The Shore of Monster Boys

A rocky pit stretched out in front of her, packed tightly with monster boys milling about. In the middle, a tiny fire burned, surrounded by a few crude sun-shelters. Farther back, a wooden scaffold as tall as a junk's rudder rose from the rock and dirt, supporting a platform that was decorated by giant, bright-colored feathers. Around the base of the tower, human men were tied, their arms stretched back and their naked bodies exposed. A monster boy with a scaly back leaned over one of the men, kissing him while fondling his rear. Bound as he was, the human was helpless to resist. The other humans watched with dull interest.

"Surround this place," Chena Yang whispered to her women. "But stay hidden. In five minutes, I'm going to talk to them. If I say, 'we have you surrounded,' that's your cue to come into the clearing. Understand?"

"Yes, Admiral!" said each of her commanders.

She waited as the team spread out. When the time came, she stepped out into the open, tall and proud in her bold red dress. The action in the pit froze. All eyes turned to her.

"Let the men go!" boomed Chena Yang. "They are not yours. We are prepared to take them through force if we must."

Whispers ran through the crowd. Tails twitched, feet stamped the ground and one monster boy tripped, tumbled into a wooden lean-to and broke it. Above the chaos, a lone figure climbed up the wooden tower and stood imperiously on the top platform. He had rough, crackled black skin with bright red veins running between the cracks. Yellow hair, simmering with heat, ran down the back of his sharp human face.

"Female!" he yelled, in Chena Yang's tongue. Then again, "Female!" A puff of smoke vented from his mouth. "Get out! You can't have your males back!"

"They belong to their mothers and wives," Chena Yang yelled back. "You took them by force. But we can take them back. We have you surrounded."

All at once, armed women burst out of the forest, with spears, swords, bows and harquebuses drawn. Muzha Shen stood out in her heavy robes, flanked by her two favorite swordswomen.

The monster boys began to clamor. Their leader stared back at Chena Yang, gritting his teeth. The air above him simmered with heat.

"We can resolve this peacefully," Chena Yang continued. "Submit to us, and we won't hurt any of you. We are here to make peace in this jungle, not to conquer it."

With a grunt, the monster blew an arc of fire into the air in front of him. "No peace!" he shrieked. "Get ready! We'll take you!"

Chena Yang shook her head. "Harquebusiers! Take out that wooden structure!"

Gunpowder clapped all around the clearing, and leaden balls crashed through the scaffold, crushing boards and rending through joints. It groaned violently as it fell, sending the fiery monster boy tumbling to the ground.

All over the basin, panic erupted. Monster boys ran in every direction. Some carried sticks, others struggled to hold bundles of food and a few ripped the captive humans from their bonds and dragged them away. None of the monster boys cooperated, and two even fought over a woven basket.

One boy, a limber one with a furry brown tail longer than he was tall, tried to leap past Chena Yang, but she caught him by the ankle. His momentum carried her off her feet, and they both tumbled to the ground.

With his other leg, the monster boy kicked at her hand, hitting only her knuckles, and she reached up with her free hand to grab it. Before he could brace with his arms, she turned him over, pressing his face into the ground. She lunged onto him, pinning him under her legs. As he struggled to stand up, his muscles tightened from his bare shoulders all the way down his back, but he couldn't move. Before Chena Yang could bind him, she felt something bat at her head. She turned just in time to see his tail whip into her face. She recoiled, her skin stinging. The next time his tail snapped at her, she encircled it with her arm, then got her fingers around it.

The boy pulled, but he did not have the leverage to get his tail loose. With a naughty smile, Chena Yang grabbed his arms and pressed them together, then brought his tail up to his wrists. With a few quick, forceful movements, she bent the tail into a knot that held his hands fast behind him. As soon as she pulled it tight, she stood up and stepped back, watching as he strained to get his arms free. But the more he struggled, the tenser his muscles became, and the more his knot pulled itself tight. For a moment, Chena Yang watched him struggle, his mostly-naked body writhing uselessly.

Then she looked up. Others of her soldiers grappled with the monster boys, and a few of them had secured captives up their own. Behind her, she heard male grunting.

With a cold shock, she realized that she had forgotten about Turapac. Rushing over to the noise, she saw him wrestling with a monster boy who had a deep green jewel embedded in his forehead. At the moment she found them, they were rolling in the grass, crashing through twigs and scraping against trees. The monster boy muscled his way to the top, flashed an evil grin, then pressed his lips onto Turapac's, crushing him under an unwanted kiss. Something in the monster boy's chest glowed deep pink.

