’s careful guidance on how to help without burning herself out.

“Sir?” The soft word came from Koda’s left and he glanced over to find Samira working her way closer to him from Sienna’s other side.

Of all of them, Samira is the only one who doesn’t seem completely lost in awe over this, Koda thought, reaching up quickly to finger-comb the snarl out of his hair. He couldn’t do anything about the wet spot currently, but he didn’t need to wander about with a cowlick and let it dry that way.

“Yes, Samira?” Koda answered once his hair was organized. Sienna dropped back to give the other woman space to trot beside Koda. He could hear Sienna talking quietly with Calandra, clearly continuing to give the dwarven woman more tips about her magic.

“Was what your mate said last night true?”

“About?”

“You being a champion. That you have taken us under your protection?” her words trailed off for a moment before Samira steeled herself and locked eyes with Koda. He could see hope glimmering there in her bright green eyes.  “And about the Queen of Beasts?”

Koda grimaced slightly and the fluffy-tipped ears on top of Samira’s head drooped in disappointment as she misunderstood his look. Immediately, Koda hurried to reassure her, wanting to cheer the inquisitive woman up.

“Yes, they are all true. I was just… surprised again that Sienna spoke of her is all.”

“Why?” Samira’s eyes had bounced back upright at his reassurance and her tail was flicking through a number of intricate shapes behind her as she bounced along now, in more ways than one.

Forcing his eyes away from the distraction, Koda considered his words for another moment before he answered.

“Because, she is in hiding. So is Arthene for the moment—” He was interrupted by an annoyed grunt from the dire bear and had to duck another—quite literal—tongue lashing. Reaching up to give Arthene a good scratch along the neck, right under where the ropes of the harness wrapped around the thick flesh of her throat, he continued.

“It will take time before she can so bluntly proclaim her return, but she is healing and returning to power.”

“Is that linked to what changed at the watering hole?” Samira asked, her head tilting cutely.

“You could sense that?” Koda asked, incredulous. So far, only he and Arthene could detect the way things changed after one of the ancient sites of power or confluences were tapped.

“It’s hard not to. We found the altar inside the ring of trees but didn’t understand what it was. We just knew that it was special,” Samira replied without hesitation. Koda made a mental note of how long the group of hunters had been watching his group the previous day if they’d had time to find the altar.

“Yes, it is linked to that. Any who revere Thera can go there to give offerings and pray. She will hear you,” Koda answered with confidence. While Thera had not explicitly told him this, he still knew it to be true. They were now places of worship for her, just like the temple he’d consecrated in Silverstone.

“And the Den Mother?” Samira asked, the curiosity in her tone overflowing. “I wanted to ask last night, but Cyrus insisted that we not hound her or you.”

“So you waited until this morning then?” Koda teased back, getting an earnest nod. They’d only been traveling for about an hour, so he had to give the inquisitive woman a bit of credit.

“Yes. It was hard. There are so many questions I have,” Samira said with the confidence of one who would get answers one way or another. Again, the slender woman’s earnestness brought a smile to Koda’s face.

“I woke her up from a nap and she followed me home,” Koda answered her previous question irreverently.

This time, the lick from Arthene got him right on the back of the head and balled his long black hair up into a twisted mess at the back of his head.

“With respect, Champion. I don’t think she agrees,” Samira said solemnly, though Koda was sure he could see amusement twinkling in her eyes.

“She does that,” Koda said with a sigh, trying to wipe as much bear slobber off of his head as possible. “I’m just glad her breath doesn’t stink in this form.”

“She is a goddess, bad breath is beneath her,” Samira answered for Arthene, getting a laughing huff from the dire bear, who bobbed her head in agreement.

While the two exchanged amused looks that only fellow-troublemakers could appreciate, Koda thought over his conversation with Sienna the previous night before bed.

After their little declaration, he’d dragged Sienna off somewhere private to ask why she’d revealed so much. She had explained that Thera had sent her a vision, asking her to reach out to these people and give them hope. Sienna had taken that, along with how they had recognized Arthene in her bear form, as clearance from the goddess to reveal her existence. Koda could see the hope in his mate's blue-green eyes that these might be more allies, maybe even distant descendants of the tribes that had followed Thera once. So he had swallowed his concerns then.

Returning to the moment and the giggles of two of his mates behind him, Koda blinked and glanced back at them. He caught both of the girls staring at his behind while they walked, faint blushes on their cheeks. The twist of his shoulders was enough of a clue that they looked away only a moment too late, but the blushes remained as evidence to their actions.

Letting his gaze fall back onto the other four of his group, he found them talking easily amongst themselves, with Netta and Hans trying to engage the others from the Silent Plains tribe in conversation and having mixed success. None of his people looked concerned, though all of the others looked to waffle between worry and hope.

