Tiana woke up early on the morning of her 16th birthday. She felt tingly and nervous, knowing she was going to meet Jaresen today. More than meet him; he was going to take her virginity!
This match had been planned since she was 10, but she’d known this day was going to happen her whole life, practically. She just hadn’t known who until her mother and Jerasen’s had made the match at the Mute. She hadn’t gone; it was an affair for adults, and not a word was spoken in the three days the meeting had gone on for. Mother had returned with a self satisfied smile on her face and a folder tucked under her arm.
Jerasen was from one of the oldest families known to have produced children who could be Filled with magic and fight in the Dreamland. Tiana was, as well, and since nobody could be Filled alone, matches were arranged to produce the strongest warriors possible. Dreamland was at war, and humanity was losing to the Moverts. Badly.
A man and a woman who Filled each other were the strongest, each doubling the power instead of just realizing one’s inherent power by being Filled by one already in the magic.
Tiana knew all this; she knew her duty. But she didn’t want to give herself to a stranger, just to make a child and to fight to her probable death some night in her sleep. She wanted more than that; she wanted love. She wanted her friend Scott, but she was pretty sure he didn’t love her. Not like that, anyway. She wasn’t his type.
He was always going for the blondes with the big boobs, and he deserved them, looking like some Greek statue come to life. But his family tree was unknown beyond 3 generations, and her Mother wasn’t going to let her take any chances with her magic. Scott ( most likely) couldn’t Fill her, so he wasn’t even in the running. Only proven stock for her.
“Tiana, breakfast.” her mother called up the stairs. “Make sure you come down dressed; we have company.”
A lump of cold iron filled her belly, and she tasted copper fear in her mouth. He was here!! She sat upright in her bed, eyes wide as she looked around for an escape.
She quickly jumped out out of bed and pulled on a T shirt and yesterday’s shorts over her panties. She pushed her window open and looked at the roof of the porch about 5 feet down. “I can do this!” she thought to herself, gritting her teeth against her fear of heights.
“Tiana? Breakfast!” called her mother again, louder.
“I can do this easier than I can do that!!” She went through the window and dropped down, landing lightly on the balls of her feet. She went along the edge until she came to a tree branch overhanging and used that to climb to the ground.
Scott’s house was right next door, so she hopped over the waist high fence and quickly hid around the corner. His room was on the other side of his house from her’s, so she rounded another corner and tapped on his ground floor window.
There was no answer, so she waited another minute, then tried pushing it up. It opened easily, and she moved the curtain aside to see him sleeping soundly, naked on top of the covers with one arm thrown over his eyes.
His cock was lying flaccid over one thigh, and she had trouble looking at anything else once she noticed it. He was beautiful; well defined muscles looking as if they had been sculpted. A gentle breeze wafted through the room from his open window, and she saw his cock twitch in response. He moaned and stirred a little; shifting his legs so his cock flopped forward and pointed it’s head down.
“Tiana, are you out here?” her mother’s voice came faintly across the yard. Tiana wasted no time going through the window and closing it softly.
Scott moaned in his sleep again, and Tiana froze, not wanting to wake him. She slowly turned to look at him again a moment later, right at the foot of his bed.
She saw his hand move to his groin, cupping his balls, then he took the shaft and pumped his fist over it, slowly, once, then twice. He let go and she could see it was almost fully hard and more than twice as big as it had been earlier.
“Come closer.” he mumbled under his breath. Tiana could just barely make it out, and she was wondering if that was what she really had heard. Then he said it again, more clearly this time. Still, she hesitated, not wanting to wake him.
“Get over here, I said!” he ordered. Tiana nervously moved around to the nearer side of his bed, kneeling by his head. His arm was still over his eyes, so she knew he couldn’t see her. She wondered what he was dreaming. “Why did you hesitate, Melanie? Do you want me to spank you?”
Tiana’s mind raced at what she heard. He was dreaming of Melanie Scolfeld?
“Answer me, slave! Do you want me to spank you?” he demanded.
“No!” Tiana spoke aloud, blurting it out.
“Answer me properly, slave. ‘No, master’, that’s the correct response. Fail me again and you will be punished!” he said.
“No, Master, I don’t want to be spanked.” Tiana said. Her mind was racing with what she had learned about Scott this morning, and to her great surprise, it wasn’t turning her off. Just the opposite, in fact. She was wondering if he would consider her as a sex slave, just as he was obviously fantasizing about Melanie.
Melanie was admittedly the prettiest girl in school, Captain of the Cheer squad and probably would be Homecoming Queen as well. Scott was obviously dreaming. Wasn’t he? Him… and Melanie… no way. She was his type, though, big titty blonde. And dumb. Just how he liked them…
“Melanie… I know you’ve never done this before…” he said. “I want you to suck me off. Take my whole cock in your mouth and swallow everything I have to give. Obey me, slave…”
“I’m not Melanie, Master. I’m Tiana. Do you still want me?” she asked, holding her breath.
“Tiana?” he mumbled. “Do you want to be my slave, too,Tiana?” he asked, mumbling. He sounded confused.
“Yes, Master, I want to be your slave.” Tiana said. “Tell me what to do, Master.”
“Suck me off, Tiana. Take my whole cock in your mouth and swallow everything. Suck me off, Tiana. Slave.” he mumbled. “I didn’t know you wanted to be my slave, but okay…”
Tiana raised herself up onto her knees beside his bed, then climbed onto it with him, straddling his legs on her hands and knees.
“Wait, what?” he said, moving his arm away from his face finally. He was shocked to see a real life Tiana hovering over him, on his bed, in his room. “Tiana, what- how did you get here?”
“Just lay back and relax, Master.” she smiled, then bent her head and took his hardness in her mouth.
