Battle of Five Armies, Part 3: Traveling and Troop Surveying

Josie

The horses are well-trained. Even with several of the harem panicking (Daphne’s being the funniest), they calmly trot down the cobblestone road towards this Mithrilwood Gate. Outside of the clomping of horse feet and the occasional screeching from one of the girls, it’s quiet, peaceful. The surrounding countryside is beautiful farmland, fields of wheat and barley gently swaying in the breeze. A pear orchard, fruit ripe for the picking, is coming up on the left. Josie, for once, is okay just enjoying the serenity of the moment.

She thinks back to last night. Harper seemed to approve of Josie’s plan. She knows she has a giant pile of treasure in her inventory (courtesy of the tournament) to pay for initial expenses, but money isn’t the only thing she’ll need. Having the support of her… whatever Harper is to her is just as important. When we have the time, we should probably figure that out.

And, once the boring meeting stuff was done, last night was really, really fun. Tina, hopping around from Josie to Harper to Josie again. Scarlet matching Josie’s energy when the wolf-girl needed it. Mattie is better in bed than Josie, not that the gym thot would ever admit to it. And, despite how annoying the bratty dragon is, that tail of hers feels amazing. A nagging sense in the background (likely the effect of Harper’s exit) kept the night from being perfect, but it was still great. Sex has only been getting better since they were all kidnapped; they have the rest of their lives now to enjoy it.

Scarlet breaks Josie’s contemplations, “Hey, you want to talk about the wolf thing from yesterday?”

“You wanna talk about your thing?” Josie asks back, “It was a bit bullshit that Harper let you pass.”

“Harper asked so she would know what everyone is distraught about. She already knew about mine. Let’s just say that my ‘special guest’ knew exactly what buttons to press to cause me to have a mental breakdown and leave it at that for now. If she knew about what was bothering you, I would bet she would have been okay with you passing, too.”

Josie takes a beat to mull over that. She watches Tina try to pluck a pear (and stop after a growl from Nyadia). “Am I a monster, Scarlet?”

“Less of one than I am.”

“I enjoyed ripping those wolves apart. That isn’t healthy. Isn’t normal.”

“Honestly, you know just as much as I do that our natures changed when we were made no longer human. I still struggle with that. And it’s one thing to take in the rush of combat in the heat of the moment; given how the game changed you, it may be normal for your new nature. It’s quite another if you take pleasure in tearing apart an innocent creature for no good reason. That is when I would start to worry.”

Josie ponders that for a moment. Not the most comforting thing to say, but probably as much of a comfort as I can get. The joys of being the Pack Enforcer instead of a Wolf Waifu like that Allie girl. Let’s change the topic.

“So, you seem to be taking the Harem Queen role pretty seriously, Ms. Winner.”

Scarlet laughs, “Oh, I think Harper is the Harem Queen. I am still just substitute Team Mom.”

“Well, Team Mom, how else do you plan on meddling?” Josie lolls her tongue out to add some emphasis to her teasing tone.

Scarlet does answer as if the question was serious, “Outside of my general worry about this new world stuff, Glitter and Harper need to resolve their issues. I’m worried about Honey falling off into her own little world and Nyadia being unable to recover from her previous traumatic treatment, too.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about the Bug. Sure, she’s weird in a way that I don’t understand, but Harper seems to get her. And she doesn’t have a problem asking for help when she needs it. I’ll help with Nyadia. She’s here ‘cause of me.”

“Good. I can use the help.”

Honey

“Mate, I am sure that I could fly at an equivalent, if not speedier, pace as these horse creatures.”

Honey detects a scent of mild annoyance coming from her mate. “I am sure you can. The point is to preserve your strength for when we get to the gate. Riding is easier than flying the 20 or so miles we have to travel. Think you would be able to fight if the attack happens as soon as we get there if you flew?”

Honey pauses, considering Harper’s perspective, “A valid point, Mate.”

Harper smiles and nods, the pheromones shifting away from irritation. “We are going to give the animals a food and water break pretty soon. You can stretch your wings then. Thank you for understanding.”

“May I inquire about something?”

Curiosity from her? Emotions still confuse me. Harper responds, “Go ahead.”

“Does my presence bother you? I am used to my presence being considered undesirable.”

