The Egg of Immorality Ch. 12

If John can make a deal with a demon, surely Jennaca can make a deal with a monster.

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.

There were shapes in the darkness. Darker spots that skulked and stalked about. They moved around her. Always too far for her to hear or smell, but they were there. They wanted her. She could feel that. They were hungry for her. The hunger though, it wasn't natural. Not like an empty belly. It was a need. A thirst. A desire. They wanted more than a meal.

She knew the feeling. John made her feel that way. When she needed him. Needed to feel him in her hands or in her mouth or in her pussy. The need to sate a hunger that no food or drink could fill.

There was one shape amongst those that circled her in the darkness. One that stood still and watched her. One with eyes that glowed red. It wasn't like the others. Or rather it was, but it was more. The shape was greater than the others. Not larger, but more substantial. In charge, maybe?

Jennaca jerked up to a sitting position. She sucked in a shuddering breath and hugged her arms to her chest. She was so cold she was trembling but her eyes searched the tents and huts around nearby. She heard snoring and heavy breathing, as well as a few signs of gnolls being awake and moving about. There were no dark shadows slinking about. No red-eyed demons in the night.

She looked to the east and saw the sky tinged with purples and pinks. The sun was rising and it couldn't come soon enough. The constant breeze during the day and the fall climate were one thing, but when the sun was down and she couldn't even move what little her leash allowed the cold set into her bones.

Aside from the chills in her body and those left in her soul from the dream, she felt better. Stiff, sure, but not as bad. She'd been tossed a rabbit for dinner. A rabbit with a gaping hole in its belly where a gnoll had dug its thumb claw in and gutted it. The gnoll gobbled the entrails up before dropping it at her feet.

Jennaca had only stared at it a moment before realizing she was going to lose it to some hungry gnoll pups if she didn't do something. She snatched it up and retreated to her rock, then stared at it for a long moment. It was raw, of course. Raw and still warm.

She tore the skin off the rabbit, keeping it as whole as possible, and laid it out on the rock to dry. Holding the dead coney in her hand she hesitated again before bringing it to her mouth. She bit down, soft and first and then hard when she realized it wasn't like a fish. She had to pierce and tear the flesh and her teeth weren't as well suited for the task as a gnolls were.

She gagged as she chewed the first bite but forced herself through it. She had to eat, even if it was raw. She needed the food if she was going to hold on. She needed the energy to fight against the pups. Needed to be able to keep them from beating her senseless and proving she wasn't needed. From having no more worth to her captors. She had to hold on just a little while longer. Long enough for John to realize she needed him.

As stomach turning as it had been she'd kept the rabbit down. Now, the next morning, she was glad for it. Her back itched where she'd been scratched by the passing pup, but her head finally felt clear again. She wasn't dizzy and her thoughts weren't clouded. She could do this. She could hold out as long as it took John to come for her. That... or she could find a way to escape and then go and find him. Save him the effort and prove she was as amazing as he thought she was.

A memory took her back to a time in the mountains when she'd been hurt but still chased after a dragonkin. She'd beaten it, of course, and played it off as nothing. John had been worried though. He'd warned her to be careful. Told her as good as she was, accidents and mistakes still happen. He worried about her. She hadn't put much thought into at the time but now, maybe, he had a point.

When he saved her she'd admit he'd told her so. It was the least she could do. Sasha would reach him and bring him back. That was how it would work out. It had to. Otherwise...

Jennaca let the though go and turned to focus on her surroundings. She'd studied them last night but nothing really stuck with her. She recognized the tents and huts and as she calculated distances from one thing to the next and how far or fast she could get to things she realized she'd done all the last night too. She reached up to rub her head. It was still sore, but now it was more of a bruise and less of a swollen achy mess. A hit to the head like that could kill a person... she'd heard of it happening from her mother and trainers when growing up.

But not her, she'd survived. Her mom would say it was because she had a thick head. She stifled a grin at the thought. Dame Jethallin would not be impressed with her being captured by a tribe of gnolls. Her mom would have wiped them all out, most likely. She was amazing, hands down.

