Everyone on the deck starts to relax and spread out from their battle lines. Aoi curls up and lays down; Lina and Ciel sit down on her large form; Yunia leans against the bridge tower; Hana and Roxanne cuddle near the starboard railing; the bodyguards lean against the railing near the bow; and Oritiki stands behind the prow.
She turns to the town just as a Holly notices a commotion. It seems that a bored scout has finally spotted our ship and alerted the town.
A group of small and lithe Chimeras scramble to the small delta wing planes and take off vertically, then zoom out of the dock at an impressive speed, flying in a delta formation.
Their yellow planes are like mouse cursors: triangular and wide with a small tail pointing out the back. They're so small that there's barely enough space for the pilot in the cockpit. Most of its volume actually comes from its wingspan, which is five times as wide as the cockpit in its entirety.
I see three small gems at the tip of each plane: one green, one brown, and one red. If I were to make a guess, these gems cast [Wind Blade], [Earth Bullet], and [Fireball], respectively. I don't think they'd send these small planes to intercept us if they didn't have any offensive capabilities.
The blue-furred goat turns to Aoi and looks at her curiously, then they turn to Hana and ask with a young male voice, "So, how did you tame a dragon and teach it to use a halberd?"
"I'm not tamed. I chose to follow him," Aoi responds with her deep, sensual dual voice, and Lina translates for her.
The young goat-man lets his mouth hang in surprise. The other bodyguards turn to us, too, suddenly very curious, and Oritiki holds back a chuckle.
"I'm pretty sure that he tamed you with his dick," Hana comments, then says it in Reo, too.
"You know he didn't ask that!" Aoi exclaims, not because she's ashamed of Hana's words, but because she recognized her teasing tone.
The composure of the brown bull breaks, and he fidgets nervously while his eyes dart between me and Aoi. "H-how would that even work?" He asks, flabbergasted.
Oritiki turns her head back, and her blood-red eyes give the brown bull a frightening glare. "Paraaone, these are land-dwellers. Respect their privacy," she chastises him.
The bull immediately stands at attention, and his eyes look off in the distance. "Apologies. I forgot my position," he says.
"It's fine," I say and wave my hand.
"I can reduce my size so that it squeezes tight. His penis can change shape and grow, too," Aoi says and gives them a toothy grin as Lina translates while blushing.
"Grow…?" Oritiki faintly asks. They are all too stunned to inquire any further.
"How attractive do you think Oritiki is?" Alissa asks through [Bind].
"Not particularly, though we can't really see her figure under all her armor," I reply.
"If you'd like to see that in person, I'm sure we can arrange a demonstration, but only for women," Alissa says with a mischievous grin and a very suggestive tone.
"I know you like wolf girls, at least," Roxanne teases.
"Well, it is in my name," I reply.
"Wait, seriously?" Alissa asks, and I respond with an internal nod.
"You're not a wolf, you're a human dragon!" Aoi exclaims and pouts internally.
"And you're a dragon human," I say, and she smiles internally.
Oritiki simply runs a hand through her fur and looks towards the approaching planes while the bodyguards start whispering among themselves. They have no reason to believe Alissa's words, but she also offered to prove it, so you could say that some of them got a little interested.
Once the intercepting planes notice the Celestial Horns escorting us, they slow down and add to the escort. The wind elementals become even more interested in the Celestial Horns and bunch up while mimicking Alissa's cute expressions of confusion.
One of the planes flies alongside the ship and matches our speed. They rest a wing on the railing of the ship and Oritiki grabs it to keep it in place, then the cockpit opens, and the pilot talks to her.
I see a khaj-… cat woman in a dark green jumpsuit heatedly discussing the procedures for our reception. Oritiki wants to take us directly to the higher docks due to the exceptional circumstances of our arrival while the cat woman wants us to go to the lower docks since we're commoners.
"I think they're actual nobles. The pilot has a large harem, a dragon, summons, a Living Armor following them, and he gave me his last name," Oritiki whispers, but unfortunately for her, the Holly at the prow can hear her perfectly.
"Did he introduce himself as a noble? No! They should go to the commoner's docks," the cat woman hisses.
"I'm sorry, Kaatohe Ngerua, but I'm going to use my rank this time. We're going to the Golden Docks," Oritiki says with finality in her tone.
