FOREWORD
This is one of my rare, unfinished titles that's never going to get finished.
I'm posting this basically for completion's sake. Think of this like bonus content.
A brief history.
In 2019, I started up a pen name, Crystal Candy, because I wanted to release simpler, more straightforward stories again. Stories I could handle completely on my own. Maidens & Mayhem was one of the stories I began writing. Ultimately, I took everything related to this name down and tucked it away for potentially future use.
This is not one of the stories that's getting used in the future.
I'll admit, this was one of those ideas I had to try to build. When I go looking for material to build an idea that didn't come to me, often all I can find is sand. And that isn't much to build with or on. This story was a more egregious case of it. I quit mostly because I just didn't give a shit.
To be clear: This is an unfinished story that will never be finished. It is here for archival purposes.
I hope you enjoy if you choose to read it.
PART ONE
CHAPTER I
So far, the best thing about this place that Cyrus had come to in his never-ending quest to have a good time, or at least lead a life that wasn’t boring, was that it was not boring.
The bad thing about Grayrock Island, however, was that most of what went on so far was pretty miserable. It rained a lot. Normally that was nice, Cyrus liked a good, calming rain, but too many of these storms were actual, full-blown storms, and spending enough time walking through the woods or along a rocky coast absolutely soaking wet got old eventually.
He was beginning to feel like a fucking shipwreck victim.
Presently, the rain had slackened, and he was following signs of dubious accuracy along an overgrown path through the woods that took up a vast portion of the island towards one of the few townships in the area. It was called Windhaven, and although Cyrus actually really liked that name, based on everything else he’d seen so far in his travels across this island, he was reluctant to believe that it would live up to what its name might suggest in terms of quality and beauty. He could hear the ocean, so it wasn’t far from the coast, at least.
That was a plus. He loved the ocean.
As he walked, waiting for the trees to fall back and reveal the town, Cyrus mentally ran through the contents of his backpack and pockets. Towns meant blacksmiths and markets. Although he was decently self-sufficient, he did like the convenience of just buying stuff, and also having a professional tend to his gear.
His sword was certainly getting dull, as he’d been hacking things up for a good week now, living out in the wild and hunting monsters and...meeting the occasional adventuress. He’d actually had a run-in with a crazy redhead two days ago that had resulted in some really furious and oddly angry sex. She hadn’t really told him, well, much of anything, but he had the idea that she had been working through something and he might have reminded her of whoever had pissed her off.
He still had a few bruises.
It had been a...different experience. Though not entirely a bad one.
It was great sex at least.
So, his sword needed sharpening, and his bow...he was probably at the point where he needed a replacement. It was old and as much as he’d maintained it, it was falling apart now. Plus, he was out of arrows. His dagger could probably do with an upgrade too. Iron wasn’t really cutting it anymore. He wanted steel, or better yet, silver. He was low on food, his medicine bottles were just about dry, his bedroll had holes in it, as did his tent…
Man, most of his stuff was going to ruin.
Cyrus frowned as he came to realize that. Had he really let it all go like that? How long had it been since he’d done beyond the bare minimum of maintenance? He wanted to believe that it was coincidence, that he was just seeing a lot of random things coming together at the same time by chance, but he reluctantly admitted to himself that this wasn’t the case.
He was…
Not depressed…
Dispirited.
Disillusioned maybe. A little apathetic. Kind of frustrated. Aimless. That was his problem, he was aimless. Only for years, that hadn’t been a problem. That had been a solution, really. Aimless was fun. Aimless was easy. Sure, it had gotten him in a lot of trouble, led him to a lot of dangerous places, but those were fun in their own ways, and it had also led him to a lot of great times. And that had been Cyrus’s life for several years now.
And it had led him here, to Grayrock Island, in the Tempest Sea, a few weeks ago.
But something had been missing lately, and he was beginning to suspect, quite unhappily, that perhaps it was the very thing he had been running from to begin with: a sense of purpose. That was beginning to piss him off, but he supposed he could kind of see it.
Up ahead, the trees finally began to thin out, and he saw the beginning of the town, and was immediately unimpressed.
“What the fuck is this?” he muttered as he spied the wall that surrounded the town. In more dangerous places, at least some kind of border around the edges of the township was common. A way to keep the monsters out. And this island seemed to have its fair share of monsters. So far he’d fought giant spiders, trolls, goblins, and several undead. There was, in fact, a defensive perimeter, but it had several holes in it, and it looked like it hadn’t been worked on in a very long time. At least not with any real consistency.
Was the place abandoned?
It was certainly possible. But as he approached the gate, he saw a guard standing watch. A woman. An attractive woman. A large woman. Damn, she was taller than he was. She was watching him closely already.
“Help you?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m an adventurer, looking to sell some things, buy some things, fix my gear,” he replied, going through a litany he’d largely memorized at this point. They always wanted to know what a six foot two guy with a scar on his face, leather armor, and a solid build wanted when he walked up to their village. It was a fair question, honestly. Cyrus wouldn’t trust him either, at least not right away, but he rarely made trouble just for the fuck of it.
