The Aftermath of an ***

"Where'd they go?" Chrysis asked when he noticed that our "tour guilds" were no longer with us. The cat women had stopped in her tracks and stiffened. Suddenly her and her stiff bird friend took off sprinting.

"Do you think we should try to catch up with them?" I asked.

"You're kidding, right?" Dick raised his eyebrows at me. "Kirby, those people are savages!"

"No they aren't," I disagreed. "Leboni was actually really nice."

Dick's eyes narrowed at my use of the female's name.

I looked at Jan and Zakyra for their input. They just mutely stared at me.

"Well, I'm going," I told them and started walking in the direction I thought they were going.

After a I was ten feet away I heard someone groan, "Come on," and soon I was accompanied by my friends beside me.

A voice whispered in my head and somehow I was able to find the correct path to follow to get to Leboni.

The smell of death burned through my nose before my eyes could behold what was before me. We were surrounded by what seemed to be more of the Alute tribe. There were at least a hundred half-animal men and women. Some had pointed ears, while others had gills. A few even looked like they were part insect.

"Leboni!" I said when I spotted her. I almost ran to her, but I decided it wasn't the best idea and stayed put.

Leboni also made no attempt to move towards us, only staring with wide eyes.

Ahead of everyone was what looked to be the leader of the tribe. He sat in a jewel encrusted throne behind a table piled with bloody, half-eaten carcasses. He smiled with such cruelty that I couldn't help the dreaded feeling my stomach was conjuring up. I watched as his long, split tongue licked his fangs which dripped with venom. It was obvious that he was part snake. His greasy, long black hair was pulled back back tightly, exposing the black scales that made their way up his neck and curved around his temples and cheek bones. Barely even human.

He locked eyes with someone on his left and motioned with his head as if he was talking to them without necessarily speaking.

He looked at Leboni with questioning and commanding look, like he was asking her to do something. She shook her head and looked down. He glared and his tongue snaked out of his mouth.

When he switched his gaze to us, I felt chills go down my spine.

"Welcome, humans," he greeted us in a gentle voice. Unlike when Leboni spoke with us, his voice was more like an oil or greasy than the silk and honey hers was. "I am Beku. And you...are unworthy."

I exchanged confused glaces with my friends.

"Leboni," he said loudly for all to hear, "you've done well. They do look rather...mouth watering."

"Yes, Master," she agreed nimbly.

"Well, then. Enough chit chat." He clapped his hands together twice, signaling two warrior-like men towards us. One wore the feathers of a hawk, while the other resembled a black bear.

"Oh, shit," Chrysis moaned next to me.

"We're done for!" Zakyra choked.

Instead of approaching all of us though, they came straight for me.

"What are you doing?" I cried as they pulled me by the arms forward. My feet stumbled and fell out from under me but they didn't hesitate in dragging me through the mug. My bare skin on the lower half of my body was bleeding from cuts I received.

The pounding of drums and anticipated yells echoed around me. Some of the natives danced while others screamed songs in a foreign tongue.

They slammed my body up against a slab of stone. I shuddered at the cold surface and couldn't stop my body from shaking as a heavily built man approached me. His body was covered in what looked like armor. Armor of a rhinoceros. In his huge hands he tightly gripped a steel axe that he placed in the air above my head.

Broken sobs made there way out of me as I gazed up at Leboni, who was standing a couple feet away.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed to me.

The drums stopped and the axe came down.