Zion: Light of the New Moon, Ch 2.2 Shrad
Zion - Light of the New Moon Chapter 2.2
Shrad On The Road Again
It looks like Nori Bahn is going to be spending some time teaching the City Dwellers. Good luck, Nori!
Majh let out a deep breath, wiping an errant trickle of blood from her lip. She glanced to the sleeping otter next to her and grinned; Guardsman Sten was no stranger to rough sex-- she knew there was a reason she'd kept him around. She stifled a laugh as she sat up, admiring the handy-work of the two sets of four claw marks that had torn an X in his back, and she idly picked a piece of otter hide out from one of her nails.
"Contrary to common rumors about you, I'm still alive." the otter spoke as Majh got out of bed.
"An oversight I'll probably correct next time." she responded, and started getting dressed.
"I can hardly wait." the otter acknowledged, his head propped on his palm, elbow in his pillow. He gazed at her with a smile, "You have a very fine ass." he announced as she bent over to draw up her trousers.
"Thank you." she responded, "I made it myself."
The guardsman laughed at the comment, "I'm surprised any priestess of Shrad would be so blasse about their use of the powers given to them by the Goddess."
"Oh, you stupid, stupid otter..." Majh announced in a teasing voice, "When have you known me to be anything but blasse?"
Sten smiled wide, "Well, even so, it almost makes me wonder what you look like when you're not being gifted with supreme beauty."
Majh failed to hold back her laugh at that. She donned her tunic and slung her quilted armor on over it before reaching for her chain mail, "Supreme beauty... bah... if you consider this supreme beauty I must have hit your skull into the headboard harder than I thought.
The otter just smirked at that, "Supreme beauty is being able to wear whatever skin the goddess gives you with pride and confidence."
The priestess glanced back at the otter and gave another hyena laugh, "You already got me into bed... there's no reason to continue wagging your tongue."
"You weren't complaining how my tongue was wagging earlier." he challenged.
"Get dressed, Guardsman..." Majh ordered, still smiling. She threw his undergarments at him, "I'll see you outside in three minutes, or I'll bite next time before I swallow." and, with that, she exited her carriage.
The caravan had been traveling all morning, and Majh was not in the least bit ashamed that she spent most of it sleeping the hours away, comfortable in her carriage. Even though it was drafty, the enclosed transportation ensured that the interior was many degrees warmer than the outside air... with a second body joining her it was warmer still. Majh didn't mind the cold thought-- she'd grown used to it during her many years in the north. There was one thing, however, that she enjoyed more than anything else on a cold morning.
Letting out a breath, the hyena smiled to herself as she saw it emerge from her muzzle in a thick mist. She giggled to herself as she meandered along, pretending she was breathing fire and the resulting exhalation was thick, black smoke instead of thin, white vapor.
"Enjoying yourself, priestess?" a formal and none-too-amused voice questioned from behind her. Turning around to regard the speaker, Majh smiled in response to the well-dressed arctic fox.
"Of course, Lord Kriabnish, aren't you?" the priestess was, of course, able to tell by the deep scowl on the fox's muzzle, that he was doing nothing of the sort.
"I am short several workers and my wagon is not yet suitable to ride." he responded, as if it answered her question, "I have been walking for the last four hours, and I am in a less than pleasant mood."
"Perhaps your carriage will be suitable for travel by the time the break is over?" the hyena offered, motioning to the collection of parked wagons. They had only been stopped for ten minutes, which meant that there was still well over a half an hour for the fox's laborers to fix the problem.
"I want to borrow your temple guard." Lord Kriabnish announced, quickly cutting past all the pleasantries, "the black wolf with the..." he paused as if searching for the right description, "glowy thingies on him."
"You mean Shadow Darkfang." Majh noted.
"Yes... whatever." the fox waved the comment away, "He seems like a strong one... I need someone to hold up the end of the wagon and all of the laborers are sitting in on that ferret's muzzle-flapping."
"I believe High Priest Tenge ordered that 'muzzle-flapping' as a way to train everyone a little more completely on the dangers of the Wild Lands." the priestess pointed out, "In fact, I'm surprised you're not attending it."
"I didn't hear any decree saying that it's mandatory." the fox crossed his arms indignantly.
"True... true..." Majh nodded, "I just hope you know how to protect yourself if you find yourself staring down an angry Wakajae."
"Pfft..." Loric waved the thought away, "That's what I have guards for... and, besides... that's common education for the Kriabnish clan... we're all trained from a young age on how to combat them." and he sauntered away.
"A Wakajae?" Guardsman Sten asked, emerging from the carriage, "I've never heard of a Wakajae."
"That's because I made it up." the priestess announced, "Come... I want to check in on my fox." and she headed off down the line of parked wagons.
On the way to the appointed carriage, Majh slowed glancing toward the gathering where Nori was instructing the workers about the Wild Lands. At that very moment he was acting out some kind of combat maneuver-- the hyena was unable to hear it clearly, but in her mind it looked like it was probably something big. She smiled to herself; even if the laborers didn't learn anything, at least they were getting quite a humorous stage act for entertainment.