Finally turning back to Samira, he found her waiting expectantly, her tall ears poking up out of her blonde hair and focused on him like a pair of fuzzy radar dishes.

“You need to keep this a secret for now,” Koda began, getting a furious nod from the feline featured woman. “Okay, I’ll start at the beginning.”

<><><>

With Calandra bolstering their movement, it took just over half a day to reach the refugee camp. That had been enough time for Koda to give the highlights to Samira about the last several weeks. In return, he got some more news from her.

The Crooked had sent several parties out into the plains, but they had all either retreated after a few days of travel or been wiped out by the predators and herds of the plains when they wandered into the wrong areas. The tribe had ignored the Crooked though, as the troubles with the trolls had started around the same time.

He also learned more about the caracal woman, and about how beyond her hunting, Samira had a passion for stories and adventure. And despite her deference to him and his mates, Samira had little patience for most of the other hunters from her tribe. Cyrus had tried to chastise her for prying into the ‘champion’s business’ after the first hour and she’d berated him that if Koda had not wanted to talk, he would have told her so, and she would have respected that.

Once Cyrus had been dealt with, Samira went back to peppering him with questions about his story, her pointed ears bouncing and flicking animatedly. Koda had the feeling that Samira was committing everything he said to memory, adding it to her horde of stories that she held under those adorable and fuzzy looking ears.

Once she was done memorizing it and asking her questions, Samira returned the favor by offering several stories of her own about different locations in the near plains that might qualify for sites he could claim for Thera. They varied from a deep, natural spring hidden within a rock—one he was fairly sure they’d already claimed—all the way to mysterious caves in hidden ravines scattered throughout the plains.

He mentioned in passing that it would be great if Samira would be willing to guide him to them once they assessed if they could help her village. She had immediately agreed, gaining a happy bounce to her step for a good hundred yards before she switched tracks to rambling about anything she could think of that might be pertinent to helping the village.

Samira was busy trying to tell all the stories she’d collected about trolls and fighting them when they finally came into sight of the distant refugee camp.

“There are some legends that the heroes of my tribe once took down trolls in single combat, and they gained titanic strength because of it,” Samira was saying as they crested one of the rolling hills that spread out from the foot of the mountain range. “The shamans say that it is because each of the trolls carry within them a drop of Oluk’s power from when this world was his. And that is why the trolls fight each other so much and consume their dead, as they wish to collect more of their god’s power.”

“Interesting. Power is a motivator that even the dumbest of creatures can understand,” Koda replied. He had more that he’d wanted to say, but Cyrus called out from further on his left flank.

“Champion! Please wait, the camp is just on the other side of the hill. Let us go ahead to warn them, so that the appearance of strangers does not panic my people?” The cougar beastfolk angled closer to Koda as he spoke, but Koda noted that the man continued to give Arthene a healthy amount of space.

“Go then. It’s not me that you have to outpace,” Koda said with a laugh, tossing his mussed head towards Arthene. “She’s got dinner for your hungry people, and my mate takes care of those under her protection.”

Arthene grunted in agreement, not slowing her rolling gait in the slightest.

Cyrus stared at them in surprise for a long moment before a smile split his craggy face and he nodded.

“Understood, champion! I will run ahead myself to warn the elders and let any others of our hunters that have rejoined them know. Proceed up and over the hill and simply head to the edge of the circle of huts. We will meet you there.”

“I’ll guide him,” Samira said dismissively, her tail lashing behind her. She didn’t even look at Cyrus, completely ignoring his rolled eyes before the cougar beastfolk turned and raced ahead.

For all Cyrus’ apparent age, he moved with grace and speed that showed his ties to the feline portion of his history. All around their group, the hunters from the Silent Plains sped up as well, moving around Koda and his group to join Cyrus in a headlong race over the hill and out of sight. In moments, they were gone, leaving only the Ivory Spear tribe and Samira behind.

“Excitable bunch, aren’t they?” Calandra muttered, exhaustion in her voice. Koda glanced back to check on his newest mate. She looked pale and sweat stood out on her forehead, but Sienna had stuck with her.

“Yes. You can release the spell for them, Cal. Just focus on us,” the wolf woman said and Calandra’s shoulders sagged.

“Oh, thank Chandra’s sweet buttocks,” Calandra grunted.

“Easy there, lass,” Todd warned from right behind her, shifting so he could catch the dwarven woman if she stumbled. Calandra didn’t fall though, her pace evened out a moment later and she took a deep breath.

“Now you know your limits, Cal,” Sienna said gently, patting the dwarven woman on the shoulder. “As Arthene told me, you have to push up against them to stretch your reserves. We were given these powers to help Koda, so we need to be sure to train them. But like any muscle, overtraining can hurt you.”

