The Band of Misfits

'Who are you?' she finally asked, blinking through her tears.

'We might ask you the same thing,' a man said, muscular and hairy and dressed in a woodsman's garb, speaking for the group. He wasn't the one who'd placed a hand on her shoulder. The one silently tending her wing was a pretty young woman in a form fitting white robe that accentuated her curvy figure, with bronze skin and brown eyes. They were human, as was the man stood right next to the hairy one, a brother or cousin from the looks of him, with the same green eyes and black hair but a cleanshaven face.

Next to them was a dwarven man, bald but with a long bushy red beard, wearing naught but boots, a loincloth and some piercings, and carrying a battle axe. Rounding out the party was an elf woman with ashy skin, dressed in a black robe with gold trim beneath a thick long coat that wasn't as black as her robe. Her hair was very long and silvery white, matching her pale, barely distinguishable, pupils and she had a heavy tome, likely a spell book, attached by a thin chain to her belt.

'Callisto,' she finally said, 'I am an angel, a servant of the Light.'

The elf scoffed, 'you look much more like a demon, with those cat's eyes.'

She searched desperately for a convincing explanation, as much for her own sake as for theirs. 'I was made by the Lion of Heaven.' The dark voice returned, raging at her meekness, 'you are the lion, make these fools kneel, **** this bitch!'

Callisto shook her head violently, rejecting the voice's vile encouragement. She searched the woman's eyes, hoping to see her concede, but she simply shrugged and turned away.

'Don't mind her,' the hairy man, the leader if she were to guess, said, 'she's your stereotypical grumpy dark elf.' That earned him a glare.

Finally, the girl tending her wounds spoke, 'she's definitely an angel, you can feel the presence of the divine all around her. The grounds are lush, you must've noticed the overabundance of potent flora, even rare magical plants, and just look at the water.' It seemed to work and there were general nods of agreement from the rest of the group. 'I'm Melanie, by the way,' she then said, awkwardly offering Callisto her hand to shake, which she did. The name Melanie reminded her of someone.

The leader then spoke, 'Arthur,' before turning to the other human by his side, 'and that's Uther, my brother.' He waited a while for the elf to speak but when she remained cautiously silent he said, 'and that delightful young woman is Xalyth,' earning him another glare.

'Name's Samrud,' the dwarf then said, helping Callisto to her feet and exposing her nakedness, 'nice to meet you.'

Callisto tried to cover herself, hoping for a cloak or wrapping to be offered, though none ever was, 'were you passing through or did you come to find me?'

'As soon as everyone say a winged woman falling from the sky, the mayor offered a handsome reward to the first people to find her and bring her in,' Arthur said.

'The mayor?' It was an ordinary question, but it caused the dark voice to rage once again, saying, 'enough, stop wasting time, you have to fight, you have to kill!'

'Silverton's mayor. That's where we're staying. It's the nearest town. I take it you're not from around here?'

'No, I,' Callisto paused, wondering how much she should reveal, since there was a hell of a lot she wanted to keep secret, 'suppose not. Ariel sent me here from a far off land.'

'Then I'll give you some free advice. You'll want to come back with us, and not just so we can collect our reward. North and east is civilisation, south and west is orc country.'

'Orcs?' She knew what orcs were, or at least she thought she did. The voice returned, answering her question before they could, 'yes, orcs, good for fighting, good for ****, kill, kill, kill!'

'Yeah, this weird little clearing is as good a dividing line as any. West of here, there are dozens of orc tribes. There used to be human settlements even as recently as five years ago, but Reala sent the orcs their very own demon prince, and he razed them all. It's not safe to venture much farther, especially not for a young woman, angel or otherwise.'

The voice, the beast, grew wilder still, incandescent with rage as it struggled against its chains. 'A demon prince! Usurp him, **** him, kill him! You do not need safety, you need to fight! You need to kill! It will make you stronger!' Intuitively, she knew that he was was right, at least about that last part. Killing would empower her, make her stronger and faster, deepen her reserves of mana. What's more, she'd pledged to eradicate the dark. She was obliged to fight.

As if on cue, the group of adventurers reacted to the sounds of an approaching enemy ****. She knew exactly where they were, of course, thanks to her divine oath. They were approaching from the south, a large group of orcs tainted by dark magic.

