9. Sun

Chapter 9

Sun

K iar knew I was right. His whole body tensed, like he was in agony from the truth. His tail rattled back and forth, but finally, reluctantly, he relented, releasing a ragged sigh as he swooped his hair back from his tired eyes.

“….Fine. But I don’t think this is wise,” he said, reaching out, his hand stopping near mine.

Without thinking, I grabbed it and squeezed it tight, trying to reassure him and myself.

What else could we do? The stone was in Yin Valley. Overrun with nocs or not, a hopeless mission or not, we had to go there to retrieve it.

“It is settled. Since you weaklings are exhausted, rest now, let us regroup in the morning,” their king said, and I glared as he lifted himself back into the trees.

I hated to admit it, but he was right. My chest was tight, and I could hear Clem struggling to breath behind me, both of my hands held by my nocs whose heartbeats thudded against my wrists. They were holding me up, too, seeing as I was exhausted.

My risen enemy was killing me swiftly, draining me and us more rapidly than before. I wanted to be free from him desperately, so I could slash his throat.

However, as I gazed up at Alhadya’s monstrous form before he disappeared into the leaves, I knew this fate was as inescapable as his web had been last night.

“Shall we hunt together?” I asked Kiar who glowered. “It’s a good way to boost our strength before we begin walking again. Now that the panthera is dead and Alhayda is mollified, the woods should be quiet enough. There were no other signs of nocs along the way.”

Agitated, Kiar lowered himself until we saw eye to eye, tugging on my arms until he snatched me against his chest, away from Bracken and Clem.

And there was no reason for it this time, except that he must want to embrace me.

His breath ghosted against my ear as he said, “No hunting. We forage. We’ve had enough close encounters with death to last a lifetime. No more killing until we reach Yin Valley. Drink what nectar has not withered on the vine and return to camp as fast as you can.”

Kiar’s rough hands curled around my waist, dragging me against his lithe upper body. “I won’t be able to focus on foraging if you’re by my side. So, stick close to Bracken and Clem for now. I’ll keep watch and make sure he doesn’t touch you again.”

Kiar didn’t need to name him. He meant he’d keep Alhayda off of me. As I understood the totality of his statement, Kiar pushed away from me and slithered off, leaving me dumbfounded and my chest tight with emotion.

“Pink,” Clem said as his frosty fingertip poked my cheek, making me yelp.

“Stop that,” I demanded but Clem only chuckled softly in return, but it was too high pitched, almost manic. I only caught a bit of his smile before Bracken lifted him, but it was forced. That much I knew for certain.

“Well, let’s get to work. An empty stomach won’t help us reach the Goddess,” Bracken said, standing with Clem in his arms, using his wing to provide me some much-needed cover from the wind as I refused to be held.

Despite his cheerful tone, as I peered up at him, I could tell his smile was false too. His eyes told a different story, a need to dish our cruelty, fingers flexing beside me.

I cast my eyes to the ground and kept walking, reassuring myself that driving a wedge between the noc king and his most loyal servants was for the best.

So why does it make my heart feel so restless?

“You eat this dreadful stuff?” Clem asked, gasping in shock as I laughed.

We had taken to a patch of brush to pick fruit. Whatever magic had warped the land was a blessing, as we harvested more than should be growing even if it was only early winter.

“Yes, we eat snow. Sometimes as water, often as frozen treats. You let these,” I pointed to the pile of shrubberies inside an animal skin on the ground, “freeze inside a block of ice to give it flavor.”

Clem stuck his tongue out in disgust, and I smiled, but it faltered as he clung to me. He’d always been clingy, but there was a desperation in his grasp now.

I’d forgiven him for his lies. And I was trying to ignore whatever strange nightmare he’d had about me. Clem was the most in tune with all of us and truth be told, he hadn’t been very happy about the visions either. Yes, I was tired of him lying to me, but I hadn’t anticipated the mayhem confronting him would cause.

Kissing the fuzz on his head, I tried to reason with myself. I had no reason to apologize or feel embarrassed for making him beg and cry like that on his knees. I hadn’t asked him to! I just demanded the truth as anyone would have in that predicament.

But just like when Kiar slinked off in defeat days before, I felt obligated to reassure Clem.

How absurd!

“…I like it when you go pink,” Clem declared and I looked away, even more embarrassed now that I caught the tail end of a long list of gushing praise, no doubt.

“Bracken—” our batbeast interrupted him by shaking a branch and making it rain yellow bellflowers and leaves on our heads.

“It’s master to you,” he retorted.

