Their world was dying; they had to band together and fight the enemy to save her. Tesel was leading his group of about fourscore warriors through the dimly-lit tunnels, caverns, and caves inside of Gaya, a planet that was a giant woman’s body (Yes, as odd as that sounds, that’s what it was, so just go along with that.).
Aisa’s army of at least about a hundred men were ravaging the planet’s subterranean world, using their swords and spears to hack up her insides. Tesel’s latest report was that Aisa was in the intestinal region, cutting through the smelly huge tubes of flesh his army was trudging in. Tesel and his fighters were dreading having to go there, less because of the foul stench and the disgusting mud they’d have to wade through–how like a sewer!–than because they knew, in confronting the larger and much stronger enemy, that they were facing almost certain death.
As Tesel’s army marched toward Gaya’s intestines, they heard voices from above, from time to time. The voices were from far off, but loud enough to be heard underground. Tesel’s fighters believed that these voices were coming from heaven, the voices of gods, goddesses, and angels, voices of comfort and assistance. They had no idea of what the celestial voices were saying, what the words meant, words of a totally different world, but they listened carefully every time they heard the voices, stopping their marching to be as silent as possible, hoping and trying to figure out the words’ mysterious meaning. Was it divine aid, given in a cryptic form? They certainly wanted to believe it was.
At one point, these were the fragments they could make out:
comapornographicactress…ketaminealcoholmarijuanaecstasy…semengangrape…glasscuts…onherfaceshouldersandbreastscarcrashalmostdrownedinalake…nofamilyIDGayaWeld…awoman…foundherandtookhertohospital
They heard all the sounds run together, but couldn’t discern any meaning behind them at all. When the talking was finished, they resumed their march to face Aisa’s army.
Tesel’s right-hand man was Fil, who wrote in a log recording the events of every day, including the reports of Aisa’s army in Gaya’s intestines. Now, Fil was a good man and a brave fighter, but he was also prone to drinking lots of wine at night, so Tesel often had to discipline Fil to make him leave the bottle alone. A woman warrior who fought in the front ranks of Tesel’s army was Lia, handy with a sword, and with a great love of their planet, eager to save and protect Gaya to the point of fanaticism.
As dedicated as Tesel’s warriors were, though, Aisa’s men were a formidable, deadly bunch. Aisa’s right-hand man was Titos, who directed the men into battle and was a crucial aide in the strategizing of battles, including how to create diversions and distractions so their army could sneak up on unsuspecting victims. The man who produced the distracting visions was a magician named Gujon; he often seduced the enemy with enticing images of dancing, beautiful nude women. Just as the enemy was most in the women’s thrall, that was when Aisa’s army would attack, usually killing them all.
Many of Aisa’s men enjoyed raping the conquered enemy, male and female alike, often in the form of brutal gang rapes. Lia was fully aware of the danger she was getting herself into, as were all of the female fighters in Tesel’s army; their love of Planet Gaya, and their dedication to protecting her, was so strong that it rendered all fears of rape to be virtually nonexistent. To these women, Aisa’s rapists were little more than aggravating, unfaithful former male lovers.
Tesel’s army knew they were getting close to the intestinal area: the smell was getting overpowering. Some of the warriors were retching; a few others were puking. It was getting darker than usual: the glow that inexplicably lit the tunnel walls was dimming. The warriors were moving slower now. They kept as quiet as possible, listening for any movement of Aisa’s army.
As they crept closer, the foul smell vanished unaccountably. It was replaced by a fragrant, flowery smell, like perfume.
“What?” Tesel whispered after a few sniffs.
“Well, thank the gods for the pleasant change,” Fil said.
“No, Fil, this isn’t right,” Lia said. “This can’t be really happening.”
And just then, a dozen beautiful nude women appeared before them all, dancing seductively.
“They’re real enough for me,” said Fil with a lustful smile.
“Me, too!” shouted several men at the front of the army.
All of these men, including Fil, dropped their weapons and ran at the women, grabbing them and putting them in position for gangbangs. The women, smiling lewdly, offered no resistance at all. Only Tesel, Lia, and all those soldiers who were too late to get at the girls, refrained from the indulgence; though Lia was looking at a nude dancer who looked identical to Gaya Weld, and wishing she could have her.
All of the nude women seemed to be enjoying their multiple penetrations as much as their penetrators were, including the one Lia was interested in. The three soldiers all having her at the same time looked like the ones at the house party Gaya Weld had driven away from.