Kaatohe actually hisses at Oritiki, then closes her cockpit and flies away.
--
I start to notice a spell in the air, it feels very familiar to Yunia's [Spirit Shield]. I look back and notice that the spirits aren't gaining on us anymore, they're actually slowing down.
I see… this is why the town hasn't been overrun by spirits.
"So, your group is… quite diverse. Are you all from the same place?" Paraaone, the brown bull, asks.
The names of the kingdoms changed after the empire conquered them, so we have to match our stories.
"I'm from the Domum Kingdom, ever heard of it?" I ask.
"I think my father once said that you Domums use a spell to transport people and goods instantly everywhere," Paraaone answers.
"Exactly, that's called [Gate]."
"Well, it seems like the land-dwellers are faring better than us…" The blue goat glumly comments.
"What happened to us was a calamity, not a result of our failings," Oritiki says, then motions for us to continue.
"I'm a slave from Mountainhome," Lina says and bows quickly.
"We're from the Sommer Kunikreich," Hana says and pulls Ciel into a hug.
Rabanara didn't exist until long after Arreira's time.
"I'm from the Brumeux Forest," Alissa says.
"Aloresta," Yunia calmly says.
"Succubi Holy Lands," Roxanne says with a smile.
They might not even know what a Blood Slave is, so it might be better to just say that they're all my wives, except for Lina.
"We all met in the Sky Lands and… fell in love, then decided to explore the Broken Skies," I say and grin awkwardly.
The blue goat and the quiet white goat suppress a chuckle.
"Apologies, but the blunt way you put it undersells the impressiveness of your group," the blue goat says with a wide smile and tugs at his small white goatee.
"I'm impressed at how well most of you speak Reo," the white goat says.
Only I have ten points in Reo while the girls each have a varying amount, so they have a noticeable accent, unlike me.
"I learned Reo to aid in our exploration of the Broken Skies, and my wives learned it to help with our daily lives since we'll be spending quite a bit of time among the Chimeras," I say and give them a diplomatic smile.
Oritiki raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. Our first meeting was rather awkward, so I think she might be suspicious about our background.
"What about that Living Armor and the floating dolls? What are they?" Paraaone asks.
"They are servants, consider them as something similar to summons," I respond.
The attention of the bodyguards is drawn to the golems. They look at them curiously, though Jarn's appearance is slightly comical, so they focus more on her. They think she's a Living Armor while the dolls might be cursed in a similar way. Yunia, who's the closest to them, subtly tells them to not correct the bodyguards' guesses.
"Enough questions, we have to dock, so don't distract the pilot," Oritiki says, and the bodyguards straighten their postures again.
--
She pulls us out of the Looping Winds and guides us up to the top of the town.
The buildings slowly increase in size as we ascend. First, they become mansions, then they gain gardens of increasing size.
The Holly scouting the town discovers a rare human or two, naked among the Chimeras. They might be why the Chimeras know some Andraste.
The interceptors disengage from our escort and return to their own docks, then, a minute later, we finally reach the Golden Docks. In true God-Ruler fashion, the dock is covered with details in gold. The first emperor really disliked using gold and silver as decoration, so this sort of art isn't present in most imperial homes.
The Docks is a large landing strip made of concrete, protruding out from the town and supported by a lattice of thick, metal beams. On each side of the landing strip, there are four platforms with wooden hangars in between them. On the outer edge of the platforms, there's a raised wooden walkway with some sort of rolled up bridge. It looks like each platform can fit a ship approximately triple the length of ours.
The thick, colored clouds all over the Broken Skies blocks out a lot of the sunlight, making it difficult to notice the difference between day and night. This dungeon also doesn't really follow the outside world's day-night cycle, so I have no idea what time it might be right now.
My watch says that it's currently daytime, but the illumination is so low that it feels like night for us. Because of that, the landing strip has been marked with glowing crystals in the same way they are on Earth, reminding me of my plane trips between Brazil and Canada.
Oritiki guides us to the closest platform to the town, a place normally reserved for the upper class. The entire Docks is empty except for a small galley-like ship, which is similar to ours, but it has lots of details in gold, just like the rest of the Docks. Instead of wings, it has five masts with furled sails laid out in a fan shape.
Ooh… I love seeing new airship designs.
We gently land, and a welcoming party comes towards our ship. I see one naked Chimera along with four others carrying spears and armored with gambesons and leather.
