Empath Rising Page 2

  She therefore had to endure it as he took a familiar bull-whip off of his belt and withdrew it, preparing to lash it against her exposed back.

  Minotaurs were formidable creatures and a simple cattle whip held no danger for her. It was the humiliation of being struck by such a tool that stung her so deeply. As if she was the lowest of animals and not a sapient creature, rich with emotion. The entire ordeal made her ashamed of herself even though she knew she had done nothing wrong.

  Nameless’s blood boiled.

  I have to say something, I have to DO something!

  A familiar fear gripped him as the larger man continued to shout epithets at the helpless monster girl. Years of being the smallest boy at the orphanage, smaller even than children much younger than him, had taught him to be quiet and not attract attention to himself. Children, like wild animals, can be cruel when they sense weakness.

  But small or not, he simply couldn’t ignore what was happening in front of him, especially when he saw the man remove the thick bull-whip from his belt.

  Nameless picked up the whole story from the chattering of the crowd of curious onlookers who had watched the entire scene unfold; the man, apparently dissatisfied with the monster girl’s unwillingness to produce milk for him had dragged her into the market square and was trying to foist her off on someone, anyone, willing to pay for her.

  While not technically illegal, this sort of street-level monster girl hawking was frowned upon by the Aegis, the lawful governing body that safeguarded the monster girls and prevented them from being treated exactly as this man was treating the buxom cow.

  The large man was intimidating, his dress and gear told the story of an experienced adventurer. His actions told the story of a bully and a pig. As such, he had some difficulty getting people to come close enough to make the sale; the small town market goers found the man to be unruly and wouldn’t go near him.

  Finally, in a fit of pique he had grabbed a passerby, a chubby man who was dressed like an accountant, and was in the process of trying to bully him into buying the girl, mistaking the man’s shock and pained expression for interest. As it was clear that he was hurting the portly fellow the girl used her superior strength to wrest the poor man free from her owner’s grasp, the catalyst that sent the man into his rage against her.

  The crack of the whip echoed through the square. Unbeknownst to the locals, a pair of figures, attracted by the spectacle, worked their way through the throng, curious as to what had drawn the attention of the shell-shocked crowd.

  The fearful market goers could only watch, muttering to each other and to no one in particular.

  “-should call the Aegis-”

  “-isn’t right-”

  “-poor girl-”

  “-asshole.”

  Ultimately, it was the impotent mutterings of the crowd that spurred Nameless into reckless action as he realized that his was one of the voices heard.

  Tears streamed down the reddened face of the poor monster as she bowed her head and endured her owner’s ire. She felt the eyes of the crowd on her naked flesh but could do nothing but kneel in shame as her owner loomed over her and struck her again and again until…

  She heard the crack of the whip and an unfamiliar cry of pain but did not feel the blow, she cautiously raised her head and saw a child –no, a man! – on one knee between her and her owner. The little man had taken the whip strike across his chest to spare her the next blow, and a small sack lay on the ground beside him.

  She was stunned; no human had ever done such a thing for her, or any monster she knew for that matter. Perhaps a proper tamer might have for one of his own pets but never in her experience, although she was never owned by a legal tamer…

  “What the hell do you think you are doing boy!?”

  She flinched again as her owner bellowed but kept her widened eyes on the figure huddled between her and his whip.

  “L-leave her alone!” Nameless managed to stammer through teeth gritted in pain.

  Being whipped hurt!

  Meanwhile, the previously disgusted crowd reacted to the turn of events, the mutters continued, this time in recognition of the figure who dared to put himself between the large man and the target of his rage.

  “-one of Ophelia’s-”

  “-that orphan boy?”

  “-so brave-”

  “-idiot child, leave this to the adults.”

  But none of the ‘adults’ moved to interfere, too enraptured by the drama unfolding before them.

  The pair of newcomers to the crowd had finally worked their way to the front, still unnoticed; a slight smirk arose on the face of one of them as she witnessed the boy’s courage. She should intervene, and she would.

  But first let’s see how the kid handles things alone.

  Her grey eyes watched him intently.

  “You little shit-stain! Go home to mommy before you get hurt!”

  “Not until you s-stop this.” again that damn stutter as Nameless tried to control his fear, his stomach roiling, he felt nauseous.

  The gash from the whip extended from the very tip of his chin, across his clavicle and down to his sternum. His blood ran freely.

  The brutish man could sense his fear and tilted his head as he thought of how best to capitalize on it. After a brief pause he drew himself up to his full height to exaggerate his intimidating pose, he smiled a sadistic rictus as he fondled the whip in his hands.

  “Boy if I have to tell you again, this whip will feel like the gentle caress of your momma’s teat compared to what I’ll do to you, never come between a man and his property-”

  “She isn’t yours! A real man doesn’t see his pets as property!” The large man’s outrageous statements set something off in Nameless as he continued to shout at him; “You’re supposed to help her, to take care of her and to protect her! Not bully and humiliate her because she won’t give in to your- your- selfishness!”

  Tears streaked openly down Nameless’s face as he gasped out his condemnation of the man now looming over him with an incredulous look on his face. Even as he shouted at him his brain wracked for a way to get the bastard to back off.

