TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 13

A few moments later, two gazelle monster girls cautiously made their way out onto the road in front of them as the rest of the deer bounded away.

The women's markings closely resembled the herd's dominant type of gazelle with pale fronts, tan backs, and darker brown stripes down each side of their torso. Small, ridged horns sprouted from unkempt hair that matched their torso stripes with the gazelle's long pointed ears located just a little further out on either side. Like Kashka, they seemed able to rotate their ears to pick up sounds from all directions. White patches surrounded with horizontal pupils while dark lines ran from the inner corners of their eyes to the black tips of their noses. Another line of darker skin made a circle starting at their nose, going around the edges of their mouths to beneath their chin and back. The area around their mouth was the same white as around their eyes and inside their ears, but the rest of their faces were the tan color on their backs. The pale fur on their front came to a point at the women's groins along with the darker stripes on either side. Their legs reversed the color scheme on their torso with tan fronts and white backs all the way up their bottoms to their small tails. The gazelle's finger and toenails looked like they were painted at first but were merely the dark brown color of their hooves.

Curiously, they saw Kal but immediately began looking around as if searching for a trap. After a few moments they both noticed Kashka standing next to him and skittered backward in surprise.

That they could see her at all bothered the cat-girl and her tail flicked back and forth in agitation. The newcomers noticed the whipping tail and their eyes lit up. Both gazelle-women darted forward only to come to a skidding halt when daggers appeared in Kashka's hands.

They glanced at the feline's weapons, then at each other before one blurted out, "Can we borrow your husband?"

"We promise we won't try to steal him away from you," said the other.

"It's been such a long time since our last husband was taken from us."

"We only want him for one night, maybe two if you don't mind."

"Pleeeease!" they said in unison.

Still holding her daggers defensively, Kashka looked up at Kal for help.

The mage chuckled, "Your call, 'Mistress.' If you wish to keep your lowly husband to yourself, I will not complain." Kal turned to the gazelles, "However, we are on a journey, and if my mistress says you may have me, it will not be until we stop for the night."

"What are you doing?" Kashka hissed.

"Merely informing them they will need to wait if they want a turn with me. Would you instead like me to take care of them now, Mistress?"

The cat-girl jammed her daggers into their sheaths and crossed her arms before glaring at the human. "Fine. If you want to play games, then I suppose I could loan you out for the night," she said in a haughty tone. For a few seconds, she tried to figure out where this new attitude of hers appeared from but quickly shoved her curiosity aside. Turning to the gazelles, she pointed at Kal, "Don't forget that he is mine, and I get to decide what he does with who."

Behind the newcomers, the last of the deer herd bounded across the road. "What about them?" she asked.

The first gazelle-woman peeked back and waved off Kashka's concerns. "We don't have bucks fighting to keep us in their harem. We'll catch up to them or find another herd to run with."

"Don't you stay in herds for safety?" asked Kal as they started walking again.

"As fast as we run, there isn't much that can catch us except for cheetahs and other monster girls. The cheetahs usually go after the regular gazelles, not us," said the second gazelle as they fell in step with the human and feline.

"It's probably because of your eyes," said Kal

"Our eyes?" asked the first.

"Even though you have a deer's pupils, they face forward like a human's or a cat's. This tells them you are a predator, and they should find easier prey elsewhere."

"That would explain why new herds are always so skittish when we join them, Coovie," the second gazelle said to the other.

"Do you two switch herds often?" asked Kashka.

"Only when necessary. As Rhim said, new herds take time to accept us, but they also go south for the dry season, following the grasses. There aren't any human settlements to the south which means fewer chances to find a new husband. Since we can eat more than just grass, we stay up here and try to find a mate.

"You said you had a husband. What happened to him?" Kal asked.

Coovie sighed, "Humans can't run very fast, and a lioness chased him down and dragged him back to their pride."

Kashka and Kal both cringed. "I'm so sorry to hear that," said the cat-girl.

"Yeah," she said with another heavy sigh, "Those lucky bitches got an entire generation out of him before he got sick. They took him back to a human village so he wouldn't die."

The cat-girl rolled her eyes. "I thought you meant an actual lion, not another monster girl."