As Chena Yang approached, the monster boy noticed her, and his chest-glow went dark in an instant. He stood up and sprinted off, orange flashing around his heart. When he was almost out of sight, a soldier tackled him and pinned him down.

"Turapac!" said Chena Yang. "He kissed you! Will you be alright?"

Turapac stood up, not slowed down by the cuts on his arms and face. "It takes more than one kiss to convert me," he said, wiping his mouth. "After what they did to my village, that one's going to pay."

"So strong," said a soft voice from above.

Turapac jumped, and Chena Yang quickly turned to see the author of the voice. It was the winged monster boy, still with the smoking lamp tangled around his chest. He perched on a branch, his wings folded protectively around him, wide brown eyes pensive underneath messy brown hair.

"Stop where you are!" barked Turapac.

"Please," said the winged boy, "I do not want to fight. The fire-boy, he scares me. He scares many of us."

"Scares you into kidnapping human men?" asked Chena Yang.

The winged boy shifted awkwardly, wings curling tighter over his shoulders. "Some of us. We don't have to do that to survive. But he wants us to, so we do it."

"Liar!" growled Turapac. "You would never-"

"That's enough," cut in Chena Yang. "Boy, come down from there and speak to us face-to-face."

The boy's wings unfurled, giving a glimpse at his thin, almost feminine waist, and he leaped down from the branch. A single flap of his wings slowed his fall, the downdraft blowing Chena Yang's hair straight back. Turapac bent his knees, clearly ready for a fight, but the winged boy only stood up straight, wings slack behind him.

"If you want to help us," said Chena Yang, "simply cooperate, and you may have a place on our ship."

"Your ship?"

"The thing we use to travel the ocean. We'll feed you and clothe you, and all we ask in return is that you service the woman to whom you're given."

His wings twitched. "Service women? Females?" He looked down, as if he had never imagined such a thing. "You'll keep me away from the fire-boy?"

"We can, if that is your wish."

"I'll..." his lips pursed shut, and his light feet twitched on the dirt. "I'll do it."

"We should tie him up," said Turapac. "Turn around, boy. Until we trust you, you're grounded."

The boy drooped with dejection, but obeyed, and Turapac removed the lasso with the smoke lamp, then roughly pulled his wings together, tying them there with the rope. A length was left dangling from the knot, which would serve for a leash.

Chena Yang reached for it, and Turapac handed it over with a respectful nod. With her leading the monster boy, they returned to the basin.

The women had already gathered in the depression, some of them carrying subdued monster boys. It was quite a catch. There were a dozen of them, all moaning and grunting in their bonds, staring up at Chena Yang with pleading or hungry eyes. Very few of them still had their clothes, and one woman crouched over a monster boy, grabbing at his cock.

"You!" snapped Chena Yang, "Save that for later."

The woman dismounted and looked sheepish.

"Women," said Chena Yang. "I want you to tie leashes to your catches, like we've done with this one, then prepare to go after the monster boys that escaped."

"They went northwest, mostly," said Muzha Shen.

"And they took most of the men with them," added Turapac. "Let's not let them have too much of a head start."

As the group pushed north, the tree canopy thickened, and light became dim. The horizon became black instead of dark green. A thin, ragged maze of sky above shone between the leaves, and only pale blue slivers of light reached the ground. The mossy rocks and tree trunks shimmered with reflected light. Without the sun, the women shivered in sudden cold. Chena Yang could see the ground two sword-lengths away, but not four. For some reason, there were no mosquitoes here in the darkness.

Male whispers coursed through the jungle ahead. Muzha Shen cleared away a giant leaf and sliced apart a tangle of vines, and Chena Yang briefly caught a glimpse of the outline of a monster boy. He was thin, like they all seemed to be, with a round bush of hair around his head. His wide-open eyes glowed a deep, unnatural green. He giggled, then sprinted off, leaping between trees and branches with the agility of a monkey.

"After him!" yelled Chena Yang, and dozens of pairs of footsteps tromped through the darkening terrain. Twice, Yiang Keng tripped and tumbled, only to snap back to her feet. Finally, those two glowing eyes appeared again, set in that same smiling round face. The monster boy and vanished once more.

Muzha Shen staggered, then balanced herself against a tree. "This isn't working," she panted.

