ACR - Ch5

Year 1, Summer

Breakfast was simple this morning, as usual. Lyle spooned up his wheat porridge. Although he didn’t have any plans for heavy labor today, he’d been badgered into breaking into his meat reserves. A plate of grilled sausages sat in a bowl in the center of the dining table—he’d brought plenty of cured and smoked pork sausages with him. Protein was important, after all.

“Finally, meat!” one of the Vierfach shouted before wolfing down a whole fat sausage in one go. Flecks of cooked meat flew everywhere as she chewed noisily, and Ein kicked her sister under the table.

“Vier!” Ein snapped. “Chew with your mouth closed.”

“Yessum,” Vier whined, food still visible in her mouth. She got kicked again and winced, before nodding her acknowledgement.

“I still think fresh meat is better, but the salt and spices are nice in their own way,” Ein said. “And we’re going traveling today. It’s a good day to have something more than gruel.”

The Vierfach collectively glared at their bowls of porridge.

Monstergirls were omnivorous, given they were derived from humanity. But the preferences of whatever animal or monster they merged with shined through. In the case of wolfgirls, they disliked anything based on grains or legumes. They claimed to be carnivores, but happily gobbled up berries, dairy, and sweet things.

Also salty things, judging from their behavior in the bedroom.

Unfortunately, agriculture was based around growing grains in large quantities. Much of Lyle’s wagon contained bags of processed wheat and barley grains, oats, chickpeas, and similarly long-lasting basic foods. He’d eaten a lot of porridge to keep his energy levels high lately.

Meat cost more and was far more expensive to preserve in large quantities, especially if he wanted it to last more than a few months. Lyle had been sparing when stocking up to travel here.

“The amount that we eat is more important than what we eat,” Lyle said. He met Ein’s glare placidly. “But yes, some variety is good. That’s why we’re going to see what we can find a little further to the east.”

“I still think we should search to the north,” Ein said. “Maybe there’s a herd of cowgirls or something we can capture.”

“You’d eat them?” he asked.

“Absolutely.” Ein and the Vierfach nodded their heads repeatedly. “We’re wolves. They’re prey. Delicious fucking prey at that. It’s the same with birdgirls. Their muscle cooks up nice if you leave it over a fire for a day.”

The Vierfach began to lick their lips, and they gnawed at their spoons. No doubt they imagined birdgirl bones in their mouths.

“I knew monstergirls ate one another sometimes, but you make it sound common,” Lyle said, speaking slowly and carefully. This was new to him. Terrifying, almost. “You haven’t tried hunting any birdgirls nearby.”

“There’s a difference between what we want to do and what we can. For instance, we want to drag you into the bedroom and fuck you into next week.” Ein leered at him. “But we at least get our wombs filled each night, even if I think you’re doing something to stop us from making puppies.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” he said. Then he corrected himself, “About the birdgirls.”

“We can overpower a birdgirl or three easily. We’ve eyed off some of the plumper ones, trust me. But if you kill one monstergirl, then it sets their companions on edge.” Ein grimaced. “It doesn’t matter that they’re not flocking. They’re organized enough. They’d form a hunting party, and we’d end up as a spit roast tonight. And not the good kind.”

Lyle nodded. The monstergirls were much more tribal than he had expected. Then again, had he expected anything? Before he received the letter from his father, he hadn’t even known that life existed beyond the wastes.

He grabbed one of the last sausages. The Vierfach immediately fought over the remaining two. Their hands slashed at one another, but their claws remained hidden.

After an incident where blood had ruined his porridge, Lyle had forbidden fighting at the dining table, although he allowed light roughhousing. Punishable with no sex for twenty-four hours. The Vierfach obeyed unquestionably from then on.

Ein slipped away with the last sausage while her sisters engaged in a slapfight. The other victorious member of the Vierfach cheered before chomping down her prize, and the remaining pair glared sullenly at her. Then they slowly dug into their porridge, making a face as they took their first bite.

