The 18 Inch Curse - Chapter 7: Yull's Secret

The 18 Inch Curse - Chapter 7: Yull's Secret

I remember this chapter as being rather plot-heavy. So if you're only reading for the smut...sorry! Hope you still have fun with this chapter, though!

Contains: Tentacles

Enjoy!

Chapter 7 – Yull’s Secret.

Hollow sounding footsteps resounded throughout the cavern as Rickard and Kess descended down the stairs going deeper and deeper underground. There seemed to be no paladins nearby that heard the two of them coming in fact, Rickard’s ears didn’t pick up any sounds at all except for an odd slithering sound the further down he and Kess came. When Rickard’s feet finally stepped onto the dusty, rocky cavern floor he also smelled something, something familiar.

‘Smells like sex.’ Kess said bluntly as she stepped up behind her, and Rickard could see her wrinkling her nose in the faint green light that was coming off of the walls from deeper into the cavern.

‘Yeah.’ Rickard softly responded, wondering if he was blowing this all out of proportion and they were just going to walk into some secret paladin orgy as he started towards the tunnel from which the green light was coming.

Unfortunately, it looked that there was definitely more going on than a paladin orgy. Perhaps it was for the best, because Rickard really didn’t want to walk in on a bunch of uptight religious warriors screwing around. Then again, Katherine was quite an animal in bed and she was supposed to be the head-priestess of Hoten. So you never know. Rickard’s attention was brought to it first by Kess, who squeezed his shoulder and uttered his name.

‘Rickard…’ the blonde barbarian said while gawking at the green glowing walls.

‘Wha-…Oh, oh no that’s not good.’ Rickard replied and his throat suddenly felt very dry as he saw dozens of black tentacles nearly as thick both of his legs writhing over the cavern walls and covered with a green, glowing slime. They all looked oddly similar to the tentacles belonging to the creature he and Kess had fought underneath Hoten’s temple…only bigger.

But that wasn’t what Kess had been pointing at. Hanging from the cavern walls, suspended by tentacles, were the bodies of Hoten’s priestesses. They were still alive, but they didn’t seem to make a sound as their mouths hung open in silent pleasure as fat, pulsing tentacles were writhing around in their obscenely stretched pussies, yet blinking their eyes seemed to be the only movement they made as they were violated and filled with a thick, glowing green goop that those monstrous tentacles pumped out. Huge, shifting tentacles were visible pushing out the stomach of some of the woman and moved at a lazy pace, while those that looked like they’ve been here longer had their stomachs swollen with the tentacles green slime like they were about to give birth, hell some of the women even had enormous swollen breasts and nipples that dribbled milk. As they looked at the perverted orgie of tentacles and silent, pleasure filled priestesses a few droplets of glowing green goop oozed out of the packed cunny of a nearby woman and splattered on one of the barbarian’s strong arms, the results were immediate as the sight and scent of the green slime seemed to awaken something in the blonde.

Kess nostrils flared and she began to breathe rapidly while her eye glossed over as she hungrily stared at the tentacles, Rickard thought he also saw something clear dribbling down the barbarian’s thighs as she slowly approached a couple of tentacles currently not inserted into a priestess. But a moment later she shook her head and managed to collect herself.

‘You alright?’ Rickard asked.

‘I could ask the same of you.’ Kess replied drily as she eyed the large bulge pushing out Rickard’s trousers.

Rickard cleared his throat and moved along, ‘How long do you think they’ve been here?’ he asked.

‘Don’t know,’ Kess shot back. ‘But the design of what remains of their robes differs a great deal from those of Ciara. So my guess is that they’ve been here pretty long.’ She added while stiffly trying to keep herself from looking forward.

It certainly wasn’t pleasant to imagine all these women being stuck down here for years, but the focus of Rickard and Kess was only on getting Ciara and Katherine out of here. Luckily, their goal seemed to be coming into sight as they spotted a large chamber lit by torchlight and heard the murmur of voices drifting towards them as they got closer. Both of them passed into the large chamber silently, and Rickard nearly yelled out in surprise at what he saw if Kess hadn’t  clamped her hand over his mouth. The place looked like a temple with several huge pillars to hold up a ceiling which depicted a massive, leafless black tree giving life all around it! Or it would have if it wasn’t for the fact that fat, glowing tentacles were spread over every surface, and it certainly wasn’t helped by the creature in the centre of the “temple”.

In the centre of this perverted temple was a wide, deep, dark pit from which something had spawned. If someone had to ask Rickard what it would look like, he’d say tree. But no one in their right mind would mistake whatever that thing was for a tree. It was enormous, stretched nearly to the ceiling with a multitude of tentacles even thicker than Rickard and Kess had seen clinging to the wall in the cavern leading up to this place resembling the branches of a tree with a single giant orange eye in the centre of the “trunk” while several of its “roots” had escaped the depths of the pit it was in to cover the temple. From its branches hung large, ugly green sacks that pulsed and Rickard was sure he saw creatures within them similar to the one he and Kess had slain in their search for Hoten’s holy oil.

