War of the Races Ch. 02

"Yes, I do, Chieftain," Nahuel growled as he swayed back and forth and flexed his muscles, "I have no problem sending the little Alfar back home to mama and papa humbled, bruised, and...Petless!"

"Then let us move to the arena!" Laborc announced and hopped to his feet.

"That is fine with me," I growled.

"Viridian," Bastet whispered in fear while Leandra put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head.

——(!)——

The arena was a large dug out whole in the far northwest corner of the village. It was roughly ten feet deep with stakes all the way around the parameter with a ramp leading down into it. The entire surround was packed with black furred cats while Leandra stood in front of me tightening my gauntlets.

"Don't be scared, my Lord," Leandra purred in a low voice for only me to hear, "Remember your training, and remember, you are your fathers son. When you feel your magic roar to life, embrace it, and you will defeat your opponent."

"Yes," I answered distractedly, but then something about the way Leandra was taking a little too long to tighten my gauntlets caught my attention and I looked up into her eyes, and I saw...worry...concern...and...affection?

"I will win," I promised, and she answered with a nod and a smile.

Turning away, she trotted out of the arena and joined Bastet who was standing with a beautiful black Panthress with similar curly hair and dressed in an elegant apron sewn with white bird bones and rubies and citrines. To add to her attire she also wore a headdress of red, green, and pink Harpy feathers, though where she had acquired them I haven't a clue.

Looking across the arena I glared at Nahuel as he paced back and forth. He had no weapons. We were not allowed to have weapons. This was not a duel to the death. As an Alfar, if I were killed the whole village would be...exterminated. However, this is a battle until one of us abdicates our right to Bastet.

Weapons or not, Nahuel still had his claws, and those were dangerous enough!

"I'm going to rip you to shreds," Nahuel taunted and he stalked towards me.

As he lunged at me I felt the magic in my belly roar to life, and everything seemed to slow down. I stepped in and slapped Nahuel's leading forearm deflecting his first punch and followed up with two punches to his ribs as I side stepped around him.

Time seemed to speed up again and Nahuel stumbled past me and grabbed his ribs as he visibly wondered what had just happened. When he turned and looked at me in my stance he grinned.

"So you know the Tiger's Claw," He rumbled menacingly, "Good! Then I don't need to go easy on you..."

Assuming a half crouch, he launched into a volley of kicks and jabs that had me in the defense and backing up, jumping back, and dodging to the sides. I deflected his clawed attacks with my gauntlets and parried his kicks with my feet. In martial skill we were equals. There was no combo of moves that he threw that I didn't know and counter, but he was bigger, and stronger, and he used that to keep pushing me back. A punch to my gut caught me off guard and I realized I was thinking too much as I flew across the arena to land in the dirt, coughing and drooling, and feeling like I was going to puke.

Seeing his prey on the ground struggling, Nahuel roared and pounced. In quick succession I felt bone crack as fists collided with my ribs and shoulders, my nose was shattered, and my jaw popped ominously. It was just as I was about to pass out, that my magic, that until now seemed like a small coiled up ball of energy in my belly, blazed like a bonfire! Strength and power surged inside me, and I could feel all the damage from the pummeling I had received healed and minimized by the surge of magic. With a mighty roar I punched up with both hands sending Nahuel flying across the arena. As I stood up waves of green magic surrounded me and radiated off my back and shoulders like flames. I crouched almost like a lion would when leaping and when I threw back my shoulders I roared thunderously across the arena causing everyone to jump in fright.

"Is that what happened to you this morning," Leandra asked in a whisper to Bastet.

She answered with a simple nod, "I nearly urinated myself. He scared me so badly."

Nahuel had time to stand up and shake off the dirt and roar in challenge before I was on top of him. I was a lion. I was Leandra. Tall and strong, and super fast. There wasn't a combo of jabs or kicks that Nahuel threw that I couldn't deflect. I didn't bother to dodge. He couldn't hurt me...anymore. He lunged at me, this time his claws bared to swipe across my throat or chest, and I deftly stepped in, grabbed his arm, and used his own momentum to throw him over me. As soon as he landed I wrenched his arm and stood on his back and pulled until I heard his shoulder pop, then I launched assault after assault into his ribs beating him and beating him until he was no longer moving.

My prey was down, it was time for the kill.

In my head I opened my mouth to clamp my jaws around Nahual's neck, but in reality it was my hands that had his head, and as every muscle in my body tightened for the final twist that would end this fight for supremacy, three male cats tackled me. One had me around the chest while the other two each had an arm as they slammed me to the ground. I kicked and I roared, and I summoned more magic that had all three full grown men struggling to keep me on the ground.