“Cowgirl herd or no, the north is dangerous,” Lyle said, putting aside his discomfort over the idea of farming monstergirls for slaughter. Whilst he didn’t think much of monstergirls overall, given the state of mind that corruption left most in, that seemed like a bridge too far for him. “We’ve already attracted attention in this little homestead. I’m concerned that if we wander too far afield, somebody might follow us back that doesn’t already know about this place.”

Ein shrugged and gave up on the argument, instead choosing to eat her breakfast.

The recent few days had shown little change in activity compared to the previous weeks. As such, Lyle had sent the Vierfach into the nearby forest. The wolf pack hadn’t been spotted, which was odd. The beegirls had increased their activity in response and were now roaming across the river to claim more pollen before the wolves reclaimed their territory.

But the monitoring by the birdgirls remained constant. Lyle suspected it would only be worse if he’d moved into either of the other locations. Signs of human activity drew attention. The homestead was out of the way—close to the forest; further from the river than Hollowford; protected by the bluffs.

Any change in Hollowford would have drawn attention from nearby inhabitants. And the lake was bizarre enough that Lyle suspected it was being actively monitored by far more dangerous beings than birdgirls. Something or someone had ransacked the tower.

So Lyle decided to maintain his low profile, even at the expense of establishing himself quickly. Slow and steady won the race.

Particularly because anybody who ran too fast around here would get plucked up by a powerful monstergirl and turned into their plaything.

After breakfast, Lyle strapped on his armor for the first time in weeks. It felt like slipping on an old glove.

“I want you to stay here, Ein,” he told her.

“You’re taking them and not me? To meet the birdgirls?” Ein said incredulously.

“Remind me again who I’ve taught to use the carpentry station?” he said.

“Sure, but…”

“Don’t worry~” the Vierfach sang, leaning against Lyle from all angles. “We’ll bring him back, nice and empty.”

Lyle rolled his eyes. “Nice and full, you mean. I trust you by yourself. Not them. I’ve removed the restriction on your collar that prevents you from going too far away from me.”

“Huh.” Ein fingered the brass loop around her neck.

His fingers slipped along her neck and she leaned into his touch. When he scratched behind her ears, her mouth opened automatically, her tongue lolling out as soft pants escaped her. Her amber eyes lidded and locked with his, glazed with lust.

He stepped closer to her and slid his other hand behind her. When he stroked her tail, she moaned and pressed herself against him. His fingers tickled the white fluff inside her black wolf ears and she let out a whuff.

“You know I want a serious fucking when you get back, right?” she said, face flushed and eyes still glazed over.

“I figured to remind you of what I bring to the table,” he said.

She smirked. “You do a great job of that every night. But I love the reminder.”

“Lyle~” the Vierfach whined. They pressed themselves against his back, and he realized it was time to go.

The wagon would only slow them down, so he left it behind. Instead, he took a backpack full of supplies, just in case they didn’t make it back before dark.

As uncomfortable as he felt traveling without corruption wards, the presence of the Vierfach was a reminder he wasn’t alone.

It had been a strange few weeks if three empty-headed wolfgirls could be considered good company.

They crossed the river near the waterfall, where the river was shallow. Birdgirls already monitored them, although only one actively followed them.

Lyle recognized her from the days when he had bathed in the river. She was a plump and curvy one, and probably a crow of some sort given her black wings and larger body size. Most birdgirls wore something to cover themselves, but this one wore less than most. Only a pair of loose cloth strips tied over her breasts and waist, which did a terrible job of covering her body up. Every time she moved between trees he saw everything.

The Vierfach led Lyle east, toward where they had met and traded with the birdgirls weeks ago for clothing. Most birdgirls peeled away as he headed further east, but the big-tittied crowgirl kept up her vigil.

The way the Vierfach moved was practiced, Lyle noticed. One remained close to him, double-checking the scent trail and their surroundings, while also watching him. The other two moved in a figure eight further ahead.

