Tribe of the Mountains Chapter 13 — No Mercy.

Yep, we still have two sexes and yes, the girls with sperm are also known as y girls or simply y here in the tribe.

OK, I admit, it counts. A girl tend to look at a y girl as a partner and vice versa. The ability to have children together counts a lot.
But y girls transformed at a young age are not stronger than our normal girls. And even among the ones who were transformed at more advanced ages cases like that of Erica are unusual.

To the depths to this!!! Look, I am stronger than any other save Erica and I am small and fast, much faster than her. This kind of thing kills any kind of discrimination for a job or separation of tasks by gender.
For what matters guys, we have two sexes, but only one gender.

Now, lets forget this complex shit and drink some more of that new wine that Anora`s people have been brewing.

As registered by Linda Basteter in:
My Mother, the Drunk Philosopher.
Note: Only when drunk.

First copied by the mountains academy scribes, in the year 110 AG.

Previously in The Tribe of the Mountains:

There had been twenty slaves in chains. Eight children, being four boys and four girls. Two young adult males and ten women, all of them young.
………………………..
“Anora, … are you Elrond`s daughter? Asked the elder of the women. “My husband would always speak good things about your father.”

“Yes, I am his daughter” I answered.

“Does it mean that the wolf tribe survived? Why are you naked?” Asked one of the men.
………………………

“The Free People of the Tribes are no more; all tribes were killed or enslaved. I would be dead also, if not for the goddess whose power you see all around you tonight. She is a goddess of women and she will turn any male that joins in one of us, she will also make you women want other women. But she will give strength, hope and purpose to those that follow her. She will also guide and protect you. She demands service, but she will allow you to control her creatures. Now, who will join us?”

Author`s note:

First, a big thank you to Sephrena Miler for all.
Second, a warning: Things will get violent.

Now we can continue the tale.

Anora Speaking:

Bastet interrupted me: “OOOps, not so fast Anora. People, we will be here until tomorrow, then we will leave in the southern direction. You can join our goddess, follow us for a few days to reach a decision, or you can simply take a wagon and try to start a new tribe. No pressure, no tricks, we just have to see what you can keep and what we will take of the spoils of war.”

The eldest girl among the ex slaves, a beautiful one with about twenty five to thirty summers was the first with courage to speak.

“May we sit down? “ She asked. “If you want to create a tribe of women I suppose that this is our first council of the people?”

I, of course, loved the idea. Laughing I said: “Good idea, lets sit, eat some of the merchant’s food and have a council. You all are free to talk, even the males.”

And, since there is stupid people in the world, the elder male, a man of, perhaps, eighteen years was outraged: “You mock our people. Women never talked in any of our councils. This is against custom, religion and law.” Only after the outburst did he look around to note the murderous look in the faces of the ten girls his age and the embarrassment in the face of the other man.

“Huh Rughes, I think that this is not one of the tribes anymore” Stated the other man. Then he sat and continued “Besides, if we had listened to the girls, or even if the hotheads had listened to her father” And he pointed to me “Our tribes would not have ended in that humiliating way.”

Hughes was smart enough to stay quiet after this, but he was marked in my mind as one person NOT to convert no matter what.

We sat, and talked. Even the children were allowed to ask questions and some of them asked the better questions, as always happen. Things like: Why your eyes get all black sometimes? And: If you are all women how do you plan to have children? Were asked and we gave our best answers. Of course it was also very informal, while we talked people wandered around a lot, going somewhere to deal with excess bodily fluids, get food, or talk apart.

Bastet left the meeting to investigate the mage`s wagon and came back with good wine, many of the girls scouted the camp, finding food and drinks for all and John, the more reasonable of the two males, was asked to help in preparing a meal for us all and was smart enough to go and try to learn.

In the end, when everybody was fed, well rested and with many questions answered a young boy, of about twelve summers asked: “Can I join you now?”

I was surprised, the boy had been silent up to now, he didn`t leave to get food and I thought that he was sleeping with his eyes open, not that he was paying attention. Well, he was. “Why do you want to join?” I asked.

