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THE MANDRAGORA
On Terradon Prime
A vague horrifying male voice tried to break through my mental block.
“How deep runs your fallacy that her attractiveness equates to goodness? She showed you what-a-man you dreamed of becoming. Undecipherable, she is. Did you believed you might save her from herself? All the while, she perceived your weakness and used you for her perverse pleasure.” The barrier hardened like quick drying cement and just as rapidly the memory vanished.
This time I hoped my greeter, Kiisu, would capture my rogue thought, so I shot her an indirect glance.
Curiosity tilted her head, and she shivered as she whispered. “You have an Osera.”
“Don’t talk much do you, Kiisu? I don’t understand.”
“Never mind. It’s gone. More important matters await.”
Undaunted and still a little dizzy, I surveyed my surroundings. “Are more natives hidden in the shadows?”
With a wink and a smile, she nodded her head side to side.
Like a child discovering something new and exciting, I brushed her spots. She lifted her tail and committed my scent to memory with a whiff. A whispered prayer for self-control fled my mouth when she glided her slender, toned body face first, along my disrobed legs.
“Give me strength.”
Uninhibited, she thrust her tongue down the length of my exposed abdomen. Though I required no more temptation, she licked her lips, and swallowed the moisture still beaded on me. The full extent of my virility, now obvious, did not surprise her.
In the distance, hundreds of flying crawlies swept their wings together. With harmonious purpose, they reverberated their chirps in an impromptu concert, inspired by a songbird’s haunting mating trill.
“What do you call the melodic wonder warbling in the trees?”
“A Rucaberra. Along with her, the mystical fire cast by our twin moons enchants me, Mandagral. Accept them as you would embrace me, Waphoon and Sephoon, adorning the night.”
“What you perceive is not an enchantment. Those heaven-bound maidens covet your eye-catching figure.”
“Beware, your words border on blasphemy. Our planet’s royal blue orbs shelter the throne of our prime deity.”
“Now, I’m warned.”
“Neither worry, nor stop what you are doing. Where this is going seizes my interest.”
Eager to gratify, I turned her back toward me.
Anticipation brightened her face as she gripped a gerzelnut tree. Fifty enthusiastic minutes later, her leg tremors climaxed. Breathless exhaustion set in, not so much after the fourth, but after the fifth orgasm. My cramped hands released the horns strapped behind her slim tummy.
Unable to cuddle because my belly rumbled, I bent over. True to herself, she rolled to her side in the moss, moving her moist nipple to my lips.
My stomach’s complaints quieted as I suckled her swollen breasts. To the music of the night, we nestled as a gentle wind carried us on gossamer wings to the land of unconscious imagination.
Long before dawn, she licked the dried milk from my chin to wake me. Without warning, she darted off, coaxing me with a giggle.
“Try to keep up.”
Unbalanced at first, I caught on to the art of climbing and running with my claws extended. All the while, untold threats glimpsed from behind the trees as we leaped above the unpassable shrubbery. Slimy slithers, deep growls, chitters and guttural croaks swelled up from alarming silhouettes. Screeches preceded a muffled death groan as the sound of a distraught trudge ceased with a thud.
The towering emergent layer of the jungle burst to life with countless extra-terrestrial winged fowl, scattering from their canopy perches. From our vantage point, the panorama of a valley brought my greeter to a pause.
“Our race is scattered among the villages in this region.”
With a motion of her tail, a sense of deep adoration for the landscape warmed her.
“Take in the splendor of our treetop dens with their labyrinth of catwalks, framing our serene village, Leopardmura.”
Like bright stars, glow stones illuminated the openings. “Isn’t the scenery beautiful?”
“What about perilous?”
Kiisu’s roar chilled my spine, shaking the branches around us. “The Mandagral draws near.”
Near and far, the villager’s bliss animated the serine countryside. The female population purred as their cubs frolicked in the intoxicating leonip plants. Out of nowhere, a cotton-like haze crept across the wilderness.
My hyper alertness eased as I observed the refuge thriving with no dangerous creatures in sight.
“Who knew tranquility claimed coordinates? Tell me of your world, Kiisu.”
Unspoiled, Terradon Prime exists in a natural balance. The deities allow us to feed on soulless creatures, except those the in the Jumanjang Expanse, our endangered creature preserve. Yet, this world is harsh when we’re still in cub years.”
After a second glance, a question tilted my head. “What about your males? Did they go hunting?”
“The Chimeragor Nation invaded our territory millennia ago. With their massive size, they almost overpowered us. Poisoned wounds robbed our original Mandagrals of their victory.”
“All perished!”
“Yes.”
“The burnt flesh from the funeral pyre offends my nose.”
“This particular odor grieves my soul, Mandagral. The one you sense shares your origin. With respect to your observation, he dwells in the spirit realm.”