The woman, who honestly looked like she could take him in a fight, scrutinized him for a few seconds longer, then nodded tightly. “Fine, you can come in.”
“Thanks...” he hesitated, glancing at the nearest hole in the wall, “not to be a dick, but-”
“I know, it’s pathetic,” she said, following his gaze, “but our governor doesn’t deem it important enough to divert funding any more than the absolute bare basics, and even then not all the time. He’s a moron.”
“That sucks,” Cyrus murmured. Man, it must be bad if the guards were badmouthing him to random strangers. Their loyalty wasn’t perfect, but guards tended to be smart enough to not talk shit on their boss in public.
Then again…
This woman didn’t exactly seem like she cared all that much about what other people might think of her, nor did it seem like she feared much.
She was really hot, in a scary, intimidating kind of way.
“I’m Cyrus,” he said.
“Hazel,” she replied.
“I’m going to be in town for a few days at least...any chance I might see you around?” he asked.
She took his meaning immediately and looked at him with a different eye. As she looked him up and down, sizing him up, he thought she had just reacted to what was, in a roundabout sort of way, a sexual proposition, in the same way a dueler might respond to a gauntlet being thrown at their feet. When her eyes met his again, there was a small smirk on her face.
She said, “Perhaps.”
But her eyes said: Challenge accepted, motherfucker.
“I look forward to it,” he said, and walked past her, into town.
It was hard not to look back and try and get a glimpse of her ass. With those hips and that height, it would have to be a really big ass.
Cyrus made himself focus and kept walking.
…
The further he got into town, the more he saw that Hazel was right: this place was run by someone who just didn’t give a shit. And consequently, it kind of seemed like a lot of his subjects had followed in his footsteps. Many of the buildings had a lazy, patchwork look, several had broken windows or holes in their roofs. The road that led into town, through the houses and tenements, was in sorry shape. He almost didn’t even want to bother trying to get his stuff worked on here, it might end up in worse condition than it was now.
But maybe not. Maybe the blacksmith was competent.
He walked deeper into town, his mind wandering back to Hazel several times, because he really wanted to jump on her and just fuck the shit out of here, she seemed like she was in excellent shape and could fuck like a demon. The houses gave way to other structures: a few inns, a dilapidated guards’ barracks, some eateries, and...the blacksmith. He heard hammering, and it sounded competent at least. Hear enough of it and you got so you could determine that by ear, or at least have a decent guess. Cyrus walked inside.
There as no one around and he walked up to the counter and banged on it a few times with a smooth rock left there for just such a reason. The hammering stopped immediately and he heard footfalls, growing closer.
He looked at the door that led deeper into the structure, interested to see who came out.
When she did come out, he felt a spike of lust hit him.
Or the blacksmith could turn out to be a really hot chick.
She was built kind of like Hazel, though her arms were more developed, given that she was a blacksmith. She was about as tall as he was, had short blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail, a sweat-streaked face, and brilliant green eyes. She was wearing a leather apron to protect herself from sparks and flames, and she took it off as she came in, hanging it on the wall. And oh wow, she was wearing a thin shirt beneath it and had sweated right through it. And clearly she was not wearing a bra, and he could see her nipples and the outline of her huge breasts…
“Hi,” she said.
“Hello,” he replied, blinking a few times, trying very hard not to start at her tits. “I’m Cyrus. I need a blade sharpened. And a new bow. And a new dagger,” he said. His mind kept teetering, wanting to fall into the abyss of lust and desire and looking at a very attractive woman.
She smiled brightly. “I’m Rylee. I can do all that for you. What are you looking for in terms of material?” she asked.
He untied his sword in its sheath and set it on the counter between them. “You got silver?”
“I’m afraid not,” she said.
“Steel?”
“Yes. I have steel.”
“Steel for the bow and the dagger,” he said. “What kind of cost is that going to be?”
“Fifteen coin for the dagger, fifty for the bow. For an extra twenty, I’ll throw in a full quiver of steel-tipped arrows. Very sharp. I made them myself.” She pulled his blade from his sheath and studied it, holding it up and twisting it around.
“I’ll need to see all this, but this sounds workable,” he replied.
“Good. And...tell you what, if you buy those, I’ll bang this out and altogether it’ll cost you a hundred coin,” she said.
“That sounds like a deal. You bang out a lot of things?” he asked.
She stopped looking up at his sword and back down at him. She immediately got almost the same small smirk on her face that Hazel had been wearing, though there was a bit more...joviality in this one. She looked a little bit less like a predator studying its prey.
“Yeah,” she replied. “Why? You need anything else...banged out?”
“Well...not need per say, but want? Yeah. Definitely something I want banged out.”
“Well, Cyrus, maybe we can talk about that later. I’ll be right back.”
She grabbed his sword and sheath and walked back. He looked down at her ass and saw that it filled out her pants very, very nicely. There were some attractive women in this town. Cyrus entertained the notion of having a threesome with both Hazel and Rylee, which would be a gift from the heavens, while he waited, and before long, Rylee came back and set down a dagger in a sheath and a bow on the counter.
