Chapter Five

Come next morning Mister Yusri and the other men had begun to pack up the tents and load up their camels. Almari insisted on helping them so I was stuck looking after Timothy. For some reason he was staring at me nervously. I tried to ignore him, instead watching Almari struggling to lift things up to the women warrior.

As I continued to watch them, Timothy tugged on my robes to draw my attention. "What?" I said, probably a little too mean. He let go and took a step back, like a scared animal. I felt bad. "Sorry" I said, putting my hand on his head to comfort him. "What is it Timothy?" He began shifting in place before blurting out "I need to pee!" I thought about trying to pawn him off on Almari or perhaps one of the warriors but decided to just go along with it.

Timothy and I wandered around the small town searching for some place to relieve ourselves. After a while I gave up on finding a modest bathroom and instead just kept watch for Timothy to pee against the back of one of the buildings. I had him do the same for me. Afterwards we walked through the packed morning market to get back to Almari and the others. While navigating through the dense crowd, Timothy bumped quite hard into a man that was walking obliviously in front of us. Timothy immediately let out a "I'm sorry" But the man began to reach out for Timothy, anger in his eyes. I pivoted on my foot to push Timothy ahead of me, placing myself between him and the stranger. The man's hand stopped just short of my face. As he looked at me surprised I looked back at him with furrowed brows. My look probably upset him. After he stared back at me for what felt like a minute, the man said something in the language I had been hearing all around and turned to leave. As he left I noticed two blades on his belt, both curved. They kind of reminded me of a katana and wakizashi combo, so maybe we got lucky. I also got weird vibes looking at his weird patterned robes. On the way back to the others Timothy said a meek "Thanks." Maybe he wasn't so terrible after all?

When we got back to the others they were finished packing. With everyone back together the women warrior helped lift Timothy and me onto the back of her camel. Almari would be riding with Mister Yusri and was already sparking up a conversation with him. Maybe if they get to know each other enough he'll want to keep her as his daughter? If everything worked out well perhaps I could leave Almari and Timothy in the village. Almari could cast healing magic and water magic which made her probably more valuable than the average child. Though it also made her more valuable as a slave too. Timothy was too young to have developed any real talents but based on how Renault was coming along he was sure to grow into a good looking and strong man. If he got over his whiny attitude. While I was in the same situation as Almari I had a fairly feeble body. I, though, had no desire to stay in a village in the middle of a scorching hot desert or become someone's slave. If I got both Timothy and Almari accepted into the village, maybe I could just leave them?

I thought about this and other things as our little camel train trekked across the rocky sands. Most of the warriors were walking aside pack laden camels. The only ones riding were us three kids, Mister Yusri and Mister Azmi. The women would probably normally ride too if we weren't here. Which reminded me I didn't even know this woman's name. "Hey" I said to her, looking down from the camel towards where she was walking beside us. She looked back up at me with a quizzical look. "What's your name?" I asked. It was a long shot that she would understand any of the human language, despite being human. Seriously though, who named these languages? She looked back and said something to me that I couldn't understand. It didn't sound like a name. "Victoria" I said, tapping myself in the chest. Her face lit up in understanding as she repeated the gesture. "Samara," she said. Great well now I at least knew her name. Timothy, in front of me also did the gesture and told her his name. Though she probably already knew Timothy and Almari's names, as she'd spent several days with them.

We stopped several times for water and bathroom breaks. The male warriors took Timothy with them, though I could tell he was hesitant to be away from Almari or me. Meanwhile though Samara took us girls to use the bathroom. While we waited Almari exchanged some of the small stories she heard from Yusri. From the sounds of it all, it seemed like he must be a fairly accomplished warrior. All of the tales involved some confrontation with monsters or bandits. They didn't sound too far-fetched so I was inclined to believe the stories. After Samara was done we returned to the group before setting off again.

