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Anthro Sex Squad Story 1 - Vibra's Story

By Killenor

Arc 1 - Origins

Chapter 8

Issa heaved his way between the trees, his bulk easily pushing aside that tangles of undergrowth and cracking the boles. Making his way through a forest, with his poor eyesight, was a challenge in and of itself. He swung his head left and right trying to find the best path that he hoped would take him to his charge.

Elenyra had told him to meet her somewhere around here in a day or two. Her oracular visions had to be received alone, and thus she always left him behind. Finding her would have been all but impossible if not for the pendant he wore. Tucked inside the mask-shaped locket was one of Elenyra's golden scales, a link to her that tugged him always in the right direction.

Unfortunately they never told him when trees were in the way.

Issa grunted as another thick branch caught upon his armor. This one must have been as thick as his palm and reached over his whole chest. A further inexorable step forward snapped the whole branch away, sending it spinning round behind him. Undergrowth fell away without resistance as his bare-footed strides pulled him along the invisible path to the woman he was soul-bound too.

He was getting close. He knew that only a handful of minutes would bring him wherever she was. His ears were sharp, his race's way of 'making up for his eyesight, and even now he could pick up some sort of shouting. Hearing this, he made every attempt to hurry even faster, fearing that his charge was in trouble.

Finally! A clear path! His breath quickened in time with his pace as he pushed forward. Something was happening, something big, and he had no intention of letting Elenyra get into a fight all alone. From the sounds of the ruckus he was only a quarter mile away. Nothing, he thought, on a day like today. He pulled his favored flail and clapped it across the buckler he wore strapped to his forearm. With bellow, he lowered his head and charged forward.

Suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, the pendant changed direction. It jerked up away from him and then pulled his mighty charging bulk in a yaw that sent him smashing face-first into the trunk of a tree. The impact jarred his neck severely, but the tree suffered far worse. Well over five-hundred pounds of armored power-house slammed horn-first into the bole of a wild cherry tree. The wood splintered wetly and gave way. A sickening creak followed as the thirty foot tall tree bent inexorably over, taking the surrounding canopy with it.

Dazed, but only mildly, Issa shook his head clear and righted himself. Where did that come from? It was like Elenyra took off into the air! But that was impossible, thought Issa, for her wings were far too small to do much anything, not even aid jumping. But this... it was like she had been flung into the air and carried away. It was clear she was on the ground now, and immobile, but any further details were lost upon him.

Full speed ahead, he thought, as he set off once again for his embattled love.

***

Less than half a mile away, Vibra was unconscious again. Elenyra had tried to awaken her, but the pain must have been too severe for a bird-woman to lose her wits mid-flight. Whatever happened now, Elenyra knew that the shining white bird had saved her live as surely as she had saved Vibra's. They were even now.

Crashing had not been fun. Elenyra had scrapes and bruises all over and one of her wings felt broken. Her lip was bleeding, she found as she wiped at the thick, numb spot on her face. Wearily she turned to look at Vibra. It was almost a shock to see that she was in worse shape.

Part of her beak was broken, a piece hanging from the corner of her mouth, exposing her tongue. Her shoulder, the shoulder without a bullet wound at any rate, was badly dislocated and stuck at an odd angle. She was bleeding from many abrasions and a few bloody clumps of feathers were scattered around her skid. Elenyra could only vaguely remember the crash, but she knew that Vibra had saved her. She had rolled before she impacted, causing her a reciprocally greater amount of damage.

Elenyra shook her head trying to clear her thoughts. She could swear that there was some sort of crashing going on, but she figured it must be some sort of head damage. She pulled herself into a sitting position and immediately wished she hadn't. A wave of pain throbbed through her head and her back stiffened as her broken wing shifted with gravity.

Laboriously she removed her bag from between her wings, noticing that it must have been her altar-case that caused the break, and held it close to her chest. She had some healing powders somewhere in there; she just prayed they hadn't spilled in the crash. Out came her devotional book, wrapped in clean velvet. She sighed in relief to notice that nothing had burst or spilled, for the book would doubtless have been dusted had anything broken.

That noise was getting louder, like a windstorm was blowing through the trees. Worse yet there was this steady, heavy, regular thudding that made her head ache even more. She shuffled out her mostly empty bag of food, a few hygiene tools, a few devotional charms that she kept for sentimental value, a few coins for bribing Gurftheim soldiers, and her own non-devotional 'toys'. Finally she found the small packets that would at least help her to stop hurting for now.

Quickly she ripped one open and dumped the bitter white dust within under her tongue. She grimaced at the horrible medicinal flavor and scrambled for her waterskin. Almost immediately she felt a wash of well-being as the powder did its work. Even despite the almost instant reduction of her headache and her lip-swelling, she still heard... and more accurately felt... the steady thudding through her whole body. It wasn't until she heard a low-rumbling voice yelling out her name that she realized what it was.

Issa crashed into the clearing bellowing out "Elenyra!" at the very top of his lungs. He found his golden lady applying some of her wondrous powders to the largest bird-woman he had ever seen.

"Yes my love, I'm here." Elenyra said softly, "I would have called back once I realized it was you if you had taken a couple seconds between calling my name out."

"Elenyra!" Issa sputtered in shock as he moved close enough to focus clearly on his golden paramour, "what happened to you?! Who is this?! I felt you fly through the air... I heard nothing from you for two days so I came to look. I... I..."

"Calm. Calm my love." Elenyra urged, "I'm alive, I'll be fine. This is the one who saved me, carrying me aloft to our safety. She was attacked by the prince; at least I'm quite sure it was him. There were knights of the royal flame... I should have known that those inbred tyrants were involved."

"The prince? Chrisholn?! The goddess revealed his presence?! You should have called out to me I would have run even faster! I could have supported you."

"I know, but I hadn't the time to perform the ritual. Had I not gone as fast as I had... I would have been too late. As it was I barely saved her a moment before the foul prince would have shot her dead."

"To have gotten to grips with that one," Issa seethed, "To grant him the retributive punishments of the gods of freedom. By the pantheon I would have savored such a moment!"

"Now that you mention the pantheon, I ought to tell you that I have evidence that the monarchy of Gurftheim is attempting an apotheosis. We cannot deal with it now... and I have a feeling that this woman is the key to denying them."

"APOTHEOSIS?!" Issa bellowed, "Why does the pantheon simply deny them?!"

"Issa." Elenyra said in a quick and firm tone, "that is not a concern for now. We must get this woman, Vibra, back to the conclave so she can recover. Her task is done for now and so is mine. If we heal her she may become a great force for good and freedom one day. She has already shielded others from the violet flame and she may decide it was the right thing to do. But the future will only happen if we get started right now."

"Yes... uh... very well, what should I do?"

"Any chance you can carry her? I've done so quite enough for one day. The powders will help her, but unless I can get her back to the conclave those wounds will become infected... life threatening even... and Aaluran in all hir passion is none too forgiving of those who do not act upon the moments they have."