"Go to him," Laborc yelled to Bastet from across the arena, "Go to him quickly, before there is an accident that can not be mended!"

Bastet looked up and leapt in a single bound into the arena, and she ran, she ran like she had never run before, and when she arrived she pushed the man on top of me aside and hugged me so tight all the while shouting, "Virdy! Virdy! Virdy! It's me! I'm here Virdy! I love you Virdy! I'm here! I will never leave you!"

I don't know how long she yelled and cried. I don't know how long those men struggled to keep me under control, but I do know that as my rage subsided, I did hear her calling to me, and I was so...so...happy.

Healers came in before I was released, and they carried Nahuel away to be healed. When I was finally myself again, I was allowed to stand up, though Bastet clung to me like a barnacle. I brushed the dirt off and Leandra walked up smiling and shaking her head, "My Lord, that was...the most amazing...and fear inspiring thing I have ever witnessed. If I had not already made a bargain to fight you for my own...virtue...I would bed you tonight. I truly do not want to fight that monster you became just now. However, what is done is done, and now I will have to hope that I survive it!"

I wasn't sure whether I was happy or not about what happened. I was in control, but, I was also not in control at all.

Chief Laborc and his mate Queen Anmar walked down into the arena as all the Animals of the village watched. They stood together, and looked regal as they passed judgment on me and Bastet, "My Lord Viridian Vale, you are every bit your father's son. You, like your father, have a heart that is more Animal than Alfar. However, no one could know this, not your father, and certainly not us. So, the day you were born, your father and I struck an accord. I would give him my daughter to be your companion as you grew up, and we would hope that you would see through her...that we...are people...not livestock. We hoped that you would grow to love Bastet...not as a pet...and we knew that society would never let her be your wife, but maybe...just maybe...you would see her as a...mate. There are no legal documents among our people that establish marriages. We are either mates or we are not, but I digress. Your father and I knew on the day of your awakening that we must find out whether your heart is Animal or of the Alfar, and so we devised a test, to see if you were willing to discard Bastet, or not."

"A test," I growled angrily, "I almost killed a man! And this was all a test!"

"Yes, we had to know," Laborc answered with a nod, "With your power, and with the power you will accumulate, we had to know now what kind of a man you were going to be."

Part of me understood, but I was still furious, "Did Bastet know of this?"

"No," The Chieftain answered firmly, "She never knew. We knew if she did, the test would either be corrupted, or you may never be able to forgive her, so me and your father were the only ones that ever knew the details of our plan."

"So what does this mean," I asked sarcastically, "Did I pass?"

Laborc patiently smiled at me and nodded, "Yes you passed the test, and as your reward the gauntlets I previously said your father bought my daughter with. Those are yours as a wedding present from me and your father."

"A wedding present," I croaked.

"Yes, I hereby give you my daughter Princess Bastet, daughter of Queen Anmar, as a mate," Laborc yelled so that all who witnessed the fight could hear, "May your years together be long and fruitful!"

Cheers and woots and whistling broke out around the arena and throughout the village. Queen Anmar came forward and set a small tiara on Bastet's forehead and pierced her ear with a citrine earring, she clipped a citrine necklace around her neck, and slid a silver and citrine bracelet on her left wrist.

Chief Laborc came forward and pierced the same ear that I already had Silvain's earring in, and pierced it again with a matching silver and citrine earring. He looked at the silver and sapphire medallion Silvain had given me, and then snatched it from around my neck. I was about to protest when he motioned for me to hold out my left arm. When I did, a serving girl brought up a tray with a bracer on it. He took my arm and buckled the fleece-lined bracer to my arm, and then took Silvain's medallion off its chain and stuck it to the bracer. Blue magic flared to life and absorbed the sapphire stone until it was locked into place just above my wrist, then Laborc took a smaller citrine cut into the shape of a claw and placed it on the bracer to be absorbed and locked into place.

"This stone," Laborc intoned quietly for just us to hear, "...is attuned to Bastet's life-essence just like the other is attuned to Silvain's. This bracer will always let you know that the one you love is alive, and your attachment is still in place. Should your mate die, or she grows to hate you, then the stone will fall away. Understand?"

"Yes sir, I do," I answered somberly.

"Good," Laborc purred with a smile then stepped back and yelled, "The ceremony is complete! Let the feast begin!"

Cheers rang out once again and it was through the noise that Laborc yelled, "You will stay with us tonight and for the next six days!"