But Dame Jethallin wasn't here. Jennaca was. And she was tied to a rock by a thick, scratchy rope. She wrapped her hands around the rope and ignored the pokes from fibers that had broken and stuck out. The rope was as thick as the grip of her sword... wherever that was. Sawing through the rope would take time, even if it was old. Breaking it was impossible. The metal band that had been clamped at her neck meant there was no untying it either. It also meant they didn't plan on letting her out of it... ever.

She shivered again and decided enough was enough. Some things she knew and some she didn't. Some things she could control right now and some she couldn't. Freezing her tits off was one she could control -- as long as the weather didn't turn to snow.

Jenna pulled her leash to measure the slack in it and then moved so she had room enough to start exercising. She went through a routine, stretching and warming her body in a series of movements designed to keep her limber and ply her muscles against each other. She did push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and even took the thick rope in hand and whipped it up and down and back and forth.

She was breathing hard in no time, but that only pushed her to work harder. The aches in her body pinched until her muscles and joints warmed and loosened. By the time the sun had risen above the eastern horizon she was glistening with sweat and ready for anything.

She had an audience too. A few gnolls had stopped what they were doing as they rose and went about their morning routines to wonder at what the crazy human was all about. She ignored them as the crowd grew from a handful of men to a dozen men and a few pups. Only when the same gnoll as before pushed the onlookers apart and stepped through did she relax her arms and let the rope go slack.

"It was cold last night," Jennaca explained as he glared at her. "I needed to warm up."

His nose twitched as he sniffed the air. "You are marked."

"Marked?" Jennaca asked. She glanced around and the gnolls likeness to hounds wasn't lost on her. "Like someone peed on me?"

"You belong to someone," he decided.

"I do," Jennaca agreed. "And when he finds me, you won't be happy."

He snarled and took a step forward.

Jennaca retreated and lowered her eyes. Antagonizing him wasn't in her best interests. He was fast, strong, and she was tied up. Not to mention weaponless. If he was human she could have at least used her body as a weapon. A distraction to give her the upper hand. Jiggle her large breasts and then punch him or choke him or something. The gnolls, it seemed, weren't interested in her body though. She supposed that was a good thing.

"You are a hairless bitch, you should be owned," he growled at her.

Jennaca managed to keep her head from jerking up. She clenched her teeth to keep from retorting.

"Fight well and perhaps I will give you to my pup. He can own you then. You can't be a proper bitch with no fur or tail, but he could play with you."

Her fingers curled into fists as she struggled to control her rage.

He laughed, a higher pitched yipping noise that ended almost as quick as it began. He turned and barked at the crowd of gnolls. They parted to let the pup that Jennaca had nearly strangled walk through their midst.

She studied him as he approached. He was taller than her and lean, but still had another foot to go before he'd be as big as his father. He was dressed for war, even if his patchwork armor looked a little big on him. He had bare legs, feet, and arms too, which seemed foolish. Then again, most of the gnolls were dressed that way. Loincloths, armored shirts or harnesses, and large weapons. In the pup's case he carried a spear. A proper spear, with a double-edged metal blade not a sharpened stick.

She glanced up at the elder. "Do I get a weapon?"

The gnoll turned and barked again. One of the onlookers took a step and tossed a staff at her. She let it land at her feet before she bent down and picked it up. The weapon was smooth and straight, but it had no reinforcements. It might as well have been a walking stick. It was almost as thick as her wrist too, which meant it would be harder for her to grip than she was used to.

"The rope?" she asked.

He shook his head.

Jennaca gripped the staff in both hands and tested it. The thick wood had a little bend to it, but barely. It felt solid, at least. She hadn't trained with a staff in years though. Not since she was a little girl and a beautiful woman named Volera had visited Altonia from the void. She'd been somebody important and the fact that she took time to speak to Jennaca had not gone unnoticed. She'd told Jennaca that she was important and that she -- Volera -- believed Jennaca would do great things.