“I saw what they did to mom and to Ane”, he pointed to the eldest girl,

“You are going to kill them, and it will not be pretty. I want in. I would join even if I had to become one of them.” And he pointed to the dead men that were cleaning the former slaves wagon. The fierceness in the boy’s eyes, the age in his words, … this was not a child anymore.

“We have a problem, sisters” I said aloud so that anyone could listen.

“What is the problem?” The boy answered.

“Wait and I will answer, first help to put the really young children to bed.” And we all proceeded to take the children younger than ten summers to bed in the wagon that contained most of the trading goods. After this we finished organizing the camp.

Rughes didn’t help in anything, he just asked for a bow, arrows and travel gear. It was given and he left, alone. None of the girls wanted to have anything with him and John was too smart to do something so stupid. Rughes also asked for a horse, but all had been taken by the goddess and would be very bad choices as travel companions. I almost gave one to him just so the horse could eat him alive but this would be breaking my word and a bad start for our tribe.

Since we had attacked right after sunset, it was still the middle of the night when we all finished the cleaning job. We divided most of the goods between the wagon where they had been stored before and the wagon that previously kept the slaves. Each slave was given a share of the products, and we told them that they could take the wagon where they had been kept and leave if they wanted.

The wagons and cargo mules had contained lots of precious cloths, knifes, metallic implements, and spices. But the main content were quartz stones to be enchanted in the Romanish empire. There were also some gemstones, a few of them already enchanted to do things like heating water or lighting a fire. Of course, quartz we have in abundance in the caves, so we gave it all and most of the gems to the ex slaves. They could try to sell it somewhere.

Besides the metallic stuff like pans, hooks and knifes, the most important cargo to us where the books kept by the mages and the maps kept by the merchants. The cloths were also quite useful, but we still gave the ex slaves a fair share.

The money was also distributed, but we kept most of it since it was part of a future plan of ours. Even then, the mages and the merchants were rich and there was enough money left for any of the former slaves that wanted to start a new home in one of the cities. Perhaps buying land and one or two slaves to start a farm in the Romanish empire.

Refreshed, and feeling rich we came back to the campfire to have a second meeting. As soon as we sat I started talking. “We use sex as a means to make a man want to be a woman, part of the process involves a lot of female pleasure. Boy, what is your name?”

“My name is Pedro and I am not a boy anymore.” He answered with fierce eyes.

“I do not feel comfortable in having sex with you, too young for my tastes. Is there a girl here who would convert to the goddess to show this boy how to be a girl?”

After an uncomfortable silence Ane was the one who talked. “We`ve been talking among ourselves and I think that I speak for all when I say that we prefer to wait a while before deciding. The thought of going to bed with other girls is … weird and we are more than a bit afraid of your Goddess. Besides Pedro, I really, really doubt that any of us would feel like going to bed with you. Even Alyssa, that is your age, probably is not ready for this yet.”

“Why don`t you just cut it out and make me a girl?” Pedro asked.

I laughed at his straightforwardness. “Pedro, you are a nice find, I want to keep you as a friend even if nothing more. But, dear, you must feel comfortable as a girl, if it is a sacrifice that you are making it will not work. You will simply be a boy in a girl`s body.”

“And if we teach him to be a girl? This would be fun, there is no girl my age here, Nara is too young to really play well.” Alyssa said.

“Not a bad idea Alyssa, can you do it?” I said with a smile.

“Of course I can”, answered Alyssa with glee. She took the boy by the hand and left the meeting with him. After a brief look our way a few of the teenage girls followed. I could still hear Alyssa asking “Pedro is not a girl`s name, what is your new name?” before they got into the wagon where they were supposed to sleep. This would be fun, I believed that the boy would become a girl in one day, bringing at least Alyssa together to our fold or he would run away screaming. Looking at Ane`s smile I could see that she got the same conclusion.

“Is he your brother?” I asked.

“Yes, he and the half brother that was being forced to help these bastards are the only family left to me.” She answered with sadness.