It was getting late and the sun was slowly drooping in the sky. Mister Yusri declared we would make camp and our travels for the day came to a halt. Instead of erecting the tents however it seemed they planned on sleeping in the shadow of a nearby mesa. "Why aren't we going to sleep in the tents?" poised Almari to Mister Yusri, as the man laid out his bedroll. He grinned at her "Sleeping in open air is safer. You have a better chance of detecting monsters before they get close enough to attack. Unlike sleeping in a tent." The logic was there but it made more sense to have most of the group get restful sleep in a tent while keeping a changing guard. Especially since they seemed to already plan to schedule watches. Regardless when Samara handed me a bedroll I sought out the softest spot I could find to lay it down and even took the time to remove any rocks from beneath it. My siblings followed my lead and placed theirs near mine. Samara seemed to be incharge of us during the trek so she too placed her bedroll near ours, forming a square with space in the middle for a small fire.

As the sun set all but two of the warriors were in their bedrolls sleeping. Almari and Timothy had fallen asleep quickly but I was left looking out into the darkness. Despite my best efforts to make my bedding soft, each time I lay down I found a new rock. Frustrated, I decided I would wait for exhaustion to take me. It was around that time I began to smell something awful. Like a mixture of spoiled eggs and animal musk. It almost made me want to vomit the rations I had been fed. Annoyed, I first thought maybe Timothy had passed some particularly horrendous gas so I rose from my bedroll and walked a distance away.

The smell seemed to follow me. This odor was starting to piss me off so I began to search for the source. Given how dark it was I channeled a spell to let me see better in the darkness. That's when I noticed one of the guards was missing. My heart jumped and I looked around frantically. Were we under attack? No no, he might have just have gone to the bathroom. Perhaps it was the smell but I was still on edge. I began wandering the camp, scanning the horizon and behind rocks in an attempt to find him. When I neared the opposite side of the camp I saw him some distance away. He was walking into the darkness towards a figure obscured by something moving around them. I began approaching quietly, trying to make out what the figure was and what it was doing. What I saw was an ugly creature with a bat-like face and wings, with a humanoid body. It was surrounded by a swarm of large bats. The creature looked strangely femininie and seemed to be beckoning with a clawed hand for the guard to follow her, which he appeared to be doing. Cautiously I continued approaching them and the closer I got the stronger that horrid scent became.

When I was about thirty meters away from the guard the creature spotted me. It let out a hiss of sorts and pointed its clawed finger at me. As it did the swarm of bats spread out and began flying towards me, screeching. "Shit, I should have woken up the others." I mumbled under my breath. The bats would be on me in seconds. Fine if you batties want to play I'll play. With a swipe of my hand I created a dozen Water Blades and sent them into the swarm. Water Blade was another go to spell of mine. It wasn't very powerful but it was quick to cast, mana efficient and could attack an enemy from any angle. It created a scythe of water in the air and propelled it towards an enemy at impressive speeds. The spell was more than enough to cut the bats down to about half their number, slicing cleanly through their bodies without effort. While bloody bat parts fell all around me, the rest of the creatures closed in and began trying to dive towards me and attack. I enveloped myself in an aura to protect myself and began picking them off with more Water Blades.

These abnormally large bats were surprisingly agile. Up close I was having a hard time aiming my attacks and while they seemed unable to bite through my magical defenses, the impact of their bodies against me was sending me tumbling. Exacerbated, I instead chose to change up my tactics, conjuring a blade of sharpened ice in my right hand. Even in my frail body, I could still launch a physical attack against a monster headed straight at me. As another came diving towards me I shifted position, putting the sword of ice between myself and the bat. I then leaned into the attack. The magically sharpened blade cleaved easily through the creature. I heard the sound of bones snapping as I was covered in its visera. Pushing my frail body I slashed another in two, then skewered one that had come around to attack.

