TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 16

"Something's coming up the road," sent the cat-girl a few seconds before Kal heard something crashing through the underbrush. A moment later, he felt a deathly calm come over the cat-girl as she drew her daggers.

Kal backed up and shifted the glaive back into his staff. As the sound grew closer, he made out the familiar cadence of human footfalls.

A man burst out of the vegetation. His ruddy face and arms were covered with scrapes and small cuts from his frantic dash.

Kal's eyes went immediately to the tattoo on the man's neck. It matched the drawing Ibu showed him and Kashka, indicating this man was a Reaver. The Reaver's eyes widened in fear upon seeing another human, but his expression quickly turned to one of desperate hope.

"Please! Please save me!" he shouted, running towards Kal. "Lock me up! Whip me! Just don't let her take me!" The Reaver stumbled against the mage, grabbing Kal's staff to keep from falling.

Before Kal could push the man away, four forearm-length, needle-like hairs sunk into the Reaver's back.

The mage forgotten, the man began spinning around, grasping for the hairs that were just barely out of reach. He yelled out in ever-increasing panic before freezing in place. The tortured scream ripped from his throat was only matched by the terror in his eyes. The man continued screaming as he sank to his knees and didn't stop until he collapsed into a heap on the road.

Kal paid no attention to the man as his body twitched in its death throes. Instead, he peeked out from behind his magic shield, scanning the rainforest for the Reaver's attacker.

"You don't have the Reaver's mark. I have no quarrel with you," said a female voice from the underbrush. "Leave here before the bandits kill you."

"I can't do that," said Kal. "I'm hunting those same bandits. If you are doing the same, perhaps we can work together?"

"Work to—" The mage detected a hint of hope in the woman's voice. "No, no, no, no... We can't work together. I'm hideous. You would run away the moment you saw me, just like all the other men."

"You are a monster girl, right?"

"Yes."

"I have many monster girl lovers," he said while tracing the spell for a simple illusion. "I'm not easily frightened by your kind." Beside him, an image of Ikuno appeared that shifted to Aradelle, then Perra, Gerda, Kuto. Kal couldn't help smiling as he added Kashka into the rotation. He listened over the bond for the cat-girl's reaction but was met with the frightening stillness of Kashka's mind preparing to kill the unseen woman if necessary.

"They're all so pretty," said the mysterious voice. "They aren't like me. I'm different. Men take one look and run from me. You will too."

Kal dropped his shield and stored his staff as a sign he had no intention to harm the woman, "If you do not want to work together, that's a little disappointing. But since it seems like we are both hunting the Reavers, I'd like to get whatever information you have on them. I should also know what you look like, so I don't end up attacking you by accident."

"Why are you hunting them? Did they wrong you somehow?" she asked.

"Someone I knew was killed by bandits. I'm just trying to keep others from going through what she and her father did. What about you?"

"The Reavers drove me from my home."

"You lived in the ruins?"

"I was born there."

"I couldn't get much information on the ruins or their camp. Anything you might offer would be a huge help."

The voice hesitated for a moment, "First, tell me something about the Reavers I don't know."

"That may be difficult. Most of what I know came from the Guard Captain in Lassedo," said Kal before stepping over to the dead Reaver. Avoiding the needles in the man's back, he shoved the corpse around with his foot until the black tattoo on his neck was visible to the woman. "This tattoo is a leftover of the Reavers' time as pirates. The circle and the inward teeth supposedly look like the mouth of a giant sea creature called a kraken. The oval in the middle with the wavy line is supposed to be the kraken's beak." Kicking the body to the side of the road, he turned to face the mysterious speaker. "I'm guessing that Gaboh doesn't want his men running away on him. That tattoo marks them on sight as brigands."

"Your information is old. Gaboh is dead by my own hand," said the woman.

"All the more reason we need your help. Perhaps we could pool our information and resources?"

"I want to," she replied. "I want my home back. But if I come out, I'll just scare you away. All of my husbands killed themselves as soon as my bite wore off because I was so ugly."

"They killed themselves?" he asked cautiously.

"I live up in the forest canopy. After mating with me and the effects of my bite wore off, they threw themselves from my nest. They chose to die rather than be around me."