I snorted, wondering how long they were going to keep up the master and servant act, since it appeared to me Clem was the one who had him on a tight leash.

“Hmph. Master! What do you like best about Sun?” Clem asked, two fists on his hips, and I frowned.

He was trying a little too hard to shower me with affection, and by the slight tremor in his hands and wobble in his chin, I knew he wasn’t over anything. Not his nightmares, or the attacks by the panthera and his king.

And, more troubling, I realized as I caught my mothian’s gaze, he was not over his fear of losing me. As if I were going anywhere, bound to them.

“Hmm… I’ve grown fond of that lewd body of his. I would like to try and taste it sooner rather than later since we’ll be traveling into the enemy’s nest come morning.”

“I am not a toy you can use and toss at your flimsy whim,” I said, blown away by the fact that was still the only thing on his mind even now.

“What is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine. It is only natural,” Bracken claimed, like he was making any sense. “So, I’m hopeful one day you’ll see the benefits of submission and servitude.”

“Don’t make me punch you,” I warned as he cackled, Clem dislodging himself from me to flutter up to Bracken, uneven on his slightly torn wing.

They snuck off to chat, not too far to put any of us in danger, but far enough to give the illusion of privacy. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on them still, creeping closer, pretending to harvest more fruit.

“...What is a young noc? One that resembles a human child,” Clem asked his master.

Bracken’s face contorted, confused by the question it seemed before he landed on the answer, “I guess just a noc.”

Strange…

Clem puckered his lips, pouting. “Then what is a teen among humans?”

“A human not ripe enough to pluck,” Bracken answered easily this time, dropping fruit into Clem’s awaiting palms. I huffed. “Seedlings are children and those screeching balls of terror called infants. Teens are new sprouts. Adults are ripe humans, like Sun.”

It’s time I step in before he fills his head with more strange nonsense, I thought, confused by the whole exchange.

“Teens are taller humans, older than children, but younger than adults,” I said, coming up to them, not understanding the way Clem’s gaze darkened, black eyes shutting in pain as he clutched his chest. “Have you never seen one?”

“No, I have. I didn’t make the connection. I didn’t know their name,” he said. “I thought they were just small humans.”

Scratching my chin, I tried to change the topic since I felt like I’d ruined the mood enough lately.

“What do nocs call their lifespans?” I asked. Clem brightened up instantly. He seemed very keen on sharing things about nocs and learning about humans as of late.

“Certainly. There are four stages of noc development. Master taught me!” he said, nudging Bracken’s hip who nodded knowingly, stroking his chin like a sage.

“Ah yes, I can explain. But here, this will improve your mood. You smell sour,” Bracken said, forcing the thin, dewy, yellow juice of a bellfruit into my mouth, almost slicing my tongue with his claw.

I sniffed my arm, licking the juices from my lips. Did I really smell that bad? I didn’t think so by that way Clem clung to me, face buried in the crook of my neck.

Thankfully I didn’t smell like shit even though I felt like it, which was a miracle in itself.

I whined as he rubbed against the bruises left behind by Alhadya. This made Bracken grumble something I couldn’t hear before he went on.

“So, for us nocs, we come in four distinct forms. After awakening, some remain submissive and breedable,” my batshit crazy batbeast declared, shoving another flower into my mouth.

“That’s me!” Clem added, sending me over the edge.

I choked on the fruit juice gushing down my throat.

“Some are submissive, but not breedable. I would say—” Throwing my fist into the sky to silence him, I sucked down the juice until I could speak and growled at them both.

“Enough! Forget I asked…” I ordered, feeling faint from the ludicrous conversation.

“What is Sun?” Clem asked Bracken, ignoring my demand.

“Sun? Well, he’s untamed. Once I’ve tamed him, I’ll be able to categorize him,” Bracken murmured with a sly grin.

I rolled my eyes as Clem hugged me from behind.

“Would you like to be tamed? I promise it’s not bad at all,” he insisted softly. “And cave life is wonderful compared to out here. Master can rebuild a library, and he has even found a natural spring. It is warm and safe, and we can be together without having to worry about anything.”

I refused to humor him anymore. Clem was crazy but this was too absurd.

“No, I have a bigger purpose than getting my ass rammed by Bracken,” I said, much too crudely. My eyes shifted above us, trying to see into the canopy.

I couldn’t see him, but just like I had in the cell and during our journey up until now, I could feel Alhadya. And he was close.

Clem clutched my robes, forcing me to look at him.

