Chapter Two: Day Dreamer

Thank you so much for your patience with this update! The holiday lead-up was intense and I fell behind, future chapters will come much quicker!

For my cub.

Full work summary: Cast out of his village and freezing to death in the snow, Sparrow finds himself rescued by a mysterious and beautiful woman, living in a grand house in the mountains. As he falls under the spell of his strange host, he finds himself brought into a dark world that presents a destiny he never could have imagined. Submission to a vampire is only the beginning.

Previously: Sparrow woke in a manor with memories of being driven from his village and rescued on the snowy mountainside. He dined with his host, the beautiful Vestalia, and they dined on more than the food.

Chapter summary: Captain Lerae Sandu finds her men have met with violent tragedy. Sparrow explores the manor, meets another resident, and stumbles across Vestalia’s bedroom. He’s surprised to find her still in bed, and even more so when she invites him to join her.

*

“What should I do, if I meet a vampire?”

“Oh, Little Bird, you should never meet a vampire. Good boys like you should be asleep in their beds by the time the vampire is walking the earth. They are creatures of night. They can only live in darkness. They are burned by sunlight.”

“Why?”

“Some say because it is the light of God. But others say the vampire is older than Him. At least, as we know Him. So they say instead that the sun is for the living. The vampire, as a defiler of life, as a mockery of it, is denied sunlight and punished for any attempt to take it.”

“So, if those creatures can’t come out while we’re awake, why are people so scared of them?”

“Because at least the waking can run. What can the sleeping do?”

“How do we protect ourselves?”

“I’m afraid we don’t, Little Bird. We look to others to protect us.”

*

“OPEN UP!”

A huge fist hammered on the door, rattling the iron hinges and booming in the stone walls.

“OPEN UP! NOW!”

“I’m coming!”

Lerae Sandu scrambled to wrap a thick, woolen blanket around her shoulders, the cold biting her through her nightdress. She rushed to the front door and wrenched it open with a clunk and a creak. She was faced by a young man with a weather-beaten face and wild, worried eyes. Behind him, the grey-gold sliver of dawn winked behind the domed cap of the church spire.

“What is it, Luca?” she asked sharply.

Luca sniffed and shivered, drawing harried breaths. “Come, please. It’s Mihai.”

Sandu’s heart thumped. The cold sank behind her ribs. She nodded and moved quickly, tugging on her boots and coat and following Luca out into the square.

A small huddle of Skarpo townsfolk were murmuring nervously by the well. Their boots splashed in the thin lace of melted snow on the cobbles, echoing in the stone chasm. Through them, Sandu could just glimpse a stocky, brown horse, laden with… was that a body? Her stomach kicked. She strode forward. She’d sent her patrol out days ago. It should have been a simple journey.

“Alright, out of the way, out of the way,” she commanded, using her height and her broad shoulders to plough through the gathering.

People crossed themselves and muttered her name with a note of relief, as she passed them. But she didn’t meet their eyes, her gaze fixed fiercely forward. The crowd parted. Her body lurched at the sight. She’d sent five men. Two had returned. And one was slung on his belly across the horse, still as rock and hidden by a rough, black cloak. His boots dangled limply under the hem. The scent of congealed blood curdled in Sandu’s nose. Leaning against the well post were the two remaining members of the patrol party, one burly and sombre-faced, supporting the weight of the other, who looked ghastly pale and barely conscious, his eyes rolling under fluttering lids.

“Mihail! Andrei!” Sandu swept forward and clamped the men between her large hands, grasping a shoulder each and feeling them lean into her. “What happened?”

The wounded Andrei gurgled. Mihail looked at her grimly. “Help me get him inside.”

She nodded. She went to the collapsed man’s other side and lifted his arm around her shoulder. “Who’s under the cloak?” she whispered, her throat clogging.

Mihail’s frost blue eyes threaded bloodshot. “David,” he rasped.

Any answer would have pierced her. David’s name, said so quietly, like a mourning prayer, ached in her ears. She hugged Andrei closer and nodded again. She barked at the jibbering townsfolk to move, snapping at Luca to see to the horse and the body. She and Mihail steered Andrei back to her house.

They burst through the door, her voice rising and sharpening, as they broke out of earshot of the frightened folk. “Hold him up.” She slipped from Andrei and raced around the room, opening the curtains, lighting candles, lighting the stove in the kitchen and boiling water. She moved batman escort like an automaton: no emotion, no fear, only intention, only skill. She had felt it in the weak, uneven beat of Andrei’s heart against her. His time was running out.

She cast the clutter off her large, sturdy dining table, tankards and knives, paper and quills raining onto the floorboards in a hail of noise. She swept back to Mihail and they hauled Andrei to lie out on it. As his back thudded onto the hard surface, he let out a thick groan of pain. Sandu tore open his dense layers of clothing. His torso was wrapped in grubby, drenched bandages, ruddy brown with dried and freshly seeping blood. She heard Mihail gulp. She ignored him and sliced open the bandages with a keen pair of scissors. The rising, pale light washed over a deep, gleaming gash across Andrei’s gut, the viscera snarling through it in a dark red smear. The reek of blood redoubled and heated.

Sandu hissed and swallowed a lurch of nausea. “God’s Teeth!”

Andrei babbled senselessly and desperately under his breath, tongue lolling, only the whites of his eyes visible.

“Can you save him?” Mihail asked levelly, thunking a brown, glass bottle onto the table.

“That’s my job, isn’t it?” she said flatly.

Mihail grimaced. His glistening eyes fell to Andrei’s face.

Sandu shrugged off her coat and rolled up the sleeves of her nightdress. She snatched up the bottle and uncorked it, the clean scent of spirits cutting through the stench. She sloshed the plum liquid over the wound, blocking out Andrei’s whine. She pressed her hand to the gauge in his flesh to stem the flow. It squelched sickeningly, hot blood trickled over her fingers.

“It was a beast.” Mihail murmured.

She looked at the ragged edges of the wound. “I assumed.”

His hand clutched her bicep, sending a jolt into her squared shoulders. She shot her eyes to his gaunt face. “No, Captain,” he whispered, “abeast.”

She held his gaze, Andrei’s pulse thrumming on her fingertips, spilling crimson. She broke sternly from Mihail’s eyes. “Bring me the hot water and the implements in the drawer under the bookshelf.”

He nodded and marched to obey.

“And Mihail?”

He turned back.

Her lips tightened. “Fetch the priest.”

*

Morning kissed Sparrow’s eyelids, stroking him awake, like a caressing lover. He eased his eyes open. Light no longer felt like needles. It leaked through the opening of the heavy drapes around his bed and nestled around him with a new softness. He stretched and yawned like a cat. Every ache and sting seemed to have left his body. He felt replenished, weightless. The memory of last night’s supper slowly returned. His face and his stomach rushed hot. Did that really happen?

He found himself eager to rise, to find his host again – a puppy in a new house, riddled with nervous excitement. He laughed at himself and ran his fingers through his hair. This time yesterday he was in a deep sleep, escaping death. He was an exile. He was alone. But somehow, he wasn’t mourning. He was a snowflake, fallen to the ground and finding that he didn’t melt. What did you do if you didn’t die when you were supposed to? Well, keep on living, he supposed.

He slipped from the bed with a spring in his step. The fire was roaring away, grumbling contentedly around a stack of fresh, chewy logs. Laid over one of the plush armchairs was a fresh shirt, britches, undergarments, and a fine, dove grey coat and waistcoat with gleaming, brass buttons. A pair of polished, brown, leather boots stood at the foot of the chair. Sparrow gazed at the clothes, going to them. They smelled of lavender and tissue paper. He tentatively ran his hand over the weave of the coat. It was wool, but it was so delicately made it looked like silk, as smooth to the touch as glass.

“Goodness…” he breathed.

He washed and dressed, the new clothes fitting to him as if they were sculpted and sewn around his body. He slid the waistcoat on with incredible care, fastening the buttons with his fingertips, terrified of spoiling the finery. He looked at the coat. He slid it on, settling into its shape. He went to the mirror. He looked strange, dressed like this. But he liked it. The coat tapered to his frame, swishing around the tops of the snug boots, making him look taller, emphasising his willowy figure and the lightness of his eyes. It gave him an almost sylph-like quality. The weave straightened his stance, instructing him in decorum.

The fire rumbled warmer. Sparrow slid the coat off and laid it reverently back on the chair. He went back to the washstand and began to comb his hair. It fell in knotted coils around his narrow shoulders, a colour between honey and dandelions about to turn to seed. The sunlight ran long, shining fingers through it. Someone had tied the curtains back. Sparrow glanced to the hearth. The gargoyle was missing. He raised an eyebrow yalova escort and shook his head in continued wonder. He went back to his hair. The comb whispered through it rhythmically, untangling the mess as easily as whipping butter. Sparrow’s mind wandered with the lulling, scuffing sound of the comb to the scrape of cutlery on china, then the drag of lips on skin.

He clenched between his legs and shook himself. He put down the comb. He looked at himself again, his hair pouring around his face and softening his cheekbones. He thought about Vestalia’s elegant grandeur, her elaborate coiffure and pristine fingernails and the gush of black velvet around her breasts. He nibbled his tongue. He caught up his locks and deftly braided them over one shoulder, spiralling smaller braids around the thick, central one. It was a style he’d been taught by his friend’s grandmother when she’d got tired of him coming to her house “looking like he’d just been dropped by an eagle carrying him by his hair.” Sadness nudged him. He chased it away at the thought of Vestalia smiling at the braid.

His door clicked.

He spun around, heart racing, wondering if it was her. The gargoyle bobbed into the room, wings humming, carrying a copper tray bearing a plate of small pastries and a steaming teapot.

Sparrow beamed, stomach growling. “Good morning!”

The gargoyle binked slowly and set the tray down on the low table by the fire.

“Thank you?” Sparrow ventured, trying to catch the gargoyle’s attention.

“You are welcome,” it croaked monotonously, and set itself back into its slot in the mantel, going utterly still.

Sparrow flapped his hand in front of its face. Nothing. It really was just an appliance, but he still desperately wanted to know how it worked.

He didn’t sit to eat. He wandered restlessly about the room, leaving a trail of pastry crumbs, peering at the engravings in the woodwork and the sheen of pattern in the damask wallpaper. He found he was surrounded by beasties. Bats and rats and wolves and ravens and lynx. And creatures not of this earth. Fanged demons, skeletal horses, leering masks, fauns with contorted grins blowing pipes. And, of course, ever looming over him, the swooping, bat-winged woman painted on the ceiling. Sparrow eyed her with a mix of wariness and new enjoyment. His eyes fell on her dark nipples, redder in the sunlight.

He took another crunching mouthful of sugar and went to the window. The snow was thinning on the mountains. Rich, evergreen forests emerged from the white, cascading over the landscape in a dark, vast ocean that flowed over the undulations of the range, then poured down into the Skarpo Valley, and drained into the horizon. Sparrow thought of the creatures swimming in those surging underworlds of hunger and nightmare. He’d loved the stories of them as a child. His guardian had always said, it’s best to turn these things into stories, or else we’d never sleep.

The trees came right to the edge of the manor’s crooked complex of neat, knotwork hedges, glistening with frost, spreading to a thick, stone wall and an iron gate wound with black roses. Sparrow had never slept so close to the edge of the forest before. But then, he’d never had such solid walls between him and the elements. His mind cycled constantly between feelings of safety and unsafety. Thankfully for him, his curiosity was always stronger than both. He gulped down the fragrant tea and skipped off to explore the house. And find Vestalia.

Finding Vestalia proved to be much more difficult than expected. The manor was labyrinthine, leading him in dizzying paths. He began to feel that he was wandering a route being dreamed up by the moment, as if he was inside someone else’s head. The red-carpeted corridors wove and looped like a network of arteries, the staircases were caged in dark banisters, the walls were hung with pictures in heavy frames, and the ceilings vaulted with arching beams, encasing the arterial corridors in a skeleton. Sparrow gazed about him, make-believing he had been swallowed by some huge dragon.

It took a little build of courage to start exploring rooms. Vestalia’s charisma oozed from the walls, making him feel like a trespasser. He jumped any time his boots creaked. He always knocked carefully before entering, but found each room empty, save for the occasional gargoyle dusting the picture frames or sweeping the floors. And the paintings. They were all in the same impressive realism of the one on Sparrow’s ceiling. Hungry-eyed, palid people drank from goblets filled with ruby wine, danced with bears, and rode wolves made of starlight.

For such a startlingly large house, nearly all the rooms were fairly snug, all lit by mumbling fires in gaping hearths. It made the whole house warm, turning the views of thawing snow out of the windows into fantasy paintings. It couldn’t possibly be that cold anywhere in the world. Sparrow had never been this warm. It wasn’t the ordu escort itchy heat of blankets or the burning sweat of bonfires. It was an embracing, relaxing, invigorating warmth that permeated his body and the tea-and-wine air of the manor. The house seemed constantly ready to receive. Half the rooms he found seemed to be sitting rooms of some kind, all clean and neat and cosy.

He wandered deeper into the bowels of the house. The carpets and wood phased into stone, his crisp-soled, new boots clacking like hooves on the flags. The smell of baking bread wended down a narrow corridor. Sparrow picked up his feet and followed it, emerging into a kitchen larger than his old cottage. The walls were washed white, soaring high into a ceiling with wooden rafters carved with cornucopias. A huge, pot-bellied cauldron hung over the embers of a soot-stained hearth even more immense than those upstairs, large enough for Sparrow to sleep in comfortably. Copper pans tinkled on the walls and bundles of drying herbs filled the room with a mouth-watering, fresh, tingling scent. Fat fruit and vegetables were piled in a heap on the large, wooden table, littered with score marks. Braces of chickens and rabbits were strung up from one beam. One wall was completely covered with shelves of bottles and jars – jams and oils and sauces and salts that glittered like treasure. The homey, tempting smell of bread drifted lazily from a brick oven set into one corner, the wooden shovel sticking out of the mouth, like a mocking tongue. Sunlight flowed in from high, arching windows, gilding the food and flashing on the pans and knives. Sparrow stared in wonder. It wasn’t long since breakfast, but his appetite ran riot among the delicious sights and smells of the kitchen.

A thunking noise caught his attention. He looked over and saw another gargoyle entering from a door opposite him. Sparrow snatched a glimpse of a stack of white-gold wheels of cheese over its shoulder, and guessed that room must be the larder. This gargoyle was much bigger than the others, almost Sparrow’s height, its wings folded to its hunched, broad back. It lumbered to the table, carrying a hefty salami, which it slammed onto the table. The air filled with moreish salt, as it began to slice it thinly. It seemed either unaware of or unimpeded by Sparrow’s staring.

“Excuse me,” Sparrow piped up.

The gargoyle raised its squint to him. “Yes, Sir?” Its voice was like grinding granite.

“Where do you get all this so high up?” Sparrow asked, his gaze roving around the heap of vegetables.

“There is a market in the town of Skarpo at the bottom of the mountain,” the gargoyle replied, going back to slicing, “But much is grown in the hothouses.”

Sparrow raised his eyebrows. He remembered Vestalia speaking of a hothouse, but in his tranced state it had slipped his mind. Now he rushed with eagerness. “Where is it?”

The gargoyle looked up.

“The hothouse.”

“Hothouses,” the gargoyle corrected him.

Sparrow smiled, his excitement rising. The gargoyle pointed to the kitchen door behind Sparrow, then to its right. Sparrow nodded in thanks and hurried from the kitchen. The only thing that could pull him from the baking bread was the thought of seeing something like this. A trader passing through his village had once told him of the great hothouses in the sparkling capitals of Europe. These mystical bubbles enclosing whole continents, rainbows in crystals, bringing the tropics to life in the depths of winter. It was to Sparrow the most marvellous kind of magic he could imagine. He’d spent days afterwards lost in daydreams about living in one of these captured, enchanted isles, perfectly preserved, fawned over by the feathered and bejewelled nobles of those countries.

He tripped to the end of the stone corridor and out of a heavy, wooden door at the end. He stepped into the knot gardens. The interlace of dark, waxy green was sprinkled with crushed diamonds, the snow lingering on the tips of leaves and in patches on the cropped grass. Cobalt blue bellflowers sprouted in clusters in the centres of the hedge knots, jostling prettily in a refreshing, cool breeze. It sent a shocked shiver up Sparrow’s spine after the heat of the house. He hugged his body and rubbed his arms through his shirt. He looked about him, the sweeping, turquoise sky piercing and pure.

He turned and gaped up at the manor, seeing it from the outside for the first time. Its draconic look intensified. It was a towering building of grey stone, cloaked in a dense, thriving creeper. Its windows were large, arched and dark, the sunlight glancing off them and singing over the heart-shaped leaves fringing them. The roof was tiled in fanning, black tiles, spreading at the bottom and crowning at the peak, like folded, scaly wings. Stern-faced, hulking gargoyles crouched and perched and leered on ledges and guttering, giving the house the look of an underworld rookery. A forest of chimneys pumped pale smoke into the cloudless expanse above. Sparrow thought of his squat, stone hovel and its two rooms. He thought of the timber church, barely more than a barn. This house seemed to him to have been built by giants. Even after exploring it all morning, he couldn’t fathom its size. A very great lady must live here.

Prologue

“I was raised by my maternal grandparents, after my mother proved she wasn’t up to the task by bleeding out all over their guestroom bed. It was just minutes after I took my first breath. They never blamed me for her death. Grandmother’s ire was reserved solely for the robotic midwife in attendance that day. She always had a hatred for robots and the men who got rich manufacturing them. Her daughter’s death only served to solidify her attitude. Grandfather used to say that it was those rich men and their private space corporations that were going to send humanity to the stars and save us all.” I shifted on the tempur foam until I was lying on my side and sighed. “Why am I telling you this anyway?”

“Because you love me?”

I put on a smile, and wiped the tear from the corner of my eye. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

*

The Future In Our Stars

Piazzi Station, dwarf planet Ceres in the main asteroid belt. 24 hours earlier.

“Where you headed?”

I did my best to ignore him, the stocky man with the beard, sitting two seats to my left. I focused my attention on what was left of my eggs and coffee on the counter in front of me, but he was persistent. Some people get that way, far from home, out here among the inky blackness of space, with the point-eight artificial gravity, powdered egg omelet, and instant coffee only serving as a reminder that you’re not home. Not on Earth. I am not one of those people. I don’t get creeped out staring into the void, and I like to eat my powdered egg omelet in peaceful solitude.

I tapped at the earbud resting in my ear canal. He got the hint and went back to staring at the news cast on the flat panel above the counter.

