The Battle Beneath (Tiffanian)

[Tiffanian]

Ilona trusted in Shinn to take care of himself… She had to trust him. He had been doing this for quite some time, and he presumably knew his capabilities and his limits better than she did. And there was so much meat just lying around… It was impossible to allow it to go to waste, both for the necessity of its nutrition and out of respect for the dead whale. So she and Vivian set about harvesting as much as they possibly could to take back to the village to preserve in whatever way they could, and around the time they had all they could carry Shinn met up with them again and they returned to the village.

Nieri and Oglen had been hiding, as expected… but apparently Moggle had gone out and explored the island alone. The very idea of it filled Ilona with anxiety and dread, but he had come back alright nevertheless. And he had come back with some very useful information… About half of the remaining formori on the island had slipped back into the sea for some reason, but just before that some had brought back what seemed to be a mermaid woman they had captured from somewhere or another. Perhaps the two things were related?

The mermaid warrior twirled a strand of her long blue hair in her fingers as she listened to the humans talk among themselves while the meat they’d brought back was smoked both for eating and for preservation, along with some fruits and root vegetables found nearby. Nieri wanted to kill the formori who continued to scout the camp, of course… but Ilona agreed with Shinn and Vivian that it would only draw attention to themselves that they couldn’t afford to do. Even with their numbers halved each of the three fighters on the island would have to kill… what? Eleven or twelve of the enemy? The odds didn’t favor them.

She tried not to think too much of the Moggle’s request of Shinn: It was too depressing. She would have to move on long before it could be accomplished anyway, given the nature of her mission. And Oglen’s babbling… What was he on about? An old pact? An ancient corruption? Whatever it was it seemed to greatly distress the humans present… It was probably some surface-dweller religious belief that she didn’t quite understand.

It was then that Vivian opened up a mental connection with her and tried to explain a little bit, while also suggesting that perhaps they ought to go and seek the fae’s guardian beast at the top of the mountain… It was true that it might be more “efficient” than just killing a couple of formori at a time, if the beast could help. It could also be a trap of some kind. But… there was also the prophecy that Treyzine had given to her, and she more or less believed in the seer.

”I have no doubt that the formori have scoured every inch of this island in the hopes of stripping in bare, the worthless scum” she replied mentally. ”I had considered going to the top of the mountain regardless. In Clyons I met a seer, one who I know beyond a shadow of a doubt has sight of things beyond sight… She told me that I would find the woman I seek on the highest peak, but only under the stars… I’ve no idea how that could be true to be honest, if the beasts have indeed captured the fae and have her at their village. But perhaps she is not, in fact, the woman I am seeking. There is so much I don’t understand… But our options are poor enough that it seems like a worthy effort to me.”

 

[Tassadar]

Spoiler

Ilona: HP = 90/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 55/55, Status = Fine
Human Form; Unharmed
Mermaid Form; Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Psychic Shield X = 3 can give none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons
Vivian: Mer Warrior met on the island
Moggle, Nieri, Shinn and Oglen, the young boy, young woman, young hunter, and old wise man, the remnants of the human village.

32/100 formori remain on the island

Vivian mentally acknowledged Ilona's reply, giving the mental equivalent of a nod, and replied; [Shinn can lead you to the base of the mountain in the morning. I'll try to keep picking away at the formori's numbers until you get back. We... Should maybe wait until morning to tell them this plan though.] The other mer glanced around at the humans; Moggle looked terrified and was glancing between the adults, Nieri looked sick, Oglen continued to look despondent, and Shinn wore a heavy grimace. It was the hunter who spoke first after Oglen's announcement; "We can't do anything about it right now... We have to deal with what's in front of us. If I get the opportunity, I will try to check the barrier... Perhaps I can just repair any damage they might have done trying to break in."

