Tribe Master Read online

  Tribe Master

  A Fantasy Harem Adventure

  Noah Layton

  Copyright 2019 Noah Layton

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  Did it work? Can you hear me?

  My eyes flickered open, adjusting painfully to the white light that surrounded me.

  I looked down at where my body should have been but found nothing. I was just a pair of eyes floating in nothingness.

  I racked my brain, trying to remember what had happened.

  It was a regular test-run with the J-17. Clear skies, the beating sun over the desert, but there was something else too.

  A force had interfered with my onboard equipment. An anomaly had appeared just ahead. A distortion in the air that had almost pixelated my vision.

  I clenched my eyes shut hard before opening them again.

  Out of nowhere a figure had suddenly appeared. He was floating in the whiteness right before me; brown hair flooded in endless droves down his head and around his jaw, wide alert eyes that were also paradoxically exhausted, and dirty leather clothes that hung from his lean, skinny figure in vast heaps of rags.

  ‘Am I dead?’ I spoke the words, surprised to hear them at all considering my total lack of a body. ‘You’re not God, are you?’

  ‘God?’ His voice was no more than a croaking squawk. It was as if he hadn’t spoken in years. ‘I am no such thing.’

  ‘Then what is this?’

  ‘I haven’t got much time. Are you worthy?’

  ‘Am I worthy? Worthy of what?’

  ‘Bah!’ He yelped suddenly, his voice echoing all around me. He looked around frantically and dragged his dirty hands over his bearded face, clawing at his skin with his overgrown nails. ‘There is no time! I should not even be here. You must do the land justice. Grow and nurture. Do not butcher and destroy. Good luck, young master.’

  His body collapsed into dust, drifting into the whiteness on the back of a gust of untraceable wind.

  Shit.

  ‘Okay… What happens now?’

  Suddenly I was falling. I didn’t even have a body yet I could feel my stomach ascending into my chest and churning into my lungs like some pulpy cocktail at a dive bar.

  Crunch.

  With a single blink the world and my body reappeared. I was latched into my parachute, which itself was hanging from a branch twenty feet off the ground, my own legs dangling from ten.

  I must have bailed out of my jet and passed out in the drop. It was a miracle that I wasn’t dead.

  But then how the hell had I ended up in a freaking jungle? There were no patches of trees like this anywhere near the airbase in Nevada, not for hundreds of miles at the least.

  This was no Oregon forest caked in snow. It was just as humid as the desert. The sun beat down through the trees mercilessly in protruding rays, lighting up the spectrum of colors that occupied this place.

  ‘Where the hell am I?’

  I checked myself over for injuries. Aside from the bruising the parachute straps had caused around my shoulders I was fine.

  I undid the clips and held one side in place before lowering myself down as far as I could. I released and took the drop, landing easily in the undergrowth.

  It didn’t take long for me to remember my training – stop, think, observe and plan.

  I had no idea where I was in the slightest. Logically I had to be somewhere near the base because there was no way that I could have travelled a thousand miles south and into the Amazon.

  The problem was, of course, that I knew what I was seeing. This was a dense, tropical forest. I ain’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.

  My plan of action should have been clear – find the wreckage of my jet, locate a signal and set off the emergency beacon. That was off the cards instantly, though; I had no way to find the jet. The smoke would have stopped billowing long ago.

  Apart from my flight suit and my boots, I only had two things on my person. The first was the Glock .11 holstered against my left side. There were 13 rounds in the clip – I had only ever pulled the trigger on the firing range.

  The other was the chain around my neck and the solid silver locket at the end of it.

  The gun would be useful if I ran into anybody unfavourable, but it wouldn’t get me rescued.

  I had to find a clearing or running water – or both. Most running bodies of water flow through some civilised area, but before I even sought out rescue I had to find a source of hydration.

  My forehead was already beaded with sweat. I pulled the top of my suit down over my white vest and tied it at the waist, exposing my muscular arms and broad shoulders.

  I set off through the forest at a sharp but careful pace. I had to be wary of exhausting myself too quickly.

  The trees were thick and the undergrowth thicker, although occasionally I stumbled onto a carved path through the jungle that would run on for several hundred yards before vanishing.

  I don’t know what it was that possessed me to travel in the direction I was going. The sun could direct me, if only I could see it, but the branches remained thick, and with no inclination as to how long I had been unconscious, I couldn’t tell if midday had yet passed.

  Eventually the treeline thinned out and I stumbled into a gigantic clearing. The clearing was circular and filled with stalks of corn and overgrown grass that rose to my waist.

  In the centre of the clearing was a gigantic tree unlike any I had seen before. It rose more than twenty yards, stretching towards the sky with a myriad of spindly branches littered with huge, palm-sized leaves. An elaborate spiral staircase composed of carved wood ran around the huge trunk, leading into the unseen reaches of the tree.