'We need to leave, now!' Arthur exclaimed, urging the group to move. Mel remained by her side, however.

'We need to stay!' the voice roared, 'your first kill awaits you, use your powers, cut them, make them bleed and suffer!' The sight of them, lumbering out from the woods, green men and women with jagged teeth jutting from their mouths, scars and strange markings covering their bodies, made her listen. She wanted to fight, to adhere to her oaths. Instinctively, she activated her spells, gaining a sword and armour made of hardened light: a breastplate, greaves and elbow guards, a skirt, knee guards and boots.

She heard a laugh from the leader of the raiding party, as he brought his club to bear, 'pretty little angel, made of sunshine, I'm going to enjoy **** you!'

Her leonine face transformed with rage, making Mel gasp, and the dark voice commanded her, 'tear them apart!' She did as she was bid and launched herself at them, with her sword ready. She passed a dozen feet in the blink of an eye and struck the leader before he could so much as register her new position with his eyes. His troops seethed with rage and came at her with their own weapons, hitting nothing but air and occasionally each other, as she blinked in and out of their sight. Within minutes, each of the fifteen orcs were dead or dying.

Her rage was on her still and she went to each of the moaning ones, piercing their hearts, hard and slow. The last one she came across was a woman, writhing in agony from a cut Callisto had delivered right across her back. The voice spoke, low and raw with lust, 'fuck her, **** her, tear her insides apart.' To her shame, she lingered on the notion for a second before dismissing it. 'No,' she said, causing the orc woman to look up at her with confusion before she brought her blade down and cut her throat, whereafter her eyes grew wider still and her hands went up, pointlessly, hoping to stem the flow of blood.

She wiped away her tears before returning to Mel, letting her sword fade into the ether. 'Are you alright?' the novice healer said, cupping her face.

Callisto leaned into the touch, 'not a scratch.'

'Much more than that, look at your wing.'

The angel turned to look at her wings and saw both of them, even the broken one, had become extended during the fight. There was no pain to speak of and she set them to flapping. Soon after, she had her first experience of flight. It was exhilarating beyond imagination, as she zipped this way and that, gliding and swooping and feeling the rush of the air against her skin. She spent a while up there, only returning to the ground for the sake of her new found friend. 'So, should we be off?' she asked, smirking with uncommon confidence.

'If you want, but I'd understand if you didn't want to help us collect our reward after we abandoned you.'

'You stayed,' Callisto replied, boldly stroking the girl's cheek.

It was Mel's turn to lean into the touch and she smiled serenely, before taking the hand in her own. 'I could not leave an angel in danger, though it seems you'd have been fine on your own.'

She did not argue with that and simply bid Mel to lead her on to Silverton. They went through the woods, Mel collecting useful plants, until reaching some kind of invisible threshold, whereafter such things became a rarer sight.

Crossing through it - what she presumed to be the border of her Pure Land - made her feel weak and Mel had to help her walk. She savoured the touch of a woman's arm around her waist. Eventually, she felt well enough to walk unassisted but she had to really convince herself to give up the comfort of a pretty girl's arm. Soon after, the woods opened out into a new clearing, though this one was narrower and covered in gravel.

'A road to nowhere,' she mused, looking back towards the woods.

'It used to lead into orc country. The humans, who used to live there, were rugged individualists, and most of them didn't even consider themselves citizens but there was still a steady stream of trade. But, after this demon prince moved in, the Archduke let the woods overtake the route, even bringing in mages to make the trees grow more quickly.'

'Has it kept the peace?' The beast spat at her for asking such a question and said, 'peace is an indulgence for the weak, true beauty can only be found in endless war.'

'No. Demon princes don't want peace, as a rule, and orcs are not known for their hospitality at the best of times. They send raiders out all the time. Hunting parties are just as likely to be killed - or worse - by orcs as by wolves. And everyone knows it's just a matter of time before they they move against the Empire in a big way. Arthur hopes we'll be long gone from Silverton when they do.'

'I will slay this demon prince,' she replied, and for the first time, the beast in her head simply hummed its approval.

