Blood Moon Rising
Blood Moon Rising
A grizzly bear, his fur silver with age leads a small herd of triceratops out to pasture in the early morning hours. A lady timber wolf watches him leave from their homestead with hybrid children all around her of varying ages from toddlers to early teens; each one has their father's body with their mother's faces and tails. Shortly after the bear leaves her children who can, feed the chickens and the compsognathuses as a pig in the livery of a noble rides up on a pachycephalosurus.
"Good morning, Madam," The pig beams to the she-wolf, "Martyka, isn't it? Is Sheriff Bernard in? I have things I wish to discuss with him."
:"You just missed him, Viscount Karanaj," Martyka states as she casually cradles a spear in her arms. "Our son, Zevyox is coming home from Ranger College this week. Bernard is driving the herd to pasture in hopes to meet him as he makes his way home."
"Zevyox is due home?" Viscount Boucher Karanaj asks with some surprise. "I hadn't realized it was that time."
"Aye," Martyka says with a smirk, knowing the young lord has a dark history with her son which often mitigates any abuses his family tries to perpetrate among their subjects. "I hear Our Lady of the Stars and the Open Road has looked favorably upon him as well as Old Dead-Eye. He's no bard but the gods find his playing pleasing."
"I think I'll check back later then," Boucher says and spurs his mount onwards.
"I'll tell my husband you stopped by," Martyka says as she leans on her spear.
When the pig leaves she goes into a shrine displaying a rack of antlers with a butterfly in its center. She genuflects before the display representing the god of farming, hunting and community and the goddess of dreams, travel and the night sky together in holy celestial matrimony. The she-wolf druidess lights candles and prays to her deities to speed the return of her son to protect them all from whatever their overlords have planed.
The viscount rides towards a castle straddling several hills displaying a black boar's head on a red field. A wide moat has been dug and filled with dark water in front of the castle making a treacherous lake that must be traversed before one gets to the castle proper with creaking boardwalk piers providing a kind of bridge between the preceding countryside and the hilltop castle with imposing mountains behind it to lend some air of authority to the structure. Furs of various species and genders hang from the ramparts, executed criminals and rebels all, displayed as a show of force that the rule of the Karanaj Clan is absolute as proscribed by the gods by the Divine Rite of Kings.
On the way to this family estate Boucher passes a watermill that is run by his younger sister Janice who greets him as a family of cattle is having their grains ground by the mill. Janice is taking almost half the ground grain as payment both for the grinding and the fact that they farm on their land. She calls her brother's attention as the bull children glower at Janice as they know their parents are being cheated.
Boucher takes umbrage at the young bull daring to question them in any form and shows his disapproval by taking out a carbine and taking aim before shooting the boy in the head which kills him instantly. The cattle family quickens their pace and leaves the dead child behind as the parents know better. Janice just laughs and beckons her brother into the mill proper.
Inside the mill an older goat woman is dangling by her wrists from the rafters. Her attire is that of a witch-sorceress of great skill that that has her back exposed and a whip is coiled nearby. The pigs glare at her in disgust for a minute before Janice explains.
"I caught this old whore telling fortunes for wood chips at the tavern on the lake before our home," Janice growls, "I told her to move on, the old failed ways are not welcome on our modern lands."
"She refused?" Boucher asks with a heavy sigh as his sister just nods. "How many lashes have you given her?"
"Twenty, but she keeps cursing me with each one," Janice returns.
"Peasants should know their place," Boucher growls.
"We of the old ways are not peasants," The old goat groans.
"SILENCE!!" Boucher thunders as he shoots her in the knee with a pistol. "We are your betters! Speak when we direct you to speak!"
"The authority you wield so recklessly," the goat croaks, "Comes from an accident of birth but even that can be taken away. Your star is falling Karanaj. You are the architects of your own demise."
"Call for a shadow skiff," Boucher orders, "We have stiffs for the corpse grinder."
Boucher reloads his carbine and walks behind the old gypsy goat as his sister lifts a black flag with a white spot in the center to fly below their family flag on top of the mill. The lord then places the muzzle of the gun to the back of her head as she starts laughing. His face becomes a mask of rage as he pulls the trigger and splatters her brains all over the one wall.
"Insolent peasant!" Boucher growls. "Defiant to the last; I hope she doesn't give us digestion when she gets made into pudding."
I wonder if she'll go good with veal?" Janice ponders as she drags the corpse of the bull boy that was shot earlier and strips him of all clothing and possessions. "Looks like he would have had a decent enough cock to grill."
"I think tonight I'll take my brothers and collect the rest of the family," Boucher darkly speculates. "Zevyox is on his way home and I'd rather they not talk to him."
"Up to you," Janice says with a shrug of her shoulders. "I still don't get why you don't just kill the man and get it over with."
"Not that simple," Boucher explains, "By law we rule at the sufferance of the Council of Druids who appoints a shire reeve to enforce their will. His father, Bernard is the current sheriff and Zeke is the most likely successor."
"Sheriff ain't hereditary," Janice points out.
"No, but, Zevyox is coming home from Ranger College," Boucher continues to explain.
"Bring out yer dead!" A voice calls from below.