“What bigger purpose?” he asked, a crazed look in his gaze again like he was about to break down.

I held him back, thinking how I should carefully word my next sentence.

“…Your purpose is serving your master, and my purpose is serving mine, and you cannot serve two masters,” I declared.

This seemed to disturb him even more as Bracken stopped plucking fruit and growled down at me.

“W-why not? You serve your god and your emperor, right?” he pushed two of his sticky fingers against my lips. “That’s one master too many if you were right, so you must be wrong! And I serve Bracken and well… Never mind. Why not add one more? It won’t be hard to serve a third.”

I blinked, his response bordering on philosophical for he was right but wrong and honestly it mattered little either way.

All of his babbling was Clem’s clumsy attempt to get me to see how wonderful having my ass split apart by Bracken would be. Like carrying out the Gods’ will, and their emissary in Naran, Emperor Gaulu’s command was comparable to being a sex slave.

Ridiculous! I made a noncommittal sound and I guess Clem took that as victory since he spun around.

“Okay well then, I have a new purpose! One you will be pleased with master!”

“Is that so?” Bracken said slowly, walking toward me.

Clem smiled, but this time it didn’t reach his large eyes as his hand rested on mine. Bracken came up behind him and I was completely sealed in by their combined presence, Clem’s moonlight casting an eerie glow on their faces.

“My purpose is to keep us together. You’re our light, and we’re your faithful shadows. If I can make it so we don’t part, I will feel fulfilled. And what is mine is master Bracken’s. So, we will all feel so fulfilled.”

It felt like a threat, but it held no weight coming from his soft lips with his delicate features, eyes upturned. Wriggling out of their hold, I made another noncommittal grunt, and we wrapped up the clown show to return to make camp.

I avoided Clem’s gaze as we walked back, still remembering the strength in Bracken’s arms as he protected me and Clem from his king all night long. The whole while his body hummed with rage.

It was faint at first, and I mistook it for Clem clicking, but he was in too much pain from the small tear in his wing to click at me. No, that strange downright feral sound was coming from Bracken. A clear warning directed at his king of all creatures.

Their bond, it seemed, had fractured. And I realized as I clenched my Blood Onyx dagger in my pocket that I needed to exploit this rupture.

As we prepared to rest for a while, I couldn’t help but shudder at the memory of my helplessness last night. How many times had I plotted Alhadya’s demise? Countless times since I was a child.

And yet, just like in Kovit’s chamber of hell, when he tortured me and then Atlan, my dearest friend, I was helpless to stop Alhadya’s abuse.

Worse, I had to rely on them , my nocturnal court to protect me back then and even now.

Then again, I didn’t think that so bad as I nibbled on the small fruits Bracken and Clem had gathered for us, taking turns forcing them into my mouth. After all, as of now, Kiar, Bracken, and Clem were mine.

Divide and conquer. Alone, I was helpless against their undead king. But with them by my side, maybe… just maybe I stood a chance.

By the time we returned to camp, all the adrenaline fled my body, the events of the previous night catching up with me. I collapsed against Bracken’s chest without a second thought, without relighting the fire, as we waited for Kiar to return, loaded down with enough fruit to keep our stomachs full for a while.

We were settling into a routine again, an unnerving regime that was all too familiar, like we were back in prison.

Glancing up at Bracken as he closed his eyes to rest, I wondered what was going through his mind other than sex and tending to Clem and I as “pets.”

Bracken always struck me as the least rigid of my court. Almost flippant to not only the war but allegiance itself.

Truthfully, I was awed he took any interest in me at all as he cradled Clem in his arms like a child would a precious doll. But as he tucked me more firmly in his lap, I realized he had marked me, imprinted on me in some strange way.

I was his, little more than a slave in his twisted imagination, but his, nonetheless.

And maybe, I thought ruefully, worried I would become too accustomed to his warmth, he could be more than my lover. He could be my weapon against Alhayda.

Bracken, Kiar, and I stood a chance. They were mightier weapons than any I could forge. If I could just draw them into a power struggle once I grabbed the stone… A power struggle that I hoped would be us against him… And if Clem could manage to rupture the bond with his former king…

Ideas swirled around my head, but the execution was fuzzy at best.

Alhayda was still above us, hidden in the trees. But I tried to ignore him when abruptly, Bracken awoke, radiating animosity.

I couldn’t tell why until I heard the heavy thudding above his wings. Their king was close, moving too close for comfort, and I pushed off of him to face the threat…

Only to be pulled back into his wings, Bracken forcing my face to meet his and Clem’s who had crawled up his chest.