“What are you going to do with my half brother?”

“We are extracting the magical stone from him as I speak now. He will not get a share of the spoils, but otherwise I plan to simply release him, unless he chooses to become one of us.”

“He can leave in the wagon with us?”

“Yep, I do not see why not. But you are thinking about joining us, aren`t you?”

“Perhaps” And she gave me a tired smile. “But tomorrow we will see. At least you distracted Pedro from his sad mood and gave something fun for the girls to do. When are you going to deal with the prisoners?”

“The female mage has just dreamed with our goddess, she rejected the offer. She and her father will be released tomorrow. Since they are too dangerous we will leave them sleeping when we lift camp. They will wake up only when we are far away and she knows what will happen if they follow.”

“And if something eats them while they are sleeping?” Ane asked with a bit of amusement.

“Then it was the will of the gods, we are already showing more mercy than they deserve”. I answered with a serious face.

“Why so much mercy?” John asked. “Just because she is a woman?”

“Yes, just because she is the first female mage that I know of and quite powerful at that. I believe that years from now, when her father dies, she will come to us. She will never be well accepted in the cities.”

“What makes you sure that she will not come back seeking revenge? People will not be kind to her and her father. After all, they lost a caravan that they were protecting.” John added.

“The goddess thinks that she will not. If they are smart she and her father will pack their things in Thebes and move somewhere else. I admit that we will leave little money with them, but they are prosperous and were doing this trip more as a way to travel to the learning centers of the Romanish empire than because of payment.”

“So, do you know what she is dreaming at the same time that you talk to us here?” Asked Ane.

“Yes, I am one with the Goddess. I have my individuality and SHE respects some of my privacy, but I know part of what SHE is doing or I can … access the information.”

“Access the information? How so? What does it mean?” Asked John.

“It is difficult to describe, I am afraid that you will have to become one of us to find out.”

“I think it is time to sleep then. And to put the youngsters to bed before they torture poor Pedro too much, I believe that by now he already knows more than me about being a girl” Ane said with a hint of amusement. Then, changing the subject, she asked with a bit of concern “John, where are you going to sleep?”

“I will go to one of the merchant`s tents. This way you girls can have a little privacy. Please tell Pedro that if he wants he can be a boy for the night and come sleep with me.” John answered.

We said our good nights and I went to the wagon that had been kept by the mages to sleep. Our prisoners were all there also, kept in dark cocoons. I slept well, it was a comfortable night, but I missed our caves.

The morning started with the usual chores. Since old habits die hard all women woke up early and went to the lake to get water for the breakfast. We met in the way and, laughing, since there were enough women in our group to get water for two camps, decided on a division of chores so that we would not have too many cooks and cleaners while no one would be doing masculine chores like herding the cattle and harnessing them to the wagons. Pedro was already called Melissa by now, she had been dressed as a woman and went to the lake like the others.

John, of course, slept a little more and woke expecting to eat breakfast, hunt, and herd cattle, among other “male” jobs. Bastet met him at the door to his tent though and sent him to help cook and cleaning. Latter, he, Erica and a few of the girls, including Melissa harnessed the dranacks to the wagons and we lifted camp. The female mage and her father were left behind, sleeping. But, in the end, we left the guard that had surrendered with them, fully armed and awake. Erica convinced us that it was wise to treat well those that surrendered.

We stopped at midday in a special place. It was a water hole close to the Pit, the last safe water hole for anyone stupid enough to go in the direction of the wild magical zone. Water holes like these were always used as places of judgment by the tribes.

The wagons were placed forming a semi circumference and we extended from their roofs a canopy made of leather turned white by an alchemical process. This leather was usually folded in layers at the wagon`s roof to reduce the heat inside and it was usual to extend a part of it and tie to poles when camping in the sun.

Ane`s brother was the first to be placed at the center of the semi circle formed by the wagons, in the sun, where he couldn`t see our faces as we passed judgment, since he was in broad daylight and we were in the shade. He was cooking in the sun while we were protected.