It did not take long for them to arrive at Silverton, or Great Silverton as the large signpost outside its walls had called it. There, the gravel road turned to paved stone. After crossing through the entrance, Mel's friends silently took up positions beside her, none so much as thanking her for keeping Mel safe. 'They are fools,' the beast said, 'you should have listened to me. You'd be so much more powerful if you'd killed them. You could've even kept the pretty one around to ****.' It took a lot of strength to keep herself from vomiting at that.

The town's denizens were generally going about their business without a care in the world for the angel, in gleaming armour made of sunlight, walking amongst them, but the few that did pay attention to her seemed enamoured. Children pointed at her in amazement and tugged on their parents' clothes to get them to look. People who passed by her close enough to brush against one of her wings, stared at her reverently, often effusively apologising for the physical contact.

As they walked past what she assumed were the seedier parts of town, she was startled by the sight of quite a few naked women, with collars around their necks, being led by chain leads. It was hard to supress the heat that rose to her cheeks each time she saw one. 'There are lots of naked women, here,' she said to no one in particular.

Xalyth seemed particularly struck by the comment and disdainfully replied, 'no more than usual.'

'I don't understand.'

It was Arthur's turn to speak and he elaborated, 'it seems you really are from a far off land. Here, when a woman gets too ruined by **** to be worth marrying, we do them the kindness of keeping them as concubines. Oft times, they've been rendered infertile by their **** at the hands of whatever monster they were rescued from, so their men can come in them whenever and wherever they want.'

Callisto yet again had to resist the urge to throw up. This world seemed almost as vile as the voice inside her head. Arthur's tone was plain, even jovial, as he relayed this information, however, so she simply gave him a polite nod of understanding. The experience left her uninterested in asking any more questions, so she just followed them wherever they were leading her.

Eventually, they arrived at the town square. In front of the town hall and beside a large noticeboard, there was a large open space with a monument in the centre and stone benches all around. The monument depicted a young woman she somehow recognised, striking a confident pose with a hand on one hip and another outstretched. The beast had much clearer thoughts, 'Elmeria! Imagine the power you could get from her if you **** her!' She visualised herself muzzling the beast and he growled.

A large crowd of people were milling about, mostly human but she also spotted a few more exotic creatures. To one side, with everyone else giving him a wide berth, a man was ranting and raving. He was dishevelled, with short but unkempt facial hair and a head that seemed to been made bald by his own hands, judging from how often he reached for it as if to tear out chunks of non-existent hair. His eyes were manic, darting this way and that.

'Beware,' he said, in a loud and strained voice, 'the Dark Lion approaches! No one is safe! No one! I have seen him! In a vision, I have seen him! He will **** our daughters and kill our sons! He will bring the Empire to its knees! The heroes will be whores, and our kings will be cuckholds! Beware!'

His words perturbed her and he persisted, repeating the same things over and over, sometimes in a different order. 'What does he mean?' she asked, though part of her was worryingly confident that she knew.

'He's just some nut,' Xalyth said, again with disdain, 'surely you can tell just from looking at him?'

She did not reply but something about the wording of the elf's question compelled her to look more closely. Instinctively, she activated her God's Eye. The man was traumatised, by never-ending nightmares, often ones depicting the violent **** of his wife and daughter. He was human, with some very distant devilish ancestry, though he was unaware of it. He'd been a soldier many years ago but his skills had faded too thoroughly to say he was a skilled fighter. Apart from his dreams, he was quite ordinary. When she got a good look at this Dark Lion of his, however, she was horrified. It was a monstrous werelion, with yellow eyes and black fur, exactly the appearance, down to the most minute detail, that she remembered having in her head when she was approached by Melanoche and Carnachias. More importantly, however, it was the same form now lingering, imprisoned, deep inside her mind.

She did not know what it meant and she did not want to know. Thankfully, a commotion distracted her as a man she assumed to be the mayor, considering his bodyguards and the gold chain around his neck, came up to the group and began to gush. 'You've found her?! Remarkable!'

He came up to her, specifically, whilst the others patted themselves on the back, and leered at her cleavage. She tried to cover herself and had a moment of realisation. She would now have to experience the kind of awkwardness and discomfort she'd once dismissed out of hand. 'Here I am,' she answered, sternly.

'And we'd agreed on fifty gold pieces, had we not?' Arthur said, 'we have it here in writing, in case you'd forgotten.'

