“You really have to be a tiki to understand that,” said the Riverfang, who had been knocked out by Blood Tusk during the attack on the puck caravan at the beginning. His name was Zanu and his face was still visibly marked from the blow. “The look of that beast alone is disgusting.”
“That’s why we follow the will of the tiki, because we don’t understand it,” replied the warrior who had just shot the sleeping Blood Tusk with her pale pipe. Her name was Miraki and she was eating a roasted lizard impaled on a stick while a light shower of rain pattered. “And Zu’ji said there is hope even for such a creature.”
“That truly sounds like something only the all-seeing serpent can see,” Zanu admitted. A fire crackled in front of him and the warrior, in the safety of a narrow hollow beneath a hill. Here and in front of it, the river fangs and the poisonous snakes had set up camp, with only all 4 river fangs fully present and hardly any poisonous snakes. “And the restraints are enough?”
“Males,” Miraki rolled her eyes, grinning with flesh between her teeth. “If it worries you that much, you’d best check again to make sure everything is in place.”
The Zanu returned this side-swipe with a growl before walking over to the captive giant and checking him over.
Blood Tusk’s ankles were bound together with two iron shackles. Nevertheless, his legs were wrapped again with a thick ball of tight-fitting iron chain, so that he could not push his thighs a millimeter apart. The arms lying under his back were bound in the same way.
“Care,” Zanu puffed. “Care and worry are not the same thing. We males get things done, and we get them done right.”
“Tell that to the last one who was between my legs. Some things weren’t done right.”
The restraints were bombproof, so Zanu returned to the fire. “Well you females are there to bear whelps and not to grin while mating. If you females are supposed to enjoy mating, why do the tiki make you whine like that when you pop out the whelps?”
Miraki didn’t let it get her down and she grinned. “So that the whole world can hear that a new troll has just entered it. With you, though, I don’t know if your mother hasn’t promised the world too much.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Zanu replied adamantly. He stepped close to the female, who stood up and faced him belligerently. “I’ll show you how a real male does it properly and when you’ve thrown my whelp, you’ll see that you didn’t promise the world too much.”
“You were struck down by a poisoned unclean,” Miraki bared her teeth. Not that she was averse, but she hadn’t decided anything yet. “What do I want with such a weakling?”
“All the examinees died, but I survived his attack, woman!” Zanu said, pressing his nose against hers. He went into overdrive and reached under her loincloth to rub her private parts. “That’s right, that’s what you want inside you.”
“Mhrrrrr, maybe,” Miraki replied pleasingly. The journey, the presence of the Venomsnakes and the previous fight had been very stressful for her. She needed to blow off steam and was rapidly getting wet. “But if you disappoint me, I’ll bite your throat out.”
“That’s your right,” Zanu nodded before pressing his lips firmly to the female’s and pushing her down onto her own sleeping fur.
While the two trolls stirred and Miraki’s loincloth flew off, her two companions were close to the sleeping captive. One of the males was still asleep himself, having been knocked out by the gladiator’s arm slash, while the other was making new arrows, unconcerned by the lecherous goings-on.
It wasn’t much later, but the rain was weakening and Tu’kesa returned to camp with her small group of Venomsnakes. The slightly scrawny but angular female had led the attack on the caravan. “Useless meat,” she insulted the Riverfangs. “While we’ve been hunting, you’ve been sitting here doing nothing.”
Except for the sleeping Riverfang’s eyes, the rest of the pair squinted at the Venomsnake. The trolls, who were currently birding, looked less grim. “You were going to wipe out the pucks,” Zanu groaned with his leisurely thrusts, while Miraki lay wide-legged and on her back in front of him. “We did what Haruk’Zil asked. Everything else is your problem.”
Miraki gasped maliciously with a headlong stare. “And from the way Tu’kesa sounds and looks, she didn’t catch the fugitives.”
“They don’t matter anymore either,” Tu’kesa said. During the raid, someone had managed to free the gladiators of the pucks and even if they couldn’t turn the tide, they had managed to bring some survivors to safety. Tu’kesa had lost a few warriors in their pursuit and of the original 30 Venomsnakes, 11 were still alive. “We captured most of the gold, killed almost all of them and caught this ... thing.” Condescendingly, she braced a foot on Blood Tusk’s face and pushed it around to inspect him more formally. “Zu’ji promised us answers. I hope for her sake, and yours, that I get them at the Deep Temple in two days.”
The Deep Temple was one of Haruk’zil’s larger, ancient places of worship, but nature had long since reclaimed it and it was mostly abandoned. Miraki, Zanu and the other Riverfangs were to send word after the capture was successful and meet Zu’ji there. “We’ll get them,” Zanu puffed hotly, his eyes mostly on the female troll below him. “You’d better be thankful Zu’ji initiated you Venomsnakes and keep your heretical doubts to yourself.”
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Tu’kesa’s bright green eyes narrowed and she drew her dagger slowly as she felt faint stirrings beneath her foot. “Your luck. Your loose tongue is still needed,” the venomous serpent said and she slid her dagger back. “He’s waking up. Make yourself useful and talk to him!”
“He’s needed elsewhere right now!” panted Miraki. The male above and inside her was hitting all the right spots. She not only put her legs against his flanks, but grabbed him by the hips. She would hardly let him off her now.
“There you hear it, I’m busy,” Zanu agreed with satisfaction. He was the only troll with a reasonable command of the common tongue.
