The Egg of Immorality Ch. 16

Jennaca the slave has a new job. Appease the chief by proving she can train the unruly pups. Failing that means death at the teeth of bloodthirsty monsters... or worse.

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.

Sharp teeth bit down on the wooden pole. Jennaca heard the crunching of the dried wood even as she fought back a tired laugh at the gnoll pup's attack. He hoped to rip one of her battered sticks out of her hand or at least keep it busy while he hit her with his club. He didn't understand how leverage worked.

Jennaca dipped under his head well inside the reach of his club. She danced in a circle as she pulled her arm down and forced the pup to twist his head. She circled around him, forcing him to strain his neck further and further. Her stick was lodged between his jaws, reversing his attack and forcing him to spin and then lose his balance and fall to the hard packed ground on his back.

Jennaca dropped down, using her body to add momentum to her free arm and the stick held in it. It crashed across his lower ribs and belly. Air burst from the pup's mouth and nose, helping to dislodge Jennaca's stick. The pup yipped and scrambled to get away while trying to grab his battered ribs at the same time. He floundered across the ground several feet until he stopped and glared at her, panting and trying to quiet his whimpers.

Gnolls came and went throughout the day. Some stayed and watched while she sparred with a pup until it was obvious the pup was going to lose. Some lost so badly and had to be helped away. Jennaca had gotten to the point where she ignored them now and waited for her next opponent. Although, given how low the sun was in the west and how dog-tired she was, she--

Dog tired? Jennaca coughed out a laugh at her accidental pun. Saints, her lungs hurt from fighting and breathing hard all day. Even laughing was painful now.

"You won another day."

Jennaca spun and did a sidestep to hide how off balance she was. She looked up at the chief and stated, "It wasn't hard."

He snorted and gestured. Another gnoll stepped forward, this one smaller than most but not a pup. They dropped a large hide at Jennaca's feet. It fell open and revealed some of her things inside of it. Her weapons weren't there, but most of the rest of her belongings were. Another gnoll stepped forward from the chief's other side and dropped the gutted corpse of a fox beside the hide.

"Eat," the chief said. "Rest. Tomorrow, do it again."

Jennaca frowned. "Some of them seemed to understand me, do your people know my language?"

The chief hesitated and then nodded. "Few speak it, but all know it."

Jennaca nodded. "That makes sense. Good. In that case, have them all come."

"Why?"

She smiled. "I enjoy bloodying them, I really do, but there are better ways to teach then leaving them bruised and aching every day."

The chief snorted and turned. He barked something at the other two gnolls and they fell in behind him as he walked away. Jennaca watched them go and noted how different they looked from the chief. They were smaller than he was, not just in height but in build too. Were they women? She didn't know much about gnolls, but she knew there were both men and women. They were a magical twist on dogs or wolves though, so perhaps the difference in gender wasn't as obvious as it usually was for a human.

She sagged to her knees, grateful she didn't have to fight any more. Every part of her ached. The worst part, though she'd never admit it, was her lower back and her chest. As much as she enjoyed the freedom of being naked, fighting with her girls unfettered was more than strenuous. They were practically blunt instruments in their own right. John commented how he'd die a happy man suffocated between them.

Jennaca pushed thoughts of her Master away before the ache in her heart matched the ache in her body. Even as busy as she'd been she missed him. Missed seeing him and the quiet comfort of knowing he was around. She missed talking to him and learning from him... and she missed teasing him. She missed his touch too. Saints, did she miss that!

Damn it, so much for not thinking about him. She sighed and felt the stretching of her chest with the heavy breath. On top of the aches there was soreness from muscles used past their limit. She'd lost track of the gnoll pups she'd beaten over the course of the day. Over a dozen, surely, although she thought a couple she might have fought more than once. Only one had come close to scoring a hit on her, but that didn't account for the abuse she took blocking their powerful attacks and when she needed to roll across the ground or collide with one of them as part of a maneuver.

She did an inventory of her items and found that her pouches were still there, but they'd been emptied. Her water skin was full and she cranked the stopper from it and slaked her thirst right away. She struggled to keep from guzzling the entire skin and managed to leave a bit in it by the time the water was sloshing in her belly.

She found her whetstone and a small knife next and looked around the gnoll camp quickly. They couldn't have missed it when they went through her things... so why give it to back to her? Sure, it was small and they were large, but any blade gave her an advantage.

Further searching revealed her clothes... but they were torn apart. Her sandals alone survived the harsh examination the gnolls had given her belonging. She found her cloak and a change of clothes, though they had a few tears in them caused by grabbing nails. She had a small sewing kit that was unharmed and her flint and steel were in the hide bundle too.

The hide was dried and somewhat flexible, but had not been cured properly. It had a faint stink that remained with it and already showed signs of breaking down. Jennaca had hoped for more from it.

She glanced at the remains of the fox and sighed. Another meal of raw meat turned her stomach, even as hungry as she was. She looked back at her motley collection of worldly goods and began to make plans.

Using her knife she cut some strips of meat from the fox. The choicest pieces had been taken but she was in no place or condition to complain. She laid them on the rocks that served as the center of her world. She began to gather grass what other blown tinder she could find and collected them on the lee side of the rocks to keep the irregular winds from blowing them away. She gathered up her clothes and, after salvaging what she could of laces from them, put the rest in a pile nearby. She used her knife to shave off some splinters from her sticks, sharpening the end of both sticks to a dull point. The shavings she added in a separate pile.