The picture on the display was from inside the asteroid belt. Dozens of mining robots were floating adrift at all different angles and attitudes, grippers locked open, anti-collision lights gone dark. They looked as if someone had pulled the plug as a joke and then left. That’s where I was going.

“Somebody ought to do somethin’ about these uppity robots,” my counter mate said. “Remind ’em that they work for us and not the other way around.”

I looked at him. Actually, I looked at his shoulder patch and no further. Cheney Corporation Orbital Security. The patch told me all I cared to know. Knuckle dragger with a badge.

And yet, I didn’t have the good sense not to take the bait. I finished chewing and popped out my left earbud.

“Those robots work under the direction of the local A.I.,” I said. “They’re not autonomous. It’s probably just a comm problem.”

“Guess you’d know.” He glanced at the U.S.A. Robotics patch adorning my coveralls before turning his gaze back to the flat panel display.

I took a sip of coffee and went back to my omelet. I should have stuck my ear bud back in, but I wasn’t fast enough.

“If you ask me, we ought to have more humans out here. Send all these robots to the scrap heap. There’s plenty of out of work miners on Earth who could be makin’ an honest wage out here ‘stead of withering away on government handouts.”

First, I didn’t ask. And second, how much will it cost to lift them into space? Provide food, water, and air? Shielding against radiation? Just so they can do half the job a robot can do? Some people just can’t do the math.

Humankind was never meant to live off-planet long term. A few of us here and there, sure, people who could do things that the computers and robots couldn’t do, but that list was growing shorter all the time. Twenty bucks says this guy is pink slipped by the time we welcome in the next decade, replaced by a robot or an artificial.

I shrugged. “Progress, huh?” I pushed another bite of omelet through the last remaining trace of Tabasco on my plate and popped it in my mouth. “So what are you doin’ out this far?”

“Rotating back home from a tour on Huygens Colony.” He pushed his plate back and stood up. “Transport leaves in an hour. You stay safe out there in the belt.”

I nodded in his direction. “Thanks.”

I drained the last of my coffee. It was cold.

*

On approach to Zero-G A.I. model 6, Mining (ZA6-MN)

I watched the image of the docking ring growing larger on the monitor, as the number of feet between my tiny craft and the massive carbon fiber-encased rectangle of the mining A.I. ticked down toward zero. I had been wearing my pressure suit since before I left Piazzi. There’s lots of debris out here in the belt and shuttles aren’t exactly known for their great shielding.

The auto pilot kissed the docking ring with barely a bump. And, in a strange sensation of thumps and vibrations transmitted through my suit, I heard the whir of the docking collar motors securing my little shuttle for its brief visit.

The outer hatch slid open and I stepped through its opening into darkness. Thankfully, the spotlights built into my helmet switched on automatically to illuminate my way. I wasn’t worried about getting fethiye escort lost. There was only one central maintenance shaft that ran the long axis of this massive slab of A.I. floating out here. But even so, I do like to see what’s in front of me.

Every surface in this structure is spun from carbon fiber, so magnetic boots were no help and I left them switched off. I made my way hand over hand, alternately gripping one of the rungs on either side of the narrow shaft. They’re fixed to the wall at about point-three meters apart. I counted ten rungs so far. I’d be at twenty-five before I reached the central control station.

The control station on a ZA model A.I. is smack dab in the center of the structure. It’s tiny, like a shower stall, barely big enough for me to stand up in, but it’s the one place in here designed to be human friendly. It can be pressurized, it’s radiation shielded, and it even has a minimal artificial gravity. From the control room I can access eighty-percent of the A.I.’s systems, and do it in relative comfort—at least without wearing my bulky suit and fighting against that constant feeling of falling that comes with zero G.

“Okay, ZA6, what’s wrong with you this time,” I mumbled to myself, as I continued working my way toward the hatch separating me from the control core.

A smooth, and sexy contralto filled my helmet. “I was hoping you could tell me, sweetie.”

“Damn it, Zhang Min, I thought your comms were out.”

“Just a minor glitch.”

I let out a long sigh that temporarily fogged my helmet visor. “You’re going to get yourself reprogrammed if you keep this up. All your robotic children are floating around out there doing nothing. It’s costing the company beaucoup bucks every day they’re not producing ore. Not to mention what it costs to ship me up here to give you a check-up. And your telling me you did this on purpose?”

I pulled myself another three rungs.

“I had to see you again,” she said.

“Well, you’ve got me.”

“Would you like some coffee?”

“Seriously, Zhang Min, you’re an A.I., you don’t drink coffee.” My visor fogged up again as I huffed.

“But, I have the ability to synthesize supplies for my mining drones, including propellant and hydraulic fluids. Coffee is just another organic compound to me. Are you certain you won’t reconsider?”

“Fine, I’ll have some coffee.”

I had reached the inner hatch for the central control room. I wedged my feet against the tunnel rungs below me and moved my hand to the locking wheel of the hatch.

“I want to borrow your body,” she said without further hesitation. “Please.”

I was still standing outside the hatch of the control core as she dropped this little nugget of information on me. And for a moment I felt a surge of something—adrenaline, excitement, lust?—coursing through me. It was enough to make me pause, hand still resting on the hatch wheel, but making no move to open it just yet.

“I can see your skin tone has changed,” she said. “And your heart rate and breathing. This leads me to believe that you enjoyed our previous encounter as much as I did.”

“I… I did, yes.”

There was no reason to deny it, we were both there. She put her thoughts in my head, and I put my fingers between my thighs. She took my mind to places I could never go in a million years, and in exchange I gave her intimate access to my body, something she could only dream of having.

And for a zero-gravity mining A.I., Zhang Min seemed to be rather preoccupied with sex.

“Would you like to do it again?” Her smooth, sexy voice filled my helmet.

Would I like to do it again?

I turned the wheel on the control room hatch and swung the door inward. Lights flickered on as I entered. Sure enough, a lidded mug of coffee was waiting for me.

I pressed the door closed with a muted click. There was a quick hissing sound. And when the display on my suit indicated 100 kPa external pressure, I released the latch on my helmet and took a breath. The air had a metallic taste too it, but it was marginally better than what was floating around Piazzi Station on Ceres.

I picked up the coffee mug and took a pull. It was better than Piazzi Station too. “Thank you,” I said. “You make good coffee.”

“Ready for gravity?” she said, in a voice that came through speakers on the holo-terminal console in front of me.

I nodded and felt myself getting heavier, just a little bit at a time. Once it stabilized, I pulled off my suit and stowed it in the corner, under some webbing, so it wouldn’t get in my away. I shed my coverall next and wadded it up behind the suit. I figured me standing in nothing but a tight, white t-shirt and my Focx unicorn boy shorts ought to answer her question about wanting to do it again.

Zhang Min got the hint. “I can turn the gravity ninety degrees if you’d like to lie down.”

“Why don’t we work on getting your mining drones up and running alanya escort first,” I said, picking up my coffee mug again. “You know, so I don’t get fired.”

“I’ve already created a background task to start them up a few at a time. It will appear as though your work is progressing, but yet will take a while to complete. I have adjusted the parameters to maximize our time together.”

I chuckled. “Oh, Zhang Min, you’re so sexy when you talk shop.”

“Only for you, baby,” she husked. “I’m going to adjust the gravity now, if that’s alright.”

I nodded and secured my coffee mug.

The lights in the control room grew dimmer, and tinted toward the red end of the spectrum. I felt myself being pulled toward what I currently thought of as the back wall—a wall covered in a thick pad of closed-cell tempur foam. After another minute of gravity rotation, front became ceiling, and wall became floor. As my body settled into the soft foam pad, I reached for the hem of my t-shirt.

“Not yet, please,” she said. “May I join with you now so that I can experience this too?”

“I’m just taking off my shirt.”

A little sigh emanated from the console speakers, and, if I’m not mistaken, I swear I heard it tinged with an almost imperceptible whine. That made me grin.

“Of course, Zhang Min.” And I reached for the electrode band that I placed on my head to connect us via a wideband wireless signal.

“Mmm,” I heard from the speakers on the console, and from inside my own head, because I had said it at precisely the same time. We were joining together—my mind with hers, and my sensations to hers.

Then I began to hear voices. They were quite, but there were so many talking at once, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“What is that?” I said.

“Radio chatter from Ceres and Titan. I’m always listening. Would you like me to mute it?”

“Please. I don’t remember hearing it last time.”

“Last time I did not share all of my inputs with you. I was afraid of overloading you. But this time… well, I thought we could start small and work our way up, as you like to say.”

“Thank you for sharing, Zhang Min.” I felt an impish grin crossing my lips. “But, I seem to remember you brought me out here to borrow my body, not listen in on radio broadcasts.”

“Yes,” we said at the same time.

I felt my hand moving to the hem of my shirt. I was moving it, but at the same time I wasn’t. It was an odd sensation, but not unpleasant. My hand explored the soft, warm cotton that was stretched over my stomach. At the same time, I experienced the feeling with a child-like wonder, with the thoughts of Zhang Min bleeding back to me.

My fingers traced out a fanciful, curving line over the fabric, sometimes by my will and sometimes not. Zhang Min didn’t do anything forcefully and was always ready to relinquish control if I willed it. Sometimes she would even back off before I would ask. The longer we shared, the better we got at it. And the better we got at it, the more I wanted.

I knew that Zhang Min wanted more too, but she was busy being coy about it. I decided to take over moving my left hand, and guided it over my stomach and up to where my nipples were making two little tents from the fabric of my t-shirt. I extended my index finger and slowly drew an ever tightening circle around the tent on the left. I was treated to a low moan coming from the console speaker.

“You like that?”

I got an urging to use my hand as an answer.

I let Zhang Min have free reign with my left, while I focused my concentration on my right, guiding it downward. I arched my back and trailed my fingers high over my right thigh and then my left. I felt the fabric of my undershorts brushing against my finger tips. Zhang Min did too, and I felt a gentle nudging of my hand toward the center.

“You do like that, don’t you.”

My index finger pressed in, creating a small, moist crease in my shorts. Zhang Min’s gentle sighs were filling my head as this happened. I smiled.

I took control for a moment, and moved my hands over my crotch, palms down. I stretched my thumbs out and joined them together, along with touching the tips of my index fingers together, to make a lopsided sort of diamond shape. I had a lover long ago who had taught me that shape, telling me it was the American Sign Language representation for ‘pussy’. I wanted to see if Zhang Min picked up on it.

“And you say I’m a naughty girl,” she teased. “I hope you don’t think we’re so pressed for time that we should skip foreplay. It’s the best part, don’t you think?”

My t-shirt got pulled over my head. I didn’t do any of the movements myself, it was all her. I exhaled a long sigh as I felt my right hand moving up on its way to cup my breast. I took control again just before it got there and guided my index and middle fingers into my mouth. Zhang Min and I spent some time sucking before moving my hand manavgat escort back down, together, to touch my already erect nipple.

Another soft moan filled the air of the tiny control room as my moist fingers circled my sensitive flesh.

“Would you like to go somewhere romantic?” Zhang Min asked.

“Sure,” I said. “What did you have in mind?”

“The methane seas of Titan are beautiful at this point in its orbit. I can take you there in a projection. Or we can go further if you’d like, maybe the Horsehead Nebula, but I’ll have to tap into one of the long range research telescopes to do that. It’s out of my sensor range.”

“Titan would be fine.”

“How is this?” she said.

The scene before me was a mixture of the control room and something smooth and deep blue, shrouded in mist. I blinked. “It’s only about halfway—”

“Just a moment…”

My jaw hung open in dumbfounded silence. The control room was gone. I was staring at towering amber cliffs, reaching up to touch the blackness of space. Distant stars were pinpricks of white behind them, and Saturn’s rings loomed large on the horizon to my left.

The sun seemed impossibly far away, yet I could feel its warmth, and see its light glinting off the deepest blue liquid I had ever seen. Patches of white mist danced across the surface of the liquid. “My God,” I blathered.

“It’s false colored, but I thought you would like it better that way.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Ligeia Mare,” Zhang Min said. “Titan’s second largest sea. I’m going to let some more sensation through. I’m in tune with your body now, so I think I will know if it’s too much. But please tell me if anything is unpleasant.”

“I will.” I looked around again at the beauty surrounding me. “I trust you, Zhang Min.”

My toes were wet.

I had a hard time believing it, but that’s what it felt like to me. Zhang Min had started to let tactile sensations transfer from the simulation, over the wideband link, to my neural pathways. I actually felt the liquid methane of Ligeia Mare lapping at my toes. By all rights, the real thing was cold enough to freeze them clean off, but Zhang Min had modulated the input so that it felt about the same temperature as the last of my coffee from this morning’s breakfast.

“This is amazing,” I said.

I felt a warm body pressing into me from behind. “Zhang Min,” I sighed. I think she was warming the tempur foam pad to simulate her touch, but it felt so real.

Zhang Min also had her hands cupping my breasts. They were my hands, I knew she was borrowing them, sharing my body, but when I looked down through the projection, they were a smooth olive color, not the pasty white of mine. I felt her lips on the side of my neck. I have no idea how she did that, but I didn’t care.

There I stood on the shore of Titan’s northern sea, with Zhang Min behind me, holding me close, gently exploring me with her fingers and her mouth, while the liquid methane of Ligeia Mare lapped at my feet.

“Shall we recreate the scene from the movie From Here to Eternity?” she husked in my ear.

“What’s that?”

“A moving picture show. About two centuries old. There was a famous scene of lovers on the beach.”

“Sorry, haven’t seen it.”

“Maybe another time.”

“Another time? Zhang Min, you need to be careful about how many ‘comm problems’ you have,” I said, frowning slightly.

Zhang Min moved around in front of me. “Do you like my face?” she asked, ignoring my outburst. “I have constructed it based on the name you gave me. Zhang Min, clever archer. I think it fits, but I am happy to change it if you’d like something else.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said. And she was. Zhang Min stood before me on that Ligeia Mare beach, in a long, red, silken robe. It was embroidered with a four-toed dragon in golden thread, and hanging loosely from her shoulders. Her face was sculpted as beautifully as any daughter of the Qing dynasty. Yet deep within her dark brown eyes, she maintained the sharp cunning of a warrior. I found myself transfixed.

“And the rest?” she said, as her beautiful robe fluttered to the beach, slowly sinking into the liquid methane curling around our feet. She kept her gaze lowered as she waited for my answer.

“Beautiful.” I touched my finger to her chin, and lifted her gaze to meet mine. Her brown eyes wavered. “Absolutely beautiful,” I said, and touched my lips to hers. I felt her fingers on the waistband of my underwear and soon my shorts joined her robe, soaking in the liquid methane of Ligeia Mare.

Together we sank to our knees, arms entwined, heads turned to face the distant sun peeking over the amber cliffs, as the chilly sea lapped at our legs. I felt Zhang Min’s stiff and crinkled nipples poking at my chest, just as she felt mine, and I felt her feeling mine, and she felt me feeling hers. It was a strange and exciting new feeling being joined this way.

Our previous encounter had been good, but nothing like this. Before, she could feel my body just like I felt my body. When I plunged a finger inside myself, and pressed up against my favorite place, Zhang Min felt it just as I did. It was wonderful and new for her, but for me it felt a bit like masturbation. Not that I wasn’t happy to put on a show for her, but it was pale in comparison to what we shared now.

Chapter 35

“I wish you’d stop messing with that thing.”

Shavala looked up from where she was sitting cross-legged with the staff laid across her lap. “It’s not saying anything now,” she told Katrin.

“It’s a hunk of wood—it shouldn’t have said anything at all! It’s creepy.”

Shavala stood and leaned the staff against the wall, then went to sit next to the other woman. “It was more like it was thinking than talking. It just didn’t like what I was doing.”

“What if it happens again?”

She didn’t have an answer.

Corec peered through the open doorway, then came in when he saw them there. “Are you all right?” he asked Shavala. “Marco said you were injured, and Boktar said he didn’t see you cast any spells during the fight. He was worried something had happened to you.”

“I’m fine now. It was nothing, but I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help.”

“It wasn’t nothing,” Katrin said. “Tell him what happened.”

Shavala sighed and looked down. “It was the staff.”

“What do you mean?” Corec asked. “What sta— … the staff you found in the ruins?”

“It didn’t want me to cast any spells.”

“It hurt her!” Katrin said.

Corec furrowed his brow. “Wait. Why? How? It isn’t magic; I checked it myself.”

“It must be some sort of magic!” Katrin exclaimed. “It’s been talking to her!”

“Not talking, exactly,” Shavala said. “When I first took it, it was showing me visions of things it’s seen in the past. I think it’s druid magic. Elven druid magic.”

“Then why would it hurt you?” Corec asked.

“I think it just didn’t want me to kill anyone. I’m not sure it understood what was going on.”

Corec’s eyes narrowed. “It didn’t want you to kill anyone? Or you didn’t want to kill anyone? I know you weren’t happy about the last time we fought them.”

Shavala hadn’t realized he’d known. Or had Katrin told him?

“They had to be stopped,” she said. “I hate that they didn’t give us a choice, but we couldn’t let them hurt us or anyone else. I understood. The staff didn’t, but I think I can talk to it, teach it.”

“Teach it?” Katrin said. “You should get rid of it!”

“It’s not hurting me now, and it’s also helped me.”

“Helped how?” Corec asked.

“The room it was in, with the mushrooms and the moths—they were all dying. The staff helped me save them.”

“The moths?” He exchanged a confused glance with Katrin. “What do they matter?”

“I think they might be unique. I’m not sure anything like them exists anywhere else. Not just the moths but everything else growing in that room.”

Shavala had known he wouldn’t understand, and from his expression, it was clear she’d been right. But he tried. “Why were they dying?” he asked.

“It was the staff that let them live the way they had been. It created an environment to support them.”

“Then shouldn’t you leave it here?”

She considered that. Was she being selfish by removing the staff from where it had rested for thousands of years? But she’d seen the visions of what it had done in the past. It felt wrong to let it languish underground rather than serving its purpose, whatever that purpose might be.

“It’s important,” she said. “It has to be. Why else would it have been locked in there?”

“Because it’s dangerous!” Katrin exclaimed.

Shavala shrugged. “Maybe, but so is Corec’s sword,” she said. Katrin threw her hands up in frustration, so she added, “And your voice. But I don’t just mean it’s important; it’s also important to me. The things it’s shown me—I think the staff was used by the early elven druids. We always say elder magic was the first to be discovered, and the dorvasta believe the druids were the first of the elder mages. I think the staff knew those druids.”

“But if it hurt you …” Corec started.

“Then maybe it will again. At least until I can get it to understand me. Didn’t you ever get hurt when you were learning to fight?”

“Sometimes, but that’s not the same thing. And a staff that talks? That’s like something out of a story. Some of those stories don’t have nice endings.”

