Alex in Haremland 2 Chapter 1

The sky was still dark with the predawn light only barely peeking over the rim of the hollow mountain, but I was still in bed. The treehouse swayed in the breeze swirling through the cavernous mountain, but the sensation was soothing to me. I lay naked on the low platform bed, but I wasn’t cold. In fact, a thin layer of sweat coated my flesh, and I was grateful for the air sweeping in through the window.

“Rwar,” Una growled playfully, and she scurried out of my reach.

“Come here,” I said with a growl of my own.

I was on her an instant later, and I cackled as I grabbed the cat-girl around the tiny waist and hauled her back to my bed. We tumbled in a tangle of limbs and tail until both of us were red-faced as we giggled. A week had passed since our last mission, and our shenanigans often ranged from playful to sexual and everywhere in between. No matter how many times I was inside my half-feline lover, it was still my most favorite place to be.

“I want to taste you!” Una declared as she sat up on her haunches and eyed me hungrily.

My cock throbbed at my hybrid lover’s words, and her deep purple eyes flicked to my dick as her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. Una waited for me to nod, and then she pounced on my member like a cat on a mouse, but this ended with much more pleasure than I imagined the latter did.

“I’m not going to stop you,” I chuckled.

Una twirled her tongue around the head of my cock, and just when the top twitched against her lips, she sucked my mushroom tip between her lips. Her head bobbed up and down as saliva ran in rivulets down my length to drip onto my balls, but a few moments later, the sexy cat-girl plopped off. She stroked me with a firm grip, and her slippery digits felt amazing against my skin.

“That feels so good,” I moaned as her fingers continued to milk my dick, but after a short while, I could stand it no longer. “Come here. Now.”

Then I grabbed her under her armpits, and I hauled her up onto my lap, but Una quickly obliged in sliding her tight little pussy onto the head of my cock. We hissed with pleasure simultaneously, and then the frisky cat-girl began to grind her hips in a circular motion.

“Oh, Alex, do you like that?” Una’s bottom lip quivered.

“Yeah, just like that.” I placed my hands on the cat-girl’s hips and guided her motions.

Una no longer needed very much direction from me since we’d made love a few dozen times already, but she was always eager to learn more ways to satisfy me. The thirsty cat-girl would have gulped down my sperm like a milkshake if I’d let her, but I wanted to be inside her when I climaxed. I’d been fucking the half-cat, half-human woman for what seemed like weeks at that point, and my thoughts slid backward to the beginning of the amazing dream I was still enjoying.

At least, I assumed it was a dream, but it felt more and more real with each passing day.

It all started when I took some magic mushrooms with the hot pizza delivery girl back on Earth, but then a mysterious smiling cat had led me through a portal, and I’d found myself in a strange land full of animal-people, nightmarish monsters, and an evil darkness taking over everything.

Almost immediately after I woke up in the strange field full of laughing flowers and smiling trees, I’d encountered the purple-blue cat-girl as she attempted to avoid the fangs of a giant spotted dog-monster, but I’d managed to step in and save her.

I didn’t even know her name at the time, but the mysterious beauty dropped a bottle full of a weird liquid, and I’d drunk it out of desperation. I was shocked when I grew massively tall like a giant among the trees, but I’d used my new size to kill the dog-monster after the cat-girl. Later, I learned her name was Una, and she’d recently escaped from the Clover Queen’s fortress.

That’s right.

There was a Queen of Clovers and a bunch of animated cards trying to imprison the people of the dream world I found myself in. On top of the evil bitch who’d captured a bunch of innocent people, there was also a Dark King seeking to eradicate all the color and joy from the realm.

Una suddenly increased the pace as her breath came in ragged gasps, and I hissed with pleasure, but I nearly lost control over myself, so I gripped her hips tightly to restrict some of her movement.

“Slow,” I murmured as a devilish grin spread across my face. “I’m not in any hurry.”

“It just feels soooo good…” Una leaned back, and her back arched as she moved her hips slowly.

