Making Monster Girls 7: For Science!, page 18
“I can’t wait to see their faces!” the feline-woman squealed, skipped down the steep hill, and then did a perfect cartwheel that transitioned into a backflip. “That’s my favorite part! They get so excited when we tell them that they’re free and that we’re fighting against the matriarchy! I never get tired of that part!”
“Is she always like this?” Cecelia chuckled. “So exuberant?”
“Yes,” Daisy snorted. “The only time she’s calm is when she’s sleeping, but we love her anyway.”
“We wouldn’t have her any other way,” Edony smiled. “She’s as sweet as pie, just like you, dear Cecelia.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” the redhead chuckled. “But thank you.”
I moved my eyes over all of the narrow walkways between the mine entrances and spied a few men. They moved along sluggishly in the hot sun as they pulled the large bins filled with ore. As we moved closer, I raised my arm into the air and shouted down to them.
“Hello?” I boomed. “Stop what you’re doing!”
The six of us ran down the hill toward the men as they froze in position. As we came nearer, I took in their sickly appearances and felt my stomach drop. Each and every one of them was rail thin with emaciated faces. Their cheeks were hollowed, and their shiny feverish eyes were sunken into their skulls. Every single man I laid my eyes on looked near death, and when I stepped closer, they drew back with grunts of dread and panic.
“There’s no reason to fear us,” I explained. “My name is Charles Rayburn, and I’m here to free you.”
“Free?” a skeletal man echoed in a raspy voice. “What does that mean? What do these mistresses want from us? We’re working as hard as we can. It’s hot, and we have no water left for the day.”
“No, no,” I shook my head. “My women aren’t your mistresses. I’m the leader of the New Order. We’re here to free you. You see, we’re tearing down the matriarchy.”
“The what?” another man asked, shielded his wrinkled face from the sun, and stared at me intently.
“Damnit,” I grunted and turned toward the rest of my women waiting behind us. “They’re severely dehydrated and probably starving half to death. They’re not going to be able to listen and actually process our words until we’ve gotten some sustenance into their bodies. Valerie, Daisy, go back to the caravan and grab as much water and food as you can. Oh, and my medical bag, too. I’m going to whip up a few vitality potions and see if that can help them.”
“Aye, aye!” the feline-woman cried, grabbed her sister by the wrist, and then hauled her back up the incline.
I turned back toward the growing group of men and held up my hands into the air. They whispered amongst themselves, but most of it sounded like incoherent babbles. How long had they been out here? How could they even work in these conditions? Somehow, they’d managed to, and I was unsurprised that so many of them had died already. I even suspected that if we hadn’t known up when we did, this large group of men would’ve been dead by morning. It was horrifying and disgusting to see, but hopefully, with the aid of food, water, and my vitality potions, they’d be as good as new in a few hours.
We waited patiently for a few minutes and then turned as we heard the sound of pounding feet. Both Valerie and Daisy raced down the incline with their arms full of supplies. The brunette carried my medical bag under her arm and a jug of water over both shoulders. Valerie dragged two wooden boxes filled to the brim with food. Along with the lengths of rope attached to the boxes, she carried a third box with even more of our supplies in it.
“I grabbed the first aid kit, too!” the cat-girl shouted. “They’re probably injured! Daisy knows a lot of that stuff, so after we get them fed, watered, and full of your potion stuff, we can patch them up!”
“Good idea,” I nodded and then gestured to where they should place the boxes. “Alright, let’s do this exactly how we do the transformation process, like an assembly line. Two of you prepare the food, and then two of you hand them out. I’m going to work on the vitality potions right now, and Daisy, if you want to start treating them with the first aid things, go ahead.”
Each of my women nodded in agreement and began preparing whatever food we had on hand for the men standing around and watching us. A few of them leaned in closer with wide, excited eyes as soon as they noticed the food and jugs of water. Before long, Cecelia and Josephine started handing out food and gave each man their portion of water, but I figured that all of it would be gone by the time all of this ended. I didn’t mind as long we got these men back into shape.
I quickly grabbed my medical bag, opened it up, and glanced in at the ingredients I had on hand. I would make the potion like the elixir I crafted Josephine a long time ago at the mines but with a few different ingredients. First, I grabbed a few finely ground powders and poured them into a large, wooden mixing bowl from my medical bag. Then, I snatched up ground fleshfly larva, boiled torchbug thorax, white snakeroot milk, and finally, alkahiest. I slowly poured each of the liquids into the powder, added the fleshfly larva, and the boiled torchbug thorax, and mixed them in. I waited patiently until it began to steam a little, then added the white snakeroot milk until it became thick and lime green.
I held the bowl tightly in my hands and waited until each man had eaten and drank their fill. They looked a bit better, and a few of them already had bandages wrapped around old and new injuries. Their faces had more color to them, and when their eyes swiveled to me, they weren’t as glossy or feverish. I came to stand in front of the first man, offered him the bowl of liquid, and then spoke.
“Take a long sip,” I instructed. “Then pass it to the man next to you. I made enough for all of you.”
“W-what… is… it?” the man questioned in a deep, raspy voice.