“No, Tiana, wait!” he protested weakly, but he didn’t stop her with his hands, either, so she kept going. A moment later, he put his hands on her head and lightly encouraged her to take him deeper. “Ohh, yeah, baby, that’s just it!”
She took him deeper and deeper, letting his cock-head slip into her throat until her nose was tickled by some of his curly pubes. She sucked hard on it as she went back up, smiling at him with her eyes to let him know it was okay.
“Tiana, I… Oh God, I’m… Tiana, STOP!!!’ he groaned, but pulled her head all the way onto him and unleashed torrents of hot sticky cum straight into her throat. She had no choice but to swallow thickly, several times, until he was done and let her go.
She sat up, a thoughtful expression on her face as she considered the taste of him in her mouth. Everything she had been told about it led her to believe that it was one of the most foul tasting things in the universe, but she didn’t mind it so much. “A little musky, but with sweet undertones,” she thought to herself. “Not so bad as all that.”
“Tiana, what are you doing here?” he asked her, catching his breath. “How did you get in?”
“I came in through your window.” she admitted. “I had to escape, and this is the only safe place I have.”
“Escape?” he asked, confused. “What were you escaping from? And why did you do that?” he indicated his nakedness with one hand.
“You told me to.” she said, blushing. “A sex slave must obey her Master.”
“What the hell? That was just a dream! You’re not my sex slave, Tiana! You’re my best friend!” he protested.
“You don’t want me?” she asked meekly. “Oh, no, I’ve ruined EVERYTHING!!” she sobbed, burying her face in her hands.
“I didn’t say that.” he said, panicked at her outburst of emotion. “Tiana, what’s going on? Tell me everything.”
“Oh, Scott, I don’t even know where to start.” she said.
“Start at the beginning.” he suggested. “What made you come over here this morning? What are you escaping from?”
“I’m trying to escape my destiny.” she said. “I came over here this morning because it’s my 16th birthday, and my mother has arranged for me to be Filled today with a boy I don’t know and have only seen one picture of.”
“Filled?” Scott asked. “Filled with what?”
“Magic.” she said. “If I mate with a man who can Fill me, we will both gain our Magical abilities and fight in the Dreamworld for all of Humanity.”
“Whoa, magic? Your parents set you up, like an arranged marriage? Aren’t you a little young for that?” he chuckled. “Or maybe too old to fall for their delusions? Something like that?”
“Exactly like that.” she answered. “My parents signed a contract with his parents and everything.” She looked at him steadily. “I couldn’t go through with it. I don’t want my life to be that of a Warrior; I want to live a normal life and have normal children.”
“So do it, then.” he said. “That doesn’t explain why you’re in my room. By the way, you still have a little of my stuff on your chin.”
“I do?” She got a guilty look on her face and hurriedly wiped it off with her hand.
“Lick it off your fingers, Tiana.” he said, commandingly. She looked at him, startled, but then she obediently put her fingers in her mouth and sucked them clean. “You did it…” he said wonderingly. “You really did it…”
“You told me to, Master.” she said. “Sex slaves have to obey their Masters.”
“You really want to be my sex slave?” he asked her, incredulously.
“Yes, please, I’ll do anything you want. Just take me and save me from my Fate! I don’t want to be Filled!” she said, pleading. “I’d rather be your sex slave here than fighting for some stupid dead Tree in the Dreamland, and even if none of that is true; if I’m going to lose my virginity today I’d rather give it to you than Jerasen. I’ve seen his picture, and his smile doesn’t look… kind.”
“If you really mean that, undress for me, give me a striptease, then come over here and impale yourself on my cock. If you really want this, then I want YOU to fuck ME.” he told her. To his great surprise, she smiled broadly, then slipped off the side of his bed.
She crossed her arms, then pulled her T shirt off in one smooth motion, showing him her perfect breasts. She dropped it behind her, then pushed her shorts and panties down together and climbed back onto the bed.
“Not much of a striptease, slave.” he said quietly. “For that, you must be punished.”
“What?” she asked, freezing in place. She was on her hands and knees above him, looking down into his face.
“Yes, punished.” he said. “You don’t get to fuck me just yet. Not if you are really willing to be my slave. Get on your hands and knees.”
“Yes Master.” she said. She sounded a little disappointed as she turned around on the bed. “How long do I have to wait?”
“Not long.” he said, getting up so he could see her. “I just want to see you first.
“Look at that!” he admired, then bent down and put his whole mouth over her sex. His tongue went right to work, licking and probing, circles and S curves and stabs and probes. She moaned out loud and he grabbed her hips in both hands to keep her still.
Another few minutes of that had her nearly in convulsions, so when he pushed her hips slightly forward and began tonguing her asshole, it was all she could do not to scream out loud. She bit the bed covers instead.
“Now I’m ready to fuck you.” he said, pushing her over onto her side. He knelt on the bed and finished rolling her over onto her back. He took her knees and pushed them open and back, his cock laying on her belly.
“I’m going to be inside you this far.” he said, letting her feel his fingers mark the spot on her tummy. “Is that what you want?”
“Oh, yes!” she murmured, smiling. “Take me, Scott! I’m giving it to you willingly, instead of letting my parents sell it!”
“They sold…” Scott said, then his eyes got a determined look in them. “I’m making you mine!” he growled, and thrust his hips forward, pushing through her hymen and sinking all the way inside.
She opened her mouth in a silent scream at the sudden pain, and bit his shoulder as the tip of his cock nudged against her cervix. She tasted blood in her mouth as drop fell to his sheets from their union.