Alissa and I finally release the controls, then we head down to the deck, and I stop near Oritiki.
With a gesture from her hand, she dismisses the flying Celestial Horns, then turns towards us. Her eyes immediately land on Gify, and she stops for a moment, then looks me in the eye. "I'll ask that you remain on this platform until I return or someone else comes to receive you," she says.
I nod in agreement, and she jumps off the ship, followed by her men, then spreads her white angelical wings and gently floats over to the walkway. She lands in front of the welcoming party, exchanges a few words, then flies off towards the top of the town. Now that their glowing armor is out of sight, my eyes begin to feel the tiredness from looking at something so bright for too long.
We huddle up on the port side of the ship and wait for the Chimeras to come to us. They stop in front of the rolled-up bridge, and an armored soldier activates a small enchantment, making it unroll itself towards us and stop right on top of the railing, then metal clamps secure it to our ship. Ropes running along the bridge's railings suddenly tighten and pull the suspended bridge taut.
The naked Chimera is a man with a monkey head with a lot of bright yellow fur covering most of his body, which explains why he doesn't feel cold. The weird thing I'm noticing is how most of the men walk around with a half-chub. Enough blood to keep it long, but not erect, and this monkey dude is the same, though his is quite long, almost reaching his knees.
This group of people doesn't have wings and are much less well-built than the Celestial Horns. They also have an eclectic variety of body parts, making me salivate as I see the white and light blue wolf that looks rather feminine.
Here's hoping that that one is female.
Their puffy armor makes it impossible to know whether they have breasts or not.
Hana and Aoi stare bemusedly at the yellow monkey's long penis, but the other girls avoid looking down. Alissa, most of all, is noticeably disgusted at seeing another naked man, though the prospects of having me ogle naked women counters that negative feeling.
The monkey man stops near the end of the rolled-out bridge and stares at me with a serious expression. Even his long yellow tail is standing still in the air from the tension. He's nervous, but his tone is perfectly diplomatic as he says, "Wolf Ryder, I'm harbormaster Koura, and I'm responsible for dealing with entry and departure of aircraft. As Oritiki may have mentioned, it's been such a long time since we last had visitors that the correct procedures to deal with this situation have been lost.
"I ask that you remain here as she has instructed since you won't be considered a simple guest for us. The news of your arrival will spread through the entire town, and we'd very much like to receive news from the outside. We ask that you understand our situation and cooperate."
I give him a diplomatic smile, easing some of his nervousness, and nod, then I say, "I understand. We're explorers, so we aren't in any particular hurry to depart. We'll wait for as long as necessary."
He bows deeply, then smiles diplomatically, but his face becomes much gentler. "Thank you for your understanding. I'll be in my office in case you have any need for us. I'll leave two guards here so that you may ask them for whatever you wish."
I nod gently, and he turns around, then walks away. I give one intense look along with a subtle smirk to the beautiful wolf Chimera before they walk away. The feminine wolf stiffens for a second, feeling the intensity of my gaze, and shyly glances at me before going to stand at the entrance of the suspended bridge.
"I kind of like seducing others for you. If you can, let me have that one," Alissa says through [Bind].
--
I pull out sofas for us, then we enjoy a simple honey and water Tonique tea.
"Should we take off our armor? If we are going to be received by their high society, then that would give the best first impression," Yunia suggests.
"If they aren't living humanoids, then I don't trust them," Alissa says.
"Unless a spirit has been corrupted, it won't turn evil or Wicked," Ciel says.
"I can't say whether or not they've been corrupted, but they don't seem evil," Yunia says, and Roxanne agrees.
"Let's change into our formal clothes, but I'll keep the elementals on the ship, just in case," I say.
--
The sexy wolf Chimera stands still, allowing me to admire their body, but they can't stop themself from taking repeated glances at us.
"It's getting a little hot today, isn't it?" She says with a gentle female voice.
Fuck yes!
"Uh? Yeah, I guess," the raccoon man responds and shrugs.
The wolf woman loosens her gambeson, revealing a hint of her milky white bosom.
She's a bit too far away for me to use [Sense Soul] on her, so I can't see her name yet. She's as tall as Hana; her fur is quite fluffy, like a Samoyed; its color is pure white with small light blue spots at the ends; her ears are triangular and tall; her snout is quite long and thin; and it's her eyes that have the most "feminine" look with their long eyelashes and their seductive, angled shape.
