Chapter 52: Meeting up with Marrowheart

virgilknightley

Rainbow Sprinkle and I walked across the drawbridge into the stone keep--still under construction. It resembled a medieval castle, complete with crenellated walls and towers that looked like they'd been made out of the same lumber we used to build our cabin, way back when. The whole thing was lit by undying torches, which gave it an eerie feel, even in the middle of the day.

"I can't believe you're here," Sprinkle said as we stepped through the open doorway into the main hall. "I still can't believe you've woken up at last, my Bucky! Can I bite you, just one more time? I'm going to bite you--"

I grabbed her by the shoulder to stop her oncoming chompers and was surprised at my own strength. Using my muscles in this way still hurt, but at least I could manage to hold off her loving assault. She pouted, realizing that I had not, in fact, silently granted her consent to munch on my face again, and she mercifully backed off.

"I missed the taste of you," she moaned sadly, but she brightened up as she stared into my startled eyes. "I'm so happy you're awake. I would like for us to play together soon!"

"I'm sure we will," I agreed, "but one thing at a time, yeah?"

We walked into the keep. I should be clear at this point. It did not compare well in size to Keenfury's Keep, or what I imagine the Goblin Queen's own castle must have been like. It was about the size of Tater Town, end to end, and not much larger than that, and walls were still apparently partially under construction. I could see brickwork being laid, and primitive scaffolding everywhere. There was no furniture, but there was plenty of space.

"Down this way," Sprinkle said, leading me to the throne room. A large door hewn from solid oak stood before us, separating us from Marrowheart the Goblin Queen. I looked at Sprinkle and suddenly felt it rather surreal just how quickly things were happening. Had I even been awake twenty minutes?

Sprinkle frowned at the horrendous scars on my arm as I reached out to open the mighty door.

"The dragon blood burns are still there," she said softly, her voice full of concern. "Maybe you should go get some more rest." She placed her hand on my shoulder, and even that gentle gesture of love stung to the touch like a thousand stinging bees. "Are you sure you're ready to see everyone?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied. I was far from fine, but I was not ready or willing to go back to sleep after three months of doing nothing but lying on my back. I had had enough of convalescing alone in an empty cottage--I wanted to get back to what I did best--laying pipe in monster girl pussies.

The thought made me smile. I couldn't wait to get started. I opened the door, Sprinkle clinging to my arm to support me if needed.

The throne room was dark and silent, illuminated only by flickering torchlight and the faint glow of the braziers. As I entered, a chill ran down my spine, and I wondered where Marrowheart was. There was a wooden table at the center of the room, made of one of the more common woods in the forest, and honestly of fairly shoddy workmanship, but it managed to lay even on the ground and seemed to be flatly planed enough for function.

"Apex Hero! Can it be?"

I jerked my head around wildly in pursuit of that voice. A curtain behind the humble wooden throne stirred, and out came the beautiful form of Darkmaw. Her dark, lovely features practically lit up the room for me. She had a sheen of dewy sweat over her face, which reflected the sconced torchlight to tantalizing effect.

"Darkmaw!" I called back, releasing Sprinkle's arm and walking forward. She watched me approach with a curious expression, her lips parted slightly as she took in my fragile state.

"My hero is finally awake," she cooed, her husky voice filled with something like sadness despite the joy that hid behind her eyes. "Look at you, you poor creature."

I stopped in my tracks and looked down at my own injuries for a split second, but then I simply shook my head. "I'll heal," I shrugged. "I'm awake now. Let's focus on that."

"You have no idea what seeing you fall did to me," she said, her eyes narrowing with barely contained emotions. "It almost killed me to watch you cut open like that. I couldn't bear the sight of a deer being cleaned and gutted for weeks. Me! Every time I saw it, I--I--" Her voice just stopped, unable to press onward. She closed her eyes and looked down.

"Believe me when I say it was worse for me," I grunted.

She and Sprinkle both laughed at that, but it was strained and awkward, the unicorn girl kicking the ground with a hoof as she scratched her shoulder, and the wolf girl unable to look at me anymore.

"Queen Marrowheart will be here shortly," Darkmaw said. "Please, sit down, for I cannot bear to see you force yourself to stand."

I smirked, taking a seat on the wooden chair opposite the throne. Sprinkle sat beside me, and we waited patiently for the queen to arrive. "I'm not that weak, you know," I said, trying to dispel some of their need to treat me like I was maid out of paper thin porcelain.

Darkmaw crossed over to me once I'd sat down and placed her paws on my shoulders. She leaned forward and inhaled deeply, as deep as any inhalation I'd ever heard.

"I haven't had a bath in three months," I pointed out. "So hope you enjoy the smell of body odor and ball sack."

"That's simply not true. The women of the town took turns bathing you twice a day. Your marked girls got the lion's share of shifts, but sometimes those of us on the outside would get lucky. I bathed you myself last week."