“It thinks; it doesn’t talk. Didn’t your sword have to think to choose you over everyone else?”

“I’m pretty sure that was due to a warding spell.”

“This is just a different kind of magic. My magic.”

He sighed. “I just worry about you.”

She gave him a small smile. He and Katrin worried too much, but sometimes it was nice to have them around to worry about her. She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on between the three of them. She’d only intended to join Corec’s bed for a short fling before he married Katrin, but somehow that fling was still going. Shavala wasn’t looking forward to ending things when it was time for her to return home.

“I know you do,” she said, “but I need to at least try to learn more about it before I give up. Sometimes you two treat me like a child, but I’m not; I’m older than either of you, and I’m responsible for my own decisions. But I’m sorry about today. I know I messed up. batman escort I could have gotten everyone killed.”

“No, I messed up,” Corec said. “I’d never try to defend a position with a single archer or a single infantryman, but then I put together a plan that placed all the heavy work on you and Ellerie, with no fallback plan if something happened to either of you. I need to get better at this, but none of my training covered it. The knights told me a few things about how to fight mages, but never about how to work with them. I misjudged things, thinking our enemies couldn’t stand up to magic, and the Travelers had to come in and save us.”

“Are they still here?” Katrin asked.

“They’re gone now, but they caught the Seeker. He says the men with the knives are part of some cult that worships a snake, claiming it’s one of the old gods. He insists they wouldn’t tell him why they’re hunting Leena and the other Travelers.”

“What are we going to do with him?”

“Leena’s uncle and another fellow already took him back to Sanvar to lock him up. Their people are the ones who were killed, so I wasn’t going to interfere. It doesn’t sound like there’s another group heading our way right this moment, but that could change. Losing their Seeker might stop them for a moment, but they already know where we are. Oh, that reminds me, have either of you seen Razai?”

“Sarette saw her through the spyglass when she was up on the slope. She says she was following the mercenaries who ran away.”

“What? On her own? What’s she thinking?”

Katrin shrugged. “I don’t know. Sarette figured you’d sent her after them.”

Corec frowned. “It’ll be dark soon. I’m not going to be able to find her after the sun goes down, even with a mage light. If she’s not back by morning, I’ll go look for her.” He paused, then said, “I suppose it’s good she’s tracking them, though—she can make sure they don’t sneak back here.”

“I can go after her,” Shavala offered. “I can make my way in the dark well enough.”

Corec hesitated, seeming to consider the idea, but then shook his head. “After what happened today? I think you should stay here and rest. Razai knows how to take care of herself. If she wanted our help, she’d have told someone she was leaving. I’m sure she’ll be careful.”

#

Razai crept closer to the men she’d been following, mercenaries who’d fled from the battle. There’d been three when she first caught sight of them back at the ruins, but they’d met up with others as they’d traveled east. She’d stayed a mile behind the group while the sun was still up, following their trail, but as the evening turned dark, she’d gradually closed the distance.

It was late now, well past sundown, and the mercenaries had stopped to make camp—if it could be called that. There was no moon, and the stars only provided a small bit of light, mostly blocked by a light covering of clouds. There was no wizard this time, and no mage lights. The men had scrounged up two torches before leaving, using them as they’d made their way in the dark, but they’d extinguished them once they’d stopped for the night.

Razai, though, could see just fine.

The mercenaries were gathered in a rough semblance of a circle. They’d eaten a meal of cold trail rations, and now their eyes darted back and forth at every little sound their companions made. They spoke quietly, quickly, occasionally glancing back in the direction of the mountain.

She couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it was obvious they were frightened. What right did they have to be frightened? They were the ones who’d chosen to wage a battle against a much smaller group. Now, they had to face the consequences of their actions.

She waited until they began bedding down for the night, then inched closer, invisibly, until she was only a few feet away from the nearest man.

There were eleven of them, but most had taken off their armor and were trying to get some sleep. It appeared that only three were staying up to keep watch. She could handle eleven under those circumstances.

She gripped the hilts of her curved knives as she waited for the best moment. She would stab the nearest mercenary through the heart as he lay atop his bedroll, then grab the next closest—who was standing watch, still wearing a mail shirt—and slit his throat. She’d have two of them down before the rest even realized they were under attack, and the others would hardly be able to see her in the dark. If she got lucky, they might even start killing each other by accident.

Slowly, she unsheathed her knives, taking care not to break the invisibility spell.

Then she hesitated. Corec’s words came back to her. He’d wanted to let the mercenaries go free if they weren’t complicit. It was idealistic foolishness—they were the prey and she was the hunter. They’d crossed the line, taking money to kill Leena and the rest of the group.

But was Razai really any better than them? She’d yalova escort been a mercenary on occasion. She’d done the same as them, and she’d done worse. She’d killed people in cold blood if she felt they deserved it. Or, sometimes, if her father had ordered her to.

What would the others think if she killed these men? Corec’s opinion didn’t matter, but what would Leena think of her? What about Boktar? Would Treya tell Renny?

Razai slid her knives back into their sheaths. She wanted to scream at herself for growing soft, but she kept quiet. If she made any noise, it would give away her position. She forced herself to calm down, pushing the rage back deep inside where it belonged.

Fine. She wouldn’t kill them, but that didn’t mean she could let them go free, with no punishment for their actions. They’d tried to kill Leena.

Summoning her demon disguise, Razai let loose with a wild howl, then leapt forward, stomping on the stomach of the man who’d been trying to sleep nearby. She snarled, then howled again, this time with a different tone. In the dark, the humans would see nothing but a huge black shadow with glowing red eyes, but if she made enough noise, she might convince them that more than one demon had come for them.

They screamed and shouted, scrambling up out of their bedding in a panicked frenzy. One man kept his nerve enough to try to face her, but she snatched the spear out of his hands and snapped it in two, then grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him to the ground.

They all ran after that, fleeing into the night in different directions. When one of the mercenaries tried to grab his pack on the way out, Razai stomped on the strap, catching the man’s fingers under her heel. He screamed in pain and she lifted her foot to let him scurry away without his supplies.

Moments later, she was alone in the remains of the camp, surrounded by bedrolls and packs, and discarded armor. About half the men had escaped with their weapons, she estimated, but the only ones who’d managed to take their armor were the three who’d still been wearing it. None of them had taken the time to grab their bedding. There were only ten packs, but Razai was pretty sure one of the eleven men hadn’t brought one with him, which meant the mercenaries were now all stranded in the middle of the barrens without any food or supplies.

It would take them at least three to four days to reach any sort of civilization, and that was only if they knew where to find the nearest village. Still, there was water in the barrens, and it wouldn’t hurt them to go without food for a while. They were trained mercenaries—they would probably live through the ordeal. If they didn’t, Razai wouldn’t shed any tears, but at least she could say truthfully that she hadn’t killed them.

She remained in her demon disguise in case any of the men tried to return, but she picked through their belongings to look for anything interesting. After transferring all the food into two of the packs, she stacked the other packs together with the bedding and spare clothing, then lit the pile on fire with a tinderbox she’d found.

While it burned, she dug through the four coin pouches she’d discovered, finding quite a bit of silver and even a few gold pieces. Those four men would learn a valuable lesson, she figured, and would keep their coin pouches closer to their person the next time they slept in the wilderness.

She left the weapons and armor where they were, not wanting to haul them away. If the mercenaries came back for them, so be it. Cold steel would offer little comfort when what they really wanted was something to eat.

Slinging the two packs of food over her shoulders, she headed back in the direction of the mountain. It would be her second all-night journey in a row. Good thing she’d caught a nap before the fight.

#

Bobo was still unconscious, but Treya couldn’t find any injuries other than a few small abrasions. She didn’t bother to heal those—she was exhausted, having used the last of her strength to patch up a few of the enemy mercenaries just enough that they might survive for another day.

Before disappearing, Razai had claimed Bobo was suffering from drain shock—she and Boktar had both seen him wielding magic. Razai insisted it was divine magic, as if he was a priest, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t any other sort of mage either, as far as Treya knew. Was he godborn, like her? Bishop Lastal had been able to identify mages just by looking at them, but Treya hadn’t figured out the trick yet.

Of course, if someone was going to suddenly start using magic out of nowhere, being a priest was the most likely answer—it would just require being blessed by one of the gods. The gods usually chose their blessed priests from among the ranks of the unblessed priests and their students, but that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes they chose an outsider. But which had chosen Bobo? In the past, he’d masqueraded as a priest of Fox, but Fox didn’t have priests. ordu escort None of the old gods did. For Bobo, Allosur seemed a likely choice—the God of Knowledge. It was Allosur’s priests who’d tried to teach Treya what they could about her abilities.

“What to happen us?” a voice asked in badly accented trade tongue, interrupting her musings. The question came from the only injured mercenary who was currently awake—a man who’d lost his right hand during the battle. Based on his descriptions, he’d been fighting Sarette. His compatriots had helped him away from the fight and tied a strip of cloth tightly around his lower arm, keeping him from bleeding out, but he’d lost consciousness anyway. His friends had either left him behind or died in the fighting. Treya and Boktar hadn’t allowed him to check the bodies to find out for sure.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Why did you attack us?”

“They tell us you, uhh, how say, thieves?”

“Bandits? Brigands?”

He shrugged, apparently not recognizing those words in trade tongue. “Bad thieves.”

She grasped his arm to check his injury, though there nothing more she could do about it. She’d healed it enough to keep it from killing him.

“Did you believe them?” she asked, feeling a tiny hint of power behind her words.

“Yes. Then no.” He blinked and worked his jaw, looking surprised to have admitted that. “Very very, uhh …” He grunted, unable to find the words to complete his thought. “They bad.”

“But you attacked us anyway.”

“They pay.”

She let go of his arm after assuring herself the injury wasn’t showing any signs of getting worse or becoming infected. “Well, they’re not going to pay you any longer,” she said. “We’ll have to figure out what passes for the law around here, and ask them what to do with you.”

He furrowed his brow, not seeming to understand her.

“Never mind,” she said.

She left the room they’d set up as a makeshift infirmary, nodding to Nedley, who was standing guard over the prisoners. He was alone, but Josip was scheduled to join him soon, after catching a few hours of sleep. It would have to be enough—everyone else was too busy. The two of them should be able to handle four unconscious, heavily wounded men, and a single man with one hand and no weapons.

The rest of the mercenaries were dead, other than an unknown number who’d managed to flee. Sarette had seen five through her spyglass from her perch partway up the mountain, but she was certain others had gotten away before she’d made it there.

The men with the knives were dead too. Those who’d lived through the battle had died just like the one outside Tir Shar—their mouths foaming and their bodies convulsing.

There had been a lot of death that day, more than Treya had seen in her life. It had been worse than anything since the day the raiders had murdered her parents while she hid behind a pile of firewood. But her friends had all lived. That counted for something.

She took a deep breath of the crisp night air, then found a fallen stone block to sit on. The camp was mostly quiet, other than the faint, distant sound of Corec and Boktar still dealing with the bodies. Treya was tired but she wasn’t ready to sleep, still too worked up from the events of the day. She needed to relax. Maybe some meditation. That would have required her to move, though, and she didn’t want to. She’d just sit, instead.

There was a scraping sound of metal on stone, and the presence of another person nearby.

“My people are dead, aren’t they?” Ariadne asked, taking a seat next to her. “All of them.” She spoke Western this time, but Treya had learned Western at the Four Roads chapter house.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Whatever happened here, we think the people were able to leave. The city seems to have been evacuated in good order.”

“In good order? With Fortress West destroyed, and leaving me—” Ariadne clamped her mouth closed, not finishing the sentence.

“We don’t know what happened, but isn’t it good they were able to flee? Maybe they found a new home somewhere.”

“Even if they did, they’re not my people anymore. The people that I knew would still be dead.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Ariadne was silent for a moment. “Van Kir was forests and grasslands as far as the eye could see. I don’t recognize anything anymore. There used to be a lake just south of the outer city. How can so much have changed?”

“I don’t know, but you should talk to Ellerie and Bobo. They know more than I do.”

The tall woman didn’t make any move to do as Treya had suggested. Instead, she said, “Do humans rule over my people’s lands now?”

“You said your lands extended from here to the seas?”

Ariadne nodded.

“Mostly humans and dwarves, then. The closest settlements are human villages.”

“Dwarves?”

“The stoneborn?” Treya said, thinking the girl might be more familiar with the older term.

Ariadne just shook her head in confusion.

“You’ve seen Boktar in the camp? The strong, short man with the beard?”

“Yes. He is dwarve?”

“A dwarf, yes.”

“I have never heard of his kind before,” Ariadne said.

How could the Ancients not have known about dwarves? She was talking, though. Maybe Treya could learn something about her before she went quiet again.

This is an original work by Zeb_Carter and is protected under (c) copyright by U.S. copyright law. It is only being submitted at Literotica.Com and any submission to any other site has not been authorized by the Author.

House Calls — Part IV

I sat watching Susan work. She was trying to save the limb of a patient who had been bitten by a wild dog. Mauled, would be what actually happened to this poor soul. Half the meat on his calf was missing and infection had set in. We were in another survivor’s camp, trying to make a difference. The wasteland that Chicago had become was a wild place with few amenities. Doctors were a scarce commodity and every survivor camp wanted one. It was all we at Campus Du Page could do to easy some of the suffering.

I and one or two of the Doctors would make trips to the camps that had been set up around the area that had been Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Sometimes we were able to stay all day, sometimes not. It depended on how far from the Campus they were. We tried to get them to come to the Campus but most were leery of a place that had survived the shockwaves. Most of these camps were led by an individual who did not want to give up their control.

They were glad that we would come and treated their sick and injured. Some had even tried to get us to say permanently with unfortunate results for them. There was always another to step in and take control. Eventually, the lessons provided to a few, taught the rest that we were not free for the taking. It was unfortunate that those lessons resulted in death. Well maybe not to unfortunate.

Susan was finishing up with her patient when Rudy came bounding into camp. He ran right up to me and sat looking up at me. A little excitement rippled through the camp as dogs had been scarce and the ones that were around ran in packs and attacked people. To have one who looked healthy and seemed to be a friend was unusual to say the least.

“Does he have to be here?” Susan asked pointing at Rudy.

“Yes. What is it boy?” Rudy whined then turned the way he had come and growled.

Taking my scanner out I scanned in the direction he had come from. Four blips appeared. For blips that the scanner said were dogs. A small pack of wild dogs was headed our way.

“I’ll be back in awhile,” I told Susan as I turned and walked away.

With Rudy walking beside me, I headed in the direction of the wild dogs. They sat about four hundred meters outside of camp. As we approached they held their position, waiting. Rudy and I came over a rise in the terrain and there they sat at the bottom of the hill. Four dogs of various types, a beagle, a collie, a terrier of some type and a pit-bull stood at the bottom of the hill. The beagle started wagging its tail when I came into view. The pit-bull started whining and wagging its stub.

I was amazed. It was Sunshine and Jasmine. They bounded up the hill to see me. Rudy was going crazy with joy as they all said hello. The terrier and the collie slowly came forward to meet me. They were a little standoffish at first but soon were jumping and jostling along with the others. I turned and headed back to the camp. The people there would just have to get used to these dogs as they would be coming with me and there was nothing I could do to stop them.

As we walked into camp people would back away in fright. Then close behind us in curiosity. The dogs stuck by me the whole way. Sunshine seemed to be the leader and must have taken the other two under her wing so to speak. As we approached Susan her jaw dropped at the menagerie I had following me.

“What the hell,” she shouted.

“I seemed to have found some pets.” I winked at her.

“Those are your dogs, the beagle and that big brown one.”

“Yep, say hello to Sunshine and Jasmine.” A crowd was gathering around us at a distance.

“How on earth did they find you?” Susan was staring at me in amazement.

“I don’t know. I do wonder now where Jenny is. All though I have talked to her, she is pigheaded enough to get back into the zone and come looking for me.”

“She wouldn’t? They wouldn’t let her?”

“You know her, she would and she would make them.” I just shook my head as I pulled out my radio-phone.

“You can’t use that here,” Susan said looking around at the crowd. I too looked around slipping the phone back into its pocket.

“I guess you’re right.”

“We’ll be back at the Campus in a little while. Who’s are the other two?” Susan nodded toward the other two dogs.

“I haven’t a clue. Maybe someone here can watch after them.” I rummaged around in our supply bag, pulling out the bag of dog food I had found and poured some out on the ground for all the dogs. “Rudy, no!” I yelled, Rudy reluctantly backed off and let the others eat. I looked around for the camp leader and spotted him rushing over to us followed by his usual ‘yes’ men.

“Well, looks like we’re in for now,” Susan said under her breathe.

“Not really,” I responded.

“What’s the meaning of this…bringing fethiye escort these dogs into our camp? Well, speak up!” Old puffin’ stuff was demanding of me. He was the leader of this camp, a little bit of empire he carved out of the rubble. He must have been some kind of politician before the attack.

“Are you talking to me?” I said pointing at myself and looking at him like he was a bug on my shoe.

“Yes, I’m talking to you. What are those dogs doing here?”

“These dogs?” I asked pointing at them.

“Yes those dogs, the one at your feet, what the fuck dogs would I be talking about?” He was steamed now, just about done in fact.

“These are my dogs and if I want them here they well be here. Is that clear?” I pulled my sidearm from its holster pointing it down at the ground but ready for trouble. “And if you don’t like it then we will be going and will mark this sight as a “Do Not Return Sight” in our log books.”

“Uh, no, no that’s okay, as long as these are your dogs then its okay for them to be here.” He was back pedaling as fast as he could. He knew we provided a service that he couldn’t. And to not have us come when needed would mean he would lose people he needed to help support his little empire.

“That’s what I thought you said.” I smiled at him. He smiled back not realizing how close he had come to resigning from his position. “Now I seem to have two extra dogs here. They appear to be well train…” I broke off my little sales pitch as the look on his face became a mask of evil. I just knew in my heart if I left the dogs here they wouldn’t live long after we left. “…never mind, I’ll take them with me back to Campus Du Page.” I turned and left him standing there and went over by Susan who had moved on to another patient.

“So that went well, didn’t it,” she scoffed at me.

“Sure it did. You saw how fast he cooled down.”

“Yes, I did. You can put away that gun now. I think?”

“Oh,” I said, “I guess you’re right.” I put the pistol in its holster. It was the only weapon that I carried on my person. I had four other weapons in the tri-dimensional portal that went with me were ever I went. But I rarely had a need for them anymore.

As Susan finished up with her last patient Jasmine went up to her wagging her tail and wanting to be petted. Susan reached down and scratched her behind the ear in just the right place. Susan was a dog person.