What was perhaps odder were all the people standing around it like it was the most common thing in the world. They all seemed to be paladins wearing the same sickly green tabard Rickard had seen those wear that took Ciara and Katherine, or priests and priestess dressed in robes of a similar colour. But one of them stood out, a woman in armour with short, straw blonde hair and eyes such a bright green that Rickard could see them shine even from his perch above. He also saw two familiar figures standing near her, a frightened Ciara as well as Katherine. But she didn’t seem to care about her fate. The woman made a motion with her hand, and the murmur of voices stopped as she began to speak.

‘My fellow believers, once again it is time for a sacrifice to our Lord Galtha who has blessed us with fertile lands and healthy children while the false gods worshipped in this city did nothing but watch,’ she said with a prideful voice that carried far. ‘We have brought the high-priestess of the very Godthat struck Galtha down, as well as one of her followers,’ she continued as she made a theatrical gesture towards Katherine and Ciara, followed by boos from her followers.

Rickard felt a hand clutching his shoulder. ‘What should we do?’ Kess asked.

‘Well, we can’t rush in and save Ciara and Katherine with just the two of us,’ Rickard muttered. ‘And we don’t know who we can trust in the city that isn’t aligned with this little cult,’ he added. ‘So I guess we have to prepare and do something stupid.’

Just then the woman made a gesture with her hand, silencing the boos of the collected paladins and priests. ‘Yes, yes I know brothers and sisters. Bringing these…women in front of our glorious God is an insult. But I am sure he will forgive them for following their false God once we toss them in the pit to slake the hunger of our God.’

This made Rickard swallow audibly and he already felt his palms becoming sweaty while the voice of the strange woman was drowned out by the pounding in his ears. Only Kess’ voice shook him out of it.

‘Are you sure we have the time?’ Kess asked as she eyed the crowd nervously.

‘If this lady act like a stereotypical villain we’ll have an hour or so while she holds her little speech,’ Rickard said trying to sound like his typical sarcastic self, but it came out with a nervous stammer. ‘Anyway, if this thing really is the dark God or whatever that Hoten killed, well failed to kill. Then we better collect some holy objects to take him out, we’d also need to do something about those paladins. Either find a way to take them all out at once, or distract them somehow,’  Rickard thought aloud. ‘After all, I doubt they’d be happy to see us taking their precious sacrifices away.’

‘What about those fireworks?’ Kess asked.

Rickard nodded. ‘It’s settled then, we need to collect some fireworks and anything holy we can get our hands on. You see if you can get some fireworks, I’ll go to the library and try to swipe some stuff out of the cases there. I’m sure most people will be too busy with the festival to notice anyway.’

They both nodded and with one last glance towards Katherine and Ciara left the cavern to prepare for slaying a god.

* * * *

Once Rickard had reached the streets the festival was in full swing, even if he wasn’t suspicious about the guards being on the side of the cultists they all looked like they were either too drunk to help, or trying to put out random fires caused by revelers and stopping people from fighting while they were celebrating. Still, that probably meant that it would be easier for Rickard to sneak inside the library and snatch some holy artefacts.

When he arrived, he noticed that there was no one nearby to guard the entrance. ‘Well, this is going to be easier than I thought I just have to find a window and…’ Rickard stared at the door. ‘No, no they wouldn’t,’ he muttered as he laid a hand on the door handle and effortlessly pushed the door open. ‘…I wonder how this damn cult hasn’t taken over the whole city yet.’ Rickard whispered to himself as he slipped inside.

‘Come on, it can’t be this easy?’ Rickard whispered to himself as he snuck up the spiral staircase, his way being lit by the bright lights and fireworks outside.

As it turned out, it really was that easy. Rickard banged against bookcases, tables and statues and wasn’t shy about cursing as loudly as he was able, yet no one came to see what all the ruckus was about. The first artefact he snatched was Helen’s Blessed Dagger, the first holy relic he had seen when he and Kess had visited the library. He also took some of the glowing stones and scraps of cloth lying in the same glass case, just in case. Unfortunately, there seemed to be very little weapons amongst the artefacts. Sure, there was a spear with a wide blade hanging above a small statue of Hoten on the second floor with an inscription below it that read Sunblade of the Guardian Garr but even if he could reach it he had his doubts about moving it back to the underground temple inconspicuously.

‘Guess this will have to do…’ Rickard muttered as he inspected his measly haul.

He had gathered two daggers, the one that had supposedly belonged to Helen and another one that didn’t seem to have an inscription but had a blade long enough to be mistaken for a short sword. Other than that he had some scraps of cloth, glowing rocks a couple of bottles containing the “essence” of some Gods, whatever that meant,  and a medallion that would protect people from evil. It probably wouldn’t do them much good against the blades of angry paladins, but maybe it would ease Kess’ wild lust around the tentacles. Rickard didn’t really believe in stuff like protective medallions and amulets actually working, but a few minutes ago he hadn’t believed in the existence of dark, evil Gods and looked how that had turned out.