I clapped my hands and he woke, retching, eliminating the remains of the piece of the goddess that had kept him sleeping. After he stopped retching he took stock of his surroundings and saw our figures in the shadows. He was not bound, but was smart enough to stand erect and wait for what he imagined would be a sentence passed by one of the tribes.
He was, of course, very surprised when he heard my female voice talking from the shadows. “Marcus, the camp was taken by a group of followers of a female goddess, we had to put you to sleep or else you would be forced to fight us. Your sister is well and told us a lot of good things about you. You may come into the shadow. The light was needed to wake you up.”

He didn`t answer and did not argue, just walked to the shadow and then, orienting himself, to his sister. He had passed my test, since now I knew that he had quick wits and knew when not to speak. I marked him as “convert if you can”.

Next we placed the merchant in the center. He woke up in chains, tied to a post. While he still took stock of the situation I came to the light I front of him.

“Hello Evaristo” I said in my mildest tone. His reaction was quite satisfying, he pissed in his pants, strained against his chains and went very, very pale.

“I see that you recognize me, I heard that you placed a prize on my capture, isn`t it?”

“No, no, you are mistaken Anora, no, do not hurt me, please stop the pain, I just wanted to protect you, it is hurting, I was always a friend to your father, … please, please … I had nothing to do with it.” He was stammering, his words cut by small yelps of pain as the goddess inside him had fun. Fortunately Alysa and some of the other girls were keeping the youngsters inside a wagon. I could feel through my connection to my sisters the ugliness rising in our core.

“Ane, what do you think must be done with this piece of dranack`s but?”

Of course, hearing the name of the slave girl he had raped less than ten days ago did not calm our guest.

“Evaristo, you have two choices. A slow death, or a slower death. But first, Anora, there is a little thing that I want to cut since a long time.”

Well, Ane got a small, dull knife and … better not write the details. Let ´s just say that a long, long time latter we let the poor bastard die. In the meanwhile he told us how Urk`s father had talked to him and some others right after loosing the command of the tribe to my father. Some people really were bad losers. Unfortunately for them, so am I.

I must note that Pedro, now Melissa, was allowed to see it all and was the only person besides me, Bastet and Ane that did not turn her head at the ugliest parts. Actually, by the end of the deed only the four of us were there. Even Erica simply couldn`t be there until the end. The four of us and the presence of Erynia, since she watched it all through my eyes.

After finishing with the merchant we started with Urk`s lackey whose name I will not register. He confirmed that Urk had planned it all, including details, to set himself as the lord of a new city, in the middle of the grasslands. The city of Last Fall.

It didn`t work as well as Urk predicted. He got his city, but had to answer to a group of merchants from Thebes and a representative of the self proclaimed Duke of Narsi and Vanis. Both groups kept a tight leash on him and denied him the power to tax the merchant caravans.

Anyway, Urk`s lackey was cursed with an ugly, ugly death. After all was done the goddess kept his body alive for a time, controlling it but keeping his brain working, feeling the pain of each little wound. Even angry as we were we simply couldn`t keep this torture for long though. We allowed him to die after only a few heartbeats in this state.

No, I am not proud of what we did.

It may seem weird, but Erica in many ways saved the day. She couldn`t stand looking at what we were doing, so, she took a group of the girls, including Melissa and went outside the camp to teach them how to shoot an arrow. Marcus also went with them, since the goddess had been good to him, improving his muscles and refreshing his body, he was full of energy and wanted to exercise.

It seemed a long time to us and certainly to them, but we probably dealt with the two captives in less than a quarter of the morning. When we finished cleaning the blood and went outside to join the rest I was amused to see the girls divided in two teams, one under Marcus and the other under Erica, shooting targets for points, with John as a referee.
To Melissa`s amazement, many of the girls proved to be very good shots, including Alyssa. I could see a strong bond forming between those two, something more akin to the friendship of two girls of the same age than between boy and girl.

In the end it was a tie, since Marcus and Erica took care to use the right girl for the right target and both were more interested in teaching than wining.