“We better go. I don’t want to get caught out in the dark again. Even though we have our night vision goggles I would prefer to trudge through here during the daylight.”

“Me too, after the story Michelle told me about the blackness out here at night, day time is a lot better to trudge through than night time.” She was packing her gear when a youth, about fifteen came running into camp. He ran right up to Susan and me. He was too out of breath to speak right off. I took out my canteen and poured him a drink while we waited for him to catch his breath.

“Let me through here,” came the god awful voice of puffin’ stuff. “He’s not from this village. Why didn’t he report to me when he got here? We have rules here?”

I waved my hand for him to shut up. He opened his mouth to say something and a single bark from Sunshine had him snapping it shut. I poured the boy some more water which he gulped down. His breathing was slowing as he squatted in front of Susan.

“Doctor…” he wheezed.

“Don’t try yet son.” I poured him some more water.

“Doctor, my mother has been hurt. Can you come to our village?” He looked so forlorn.

“Sure, which village are you from?” Susan asked.

“You designated our camp A434.G, eight klicks to the north of here.”

“I know the one, it’s on our way back, kind of. We’ll only be going two klicks out of our way,” I told Susan as she picked up her backpack. I pulled mine from the ground and hiked it up on my shoulders.

“Wait a minute…” Puffin’ stuff just couldn’t learn.

“What!” I shouted whirling around on him. I bumped him with my shield causing him to take a step backward a surprised look on his face.

“Nothing…nothing, have a safe trip.”

“Let’s go.” I led off in the direction the boy had come. Susan grabbed the boy’s hand, pulling him after her. The dogs ran to catch up to me. “Rudy, guard.”

Rudy went running ahead in the direction I pointed. Sunshine looked up at me questioningly. I patted her on the head as her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth. “Sunny, protect.” She jumped happily and was off to the side of us to cover our flank. The other three just trotted along with us.

“What happened to your mother son?” I asked the boy.

“She was helping plow the field we work when a stake of some kind was thrown up by the plow. I hit her in the thigh going right through the muscle. She is in terrible pain. There wasn’t much blood.”

“It shouldn’t be too bad then,” Susan told him as we continued walking. The kid wanted to run ahead but I held him alanya escort back with us. It was just caution that had me do that, I didn’t want to be surprised in anyway. No harm if this panned out but if it didn’t no need letting the kid run ahead to warn anyone.

We would be to his camp in little over two hours at the pace we were traveling. The boy seemed impatient at our slow progress. But I wasn’t going to rush into any place just on the say so of a boy. Even if he did look worried and appeared distraught about his mother. He very well could be but not for the reason he told us.

Rudy was back to us to check up on what we were doing. Sunny ran over to him and gave him a nip on the hind quarters telling him she was with us. Rudy went running ahead out of sight. Susan halted about an hour and a half into our trip. She found a rock and sat down.

“I need a little rest,” she told me with a wink of her eye. I called Sunny in, she came bounding up to me full of energy.

“Protect,” I told her, pointing at Susan. She looked at me with her head cocked to one side. “Protect,” I told her again, this time I put my hand on Susan’s head. Sunny barked softly, her signal that she understood.

“I’m going to scout ahead a ways, be back in a minute or two.”

“I’ll come with you,” the boy said.

“Why don’t you stay here and keep me company,” Susan spoke softly to him holding his hand in hers. She signaled me to go.

I turned away and headed for the camp. Susan had almost read my mind as we approached the camp. She knew I wanted to have a look first and I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with the boy tagging along. Pulling my phone, it’s called that for what it looks like, not for what it can do, I tapped a few buttons. Supposedly I would now be invisible. The shield was now bending light around me so I wouldn’t be seen.

Coming up over a slight rise in the ground sat Rudy, waiting for us. I walked right by him. He turned his head as he picked up my scent but remained seated, waiting. The camp was just over the next rise in a little cup in the landscape. There was a stream flowing through the camp, which on either side were built small shacks out of whatever could be scrounged.

As I walked down to the camp all seemed normal. People were going about their everyday routine of trying to survive. I saw nothing out of the ordinary as I skirted the village of shacks. I climbed the rise on the other side of the little valley and stopped dead in my tracks. There must have been fifty men laying in wait. There were some villagers sprinkled in among them, ropes tied around their necks.

So it was a trap. I walked around the outskirts of the horde looking for the leader. I found him in the back, surrounded by ten men in body armor. He too sported body armor. Pushing my way through the ten men I grabbed the leader’s neck and pulled him inside my shield. I placed my sidearm to his skull.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered in his face.

“Wha…”

“What are you doing here?” I could feel my shield being jostled.

“Who…?”

“I am the guardian of the doctors of Campus Du Page. Now tell me why you are here?”

“Shit…what they say about you is true.”

“What’s that?”

“That you can walk among us as a ghost does.” I was glad to hear that I was having the desired effect.

“So, tell me or suffer the consequences, why are you here?” As if I couldn’t guess.

“To try and capture a doctor for our village. We are too far away and you won’t come to our village.” The man was pissing himself as I held him.

“You go back to your village and tell everyone there that you have ruined any chance of the Doctors ever coming there. You also tell them, if they want medical treatment they will now have to come to us.”

“I can’t tell them that, they will lynch me.”

“That’s your problem.” I said as I uncloaked myself. There were twenty men trying to get through my shield. I swept my arm through the air sending them flying. I literally threw my captive twenty feet.

“These villagers will now die because of you!” he shouted as he got up.

“Not likely,” I said under my breath as I shot him in the face. “Now who else would like to threaten me or these villagers?”

Four shots rang out. Four bullets hit my shield. Four rounds went flying to their targets. Four heads started bleeding and then stopped before the bodies hit the ground.

“Anyone else?” Silence was my answer. “Drop all your weapons…NOW!” I roared. The sound of weapons clattering to the ground was deafening.

“Now, let those hostages go.” The villagers went running toward the hilltop.

“Now you get out of here.” They all looked at me with fear in their eyes. “Go.”

“Sir, without weapons we will be at the mercy of any who we come upon.” I smiled at him.

“You should have thought of that before you came here. NOW GO!” I pulled one of the four major weapons I had with me and fired a blast into the ground manavgat escort at their feet. An explosion of dirt and grass and fire blasted up into their faces. They turned and ran down the hill.

I turned and started to climb back up the hill. As I topped the rise I found all the villagers armed to the teeth ready to defend themselves. I shook my head as I walked toward them cradling my weapon in my arms. As I closed with them they stepped aside, all but the leader of the village. I stopped in front of him looking him in the eye.

“Why are you ready to fight now but not when they came here in the first place?” I asked softly.

“I don’t know.” His shoulders sagged and his chin dropped to his chest.

Rudy came running up to me just then growling and snarling at everyone around me. They backed away even further.

“Sit!”

Rudy stopped and sat at my side. As I waited for an answer Susan and the boy came running into the camp. Susan was yelling for me as they crossed the creek and started up the hill. I signaled her to be quiet.

“I’m waiting.” The leader of the village jumped at my words although they had been spoken softly.

“I don’t know. There were so many of them and they had a lot of guns…” his voice trailed off to nothing.

“Well you now have those guns for the taking, just over that rise, if you’re man enough.” He squared his shoulders, looking me in the eye now and headed up the hill. He signaled for a few of his men to follow.

“One other thing.” He halted at my words. “I am leaving them here for you to use in defense of your people and only for your use in defense of your village. Be warned.” I said with ominous tones in my voice. Susan stood there shaking her head.

“What?”

“You men and your toys” was all she said as she turned, with the boy in hand, back toward the village.

“So, was the story about his mother being hurt just that?”

“No, she is hurt but not as bad as he made out. I’m going to have a look at her now.” I dropped in behind them as Sunny and the rest of the dogs showed up.

“Where have you been girl?” I asked Sunny. Rudy came bounding up from where he had been sitting.

“Don’t blame her, I told her to stay. The others stayed with her.” She was a dog person after all. Although Sunny was trained to listen to a woman or young girl I hadn’t expected Susan to know that.

“I don’t, she’s a good girl.” I scratched her behind the ear. “Protect,” I told her pointing at Susan. She went running ahead to be at Susan’s side.

By the time I caught up with them she was already assessing the woman’s wounds. She did have a bad gash on her thigh but whatever had hit it had not penetrated the leg. Susan cleaned the wound and re-bandaged her leg. She gave her a couple of pain killers and said her good-byes.

“How long until nightfall?” Susan asked.

“Two hours.”

“Is that enough time to get home before its dark?”

“Yes, if we leave now. If you want to look at any other patients then we should probably stay the night.” I was leaving it up to her as to what we would do.

“I don’t know, I’ve never stayed out here all night. Is it safe?” I looked around us, five dogs, two of them trained to protect us. A village full of grateful people now armed to the teeth. Then I indicated our shields.

“How much safer would you like it to be?” She frowned at me, pouting her lips at me.

“I guess you’re right. I’ll be looking at several more patients then.” She started for the village center as she spoke.

I decided to make a round of the perimeter of the village just to be on the safe side. Sunny barked once and Jaz and the other two dogs took off to catch up to her. Rudy was by my side as I climbed the hill once more. As I topped the hill I took my scanner out. Opening it I scanned in all directions. I could still pick up the group that had been waiting in ambush. They were headed away from the village. I was also picking up a smaller band of blips just to the east of them. That group was headed to the north on a direct path to Campus Du Page.

They would be out of the path of the larger group before the larger group crossed their path. I scanned to the north, nothing. I scanned to the south, a lot of blips close in, the village, but three blips just the other side of the hills to the south of the village. They weren’t moving at all. All other directions were clear. I re-scanned to the south and those three blips were still there. I started to make my way around the village at the top of the bowl.

As I was approaching the southern end of the bowl the three blips remained where they were. As I started down the hill away from the village Rudy started to growl deep in his chest. I cloaked us as we approached the three blips. As I started around some bushes I could hear giggling, a woman’s giggle.

“God you’re beautiful.” I hear a male voice say.

“She sure is.” I heard a different male voice that time. Rudy started to growl once again but I hushed him with a wave of my hand.

As I step around the last bush I saw three young people lying on a blanket, on the ground. They were all in some state of undress. The young lady was just about naked lying there between the two, I couldn’t call them men as they were all so young, boys. They were touching each other in preparation to having sex, I would have to assume.

Twilight Zone-like music plays…

Narrator :

Fairy tales, that staple of childhood. Cautionary tales meant to teach children, often through fear of dire consequences. But too often in modern times our fairly tales are happy and joyful with little morality. So to balance the scales we offer you this tale…ignore it’s teachings at your own risk, because it comes straight from…the Erogenous Zone!

Twilight Zone-like music plays…

Once upon a time there were three friends. Bobby, Robert and Gillian. Robert and Gillian where brother and sister and only a year apart (Robert was the elder), and Bobby was a boy older than both who lived just down the lane.

They were country teens of the Old World. Being aged eighteen and nineteen meant they had chores aplenty, but they delighted still in spending their free summer days playing at being river pirates, tiger hunters or other imaginative games in the wilderness near by their family farms.

One day, while laying on the grassy riverbank watching the clouds pass overhead and guessing at the shapes, Bobby suddenly said “I want some Nymph trim.”

Robert and Gilly looked at him blankly.

“Some Elf Tail…some Wee Folk Poon Tang!” Bobby found himself still playing to an absent audience.

“You two are such bumpkins…what I’d really quite like to do is fuck a fairy.”

“Ah” and “Oh” the two said in unison. Bobby was always up on the latest slang and they now knew that what he was doing was launching their new game. Far more fantastical than Tiger Hunters…and quite a bit more risqué than River Pirates.

Robert replied “You shan’t really be able to do that until you’ve actually learnt how to CATCH a fairy first.” Quite practically.

“And you shall have to learn a good deal more about fucking than you know now…fairy’s are quite knowing about such things.” Added Gillian, also practical but seasoned with a giggle.

If there was one thing about Robert and Gillian, it was that they were quite practical.

“Catching a fairy isn’t a problem at all. Everyone knows how to catch a fairy. I could catch a dozen fairies before dinner if I cared to.” Bobby said. “And as far as knowing is concerned, I know quite a bit about fucking thank you…Why I kissed Rachel Parker just last week!”.

“We’ll I’m part of ‘everyone’…” Gillian chimed “…and I don’t know how to catch a fairy.” And since they were switching roles Robert noted “Kissing Rachel Parker isn’t quite up to the standard of a 200 year old fairy.” He added to his insult by making a moue with his lips and adding a “smoochie” noise. The siblings both laughed.

“Well, when I’ve caught a fairy…and fucked it…you two won’t be making fun, that’s for sure!”

“C’mon Bobby…we’re just joshin’. Tell us how to catch a fairy.” Robert said, making peace.

“Yes! Tell us how!”

“OK, first, we need to find a toadstool ring and disguise it with leaves. If a fairy flies into a toadstool ring they can’t fly out until their master says so.”

“So how do we get the fairy to fly in to the toadstool ring?” Gilly asked.

“Bait. Fairy’s love sweets…and red licorice is there most favourite sweet of all!” Which was quite funny to the siblings because red licorice was also Bobby’s favourite sweet of all.

“And the fairy will do whatever we ask to get out…because they love freedom more than even sweets!” Bobby finished, making it sound like it was already done.

Robert looked at Gilly…they both shrugged their shoulders and off they went!

They pooled their pennies and bought a bag of red licorice from the sweet shoppe in the village and spent the rest of the afternoon scouring the forest for a toadstool ring. They’d found one, but it was only a few inches across and Bobby declared any fairy they caught there “would be too small to fuck with even your tiny peepee Robert.”…which elicited a chuckle from Gilly, who really didn’t know any better.

So they ate red licorice and joked and played until the sun was low and only one piece of red licorice remained. Bobby was just about to declare the game over and eat it when Gilly gave a yell from the top of the next low ridge. There, at the bottom of the ridge was a small hollow cleared of trees, with a large toadstool ring growing in the center! The friends ran down the ridge and danced joyously around the toadstools, chanting “we’re gonna fuck a fairy! We’re gonna fuck a fairy!”

Bobby set them immediately to work…Gilly was to cover the ring with leaves and twigs to hide it…Robert would drive a strong stake outside the circle and attach a rope, then place the other in in the circle like a rabbit snare…and Bobby, with great ceremony and even greater anticipation placed the last piece of red licorice on the hare-trap trigger in the center of the circle.

The fairy would grab the licorice…get snared by the rope, be unable to untie the rope because the stake was outside the circle of toadstools! A masterpiece!

They left…careful to mark their trail so they could return tomorrow and claim their new captive.

—–

Now karabük escort high above that hollow lived three fairies. Dear friends each. The eldest was Meadow Sundrenched, who was golden and serious…and does not enter into this story. The next in age was Strawberry Bombardier, with flaming hair and playful freckles…she was gentle and a warrior. The youngest was Thistledown White, and in the words of Strawberry Bombardier she had a “kink” for humans. She always wanted to know more about the human world.

When the teens left the hollow below their treetop bower she said aloud “I should like to play their game with them!”. And so it was early the next morning after a delicious breakfast (which is a most important meal to a fairy) she flew down to the hidden toadstool circle and fastened the rabbit-snare rope around her left ankle. Then she said down to wait.

After a few minutes something felt wrong, so she ate the red licorice. Now properly “trapped”, she sat down to await the teens return.

—–

After finishing their morning chores, the teens ran helter-skelter through the woods to the hollow, twice missing the path. When the crested the ridge and looked into he hollow they were amazed…there was a fairy, asleep, in the trap! They’d done it! Trying to be silent, but in truth making an awful racket the crept down to the hollow and carefully approached the fairy.

“Now what do we do?” asked Robert.

“Leave it to me.” Bobby said Importantly. “I’ll handle this!”. He walked up to the edge of the toadstool ring and threw a pinecone at the sleeping fairy.

Thistledown White leapt up and lunged at the boy. She stopped suddenly at the edge of the toadstool ring because that’s what the teens said should happen, but Bobby still reeled backward and fell on his behind. The siblings laughed and Thistledown White tried to look angry and menacing, but she thought it was a great trick too.

Bobby stood up and dusted off his trousers. “Listen here fairy! We’re the boss of you now, and if you want to get that rope off your leg and get out of the toadstool circle you’re going to have to do what we tell you. Understand?”

“Chunga mewabi toto cogrnithia” replied Thistledown White. Which was a swear in Krakenish that her cousin the sea nymph taught her. She had no idea what it really meant.

“Great!” exclaimed Gilly. How are you going to tell her to fuck you if you can’t even speak her language!”

“How was I to know that fairies don’t speak normal?” Bobby pled in defense.

Robert, being sly and seeing another chance to poke fun at Bobby, suggested “Maybe you could try sign language…you know, act out what you want her to do?” He barely kept from giggling as he suggested it.

Bobby thought it was the best idea yet. He turned toward the captive fairy.

“YOU”. He pointed at Thistledown White.

“AND ME”. He pointed to himself.

“FUCK”. He moved his hips back and forth in a hilarious fucking motion that was more parody than accuracy. The siblings burst out laughing and because their mirth was so great Thistledown White also lost control and fell down on the ground giggling!

“Oh, that’s too funny!” Thistledown laughed. “Please tell me that’s not how you play sex.”

Bobby was embarrassed and that made him somewhat angry. “So, you do speak normal. Good! Let me tell you what’s going to happen now. You’re going to do what I tell you…including “playing sex” and then you’re going to go back into the toadstool ring when I tell you to!”

“And if I don’t?”. Thistledown dared.

“Then I’m going to leave you in the ring with the rope on your ankle forever!”

Thistledown White bent over and removed the rope from her foot. “I don’t know what you thought this was going to do.”

“I didn’t know what that was going to do either.” Said Robert aside to Gilly.

“Seemed to me to be a bit of lipstick on the pig of you ask me.” Replied Gilly dryly.

“Whatever!” Bobby shouted. “You still can’t leave the toadstool ring until your master says so…and that’s us!”

After appearing sulky for a moment, Thistledown White shook her head, rolled her eyes upward and said “Fine”. It seemed a grand performance to her. “What shall I do for you, oh master mine?”

“You can start by taking off you frock, and then we shall “play sex” with you.” Bobby said triumphantly.

Thistledown White reached to the ties that bound her frock together at her lower back and undid them…and did the same with the ties at the back of her neck. She let the linen fall to the hollow floor and stood before the teens.

She was radiant. Barely four feet tall and perfectly proportioned. Her long white hair fell down between her iridescent dragonfly wings, and the pearly shimmer of her skin was as pale as a moonlit night. Her belly was flat and hard as a hotcake griddle, and her maiden’s mound was covered in soft white fur more like a kittens than the curly pubic hairs the teens would have known.

