The Egg of Immorality Ch. 11

Beaten, bloodied, and imprisoned... but never defeated.

To start at the beginning of The Egg of Immorality, find chapter 1 here. To start the Thirst for Power series fresh, please look for Enchanted. Thank you for reading and please look up my profile page if you have any questions, concerns, or wish to reach out to me.

Blinding light seared into her brain. Not just her brain, she was on fire too! Burning all over her body. She opened her mouth to cry out, only to have it filled.

Jennaca sputtered and twisted. She spat out the cold water and coughed hard enough make her chest ache. The coughing helped wake her enough to realize she wasn't being burnt alive. She was freezing. Freezing and dripping fresh water that had been dumped on her.

She squinted her eyes to block the morning sun that was lancing straight into her brain. She looked around and, over the sound of her ragged breathing and the water dripping off her, she heard yipping and barking. Not the barking of hounds, but some more elaborate. More varied and deliberate. It was a language. Crude and impossible for her to understand, but meaningful enough for the gnolls to use it to communicate.

She could make them out now, standing and staring down at her. Pointing and talking and laughing. Scoffing. Insulting. They stood a few paces away from her. Far enough she couldn't reach them, but close enough she could smell them and hear them. To a woman who had grown up and lived amongst the wilds they didn't smell bad, but it wasn't a smell she preferred either. There was something to be said for bathing after all.

She lurched forward and felt the pain in the side of her back about the same time as she smacked her face on the ground. Jennaca twisted and looked back, wincing not only from whatever had happened to her, but from the ache all through her body. The worst was her head, a constant reminder in the side of her head that made it difficult to think and react. She reached up and felt her puffy skin and crusty dried blood.

She'd been hit there. Hit in the head with the shaft of that gnoll's axe. He'd knocked her out, not killed her. Then again, they way she felt she almost wished he'd finished the job. Now she was half frozen, fully aching, and had fresh pains in her neck and back.

The new injury though, what was that? She felt the wound and found nothing there. Nothing but sore skin. She rolled onto her back and gathered her legs so she could get to her feet. She managed to get them under her before she heard a new sound: feet slapping the ground.

Her back and shoulder took the abuse this time. Jennaca cried out as she was knocked over again. She ended up face-down as the footsteps receded. Her back and arm felt like they were on fire. The heat was welcome, in a way, but she felt it spreading. Not radiating so much as running downhill, to her side and her arm.

Jennaca picked herself up enough to reach her right arm around her side. She pulled it back and saw the blood on it. Her blood. She twisted her head and then rolled on her hips to look all the way around her. The pain in her throat as she moved her neck was more than just an ache, there was something there. Something resting on her. Something with that poked and rubbed at her. As she took in her surroundings she saw a rough rope hanging slack and running across the ground to a rock half as big as she was. Whether the rope was tied around the rock or just pinned under it she didn't know.

She heard someone else running toward her then. Someone on her right. Behind her. Jennaca grabbed the rope in her hands and fell back. She rolled off her hip and up to her knees. Her momentum kept her moving, allowing her to stretch out a foot and brace herself while she yanked up on the rope and pulled it as high and as tight as she could.

The runner, who she now saw out of the corner of her eye, was a younger gnoll. A young male eager to prove his bravery by torturing a prisoner. He reacted at her sudden movement by jumping up and away from her. The rope was in his way though, and he clipped it with both legs.

The pain in her neck as she was jerked forward almost made it not worth it. She went with it though and leapt on top of him before he could scramble away. Jenna landed on his the rags that made up his loin cloth and covered his butt. His tail was pinned under one of her knees. He grunted from the impact and jerked his head up. Jennaca used the opportunity to wrap her leash around his neck and she jerked it tight, choking the would-be warrior.

Several seconds passed with Jennaca straining to hold the rope tight. The gnoll struggled and thrashed under her, even managing to twist himself so that he rolled over beneath her. She stayed atop his hips throughout and even managed to loop one of her legs between his to immobilize it and reduce his leverage. The gnolls snout hung open and his tongue lolled as he tried to gasp in a fresh breath.

Jennaca was blasted off of the adolescent and sent rolling and sliding across the ground. She stopped with a jerk that made her collar bite into her neck and choke her. A few more jerks followed, dragging her back a few inches each time and keeping her from getting back to her feet.

When she was finally able to suck in a deep breath she regretted it. As her chest swelled and her ribs expanded a fresh dull ache throbbed in her side where she'd been kicked. Or punched. Or hit with a catapult... Whatever it was that the gnolls had done to knock her off the youth.

She cradled an arm to her side and picked her head up to glare back at the young man she'd tried to strangle. She saw him limping away and clutching at his throat. Of course that was behind the furry and clawed feet that were stomping toward her. She followed the legs up past a furry loin cloth to a shirt that was a patchwork of chainmail, hide, and some cloth with metal plates sewn onto it. This gnoll had mottled dark brown and black fur and a short snout. His right was clipped at the top.

He growled at her and, before Jennaca could force her battered body to react, he reached down and wrapped his long fingers around her neck. He squeezed while he snarled and lifted her up enough so his fetid breath washed over her. Jennaca wanted to gag but she couldn't. She couldn't make any sound or breathe at all, for that matter.

She grabbed his wrist and his hand but she didn't have the strength to fight him. He shook her once and then again. Jennaca's eyes rolled back into her head and she felt herself floating through a murky darkness surrounded with the shadows of barking dogs. She crashed into something hard and the dogs rushed forward. They shadowy beasts leapt at her and fell on her, consuming her and burying her in their darkness.