Then the two went hunting, bringing only Ane, John, Bastet and two of the girls with about sixteen or seventeen summers (my age at that time) with them. Melissa and Alyssa wanted to go, but they were considered too small.

When the hunters came back, though, we all helped in cleaning the meat and treating the skin to become leather. All of the buffalo was used, from its skin to its bones. This time Erica, Bastet and Ane were the ones teaching and Marcus proved to be an avid student.

By midday, after eating lunch, we left that place of judgment. We wanted to be very far from the pit when night came.

That afternoon we again divided chores in setting up camp, which was done fast, leaving time for Bastet to play with the girls, both teenagers and toddlers, teaching them how to hide, throwing knifes and climbing. Erica joined in the fun and, finally, not even our two last “men” around, John and Marcus, resisted and soon were having as much fun as the others. Only Bastet is capable of making something complex like throwing knifes into fun.

Me? I simply sat in a corner, got one of the books from the mages and started to read listening to their cries of joy. May seem weird, but studying while I heard their fun was fun in itself. For those moments everything seemed right with the world.

That night we got around the fire to tell tales and debate our futures. Marcus had a lot of questions of his own, including availability of training for his magical abilities. He had lived a hard life, being the result of a fast and furious romance between a woman from the fox tribe and a yeoman from the Romanish Empire. He lived most of his life at his father`s house, but five years ago his father married a noble girl from the empire and Marcus was not as welcome as before. Fortunately his mother had married a good man from the tribe and the fox tribe was quite open to new hunters, especially one as capable as he was.

Marcus and I were fast friends, we started talking about magic, then our lives, politics and the time to go to bed came very early that night. If I was still a normal girl I probably would have gone to bed with him that night. But I knew myself, if we went to bed Marcus would be a girl by morning and I wanted him to choose it, to choose me when rational and not in the throes of passion.

Melissa was also having fun. She and Alyssa could be seen frequently at the corners, exchanging confidences. That night Melissa asked Bastet to turn her into one of us. I didn`t even noticed, so engrossed that I was in the conversation with Marcus, but Bastet called the elder girls, Ane and John as witnesses and, after Ane gave her consent, Bastet simply spit a little black glob into a cup of water and gave the cup for Melissa to drink.

The Goddess was improving her technique. Since Melissa wanted to be a girl the Goddess found way to give dreams to her that night. She dreamed of being a girl all her life, with details taken from my memories and slowly, as her body transformed, her sense of self began to change.

The next day followed the same routine, eat breakfast, hunt, clean the catch, travel, dinner. As before, we distributed the chores so that everybody would do all with no separation between male and female jobs.

For instance, who cleaned the pots in the morning would hunt in the afternoon and rest at dinner. Some would clean the catch of the hunters and rest in the wagons the whole afternoon, and so on.

Melissa was already showing a very feminine body, with small breasts and many internal changes that I could follow through my link to the goddess. Her sense of self was a bit shaken but deep down she still believed that she was a male that wanted to be female for revenge.
While I was eating dinner that afternoon, Alyssa came to me with Melissa and Ane. “Lady, what did you do to my friend?” She asked.

“What do you mean?”

“She tells me that she is hearing whispers, like someone talking in her head all the time.” Alyssa retorted angrily while Melissa looked with fear.

I smiled. “Oh, I think that I know what it is.” And I sent by mindspeak: <Melissa, can you hear me?>

She answered surprised “Yes, I heard you, but very, very low, like a whisper. Lady, how could you talk if your lips were not moving?”

I looked into her eyes. “Melissa, you are becoming one of us. You will be able to hear my thoughts as if I was speaking to you, when this is finished. Tonight the goddess will come to you in your dreams and, if you accept her, she will teach you to control this, to tune out some thoughts and pay attention to others. Soon you will be able to talk to our sister Erynia, deep down in the caves far away from here.”

“I imagined that it was something like this” Said Ane seriously. I agreed to let my brother become my sister because a really do not see much future for us otherwise, but I wonder if you are really human.

