Aphiwe soon was rushing into the water her ughter echoing off the banks as she spshed herself with water. The dust of the day being washed away. She filed her arms and ughed as I watched her. I could hear the slosh of water as Melokuhle skulked past me going to the girl. Her bare backside jiggled pleasantly with every step. With my adrenaline winding down I found my lust building once more. Never in my life had I felt so wound up as I had the st few days. I was beginning to bme Hathor as Haloor came to my side and sat into the water. The bottom of her bare breasts submerged thanks to her shorter stature.

  She looked at me, her voice quiet, “It takes someone truly skilled to defeat someone in the way you just did.”

  I scowled as I looked at Melokuhle following Aphiwe through the water. The girl spshed her watcher while filing her legs trying to swim in the shallow water of the river. “Melokuhle should have listened to me. I am the leader here.”

  Haloor scooted closer to me and pulled one of my arms into her chest. The strong muscle of my bicep encircled by her breasts. “Males are much lower caste here than where I come from. They are nearly our equals in our cn. We don’t see what they touch as dirtied.”

  I looked on as Bongani continued to work my shoulders. I could feel him hunching down and hiding behind me everytime that Melokuhle gnced at us. “That is not our way,” I spoke with knowledge from a lifetime of being taught that men were to be used and controlled. They relied on us women for protection and food.” I turned my head to Bongani, “Rub Haloor’s shoulders now.” As he complied I looked back at the river. “They are of little use outside of pleasure and breeding to my people. Even then there are rights and rituals where the men can be fully repced by our Queen. I just think Bongani had earned his reward, his hunger wasn’t warranted.”

  “That is a kindness I would not expect from your people. To even defend him and put yourself in danger,” Haloor started.

  “Melokuhle wouldn’t have attacked me. She knows I am her better. The whole time she was after our male. It is custom to punish the men that step out of their pce in our lives. If I had not told him to eat and he did, I would have punished him.” I looked at the man while the moon’s light started to illuminate all of us in the river. The silver light reflecting off the slow moving water.

  “I see, and the elder you take into your care? If you were supposed to be the great warrior I thought you would have been harsher to those around you.” Haloor continued to look up at me, her eyes glimmering in the cold light of the moon.

  “I have my reasons,” I said keeping the knowledge of the god that had taken me into her service to myself. To spread around that information would be to spread around my own weaknesses and intents to grow in strength while being breeding stock still.

  A chill went up my spine as something was wrong. I scanned the area and did not see anything wrong but still I stood up and scented the air. My eyes sweeping across everything. Haloor stood up with me shaking off Bongani’s attention. “What is wrong?”

  The water wasn’t moving right. “Everyone out of the water! Now!” I yelled with urgency as the water began to thrash from upstream as my instincts paid off. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Aphiwe being snatched up by Melokuhle as Haloor took Bongani up the bank. I turned my attention to see Dare much closer to the spshing area. She was bending down to fill a waterskin as she froze in fear.

  I bolted through the water as fast as I could as the crocodilekin burst from the water wielding a thick heavy club in one hand. I wasn’t fast enough as he brought it down in a crash onto Dare’s head. The heavy crack of bone being shattered filled the air as she fell limp, face down in the water.

  I lept at the ambusher as he grabbed Dare’s limp body by the hand and started to flee back into the water. I was on his back in a moment and wrapped one of my powerful arms around his neck and squeezed with all my might.

  The bastard dropped Dare and started to try and swat me with the club with his other hand. Desperately clinging to my arm trying to free his throat and breath. As the club soared towards my head I flung one hand out and grabbed him by the wrist holding that arm at bay. The thick heavy tail of the ambusher thrashed against my leg spping with intense power. He threw himself down into the water sinking both himself and me below the surface.

  It would take too long to suffocate him as I fought for the club and broke his wrist in my powerful grip. The club came loose as the attacker thrashed trying to free himself from the sudden pain. I snatched it with my now free hand and bent my back pnting my feet into the ground of the river and tried to haul the heavy unwieldy form of the ambusher from the water.

  The water made my choking arm slip. He pulled back just enough to wrap his powerful jaws around my forearm and soon I felt the terrible crushing power of his jaws begin to press against the muscles of my arm. I reared the club back and with all my might smmed it into his ribs breaking bones and crushing lungs. I could feel bot blood rush out of my arm as his teeth tore free from the blow. My blood flowed down my forearm, coating my hand.