Kal shook his head, confused. He couldn't imagine a monster girl being so hideous as to make him want to kill himself. Something wasn't adding up. "As long as you aren't interested in turning me into your next meal, I won't run away. I promise. Besides, as I said before, if we meet while dealing with the Reavers, I don't want to attack you because I don't know what you look like."

The woman sighed heavily, "I guess you're right. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

A series of dull taps came from the underbrush, followed by the extension of an insectoid leg covered in silky hair. The hair's color surprised him and reminded Kal of the purple left on your fingers after crushing a blackberry. Another leg soon followed the first before the leaves parted and a human torso appeared, but instead of human legs, she had two shorter versions of her spider legs. Despite their placement in relation to her torso, their movements were definitely more insectoid. More legs covered in silky hairs followed, along with a wide, flat carapace and a bulbous abdomen. Her abdomen also sported silky hair, and Kal could see a few of the stiff hairs she used to kill the Reaver sticking up from the backside.

The mage felt Kashka tense in caution as the spider-girl stepped out from the vegetation but relaxed after observing her for a moment. Kal agreed with the cat's assessment that the arachne showed no intention of attacking. If anything, she looked ready to bolt back into the underbrush.

Two glass-like domed structures protruded out of purple hair that matched the rest of her body. As she looked around nervously, Kal noted two more just behind her ears that had a slight silver sheen. The arachne didn't wear anything to cover her chest and purple-tinted nipples capped fair-sized breasts. Her stomach was smooth except for a small divot where a belly button would be on a human. Looking lower, he came to a small patch of hair matching that on her head that pointed toward the top of her sex.

From the way she spoke of herself, Kal expected the woman to be horribly disfigured, but her human portion was actually quite pretty, even if the spider body did make him uncomfortable. She came to a stop in front of him and nervously covered her breasts with her arm. Her two smaller legs in front dropped to the ground, and she began fidgeting in a very human-like manner.

"There. You've gotten your eyeful seen how disgusting I am. Now be on your way."

"You're hardly disgusting," said Kal, ignoring her demand for him to leave. "You are certainly different from any monster girl I've ever seen before, but I think you are quite intriguing. Even pretty."

The arachne stared at him in disbelief. "Men have thrown themselves to their deaths to get away from me. I know how ugly I am. Now you're calling me pretty?" Her eyes narrowed, "Why should I believe you?"

"Because I haven't run away screaming," he replied coolly. "Earlier, you said your husbands killed themselves once they recovered from your bite. Tell me, how do you eat?"

"Um... monkeys, large rodents, occasionally a small boar if one wanders into my hunting grounds," she answered, unsure why he would ask such a question.

"It's good to know humans aren't on that list, but I asked how you eat, not what you eat."

"Small animals like those only require a single one of my hairs to kill. I then gut, skin, and eat them. If I have a place to safely make a fire, I'll cook the meat before eating it."

"Do you know how your smaller, non-monster-girl relatives eat," He asked

"They catch their food, sometimes in a web, eat the insides, then discard the shells."

"What you said is true in essence. However, there's more to it." Kal began pacing back and forth across the cleared road. His strength rune lit up as he took a moment to kick the Reaver's corpse off to the side before continuing his explanation. "When you bite a man, it makes him crazy with lust, correct?

The arachne nodded.

"When a small spider bites its prey, two things happen. First, it paralyzes the prey, so it stops struggling and can't fight back. Keep in mind, it only paralyzes the prey, it doesn't kill it. Second, and this part is known to quite a few humans, the venom they use begins liquefying their prey's insides." The mage ignored the growing horror on the arachne's face. "Smaller spiders don't have a mouth like yours that can chew food, so they have to turn everything into a liquid first. Their prey is still alive and awake as it happens. Then there are the spiders that lay their eggs in their prey, so the spiderlings have a fresh meal when they hatch. I won't lie to you. If my options were either of those or throwing myself out of a tree, I'd choose the quick death."

The spider's eyes began to tear up, "They thought I was going to..."