This was his virginity as well as hers, and the sensation of her velvet insides gripping him as tight as a fist was better than anything he’d ever experienced. He began moving inside her, making little circles with his hips without pulling out, mashing her clit with his hipbone.
She gasped and clutched her arms tightly around his shoulders, throwing her hips upward and trying to get more of him inside. She had touched herself to climax a few times, but nothing had prepared her for this. When he finally did begin stroking his length in and out of her, she had already cum twice. She could feel her insides rippling, muscles she didn’t know she had, but she began clenching them in time with his rhythm, and soon she saw his face begin to redden.
“Not inside me!” she gasped. “Please, not inside me?”
“I’m making you mine!” he growled again, then he slammed fully inside her and his face tightened. She could feel him pulsing inside her, then the tingles began.
“What… no!” she thought to herself. “This can’t be…” The tingles grew stronger, a rushing noise in her ears, and her vision began fading to black around the edges until she was in a tunnel with just a point of light in the center of her vision.
Scott pushed himself into Tiana fully for the last thrust, and fired his load into her as deep as he could get it. As the familiar feeling of busting a nut began, another sensation came with it, one totally new to him.
He felt like he was fainting, the world receding away form him rapidly. His vision was going black, and his ears were roaring.
The rushing noise faded slowly, and vision returned with it. Scott came to, finding himself next to Tiana, both of them laying in the tall grass under a lightning blasted tree a few feet apart from each other.
“Where the hell am I?” he said aloud. He looked down at Tiana, still sleeping peacefully. “Hey, hey, wake up!” he said, shaking her shoulder. He tried to ignore the lovely things that did to her breasts, and to his relief, she finally fluttered her eyes open after what seemed an eternity of his trying, but the sky was still tinged pink and purple with sunrise.
“What… hey, no, I can’t be here, this wasn’t supposed to happen…” She looked over at Scott and started to cry. “How can you be here? You can’t be here, unless…” She shuddered and started to cry.
“Where the hell are we, Tiana?” he demanded. “What is this place?”
“We’re in the Dreamland.” she answered. “Where are the others?”
He stood up to take a look around, but Tiana pulled him back down. “Don’t stand up!” she hissed. “Are you trying to get killed?”
“There’s nobody else here, Tiana.” he said. “Can’t you feel it? This place is empty.” He stood up and walked to the tree, putting his hands on it. Some strange impulse came over him, and he started singing, stroking the tree with his hands, up and down the bark.
As he continued with the strange song, to both their amazement, a smoky mist worked it’s way up out of the grass beside them and materialized into a small woman, only two feet tall, but perfectly proportioned. She was unabashedly naked.
“Kingmage. It has been long since you called me forth.” she said, in a high, lilting voice. “And you, Mistress, it has been long since a woman was awake this early in the day. Where are the others?”
“There are no others yet.” Tiana said. “Look around. It is still early morning.”
“Never has the Kingmage and his Queen spoken to me before Noon.” she said. “Perhaps it is a morning for many new things, not just this one new thing.”
“What is going on here?” Scott demanded. “Tiana, what is this place? Where the hell are we?”
“This is the Dreamland, where the Eternal war is happening, between the races of Men and Moverts and Kalastiel for possession of the Omniverse.” said the small woman. “I am Sononia, Queen of the Kalastiel and Mate to my King, Flindair.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Queen Sononia. I am Scott Blaker, and this is Tiana Bruce.” he said.
“May I ask your titles?” she requested politely.
“I am Lady Tiana Bruce, your Grace.” Tiana said. “Scott is a wilder and has no titles.”
“A wilder? The first awake is a wilder? And so early.” Sononia mused. “Only the Kingmage can sing me here, and in none of his incarnations has he done it so early in the day…” She turned and faced Scott directly, then knelt before him.
“Will you sing with me?” she asked, begging. She put her hands together and clasped her fingers together tightly. “Will you sing a new Tree alive with me? It has been so long…” She fingered the bark of the dead Tree next to her. “Humans and Kalastiel alike need a new beginning…”
Scott looked at Tiana, confused.
“Do it, Scott.” she urged. “I promise you won’t regret it if you can be strong.” She watched him turn back to the small Queen, and felt a pang. “I might regret it.” she thought to herself, looking at the dead tree beside them.
“Our baby might regret it too, but this could be the best thing. If we can get the Council to protect the Tree.”
She went to the other side of the tree and sat with her back against it, trying to close out the sounds of their Song and spent a moment pretending she wasn’t in love with Scott, that she had chosen Jerasen and that HE was the one here. No, this was her Destiny, and there was no escaping it now. She made up her mind to embrace it fully at that point.
“I can accept my Destiny and still reject the Council.” she thought to herself as she sat there and blocked out the sounds in her mind. “They are the ones I really had a problem with, that and my parents kowtowing to their every whim because they are late Wakers and weak. Scott and I are stronger than any other couple in history, Waking so soon, and they will have no choice once they make their identities know to either of us.”
* * *
Scott listened to the short woman sing a long moment, enraptured by the sound of her voice. He joined in with a strong baritone and felt a stirring in his groin. His voice rose in pitch until they were singing in harmony, and he felt himself grow fully hard. She was standing right in front of him, and his erection was right at her face level, almost poking her nose. She raised her hands and took him gently in her fingertips, rubbing the tip of his cock over the skin of her face, not missing a note as she kept singing.
With the slightest of tugs, she rubbed it on her breasts, then lower as he knelt, both of them still singing the strange song together. There were no words, not formal ones, just sounds of love and harmony. He lay back and her song changed slightly, becoming huskier and more passionate. She straddled him and took him inside.
He sang no words as she rode him up and down, just tonal grunting in time with hers, and reached crescendo together with a shout as he spurted deep inside her.
