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Alex in Haremland 2 Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2021-08-14 14:00:06 +0000 UTCChaos ensued after the bird-woman’s announcement, and cries of alarm echoed from the cots behind me. Doctor Kria, Mae, and Una rushed to my side, and the mouse-eared older woman held a cup of water to the bird-woman’s lips. Unlike Mae with her orangish beak instead of a nose, the crow-like woman had the full head of a human while the rest of her body resembled the bird. The crow-woman drank heavily, and then she gasped in her breath with a shudder.
“Now, start at the beginning,” I requested. “And tell me everything.”
“I should gather volunteers while we have time,” Mae suggested, and battlelust shone in her blue eyes. “The Clover Cards will rue the day they laid a metal gauntlet upon our friends.”
“Gather the warriors,” I agreed with a curt nod. “Meet back here as soon as you can.”
“Yes, Dreamer.” Mae returned my gesture and trotted away from the medical pavilion without another word.
By the time the crow-woman finished her testimony, a sizable circle of fighters had formed around us to listen attentively. Ida had regained her composure while she gave me a brief report, but I told her she’d need to repeat herself once the fighting force of New Haven gathered.
The warriors murmured among themselves as they closed the circle in more tightly, but Mae stood opposite me shoulder to shoulder with her trainees, and I could see the strength it took to contain her urge to fight. Una was also on high alert, and the air around her practically buzzed as she hopped back and forth on the balls of her feet.
They were fighters at heart, and all I’d needed to do was nudge them in the right direction.
Ida cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, and the murmurs from the fighters died down as they turned their full focus on the crow-woman scout.
“The Clover Cards ambushed the hidden valley where the friesians grazed,” Ida explained. “They brought enchanted unbreakable ropes and easily outnumbered our friends ten to one. It seems the Clover Queen’s forces have recovered from their recent losses, so we will be outnumbered as well.”
“How can they get so many Clover Cards so fast?” Shelli the bear-woman asked with a disbelieving shake of her head. “There were countless Cards dead by our hands when the Dreamer helped us rescue Livia and the others.”
“Magic,” Doctor Kria spoke up from behind me and Ida. “The Dark King must have sent more troops from his midnight fortress. We can only expect it to get worse the more he realizes Alex is a legitimate threat.”
“Does that mean the Dark King is scared of Alex?” one of my warriors asked in a hopeful tone.
“Perhaps,” Doctor Kria allowed with a tilt of her head. “Perhaps not. We can only speculate at the mind of one so evil. Who knows what kind of horrid thoughts lurk within the Dark King’s mind. It merely stands to reason that after the Battle at the Clover Fortress, the queens and the Dark King will all be more wary.”
“Stealing our mounts isn’t a very cautious move,” I pointed out, but impatience gnawed at my gut. Every second we wasted talking about it only put more distance between us and our friends.
“They will need time to break them,” Mae said as she chugged on her pipe, but she waved a hand to disperse the ensuing smoke tendrils. “Without our allies, we are only as fast as the slowest among us.”
The Dodo-woman’s eyes fixed pointedly on the medical pavilion door behind me, and I let out a deep sigh. She was right, of course, even with our volunteers, our numbers were still miniscule when compared to the might of the Clover Queen.
Yet we’d still managed to steal her prized prisoners out from beneath her very nose. And we could save the friesians if we worked together once more.
“I’m the Dreamer,” I reminded everyone, and I fixed each warrior with a stern gaze before moving on down the line to the next. Their eyes met mine, but I registered traces of doubt and fear before they lifted their chins to meet me proudly. Neither fear nor doubt would be helpful out on a mission, so I had to lift them up somehow, or they’d do more harm than good. “You have watched me drink how many potions now? And still you would doubt the prophecy? You are the ones singing the song heralding my arrival, and yet you would ignore the signs and lose faith? No, that all ends now. I am the Dreamer! Your faith in me is as well placed as the sun in the beautiful rainbow sky! I will lead you to victory, and we will save our friends!”
Cheers erupted among the gathered warriors, and everyone stomped their feet as they hollered into cupped fists.
“Dreamer, Dreamer, Dreamer!” they chanted until the noise rose to a crescendo that hurt my ears.
I motioned for silence, and all sounds ceased on command.
It was eerie, but also really fucking cool.
We were ready.