“Yeah, Sienna. Overtraining is bad,” chirped Netta, the hawk beastfolk shooting her friend a meaningful look.

“Emergencies happen,” Sienna replied primly, her nose tipping up snootily as she trotted along easily. “Why do you think I’ve taken my time and let myself recover after that utter shit-storm?”

“She’s talking about saving those people from the Crooked and getting them back to Amberpost,” Koda said to Samira quickly, cutting off the caracal woman before she could inquire.

“Oh, darn. I was hoping for more stories,” Samira said, pouting cutely at Koda. He had to fight the urge to reach over and tussle her hair like he did with Sienna and Arthene, she was just that cute.

“Sienna talks a big game, but she only got that power like… two weeks ago?” Hannah threw in as they reached the top of the hill and caught sight of the settlement.

“Feels like it’s been a lot longer,” grumbled Hans goodnaturedly. “Well, Thera bless me. That’s not good.”

Koda couldn’t help but agree with Hans’ statement as they started down the other side of the hill towards the little camp and caught sight of it.

He’d been calling it a refugee camp in his mind since he’d heard about it, but that thought was driven even further home to him right now. There were easily two or three hundred people milling around in an area that had been stripped of the grass and pounded into dirt. There weren’t any real structures beyond a few large huts made by bundling together the long grass, and he could tell from here that the people were already starting to look thin with their hide clothing tattered and stained.

Every single person he saw ahead of them was a cat beastfolk, mostly from the different groups of plains or foothill cats. Many cougars, a few bore the patterns of lions, whole sections that had the look of lynxes. 

But no others with those distinct caracal ears, Koda thought idly, stealing a glance at the now-silent Samira at his side.

He could see Cyrus and his hunters at the edge of the camp, they were talking rapidly and gesturing towards Koda and his group, clearly trying to reassure people. The shouts that rose up as Arthene crested the hill showed that it was ultimately futile.

“Slow up, everyone. Like Cyrus said, we don’t want to scare them. Arthene, we’ll have to ask them where they want the meat, but I think we need you back in your cuter form.”

Arthene grunted in annoyance, the narrow-eyed look she shot him conveyed the thought of ‘aren’t I always cute?’ with its gaze.

“He means the one with tits he can play with, ‘Thene,” Calandra interjected, making the bear snort and roll its expressive eyes.

“I mean, she’s not wrong…” Koda added, hoping to defuse any annoyance his mate had with him before she subjected him to another lick. It would be impossible to be serious while talking to people with bear spit in his hair.

“There,” Samira interjected to save the day. “To the left of where Cyrus is talking to the elder. They’ll have the cooking-pits there. They were working on bringing in enough wood to cook with when we left, so they should have some stashed around there.”

“You heard the lady,” Koda said, patting Arthene’s shoulder with one hand. He almost missed the surprised squeak from Samira, but given his company he had gotten used to listening closely.

“Lady?!” Samira mumbled in confusion from behind him, clearly surprised at the designation. To spare her any awkwardness, Koda just pretended he hadn’t heard it, though he saw the grins on Calandra and Sienna’s faces.

Their group angled in the direction that Samira pointed them, which sent some of the refugees scrambling until Arthene finally came to a stop and Koda turned to start untying her burden.

Cyrus led the elder over as the first of the bison corpses landed on the ground with a meaty thud.

“Champion,” Cyrus called from the other side of Arthene while Sienna and Calandra joined him in working the knots free.

“Just a minute, Cyrus. I need to get dinner unloaded for your people,” Koda called back.

“You were not pulling my tail, were you?” mumbled another voice out of sight and Koda guessed it was the elder.

“No, I was not. I think we have a chance at this now.”

“Is that?” the other voice said.

“Yes,” Cyrus said bluntly. “And she has said her mate promised to help us.”

There came a muffled choking noise that got a snicker of amusement from his girls as Koda rounded Arthene’s broad rump and settled himself against the large carcass.

“Okay, last knots,” Koda called, ignoring the observers. He heard someone start to protest and order others to help as the ropes came free, but he was ready.

The roughly thousand pounds of bison came free of Arthene’s side and dropped onto his shoulder. While the weight was ungainly and it drove Koda’s feet into the earth, he didn’t fold under it like a cheap suit.

When he’d unloaded the first bison, everyone had been staring at the bear. Now, they watched as the apparently human man shouldered the weight before carefully walking over to deposit the carcass next to the first.

“There. Should last your people a few days,” Koda said, standing upright and stretching his back out.

As Arthene glowed and her form began to shift back to that of her bipedal shape, Koda waved to Sienna and Calandra, who’d had Samira’s help with the ropes earlier. “Come on, loves. Let’s see what else these people need. Especially since one of you talked me up so much.”

Koda pretended to glare at his lovers, getting only smiles in return before he turned to greet the elder of the Silent Plains.