"Are lions really that frightening?" asked Kal. "I've only read and heard about them. I've never seen one."

"Absolutely!" said Coovie. "They're huge cats with big fangs and sharp claws. The females do all the hunting while the male just lays around and fights off other males."

"Since we run so much faster, they need to be very sneaky to have a chance of catching us. We have incredibly good eyes, so they aren't much of a danger," Rhim explained.

"And the pride of lion-girls is the same but without the lazy male?"

Rhim giggled, "Mostly, but they're smarter and have a chance of catching us. Luckily, they are more interested in getting eaten than eating us."

"It'd be a lot more fun if their tongues weren't so rough. It's not like they can even return the favor," Coovie grumbled.

"True. But you must admit it's fun when they chase us. I like running without fearing for my life. Also, it's not like they aren't good with their hands and fingers."

"So, they 'hunt' you for your smoother tongues?" Kal asked.

Coovie looked over at Kashka, "Your husband asks a lot of questions."

Kashka smiled, "I like that about him. He's smart and keeps things interesting. I learned a lot from him as we crossed the desert."

The gazelle-woman's eyes widened, "You came from the other side of the desert? What was it like dealing with all that sand and heat? We've been to the edge but were too scared to go further."

"Wise choice. Kal killed two of the giant sandworms that live out there. Trust me, they wouldn't be interested in making use of your tongue and letting you go like the lions."

"We killed two sandworms," said Kal. "You played an important part in that fight, Mistress."

Kashka glared at the mage. She couldn't figure out why he insisted on keeping up this "mistress" nonsense.

"How do you keep him from running away?" Rhim asked, pulling Kashka out of her thoughts. We saw the humans go by in the wheeled things--"

"Carriages," Kal offered.

"Care-uh-jez?"

The mage nodded, "Close enough."

"In those things. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to catch up to them."

Kal held out his arms. On one of his vambraces, the stamina rune glowed faintly. "These prevent me from running away and keep me doing what she wants."

The gazelles both stared at the leather arm guards for a moment, then turned to Kashka.

"Can we see?" asked Rhim.

"Make him do something, please?" Coovie added.

"Something sexy, like take off his pants."

"I'd advise against that, Mistress," Kal advised. "The sun is still high enough that some delicate parts could get burned. Of course, Mistress is always welcome to... sheathe those parts. If she wishes, that is."

Ignoring that the sun was at their backs, so the only thing sunburned would be his butt and the backs of his legs, Kashka's tail whipped back and forth. "Kal," she growled.

Stepping away, he held his hands up to ward her off, "It was just a suggestion."

Coovie and Rhim stared at the mage and cat.

"Our husbands never acted like that," said Coovie.

"Like what?" asked Kashka.

"Joking and flirting with us."

"And he never acted like he actually wanted to make love to us," Rhim offered.

"That doesn't sound like much fun," said Kal. "How did you meet him?"

The gazelle women both smiled at the memory. "We came across his camp late at night. Some other humans were there, but he was the only one awake," Coovie began. "We found a spot upwind and marked the area with our scent.

"It took a little while, but he eventually got up and came running after us. His cock bounced in the moonlight, where it stuck out from his pants. Mmm... I'm getting wet just thinking about it."

"Hmm, me too," said Rhim with a dreamy look at Kal.

"What happened next?" asked the mage. Kashka looked up at him and saw his mouth pulled into a tense, forced smile.

"He chased us through the night," Coovie continued. "By morning, he was stumbling from exhaustion and far away from his camp. Then we finally let him catch us, and he took turns making love to us over and over until he fell asleep."

"It was a wonderful couple of weeks until the lionesses took him," said Rhim, bitterly.

"Tell me," the steely tone in Kal's voice made Kashka wince, "Why would you expect him to be happy and flirt with you after you lured him away from his friends, or maybe even his family, then kidnapped and raped him?"

The gazelles looked at the mage in shock. Coovie was the first to recover.

"We didn't kidnap him! He chased after us!" she snapped.

"We just bent over or opened our legs. He was the one who fucked us!" added Rhim.