With a nervous sigh Rickard hid the artefacts in his pockets or underneath his tunic and returned to the temple of Hoten to see Kess’ haul. He nervously avoided the big crowds and snuck through alleyways until he reached his destination. Once he arrived, he wasn’t shy about making noise however.

‘By Hoten’s glowing dick, what the hell Kess!?’ he yelled.

The barbarian was sitting on a wagon laden with barrels filled with fireworks, and a couple of barrels that looked like they were filled with booze. She was also spinning Hoten’s bottle of holy oil around in her hands. ‘How did you get so much?’ Rickard asked with his mouth agape.

‘Some I asked for, some I just took,’ She said with a shrug. ‘Most people seemed too drunk and too happy to care. What did you get?’

Sheepishly Rickard laid out his own haul and left it to Kess to inspect, she asked about some of the bottles and Rickard explained. With a shrug the barbarian grabbed the dagger/short sword hybrid and shoved a couple of bottles containing essence of the gods between her breasts while handing Rickard the bottle with Hoten’s holy oil. Rickard shoved the bottle in his pocket along with all the other things he had pilfered, except for the dagger which he shoved in the waistband of his trousers, and the medallion which he handed to Kess.

‘What’s this?’ the blonde asked as she eyed the piece.

‘It’s supposed to protect you from evil,’ Rickard explained. ‘I haven’t researched how the original owner died, so who knows. It might be the real thing.’ He added with a shrug, but Kess had already put the thing around her neck.

‘Thanks, now how are we going to go about this?’ she asked while pointing her head in the direction of the wagon.

‘Let’s take everything down in the cavern first, and let’s hope that that woman is still holding her speech.’ Rickard sighed.

He and Kess had to take several trips up and down the long, winding staircase to get everything down mostly, Rickard was sad to admit, because he couldn’t haul barrels of booze and fireworks like the barbarian could and only succeeded in bringing a few armfuls of fireworks at a time. Once everything was down however, the two of them snuck back into the temple to check, and yes the woman was still holding her speech.

‘Try to plant as much of the fireworks near the pillars, and…is the booze flammable?’

‘It’s Dwarven.’ Kess replied.

‘Alright, and leave a trail of alcohol leading from the pillars to a central point so we can light it all at once.’

Kess nodded and disappeared with bundles of firework underneath her arms, while Rickard did the same. He tried his best to descend the staircase in complete silence and hide the fireworks behind pillars without any of the cultist noticing. Luckily for him and Kess, they all seemed to be completely absorbed by the strange woman’s speech. When he had finished laying them all down, the speech seemed to be winding down…and someone bumped against his back. Rickard yelped in surprise, but quickly silenced himself when he noticed it was Kess emptying a cask of Dwarven booze.

‘Ready?’ she whispered a moment later as she poured out the rest of the cask over the last bundle of fireworks Rickard had placed.

‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’ He replied while following Kess back up the stairs.

Once they were back on their original perch looking out of the entirety of the temple, Rickard approached the large puddle of Dwarven booze and patted down his trousers. ‘Shit.’ He muttered under his breath, having forgotten probably the most important part of his plan. Luckily Kess handed him a tinderbox while shooting him a look. Rickard ignored it and snatched it out of her hand before striking it a piece of flint against the steel to get some sparks. Luckily, on his third try a few sparks flew into the puddle of booze, instantly setting it aflame.

‘People really drink this stuff?’ Rickard asked with wide eyes as he shoved the tinderbox in his trouser pocket and watched the flames following the two trails down the dual staircases.

Before Kess could answer the chamber was filled with the soft sizzling sounds of the fuses of the fireworks burning up. Rickard saw this as his chance, and jumped up. ‘We have you now, you bastards!’ he shouted just as the first few colourful arrows sprang up into the air…and exploded into sparks of various colour. ‘That did not go like I expected.’ Rickard muttered to himself as the sound of steel blades escaping sheathes hissed through the temple.

‘Ah well, it’s more fun this way.’ Kess said with a shrug as she poured a small bottle of a God’s essence over the blade of her axe and ran out to face the paladins. A wicked axe in one hand, and a sharp short sword in the other.

Rickard meanwhile reluctantly pulled out his dagger and scoffed as he looked at the size of it, and the size of the swords of the paladins. It just wasn’t fair…

But even though his fireworks plan hadn’t quite gone like he had expected, having the explosives fly around still seemed to work in his benefit. Quickly several of the paladins’ tabards were on fire, and one of them was unfortunate enough to get one of the colourful arrows stuck in the visor of his helmet. He wasn’t fast enough with removing his helmet before it went off and he went down like a sack of potatoes. Still, he was luckier than the ones facing Kess who was working off the sexual frustration caused by the tentacle beast by imitating a whirlwind of blood and steel. Others merely looked at the pretty display of flashing lights and didn’t bother to get into the fighting.