In the silence that followed, she took his hands and pulled him to his feet. Tiana joined them and looked at Scott, smiling.
“Take us somewhere that can be protected.” she said. “We have only a few hours before she won’t be able to walk. This Tree is dead. This is not a good place.” She looked at him. “We need to start anew, in a place we can defend.” She pointed towards the mountains in the distance. “Somewhere that way.”
“Where?” Scott asked. He began climbing the dead tree to get a better lay of the land. There were rolling hills in all directions, except West, where tall mountains rose out of the landscape.
“That’s where the Moverts come from, down out of those mountains and across these plains.” Tiana told him, seeing where he was looking.
“Then we go that way.” he said to Tiana, climbing down. “I see no reason to give them half of these plains at their back when they come. I say, keep them in the Mountains.”
He lifted the little woman up and carried her on one hip like a child. “We have to run, okay? We can go much faster like this.
She scrambled around and clung to his back. “Come on, Tiana, run! It’s only a little way!” He took off running West, towards the mountains, Tiana hot on his heels. They were both in great shape, and ate up the miles rather quickly. The ground also seemed to speed under them faster than they were running as well, and after only a few minutes they were more than halfway there.
Scott noticed, but accepted it in this new place. It all seemed surreal anyway.
“Here.” Scott said, veering off to an outcropping of rock right at the foot of one cliff of the mountain, and another cliff to the side, running perpendicular to the mountain. There was a grassy spot, about half an acre, surrounded on three sides by massive boulders that towered over 40 feet high each. The open side faced the mountain behind them.
To come off the mountain and onto the plains, the Moverts had two paths around the cliff above the boulders. One led over the top of the pass through the slope, because long in the past, a landslide had kicked a rock out from the mountain about ten feet, but the top had rolled back and closed the gap, creating a tunnel several hundred yards long. The other was a longer but more gradual slope following a stream that had cut the cliff protecting one side of the rock outcropping. The same quake had broken a triangular piece out of the mountain, which had broken into the three boulders protecting the small meadow.
“This is perfect.” Sononia sighed, slipping down from Scott’s back. “My people will come to this place. You have chosen well, Kingmage.”
Sononia grimaced and clutched her belly. Scott started to go to her, but Tiana stopped him with one hand on his upper arm.
“It’s okay, Scott, let her do this alone. It’s best we not interfere.”
Sononia groaned loudly and fell to the ground, writhing back and forth on the grass. She spread her legs wide, and was obviously pushing, straining to get something out.
“She’s dying, Tiana! Something’s wrong!” he cried out, but just then, a shiny nut popped out of Sononia and landed on the ground behind her. Scott saw it sprout and dig a root into the earth as Sononia’s body began to turn back into the mist it had come from.
“She died, Tiana, I just stood here and watched her die without trying to help.” he said, crying. “Why did you stop me?”
“What could you have done?” she asked in reply. “What you can do now is protect her Tree. You can Sing her out again, I promise.”
“Tree?” Scott asked, so Tiana gestured to the nut that was growing rapidly into a smooth, straight sapling. “Holy shit!” He sat down on his ass abruptly and stared in wonder.
“This tree is my… and Sononia’s… she gave birth to a TREE?”
“No, she has become the Tree.” she said. “This Tree is our new Home-ground.” Tiana told him. “This is where the others will Dream themselves awake later. There are some things I need to explain before that happens.”
“No shit.” he said dryly. “I’m the Kingmage, huh? Let me guess. This sapling is the same kind of tree as the dead one we woke up next to. Except now I’ve kinda started things over and everyone is gonna wake up here instead of there. I’m guessing it’s been a while since anyone has gotten to sing one of these Trees, neh?”
“It was Almadreda, the last Tree we fought for. She looks dead, but there was as much life in it as there was in all of us that awoke there. Now, this new Tree will have as much life in it as we have love and light in us. Us, and all the others who come.”
“Tell me of these others.” Scott commanded. “What kind of people are they?”
“I don’t know; I’ve never met them.” she answered. “They are all rich, back in our world, I can tell you that. Every one of them was bred to be here. Like me.”
“That figures.” he muttered. “What was it you called me? A ‘wilder’?”
“Yes.” she admitted. “It doesn’t sound very flattering, the way you say it, though.”
“It didn’t sound very flattering when you said it, either.” he told her flatly.
“It just means that you have unknown heritage, but a true bloodline, back to the First Men, or you could not be here. I have the same line in my blood, but I can trace it back through each generation and you can’t. That’s the only difference, really. Honest!” She looked at him earnestly. “We have the same magic, you and me. We Filled each other.”
“Magic?” he asked. “What do you mean, magic?”
“When we wake up from this, you will be able to use magic when we Unite. We can form Circles, with up to thirteen people in it. Most people who can do magic like us are in Covens of seven, three couples, and the Strong. The Strong can be either male or female.”
“Kingmage?” he asked quietly. “Tell me about that.”
“There hasn’t been a Kingmage in over a hundred generations, Scott. The last one fathered that Tree we awoke under. Almadreda. His name is lost.”
“I am the father of this Tree?” he asked her. “I am the father of this Tree.” he said. It was still growing, as tall as the boulders now, and as thick through the trunk as his arms could reach around. Branches grew in a spiral up the trunk, about eight to ten feet apart.
“Yes, and we have to protect it.” Tiana told him. “Tonight, under the Moon, the Moverts will come and try to kill this tree with teeth and claws. We, and all the others, MUST protect it. We must fight the Moverts and keep them away from here.”
“We have no weapons.” Scott said glumly. “What sort of creatures are these Moverts? I’ve never heard of them.”