“Don’t mind him. He’s preparing to rest,” Bracken said, and sure enough I heard branches snapping and tugging before my enemy leaped to another tree. Maybe he was constructing a nest of sorts with his web.

I nodded, thankful. Then it dawned on me that I should say so.

“Thank you,” I mumbled. Then I had to force out the rest. “Sometimes you’re quite annoying, but I’m thankful for your… protection. ”

Bracken didn’t respond, so I thought my foolish attempt to win him over had fallen flat, but the pleasured rumble he emitted told me otherwise a moment later.

Satisfied, I peeked from under his wing, disappointed to not find Kiar nearby since I felt a little safer with the three of us against Alhayda. If he got it into his head to break our truce before we reached Yin Valley. There were ways to make us compliant without killing us, after all, a spider’s venom chief among them. He was the only arachnid noc I knew of, but like all nocs, they took on the traits of their animal ancestors.

I kept waiting, and watching, but it seemed Kiar wasn’t sleeping again tonight, almost obsessive with his need to scout. I wondered if he was just returning to his natural state. I was the only creature here that preferred to be awake in the light of day.

Bracken suddenly started petting my head.

“Don’t thank me,” Bracken said after too long, and I turned to stare into his brooding eyes underneath his wings.

“I’m your master, and I failed my most basic responsibility. Ahh… Protecting my bonded is hard work when they’re a human warrior. You must clean up after all of your pet’s messes, after all, but running around screaming in the forest during a battle… That’s not like a trained warrior, Sun.”

Instead of his usual brackish bravado, Bracken sounded truly forlorn. It was shocking. And he didn’t seem to realize he called me his “bonded,” whatever the hell that meant.

“Trust me,” Bracken said with a weary smile. “That undying loyalty to someone who doesn’t deserve it will get you killed someday. Remember to watch out for yourself first and foremost, Sun. Even before the weakling who rules your world.”

I bristled, glaring at him. He had no right to speak of the emperor with such derision. But then, I grasped the double meaning of his words. Had Clem not said that Bracken was the first to die in the coup? That he had been beheaded? How terrifying that must have been.

Bracken’s eyes landed on my neck, and he deflated. The bruises were minor in the grand scheme of things. I barely noticed them except when it hurt a bit to swallow. I honestly didn’t know why they bothered him so much, but it was obvious that they did.

But it was like a candle was blown out, and Bracken forced a smile, not wanting to deal with his volatile emotions directly no doubt.

“Enough of this. Since Kiar hasn’t returned, I think he is overdue for a reward. You were very brave, Clem,” Bracken said, stroking the fuzz on Clem’s head before yanking his head back by his antenna too violently, to the point I feared he had snapped his neck. “Such a good boy. But don’t be that damn foolish again. Let me give you a treat and maybe I’ll allow you to beg for Sun’s forgiveness some more. Maybe he’ll allow you to suck him off if you cry hard enough this time around.”

“Stop it! Don’t hurt him,” I scolded, but Bracken’s grip only tightened.

He snickered.

“He likes it. He’ll like it more if you join us, right Clem? Wouldn’t you like to share some of your sweet nectar with Sun?”

Clem sighed happily.

“Oh, yes, please,” he gasped.

“Since I’ve been reduced to a piece of furniture anyway, might as well act as bed for some love making,” he continued.

I laughed, but Clem did in fact rest on his stomach like he was a bed, legs spread, eyeing me curiously with his large, solid midnight-colored eyes. But even without pupils, I could tell he was tracking my movements.

Swallowing, I crawled up Bracken until I straddled the bulge hidden in his fur.

What fresh hell was this? Fucking with a noc who wanted me dead nearby was foolish. But I couldn’t deny I wanted Clem to relax, and I wanted to forget, if only for a few minutes, the stress of last night.

I was falling back into my old vices too, it seemed, retreating into sex to make life more bearable each day.

Sighing, I allowed myself to lose this battle but not the war. I had bigger plans than sucking dick or being stroked until I came, but tonight, all I wanted was reassurance that we were a team… until the time came when we were not.

In the only way I thought he would receive well, I slowly, gently, set out to comfort Clem from the wounds he’d received while saving me.

I was still torn between being disgusted and delighted by his oddly shaped cock that now pushed through his fur. However, as I leaned in, my curiosity won out. Like Bracken always alluded to, Clem smelled like honey or, yes, a field of bellflowers in full bloom.

“Have you ever been pleased here, precious Clem? If not, let’s make this your reward.”