I could feel the tension in her muscles building already, and I knew she was close, so I reached one hand between her legs to rub against her node of pleasure.

“How’s that?” I chuckled as her hips began to buck against the pressure of my finger.

“Ooooh, Alexxxx,” Una moaned as her pussy clenched tightly around the shaft of my cock, which sent spasms of pleasure up my spine, but then her knees began to shake wildly. “I’m! Going! To! Come!”

“Come for me,” I encouraged as I reached up a hand to the back of her neck, and I pulled her face down to meet mine with a passionate kiss. I kept Una’s lips claimed with my own until her entire body began to shudder, and I swallowed moan after moan as the climax rocked through her.

“Oh, oh, ohhhh!” Una let out stifled cries without ever moving her lips away from mine, and an almost pained expression knitted her eyebrows together. Her lips quivered as she slowly came back to reality, and her purple eyes were full of adoration when she finally met my gaze.

“You’re getting good at this,” I complimented.

Una had been a virgin when I’d first claimed her as my lover, but she was such a quick study, and it wouldn’t be long before she was teaching me some things between the sheets.

“I want to be able to please the Dreamer in whatever ways he likes,” Una explained, but then she returned to riding me like a cowgirl. A mischievous gleam came into her violet orbs as she picked up the pace, and I could tell there would be no slowing her down a second time.

Una had called me the Dreamer ever since our very first meeting when she’d found out I was from Earth, which apparently marked me as the chosen one in the prophecy song everyone knew. It had taken me a while to accept the title, but it didn’t bother me anymore.

In fact, I embraced it.

All-the-land needed a hero, and with my special immunity to the magical potions and their nasty side effects, I was the perfect man for the job.

I’d already managed to defeat the animated bags of ink in armor multiple times, and I’d managed to rescue several people from the Clover Queen’s prisons. After their treetop city’s location was compromised, I’d led the occupants of Havenwood to a new home. Nestled deep in the mountains inside a hollowed out peak lay our town of New Haven, and I was treated like a king by the people of All-the-land who lived there.

“Ooooh, Alexxx,” Una moaned as another orgasm shook the muscles of her juicy thighs.

My focus was brought immediately back to the sexy feline grinding on top of me, and I filled my fists with her ass cheeks. Then I lifted my hips to pump even deeper inside her, and all other thoughts dissipated as I gazed up at Una’s face.

The pulsating sensation of her pussy walls around my shaft was phenomenal, and I thrust heavily into her waiting tunnel as desire overwhelmed me.

“You’re mine,” I growled in a possessive tone. “Forever and ever.”

“I am yours!” Una echoed my words as she twisted her hips in a circular motion. “Give me your magic seed! I want to feel you explode inside my womb!”

My lover’s words urged me on as I released the tenuous control I had over my balls, and my sperm gushed out in a slick stream as I shoved my dick as far into her pussy as it would go.

Una continued to exclaim to any who would listen how my sperm was magical, and she truly believed having sex with me had cured her of the negative side effects she’d gotten from the potions the Clover Cards had forcefully fed her.

I was more doubtful since having special goo sounded like something out of a PornHub video, only crazier.

As I poured deep inside Una’s fertile womb, and the two of us twitched for a long, ecstasy filled moment until the cat-girl collapsed onto my chest. Her breaths were labored, and a thin sheen of sweat covered her back, but I stroked her hair gently as she came back to reality.

“You make me feel so strong and powerful when you do that,” Una informed me in a voice barely above a whisper. “I want to feel that way all of the time.”

“I’ll give you as much sperm as you want, babe,” I chuckled.

Una suddenly sat up, tilted her head to one side, and gave me a piercing look with her deep violet eyes.

“Will you give it to those who need it most?” my lover asked, and I could tell by her tone of voice that she was serious.

“I… I, uh,” I stuttered, not sure what to say. “Who did you have in mind?”

“Livia,” Una replied instantly. “We need her healed so we can finish the recipe for the ‘heal other’ potion.”