After the great battle of the void ended a few months after that, the King remembered what Volera said. He made sure Jennaca had no limits to what she wanted to train or learn. Nobody ever saw Volera or her mighty warrior husband again after that, but they made a difference. A great difference that stretched across not only the whole of Kroth, but throughout the void and beyond.

More important to Jennaca was the fact that this beautiful and exotic woman had believed in her long before Jennaca had wits enough to believe in herself.

Jennaca adjusted her grip on the staff and nodded. "I'll try not to kill him," she offered.

The gnolls that had gathered-- a larger crowd now-- yipped and howled in laughter. The elder snarled and stepped back. Once he rejoined the throng surrounding her he barked. His son growled and leapt forward, spear thrusting for her.

Jennaca angled her staff and caught the blade of the spear in the middle of it. She spun it away and then kicked higher and connect with the spear's shaft where the pup's left hand was on it

The spear went wide and he jumped back and barked at her. He adjust his grip and risked a glance to his hand. He wasn't injured, but she'd made a fool of him and he knew it. He snarled and swung his spear around over his head and then brought it across in a horizontal slash using momentum and power to overwhelm her.

Jennaca saw the strike coming with enough time to jump back, fix a fire and brew some of the southern coffee that John liked, and then return and deal with the pup. Instead she twisted her staff in her hand and raised it up in a near vertical line to block the slashing blade. It hewed into the staff hard enough to dig out a notch of wood. Jennaca spun away after blocking the strike, taking care to dance over her leash and not trip herself.

The crowd grew rowdy in their barking and yapping. She had no idea if they were ridiculing her or rooting him on. Probably both. She adjusted her grip on the staff again and waited for him to attack her again.

Seeing her retreat inflamed the young man. He howled and jumped forward, stabbing his spear at her and making her deflect the spear each time as she retreated further and further back. The pup noticed the rope growing taut and began to yip his laughter. She was at the end of her rope.

The pup swung his spear around and then brought it up and over his head like an axe. It sailed toward her in an arc and she met it by holding her staff up, the right side higher than the left, and blocked the descending blow. Her arms withered under the blow and she fell away to her right toward the boulder pinning her leash in place.

The pup howled in victory. Jennaca rose on shaky legs to her feet. He jumped at her before she could ready herself and swung his spear at her head, intending to end the fight and reclaim his honor.

Jennaca dove to his right, somersaulting under the spear and jammed her staff between his legs. She came out of the roll and leapt to her feet, her staff clutched tight in both hands. She wrenched on it, using it as a lever now that the far end was jammed under the rock.

The gnoll's right leg was the fulcrum of the lever. His claws were dug into the ground, immobilizing him. Jerked his head around, forgetting about his spear and how out of position he was. He looked down as the pressure and pain built in his leg and then, a moment later, the gnolls fell silent at the resounding sound of crunching that ended in a loud snap.

The pup lurched forward, free all of a sudden. He looked down and saw that Jennaca's staff had snapped in half! She only held a three foot long length of wood in her hand.

He brought his spear in close and laughed at her. He took one step and then two toward her. She took a half step back and then grabbed her leash in her right hand. She looped it around her forearm and then ran back.

The pup stared up at the sky. He wheezed for breath and then felt the pain of hitting the ground on his back as his legs had been swept out from under him by her leash. He saw a flash of movement in the corner of his eye and twisted his head to see Jennaca snatching up the broken half of her staff. She held one three foot length in each hand now.

The pup snarled and rolled to get his feet under him. He grabbed his spear and rose up, not wondering in the least why she stood waiting for him to ready himself. He snarled again and brandished his spear.

Jennaca didn't let him finish goading himself into action. She leapt in and smacked the outside of his spear so it crossed between them and was useless. She smacked him with her other stick in the thigh and then worked both halves against him. She battered his legs repeatedly, twisting him around before she rolled opposite of the direction she'd turned him.

