Myths and Legends - Beastkin Ch. 01

Beast-Kin

Myths & Legends: Book 2

by

Ghost Dream

Prologue

Africa

Jungles of the Congo Basin

The jungle foliage shifted with a non-existent breeze as two bodies hurried past. High in the treetops, a third flitted from branch to branch fast enough to match the pace of those on the ground. Eager shouts chased after the trio as they fled. Heavy footfalls stomped across the forest floor in loud pursuit. Despite the trio's seemingly inhuman speed, the pursuers kept a dogged pace to slowly catch up to their prey. The thick forest, with its uneven ground of mangled roots and rotting wood, did much to hinder the flight of those trying to lose those hunting them.

A small clearing opened up before the trio of the hunted. The first to burst into the clearing in a spray of twigs and leaves was a woman with coal-black skin and wearing nothing but a loin cloth tied around her waist. Her face was angular, with wide, yellow eyes with vertical slits for pupils. Her nose was small and almost flat against her face, resembling more of a mix of a feline nose with a human. Her upper lip had a small, raised portion in the exact center, giving the impression of a cleft lip. She had sharp upper and lower canines like a cat that mixed with otherwise human teeth.

Her small breasts, with nipples only slightly darker than her skin, bounced on her chest as she ran. Her lithe torso and lean frame suggested that she didn't get as much food as she should. Her arms pumped, her hands balled into fists with retractible claws protruding from her fingertips like thin, sharp, curved needles. One hand held a six-foot-long, wooden spear sharpened to a wicked point at one end. Her leg muscles rippled with power, and very little of her body jiggled--aside from her tiny breasts--as she ran, giving evidence of minimal fat on her slender frame.

Most notable about the woman was the large black, cat-like ears that protruded from either side of the top of her head, laid back along her afro of dark, thick, curly hair. A long, thin, feline tail protruded from the top of her backside at the end of her spine. Her tail stood out straight as an arrow behind her, the fine hairs of her tail bristling, giving evidence of her anger and fright. Additionally, her digitigrade feet pounded silently across the foliage, the balls of her feet with curved claws protruding from human-like toes dug into the earth as she ran.

The next to clear the trees was a light-colored female dressed in a similar loincloth to the first. Her skin was a light shade of butterscotch, with eyes so round and opaque they almost drowned out the sclera. The rest of her face was distinctly human, with a petite, sloping nose and full lips.

She had a tight wrap of fabric around her ample breasts, and she soared from the treetops to land, rolling across the ground before resuming her flight without hesitation despite the change in landscape. This woman had round, furry ears markedly higher on the side of her head than a human's, with long, flowing, creamy beige-colored hair whipping in the wind behind her. She also had a furry, light tan-colored tail protruding from her backside that curled upwards along her back.

Her feet were more ape-like, with opposable thumbs extending slightly behind where her big toes would typically be, allowing her to grab onto things like branches and vines with them. Similarly, her arms were slightly longer than normal, with elongated fingers on each hand. Shortened legs allowed her to run more like what an ape would, with the knuckles of her hands on the ground to help propel her shorter, lower frame. Despite this, she still kept an easy pace alongside her companion.

The last to burst through the trees was a tall, pale-skinned woman. She was completely nude, with long, wheat-colored hair frayed out behind her. She had a mostly human face with wide, crystal-blue eyes. A petite, sloping nose sat atop a set of luscious lips with a cleft in the exact center of the upper lip, resembling her darker-colored companion.

She had a wiry, muscular frame with modest breasts that bounced freely with every step she took. Large muscles rippled across her arms and legs, giving her powerful, short bursts of speed. Her hands, while humanoid, had thick, sharp claws that extended from her fingers where fingernails would be. Atop her head, large, rounded cat ears perched, and a long feline tail bristled from the small of her back.

Her digitigrade feet skidded to a sudden halt, the earthy scent of damp leaves and moist soil drifting up around her. As her companions disappeared into the safety of the trees once more, she hoisted a spear, the rough wood comforting in her palm. She turned to face the sparse forest from which her pursuers would emerge, her muscles tense, ready to launch the spear at the first man that arrived.

"KEEP RUNNING!" the woman yelled over her shoulder.

"Neela! What are you doing!?" cried one of her companions from inside the treeline.

"Helping you and Kiara escape, Zalita!" the pale woman hissed. "Now, go. I will be right behind you!"

"They will kill you, Neela!" Zalita replied with an angry whine.