'Of course, of course,' the man said, gesturing clumsily for once of his servants to hand over a weighty coin pouch, but never taking his eyes away from her body. It made her sick. 'We shall be very glad to have you here, Miss Angel.'

'Callisto,' she insisted, letting her tone become even harsher.

The man repeated himself, 'of course, of course.' He then began to explain the town's plight. The Archduke's daughter had been **** the last time he'd visited the town. The culprits were orcs belonging to the army of the great demon prince Agronak Xagreth. Sooner or later, war would be upon them. If they were not attacked first, the Archduke would expect Silverton to be the staging ground for an invasion. With an angel on their side, however, he said that they were sure to win.

'All who stand against me will fall,' she said, trying to sound proud. A dark chuckle, muffled and strained, echoed through her mind.

The mayor seemed pleased by the response and she was soon mercifully free of him.

'Where to next?' she asked, turning to face the band of misfits.

Except for Mel, they had all already begun to walk off. 'Um, we'll we're going to a tavern, most likely. You can tag along if you'd like.'

Callisto furrowed her brow at that. She'd expected them to be a little more inviting, especially on account of the money she'd effectively won for them. Of course, a real angel likely wouldn't have cared. Possibly, that was their assumption as well. Nevertheless, she followed them, having nothing better to do.

As they exited the square, she was enraptured by the winding streets of terraced houses, some that appeared to be private residences and others that were businesses of all varieties, all awkwardly pushed together. Some of the more exotic shops, with outrageous products in their display windows and brightly coloured doors and walls and roofs, seemed as if they were going to burst from being squeezed between their neighbours.

Everywhere they went, people stared at her in wonder and trepidation. Anyone who got close enough for a proper look tended to smile serenely or even blush. Eventually, they arrived at a tavern called 'The Burning Heart', and the raucous sounds of cheering and laughter could be heard almost halfway down the street. A sign on the door read, 'no admittance of children,' which gave her pause. She was disturbed to realise just precisely why the sign was there as soon as she entered. The place was as much a brothel as it was a tavern.

Women in lingerie brought drinks to the tables, half the men had naked ladies on their laps and a crowd of fans and gamblers had crowded around a small ringed circle of mud, where two nude women wrestled and writhed against one another.

'What on Earth?'

'Earth?' Arthur queried, not stopping to hear her answer as he dove towards the bar.

Everyone but Mel had soon wandered off. 'I shouldn't really be here.'

Mel flashed her a puzzled look, 'why not?'

'Well, it's not very angelic, is it?' Her mind conjured an image of an angel smiting this colourful collection of sinners, standing proudly amidst the resulting blood and carnage. She could tell that thought pleased the beast but it seemed that she had successfully quietened him.

'You'd know better than me,' Mel shrugged.

Right, she was supposed to already know how to behave. She wondered if she should've told someone that she'd only just been born but she had no idea how angels actually were born in this world. 'This land is quite strange to me.'

'So, where is it you come from exactly, then?'

'Uh,' Callisto had had most of the day to think of a good lie but she simply had no frame of reference, 'I don't know.' She braced herself for an interrogation but nothing came.

'You really are quite odd, you know that?' Mel asked, sweetly.

'Yeah.'

'Well, anyway, come sit over here, I'll get you a drink.' Mel took her to a cosy little booth by a window. The seats, like all the others, were green leather, and very soft. Once Mel had left her, she was struck by how odd she must've looked, especially in as seedy a place as this.

She scanned the room, looking without really seeing, as her eyes glided over half a dozen debauched scenes until she was brought back to reality by a man extending his hand to shake hers. Reflexively, she took it, only afterwards noticing that he had a woman's mouth around his flaccid cock.

'Pleased to meet you, my name's William.' He was a tall and slender man with greying hair, wearing a well tailored blue suit. He looked every bit the prim and proper businessman, except for the lump of pink flesh protruding from his unbuttoned trousers. He spoke again when he noticed how perturbed she seemed, 'oh, don't mind Betty,' he was presumably referring to the busty young woman with dark hair knelt in front of him, 'she struggles to go more than a few minutes without a cock in one of her holes.'

Bewildered and appalled, Callisto didn't know what to say.

