Strange Tales of the Deadslayer Ch. 05

I'm not sure how time passes here. What's a moon and what's a sun has become immaterial -- some darken the sky, some lighten it, though few can genuinely impact the blazing corona of celestial light that makes this world visible, beaming through a veil of darkness into this strange universe. Universe? Galaxy? Dimension? I can't be certain where I am, what's become of me. I can safely determine that it's nowhere near the Milky Way, or Earth. Wherever I've found myself, I'm gone. All the way gone.

I rise when I awaken, and sleep when exhaustion takes me. That, now, is all that matters.

Life among the Xai, however, hasn't been as bad as it might be. I'm still a gladiator -- the Krruya, whatever the heck that's supposed to mean -- and every few sleep cycles sees me brought out into the massive arena of this strange alien city. They know better than to make me fight dinosaurs, now, as my second foray into the pit was against an assortment of them, all at once. They had pterosaurs, raptors, even this huge t-rex lookin' thing, and it was a little scary at first until I remembered my first fight against them. Then my new body took over and... well, it did its thing.

The next two matches were against these crazy monster-type alien things, more like the ape creature I first fought. There was this creature like a giant serpent with raptor claws and gliding wings, that spit poison and had a deafening scream, and a weird huge rocket-propelled crab with lightning cannons in its claws. Even if the Xai are pulling out all the stops to take me down, though, I keep winning; getting stronger after each match, my mind finally starting to figure out what my body's capable of. Gosh, imagine if I could bring this body to Earth! I doubt any of those goons back there can fight giant robot monsters -- maybe I could finally beat Jack Weissmiller in dodgeball!

Or... something more challenging, I guess.

Even though the fights are sorta rough, there's actually been a lot to enjoy -- I'm getting used to the food, and even managed to pick out a few favorites, foremost among which are these weird stalks of crunchy blue fiber. I can't tell if they're plant or animal or... who knows, maybe something else completely, but they have a flavor somewhere between bacon and Dr. Pepper, with a texture resembling celery. There's this wild tea-like drink they have too, that they've been giving me before matches to relax. The first few times I wondered if they were drugging me so I'd lose, but either this body's too strong for that, or they really just wanted to give me a nice drink.

Then there's Thiu too, of course, always there to help me... unwind. I still haven't been able to totally figure out whether she's here against her will or not, but I'm working on it. She's even been teaching me a little of the Xai language, and I've been teaching her a few more words in English, too. It's slow going, of course, but I've been able to loosely get the point across that I'm not from here -- and that I still need to escape. I also asked Thiu if she'd seen a woman with yellow hair anywhere in the city, sadly getting no results. It can only assume that Ciphia is either well-hidden or was taken somewhere else entirely. Wherever she is, I can't do anything for her locked up in here.

The city itself -- which, according to Thiu, is called Noai -- is well-defended, with a strong enough presence of guards that not even I'll be able to escape without a decent plan. And I keep working on that too. Every time I go out of my quarters, out to the arena, I search the skies and the buildings. I learned to find the hive-like apartment where I'm kept, distinguishing it by its slightly greater height and the blotch of mis-matched colored clay at its side. From there, I was able to trace and keep track of other structures... including one which I think will be my ticket out of here.

Those pterosaurs the Xai have might not be strong enough to hold me for long, but some are bigger than others, and the rooftop where they're kept isn't far from the champion's hive. It's just a matter of breaking out and getting there before I'm seen. I'll have to be fast.

I breathe in deeply through my nose, reclining back on the odd bed that's been provided for me. The next match is soon, I think -- something I can only truly tell from the degree to which my wounds have healed from the last battle. I'm as well-rested as I'll be, and I know what I have to do. The only question is whether I'll be doing it alone.

"Thiu?" I say quietly.

I hear a vaguely feline chirp from the Xai girl, who sits up from the other side of the mat, her eyes focusing on me. "Alla'ra? Yes?"

"You know I have to... go," I motion with my hands, vaguely miming along with my words to remind her of their meaning. "I can't stay with the Xai."

She fidgets with her lower pair of arms, but nods. "I will... ssh'r'at... unn... want you here."

"You'll miss me?"

Thiu nods. I close my eyes a moment, thinking.

"You know, you could come. Go with me. You don't have to stay."