Meanwhile Rickard was content with staying out of the fighting and did his best to sneak past the dead and dying paladins while trying not to lose his breakfast as he did his best to not look at the horrific wounds left by Kess. Unfortunately it wasn’t all that easy and a chainmail clad hand grasped Rickard’s ankle, causing him to try and suppress a scream of surprise. He did his best to shake the hand off, but was unsuccessful and heard a pained gurgle and a heard the rasping sound of a sword being dragged over the stone staircase, Rickard swallowed audibly as he saw the sharp weapon coming closer to him. Without thinking Rickard brought his dagger down, sinking the blade past the paladin’s opened visor and into his skull.

Warm, sticky red blood washed over Rickard’s hand and he had to fight back a wave of sickness as he pulled the knife out of the paladin’s head. He hadn’t the time to think about the fact that he had just taken another person’s life, Ciara and Katherine were just down these staircase being held by the wild-eyed woman that seemed to be the leader of this cult, so he had to keep moving trying not to slip on the pools of blood, getting burned by the flames fuelled by Dwarven liquor, or trip over the huge, root-like tentacles. He dodged paladins, trying not to catch their eye even though most of them seemed to be too occupied with Kess. Once his feet hit the smooth, marble floor in front of the wide, dark pit occupied by the tree-like monstrosity the blonde’s woman whipped her body around to face him.

Like the rest of the paladins she wore a sickly green tabard over an armour that hid much of her body. Rickard could see her face though, apparently she had forgone a helmet, not that helmets had helped her companions much. In any other situation Rickard would call her pretty maybe even beautiful, her face had severe features with high, royal cheekbones and arched eyebrows. But something about her piercing green eyes made Rickard’s stomach churn.

‘You! You ruined everything!’ she shrieked in voice like nails scraping over a blackboard.

‘Technically it’s Kess that’s killing all your buddies, I just wanted to give them a lightshow,’ Rickard said as he inched closer to Ciara and Katherine. ‘Now, why don’t you give them back and you can go on with your coo-coo religion without us.’ He asked with a smile.

‘Never!’ she shrieked again, pulling out a slender blade in the process that gave her a lot more reach than Rickard’s little knife. ‘They are a sacrifice to our Lord Galtha!’

‘Don’t you think he has enough priestesses already?’ Rickard asked while trying to stay away from the sharp blade.

‘No,’ She hissed ‘The more women Lord Galtha has pleasing him, the stronger he will grow and the more our lands will flourish! No one will miss another one of Hoten’s whores!’, and with a single hand she pushed Ciara into the pit.

‘What.’ Rickard stammered as his eyes widened and he watched Ciara fall. He wanted to sprint, but his feet felt glued to the floor. Only when Ciara screamed did he manage to shake himself from his stupor.

A loud shriek echoed through the temple and came above the fireworks as Ciara plummeted down, but before she got very far several thick, slime covered branches snapped down and caught the priestess, pulling her up higher so that the creature could have a better look at her. Of course, this did not stop Ciara’s screams as several smaller tentacles slipped underneath her habit and began ripping the cloth to expose her flawless, tanned skin and her titanic breasts. If the situation had been different, Rickard would have stared. But the fact that there was a monster a few feet away from him, a crazed woman was holding a blade mere inches away from his face and there was a small army of paladins rushing up and down the dual staircases he was a bit too distracted for it.

‘Katherine! Do something!’ Rickard yelled as the head-priestess just hung her head in shame.

‘Why the hell are you just standing there!?’ Rickard roared, just as the crazed cultist leader slammed her blade forwards.

Rickard dodged to the side, but couldn’t completely avoid the blade and felt a sharp, searing pain as his arm was slashed open. The cut wasn’t deep, but warm blood still poured from the wound. Unfortunately, the blonde woman seemed determined to finish him off, and slashed at him again with her weapon. Luckily, this seemed to be the time that Katherine finally seemed to realize that she didn’t need to be sacrificed to some many-tentacled creature from her nightmares, and she shoved the cultist leader out of the way, causing her to stumbled and fall a few inches away from the pit while her sword escaped her grip and slid into the pit.

‘You bitch!’ she howled towards Katherine as she tried to push herself up.

Rickard wasn’t about to give her chance to recover however, and kicked her in the stomach straight into the pit. Another high-pitched scream echoed through the temple, and like Ciara the cultist leader was caught by fat, black tentacles and she laughed triumphantly. But when the tentacles began stripping off her armour, she knew that her God wasn’t exactly on her side. Her triumphant laughter turned into shrieks of panic and she began to kick as the slime covered tentacles slithered along her long, discreetly muscled legs and arms, revealing a lot of smooth skin with a gold tan. The cultist leader did her best to stop the tentacles, but she was bound tight as her tabard was torn to shreds and her armour plummeted into the pit, revealing a pair of hand-filling breasts that sat firm and proud on her chest, as well as a flat belly so fit it could make Kess jealous. Rickard nodded his head as he admired her slender, fit body but was quickly shaken out of it by Ciara’s scream just as a single tentacle was making it’s way to the cultist leader’s shaven snatch.