“Yes, one like me! His recent presence supports my theory. Your world adopted the language of my people, whoever they are.”
My frustration at the unfairness of my situation caused me to scowl.
“Sorry for the interruption. Did I arrive the same way as he did? This revelation may help me unearth who I am.”
“At the time of a Mandagral’s transcendence, we find another at the jeweled device. After the war, we discovered the first of your kind under its mysterious influence.”
Her fallen face and slumped posture betrayed her burdened heart. “Tonight, my siblings remained to perform the Moon Binding Ritual. The Tipriet Ulna ushered him to the Spirits’ Domain.” Kiisu grieved as she wiped the droplets from her cheek.
“The bitter sap of the bandadan leaf gagged me as I clinched the stem with my teeth. To no avail, I prayed the gusher from my face would muddy the trail home. In so doing, I might drag his mangled weight with ease.”
My companion turned her head toward her recollections.
“This evening we raced each other from his treetop den toward the sacred pool. Carefree, we intended to veer off the beaten soil at the possibility of a new stretch of wild woods.”
Still hurting, Kiisu tried to massage away a painful flashback. “My trembling legs defied me to take the longest journey home of my feral life. Like a beacon, the light of the pyre reassured my clouded gaze of the correct path on this damned, endless night. Now the tormenting glare lingers, an unwelcome reminder.”
“‘Heed your instincts,’ said my mommeo.”
“In my defiance, I ignored her. Regret tracks me now like I’m wounded prey because I did not challenge your predecessor’s intentions.”
“Ah, the tears when I met you, I understand now, Kiisu. Please let me grieve with you.”
Nonresponsive, she continued her story.
“After four exhausting hours, no relief consoled me.”
The Innocent One shook her fist in the direction of her sisters. “Do not mourn,’ you both told me. ‘Your duty is to the Obelisk and the Goddess. Return to the place where our Mandagral died’.”
My face broadcast my astonishment as I studied the rod emanating from the smoldering flames.
Kiisu huffed at my distractible nature.
“The rare metal attracts the high-voltage celestial conduits, originating from our moons. Like thunderous lightning, they jar the passage for the soul’s ascension.
She concluded her account abruptly, “In the meantime, my kin dealt with my lover’s final ritual while I welcomed you so we might survive. Deprived of your species to propagate with, we would fade into history. To our advantage, we conceive in minutes and with every attempt.”
“So, I’m a father?”
“Ah, you mean, dradda, yes, I shall deliver your offspring to you in three cycles. Yet, for reasons outside our collective comprehension, your breed only impregnates us with the cute sort of felines.”
The last hint of fantasy escaped my new world view—the only virile donor in a world of females.
“Did you seduce me into captivity?”
“Would you distrust us, Mandagral? Born honest and free, we will treat you as our kindred, not a slave. Above all your concerns, you will not want for affection, stand as like an outsider, or go undernourished. Likewise, every living being, which walks, flies, tunnels or swims will approach you with reverence.”
“Swims! Your thick coats conceal gills, unlike me.”
Azgenuine smile lit up my face. “Your words bear the truth, Kiisu.”
“Mandagral, your perception serves you well.”
The spiritual leader, my Kiisu, crossed her arms and spoke in a strict tone.
“Deceit cannot hide on this world. Dark treachery carries the penalty of banishment, and in deplorable cases, death.”
The concern splashed all over my face begged her to lighten the mood.
“What if we make mistakes? Would you learn from them?”
“Hmm... I understand, relax myself. Otherwise, this circumstance should excite me like a bull in a cow pasture, but a desperate need to find answers tenses my gut. How did my predecessor die? How will I discover the Obelisk’s secret? How do the prehistoric Mandagrals differ from me?”
Under a little tension, six-inch raptor-like claws slid out from their sheathes in my paws, sharper than any talon or fang. Freed by relaxing my muscles, they retracted.
The banter of two bratty sisters drew my attention from the experiment.
“Fraidy cat.”
“Don’t caterwaul, canoodler.”
“Dingy dreadlocks.”
“Snuffle snoot.”
“Loopy bumfuzzled doodler.”
“Squeegee noggin.”
“Tater breath.”
“Veggies! No way. How dare you say I’m a lousy hunter! You wombat-legged gob-smacker.”
“Make her stop, Mommeo!”
The dread of an angry parent ended the name-calling and the cub pounced on my back.
“Kitten pile-on. Hi, I’m Kita.”
With a roar, I dove into the game. A sense of home calmed my anxious thoughts as dozens of Kita’s cohorts joined her.
My nature, to play with the young ones, aroused more questions about my vacant past.
For sanity’s sake, I tumbled around on the ground with the little rascals until I lost myself in their reality.
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