Oglen, still staring at the floor, glowered darkly and muttered; "It will take more than muscle to rebuild the broken seals... When the blighting flowers there awaken, they will spread consume us all, seamen and us alike..." Nieri stood up and walked out of the hut, and Moggle murmured; "But.... Those are just stories, right? Be good, or the blighting flowers will drag you away in the night..." Shinn reached over and tossled the young boy's hair, "Of course... Oman-Al's battle with the dark spirit of the jungle, the Green Lady, those are only old legends, meant to teach us to be mindful of the state of the land, but not literal... Even if there was something dangerous there once, surely it is long dead!"

Oglen shot him a dark look, but didn't argue the matter further, letting the topic drop. The humans lapsed into silence, and after a short while Nieri would come back in to rejoin them. Vivian, likewise, would keep quiet both outwardly and mentally unless Ilona brought up anything else. After a time, the meat was seared enough, and the settled in to eat while the rest of it continued to smoke, preserving the majority of it for future meals. Shinn and Nieri packed it into woven leaf satchels that would hide the scent of it from scavengers - and the formori - and further serve to preseve it, leaving them with at least a minor supply of food.

The group would go to their sleeping mats, Shinn taking first watch outside, though it seemed that the formori seldom traveled by night as those watches had never yet detected anything worth noting. When Ilona began to drift off to sleep, however, she would feel an unfamiliar presence poking at the edge of her thoughts, trying to get in...

 

[Tiffanian]

”Perhaps we should… Things seem tense for now. I would like to try to see the top of the mountain at night though… and going at night would apparently help avoid formori patrols. Perhaps there are other reasons not to do so?” Ilona replied mentally to Vivian. Indeed, things were especially grim around the low fire at that point… Oglen was upsetting all of the other humans with his pronouncements, which surely didn’t help anyone.

That only continued when he claimed that something called “the blighting flowers” were going to awaken and kill all of them and the formori besides because the stupid creatures had broken some sort of barrier at the center of the island’s jungle. That caused Nieri to storm out of the hut, and forced Shinn to try and reassure Moggle that all of the legends were just that: Legends, meant to teach a lesson without being literally true. Though it was perhaps ill-advised Ilona didn’t stay silent, though she did allow the quiet to hang in the air for a little bit before quietly and in her own odd cadence saying ”I would like to hear of your legends some time. Maybe I could tell you some of mine in exchange.” She wanted to know for reasons of both curiosity, but also practicality: Legends in this world were rarely all nonsense, and it could have been helpful to at least know what a “blighting flower” was supposed to be in order to be on the lookout.

It didn’t take too much longer after that for the meat to be done enough to eat, and Ilona silently offered her gratitude to the whale before digging in to the simple meal. It was perhaps not the most excellent she had ever had, but it was honestly better than the rations she’d brought for the purpose of traveling. And there was more smoked meat where that came from… plenty more. They wouldn’t be in dire need of foraging for at least a little while, which would give them some breathing room.

With dinner had and the rest of the meat preserved and stored it was time to go to bed, and Ilona transformed herself back into the proper form of a mermaid to let her tail air out somewhat for healing. It was easier to do when it was dark and she didn’t have to look at it... But it had been a long and eventful day, and she found herself drifting towards sleep rapidly once her head had hit the pillow… But there was something there. Something poking at her mind. A mermaid’s presence, trying to make a connection… but it wasn’t Vivian. For a moment she wondered if it might be a trap, and perhaps it was, but she would have been able to feel if it were a formori by the alien sense she would get from it. So tentatively, somewhat reluctantly, she allowed the other presence in. Perhaps she could get some information. Most likely she was only going to get depressed.

 

[Tassadar]

Spoiler

Ilona: HP = 90/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 55/55, Status = Fine
Human Form; Unharmed
Mermaid Form; Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Psychic Shield X = 3 can give none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons
Vivian: Mer Warrior met on the island
Moggle, Nieri, Shinn and Oglen, the young boy, young woman, young hunter, and old wise man, the remnants of the human village.