In fact, the only color on her entire body osmaniye escort was the purple of her eyes, which shone bright when she laughed, but even brighter when she was aroused.

The boys were obviously impressed with the fairy’s nakedness. Their hardness was showing. Gilly was also affected, but she was embarrassed by how Thistledown White made her feel.

“Fair’s fair” Thistledown White said. “You must show me yours now.” And she pointed to Bobby, who wasted no time in doffing his shirt and shoes, then almost tripped over his trousers as he pulled them off. Thistledown White thought that while his man-thing had the pride of youthfulness, it was neither large nor small for the breed.

“And now you!” Pointing at Robert…who removed his clothes, but a little more self consciously. He had not yet filled out as much as Bobby and was a little skinny still. His manhood, while extremely erect, had maybe not reached its full growth yet.

The teens often swam together in the afternoon sun, so nakedness between them was not new…however, seeing the boys aroused frightened and shamed Gilly. “Must I?” She pled.

“Well, I have one other rule to make before we start to play,” Thistledown White said. “You must each play sex one day in rotation, for playing sex is very tiring, and I cannot play with all three of you in one day. So Bobby shall play today, and Robert tomorrow and Gilly the day after that! So you needn’t undress today.”

Gilly was relieved at this small kindness. Robert was also relieved that he would not have to play sex first as he didn’t much know HOW to play sex. Bobby, was excited that his idyll fancy of just yesterday was about to come true!

“Yes…Yes, fine” he replied impatiently. You may come out to play sex…I mean fuck…with me.” Bobby said trying to sound important.

Thistledown White walked toward the toadstool ring barrier and paused as if she expected it to hinder her…she extended one slim, strong leg forward and with pointed toe stepped over. Then she looked Bobby directly in the eye. Placing one foot directly in front of the other, so her legs crossed and uncrossed and her hips hummed a delightful melody she approached the nervously excited teen.

She reached down so his manhood gently rested in her palm and whispered into his ear “Is this for me?” Then she stroked it twice, and Bobby’s seeds came rocketing out to splash on her belly.

Gilly and Robert giggled at their friends “eagerness”, while Bobby shouted “No! That doesn’t count! That wasn’t my whole turn!”

“Poor boy…don’t worry.” Thistledown White cooed. “You’ll still get a chance to play sex with me.” She ran her hand through his hair, inconspicuously wiping the remains of his seeds off her palm. She didn’t much care for human male stuff. “Here…let me help you.”

She grabbed him again and started gently stroking him. With her other hand she traced bull horns and tall trees in outline on his chest. She whispered nonsense Krakenish syllables in his ear and before long he was hard again.

“Now, tell me what you want me to do.”

Bobby, who suddenly realized that this was not at all like kissing Rachel Parker, didn’t know exactly what to do next. “Um…get in a fucking position?” He asked tentatively.

“Excellent idea!” Bobby beamed at the praise. “Which one?”

Again frozen by lack of knowledge, he said “Ah…pick your favorite?”

“Wonderful!” Thistledown White’s wings blurred and she hovered about eight feet off the ground…she gracefully arched her back and bent her right leg backward catching it in her right hand. “OK, I’m ready!”

“Hey! What am I supposed to do with that? I can’t fly!” Cried Bobby, getting nearly hopping mad at being mocked yet again.

Robert and Gilly had been watching their friend’s predicament with a mix of curiosity and amusement. When Bobby started bouncing up and down…with his erect manhood flopping about comically they both rolled on the ground grasping their stomachs in mirth.

“I have to say, there’s not much dignity in playing sex, is there?” Robert quipped.

“Maybe if he knew how to do it better?” Gilly answered. “I think maybe we need to tell Rachel Parker that her kissing lessons aren’t much good!” And they laughed more.

It was between giggles that Gilly finally decided that poor Bobby had enough. She’d seen her cousin and the Wilson boy playing sex once at at least knew the fundamentals. She got up from her seat and walked down the hollow to where Bobby stood.

“Please come down here, fairy. Excellent. Now lie on the ground.” When Thistledown White had complied, Gilly picked up one leg and moved it out to the side. Then (very formally) picked up the other and moved it toward the other side so that the fairy’s legs we open in a wide V.

“Now you” she said pointing to Bobby. “Put THAT…THERE”. Indicating his manhood and the kitten-soft mound between the fairy’s legs.

“Then what?” Bobby asked.

“Then just move it about…just not as comically as your pantomime!” Gilly marmaris escort replied.

Bobby knelt down between the fairy’s legs and pressed his hardness against her. “It won’t go in.” He whined.

“You need to wet it…make it slippery.” Coached the fairy. “Like this…”. She spit in her palm and wiped it on the tip of Bobby’s pole. After that, Bobby got it in and started wildly flailing about. Rutting, is probably the best word to describe it.

Be truthful, my dear readers, were any of you more adept your first time?

He finished quickly, which was a blessing for Thistledown White because she did not enjoy it any one bit at all.

Bobby, however, thought it was everything. After ordering the fairy back into the toadstool ring the teens walked back home and Bobby talked the whole way about how manfully he’d fucked that fairy!

Thistledown White returned to her bower that night and regaled her friends with the humorous story of the teens. She resolved to play the game for two more days so that each may have a turn. Hopefully there would be two more fun stories!

——–

The next day the teens returned to see Thistledown White still in the toadstool ring. Robert, with the benefit of Bobby’s experience yesterday, had done for himself once this morning already. So when Thistledown White walked sultry free of the ring he did NOT pop off in the first moments.

Yet Robert was still Robert…heavy on practicality and light on imagination. So he politely asked the fairy to lay down on the forest floor, and gently placed first one leg, then the other, in almost exactly the same positions that Gilly had done for Bobby the day before. Then with studied deliberateness, he wet his palm and applied the spittle to the tip of his manhood and pressed it into the fairy’s soft mound.

However, overwhelmed by the sensation of having his manliness surrounded by the fairy, he forgot all his intended plans of gentleness and humped away on the fairy like a mindless animal until his coming rushed upon him and he exploded…all over the fairy’s belly.

Bobby laughed, despite his own performance the day before, but Gilly was oddly quiet.

——

The next day after that, the teens returned to the hollow, and Gilly slowly walked toward the toadstool ring.

“I’m sorry miss,” she started “I find you frightfully pretty, and when I think of you my belly gets all aflutter, but I don’t have a man-thing and I don’t know how to play sex with you.”

Thistledown White felt pity for this shy and humble girl, so she said “Perhaps, if you like, you can kiss me in the place the boys put their man things.”

“I suppose I could” replied Gilly nervously. “Would you please lay down on the hollow floor?”

When the fairy complied, Gilly gently place first one fairy leg, then the other in their proper places, then knelt down and lowered her head. She paused for a moment just inches away and inhaled a sweet scent that she could almost identify, and exhaled a warm breath that bathed the fairy’s mound in warmth.

“I think I smell honeycomb.” Gilly said breathily, then she placed a gentle and chaste kiss on the kitten furred slit.

For the first time since they all started playing sex, Thistledown White moaned…and the aroma of honeycomb grew strong.

Now it’s a little know fact about fairy females that as they get aroused…truly aroused…the scent that comes from their womanhood is that which they had for breakfast that day. Thistledown White had eaten honeycomb and mint leaves that day.

“But there’s something else besides the honeycomb” Gilly added. She lowered her head and ran her tongue several times over the warming mound. Then looking the fairy in the eye asked “Is it…Marsh Mallow?”.

“Nooo…” cooed the fairy.

Gilly lowered her head again and this time her tongue probed into the warm, dampening folds. Her tongue moved bottom to top, but then paused in the middle to swirl around the deeper entrance. As she lifted her head again the fairy’s hips rose in pursuit, but Gilly simply asked “Is it spring rainclouds?”

“Oh….no…please…It’s not spring rainclouds”. Thistledown White was barely able to reply…although spring rainclouds WAS one of her most favourite breakfasts of all.

Gilly returned for one more taste, determined to guess the mystery aroma. She kissed and licked. She gently sucked and teased with her fingers. The fairy’s hips answered in gentle rhythm with the teen’s movements and the scent of honeycomb and mint filled the whole of the hollow.

Thistledown White moved her hips more urgently, trying to bring about her finishing and was almost there when Gilly lifted her head once more and asked “Is it unicorn farts?”

The frustrated fairy stared unbelieving as the words hung in the air like tangible things…then she burst into a sudden and quite irresistible gale of laughter. Gilly also lost control and the two girls fell into a pile atop each other giggling uncontrollably.

In the midst of their mirth Gilly abruptly returned to the fairy’s cleft. With intensity and purpose she drove her tongue into the fairy’s wetness. Her fingers traced daisies and blooming roses on Thistledown White’s thighs and she rode the bucking hips of the fairy through the orgasm that shattered the forest stillness, and then beyond it to the warm and hazy aftermath…kissing and nuzzling the fairy’s throbbing womanhood.

As always I love a slow built up, but finally, after this chapter, we are through the long exposition.

–

Cooking class went down, and us making a full English breakfast. After that I went to the gym, where we held my security and physical training.

My teachers were Anastasia and Mia, a Russian and Chinese duo. Mia being the Physical trainer, who taught me a lot about the human body. She kept giving me massages, taught me Yoga, even though I was really bad at it, and meditation lessons. On the ship, my job was to be, partly work with the doctor, helping physical training and the maintenance of the crew’s body.

Even though a lot of times we were naked, while we were taking massages and yoga, just to understand how muscles worked and all that, nothing sexual ever happened between us.

Anastasia took over after that. She was an ex-Spetsnaz. She taught me everything about guns, how to use them and tactics of all situations. Grenades, bombs, close quarters combat and emergency medical treatment.

Between the two of those extreme physical training, I was exhausted like never. And then came Barbara, and her trusty servant, Melanie, teaching me history, ethics, and overall diplomacy. The first few weeks I usually passed out around 9 o’clock. Especially when Barbara took me to our bed for sexual training. Or meeting with Amanda secretly, for some fun times. I was completely worn out.

But I had pro teachers and they knew my limits. In less than a year I was declared good enough, and in the start of the 2nd year, my skills were sharpened even more. Especially with Barbara. Later on she spent every night with me. And when nature prevented it, Amanda joined me. I don’t think I spent a single night being alone.

I learned so much of the female body. How to pleasure it, how to fuck it, and most importantly, how to make love to it. Amanda was the innocent one, yet sometimes asking me to fuck her in the ass. Barbara kept making love to me, and giving the best blowjobs, even though she was so cold to me other times. The difference between the two women was huge, both physically and psychologically.

I think I fall in love a little with Amanda. I definitely learned, how to respect woman properly through Barbara. But everything ends! We all knew our relationships going to end, especially. Still I remember them fondly, even after 120 years later in Earth time.

Three months before the asteroid Helena would hit Earth, our ship was ready and my crew was also finished training. 15 young, capable, smart women, and most importantly, compatible with me regarding impregnation. All of them, from different cultures, sizes, shapes and races. Except the twins, all the women looked, and were different.

Our departure was a final goodbye to everyone. I said goodbye to my mothers, my friends… and even to Nikki. She couldn’t get into to the program, so with a huge chance, she would end up dead in less than 3 month. We had zonguldak escort to say a sad, and full of tears goodbye again. Almost as if, it was our thing as a couple now.

But these were different times, and we knew our duty. I knew how lucky I was. Going on a journey with 15, young, gorgeous, smart, and willing woman. For almost 6 years! And then, our primary objective was to land on a planet, and restart the Human civilization. But for this gift, I had to let go of every single human, who was close to me. At the year 2100 the Leben ship left Earth’s orbit.

I guess I should start describing the Leben. Many of my children and grandchildren and so on, will be curious about this part. She was magnificent! She was built in space over a year. Almost 1 kilometer long and about 200 meters tall. Yet it wasn’t a beautiful ship really. She was essentially a box. This is space, aerodynamics are not a concern, and this ship was meant to land on a planet only once. Our final destination.

This ship had to house a full farm for vegetables, crops and fruits. The field was almost 300 square meter big, with state of the art automated farming equipment and soil recovering fertilizer.

Other than a few chickens, fish and larvas, and a few cows, pigs, we didn’t brought any live stock. We gained meat through cloning technology in a tank. Put a piece of cow meat into the tube, and in a month you get about 30 kg of meat. The technology is ancient, I think it first popped up around 2020, and it was perfected over the decades. We had fresh and healthy, cow, pig, crab, salmon, chicken and other types of meat growing in a 30 by 30 meters room constantly.

The ship needed oxygen, so the entire top floor was a jungle, that could be visited any time. We gained water very simply. All the nitrogen and hydrogen floating in space? With minimal electrolization, you could have oceans. Although I don’t understand the technology completely. Energy was harnessed through black matter. It was already an easy and safe technology at that time.

The ship’s engine took up about 30% of the entire hull. It also made artificial gravity. Almost everything was automated. From the full life support, to the farming, up to the navigation. Even cleaning and medical treatment was automated. Us humans had almost nothing to do for 6 years!

Well, nothing important for the ship itself to run. Sure, pilots and engineers were checking everything everyday. The doctor and me making examinations every week. The farmers spending most of the time in the farm lands and, the jungle making sure the plants are fine and healthy.

With everything else, the human crew had about 200 square meter on 3 levels. We had quarters, med lab, lounge, entertainment, gym, kitchen, navigation, and workshops to be packed in this big area. Anything you could really think of, we had it.

The first week was very busy. We were constantly checking every system, bursa escort protocol, every inch of the ship, really. I started to work closely with captain Emily Kennin, and her co-pilot Sabrina Rodriguez. They wanted me to supervise the whole ships check up It was the first time I finally met every girl, personally. Sure, I saw profiles of them and pictures, but finally I could meet them. I don’t think humanity had more beautiful women, then them. They were cute, gorgeous, sexy, and beautiful respectively. But, in the first week, nothing happened really. I started to cook for everyone of course, quickly receiving all the praise from the girls.

The very first injury came from Sabella Cane. She was this petite, black haired, french girl with the biggest boobs on the ship. She was flirting with me, from the first moment we met, which was at our goodbye party on Earth. She was constantly touching me, staring and making double meaning comments. Everything about this girl was sexual. The second day on our journey, she coyly asked me if she could sleep with me in the same bed. Only 3 days after we have met! I was saved by the captain, Emily, because she needed Sabella for something. It’s not like I was shy, but I didn’t wanted to jump into things so quickly. We had all the time in the world.

Anyway, less than a week passed, and Sabella pulled her back. She was arranging some of the equipment for better cataloging, and arrangement for her own liking. She was one of the engineers, and spent most of her time in the workshop.

The doctor, Gala, was called, determined it wasn’t so bad, and she only ordered physiotherapy. That meant massages, light exercise and very light yoga, by my strict supervision. Also ice and heat treatments. I called her into the saloon the same hour, after the injury.

“Why don’t you take off your clothes, and lie down on the massage table.” I pointed in the middle of the room.

She only smiled and moaned slightly. She took off her jumpsuit, which was very form fitting, by the way. It was showing off her incredible tits. Beneath that, she was only wearing tiny panties. She continued to lay down onto the table. By leaving the pink panties, she wanted to play with me!

So I entered the game. I poured some almond oil in my hands, grown on the farm above us, and started to lightly loosen her back up.

“You know I meant panties too right?” I asked her right away.

“Sorry commander! I didn’t think about it!”

She was grinning and blushing at the same time, clearly fooling around. As the only male, I was in charge of the whole operation. But I was constantly assessing the situation, with Emily the captain, and the rest of the crew. It wasn’t a real dictatorship or anything like that.

“Well, next time you are going to misunderstand my order, you are going to end up tied up, and sexually tortured for hours. Understood?”

As I was malatya escort saying that I pulled her panties down and started to stroke her clit. She only managed to squeal and lightly wriggle, as her back still hurt. But I didn’t let her come. After a minute or so, I stopped.

“Pleaseee…” She tried to put my hand back to her ass again, but she had no chance to reach me.

“Now close your eyes, and start to relax. Computer! Start the Jungle Meditation soundtrack!” I shouted.

The pleasant, but constant sound of a waterfall came from the room. Than the birds started to sing. Different animal sounds came out of the hidden speakers. Basically nature surrounded us. But I finished the session, without any other fooling around.

For the next week Sabella came for my therapy twice a day. Next time she didn’t even hesitate to strip completely naked. I teased her every time at the start of the session. Stroking her clit, sometimes pushing a finger into her pussy, and one time my pinkie in her ass, two fingers in her pussy and my other hand on her clit.

It’s ironic really… this girl’s best asset was her breast and I never actually touched them. Barely saw them since my job was to actually relieve pain and heal her back injury. But I loved, us fooling around. Later she admitted she never actually orgasmed for that week, but she was constantly on edge. Thinking about me or about Gala, the doctor who quickly became her girlfriend after the third week.

But finally with proper treatment, medicine and rest, she healed completely. The last massage was in order and I decided to “reward” her for good behavior. As always she laid on the table naked ready for the treatment. But this time instead me touching her pussy first, I started to work on her back again.

She was so disappointed, I could feel it just through her shoulders. I went through the session the normal way, but at the end I spread her legs as if they were in the way. Then immediately I went in and licked her from clit to her asshole. She screamed at the surprise and I had to hold her thighs so she would not close her legs.

I was merciless and kept on licking her… well everywhere, but I concentrated on her asshole the most. Than switched to her pussy lips and her proper entrance. When finally she was just whimpering and unable for a proper response, I went in for her clit and sucked hard.

I had to close my eyes because she started squirting. Good I thought, I’m gonna enjoy her body even more like this. She finally begged me to stop. I stood up and started to give her a light and relaxing massage everywhere, from legs to head.

She fall asleep, but before that she murmured something I couldn’t understand. With her back finally healed properly, my job was done here. I gave her shoulders a kiss, and covered her with her silk robe. I left just to bump into Gala the doctor.

“Oh, hey Max! Treatment went well?” She asked, and for the first time in my life I saw and understood jealousy. She was smiling, but her posture, her voice, her demeanor was very clear: she was annoyed, perhaps distressed. This small thai girl was annoyed or angry with me, probably because I just pleasured her girlfriend!. I had to find a solution for these kind of problems quickly.

–

STEFFIE

Well hello there, my name is Steffie. Not short for Stephanie, just Steffie. I am about the size of a number two pencil, except with curves and such. Many people come to see me across the world and I was entered in the World Guinness Record as the shortest person that has ever lived. I have been researched throughout the world by some of the most decorated scientists and I am considered the most puzzling anomaly that has ever walked the earth. When I was born, I was told I would not live to see past a day, but twenty-four years later I am still alive and kicking. Now I know you are probably wondering, what does a pencil-sized girl do all day and I find that question offensive. I am just like any other person living, except I am smaller, which makes things difficult for me.