"We didn't see you in camp last night, Priestess." Gaerid's voice wiped the smile right off of Majh's muzzle.
"Why would you be looking for her?" Guardsman Sten questioned, resting a webbed paw on the sword at his hip.
"Thank you, Guardsman." Majh spoke up, motioning the otter aside, "But I am capable of addressing this myself."
"It was just idle observation." the bounty hunter noted, seated on the ground,leaning against a wagon wheel, Wyse's head in his lap. He idly rubbed the feral dog behind its ears.
"You look like you're good at making observations, Gaerid." Majh noted.
"Can't be a good bounty hunter if you don't." the rottweiler replied casually.
"Then perhaps you'll see my reasoning for making myself scarce if I were to say that High Priest Armenius Tenge and I had a disagreement so I considered it a better course of action to avoid being seen or heard."
"Prudent." the bounty hunter answered, and he left it at that. With nothing else to be said, Majh continued on.
"I don't like him one bit." the guardsman noted, then paused before asking, "Where WERE you last night... before joining me, I mean?" he grinned.
"Do I answer to you now, Guardsman?" she growled.
"No, priestess. I think I will shut my muzzle now." he offered.
"That's the reason you're still alive," Majh pointed out, "because you have a brain." The two continued to the carriage where Majh had been been informed Tolen Lerum was placed when the convoy had left the caverns. "Wait out here for me." she directed of the otter, who nodded obediently and chose a spot next to the door.
Tolen was laying down on the bench when she entered. "Feeling better, I trust?" the hyeana asked, and the fox immediately sat up and looked to her.
"Yes," he nodded, "Thank you, Priestess."
Majh moved and took a seat beside him on the bench, "Good... very good." she reached across the distance and put her paw on his muzzle, pushing it this way and that as she inspected the bandage on his head, "We of Shrad don't have the same divine remedy for everything that ails you, but it looks like you'll heal just fine."
"I'm better now, Priestess, thank you." the fox reassured her.
The priestess chuckled, patting his shoulder, "I am sure you are... but I still expect you to stay in the wagon for the next two days."
"May I ask why?" he questioned.
Majh smiled to herself as she changed the discussion, lifting one of his dainty paws up in one of her thick, muscular ones, "As white and as soft as the freshly fallen snow." she looked to him, her smile widening, especially as she caught sight of the discomfort at the comment in his eye.
"Wh-- what?" he asked.
"Your fur... you're so white and soft... it truly is very lovely." she noted, caressing the side of his muzzle tenderly. She could tell he didn't like it, but she also knew he wasn't going to say anything... not to her. "It's funny, in a way..." she continued, standing, "that you are so lovely and I am so rugged... we are each at such opposite ends of the spectrum for what is expected of our sex." she gave his muzzle a firm double-pat, "Stay in the carriage, pretty fox... I'd hate for you to find out why I want to protect you from some of the people joining us on this journey." With that, she got up to leave.
"Priestess?" the fox called as she stepped out of the door.
"Yes, Tolen?" she responded patiently.
"Why did you say that... about my fur?" he asked plaintively.
"Because it is." she smiled sweetly.
"My mother used to say that... exactly the same way you did just now." the fox explained.
"Oh... what a silly coincidence." she let her tail wag, and turned to head away.
"Priestess?" he hailed her again.
"Yes, dear one?" he inquired, turning around to face him once anew.
"I've heard some of the guards say that your brother is a powerful diviner..." he noted, and she realized where he was going with it.
"Tollie? Yes, he is." she nodded, "I think you would like him."
"I... I don't mean to insult you or imply anything, Priestess... but..." his ears wilted a little, "Did... did you ask him to look into my life... or anything?"
Majh slowly strolled back over and gently rested a paw on the fox's shoulder, then glanced to her guard, "Guardsmen Sten, go to the central wagons and wait for me there."
"Priestess." the Guard nodded, and complied.
Once he was gone, the hyena leaned a little closer to Tolen, "The more I like someone the more apt I am to check up on them, sweet fox." She saw his pupils dilate in concern. Her smile became a little more genuine, but it wasn't one of comfort, "I know why you fled Bannihar... I know all about your loving mother, and how much your father hated when she said your fur was 'as white and as soft as the freshly fallen snow'..." she nodded emphatically, "Yes... I know." and she added a little bit of pressure to his shoulder, slowly pushing him back into the wagon before she closed her door.
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, my fox... nobody in Shrad cares if you're a warrior or a healer-- your father's mindset is far more Banniharian than anyone's here. Even so, I haven't said anything to anyone. If it bothers you with me knowing... well... I could always erase your mind, if you like." her hyena laugh followed her all the way to the center wagons, and she didn't bother to clarify whether she was joking or not.
* * * * * *
The Shradian wagon train is once again on the move, and it looks like Nori is going to be training the laborers on a few survival techniques for the Wild Lands.
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This chapter marked mature due to adult situations.