32/100 formori remain on the island

Formori leader

Vivian grimaced at Ilona's response, and replied; [I don't know. Shinn worries about the island's natural predators at night, and other monsters that may roam the interior. I haven't seen anything more dangerous than the formori while I've been here.] When Ilona spoke up audibly, Oglen would fix her with a pensive, piercing stare. "This trade of knowledge... I would gladly do so, but not, perhaps, tonight. There is much to cover, and the night is a time for quiet contemplation."

Ilona's tail was, blessedly, on the mend. Had she had access to proper healing magic of some sort, it would already have been restored, but as it was the membrane between her fins was starting to regenerate. She could likely have swam, if still somewhat slowly and likely quite painfully. Sleeping on it overnight would help it, though she couldn't rest like that for too long in a row lest her aquatic normal body dry out too much. Another couple of days and she would likely be able to swim again... But for now, she would settle into rest, at least until she felt that mental pinging at the edge of her mind.

Rolls

Spoiler

Willpower: 34 vs 39, failure.

As she let it in, however, Ilona felt her mental focus being seized, constrained into the other mermaid's mental grip and forced into her psyche... She looked through the other mer's eyes, across a gloomy, refuse scattered field that was replete with dozens of formori, along with some human slaves, and immediately pleasure and heat exploded into Ilona's psyche.

The stranger's core was glowing hot, no doubt due to the fact that she was full to the brim with cum, and indeed was Ilona's "vision" focused she found herself staring at one of the foul things as it ravished the other woman vigorously, undoubtedly intent on adding its foul seed to the slurry already filling the other mer's egg sacks. It was a depressingly familiar situation to Ilona, and she could feel from the other mer's mind that it wasn't her first time either... Though perhaps more pressing was the equally familiar sensation of the cock plunging rapidly into the woman that Ilona was inadvertently made to feel as intensely as if it were happening to Ilona herself. He would pause every few strokes, letting his knobbly headed, prehensile cock swirl in her depths, brushing that texture against her internal vents and Ilona felt the orgasm rush through the other mermaid just before fresh waves of heat poured into her depths, but as the stunning of the orgasm faded Ilona felt herself being shunted as forcefully as the mer could from the present to a memory...

Ilona found herself still looking through another set of eyes, a room in a primitive hut taking shape. There was almost nothing in the single room structure, just a sleeping mat and a wooden tub in which the viewer whose mind she had connected to was resting. On the sleeping mat knelt a woman, one that was clearly different from one of the locals; she had pink skin, with myriad tattoos forming swirling patterns inscribed in glowing green across it, bright green hair, a curvaceous frame accentuated further by how gravid her belly was with offspring. Her hands were on the thighs of a formori, her mouth bobbing fast and deep on its erection as the vile fishman tilted its head back and gurgled in pleasure at the service that it was receiving. The woman was moaning and mewling merrily between making audible slurps, her saliva dripping from the monstrous man's erection while the viewer to whom Ilona's mind had connected watched.

The mer briefly glanced away from the sight and looked down at themselves; they were nude, their swollen breasts already leaking milk heavily, an ache in them signalling that the formori had already taken a drink. Their fish tail was intact, lying presently in water that came up to just below their waist, leaving her slit exposed, her arousal visibly leaking into the water. A point on her arm stung, having no doubt been injected with some foul aphrodisiac by the formori, but the tingle of her fertility being maximized was oddly absent... Instead, on her stomach lay some kind of symbol inscribed on her skin, the raw sting of that region suggesting that it was a recent addition to her body, though from her point of view it was hard to see more of it... And she only got a brief glimpse of it first, before the viewer's attention was drawn back to the formori being sucked off.