  ‘What the hell is this place?’ I muttered to myself, looking about the empty clearing. Peeking upwards I saw the sun at its perfect peak. I wouldn’t be able to determine east and west for a little while, and I needed to seek out some shelter.

  I headed across the clearing and arrived at the foot of the tree. Ten yards from the trunk the grass disappeared completely. It made way for what was effectively a well-kept yard with neatly-cut grass and a series of squat marble columns that surrounded the tree.

  I circled it, examining the columns. Each had a carved marble object placed atop their waist-high platforms; one with a water-well, one with a heap of grain, one with a horse. There were six in total.

  Arriving back at where I had started, I returned my attention to the tree and its ornate staircase.

  Maybe I can get a better idea of my surroundings from up there.

  Water was still my priority, and from the higher reaches of the tree I might have been able to see a more civilised area
– it was a long shot considering the denseness of the jungle, but I would take whatever relief would come my way.

  I ascended the steps, each one feeling firm and resolute as I ascended higher. When the steps finally levelled off I was in the higher unseen reaches of the tree, baffled by what sat before me.

  Situated within the tree was a spacious and well-covered living space. A large platform of carved wood composed the floor, while overhead was a ceiling composed of manipulated branches and huge palm leaves covering a transparent protective canopy. Orange light flickered in through the gaps between the leaves. It was one of the cosiest spaces I had ever seen.

  The floor was empty save for one thing. Near the entrance, pushed against the wood of the trunk that had grown around the platform, was a footlocker. It was composed of heavy oakwood and was littered with ornate carvings.

  Somebody had evidently lived here – or was still living here – even if there was no sign of a bed now.

  But a chest meant valuables, and out here I would definitely have considered water to be something valuable.

  I crossed to the chest and unlatched it. Swinging it open and looking into the interior, I tried to surmise what the hell I was looking at.

  There was something inside, I just couldn’t tell what that something was. It looked like an animal carcass, but what type of animal was beyond me.

  Suddenly it shifted slightly, and one of its eyes flicked open, rolling around like a lizard’s. It focused on me.

  Then it started screaming.

  It leaped out from the box, striking me hard in the face with the force of a bar-fight sucker punch.

  I stumbled backwards onto the steps, rolling down halfway before slipping off the edge and plummeting back into the clearing. I slammed into the ground, the grass offering little relief against the force of the fall.

  I groaned and pushed myself up, looking about for the creature that had attacked.

  ‘Speak, intruder!’

  The voice had come from the staircase where the creature was now standing. It was one of the strangest things I had ever seen, akin to a green monkey.

  And it was talking to me.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ I shouted up, pulling my handgun from my flight suit. ‘What the hell are you?’

  ‘You are an intruder in this land,’ the thing said. ‘You are standing on the ground of the Orakin Tribe. State your business.’

  ‘Look, I don’t know what an Orakin Tribe is. I don’t know where I am. My plane crashed, and I just want to find my way back to a town or a city or something. I don’t mean any harm.’

  The thing eyed me suspiciously, looking me up and down.

  ‘How did you end up here?’ He said.

  ‘I was in a jet,’ I said. ‘I encountered interference, I crashed, and…’

  ‘And what?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. I hallucinated. Just like right now, actually, seeing as I’m talking to a green monkey.’

  ‘I am no monkey, but we can get to that shortly. What did you hallucinate?’

  ‘I saw a man. Bearded, dishevelled. He looked like he’d seen better days. He said something about being worthy, and the next thing I knew I woke up in the jungle.’

  The creature’s eyes went wide as it stared at me. Suddenly he set off sprinting down the staircase before hurrying up to me.

  He rose only as high as my knees, but considering the speed at which he was moving and the fact that he had already struck me once, I kept my handgun raised.

  ‘Master!’ He yelled out, throwing himself before me and bowing down.

  I frowned in confusion and lowered my gun a little.

  ‘What did you just call me?’

  ‘You have been chosen by Master Marlo to take over as the new master of the Orakin Tribe.’

  My confusion only deepened.

  ‘Look,’ I said, lowering my gun to my waist, ‘I don’t get half of what you just said, but you’ve got the wrong gu-’

  ‘I am Alorion, your faithful servant. What should I call you, master?’

  ‘Uhh… It’s Jack. Jack Hawthorne.’

  ‘Master Jack!’

  ‘No, no, not Master anything. Jack’s fine.’

  ‘What do you desire most, Master Jack?’

  ‘Quite a few things actually,’ I laughed, ‘but right now a glass of water would do the trick.’

  ‘Water!’

  Alorion went running off to the marble column with a carving of a well atop it. He ushered me over with a frantic wave of one of his hands.

  I decided to humor him – and if it meant that I had any chance of quenching my thirst, I would take it.

