Queen Yavara Ch. 31

Day Six

ADRIANNA

I felt like I was being eaten from the inside. Something had been gnawing within my nethers, and it had only gotten worse with time. As the days went, my thoughts became muddled, my vision became hazy, tinged violet at the edges. My nipples were hard and taut, aching with fullness. My belly had constant butterflies, nearly nauseating. My flesh teemed, hot to the touch, yet goosebumps came at a moment's notice. Feminine salvia dripped from my lower mouth and wetted my thighs. It was so bad that I could smell it even with clothes on, and I noticed the way heads turned and nostrils flared when I walked by the orc males. I couldn't go two waking hours without pouncing on Furia, and I fucked her like an animal, consuming her beautiful cock with the desperation of my vaginal starvation. I wasn't sick, but something was happening to me.

Rose squinted at the leaf in her hand, then nodded. "It's a girl."

Faltia squealed in delight, and threw her arms around Alexa. The former captain had quite a few tattoos on her arms and chest, each brutal scene representing some victory she'd gained as both a ranger captain and an Alkandran watch commander. Alexa had a few tattoos marking her achievements as a lead architect; towering buildings, extravagant statues, and detailed pictures of tools. Eva had some on her back and chest, each one flowing to the next, creating the beginnings of what would become a full-body painting of a sadomasochistic orgy. Brianna's seven tattoos each had a match on another's body, marking friendships she'd made amongst notable citizens. Kiera had various narcotic flowers inked on her neck and forearms, and I got the feeling she put them there to tickle her old anti-establishment sentiment. Soraya was nearly as inked as Faltia, though she had scripture painstakingly inscribed on her flesh; I think she just enjoyed the pain of the needle.

They all had taken to the tribal tradition of marking their flesh with their accolades, and it made them look striking and fierce in their beauty. In only a few weeks' time, I imagined most of them would be inked all the way to the chin. As for Furia, she just didn't think she deserved a tattoo, and so her flesh was still virgin. And me? I wanted one, if I was honest, but I couldn't think of what to get.

Rose smiled at Faltia and Eva, and took the next leaf from Soraya. She tested it on her tongue, held it to the sun, then nodded. "Congratulations, Eva and Soraya, it's a boy -or a girl, or whatever... it has a penis."

Soraya held her loving Domina close, and Eva planted a warm kiss atop her head.

Rose took the leaf from Kiera, and I noticed in the brief exchange the way their fingers brushed. She held the leaf to the light, and beamed delightedly to Brianna and Kiera. "Triplets!" She exclaimed, "Two hermaphrodites, and one fully female."

"Oh my god!" Brianna exclaimed, staring at her belly in disbelief, "Kiera, you fucking stud! Nice job bro!"

"You're such a fertile bitch." Kiera giggled affectionately, taking Brianna in her arms. Rose's eyes flashed with jealousy before she focused them on me, and took the leaf from my hand.

"You know what this means, right?" Eva said into Soraya's ear while Rose inspected my leaf, "Now that you've got my baby in the oven, your pussy is open to the public."

"I can finally be the slut I always wanted to be." Brianna tittered to Kiera.

"I've already picked out one of my men for us to share." Faltia smiled up at Alexa.

Rose frowned at my leaf. "Adrianna, you—"

"Governess." Arbor corrected beside her daughter, "Use her title, Rose."

"Governess, you're not pregnant, but you're very, very fertile. Have you been using contraceptives?"

"We've been pulling out." Furia said beside me, "What do you mean she's very fertile?"

Rose handed her mother my leaf, and Arbor studied it, then looked at me. "You are hyper-ovulating. It appears that the hybrid menstrual cycle is extremely potent at its peak, and will only get worse for the next week or so unless you stem it with a child."

"That would explain a lot." I muttered. I motioned to Certiok. "Is she pregnant yet?"

Arbor took Certiok's leaf, then immediately gave it back to her, "She is not."

Certiok looked to me, and shrugged with a smile. "I guess we can put that theory to rest then. I've been with every single one of your she-males, and not one of them has managed to knock me up."

"We tried our best." Kiera smiled ruefully, "We're sorry, Adrianna."

"We'd be more than willing to give it another go." Eva chuckled, eyeing Certiok over Soraya's shoulder. Certiok eyed her back with an equally-lecherous smile. The she-orc princess had been in threesomes with every hybrid couple multiple times, but she'd gone back to Eva and Soraya for thirds, fourths and fifths.