"Then may Ares bless me as Artemis allows me to join the Great Hunt!" Neela growled. "Now, go! Let this be my final command to you, my sisters. Flee! Live! Avenge me if you can, but do not allow yourselves to be captured in doing so!"

"No," Zalita pleaded. "Please, Neela. Come with us!"

A pitiful whine echoed from the treeline. Neela turned to lock eyes with Kiara, giving the monkey-kin a forlorn smile as she accepted her fate. "I love you both," Neela whispered before turning to face her sworn enemy.

A dark-skinned man burst through the treeline, hefting a spear and whooping in victory at the sight of the lone lion-kin. Neela's arm flexed, and her spear shot from her hands like lightning to impale the man through the chest with a sickening thud. The man cried out in pain, his shout a guttural mix of pain and anguish, before his voice strangled out. He clutched at the haft of the spear as he coughed up blood and fell to the side. Behind him, another man was similarly impaled with the same weapon, his surprise complete at the finality of his life as the spear pierced his heart, killing him instantly.

It would take a long time for the first man to die, but death was an inevitable fate he could no longer hope to escape. Neela didn't wait to see the outcome of her attack--she did not doubt the accuracy of her aim--as she turned to flee. A surge of hope blossomed in her heart as she darted for the safety of the trees.

A loud crack echoed through the air, and Neela felt a burning pain bury itself in her thigh. She limped forward as spears rained down around her, one driving deep into her right shoulder. With gritty determination, she pulled the spear through her body and used it as a crutch to continue on.

A second crack echoed in the still air, and Neela jolted, feeling a searing pain stab into her lower back. Hope turned to morbid acceptance as her legs gave out beneath her, and she fell. She continued toward her goal, her beautiful blue eyes scanning the treeline as she crawled on the forest floor, using the strength of one arm alone.

"Go!" she whispered urgently, her eyes wide with fear, not for herself, but for her sisters. "Hurry!"

With strength mastered by centuries of determination, Neela rolled herself over, preparing to kill her hunter with the sheer force of will if need be. Many dark-skinned males surrounded her from a distance, but Neela had eyes for only one man. The man with the stick that made a loud noise. The white man with the gun. Pure hatred and rage filled her, as her eyes bore into his.

"I Ártemi prostátepse me. Déxou ti thysía mou. Epitrépste mou to pronómio na symmetáscho sto Megálo Kynígi," Neela chanted as the man raised his gun to point at her.

With eyes wide from the shock of her injury and her ears laid back across her scalp, Neela's body jerked into motion. Raising the spear high from her prone position, she threw it, impaling the man through the neck. Simultaneously, his rifle fired, the bullet tearing through the underside of her chin as it tore its way into her brain.

Neela died instantly, while the man fell to his knees, clawing at the spear in his throat. He gurgled as he tried to cough, but his body was not able to respond to the signals sent by his brain. His lungs slowly filled with fluid, drowning the man in his own blood.

Silence returned to the clearing as the remaining men stood motionless for long moments, staring dumbfoundedly at the dead man they called 'boss'. Finally, they gathered the dead and began carting them off from the way they came.

Hours later, the sun began to sink low on the western horizon. Zalita and Kiara remained in their hiding spots long after the men retreated with their spoils.

"I Ártemi prostátepse me. Déxou ti thysía mou. Epitrépste mou to pronómio na symmetáscho sto Megálo Kynígi," the two whispered the mantra in unison before repeating it in English. "Artemis protect me. Accept my sacrifice. Allow me the privilege of joining the Great Hunt."

So completed their goodbye to their sister, their lover, their protector, and their lifelong friend. Silence overtook the forest once more when they were finished.

Soft sniffles drifted out from the forest. Finally, when the sun had long set, Zalita spoke. Speaking so softly as to barely be heard, she said, "We have to split up, Kiara."

"No-no," Kiara meekly whined in defeated sorrow.

"We have to, Kiara," Zalita whispered through the lump in her throat. "It's the only way we'll be safe." She sniffled and wiped her feline nose with the back of her hand. "Find someplace to hide, Kiara. Find someplace safe and stay there."

"No-no."

"No more raids on the humans. No more stealing trinkets to play with."

"No-no!" Kiara argued more insistently.

"Stay hidden. Stay safe. I love you. Don't come looking for me," Zalita finished, her silence deafening in the quiet jungle.