Livia was the Potion Maker, and a wizened old human woman, but she’d been forced by the Clover’s to drink a wisdom potion, so her brains were a little scattered from the opposition effect. As far as we knew, Livia was the only person in existence who could decipher the complex recipes needed to make new potions.

But while I’d finally agreed to being the Dreamer of prophecy, I wasn’t about to fuck an old woman based off theoretical information.

“Let’s talk to Doctor Kria first,” I suggested in a cautious voice.

I knew Una was impatient and eager to fix the problems all around her, but there was only so much we could do without knowing for certain if my sperm was magical.

“Fine,” my cat-lover sighed, but then she wiggled her hips in an enticing manner. “I suppose I’ll just have to find a way to occupy myself in the meantime. Whatever shall I do with myself?”

My cock twitched in response to her seductive tone, and the frisky cat-girl flashed me a devilish grin. She somehow managed to squeeze my dick with nothing but the muscles of her tunnel, and my shaft was throbbing back to life a moment later.

This time, I wasn’t satisfied with letting Una take control, and I grabbed her around the waist to throw her onto her back, all the while keeping my cock buried balls deep inside her cum-filled tunnel.

“Oh!” Una giggled as her back hit the mattress, but she immediately wrapped her legs around my hips and locked her ankles together behind my lower back. “I love it when you take control, Alex. You’re so strong now… It makes me feel small and fragile.”

I thrust gently inside her as I nibbled on her collarbone, and I ground my dick deep inside her to drive all the words from her lips. Her noises switched to guttural growls shortly after, and I chuckled with satisfaction as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. I could make love to the sexy woman all day long, but eventually my new responsibilities as leader would pull me away from our little treehouse, so I intended to enjoy every single second I had left.

“Una,” I murmured as I trailed kisses across her pert nipples. “You are so beautiful like this.”

I gazed at her breasts as they rose and fell with each labored breath, the sheen of sweat glittering in the dim light, the dazed expression on her limp-lipped face, and I fell even more in love with her. Her tail twitched and stiffened as another orgasm shook through her, but I’d already emptied my balls, so it was easy for me to maintain my self control.

My eyes belied my fascination as I stared at my beautiful lover, and I worked to secure the image of her writhing with pleasure into my long term memory. I would have given anything to have a camera or a smartphone to capture the look on her face for eternity, but lacking both, my own mind would have to act as a vault of pleasure-filled expressions.

I slowed my pace until her twitching subsided, and then I drove my cock forcefully into her slippery tunnel.

“A-A-Alexxx!” Una practically screamed as I hit a sensitive spot deep inside her, and waves of pleasure rolled over her, if the slack-jawed expression on her face was any indication.

I filled my eyes with the image yet again as I emptied my seed deep inside her once more, and my whole body shuddered as I pumped thick white tendrils of my sperm into her welcoming womb.

It took us both longer to recuperate after that, and I held Una gently in my arms for a long time while I stared up at the ceiling. I thought over everything that led up to this moment, and I let out a blissful sigh of contentment.

I never wanted to wake up from this dream.

I wasn’t even sure if it was a dream anymore, since I’d slept many nights with the half-cat, half-girl beauty in my arms, but I was hesitant to imagine any future without her in it. It seemed right that she remained by my side forever, and I felt a possessiveness slide over me, so I tightened my arms around her until she squeaked.

“Everything alright inside your head?” Una asked, and she pushed herself up just enough to place a sweet kiss on the tip of my nose. “You seem burdened by thought.”

“I was thinking about what would happen if I woke up from this dream,” I confessed. “It’s been heavenly to make love to you whenever I want, and I’m starting to worry I may wake up at any moment.”

“This is no dream, Alex, even though you are the Dreamer,” Una said, and her voice was serious. “All-the-land needs you, you cannot leave so soon!”

“I’m not going anywhere if I can help it,” I promised, and Una squeezed herself against me once more.

After that we lay in silence for a short while, until Una pushed herself up on her elbows and regarded me with excitement glittering in her purple eyes.

