As the night cycles began, they stoked the fire higher. Dem tried to imagine how long people had been lighting such fires in the Wilds, hoping to keep the darkness at bay. The truth was, he didn’t know. The Church was big on teaching, but didn't emphasize much about the past. He didn’t know when the settlement had been originally started, or how long humans had been trying to live in the Wilds before that. The Church offered no specifics, and no one really bothered to ask. Immediate survival in the hamlets, and profit in the settlement, were too all-consuming. There were always legends, stories, but they were passed down from parent to child, or through children’s books. For all he knew, the settlement itself could have started as a simple campfire, like the one the party sat ariybd. Something about being out here during a full rotation, left him in a contemplative mood.

The mood on the faces around him were sour. Dice had attempted to find some time to ‘rest’ with him, but one look from Karmis had withered that particular fruit on the branch. Karmis eyed him more and more, and he grew worried. Wersa, thankfully, seemed almost totally indifferent to him, other than an occasional sneer.

The first of the night cycles passed with only one encounter. A mist-fish came sniffing around, though not too close to the fire. Dice had tossed some blades at it, but they bounced off its disgusting, slimy exterior. He hadn’t seen one so close before, and noticed it was quite frog-like for something that was supposed to be a fish. Its exterior had a mucousy substance on every surface, and its mouth would stretch incredibly wide as it seemed to gulp in the surrounding mist, which in turn caused it to propelled itself around us a slow space. It didn’t seem to want to come within a certain distance of the fire, and so Wersa offered to throw her sword at it, but Karmis, correctly, pointed out it might bounce or slide right off the thing. He noticed even Wersa was not willing to leave the fire to fight it directly. It was fairly large, certainly larger than Wersa by a couple of times, and quite long, nearly long enough to surround the campsite by itself. He thanked the Divine Humanity mist-fish were solitary hunters.

It eerily swam loops around them. He thought the beast was waiting for an opening, but he wasn't sure. Having such a beast constantly swimming just outside the light of your fire, for whole cycles, would cause anyone to crack eventually. He wondered how many similar fires this particular beast had circled knowing that eventually it would get a meal either when they attacked or when they slept.

Wersa spoke, “We can just wait the thing out, it will go away eventually.”

Dem wanted to respond, “I don’t know..”

Before he could finish his sentence, Wersa sneered at him, and he closed his mouth looking away. Wersa was nearly as scary as the Divinity-damned beast, so he gave up on the idea of arguing.

Karmis ended their aborted conversation by casting a offensive fire spell. Concentration lighting her face, a stream of fire launched itself from Karim’s hands to hit the mist-fish. Bizarrely, as soon as the fire reached the mist-fish, it seemed to just pop out of existence with a loud bang! He knew it hadn’t really just disappeared because he could feel the air displaced from its movement. The wind generated had nearly knocked him over onto his ass and almost put out their fire. Despite what he knew from the evidence, it moved so fast most anyone would have sworn it teleported or simple popped out of existence. Shock registered everyone’s face. The mist-fish had been terrifying, even though he knew something about what to expect from them, but what had really suprised him was Karmis.

He hadn’t figured her for an offensive castor, or perhaps he had realized she must be one, but didn’t want to think about what that meant. In some ways, an offensive caster was more scary than a Classed Warrior. A Classed Caster was more versatile, with greater potential for systematic annhilation of their foes. The Warrior was destruction given human form, capable of killing tens of guards or soldiers before being brought down through exhaustion or numbers. Ultimately though, the Warrior was only a single person. The offensive Spell Caster, was a force of nature, potentially able to destroy whole villages if given time to do so. A Spell Caster with a Path related to destruction would be able to endlessly destroy, and in doing so, recharge themselves. They would only stop due to physical or mental exhaustion.

Thankfull, the spell Karmis had used left her clearly worn her out. She was breathing heavily and looked drained. She was clearly not a true offensive Caster, the spell had taken too much from her, but also obviously had access to offensive spells. Just being able to use such a spell was frightening by itself. He checked on Ina, but she had hardly moved, except to be in position to rescue him if need be. He tried to relax, but this series of events had been more horrifying than he would have ever guessed. He, as a man from the hamlets, and a man who had travelled the Wilds to a small extent, would be considered an experience person in regard to night cycles, but it was hard to be prepared for what he had just seen.