“Ida, take all the birds high into the clouds to track the Clover Card’s progress.” I nodded to the older crow-woman. “Stay out of sight at all costs. Your reports will mean nothing if we cannot surprise them with our attack.”
“Yes, Dreamer.” Ida lifted a black wing to her head like a salute, and then she pushed off from the ground while simultaneously giving heavy pumps of her wings.
“Mae, armor the rest of the troops the best we can,” I instructed without pausing. “Una, pack enough food to supply all our warriors for the next day. We don’t know how far the Clover’s will get before we catch up to them, and we won’t have time to hunt or stop to look for food trees.”
“Yes, Dreamer,” Una replied immediately while a submissive smile tugged on the corners of her delicate lips. She flashed me a sassy wink before she turned tail and dashed toward our treehouse.
Everyone had a task, and Doctor Kria immediately turned to return to her patients’ bedside, so I was left with nothing to do but wait for my forces to reassemble. I wanted to question the doctor some more about the signs of improvement my sperm had caused, but it no longer felt like the right time to discuss magic seed.
Just when I decided to leave the doctor be, however, she rushed to my side and pressed a small potion bottle into my palm.
“For good luck,” the doctor said with a twinkle in her light brown eyes.
I rolled the bottle over to read the label, and the word “strength” was written in the doctor’s now familiar script.
“With you as an ally and my immunity,” I said as my lips twisted into a smirk. “We don’t need luck. The Clover Cards do.”
“I cannot wish them such things,” the doctor said, but the smile never left her kind eyes.
The doctor’s confidence in me bolstered my own, and I strode toward the mouth of the cave with my head held high.
I would rescue my friends, and I would not let anything get in my way.
A short while later, my mini army and I were trotting through the mountain paths toward the outskirts of the hills. The bird-women scouts informed me that the Clover Cards had already arrived in the wooded area west of the Sunrise Mountains where the caves of New Haven were located, but this was an unusual direction for our enemies to travel in, since it was the opposite direction of their fortress.
I did force some of my warriors to stay behind and guard the weakest among our population, and Miss Maggie and Doctor Kria both sighed with relief at the order. We would be vastly outnumbered by our enemy, but I was the Dreamer, and I had a special weapon on my side.
I ran a hand over the pocket where the potion bulged, and it comforted me to feel its presence. My strength lay in my immunity to the opposition effects caused by the magical potions so coveted in All-the-land, but I needed to have potions to tap into it in the first place.
“How much further?” Mae asked as she paused to scan our surroundings. Ever wary of threats, the Dodo-woman acted as both rear and van guard.
“Ida and the other flyers will tell us when something changes,” I reminded her for what had to be the third time. “For now, we head for the trees.”
“That is quite a walk,” Mae sighed.
“Let’s try to set a quick pace,” I suggested, and I jogged down the trail through the boulders and cliffs the mountain slopes were decorated with. I was eager to catch up to the Clover Cards as well, but stopping to get updates every hundred paces wasn’t going to get us there any faster.
I understood Mae’s impatience, though, as each passing second possibly took our friesian friends even further from us.
“This is a breeze,” Una teased as she jogged past me, and her tail swished back and forth in time to her even footsteps.
I admired her from behind for a while until a flare of competitiveness bloomed in my gut, and a moment later, I was running side by side with the purple-blue beauty.
“I will not be delayed!” Mae exclaimed as she hurried to match our gait.
I flung back my head and laughed out loud without ever slowing down, and Una and Mae both added their melodic laughter to the mix. Despite it being a serious mission, it was nice to take a moment to release some of the tension, so it was easy to enjoy the run.
I felt free and powerful.
We were still in for the fight of our lives, though, if the crow-woman’s reports were any indication. I would be wise to keep a clear head since we were vastly outnumbered, and despite the couple weeks of training we’d gone through, I wasn’t a born fighter. I rubbed the potion bottle in my pocket again, but this time it was to humble myself about the source of my power. I needed the potions still, no matter how good with a sword I was becoming.
The rest of our small army of animal-people-warriors trailed behind at a slightly slower pace, but they didn’t stagger behind, and for that I was proud of them. We’d been training hard for just such an occasion, and it felt good to be prepared to leap into action.
Ida swooped down from the sky to land on a large boulder a few paces ahead of us, and I slowed my pace until I returned to a quick walk. Una and Mae matched my gait instantly, and it only took a moment for the rest of the warriors to catch up.