“I wonder if we’re too late to make Mae’s training session,” the cat-girl mused, and her gaze flicked to the window, but the sun had yet to shine upon the hole in our dwelling. “I want to show her how strange I feel. A good strange, but different nonetheless.”

“What do you mean, you feel strange?” I questioned.

“Ever since I have been taking your seed often, I have felt powerful of limb and body.” Una’s eyes lit up with a fanatical gleam. “My agility has returned tenfold, Alex. I can feel it, and it’s all thanks to you.”

“Your skills in the sheets are definitely improving,” I said with a twinkle in my eyes. “If you want to go train with Mae, I’m more than willing to go with you and participate. I am feeling pretty spry myself, so it would be good to burn some excess energy off.”

“Training is the second best way of using energy,” Una agreed with an emphatic nod.

I knew we would both agree fucking was the best way to burn energy, but we’d exhausted ourselves as much as we could, so I pushed myself out of bed.

Time for the Dreamer to go about his daily routine.

After I dressed in the loose fitting clothes common in All-the-land, strapped on minimal pieces of armor I’d gleaned from dead Clover Cards, and fastened my curved sword at my waist, I was ready to face the residents of New Haven. Una followed me down the rope ladder hanging from our treehouse, and then we crossed the forest at a brisk pace.

“Good morning, Dreamer!”

“How was your rest, Dreamer?”

“You are always welcome to stay the night with me, Dreamer!”

I was greeted by nearby animal-people immediately, and I waved back in a friendly manner as I tried to remember everyone’s names, but I was hesitant to stop and talk since it would most assuredly eat away at my precious time.

The animal-people who’d followed me from Havenwood had placed the metaphorical cloak of leadership around my shoulders, and while it grew heavy at times, it was also an honor to lead such unique and brave people. To be truly courageous, one had to have fears to face, and the transition from terrified victims to brave warriors was remarkable in my eyes.

Una and I went first through our patrol of the perimeter, and we checked in with the watch at the cave mouth before returning to the floor of the dead volcano. A small forest grew inside the hollowed out mountain, and the animal-people who were accustomed to living in a tree quickly adapted to the new environment. A small spring fed pool filled one edge of the cavernous chamber, and additional pockets lined the interior of the mountain’s shell.

Bird-women swooped through the air, and many shouted greetings in our direction as we made our way across the small village to the clearing where Mae trained our new army. I spotted Mae easily from across the distance, and a smile came unbidden to my lips.

Despite the oddity of her beak nose, her white hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck, and her generous bosom heaved against the restraint of her blue vest. Being a Dodo-woman, Mae had a tassel of white tail feathers jutting from beneath her waist coat, but she had human-like arms and legs instead of wings and talons. I often wondered what other similarities and differences there were between our bodies hidden from view by the gentlemanly outfit she always wore, but I was a patient man.

“Greetings of the dawn, Dreamer!” Mae heralded in a sing-song voice, but she never ceased her fluid movements.

The crowd of animal-people who stood before her were all in similar positions, and they mimicked each of the Dodo-woman’s movements closely, but even as they did so, their eyes flicked in our direction. It reminded me of some eastern fighting practices like karate or tai chi, and I was eager to learn more.

“What’s all this, then?” I asked as I put myself in line beside Shelli, the bear-woman.

“The Dodo Dance,” Mae explained in a serene voice, and she transitioned into another position as she spoke. This time, one of her legs lifted from the ground to arch behind her head as she leaned forward, and several animal-people tumbled to the grass as they attempted to copy her.

Una flowed seamlessly through the moves like she’d practiced them a thousand times, and I saw Mae’s sharp blue eyes widen in approval.

After we went through positions that made my entire body ache, Mae paired us up with wooden practice swords to practice parries. The Dodo-woman was a stern teacher, and she insisted upon repeating the simplest of maneuvers so many times they were burned into our brains and muscle memory. I could have moved through her training session in my sleep, but Mae was prone to increasing the pressure on me specifically.

