Perversions of the Flesh

Before the day was out, Ann was now just clinging to the crags on Orfal’s helmet. It beat getting tossed around as he walked. Now she was tossed around and just had to grab onto things now and then instead of constantly balancing. Out of everyone, Keit was definitely having the easiest time, which meant Minnie was, too. Kat was keeping Rosalyn on the shoulder, holding on to the giant’s beard for dear life. Bren and Lucia were the same. The way Orfal’s shoulders arched made it tough to actually sit there, but they were managing.

Ann tried to think positively. At least Orfal covered an insane distance fairly quickly. What might have taken them a couple days took him about half.

“So, Orfal, you’re a big guy? How big are Mulsfar?” Ann asked.

“Not from ‘round here are you? I’d say the smallest of my kind, the Stonekin, are about twenty feet tall? I am of the largest kin. Skykin can reach a hundred mighty feet!”

“Holy shit. How… what do you guys eat? That’s massive!”

Orfal stepped over a cliff that’d take Ann and crew an hour or so to safely climb with Rosalyn and Bren with ease. “Things get big in the north. Gotta be big to survive the winters, aye. We’ve got the mighty Illfangs, Podrir. Then we also fish in the Great Northern Seas. Ah, it isn’t life until you’ve wrestled a serpent underwater, battling for life as your air slowly drains. An exhilaration I want to replicate this winter. Sadly, the Warped activity has been causing our people to condense.”

“Kat and Minnie told me you guys are all spread out normally. Does getting together cause problems?” Ann asked, digging her claws in as Orfal skirted a massive stone.

The giant started to shrug, then stopped himself after his passengers protested. “Yes, to be short. We are a proud people, and our passions run strong. This includes our passion for battle. When I heard you were Chosen, I wanted to test my might against you. Many yet might, once we reach the town. But, yes, more of us in one place means it’s far more likely that we’ll be destroying that place in some brawl or another. So, we live apart. We fend for ourselves and grow strong or die. There are scant settlements. They’re required for Swarms, and for visitors such as yourselves. The most meek of our kin take up residence there and keep the place in order.”

“Most tame?” Kat asked, adjusting her grip on the beard. “Didn’t know ye had tame ones.”

Orfal gave a quiet chuckle that still made Ann’s teeth rattle. “A good joke. Maybe you will get a chance against a Stonekin. I advise against the Firekin or Lightkin. They are deadly when their battle rage is invoked. Lifekin and Stonekin are your best chances for a manageable fight.”

“Hah!” Kat laughed. “I figure it’s me diplomatic duty tae throw down wit’ some o’ ye.”

“You would do this even without such an excuse!” Bren hollered. “You fit right in with these people.”

Kat really would. Always itching for a fight. Always looking for someone to give her a good challenge. She’d fought plenty of their hosts in the past couple of weeks, even having Tarnu show her some of his spearwork. Kat had doubts that she’d be using a spear, but nothing in her Path had restricted her to swords, so she was keeping options open. Options to be more versatile in taking and dealing damage. She’d gone into the pros and cons of a spear that night before she was fucked into a cuddly puddle. They’d started burning incense, which Bren was happy to provide since it covered his and Lucia’s activities as well.

“Oh, speaking of fighting and being crazy, do you know anything about Remmi Mulsfardottr?” Ann asked.

“Oh? Where’d you hear that name?” Orlaf asked. There was worry in his voice. Something he was scared about?

“She taught me.”

Orlaf stopped dead in his tracks, nearly throwing the four on his shoulders free. He carefully adjusted his arms and reached up to grab Ann by her cloak. She hung there like a kitten as she lowered her in front of his face. “Say that again?”

“She… taught me?”

“Gods preserve the Kingdom,” Orlaf muttered. “She is a bad example. Her adoptive parents were Firekin and she inherited their insane lust for battle.”

“Inherited,” Ann asked, still dangling. Her tail was starting to thrash, but she kept the annoyance out of her voice. “How’s that work?”

Orlaf sighed, and put Ann back up on his head. “Mulsfar are primal beings. We are more in tune with the elemental magics than any other mortal race. The Gods have limited us, yes, but it is part of our very beings. When an orphan is taken in, they can inherit part of this from their parents. It takes time, and for the child to align with their parents, but when they do, someone like Remmi is created. She… she hasn’t broken anything too important, has she?”

“Nah,” Ann laughed. “From what she told me, she’s chilled out a bit since Polaris kicked her ass and took her in.”

Orfal made a disbelieving noise. “Doubt it.”

“How do you know her?” Rosalyn asked.

“She, uh, she made a name for herself fighting any Mulsfar she could find.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Minnie gasped. “She beat you?”

Orlaf grumbled nonsense to himself. “Yes.”

“Holy shite! How?” Kat craned her neck, trying to get a better look at the giant.

He went quiet for a moment. His breathing was still loud, and his footfalls rumbling. “She is very strong, and I underestimated her.”