He had technically been out during a rotation like this before, not just in the hamlets, but with a caravan moving from one settlement to another. It was the only time he been to another settlement. He had joined the caravan, offering his labor as a carriage loader for free, in return for the protection the caravan offered. He had just wanted to gain some experience. At the time, Ina had matured enough to be considered a proper lesser beast, so he was a little blindly confident.

The trip was long though, an entire rotation, and so they would have to camp in the Wilds during at least one set of night cycles, but this was a well used path, almost a genuine road, and a small fortification had been built long ago for travelers to use in the middle of their journey. Most everyone but the strongest Classed adventurers had simply sat inside a shelter through the night cycles. The whole fortification had a dozen places to keep fires going. The beasts in the area had long since learned to ignore the place during night cycles. The whole place was a trap for anything less than a calamity beast. He had been terrified at first, of course, but eventually the fortification felt safer than his own home.

Actually being out in the night, and not in a shelter, or barricaded into a his family home, was a definitely a new experience for him. Most people in the hamlets were frightened of the dark, despite their hovels being rather gloomy. He couldn’t consider himself an exception. There was something like a primal fear, a pressure, that the black around them conitinually attacked him with mentally. He tried his best to temper himself, by occasionally staring off into the darkness, imagining what else was out there. Eventually, though, he would shudderingly turn his back on the darkness and stare into the warm fire for comfort.

***

The rest of the night cycles had been fairly uneventful, thankfully. No one had gotten any rest, though. They had heard gargoyle-bats on several occasions, but hadn’t seen another mist-fish. No other beasts had visited them. Perhaps, they could sense Wersa and Karmis’ strength, or the fire was enough to keep them back. The elder viper-wyrm would have been horrible to deal with in the dark, had it still lived. The night was now almost over, but his real problems had just begun.

A t the moment alarm bells went off in his head, not the kind that signified his trinkets had been activated, but the sort of mental alarm that indicated he felt he was in deep personal trouble. Sensing his fear, Ina had crept closer to the campsite, readying to pounce on the source of his current predicament. He had to push her back mentally, sending that he would handle this situation and that she should stay-put, out of sight. He didn’t know how he would handle this, but he would.

Karmis had beckoned to him, “Join me in my tent, Dem.” Her voice sounding friendly, but her eyes betraying a more commanding emotion.

“Buh, ahy yu’ ge’ts ‘em, buh ah duhn’ta?” Dice whined when she noticed what was going on.

He subconsciously translated to himself what she was saying.

“But, why do you get him, but I don’t?”, was his best approximation of her words.

Karmis, glaring at her, “I need to speak him.” Her voice hard.

“Ah’least, le’ muh, hab ‘em awf’tar. Ef..”

His translation, “At least let me have him after? If..”

Karmis had cut her off mid sentence.

“That is enough Dice, go check on the alarm trinkets, like he showed you, the night cycles are almost over, you’ll be fine.” Karmis dismiss her and once again beckoned to him.

He shooed Ina away as well. He was somewhat prepared for this. He knew almost immediately, just from their initial meeting, her Path would be something involving interactions with other people. Her attired told him that being attractive helped in some way, so it was always a possibility she would want him to help her advance her Path using the attraction she tried to engender. At the very least, she likely wanted to replenish the power she had used up on her spells and he must be the best target for her Path.

He sighed, and followed her with a his best smile. At least the night cycles were winding down. It was still dark, but beasts tended to retreat back to their hiding spots during the last night cycle. Other beasts, the sort that hid at night, would be waking up soon. As one danger decreased, another increased for him here and out there.

As he she entered the tent, she bent lower than strictly necessary, arching her back, making her assets more apparent. She wore a soft-looking fiber robe. Her leathers were left to dry somewhere. The humidity in the air had left them wet and sticky. The robe was a little too short, and he got a full side view of the large globe of her left buttocks. Before entering, he took another big breath, hoping to gather strength. She was attractive certainly, but far too scary for him to have any real interest in. Ina was scary in primal way, but exciting, Karmis was just plain terrifying, a definite killer and manipulator.

He lifted the tent flap and entered. The tent was large enough for two people to comfortable sit on chairs, and still sleep several people. There was only one chair in the tent and Karmis sat in it. He moved close enough to face her and sat down on a cushion waiting. As he waited, Karmis eyed him up and down, like a piece of meat. He didn’t really mind, it sort of reminded him of the look Greer had given him, but he worried what she would ask him to do. If he displeased her, and she was able to cast a spell, he might not even make it from the tent alive.

