GRANDORA: Chapter 4: Call of Nature (Patreon)

Author’s note: Hey guys.

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So I gave it some thought, and while it would have been a tad easier for me to continue with the current release schedule, it would have ended up with an 8-4 chapter ratio in Grandor's favor at the end of the month. But to better understand both stories, and therefore a more equal chapter spread, I decided to change the release schedule.

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Wednesday: Ratchetmare

Friday: Grandora

Sunday: Ratchetmare

Only two (three) chapters the following week.
Wednesday: Grandora

Friday: Ratchetmare

Plus some day that week: Chapter 308 of Lament of the Slave

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Again, this may change. However, at the end of next week, so with the end of the month, I would like to do some poll, to get a better understanding of which of the stories you like more. That by no means implies that I'm going to make my decision based on that alone. My opinion, how I feel about the stories and how I see their progression in the future will play a major role.

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Now without further ado, enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 4: Call of Nature - Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/96469756

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Chapter 4: Call of Nature

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Gold . . . and sweet? The two just didn’t fit together. Gold was . . . well, gold, a metal, a cold, heavy metal that brought out the greed in people. Some were said to sleep on pillows padded with gold coins, eat with gold cutlery, or even lick gold bars, but I never heard of gold being sweet. It was just ridiculous.

And yet I had just eaten a rock as bitter as Snowdrop Root, a northern herb used to warm the body and get the heart pumping in the freezing weather.

Ridiculous.

My stomach didn’t seem to care. Regardless of the bitterness, it demanded more. And I obliged. Before long, I had another rock in my mouth, trying to recall the feeling of “eating” the first one, hoping it would taste less bitter.

It didn’t!

Once the rock had melted, which was not as easy as I had hoped and required me to think back to the tender rabbit meat in the herb sauce, my tongue and face cringed at the bitterness of my new food. Unfortunately, there was no other way to appease the beast in my stomach, and so I found another stone and then another, one bitter mouthful after another.

Bitter.

Bitter.

Bitter.

Oh, this one was kind of sweet.

Did I just eat gold? How much of it? The thought made my heart race with a tangle of emotions. Such a waste. One gold coin was enough to last a month if you were frugal - and free. A lump of gold ore that fell out of a cart was worth a dozen lashes. And here I ate it. If the foremen knew . . . well, better not even think about what they’d do to me.

Instead, I looked at Ferracore in astonished awe. The Grand Beast was chewing on huge chunks of rock, most likely laden with veins of gold. The amount he had to eat to satisfy his sweet tooth . . . I couldn’t help but look around the cavern. This place might not even have been here originally. Just the bottom of the crevice that the bastard somewhere up there in tunnel twelve had thrown me into. But it was a bottom full of what they crave, full of sweet ore. And Frerracore turned it into his candy store. If the foremen and mine owners knew that, they would burst with rage.

A sweet thought at which I threw myself back into further comforting the hungry beast deep within me, hoping for another sweet rock instead of bitter ones.

And I found some, along with a few, that tasted a bit like potatoes. Of course, I could have asked Ferracore what kind of rock I was actually devouring. However, I didn’t dare. He seemed happy to eat, and to be honest, so was I. After a long, long time, I could eat as much as I wanted and take as long as I liked doing so.

To say how long I had been eating stones was quite difficult, even impossible, given the lack of anything to tell time by, but in the end I sat down on the sharp stones, the source of my food, the beast in my stomach pacified. It felt good. Even the cold of the place suddenly didn’t seem so bad. In fact, my stomach gave me a nice warm buzz. And the thought to worry about.

While eating, the rocks didn’t turn out to be as gruesome as I had imagined - of course, only thanks to the might of the Grand Beast lying not too far away from me - that didn’t mean it would be the same when they came out. But no matter how hard I tried to peer through the gloom of the cavern, I couldn’t see any turds left behind by Ferracore. Not so strange. No beast shit where it ate. At least not free beasts, and the same was true for humans.

With that thought in my head, I wondered what value Ferracore’s dung might have. After all, a kilogram of Frostflame’s dung was worth an entire gold coin. When dry, it burned with the Frostflame’s blue flame. In warmer regions, its cooling effect was widely used to preserve food. But in the north, with the dung as fertilizer, you could turn barren clay soil into the most fertile you’ve ever seen. No bullshit. I saw it happen. Farmer Bren’am saved up for three years to buy enough for his entire field. He put it in the ground in the fall, and when he planted in the spring, he couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly his seeds sprouted. Of course, he bragged about it all over town and was proud when people came to see his field, including me. A shoot that was barely out of the ground in the morning was the size of a little finger by noon and twice that size by the evening.

Those were good memories. The kind I learned not to dwell on too much. It only hurt more when I did.

Nevertheless, there was no point in fantasizing about the price of Ferracore’s dung, or mine, for that matter. Even if it turned out to be piles of refined gold, I’d have nowhere to spend it. And even if I got back to the surface, instead of being able to buy decent clothes or good food, I would probably be accused of stealing it. No, it was better to stay here. This cavern may have been as different from the snowy woods of my home as it could be, except for the cold, but there were no foremen here to hurt me, no people to look down on me for who I was, nor to mock and ridicule me for the misfortunes that had befallen my race, me, and my family.

