The Mook Maker

A slow, soft heartbeat resonated through my mind, or even my very being.

 

Tap-tap-tap. 

 

More a concept of sound, reminiscence of sound, than anything else, as once again the series of shifting images had taken hold of my view, changing as one would browse television channels set to mute, each one offering something new. 

 

Here there was a group of the anthropomorphic moths - ‘Mutators’ - gathered around the green pond in the palace’s garden where they wove the grass and branches into an even more intricate tapestry of creation, while the Tree of Arcane loomed above them, already preparing to bear even more of its mutagenic fruit.

 

Then it was gone. Only the throbbing rhythm of the heart remained: lazy, slow, resting. 

 

Gone was the garden and its magically grafted plants. I stood in the shade of the city’s library, countless more mundane documents piled up on shelves, spread on the table, or piled on the ground.. A lone jackal-like girl tossed around the collection of manuscripts, frustrated expression on her canine snout, paper after paper flowed out for the smaller, more ordinary ‘Eviscerator’ canines to catch, delegating the carrying to the empty-eyed zombified human nearby. 

 

A new vision. 

 

Sun shone down on the rocky beach. The ‘Tidereaver’ - the shark-octopus girl- lazily squelched in the low tide, sending waves disproportionate to her small size, while more of her kind swam in the depths of the sea, sending haplessfish to crash against the rocks of the coast. 

 

On the coast, a crowd of ‘Purifiers’ prepared the food, energetically fuelling the large fire to grill the day’s catch, while other breeds gathered for the feast, their joyful chants and cries silent in the soundless vision, yet still reverberating through the air. 

 

The distant heart continued to beat in a steady rhythm, still calm and slumbering. 

 

The scene shifted to a flying eagle-view above the growing, bustling hive, where the watchtowers and palisades of the logs and planks fused with the magically altered plants. Gone were the hamlets of the original human inhabitants, swallowed by the ever-growing, ever-changing tide of the vibrant colours of the otherworldly flora. A hundred of the furry bodies milling around, caught in play or at work, milling around, while a flock of anthropomorphic bats flew in a lazy formation towards the castle emerging in the distance. 

 

The slow pulse continued, and the image once again changed. 

 

A gigantic crab trotted up the cobbled road, haphazardly arranged cargo on its shell, followed by a handful of the mutant roach-hounds.

 

More construction was made ahead around the vine covered pagoda that no longer resembled the look that welcomed me to the world, with the towering structure a mere shadow of itself, covered in the creeper plants. There, in the garden on the otherworldly fruits, the reptilian ‘Corruptors’ sorted a pile of berries, cored them, putting them into the large pottery under the oversight of their well-dressed ‘Alpha’.

 

A thought occurred to me. Didn’t I want to speak with Lily about something? 

 

My mind was sluggish though, only the heartbeat, pulsing soundlessly, increased its pace, roused from its slumber. 

 

The scenery changed, as many kilometres away, in the ruins of the town put to torch, a new life sprouted where the ‘Fleshspeakers’ congregated, circling above their thralls of flesh and bone, changed to their newest whims. 

 

As the rat-like ‘Defiler’ tested the new living weapon, an ugly, moving flesh lump resembling a hand-held cannon, releasing the torrent of spikes lodging themselves deeply into the half-ruined fort's wall. 

 

Once again, in the feverish haze, I was back on the coast, roaring above the fishing village, an oasis of normality in the shade of the black tree reaching menacingly towards the sky, like claws reaching to tear down the heavens. 

 

I flew above the paddies of overgrown rice, some still waiting for their harvest, others turned the spawning basins in which the new, mutated crustaceans were grown in the puddles of glowing algae, as the few ‘Mutator’ moths applied more of their magic to the mixture of transforming dulse while the ‘Fleshspeaker’ argued about even further nature-defying designs. 

 

Heartbeat grew stronger and stronger with increasing tempo as the view drew closer and closer to that black tree spreading its roots and branches into the land, and the sky. 

 

A group of the villagers, humans, their presence out-of-place, gathered around a young woman. They bowed down in supplication as Ari raised her hands towards the sky, her lips moving in soundless chant, as the sensation of the pacing heart raced even faster.