Stunned? “You do not bother me, Honey. Is it the pheromones? I may be a little confused or annoyed with your actions sometimes. It’s part of being a person, feeling like that. I’m sure I do things that confuse you, too.”

Honey nods. She has noticed that non-verbal cues may help convey ideas that she does not phrase well. “Another valid point. I do not understand why your pheromones would indicate one response, but you act differently.”

“Ah, when I feel like the actions my emotions would naturally lead to are unhelpful, I choose to ignore the urge to follow my feelings.”

“But the signals from pheromones are to be followed. Why else would you secrete them?”

Honey gets a hint of her mate thinking of how to correctly phrase a response. Delicacy, perhaps? When Harper finally answers, the results are an interesting thought experiment, “What if the pheromone released was wrong or does not apply to the current situation? For example, a prey creature spraying a warning about a nearby predator that was imagined or has since moved on? Is it not better to take in the whole picture instead of just the one detail? Social interaction is the same thing. If I purely listened to my emotions, I would end up doing things I would later regret. I need to consider others, too.”

Harper gently steers the horse to a pond just off the cobblestone road. When the horse gets to the edge of the pond, Harper dismounts and starts to tend to the animal. Honey takes flight and does the same. My mate is so confusing sometimes.

Daphne

The harem is taking a lunch break to rest the horses and Daphne is taking advantage by swimming in the pond. It’s freshwater (unfortunately), so she can only have a short swim, but she gets to have a little fun. She even caught a couple of fish to help make lunch! She tosses them out onto the shore for someone to prep. Daphne would have preferred to eat them raw but sharing is caring.

So, a little bloated from absorbed pond water, she shimmies onto the land to wait for her weird legs to reform. Her Beloved scoops her up and sets her with the others. Skye has started a small campfire and is cooking one of the fish. “Ms. Daphne, you can eat that one. I know how you want to.”

Daphne grabs the still flopping fish and greedily chomps down on it. Yum, but could use more salt.

Daphne was not the only one to go hunting during the break, as Nyadia arrives at the campfire with a couple of rabbits (to Tina’s chagrin).

“Is it cannibalism if I eat that?”

Skye smiles a little, answering, “We have some fish and trail rations, if that would make you comfortable, Tina. You don’t have to eat the bunnies.”

Nyadia has finished field dressing them and starts to roast rabbit meat on the fire. Smells good!

Tina doesn’t eat the rabbit meat (and Harper refrains, just to make Tina feel better). The cooked fish they eat looked good. Nyadia is an obligate carnivore (she looked less than happy trying to make a meal out of what was available at the castle), but tries her best to hide just how much she enjoys eating the rabbit meat from Tina. Josie teases Tina as she tries some rabbit. Everyone is happy as they eat.

Daphne smiles; the harem family is coming together, even without the show. She can’t wait to really start living together here, with her Beloved and with Scarlet and with the others. She is the happiest mermaid in this whole world, she is sure of it.

Aelene

The road is uncomfortably quiet. This is normally a major thoroughfare for traveling merchants and other commercial goods, plus travelers from the south. Not running into anyone is unnerving, a reminder of the peril they are to soon face and the consequences of failure. The crops they passed by will rot, left unattended. The people they left behind in the city will starve. This siege needs to be lifted; it has gone on too long already.

Lady Tyalangan is at the head, looking vigilant; Aelene does not know how much experience the human had on horseback, but her betrothed sea elf had many lessons after being adopted into the family. She could outride Phaedra embarrassingly fast. A couple of the others look at least a little bit competent in the saddle: the good luchtoni Josie in about the middle of the pack and Lady Silmerana by Aelene’s side. The others are struggling, with various levels of success. Aelene is serving as the rearguard, mostly watching to make sure the good (if uncoordinated) mermaid Daphne doesn’t fall out of the saddle again.

“So, my lady love, when do you think that we can be wed?” Lady Silmerana asks unexpectedly.

Aelene blushes, taking a few moments to observe the mithrilwood trees on either side of the road in an effort to avoid answering the question. She hopes Lady Silmerana can accept the answer she finally gives, “I do not know. My marriage to Lady Tyalangan must come first, for political reasons, and she has already expressed that she will not wed me until the people have recovered sufficiently from the siege. I hope that Mother is surveying the damage right now and that the repairs will not take too long.”

“Do you think she we ever accept me, your mother?”