"But..." she glances to the door of the chamber, beyond which lies the rest of her world, her city. Her people. "Xai? Noai? Thiu is of them. Have job. Cannot stop, only when Th'Rara no more... does spin."

Still not sure whether her obligation to her job is cultural or mandatory, but I need a guide in this world. With Ciphia gone I'll be flying blind. But maybe... "Your job is to serve me, right?"

She nods, more slowly this time.

"You could still do that. Just... not here, that's all. You can't serve me if I'm not around, right?"

The solid purple spheres of her eyes narrow, three slender fingers of her delicate hands plucking at the cloth covers on the bed. She looks at me like she knows what I'm doing, knows I'm trying to coerce or trick her... and like she's trying to find an excuse to believe me. She crawls a little closer to me, a frown on her lips, her face squishing into the side of my breast as she thinks. "Could not... come back. Big Xai -- erm, all Xai -- all given job. I go with you, can never come to Noai again."

"But... are you even happy here?" I whisper, squeezing her gently into my side. "Doing whatever your people make you do?"

She blinks, inhales slowly, looks away from me for a moment. As she lets her breath go, I feel a little shiver of anxiety run through her slender lavender figure. Finally, she looks back to me, a warmth and wetness shimmering across the oversized black pupils of her eyes. "Happy with you, Alla'ra."

"Then come with me," I say, tilting down to press a long, soft kiss on her lips. Getting out of here will be harder with her... but I think that'll be worth it. I stand up, then, moving to the edge of my quarters and pulling my outfit from the rack, one given to me after my second survived fight in the pit.

The outfit consists of a loincloth and short top, not entirely unlike a sports bra. Both are formed from durable, textured black material resembling leather, but are inlaid with metal in narrow, wandering glyphs and patterns. The inlays are off a dull, pale cyan color only a shade or two away from gray, giving a layered, shadowy appearance to the... costume, I guess you'd call it?

I pull the loincloth on first, then feel the gentle touch of Thiu's lower arms on my hips while her upper hands fasten the clasps on my top. "We will have to be fast," she says, worry and unease in her voice still. "The Xai will not forgive."

"Bummer for them," I say.

"Bum... err?"

"Bummer, it um... basically it sucks for them," I explain, turning around to face her.

"Suck? Not much time before match, maybe not time for that...."

"No, I--" Okay, slang might be a bit much for Thiu right now. "Forget about it. Get dressed and let's get out of here."

"How will we escape?" she says sweetly, seeking out her own gauzy, slimming gown, her nipples barely visible through the opaque fabric and a swath of cloth out of the center showing off the entirety of what cleavage her small breasts can provide. The skirt of the tunic-like garment, likewise, is short enough that her smooth thighs and long, slim legs are pleasantly visible. "Guards at door, and the door downward. Xai attack quick."

"That's why we're not using the door." I clench one fist, tighten it. Feel my fingertips dig into my palm. I glance to the far wall, and start walking towards it, breathing faster and heavier, trying to summon the adrenaline that rushes through me when I fight. I haven't tried something like this before -- but if I can wrench the spine out of a giant snake's body, why shouldn't I be able to? I close my eyes.

My shoulder launches forward, arm snapping out, and I punch the wall, a sound like a crack of thunder rolling through the fighters' apartment. When I open my eyes, I see a hole in the wall about as big around as a large grapefruit and about as deep as a loaf of bread, spiderweb cracks spreading out around it. Like a huge rock just went through a huge windshield made of reinforced alien clay. A second blow shakes the entire wall, creating another hole, and a third, final strike sends the entire thing crumbling down, dust and splinters of stone and metal reinforcements showering down around me. Turning to Thiu, I smile brightly. "There we go! Quick, hop on my back -- this is gonna be a bumpy ride. There are gonna be some jumps."

"Jumps?" Thiu muses, crawling onto my back (very efficiently, considering her four arms). Before she can continue her line of questioning I start running forward -- I can already hear the shouts of Xai soldiers clamoring from their watchful positions, some taking up weapons and others rushing for mounts. All of them are searching for the source of the noise, which gives me an advantage; I know exactly where I'm going and how I want to get there.