"We can still get pregnant though," Alexa said, gesturing to the other hermaphrodites and herself, "Commander, I could—"

"No." I said firmly, "Furia already offered several times, and the answer is still the same. I made a promise, and I won't pass it on to anyone else." I turned back to Arbor, "How long until they're here?"

The forest spirit tilted her head, her violet-backed green eyes becoming unfocused. "Eighteen hours. There are so many, Governess. Over two-hundred-thousand hungry mouths, thirsty throats and tired feet. They have marched at a grueling pace to flee the war, and their tempers are on a knife's edge. Are you ready?"

"We better be." I muttered, unfolding the letter I'd gotten that morning. It was from Yavara, and had been delivered via Zander's ethereal owl. I was to present it to the matriarchs of the Ten to prove my authority. It stated that I, Governess Adrianna, acted in the queen's stead, and that any move against me or my compatriots would be an act of treason. I wondered if it would matter. I had to offer my womb just to gain Certiok's allegiance, and the matriarchs of the Ten were like queens in their own right. I folded away that letter, and pulled out Yavara's second missive. This one required my blood to open it.

Governess Adrianna,

You might be wondering after all this time why it is you are still alive, and indeed, why you have risen so high in the ranks of your enemy. Well, now I will tell you why I chose you to be governess. The Ten are the greatest internal threat to Alkandra. With an enemy amassing at our border, it is easy to keep them all pointed in one direction, but once that enemy is gone, they will find old enemies amongst themselves, and my kingdom will collapse into civil war as it did with the first Alkandra.

This is why I appointed you. I have built my claim on promises to respect orc tradition, so I cannot break my word to those who have entrusted their power to me. But you, the hated Head-ranger of Castle Thorum, the most reviled elf in all the Great Forest, you can break those promises. They expect you to. We will never have a greater opportunity than this. Their warrior-males are all on the battlefront, and their tribespeople are in your care. Insurrection is unlikely amongst the old, young, crippled and female. By any means necessary, you must dissolve the tribes. Zander and I will ensure that the chieftains and their sons never survive the battlefield. I will leave their wives and daughters to you.

Queen Yavara Alkandi.

The letter dissolved after I'd read the last word. I looked to Certiok, who had been pointedly looking away. "I suppose you know what I just read."

"Yes."

I actually laughed then. "And she says she's not like her sister!"

Certiok just smiled. "If you love your Highland nation so much, then you will do as she commands. It is the Ten who push for invasion."

I wiped the blood off my thumb. "I won't kill women and children for her."

"What are you talking about?" Furia asked. I told them what Yavara had instructed me to do.

"By whatever means necessary." Kiera echoed, "That doesn't mean we need to kill them."

Eva snorted. "It sure sounds like it though." She turned to me, "It wouldn't be the first time we killed orc bitches and pups."

"Is that so, Domina?" Certiok hissed with venom.

"It is." Eva smirked back, "But I've grown quite fond of you beasts since I've gotten here, so I'd prefer not to stain my hands if I can help it."

"I refuse to do it." Faltia said.

"As do I." Alexa concurred.

Kiera, Soraya and Brianna also nodded.

Furia frowned. "I will do whatever is necessary."

"As will we." Arbor said with solemnity. Rose nodded beside her mother. After seeing firsthand what nymphs could do with the element of surprise on their side, I didn't doubt they could make short and quiet work of the matter.

I ran my fingers through my hair, "Yavara appointed me to be her convenient villain. If we kill the matriarchs and their daughters, that's exactly what I'll be. They already hate you, so what's it matter?" I turned to Certiok, "Do you hate me?"

"Yes." She said outright, then thought on it a second, and groaned, "No."

"I guess I grew on you, huh?" I smirked.

"Like cancer." She smirked back, "But Adrianna, the people who don't know you will hate you by default. They're supposed to; it's what Yavara's counting on. You're her shit-catcher so that she can remain clean."

I chewed on my lip. "I will not be the convenient villain." I said, "This is my home now. Come on; we've got a lot of work to do to prepare for our guests."