I guess I've become a furry.
"It seems like they don't know that they're inside a dungeon," Yunia says. We keep our voices low so that the guards won't hear us.
"Yep. I think that we have to lie and go with the story that we're explorers," I say.
"Then we have to match our lies," Lina says, and I nod.
"I think that Oritiki might already be suspicious of us. Our first meeting was really awkward," Alissa says.
"I should've put some points in [Reo Language] before they landed. I was careless," I say and bow apologetically.
"We… we should've suggested that. I was too stunned by their spells; I should've been more careful," Yunia admits
I smile wryly and say, "I guess that even you can get careless from enjoying yourself too much."
"I wasn't enjoying myself," Yunia mumbles and subtly pouts.
I turn to Lina and say, "Alright, tell us everything you know about the Chimeras at the time of Arreira."
--
It takes half an hour for Oritiki to come back, walking alongside Kaatohe Ngerua, the apparent commander of the small planes. Both are naked except for the tons of jewelry adorning their bodies.
Oritiki has a black, human chest with huge tits, furry arms with human hands, and lizard legs. Her wings have seemingly shrunk down to a third of their previous size. Her pussy is completely shaved, exposing her inviting, meaty lips.
Kaatohe looks like a Bengal cat with spotted leopard arms and back, and a bronze-skinned human front and legs. Her small breasts are quite cute, and she has a well-kept, orange landing strip.
"Godsdamnit, they're hot," Hana comments as I share the tantalizing sight through [Bind].
Roxanne looks at the pair of jiggly, dark bazoongas, then looks at Ciel's and smirks. "Yours are a match for actual cow tits," she says.
Ciel rolls her eyes and says, "Jealous?"
Roxanne grins mischievously. "Of course, but since you let me milk them, I'm quite happy with not having a pair like yours."
"You can't really win against her like that," Yunia lowly comments.
The two Chimeric women exchange some words with Koura, then stop in front of the bridge to our ship and talk to the guards. They speak too quietly for even Alissa to hear them, but the Holly under the bridge is still close enough for it to hear them anyway.
"How have they behaved?" Oritiki asks.
"They changed clothes, drank tea, and talked a lot, but we didn't eavesdrop," the wolf woman says, and Oritiki nods, clearly pleased.
"The human man has certainly got his eyes on her," the raccoon man says in a teasing tone.
Oritiki and Kaatohe stare at the wolf woman, but she remains stiff and avoids looking at their eyes.
After an awkward few seconds, Oritiki smiles and says, "I'm reassigning both of you. You'll report to me for the time being. Inform Koura, then take off your armor and serve our guests."
Kaatohe rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.
The raccoon man smiles sadly and says, "I don't think any of them are interested in me. I'm pretty sure that the dragon is looking at me more like a piece of meat… like, one that you eat, not… the other way…"
"Just be their guide, then," Oritiki says with a shrug. "Now, you have your orders."
"Yes, Honored One," they say in unison and walk away.
Oritiki and Kaatohe then walk across the bridge and hop onto the ship. We stand up to receive them, now fully dressed up in our formal clothing.
"Ryder family, this is Kaatohe Karaka Ngerua, commander of the Wasp Interceptors, the planes that escorted us here," Oritiki says and gestures towards the hot, naked cat woman beside her.
Three names? I'm not sure what that means. The way she looks at us screams of 'nobility,' though.
We introduce ourselves, but her reaction is so perfectly neutral that even Alissa gets disappointed.
The elven custom for introductions involves kissing a hand, but the Chimeras are very reserved when it comes to touching. They don't even shake hands with strangers, which seems extremely ironic to us. Kaatohe doesn't motion for us to kiss her hand, so we just trade short bows.
"You can call me Kaatohe Ngerua," she says and smiles smugly, then bows quickly and crosses her arms, enticingly bunching up her small fun bags.
Certainly not one to go for nicknames…
"I think she's a noble," Lina comments in my soul space.
"Agreed," echoes through [Bind].
"With the introductions complete, let's talk business. As I'd expected, the High Command has assembled and invites your family to a meeting," Oritiki says.
"We gladly accept," I say and nod respectfully.