"That was quick," Janice says as she opens up a trap door with a chute for dumping bodies into the water where black robed albino otters wait on a covered raft. "Two bodies, One for the spit and one for the grinder."
"We'll eat good for a bit," Boucher beams as he licks his lips. "But back to Zeke; I have eyes there and he did very well at school. He earned his position. He'll be announcing that when he comes home at some point."
"And if we slaughter the family, including him?" Janice asks.
"The Council sends somebody else," Boucher states, "And there will be an inquiry. I still need to tell this to Pa and Grammy."
"And if Grammy says slaughter?" Janice presses as they slide the goat down the chute after they slid down the bull calf.
"If Grammy says slaughter; we slaughter," Boucher states, "Her or Father, I know not to spite the hand that feeds me."
The pig siblings grin and laugh among each other as the albino otter corpse collectors pole off for the castle of the Karanaj clan. Orbs of light dance around the skiff as the raft is enveloped by a globe of gloom that is barely perceptible as a patch of overcast sky that moves with them as outside their sphere of influence the day gets brighter as the second sun rises to join the first in the late morning sky. They follow the river until they get a cave in the cliff wall where a dragon skill acts as a sort of gate with the ribcage of a much lager dragon that "donated" the skull forms a kind of creepy canopy over this skull gate.
One of the otters blows a spiral horn as they approach the closed mouth of the dragon skull. At the sounding of the correct tome the mouth opens and the otters pole the skiff inside and once inside the tunnel leading into the castle itself in a water filled channel the mouth closes behind them. Waiting for them at the end of the channel is an ancient crone of a pig woman with a hunched back and eyes of ageless cruelty who leans on a staff of storm blackened oak and festooned with fetishes marking her as a spell caster of some stripe.
Clydesdale horse zombies flank her as she approaches the skiff. Her real name has long since been forgotten as she doesn't leave the castle if she can help it but the current Viscount Karanaj calls her Grammy and his father calls her Momma. The otters bow to her as she approaches with the deference of subjects before their beloved queen.
"My, my, my," The grand Viscountess Karanaj says like a child anticipating getting some candy, "What do we have here?"
"A delivery from your grand children, my Lady," One of the otters reports, "An old goat and a young bull for the grinder and your culinary palette."
"The bull is a fine candidate for a veal entrée," The elder Karanaj matron states. "But the goat is only good for pudding. Boy! Take this wretch to the grinder! You know what to do."
"Yes, Mistress," A Clydesdale says in a dull monotone before taking the corpse of the elderly goat away unceremoniously.
"Boucher is making his rounds?" The Viscountess asks of nobody in particular. "Spirit Ball!" An orange ball of light the size of a softball floats in front of her. "Boucher! Your saddle bags can act as body bags. Bring me a bunny or three for supper tonight!"
The ball speeds off to run its errand for the noble necromancer that supposed it. Boucher has made it to the village square situated before the lake moat with the barracks of the militia that doubles as the town's inn and tavern squatting partially on the water and the moat extending over the bluff to make falls. Jeffery and Edward Karanaj, Boucher's twin younger brothers, greet him from a covered wagon drawn by triceratops. The wagon already has a few choice corpses inside as the boys have been doing a little pruning of their own today so to speak.
Boucher has both a brother open up the back of their wagon as they approach the toll gat in the middle of the Blood Moon Rising Inn, whose sign is all black with a silver tankard under a red moon, so he can inspect it. Jeff and Ed merely comply with their brother's demand and he sees members of the cattle family from earlier with busted heads from high shotgun blasts Grammy's spirit ball finds him there and a rabbit farmer hears the message inadvertently before dropping his cart and bolting.
The twins are out of ammo but Boucher still has his lance and charges the fleeing peasant to impale him mid stride with dark glee. The dead farmer joins the other corpses in the wagon before they move on to the pantaloon road leading to the castle proper. They didn't notice that the farmer had family hiding in the cart of vegetables that he was dragging but a pair of wolves who serve the pigs as knights did.
As the brothers Karanaj drive their wagon to the castle the wolves mosey on over to the rabbit wagon with heavy maces in hand. Five teenage girls and three teenage boys, the youngest of these being twin fifteen year old boys, are marched into the kitchen under the watchful eye of Boucher's older sister Olga. Here all 8 are stripped nude and lined up for inspection by the pig while the wolves that brought them in lick their muzzles, and nudge each other s they look at the rabbits, especially the young females more as slabs of meat then anything else as the predators scratch their groins.
Olga fondles the boys roughly and sadistically in the groin area and the racks of the girls. Three of the girls, the sixteen year old triplets along with the twins are actually virgins which puts evil thoughts in Olga's head that their older siblings fret over. Virgins are considered tastier in the grading system the family uses as she has the triplets and the twins bend over so they can be spitted in same manner with Olga giving the boys their first hard-ons before shoving pins in the dicks to keep their cocks erect throughout the process of being cooked and served, before all five are set on a rotisserie to cook evenly.