While distracted by the bats I failed to notice the feminine monster charge at me and before I noticed it, the monster had slammed a taloned foot into my side. It was surprisingly strong and its talons pierced through my defenses. I let out a scream of pain as I fell to the ground. I had to roll several times to avoid the creature's attempts to curbstomp me. On the final roll I struck out with my sword, cutting a shallow wound across its exposed breasts. Using that moment I jumped to my feet and stared the creature down as it hissed at me. I was gritting my teeth as I felt the pain in my side. The creature circled me and I touched the wound it had dealt me, then peered at my hand. "Fuck" I let out as I saw the crimson blood on my hand.

I didn't have time to heal myself or stop the bleeding as it launched a furious assault at me. Flying a few feet off the ground it led with two attacks with its talons, before swiping it's unnervingly long claws at me in a flurry of blows. I managed to backpadel the first swing of talons, then tripping on a rock saved me from the second. Now on the ground though I was helpless as it rapidly swung its claws at me. I shielded my eyes but could feel it cutting into my body and hot blood going everywhere. I had to end this quickly. With a roar I gathered mana within my left hand and reached forward into the monster's attacks. Touching the creature I let the magic spring forward in a Flash Freeze spell. As my spell went off the creature was frozen solid and the attacks stopped.

I was left panting and exhausted. Looking up from the ground the feminine monster was now frozen in an attack pose, fury on its bat-like face. All across my body I could feel blood seeping from wounds. My breathing was ragged and labored. The guard that was seemingly mesmerized was giving me weird looks as he held his crotch and walked towards me, speaking to me in whatever language was spoken around here. His look made my skin crawl, but I couldn't worry about that now.

Getting up was laborious. It felt like my skin wanted to split open in places and my side burned in pain. I let out a gasp as I pressed a hand hard into my bleeding side and began to channel healing magic. With the spell cast, I felt the unnerving feeling of my skin growing back, stretching to cover the wounds. The scratches close to the wound began closing as well. The guard was still approaching me and calling to me like someone might call to a beloved pet. It was creepy. I decided it was best to get away from him and I started heading back towards the camp. The guard followed me for a while then stopped, noticing the frozen creature. He then began fondling and grinding against the monster. "Eww" I remarked, but at least he was no longer following me.

I was not expecting what I found when I finally got back to camp. The remaining warriors were in a big clump near where our bedrolls were. The pile of half naked wriggling bodies were moaning and it seemed Samara was in the middle of it all. The sight was not something an eight year old should be seeing, but it was an interesting sight to say the least. A little ways away I could see Almari holding Timothy at arms length, who was trying to get touchy with his sister. "What the fuck is happening." I said, bewildered at all that was going on. Deciding I wanted nothing to do with the orgy happening, I took a wide arc towards my siblings while continuing to heal myself. "Almari, what the hell is going on?" Almari turned to me in distress, then her eyes widened in shock. "Victoria! You're… you're bleeding. What happened to you?" Her moment of shock was enough for Timothy to wriggle free from her grasp and jump on top of her. He began pressing his body against her. Upon seeing that I was so done. In anger I enveloped myself with aura once more and stalked toward the two. Reaching down I grabbed Timothy by the scruff of his neck and forcibly lifted him off of her yelling "Get off my adorable sister you brat!"

I held Timothy in the air and made Almari explain the situation to me. "I don't really know what happened." She said "Samara pushed us to the side when all the men started acting really weird towards her. Now they're…" Her face was beet red as she stared at the mound of naked bodies. Almari shook her head to regain focus. "But you're hurt Victoria! Let me heal you." Not waiting for me to respond she began incanting her basic healing spell and healing each individual cut. With her magic it would probably take ten minutes or more, but I had to admire her dedication.

I turned to look back at the orgy "They're really going at it huh? Hope Samara will be alright." I let slip. Almari didn't look too happy and made me face away from them as she continued to heal my wounds. I was really at a loss to do in this situation. The whole camp was engaging in acts no eight year old should see, and my brother was currently trying to grope me from afar. To give a prepubescent child a libido, whatever that monster did must have been very powerful. I subtly cast an identification spell on Timothy as Almari was working on me. "Hmm" I mused, it was somewhat magical in nature but it seemed to be a poison. A fairly powerful one at that. I was glad that it only caused someone to apparently get super horny and not just die.