The pink land-dweller gulped and gave a low, pleased moan, swallowing audibly as she gave shallow bobs onto the formori's twitching shaft, then slowly withdrew until only the head remained between her lips. Ultimately, she withdrew, and Ilona watched what she'd felt inside of her numerous times when captured as the nodules on the formori's cockhead each spurted out bursts of thick white semen, glazing the woman's tongue, face, and chest in pearly strands and globs. The formori gazed down in affectionate approval, even stroking the gravid woman's hair as she swallowed and then leaned in to lap the monster's cockhead clean of cum, but then turned towards the viewer. Ilona felt the stranger's resigned dread that she'd felt in the moment, but then to her and perhaps also Ilona's horror felt the slimy contact of its mind forcing itself into hers; this one was undoubtedly another hybrid with mermish psychic powers....

[We will see to you now... You mer whores, you make the very best breeders! So soft on the inside, so weak willed, and the number of eggs you produce.... It's like you were made to swell our numbers! One clutch from one of you is equal to that of a dozen of our own females! The draconian overlords be praised for shaping you so~] His surprisingly erudite words rang through the stranger's mind with a note of wry mirth, and the hybrid rested its still pulsating rod against the mer's belly, its head right on that tattoo... And Ilona felt it too as the woman's body changed internally, as if some force was seizing control of her fertility and causing it to spike, eggs ripening and being released in droves for what was to come. [With this one's skills, even a handful of your people will give us the numbers to overrun your cities, and when all of your are our breeders, the generation after will be more than enough for what comes next! The great sea-dragons will see, when they witness how many of us you birth for them upon your return to their brood enclaves... Then they will send the shapers, extract the skills from this one's mind, and our work will progress even faster. Aaahh, but I muse while gathering the stamina for my next duty... Such things are beyond the interests of a mere breeder! I can feel how broken your sad little mind already is, and you've no knowledge of our tongue to begin with!] It was then that Ilona would recognize a mental filter was being placed; the stranger had been translating the formori's gloating into the Adamantine tongue, for her benefit, while feeding Ilona this memory. Unfortunately for both of them, the memory didn't end there...

The formori's piscine features spread into a grin, and with a light roll of its hips he realighned his cockhead with the mermaid's oozing slit and simply pressed in. Once more, Ilona felt every bump and twitch of the long, squirming cock as it pushed into the other mer, just as if Ilona herself was the one being fucked, and she felt every long, turturous moment that followed. The formori twitched against her deepest reaches, deliberately grinding his cockhead against the vents to the stranger's egg-sacks for nearly a minute, and Ilona could feel in full just how pleasurable that'd been for the other mermaid, and then grabbed her by the hips and simply started thrusting in fast, deft strokes. The woman didn't even seem to make it a full minute before she was cumming on the formori's cock, and it wouldn't be the last orgasm that Ilona felt ripping through her over the next few minutes as the psychic hybrid took its pleasure from her while working up to impregnating her. It was hard to tell if it was the fourth or fifth climax that the experienced breeder suffered when he hilted into her and began filling her with its cum, another foul sensation that Ilona was forced to relive in intense detail through the other woman's body.

The foul creature kept itself hilted in the other mer until its voluminous seed was spent, its semen having spurted in every direction within her to ensure that her vulnerable ova were totally inundated with its seed, but then unceremoniously pulled out with a sigh and walked back to the pink woman, who eagerly resumed sucking its cock. The stanger had been left delirious in the afterglow of her forced mating, a resigned hatred curling in her chest as she knew that she would be bearing yet another clutch for the formori, but the reason that she'd dragged Ilona through that experienced became clear a moment later as another formori entered the tent. The dull eyed, slumped-shouldered fishman gazed hungrily at the mermaid, but was soon had its attention brought to the apparent leader of the formori occupying this island as he grumbled; "What do you want?"

