Sex & Sorcery 7: The Best In Erotic Epic Fantasy (Sex And Sorcery) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Uruk Press
Published: 2024-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

“Breeding Trouble” by EK O’Doherty

Kass sifted through the collection of roots, flowers, and animal parts spread across the bench. He realised he was tugging at his beard in frustration and hooked his thumb into his belt instead. The hunter, who was still unloading the packs of materials and ingredients from her latest journey into the wildwood, seemed to sense his dissatisfaction.

“I’m sorry if it’s not everything you need. We’re so stretched and we have to prioritise meat.”

“I know, of course,” Kass said hurriedly. “I’m grateful that you gave me first look. Amra is so low on ingredients.”

The hunter nodded. "Everyone's struggling. Our request list is the longest it's ever been, and we have half the hunters we had before the war. Even with extra hunts…" She shrugged. "We're all exhausted and it's still not enough."

Kass understood. They had to prioritise food for humans and dragons. It was just hard to be a potion maker without potion ingredients. And he so wanted to make some small amends for the state the workshop had been in when Amra had returned from the war just two days ago.

“Any hag-beetles?” he asked, craning his neck to peer into the opening of the hunter's bag.

“Sorry. I tried, but they’re all swarming around vargurse lairs at the moment. They seem to love the rotting scraps from the vargurse’s kills at this time of year, but it makes them dangerous to collect.”

Kass nodded gloomily. Amra needed powdered hag-beetle carapace for her preservation salve and they were down to their last few measures. He’d been experimenting with breeding them at the workshop but was coming up against a problem that nothing seemed to solve. It was all very well to be amassing food supplies, but if they couldn't preserve what they were hunting and foraging, it wouldn't last through the long dark anyway. The clan needed all the preservation magic they could get their hands on. Goddess knew the rune scribes were stretched enough just trying to keep the halls lit and the cook-fires burning, so the problem was laid before Amra and the other brewers.

Kass took a pouch of bloodbriar thorns, a bundle of flame moss, and an oozing blue poison sac in a wooden cup that had come from a spined boar. Hanging these from his belt, he thanked the hunter, ducked through the low doorway of the storage hut, and trotted up the steps into Heart Court, the centre of the Dracchus clan’s domain. He paused for a moment in the autumn morning sunshine with the bulk of the clanhouse looming behind him, watching the rest of the hunt team pushing sleds loaded with furs and meat up from where their dragon had landed in Free Court. The hunters were shedding heavy flying cloaks – the sun had only started to set a few days earlier, and it looked like being a hot day.

A group of small children with their minders rambled past, heading towards Nest Court – likely to watch the hunter's dragon having its harness stripped.

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