"There... done." Said Almari with a gasp of relief. "What are we going to do about Timothy?" I thought about her question for a moment. I didn't remember any spells in that book our parents had given us that were powerful enough to get rid of a poison like this. There was no way I could fake casting a spell from the book. Or maybe I could and just say that it worked? No, if Almari tried it in the future and it failed, that could be bad. Instead I'd just have to bite the bullet. With my free hand I traced a glyph in the air and then reached out to touch little Timmy, casting a restoration spell on him. A subtle green-yellow glow enveloped him for a moment and he seemed to calm down. I continued to hold him away from me just in case. "Wow sis, you're strong." he said to me in a normal enough tone that I decided to let him go.. "Now what to do with the others?" I wondered. Eventually that problem sorted itself out.

After the group of men and Samara finished, they seemed normal enough. In fact most seemed quite happy. Samara seemed satisfied as well but exhausted. My siblings and I waited by the side as everyone got dressed. Then Mister Yusri approached us with a smile on his face. "I apologize for that." he said, bowing his head slightly. "This is a fact of life around here." If surprise orgies were a fact of life around here, maybe staying wouldn't be too terrible? Dirty thoughts aside, Azmi came up to speak with Yusri with a worried expression on his face. As they talked Yusri's expression changed to match. Mister Yusri then turned to us and in a more serious tone asked "Have any of you seen Raihaan?" Amari shook her head and Timothy just said "Who's that." I on the other hand let out an "Ohh… yeah." I had a feeling I knew which one was Raihaan. Yusri raised an eyebrow at me. "Probably be best if I just showed you." I said, already walking towards where I had slain the monster. At this point I needed to show them quickly, before I fell down. The only reason I was able to walk now was due to Almari's and my healing and the aura I had kept up on myself. I felt that as soon as I dropped my aura though I might pass out.

Arriving at the monster Almari put her hands over Timothy's eyes to shield him from the weird and disgusting sight in front of us. Raihaan was currently trying his best to make love to the frozen monster sculpture. Yusri looked at me again with a brow raised. "I suppose you killed this succubus?" he questioned. So they were called succubus. I nodded in affirmation. Even still mister Yusri drew his sabre, still cautious of the creature which was stuck in a battle pose. He said something to the two warriors who had accompanied us and they began approaching Raihaan. The men forcibly removed Raihaan from the monster and began dragging him back to camp. I probably should have just let them go but I was feeling bad for Samara. I stopped them and cast the same spell I had on Timothy, this time on Raihaan. Shaking himself awake, Raihaan looked embarrassed.

"Thank you, Victoria." said Yusri, again bowing slightly. "No problem." I responded as we approached the frozen monster. When we got a few meters away Yusri cautiously looked the monster up and down. "How did you..?" He motioned at the creature. "Magic" I said simply. He didn't smile at my sarchasm. Instead he turned back to the creature and raised his sabre above his head. Then in one swift motion brought it down, decapitating the monster.

We returned to the camp after Yusri had instructed some of the men to set the corpses of the bats and succubus alight. I started heading back to my bedroll to inevitably pass out. I didn't make it far before Yusri grabbed my shoulder. "I do have to thank you again Victoria. If you hadn't stopped that monster Raihaan would be dead." Yusri bowed. "I want to reassure you that I will do everything in my power to have the matron accept you into the village. I swear this on my honor and my life." Yusri was being very serious so I thought about my reply for a second. "Just promise me you'll get Amari and Timothy in, okay?." I replied, turning and trying to get to my bedroll before I fell over.

My use of mana cost me. I developed a fever for the remainder of the journey and was in and out of consciousness. Timothy rode with Azmi while Samara held me steady on her camel. The warriors, who had seemed distant before, were now worried for me and all pitched in to watch me during the rests that day. I guess I was getting popular.