 

The cracks in the tree began to glow a sickly, verdant green and … 

 

I jolted awake. 

 

Gone were the visions of the land and my people. 

 

It was just a dream, again..

 

Why did I keep getting those? 

 

I sighed. 

 

The sun was up already, with plenty of light as the window shutters were open already.

 

Why hadn't it woken me up yet? Dreams, sometimes symbolic, sometimes nightmares, and sometimes shifting images seen from other eyes, without rhyme or reason, weren’t persistent enough earlier. 

 

I was back in our bedroom inside the castle, in the warm, and safe embrace of silky fur. It felt so right. 

 

This time, however, I was laid atop of Ekaterina, the still snoozing bear-girl didn’t seem to care, or even notice the weight atop of her, as this time it was both me and Miwah that were snuggling close. 

 

As demeaning I thought it should be to her being turned to the fluffy mattress, she didn’t seem to mind. I still rolled down, putting myself in the equally soft embrace of my other mate. 

 

Miwah eagerly held me close, and I welcomed it, burying my face in her soft fur. Unlike other of my girls that did have a characteristic smell of their own, ranging from earthy one, flowers, or even burnt wood, the pale wolf-girl was completely scentless. 

 

It was likely to help with stealth. She could, after all, turn invisible, move through shadows, or recently, even get an illusionary human appearance, but her abilities were no concern to me now. She was my companion, my girl, my mate, my love. 

 

I thought about how comfortable I felt with her, or the rest of my girls. Miwah was an anthropomorphic wolf, but I found her gorgeous as she was, in her natural shape. The treacherous parts of my brain, where the susurrant voices of the host also resided, told me attraction towards her was normal. After all, this was how females of my species looked like. 

 

Yet, I had human memories, with different definitions of attractiveness so distant they may as well not matter anymore, despite not being so distant in time. 

 

“Master?” Tama purred to my ear, adding a pleasant sensation of the warm fur to those that already surrounded me. At least she wasn’t heavy. 

 

I turned my head and gave my beautiful vixen a kiss. Her rough tongue didn’t feel bad - it was becoming a new normal, although it shouldn’t be to the rational … human. 

 

I didn’t recoil, because Tama was one of mine. There were thousands of anthropomorphic fire vulpines like her, and I loved all my girls. Being able to recall the time back on Earth, yet lose the emotional connection to all of it, that should be concerning, to say the very least. 

 

How much was really me? 

 

“We would have plenty of time to relax, Master,” she said, her voice sultry as always. 

 

It felt appealing. I would certainly enjoy the more intimate moments between us, as I did last night. 

 

However, as pleasurable it might be, I wasn’t comfortable doing nothing meaningful while the rest of the host toiled away. 

 

“We would have another ring of fortification completed before my kits are born, Master, and we would have plenty of food stored.” Tama remarked, noticing I was listening in to the ruckus with the rest of the horde outside. They were turning all the surrounding lands upside down, as if my visions and the memories were correct. Brave was even attempting to build herself another castle. 

 

“The root cellars, perhaps?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if they thought of it, with ‘Corruptor’ magic forcing harvest in a matter of days, or even hours. 

 

“My sisters are digging new ones, Master,” she replied. “We are making sure there is a lot of food for the young.”  

 

“Are the Tidereavers fishing?” I asked, trying to verify the vision.

 

“Yes, Master.” 

 

Maybe I should try to inspect their work, however it seemed they could take care of the food and shelter quite competently on their own, and thought of storing it as well, and with the access to the sea combined with fishing simplified, we should have most needs taken care of. 

 

Convinced I couldn’t, or shouldn’t, command our horde from the bed, cuddled by my wives a last time before I freed myself from their embrace. 

 

Narita sat at the corner of the bed, grooming herself with a selection of combs likely borrowed from the city, as there was no place for her to snuggle closer. Our eyes met. She was quite a looker too, even though humans probably would find the fact that she was a rat-girl with horns objectionable. She, too, deserved all of my love. 