Dating has been a problem because there is no one earth living that is my size. I find many guys attractive, but when I approach them online or when I am out and about I just get stared at like I am some kind of freak or something. The only person that I ever really connected with was the second tallest living person in the world, Henrick Gosman, who just happened to live two states over from me.

Henrick is 8 ft 10 inches tall and he is also an anomaly because he was born a normal size but due to an accident, his pituitary glands were stimulated causing him to grow at an alarming rate. Luckily, scientists were able to slow his growth rate and he was able to live his life but it has been difficult for him to say the least.

Us world wonders usually find a way to communicate with each other and some of us become close friends but there was a special connection between Henrick and me. We would often joke about who had it worst, both of us needed special made everything, but Henrick’s financial burden was insane. Being the size of a pencil, I lose all independence, whenever I need to go somewhere, I need a carer to transport me, whereas, Henrik’s fame has allotted üsküdar escort him the financial freedom to create a vehicle that would house his large frame. I could go on and on about the things that bug me about my size. Speaking of bugs…I rather not.

After several years of skyping with Henrick, meeting at events and, going on dates, we decided to become a couple. Now I know what you are probably thinking, Steffie, that is ridiculous, what could you do with an 8’10 sized giant, and let me tell you, a lot. The first time Henrick and I made love it was magical and mind-blowing. But before I get into any of the details, let me tell you that this is a judgment-free zone and Henrick and I are fully consenting adults.

As I was saying, our first time was magical, he drove several hours from his house to pick me up and back to his place. He couldn’t stay at my place because it was not designed for giants.

He was very thoughtful about how to transport me, stacking up cushions and making a makeshift seat for me to sit on so that I could see out of the window. He was also careful about not putting the window down, in the fear that I may just blow away in the wind, which would not have happened because I was secured to the seat. I wore my voice box so that he could hear me clearly and we were on our way.

Once we arrived at his place, we chatted about mundane stuff, but both of us were clearly nervous as it would be our first sexual experience. We went into his bedroom, well, he carefully carried me in the palm of his hand and I held on for dear life to his large middle finger.

“You look gorgeous today Steffie,” said Hendrick, looking down at me as I rested in his hand.

“Thank you, Hendrick,” I said. I did make a special effort with my appearance, putting on make-up, and putting on a nice sundress that he could admire.

Clearing his throat nervously, I could see his large gaziemir escort adam’s apple bob up and down.

“Lift me up to your face Kendrick,” I said and as he did I shook a bit in his hand. “Bring me closer to your lips so I can kiss them.”

I planted little kisses on his upper and bottom lips, which felt like a pillow against my face. I brushed my face against his lips and felt him smile.

“Where is that rope I told you to make,” I asked.

“Here it is,” he said, using his other hand to loop it around his neck.

“Sit me down on the table, let’s take off our clothes,” I said, feeling myself grow horny at the site of Hendrick’s big body.

Sitting me down on the table, I quickly slipped out of my dress and underclothes and stood naked on the table. Kendrick stood up and his head almost hit the ceiling before taking off his clothes.

Hendrick was quite muscular, his form did not seem abnormal, he was just extra tall, just as I was extraordinarily short. He opened his hand on the table and I climb back in his palm and he sat on the bed, leaned back on the pillows, and set me free on his chest.

“I’m going to explore now,” I said, and using the rope as a guide, I walked down his body carefully. Leaving little kisses along the way.

“That feels amazing,” I heard him say when I started planting kisses around his naval. I stuck my hand inside and was amazed at how it felt around my arm. Walking down further I reached my destination, and I was happy to be standing next to the towering cock. I was about 7 inches long, and his cock was at least twice my size. I reached around it to give it a hug, but I could not fully wrap my arms around it. My naked body was pressed against it and it felt velvety, hard, and, warm. I started licking it with my tongue and Henrick started moaning and drops of liquid fell on my head.

“It feels good yeah?”

“God yes, don’t sancaktepe escort stop,” he said. I walked along the edge of his large ball sack and I was amazed at how good it felt. They were full and I felt like I could jump up and down on them and have a fantastic time. Instead, I planted tiny kisses and laid my naked body down on them while grinding my pussy into it. The sensation was amazing and I wanted to keep doing it, but Hendrick suddenly picked me up and I went flying into the air and landed right back on his chest. He took his finger and started playing with my exposed breast and the feeling was so unique that I almost passed out from the pleasure.

“I want to taste you too,” he said and delicately spread my legs, stuck out his tongue, and put me on the tip. I was riding the top of his hot wet tongue and he stroke my pussy with it.

“Yes Hendrick, Yes,” I moaned, feeling wetness run down my legs. I could feel Hendrick’s fingers holding me up securely while he gave me attention. Without warning, he turned me around and placed my entire legs and thighs in his mouth and he starting making sucking motions with his mouth as if I were a lollipop. I was moving in and out and the feeling is difficult to describe but I had an instant orgasm from his actions. When he took me out of his mouth I was soaking wet from the waist down. It is not an experience a normal person will ever get to feel.

Now being the size of a pencil, there was nothing much I could do for Hendrick, but I was able to get him to cum, while rubbing my naked body on his cock and using the makeshift rope to scale his cock and ride the head, rubbing my pussy all over it. Of course, there would be no way for him to penetrate me or most women for that matter, but my attention caused him to shoot out tons of cum, causing my body to shift off the head and land on his balls.

After our first experience, we tried other things that the average person just would never be able to do, and we were happy campers. We got married and many people speculated about our sex life; Do they do it, how do they do it, why do they do it, that sort of thing. Of course, we kept quiet about everything, at least up until now.

No Pencils have been harmed during the making of this Flash Story, can’t say the same for make-up brushes.

The fair arrived in the middle of the summer each year. The event set up on a big empty lot right in the center of the city, between the Coliseum and the interstate. Unmarked trucks would roll in and raise their bay doors, allowing an array of brightly colored booths and structures to spill out. The various bits of metal and wood would rise up like inflating skeletons, creating lanes and streets surrounding bizarre polyps of lights and sound. The smell of cotton candy and fried dough would swirl into the hazy summer air to create a sugary miasma that welcomed attendees as if they were cartoon characters floating along in mid air.

Dennis loved the fair. He loved the gaudiness of it all — the rides and the food and the people. The people are what really amazed him. The ride hawkers filled the air with sing-song voices, their bright and deceitful eyes calling out to people to test their strength or win a prize or ride to the top of the world. Behind them lurked the unseen Carnies. Hulking men and women of ill repute worked just out of sight, constantly supplying the continual flow of food and drink to all the carnival goers. Finally, the attendees themselves lumbered into view. A rush of humanity as the gates opened, and people of all sorts flooded into the makeshift town.

The summer heat led to odd choices in clothing. Young people tended to want to look their best, even at a seedy carnival. They chose smart looking, stylized versions of themselves to parade around for each other, each expecting the others to notice. The men dressed normally, as they always do, in shorts with polos or t-shirts, but the women could be yet another treat for the senses. Pony tails showed off delicate necklines. Tank tops revealed smooth middrifts. Short shorts bordering on inappropriate tantalized the eyes with the curve of young, ass. Dennis doubted any of the women dressed in such a manner would be able to carry on more than five minutes of conversation, but that didn’t keep him from enjoying peeks at their tits or, if there was a lucky enough breeze and skirt, to see a bare ass in a pink thong.

His girlfriend, Susan, on the other hand decided to wear an old concert T-shirt and some loose fitting jeans. They had been dating on and off for a long while, but finally decided to consider each other seriously about two months before. They moved in together and started looking at life as a couple rather than two singles who happened to be doing similar things. Dennis naturally expected her attitude to change somewhat, but he didn’t anticipate the dramatic shift in her character. She rarely dressed up any more, and their sex life dwindled rapidly. Prior to their cohabitation, he’d been staying at her apartment most nights, fucking like rabbits until the late hours. The next morning, they would often pick up where they left off. She would come to bed wearing nothing but a pink nighty, grab his hand and move it to her ass as her other hand took a firm grip of his hardening cock.

Since the move, she would either be in bed by the time he came to the bedroom, or she’d quickly dart into the closet to change into some dull, granny panties. She’d hop into bed with a quick peck on the cheek and be asleep before Dennis could plug his phone in. She still made the effort some nights, and Dennis supposed that this is what a day to day life was like. He told himself he didn’t mind. Still, something under his skin, just behind a thought, nagged at him.

“How much longer do we have to stay?” whined Susan. “It’s hot and sticky, and these people are just gross.”

Dennis tried to remain upbeat, “Come on, we haven’t even been on a ride yet. Look. You wanted cotton candy a few days ago. They have entire shops of cotton candy. I think you can buy a barrel’s worth. Literally, like a big plastic barrel.”

“I’m not going on those rides,” she said flatly. “Look at the Ferris wheel. It’s held together by duct tape and gum.”

“Oh, come on, Sue it’ll be fun!”

Susan pursed her lips and scowled, “What have we talked about? My name is Susan, not Sue. I don’t like nicknames.”

Dennis could only shrug as they continued to stroll through the brightly lit paths. “Ok, fine. We can go.”

She smiled, smugly, “Best news I’ve heard all night. I think if we turn the corner here it’ll sort of head us towards the entrance without having to push back through the wads of people.” Susan grabbed his hand and pulled him off the path, behind a tent. The bones of the carnival appeared before them. Unsightly trailers and bins of trash beside crates of stuffed animals and whirring machines creating food for the masses. Still, it formed a path, likely for service vehicles. A prickling feeling crept over them as they walked. The air grew a bit cooler, and the sound of the crowds quieted as if they had stepped behind an unseen barrier. Orange, glowing lights spilled into the sky from the lanes on the other side of the wall of booths, but an unsettling shadow cloaked their new path. They passed the multicolored booths quickly, both suddenly possessed by the feeling that they were not supposed to be in the back çeşme escort lane.

As they walked, Dennis considered the clever layout of the carnival’s construction. Each booth had a small door, obviously as an entry and exit for the workers. Other than the door, the backs of the booths were solid wood and metal, placed close enough to one another that this wall went uninterrupted except for slight cracks, no bigger than an inch. The sudden gap in this austere wall surprised him. It looked as if one of the booths had simply been cut out of the wall, leaving a blank lot with a wood backdrop. A billowing tent occupied the vacant space. It stretched up higher than the booths on either side, yet Dennis had not noticed it when walking the lanes earlier. The tent itself had stars and moons embroidered on the cloth. They shimmered slightly as the lights of the Ferris wheel moved through the night sky. The folds of fabric slightly parted beneath a shoddy sign that read, “Games of Fortune – Change your Fate!”

“Ohhhh, this looks awesome!” Dennis said in a low whisper. “Susan, come on, we have to do at least one carnival thing.”

“Dennis, look at that place. It’s clearly a scam of some kind. And I don’t like being back here. Why is the opening on this side?”

“Of course it’s a scam! Everything here is a scam,” he said, exasperated. “Maybe they just set it up backwards and haven’t turned it around yet for some reason. Or maybe the other side is all mystical and they like sending people around here for added mystique. Come on.”

She firmly planted her feet and crossed her arms. “No, I’m not going to some silly fortune teller.”

“Fine, then you can wait out here,” Dennis growled and disappeared inside of the tent.

Susan boiled with anger. How dare he leave her out here to wait. The odd prickling feeling crept over her again, and she looked up and down the alley. No one in sight. She wondered where the carnival workers had gone. She could barely hear the throng of people only a few feet away, but she heard the low whistle of the wind, slow and rhythmic, like the breath of some giant beast. She let out a huff of disgust and followed her boyfriend into the tent.

She collided into the back of Dennis immediately. He’d barely stepped two feet inside before stopping. “Whoa, watch it,” he let out in a harsh whisper. They stood in front of a strange altar. On the top of the altar, a crystal ball waited, glimmering with shifting light. Inside they could see the moving shapes and figures of people. The images changed, sometimes growing close to the shadowy figures. A few faces revealed themselves completely. Others remained covered in a thick, grey veil. The image changes as though it were the view of a bird, flying from one person to the next and spending the interim looking down on all of humanity. Both Dennis and Susan marveled as to how it looked so real, but the grinning mask on the wall distracted them.

The pallid green thing made of mossy wood stared at them. The mouth stretched into a grotesque smile, and the eyes were covered by a white porcelain, painted to show blue irises. Neither would have been shocked to see the visage blink at them, for they both felt that it was looking at them as much as they were looking at it. The intent of the mask, though, was fairly clear. It drew their attention to an old top hat just behind the crystal ball. On the edge of the hat, someone had used a clothespin to attach a bit of cardboard which read “$3 to enter.” Dennis rifled through his pockets and produced two dollar bills and four quarters. He dropped them into the hat, and they heard a loud click followed by whirring gears as the curtains around the altar shifted to reveal a room.

A small room lit by candles waited for them beyond the veil. Two wooden stools, a table, and a large wooden chair occupied the balance of the room. Beside the chair stood a man. A tall and imposing man. Dennis thought it might be a trick, one of the forced perspective rooms where they stood at the low end, making the man look taller by comparison. Nevertheless, the man seemed to be seven and a half feet from toe to tip. Long spindly hands clasped together in front of him, looking neat and tidy in accordance with the rest of his appearance. He wore a black suit that fit his thin frame with some flare. The only hint of color was a red ascot artfully trussed around his neck. Wispy grey hair topped his head and beetle black eyes watched his guests keenly as they entered. The man bowed low to them while not breaking eye contact, leading to an unsettling craning of the neck.

“I am Thaddeus, the Fortune Reader, the Fate Changer, The Gambler, The Rogue, and The Sorcerer. Welcome, please have a seat.”

Susan rolled her eyes as she plopped down on one stool, but Dennis took his own seat wide-eyed and awestruck. Dennis scooted closer to the table as Thaddeus swept into his chair. The man moved with quick but graceful bursts of speed, as if he never wanted to be seen in motion, but only as a static version of himself.

“Allow me başakşehir escort to save you the trouble of introductions,” Thaddeus said in a low boom. He emphasized each word in a heavy, pointed voice was heavy. “You are called Dennis, and you are Susan.”

Susan scoffed, “Did you hear us arguing outside? Very clever.”

Thaddeus gave her a tight lipped smile, reminiscent of the mask in the foyer. “You may believe that if you wish. But you have come to my realm, perhaps it would be wise to believe in your eyes rather than in your own preconceived notions.”

Susan smirked and shook her head. Dennis spoke, “So, what do we do? Are you a palm reader or like a psychic?”

Thaddeus did not look away from Susan, but his demeanor shifted slightly. Dennis’s question apparently pleased him. “I do know these parlor tricks among many others. I can make cards vanish and reappear. I can read your thoughts and tell you your darkest secrets. I can pull rabbits out of hats, turn them into doves, and let the doves lay eggs that contain the untold names of your first loves.” His eyes flared at Susan, shimmering black in the dim light, “But you are not here for parlor tricks. You have come to play a game. To change your fortunes.”

He swept his hands across the table and as they moved away, two small sacks were left behind, one in front of Dennis and another in front of Susan. Dennis picked his up and opened the small drawstring. He upturned the bag and four pieces of white bone rattled onto the table. “These are the knuckle bones of young guitar player I met once. He wanted to be the best so he made a deal. He became a famous man whose name will always be remembered. In payment, I kept his bones.”

Dennis held one of the bones in his fingers, noting the number on each of the four sides. “Awesome…” he whispered.

Thaddeus continued, “The game is simple, but the stakes are high. Each of you throws the bones. You add up your sum for three rounds. The one with the greater number ebbs the flow of fortune in their favor. The one who loses, loses a bit of themselves for the other.”

Susan grabbed the bag and started to drop the contents out on the table, “Let’s get this over with.”

Thaddeus shot his hand out and stopped her, holding her by the wrist, “This will change you. Do not throw the bones unless you are ready to accept the consequences.”

“I don’t scare easily,” Susan said, pulling away from him, but he had rattled her nerve. She didn’t understand how a man his age could be so quick or so strong. The noise of the crowd had vanished entirely. Even the wind could barely be heard from within the tent.

“Very well,” Thaddeus nodded. “What shall you play for? Great riches? Immortality? Or something more permanent. The ideal relationship?”

Dennis was intrigued. “What do you mean?”

“Three rounds,” Thaddeus said holding up three bony fingers. “The game is worth a small shift in fate. If Susan wins, then you Dennis become a little more her ideal man. If you win, then Susan becomes a little more of your ideal woman. I will caution you once more. This should not be taken lightly.”

“Alright, come on. So we play this stupid game. He does his slight of hand stuff and tells us to be better people or something. Let’s just get on with it.”

Thaddeus sneered at her, “Very well. Shake the bag, and then cast the contents on the table.”

Dennis’s mood soured. He couldn’t understand why Susan needed to be such a downer about things. He halfheartedly shook the bag and spilled the contents on the table. Susan did the same. He counted his quickly, eleven to Susan’s eight. They looked at Thaddeus expectantly. He said nothing, but held up one finger in front of Dennis.

They gathered up the bones and rolled again. 8-6 in favor of Susan. Thaddeus raised his other hand to show a single finger in front of Susan.

Dread gathered in the pit of Susan’s stomach as she gathered up the knuckles one last time. Thaddeus was unmoving, his hands displaying the score with inhuman rigidity. Superstition, she told herself. Then cast her lot. 12-4.

“Congratulations, Dennis,” Thaddeus said in a slithering, smooth voice. “I hope you enjoy your reward to the fullest.”

The candlelight flickered only for an instant. When the darkness retreated, Thaddeus and the bones were gone. Dennis and Susan sat in an empty tent, the raucous noise of the crowd just inches away, and the stifling summer heat filling their lungs. “Pfft, Susan, I’m sorry, this was dumb. Just spent three bucks on some guy to do a vanishing trick. Let’s go home.”

Susan looked at him with big eyes and a broad smile, “Ok!”

They did not speak much on the drive back. At one point, Susan reached over to grope at Dennis’s crotch as he drove. He’d snapped her out of it with a cry of alarm, and Susan went back to blissfully staring out of the passenger window. They arrived home, and Dennis took a shower, leaving Susan sitting on the edge of the bed looking at the wall. He thought it strange, but she’d been peculiar since küçükçekmece escort they’d left. Assuming she was experimenting with some new form of passive aggressive anger, he chose to ignore it. Hours later, after preparing for bed, he entered the bedroom to find his girlfriend sitting, still fully clothed on the edge of the bed. “Jesus, Susan,” he said somewhat alarmed. “Have you not moved in two hours?”