“Define human” said Marcus. Of course he was by my side, it appears that in more than one sense.

“Oh, I quit, it is clear that my two brothers will soon be sisters. I may as well take this dark liquid of yours sooner than latter” Ane answered. “Really, I`ve been thinking. My half brother and you can barely be seen a moment apart, Pedro is now Melissa and clearly will be one of you tomorrow. And, what chance we would have in one of the cities? I don`t have the slightest idea of how to survive as a lone woman in a Romanish town and Marcus tells me that it would not be easy to adapt. We could, with a bit of deception and labia, go to a lord, talk to him and buy a piece of land, but would have to pay taxes and be always afraid that someone would find that we were what they would call escaped slaves.” She looked intently at my face. “These dark eyes of yours are not so ugly. Give me this mad beverage of yours and lets meet this Goddess.”

“Wait, let us call for witnesses then, I don`t want people to say that I forced you somewhat” I answered.

Soon we had everybody together around the fire. After a little talk we found that all of the former slaves had decided to join. They made a line and, one by one, with the exception of the ones younger than twelve summers stated their reason to join us and drank from a mug containing a little of the goddess.

The children would be raised in the caves and offered a choice latter in life.

Ane was the first.

“There is no other real option. Better to serve this goddess than being a slave in one of the cities. Besides, I like the idea of a society made by women.” She said this aloud and drank. Then her body walked to the side and she stood there, looking at nothing while the goddess talked to her mind.

Next came Alyssa: “All that she said, plus I want to share thoughts with Melissa. This will be fun.” As soon as Alyssa drank both her and Melissa got that vacant look of someone talking to the goddess, they sat together near Ane.

Marcus was a dear. “I drink because the love of my life is already part of this”. You know, he was probably the only one that could really live in the cities, he knew how to survive there and he choose to join us mainly because of me.

Of course he did not get an immediate vacant look. I would have a lot of fun in the next week slowly converting my lover, one little piece at a time. She would be called Rebecca, like my mother.

The other nine women followed in a sequence. The two eldest among them were twin sisters, named Freya and Meia, they decided that their chances were better with us than in the “male dominated world” as they said. Next came a sweet small girl named Karen. I believe that she already had a severe case of hero worship for Bastet. Latter she became the first to be called Basteter, that is, Bastet`s daughter.

I will not describe all the others here. Their choices are annotated elsewhere and most of the houses that they created still stand.

I must admit though, that besides Marcus, my main concern was for John. Would he join us? We needed the sperm. Although, of course, finding sperm donors in the cities was not impossible and also the goddess can take something from a girl and inject in the eggs of another, making a daughter I always believed that a healthy number of what we came to call y girls was important.

Of course he joined. His reason was simple: “My chances of survival otherwise are far from great and well, this will be an adventure. He smiled and donned the cup.”

Well, the reader may say: they were forced to join, their other options were uncertain and dangerous. MY answer, to this was always: Nope, they where not forced, at least not by us. Perhaps they were forced by the circumstances, but we gave options to them.

The next morning found a very silent camp. The girls were all talking a lot by mindspeak, speaking aloud only to talk to John, Marcus and the children. They were all stronger than before, more agile, but we followed our schedules with the rotation of chores taken even more seriously than before.

Only at might I had some alone time to start teaching Marcus, now starting to become Rebecca, the joys of being a woman. A shared orgasm with Bastet and Erica did a great part of the job but I dulled it a little since I wanted this to be slow and fun.

John was becoming Johane. His sense of self was strong and the idea of being male very important to the foundations of his personality, so, we had to work slowly. This was done with a lot of help from Ane and the girls masturbating in front of him/her.

After twenty days of slow travel we got to the caves with everyone thinking in themselves as women. No predator dared approach our group.

Now we just needed to get Stephen from Thebes and destroy the city of Last Fall. Destroying a city in the middle of the grasslands was not so much trouble, but getting Stephen out of a place so far away from the Goddess domains would be certainly difficult.