The surviving trio of rabbits are deigned able to be used before they join their siblings with the seventeen year old boy forced to service Olga while the eighteen and nineteen year old girls thrown to the wolves as a reward for their service. The older siblings get it into their heads that the best way out of this is to offer themselves as house slaves to Olga who will pimp them out and have them do menial work but as long as they make themselves useful then a trip to the oven or the stew pot is unlikely. Olga agrees and has the three pierced in the nipples, tongue and genital area for the pleasure of potential customers.
As a further precaution she removes the vocal chords of all 3 so if Zevyox comes riding through they can't tell him what happened. Boucher has not told Olga what he knows but Olga just assumes the Druid Council will appoint Zevyox to succeed his father as she has lusted after him long enough to watch his career very closely and even has her spies among some of the faculty of the college he attended who have told her just how skilled he has become. The wolf knights respect him as fellow wolf and his skills at hunting and tracking are just the icing on the cake as they have kept tabs on him as well since his mother is their aunt and thus he is their younger cousin so when the announcement is made of his being Sheriff when their kin returns they plan to throw a party in his honor to celebrate.
Castle Karanaj is built with dragon bones as part of its materials as the previous five Viscounts were active dragon hunters even if the current title holder has no inclination for the profession and is quietly please that his father rendered that species of monster extinct in this region. In fact the drawbridge is a colossal skull collected from the corpse of the eldest male of his family slaughtered on his way to claiming these lands for his clan. Boucher hates riding home as the dragon skull drawbridge creeps him out and the fact there are lake monsters in the moat is no comfort t him either as a young buck deer is fishing on top of one of the rib bones that help keep the pantaloons steady when a plesiosaur lake monster surfaces long enough to swallow him whole submerging in return to its home beneath the waves.
Fires burn in the eye sockets day and night as well as what was the nose of the great beast as the skies overhead are always gloomy thanks to Grammy's magic although clerics in town and druids like Martyka maintain that the deed of the family throughout the ages have turned so dark that all three suns and both moons refuse to shine in protest and the decree of the Gods themselves. Rain is frequent as re thunderstorms as it is rumored that Taranos, God Hunting and Storms as well a the skies in general save for the stars and rest of the night sky which are the purview of his wife, the Morrigan, frequently puts arrows of lightning to his bow and takes pot shots at the Karanaj family. A bolt of lightning just misses Boucher and splashes in the water where the geyser that erupts forms into an antlered wolf-bear for a brief moment before becoming normal water yet again.
"Whoa, bro!" Jeff remarks as his elder brother recoils from the image in the geyser as the jaw bridge slowly descends, "What's wrong? You look like saw a ghost."
"I almost did," Boosh admits, "That face; it was uncannily like Zeke's!"
"The lupursyn everyone is talking about?" Ed asks. "What this big deal with him anyway?
"According to what I've heard," Boucher relates, "He's being groomed to replace the old bear that's keeping an eye on us."
"Didn't you grow up with him?" Jeff asks.
"Yeah and neither of us is very fond of the other," Boucher admits. "If and when he does become Sheriff he's going to watch us like a hawk and if it ain't him he'll have help."
"But we're nobles," Ed protests, "By Divine Right we can treat these peasants however we see fit."
"That's what most of the civilized world practices, Ed," Jeff says, "But these barbarians of the Druid Council seem to think they are the ones in charge."
"Watch who you say that to, Jeff," Boucher warns, "It's only due to the fact that they don't know half of what we do that we don't have things like that long neck coming after us. If Zeke finds a reason he'll start hunting us."
"HOW DARE HE!?!" The twins say fearfully in unison and at full volume as they travel beyond the dragon skull where their father Viscount Aramys Karanaj is waiting for them.
"And just what are you boys discussing?" Aramys demands to know./
"Buke says that peasant hunter Zeke may come after us," Ed whines.
"Dad, can the Sheriff move against us?" Jeff asks.
"If he feels he has cause and the Druid Council approves," Aramys explains, "Bernard could organize a posse to hunt us down for final execution. But we've kept the old bear in the dark about our sports fro the most part and no cleric would dare condemn us."
"But Bernard is almost ready to retire, Pop," Boucher interjects, "And we know who his replacement is."
"Not his son, Zeke, I hope," Aramys says, "Unlike his father, Zevyox actually knows for a fact what we do. If he becomes Sheriff our days ruling this land are numbered."
"Dad," Boucher says with a heavy sigh, "When Zeke gets back from college, I expect that announcement will be made if not that very night then soon after. He's proved himself the best choice for the region." His father crosses his arms to which the current Viscount replies with: "I grew up with the son of a bitch! Trust me, dad, he's over qualified,"
"I don't doubt that," Aramys states, "Zevyox was nipping at his daddy's heels just as soon as he could and Bernard was only too happy to train the boy. Before he went off to college the son knew everything that his father did plus some of his momma's tricks to boot! I gotta talk to Grammy, but it sounds like we may need to do a hunt on the Sheriff just as son as his arrives to make his announcement."
"One more thing," Boucher says. "Zeke is developing to be quite the sniper. His skill with a musket has been likened to Taranos himself in our modern day."
"I'm going to have a chat with Grammy," Aramys states. "She'll have the best advice on what to so with the ranger."