 

I was always supposed to be surrounded by my girls, and they very welcomed the outward affection, even if they kept themselves composed and restrained when humans were around. 

 

Humans… 

 

The more I thought about it, the more it became a question of who I was, and where we came from. My thought came back to the recently recovered artefact, with the strange symbols, and the drawing of the red fog. 

 

“I suppose it would take days to have the Scroll translated.” I said, quietly, silently wondering if my arrival to this world was heralded with the same outburst of the red mist that gave life to my girls. Did we… 

 

“Arke tasked Eris with helping us, but her drones could only read the local script..” Miwah interrupted me with an answer: “We don’t know how to get any reference we need, Master.” 

That explained the vision of them ransacking the library. 

 

“And what is the Sage doing?”

 

“San Hyun-Ki is translating.” Miwah answered, “His writing is not coherent.” 

 

I resigned on the future attempt to remember the man by name, even if it would deserve a spot in history should he ever successfully translate the ancient manuscript. It didn’t matter: the results I expected were days, months, even years away, as they relied on the knowledge and dedication of a single human. If the Scroll was a secret, a mystery of its own right, there weren’t any records of it in the local archive. 

 

Only the ‘Lady’ knew …. 

 

How long do the dragons even need to recover?

Assuming she was resting and not dying. Her presence pulsated within the host, the connection at the back of my head, like the heartbeat that plagued my recent rest, but there was no answer. No nagging of the invisible, immaterial dragon. 

 

It depended on a single human. 

 

A single human…

 

The word gnawed at me like an imaginary brain parasite. 

 

“Bath first, perhaps?” Tama offered, with the typical suggestion: “It should lift your mood, Master. If we can’t do that … otherwise…” 

 

Teasing did distract me, even if for brief moments. We still had that wooden tub. It was still there, in the room, from before, stealing a portion of the precious space in this chamber, and briefly I wondered whether the fairly clean city had baths, private or public, of its own. 

 

Even if this was the best room in the castle - one for the lord - luxury clearly wasn’t the first intent behind its design, since the official, lavish housing was within travelling distance. 

 

“No… yes… perhaps.” I muttered, considering refusing, only to realise that it would probably be for their benefit more so than mine. My girls had fine senses. Miwah didn’t have a scent, but I guess I wasn’t so lucky. 

 

I gazed out, thinking, before I tried to free myself from my very pleasant company, and sat on the bed next to Narita. She looked at me, worried, tucked herself close. My mind, however, soon slipped to worry. Fortunately, more of my monster girls burst into the room making themselves as noticeable as possible.  

 

This time, however, it wasn’t the buckets of water that did the job, but the ‘Displacer’ - a little one that decided to make it through the window, and I guessed still the same one - teleporting in an octopus-girl‌, and with it, all the water they needed. 

 

Nereida, or rather, her magic, considered the states of matter a subject of opinion, not a physical law, and transported the water in as the large, solid, translucent, not quite ice-ball,  which then became fluid again. 

 

Heating the ware was a mere flick of  the fingers for Tama, which suggested her control was much more precise than her little sisters’, who would just as likely set the entire room on fire. 

 

It still didn’t stop at least two ordinary fox girls from barging in and dumping a selection of strange, aromatic flowers into the bath, probably to freshen it up, with the cheerful “For Master!”  

 

“Dance and song, Master?” Nereida offered, likely recalling how I referred to her as a mythical mermaid, but I somewhat rudely didn’t pay attention to her.

 

My thoughts were somewhere else, not reacting to her, nor to the ‘Purifiers’ that brought in cloth for use as towels. 

 

“Call me when you need, Master.” 

 

Nereida levitated herself outside, even if she loomed behind the window like the tentacled horror she was, but even if she failed to produce the visceral reaction of disgust it probably should. 

 

Instead, she gave every impression of the exotic mermaid I named her after, now amusingly making pirouettes in the air while the droplets of water danced around her, rather than anything else. Our position at the riverbank likely turned her into a flyer with plenty of water to manipulate. 

 

I took a better look at her. 