“In time, yes.”

Lady Silmerana nods, accepting Aelene’s assessment. They enjoy the trees for a moment. “This may be awkward, my lady love, but I do not wish to use Honey’s transformation to have children. I want to feel the child I bear for Lady Harper in my womb, even if that means being inseminated by her penis spell. Do you wish to do the same?”

At that, Aelene really blushes. She always accepted that, when the time comes, she would carry a child to term, but to have it said so viscerally...

Lady Silmerana sniffles a little. Aelene stumbles into an answer, “Sorry, Lady Silmerana. Your question startled me. I have not thought about how I would provide children to my betrothed yet. The usual way here involves a church provided sperm donor, I guess you would phrase it?”

“Which, I guess, was the usual way back home, in a manner of speaking. Would you like to try at the same time as me? Be pregnant with our lady love’s child together?”

Aelene imagines it, wistfully smiling. Both of them, bellies round with new life, being pampered by Lady Tyalangan. Aelene will act like she doesn’t need such frivolities, of course, but will cherish them. And their children will always have a study mate.

Aelene opens her eyes and sees that they are approaching the camp on this side of the gate. She needs to ride to the front of the line soon. She takes a moment to squeeze Lady Silmerana’s hand as she replies, “I would be honored, my love.”

And then Aelene gallops to meet her old troops. They should be ready for her.

Harper

That… is a lot of gnolls.

Harper and her more tactically minded companions are at the ramparts, taking in the sight of the gnoll horde. They pulled back to just outside the javelin range of Aelene’s golem addition to the wall. And there is a lot of them. Hundreds, maybe thousands. The land around them looks picked clean, completely devoid of other life. Looks like they even burnt down the grass.

Harper can barely make out the swooping form of the Brass Dragon that took over Glitter’s lair flying in the air to the south; his(?) shadow is highlighted by the setting sun. The orcs are to arrive shortly from the north, under the cover of darkness. It is a new moon tonight, so it is the best time to drop a surprise army at the gnolls’ doorstep. They are to make camp, then attack from their position at dawn. The forces here are to push the horde from this end. Classic pincher strategy. **** the foe to fight on two fronts and hope that they can’t sustain their position like that.

Most of the girls’ roles in the fight are obvious. Melee girls (Aelene, Josie, Scarlet, Nyadia) in the front line. Spellcasters (Daphne, Honey, Tina) providing artillery. Glitterdust (and, maybe, if Harper can reach out in time, that Brass Dragon) as air support. The tricky bit is what to do with Skye, Mattie, and herself. Skye works best as a surprise round striker, which naturally leads Harper to think to send her to find the gnoll commander (whoever that is), but Skye should not do that alone. Mattie’s AoE potential is not great, so she’d be poor artillery, but she’s a ranged weapon user, so she’d be poor on the front line. Harper has the opposite problem for herself; even with her odd “have the strongest anti-ooze spell possible” spell selection, she has the strongest nuke if she goes normal wizard. If she goes melee, she’d be better than most on the front line. She doesn’t quite know what to do.

“Sarge, a moment,” Mattie whispers into the pondering sea elf’s ear.

“Huh? What’s up?”

“While I didn’t mind being third banana at the docks, I wanna go play to my strengths in the morning. Sneak in under cover of darkness, and start the attack by taking out the head guy. I am bringing Mrs. Skye. Wanna come with too?”

“Making decisions without me, Cap’n?” Harper mostly teases.

Mattie cuts through that right quick, “Offering advice based on what makes the most sense. You tell me to pound sand and I will. I’ll grumble, but I’m yours to command.”

Putting myself in the most dangerous position? Sounds like my brand. Harper pulls out her phone and texts Reeza the change of plan. Harper is going to lead a third front.

Tina

“But it’s sooooo early.”

“C’mon, Rabbit. Time to wake up. They have fruitcake prepped for your breakfast.”

That gets Tina up. The troops are nervous, and so is Tina. Most of the troops here are elves or predator animal-people like Josie and Nyadia. As a bunny-girl, Tina feels a little out of place. Then, she notices some other bunny-people, ears fidgety, in heavy looking armor, sharpening swords and eating cake. Tina nervously bounds over, hoping to get some bonus cake before the cake Josie promised.

“Hey, I’m Tina, Titan of Trickery! Follow me on Insta-Thot!”