Kal's voice lowered to a growl. "Once he got your scent in his head, did he have any choice but to fuck you? I can tell you from experience, no, he didn't. His conscious mind went away and left nothing but lust directed at you. If Mistress held her knife to his throat and told him to stop, he couldn't, even to save his own life. Regardless of how many times he came inside you, you raped him because you took away his ability to say no or even stop."

Rhim's walk slowed until she eventually came to a stop. Her expression was a mixture of hurt and confusion. "Wait, that can't be right..."

"For all you know," the mage pressed on, "he could have been happy to spend his turn at watch balls deep inside one or both of you. He may have even been glad for the extra set of eyes. But you never even bothered to ask and never gave him the chance to say yes or no."

"What about us!" Coovie spat, almost shouting at the human. "It had been months since our last time with a male."

"What about you," he snapped back. "What do you think humans do when they haven't bedded someone in a while?" Kal wiggled his fingers, "They take care of it themselves. If I did to a human woman what you put that man through, I would have a rope around my neck and be hanging from a tree."

Sighing, he looked over at Kashka, "It's times like this I wonder if trying to get humans and monster girls to live together peacefully is a fool's errand."

The cat-girl glared at the two gazelles, "Leave us so I can speak with Kal alone."

"What about--"

"As of right now, you've lost your chance with Kal," snapped Kashka, "and I can tell you that's a big loss on your part, but if he doesn't want to have sex with you, I won't make him.

"Keep pace with us if you want another chance when we stop for the night but don't approach unless we invite you back." The cat-girl pointed toward the side of the road.

Coovie glared at the feline, "You're going to deny us because your pet human is upset?"

"Yes. But more than that, your story made me think of the sandworms and how they used their scent to make a man run straight towards them. There was no mating, no sex. This man knew about these creatures and had to understand he was bout to die, but still threw himself into its mouth. After seeing it with my own eyes, I have to believe Kal. Your 'husband' had no choice."

"You're telling me you've never used your scent to attract a mate?"

"Not like that, no. I'm not even sure I can do that," said Kashka, her tone becoming uncertain.

"You probably can," said Kal. "You've just never been shown how. Almost every monster girl has some kind of aphrodisiac or attractant. The only ones I'm not sure of are Ikuno and a salamander-girl named Silma... Wait, never mind, Silma's was her saliva, and I was just immune to its effects. So, it's just Ikuno I don't know about.

"So how did you get him?" asked Coovie asked the cat-girl while pointing at Kal.

"Simple," answered the mage, "She asked, and I accepted."

The gazelle-woman looked like she was about to explode and stood there clenching her hands in anger before stomping off the road. Rhim followed closely behind, and they could hear the other gazelle trying to convince Coovie to do as Kashka asked and keep pace with them.

The cat-girl raised an eyebrow at Kal as they started walking again. "I asked, and you agreed? I don't remember that part."

"I may have been embellishing a little, but I needed to drive the point home that they don't need to drug a man into bed," said Kal

Kashka shook her head, "What was our creator thinking? We have these powerful natural weapons, but those two wield them like children."

"I rarely think of them as weapons except when it comes to monster girls like the sandworms or the sundew I once ran across. By rights, they fit the description of a weapon.

"Remember that the first monster girls were created as defenses for Prentas's tower. When protecting yourself from people trying to steal your things and maybe even kill you, you want strong weapons for those defenses. Casting the spell that created your ancestors spawned from that original idea. I'm sure if Prentas had any idea how some of the monster girls would use the ability to entice men, he would have scaled it back. From what the girls at the tower told me, during Prentas's last years, nobody but a few thieves tried getting into the tower, and the area of forest bordering the city had willing men coming to visit. The monster girls didn't have to use their scents and abilities to attract males. It's possible he didn't consider the long-term impact of a monster girl's aphrodisiac.

"Now we need to retrain women like them to use their scent like your throwing knives and not like a woodsman's ax. If there is a way for them to use their scent as an attractant and not make men lust crazy, maybe we should explore the possibility with these two."

"How are you planning on doing that?" Kashka asked.

"By using myself as a test subject until we get to the far edge of the savannah."

"You're still going to sleep with them?"

"It will be a good incentive for them to help me with my experiments, and there's a fair chance I won't have much choice, at least a few times."