I was the Dreamer, so I had to be better, faster, and stronger than all the rest. I could show no signs of fear or weakness, or I would cast doubt into the hearts of my followers, and they very well could lose the stomach for battle. I’d worked hard to get the women survivors living in Havenwood to fight back against the scourge ruining their lives, and I wasn’t about to let them slide back into hiding and cowardice.

“Good, Alex, very good,” Mae complimented as she passed by Shelli and me. “Keep her on her toes.”

Then the Dodo-woman continued on down the line to where Una practiced with one of the beaver-women. Mae’s sharp inhale gave me pause, and I glanced over. Una was bearing down on the beaver-woman with an aggressive look in her eyes, and her swings rained down hard and heavy upon the helpless woman’s wooden sword.

Mae stood and watched this for a moment with her blue eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips, but then she cleared her throat, and the cat-girl ceased her movements.

“You don’t know your own strength, girl,” the Dodo-woman-instructor said, and her voice was stern. “You will hurt yourself or your allies if you do not learn control and balance.”

“Yes, Mae,” Una sighed, and her shoulders slumped at the harshness of Mae’s words.

“What’s gotten into you, anyway?” Mae questioned as she leaned forward to inspect the cat-girl’s sinewy muscles. “You’re more muscular than I remember from even a day ago.”

“It’s Alex’s magic seed!” Una proclaimed with a proud lift of her chin. She licked her lips as her gaze fell on me, and everyone training in the clearing gasped as they turned to stare at me in shock.

Great.

Well, the cat had been out of the bag for a while, but now everyone in town would know Una’s theory about my sperm. It wouldn’t be long before anyone suffering from opposition effects would be bashing in my door, but if they thought it would make them better fighters, too, I would never see daylight again.

While there were worse things in the world than being a sex slave to a bunch of hybrid women, I wanted to do more than fuck everything that walked. I wanted to defeat the Clover Queen bitch, and any other Queens who thought to stand in my way, and then take the fight to the Dark King directly.

But first, I needed an army of fighters, and we were still a long ways off from having numbers of any consequence.

Everyone was staring at me in silence, and I realized they all expected me to either confirm or deny Una’s claims, so I cleared my throat as I raked a hand through my hair.

“Doctor Kria is looking into Una’s theory,” I said in a voice loud enough for everyone in the clearing to hear. “Until she says one way or another, I’m not giving a drop of my seed to anyone but Una.”

An audible sigh of disappointment swept through the volunteer warriors, and I had to suppress a chuckle. I had to admit, it did feel good to be desired by so many, but I wanted my bedmates to be of my own choosing.

My eyes leapt to Mae’s form almost instantaneously, but I forced my gaze to rise to her face. If the Dodo-woman knew of my attraction, she did nothing to show it, so I was content to catch glimpses of her in my peripheral vision.

“Back to formation!” Mae barked, and she broke the tension in the air created by Una’s announcement.

Everyone obeyed the Dodo-instructor, and a moment later, we were all engrossed in our training once more. I noticed Mae stayed close to Una and observed her closely, but I couldn’t blame her. The cat-girl’s increase in strength was obvious to anyone with eyes.

After our wooden sword practice, Mae had us performing various feats of endurance and strength to build muscle tone and definition. Sweat drenched my hair and dripped down the nape of my neck, but I ignored all discomforts as I focused on moving my body as the Dodo-woman directed.

Mae was a stern teacher, but I was up for the challenge.

“Faster,” she chirped in a pleasant voice, and she swung out a stick stripped of its bark at any who didn’t obey.

We ran circles around the clearing, but we maintained a close formation and matched the pace of our neighbors. If one slowed, we all slowed, but the goal was to move as fluidly and rapidly as possible.

I’d seen nicer drill sergeants in movies where they were advertised as a hard ass, but I wasn’t going to say such things to the dedicated teacher I was lucky enough to have found.