“What news?” I asked once I was within a few paces of the crow-woman.
“We have seen them through the cover of the trees,” Ida said. “They are harder to follow now without open skies above them, but I have tasked the smallest of us to keep hidden upon the canopy and dart from tree to tree after them.”
“Keep me posted,” I instructed, and I jerked my chin toward the sky. “Nothing happens without my knowledge, and no one reveals themselves to the Cards. Got it?”
“Yes, Dreamer, of course,” Ida said, and she took flight an instant later, but I watched her pump her wings until she disappeared into the clouds floating through the rainbow sky above us.
The rest of my followers stood and awaited my command, but I merely gestured to the trail down the mountain.
“Let’s go!” Then I took off a brisk jog, but Una quickly pulled abreast and matched my pace once more.
Mae remained no more than a step behind us, but I noticed her continually flick her gaze around at our surroundings, and I gave her slower pace no more mind. The sun continued to trace a line across the sky as midday turned to a hot afternoon, and soon sweat was dripping down my forehead and into my eyes.
I swiped the back of my hand across my face, but it did little to stop the downpour of salty liquid emanating from my skin. Twice I called for a halt merely to swig long and hard from a water skin, but on the second stop, my companions were gasping and red faced, so I silently reprimanded myself for pushing them too hard for too long.
We kept an even pace after that, and the sky soon darkened, so the once hot day began to chill. My group of warriors and I reached the tree line right as the giant ball sank from view on the western horizon, so Una took the lead since she had the best night vision out of all of us.
Una led us deeper into the forest, and I sucked in the cooler evening air gratefully. My lungs burned from the constant run down the mountain, but I couldn’t imagine the Cards would be able to keep such a pace while also wrangling the resistant friesians. The fact that the Clovers were headed in a different direction than toward their fortress still itched at my brain, and I soon grew impatient for the explanation.
The next time Ida dropped down from the sky, she had to twist to maneuver between the canopy of the trees, and she landed with a rustle of feathers on a branch a few paces ahead of us. Her face was flushed from exertion, and her chest rose and fell heavily as she labored to breath.
“Any idea where they’re heading?” I asked without preamble as soon as I was within earshot of the crow-woman.
“No, Dreamer,” she sighed and shook her head. “They continue through the forest, but they stay north of the Happy Fields where they have allies.”
“Where could they be going?” I mused out loud as I scratched my jaw.
“The King’s Road lies far to the north,” Mae pointed out.
“What lies to the south of the Happy Fields?” I questioned.
“Nothing but more desert,” Una replied with a shake of her head. “A barren wasteland not even nightmares care to visit.”
“We passed through the desert south of the Sunrise Mountains,” I said as I pieced together the map in my head.
“Those extend a great distance to the south,” Una explained. “But less and less vegetation grows the further you roam.”
“Did nightmares already destroy everything?” I pressed. “Why doesn’t anyone go there?”
Una merely shrugged, so I let it go.
“Come on,” I said as I gestured to the path ahead. “We’ve already spent too much time standing still as it is.”
“Yes, Dreamer,” everyone murmured in unison as they returned to their brisk jog.
We ran through the forest as it curved along the base of the mountains, and every once in a while, we altered our path based on the information of our bird scouts. Night descended more heavily, and the moon was nothing more than a sliver of neon green light occasionally spotted through the dense foliage. It grew more and more challenging to see, so I kept a hand hovered over Una’s tail as she led the way through the darkness.
Then Mae tripped over a root, and she tumbled to the ground with a loud curse, so we all paused to help her to her feet.
“Curse the blasted darkness,” Mae spat when she was steady once more. “Let me grab a torch, Dreamer?”
I nodded, and I pulled out a torch of my own from the bag strapped to my shoulders.
“We’ll go as fast as we can,” I said loud enough for all my warriors to hear, but not loud enough to alert any nearby enemies. “But I don’t want us getting ourselves hurt by making foolish mistakes in the dark.”
Echoes of “yes, Dreamer,” met my ears, and I nodded again in satisfaction.
Once everyone could see properly, we continued on into the shadows of the forest. After we altered our course a half dozen times, I discovered the footprints of the Cards and friesians. I could tell from the deep grooves in the dirt the friesians were struggling against their captors the entire way, and pride bloomed in my chest.
