Three short bsts ripped through the vilge pulling me from my sleep. Melokuhle jolted in my arms as we woke up together. Scrambling to our feet we pulled on our wraps quickly. Just as we went to head out I caught Melokuhle’s arm and pulled her into a quick, gentle kiss. One that wasn’t done for lust, but for our confessions to each other. It felt perfect.

  That moment sted too briefly before we were out the door and heading towards the gates of the vilge. I looked over the dirt and the procession of warriors that were headed towards us. Proudly at the front stood my mother, Ade. I could smell blood on the wind, offal and death thick in the air.

  All the women flooded out into the pins to greet the warriors who walked proudly with heads held high. All of them exuded pride and victory. A dozen of them were injured but yet no one was being hauled in a stretcher.

  Behind them all, tied hand and foot were the sves. Two dozen crocodile kin, cws ripped out and teeth filed down. I could almost feel the pain radiating from them as three hunters shed them to keep them walking. In my heart burned the hatred I held for them though. One of their ilk had killed Dare, this is the least they deserve.

  I let out a call of victory and held up my hands, every st woman behind me followed until we were all cheering for the return of the warriors. Our voices filled the Savannah as others rushed to greet their mates. Several of the ones I had taken though stayed back. Their faces masks of guilt and furtive gnces at my back.

  Ade looked straight at me as her nose twitched, taking in the scent of the vilge and she smiled. It sent chills down my spine as her eyes turned predatory. Her teeth on full dispy. Then the moment was over and she was looking away at others. She lifted her iron spear up into the air and let out a call that shook the very air with her power.

  Suddenly it was like I was standing at the foot of a giant. Ade’s shadow towering over the nd and ruling it with an iron fist. She would have sin that lionkin with a single blow. Would have been able to toy with him as she bled him dry, like a serval with a meerkat. No one would have died if she was here. I could feel it to be true as her own aura surrounded me and crushed my with her power.

  No one else seemed to be affected by this dispy. Instead her eyes came back to me and locked on the trophy I had taken from the lionkin and I could see intrigue fill those cold pools. Still she didn’t approach me as she circled the vilge with her train of sves. Everyone followed and watched as she tied the cowed crocodilekin on trees and stakes in the ground. Three move women with whips stood nearby cracking all those that stood out with snapping blows that left rents in their scaled hides. The gleaming metal ball at their tips ripping through their tough skin.

  I felt killing intent flood my veins as one of the old warriors looked at me. The whip in her hands creaking under her grip as fury burned into me. Dare’s mate. Though she had the vengeance for her killers, she still hadn’t faced me.

  I stood tall and looked at her without fear or pity in my eyes. I felt nothing for her, no sympathy, no anger, she was not worth my attention. I watched in slow motion as the whip uncurled and I could see her debate to herself whether or not to attack me. She gnced away and viciously shed another sve, the whip gouging out its eyes. It colpsed, clutching its face as the warrior pointed her finger at me.

  I moved back to the central area as the chosen warriors tended to cow and control the sves. The scene that greeted me made my teeth creak.

  Several warriors surrounded the two I put in charge of rationing food as women shoved one another and screamed at my appointed people. I rushed to intervene and physically broke up the collection of women. I pushed them back until a spear was brandished in my face.

  “WHO DARES KEEP US FROM A MEAL!” Screamed the warriors.

  I gred at them as I spoke, “We were attacked while you all were gone. We lost our hunters, we have to ration food.” I snatched the tip of the spear and squeezed until the wood began to crack. The warrior struggled to pull it free until I willingly let it go.

  “We don’t care! We shed blood in the name of the vilge! We are owed as much meat as we want!” One of them stepped forward and brought a fist back. I whipped a backhand into their face shattering their nose in a gout of blood. The warrior screamed falling back as more spears were leveled at me.

  “SILENCE!!!” Came the most commanding voice I had ever known. Everyone instantly fell to their knees, heads bowed with the weight of the speaker.

  Ade slowly came towards us. People parted like water for her as she stepped next to the warriors. “What is going on here?” Her voice was deathly quiet and full of the promise of violence and death to those that would be disrespectful.

  “Your daughter won’t let us eat,” Whispered one of the warriors before us.

  The weight of her attention fell to me and I couldn’t help but fall to my hands and knees. “Aphelele, what makes you think you can stand in the way of your betters?”

  “Mother,” I croaked out from a tight throat. “The vilge was attacked, all but one hunter died. I thought we should ration our food as new hunters get trained.”

  “Attacked? Is that why you wear a trophy like some warrior?” Ade pced a good upon the back of my head and pushed my forehead against the ground.