“It’s a potion,” I replied. “It’ll make you feel better. I promise.”
“What… if…it’s… po--” the man uttered, and I already knew what he was going to say.
“It’s not poison,” I assured him. “Why would I feed you and give you water if I was only going to poison you after?”
“G-Good… point,” the man nodded, took the bowl from my hands, and then tipped it back as he took a big sip of the green liquid.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he swallowed it down and then passed the bowl to the man beside him. I watched the wood bowl change hands until it reached the last worker and was nearly empty. The poor miner drank whatever he could get, swallowed it, and then leaned his head back with a loud sigh.
“It’s only going take a few minutes to kick in,” I explained to the group of miners. “But you should be starting to feel the effects already. How do you feel? Better? Worse? Is there anything else we can get you? Do you need more water or food? The water might be a little more difficult to get, but we can definitely try to get it for you.”
The lead man stood shakily from his position on the rock and then walked calmly closer. I examined his face and admitted that it looked much better than it had when we first arrived. All of them looked ten times healthier, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the food and water or my health potion, probably the combination of all three.
“Who are you?” the miner asked. “Why have you come here? Why did you save us? We’re nothing more than stupid brutes, mining for the worthy aristocrats. Why have you done us such kindness?”
“I tried to explain earlier,” I smiled softly. “But I don’t think you were able to understand what I was saying. My name is Charles Rayburn, and these are my women, my monster-women. I created them in a machine that I built with my own two hands. We’ve set out on a journey to take over different cities and free every man held in captivity until we reach the capital. There, we will attack the Queen and overthrow the matriarchy and the oppressive society that’s plagued us for centuries. We came here to retrieve supplies, but more importantly, free all of you and ask that you serve alongside my army. Once all of this is over, you will be accepted into society as a gentleman, and you will be able to live the lives that you’ve always dreamed of. Again, I’m Charles Rayburn, the leader of the New Order and future king of the country. Do you want to take part in the group that will change the country, even the world, for the rest of history, good sir?”
Chapter Thirteen
“We will join you as long as you do one thing,” the miner grunted, and I stared deeply into his sky-blue eyes for a moment.
“What is it that you need from us?” I asked.
“Save our brothers,” he pleaded, pressed his hands tightly together, and then bent down on a single knee. “Spare them from the horrors that they’re being subjected to. Then, we will follow along behind you wherever you go, Mr. Rayburn.”
“Your brothers?” I pressed. “What brothers? Where are they?”
“Our brothers in the ironworks,” the miner uttered. “We haven’t seen them in years. We can assume that they’re doing better than we were since we never saw them haul out the bodies, but we’ve heard rumors. We’ve heard that they’re chained to their machines and they aren’t unlocked at night to sleep, even to eat or drink. The aristocrats give them a little bit throughout the day to keep them alive, but they’re basically locked into the same position for the rest of their lives until they keel over and die, but even then, they’re not released. We’ve heard that they keep the dead bodies there to serve as a warning to the other workers.”
“We will free your brothers,” I promised, reached out, and rested my hand heavily on his shoulders before turning back toward Valerie and Daisy. “How many supplies do we have leftover? Do we have a lot of food and water that we can give the men inside of the ironworks?”
“We have a little bit of food left,” the feline-woman stated, glanced into the boxes at her feet, and then turned back toward me. “But the water is almost gone. We’ll need to have Kleeia summon some from the desert if we’re going to have enough for the men in the ironworks and our journey back to Granhamn.”
“We’ll give them all of our water,” I stated. “Then, we’ll ration what we can on our journey home.”
“Charles?” Edony gasped and covered her mouth with one of her thin, delicate hands. “That means we won’t have any on our way back to the city.”
“We’ll survive,” I grinned and shrugged. “We’ll have Kleeia summon some, and then we’ll ration it until we return to Granhamn. Sure, it’ll mean we’ll be unwashed and a little thirsty for a few days, but I’m sure that these men have survived much worse than we have. They deserve and need it more than we do now.”
My women nodded in agreement and then hustled to grab all of our supplies. I turned my attention back toward the miners, and their eyes lit up with awe and admiration.
“We don’t know the area very well,” I explained. “But we saw the ironworks on the way here. Would you like to come along with us and free your brothers? You are more than welcome to go back to the manor and rest in our caravan for a bit. In a few hours, we’ll head out on the road toward Granhamn with the supplies that we came for.”
“We will go with you,” the lead miner boomed and slammed his curled fist against his bare chest. “We’ve had the first sweet taste of freedom, and they deserve to gulp from it, too.”
“Good,” I nodded with a wide grin. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name, sir.”
“I don’t have one unless you prefer to call me by my lot number,” the leader explained. “But, the other men prefer to call me Virgil. It started it out as a joke but stuck if that’s what you want to call me.”
“Alright, Virgil,” I nodded. “Now, let’s go and free your brothers.”