 

An octopus girl, named after the mythical mermaid, made other pirouettes surrounded by even more water, drawn from the surroundings, imitating the sky dance. I looked at her even though her outfit, organic, improvised from what the ‘Mutators’ and ‘Fleshspeaker’ could produce to preserve her modesty, gave her the thematic look. They even found the shells…

 

My girls didn’t mind, and prepared themselves for the next day, with Tama even convincing her little sisters to brush her multiple fluffy tails, much to everyone’s amusement as the sensation set her tails to flicking about, with the little ones still hanging on. Even Miwah, normally very modest and humble, had a ‘handmaiden Eviscerator’. 

 

Narita, not caring for getting wet, but very interested in grooming me, slipped into the water, but I didn’t allow myself to get tempted by her sleek body and the unavoidable closeness, and didn't become the distraction she would hoped to be as my mind was completely consumed by the questions of identity and memory. 

While I couldn’t ask them if I was human - they thought the idea was ridiculous - I could query them about something from Earth. I didn’t know what exactly, but I wanted to…

 

I didn’t know what I wanted, except to find some resemblance of sense within my situation. 

 

“Narita?” I asked, looking at her, looking into her ruby eyes. They were pretty, I thought, but shook away the temptation.

 

“Yes-yes, Master?” she replied without hesitation. 

 

“Tell me how a combustion engine works.” 

 

It was an idiotic query, as I wasn’t an engineer. It was just something I only vaguely understood and was possibly the most irrelevant to our situation as it could be. She answered it almost immediately, with just a brief flash of recognition behind her red eyes.

 

“Expanding gases from. Ignited fuel in the tube. Push the piston with rotations. The crankshaft. Master. Repeat in cycles.”  

 

Her speech was fractured, as Narita always spoke this way, but the facts were something she couldn’t even possibly know as they had never heard of it before. There were no such things in this world, and they could only know with the basic education from Earth.

 

“Do you know how to make potassium nitrate?” I tried.

 

In truth, I didn’t know, and neither did Narita: 

 

“I don’t know, Master.” she said, “Arke. Not caught human’s gunpowder makers.” 

 

I paused. 

 

“Master?” 

 

I thought I confused her, but even if she couldn’t answer what I personally didn’t have an idea about, as I wasn’t a chemist either, she could make a connection she once again couldn’t know as I didn’t speak of it either. 

 

At least, I thought I didn’t. 

 

“How does a gun work?” 

 

“Yes-yes, Master. A gunpowder. Ignited in the tube. Explodes. Launching a projectile!.”she answered, now with pride, never breaking eye contact, just with the very same flash of recognition she had once before. 

 

The natives, though already using gunpowder, didn’t make the jump of logic yet, but Narita could. She even didn’t stop brushing me, caring a little for the weird question she doesn’t even have to think hard about. 

 

While I wasn’t ready to bring any reasonable technological innovation to this world, there were large gaps in my knowledge for that, it became painfully obvious that the girls weren’t operating by the limitation of knowledge this world had. 

 

We were all outsiders for the human, but the divide between me, and my girls, were growing smaller by the second - if there was any from the start. The host was whispering quietly at the back of my brain even now. 

 

“Master...” Tama moaned. Her two little fox sisters kept brushing her tails. 

 

I was about to test their knowledge of other subjects, geography of Earth, something technological again, not remotely relevant to my situation, even a personal one, but it felt futile, pointless. 

 

There was recognition even behind Tama’s eyes, and whispers in the back of my head. 

 

They knew what I knew, and we weren’t from there, but the idea of the uniqueness of my memories slipped away quickly, turned insubstantial. 

 

“If you remember everything I do, why do you believe I am not human?” 

 

I tried, somewhat desperately, but Narita only pushed herself close. It was arousing, but the crisis of identity ruined the moment even further. 

 

“You are the Master.” She said, “Always were. Always, will be. We have only one master.”  

 

 Miwah, in the meantime, stood up in the bed and walked behind me, her fingers brushing my back, calming my agitation.

 

The wolf-girl’s claws never hurt me, even in moments of passion. They were soothing even now, gently scratching, as I struggled to test whether my unique memories even mattered.

 

“But Earth…” I protested, somewhat weakly. 