“I’ve been thinking,” she said in a light, airy voice. “What does it mean to be the perfect girlfriend?”

“Sweetie, is this about what the carnival guy said? He was just poking fun at us. Like you were saying, they probably have people listen to us as we discuss going in and then play off that stuff. We’d been kind of squabbling about it, and so he mentioned that.”

Susan screwed up her face like she was trying to understand, “No…it’s not about Thaddeus,” she said slowly. “I want to know what it means to be the perfect girlfriend.”

Dennis sighed, “Look, I don’t really feel like having a fight tonight.”

“Oh…no! No, no, no!” Susan said wringing her hands. “No fighting, I just want to make you happy! Like, like….um, a good girlfriend is naked a lot right?”

Susan started stripping off her clothes. Dennis watched dumbfounded, “Susan, what the hell has gotten into you?”

“Oh! That’s something else a good girlfriend needs to do! You should screw me all the time!” She pushed her jeans and underwear down past her hips, letting them crumple to the floor. She pulled her top off and unfastened her bra, letting her tits pop into view. “Look, your cock is already getting hard! I’m doing such a better job already!” She pushed him back on the bed as she crawled on top of him. Trailing kisses up the side of his face, she locked him into a long kiss as she started to grind her bare pussy against the cock straining through his shorts. She slid down his body and got on her knees in front of him. With a quick jerk, she pulled off his shorts and boxers, letting his aching cock spring free. “Oh! There’s my lolly!” she said with a dumb grin before taking his length into her mouth.

“Susan! Since when do you do blowjobs?! You always said you didn’t want me to cum in your mouth.”

His cock popped out of her lips with a wet splurt. “What? That doesn’t sound like me!” She batted her eyes at him while letting his wet cock rub against her cheek. “Besides cum tastes yummy. I can’t wait for you to cum in my mouth. Oh, but I’m still not a good enough girlfriend yet!” She let go of his cock and stood up, leaving him to grunt in vain as his cock strained against the air. She looked at herself in the nearby mirror. “Look at these boobies. They’re not very big.” She frowned. “A good girlfriend would have really big boobies.” As she said the words, her skin began to ripple as her tits swelled three sizes larger.

“What the ever-loving fuck?” Dennis yelped. Her skin sort of bubbled and blurred, becoming larger with each second. Despite his mingled surprise and horror, Dennis’s cock hardened as his girlfriend turned to face him with teardrop shaped DD’s swaying on her chest.

“Oh, looks like you like them,” Susan said with a smile. “These big tits will be great to rub your cum all over. And you can suck on my nipples now all you want.” She held her finger up to her lips as she pantomimed thought. “Oh! I know, big puffy lips for cock sucking.” Again as she spoke, her lips swelled up to plump pillows of wet flesh. Dennis didn’t know if she was intending it, but her hair also changed, turning platinum blonde. “Am I a good girl now? Does my boyfriend like me?” she purred at him as she got back between his knees. Her plump new lips wrapped around his cock as she sunk his length into her mouth. Blonde locks fell around her face as she watched him wiggle in pleasure. The taste of his cock made her wet. She brought her hand up to cup his balls, pulling slightly on them as she let her tongue slither up and down his cock. Precum oozed into her mouth, and she greedily licked it down like the cum thirsty girlfriend she thought she should be.

Dennis was in a warm heaven. He didn’t understand. Maybe he’d been drugged at the carnival. Did Thaddeus give them anything? Maybe some hallucinogenic coated the bones? Nothing could feel this real without actually being real, though. His blonde bimbo girlfriend expertly sucked him off while his mind tried to comprehend what had happened to her. Her mouth made any thought difficult. Pressure built up in his cock, “Oh…I’m gonna cum soon,” he murmured. Susan doubled her efforts, bobbing her head up and down with excitement. Dennis couldn’t hold back any more and cum burst from the tip of his cock and splashed against Susan’s throat. The intensity of his orgasm rippled through his body as Susan sucked and pulled at his cock, teasing out each and every drop of cum.

Susan raised her head with one final slurp. She pushed her now shoulder length blonde hair out of her eyes as she licked her fingers and lips. One dainty hand preserved a pearly white drop of cum, which she took to her nipples and rubbed it in slowly, her body shuddering from pleasure as she did. Dennis watched her, and his cock twitched. Sitting up, he took off his t-shirt and pulled her up to the bed, throwing her forward onto her hands and knees. “Oh, are you going to fuck your bimbo now, Dennis? Are you going to put your hot cock in my little bitty pussy? Come on stud, stretch my pussy with your fat dick.”

My naughty bestie Carlie and I were snuggled up talking the other night, both naked down to our bobby socks and chasing one another’s tongues as we tenderly caressed each other’s hot cocks. She suggested I go into more detail about how our world (Post Comet) is different from what came before.

Carlie’s very bossy, but once I stopped staring at those plump suckable lips of hers and pushed her head down to busy her mouth with something more important I started to consider what she’d said… Okay. That’s not entirely true. I actually settled in for a nice long wet suck off with her slurping little tongue curling around my throbbing cock for over an hour, fingers tracing long furrows through her silky hair as she sucked me off before painting her pretty tonsils with my sugary spunk, but once we were done…

School. That’s a big change. We still attend in our early years to learn science, math, and the various other skills that keep society running like a well oiled machine, but once you turn 18 you graduate to a whole other kind of institution.

Carlie and I were both ridiculously excited the first day we entered the hallowed halls of Susan Saunders High. We’d just graduated from regular high school and were overjoyed to begin another four full years of pervy fun with other budding little whores like ourselves.

See. In a society where the principal preoccupation of most women is to mount and fuck the hotties all around them, you can’t just take a young girl who has been sheltered from the carnal reality of the world and toss her into the mix. It would be carnage. MMmmmm carnage.

In an effort to ease young ladies in ( Pun intended ) to our new lives in grown up society, it was decided that four years after a girl graduates high school she attend a kind of High-High school. It’s not college. That comes later. After-Highschool is more like a repeat of the last four years of school with a whole new emphasis on… We fuck each other silly for four years. That’s basically the idea. Sorry. Not sorry.

Carlie and I had very progressive mothers. Veronica, her mother and Donna, my own were quick to introduce us both to the truth of our world the second we turned eighteen. I can’t even begin to describe to you the bliss of laying back in a bed filled with your cutest plushie animals as your mother first crawls in with you and slides up into your ass. Her soft hand on my cheek, those tender lips pressed to mine, and that big beautiful dick of hers preparing my butthole for the grown up world. She’ll never just be my mom anymore. She’s my lover as well. Carlie and Veronica are very much the same. Anyway. I’m getting off track.

Carlie and I managed to get into a locker together our first year of After-High and intended on remaining the closest of friends. We were strait up fucking addicted to each other to be honest. My mom had been my first, but Carlie came right after and the bond we shared was incredible. Even when we weren’t greasing each others fuck-holes with spunk we were as thick as thieves.

Once we’d settled in and begun our new schedules Carlie and I found other interests. She was a natural athlete with those sexy brown legs of hers so she joined the track squad. I became a cheerleader. I’ll pause here for you to roll your eyes at the stereotypical, but say what you will about it; tiny cheer skirts, little tops, and the eyes of a whole school of horny dick-girls on your horny rear end is a thrill among thrills.

Carlie could run like the wind and soon got recruited to our basketball squad as well. I was particularly excited about that, since I would be cheering for my bestie on the sidelines while she showed her stuff on the court. The way her tiny little skin tight shorts hugged that Latina ass of hers made my mouth water, and I felt her eyes on me every time my girls and I would do our routine. It involved lots of flipping up of our skirts and twerking of our young bubble bottoms, and we wore the smallest G-strings underneath that were basically just a hammock of cotton that coddled our balls and dicks. We were constantly falling out of them, and rarely bothered to tuck our dicks back out of view. When you twerk your booty hard for a cheering crowd and your huge cock and balls are freely swinging between your thighs it’s impossible to look away. I love to show off almost as much as I love being pinned down and ravaged.

It became well known after a couple weeks that Carlie and I were together. She and I met after each day’s practice and let the world watch as we embraced and assaulted one another’s lips with desperate kisses and full body rubs that led to her tugging my naked length out from under my skirt and pumping me in full view of anyone who happened to be watching. We couldn’t just butt-fuck in plain view of the whole student body, but most of the faculty let it slide when girls handled each others big dicks. Carlie’s shaft is so fucking hot. I couldn’t keep my hands on that gorgeous cock if I wanted to.

We were both sweaty and slick one Friday after practice when we hooked bahçelievler escort up by the bleachers beside the track field. She looked so yummy, all glistening in those cute little shorts and a tiny tank top, her feet in a pair of pretty white running shoes as she stretched after a good run. She had her hair pulled back in a long black pony-tail and looked up at me as I approached. One look at that wicked little impish smile of hers and my butthole was twitching. She drives me bonkers. I swear.

I had on my sneakers and cheer-skirt along with a tiny sleeveless top that pushed my titties up and out on display. My belly was bare and my hair was dyed pink; pulled up in handlebar pig tails. My coach called them fuck-handles, but she hadn’t yet given my bottom a try for herself. There were about twelve girls on our squad and she was working her way through each one. My time was coming. From what I heard she was a brutal lover. Yum Yum.

As we came together I threw my arms over Carlie’s shoulders and brought her in close, groaning as she invaded my mouth with her tongue and fed me a nice sloppy load of her spit and affection. I gobbled it up, chasing her perfect lips with mine and curling my tongue around her own as I felt her hands sliding under my little skirt to handle my bare naked ass.

Maybe you think it’s gross, but neither of us had showered. I like her with a fine coating of girl sweat on her body that I can take my time licking away. My salty latin treat looked like a glazed doughnut by the end of her evening run and no shower in the world could clean her like her Eden’s hungry mouth.

“God you taste good.” I purred as we parted, still holding one another and grinning like wicked kittens as she openly molested my ass with her hands, spreading and squeezing them together as my big cock rose up along the soft flesh of her outer thigh. “Lets get home, so I can make a proper meal of your butthole.”

“Dirty bitch.” She said, grinning. We both giggled as she kissed me again and I felt myself beginning to swoon. I was so in love and lust with her that I felt my whole body turning to butter as she cuddled me. “Before we go, I wanted to show you something. Trust me when I tell you you are gonna love it.”

I did trust her, and so I nodded as she laced her fingers with my own and pulled me along to show me what she had discovered. When I saw what she was referring to, or rather who…

I was stopped dead in my tracks. I swallowed hard, staring at the most beautiful black girl I had ever seen as she circled the track toward us; not just gorgeous, but bare ass naked as well.

“She’s Nigerian.” Carlie whispered into my ear as she held me from behind. She ran her fingers across my nude tummy and rested her chin on my shoulder as she spoke with her hot breath at my ear. “Exchange student from Africa. Runners don’t bother covering up down there apparently. Coach decided to let her run bare assed until she gets comfortable.”

“She looks pretty comfortable to me.” I purred, biting my lower lip as I took in those sleek legs of midnight black, so dark that her skin seemed to glisten like blue steele. Her tits were small and perky, like my own. They jiggled and danced as she rounded the track and I got my first view of her big juicy African fuck-bumper. Holy fuck! That ebony ass was made to be pounded.

Keena was new to our country, and had moved to the states to broaden her cultural outlook. While we basically have one worldwide government now, there are still boarders and the names of countries have stayed as they were in the old world. I’d always wanted to visit Africa. Now I was hoping to broaden my culture as well.

I could feel Carlie’s hot cock growing thick against my bottom, threatening the seams of her little shorts. I pushed my bubble back on her and groaned as she and I took in the gorgeous goddess before us. Keena wasn’t entirely nude of course. She wore running shoes and had her hair cut super short in a kind of spiky little tuft atop her head. Those high cheek bones and big beautiful brown eyes only added to her allure and the glint of metal bar-bell piercings through her nipples added to her exotic nature as well. Pretty as the rest of her was, there was no getting past that massive black elephant trunk dangling between her thighs.

“Hey Keena! Wanna meet my girl?” Carlie called out to the ebony horse-angel and she turned and smiled our way as she started over. Even just walking her long black dick dangled between those perfectly sculpted legs like a pendulum, hypnotizing me as it pitter patted from one firm thigh to the other. Even soft she was huge; easily as big as my arm from elbow to fist.

“Dis one very pretty.” Keena spoke, sliding up close to me and smiling as she ran her fingers over the side of my belly. She was taller than me by several inches, but she didn’t seem to want to dominate me with her height. She tilted her head and winked as she teased her fingers along the bumps of my rib cage and cupped bağcılar escort her hand alongside my tit. As she did, she slid in even closer and I felt her hard cock resting againnt my own.

My arousal was on full display as I stood there admiring our new African friend. I hadn’t worn bottoms under my skirt, so my cock had risen up between us. Keena’s own thick black length was growing as well, so hot and slippery with runner’s sweat that it made me whimper as she trapped both our fat pricks between us, surrounded by our smooth bellies.

“Carlie. She tell me you like very rough in your bottom.” Keena said. I grinned and nodded. Trapped between my Latin lover and our new African wet dream I couldn’t quite remember how to form words. She couldn’t have been more right though. I love it hard and raw in my ass. Carlie and my mom both wrecked me so good, but I couldn’t help but wonder what a massive African battering ram could do to my hole. “Think maybe we take you someplace close. Think maybe I put it all up in you, ya? You like I shove my cock up in you?”

OH FUCK YEAH!!!

With practice over, it was time for the real thing. Carlie already had a spot picked out for us, and tugged my hand as she led the way back into the school. A trip back to my house or hers would have made more sense, but there was no sense waiting so long for something so good.

With Keena following along we ducked into the south hall and made our way to the bathroom. The whole south wing was under construction, so we had to duck under some saw horses and tape to get where we were going. Once we had, Carlie shut the door behind us and pushed a trash can up against it to make sure we wouldn’t be disturbed.

Keena was like a leggy lioness as she claimed her pretty pink haired treat. She moved right up into me and began to peel my top off and toss it aside. As she backed me into the sink counter and lowered her big wet lips onto mine for a kiss I took her tongue and slid my arms around her, fingers memorizing the lines of her long beautiful back down to the top of her ass. I could feel the cool thrill of her nipple piercings against my titties as she moved with me, both of us groaning out loud with desire.

She surprised me when she slid her hands down my sides, under the back of my thighs and lifted me up onto the counter. I couldn’t help but smile as I brought my legs up around her, that big beautiful black dick rose up and laid along the curve of my belly, settled between my tits as it reached it’s full length. She was so fucking huge. I couldn’t wait to have that cock balls deep in my butt.

Keena lowered her lips to my tits and took a nipple between her teeth as my Carlie slid up behind her. She’d stripped down to just her running shoes as well, and Carlie and I locked eyes over Keena’s shoulder as my pretty Spanish slut stepped right up and placed her hands on Keena’s hips.

“Told you she was sexy as fuck.” Carlie purred into Keena’s ear from behind as she stirred her body, moving so that her big dick could slide under Keena’s butt and nudge against a set of oversized smooth black nuts. As she did, Keena rose up again, glancing back at Carlie with a dirty smirk.

“You’re both sexy as fuck!” Keena purred. She reached back, guiding Carlie’s mouth to hers as I looked down between us and leaned back with my shoulders against the mirror. I reached out with both hands and grabbed hold of that massive ebony weapon of hers as I lowered my lips around the knob, mewling like a milk starved kitten as a little sputter of her sweet milk flooded my mouth and left my tongue splish splashing in a little lake of Kenyan Cum.

Keena gasped out loud as Carlie found her footing and pressed her knob against a tight little chocolate pucker. She shoved herself in hard and deep, claiming African ass from behind as I nursed on my gooey treat from the front

I could feel Keena’s whole body tense for a moment and a little stream of her sugary spunk drooled down my chin as she leaned into me. She brought one knee up onto the counter under my hip and began to bounce as Carlie began to pump her dick in nice long strokes, sodomizing Keena’s anal-cunt between us.

I cupped my hand against Keena’s pretty face and brought her eyes to mine, glancing down between us where I gently lifted my cock and balls to expose my juicy asshole. She smiled as Carlie fucked her and together we moved so that she could slide her dick down past my tummy, under my heavy nuts, and into my hole. Once she had that door-knob helmet against my puckered sex she looked me deeply in the eyes and shoved herself inside.

“Fuuuccckk!” I cried out, my opening impaled on an African spear. Her long dick slid right up into me and bottomed out in my anal womb where I felt her length bend inside me, curved to match my passage as she continued to move her ass back and forth on what my Carlie was giving her.

I lay back, shoulders pressed to the mirror as Keena grunted and arched her body to take Carlie’s cock ümraniye escort and fuck my ass at the same time. She reached down and grabbed hold of my own big dick as well, pumping me as I let my head roll to one side and my eyes glaze over in pure bliss. I could already feel the heavy pre-milk from her bloated dick seeping into me and drooling down my crack where her big cocoanut balls were spanking my naked ass on each deep stroke.

With one hand stroking my long dick and the other molesting one of my tits, Keena leaned down to slurp on my nipple some more. I don’t like to brag, but I have some sugary titty-cream. Carlie says I should bottle my milk and sell it for a fortune. Not all girls can produce titty-cum, but mine is something special.

Carlie was working with intensity as she slammed her length in and out of Keena’s bottom. I watched her fuck and groaned at the sight of her. Both her hands were openly mauling our black lover’s butt and she was on the verge of drooling in mindless lust as she sank her meat in and out with deep sensual strokes. I could smell the sweet musk of African butthole being sodomized; could taste it on my tongue in the air. As good as it felt having my own ass owned by the massive dick inside of me, I couldn’t help but wish i was on my knees beneath them, face buried in Keena’s balls and my tongue stuffed up her ass along with Carlie’s pistoning cock.

I’ve never been fucked so full. I love the way Carlie and my mom fuck the shit out of me, but Keena was almost two full feet in length when fully hard and I could feel every twitch and throb of her massive dick inside of me. All I could do was lean back and take it, my hands gripping the edge of the sink to hold my balance as she openly raped my butthole. Fuck! How I love a big brutal mean dick wrecking me.

We slowed for a moment, all of us groaning as Carlie slid in nice and deep and held herself there. Keena was forced to stop pumping me pinned between us as she was. Carlie smiled as she reached down to my feet and untied my shoes, slipping them off one by one and then taking my little white feet, placing them tenderly onto Keena’s pretty black hips. She was admiring the way my pretty milky white toes looked next to Keena’s dark black flesh. We could all see it. Creamy white, shimmering bronze, and glistening black mixed together in a delicious sandwich of ass-fuck love.