One took the lead briefly, sniffing out the trail. The other trailed behind and barked out corrections occasionally, relying more on her other senses if something looked off or if she saw a monstergirl they wanted to avoid. Every few minutes, they’d switch roles—hence the figure-eight pattern, as they interweaved with each other as they moved. Each hour, the Vierfach member closest to Lyle switched out with one of her sisters.

Without Ein, they were far less talkative, preferring physical activity and proximity to Lyle over conversation. They clearly valued his presence, given they actively switched out to remain next to him, but in a different way.

Every so often, he would scratch his “bodyguard” behind the ears, stroke her tail, or simply hold her. She’d pant, or let out a soft gasp, and welcome the attention with curved eyes. He kept the situation from escalating to sex, but no conversation came about.

To Lyle, this was peaceful. A slow saunter through the woods, on a calm day, with his three wolfgirls. Not something he had dreamed about a few months ago.

More than the teamwork of the wolfgirls, he was surprised at how friendly the wilds were.

No, not friendly.

“Not hostile” was a better term.

Because dozens of monstergirls made their interest in Lyle known. A catgirl sharpened her claws on the branch she lazily watched them from above, her eyes locked on Lyle. Honey bees wandered away from the flowers to follow them for several minutes whenever they came close. Slimes crept out of ponds, logs, and strange crevices to sneak a look.

“I’m surprised nobody is attacking me,” Lyle said aloud as they walked. His eyes were behind him, focused on a purple shape shimmering out of a nearby pond.

“Should they?” the Vierfach beside him asked, breaking their silence.

The other two paused in their advance, noticing conversation was finally happening.

In the distance, the purple shape took form as a slimegirl. A rather large slimegirl, easily as big as Lyle.

If he wasn’t mistaken, her variety of slimes were capable of magic. Slimes and slimegirls were a mystery to Ghraive, as the way they corrupted nearby water made them too dangerous to leave alive. So Lyle wasn’t certain if this slime was a magic user, but the risk was high.

He gripped his sword. “No, they shouldn’t.”

The purple slime stared at him from the distance. A broad smirk formed on her face and she held a hand up to her face.

She followed them for close to an hour, before vanishing into another pond. Only then did Lyle allow himself to let go of his sword.

“Err, near here, I think?” one of the Vierfach said.

“We traded here,” another said, looking at Lyle.

He looked around. Other than a trio of birdgirls staring at him, there was no sign of anyone living here.

“Can you trace her scent to somewhere close?” Lyle said, pointing at the crowgirl who had been following them.

Said crowgirl squawked and flapped her wings. She looked around her, as if searching for support. Within seconds, the other birdgirls vanished. Giggles echoed throughout the forest in their wake.

“Get back here!” the crowgirl shouted. She glowered when nobody came, then stared at Lyle. “You, human, what you want?”

Another monstergirl with an oddly high level of mental ability.

“To talk and to trade, if you have anything of value,” he replied.

The crowgirl seemed to chew on her tongue for several long moments, drawing her wings around her body and clawing at the branch supporting her weight.

“No flock,” she said. “That’s fine?”

“You have something, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” she spat. She cawed softly. “I’ll show if you promise not to hurt anyone. And keep them on leash.”

“I won’t hurt anyone if they don’t hurt me,” Lyle said. He wasn’t going to make any open-ended promises.

Not that a promise mattered. There weren’t any devils nearby who could magically bind him to honor his promise, and he didn’t care about his reputation with monstergirls. But he still disliked betraying his word if he had another option.

The crowgirl leaped down from her perch. She eyed him warily as he and the wolfgirls approached, her wings flapping instinctively. “Not so close,” she squealed.

“Give her some room,” he told the Vierfach.

“She looks delicious,” the Vierfach said, drooling.

“We’ll eat you!” the crowgirl barked. “Touch me and you’ll be next.”

The Vierfach grumbled and left her alone.

The birdgirl village wasn’t far, it turned out. The Vierfach could have found it rather quickly.

Although calling it a village was a bit much. Lyle frowned at the handful of huts built into the canopy and the rope lines that connected them.