The other formori dimly turned its attention to him, blinked first with one eye then the other, and gurgled back; "The messengers wish to return to the sea with the reinforcements they requested immediately, the betrayer cuts into our numbers, but main attack on the mermish village is being assembled!" The leader, seemingly indifferent, replied; "Fine. They may choose which of you they wish to take, there is scarcely anything left of note on this island that we haven't taken at this point.... Go with them yourself if you wish. But remember... This one will be up for you to use in a few hours, when I am finished with her!" The formori turned an eager leer upon the stranger, a bulge already growing in its loincloth, before it scampered out of the hut. Ilona felt the memory fading, the present state of the woman as she was used for pleasure by the rest of the formori starting to spike as Ilona was once more made to feel every thrust, every dose of cum shot into her, every orgasm for another handful of minutes before the crazed deathgrip that the stranger had had on Ilona's mind was suddenly released, and she was flung back to her own mind again...

 

[Tiffanian]

Ilona gave the mental equivalent of an affirmative nod at Vivian’s reply… It was true in the ocean that some very dangerous things tended to come up from below at night. Perhaps that was also true on dry land as well? Shinn had mentioned that the creatures on the island were gentle, and at the very least she had encountered plenty that weren’t hostile… but she would just have to talk to him about it tomorrow.

When she suggested she trade legends with the islanders Oglen looked at her quite intensely, which made her shift just a bit uncomfortably… He had a way of looking straight through her, and she wasn’t entirely sure he couldn’t read her somehow. But he agreed that it was a good idea, just not tonight, night being “a time for quiet contemplation.” The corners of her lips turned up in a little smile at that idea: She wasn’t exactly one for “quiet contemplation,” and if anything she would much rather have been “contemplating” Galo’s many-armed embrace. Still, she replied ”perhaps tomorrow before we take a meal I will air out my tail a bit and we can talk.”

She did need to air out her tail in short but more frequent bursts, though it was healing. Even if the sight of it still turned her stomach on an aesthetic level she would get used to that. What mattered was that she was getting close to the point where she would be able to swim freely again without re-tearing the membrane between her fins. That would have to be enough for her.

And then as she laid in her sleeping mat and tentatively accepted the merfolk stranger’s mental connection she suddenly found herself thrust into the midst of a nightmare: Rather than a conversation she found her consciousness forced to cohabit with the stranger’s, seeing out of her eyes and feeling what she felt. Which was… quite a problem, really, given the circumstances. The woman was staring up at a formori, and of course the bastard was fucking her with vigor. Her core was so warm, so filled with foul seed… This wasn’t the only one she’d been fucked by recently. Perhaps it wouldn’t be the last.

She could feel every detail. The thrusting into the other woman, the way the creature paused to make its cockhead squirm against the vents that led to her eggsacs in a way that was impossible to ignore… Her breathing grew heavy as she felt the sensation of the other mer reaching orgasm, her body shuddering helplessly beneath the formori as it too began to cum, filling her overfull with so much vile seed… It was a familiar and depressing set of sensations, but it made her heartbeat quicken, and she brought a hand to her chest…

But something happened then, just as the other woman was coming down from her high. Ilona found herself thrust into a different circumstance, a memory of some kind… Much to her distress it was also a sexual one. Did the formori do anything besides eat, fuck, and kill? Yet to be seen.

The scene she was forced to behold was distressing indeed… There was a woman, likely the fae she had wanted to find given the unique look of her pink skin and bright green hair, kneeling on a sleeping mat… and sucking a formori’s cock. She was among the most beautiful women the mermaid had ever seen: She had obviously always been curvy, with lovely voluptuous breasts… but now she was heavily, heavily pregnant, which somehow seemed to add to her beauty. Her pink skin was covered in strange and alluring green tattoos that seemed to glow, perhaps with power but perhaps simply because of how they were made… And there she was, bobbing her head along the shaft of one of those disgusting fishmen not under duress, but with eagerness.