The six of us and the group of miners started up the steep incline, and when I glanced over my shoulder at the men, they looked around at the world as if it were the first time they really saw it. When I worked for Edony, I didn’t think of myself as caged, nor did I see myself as a slave to the Duchess, but these men, they had been worked until their bodies broke down and their minds were nothing more than gooey puddles of mush inside their skulls. I never considered myself on that level since I didn’t receive this amount of abuse. I considered myself lucky because of my medical and scientific training, and I wasn’t treated in ways such as this. I may not have been an aristocrat, but I was relatively high up on the food chain considering my station as a mere ‘brute.’
By no means, I went through the same amount of torture and turmoil as these men, and I could read their pain in the lines of their faces as easily as the pages of an old book. I didn’t want to imagine what types of horrors we’d see inside of the ironworks, but I’d made a promise, and I would make sure that I wouldn’t break it. I paused for a moment, and everyone around me froze. Then I looked at each of my women directly in the eye. They’d already seen so much for one day, could they handle going into the ironworks and seeing even more?
“If you wish to go back to the caravan with those who wish to rest,” I assured. “You’re more than welcome. I don’t know what we’ll find inside, but I can tell you right now, it’s not going to be pretty. These men have been chained to their machines for months, even years. They’re probably barely even alive in there, just like these men were. I’m sure that the miners are more than willing to help prepare food and hand out water if you want to spare yourselves the horrible sight inside.”
“What?” Valerie gawked.
“Not help?” Edony questioned with a single, crooked eyebrow.
“Do you really think we’re that squeamish?” Daisy giggled and then shook her head. “No, we’re going in with you.”
“I’ve seen some pretty nasty stuff, Charles,” Cecelia chuckled. “I think I can handle some emaciated men and a few skeletons scattered here and there.”
“Hey now,” I snorted through chuckles. “I was trying to look out for you. Be gallant and save you from the horrors in there.”
“I think we can handle it,” Josephine smiled sweetly. “I used to see a lot of horrible things when I visited the black market to buy consorts. You forget, Charles, we’re not a bunch of wilting flowers over here. We’re not scared by a little gore or sickness. I think we can manage well enough to get all of the men inside the ironworks healed and ready to head back to Granhamn.”
“Alright, alright,” I grinned and shook my head. “You convinced me, but the offer to return to the caravan stands once we get back in there.”
“We know that,” Daisy tutted. “But we’re not going to take it. We know what we have to do.”
I nodded once and then turned on my heels as we trudged back up the steep incline. As we neared the entrance into the mine, the ironwork’s towering smokestacks came into view, and the loud, mechanical clinking reached our ears. It was clear that the ironworks were still operating at full capacity. We didn’t know what kind of state the men inside were going to be in. As soon as we came over the edge of the mines, the men behind me spread out into almost an arrow shape. All of the building’s windows were covered in slats of wood that’d been nailed in so that no light accessed inside.
We walked along the enormous dome shaped buildings along with the steaming stacks, and I leaned my head back to take it all in. It looked so bleak, and the black smoke stained the sky in certain spots. In a way, it almost reminded me of Granhamn with all of the enormous, industrialized buildings and the leaking gray smoke, but the larger city wasn’t as desolate as this, and I hoped that the men were treated a wee bit better.
“I’ve never seen a place like this,” Valerie breathed, leaned her head back, and stared up at all of the boarded-up windows. “It looks so depressing. How could anyone survive in there?”
“Humans can survive anywhere,” Edony muttered and kept her violet eyes close to the ground. “If I’ve learned anything in my time as the Duchess of Edenhart, it’s that. People will live on no matter what type of situation they’re put in, even if their minds weakens and their bodies fail them, they can carry on as long as they have hope for the future.”
“Indeed,” I nodded. “And here we are, that hope that they’d held onto for so long.”
We came around the corner of the building, and the enormous, wooden doors came into view. I stared at them for a long moment and took in all of the wood’s intricate details and rusted, corrugated metal. Across the two heavy, round door handles was a length of rusted chain with a padlock placed neatly in the middle. So, it was true. The men inside of the ironworks weren’t allowed to leave. I steeled and prepared myself for a moment in preparation of the horrors we were about to see inside of the ironworks.
“Daisy,” I muttered and gestured toward the chains and lock. “If you will.”
“Of course,” the bear-girl uttered, cracked her knuckles, and then stepped forward.
The brunette gripped the thick chains in both hands and then pressed her lips into a firm line. In one swift motion, the bear-girl ripped her hands apart, and the chains and broken lock fell to the ground in a jumbled heap. The brunette smiled softly, moved aside, and swept her arm in the direction of the massive door. I nodded to her and then gripped both of the round door handles tightly in my fists. With all of my might, I ripped them open, and bright sunlight flooded into the darkened quarters of the ironworks.
There were so many machines in the room, I didn’t know where to look first. The glow of molten iron ore lit some of the darker spaces, but most of it was so covered in grime and grease that it blended in with the brown brick walls. I was honestly surprised that the whole building hadn’t gone up in flames from all of the smeared oil on the floor and other machines.
“By science,” Edony gasped and rushed forward toward a machine. “Here. Let me help you.”
I turned my attention toward the Duchess, furrowed my eyebrows, and watched as she rushed forward. The she-wolf rested her hands against what looked like a pile of rags with thin metal rods sticking out of it, and it took me a few seconds to realize that wasn’t what it was.
