Chapter 26. Latarra

Thundertarr itself was something of a wonder. Inside of its massive walls, the place resembled an Alcatian villa, with lots of open spaces, greenery and even sculptures.  As soon as we got inside, Latarra selected two of her largest men, big brutes with more muscles than Pongo to stay with me, stopped to give orders to other men and then led me into a parlor where she had a little brown skinned slave girl pour us both a cup of tea.  Then, she took a seat at a desk, put her feet up and gestured towards a chair.


"Sit.  There's no need to stand on ceremony here.  I'll have your captain brought up in a few moments, but you and I can talk now first.  I'm not going to lie to you.  Kurt wants to have you and that big Bushman drawn and quartered, but he's a boy, and not fond of being shown up.  You bested him and slew some of our better battle slaves.  I really am thinking you might have a place among us, as a breeder, at the very least.  Do you like men?"


"That's your offer?" I said, putting my tea down untasted.

Latarra laughed.


"No, I suppose not, but you would produce some amazing children with the right Karga seed in your womb."


"Like Kurt?" I responded.


Latarra shook her head.


"My brother would never last a night with you, I'm guessing.  In fact, I'm not sure many Karga men would. Which is why I find you so fascinating.  Drink the tea, dear. Poison is not my style.  You're a soldier.  We've use for them as well.  Its just things to consider."


Thus began my first real conversation with Latarra.  She was the most extraordinary woman I'd ever met, smart as a whip and prone to showing it, along with demonstrating her confidence, both of which I learned were typical Karga traits.


Alex was brought up in due time, and, after  some discussion, he agreed with me that the best course likely was to go along with Latarra's plan, although he was as skeptical as I was that she'd actually deliver the men to Alcatia.  There just wasn't much of an alternative, other than refusing, which would get none of us anywhere.

That evening, Latarra summoned me to her chambers, where she proceeded to feed me, and fill me in a bit more about herself and her plans, not so much about me, but about Kargel and her perception of its place in the world.  I''ll spare you the blow by blow, so to speak, along with my questions, which were many.

Kargel, she informed me, was a vast empire, now occupying the majority of the Southern Continent, and, quite frankly dwarfing Alcatia in terms of both geography and resources, if not in population.  The Karga had conquered all but a few pockets of resistance, and aside from the vast jungles and deserts of the interior, had basically carved out estates, ruled by Karga families.  Unlike Alcatia, which had a King and a mostly ceremonial senate, Karga was ruled by an assembly, which in turn selected a Premier who served a ten year term.  She was quite certain that Kargel would eventually spread out over the entire world, but unlike some within the Assembly, Latarra was beginning to favor slow growth and, incredibly enough, a practical peace with Alcatia, while it focused on expansion to the Far East.

The vast majority of what she said went right over my head, but I wasn't so much stupid as ignorant, and I did soak up some of her ramblings about economics, and even the inherent flaws in Kargellian society.  She favored reforms to strengthen a Kargellian identity, and to encourage the development of a loyal and growing population of non-Karga.  Through careful breeding, the Karga had become a race apart, but the non-Karga population had grown so huge and important, that it was time to pay attention to it, not just to eliminate potential revolt, but to make a revolt unpalatable.

 As we drank and ate, Latarra loosened up quite a bit, and spoke dreamily about her vision for a new Kargel, where the brand on a Kargellian's neck was more than just an indication of who his master was, but a badge of honor and something to be proud of.

She seemed a little mad to me, and a lot of what she talked about I just plain didn't understand, but the more I listened, the more I realized just how brilliant she was.  I'd learned that the Karga were cruel, and that they enslaved humans, but listening to Latarra rant, I started to realize there was more to it than just that.  True, she often spoke of Ferals as animals and I got the feeling she saw even native Kargellians as livestock, but she wanted her livestock to thrive and even on occasion spoke negatively of some aspects of Karga society.  Feral Hunts, she opined, for example, had their place in terms of training young Karga, but she decried their effect on the morale of not just Ferals, but of domestic Kargellians as well.


Of course, as Latarra lectured me, I did wonder why she was doing it, and it did seem odd how little she expected me to say.  She did sort of want me to listen, but increasingly, I began to realize, she was speaking to me more as a child or a pet than a human.  As I watched and listened, it began to dawn on me, how really different she was than any human I'd ever met.  Physically, she looked mostly like an extraordinarily fit human, but there was something about the way that she moved that gave her away.  Even when she speared a piece of meat on her tray, she did it smoothly and efficiently.