A zeppelin touches down in an open field in a high valley as a gigantic reptilian beast with horns and spikes around its long muzzled head like a thorny crown, a pair of membranous wings, four gripping talons and a great tail whose bulbous end is festooned with spikes that it shoots at the zeppelin. The zeppelin is armed with cannons that do little more than dent the dragon's scales hide but still they keep hammering away, One gunner gets the bright idea to use the mountain itself to help bring the beast down and starts an avalanche that buries the dragon in the debris of its aftermath much the monster's dislike.
Once grounded the zeppelin opens a side door and releases a team of seven riders on motorized vehicles of such rickety construction they look like a shotgun marriage of a motorcycle and tricycle with the webbed roll cage of a dune buggy thrown on top as a kind of an afterthought. The bikers are armed with rifles but one in particular bears a firearm of such queer design it must be some kind of prototype or experiment as it features five chamber rotating cylinder with pump action like on modern shotguns and a quartet scything blades caging the muzzle in such a way to make it as devastating in melee as a well placed shot can be at range. The owner of this stranger gun is a charcoal gray furred wolf-bear with red hair, one black eye and black stripes, the other eye has a black leather patch riveted in place and wears a suit black leather armor that features a green tribal tree of life symbol on his front and sleeves as a silver set of antlers that has a butterfly at its center on his back.
Zevyox drives his vehicle with great expertise as he looks for his shot on the dragon to ensure the safety of the zeppelin. The dragon cooks two of the seven with it fiery breath as it struggles to free itself from the rubble. None of the others seem to be able to hurt the beast as Zevyox chants a spell for himself.
After the spell is cast Zeke gets the inspiration for a combination of magic bullets that will do the trick. He uses his knees to drive with his tail on the stick as he loads the special cylinder for his rifle. Once loaded, Zevyox parks his steel steed under the dragon, stands up and starts to arm.
First shot freed has an exploding rune encrusted on the bullet that blows a hole for the other shots to go through. The second and third shots have freezing runes on then that ice up the glands that when mixed produce flame with the fourth and fifth shots causing mini explosions that floods the mouth with explosive fluid. In the mouth of the dragon the chemical mix and the result of this blows the monster's mind.
However, it's the dragon that gets the last laugh as it manages to bring its spiked tail to bear and fires off a volley after volley of thee bone shaft at the zeppelin, shredding the balloon and doing major damage to the ship's engine. Zevyox is close to home and knows the region very well which is now fortunate for the crew of the zeppelin as he guides them to a clan of badger is who mine the mountain for its ore and often trade with the outside world at large. All of this weighs somewhat heavily on the witch-sorceress Xyroekoh, a folf or wolf-fox hybrid who is much like Zevyox in that her fur is dark gray with black tiger stripes, eyes and hair who was just going to drop Zeke off at home and continue on is glad that she is not in his presence for too long as she is starting to get too attached to him in her own opinion.
Xyroekoh was born a nomad, a gypsy, into a family that repeated the old ways but we always more interested in fleecing the sedentary for a time before moving on to keep one teasing jump away from the peace keepers who always discovered their crimes after they had left town. Her brothers and sisters are also more fantastically hued than she ever was which marked her as different from birth as the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. But it was when it became apparent that she could actually attune herself to a Tarot deck and honestly foretell the future that her own family disowned her as a freak of nature and so they sold her to a hag for safe passage through the hag's territory and moved on.
As a slave of the hag Xyroekoh learned the witch's craft and when the hag finally drew the ire of the Council the folf betrayed her owner to become an apprentice under a Council witch. Her mistress wandered far and near on Council business which is how she met Zevyox while he was on apprentice himself from which a friendship was born. Agatha, her mentor, encouraged the friendship both because she was friends with benefits with his master and because Roland saw there could be something great the offing if this became as close as he and Agatha were if not closer.
One Beltane eve the instructors got their wish as Zevyox and Xyroekoh got drunk and decided to play in a barn that was well used as a trusting spot in the past. Lupursyn and folf exchanged virginity that night while too drunk to know much better. It's when they woke together to the sounds of Agatha and Roland rutting that the realization hit time; however, with a shared giggle they yiffed again, enjoying each other's bodies in a few minutes of experimentation.
Memories of past pleasures flood Zero's mind as Zeke slips behind her in the aftermath of his victory to fondle her breasts.
"If you want," Zevyox whispers to Xyroekoh, "I can show you around while we have the downtime."
"Agatha needs me to help her tend Roland," Xyroekoh says in a nervous response as the cow witch Agatha prays over the bull ranger Roland.
"You've learned enough from me," Agatha growls good naturedly, "I can safely graduate you to Sojourner, Zero. Go with Zeke if you like, If could be good for you to see the countryside."
"Zeke," Roland half commands, "drag the council strongbox over here, pleases?"
"Yes, sir, Zevyox says as he complies and brings an oaken chest to the cot on which Roland lays.
"Zevyox, son of Bernard, Sheriff of Farmer's Mountain," Roland pronounces as he takes out a silver badge with the world tree emblem of the council cut into it, "You earned your status as Sojourner before we set out on this journey and you know that your father's position by appointment of the council an not hereditary. But that said the Council has been tracking your progressing in your studies and it is the decision of the high council that the best candidate to succeed your father is you."