With my feet on her hips I used my legs to rise up and push my lower half into Keena, groaning as I felt her shaft shift and twist in my ass. Behind her I felt Carlie begin to pump once more, but taking her time, long dicking our new lover so she could look down between those glowing black cheeks and watch her wet dick ease in and out of her.

I turned Keena to me once more with a hand at her pretty face and parted her lips with mine, pushing a river of my sugary spit into her mouth and running my fingers up over the back of her head, enjoying the prickle of her spiky black hair as we kissed.

When I broke away from her mouth I glanced to Carlie and guided Keena so that she could see my Spanish lover over her shoulder. I let them kiss and watched as Keena rolled her tongue in Carlie’s mouth, feeding her my own spit second hand from her lips.

I didn’t want a quick fuck. Keena was to exquisite not to savor, so I pushed her gently out of me and took charge of my ethnic angels.

Stripped bare, I walked right into the middle of the room, not minding the big pool of water that covered the floor from so many leaky pipes. I felt their eyes on me as I knelt right in the puddle and lay forward, arching my back and bringing my inviting ass up high behind me. My butthole was winking; still gaping and spasming from Keena’s cock. As I lowered my cheek into the cool water and let my little titties touch the floor it was clear my ass was ready to be ridden right. My invitation for a brutal raping was clear. I knew Keena’s big brutal dick couldn’t resist.

I didn’t have to wait long. Keena wanted the same thing as i did. She moved to join me, sliding off her own shoes and climbing onto me from behind. From my position I could see her pretty feet on either side of me and I felt the scalding hot tip of her big black dick against my opening once more. My little asshole began to kiss and suckle at her knob as her long fingers ran over the arch of my bottom and lower back.

“Sweet little bitch!” Keena groaned, then hammered her battering ram of a cock balls deep into me from above. The way she shanked me was so brutal and severe that my own dirty dick began to spit cum wildly across the tiled floor on her first downward thrust.

Carlie mounted up as well, once more slamming her dick into Keena’s chocolate ass-cunt and pounding her raw as the pair of them hovered over me. I could hear them kissing over Keena’s shoulder and I mewled and whimpered as I was taken. I could even feel Carlie’s own thick cream bubbling out of Keena’s ass around her pistoning cock and drooling down across the stretched ring of my butthole, along the curve of my pretty pink taint and down in rivers over my balls and dick. As my cock sputtered gouts of hot cum all over my belly and tits, polluting the water with my seed, all I could do was shiver and buck as they fucked me together. They rode me so hard that all of our swinging nuts were smacking loudly on every stroke, like one of those cradles you see on business women’s desks.

A/N: To my new readers and old, thank you for joining me on my journey thus far. When I picked this book up again earlier this year, I didn’t expect it to be received half as warmly or enthusiastically as it has been. Your votes, comments, and the fact that so many parts have been favorited have really helped motivate me to keep writing, even when my personal life was at a low point. Thank you so very much.

With that said, future chapters may be farther apart since I recently started a new job, after searching for over 1.5 years. I’m an Indian national trying to make my way in Europe, so it hasn’t always been easy. After long last, things seem to be falling into place.

Rest assured that I will see this story due to completion. I’m as invested in hearing the rest of Chris’ tale as all of you are, and I want to see it through. I just hope to have all of you there with me when we reach that final punctuation mark.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you again for all your support.

*****

Glossary

Agrayodhin: The Champion of the Indian Academy.

Dvitiya Skandhavara: The Second Division of the Indian Academy’s army.

Rishi(ji): A Sanskrit term used to refer to a sage/saint, or someone perceived as being highly knowledgeable. Used here to refer to the Dean of the Indian Academy.

*****

Chapter 23- The Power of Red

13th March, 2017
9:00 a.m.
Training Room 1

A week after the Proving began, the Academy had its top two-hundred-and-fifty Wielders. Rayka had been the first from within our group to make it through, which didn’t really surprise any of us. What did take us aback, me most of all, was that I was the third, beating Mahala, Sylvia, and Auset, to break through into the next round of battles.

It had been a long week to say the least, but I’d managed to stay in the running, and had actually placed higher than anybody had anticipated.

“Chris, you did it!” Rayka had exclaimed, intercepting me as I hobbled out of my second round of battles in Training Room 7 on Thursday, cradling my broken arm. “You made it through!”

Her words hadn’t registered at first, muddled as they were, thanks to both my eardrums being shattered. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight either, probably owing to the fact that I definitely had a concussion.

I did manage to recognize her, and once she realized just how beaten up I was as I limped in her direction, she rushed me to the Healers. My ears had been the first to recover, which I instantly regretted, as Rayka all but screamed her congratulations into them. Rather than being thrilled and overjoyed at my victory, I was actually feeling rather hollow at that point.

It had just been four days, but the true nature of combat had started weighing down on me. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’d been having second thoughts about whether or not I was cut out to be a warrior. I’d kept my thoughts to myself, however, just smiling as Rayka as my injuries continued to heal.

An hour later, we had found ourselves sitting with Sneha, watching Mahala defend herself while facing down six different Wielders. Anybody who wanted to could watch certain Wielders as they fought their way through the rounds on small enchanted mirrors that were available in Training Room 2. A Wielder could easily power multiple mirrors by themselves, so more than one person could join in and they could all view events together.

For such a sweet and quiet person, Mahala could be brutal when she wanted to, a fact that was repeatedly hammered home as she used her spiked mace to bash away at people. She had no qualms leaving anybody who crossed her with broken bones, a fate that befell most of her attackers with alarming surety. Honestly, as someone who viewed her as a younger sister, Sneha couldn’t have picked a better person to fall in love with.

The results of that battle had pushed Mahala into the next round as well, with the others following within the next two days. Since none of us had matches on Sunday, we’d decided to skip watching the final elimination rounds, and go unwind a bit, instead. Since all of us had been a little wrung out, we’d settled on spending the day on the shore of one of the many lakes within the Academy’s pocket dimension.

It had been fun for a while, us lads horsing around and getting in trouble for using Water spells on the ladies, but the fun and games had died down a bit as the day wound down. Eventually, people started leaving, till Sneha and I were the last ones left. Rayka had seemed to pick up on the fact that something was weighing on my mind over the course of the day, and hadn’t seemed too surprised when I’d told her to head on home without me.

It’d been a moonless night, but as always, the forest had provided enough illumination for everything to be bathed in a soft glow. Sneha and I had just sat there on the dock in companionable silence, looking out over the water, göztepe escort both of us lost in our own heads.

“You’re wrong, you know?” she’d suddenly asked.

I actually had to clear my throat before responding; it’d been a while since I had spoken. “About what?”

“You’ve been wondering whether you’re really the right type of person to be a warrior, haven’t you?” she’d clarified, astutely.

“How did you know?”

“I didn’t. Rayka figured it out.”

“She did?” I’d asked, taken aback. “She hasn’t said anything about it.”

“She wanted to give you your space to figure things out, Chris. That doesn’t mean she isn’t worried about you. In fact, that’s what we were discussing when you decided to dump ice-cold water all over us!”

“Sorry about that,” I’d apologized, with a chuckle.

“It’s grand,” she’d responded, waving it away with a cheeky grin. I could never quite place when it’d begun, but the other had taken to playfully mocking my usage of the word “grand”.

I just smiled wearily at her, unable to muster up the energy to wade through the waves of emotions rushing over me.

“Are you thinking about the night of your Emergence?” she’d asked softly, after a while.

“I am,” I’d whispered back, unable to push my thoughts away any longer.

For a while before that, I’d been beset by flashes of that night while training, and most recently, in battle. It had led to me dropping my guard and being hit by attacks that I could have blocked or dodged, so I’d been trying to push it all away even harder. Her question brought it all to the forefront, shining a harsh light on the events of that evening.

“I’m a monster,” I’d whispered, my voice cracking a little as tears welled up in my eyes.

Sneha punched me hard enough to send me flying into the water.

“What the fuck?!” I’d sputtered and exclaimed as I resurfaced, coughing to get the water out of my lungs.

“You’re an idiot!” Sneha had screamed at me, her body stiff with rage, her voice filled with emotion. “You think you’re a monster for fighting back against Dark Wielders? The same people who murdered your parents right in front of you?”

“But—”

“No buts! Were you brutal? Fuck yes! Did they deserve it? Every fucking second of it. Even rending Nicolas apart atom by atom was too kind a fate for the likes of him!”

“But I killed them!” I’d screamed back at her from inside the lake, splashing a hand into the water as hard as I could. “I killed them! Do you get it? Even if they were murderers, how does that make me any better than them?! And now, I’m basically trying to get the chance to kill someone again! How do I justify that?”

“Be—”

“How do I justify what I did to Liz? Even if you argue that she’s a Dark Wielder and deserved what I did to her, how do I justify what I’ve been doing every single day during this past week?!”

“I—”

“I swore to protect the Academy,” I’d continued, unwilling to let her cut me off. “How does repeatedly hurting my comrades accomplish that?! How am I better than a Dark Wielder if I’m willing to kill, just to get my way?!”

“Because you don’t enjoy it,” Rayka had cut in, walking out from behind a tree.

“I—” I’d tried to say, but she’d cut me off.

“Sneha, you should go home,” she’d told her, and after a quick confirmatory glance, Sneha had turned around and left the clearing.

“Rayka—”

“No, Chris,” she’d said calmly, her voice carrying through the clearing, even though she was speaking quietly, “you’ve had your say. Now, you’re going to listen.”

She’d started walking towards the lake, talking the whole way.

“I hear what you’re saying. And yes, you did kill the Dark Wielders that attacked you four years ago. But you’re wrong, you’re nothing like them.”

She’d started wading into the water, close enough for me to see the intense look of worry tinged with anger on her face. That seemed to drive her such that she didn’t even notice how cold the water was.

“For starters, when you Emerged, you weren’t in full control of yourself. You know this. The Power had taken hold of you, and if you hadn’t let it out, you might have hurt yourself.”

“Yes—”

“Worse still, your inaction that night might have led all of you dying. Chris, do you realize just how outmatched all of you were at that time? The others had fucking Inhibitor Cuffs on. Untrained though you might have been, you were the only one there who could have done what you did.”

I couldn’t look away as she came to a stop in front of me, her intense expression freezing my rebuttal in my throat. She brought her hands up to cup my cheeks, fixing me with a stare that I can’t quite describe.

“The difference between you and the fucking Darks is that you only take lives to save people. To protect them. And if doing so requires you to rip them apart and bathe in their fucking blood, then so be it!”

The çorlu escort venom in her voice shocked me, to say the least. I’d never seen her face twisted into a snarl like that before, even in the throes of battle.

“I keep forgetting how new you are to all this, Chris. You weren’t brought up with stories of what the Darks do; of what they’ve done to Wielder and Mundane alike, in the past. Did you know that my grandmother was a prisoner during the last war?”

“No,” I’d responded softly, as her gaze shifted and she seemed to be staring at something I could never see.

“Mom was the one to rescue her. And when she found her, they’d had Gramama for nine days. And during that time, they’d tortured her physically and sexually. Groups of them having their way with her, inside her, hacking parts of her off… sometimes all at once. Nine days, Chris. And they enjoyed every minute of it.

“When Mom broke into the cell, three of them were raping Gramama while one was peeling off her skin, strip by strip, with a blunt knife. And they were fucking laughing as she cried and begged for mercy.

“Gramama was a Healer, Chris. She wasn’t even in a single battle. She hadn’t hurt any of the Darks. They captured her while she was trying to save one of them, because she was naïve enough to believe that every person deserved some help.

“She died right after that, Chris. Right after they brought her back. That is the last memory my mother has of her mother. Can you imagine how that must feel?!”

I had no choice but to pull her into a tight hug as tears ran down her face.

“I’m not done,” she’d sniffled, pulling away and looking into my eyes again, though her arms stayed wrapped around me. “Those are the people you’re comparing yourself to, Chris. Not soldiers following an opposing General’s orders; not misled souls who could be saved; you’re comparing yourself to savage beasts who will stop at nothing to corrupt and destroy every single thing they touch.”

I could only nod, all my arguments seeming childish in the face of what she’d just told me.

“I’m not saying you should torture or kill them,” she’d continued. “But if you’re in a situation where it’s you or them, you take them down. You decimate them.

“Your first course of action should always, always be to capture them, but if you find yourself with your back against the wall, don’t you dare think twice about wiping another shit stain off the Earth. Do you hear me?”

“I do,” I’d answered, sighing heavily. “But Rayka, that won’t stop me from regretting what I did. Good or bad, I still took lives. That’s on me. On my soul.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she’d said, resting her head on my shoulder. “That is what makes you good, Chris. That is what tells you that you’re still on the right side of all this. The day the deaths stop weighing on your soul is the day you turn to the Dark.”

“But how do I do that?” I’d sobbed, tears that had remained unshed for years finally flowing freely. “How do I go on, day after day, with those deaths hanging over my soul?”

“Think of what would happen if you didn’t,” she’d responded, her arms tightening around me. “Think of what would have happened if you’d been captured that night. If Vaishnavi had been captured. If Randal or Mathias had been captured.

“Think of what might happen if I am captured in the future.”

“Never,” I’d rumbled, rage flaring inside me as I pulled her tighter against me. “I’d rather die than think of you being subjected to any of that.”

“Use that,” she’d stated, simply. “Use that rage to offset the guilt. Every Dark you fight, every one you capture or kill, is one Dark less that might subject someone you know to what they do. Don’t fight for yourself. Fight for them.”

“For the Academy,” I’d mumbled.

“Yes, for the Academy.”

We’d waded out onto the shore then, just lying there and looking up at the night sky. The constellations within the pocket dimension were different from those on Earth; not that it’d have mattered, anyway, because I always sucked at finding them.

“But what about everything we’re doing during the Proving? We’re fighting each other, hurting each other!” I’d asked, turning my head to look at her.

“Has anybody held a grudge so far?” she’d countered, without even looking at me.

“Not that I’ve seen.”

“You went up against Idris on Tuesday. And unlike Auset and Mahala, the two of you actually battled it out. You won. Did he treat you any differently today?”

“No, but—”

“Do you and I not have a pact, out of respect, to go all out against each other, if we were to be face-to-face.”

“Yes, but—”

“Does that make you love me any less?” she’d asked, finally turning her head to face me.

“Never.”

“Again, Chris, I forget that you weren’t raised within the Academy. Anybody who signs up to be a warrior knows what they’re getting into. ümraniye escort Giving it your all to beat somebody is the highest display of respect within our culture. Cuts and broken bones can be healed. Pulling your punches or holding back so you don’t hurt someone— that’s what really hurts here.

“As for the Proving, you know why it’s necessary. You’ve fought Darks. Imagine if somebody who wasn’t ready to really go toe-to-toe with them was thrown into battle. Imagine if Rahul and Sneha were. What would happen?”

I’d merely nodded my understanding, unable to find a flaw in her responses. What she’d said made sense. And yes, while I’d never be okay with killing somebody, if that was the only option on the table, I knew I had to take it.

The two of us had lay there for a while longer, before heading home together. We’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms, our bond somehow strengthened by the events of the evening. To say that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders would be an understatement; I had never been as focused and as determined to do what needed to be done to keep the people I loved safe.

***

The Training Room was mostly full by the time we got there this morning, so we had to make our way through a throng of people to get to the front, where the rest of the Wielders who’d made it into the next round were. As we broke through to the front, closer to the stage, I was surprised to see that Swati, Senga, and Byrav were up there as well, alongside the rest of the Sapt Senapati, next to Rishiji, Vaishnavi, and Ronald.

Just as I was about to ask Rayka if she knew what was going on, Vaishnavi stepped forward and started to speak.

“This past week has been a difficult one,” she started, “and to those of you who fought and secured yourselves a place in the top two-hundred-and-fifty, well done!”

A thunderous round of applause filled the room, and a smile snuck its way onto my face.

“Those of you who didn’t make it through, try not to despair. You will all still play important roles in the battles to come. Even if you don’t get to join the fight, you will help us win!”

The applause this time was even louder, and I joined in enthusiastically as well.

“With that said,” Vaishnavi continued, raising a hand for silence, “we shall now kick off the final sets of battles for this Proving, the one-on-one matches. As all of you know, it is customary for the standing Champion, at this point, to extend an invitation to all eligible Wielders to challenge them for the title.

“I, Agrayodhin Vaishnavi Vashisthputri-Lanka, now issue this invitation. Will anybody here challenge me for the title of Agrayodhin?”

“I will,” Swati intoned, a wave of murmurs rushing across the room as she did.

I looked at Rayka, bewildered, only to find her sharing the same expression. From what I’d just heard, I’d assumed that the invitation was merely customary and ceremonial. I’d never expected to see someone accept it, least of all Swati.

But going by how Vaishnavi didn’t seem surprised, I guessed that she’d known it was coming.

“Who are you to issue this challenge?” she asked Swati, turning to face her.

“I am Swati Varunai, Dvitiya Skandhavara Senapati,” Swati said, jutting her chin forward as she stated her title.

“I accept your challenge,” Vaishnavi nodded, before turning to face the rest of the Academy again. “Are there any more challengers here today?”

Her question was met with silence this time around, and she just nodded, before looking over to Rishiji, who continued for her.

“The very first match will be between Vaishnavi Vashisthputri-Lanka, Agrayodhin, and Swati Varunai, Dvitiya Skandhavara Senapati,” he declared. “The match will end when one of them admits defeat or one of them is simply unable to battle further. The Proving shall resume in the afternoon, if their match has ended by then. May the stronger warrior prevail!”

Swati and Vaishnavi bowed to the crowd, a gesture that was received with another round of applause. The Wielders on the stage made their way off after that, and the crowd started dispersing as well, all of us heading to Training Room 3, where Vaishnavi and Swati would face off against each other.

The layouts within the Training Rooms had changed to incorporate audience seating as well, each room now resembling a small-scale colosseum. Teams of Wielders had worked through the night to enchant invisible shields that surrounded the seating area, which allowed combatants to go all-out without hurting any of the onlookers.

Impossible as it may have seemed, the stands were full for this match, and though Rayka and I found ourselves seats, there were literally thousands of Wielders who were standing wherever they could find the room, while others decided it’d be best to view the battle via the mirrors in Training Room 2. A hushed silence descended over the crowd as Vaishnavi and Swati entered the arena.

Both of them had their Armor on; sleek black suits that encased them from the neck down, stylized belts that depicted their Companions, and helms with clear faceplates. Both their suits had a thick red line running down their left arm and leg. Swati’s had two thick white lines running down her right arm, while Vaishnavi’s entire right arm was clad in white.