“They are fierce little creatures with three long arms, three joints in them to our two, about three feet high, and three legs with three joints. Each arm and leg have a wicked claw, like a talon, about six inches long. They have slimy green fur and a whole mouth full of razor sharp teeth. They eat meat.”
“Damn.” Scott swore softly. “And I have to fight these with my bare hands? How many are there?”
“Thousands.” she said. “More, I don’t know. But you won’t be fighting empty handed. You have Filled me with power, Scott, more than I ever dreamed existed. Tonight, when the time is right, I can give that power back, and enable you superhuman strength, and you will be able to wield Light itself as a weapon.”
“And you won’t be fighting alone, either.” she added, looking around. “This is a good place you chose for us to defend. The Elders will be able to cast their circle and include the boulders, I think. And a line to close off this back entrance, more guarding the gaps between, and we can hold this place all night.
More shimmering mist appeared on the ground, so Scott obeyed an impulse. He put both hands on the Tree and stroked the bark, singing almost the same song as before. The mist coalesced and thickened as the notes came forth, throatier and huskier than the last time.
“My mate came here.” said a man, about 9 feet tall, after he had formed out of the mist. “Where is she?” The man saw the Tree and fell to his knees, anguish lining his features the way age would later in life. “Sononia!”
Minutes later, when he had finished his grief, he turned to Scott and held out his hand. “This is a fine Tree you have sired, sir, and a most excellent location for him. We can defend this with ease.”
“Is that all we can do? Defend?” Scott asked. “Is there no way to attack them?”
The man looked at Scott appraisingly. “None have suggested that in many human lifetimes.” he said quietly. “Be careful how you approach your Council with this idea. They will not welcome it, methinks.”
“I was told to hurry, and this was the best I could do with one quick scan of the area from the top of Almadreda!”
“I find no fault in the place, save this.” the man said, smiling and holding up his hands defensively. “You have gained much ground in front of Almadreda, and the Moverts will be angered and attack with much more wrath than ever before. Many will point this out, not just me.”
“It was a fool who planted there.” Scott said boldly. “That place sucked, defensively. It’s a wonder it was never lost. Trying to defend that little knoll in the middle of a plains? Suicide.”
“What is your name, Kingmage? Only one has uttered those words and lived. I would know the name of the second.”
“Why? It’s true.” Scott said. “My name is Scott Blaker, and I stand by what I said. I didn’t ask to be here; I just woke up here and Tiana tells me a battle is going to take place at nightfall. If I’m going to have to fight for my life, I want to make my stand in a good place. This was the best place I saw in the five minutes I could spare to look.”
The tall man looked at Scott appraisingly. “My name is Flindair, and I am chosen King to the Kalastiel. I am the one other who has also spoken your words. That was not a good place to defend, and it why the Humans have defended it alone all these generations.”
“The Kingmage went as far as he could before Almedreda could accompany him no more. He carried that nut at great peril to that knoll and perished there, but there were many more of you humans then and and was successfully defended for a fair few seasons, but when it fell, my beloved Sononia was deformed into what you saw of her.”
“After tonight, when the new Queen comes again, I can tell by the looks of this fine strong Tree that she will be strong and beautiful if you can keep her alive.”
He looked around inside the circle of boulders. “There is room here for a Grove if you would sing others…” he whispered. “It would be good to have more Mothers amongst us…”
“No!” Tiana cried out, then stifled herself with one hand.
“Forgive me, my Lady.” Flindair said, blushing. “I thought, since you were already open to sharing him with one other, that you might be open to sharing him with more, as well.”
“I- I’m…” Tiana stammered. “It’s complicated.”
“Of course, milady.” he said, bowing. “I will speak no more of it.”
“Thank you.” Tiana replied gracefully, then turned to Scott.
“Scott, when you… joined with Sononia, it created an… opening in our relationship.” she said. “When we awake, another woman is going to find us tomorrow, and she will be married to you as much as I will be. We are Filled, Scott, and there’s no going back from that.”
“Tiana, the last thing I remember from being awake is that you came to my room and gave yourself as my slave. Then we had the most beautiful sex I’ve ever experienced and I woke up here.” He looked at her square in the eye. “Is that what you remember, too?”
“Yes.” she admitted, whispering. “That’s what happened.”
“A Master can have more than one slave, can he not? A slave would have no qualms about serving alongside another slave, would she?”
“No Master.” Tiana agreed, looking down and blushing. She looked up, still blushing. “She likes being told to do naughty things.”
“Does she…” Scott smiled. “Tiana, my mate, my First, may I sing more trees into this place?”
“Yes, my love.” she said quietly, smiling. “Master.”
“I sang a Tree.” he said. “Well, technically, I had sex with Sononia, a Kalastiel. If you had sex with Flindair, would it produce another Tree?”
“That isn’t how it works, Scott.” she told him, then looked at Flindair meaningfully. “Is it?”
“Ah, such a thing has never been done.” Flindair. “As a Human takes one of out females, we give the Humans power in the waking life. If I were to take a Human female, the Humans would give the Kalastiel power in our waking life. Humans have never trusted us with this.”
Scott gaped at her. “Really? Umm, would you?” he asked timidly. “I bet that hasn’t happened for a while!”
“I don’t think it ever has.” Tiana said. “You did it with Sononia… I wonder… I could do it with Flindair. If my Master so commanded me…””
“When I did it with Sononia, you told me another woman would come and find us. If you do it with him, is another man going to come into our circle?”
“Yes.” she told him. “I think that’s why it’s never been done. A man knows he can control a random woman. Most likely. Another man would just be competition, right?”
“Not necessarily. Another man could be a brother, an ally.” Scott said. “I see room here for another man, at the other opening between these boulders.”