  One of the women behind me spoke up, “If not for her he would have killed many more. Aphelele was the only one strong enough to take on the lionkin. He was three heads taller than anyone else in the vilge.”

  “Is this true daughter? Have you don’t something to make me proud?” Ade lifted her food and pced it beside my head. Then she used it to lift my chin and look at her. It took everything in me not to flinch at that cold smile.

  “Yes Mother. I arrived right before disaster and fought with all my strength. I felled the monster of a man, he was unharmed before I intervened.” I extolled my feat of strength and prowess.

  Mother knelt before me and sniffed the air. Then her hand grabbed a fistful of my short hair and hauled me up to her face. She inhaled my exhation of pain and grimaced. “So you took it as a sign you could chew cud? Could deny my order to be ready to breed?”

  I kept the hiss of pain from my voice, “I should be a warrior Mother. If I wasn’t able to fight him the vilge would be lost.”

  “If I made you a warrior you wouldn’t have been here anyways. You think about that? That I made you so low so you would always be here?” The fist tightened and I could feel hair being pulled out of my scalp. I couldn’t help but whimper as Ade shoved our faces together. A harsh whisper in my ear, “I should break you myself for not listening. You even had the guts to assume a leadership of what was left?”

  “Someone had to!” I called as I tched onto her arm trying to lessen the grip. It was like trying to bend stone. She didn’t even shake with my best efforts.

  “If you didn’t look like me so much I’d fuck you into submission.” Ade stood keeping a hold of my hair, hauling me up in the same movement. “My warriors! Bring three of the fattest sves here. Sughter them, roast them, eat them and gain their strength!”

  I could see faces pale at the words. But then something seeped from my mother. Something dark and pervasive. The eyes of the women around us dimmed as their mouths filled with drool. I could see madness fill their faces as they stood and walked towards the sves.

  Now that we were alone she pulled me to my feet and pressed our faces back together. I desperately closed my eyes not to challenge her. “Now, you want to tell me why I smell half the pussies in the cn on you?”

  I opened my eyes in surprise, “How?”

  She tapped the side of her nose. “I have a feat, I have a lot of them to be fair. Have you ever bothered to inspect me? Here I’ll let you.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from listening to her and activating the spell.

  Name: Ade Daalim

  Savannah Warlord

  Statistics

  Strength: 100 MAX

  Agility: 100 MAX

  Toughness: 100 MAX

  Intelligence: 30

  Wisdom: 25

  Charisma: 55

  Mana: 100/100

  Skills:

  Spearmanship lvl 10 (MAX)

  Shield Usage lvl 10 (MAX)

  Unarmed Combat lvl 10 (MAX)

  Leadership lvl 10 (MAX)

  Blunt Weapons lvl 10 (MAX)

  Bondage lvl 10 (MAX)

  Tactics lvl 9 (40/45xp)

  Bloodletting lvl 8 (39/40xp)

  Bone setting lvl 10 (MAX)

  Skinning lvl 4 (0/20xp)

  Roasting lvl 2 (7/10xp)

  Child Rearing lvl 7 (31/35xp)

  Teaching lvl 5 (24/25xp)

  Stitching lvl 8 (13/40xp)

  Spells:

  Inspect lvl 10 (MAX)

  Feats:

  Aura of Control

  Deadly Intent

  Unstoppable Thrust

  Unmovable Shield

  Male’s Seed

  Shatterer of Will

  Heightened Instincts

  Enhanced Senses

  Taste of Memory

  Perfect Stamina

  Quick Healing

  Unaging Body

  Prime Physique

  Breaker of Bones

  Forced Fertility

  Strength of Seed

  Enhanced Children

  XP to spend: ???

  I felt my jaw drop open in shock as I looked at her sheet. I didn’t even know there were max stats. No wonder it felt like moving mountains when I tried to face her. I tried to inspect her feats but was met with no information.

  “My inspect tells me everything about you. Every st detail. I know you get experience for fucking and slutting yourself around. Hell I’m surprised you didn’t go after my own mates. I would have had to kill you but I would’ve appreciated your bravery. I know what your feats do, I know how many people you’ve killed, people you’ve fucked.” I was lifted off the ground by my hair with ease, I had to clutch at her arm to keep it from ripping out all my hair. “Now, I have to think of how to punish you, daughter. It’s hard to punish someone you’re proud of though.”

  She let go while pnting a fist deep into my gut knocking all the air from my lungs and pushing bile from my stomach. I crumpled to the ground from a single blow. “I’ll give you the day while I think about what I’m going to do to you.”