"Does this include the right to move against the Karanaj clan?" Zeke asks.
"You know there offenses beer than your father," Roland states, "When you take over as Sheriff you are authorized to execute the members of the Karanaj Clan as proscribed under Druid Council law. We've gotten enough complaints to ascertain that something untoward is going on."
"The only thing I haven't been able to confirm yet are the zombies," Zeke states, "I've almost figured out that charge as maybe true. The Grand Viscountess who is the mother of the current Viscount's father is either a wizard or an alchemist. She has a family of albino otters collect corpses for her and that's as far as I've been able to get on that charge."
"So what she does to the corpses you have no idea?" Agatha asks as Zeke just shakes his head. "Keep after that charge; it's a toss up which incident the council finds more heinous: Trucking with and/or collaborating with the Elder Evils, their spawn and their cults or necromancy in all its forms."
"Funny you should mention that," Zevyox says with wistful smirk.
"You're not serious are you?" Roland asks in a growl.
"I wish I wasn't," Zevyox returns, "I saw some really weird things and symbols in certain places. It wasn't until I went to college that I learned what they were." Three pairs of eyes stare at him in disbelief. "But should I really bore you with what I found?" As if on cue he gets the only other three people in the room are nodding their heads like frightened bobble heads dolls. "Eighty percent are Devil King and Demon Prince sigils indicting veneration of those entitles which while unpleasant are within tolerance, about five to six percent were corrupted version of standard deity inscriptions. Another ten percent are the remains of spirit sigils, broken but if you know what you're doing they're easily repairable. Three to four percent were Elder signs with another one to two percent markings I have no ideas what they are."
"Could they be Gypsy Road sigils?" Xyroekoh asks semi enthusiastically.
"I'm not familiar with those enough to say," Zevyox admits honestly.
"Zero," Agatha commands, "You know those signs better than any of us. I want to know what they could mean if they are readable."
"Right," Xyroekoh states with a nod, I remember what's what from when I was still with my birth family."
"We have most of the trouping folks signs written down and catalogued don't we?" Zeke asks and Xyroekoh gives him a wink.
"All of the more common road signs are known to the council," Agatha says, "But there are other signs that are unknown as we don't have many gypsies working with us. Zero was born to that life but her parents eventually abandoned her as her powers became fully manifest."
Unwise are those that would travel at night and the rangers know this all too well as the first moon starts to rise as the last sun is setting. A skull moon rises first its bony white face leering down and causes the dragon to stir again slowly. It is still trapped under the rubble and its tail has no more spines to shoot as it starts to howl in frustration.
The undead dragon's wailings are summarily ignored by those inside and when the dawn comes that which was undead becomes dead once more. But elsewhere during the night dark deeds were afoot by the crimson light of the blood moon. At a lonely farmstead a family of cattle, related to those that ran afoul Boucher and were later slaughtered by Jeffery and Edward, gather around the hearth fearfully eating an eating an evening meal of vegan stew.
Wolf knights and Karanaj clan surrounds the farmstead in sinister silence as a bull triceratops snorts violently as it roams the grounds of the farm and catches wind of the predators. Spears are thrust into it before the beast can make enough go a noise to rouse its owners. Once the sentry beast has been dealt with the hunting party moves in for the kill.
Outside gas lights are doused one by one as the wolves stand ready at the door in case anyone bolts. There are actually two families here as a clan of sheep is paying the cattle a social call including a ram who assists the druidess in her rituals. But this is hardly a deterrent as the nobles and their knights invade the home so the slaughter can begin.
Pila are thrown that fatally stake the bull patriarch to the wooden wall of his own home as the opening kill of the night's grim harvest. More pila likewise fatally pin the druid ram as the pigs laugh at how easily they take out the eldest males as the younger Karanaj clan members take up boar spears to go after the younger sheep and cattle. The wolves take some of the females aside so they can be raped before they are butchered alive.
Back to the downed zeppelin the rangers and witches are getting cozy and into some heavy petting. Age and beauty lines are being drawn as to who is sleeping with whom. Roland and Agatha go to one area as Zevyox and Xyroekoh get together in the grage where Zeke's vehicle is stored.
Zevyox and Xyroekoh undress each other slowly with Zeke licking at Zero's tits when he gets them exposed. Zero moans and massages his scrotum as he takes to her tits. The younger agents of the Council get hot and heavy with one another as they have with their bodies before nodding off for the night.
In the morning, Zeke has wood as Zero is a little groggy as well as horny as she comes to before him. Unbidden she rides his pole until he awakens due partly to her efforts and reverses the position on her. The pair laugh and moan together before they climax as one, get dressed and go to breakfast which consists of eggs, potatoes and meat taken from the fallen dragon that everyone eats with relish.
After breakfast Zeke and Zero ride out with others on the zeppelin to the badger mines to negotiate for raw materials needed for repairs. What happens is that the badgers of the mines ride back to repair the damage at a reduced rate as a reward for killing the dragon that had been harassing the miners. Once the repairs get underway Zeke and Zero start for his parent's homestead.