My allies would not be cowed.
Still, the Clover Cards were no stranger to domesticating wild friesians, and they didn’t seem to give a damn that the beasts were highly intelligent and sensitive creatures. Ziti was able to confer with them in a unique language, so I considered them to be sovereign people, but I doubted the Queen of Clovers felt the same.
If the additional Cards and capturing my friends were any indication, the queen was gaining herself an army, and that could only mean one thing.
She intended to destroy all the rebels who’d flocked to my side ever since I’d arrived on the scene.
The Cards still had a sizable lead on us, but we were closing the gap fast, so I cut our breaks even shorter and increased the pace once more. We hopped over roots, ducked beneath branches, and zoomed through the trees like we’d done the same thing a million times, but really it was no different than the dance-like movements Mae had started to teach us. The trees were oncoming opponents, and we arrested the momentum in our bodies to narrowly avoid each encounter like we were dodging arrows.
I glanced back over my shoulder as a proud smile stretched my lips. The volunteers hadn’t complained once about the quick pace I set, and no one showed an ounce of fear.
I had the best of the best with me, and Mae had trained them well.
“Alex!” Una hissed in a warning tone, and she grabbed my arm to pull me to a halt, but she kept her voice in a low whisper. “Stop!”
“What?” I asked in a barely audible tone. “What do you see?”
Una turned to face me with horror in her purple eyes. “A nightmare.”
“Fuck,” I cursed as quietly as I could, but then I took a few deep breaths to calm myself.
I’d run away from more than one nightmare, and while I’d yet to be caught, I wasn’t in any hurry to experiment. The nightmares consisted of some sort of creature hidden in a tattered black cloak, but it hovered above the ground instead of walking on feet like a normal thing. Everything it passed over turned monochrome before dying entirely, like the color and life were both leached from it with the slightest touch from the nightmare.
On top of all of that, they could sense fear like a dog smelling shit.
I glanced over at my companions, and I noticed the same terrified expression painted on their faces as I saw on Una. These people had spent years hiding from the minions of the Dark King, and the fear was ingrained in them from a young age. Breaking through years of hardwiring was difficult, and it took time, time we didn’t have, so I fixed my warriors with a stern glare.
“Snap out of it,” I hissed in a low voice. “You’re with the Dreamer, remember? I will not let the nightmares win, but you must not show your fear. Swallow it down like cold porridge if you must, but put it away!”
Slowly, the looks of fear began to vanish, replaced with confident lifts of chins, and a few moments later, I had proud warriors at my back once more.
Mae watched the entire exchange with a knowing smile stretched across her face, but she didn’t comment, nor had she shown the same level of fear as the others had. My trusted Dodo-woman was the most experienced fighter among us, and even I looked to her for advice and instruction.
“Follow me,” I whispered, and I motioned at the same time.
My companions huddled together, but they followed obediently, and Una even strutted to the front of the line to walk beside Mae. The cat-girl’s gaze kept flicking to a spot to our left, and I kept a close eye on the shadows to that side of our path. For several moments, I didn’t see anything, but then as if summoned, the nightmare suddenly appeared in the bushes to the side.
“Run!” I shouted, and my companions scattered into the woods, but they ran in every direction. I growled with frustration at their lack of formation under pressure, but I chased after Una as she and Mae darted between the trees in the opposite direction as the nightmare.
I kept glancing over our shoulder, and I watched as the nightmare slowly turned its hooded head in a circle as though peering through the darkness, but then it took off at a brisk pace, and I inhaled sharply.
My companions could need my help.
“Stay with Mae,” I instructed Una in a tone that brokered no room for argument, and then I doubled back to where I’d last seen the other warriors. I never slowed my speed despite the burning ache in my lungs, but I knew to stop meant certain death if the nightmare touched you.
All it took was a single touch.
I spotted Shelli and one of the beaver-women with the nightmare close behind, and I skidded in between my friends and the deadly creature.
“Back to the north!” I shouted, and the two women nodded almost imperceptibly as they adjusted their direction. Then I turned back to the nightmare, but the hooded creature stood and stared at me with an air of curiosity.
I had to lead it away from the rest of my friends.