Ilona’s nipples stiffened against her top as she had the sensation of looking through the other mermaid’s eyes down at her body… at her swollen breasts that dribbled milk into the tub she had been made to rest in… at the tattoo on her belly, strange and fresh… At her aching pussy which had been made to ooze her arousal into the tub, a prick on her arm signaling the recent application of a vile aphrodisiac that no doubt was causing that arousal…

But maybe not completely. As sad and disgusting as it was, the sight and sound of that beautiful woman giving such skilled and enthusiastic service to the formori’s cock was darkly alluring. The fishmen had such an ugly way of expressing their pleasure, and yet the green-haired woman seemed so very enamored with every grunt… It became clear that he was cumming by the way the woman gulped and swallowed audibly, retreating so that only the bulbous head of his cock was in her mouth, no doubt giving it the worshipful attention of her tongue… and then pulled off it to allow Ilona to see one of the creatures cumming for the first time, his seed spurting from the various nodules on the tip of his dick until he had coated her face and her plump breasts with it. He even showed her… affection as she returned to suck the tip of his cock once again, petting her hair gently as he looked down at her with something that almost approached loving.

And then he turned his attention to the merfolk, and… opened a mental connection with her. Ilona could feel just how uncomfortable it was to have him in her mind, how gross it felt to be in contact with him… And yet, his mental voice was surprisingly intelligent. One of the hybrids… and one of their leaders, perhaps? He stepped into the tub with the mermaid and straddled her tail as he gave her such insulting compliments, and hot tears of despair began to trickle down Ilona’s face at the thought of what he said. And there was something about the tattoo on the woman’s belly… when he pressed his cock against it it seemed to activate, and she had the vivid sensation of being made incredibly fertile, her body seemingly springing into action for his purposes.

And then he kept talking. The “great sea-dragons…” They were going to send something called “shapers” to take the ability of the pink-skinned woman. The ability to make magical tattoos that would enhance fertility? If so, and the formori were able to turn each and every mermaid they’d already captured into some kind of grim organic factory that produced countless formori, then… She couldn’t think about those things. Ilona couldn’t think about it anymore. The sudden realization that this had been translated for her by the mermaid, though, that this had originally been in formori tongue, made her think that maybe it was one of the others she sought, reaching out to her to help…

But the memory continued. Damn did it continue. She slipped a hand down under the flap of cloth she wore to protect her modesty in this form and slowly ran her fingers over her sex, finding herself almost as wet as the stranger whose mind she inhabited as she felt the formori slide his cock into her needy pussy. Deep… right up against her vents, where he pressed his cockhead and writhed it around skillfully. It was shocking how pleasurable it was, and it was scarcely any time at all before the mermaid was cumming around his dick… And again when he began to thrust… and again… and again…

Ilona’s breathing was heavy and ragged, her heart pounding against her chest. She couldn’t masturbate, not so close to the others. But… the scene was making her so damn horny! That only made her feel worse… viewing this stranger’s torment and yet getting turned on by it. It made her feel filthy and worthless. All the more so when she got the sensation of her insides being flooded with pleasing warmth, which signified the strangers’ seeding. How many of the little bastards would take root inside of her? Dozens? With her fertility so flared up it was certainly possible…

But the stranger was still defiant in her heart, and there had been a purpose to all of this. Soon it became clear. As the formori pulled out and returned to the green-haired woman’s eager oral service a visitor came in… One who proclaimed that the ones who had apparently this morning returned to the sea were reinforcements for an attack on Clyons… And there the memory ended, and the present moment returned. The mermaid being miserably fucked by a myriad of formori, pounded without mercy into a multitude of orgasms punctuated by the feeling of yet more warm cum being added to the pool at her core… Ilona felt a wave of sadness crash over her that may have come from the stranger, but probably came from her instead…

And then she was back, fully alone in her own body. Aroused, sure, but weeping and wrecked by what she’d seen and felt, not just then but also when she herself had been raped and maimed. The people of Clyons… Could she do anything? Could she help them at all? She felt hopeless and useless. As she lay there and cried she suddenly and impulsively opened a psychic connection with Vivian and quite simply requested ”hold me? I need it.” Even though she was horny she was quick to move her hands away from anywhere that might incriminate her on that point… and there was nothing sexual in the request. She was simply too weak to be alone with her thoughts while she tried to go to sleep now.