"No-no," Kiara repeated as she shuffled to where Zalita had been hidden. Only, the panther-kin was already gone. "No-no!" Kiara cried loudly. "NO-NO!" she yelled as she burst from her hiding spot into the clearing. Her head on a swivel, with wide, manic eyes, she searched all around for her only remaining companion. When it was evident that Zalita was truly gone, Kiara cast her gaze upon the open night sky as she took a lungful of air. The monkey-kin uttered an inhuman shriek that could be heard for miles, a cry of utter despondency that sent the nightlife fleeing from her in all directions.

Chapter 1

Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa

Kisangani International Airport

Jacob Blackburn stepped down onto the tarmac from the last step of his C-130 Hercules and closed the access hatch. Turning to his women, he smiled understandingly at their apparent discomfort from the flight. All but Xāda.

Tatiana, Sestia, and Lenore wore mixed expressions of discomfort, with Sestia suffering the most out of the three. The six-foot-six tall brunette with the body of a warrior, all chiseled muscles surrounded by feminine curves, hunched over slightly as she held a hand to her midsection. Her stomach gurgled from her ailment--her face a light shade of green--causing her to retch slightly as she tried to keep its contents from spilling out onto the ground.

Tatiana, the beautiful redhead with the haunting gray eyes stared back at Jake with a feigned attempt at stoicism. Her already alabaster skin was impossibly a few shades whiter from her own reactions to the plane ride.

Lenore, with her honey-colored hair and blue eyes, was the least affected by airsickness, the only evidence of her discomfort was an occasional burp escaping her perfectly shaped lips.

Xāda, or Jessie Duplantis as Jake knew her, was pristine and perfect as ever as she stood smiling by his side. Her platinum-blonde hair was done up in a tight bun on top of her head, and her hazel eyes looked up at Jake adoringly from her six-foot frame.

The four women were Amazon Warriors--each with a strikingly muscular, yet feminine figure equal to Sestia's. The first three were stranded on an isolated island that Jake somehow found himself on after crashing his SR-80 during its inaugural flight. At the time, some kind of barrier surrounded the island, preventing the outside world from knowing about it, much less being able to see it.

The four women survived through the ages due to a ritual performed over five thousand years ago. Tatiana and her approximately two hundred surviving warrior sisters--taking refuge on the island--conducted this ritual after their city of Themiscyra was overrun and destroyed by the Grak'gull, dinosaur-looking animals with the necks and heads of dragons.

Xāda spent her years hopping through history, attempting to navigate the different eras as she struggled to survive. She performed many duties throughout her life, from a concubine in Ancient Rome to a doctor in the mid-twentieth century. Most recently, she was an Air Traffic Controller for the Air Force on a Top Secret island base off the coast of South Carolina, where she met Jake.

Xāda all but undressed Jake with her eyes, with his imposing six-foot-four, barrel-chested figure that could rival the gods, to his light brown, slightly curly hair, and brown eyes like pools of rich, melted chocolate. She licked her lips as she barely contained her lust for the man she came to call her king. Tatiana regaled her with the details from the clan ritual she performed to make Jake King of the Amazons-who-are-no-longer-Amazons.

Her glistening tongue traced the curves of her luscious lips as she remembered she hadn't tasted his seed yet. Her pussy moistened further with that thought, her juices all but dripping down the insides of her thighs.

"Somebody's horny," Jake commented with a chuckle as he looked down at Xāda. She looked at him with lust in her eyes and a lascivious grin.

Xāda looked away, blushing slightly at getting caught ogling Jake. "Well," she replied after clearing her throat. "I always tend to get slightly more aroused after a flight. Something about the whole in-the-air-and-not-dying part gets my blood pumping."

Jake laughed. "I'll make sure you get taken care of when we get to the hotel."

"You'd better," Xāda replied with a grin and an elbow to his ribs. "I can be positively feral when I don't get fucked like I want when I get horny."

"Duly noted," Jake said with a laugh. Then, looking at the three suffering women, he said, "I told you to take some Dramamine before we took off."

"Yes, but, we did not think it would be this bad," Sestia groaned.

"Well, I guess no sex for you tonight, then," Jake teased.

"Oh, no my king," Sestia protested. "I am perfectly capable, urp--"

"No, you're not and you know it," Jake cut her off with a laugh. "However," he said, raising his arms placatingly as Sestia opened her mouth to argue, "if you're feeling well enough by morning, I can make sure you cum as many times as you want before we have to meet with the Commissioner."