"Probably. It's made worse by the stories of arachnes from back when monster girls were created. The first of your kind wrapped men in a cocoon that only left their dick exposed. After mating with the trapped man, they drained him of all his blood and bodily fluids, leaving a dried husk. Only in the last century have they begun to realize it's safer to let the men go. Humans can be very dangerous in large groups."

"You said you never met one of my kind before. How do you know this?"

"One woman I showed you has been alive for a very long time. She's the one who told me."

"I know quite well how dangerous humans can be," said the spider with a hint of sadness. "Yet you are challenging the Reavers alone?"

"I'm not alone. My companion is keeping an eye on me in case this meeting goes poorly. Also, I have a few tricks at my disposal, as you have seen."

The arachne looked around suspiciously at the vegetation to either side of the cleared road, then spent a few moments tilting her head at strange angles. After a few seconds, Kal realized the domes on her head were eyes, and she was searching the branches above for Kashka. Touching the cat's mind, he saw the arachne's upward gaze pass over the cat multiple times without seeing her.

"I have a magical shelter large enough to accommodate you. Perhaps you could join us for supper?" he asked, drawing her attention again.

The spider's eyes widened. "J-join you?" she stammered, her eyes flicking to his crotch for a brief moment.

Before he could answer, Kashka's presence blossomed in his mind again as she sheathed her daggers. The cat immediately began searching for something in his mind. Curious, Kal let her go rummage a little deeper until she found an instance where Kashka and Laika were on their knees in front of him. His cock repeatedly disappeared into the pleasure slave's mouth while Kashka dipped down and planted kisses all over his balls.

Moments later, the cat-girl sent him a new image, this time with the arachne staring up at him adoringly as she sucked him off and Kashka rained kisses on his balls.

The cat mentally crowed with triumph as his pants began to tighten.

Deciding to go along with her idea, Kal adjusted his erection and cleared his throat. "Yes, I'd like you to join... me."

The spider peeled her eyes away from his groin and the outline of his hardening cock to look at his face. She then blushed nearly as purple as her hair while her jaw worked, but no sound came out. With a final glance at his crotch, she spun around with amazing speed for such a bulky body and crashed through the foliage where she originally emerged.

Kal bent down to see the arachne skittering away through the tunnel made by the road's overgrowth, her torso bent forward so she wasn't getting beaten by the jungle's vegetation.

"Oops," sent Kashka. "I guess that was a little too much for her."

"To be fair, I thought it would work too," he replied.

"I'm going to go after her. I have an idea."

Kal chuckled as he picked up some of the details. "Okay then. Be safe."

As the cat-girl darted away, leaping from branch to branch through the canopy, he retrieved his staff from Ria and moments later began clearing the road of vegetation once again.

---

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," mumbled Anika, bouncing her palm against her temple as she climbed up one of the trees that supported her nest. "You had a male standing right in front of you, and you ran away like an idiot. He even wanted to mate you!" she said in a breathy moan as flashes of the human's cock straining against his pants flitted across her mind. "Why? Why did you run away?" Anika grumbled as she climbed into her nest. Looking up at the silken ceiling of her abode, she asked, "Why must I be my own worst enemy?"

A silken thread beneath her back leg vibrated. Her home needed to be large enough to accommodate her bulky body, and the signal strands ran through the entire nest. Carefully anchored to allow vibration to travel their length, the silk alerted her to the presence of potential food passing by from any of her home's chambers. It also warned her when intruders came calling.

Anika cautiously moved back toward her nest's entrance while instinctively keeping a leg on the signal thread at all times. Different vibrations could tell her the source's direction and even approximate size. The arachne peeked out of her nest and looked toward the disturbance. The tree her thread attached to fell within her pouncing distance, and whatever disturbed it hadn't moved. Yet, for some reason, she couldn't see what caused the thread to hum.

She looked away for a moment in confusion when another strong vibration made her head snap in the tree's direction. Standing on a branch next to the silk's attachment point stood a cat-girl with her finger on the signal thread. When she realized Anika could see her, the feline waved in greeting then bounded from tree to tree until she came to rest on a branch directly across from the opening to the arachne's nest.