ALEXA

In three days' time, Tim and I had redirected the moat to deposit waste into the bay instead of the river, built an aqueduct system, and connected the old imperial highway to the castle via a two-mile-long road. We'd demolished almost every hut the tribespeople had built, and now they and the Ardeni orcs slept in the castle while the work crews began laying the foundations for massive public housing units that flanked the main road. There wasn't a lot of space between the castle and the agrarian fields, and Arbor was loath to cut down trees to make more space. Fortunately, Tim had experience building Ardeni stone towers, and so the public housing units would extend vertically for hundreds of feet, tiered back from the street so that the view of Castle Alkandra was not obstructed. It was a strange start for a city, but I imagined that over time it would sprawl out despite Arbor's objections, and consume the forest around it until its borders relaxed into their former position from a thousand years ago.

"Alexa?" Tim's voice boomed.

"Hmm?"

He pointed to a construction crew assembling scaffolding. "You were saying something about the décor."

"Yes," I nodded, "I understand the towers we're building might seem too utilitarian, but from an engineering perspective-"

"What's the purpose of building great works of bland rubbish?" He interrupted, "Who wants to live in a glorified stone box?"

"It sounds like you have a design suggestion."

"Ornamentation. The castle is gothic, so the towers should be as well." Tim waved an irreverent hand toward the wide street, "All the great cities have a theme. Ardeni is the city of gold, Terondia is the city of granite, Hektinar is the city of steel, Drastin is the city of shale, and Bentius is the city of limestone. Alkandra has great silver mines on its shores. I could form elegant spires of silver on the peaks of each structure, I could arm their tiers with silver gargoyles, I could frame their grand entrances with silver awnings!"

I frowned. "That sounds like a lot of work, Tim."

"Nothing worth doing was ever done quickly." He scowled back, "And this street we've made needs a boulevard to divide it. I could line it with magnificent marble statues, and Arbor could decorate my effigies with flowering vines."

I flipped through my pad. "We have a budget, you know."

"I would do it freely."

I beamed up at him. "I know you would, Tim, and you're a true visionary, but we have time constraints. If the towers aren't built before the first snows, people will freeze. We need your help with the boring shit."

Despite being past the age of a hundred, and being a twenty-foot hairy behemoth, Tim managed to look like a dejected child.

I groaned. "Fine. You can make one statue. Put it..." I thumbed my chin, then smiled when my eyes fell upon the last hut remaining, "...there."

And Tim bounded over to the hut, his skipping feet shaking the earth. He tore the roof off it, pulled a screaming Certiok Terdini out, then crushed it to dust with his foot. I chuckled to myself, and made my way to the east, where the rest of the trolls were throwing tons of stone from the quarry. Soraya was there, her bronze body bound in leather that squeezed her supple assets to the point of pain, a collar around her neck from which dangled her Domina's leash. She was studiously counting the blocks of stone, bringing the pen to her lips, then writing the numbers on her clipboard.

"Having fun?" I asked.

"The most fun ever." She replied dryly. The man she used to be came out quite easily when Eva wasn't around.

I stopped beside her, and pointed the trolls out. "They're good guys. That's Dolly, Tiff, Tappy—"

"Brianna is in population logistics, Alexa; I'm in accounting." Soraya sighed, "And right now, I'm to account for blocks of stone, not the sentient wrecking balls."

"They're more than just brutes, you know."

"I'm sure they're very intelligent; much like how a terrier is a particularly clever dog."

I glared at her. "I know we never saw eye-to-eye, but there's no reason for you to be a bitch."

"I'm sorry, are they friends of yours? That figures."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

She gave me an innocent smile. "I didn't mean it as an insult, but if you took it as one, then that doesn't speak well for your true opinion of your... friends."

"You disrespectful little—"

"You're not my sergeant anymore; I don't need to respect you." She sneered, "And after the things I've seen you do, I don't really think you care too much about being respected anymore."

"You think you're—"

"Are you leaving now, Alexa?" She smiled impatiently at me, "Because I'm very busy, and you're quite distracting."

"Yeah, I'm leaving," I growled, and took her by the leash, yanking it, "and so are you!"

Soraya stumbled and fell, then went scrambling after me as I hauled her bodily from the reservoir, her legs dragging.

"I might not be your sergeant anymore," I snarled, "but I'll be damned if I'm going to take shit from a bitch on a leash!"

"Wait!" She screamed.

"Oh, are you going to be nice doggy now?"

"Just... hold on a second!" Soraya reached into her bag, and pulled two pieces of leather. "Kneepads," she explained with a little smile. She strapped the kneepads, then got onto all fours, and grinned excitedly up at me, "Ok, now I'm ready."

"Ready for what?"