Tightening beneath me and blasting me forward with explosive power, my tattooed legs work like pistons as I leap up to the roof of the gladiatorial apartment, bare feet landing onto the earthen surface and creating deep gouges where my toes dig in. I turn to the right, taking a quick glance at the sky and the city to get my bearings, and run forward with incredible speed, the wind of my pace drowning out Thiu's panicked squeals. Then I jump again -- my body soaring through the warm air of Noai for feet, then yards, making it near the distance across of a chain restaurant before crash-landing on the roof of a squatter building.

Still, I run. I can hear the sounds of rallying guards growing louder now, closer, but don't look behind me. Ahead I can see the tall cluster of malformed doors and windows of my destination, one of the strange hive-buildings of the Xai, atop which is my escape. With Thiu still clinging tight to me, I leap again and cling to the edge, fingers and toes digging in to create holds in the dense earthen walls of the structure. I hiss under my breath as blood rushes through my veins, pushing myself to my limit, to go as fast and as hard as I can.

I begin to climb, almost ape-like, pushing myself off of curved surfaces and fingerholds to grasp ridges and windowsills, feeling like King friggin' Kong as I rapidly ascend. I flinch when a thrown (or shot?) spear lodges itself into the wall a few inches of my head. Have to go faster. Have to get to the top. Have to get Thiu to safety, if not me. And I know I can do it.

My fingers clasp around the edge of a balcony, and I see a Xai man yelp and rush away from it, through a door and into the building. I ignore him and pull myself up, positioning my feet on the edge -- then leaping straight up, as high as I can. Just high enough to reach the roof and pull us up. There, I find exactly what I knew I'd find, my ticket out of this place. Nests of pterosaurs (or at least, creatures that resemble them to me -- whether these things are really dinosaurs or not, or for that matter, what dinosaurs actually looked like, is a total mystery), big and small, ranging in colors from pink to yellow to tan and beyond.

"This is... plan?" Thiu whimpers from on my back, legs and arms squeezing tight around me.

"You bet. Just need to find a nice big one," I glance back over my shoulder to the city beyond, to see Xai soldiers swarming towards me, strange lizard-creatures crawling up the wall of the building I'm on top of. "...And fast!" Ducking a second spear (on purpose this time!) I move through the tightly-packed nests, built out of a wood-like material nailed together into boxes, then filled with tatters of cloth and clay shavings. I find what I'm looking for soon enough -- a big, sturdy creature with dark, dull green skin, mottled through with bright red markings. The crest coming from its head is also unusually long and thin, more like a fin than the bone-wedges atop the heads of the other flying creatures.

Only now do I freeze, asking myself the sudden question of how in the heck do I fly one of these things? I'm not exactly a master animal handler, or pilot for that matter. The sound of claws and shouts growing closer, though, reminds me that I don't have a choice -- all I can do is jump on and hope for the best.

And that's exactly what I do.

The creature squawks and rears back, trying to nudge me away with its toothy beak, but I clumsily attempt to direct its head forward. With Thiu still on my back (though now settling a bit to sit somewhat on the pterosaur as well) I squeeze my thighs gently around the creature's middle, then a little harder. It lets out another, louder squawk, and at last it lifts up onto its short feet, able to lift my weight and, fortunately, my passenger's as well. Its wings unfurl, then beat impressively, and the creature thrusts itself forward and off of the roost, into the sky of this alien world. It struggles for a moment, clearly unused to the weight, but then beats its wings again, then again, and shoots off away from Noai. Spears and the occasional laser shot zip past us, one of the latter painfully clipping my shoulder, but after a few minutes of flying the shouts of the Xai fade into silence.

Then it's just us. The horizon twists and roils beyond and around us like the coils of a great technicolor serpent, dimming as a bright orange moon -- or perhaps sun -- vanishes beyond the edge of my sight. Beneath us is a wasteland, the edge of the star-marsh that Ciphia had spoken of, strands of dull greenish liquid snaking out around us only to be occasionally dotted with derelict metal pipes. On our right side is the black, starry sea of infinity, the inky expanse that the Xai had likely taken Ciphia into on their strange ships. On our left side is a distant range of crystalline spires, either some strange formation of cliffs, or perhaps a city equally alien.

For the moment, I ask about neither, and just continue straight. My heart slows to a normal pace, and I just enjoy the sensation of Thiu against my back. She's settled against the flying beast now, but keeps her pelvis tight against my back, both pairs of arms coiled around my sides and waist. I can feel her cheek and the softness of her hair between my shoulderblades, and hear her gentle breathing, and take some comfort in it. She's quiet, as peaceful as she has any right to be, in all ways but the slow, almost reflexive forward grinding of her hips against my butt.