She crossed her legs, giving him a full view, of.. well, everything right at eye level. Her robe slipped lower in front, her breasts nearly exposed. She looked at him, judging his response to her wardrobe malfunction. He tried to look as interested as possible. Everything about her was sexually stimulating. She even reeked of it, his nose twitching. He still found himself too scared to be really excited.

Finally, she reached for him, touching him on the shoulder, and looking him in the eye with a sultry smile. He felt her cast another spells, but it had zero effect on him. Before he felt the spells she cast connect with him, but they were resisted. This time, probably thanks to advancing his Path and exploring his Class, the spell simply disappeared into nothingness.

She frowned and spoke, “How are you doing that? Be honest, no evasion.”

Well beastdung, this was bad. What could he say? He had to make up something plausible.

“I.. once wanted to be an initiate of the Church…” He didn’t know where to take this, but it was the first thing to come to mind. Priests were resistant to mental manipulation generally. Caius had used it as an excuse to explain why he needed to drink so much to get drunk. Caius’s mind had been trained. It would automatically try to resist intoxication or anything else that might affect his mental state.

“Caius, the settlement Priest, taught me something.. to strengthen my mind..” He knew didn’t sound exactly convincing, but he supposed it was plausible. He decided to double down.

“The Tamer bond also affords.. a Tamer some mental resistance through melding of minds with a beast.” This was total beastdung, as far as he knew, but it was unlikely she was an expert on Tamer bonds.

Karmis stared at him, weighing his words. Her robe had slipped all the way off in front, when she reached to cast a spell on him earlier. Her breasts hung down, her nipples a light pink, hard in the cool night air. Eventually, with a sigh, she moved off her chair and pushed on his chest until he laid on his back. He stretched out his legs, and she moved over them, to straddle him. She was surprisingly light. Her robe slipped the rest of the way off, but he hardly noticed, as he was looking at her too-perfect face. It consisted of rounded planes, high cheekbones, full lips, and arched eyebrows, all framed by the dark red of her hair.

Gyrating her hips slightly while she sat on him, she spoke then, “Boy, you have what I need. My spells may not work, but my body is a wonderous thing isn’t it?”

Her voice sounded deeper, older, than he remembered. It vibrated through him.

She bent low over him, her hands roaming across his chest, bringing her lips as close to his ear as her bust would let her. “Boy, just lose yourself in my embrace, I have need of you.”

He could feel the sharpness of her nipples stabbing him, and soft weight of her bust weighing down on his chest. Her hips seeming to widen and engulf his. His mind was a little fuzzy, but the underlying fear he had earlier was still a constant pressure on his mind that kept his thoughts clear. His problem now was how to respond. Was he supposed to lose himself to lust and ravish her, or was he supposed to be charmed into such a state of lust she could have her way with him in whatever way she desired? He had never put so much thought into sex before, as his life was literally on the line. He needed to act within her expectations and elicit no further suspicion, but didn’t know how to do that.

Karmis must have interpreted his stillness for whatever she had been looking for, because she began to undress him then, her hand reaching for his pants, untying the knot, and sliding them down. She stopped dead, though, her face suddenly a mask of fury. She was looking at his ‘tool’ as Dice had called it, and it hadn’t.. responded quite the way she thought it would. She looked at him and began to speak, but he suddenly spoke, cutting her off.

He spoke hurriedly, stumbling, “Karmis, you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, but...ah.. I’m nervous you see, and ah…”

“Do you prefer men, you bastard?”

“No, no, ask Dice about that… ah.. That was the wrong thing to say…”

She slapped him hard in the face. In response, all he could do was school his emotions, showing not the slightest bit of anger or rebellion.

His voice meek, “Perhaps if you were to.. or I could… maybe give me some time and I can..” He couldn’t even complete a sentence to make up some kind of excuse, her glare had him pinned.

“Boy, I haven’t had to work this hard for it in a long, long time. Fine! At least return the favor.”

She turned her body, smothering his face with her posterior, angling in a particular way to give him access, while she went to work on the other end of him. He did the only thing he could, though he took no pleasure in it.