  Wasn’t there something from school… that’s it!

  “This bitch is mine to discipline as I see fit and I will not have some scrawny whelp-”

  “N-not according to article six s-sub-section thir-thirteen of The Treatise on Monster Girl Rights she isn’t!” Nameless stammered out with surprising volume, his tone desperate.

  His watery gaze barely managed to meet the glare of the other man as his tears of pain and passion seeped down his cheeks unbidden.

  Warmth spread through the bountiful breasts of the Minotaur behind him as she examined his profile; scrawny, even more so when compared to her owner’s bulk, clearly terrified but standing his ground. He could definitely do with a good feeding. She licked her lips unconsciously at the thought.

  Her owner had dropped the leash in shock after he had inadvertently struck the boy- Man! She reminded herself with a slight shake of her head. These were not the actions of a boy!

  “Article six wha- sub-section!?” Her owner sputtered, his face going nearly purple with rage.

  She steeled herself, recognizing the signs and ready to grab her supposed rescuer and shield him as he had shielded her.

  Suddenly a gravelly, yet feminine, voice rang out, cutting off the enraged man, and distracting him from his target as a woman in uniform and her Wolfen partner strode forth from the edge of the crowd:

  “Sub-section thirteen of The Treatise on Monster Girl Rights, which states that any supposed owner who demonstrates benign or willful neglect towards the wellbeing of a monster girl in his care will immediately forfeit his rights to her person pending review by a higher authority.”

  She smiled coldly at the ‘supposed owner’.

  “In case you were wondering that authority would be mine, drop your weapon and surrender her heartstone immediately.”

  The muttering of the
crowd changed tone as they took in this new development. Dozens of eyes raked over the striking figure in her dusty grey uniform, and the powerfully muscled Wolfen girl now hunched in a crouch beside her, her long tongue lolled out in a predatory grin.

  “-Aegis!”

  “-an operative no less-”

  “-look at the teeth on her!”

  “-thank goodness-”

  “-bastard will get his now.”

  The woman actually managed to look bored in the face of the crowd’s sudden interest, before she continued.

  “By authority of the Aegis you are bound by law-”

  “WHAT!?”

  “-for willful neglect of a monster girl in your care-” she continued over his sputtered objections as if he never spoke, her eyes flicked down to Nameless who still knelt, grasping his bleeding chest, and she frowned; “-and felony assault of a minor, surrender or be surrendered.”

  Despite the pain Nameless managed a derisive snort at her presumption of his age.

  I’m almost twenty!

  As he took in the newcomer in her smart uniform he noticed that the larger man’s rage, while diminished, was far from spent.

  He knew, he just knew, that the man was about to do something stupid, well, more stupid.

  He edged back towards the topless girl, unconsciously shielding her with his body as he waited for the man’s reaction, heart pounding in his ears. A seemingly empty gesture to the formidable Minotaur but one that struck her to her core, a warm heat spreading from between her legs as she caught a whiff of the man’s scent.

  His scent! It made her groan involuntarily as she couldn’t help but react to his boldness. She felt a familiar wetness in her jean shorts…

  “Assault of a- he jumped right in front of me! This is- I’ve never heard of-!” The man struggled to master his speech as his face darkened even further.

  After sputtering for several moments he gave a bellow of impotent rage and jerked a small crystalline orb from one of the sockets in his bracer and hurled it towards the ground in front of him.

  No one was more surprised than Nameless at his own reaction.

  He caught a flicker of light from the crystal as the man drew back. Recognizing the man’s intent, Nameless leaped into action. He threw himself forwards into the mud, the stinging gash on his chest screaming in agony from the introduction of the foreign matter into the still-bleeding wound.

  He didn’t care.

  His focus, his world, narrowed in on that shimmering and so very precious blue orb as his only thought was to get to it before it struck the ground. His hand outstretched, time seemed to slow as he watched the orb leave the other man’s hand—and land in his! He felt the surprising weight settle into his palm as his fingers clasped tight to shield it from the mud splattering upwards from his dive.

  Blazing heat burst forth into him, beginning with his palm and radiating from the soles of his feet to the tips of his unruly hair. The incredibly pleasant feeling overtook him for a moment as he drew his balled fist with its precious cargo to his aching chest as his other hand curled protectively over it.

  Nameless came back to reality only to find that he was now on his side at the man’s feet.

  He slowly looked upwards into a dangerously red face. There was a stunned silence from everyone. A pause. Then the brute, foiled in his rage, drew back his foot to strike the now prone man (child?) before him.

  Several things happened at once as the dangerously armoured foot careened towards Nameless’s unprotected ribcage: The Aegis operative barked a sharp command. A very angry Minotaur came out of seemingly nowhere to tackle the armoured legs out from under the man as an equally enthusiastic Wolfen threw herself onto his chest. He spun on two axes for a full revolution before striking the ground.

  Hard.

  He let out a desperate wheeze, not helped by the sudden presence of a smug wolf girl now sitting on his torso. At this point, both men and monster girls were covered in mud from the busy thoroughfare.