'It's quite the tale, actually. I was always sweet on her when we were growing up, but she never gave me the time of day. Then, one day, she was captured by goblins. To hear tell of it, this nasty slut stopped resisting after just a few hours. Anyway, to cut a long story short, her womb's been poisoned beyond recovery by goblin spunk and her mind's all but gone. If you don't have a cock, or can't explain how soon you'll have it up her, she's not interested.'

Callisto noticed that the woman spent the entire time trying to get back to sucking on his member and he had to pull her hair quite harshly to keep her away from it. 'That's horrible,' she managed, sounding far too weak and despairing for an angel.

William seemed confused by her remark, 'well, that's why you've come to Silverton, isn't it? The orcs won't dare attack us when they hear we've got an angel on our side.'

This she did know how to respond to. 'Right, I will defend this town with my life.' She very much hoped she wouldn't have to lay down her life for this sorry lot but she managed to sound sincere, all the same.

The man beamed at her, 'that is very good to hear.' He regarded her somewhat reverently. 'Well, I'll leave you to your drinks,' he then said, as Mel slipped into the booth, before dragging Betty away, quite roughly.

'I hate this place,' she couldn't keep herself from confiding to Mel.

'It's not the nicest, I'll grant, but the boys really like it. Where do you go for sex?'

Callisto blushed, 'go?'

'Well, do you visit a brothel or do you have someone you can call on? I used to have this boy,' Mel looked wistful and forlorn as she began to tell a tale, fingering her glass, 'we could go months without seeing each other but whenever we met back up, we'd just fuck like rabbits,' she smiled briefly, 'but then, you know, he,' she stumbled, 'he, um, he died, and then, so, I didn't really have anyone, except Arthur and Uther, and neither of them are much for repeats, you know, so I just fuck whoever. Xalyth mostly, but she can be a bit of a bitch, and, you know, she doesn't have a cock.'

Callisto was bewildered but tried to focus on the more pertinent aspect of the story, 'I'm sorry to hear about that boy.'

'Oh,' she said, wiping away a tear, 'no, it's fine, it was a long time ago now, years, it, he,' she sighed, shakily, 'anyway, you didn't answer my question.'

'I don't know.'

'Oh, come on,' Mel chided, 'look, whatever the hell you are, angel or not, you've clearly got a hell of a lot of power. There's no way you haven't fucked at least half a hundred people, so just tell me whether they were prostitutes or lovers.'

It was clear there was something about this world she really didn't understand. She recalled events, such as they were, from the day before. When those women had described the world like a video game, they had implied that **** people was a way for monsters to gain power. Perhaps, sex was a much more universal way to earn experience. Thinking about it that way made her head hurt, though. She decided to hide a lie behind the truth, 'I guess I want to be with people who want to be with me.'

Mel rolled her eyes at that, 'look, it's been hours. If you want, I could get you off.'

She shot the girl a started look but couldn't hide the flush in her cheeks.

Mel smiled at that, 'I'll take that as a yes,' she said, before moving her hand from her glass, then, under the table and towards her legs. Callisto made no move to stop her but bowed her head in embarrassment, as she felt fingers playfully tiptoe over her knee and up her thigh before requesting, and immediately receiving, access to her pussy. She exhaled sharply once she felt one of the fingers brush gently against her folds, earning a chuckle from Mel.

Once the girl really got going, Callisto threw her head back and stopped stifling her moans. The beast was too insistent, even through his muzzle, that she should not feel ashamed.

She could feel a climax building, as the unfamiliar pleasure cascaded through her body and across her mind but she was soon brought crashing back to reality by the sound of someone clearing their throat a few feet away. It was Xalyth, with a look of disgust on her face. Out of frustration, Callisto met her glare with one of her own, dark and angry. It almost seemed to scare the woman, but not enough to keep her from saying her piece, 'Mel, if you're quite done with your pet, I need your head between my legs.'

Mel pulled her fingers out of her and sheepishly looked between her and the elf. 'Sorry,' she said, getting up and letting Xalyth drag her upstairs. Before she'd got completely out of sight, however, she did call out, 'you should speak to the priestesses at Ariel's temple, they won't fuck you, but they'll be better company than this lot!'

Upset, she stormed out, refusing to hear propositions from any of the dirty old men that she was as likely to decapitate as politely reject. After taking a while just to calm down, she decided to look for this temple.

The sky grew dark overhead.