“It would grow here, at this one’s side, and the others could surround them. A circle of thirteen around them.” she murmured, moving a few steps away, and closer to Flindair. “Your thirteen, Scott. Your thirteen slaves, Master. Sing them out with Sononia.”
She stroked Flindair’s arm, and he moved closer to her, smiling. She looked over her shoulder in a fleeting glance at Scott as Flindair puller her into an embrace, but Scott smiled and sat down on the other side of the Tree after waving her on.
“You’re so big.” she whispered, looking up at Flindair’s face. He towered over her, nine feet tall to her almost six. “Is this even going to work?”
“My lady?” Flindair asked, puzzled.
“Flindair, is it possible… could…-we- make a Tree?” Tiana gulped. “Like the one that Scott and Sononia made. Another Tree? From Human and Kalastiel?”
“It has never been done.” Flindair mused. “I would have to trust myself to Human care, but in this place… with Sononia, like this…” he gazed fondly at the grand Tree, towering over the boulders. “In this place, the Kalastiel will fight. Beside the Humans, they would fight. Especially for a Queenmage…”
“Yes, I will make a Tree with you, Tiara. Your name will live eternal amongst the Kalastiel for this. Perhaps this War can be won after all…”
He took her in his huge hands and pulled her dress apart, tearing it in half off her body. “Oh!” she cried, surprised by his sudden movement. He picked her up and pulled her against his belly, using one knee to spread her legs as he raised it. He let her slide back down, and felt his massive cock spear into her.
He pulled her down tight onto his cock, filling her fully and spurted quickly. “Ohh, oh.” he moaned, then collapsed onto the grass and began evaproating, mush the same as Sononia had.
Tiana sat up and clutched her belly, groaning as she convulsed slighlty.
“Scott?” she cried out weakly. “Scott, help!” She convulsed again and rolled onto her side as Scott came running over.
“Tiana? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” Scott asked, looking around for the tall man, Flindair.
“He’s gone, but I…” Tiana moaned again, loudly, and rolled onto her back. She was pushing like she was in labor, then Scott saw another nut get birthed out of her in a gush of blood.
“Ohh, Tiana, are you okay? How can I help?” he asked, looking into her face. He pulled his shirt off and used it to staunch the blood coming out of her.
“Protect the Trees.” she said, raising one hand to his face and stroking his cheek. “Thank you for this, Scott.”
“Thank me after we meet the strange man coming into our relationship.” he chuckled. “I hope you can.”
The nut was digging in and sprouting, already waist high by the time he got Tiana cleaned up and standing again. She hadn’t lost that much blood, and insisted on standing and walking sooner than Scott would have preferred.
Flindair was growing tall in the daytime sun, and as the sun began to set, he reached taller than Sononia. There was good water in the ground, and good light all morning and day. The rocks stood guard in protection, and Humans would fight alongside the Kalastiel for the first time in living memory.
All afternoon, Scott sang to Sononia, singing women out of the tree and having them, letting the nuts grow in a ring. Thirteen times he sang, each time changing the song a little, imagining the faces of the different Kalastiel he called forth. Some he took standing, others from behind, but into all of them he planted his seed.
While he was busy with this, Tiana was watching the other humans shimmer into being on the grass under Sononia as they Dreamed themselves into this world. There were hundreds altogether, but most were in their early thirties, not sixteen like herself and Scott. She saw a few other sixteen years olds besides Jerasen, who appeared beside her own mother, who must have Filled him in her absence. None of them showed any signs of waking, and she didn’t stir any of them to increase their power. The sooner one woke up, the stronger the power back in the waking world for that year.
Tiana had never heard of anyone who woke up much before sunset. Scott had woken her up just after sunrise here. She wondered if it was because they had Filled themselves only a little after sunrise in their own world… Either way, they were going to be stronger than anyone in history had ever been, which was going to put them in danger if it became known.
Being Filled by someone who was already Filled was the safest way to ensure that one came into the magic, but two youngsters who Filled each other… that doubled the innate power that each had been born with.
If one had the blood of the First Men running true in their veins, and had their virginity taken by another with the same blood, then the magic in both would be released, and they would awaken in Dreamland, to fight for their species on a battlefield on an alien planet.
There were three species fighting in the war; Humans, Kalastiel, and Moverts. Humans and Kalastiel shared a similar physiology, upright bipedal mammals. And could even interbreed, to a degree. On this plane of existence.
Moverts were also mammalian, but that’s where any similarity to the other two combatants ends. Moverts had an extra joint between their elbow and wrist and ankle and knee, and two sets of arms. The upper arms ended in a razor sharp claw, nine inches long and slightly curved. It had a blood runnel grooved into it to allow for quick removal after stabbing.
They moved very fast across short distances and used their claws for ripping and slashing, preferring to let their prey bleed out after the initial rush. They were tough and quick, and could take almost any injury and heal after time, including growing back lost limbs, but only by destroying the brain could they be killed. Burning the bodies and limbs was the only sure way to eradicate them.
Tiara saw an older man begin to stir, the first one to wake. He looked around at the sleeping people, taking a silent count. She didn’t move, and he didn’t notice her for quite a while, but when he finally did, he gave a start.
“Oh my, I didn’t see you there, my dear. How long have you been awake?” he asked. She saw a glint of calculation in his eye as he measured her.
“Oh, not long.” she lied, faking a yawn. “Who are you?”
“I am Council Gregoir.” he said importantly. “Who might you be, and which of these young men is your boyfriend?”
“None of them is my boyfriend.” she told him. “He’s over there somewhere. I think he’s still busy singing.”
“Sing-” the man stammered, but he was interrupted by Scott, who came sauntering into the circle of trees, putting his hand on Sononia possessively.