Ann felt like that was only part of the story, but also felt like he was not really happy to be reliving this memory. “Hey, no need to remember… I’ll just ask her later.”

“Gods of the Earth save me from my shame. Ah, I see it.”

Orlaf had rounded a hill covered in more stone than usual, and the town had come into view. It was massive. Its stone walls rivalled those of Graven Keep. They didn’t have the enchanted swirls, but they didn’t look like they’d actually been built. It looked like they’d just grown from the ground. Buildings could be seen within, but most appeared to be one-story. It made sense. Not much would hold the weight of something as big as Orfal. Deep grooves ran the perimeter of the walls, and as they got closer, Ann saw they were filled with razor-sharp stones. From this point, she could see that these ditches were where the walls had come from.

The road going up to the gate had cart tracks, but they weren’t nearly as deep as Ann would have expected them to be. It was half due to the road being stone, but Ann figured that the lack of a defined and populous community helped as well. Less traffic, less wear.

A Mulsfar sat in the road. He wasn’t nearly as tall as Orfal, but he still made an imposing figure with his spear leaning against the side of his neck, hands relaxed as he watched them approach.

“Hail, brother! Whom do you call father?” The man intoned.

Ann prayed Orlaf would keep his voice down.

“Hail, brother! I claim my father to be Vikstan, great warrior of the frozen north!” Orlaf was blessedly not as loud as he could be. “Whom do you claim?”

“I claim Sakaaias as my father. Great builder who helped make this town better than before,” the other Mulsfar rumbled. “I am Ogge. I see that you bring honoured guests with you on this day. Please, introductions must be made.”

It took a minute, but they got through introducing themselves again to this new Mulsfar. Even Keit. Ann found it charming that both of these people had insisted that she get a proper introduction like everyone else. Keit’s bleats were even taken as valuable commentary.

Ogge stood once everything was done and waved them in. Orfal had to duck to get through the gate and gently pushed the huge wooden door open.

The walls were even more insane than Ann had thought. Not only were they made entirely of seamless stone, but they were also incredibly thick. Forty, maybe fifty feet in total. Ann recalled her studies of fortress architecture, noting that most walls were about seven feet thick for perimeter fortifications, while more important barriers were at most in the twenties. This much for a perimeter wall was insane. Well, maybe it wasn’t, if there were things that could threaten even these giants up in this area. Height wouldn’t be as much of a deterrent as it would be for smaller creatures, so the Mulsfar would need to build their walls extra sturdy.

“Hey, we’re not gonna have to do that whole introduction every time, right?” Rosalyn asked, still clinging to Orfal’s shoulder and Kat.

Minnie looked up. “Nah. Once we’re in town that get more relaxed. Big how to do about it for formal introductions and the gate sort of thing, but from now on we can just use our names. You run into more of Orfal’s kind in the wild, though, and you better go through the whole thing. Don’t want an offended Mulsfar trying to stomp you.”

“No, you would not,” Orfal grumbled. “Here. I have carried you to your destination. I will part ways with you here. Safe travels, tiny ones, and may your feet be as steady as the stones.”

Gently, the giant unloaded everyone. Ann was last and rode his furred gauntlet until she could hop off. Craning her neck, she waved as Orfal thundered off into the town.

Now that they were actually inside and not on Orfal’s shoulders, it really sank in how big this place was. The stone streets alone were wide enough for a dozen carts to pass side by side with room to spare. Not only that, but the buildings were equally massive. What looked like a huge mansion to their right was a bakery. The bread in there was big enough that Ann could fit inside a roll. Not to mention the butcher that hung racks of meat in their window from creatures that would make mammoths look small.

“Inn should be down the road a bit. We’re heading to the Alderman, though,” Minnie said, taking the lead with Keit.

Ann caught up on the other side of the six-legged goat. “Alderman? Isn’t that like, a governor or something? Didn’t think they’d have one, to be honest.”

“It’s mostly shamans,” Minnie shrugged. “This Alderman actually is a Shaman as well, but with this town being one of the trade hubs with Korvas and the Mulsfar, she took up the title. You’ll find a lot of things that are a bit off from Mulsfar culture just because they’ve gotta interact with the small folk, as they call us.”

“Remmi called me that, too.”

“Who the heck was she, actually?” Minnie asked, swerving into that topic. “I’ve never heard one of them so worried about an adoptee.”

Ann shrugged. Her enigmatic and rough mentor was definitely one of a kind. She definitely wasn’t for everyone, but if you could at least try to keep up, she was a good person. “My martial arts teacher, kinda. I knew some of the stuff when I woke up here, but she brought me from swinging my fists to actually fighting. Did it by giving me a fuck ton of bruises.”

“She had fun wit’ a punchin’ bag that’d fight back,” Kat laughed. “Oi! Lucia! Stop climbin’ that!”

Lucia had started trying to climb one of the buildings. Probably to get a better look at the area, but she grumbled and dropped back to join them. “Don’t like. Too big. Can’t see.”

