A hand grasp around Ourupadia’s. The hand moved quickly, driving its fingers in to her wrist and causing her to drop her knife.
“I’ll speak to them later,” Ourupadia looked up to the wielder of the hand, Cluupyte stared into her eyes, daring her to fight back.
“Bitch,” Ourupadia muttered in her native tongue as Cluupyte released her hand. Rubbing her hand, she looked at the hand markings now around her wrist from how hard Cluupyte had been holding her.
“What brings you here huntress?” Cluupyte said, casually looking to Charlie to make sure he wasn’t harmed. Happy from just a visual look that he was fine, she looked back to Ourupadia.
“What else,” She snapped back, looking down to Charlie.
“What do you want with him?” Cluupyte questioned back.
“What do you want with him? I want to make sure he doesn’t get harmed by your clan’s negligence,” Ourupadia said, looking past her and to Charlie. Smiling, she gave him a little wave with her free hand. Charlie returned the gesture, not really sure what was going on between the two seemingly hostile women.
“I am escorting him on a scouting mission,” Cluupyte said, side stepping to block Charlie from the huntress’s view.
“And he consents?”
“He came up with the idea,” Cluupyte said, grinning slightly as she saw the look of surprise and embarrassment in Ourupadia’s eyes. She had probably thought that they were forcing him to do something and thought of herself as the hero coming to help him. Puffing out her cheeks, she proceeded to snarl before speaking.
“Fine, then myself and my Huntresses shall be coming with you,” Ourupadia said, pivoting around Cluupyte until she stood by the side of Charlie.
“Sorry… what’s happening exactly?” Charlie asked, nervous at the mixed expressions of anger, excitement and smugness from the surrounding natives. Cluupyte sighed and smiled down at him.
“Don’t worry, it just now looks like Ourupadia, and her warriors shall be following us today. That’s all, but I think we should be going now,” Cluupyte said, pushing aside any dislike towards the disrespectful youth of the huntress clan.
“Oh, ok,” Charlie said, not sure whether or not this was a good thing. On one hand the extra fighting power would be useful, but the new tension left an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Still though, he moved on and began to follow the women as they began to walk through the village.
They walked in relative silence, the most conversation being whenever they bumped into a small group of women who would immediately see Cluupyte, then Charlie, then immediately bow their heads out of respect to them. Charlie did the same, but Ourupadia smacked him on the head and made him stand.
“They bow to you out of respect, show strength and simply nod or smile. Bowing is something you shouldn’t do as much now considering you have such a high status in our tribe,” Cluupyte explained Ourupadia’s actions. Embarrassed, Charlie quickly straightened his back and stayed close to the side of Cluupyte.
An arm wrapped around his shoulder, dragging him back. Looking up, he saw Ourupadia staring down at him. Removing her arm, she made sure he kept close to her side but still held a look of independence. The Chiefess didn’t want her relating to him too much, but still she felt as if it was her duty to stay by his side to keep him safe. As children, the Chiefess failed to protect him, what was to say that she wasn’t going to do that again.
Staring down at Charlie, she smiled and patted his head. Turning, he looked confused for a second, but a smile quickly spread across his lip. Such a precious thing was worth any amount of danger to her. It wasn’t long until they reached the area in which they kept the Desert Claimers. A small group of Vultures stood outside the entrance to the tribe made cave that held the creatures.
A soft drumbeat hung in the air as several of the Vultures danced, and others beat out the soft tune. Their soft movements came to a halt as they saw the group approaching. Cluupyte quickly barked some orders, and the women moved their drums and resting furs. Walking to the gate, Cluupyte opened the tall, wooden bars. Walking inside, she disappeared into the cave.
The Vultures swiftly set up their furs and drums again, and without bother began to sing and dance again. Several noticed him, and quickly raised their hands to welcome him over. These women seemed to look so much like Phukomeia that he instinctively moved towards them. An arm wrapped around his neck. Dragging him back, he looked up to an annoyed Ourupadia.
Shuddering, he quickly apologised before looking back to the women. He could see now that it was probably true that most of the Vultures were direct daughters of Nolkonoe. The Girls laughed at the protectiveness of Ourupadia, but decided it was best to probably let him stay with her. She had been acting strange over the past few days. She had often been coming to their clan to ask about how they took care of their males, especially when it came to hygiene and cleaning.
Without any words exchanged, the Vultures looked to one another with large grins. Without a doubt Ourupadia was bound to try out some of those skills today. The ground shook, turning all women to look towards the exit of the cave. Large pincers came from the door first, before being followed by the white fur of the head and the body.
Upon the head of the Desert Claimer sat the lead warrior.
“Sorry it took so long, the creatures bay only the Chiefess, and she has told them that they will only serve the biddings of herself and the clan leaders. So basically yeah, lets go!” Cluupyte said, patting next to her from Charlie to come and join her on the head of the war beast.
Swooping Charlie into her arms, Ourupadia strutted over to the creature. Locking eyes with Cluupyte, she made sure that she watched as she sat on the other end of the creature, Charlie locked in her arms. Being none the wiser to this unspoken battle, Charlie simply leaned back into the hold of Ourupadia.