Meeting Mae had been purely chance, but we’d been fortunate for it to happen at just the right time. Una, Doctor Kria, Miss Maggie, and I were facing off against a troop of Clover Cards when the Dodo-woman appeared as if by magic to aid in the ink bag’s defeat. She’d twirled onto the scene like a white tornado of death, and the thick black blood of the animated cards had spilled rapidly across the ground in her wake.

I’d managed to turn the tides of the battle by drinking one of the magical potions we’d come to steal from the Clover Cards, but I would have been in a far worse position without Mae’s assistance. There had been multiple other occasions where the Dodo-woman had my back, and we’d both lived to tell the tale because of it.

I considered her one of my partners in leadership, but she was still an outsider to the people of New Haven, no matter how polite they were to her.

“That’s enough for now!” Mae’s voice was a welcome relief to the burning ache in my muscles, and I swallowed deep gulps of air as we all met back at the center of the clearing.

Una collapsed into the ground at my feet, exhausted even with her newfound strength, and I reached down to absently stroke her hair while Mae positioned herself before us.

“You have all come a long way since our first training session,” the beautiful Dodo-woman declared. “I couldn’t be more proud of the progress all of you have shown. New Haven should be proud to call you her guardians.”

“To New Haven!” Shelli the bear-woman shouted with a paw-like hand thrust into the air. “And to the Dreamer!”

The rest of the warrior trainees echoed her chant and lifted their fists in the air, and my face reddened from the praise. If I’d done nothing else, I’d at least helped show the people they weren’t helpless against the darkness seeking to overwhelm them.

Then we went as a group to the large bonfires constantly burning near the entrance to the New Haven cave, but Miss Maggie saw us coming and immediately began to ladle a thick, steaming soup into bowls with the assistance of her young piglet-girl daughter.

“The Dreamer eats first!” the massive pig-woman hollered over the heads of the oncoming trainees.

No one complained as the crowd split like the Red Sea before Moses, and I smiled at them all as I passed to the front.

There were perks to being the Dreamer.

Una was a step behind me, and the two of us moved out of the way of the line to enjoy our lunch. Mae swiftly joined us on a grassy knoll, and the three of us ate in silence for a while. When everyone had been served, Miss Maggie came over and lowered herself to the ground with an arduous grunt.

“Your exercises are making the people extra hungry these days,” the pig-chef observed as she cast a sideways glance at Mae. “Hard enough to keep food in everyone’s bellies as it is.”

“You’ll have to deal with it for now,” I interjected before Mae could retort. “We need our army to get stronger.”

“You call that an army?” Miss Maggie huffed and crossed her arms across her broad chest. “A couple handfuls of terrified women?”

“It’s all we have for now,” I pointed out. “We’ll just need to secure more food. You seem to be managing well despite no longer having a magic kitchen.”

“True enough,” Miss Maggie snorted, and she watched with obvious delight as Una drained her bowl and licked the interior clean. “But it takes all my time.”

“Get some volunteers to help you,” I suggested. “That way you can delegate and have more time for yourself.”

“Bah,” Miss Maggie spat. “I need to keep busy anyhow. Idle hands do the Dark King’s bidding, after all.”

Lena, the sloth-woman, and Ziti, the furbae, both came over to join us, and the two additions happily crawled onto my person before they settled into their customary spots.

“Good day isn’t it, cuties?” I asked as I nuzzled a finger into Ziti’s fur, and then I scratched the always itchy place behind Lena’s ear.

“It’s always a good day with you around!” the adorable ball of fur on my shoulder squeaked in my ear.

“Always glad to… see you, Dreamer,” Lena said in a slightly less slow voice than usual. The sloth-woman had drunk a fast potion, and she’d been recuperating from the opposition effects ever since. It was fascinating to watch her slowness dissipate bit by bit, and her condition seemed to improve with each passing day.

“How are the new patients?” I asked with a curious lift of an eyebrow.

“Still recovering from their ordeal,” Ziti informed me in a sad voice. “Doctor Kria hasn’t left the medical pavilion in days.”

“She would like… you to come… see her,” Lena informed me. “After… lunch.”