She came up, close to her rock and with plenty of slack in her leash, and knocked his spear up over her head as he brought it around wildly at her. Her other stick crashed onto his forearm, numbing it and making him drop the spear. She kicked the inside of his knee, driving his leg out wide to unbalance him, and then slammed both sticks into his sides a handful of times before he could bring his arms in to try and block.

Jennaca twisted and threw her knee into the inside of his other thigh and heard the pup howl. He teetered and crashed, falling onto his back. She smacked his raised arm back and forth with her sticks and then stepped on it and rode it to the ground beside him. She drove her knee into his belly and felt his spittle as his breath exploded from his open snout. Jenna placed one stick across his throat and none-too-gently slid the broken end of the other stick into his open mouth.

The pup bit down on it but he couldn't move or twist away from it with the stock jamming his mouth open. The stick across his throat was squeezing against his throat and making his frantic breaths harder to take with each passing second.

Jennaca made sure he knew he was defeated before she looked up at the pup's father.

The gnoll snarled and then gave a curt nod, accepting the outcome.

Jennaca gave an extra nudge into the pup as she rose up and backed away from him. The pup lay panting on the ground in the midst of a stunned and silent crowd.

Jennaca looked at his spear on the ground and considered it long enough to realize she'd be inviting death. She couldn't cut through the rope in time and there was no way she could fight off an entire clan of gnolls with a weapon she'd barely trained with. She retreated to her rock to give him room to escape.

The pup scrambled to his feet and grabbed his spear. He growled and clutched it in both hands.

The elder barked something in their language. The pup's ears dropped and lay smooth against his head. His raised lips trembled and then lowered. Head bowed and tail low, he turned and pushed his way between the spectators to disappear.

"He's going to be sore," Jennaca said. "Might want to give him a couple days to recover. I don't think anything's broke though."

The elder snarled at her.

She held up her hands and realized she had her sticks in them still. She dropped the pretend swords and held her hands up again. "Just saying."

"You will fight, hairless," he said.

Jennaca nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"All the pups."

"Are you for real?" Jennaca asked.

He snarled and stomped the butt of his mega-mace.

She raised her hands a little higher. "Right, all the pups," she agreed. "Want me to train your hunters or warriors or whatever you call the adults too?"

He sneered at her.

"Look, you can either be proud and dead, or you can learn from a bitch how to be better," Jennaca pointed out. "You clearly prize strength, but strength without skill doesn't get you far, does it? You're old enough and wise enough to know that."

He growled deep in his throat. Since it wasn't a crushing blow from his mace or him telling her to shut her mouth, she considered that progress.

"I'll teach you to fight," she said. "All of your village. Or tribe or clan or whatever you call yourselves. In return, you give me water and food. Cooked food... or let me make a fire and cook my own. Give me back my things too so I can keep from freezing overnight. Then, when your people have learned all they can, you let me go. Nobody else gets hurt, or killed at least, and you end up with a tribe that will be unstoppable out here."

He glared at her for a long moment. "Pack," he said at last.

Jennaca stared back. "Sorry?"

"This is our pack. I am the chief."

She nodded. "Right, pack. Of course... sorry, I didn't think of that. I'm Jennaca, Chief. I won't say nice to meet you but...well, I think we can both come out this with what we want."

"You fight with sticks," he said and gestured with his free hand at the sticks lying at her feet.

She lowered her arms and looked down at them. "I can, yes. They're not ideal, but I can make them work."

He growled a little and then turned and walked away. He turned his head and spoke in his harsh barking language to some of the other gnolls as he left her.

"Hey!" Jennaca called after him. "Do we have a deal or not?"

Her words fell on deaf ears. The other gnolls watched a moment longer and then another pup was pushed through the crowd. They began to bark and yip and offer whatever encouragement, insults, or maybe even side bets as the youth stepped into the unofficial ring surrounding Jennaca's rock.

She looked down at her stick and crouched low to pick them up. Looks like she'd find out about her deal later. For now she had another chance to take out her frustrations.