Her body was warm, and her skin soft. After spending what must have been coming up to a month in the tribe, for whatever odd reason, he felt more relaxed in the arms of the natives than in his own bed or household. Sighing, Cluupyte knew how he felt, and how this meant that Ourupadia was now probably going to have hold of him for their journey. Or at least until they reached an area to scout the Region Lord.
She knew well why he thought this, and how it was linked back to some instincts taught to him by the maids that the Chiefess had sent to watch over him for the past two years. Over that time, she knew that they had subconsciously made him like this. Adorable really. They had said in their letters about how he already loved to cuddle against their wolf forms in his sleep, so it hadn’t taken too much work to make him more puppy like.
Ruffling her hands over the Desert Claimer’s fur, Cluupyte found the reins of the creature. Lifting them high, she whipped them down, starting the creature forward. With subtle movement, she drove the creature through the path created for it through the village, and then out towards the gates.
Glancing over his shoulder, and past Ourupadia, Charlie looked up to the temple. Only a few dots stood at the top of it, but he could feel the gaze of the Chiefess emanating from there. Even though he felt as if it was a gaze of anger, there was something warming about knowing she of all people was watching over him. Smiling, Charlie turned his head and leant back against Ourupadia.
“Thank you,” he muttered, not really knowing who the thanks were going towards, just that he felt thankful.
The Desert Claimer reached the edge of the village, and before Charlie even knew it, they were outside on the open plains of the desert. Like a mother bird, Ourupadia used her body to cover Charlie from the sun. He wasn’t sure why she was so protective of him getting burnt by the sun, but he admired the effort and care.
Charlie jumped, almost headbutting Ourupadia in the chin, as a leather bag landed onto his lap.
“Inside there is a map and compass, can you read them?” Cluupyte said, and Charlie quickly began to go through the bag. Opening it, he quickly found the map and compass. Imperial made, perfect.
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“Yeah, I can read these,” Smiling, Cluupyte patted her side.
“Come here then my little tribe hero, and give me the directions,” Cluupyte’s eyes locked with Ourupadia’s as she said this. Even though she didn’t understand what Cluupyte had said, she knew it was something convincing to Charlie as he began to move from her arms.
Cluupyte grinned wickedly at Ourupadia as Charlie began to move towards her. Reluctantly, Ourupadia allowed Charlie to move, but only with the supervision of her body just behind him to block the sun from landing on him.
“You mind,” Charlie said, glancing over his shoulder to Ourupadia. It was hard to move the good twelve meters needed to get to Cluupyte with Ourupadia clinging onto him. Staring at her, she met his stare and narrowed her eyes as she tightened her grip around him.
Sighing, he continued to move along the back of the creature, Ourupadia clinging to his back the entire way. Reach the side of Cluupyte after far too long than it should have took, Charlie showed the map and compass to her.
“Considering where we are,” he began as he continued to give directions towards the Region Lord’s camp. Cluupyte knew the way. Afterall, even though the desert looked all the same to the untrained eye, she had lived here for two hundred years and knew the are like the back of her hand.
Together they ‘navigated’ the desert until they were around a mile or so from the Region Lords estate.
“Hold on tight, you might fall,” Cluupyte said as she ordered the creature in a strange tongue that was nothing like her peoples or his in the slightest.
The creature stopped and rose its front into the air. Ourupadia held him tightly as the creature dove down into the sand. All was a blur as the Desert Claimer began to move in a clockwise position. As it moved, it kicked up sand. Moving upwards, the creature continued to gather sand, mixing it with this weird saliva that oozed from its mouth.
After a couple minutes, Charlie opened his eyes, that he hadn’t even realised he had clenched shut. Looking down, he saw them to be on a hill, a thirty-meter-tall hill created by the Desert Claimer.
“Look further into the bag, there is one of those scope things you humans look through to see things at differences,” Charlie followed the command and entered the bag. Going through, he quickly found a small, merchants’ scope. It could see up to three miles away, perfect from what they were trying to do at only one mile.
“Yes here,”
“Lie down,” Cluupyte said, patting next to her. For a moment Ourupadia realised her grip, but still she kept close to his side.
“Feel free to take as long as you want, the Desert Claimer is practically invisible as from a distance it simply looks like a sand dune,” Cluupyte explained, not knowing he had already experienced tis before when he rode the Desert Claimer to attack the raiders.
Lying down, Charlie began to stare down the scope and towards the estate. The estate was large to say the least. God knows how many rooms were contained within the white painted walls of the mansion. The tiles of the roof were a tanned brown and the entrance to the house was a marble staircase.
Ten or so soldiers stood guard, but this wasn’t anything that surprised Charlie. 9 carriages, mercenary carriages. Each was designed to hold 100 men. But again, he was stunned as he looked upon artillery cannons, artillery cannons plated in armour, carriages with guns protruding from the sides of the armoured walls. An army fit for one purpose, exterminating their tribe with ease.
hey, haven't done a grammar check yet. Sorry I haven't done an image recently, just haven't had that many ideas for them. Hope you enjoy the story!