“Very well.” I nodded, and then I flashed Una a questioning look. “You want to go ahead and get checked out again today?”

“Oh, yes!” Una bounced up and down, and her tail swayed back and forth behind her. “We can tell her about how strong I’ve gotten!”

“I will come as well,” Mae inserted. “To add my witness accounts.”

I knew Mae was driven by curiosity more than a desire to volunteer her account of our training session, but I couldn’t fault her for it. I was wondering if Una’s claims were accurate myself, and the mouse-woman doctor was our best bet on finding out for sure.

“Tell the Doc I said hello,” Miss Maggie requested with a wistful sigh. “I’ve been sending her food, but she won’t leave the victims’ sides.”

“Want us to bring her some lunch?” I offered.

“Much obliged, Dreamer,” Miss Maggie grunted.

A few moments later, Mae, Una, and I were on our way to the medical pavilion with a small pot of hot stew and a few bowls in hand. The pavilion stood apart from the rest of the treehouse village of New Haven, but the doctor had said it was because of the cries of pain often echoing from the walls.

Before we’d left the giant sequoia tree their previous home was built into, the medical center was located deep in the bowels of the tree’s roots, so no sounds managed to travel up to the animal-people’s dwellings. Now, we lived in an echo chamber, and I often heard noises from across the small forest, so I knew the doctor spoke truly.

I spotted the doctor easily as soon as we entered the medical pavilion, but she had her back to us as she bent over a patient’s cot. The building itself smelled of fresh hewn lumber and cleaning chemicals, and the beams running overhead were stripped of their bark with lanterns hanging at even intervals.

“Doctor Kria!” Una hailed in an excited voice. “We brought lunch!”

The mouse-eared doctor glanced our way, but she quickly turned back to her patient. We waited while she finished her task, and then she pulled her white tunic straight as she crossed the room to us.

“Thank you very much,” the timid doctor murmured, and she took the pot from Mae’s hands with a grateful smile. “I will have this passed out shortly.”

“Make sure you eat some of it yourself,” I instructed in the tone of a leader I’d been picking up the last few weeks. “Miss Maggie is worried sick about you.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” The doctor waved a dismissive hand, but she moved to place the pot of stew on a low table standing against one wall.

Scattered across the surface were various medical tools, small sharp blades, bundles of white bandages, and tons of potion bottles without labels. They came in a rainbow of colors that glittered an invitation, but with no words to describe the effects, it was like playing Russian roulette with magical abilities.

Doctor Kria moved some of the items to the side, and Una placed the wooden bowls we’d brought in the space the mouse-woman created. Then the women all worked together to serve the soup and distribute it among the patients. I passed bowls to the victims on the cots against the far wall from the door, but I paused when my eyes fell upon the sleeping forms of Dee and Daa.

The two blonde women shared a cot together, and their arms were curled up like a pretzel, so it was almost difficult to tell where one woman began and the other ended. The pair reminded me of valley girls from countless movies I’d seen back on Earth, but I couldn’t help finding them attractive at the same time.

They seemed content to sleep through lunch, so I passed them by and moved on to where the white rabbit-woman rested with an anxious expression on her face. Her small eyes darted to the door and around the room, but she accepted the bowl of soup from me with a timid smile.

I’d rescued the white rabbit-woman and the blonde twins from the prison cells of the Clover fortress, but they were all still in shock over their experience. They’d been forced to drink countless potions, and there was no telling how long the opposition effects would remain. I hadn’t spoken to any of them since I’d brought them back to New Haven, but maybe now they would be more open to conversation.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” I chuckled as the white rabbit-woman inhaled the stew with a voracious appetite.

The woman merely nodded, but her tiny pink nose twitched with enjoyment as she licked up the last droplets of broth.

“What’s your name?” I asked in my most gentle voice.

“Nata,” the woman squeaked, but I could barely hear her.

“Nata?” I clarified, and she nodded again, so I stuck out my hand to shake hers. “My name is Alex.”