I missed them, though. So very much.

At first, only hot tears streamed down my cheeks, but soon my cries echoed through the cavern. Not my first cry for the life I missed so much, for my family, far from it. I used to cry myself to sleep every night - with silent cries, though. My masters, whoever they were, didn’t fancy listening to my wails. So I learned.

Now, though . . . I let the floodgates open and poured out all my heart, crying out years of pent-up injustice from the world. Yes, I dared in front of the Grand Beast . . . and to my surprise and gratitude, Ferracore let me.

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***

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“I a-apologize f-f-for being so weak,” I stammered, once I had calmed down and found the courage to face the Grand Beast.

»ARE you as weak as YOU think you are, CHILD of mine?«

“Yes, I am,” I replied without hesitation. How could I not be? The strong were able to stand up for themselves and their loved ones. They were the ones with the whips, holding their own freedom in their hands.

»Interesting. That ROAR of yours spoke of something ELSE, child of mine.«

“Did it?” All I did was cry.

»Indeed. It SPOKE of all you have BEEN through. Would anyone WEAK bear so much?«

“Yes, if . . . if they had no choice.” I had no idea how many of Vetrifyr’s memories Ferracore had already sorted through, but it seemed he had no notion of how horribly humans were capable of treating each other - he didn’t seem to know about slaves. And it certainly wasn’t something the Grand Fox couldn’t have known about. Sure, there was no slavery in Trifyria, the land of the Foxkin, their kingdom, my kingdom, and the territory the Grand Beast roamed most often. But even there, some criminals were sentenced to hard labor for the crimes they’d committed, without having any say in the matter.

»MANY, however, would have crumbled MUCH sooner, given UP their fight . . . THEIR life, child of mine. YOU did not.«

I wanted so much to tell Grand Beast how wrong he was. But it wasn’t my respect for the behemoth or a lack of courage that held me back. It was the fact that Ferracore was not entirely wrong. I could have given up long ago, like so many others, attacked the foremen and earned the punishment that would have brought me death. Heck, on my cart rides down to the mines, all I had to do was take a turn faster than I usually whizzed through them. But I never did, and I endured, day after day, week after week, year after year.

Did it make me strong?

“Thank you for your wisdom, Ferracore.”

»You STILL reek of doubt. YET, does not the FACT that you HAVE become a child of MINE speak of YOUR strength?«

“B-But that was your doing. You saved me.”

»Have I NOT already told YOU that I have ONLY shown you the WAY?«

All I could do was nod. Ferracore had really said that. And I saw what he was telling me, that it was my will to live that kept me alive and allowed me to accept his might. However, I must have been missing something, something obvious to him, because I didn’t feel that it made me strong. It just meant that I was stubbornly clinging to life.

»You WILL know in time, CHILD of mine,« Ferracore said with a confidence I did not possess. Nevertheless, like him, I let it go and looked out over the pitch black surface of the lake, sharing with him the peace of this place. And this place was incredibly still. So quiet, in fact, that all I could hear was Ferracore’s and my breathing, with occasional drops of water trickling down from the ceiling. The rhythmic echo of the droplets hitting the surface of the lake gave the place a strangely serene feeling. In fact, it made me quite sleepy, to the point where I eventually opened my mouth in a massive yawn.

*YAWN*

How such a yawn could be contagious and cross-species became apparent when the echo of Ferracore’s yawn resonated through the cavern. I followed with my second yawn, wondering where my fatigue stemmed from. After all, I had a good night’s sleep and a full stomach. If anything, I should be full of energy.

Was it because I was just sitting there doing nothing? Up in the mine, the foremen would’ve had me working by now. Doing nothing was nice, though. Especially when no one yelled at you, no whip cracked behind you, and no threat of painful punishment loomed over you. And so I sat there, trying to fight the drowsiness, sometimes stifling a yawn, sometimes letting it out.

Maybe . . . just maybe I should do something?

This sitting on my ass was nice, but . . . it made me feel like I was doing something wrong. That at any moment, a foreman would jump out from behind a rock and whip my back. Of course, they wouldn’t dare in the presence of the Grand Beast, yet I couldn’t help but feel a little . . . restless despite my fatigue.

Not to mention that sitting here gave me time to think, and that wasn’t good. Too many bad memories. So, yes, I should do something, occupy my body, focus on something else.

But what?

There wasn’t much to do in this gloomy cavern except take a cold swim in the lake or rearrange stones from one side of the shore to the other. That would be an option, if only I could see better in the darkness and tell which stones contained the gold ore. Unfortunately, no matter how long I looked at the sharp crumbs from the Grand Beast’s feast, they all looked the same to me.

*YAWN*

“I’m s-sorry. I don’t know what . . . YAWN . . . is wrong with me.”

»You ARE tired, child of MINE,« Ferracore said the obvious, amused.

“I-I just don’t know why,” I explained my confusion. Was it the cold? It wasn’t as biting after I dried off, and my not-so-usual food was now warming my stomach - literally.