A proper birdgirl village or town had countless buildings. They were genuine settlements, housing flocks of hundreds or even thousands of birdgirls at once. Lyle had seen some truly massive ones full of multi-story buildings.

Usually replete with a breeding hall and a hundred broken men whose sole purpose in life was to be fucked daily by nearly every birdgirl in the village.

The crowgirl glowered at him. “I said no flock.”

“What is this, then?” he asked. It was clearly something built for a community, but if they weren’t flocking, he struggled to say what it was.

Another voice spoke up from above them, “A communal place to rest and to meet. We may not be a flock, but we are a very social species.”

Lyle looked up. A birdgirl of indiscriminate species and age stared down at him with curious eyes, her hands and talons buried in a branch.

Her hair and wings were silver, and her feathers were massive in comparison to most birdgirls. A pair of small black and silver rabbit ears poked out from her hair—some birdgirls had animal ears as well as wings for reasons unknown. Her frame was much smaller than the crowgirl’s, and she wore a simple tunic very similar to the ones worn by the Vierfach.

“Good day,” she said to Lyle, giving him a flat look as her purple eyes bore into his.

“I’d say well met, but I don’t know if that’s true,” he said. “You’re very well spoken.”

“Talks too much,” the crowgirl muttered.

“I am Felife,” the newcomer birdgirl said. “You are Lyle, correct? Are you here for something? Ein mentioned you may approach us in the future, but I imagined it would be much longer before you did.”

Curious that she mentioned Ein by name. Then again, talkative monstergirls were likely a rarity.

Also, why had Ein suspected he would be approaching the birdgirls? He hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort back then.

“I’ll be frank,” Lyle said, drawing up to his full height and towering over all the monstergirls around him. “I’m here to talk about food. In my experience, birdgirls usually have an excess. Maybe we can trade.”

Felife’s eyes narrowed. “An excess. I can imagine what you may mean. Perhaps we should discuss this in private?”

She raised an eyebrow at him as she pointed at the handful of structures far above them. Before she or the crowgirl could do anything, the Vierfach leapt onto the closest tree. They summoned their claws and rapidly climbed toward the canopy.

“Do you need a lift?” Felife offered, spreading her arms wide.

For a moment, Lyle was tempted to refuse. But it was a petty idea.

“Please,” he said.

Felife wandered behind him, taking rapid, almost dainty steps supported by her fluttering wings. Her arms slipped around his waist and she hooked them beneath his breastplate.

“I’m glad that it doesn’t burn,” she said. “I had been concerned.”

So she knew about consecrated steel, or at least how wards functioned. Not surprising, given they existed around Hollowford.

Felife carried him into the canopy while the crowgirl hovered nearby. Despite her larger wings, the crowgirl needed to beat them rapidly to keep pace.

There were no sudden drops to the forest floor, and Lyle found himself atop the trees in short order. He looked around and saw a few birdgirls. They eyed him warily, but ignored him once they saw Felife.

The building they stood outside looked like a café or restaurant of sorts, but there were no staff. Shelves contained clay jars, and a low fire burned on top of an iron slab. A glowing magic circle was inscribed around the fire, presumably to prevent it from spreading and burning down the forest. That meant at least someone here knew magic.

Only a few birdgirls sat inside the structure. They chatted over wooden cups full of what appeared to be tea of some sort. Probably herbal tea, given what the new arrivals pulled from the jars. The idea of monstergirls possessing actual tea leaves was ridiculous.

Although it did give Lyle an idea for trade, now that he’d seen the birdgirls gather and chat. It figured that they desired social spaces. That also meant they liked to consume food and drink socially, like ordinary humans. In the future, monstergirls might be interested in luxury goods or food and drink he otherwise thought was beyond them.

“A communal space,” Lyle said, repeating Felife’s earlier words as she led them across a rope line to the next building.

“We may not be a flock, but there are many of us in the area. Spaces to meet and discuss issues are highly desirable,” Felife said.

“Or chat. Chatting is nice,” the crowgirl said.