And then, as she began to talk about her personal life, the differences between us came home to roost even more fully.  Latarra looked to be in her early thirties, but she spoke of events decades ago.  And her personal life, that just blew me away.  While she assured me Karga did marry amongst themselves, she'd never done so, having never found a Kargan male she could stomach both seeing as an equal and living with.

She liked being the aggressor, she said, too much for most Karga to handle, which made her not unique amongst female Karga.  Many of her peers resorted to keeping non-Karga companions, but human males were fragile, both physically and emotionally.

As dense as I was then, I did realize where she was going, and I'll confess I was intrigued as she talked about intimacy with women, even though I knew where she might be going.  Sexually, she found human women appealing at times, but she tired of them too quickly and yearned for something more substantial, yet without the intense competition that was the nature of Karga of her generation.

Of course, eventually, she rose and took my hand, leading me away from the table and out onto a little private terrace where she made her intentions clear, both by her words and her deeds.   I let her disrobe me and eagerly, if awkwardly, followed her lead in the use of fingers and mouths that night.  It was incredible, and even hours later, when I awoke with her sleeping hard little body on top of my own, I wanted more.


What I didn't know then was that my passive acceptance of her advances was in large part, chemical.  Karga, both male and female, often overwhelm humans that way, and this was my first real taste of  Karga lust.    

The next few weeks with Latarra were amazing.  Alex and the boys did indeed get sent home, and while Pongo remained, Latarra promised me he was recuperating nicely and would be given an opportunity in Thundertarr as well when he was up for it.  I knew somehow she was lying about that, but seeing as how she buried her face between my legs after saying it, I let it go and promised myself to revisit the matter later.

Latarra was smaller than I was, but she had  appetite, at least for me, that made her seem much larger.  In fact, as strange as it might seem, given how much she was the aggressor, it soon became clear that she tired faster than I did.

But she didn't seem to tire of me entirely.  After a couple of nights, she brought in several servants to cater to both our needs, and eventually even introduced me to one of her favorite males, a young brown skinned man built like Pongo on a smaller scale.  Matu was well trained, and Latarra showed me how she liked to ride him, which was an experience in and of itself.

Latarra had been gentle with me, but with Matu, things were very different.  She grabbed his manhood and straddled him, and then, shoving him inside her, rode him expertly until she had her own orgasm.  The man whimpered the whole time and then came when she did.

Later, after Latarra left Matu and I to go take care of estate business, we compared notes, so to speak, which is how I first really began to understand what Latarra really was.  Matu was a nice guy, and he told me how attractive he found me, and even that he sort of hoped Latarra might give him to me, but he apologized, without reason, it seemed to me, that he couldn't service me until then.  The word couldn't got my attention, and Matu proceeded to explain just how repeated sexual experiences with Karga had changed him.  In his head, he still felt things for other women, and with a tremendous effort, he could still get partially erect without a Karga present, but it wasn't the same and he couldn't really climax.  In fact, even with Latarra there to get him fully hard, copulating with a human woman was an empty experience.  Sex with Latarra was rough, painful, but fulfilling, as he felt her gripping and squeezing him.  He was smiling as he described it, but it was a sad smile as he described, how, in his words, she'd ruined him for other women.

It was, I learned later, not altogether different for human women. Sex, and to some extent, even prolonged non sexual contact with Karga changed something in their brains.  The effect was more noticeable with Ferals like myself and Matu, but it was an issue even for domesticated humans.  In fact, as Latarra eventually explained to me, the process of domestication was largely a matter of conditioning humans to Karga pheromones.  Over generations of breeding, human Kargellians had grown more receptive in many ways.  It was all but impossible for most Kargellians to disobey a Karga directly.  Unfortunately, truly domesticated humans, i.e., ones with Karga blood in their veins, tended to be non fertlie with Karga, although they seemed to breed normally  amongst themselves.

I find even talking about Karga sexuality and the way it influences humans disturbing and I'm sure some of my readers find my even staying with them to be a bit repulsive, but it bears repeating that while I was learning all of this, Latarra was exerting her influence over me both sexually and otherwise.

I've no doubt my infatuation with her had a great deal to do with the fact that she was a Karga, but there was also a great deal more to it.  Latarra truly was an amazing woman, wholly apart from her beauty or sexuality, and she was focusing a great deal of herself on me at the time.  Did she love me?  The word doesn't really fit, but there was something between us and it was strong and at times seemed to overwhelm both of us.