“All done, Tiana.” he said. “Thirteen in a circle around us.”
“Who are you?” the man asked haughtily. “What is this place? Where is Almadreda?”
“This is Sononia.” Scott said, stroking the bark of the Tree.
“This is Flindair.” Tiana said, putting her arm protectively around him.
“Flindair? The King… the King of the Kalastiel… a Tree?” he asked, hesitantly, looking from the Trees to the two kids before him. “You sang a Kalastiel from Almadreda, and carried… Sononia, is it? You carried her here, and you…” he turned to Tiara. “You… and Flindair…”
She nodded. Gregoir turned back to Scott.
“And you! Do you not love her? How could you let her…” he trailed off as Scott looked at him. “The Kalastiel are so… big! How could she even…”
“Best not to think on it.” Scott said, clapping him on the shoulder. “So, you’re on this Council thing, eh? Good. What do you think about this?” He walked Gregoir over to the back edge of the Grove, and showed him a ridge running parallel to the base of the cliff.
“How about if we use a small force to hold them out of here, and send a big contingent of fighters out along there, where they can attack the flank? If they start to get over-run, they can retreat all along there, and have natural cover against their backs and all along that cliff on that side over there? What do you think?”
“I think you have a lot to learn, young man!” Gregoir said angrily, throwing Scott’s arm off his shoulder. “Who do you think you are? What is this place, and how far is it to Almadreda?”
Several of the other older men and women were stirring awake now, sitting up an gaping at their surroundings, having never been here before.
“Where are we? What are all these Trees?” were the two most commonly heard questions rising above the rest of the babble. The rest of the sleepers were quickly roused out of their slumber, and soon everyone was on their feet in the fading daylight.
“I want three men guarding both of these openings here, and here. You three, take that one. You three, yes, you!” he pointed out a surprised looking man in his thirties, balding and a paunch, but he would do. “Take that side.”
He pointed at a small group of teenagers all huddled together, boys an girls both, and sent them over to the mouth of the Grove. “I want you guys to hold this line. It’s mostly protected, and they won’t be coming rom this direction, so it should be a piece of cake. However, it’s the back door, and NEEDS to be guarded. Think you can handle it?”
“Yes sir, we got this.” said the tallest boy there. Looking Scott straight in the eye and nodding. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re right. This line needs to be defended. I’ll do it.”
“Thanks, uh…” Scott went fishing for the kid’s name.
“Jordan.” said the kid. “Jordan Miller. This is…”
“Later.” Scott said abruptly, seeing Gregoir gathering a goup around him, which included the six he had assigned to the boulder openings.
“Excuse me, I want you six back at your posts, and the rest of you can follow me.”
“They won’t be following you anywhere, young man.” Gregoir said nastily. “I am Head of the Council and First Awake, so you will defer to me.”
“You were not First Awake.” Scott retorted. “I was, and I woke up Tiana soon after coming to. We have been awake all day, and I found this place and planted this Grove. ME!! I have been named Kingmage, and if I decide I want a Council, you won’t be having a place on it.” He glared at the man until he wilted, then turned and took the rest of the group in with his glance.
“Now, you six, at your posts, and the rest of you, follow me!”
“What about our weapons?”
“Are the women coming with us??”
“I don’t want to leave- this is my first time here- I don’t-”
Everyone started babbling at once, and the only thing that hushed them up was the number of glowing, misty forms rising from the ground in a ring all around them. The forms materialized into tall Kalastiel men, one of whom came forward an strode up to Scott, looking him right in the eye.
“Kingmage, we see what you have done this day. Much talk has come of this amongst our people. These Trees you have sung forth have strengthened us more than the Humans have ever entrusted to us before, and I, Onthamar, King of the Kalastiel, promise that you will not regret it as long as you allow us to keep it. Our Queenmage will never attack you while I Council her, and I will never give her permission while these Trees live.”
“In this place, with a little forethought, in this place, these Trees will live until they die.” Scott said. More than that; the Moverts can be attacked from over there, flanked and driven back into the mountains.” Scott said, pointing.
“This is true; many of us saw this and pointed it out today. That is how I was able to convince so many to come and fight with you. Why have you not prepared any weapons? Will you not fight?”
“Weapons?” Scott asked dumbly, but then he saw the Kalastiel taking branches of the Trees in their hands and singing, stoking them into swords and bows and arrows, shields and armor. He turned to Sononia and took a branch, singing softly as he stroked his fingers up and down. It formed into a bow and fell free into his hands.
“Everyone! Make yourselves a weapon from the branches!” he cried out, but saw that everyone was already hard at it. Withing twenty minutes, with the women helping out, all the men had a weapon or two and a shield. His six sentries had been equipped and put in place, Jordan and his crew were ready, and the Kalastiel formed up behind the Humans as Scott led them out of the Grove and behind the little ridge to await the hordes of Moverts the could hear on the mountain.
Because the Grove was overhung by the cliffs above it slightly, the Moverts would have to come down the steep slope (no going back) either side and re-group, or drop themselves off the cliff and try to slip through one of the gaps between the boulders individually.
The slope on the north side of the cliff was broken by the ravine that Scott planned on moving his forces along, but it was only a foot wide and a foot lower then the uphill ledge. Forces running downhill would naturally leap the little distance and use it’s momentum to speed further out onto the plains.
Almadreda had been grown on the only ridge on the plains, about fourteen miles out from the foothill outcropping that Scott had chosen to defend. The advantage there had been that the Moverts were excellent at the hundred yard dash, but over the long distance, they tired quickly and by the time they reached the Humans to attack, they had no stamina for battle.