The sudden advance surprised Anika, and she reared up on her back four legs in a threat display while lifting her abdomen to retrieve the glass-like stinging hairs that grew there.

The feline held her hands up, "I'm the companion of the human you spoke to earlier. I owe you an apology for running you off like that. It was my idea to entice you into helping us. I hope this way we can speak without any male distractions, as pleasant as they might be," she said, putting her hands behind her back and leaning against the tree trunk.

"Are you sure you didn't come to flaunt how pretty you are?" said Anika, her tone filled with bitterness. "Or maybe you're here to make fun of me for running away from the first male who actually showed some interest in becoming my husband?"

"Kal meant it when he called you pretty, and I agree with him," the cat replied. "However, don't think of him as a potential husband, or you will be disappointed. He may have some fun with you, but he can't stay with you like a real husband would."

"Only willing to share so much?" the spider scoffed.

The cat shook her head, "Not at all. I'm Kal's lover but also his servant. I'm here to help him on his journey and have no power to make demands as to who he sleeps with." The feline's face took on a faraway expression for a few seconds before she smiled at Anika. "He doesn't seem to agree with me."

"What was that you just did?" the spider asked, glancing around in suspicion.

"He and I can speak over long distances. I don't know how it works, and neither does Kal for the most part."

"His name is Kal?"

The woman nodded. "And mine is Kashka."

"Anika."

"That's a pretty name."

"My mother said it was the name of my father's mother. She caught him as he was exploring the ruins, and he even stayed with her for a few weeks after her bite wore off. But he was an explorer at heart and eventually continued down into the catacombs. He never returned." She didn't like to think about it, but she was certain she came across her father's skeleton while disabling one of the ancient ruin's traps.

"The ruins were once your home, weren't they?" asked Kashka

"Until the Reavers came." Anika reached up and plucked a tuft of old silk from her home's entrance. "My mother gave me a locket that glowed when I was little and told me to use it for light instead of torches. I never questioned that, even after she died. It wasn't until the Reavers came that I found out why." she rolled the tuft of threads into a ball between her fingers. "Webbing isn't very flammable unless it's something like this," she said, indicating her nest, "where there's enough to sustain a flame. Over the years, my mother and I had coated the walls, ceiling, and floors of the upper ruins with web. A couple of torches was all it took to destroy my home."

"You said your mother died. Did the Reavers kill her?"

The arachne shook her head, "When I was close to coming of age, my mother went off to try finding a new husband. She hoped to give me a little sister. The man she found was actually part of a small party, and his friends wounded her badly enough she barely made it home to say goodbye before dying."

"I lost my mother too," said Kashka. "She died trying to save my sisters and me from slavers."

"And now you're Kal's servant?"

She nodded, "But by my choice this time. He may be my Master, but I chose him. He didn't buy me."

"At least your daughters won't need to worry about their mother running off and getting killed trying to catch a husband."

"I'm not worried about daughters at the moment, and Kal has fathered enough children for a while. Although, if you are really wanting a daughter, then he may help if you ask. As a human who enjoys the company of monster girls, he considers it his duty to give children to those of us who, like you, have difficulty finding mates.

"But enough about that, what can you tell us about the ruins where you lived?"

Anika backed up from her nest's entrance, "Come inside, and I can tell you what I know about the men who took over my home." Kashka shifter to feline arms and limbs before nimbly leaping from the branch to Anika's nest. The arachne raised an eyebrow, "Do you always jump so quickly into the spider's lair?"

The cat looked up at her and smiled. "If you chose to attack me, who do you think would be in the most danger?" Kashka rested her wrists on her dagger's pommels, and it looked to Anika like the light of life went out in her eyes, leaving behind a cold, calculating, and very dangerous machine.

The spider backed further into her nest. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought this woman was staring down at her the entire time he spoke with the human. And now she just invited the cat into her home.

The cat's wrists lifted off her weapons, and the smiling, pleasant Kashka returned. "Actually, Kal would like to know more about you at the moment."

Anika released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "About me?"

"He says that maybe getting to know each other a little may prevent a repeat of earlier. He also doesn't want you to think he's only interested in what you know about the Reavers. What was it like growing up inside an ancient ruin?"