By the time she was ready the sun had nearly set. She paused and looked around at the camp again. She'd come to tune most of it out, even though she knew that probably wasn't for the best. She didn't understand their guttural barking and grunting language and there was always some scuffle or other breaking out around her.

Now that she was paying attention to it, a breathy yipping drew her attention. She tracked it down to misshapen tent with an open flap. She sucked in a sharp breath and looked away as she realized two gnolls were fucking.

"And that's why they call it doggy style," she joked to herself and then giggled.

Jennaca glanced back and saw that the noises she'd heard must have been the end of their coupling. The man was panting and looking around the tent while he remained patiently behind his mate. The woman picked her head up off the furs and growled appreciatively. Neither one seemed ready to pull apart even though they weren't trying to do anymore.

Jennaca and the man locked gazes. She sucked in a quick breath and was about to look away when he let out a high pitched yipping laugh. The woman turned her head to look at Jennaca and joined him. She even reached back and ran her dark claws through the short fur of her hip and then slapped her hand hard on her rump.

"Oh my," Jennaca whispered.

The man put his hands on his mate's hips and growled as he pulled back and worked himself free. She growled and then whimpered when he slipped out of her furry mound. He stepped out of the tent and rose to his full height. His cock bobbed in front of him and pointed straight at her.

"Saints," Jennaca breathed when she saw the size of the gnoll's manhood. The length rivaled John's but the thickness of his shaft, at least a portion of it, was-- "Oh... oh my. Gnolls have the knot too."

Jennaca jerked her gaze away and turned. Hoping that would be enough. Her cheeks were burning and, for once, she didn't notice the cool gusting evening winds on her tired and bare skin. She risked a glance back and saw that the gnoll had wandered off or returned to the tent. The flap had been closed and she was spared seeing anything else.

Jennaca shivered and realized she was cold. A normal breeze she could shrug off, but now, after a day of fighting and little to nothing to eat she had little strength remaining. The cold had seeped into her and, now that she realized it, she knew she was in danger.

Jennaca slipped her cloak around her and huddled within it, blocking the wind and shivering to try and generate some heat. It wasn't doing much good though. She needed more. She grabbed the hide-- some kind of antelope or deer, given the short hair-- and draped it over her cloak and hovered over her would-be fire pit. She struck her steel to the flint until sparks fizzled and caught in the grass. She blew on them, spreading the flame, and then took strips of her ruined clothes and added them. The fire grew rapidly so she began adding in shavings of wood. The fire eagerly licked at them and began to darken the edges.

The heat warmed her and, for a moment, Jennaca forgot everything but the welcome warmth. Then she realized the flames would not last long. She turned and grabbed the strips of meat she'd cut free and pushed them onto her knife. She held it out over the fire and turned it, trying to let the fire heat the meat as evenly as possible. She fed more shavings and scraps of clothing into it, keeping it burning hot, even though it was small. She ran out of wood all too soon. She still had a tiny pile of scrapped cloth and leather but opted to save it. Another night she might need another fire.

Jennaca tested the meat nearest the tip of her knife. It was hot to the touch, which was a good sign. She plucked it off the knife, her hunger fighting her desire to not burn her fingers. Fortunately, it wasn't quite hot enough. She stuffed it in her mouth and tore off a piece of it. She chewed, tasting the lean meat and feeling an almost savage joy as it squished between her teeth and then slid down her throat. She bit into the next piece and noted it was more tender and a little cooler in the middle. That didn't stop her, but she did have to chew it a few more times before she could swallow it and move on.

She worked her way through both slices of the fox and glanced over at the carcass. She stared at it and then turned and looked away. Her belly was warm from the food and that warmth spread through her slowly. She cuddled up in her cloak and drew her legs in so she was beside the blackened scar on the ground where her meager cook fire had been. She could eat more, but what she had was enough. She even surprised herself with a belch. Her hand flew to her mouth and she looked around.

Nobody looked back. The gnolls were ignoring her. She let loose a tired giggle. Belching was a natural thing, after all. She'd spent so much time around other people-- Jane and his women-- that she'd started to think like a proper member of society again. She grinned. That would have pleased her mother... no, that wasn't true. Her mother wanted her to be happy and she understood the call of the wild better than most. It would have pleased her tutors though. Probably Queen Patrina and her daughters Kenna and Aleena too.

Jennaca wasn't like them though. She was like her mother, but different too. She was... she was wild. There was no taming her. No culture or society would do so and certainly no man. No, she'd met the man she wanted and he claimed her as she was. He loved her as she was, she knew it, even if he would insist he couldn't feel for her that way.

Jennaca smiled. She knew Lord John better than he knew himself. Better than the demon he served, certainly. One day a reckoning would come, John wouldn't be able to serve her anymore, and that would be a very interesting day. Jennaca would be there with him. At his side. Fighting for him.

But that meant she had to get back to him, and to do that, she had to deal with these gnolls. Ideas had come to her during and between fights. Now it was time to put them together into something better. She began by taking her knife and sawing against the rope around her ankle. Escape? Sure, she could run away in the night, but they were fast and she was tired and in no condition for a proper fight. No, she needed the rope for something else. The rope, what she'd salvaged from her clothes before burning them, and probably a bit of her cloak as well.

By the morning, she intended to not only begin winning the pups to her cause, but to show the tribe of gnolls that she was more resourceful and valuable than they realized... or at least more trouble than dealing with her was worth.