  Instead of turning to face me the bastard went to flee. I brought the club down against his shoulder so powerful I could feel his colr snap from it eliciting a deep rumbling hiss of pain from the beastly man. This time he turned and looked at me with hatred burning like coals in his eyes. The water shook as he hissed again, his scaled skin rippling as he tensed and coiled to strike. I could hear a scream behind me and in a foolish moment turned to see what was happening.

  The attacker pounced at me the moment my attention slipped. I was able to get the club between the jaws of the ambusher and my throat as he snapped down on it. The crunching of the wood could be heard as he tackled me into the water. As he began to thrash and work on tearing free the club from my hand I could feel the soft skin of his belly press against me. I took my bloody hand and crunched it into his injured side. I pressed so hard that the scales buckled and in one powerful wrench I shoved my hand deep inside the concaving cavity of his body. Blood rushed out of his mouth in the water as I looked up. The light left his eyes but the rictus of his death made his jaw still cmped down on the club.

  I burst from the water taking a deep lungful of air as I whipped around and looked as another attacker was fighting Melokuhle and Haloor. The two were working together but showed obvious injuries. The limp form of Dare y face down blood pouring from the wound in the back of her head. I trusted the two dies to be able to st a few moments for me to check on the elderly woman.

  I pulled her up out of the water and felt for a pulse. Her eyes were looking in opposite directions as blood flowed from her nose and mouth. Her tongue severed in her mouth. She was limp, her skin still hot but I could see no life in her eyes but still her heart pounded in her chest. Even if I could stop the bleeding it was probably too te for me to save her mind. I pulled her to the shore and looked with hatred at the second attacker.

  It swept its weapon back and forth fending off the two women as I sprinted from behind him. The spear thrust pushing the women back as the cowering Aphiwe hid. The two women had wounds openly bleeding into the air. I jumped crashing down on the back of the crocodile man. I knocked him down sending the spear skittering away in the dirt. In a heartbeat the two women leapt onto him as well pinning down his arms as I smmed the hairless head of the ambusher into the ground twice knocking the strength out of his mind.

  I reached around and grabbed him by the jaw with my bloody hand and the other cupped the back of his head as I began to twist. The powerful muscles of his neck fought me for every inch I twisted as my arms rippled with strength. The bastard gargled something in his own tongue as I got ever closer to snapping his neck with all my might. He thrashed and fought as he neared his inevitable death. I gave one final wrench of my arms twisting at the waist and shoulders adding the power of my body. A final snap sounded through the air as he went limp.

  I stood and grabbed the spear, turning and ramming it down with all my might through the back of his shattered neck making sure he was dead. His blood ran through the dirt as I twisted the spear viciously gouging a bigger hole in his corpse.

  “You have failed your quest, Dare has fallen. You have killed two Crocodilekin Ambushers +40XP.”

  I walked numbly to Dare’s fallen form. Her body was limp and growing cold. Her heart had stopped and there was no breath in her lungs. She had come here because of me, because of my promise. I was a stranger to death until this moment. I had sparred all my life, I had heard of our warriors and hunters dying but I had never been there for it. I looked down at her corpse and closed my eyes.

  “Hathor, please watch over Dare. She was a gentle soul.” I bent and scooped up her body and began walking to the others. Melokuhle and Haloor could tell by the state of her body that she was far gone.

  Aphiwe approached, “Is she going to be ok?”

  “I’m sorry little one. She was killed by those two, we have avenged her but that is all we can do.”

  Aphiwe’s eyes grew wet as she looked up at me. I set Dare down and pulled the young girl into my arms. “Death is inevitable. We will all join her one day, but until then we must live our lives to the fullest. Come, we have to return and tell the cn of the attack and bring Dare back to her mate.”

  Aphiwe clutched me tighter as she nuzzled her face into my chest. She shuddered for a moment before taking a deep breath and straightened her back. “I’m ready.”

  We got dressed and soon I was carrying the fallen Dare back to the vilge in my arms. Many of the homeless looked on in shock as I approached. All those that died usually did so far from the vilge and not at our doorstep. I stood in the eating pits and called out to those around us. “Someone bring me Dare’s mate. And we need to speak with Ade.”