‘Hang on!’ Rickard yelled as he slashed at a nearby tentacle wrapping around one of Ciara’s ankle.

Apparently Helen’s Blessed Dagger did as advertised and a bright, white light poured out of the wound it made on the tentacle, and the walls shook as the beast released an explosive roar, impressive for a creature without a visible mouth. Unfortunately, it’s wasn’t enough to kill it, the large orange eye of the tree-like monster did focus on Rickard though and several other tentacles struck at him. Rickard could only scream in surprise, and did his best to fight off the tentacles, leaving several other bright glowing slashes. But soon enough a tentacle slapped against his chest, and Rickard skidded along the marble floor.

Luckily for him, several of the tentacles had released Ciara and she was being pulled down by Katherine, which meant that the tentacles were now trying to grab them both. ‘Playing hero is a lot more glamorous in the stories…’ Rickard grumbled as he pushed himself up with his good arm and stumbled towards the two priestesses, grabbing his dagger on the way.

His arm was still stinging painfully, and his chest hurt so much that he was certain that he had cracked a rib, but he still managed to cut the tentacles and distract the creature long enough to have Katherine pull Ciara away. Just in time for a paladin to decide that fighting Kess or burning to death on the staircase wasn’t worth it, and instead fight two unarmed priestesses. But before he could even attempt to unsheathe his sword, Katherine grabbed the handle of his blade and pulled it out of the paladin’s sheath as quick as a flash, before unceremoniously driving it through the little chink between the man’s armour and helmet, decapitating him.

‘Guess my adventuring experience came in handy,’ the redhead muttered to herself as she pulled Ciara along. ‘Come on Rickard!’ she shouted as she ran up the stairs.

‘I’m a little busy!’ Rickard shouted back as he tried to dodge and cut the angry tentacles not squirming all over the cultist leader’s fit body and trying to make their way into her orifices. ‘Just try to cut loose the priestesses held in the cavern and escape!’ he added as he stumbled back far enough to be out of the reach of most tentacles.

Katherine was quick in heeding his advice and ran up the stairs while slashing at the odd paladin while Ciara followed behind, oddly quiet. Rickard meanwhile was faced with an angry God, while Kess was somewhere fighting paladins. Of course, with his luck a tentacle was soon wrapped around his ankle and causing Rickard to land on his ass. With a fate probably worse than death if Ciara’s situation was anything to go by, Rickard thought quick and remembered his battle with the tentacle creature when he and Kess went to get Hoten’s oil and he focused on the huge, angry orange eye. With a body fuelled by adrenaline he tossed the blessed dagger at the large eye with all the force his unwounded arm could muster and watch the blade spinning closer towards the large, pulsating eye, and closer, and closer…only to have it knock against the eye with the pommel.

‘Godsdamn it!’ Rickard shouted. ‘Can’t you even give me this!’ he cursed. But then he remembered the other relics he had brought with him, and what Kess gave him.

With a triumphant shout he pulled the bottle off Hoten’s oil out of his pocket, along with some pieces of cloth, the tinderbox he had used, and some shining rocks. He let the rocks be as he was pulled closer to the pit, but he quickly uncorked the bottle and grabbed a piece of cloth to shove in the bottle before grabbing the tinderbox that was nearly out of his reach. ‘Now how am I going to light this?’ he wondered with the tinderbox in one hand, and the bottle in the other…and the deep, dark pit steadily coming closer as the tentacle gave another tug at his ankle.

His answer came in the form of a sharp, wicked looking axe sinking into the tentacle holding his ankle and spraying greenish grey ichor everywhere before a pair of strong, feminine hands snatched the tinderbox and bottle of oil out of his hands. ‘Get ready to run!’ Kess yelled as she lit the piece of cloth and tossed it at the creature.

Rickard was all too happy to comply when the tree-like monstrosity released a pained howl as the bottle of oil smashed into his eye, and bright white and gold flames spread over its enormous body. This resulted in the tentacles releasing the still screaming cultist leader, causing her to plummet into the pit below while the tentacles holding her began flailing around wildly, knocking over pillars and making cracks in the ceiling appear. Kess quickly pulled her axe out of the beast’s tentacle and followed Rickard, catching up to him with a cocky grin. As they passed a pile of unlit fireworks, Rickard accidently kicked a small, black arrow into the flames causing it to fly upwards a few moments later.

This taught the young man a valuable lesson about not judging something by its size, as it lodged itself between the cracks in the ceiling and went off with an enormous bang, causing the ceiling to come crashing down around him, Kess, the nightmarish creature and the remaining paladins. They had to dodge the falling chunks of rock as they plummeted around them, crushing a few unlucky paladins who pushed their way past Kess to make it to the exit first. Luckily, both she and Rickard managed to shove their way into the cavern before the way was cut off by a large chunk of rock. Unfortunately, the walls were still shaking.