“Sononia and Flindair?” Gregoir snorted, most of the way back in the mob following Scott. “What kind of whore would give herself to that… giant.”
“One thing’s for sure.” guffawed Anatin, his only son. Anatin had been one of the choices in consideration for Filling Tiana, but ultimately he had been rejected because of the obvious inbreeding between his parents. Gregoir’s twin sister was Anatin’s mother, but she’d been killed in the battle the first night she and Gregoir Filled each other.
They were First Awake, right at dusk, Gregoir and Fivola, and faced the first charge alone. They Moverts had come early that season and used a new strategy. Instead of rushing across all the miles, they crept through the tall grass and saved their strength for a concerted rush when enough had gathered together. They did this at the direction of a particularly cunning and powerful Movert, bigger, stronger, and smarter than the others.
The magic imbued by this place to the Humans, Kalastiel, and to a much lesser degree, Moverts, was magic of the mind, the ability to implant emotions and ideas into others heads, and make them think the idea or feeling was their own. Humans and Kalastiel had far more thinking ability than Moverts and that was one theory that explained the difference. The biggest reason the Kalastiel did not have more magic in their waking world, the the reason so few were Dreamed here, was because Humans had never allowed one of their females to mate with a Kalastiel, where the Kalastiel had periodically sacrificed their Queen in order that the Moverts not swarm this whole world and thus win the War.
Moverts were not pack animals, but neither were they herd animals, either. They usually hunted alone, hiding in wait for prey to wander within range, then burst past them and slash vital organs, making as many rushes as necessary to bring the animal down. If more than two were needed, the Moverts were patient, and would stay in sight, but out of reach of- the wounded until it expired. If it tried to flee, more rushing attacks were made until the animal stopped again.
Over generations of fighting the Humans and Kalastiel, due to the intelligence imparted from this place to select few Moverts, they had slightly evolved their hunting technique, learning how to cross the plains without exhausting themselves, and allowed one of the bigger and brainier to coordinate their actions somewhat, like leading in them a sneaking lope through the tall grass, with a stop at the end to bunch up and attack en masse. The year they had learned that was the year Gregoir had lost Fivola to that brand new tactic, and the year that Almadreda had stopped flowering leaves.
They came from a far distant star system, as did the Kalastiel, but the common thread between all three systems was a comet in orbit around a fourth, far older star which had evolved a species of mushroom on it. When this comet was broken apart from passing too near one of the gas giants in the system, the pieces were thrown out of their orbits and crashed into Earth, Kalastiel 2, and Keltar 6, home of the Moverts. The hallucinogenic mushroom spores all found fertile ground on each of the plants and proliferated, enabling certain members of each species to Dream themselves here.
This Dreamland was a battleground between the three species, and whichever one controlled the most territory when the Dream ended would have the most power, and would have more Ideas occur to them, more Dreams, and their technology would advance. That was the prevailing theory, and the main reason why the Council had always prevented any woman from mating with a Kalastiel male. Very few Kingmages in history had ever Sung the Kalastiel king into the Dreamworld in the first place. It was how the Humans maintained control over the Kalastiel, sacrificing Moverts control to most of the planet, in return for controlling more of the rest than the Kalastiel.
Now that Tiana had mated with Flindair, the Kalastiel Queenmage could sing as many Trees awake as she desired, the same way Scott had sung thirteen of his own in this grove. If the Humans allowed it to grow. What was it Flindair had said? “Humans will never regret this as long as they allow us to keep it.”
Scott wondered what Flindair meant by that as he led most of the group out the defile along the base of the cliff.
“Hold here.” Onthamar said quietly, holding up his fist.
“We wait!” Scott called softly behind him.
He and Onathar had the best view, perched behind a large rock, and watched as two streams of Moverts, one one each side of the cliff sheltering the Grove, swarmed down off the mountain and began the miles long trek to Almadreda.
“We wait for their return, and let them attack the rocks.” Onthamar said, and Scott nodded.
“Then we sweep out and hit them in their flank.” Scott said. “When they flee from our charge, they go right over those cliffs there.”
Onthamar clapped Scott on the shoulder. “This is a good place.” he said. “The Moverts will be weary after the long journey to Almadreda and back.”
“Next year, we climb this hill and attack them up there.” Scott said. “Are you up for that?”
“They’re coming back!” yelled one of the sentries who had followed behind the Moverts. He was running full tilt, straight into the boulders on the side closest to the cliff, leading them straight into the trap. It had been a suicide run to begin with, for all fourteen of them, but it worked perfectly.
When the Moverts had finally reached Almadreda, expecting to see the Humans massed in a ring protecting the Tree, they hadn’t found anybody there. They vented their rage on the twisted trunk, ripping it into bits and flinders.
The fourteen Humans that followed them began blowing horns and shouting to one another. When the pack began dashing towards them, they led the chase as far as they could, one man at a time falling to a Moverts leap, never to rise again.
Almost all of the Movert horde had followed the team onto the high ground and were trapped between the cliff and the formidable line of Men and Kalastiel warriors, but a significant few had taken the low route which had a longer but gentler climb up the mountain slope to the high ground, which was the Movert stronghold.
Humans and Kalastiel gained magic and power through inter-species sex with one another in this place, and the growing of trees, but Moverts gained power through the eating of meat in this place. Kalastiel meat gave them stamina, and Human meat gave them cunning and more of the ability to think. They could cannibalize each other, and did, to increase their physical size as well, but only by eating all the flesh of the other two species could the Moverts win the War and achieve their full potential.
* * *
The Moverts at the bottom of the cliff spent the night feasting on the bodies as the hillsides burned merrily above them, driving the darkness from the plains until the Dawn, by which time, none were left in that place, Movert, Human, or Kalastiel.