* * * *

Jennaca was awoken again with another blast of freezing cold water. Her body knew what it was this time. She sputtered and jerked back to life, but she didn't panic. She looked around and tried to take stock of her situation as fast as possible. It was light out still, but the light was different. It came from a different direction, so time had passed. Hours? A day? More? It was warmer too, or at least not as cold as it had been.

She still had the collar and the leash. She was still lying on the ground. She was still naked... wait, had she been naked before? She hadn't even noticed, she'd been too caught up in everything. Why was she naked? Unless... Saints! Had they...

Jennaca hurt all over, but she didn't hurt there. They hadn't done that to her. Could they do that? Well, of course they could, but would they? Gnolls and humans... sure, they had the right types of parts, but could a male gnoll do that to a human woman? If they had cocks proportionate to the size of their bodies... Saints! She'd definitely be sore! Then again, she could take John's cock with ease and he was huge. Was he bigger than a gnoll though?

Her eyes widened. Gnolls were like dogs... or wolves... did that mean they were like dogs in other ways too? Did they have a knot when they--

A gnoll stepped forward within the ring of gnolls that surrounded her. Not as many as before, but enough. More than enough, considering even one was too many. The gnoll slammed the butt of his massive weapon down. She eyed the weapon first, noting that gnolls seemed to like long handled axes. This one was different though, instead of a blade it was capped by a spiked ball with two larger spikes on opposite sides. Like a two handed mace made for someone with the strength to crush an armored knight.

Her eyes went to the gnoll holding the knight-smasher. His patchwork armor, short snout, and clipped ear gave him away. He was the same one that had choked her out earlier. Had he come back to finish the job? One swipe with his war club of piercing would be enough for that.

Jennaca gathered herself and rose up on aching legs and hips and back. She stood and stared up at him. "You going to kill me with that?" she asked. "Go ahead and try, I won't make it easy."

His lip curled up in a snarl that matched the growl in his throat.

Jennaca's eyes widened. "By the Saints, you understand me, don't you?"

He spoke and after a moment Jennaca realized he wasn't barking and howling at the moon, he was actually speaking to her. His voice was deep and the words rough as he struggled with the harder consonants and sounds, but she could make them out. The first thing she was able to be certain he said was, "You shame my son, hairless!"

Hairless? She wasn't sure what he was talking about. She had hair. Especially now that had her things and she couldn't shave. Maybe not fur but-- of course! She didn't have fur, so she was hairless to them. Jennaca let out a bitter laugh and said, "I don't need fur to know better than to pick on a bound prisoner, I think the shame is on you."

He snarled again. It wasn't an attractive look. Then again, mottled brown and black fur complete with scars and deformities -- the ear-- meant there was nothing attractive about him. At least for Jennaca. Maybe there was a gnoll woman pining away for someone like him. Or a gnoll man... stranger things have happened.

"You shamed my warriors," he growled.

Jennaca took a moment before admitting, "They surprised me. They're strong runners."

"You will fight," he announced.

Jennaca sighed. "Is there someone else I can talk to? Someone that doesn't state the obvious?"

He lashed out at her, moving faster than she expected. She tried to slip the attack but the shaft numbed her thigh were it struck her and then caught her in the side and doubled her over. She staggered back and hit the ground hard on her hip.

Jennaca gasped for breath and finally managed to look up through blurry eyes to see him standing over her. Her leg was cramping and her side wanted nothing more than for her to curl up in a ball and cry herself to sleep.

That just wasn't her. She wasn't a soft city girl that would beg him for her life. She'd show him strength to the end... even if this was the end. But it wouldn't be. It couldn't be. John would save her if she were in true trouble. They had a connection. He had to know where she was. How rough things were. The gnolls must have carried her a ways for him not to be here already. They were fast, those gnolls.

She forced a breath in and used the fresh air to clear her mind and search for John. She needed to let him know she needed him. Before she'd meant to draw the gnolls away, but now... well... things had changed. She needed him and she knew he'd be furious with her if she didn't tell him. Even more furious if something happened to her.

She found her bond with him and coddled it. She clung to it and sent her thoughts into it. She willed it to life, eager to feel his focus and thoughts. His attention. Anything from him.

There was nothing there. The connection was in place, bound to her heart and her soul, but it lay dormant inside of her. She'd never felt this before... but she seldom focused on the bond. Knowing it was there and knowing John was nearby had been enough. They had their own connection outside of the contract. John insisted he could not love because of what he was, but Jennaca knew better. She was his favorite and she knew it. Just as she knew she would do anything for him.

Anything... even if that meant she died protecting him because he didn't know she'd run off trying to save him. That wouldn't happen though... he'd come for her. She just had to hold on long enough.

Jennaca blinked, nodded, and struggled to her hands and knees and then rose to her feet. The gnoll towered over her. He'd moved closer while she'd been all but senseless on the ground.

"You will fight, hairless," the gnoll repeated. "Until the pups learn to beat you."

Jennaca digested his words and then nodded. She swayed a moment from the nausea the movement caused and then caught her balance.

She wanted to know what happened after that, but she had to buy time, not aggravate him further. Another smack from him might make it impossible for her to fight back. As it was, she was starting to wonder if she'd gotten lucky to not be more seriously injured. Her ribs ached but she didn't think they were broken. Her leg was cramped and hard to put full weight on, but also not broken. Her head, well, that was sore and still hurt but if that had broken she'd long be dead by now.

"You will have meat," he said. "Tomorrow, you fight."

She looked up at him and then dropped her eyes to his feet. She had no choice and the last thing she needed was to draw his ire... again.

"I will fight."

Posting a warning now - there will be some chapters that I won't be able to post on Literotica due to their guidelines of approved content. I'll do my best to work around it with what I do post but... well... there's nothing like the real thing.