‘Come on! This way!’ Katherine shouted, holding up a sword covered in crimson blood and greenish grey ichor from the tentacles.’

She didn’t have to tell Rickard and Kess twice as the cavern began to collapse around them. The three of them and a priestess with a bloated belly who barely seemed to know where she was ascended the shaking staircase as fast as they could, doing their best to ignore the sounds of steel screeching around them as rocks bashed down just a few steps behind them. But they managed to make it. Unfortunately, the running still wasn’t over as they felt the ground shaking underneath their feet and had the pleasure of watching the temple of Hoten sinking into the ground.

‘Katherine,’ Rickard said between heavy breaths after he, Kess, Katherine and the priestess had made it across the street with Ciara and the other priestesses from the cavern. ‘I think we need to have a talk about what the HELL JUST HAPPENED!’ he shouted.

* * * *

‘So you knew about these wackjobs living underneath your feet? The, the Cult of Galtha and you didn’t say anything?!’ Rickard growled as he sat in his bed in the room they had rented in an inn called Hoten’s Field.

Ciara and some of the other priestesses still affected by the tentacle monster’s juices were cooing and rubbing themselves against them. Rickard tried to ignore them. After the whole city had watched Hoten’s temple sinking underground the festivities soon ended and the innkeeper of Hoten’s Field had quickly brought everyone inside. He’d asked about all the acolytes and paladins, but they had all been outside of the temple celebrating. In hindsight, this was probably so no one tried to stop Katherine and Ciara from being taken away. Now Kess stood outside of the room, trying to discourage anyone from getting inside, and Rickard was stuck in a room filled with priestesses with an out of control libido. The only one not in the room was Ciara, who had locked herself in the room right next to theirs.

‘Half of the paladins in my temple, and maybe some out in the fortresses protecting the valley were with Lyn. I would have gotten my throat slit before word would have reached the city guard, and even if I sacrificed myself like that I doubt those drunks would have believed me.’ Katherine said.

‘Lyn?’ Rickard asked, then thought for a few moments. ‘You mean their leader? The blonde missing a few horses in her stable?’ Katherine nodded in response, and Rickard sighed in annoyance.

‘Looked to me like you could handle yourself pretty well back there. Better than me anyway,’ he shot back as pushed away the hands of a priestess who was eagerly rubbing his legs. ‘You could’ve handled a couple of crazed paladins, maybe even convince those not aligned with the ones following Galtha to help you out. What’s the real story?’

Katherine bit her lower lip, and took a few breaths before she spilled her guts to Rickard. Apparently she wasn’t really the head-priestess, she was just some poor adventurer that had stumbled into town a few years ago wounded and weary enough to collapse as soon as she stepped past the opened gates. Apparently she had been found by the head-priestess, because the next day she awakened in the temple of Hoten nursed back to health by a friendly looking woman and some acolytes.

Rickard sat attentively, listening to the story as best as he could as he felt the heavy breasts of a lust-crazed priestess pushing against his back while she breathed into his ears while one of her companions lied down and used his lap as a pillow while staring up at him with lust burning in her eyes. Meanwhile Katherine continued her story.

Her wounds had been grievous and she had been clutching a bag, something she had raided from an old tomb with a partner she had left for dead. She had planned to sell it off, and live the high life and would forget about her past. The head-priestess had not cared however, she had let Katherine stay in her bed as she nursed her back to health, and dealt with her curses of pain with the patience of a saint while she talked with the adventurer about her day, about her god and about her temple even as Katherine stubbornly kept her mouth shut. It didn’t last long however, the older woman had been friendly and approachable and treated Katherine like a sister, like a daughter and the two became fast friends and soon talked about many things. Even Katherine’s mistakes, the ruins and temples she had robbed with her partner, her last job. But the woman had told her she could mend her wicked ways, it wouldn’t be easy…but she’d be there for her.

Of course, your past has a tendency to catch up to you.

Her old partner, Raphael, had healed faster from the fight they had than she. His handsome face was marred with a nasty gash, his leather armour was in desperate need of repair and he was limping. Yet, he had been able to slip past the guards of the city and the paladins of the temple to reach the head-priestess’ room, while dragging a pale and bloodied acolyte along. It was apparent that he had beaten Katherine’s location out of her and she barely looked conscious. When he came bursting in the head-priestess was still in the room, gossiping about the little love affair between a paladin and acolyte they all pretended not to know about, as soon as Raphael spotted Katherine he tossed the acolyte aside and began ranting and raving about “his share”.

Katherine took a deep, shuddering breath and continued speaking while looking down at her hands.

She had spent a lot of time with the head-priestess and some of the other acolytes, but still an inkling of greed remained and she had clutched tighter onto the bag. But when a warm hand had touched hers and she saw the head-priestess’ warm smile as she told her “give him what he wants”, she did. Slowly she had stepped out of the bed, and slowly stumbled closer to Raphael before handing him the bag. It had contained a gold relic from the tomb of some long dead king, it all seemed rather silly now especially since she had found a place with the head-priestess in Hoten’s temple. But Raphael was not just content with his prize, he wanted one more thing…

Revenge.