The soldiers greet her, all of them actively ogling her. A few actually pull out their phones. A bunny-guy with the slightly fancier armor speaks, “Hey, Tina, you with the crowd that got here late yesterday afternoon. Need a morning fuck before we all go die?”

Tina’s phone fires off with some Insta-Thot friend requests as she struggles with the question, “Uh, sorry, cutie. I’m kind of in a polycule thingy and some of my girlfriends will get super jealous.”

“Jack is a pretty good lay. I mean, if you’re gonna die, you might as well do it with a full bunny warren, you know?” one of the bunny-girls endorses, rubbing her cute little belly.

Josie walks up, and, again, the bunnies (Tina included) all start to drool. “Whatcha doing, Tina?”

“Making friends?”

Both Jack and a third bunny-girl simultaneously exclaim, “Crush me with your thighs, muscle mommy!”

Josie rolls her eyes and pointedly ignores the soldiers. “Harper probably doesn’t want you to be making friends like this, Rabbit.”

Tina’s ears droop. “Where’d Harper go anyways? I thought she’d be trying to herd us to the gnolls.”

“Harper, Mattie, and Skye went to surprise the gnoll commander. Aelene is glaring at us to get a move on over there, if you want.”

“Wait,” Jack asks, “you know Arbancano Aelenetheria? She did this weird magic thing to the wall, then disappeared. She’s back? Maybe not all of us will die today! She’s super strong! Like maybe Level 6?”

Josie chuckles, “Level 6? Funny.”

“Hey, I don’t care how sexy you are and how much I want you to step on me, don’t insult the Knight-Commander!”

The other bunnies (save Tina) concur. Aelene walks up, seeing the commotion. “Tina, Josie, you two causing trouble?”

“Not intentionally!” Tina exclaims, offering Aelene a salute, as it felt appropriate at the moment. The other bunnies go to attention. Josie just smirks.

“At ease, soldiers. We’re lining up on the other side of the wall in 30 minutes. Be ready. You two, come get breakfast. We can’t let Lady Tyalangan have all the fun, now can we?”

The three harem-sisters head to the others for breakfast. Tina overhears the bunnies arguing about which of them has the best ass. Tina feels strangely offended that she got the least amount of votes. Honey is slurping on one of her smoothies and everyone else is eating some combination of fruitcake and breakfast meat. Daphne hands Tina a slice of fruitcake, asking, “Meeting some of the locals?”

Tina takes a big bite of fruitcake, then talks with her mouth full, “Yeah. They were very... forward?”

“Yeah, most people are super horny here. It seems fun. Isn’t that right, Aelene?”

Aelene sighs, “I would not put it so crudely, but, yes.”

Scarlet’s turn to sigh, “So, a bunch of guys are going to hit on us?”

Glitterdust notes, “Oh, most beastkin and creatures from monstrous races are actually pansexual. Elves would be, too, if male elves weren’t such a rarity that they culturally become romantically lesbian. So, you’ll get plenty of girls hitting on you too. But, people will be polite, so there will generally be no hard feelings if you turn them down.”

“So, we’ll still be weird for not being into guys?” More drooped ears and fruitcake spittle from Tina. Memories of that last month of high school boil up again.

“Honestly, less weird than only being into guys,” Glitterdust answers, elaborating, “Elves are usually romantically lesbian so the concept of girls only being into girls is widely accepted. Also, all of us being in this harem relationship is going to be widely accepted. I imagine once word gets out, people won’t even try to flirt with us much anymore, now that I think about it. I don’t think people will be too interested in angering MY MtF Goddess by hitting on one of her girls.”

Josie looks a little relieved at that. “Good, less temptation for Pack Tactics, hopefully. I don’t want to start something like that without the old lady’s permission again. Frankly, we should talk about establishing some rules about it as a polycule.”

Scarlet nods, “We’ll add it to the list of logistics items next time we all talk. Some of us have already started working on a date schedule.”

Date schedule? BOO! I thought we’d be done with that kind of stuff. Aelene explains before Tina could ask, “Lady Tyalangan will be busy with her duties as the Crown Princess and will want our help making sure we can all get our time with her. We’ll work out all the details when we can sit down and talk. But, for now, we all need to get to our stations; the assaults on the gnolls will begin soon.”