"I think he's trying to lure us into a trap," said Turapac.

"A trap?" Chena Yang laughed. "Their leader was breathing fire while standing on a wooden tower. These are not smart people."

Turapac stopped and folded his arms. "Still, this isn't wise. I know it isn't my place to say it, but this is going to end badly for all of us if we keep going."

"If we go any deeper, we'll get lost," fretted Yiang Keng.

Bortujai drew a length of rope. "I know what they're doing," she said. "Keep after him. I'll circle around."

Bortujai split off to the side and immediately disappeared. With a little sigh of exasperation, Chena Yang kept going, leading her group in the direction those glowing eyes had gone last. For a minute, they found nothing. Then there was a fierce human growling noise ahead, with twigs snapping and branches crackling. Chena Yang hurried toward the noise, but by the time she arrived, it had already gone silent.

There were footsteps. Bortujai stepped out of a mauled bush, dusting off her clothes and looking smug, holding one end of a rope that was tied to something behind her. A second later, the monster boy came out after her, walking in slow, careful strides, stripped naked and with his arms tied tightly behind him, wrists to elbows. A rope had been tied around his head, running between his jaws, forcing him to silence. The rope in Bortujai's hand was a leash that wrapped around his erect cock, then circled his balls and ran between them before ending in a pretty knot. She yanked on the rope, and his cock glowed green as he squealed and picked up his pace.

"I got him," Bortujai felt the need to say. "He was leading us in a circle, and I headed him off. All I had to do was get my hands on his jewels..." she tugged the rope again, causing him to twitch and stumble forward. "...and he was easy."

"Well done," said Chena Yang. "But you shouldn't tell your commander to keep after him. You're welcome to suggest plans, but only I can enact them."

"You shouldn't be so gentle with him," Turapac came in. "You should make it hurt. After what his kind did to me, it's what he deserves."

"No, Turapac," said Chena Yang firmly. "In my land, we practice civilized warfare. We show respect, even for our enemies."

"This isn't your land," Turapac grumbled, folding his arms.

"No, but these are my people." She gave him a hungry smile. "And soon, you will be too."

Turapac let his arms drop, considering this.

"Admiral?" said Bortujai. "Admiral, where is Yiang Keng?"

Chena Yang looked to her side, where Yiang Keng should have been, and saw no one. Her mouth fell open. The soldiers whispered fearfully to each other.

In the dim light, Muzha Shen stared at the ground and retraced their path. Ten sword-lengths back, she lowered herself to one knee and said, "Her footprints end here. And nothing's broken near where she stopped. It looks almost as if she... flew." Muzha Shen looked up, losing her voice for a moment. "That. That thing took her."

On a thin tree branch high above, silhouetted against the dark leaves, a human form with four needlelike spider legs sticking out from its sides perched on a branch.

Chena Yang twitched as she noticed something directly in front of her, a clear white thread dripping with some thick liquid, lowering toward her a few inches at a time. Getting an idea, she grabbed it.

"Admiral!" gasped Muzha Shen. "Don't! That's his! He's trying to trap you!"

Immediately, the string went taught, and Chena Yang held on with her other hand as it hoisted her up.

"Admiral!" screamed Muzha Shen, beneath her.

"It's alright," Chena Yang called back. "Keep track of me, and he'll take you straight to where he took Yiang Keng."

The wet string reeled her all the way up to a branch, and Chena Yang forced herself to stay calm as she got her first good look at the spider boy. Unlike his brethren, he was muscular, with pectoral muscles that protruded from his chest, leading seamlessly into his thick arms. His face, too, was manlier than other monster boys, with a hard chin and sharp nose. He leaned over Chena Yang, devouring her with his dark, reflective eyes, and he licked his lips. With a crescent-shaped smile, he reached down and grabbed her arms, pressing them together. A hot, slick liquid issued from his palms, then hardened, and Chena Yang's forearms were stuck fast in front of her. With remarkable strength, he pulled Chena Yang up to level with him, and her legs found the branch.

The four legs in the spider boy's side twitched gleefully, and he pulled on the spider-silk rope attached to Chena Yang's wrists, forcing her to follow him down a twisting path along the branches. Every few steps, he looked back at her and grinned freshly. She looked down to see where to place her feet, but at the same time, she did not allow herself to think about how far it was to the ground. Below, two moving shapes confirmed that Bortujai and Muzha Shen were following her.

