Illicit Alliance by Rukis

Author:Rukis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FurPlanet Productions

“That isn’t a man,” I said in a choked-off utterance. “That is a golden god.”

We’d all come to a halt at the edge of the tree-line that separated one steppe of the mountain from the next. Down a muddy lane and an uneven set of chiseled stairs, carved right into one of the rockier areas of the land, was the open-air cantina Chester had told us to meet him at. And even calling it a ‘cantina’ was being kind. It was more of a pagoda with a few cooking pits and a cart laden with promising-looking barrels. I could smell the rum from here.

This looked to be the watering hole for a lot of the area’s farmers, though, so it was busy. Mostly your standard local fare. Rodents, smaller cats, and various shades of tan foxes. The cantina was run by a family of jackals, bustling about pouring tea and booze and delivering banana-leaf-wrapped food parcels of some sort. They smelled spicy and sour, offending my nose but also making my mouth water. Probably rice balls wrapped around something pickled.

There was your odd dog or other obviously non-farmer dressed like they were here from the city, but the main attraction, the fellow who truly stood out, had to be our mercenary. He was sitting beside the weasel as well, so that just about confirmed it.

He was a leopard and one of the largest I’d ever seen at that. They were a striking people as it were, but he looked like he must’ve had some northern ancestry in him owing to his somewhat thicker fur and bushier tail, as well as the sunset hues of orange, gold, and white his pelt bled into along his chest.

Which he was certainly most prominently displaying, favoring absolutely nothing on his upper body save a sparkling bandolier of gold chain necklaces and a pair of form-fitting leather breeches below. And that was it. It looked like he kept his fur shaved down in places, a common practice for northern folk in this climate, but I could understand wanting to wear as little clothing as possible when you had a pelt like that.

He was all roiling muscle, powerful and sleek. Granted I’m not the best judge, but in my humble estimation he was a particularly fine specimen of a man, and he seemed to know it. I glanced sidelong at Luther, wondering if I was the only one who’d taken note of that particular fact.

I was not.

“Mate,” I smirked, “you’re staring.”

“It’s clear he wants to be stared at,” he replied without breaking stride.

Lotus for some reason seemed more nonplussed, replying to my earlier comment with, “Oh. Yes, that’s probably him. I’ve seen him around this port a lot; it’s got to be one of his haunts. A local, then. Good, he’ll know the lay of the land.”

We approached along the walking trail, passing several farmers on their way out to work the fields. I didn’t miss that over half of them wore collars. But at least they were able to purchase booze… I mean, it was something.

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