I took off at a run, but I slid on a mock terrified expression as I passed close to the nightmare. Its shadowed face snapped in my direction, and it began to chase after me, so I turned around and focused on dodging trees. The nightmare seemed to have an easier time of it, and there was more than one occasion where I could swear it had gone straight through the bark.
Eventually, I began to let my fake fear fade, and I replaced it with silently chanted mantras of my victories and exploits. I was the Dreamer, and I would be the one to defeat the nightmares and the Dark King once and for all.
“Alex!” I heard Una’s voice cry out triumphantly, and I grinned.
Gone was the scared cat-girl, and in her place was the brave feisty feline I’d grown fond of.
Now, all I had to do was lose the nightmare.
I took off at a divergent path, and the nightmare creature followed behind like I pulled it on a string. It seemed to suck the energy from the air around it, and it grew harder and harder for me to breathe, but still I carried on until I outpaced it. When it fell out of sight behind me, I still didn’t dare slow down, but I made several loops of the area until I spotted the black hood sliding through the trees to the south.
By the time I caught back up to the rest of my companions, I could hear the laughter of the Clover Cards in the not so distant trees. Fires illuminated the shadows of the canopy, and the forest glowed with an orangish light. It was ominous and uplifting.
Ida swooped out of the foliage to land on a branch nearby, and I signaled for our final halt.
“This could be a trap to lure you away from New Haven,” the crow-woman murmured with a worried frown. “They’ve set up camp and act like all is well in the world.”
“Perhaps they have no clue they’ve been followed,” I said, and I shrugged my shoulders. “But don’t worry, I can handle it by myself even if it is a trap.”
“You couldn’t possibly take them all on yourself,” Mae interjected with a disbelieving shake of her head, and I almost opened my mouth to argue before she continued. “You will not deny me my glory and victory.”
Mae just wanted to fight, and since the Clover Cards were by extension a minion of the Dark King, her hatred of them knew no bounds. Coupled with the state of the prisoners when we rescued them, and Mae had been boiling mad for weeks, so I knew she was ready to spill inky blood.
“I wouldn’t have made you all come with me if I didn’t plan on letting you fight,” I pointed out. “But no one should take unnecessary risks. I’m the Dreamer, let me handle the majority of them.”
“It doesn’t look like they’re going to move any further tonight,” Ida pointed out. “Maybe we should wait until most of them are asleep before attacking.”
“Do Clover Cards even sleep?” I asked, but I found no answer in my companion’s eyes, so I sighed and thought it over. We’d been running for hours, and my legs felt like jello, but I’d had adrenaline pumping through my veins to help me ignore the complaints of my limbs. I wasn’t sure my companions would be able to keep pace with me in the coming battle without something of a break, so I gave a curt nod. “We rest for a short time, but we cannot risk making a fire.”
“Yes, Dreamer,” came the unified response.
Everyone settled onto the ground without even bothering to pull sleeping rolls from their packs, but Mae remained on her feet as her blue eyes scanned our perimeters.
“I will take first watch,” she volunteered without peeling her eyes from the shadows of the trees. “You get some rest, Alex. You will need your full strength in the fight ahead of us.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, and then I moved to take a spot beside Una. Exhaustion overwhelmed me in a sudden wave, but I held it off until I lowered myself to the ground with a grateful groan, and I was asleep before my eyes even closed all the way.
What felt like only a few moments later, I was roused from my slumber by a frowning Mae, and I started to my feet before she relaxed her expression.
“You were muttering to yourself,” Mae said. “I worried for your brain.”
“Probably just some bad dreams,” I said absently as I dusted myself off and regained my composure.
“You have nightmares inside your head?” Mae tilted her head to the side with an expression of bird-like confusion, and I couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled up from my throat.
“Back on Earth, inside your head is the only place where there’s nightmares,” I informed her. “I’m used to it. It’s the ones in the hoods that freak me out.”
“Would you prefer I ask someone else to take the next watch?” Mae asked, and her concerned expression didn’t leave her face. “Surely it is not restful to escape nightmares in your sleep.”
“I’m okay,” I said. “I’m awake now. You should get some rest. I’ll need you by my side in a few hours.”
“Yes, Dreamer.” Mae bobbed her head, and then she moved to a spot beneath a tree before she lowered herself into a cross-legged position and closed her eyes.
Una stirred and stretched where she lay, and her tail stiffened for a moment before going slack once more, but I waited until I knew she was still fast asleep. Then I slipped into the shadows of the trees in the direction of the Clover Card’s camp.