Lyle eyed her. They reached the next building, which Felife tried to rapidly walk past. This failed immediately.

“Something better than chatting is in there,” the Vierfach said as a group. They giggled as they pressed themselves against the window of the next building they wandered past.

Grimacing, Lyle already smelled what he was about to see.

An open room filled with cushions contained several birdgirls—and two humans. One birdgirl stood behind a counter and wore more intricate clothes than most. An eagle, Lyle realized. Odd to see one on their own, as they tended to flock with their own kind. She was far larger than the other birdgirls and kept a close eye on the others.

She was the muscle who protected the breeding hall.

One of the humans didn’t move. His eyes were empty. Lyle imagined his mind was as well. The man looked to be in his forties, with a surprisingly well-groomed face. The birdgirls must take care of his physical appearance. He certainly didn’t.

A single birdgirl used him, her stomach already bloated with eggs. She pressed her back against the man and used her arms and legs to pump herself along his cock. Although his mind was long gone, his body reacted to her.

The Blight had destroyed him. All that was left was a husk that existed to service monstergirls. Lyle took solace in the fact that he wasn’t in pain, as the corruption had long since removed the ability of the man to feel anything at all.

On the other side, three birdgirls tended to a much younger man who still moved with a mind of his own. He frothed at the mouth and his muscles bulged almost impossibly huge as he slammed a tiny finch birdgirl into the cushions. The corruption wormed through every inch of his body. It took to him with extreme vigor and warped his physique.

He was impossibly huge and used the birdgirls like toys. Eventually, the corruption would turn him into the same, useless husk as the other man. But until then, he’d be the favored dildo of these birdgirls, especially with the energy that he had.

Lyle turned away and saw Felife looking at him. Or a specific part of him.

It probably didn’t help that the Vierfach were trying to remove his crotch plate. He batted them away, ignoring their whines.

“We also need a central place to keep and take care of our males,” Felife admitted, meeting his cold gaze head on. He couldn’t read anything in her eyes or expression, as it remained as flat as when they had first met.

“I’m surprised you only have two. There are a lot of birdgirls here,” he said, tone far more neutral than his inner thoughts were.

She shrugged. “This isn’t a flock. We simply take care of any males provided and allow birdgirls to use them so long as they don’t harm them.”

That sounded too good to be true.

The constant repetition of “not a flock” began to grate on Lyle’s nerves. Something was up.

He followed Felife across a rope bridge to another building. The Vierfach and the crowgirl followed them. His nerves calmed as he pushed the hall out of his mind.

This new structure appeared to be a meeting room of some sort. A wooden table formed from a large tree stump sat in the center, surrounded by stools. There were no windows, and the doors were made of solid steel. Unlike the other structures, where the walkways had been limited, this one had a platform around the entire circumference of the building.

Combined with the rope bridge access, Lyle suspected this meeting hall was special in some way.

Felife gestured for Lyle to enter. As he did so, the Vierfach growled at something in the distance. Lyle heard them shout and run off.

Cursing, he turned and was about to call them back. He had brought them with him for a reason.

The door slammed shut in his face with a loud thud. A magical barrier activated the next moment. The activation had been too quick, which meant it must have been built into the room.

Something moved in the room.  This was a trap—only a fool trusted monstergirls.

- - - - - - - -

Commentary: The breeding hall scene was kept fairly light, given the subject matter. It's a reminder that this story's world is pretty fucked up.

There is a more explicit version, although it's still focused on the destruction that the Blight wreaks on men. If anyone is interested, I can post it at the Messenger level, as there are some bigger alternate scenes coming up. The crowgirl/Popri was a harem member originally, but I've decided to write her out in place of a more diverse cast so I'm likely to yeet her sex scenes to Patreon-exclusive. The ambush originally resulted in Lyle "winning" with his flesh sword, but I don't know if there's much value in a random sex scene with an unnamed character.

On a lighter note, that little scene with Lyle rubbing Ein and causing her to let out a whuff is a one that I really like.