“Aye, well, let’s at least get ye permission first. Come on, lass. Proper introductions an’ shite. Then ye go breakin’ the rules.”

Lucia huffed, but nodded. Her glittering plumage was drawing stares from Mulsfar and the other citizens alike, but since they weren’t hiding their identities here, they didn’t care as much. There was probably a member of the Inquisition here, but they were so far north that any reports would take a while to get back to Korvas or Indelholm. If they came into contact, they’d be getting the fuck out ASAP.

Lucia grunted. “Fine.”

It took them a ridiculous amount of time to get from one building to the next. As they went, Ann saw that each massive door had a smaller door inset at the bottom for normal people. It was a lot like what was set up in establishments from Korvas and Graven Keep that accommodated the giants, but the population was reversed. Signs were massive, so at least they didn’t need to make smaller versions of those. Ann really wanted to see how shopkeepers had their shelves and counters set up for smaller folk.

After what felt like an hour of walking, they got to the Alderman’s building. It was large, like literally everything here. Each side of the door was painted with totemic patterns in lots of white, blue, red, and green. A neat sign that simply read Alderman was bolted to the door, with the framing showing two decorative mountains. Two circular windows framed the door, and golden light streamed from them in the frosty grey of outdoors.

They tied Keit up to a hitching post by the door and made their way inside. Kat led, shouldering the portal open. The inside was toasty compared to the icy weather outside. A fire that looked like it was burning whole trees was set a hundred or so feet to their right. The massive stone desk that loomed over them. Engravings of animals and Mulsfar history that Ann couldn’t piece together in her brief glance ran the front of the ornate piece of furniture. The walls were covered with tapestries, hunting trophies, and charms of some sort. Lots of wood and colourful thread.

Dominating it all was the Mulsfar sitting behind the desk. Her head rested on one hand as she used a stone to etch a stone tablet like it was paper. Something Ann hadn’t considered was that creatures this big wouldn’t be able to use normal paper, and the creation of such thick substances might not be feasible. If you were fifty feet tall and proportional, you’d accidentally rip through a sheet without thinking about it.

She looked up, purple eyes sweeping over them. Her hair was blonde and braided in thick links that had none of the complexity of Kat’s arrangement. She did decorate it, however, with bright feathers and an assortment of bones. Her skin, like Orfal’s, was pale, and her cheeks were flushed from the warmth of the fire. She had a very strong jaw and a square chin that seemed rather masculine, but had full lips and gorgeously arching eyebrows. Marring what would have been a very handsome face was a grisly scar running from her left cheek, taking off a chunk of her nose, and crossing her mouth’s right corner causing a permanent sneer. She had a few other small scars on her forehead, but ritualistic face paint covered most of them.

“Ah, small visitors,” she said in a shockingly normal pitch. She didn’t seem quite as tall as Orfal, but she was still sitting, so Ann couldn’t get a good read on that. “Welcome to The Foothill’s Rest. I am Sigrid, Alderman and Shaman of this town. Whom do I have the pleasure of welcoming?”

Everyone rattled through more casual introductions. Kat and Ann drew attention, as usual, but Sigrid moved on to the others before returning.

“It is my honour to welcome the Princess to our town. You will be housed, free of charge, as is your right. The Farraghers have been good friends to our kind, and we will return their hospitality in equal measure. Now, I have heard of you, Chosen, and the claims you have made. I see that your warnings about your companions were warranted. Not often that a Thrundol sprouts feathers, I’d think.”

Lucia grumbled and glared up at the woman. “Good colour!”

Sigrid raised a hand. “I meant no offence. Were they larger, I would have loved to add one to my headdress. A scale, as well, Highness.”

The giantess stood and confirmed Ann’s earlier thought. She wasn’t as tall as Orfal. Still, Ann only came up to her knee, so she was still huge. Probably a Stonekin. She shared the same exaggerated shoulders that the rest of her kind had, but her body was a bit sleeker than Orfal’s. Ann couldn’t see much of a bust under her robes and trinkets, but she saw the woman’s hips were wider than the male examples of her race.

Thoughts of wanting to climb that mountain immediately began to distract Ann. How muscly was she under all of that? Maybe she was actually soft, and had a nice plush frame? What would she be like in bed? Gods, Ann could probably fit both of her arms in her… Ann had to pump the brakes on her brain before it spiraled further.

Sigrid seemed to have caught her stare and gave her a wink that only made things worse. Now she’d have to figure out if that was an invite or just that she knew what she was. Damnit, she was getting boners.

“As is custom for such important guests, let us throw the bones and take a reading. The future is a mixed bag, but we can do our best to divine its troubles. Come, sit, and make yourselves comfortable.”

There was a set of chairs and couches made for smaller people, set a good distance from the fireplace. The group settled in as Sigrid rummaged in a basket.

Ann remembered her last experience with a fortune teller and braced for what was about to happen.