“You’re the Dreamer,” Nata said as she stared unmoving at my hand. “Why did you save me?”

“I wasn’t about to let anyone remain in those awful dungeons,” I said, but I couldn’t hide the fire from my voice, and Nata shrank away from me with a fearful expression in her small eyes.

Just then, Una’s voice carried over the beds and into my ears. “… and after he planted his seed deep inside my womb, I was stronger, faster, and more agile.”

Oh, shit.

“I’ll be back,” I said in a hurried tone to the white rabbit-woman, but I didn’t wait for her to reply before I crossed the distance to the three women standing by the front door.

“Is this true?” Doctor Kria turned a questioning look toward Mae, and the Dodo-woman nodded in a serious manner.

“Indeed.” Mae looked the doctor straight in the eyes. “I had to pull her back so she didn’t hurt her training partner with sheer strength alone.”

“Oh, my, well…” The doctor tapped a thoughtful finger against her chin, but then her brown eyes lifted to my face, and her expression brightened. “This changes everything! Our armies will be the strongest in the land! If it’s true, anyway.”

“It is true!” Una insisted with a stomp of her foot.

“I must have another sample,” the doctor said, and it was obvious she hadn’t heard Una’s vehement assertion. Already the mouse-eared woman’s mind was running through possibilities, and the curiosity in her eyes was blatant.

“What did you do with the last?” I asked.

“I mixed it into a concoction and dosed the worst victims,” Doctor Kria informed me. “I only performed the procedure on two people though, so as to minimize any negative effects. They were nearly too far gone, both having drunk a strength potion to completion.”

I shuddered as I thought about how weak that would make anyone else besides myself. Part of being the Dreamer meant I was immune to the opposition effects of the potions, which gave me nearly god-like status since I could drink whatever magical elixirs I wanted without consequence.

“So, what happened to them?” I pressed. “I’m not giving you another sample until there’s evidence gathered from the first batch.”

“Their symptoms showed remarkable improvement after only one dose,” the doctor explained, and she made no effort to hide her excitement. “If what Una says is true, they will recover better than they ever were before. Your army would gain several hands, Dreamer.”

“It’s true!” Una repeated, but her adopted mother figure still ignored her.

The doctor’s brown eyes were kind, but determined, as she held my gaze, but I took a long moment to consider before I gave her an answer.

“It’s not something I can just whip out and do,” I sighed as I raked a hand through my shaggy black hair. “I have to be… in the right mood…”

“That’s easy!” Una laughed. “You are always in the right mood to give me your seed. Why not let me help produce the sample?”

That did sound better than jerking myself off, so I flashed my cat-lover a grateful smile.

“Be quick about it!” Doctor Kria shoved us toward the back of the pavilion where an empty exam room provided us with a moderate amount of privacy.

We would still be easily heard by all the patients, but the women were insistent as they shoved Una and me in the direction of the open door.

“Can I offer my assistance as well?” Mae tilted her head to the side and cocked one hip to the side. “I’d love to participate in summoning the Dreamer’s seed.”

“Umm… Sure?” I chuckled in a self-conscious manner, but Mae did not hesitate to march into the empty exam room ahead of me and the cat-girl.

This was going to be interesting.

“Dreamer!” a shrill voice suddenly shrieked from outside the pavilion. “Where is the Dreamer!”

I inhaled sharply at the sound of distress in the familiar voice of Ida, one of my bird-woman scouts, and I turned to rush toward the entrance of the medical pavilion. Outside stood a gasping crow-woman who’d joined the troop of bird-people who patrolled the sky above our new home.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I hurried to her side.

“The friesians!” The crow-woman continued to struggle for breath, and her wings shook as they hung at her sides. “They’ve been taken by Clover Cards!”

My blood ran cold as my hand moved instinctively to the hilt of my sword. The friesians were horse-like creatures who’d allied themselves with me and the people of New Haven, and I felt just as responsible for their safety as I did the animal-people residing in the caves.

I had to save them, but who was better suited to such a task than the Dreamer?