The friesians were hobbled with bright silver strands around their hind legs, but they still shuffled restlessly in the center of the camp. I wished at that moment I’d brought Ziti with me, but I didn’t want to put undue stress on the small furbae, even if it meant not being able to communicate with the four-eyed horse-like creatures.
The Clover Cards had erected tents in a semi circle around their fire, but the nearly dead flames created little light to see by. I squinted into the shadows as I tried to tally their numbers, but it was impossible to tell how many Cards were in each tent. Two of the armored ink bags patrolled the edge of the camp, but their visors never turned in my direction, so I stayed in my hiding spot until more Cards began to emerge from their shelters to switch watch shifts.
“Fucking friesians,” one of the Clover Cards cursed as he passed by the horse-like creatures, and the friesian closest to him snapped his jaws at him in a menacing manner, but that only made the animated ink bag sneer.
Clover Cards looked like men wearing fine silver armor like a medieval knight in a story book, but beneath the metallic plates was nothing more than bulging bags of inky black sludge that passed for their innards and blood.
At least the friesians remained in fighting spirits, and I hoped they would be able to help us make a quick getaway once they were freed. The silver ropes tied around their hind legs hindered their movement, but the bindings didn’t prevent them from snapping at any Card dumb enough to get close to them.
“They’re not worth your time, Five,” another Card growled to the one who’d cursed the horse-like animals. “They’ll be broken beneath the Ace’s whip soon enough.”
My blood boiled at the idea of the Ace of Clovers, but I was certain I’d killed the monstrosity posing as an animated card.
Had the Queen of Clovers managed to replace her champion already?
I watched my enemy’s camp for another rotation of the watch, and then I returned to my companions. In the distance, I could see the glow of pre-dawn light on the eastern horizon, so I knew the day was upon us. We’d be able to have better visibility with the sunlight illuminating the forest floor, but that would also leave us more open to being spotted by our opponents. Still, the Clover Cards would be on the move soon, and we would lose our chance to ambush them while they were still half asleep.
It was now or never.
“Wake up,” I murmured to Una as I shook her shoulder gently before I moved to Mae and repeated the gesture.
Both women immediately leapt into silent action, and then they assisted me in waking up the rest of our companions, but only a few moments later, my warriors and I were reading to attack.
“We are going to surround them the best we can even though they outnumber us,” I instructed. “Fight your way to the friesians, and cut as many of their bindings as you can before the Clover Cards reach you. I’m going to try to keep their attention on me, but I should be able to handle the lot of them with the help of the strength potion.”
“Yes, Dreamer,” everyone chanted, and I nodded in satisfaction.
We were ready.
I pulled the strength potion from my pocket, and I rolled it around in my hands as the liquid inside glittered in the predawn glow. It was a silver color and sparkled slightly when it moved, and I wondered briefly if it tasted like glitter or glue, since those were the two items it reminded me of.
No time like the present to find out, though, so I popped the cork and tilted it to my lips.
The liquid was flavorless as it slid across my tongue, but that only encouraged me to gulp down even more of it, and before I realized what I was doing, I’d emptied the glass container completely. My stomach rolled for a moment, but I steadied myself with a few deep breaths, and with each inhale, I felt the potion’s magic spread through my body.
Already I felt a surge of strength in my muscles, and my stamina returned like I’d just woken up from a ten hour sleep. I was powerful, invincible, and the Clover Cards would be easy to dispatch. My blood thrummed with power and energy, and adrenaline caused my heart rate to increase to an almost frightening speed.
The Clover Cards were going to die this day, and excitement coursed through me.
My companions all gripped their weapons with looks of steely resolve, and I eyed them proudly as they made their way into the shadows of the trees. Even with the sun peeking over the eastern horizon, it still didn’t permeate the dense foliage completely, so we were able to move from dark spot to dark spot without being detected.
I waited until everyone except Una and Mae were out of sight before I moved into my predetermined position, but my heart pounded a steady rhythm against my rib cage as I waited for the signal to attack.
Once I heard the roar of Shelli’s battle cry on the far side of the Clover Card’s campsite, I yanked my curved sword from its sheath and jumped into action.
The Clover Cards were about to learn a fatal lesson.
They’d fucked with the wrong Dreamer.