With a grin he pulled a dagger from his boot, Raphael loved his daggers, and before Katherine’s dulled senses puzzled out what was going on he released a sharp cry of pure, crazed rage and struck out at Katherine’s face. Luckily, he missed his intended target as she had been pushed out of the way. Unfortunately, this meant that the head-priestess got the dagger intended for Katherine shoved in her chest. She looked surprised, Raphael’s ugly, scarred face merely scrunched up in hate as he tried to pull his blade out of the older woman’s body. But before he got a chance, his head was separated from his body as a silver streak passed through his neck.

Lyn Strawborn, trusted paladin and a heroine to the people famed for protecting the valley’s fortresses from bandit attacks in her past had heard the commotion and saved the day. But something about her smile was deeply unnerving as she saw Katherine cradling the body of her head-priestess.

‘Well, well, what do we have here?’ she had said as she looked down at the redhead, who had tears streaming down her face.

‘It was-.’ Katherine had stammered, trying to explain.

‘Hmm…Yes, the bandit my lady had picked up from the street a month ago tried to steal this holy relic from the church together with her partner,’ she said to herself as she pulled a golden sun that was about a foot in length and half a foot in width from the bag. ‘When this poor acolyte and the head-priestess tried to stop you, you viciously murdered my lady while your partner took care of the acolyte.’ Was the story Lyn had spun as she turned the golden relic around in her hand.

‘Wh-what?’ Was the only reply Katherine could give.

‘Of course, it could have gone differently…’ Lyn had mused with a smug grin.

Seeing no other choice, Katherine had asked, ‘What do you want?’

It was then that Lyn revealed her plan. If Katherine let her and “her people” do what they wanted, Lyn would tell of how Katherine had bravely fought off a ruffian that had entered the castle, with her help of course, but not before the head-priestess had gotten wounded. But, with her last breath the older woman had thanked Katherine and ordained the woman she had known for only a month as the new head-priestess. Lyn would protest of course, only for the dying woman to reveal that it was Hoten’s will and Lyn would grudgingly accept it.

Katherine protested, what if she didn’t want to become the new head-priestess? She could just leave. But no, Lyn needed a puppet. Someone who would allow her to do what she wanted. Which was what? Katherine had wondered. So Lyn showed her. The paladin picked up the unconscious acolyte, and sneaked outside with Katherine to go down, down into the darkness to reveal her gruesome God. With wild eyes Lyn spoke of how Galtha had been Yull’s true God all along, blessing the valley with fertile lands and bountiful harvests even when Hoten allowed his sister Narah to send cold winters and death! She spoke of how her family had been worshiping Hoten and keeping him safe and fed with women for generations now, and then she promptly threw the unconscious acolyte into the pit were tentacles caught her and lifted her up high enough so that Katherine could see every. Single. Thing. That happened to the acolyte.

‘So, will you stand with me?’ Lyn had asked, and as Katherine watched slimy, black tentacles strip the poor acolyte down before they shoved themselves inside of her pussy and pushed out her belly she could only think about that girl being her, and it terrified her.

So she had nodded, and the next day Lyn spun her tale which resulted in tears and outrage…but oddly enough, also acceptance. So for years, Katherine had allowed Lyn what to do, every year the festival came by she sent out all the paladins, priests and acolytes to celebrate. All except for one priestess which Lyn and her men took away. Still, despite what the others had thought her over the years, Katherine wasn’t a real priestess and liked to have some men over every now and again, which of course resulted in rumours. So this year was different, Katherine had made the temple look corrupt and suspicious by having her little fun, so this year she was to be the sacrifice. Instead, Lyn gave Ciara the offer to take her place and become the new head-priestess. Unlike Katherine though, she had declined and even spat in Lyn’s face.

‘And that was the point where you and Kess saw us being taken out. I was too scared to do anything over the years, and being fed to Galtha seemed like a fitting punishment.’ Katherine said, while fidgeting with her robes.

‘Really?! Well that wouldn’t have been taking the fucking easy way out, would it?!’ Rickard yelled, while standing up as fast as his wounds allowed him. ‘You could have turned this shit around a long time ago, Lyn or whatever her name was had given you a position of power! The priests and paladins taught and told you everything you needed to know, and maybe even more! You could have worked them up against Lyn and her cronies, expose them for who they really were!’ he ranted.

‘B-but…’ Katherine stammered as tears streamed down her face.

‘Instead, you did what you felt like. You didn’t change your wicked ways after Raphael lost his head. You lived the high life, the life you always wanted. Didn’t you? You could have changed this temple, you could have changed this city if you wanted. But you didn’t. The brave adventurer brought this temple down, bringing her own life and those of others in danger while she lived live to the fullest and waited to be rescued like a coward,’ Rickard continued. ‘I hope you do better when you have to explain this mess to the city and the rest of your religion. I hope you get a second chance. But to me, it doesn’t matter. I’m gone, and I’m taking Ciara with me.’ Rickard added, finishing his rant as he did his best to storm out of the door while the lust-drunk priestesses clung to him.