I don't think much about it at first. She's probably nervous, right? Our escape was pretty stressful, and she (unless I missed something really important about Xai biology) doesn't have powers the way my body does. So she's just... y'know, squirmy. But like I said, I didn't think much about it at first -- once I feel her girl-boner start getting, well, bonerified, I start thinking about it a lot more.

She squirms against me more insistently now as we soar off into the dusky skies of this space-world, her stiffening shaft prodding me through the flimsy cloth of her little garment before finally slipping out from under it, prodding my butt firmly. I stiffen anxiously, wondering what she's going to do. I managed to... come around, to having a few fingers inside me, but a whole... y'know... is probably more than I'm ready for right now. From what I can tell, though, she isn't trying to go any further than rubbing, her lady-thing wedging up under my loincloth to saw firmly against my buttcheeks, then between them, warm and pulsing gently.

As I try to digest the sensation of her throbbing wiener against my butt I start to forget the world around me, drawn in by the gentle lighting and sheer sensations. The rhythmic wingbeats of the beast beneath us, flying aimlessly in no real direction. The feeling of Thiu's firm nipples rubbing into my back, of her little horns bumping affectionately into my neck and shoulders as she grinds back and forth against me. I bite my lip, a little shiver rolling through me as Thiu's dick starts to saw more insistently back and forth, getting trapped between the bare-back of the pterosaur and the firm globes of my own rear. Finally, I hear a little whimper escape her soft lips, and that purr-like sound starts to vibrate through her.

"Thiu, do you..." I breathe out, wincing as I feel the tip of her shaft prod against my back entrance, causing my entire body to tighten. She's warm and so stiff, and a little wet as well, and while it feels nice I'm still really afraid. But if I'm so afraid, why am I starting to feel so excited, too? Like the adrenaline from our escape from Noai is so pent-up in me that even though it's quiet now, I want to release it. And the feeling of Thiu squirming against my back, rubbing her small, perky breasts up and down my back is driving me crazy... more and more I want to just flip Thiu onto her back and.... "Do you think this is a safe place to land?"

There's a stutter in the purring sound, and Thiu chirps to attention, nuzzling my neck while she looks over my shoulder. "Eeh... yes, I think. Hungerers don't wander to the edge of the star-marsh." I follow her gaze, and see where she's looking -- the rivulets of green liquid cracking through the silty gray earth seem to stop just ahead and to the left, and while it's difficult to see from this height, I see vegetation below. Life. I press my hand gently into one of the red-mottled beast's wings to push it downwards where we need to go, and after a slight buck of confusion, it starts to move in the direction I indicated. Still, Thiu wiggles and shifts against me, torturing me with unexpected pleasure more and more every instant. Even as we descend to the ground, I feel what dwells beneath my loincloth rising to life as well, uncertain of what it wants, but positive that it wants something.

No sooner does the great flying creature land in the soft gray earth do I launch myself off of its back, reaching out to wrap my arms around Thiu's waist and lift her off of it. She lets out a squeak of surprise and what I think is excitement, and in the instant before I lay her down our eyes meet. Her pale lilac skin is flushed with a soft greenish shade, and my gaze flickers from her eyes to her lips, full and slightly parted. My hold around her light frame tightens and I kiss her, lowering her down to the ground beneath us, one hand making a fist in her toga-like garment and tearing it away, eliciting another yelp of anticipation. I can hear her purring again as she kisses me back, and as I straddle her I can feel the warm stiffness of her lady-dick prodding against mine.

I don't know if it's some primal instinct in my new body, or if it's me... or if its the adrenaline of the escape, or my gradually-increasing comfort around the slender Xai servant girl. I don't know what comes over me, seizes me, drives me to kiss her and hold her, to strip off my own gladiatorial raiment and pin her to the spongey gray earth below us. To press my lips down her slightly over-long neck, to her slim shoulders, kissing between her smooth, pert breasts before taking one firm nipple into my mouth, licking and nipping at it. All I know is that I need this, and from the way she arches and wails out, her mess of arms tangling in my hair and scraping at my shoulders, so does Thiu.