She smiles and says, "Wonderful. Now, I'll explain some of the rules of our society. We mean no offense, it's just that it's better not to assume anything, especially because our brethren at the frontier are much more conservative than we are… and the dragonkin are notoriously the most common offenders."
"None taken," Hana casually responds.
Oritiki nods strongly, making her delicious black milk jugs jiggle, then continues, "We may all walk around naked, but that's not an invitation to touch our bare skin or even for sexual acts. You're only allowed to touch someone's bare skin once they've asked for a handshake or a hug. A common way to ask for a sexual act is by first asking for a kiss, then gradually asking for more contact, and if you then have sex in public, make sure to clean it all up.
"You're all allowed to watch others as much as you want, and even have sex in public yourselves, as long as you don't block traffic or do it in front of private property without getting permission from the owner.
"Also, we all have personal towels that we use when we sit down anywhere besides the grass. If you wish to go naked, then you need one, too. It's very rude to stain chairs with sweat from your hindquarters, no matter how well cleaned it may be.
"Lastly, if you, Wolf, decide to go naked, ensure that your erection doesn't touch anyone, that would be very rude. Our men have learned how to keep their penises from straightening so that that doesn't happen, but they still enjoy keeping them at full length to measure their sizes against each other." She finishes with a subtle roll of her eyes.
"Understood," I say, and we all nod.
Oritiki smiles while Kaatohe remains impassive.
"Now then, please follow us," the cow woman gently says.
--
As we walk by Koura's office, the raccoon man and the wolf woman walk out, now fully naked. Thankfully, the man's dick is fully sheathed, revealing nothing from under his fur, while the wolf woman exposes all of her milky white skin and light blue scales. Her small breasts have ghost nipples that look hard and pointy, while her pussy has a light blue landing strip so small that I can still see her pink lips. Her legs are like a dragon's with a matching tail, her arms and chest are human, and her back is fluffy and furred.
Is she excited?
She freezes for a moment when she looks at me, then continues walking forward with a stiff posture. I smirk at her, then look forward again, and Alissa happily squeezes my right hand.
We walk out of the Golden Docks and reach the city proper. It feels like we're in the Nobles' Quarters due to the low volume of traffic and the opulence of both the houses and the people walking by. We walk down wide cobble streets while admiring the creativity of the Chimeric painters.
To match our gems, Yunia wears a thin, white necklace with a yellow garnet gemstone cut into a sphere. With all of our jewels and fine clothes, we don't really look out of place, except for the fact that we're the only ones not walking around naked.
Out of all of us, Aoi gets the most attention since there's the occasional dragon-like monster walking around the town, and they're very impressed to see a tamed one calmly walking beside us. Alissa, Hana, and Roxanne get a lot of looks, too, since the Chimeras have a thing for animal or monster parts, it seems.
Then word of our arrival spreads, and a small crowd starts to follow us. The two guards behind us pull out wooden clubs and start to disperse the crowd, guarding against anyone bothering us or asking us questions.
We climb up for a few minutes and eventually reach a huge, golden, semi-circular building. It looks rather minimalist with a simple garden in front, but it's immaculately maintained. It only has a single floor and a wide dome in the center, but the ceiling is easily four times as high as the usual imperial architecture.
Guards wearing glowing, golden armor are spread out all along the outer perimeter of the wall-less estate. If I hadn't seen the eyes of one of them following us, I'd have guessed that they were statues instead.
The inside of the building is like the Sistine Chapel, with nearly every centimeter covered with paintings, while everything else is gilded with gold, instead. Truly opulent.
We pass through a wide hallway and walk up a long set of stairs towards the wide dome above. Then we cross through a set of gilded golden doors, and emerge onto the stage of a round theater. There are seats for hundreds of thousands of people, but they're all empty, except for ten of them in the front row, where old-looking Chimeras are seated.
Their eyes are all impassive and serious. Except for one of them, I don't think that they're particularly friendly.
The only person with a pleasant gaze is a gray dragon-headed Chimera. His leathery lips are curled up in a subtle smirk, but like Aoi, it reveals his long fangs, which unintentionally makes it look slightly scary.
He smiles at us, then motions towards a few seats in front of the stage and says, "Ryders, please have a seat."
--
--
Hall of Fame of Patrons
The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:
Oracle Maximillian Hübner.
Prince PreownedFIN.
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