»It IS my might.«

“Ah, you mean . . . that being in your presence makes me tired? Forgive my weakness, Ferracore.”

The Grand Beast laughed. »You ARE mistaken about MUCH. Some you MUST find out for yourself, but KNOW that it is my MIGHT you are using that wears YOU out.«

“T-The melting of the stones on my tongue made me so tired? Or . . . ” I stopped short, my mind racing. Was I using the behemoth’s pressure, his might, for digestion as well? That would explain a lot. My fatigue, the warmth I felt in my stomach.

“My sight?” I asked, finding no other explanation for my ability to see in the otherwise utterly inky darkness.

»Indeed, CHILD of mine, indeed.«

I blinked, rubbing my eyes as if that would help me see the might of the Grand Beast I was unconsciously using. It didn’t, of course. The gloom of the cavern remained the same. What if I used more of Ferracore’s might? Risking a deeper beast change aside, would I be able to see better? Maybe even as well as in the daylight?

*YAWN*

»You PUSH yourself WHEN it is not necessary. GATHERr your strength, child of MINE. Sleep.«

After I barely got up?

Alas, any protests of mine were stifled by another yawn. The exhaustion was becoming too much even for my stubbornness, driven by the fear of the whips. And so, justifying it to myself with an order from the Grand Beast, I lay down on the rocks. Nothing comfortable - even sleeping on the wooden planks up in the mine was more bearable. Yet barely two breaths later, as if by Ferracore’s magic, I drifted off to sleep.

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***

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When I opened my eyes this time, I found the Grand Beast lying on the shore a bit further away - also resting, judging by the behemoth’s closed eyes. But somehow I doubted he would get as tired from eating rocks as I did. There had to be more to it than that. However, all I could come up with were memories of Vetrifyr that would have tired the behemoth so much and perhaps kept him nesting down here. Ferracore mentioned that he hadn’t been able to process them in all those five years.

Be that as it may, I was not one who would dare disturb the Grand Beast from his slumber.

His slumber.

The realization hit me with the force of a thrown stone. Him. Since when did I think of the Grand Beast as him? And why was I so damn sure he was male? I didn’t ask, he didn’t tell me, nor did I see his male parts. A woman’s intuition, perhaps? Upon further thought, it had to be the Ancient tongue, the meaning of the spoken words sinking into my brain. Without realizing it, I knew.

The Grand Beasts may never have had partners, someone to mate with, at least as far as I knew; however, unless you had a death wish, you better know. Grand Bear was a male, Grand Hog a female, and so on and so forth, all alone. Just like me. I had long since given up on the idea that a man would find me attractive and start a family with me. That was raving, pure delusion, best not to think of.

So I didn’t.

Instead, I sat up in complete silence and stared at the black underground lake. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do there except count the drops echoing in the cavern. Which only made me realize how thirsty I was. On the other hand, a few sips of ice water, taken carefully so as not to wake Ferracore, made me notice that the heat in my stomach was gone. I had digested what I had eaten. Good news. Except that the thought of rocks in my guts brought my mind to my bladder and the fact that I hadn’t taken a leak in who knows how long.

The passage of time here seemed to slip through my fingers. Was it only hours since I fell into the lake, or had it been days? I simply had no idea.

Trying to keep my mind occupied proved to be a futile effort. The sound of the drops on the lake’s surface, which I had found soothing before, was now like invisible magic hands squeezing my bladder with each echo. It was torture, and it got worse with every breath.

You’ve endured worse! I tried to encourage myself, and I sure did. However, this kind of suffering could not be endured for long. I had to find a spot - before it was too late. After all, I couldn’t take a leak in the candy store of a Grand Beast.

But no matter how hard I searched for a place, a crevice to squeeze through, a ledge leading to another cave, or anything else, I found nothing but bare stone walls, not even a rock big enough to hide behind.

Shit! The curse almost escaped my lips as the need to find a place to squat grew more urgent. With no other option, I picked myself up from the ground - as quietly as possible - and took a painful walk along the walls of the shore.

»Your HEART is racing, child of MINE. Why?« Ferracore spoke, and it was only by luck that I didn’t piss myself in fright.

“I-I am looking for a place to . . . relieve myself,” I said with urgency and a hint of awkwardness in my voice.

»I SEE. NOT here!«

That was the idea. “But where?”

“Hmm,” Ferracore grumbled groggily and stood up. The following cavern tremors caused by his movement didn’t exactly help my case.

»Follow ME, child of mine.« Easier said than done as the Grand Beast made its way into the lake. Many thoughts popped into my head, all pushed away by one: I have to pee!

“Do I . . . into the water?”

Judging by his disapproving grunt, he didn’t like the idea as much as I did. However, he understood the nature of my question. »CLIMB on my back.«

A request I wouldn’t have dared to follow under other circumstances, or at least I would be reluctant. Now, I didn’t hesitate and actually ran over his massive tail to his scale-clad back. Before I knew it, I was sailing on the Grand Beast through underground spaces somewhere, hoping to hold out against the call of nature long enough to . . . well, long enough not to pee on Ferracor’s back.

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Author’s note:

I hope you didn't find it too awkward. :D

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