 

“Humans are humans, Master. If they threaten you, we kill them all.” Miwah said with terrifying certainty. 

 

I held Narita. It was tempting, arousing, but the moment was ruined by a ‘Displacer’ deciding to join in, splashing in the bath, defying the feline's distaste of water. 

 

“For Master!” She voiced her unwavering support, but it was still somewhat distracting, as even though I was comfortable with my girls, the propensity of my cat-girls randomly, and rather impulsively, teleporting around, killed it even more. 

 

I wasn’t quite ready to see the world until I was, once again, dressed. 

 

Gently pushing Narita away, even if it was hard, I decided to get out of the bath, dress up, and … 

 

I didn’t, in fact, know what to do. Resisting Tama teasing about making kittens, and giving the over-affectionate ‘Displacer’ a friendly pat, I realised something. 

 

“Where is Mai?” I asked.

 

The scaly lady wasn’t around for the night. In truth, I didn’t see her for the entire day before. Though not the most social creature, owing it perhaps to her reptilian part of the heritage, it was unlike her to not show herself at all. The wanderlust was more of Sora’s thing. 

 

“She is guarding eggs, Master.” I was told. 

 

“Eggs?” 

 

As much as ‘Corruptors’ rambled about them lately, I didn’t see them lay them, and as much unprepared as I was for the eventuality that my girls could, in truth, have offspring, I couldn’t ignore it. 

 

“Take me to see them!” 

 

I ordered. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

I must have said it with quite the urgency as the moments after, I was already dragged through the ever shifting void to the new destination, with only ever-enthusiastic feline to keep me company. 

 

When the normal space restored itself a moment after, I stood in the middle of the cobbled courtyard of the shrine, dressed in only the silky pants, with the ‘Displacer’ dripping water as she was the one who jumped into the bath previously.

 

“For Master!” She announced, with a meow, showing displeasure at having her fur and the blouse, one that compromised her entire outfit, wet. It wasn’t that urgent, I thought, but I was already there and the ‘Corruptors’ around me noticed. 

 

“For Master! Master! Master!” 

 

I looked around. They changed this place quite a bit. Not only is there another version of the Tree of Arcane here, with a handful of its strange transformative fruit ready to use, nothing in our surroundings resembled the location I visited on my first day in this world. 

 

It was a half-orchard, half-fortress, with the more fruit-bearing trees of the less enchanted, but still otherworldly variety, encased behind the partial cupola of the bramble and brier so massive the individual thorns were grown to the size of thorns. 

 

The buildings the human had built were still there, but now thoroughly hidden behind the creeper wines. 

 

“Master.” A familiar voice said, somewhat apologetic in tone: “Mai insisted on laying the eggs here. We are doing our best to keep them safe.” 

 

Lily walked to me, gesturing around. Their organic superstructure around even had holes for the little ‘Corruptors’ to hide within, and they even took crossbows and bows we looted from the humans to arm themselves.  

 

There was a spear and shield equipped ‘Corruptors’ standing guard even.

“Can I see them?” I asked.

 

“Of course, Master,” she said, gesturing towards the now overgrown pagoda. The ‘Corruptor’ that acted as guard ushered me in. 

 

It was strange to make a nest there, but I couldn’t fault Mai for following her instincts on this. 

 

Maybe there was something special about this place, something the castle couldn’t fulfil.

I found Mai asleep inside what used to be the pagoda’s shrine, on the pedestal which once was the dragon statue transformed into the bed of hay, leaves and flowers she could lay on, with the original idol thrown out, or destroyed. 

 

Most decorations were now covered by the creep, and it was now warm and moist there, with the musky odour from all the surrounding plants. 

 

There were three eggs partially covered in dried leaves, grass and other plant matter, shining out through the covering thanks to their white and black scaly structure. Just like Mai was, now as the ‘bride’. 

 

I kneeled next to them, and wanted to touch them, but stopped myself as they probably need to be kept at the correct moisture and temperature as they arranged there, and refrained from touching them. 