  The operative let out a frustrated sigh and muttered about obstinate oafs not coming quietly as she strode forward to take charge of the scene. She stopped and frowned as she took in the sight of the Minotaur who glared at the downed perp while clutching the injured boy- wait, he has stubble on his chin?- to her ample breasts. She was acting especially protective of him… Her eyes widened, then narrowed thoughtfully, before turning her gaze back to the larger man.

  “Arresting idiots really isn’t in my job description you know?” she berated the semi-conscious brute, hands on her hips as her partner continued to happily sit on his barrel like chest.

  He came to his senses briefly and even tried to struggle once, either to shift the weight off or to escape. The Wolfen let loose a rumbling growl, bared her impressive canines in his face and just stared. A telling wetness became visible on the crotch of his mud covered trousers.

  The operative groaned at the display.

  “Jan, if you decide to eat half of his face I will be stuck doing paperwork for a month and I will be very put out with you!”

  The man went back to being unconscious after that.

  “W-who are you people?” Nameless, his voice partly muffled by the breasts of the shirtless Minotaur who still tenderly, if firmly, clutched him, tried to make sense of what was going on.

  It was strange, he was uncomfortable to be sure, his chest burned and he desperately needed a bath, but for some reason the nearness of the monster girl kept him from completely losing his shit; as did the comfortingly warm orb still clutched to his chest.

  The operative didn’t turn to him as she shooed her partner off of the perp and restrained his hands behind his back before letting him slump back into the mud.

  “I am Aegis Special Operator First Class Miranda Holt, this is Jan, my overly enthusiastic partner who knows better than to roll in the mud while we are on duty!”

  After being shooed off of her prey Jan had flopped over onto her back and vigorously squirmed from side to side with a blissful expression on her face, her shaggy tail wagging furiously until she was rebuked by Miranda.

  “He started it…” She muttered plaintively as she got to her feet and turned towards Nameless and the protective cow.

  “Hello, I’m Jan! Hey… you’re bleeding! And you’re NAKED!! Bleeding and naked are two of my favorite things!”

  She was halfway through removing her vest when Miranda grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

  “Jan! We are on DUTY! BAD WOLFEN!!”

  She released the chastised girl, whose tail was now firmly between her legs, ears flat to her head, before taking in the nervously chuckling crowd and composing herself.

  “Do you folks have some sort of law enforcement around here or am I going to have to drag his sorry ass to the Aegis compound in Wayfelt?” She did not relish the idea of going miles out of her way just to drop this idiot off.

  “Coming! Coming! Whats all this then?”

  A garrulous and enormously fat man in a security uniform had arrived on the scene and many of the people in the crowd looked slightly embarrassed at the sight of their tardy lawman compared to the (mostly) disciplined Aegis operatives.

  To be fair, Kettering was a small farming community, the largest building in town was Ophelia’s orphanage and even it was only three stories. Crime was almost non-existent. In fact, the events of the day were the most exciting thing to happen since Joe Rigby drank too much cooking sherry at the harvest festival and started an orgy with old Janet Skinner’s Blomma garden, the flower girls didn’t mind the drunken man’s affections but their elderly owner certainly did.

  Blommas are known for the sweetness of their nectar and the passion in their cries of ecstasy. Janet didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. Neither did Joe.

  With the situation resolved, and at the insistence of their own lawkeeper, the crowd began to disperse while excitedly chattering to each other.

  Eventually, the lawman, with the help of a very muddy Jan, hauled the
bound prisoner off to the local security office to await his arraignment. He may have been an asshole but his gear spoke of a seasoned adventurer and Miranda wasn’t taking any chances and ordered Jan not to return until he was safely behind bars.

  Miranda turned to consider the couple before her.

  “Well, now that that is taken care of, what to do with you two hmmm?”

  Now upright, the pair met her gaze.

  The Minotaur hadn’t said anything at all and refused to relinquish her grip on the wounded man-boy, clutching his arm between her breasts as she remained on her knees to accommodate his short stature.

  For his part, Nameless looked confused, in pain, and more than a little aroused by the continued naked proximity of the cow, a pronounced bulge visible in his trousers.

  Miranda sighed, and then scooped up the slightly muddy sack the boy had dropped and held it out to him.

  “Oookay, why don’t we start with your names since I gave you mine?”

  “N-Nameless, ma’am.”

  Miranda glared at him as if he were trying to make her life difficult. She jutted a stern finger at him and his hand froze in the process of retrieving his belongings.

  “Are you trying to be a smart-ass?” he vigorously shook his head; “Soooo, you don’t have a name or your name is actually ‘Nameless’?”

  “Er, both?” His voice faltered at her continued irritation, he cleared his throat and tried again; “Both, ma’am. I was raised by Mistress Ophelia at the orphanage. I have no birth papers so on the form when they brought me in…”

  Miranda’s harsh expression softened, missing birth papers were rare, but not unheard of.

  Still, you’d think that someone would have had the lady-balls to give the poor kid a friggin name!

  “And how about you milk-maid? You got a name or do I just call you Jiggles?” Miranda shifted her focus to the clingy Minotaur.

  “I used to go by Milly, but if my master wants to he can change it.” The girl finally chimed in, her breathy voice sweet and gentle.