The path to his father's ranch takes Zevyox past the home of the cattle that were slaughtered last night. Bodiless heads are arranged in front of a burned down homestead as if to send a message to the other farmers in the area not to question their betters. Zeke and Zero note the display and move on as crows watch them go bye with the eyes of the dead before flying off towards Castle Karanaj.
Xyroekoh is nervous about the meeting but tries not to show it much. Martyka is a well known druidess but as the wife of Bernard an as priestess in her own right. Grumpy, the bull of Bernard's herd is quite miffed at the intrusion of the vehicle into his territory and charges the vehicle until he recognizes Zevyox's scent mixed in with grease and oil of the machine and stops his charge.
Zevyox stops his machine in time for his scent to waft to the bull trike and be recognized. His father comes to grab the dino soon after, ready to give first aid and a lecture to whatever fool riled his prize bull and the glowers at his own son in the machine with a folf female in back of him. He folds his arms over his chest when his son him a challenging look.
"What kind of confounded contraption are you riding, boy?" Bernard asks his son with a dark tone. "You didn't switch professions on me did you?"
"No, Pop," Zevyox returns with a sigh, "I just learned how to manipulate the darned thing. It can do quite a bit actually."
"I shudder to think what ranger will replace me when I retire if my own son is seduced by that mechanized menace what ever it is," Bernard grouses, "By the way whose the lovely lady?"
"I am Xyroekoh, Sheriff Bernard," Xyroekoh says with a smirk and a giggle, "A journeyman witch-sorceress."
"What's so funny?" Bernard asks with a growl.
"Have you been told who will replace you?" Zeke asks to which his father just shakes his head. "I see, did you see the state of the Quyrsteer homestead this morning?" His father gives him a look. "Their heads are staked on the lawn along with Pyus family members and just for your edification," Bernared blanches at the news of the killings, "Your successor? It's me."
"The Karanaj Clan is gonna be pissed," Bernard states in a darkly amused tone with a smirk as his son just nods, "When do you plan to tell them? And how?"
"I can drive on water with this thing, dad," Zeke states, "I'm going to take the announcement to their front door."
"Boucher is the new, Viscount," Bernard states.
"So I heard," Zevyox says with a smirk, "Has there been an up swing or decline in disappearances since I left?"
"Upswing," Bernard reports with a frown. "Check with Dudley and his boys for particulars. Right now I'm working on figuring out some other Tom Foolery." Then he looks at Zero. "I might need to talk to you about it."
"What's going on?" Xyroekoh asks.
"Not here, but, Zeke," Bernard says, "Introduce your lady friend to your mother. Her shrine should be secure enough."
As Zevyox drives off, one of the youngest males of the Karanaj clan tags Bernard with a toxic spitball. It pings the bear the bear in the ear which pisses him off. The prankster squeals with delight at first but then in terror as the Sheriff roars and gives chase bringing waving a flat club over his head to indicating the piglet is in for one heck of a spanking if he catches the boy.
Grumpy charges the child which only adds to his fears but the old bull trike knows what he's ding and easily overtakes the piglet to stop short in fron of him; letting the naughty boy runs smack dab into his hind quarters. Junior Karanaj gets a snout full of tail hole before dropping hard onto his posterior. Bernard takes the young noble across his knee and gives him such a paddling that sitting down anywhere becomes rather uncomfortable for awhile.
Martyka is ready with her spear when she hears the noise outside but her children yelling in delight that their brother is home takes the edge off .any mindset of battle she may have been forming. Like her husband she has harsh criticism for her son over his choice of conveyance but Xyroekoh soon distracts her. They enter momma's shrine to the deities they worship and as one pray a spell over the place so they can speak candidly without fear of being overheard.
"So what's going on, mom?" Zevyox asks plainly.
"It's the oddest thing, son," Martyka replies. "It's mainly happening to trikes but other animals have been affected as well." She gets expectant looks from the other two. "Reproductive organs gone, no tongue and complete blood los; nothing else touched. Probably magic but it's no spell combo I've ever heard of."
"Blood drain suggests something vampiric." Xyroekoh suggests.
"The only thing even approaching undead around here is the Grand Viscountess, hun," Martyka teases, "And while I wouldn't put it past he to make zombies anything resembling vampires is thankfully beyond her capabilities."
"Is she still collecting corpses?" Zevyox inquires.
"I wasn't aware she had started," Martyka says with alarm.
"Otters on covered barges on the river," Zevyox prompts, "They'll come out to drag a body into the water but they prefer not to leave their craft unattended if they can help it."
"They work for the Grand Viscountess?" Martyka asks incredulously to which her son just nods. "I can't wait till you take over from your father, by the way, did you tell him? The Council told me not to tell him. But I am proud of you, my son, his position is earned, not inherited and the fact that you have earned your father's title speaks well for all of us."
"Speaking of which," Zevyox says with a dark smirk, "I need to put a bunch of pigs on notice."
Dark chuckles abound as Zevyox drives a lone to Castle Karanaj while Martyka takes Xyroekoh on at out to the pastures. The roar of Zeke's machine steed makes quite a stir as folks of various species stop and stare. Females of the Karaj clan look on worriedly as such a contraption can only spell trouble when in someone else's control.