  ‘You are now in control of this land, Master Jack, and as leader of the Orakin Tribe you can begin to create your starter resources.’

  ‘Uh huh…’ I said. ‘And how would I go about doing that?’

  ‘Simply touch the well at the head of the totem.’

  ‘The totem?’

  ‘This column.’

  I did as I was told, pressing my index finger to the marble surface of the miniature object.

  ‘Now what?’ I turned to Alorion.

  ‘Select what you would like to build.’

  I shook my head and looked back at the well. The object had been obscured by an opaque blue menu that floated before me with a list of options.

  Construct water well

  Cost: Free

  Benefits: Provides a plentiful supply of water for up to 5 individuals

  ‘What the fuck?’ I said to myself, stepping back and glaring at the menu. It had appeared from nowhere, and was floating right before me. ‘This isn’t possible.’

  ‘It’s more than possible, master,’ Alorion said. ‘See for yourself.’

  I pressed my finger to the Construct button. The menu receded in a flash back into the marble column, and the ground began to rumble lightly beneath my feet.

  Then, just a few yards past the column, the grass flattened, and a water-well burst up from the ground, complete with a sloping tiled roof and a bucket suspended on a rope.

  ‘Water, you see?’ Alorion said enthusiastically. ‘Come take a look.’

  I followed him along the short trail to the well and looked down into its depths. It stretched more than ten yards into the earth at least, the darkness preventing me from seeing any further.

  I unravelled the rope from the wooden pole which it hung across with feverish anticipation. I lowered the bucket fast before feeling it hit something.

  The surface.

  After bobbing it for a short while and retrieving enough water, I heaved the bucket back up and set it down on the side of the well.

  It was filled to the brim.

  I caught sight of my reflection in the water; my face was a little dirty but I was otherwise unscathed as I scanned myself. My dark hair was swept out of my face, exposing my sharp features and brown eyes.

  I picked up the bucket and drank straight from it, gulping the pure, perfect liquid down in mouthfuls.

  I finally set the bucket back down, panting deeply.

  ‘Sorry,’ I breathed. ‘This is really rude of me. Do you want some?’

  ‘If it is not too much trouble, master.’

  ‘Knock yourself out.’

  ‘You would like me to hit myself?’

  ‘What? No, no, of course not. Have some water.’

  Alorion gulped it down from the bucket until he was finished.

  ‘Well this is working out to be the weirdest day of my life,’ I continued. ‘But at least I’m not going to die of thirst.’

  ‘Not today, master.’

  ‘Please stop calling me master,’ I said. ‘Jack. Seriously.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Positive.’

  ‘Very well… Jack.’

  ‘What is this place? Did I die?’

  ‘You’re definitely not dead, Jack. These are the lands of Agraria.’

  ‘Agraria? Don’t think I’ve ever heard of a place called Agrari
a on Earth.’

  ‘There is earth right below you.’

  ‘No, not earth as in the dirt. Earth, as in, you know, the planet.’

  ‘Plan-et?’ Alorion said slowly.

  Even if these words were being said to me by a green monkey, I quickly surmised that I wasn’t on Earth anymore. It was a weird concept to wrap my head around, but I would need to accept it quickly if I was going to stay on my toes – and stay alive.

  ‘So what can you tell me about this place?’

  ‘Agraria is a tropical land of great abundance. The people are split up into many, many tribes of varying size. Each tribe is led by a master. That’s you.’

  ‘And I’m guessing that this Master Marlo guy was the last leader of this tribe? The, uhh… Orakin Tribe?’

  ‘He was. His reign came to a rather terrible end.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘He went… Slightly crazy, shall we say. His people were slaughtered, his lands destroyed. The tribe shut down, and I went into hibernation until the next master arrived.’

  ‘Hibernation? How does that work?’

  ‘Upon the end of a master’s reign, his servant goes into hibernation. I have served many masters, but my memory is not as good as it used to be, so forgive me if there are many things that I forget. Every tribe master is provided with a servant when they begin. That’s me. It is my job to advise and assist with anything that you may need.’

  ‘Right…’ I said slowly. ‘Well, if I’m stuck here I might as well turn this place into a decent home. What do all of these other columns do?’

  ‘Totems,’ Alorion corrected. ‘Follow me.’

  Alorion gave me a tour of the other totems that surrounded the tree. As well as the Water Totem, there was Harvesting, Building, Stables, Defence and Storage.

  ‘Let build all of them, then,’ I said.

  ‘As a new Tribe Master, you have the ability to construct only three, completely free of charge. You have already constructed the Water Totem, so you have two remaining.’

  ‘Okay…’

  My first choice was a no-brainer – water would sustain me, but I would need food to stay on my feet.

  Construct harvesting supplies

  Cost: Free

  Benefits: Provides tools and resources to begin harvesting crops