Kashka huffed and stuck her nose in the air, "I suppose I could allow you to carry out your experiments with the gazelles, but only if my needs are met first."

"As you wish, Mistress."

------

Coovie and Rhim joined up with Kal and Kashka when they stepped off the road to set up camp. After noticing bouncing lanterns on the road behind them, Kal moved their camp further away from the road to avoid inquisitive merchants.

Rhim looked on with amazement as the magical shelter assembled itself into a little two-man tent while Coovie did her best to look unimpressed. From the tale Rhim told, Coovie took the rest of the day to cool down enough to agree to join them.

"Mistress, you said you wanted to be first. Shall we go inside?" asked Kal.

Kashka contemplated his offer for a moment as she rested her back against the tent's doorway with her arms crossed. Eventually, she shook her head. "I've been curious about how this will turn out ever since you brought it up, and I know you won't leave me wanting. Do your experiments first. You can take care of me later."

"As you wish." Stepping away, Kal summoned a little ball of light and held his arms out, "Ria, strip me naked except for my bracers and fetch me a bottle of Cyrene's slime, please."

"Are you sure you want to leave your vambraces?" the sprite asked from where she floated near the cat-girl. "You might hurt the woman."

"With packs of lions and other predators out there? Not a chance. I don't want to be defenseless if we get attacked."

Kashka patted the tent's canvas, "We could do this in there."

The gazelles both looked at the cat-girl like she had gone mad. The shelter could plainly only hold two people. How did she expect all four of them to fit in there?

"I thought about that," said Kal, "but after I rescued the dog-girls, their scent lingered for a long time. If we are out here and I want to stop the experiment, all I need to do is step to the side. If her scent fills up the tent, I have nowhere to go."

Kashka shrugged. "Fair enough. What's the slime for?"

The mage held the bottle up. "If the effects are like Bea's dust, then it's possible I won't be in control for at least a few seconds. This is so I don't hurt her, especially if I slip into the wrong hole," said Kal as he waved Rhim over and stepped up next to her.

"It's okay," said the gazelle-woman. "It's happened before, and it only hurts for a little bit."

Kal poured some of the slime onto his fingers and brought his hand down to her sex. Rhim's breathing quickened as she widened her stance. "The point is..." said Kal as he began spreading the slippery substance over her sex, "to make sure it doesn't hurt at all," he finished as two fingers slid inside Rhim's pussy. The gazelle moaned as he worked them in and out before adding a third.

She looked up at him with disappointment and confusion as he withdrew his fingers. Kal twirled his finger in a circle, indicating she should turn around, then applied more of the slime to his fingers before having Ria store the rest.

"The hardest part..." he said as he brought Cyrene's slime down to Rhim's bottom. The gazelle gasped as he began teasing her rear entrance. "...is going to be convincing myself I don't want to fuck you."

Rhim moaned as Kal's finger slowly slipped inside her ass. "I don't understand," she said, gasping as the mage started moving the digit in and out, "Isn't the whole point of this? To see how much of our scent it takes to get you to fuck me?"

"It is," he said as he bent down and nibbled on Rhim's neck, "but I have an enchantment that specifically protects me from monster girls. It cancels out the lust craze, but only if I want to be with the woman," he slipped a second finger into the woman's bottom, "and right now, I want to bend you over and fuck the hell out of you."

Ria flitted down in front of the panting gazelle, "What he means is that your scent will never take effect unless he convinces himself he doesn't want to do anything with you."

The sprite seemed lost in thought for a moment before looking at Kal, "Don't you have some control over how much you react to mating scents? You said you just let things happen when you knocked up Velt and Graff."

The mage nodded, and Rhim grumbled with annoyance as he stopped kissing her neck, "I did. But before that, I studied the adaptation enchantment with Kithana back at the tower to look for any other secrets buried inside it besides the flight rune. Prentas was worried the effect of the aphrodisiac would force a recipient's mind to 'let it happen' all the time, once they knew it was possible. That would effectively nullify the enchantment's protection. He put a differentiation in the spell between lovers and strangers. I can't just 'let it happen' until I've gotten to know them, and we've built some trust between us. I could let go like that with Kashka, and maybe even Laika if she weren't human, but not these two."