She crawled over to me, sat on my feet, and gazed hopefully up at me. "Take me for a walk? Please? Woof-woof?"

ROSE

"Mother has managed to accelerate the harvest to next week." I said to Kiera, gesturing grandly to the fields we'd planted that morning, "Pumpkins and turnips there, beans and asparagus over there. We'll rotate crops after the harvest."

"We need feedstock. Corn and soy."

"Orcs can be vegetarian for one winter."

Kiera touched one of my horns, and smiled. "They might mistake you for a lamb after a few weeks of just beans and pumpkins."

I grinned back. "Do I look good enough to eat?"

"You look delicious." She snickered, and let go of my horn, much to my disappointment. She put her hands on her hips, and gestured to a plot that had not yet been planted. "Corn and soy over there. The tribes will be bringing livestock, and it's not yet cool enough to store slaughtered meat."

"I will see what Mother thinks."

Kiera nodded. "It's not just foodstuffs we need to be worried about now. Everyone will be so packed in that diseases will run rampant. We need a strong medicinal crop."

"Over here." I said, and walked her to my personal garden. "Willow trees over there," I gestured to the saplings, "nightshade over there, poppies over there, and cocoa over there."

"Is this a medicinal agriculture or a grow-house?" Kiera laughed.

I smiled back at her. "Narcotics have many uses besides boredom relief." I pointed toward the marijuana plants, "These strains will ease anxiety," I gestured to some mushrooms, "these spores will open pathways in the mind," I gave a flourish to a blue flower, "and this will make you more potent in the bedroom."

Kiera inspected the flowers curiously, then gave me a devious smile, and plucked several of their buds. I sat on the log, the strap of my floral top falling off my shoulder. Kiera saw it, and her eyes lingered on me, her gaze becoming unfocused with desire. Then she coughed awkwardly, stored the buds in her pack, and left without a word, her erection tenting her sundress.

I sighed. "Why, Mother?"

"You know why." Mother said from behind, her wings enclosing around me.

"I wasn't going to taste her manhood. She has female parts that I desire as well."

"Ah, Rose." Mother sighed, resting her chin atop my head, "You are a poor liar. Come, let me take you to your brothers."

"They don't satisfy me anymore."

She massaged my shoulders, and whispered, "You just have to wait a little longer. You will get better, my most precious flower, I promise it."

FALTIA

I'd been drilling my new recruits hard for the past three days. They were the policing force for an entire city, and they'd soon be outnumbered two-thousand to one. The stress was beginning to show. Tempers were hot, patience was low, and fists were thrown with just the slightest provocation. Orcs were strange. Their respect for me had been at its highest when their semen covered me from head to toe, but since that recruitment exercise, every attempt I made to instill myself as their leader seemed to backfire. Yes, they respected my skill with a sword, and yes, they respected my race, but all the methods of leadership I'd honed over decades of being an officer in the rangers meant nothing to them, and I could feel their respect for my command slipping the more I tried.

I disarmed Lieutenant Dom Alkandra with ease, his sword flipping behind him. All the Ardeni beats adopted the surname "Alkandra" now, since they had no tribe. I wondered if in time it would be spoken with pride, but for now, there was no doubt those named "Alkandra" would be looked down upon in orc society. A tribesman would never be so easily disarmed; Private Sedrok Terdini said as much while Dom scrambled for his weapon.

"Shut it, Private!" I snarled at the old orc.

He shrugged. "I'm just wondering why that Ardeni shit gets to give me orders. I fought in ten wars and hundreds of battles, and—"

"Didn't I tell you shut it?!" I shot at him, "Take a fucking lap, Sedrok."

The old warrior grumbled, took his time getting to his feet, and lumbered around the makeshift yard. Two barracks had been hastily constructed by one of Alexa's teams, and they made up the center of the yard while log dummies and stone weights surrounded the perimeter. Sedrok slowed to a jog by one of the stones, then turned it into a leisurely stroll.

"Such disrespect." Came Eva's low chuckle behind me. She was wearing a dress of crisscrossing leather that purposefully showed what it was supposed to conceal.

I shot her a dirty look. "What do you want?"

Her steely eyes tracked the orc. "As Outreach Director, I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to entertain the populous."

"I don't have time today."

"Not you, but I appreciate the consideration." Eva grinned, her gaze still transfixed on the orc, "No, I was thinking you'd send your more unruly recruits to me, and they could help me... raise public morale."