‘That might have been a little harsh.’ Kess said as soon as Rickard slammed the door behind him.

‘…You heard that?’

‘Your voice has a tendency to travel far.’ Kess shot back with a grin, it looked forced.

‘I don’t feel like sympathizing with her after all this,’ Rickard growled. ‘Besides, she’s going to hear a lot worse from the town’s people. Especially when crops start dying, then they might even want that…that thing back. She needs to be strong when that time comes, even if she is no longer the head-priestess,’

Both were silent for a moment.

‘How is she?’ Rickard finally asked while cocking his head in the direction of Ciara’s room.

‘Hasn’t spoken a word since we all got upstairs, but I heard her moving around when the lady was talking,’ Kess explained. ‘I figure she has been listening.’

‘…I guess I should have a talk with her.’ Rickard muttered after a few minutes of silence.

‘Seems like a good idea,’ Kess agreed with a nod. ‘Especially since you promised, quite loudly I might add, that you’re taking her with you.’

Rickard glared at Kess who looked away with a smile, and knocked on Ciara’s door. No response. He knocked again, but again the priestess didn’t seem to want to open to door.

‘Ciara?’ Rickard eventually said. ‘I’m…not sure what you want do after all this. I mean, ever since you met me I’ve been getting either myself or you in some sort of trouble and usually, it was up to you to fix it. Without you, that succubus might have ended up killing me and everyone else in Wetwoods. Well, except for maybe Kess,’

The barbarian babe chuckled softly as Rickard said that. Rickard ignored her and tried to collect his thoughts when it came to Ciara. What would she want? Sure, Katherine and Lyn, two people she had trusted, lied to her and tried to feed her to some Dark God. But this was still her home, the other priestesses and paladins were probably like family to her. Maybe it was selfish to ask her to travel with him? Yet, he continued.

‘Anyway, what I’m trying to say is…would you like to come along? I can understand if you want to stay and rebuild your order, but I’d like some company on the road. Even if my “quest” isn’t quite as important. I need someone to keep me out of trouble,’ Rickard fell silent for a few minutes. But no response came. ‘Alright. If you change your mind, meet me at the Southern Gate in three hours.’ He finally said.

‘Think we have enough to prepare everything in that time?’ Kess asked as she suddenly laid a hand on his shoulder.

‘You’re coming along?’ Rickard asked.

‘Of course, I’ve been in one exciting adventure after another since I met you,’ Kess shrugged with a grin. ‘Besides, how are you going to pay for all those new horses and packs without me?’ She added while grabbing a heavy-looking leather sack from behind her.

Rickard slowly grabbed it from her hands, and opened the sack to see the glint of gold. A golden sun to be specific. ‘Where did you get this?’ He asked.

‘I might have taken more than just oil from the temple before we went on our little rescue mission.’ Kess said as she rubbed her nose in embarrassment.

‘Doesn’t matter now. Let’s see if we can sell this off for some coin,’ Rickard said as he handed the sack back to the blonde. ‘Come on, let’s go.’ He muttered as he descended the stairs, shooting one last look at Ciara’s door in the hopes that he would see it open…

* * * *

‘Should we wait a little longer?’ Kess asked while sitting on her horse, a prideful black stallion with fire in his eyes. A local stablemaster had sold him rather cheaply since most of the citizens and travellers that passed through seemed to be too frightened of him. Kess controlled him rather well though.

‘It’s already been three and a half hours, Kess,’ Rickard replied while sitting on the bench of their newly acquired covered wagon. ‘I don’t think she’s coming.’ He said. His voice sounded about as hollow as he felt.

Tensing his hands to slap the reins and get the two mules pulling the wagon into action, he stopped when he heard the hurried footsteps running towards them and a familiar voice yelling, ‘Wait! Wait!’

Rickard grinned as Ciara stopped a few feet from them, breathing heavily. ‘Hop on in, I like the new outfit.’ When he saw that she had exchanged her sky blue robes for black ones, meaning that she was a priestess that was no longer affiliated with the temple she was originally a part of for whatever reason, but still worshipped the Gods.

With a sheepish smile Ciara clambered into the wagon amidst the supplies Kess and Rickard had bought, before climbing out of the other end to sit next to Rickard. ‘Thanks for everything.’ She whispered before giving him a peck on the cheek.

And with that, Rickard clucked his tongue and spurred the mule into action while Kess rode next to the wagon. ‘What now?’ the blonde asked.

‘Only option that seems to remain is looking for a wizard or sorceress to check out this curse,’ Rickard mumbled. ‘But they don’t like normal folk much. Still, I’ll happily take them over Yull.’ He shuddered as they left Yull behind.

To be continued.