"And me, my king?" Lenore asked with a hopeful expression.

"Oh, honey," Xāda replied with a wink and husky tone. "I'm looking forward to some raunchy fucking tonight. If you're game, you can join in."

Lenore nibbled uncertainly on her bottom lip as she contemplated the seedy offer. She was the prude of the bunch when it came to sex, preferring to be one-on-one with Jake when she got what she wanted from him. Xāda had been trying for the last couple of days to break the seemingly shy warrior out of her shell, all but flinging herself at the woman to get her to join in on a threesome.

Before Lenore could answer, however, a car pulled up in front of the group of five, stopping nearby. It was a small, yellow, four-door hatchback with what looked like barely enough room for three passengers, much less five. Jake cocked an eyebrow at the driver as he exited the vehicle. He was a tall African man with skin so black his teeth almost glowed when he flashed them a wide smile.

"Ah. This must be our ride. Uh, hello," Jake said. "Speak English?"

"Yes, yes," the man replied with his trademark smile. "You go to Belle Rivière Boutique Hôtel, yes?"

"Uh, yeah," Jake replied uncertainly. "I don't think we'll all fit, though," he said, gesturing to the tiny car.

"Sure, sure," the man replied. "You fit. Come."

The man grabbed their bags and situated them on top of the car in the luggage rack. The sidebars on the luggage rack were high enough that even Xāda's bag--the largest of them all--would ride without falling off. As he did so, Jake peered into the car. It appeared slightly larger on the inside than its outward appearance suggested, but he was still skeptical.

The man opened the front passenger door for Jake, gesturing for him to sit inside. Next, the man ushered Tatiana into the seat behind Jake, placed Xāda in the middle of the backseat, and positioned Sestia behind the driver's seat. Moving back to Jake, the man pulled a lever at the bottom of Jake's seat, causing the seat-back to recline almost onto Tatiana's lap. Then, he gestured for Lenore to sit on Jake's lap.

Lenore took the opportunity to snuggle her back into Jake as she got comfortable, leaning her head on his right shoulder. Jake looked to the trio in the back. Their shoulders were overlapping, but they didn't seem to be too cramped. To alleviate the confined space somewhat, Tatiana leaned forward slightly and wrapped her arms around Jake's neck.

"You girls okay back there?" Jake asked, patting and holding the redhead's hand with his right.

"Fine," the trio answered in unison.

"Don't know why I gotta ride bitch, though," Xāda grumbled with her arms crossed, like a petulant child.

Jake chuckled as their driver hopped in the driver's seat, started the car, and sluggishly rumbled down the road. Every time the car dipped, the added weight caused the rear end to drag, the first time startling Sestia with its grating on the asphalt.

"Sorry," Jake sheepishly apologized to the driver.

"Is okay. No problem," the man replied with his trademark grin. "What brings you to Kisangani?" he asked, making conversation.

"The jungle," Jake replied.

"You go to the jungle?" the man asked, his smile faltering slightly.

"Planning on it."

"Oh, is bad ju-ju."

Jake grinned. "Did you get that from a movie?"

The driver's grin widened again. "Haunted Mansion. Eddie Murphy. Funny movie."

"That it is," Jake replied, then stiffened as a hand wormed its way between them, probing between his legs.

"Not my business, but why do you want to go to the jungle?"

Jake was mildly surprised that Lenore was this frisky in public. She normally only reserved this kind of play for the privacy of their bedroom. Her hand gripped Jake's cock through his shorts and squeezed rhythmically.

"We, uh," Jake said, clearing his throat. "We like to explore places, um, that haven't been... people haven't been," he finished quickly, inwardly groaning as Lenore managed to stroke him between their compressed bodies.

"What our husband is trying to say," Xāda leaned forward and interjected, saving Jake from the embarrassment of having to explain himself while Lenore gave him a private handjob, "is that we are somewhat of amateur adventurers. We like going to places that most people would be hesitant to venture to."

Jake groaned softly as he rose to full hardness. "You keep that up," he growled softly into Lenore's ear, "and I'll have no problems commanding you to join Jessie and me in bed tonight."

Her hand paused as she took a deep shuddering breath.

"That's what I thought," Jake replied with a chuckle and a kiss to the hollow behind her ear.

Jake's eyes widened a hair more as Lenore moaned softly, nibbled on her bottom lip, and resumed stroking him. His left hand tightened around her waist as his right hand gripped Tatiana's right arm.