"Wow, so everyone in town has been washing my junk for three months," I said, swallowing hard at the revelation, my eyes glossing over with quiet embarrassment. "Cool. Cool-cool-cool."

Sprinkle giggled. "That's nothing. Autumn wanted us to suck on your boy parts to help you gain XP while you slept."

I cringed. "You didn't do that, though, did you?"

She just smiled at me and shrugged. I clasped my hands together to check my XP on my HUD, but nothing happened. "Hmmm."

"What is it?" Darkmaw asked cautiously.

"My HUD didn't come up." I looked at my hands--completely scarred over from the slow spread of the dragon blood curse--and felt a chill go down my spine. It was an uncomfortable wave of realization. Just a theory, but a damn shitty one.

"Try again," Darkmaw pressed, her voice still calm.

I obeyed, clasping my palms against one another one more time, but I got the same result. "So, this could be bad."

"What could be bad, my Bucky?" Sprinkle asked sweetly.

I frowned. "I think I lost my ability to check my HUD because my hands are... too fucked up."

Darkmaw and Sprinkle exchanged anxious looks, but before they could offer anything else, the entrance doors swung open again, and a seven foot tall goddess of a green-skinned woman in a gem-laden red and gold dress walked into the room with an entourage of four orcs.

Darkmaw and Sprinkle rose to their feet, and I tried to as well--but I failed, instead falling backward back onto the chair when a sharp lancing pain shot through my left shoulder all the way down my chest.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, grabbing at my wound and wincing in agony.

"What is wrong with him?" Marrowheart demanded, her voice echoing loudly in the chamber. "Is his condition truly so delicate?"

Darkmaw and Sprinkle both knelt by my side, looks of obvious worry on their faces. "I'm fine," I said. "I just got up. Not used to the pain yet."

Marrowheart frowned. "This will not do. Who must I slay or capture to manage his suffering, Darkmaw? Bring me names."

I cocked an eyebrow. Was she serious?

"I have a team of ogres heading to Aurora City, looking for the one they call Treeleaf the Herbalist. We are doing what we can, but he needs rest, mother."

The queen frowned. "He needs to breed me. My numbers are growing thinner as the rebels who overtook my castle press against us from the north. With the creatures he and I would make, we could easily--"

"This feels like a discussion I should be participating in more actively," I grunted, feeling my cheeks heat up with all the breeding talk.

Marrowheart laughed. "Indeed," she said. "Forgive me, my betrothed. You have been asleep for too long, and I am not used to allocating time for your opinions."

I sat up straight, hoping to banish some of the pain in my chest, but it only made it worse. "I don't think I ever fully agreed to us being married," I pointed out. "I would need to discuss this with my girls and understand exactly what it is you stand for and have to offer."

"Reasonable. Your marked women and catgirl already have agreed to my terms, so I expect your conversations with them to be short. As for what I stand for--" she grinned at me, her sharp teeth glinting in the torchlight, "I believe in the dream of a Lusteria free of the demons and the undead, where monster girls, goblins, humans, and even elves can thrive alongside one another under one kingdom."

"Your kingdom?" I asked.

She bit her lip at the concept, and the sight of this goddess of a woman doing such a sexy thing put my boner on red alert. "Perhaps our kingdom, if you prove to be a worthy mate."

I didn’t have particularly high aspirations for being a king. I already felt like one with all the gorgeous women who’d chosen to give their love to me, and I wasn’t a greedy person by nature. Hell, back when I lived on Earth, my highest aspiration was to be a store manager at a fast food chain and have a cute wife and maybe one or two cute kids.

I’d say I pretty much shattered all those goals in my short time here. So, really, the idea of appealing to my ambition amused me—but that wasn’t what she was doing, I realized quickly. Marrowheart wasn’t an idiot. She would know—they all would—at a glance that I wasn’t the kind of guy begging for a realm to lord over like some feudal cunt. She knew the real reason why the idea had appeal to me.

Being in a position of power would allow me to keep everyone I cared about safe.

“We’ll see how things go,” I said. Marrowheart was not using her seduction mojo on me, but she was still a sight that greeted my eyes like the gates of Disneyland after a twelve-hour drive. She was remarkably elegant, classy, imperious, and I so desperately wanted to be smothered by her fat milkers.

And then there was Darkmaw. I dreamed of her a few times while I slept those long three months. I dreamed of the time she pinned me down and forced a tit into my mouth. How she somehow managed to proudly say that she wanted me to be her Alpha. I could guess what that meant, based on the context.

My cock throbbed in my pants, and it didn’t go unnoticed, unfortunately. Darkmaw sniffed at the air as I hardened, and she saw fit to offer her own color commentary. “Your arousal is pleasantly pungent as always, Apex Hero,” Darkmaw tittered.

“Wow, just gonna throw it out there like that, huh?” I said, shaking my head at her in disapproval. “Not cool, Darkmaw. Super uncool.”

Marrowheart grinned. “Good. If you can become aroused, then you can bear the seed needed to officiate the consummation of our union.”