“My trolls don’t have anything to do right now,” Tu’kesa threatened calmly, and she pushed the gladiator’s face away with her foot to attend to the shagging Riverfangs. “How about they slit his throat and then take his place?”
The threat made Zanu and Miraki less scared and more annoyed for both of them. “Spirits, what a curse,” Zanu complained. Quitting was absolutely not on his agenda, but he knew the poisonous snake meant business. He stopped short to maneuver Miraki onto all fours towards the waking unclean. “Keep him under control. I don’t want him interrupting me.”
Apart from a contemptuous hiss, nothing came from Tu’kesa and she turned back to the rearing gladiator.
Blood Tusk’s vision was still a little blurred and his nose was not yet entirely reliable either. “Are we back in the arena?” he guessed, from the color of the cave stone and the familiar sound of sex.
The Riverfang, who had made new arrows earlier, braced his hands on the giant’s shoulders, but despite drug aftereffects, arms and legs double-bound behind his back, he could barely keep him down.
“Have you no pride as a troll?” growled Zanu, disgusted yet excited in the common tongue. “Why would you want to get back into this arena? To dance as a puppet for weaklings?”
“What?” murmured Blood Tusk. He blinked and shook his head to get a better look. The first thing he noticed was the pressing hands on his shoulders and he growled. His bulging muscles and sheer strength alone allowed him to straighten his back fully and wrest himself from the hands. “You are tribe trolls.”
Immediately, Tu’kesa kicked at the giant’s chest, but instead of him, she was pushed back. “Hold the beast!”
“I’m trying!” the Riverfang growled behind the gladiator and he grabbed him by the arms. Fortunately for him, the giant tried to get up and was brought down by the bound legs. As the prisoner lay on his stomach, he was able to fix him better.
The little spectacle had thrown Zanu off his stride a little, which Miraki lamented. “Just don’t let me starve halfway through now.”
“Not you,” Zanu promised fierily and he braced a hand on the female’s shoulder blades to push her down as he thrust, keeping his eyes on the captive at the same time. “Try that again and we’ll cut off your ears as a trophy.”
“I’ve lost them a few times,” Blood Tusk puffed firmly into the dusty ground. He kept moving shallowly, even though it didn’t do him any good, and the hot goings-on seemed normal to him. “They’ll be back.”
“So you are aware of some of your gifts as a troll after all,” Zanu remarked. It wasn’t quite so easy to fuck and talk after all, which is why he did it more slowly but more forcefully. “We freed you in the name of Haruk’Zil. But what the all-seeing serpent has planned for you, only our herb witch, Zu’ji, knows.”
“Zu’ji,” Blood Tusk remembered. He was angry and the effects of the drug were still hurting his body, but the mention of a familiar name made him pause for a moment. “What does she know? She has a snake?”
It was probably fortunate that no other troll but Zanu had understood. “She serves the all-seeing serpent,” he pressed out between his lips with a groan. He had to control himself not to counter this outrage with insults and anger. However, Zu’ji had made it clear to him and the other river fangs that he would not harm a hair on the gladiator’s head and would overlook his ignorance. “Haruk’Zil is his name, our tiki.”
“Tiki, your gods.”
“Ours.”
It didn’t even occur to Blood Tusk that ours included him as a troll and he repeated himself dully. “Yes, yours.”
“I really hope Zu’ji’s answers are good,” Zanu huffed in trollish. His rapidly rising frustration with this unclean one gave the river fang’s hips far more sway, though, which pleased the female beneath him.
“What do you want from me?” Blood Tusk asked, his eyes more on the strange female moaning to herself and removing her top. “More trials?”
“We will take you to the Deep Temple,” Zanu said. The glances of the gladiator did not escape him, which was more than enough reason for him as a troll to present himself as dominant during the act. “It is a sacred place of Haruk’Zil. Only he, and therefore Zu’ji, knows what happens next.”
“So you know just as little as I do,” Blood Tusk said, slightly surprised. It was a rarity for him to meet someone who was as clueless as he was, and it was true.
If the giant’s lack of knowledge and stupidity were to blame, Zanu’s ignorance was the result of blind, fanatical faith. “What do you know?” growled the Riverfang. The fact that the unclean one was comparing himself to him made his blood boil all the more. “You are nothing! You’ll never have a real troll female under you! And you will surely end up as a sacrifice to the all-seeing serpent, with your throat cut, your heart eaten by us and your testicles ground into a paste of potency!”
Being at the mercy of such a possible death aroused Blood Tusk’s resistance. The giant’s face was stony, but his body was like a still seething volcano and he tensed. His muscles were showing their full strength and although he barely moved, a warning crack of iron could be heard binding him.
Instantly, Zanu and Miraki stopped their lust and, like the others, stared at the gladiator with a healthy wariness.
When the first cracks appeared in the chains, Tu’kesa had the presence of mind to react and she immediately rammed two new poisoned darts down the unclean man’s throat.
The intoxicant worked much faster this time and sent the prisoner back into another world, causing his body to loosen up.
“What did you just tell him?” Tu’kesa asked skeptically. Neither she nor anyone else would have admitted it, but for a brief moment, she had been afraid of this troll abandoned by the tiki.
“That he will probably die,” Zanu replied. He didn’t even care that his wet cunt was escaping his cock. “We have to keep him intoxicated all the time. The iron won’t stop him.”
Miraki propped her cheek on her hand, sighing. “Males. Nothing but trouble with them and the female has to do everything by herself again,” she grumbled to herself and although both were mortal enemies, Tu’kesa looked fleetingly but sympathetically at the unsatisfiedtroll.