Zevyox drive right into the waters of the lake with the vehicle's tires balloon to allow him to do this. Crocodile guards at the castle's drawbridge are amazed that this is even possible as the ranger demands entrance in the name of the Druid Council. Boucher comes out to deal with Zeke as the official Viscount.
"Yeah, Zeke," Boucher growls at Zevyox, "What do you want? I have important business to attend to..."
"Planning out who else you want to butcher Boucher?" Zevyox retorts. "I saw the results on my ride in of your family's handiwork." He sees Boucher tense up at the mention. "I understand you are the acting Viscount so this will be your official notification. By the authority of the Druid Council I will be taking over for my father as Sheriff in ten years time."
"Don't get anxy, Zeke," Boucher bellows belligerently, "A lot can happen in ten years. If you even survive that long."
"That better not be what it sounds like," Zevyox growls with an evil grin as a warning, "I already have enough evidence to order a wild hunt when I do succeed my father. Don't force me to start it early."
"You're not Sheriff yet, Zeke," Boucher growls as a lake monster raises its head above Zevyox and looks hungry.
"You'll get more satisfaction from the pig," Zevyox stats and the plesiosaur lunges for Boucher.
Boucher screams and dives just in time to avoid getting eaten as Zevyox drives away. The croc and turtle guards chuckle darkly among themselves as they hear the squealing of their boss. Until members of the Karanaj clan strangle a couple for the stew pot and push others into the waters for the lake monsters to devour as tentacles grab random reptiles and pulls them under.
The guards scream as they are dragged under while their masters openly guffaw in abject amusement. After the doom show is complete they retire into their home to plant their next move. Grammy summons everyone to her dungeon laboratory to discuss matters.
While the meeting of malicious minds commences Zevyox enjoying a light meal of a hamburger, fries and a beer at the tavern as one of the new rabbit wenches attends. Both girls know Zevyox well as both have been taken by him in the corn fields near harvest time for the younger Daisy and in their own family's barn for Rose. Rose and Daisy convince Zeke to pay for a double down dessert so they can report what happened as they both have sex with him.
Olga is not get aware of the situation as she leads the three to a large private bath are departing with a smirk on her face. Zevyox casts a quick spell to repair what Olga did to them with the magic available to him as a ranger. Rose and Daisy smirk and give each other look as among their first words among whispering thanks is if he has a potion of the spell they can give to their brother that he gives them.
Due to the bloody predilections of the Karanaj Clan the walls of the private baths are magically soundproof so the trio can speak freely, but after a few days of being sexually abused by Karanaj clan cronies the girls need the release of a having a good time on their terms more or less which they know Zevyox will give them. Rose and Daisy suckle at Zevyox's scrotum as one as he fondles both their rears simultaneously while the bunnies coax his canine cock out of its sheath. It's when they succeed in getting him up and hard that the trouble starts as both girls want a turn.
They play rock, paper, scissors while they both give him a hand job to decide. Rose chooses paper to win as Daisy picks stone and Rose happily mounts the wolf-bear's prick as Dais gets her rack licked by the ranger. Daisy whispers in Zevyox's ear the circumstances that brought them to their current situation.
It takes all the control Zevyox has not grabbed his gun and murder the inn's proprietress. As he climaxes in daisy Zeke realizes the repercussions and adds this to a long list of other offences he already has against the Karanaj clan. He tell, the bunnies that he will be the new Sheriff in ten years when his father retires and they take the news with bittersweet joy as they know Zevyox is much more on top of the Karanaj clan's abuses than his father and the day of reckoning that a lot of families in the area have been patiently waiting for years is finally in sight.
At Castle Karanaj the Grand Viscountess meets with her son and grandson to plan what they are going to do now that it's more or less official that Zevyox will succeed Bernard as the Sheriff. The Grand Viscountess stars an industrial sized cauldron with zombie bulls endlessly pushes an agitator as their mistress chants and sprinkles components into it from above. Images in the murky waters of the cauldron disturb the gathered in its repercussions for them.
Peasants of various species man mortars to shell the castle with Zevyox directing them where to aim and cannons wheeled on to the banks to smash their walls with their withering fire. Boucher is being led to a guillotine, strapped in and executed along with his family and Zevyox pulls the lever to release the blade as well as cranking it into place for the next victim with a big smile on his face. Zevyox sits on Boucher throne as the region's sovereign lord.
More images flow as possible future if this appointment goes unchecked by the Karanaj Clan. For the pigs the course of action is clear: They must kill the Sheriff, his successor and his entire family to preserve their way of life. Strategies are made to be enacted this very evening so not to give the Sheriff and his family time to prepare a proper defense.
Zevyox comes home just in time for supper and sits next to Xyroekoh as his siblings make the typical immature comments of children that just annoyed amuses their elder brother and his lady friend. Behind the house Zevyox's vehicle is parked near the outhouse to avoid any further arguments between father and son as the blood moon starts to rise in the sky. It proves far too tempting for the pigs accompanied by zombie horses, rabbits, sheep and bulls packed with explosives to cause maximum mayhem against their intended victims.