 

Still, they looked fairly large, like one of the ostriches, far too big for Mai’s body. They grow insanely fast, as it has been only a day and night, twenty-four hours, and my bride looked quite slim back then. It meant that ‘Corruptor’ could lay an egg every few hours without considerable impact on their physique…

 

“Master?” Mai said, opening her eyes, blinking lethargically with her double eyelids. 

 

She apparently wasn’t quite ready to run off.

 

“Rest. Mai. Do you need anything for the eggs?” 

 

I asked. She apparently didn’t need to warm the eggs herself, but otherwise, it was up to her interpretation. 

 

“No, Master.” she said, tired, “My sisters are taking care of everything…” 

 

“Shouldn’t we bring a Defiler there to heal you? Or…” I asked, worried. It was a strange feeling, the idea of having children, even more so if the mother was an anthropomorphic lizard girl. 

 

“We probably shouldn’t remove life from nearby, Master.” She said, looking behind me. Lily stood in the doorway, flanked by the smaller ‘Corruptors’, but I was more focused on the tree of the arcane.

 

Do I need to keep it there or the eggs would come out badly?

 

What exactly do I need to do? 

 

My uncertainty, however, didn’t last, as all of the sudden, the heart-beat that plagued my dreams had returned, drumming not in my chest, but at the back of my head, and then … 

 

It stopped, and in its place, a voice emerged.

 

“Root…” 

 

It was the dragoness voice. Weak, distant, but present. 

 

I looked at Mai, then at Lily.

 

The ‘Displacer’ found her way in. She doesn’t look any drier than the moment before, ready to transport me at the moment notice. 

 

“Root!” 

 

The voice repeated, now slightly stronger, but still, fairly weak compared to what it once had been when it was booming from the heavens. The ‘Lady’ still had not materialised in flesh, no maw emerging from nowhere. 

 

“Master, you may need to be there.” Mai and Lily said, almost in unison. 

 

But, the eggs... 

 

I have to trust that ‘Corruptors’ knew what they were doing. 

 

“Root!” The ‘Lady’ was insistent, but still, she wasn’t the speech that she once performed. 

 

Maybe she couldn’t manifest outside her remaining shrines, I assumed, and may want to speak with me in person. She had this limitation before, until we were, somehow, linked together, then she could pester both me and the rest of the host from the comfort of her spiritual realm among the clouds. 

 

No delay. 

 

“Where? Take me there.” I ordered 

 

The ‘Displacer’ pulled me through her rift, as unprepared as I was for the official meeting with our supposed ally. The few long moments in the even shifting void beyond, and I was back to normal space. 

 

This was, however, not the temple.

 

I was back at the fishing village, in the base of the great jet black tree reaching for the heavens that was to serve as the symbol, albeit not designed by me.

 

And among the enormous cracked roots, a new figure kneeled. 

 

“Root!” It said - she said. 

 

The ‘Lady’. It was her voice, it even sounded similar, if diminished, but the body certainly wasn’t. 

 

Gone was the traditional, long, serpentine body of the Asian-styled dragon with its enormous size, towering the mortals. Instead, there was a small, human-sized body of the anthropomorphic dragon, resembling more of one of my girls than the being the ‘Lady’ once was. 

 

She still had her mane, small antlers, and even the scales of the typical blue-green shade she sported before, but now, it was compiled into a very feminine shape with the round breasts on a quite tall, athletic build. There were elegant shapes, like tattoos, curling around her body. I looked at her as she managed to get herself in the standing position on her taloned digitigrade legs, similar to one my ‘Corruptors’ had. 

 

“Root!” She repeated, notably angrier in tone. 

 

The ‘Lady’ - or her smaller version, rather - looked down at her clawed hands, then looked at me. Pointy ears were strange, but the little whiskers at her rather adorable nozzle were quite cute too, and her glowing eyes, unfortunately quite scary as she glared first at our surroundings, and then at me. 

 

“Root, what have you done?” She asked, first quietly, then raised her voice as the system unexpectedly sparked to life. 

 

Divinity has been defiled!  Resources income gained!  We are rushing towards the end of days!

 

The flickering overlay window interrupted the moment as the frustrated dragoness exclaimed: 

 

“Root! What have you done!”