Eventually, the spider boy led her to a densely woven white net stretched between three trees, bound together in a concentric triangle pattern. As the spider boy stepped onto it, his thin legs picked fallen leaves off the web and tossed them over the edge, his legs never seeming to stick to the silk.

In the middle of the web was Yiang Keng. Her robes were torn open over her chest, revealing her smooth breasts, and her skirts had been split and peeled away from her legs, then stuck there with spider silk, baring her femininity. Her hands were stuck to the back of her neck, which made her sleeves fall to her shoulders. She gaped at Chena Yang. "Admiral?" she whimpered. "He caught you too?"

"Temporarily," replied Chena Yang. "Don't fear."

The spider boy grabbed Chena Yang's butt, squeezing her unpleasantly hard, and directed her across the web. She walked easily, her feet never sticking, until she reached a place directly in front of Yiang Keng, only one sword-length away and facing her. The spider boy's legs pushed on the insides of her knees, and she buckled, falling into a kneeling position.

Now, and only now, she stuck to the web. Four clawed spider-legs sliced through the silk trapping Chena Yang's arms together, then two human hands pulled her arms back and trapped them again behind her, tying them together with tough, sticky rope that was unpleasantly warm.

"Admiral?" whined Yiang Keng. "What's the plan?"

"It's alright," Chena Yang replied. "The others are-" Her speech caught as the spider boy ripped open the front of her dress, exposing her chest. When her surprise wore off, she was briefly gratified to see that she was better endowed than Yiang Keng, then continued, "The others are on him. Don't look down, or the spider boy will see him, but they're..."

One of the monster boy's spider legs slid up between her thighs, pressing against her wet lips, and she clamped her mouth shut. Her face flushed as the spider boy gently pulsed his leg against her, going back and forth underneath her. Quickly, it was lubricated with her moisture.

The spider boy leaned over her shoulder. "So wet already," he whispered, "Females are easy."

His human hands snaked around her chest and tickled her breasts, slowly climbing to the nipples. A thumb and a forefinger tightened around each. One at a time, he squeezed.

"What..." Chena Yang gasped, struggling to focus through her heat. "What are you doing?"

"Admiral," said Yiang Keng, "I think he's trying to milk us."

The spider boy kept squeezing one nipple, then the other, giving her an exciting little stab of pain with each squeeze. The leg he had pressed up against her womanhood started moving again, and Chena Yang could no longer contain herself. She started moaning.

She lost track of time. Being manipulated in three different places, every move she made increased her pleasure. Eventually, the hand on her right nipple was replaced by two spider-legs, and the human hand went down to her femininity, pressing into her wetness, then up to her mouth. His fingers fondled her tongue, forcing her to taste her own arousal.

Yiang Keng perked up, and Chena Yang had just enough focus left to know what that meant. A few seconds passed, and the hands around Chena Yang clenched, squeezing her painfully, then were yanked away. A male scream seared through the air.

Chena Yang twisted to look over her shoulder. Behind her, Muzha Shen balanced on the web in an open-handed combat stance, with Bortujai on the edge of the web, facing her. Between them, the spider boy picked himself up off the web and growled, his spider legs curling around his body. "Another female," he hissed. "I'll tie you up like the rest. I'll milk you to feed the others." He stared at her chest, licking his lips. "So much milk."

As he said this, Bortujai crept up behind him.

"I feel you behind me," said the spider boy. His spider legs coiled, as if ready to strike out at Bortujai.

"You may have six arms," said Muzha Shen. "But you are still surrounded."

With a roar, Bortujai leapt on her, and the spider boy spun around, catching her arms with two of his spider legs, the other two jabbing her in the stomach. At the same time, Muzha Shen moved in, keeping her stance low, and snapped her fist out, connecting with spider boy's stomach. He staggered under her punch, but still fought back, his legs flailing around him while his human arms grabbed at Bortujai, trying to pin her. By some bad luck, Bortujai's foot found a sticky patch on the web, and she lost her balance. The spider boy crouched over her.

But Muzha Shen was too quick for him. Batting aside his spider legs, she punched him again in the stomach, bending him double. Behind him, Turapac crawled onto the web. As the spider boy lunged to tackle Muzha Shen, Turapac grabbed him, locked his arms around the boy's neck, then pulled him away, throwing him down onto his back. The spider boy writhed for a moment, struggling to get his balance, then he stood back up, but he could not move from there. His feet had landed on a sticky patch. His face fell.