Though the rest of Tesel’s men couldn’t physically participate, they all enjoyed watching the orgy, all of them looking on as if hypnotized. The women fighters–apart from Lia, who continued looking longingly at ‘Gaya,’ looked away from the spectacle in disgust. Tesel watched only in disbelief.
“You’re right, Lia,” he said with a frown. “This is wrong. It can’t be really happening. It must be one of Aisa’s tricks.”
…and just as he finished saying that, Aisa’s men, as if on cue, ambushed the lot of them. Of the men in the orgy, only Fil escaped death, for the nude dancers suddenly transformed into men with swords and knives, stabbing their would-be lovers. Though as unarmed as his fellow soldiers were initially, Fil managed to get a sword from one of his attackers, stab him, then slice his way out of the ambush.
Of the female fighters who were jumped and put into the same positions as the ‘dancers,’ only Lia was able to fight them off before they could rape her. She was swinging and lunging with her sword in a frenzy, stabbing, disemboweling, and decapitating her attackers one right after the other. Then she looked over where her female comrades were having their clothing torn off.
She ran over to their aid, stabbing her sword in each rapist’s back as he was too distracted by his lust to see her coming. None of the other men in Tesel’s army could help her rescue the women because they were too busy trying to fight off Aisa’s horde, if not being killed already.
Fil and Tesel watched in horror as they saw their men getting mowed down by the enemy. Blood was spraying everywhere, as were the deafening screams of those whose bodies were being invaded by swords. The deaths seemed to be all on their side only. Tesel saw Aisa from a distance, laughing at Tesel’s great losses.
“This isn’t a battle,” Fil said to Tesel. “It’s a massacre!”
“You’re right,” Tesel said, then shouted, “Retreat!”
“Retreat!” Lia and Fil shouted with him. “Retreat!”
The survivors, after fighting off those in the front lines of Aisa’s attackers, ran off with Tesel, Fil, and Lia. They split up into two groups, one following Tesel and Lia, and the other following Fil.
Their total remaining number was about sixty now, thirty going with Tesel and Lia, and thirty going with Fil, running down large tunnels going in two separate directions. As they’d started going, some of the survivors looked back, seeing the bloody corpses of the fallen slipping through the tubes of the intestines to be shat out of Gaya’s anus.
The great majority of these fallen were Tesel’s men, not Aisa’s. The great majority of the fallen men of Aisa’s army were those killed by Lia.
As the survivors were running frantically down those large, separate tunnels, they were shaking in fear and trying to treat their many wounds. They faced a long trek the way they were going, with no idea if they were going in a useful direction or not.
“Where are we going, Fil?” a soldier asked him in panting breaths.
“I’m not sure,” Fil said. “I hope we’re going along the tunnel of Gaya’s arm to her hand, where we can acquire better fighting skills.”
Lia asked Tesel the same question as they ran down their tunnel, and she got the same answer from him; but disorientation from the terror they felt from the attack made it impossible for either Fil or Tesel to be sure if they were going the right way. All they knew is that they wanted to be as far from Aisa’s men as they could.
After a long trek down those tunnels, they reached slight bends in them, at the same distance from where the tunnels began and branched out.
“Is this an elbow?” Tesel asked. Fil wondered the same thing.
Hoping they were right, relieved that they weren’t being chased by Aisa’s men, and too exhausted from their constant marching, they all decided to stop and rest there. All of the soldiers in both tunnels fell to their knees with loud groans.
As they rested, they bandaged the wounds they hadn’t had time to look at when they were constantly on the retreat. They were hungry, but they had no food.
They heard voices from heaven again:
Ithinkshe’sdreaming…peopleincomasdon’tdreamsomedo,doctor…haveyouchangedherbedsheets?We’llgettoitsoon.
Still, Tesel’s men didn’t understand a word of it.
After several hours of sleep, they all got up and resumed their trek along their respective tunnels. Tesel and Fil, leading the two groups, kept their hopes alive that they were nearing Gaya’s hands, where they’d all be sure to learn how to wield their swords better.
Eventually, after hours of marching, they reached the dead ends of their tunnels. No indication of how to improve as swordsmen was given. Also, the caverns they’d entered were too large, too spacious, to be the insides of Gaya’s hands.
Tesel and Fil realized the exasperating truth at the same time.
“Oh, no,” Fil said with a sigh.
“This isn’t a hand,” Tesel said. “It’s a foot. We went down the legs, not the arms.”
“We went the wrong way,” Fil said. “We have to go back.”
All the warriors in both feet let out despairing moans.
They all turned around, and with the greatest reluctance, they began marching back in the unavoidable direction of Aisa’s army.
Infinite Ocean 