"Seven days," I yelled, "We don't want to be an imposition!"

"Ridiculous," Laborc chortled as he held his hands out gesturing to the festivities all around as he continued, "This is your wedding celebration! Enjoy it! Real life comes too quickly afterwards..."

He walked off then, and I took Bastet's hand and we walked with Leandra trailing behind us for the rest of the day. There was so much food to eat, and we enjoyed ourselves so much. When the night came lanterns were lit, and the minstrels came out to play music and everyone danced well into the evening. Everyone cheered as Bastet led me into our apartment, and the noise died away as she took her time taking my clothes and hers off. When we made love it was like it was before, my magic was asleep, and we could fully enjoy each other without fear of a loss of control.

"I never thought this was possible," She whispered into my chest later on in the evening.

"Neither did I," I answered as I synchronized my answer with a hug that pressed her breasts against my chest enjoyably, "Is it true though, that we can never have children? That you will never have children by me?"

"It is," She whispered softly against my chest, "We may be part Alfar, and we were made to be able to procreate with other animals, but they didn't want crossbreeding between the Animals and the Primes."

"I'm sorry," I apologized fiercely and hugged her again as my little dream of having a litter of little neko-children running around and playing went up in flames, "I'm sorry that we can't have children together."

Bastet shook her head against my chest though and mumbled, "I will gladly forsake having children to be with you..."

——(!)——

Later that night, movement in the room roused me from sleep and saw a flash of white and jumped out of bed only to be tackled by a big breasted Huxian who pressed herself into me until they were squeezing out the sides between us. She thrust her pelvis into my crotch and I could feel that her sex was rubbing against mine as she whispered, "I have a message for your mother."

She looked over at a note on a table in the room and I followed her gaze. When she looked back she licked my cheek and then continued, "I have missed your peeping on my bathing, young Virdy. I thought you were going to come back the next day, but you never did."

"I have been busy," I whispered in answer, "I've meant to come out and visit you many times."

"Hmm," She hummed in disappointment, "I can see that," She purred and looked over to Bastet laying in bead still asleep, "Well, it looks like you finally bedded your little cat."

"I guess I did," I retorted as she shifter her thick curvy thighs and I felt her sex press against me more aggressively and I felt my dick grow and start thumping against her pussy.

She smiled at me, her eyes glancing down, and I knew what she was looking at, as she purred, "My my, it seems you have grown up...and...you have grown up..."

She chuckled then pushed herself off of me, and stood up then stepped back, and ogled me as I stood up in front of her before she continued, "As much as I would like to stay and...play," She purred as she looked pointedly at my swollen organ, "I was sent here on a mission. The letter is for you and your mother. Make sure she reads it as soon as you get back home."

When she finished, she turned and walked so seductively that even I knew what she was doing, as I watched her hips and her big fluffy tail sway back and forth. Stepped through the door of our apartment, in a leap she landed on all fours of her fox form, and darted off into the night...

(Thank you for reading Chapter 2. Hopefully it didn't disappoint.

However, some may be thinking, "Man he is just wracking up the wives now," but this is not the case.

First though lets address the incest. Since this is loosely based off certain mythological/historical events. Alfar and Dvargr genetics are much stronger than Humans simce their populations where not reduced to 8 people. So there is no issue with incest in their cultures and there are no laws prohibiting it.

Second, the accumilation of wives, mates, and women. Silvain promised herself to Viridian of her own accord, when she was 20 and he was 10, and the bulk of chapter 2 happens 8 years later when he is 18. A time when all Alfar start taking on more responsibilities as well as it is the common age, for their magic to start becoming active. Also, even though their traditionally prohibited from marrying until after they are at least 170 years old, this doesn't they dont take lovers, and Animals are well...Animals and don't fall under any of the traditions.

Third, after purifying Bastet, Glenna mentions that it will take weeks for Viridian to fully absorb Bastet's magic and take on her abilities, but when Viridian fought Nahuel, his magic had cat like qualities. So, some may be wondering how is this when he hadn't fully absorbed Bastet's abilities. This is actually quite easily explained by the fact that he has been surrounded by cats his entire Alfar life so he naturally associates his magic with cat-like qualities. Also, his martial ability and power were already trained by Leandra to a point were he beat and would have killed Nahuel in his berserk state of mind if not stopped, and it took 3 seasoned warrior cats to hold him down until he calmed.

So, those were the points I thought there might be question about. I hope you all enjoyed the read, and make sure you favorite it and rank it accordingly.

Until Chapter 3 - Summons of the Em'drya -Pinkender)