Zombie rabbits clamber onto the vehicle as a ram zombie sits where Zeke controls it: with evil grins Boucher, his father, his sisters and brothers lift crossbows with special bolts loaded into them and take aim before firing them into the zombies and the main house. All the bolts explode when they hit something; anything but when the zombies are hit it sets off a chain reaction with disastrous results.
A series explosions literally rocks the house as everyone is enjoying their ice cream dessert. Martyka her younger children into the cellar as she grabs her spear. Zevyox grabs his gun as everyone else grabs melee weapons to prepare for the rest of the assault.
Janice sends a squad of zombie rabbits burrowing into the basement before using a device Grammy gave her to detonate to heir corpses by remote control. Then she and her youngest brothers go in with long knives to slaughter the survivors. Martyka skewers Janice with her spear before the pig throws her knife between the she-wolf's eyes to end her life as well.
The explosions cut the cellar off from the rest of the house as the rest the farmstead starts getting over run with zombies. Bernard concentrates on destroying the undead but Zevyox recognizes them as a diversion as he scans the surrounding a for thinking prey to shoot. The old Viscount stabs Bernard in the back of the head; severing the nerves that allow motor function as followed by piercing both of his lungs but the elder pig patron makes himself a target as he makes his kill.
Zevyox quickly lines up a head shot at the old Viscount and gives himself an a quick kill as both bear and pig fall together in a heap. He then swings a sweeping arc with his weapon the sharp blades set around the muzzle acting like an ax that catches both twins as they try to flank him. Then he pumps the lever action on the barrel of his gun to cycle the next round into the chamber to take a shot in the dark, literally at a form he sees creeping up on Xyroekoh.
Boucher is getting ready to slit a pretty throat when he hears the thunder of a rifle's report and then a sharp pain in his side. A quick touch reveals that his right hip is bleeding from a solid hit. Then his would be victim turns around and bashes his face with her staff.
The twins are now greatly incensed at their situation and the termini of their intended victim to something so outrageous to fight back! He is a peasant and they are nobility. If they want to slaughter him he honor bound to kneel before them and make it easier, not harder.
Unfortunately in their righteous indignation the pair readily has forgotten who they have chosen to slaughter: Pagans. Pagans like this family do not recognize nor are they beholden to the notion of the Divine Right of Kings on which the Karanaj clan bases their privilege to slaughter peasants. In fact to the Druid Council, it is his family that rules here' not them.
Fortunately for the surviving members of the Karanaj clan the zombies begin to close in on Xyroekoh and Zevyox needs another weapon to continue fighting as the compass blades around the gun muzzle aren't meant for a prolonged siege. Then he sees his father's war scythe and gets a big grin on his own muzzle.
A war scythe is a tool designed to be used in both times of war and peace and is a symbol of their authority to be carried by all who act in the name of the Druid Council Zevyox for it and pries it out of his own father's clutches with surprising ease as if the spirit of the corpse approves of the move and something weird happens. The blade of the weapon glows slightly as if a shaft of moonlight hit it just right for eerie illumination.
Screaming a war cry Zevyox goes to work destroying the undead around him with righteous fury. Xyroekoh defends herself with a sickle against the zombies but they are greatly outnumbered. Boucher taps his brothers on the shoulder and he states that they're leaving; they give him protesting looks but his firm.
While the ranger and the witch-sorceress fight the zombies the nobles lock them in and start a blaze. The domicile soon gets engulfed in flames as the brothers use an accelerant their Grammy gave them to speed up the process. Fighting zombies is rather distracting so they don't notice that house is on fire.
Flaming debris alights a zombie as the smoke starts making things hard to breathe. The pair give each other a look before they leap out a window and start running for the cornfields. Boucher directs more zombies to give chase while he and his brothers return home.
The folf and the lupursyn dash into the fields confident that they have pursuers. But Zevyox knows there fields like the back of his hand and knows a few things even the farmers that work the land are unaware of. Underneath the fields are warrens where a giant worm once lived and terrorized the land until the agents of the Druid Council destroyed it and now it is used as a network of tunnels to house agents in secret.
Zevyox leads Xyroekoh into the tunnels through a secret door in the bottom of a rickety wooden tower referred to as Scarecrow Central by the locals as the observation tower is used to make and store scarecrows. They find the living quarters easy enough as Zevyox would help his father feed traveling agents here and he marked it his memory. Have ever he is not quite in his right mind at present.
"Alright!" Zevyox fumes at full volume partly because he knows right now only Xyroekoh can hear him. "That tears it!"
"Zevyox! They'll hear yu!" Xyroekoh says in a worried whisper.
"Don't worry about it, Zero," Zeke says with a smirk. "I know those tunnels. But the Karanaj clan has gone too far! This is an act of war!"
"That I agree but how are you going to get word back to the Council?" Xyroekoh asks.
"Spirits of Terra hear my plea! Assign a messenger to courier for me!" Zeke chants as a mudman walks art from the walls hears Zevyox's story and then walks back into the wall.
"That works," Xyroekoh says with a smirk. "Now what?"
"We rest and recuperate," Zevyox states.
With that he takes her into the bedroom for the night. Although nobody on the surface can hear what they're doing the acts they perform mystically help the yield above. The sheer abundance worries the formerly in the light of the Sheriff's death but more the Kodyax what it could mean for the future. .