“Fucking hell,” I groaned, crossing my legs. “Buy me dinner first before talking about consummation.”

“When we reclaim the north, I shall have the finest dinners dedicated in your honor, if that is what you desire. Right now, resources are mostly spent on building this keep.”

I nodded. “Explain what happened to me,” I said.

Marrowheart and Darkmaw looked into one another’s eyes, both glowering at the memory. “It was a dark time. We won the battle, but the war was just beginning. Keenfury had been experimenting with creating a secondary brood queen using the Witch Queen’s magic—but he found that he could not make goblins himself, he could only corrupt those goblins that already existed.”

“So, basically you’ve got a bunch of corrupted goblins running around?” I asked.

“More or less. Clearing them out and reclaiming the lands will be a trivial thing.”

“Then why haven’t you done it?” I asked, cocking my head.

She grinned. “Because I had no breeding stock. The goblins and orcs that have infested my castle in northern Goldenvale are useful, at least, in that they seem to show no loyalty to the Demon Queen or the Witch Queen, so they have done their part in continuing to keep the other Dark Queens at bay during this time of vulnerability.”

Darkmaw grunted her affirmation of all this. “Yes, if we slayed them before we had replacements, then we would be left totally vulnerable and exposed to assault.

“How is it you ended up here?” I asked. “Why not just take your own numbers back and reclaim your keep and leave Tater Town to fend for itself?”

Marrowheart curled her lip in disgust at the notion. “And leave my future king unattended and out of reach?”

I blushed bright red at that. “Wow, you’re really set on this breeding idea,” I grunted.

“By the gods, it’s true, I am,” she said, and she pounded the table hard to punctuate her point, startling the four orc guards that stood by the door. “Speaking of which, if you can stand and sit, you can be milked for your seed. It is high time we begin the coronation.”

I blinked, looking around the room. “As in, right now?” I asked.

Darkmaw, Sprinkle, and the Goblin Queen let out their unique naughty giggles. “No, Apex Hero, of course not. We will give you a few days to meet with your marked girls and children and recover. Preparations must be made in any case, and I will be busy until that time. But then we must proceed--time is already short.”

“Do I get a say in this?” I asked anxiously.

“Of course,” the Goblin Queen said frankly, but her lips turned upward in a sarcastic smile. “If you do not value the security of Tater Town, Goldenvale, and monster girls all across Lusteria, then by all means, take back your little farming project. Let’s see how that ends up.”

I pouted. “Don’t make fun of my farm,” I said sadly. “But I see your point, I guess. And, hey, gonna get my dick wet, so that’s always a plus.”

Marrowheart groaned and clicked her teeth in feigned disgust. “How vulgar. Hardly a manner of speaking befitting my king.”

Darkmaw leaned in close to her queen. “And… after you have him, may I?”

Marrowheart raised an eyebrow at Darkmaw. “Help yourself. But let your dear mother have first dibs.”

“Of course, my queen,” Darkmaw said, grinning. “Do you hear that, Apex Hero? Soon our love will be officiated as well.”

I just shook my head. “I don’t even have the energy to debate our love with you at this point, so I’m just gonna say, ‘cool, can’t wait.’”

Sprinkle waited for a pause. “Shall I get the others, Queen Marrowheart?” It was weird to hear Sprinkle referring to the Goblin Queen in this way. A lot really did happen while I was asleep.

Marrowheart, for her part, let out a bored sigh. “No, take him with you. I am aware you girls have special celebrations underway. I shall have the the satyr girl and a few goblins keep the rabbit children under lock and key so they won’t disturb your—” she paused, looking for the right word, and then she grinned as she landed on it, “festivities.”

“Yes, Queen Marrowheart.” Sprinkle said, and then, grinning, she turned to face me and reached out for my hand. I let her take it, guiding me to my feet. “We’re going to take special care of you tonight.” Then she looked at Darkmaw and Marrowheart. “I’m also going to try to see if Autumn can figure out why he can’t access his HUD, and if there’s anything we can do about it.”

“Oh, I must be distracted--I had already forgotten, but yes… that does seem like quite the problem,” the Goblin Queen sighed dolefully. “I will also reach out to those in the know about such things. Not to worry—I happen to know that alternate systems exist for amputees and the like, but it requires a formal petition to the gods, arranged by a catgirl... or a witch.”

“We’ve got at least one of those,” I grinned, thinking of my Autumn. I couldn’t wait to see her… and Daisy, and Etherea, and Ivy. Hell, I wanted to see Scalia and Vale, too. I had a lot of catching up to do. Some of them had to be pretty damn pregnant by this point.

Standing, Sprinkle ringed her arm around my waist to support me and we made our way out of the door—but we didn’t leave the castle, to my surprise. Instead, we headed down a short hallway down the eastern side of the building, which ended in a single wide door on black metal hinges.

“Where are we going?” I asked cautiously.

Sprinkle looked up at me and grinned. “To your harem, my Bucky—my king.”