“This is the best I’ve got,” she said.
“Giving me the best, huh?” he replied, picking up the bow and testing the string.
“I’ve got a good feeling about you,” she said after a moment.
“I have similar feelings about you,” he murmured, and she laughed.
He studied both weapons, and found them to be more than adequate. “You’ve got a deal,” he said, offering her his hand.
She shook it. “Excellent.”
“You’ve got a good, strong grip there,” he said as he grabbed one of his hundred-coin bags and tossed it onto the counter.
“I work with my hands a lot,” she replied as she started counting it out. He thought her tone was rather...suggestive.
He bet she could really jack him off pretty good.
And putting it in her mouth was especially appealing. She had really nice lips.
It occurred to Cyrus then that he was really horny all of sudden. Was it him or the women he was meeting? Probably both. For as long as he could remember, he’d had a powerful sexdrive. Well, it had been normal when he was a teenager, maybe on the higher end of the spectrum, only...it hadn’t ever chilled the fuck out.
Consequently, he placed a bit of a premium on hot sex with hot women.
“So, where can I find a job?” he asked.
“There’s a board where people pin jobs they want done, and also bounties, further on up the road. Honestly, you look pretty capable, so it’d be awesome if you could kill some monsters. We have that problem a lot,” she said, for the first time looking unhappy.
“I ran into a guard on the way in, is your governor really as stupid as he sounds?”
She regained her smirk. “You must mean Hazel. Yes, he is. He sits in his damned mansion all day, pretty much doesn’t give a fuck that the place is going to ruin.”
“Why do people stay?” he asked, honestly curious.
She sighed. “Why does anyone stay? Lots of reasons, but mainly I think because they grew up here. It’s familiar. Plus, this is some of the best fishing and most fertile ground on the entire island. That’s the only reason the town is even still here...it’s a miserable state of affairs.”
“Why are you still here? You seem really capable,” he asked.
“Thanks. I am. I’m here because...I guess I don’t have anywhere else I’d rather be, and because some of my best friends in the whole world are here. Like Hazel. We grew up here together.” She shrugged, then scooped the coins back up into the bag. “This is fine. I’ll have your sword ready by tomorrow morning. Good?”
“Perfect,” he said. “I’ll be here...when do you get off?”
“As often as I can,” she replied, that sure, confident smirk returning. She laughed again, it was a pleasant sound. “I’m afraid it’s a long night for me. My assistant is out with an illness. But...well, let’s talk tomorrow, huh?”
“Fine by me,” Cyrus replied.
He left the blacksmith and headed back out into the open air of the village. Overhead, the skies were darkening. A premature twilight wasn’t that far off, and it was going to rain hard. Probably within the next hour or two, maybe three. Probably enough time to sell off the crap he’d been accumulating over the past week or so.
He thought about Hazel and Rylee as he headed for the board she’d mentioned. Most people who weren’t adventurers would probably be surprised by how quickly things had turned potentially sexual. Some people might think he was reading too much into things but...no, he’d been doing this long enough to know those looks. Now, it wasn’t as if he was going to hunt them down later, expecting a good, long fuck, but he’d be surprised if they didn’t track him doing expecting a fuck, given that he’d made his interest clear enough.
Not everyone was just down to fuck, but there were more people out there who were than most people might think. If you had a high sex drive, and a little bit of charisma, (which he felt terribly lucky to have, given he was a bit rough around the edges in terms of his face), and you wandered the land in search of fun and fights and fucking, well...you got good at picking those people out. He’d just been very lucky in this instance to run into two women who were probably down to fuck. It didn’t always work out that way.
Sometimes he couldn’t find anyone in a whole village, and then he’d just got pay a prostitute to ride him a few times. He had no compunctions about paying for sex. Unless it was really obvious she wasn’t into him, then he wouldn’t do it. It was rare, but it had been known to happen. He didn’t take it personally, some people just didn’t want to fuck.
Cyrus found the board and checked it out. Shit, there were a lot of bounties around. Giant spiders, undead, wolves, giant snakes, shit even giant scorpions. What the fuck was wrong with this place? Goblins, too, apparently. Nasty little bastards, they pretty much got off on fucking people up. Well, he could deal with this tomorrow.
Right now, he had things to sell.
He set off to find the marketplace.
CHAPTER II
In line with what Rylee had told him, the marketplace was by far the best part of the town he’d seen so far. Or at least the most lively. There were dozens of people around, probably over a hundred, buying and selling things all over the place.
Cyrus adjusted his pack on his back and then set into the shifting crowds. Here was hoping they didn’t try to fuck him over too bad.
As he started looking around at the vast collection of stalls and tiny shops that populated the marketplace, he mentally ran through the things he had on him. Mostly he had magical trinkets to sell: rings, necklaces, earrings, amulets. They seemed to litter the island. He’d stumbled across more than a few of them just walking around, although they had long since lost their magical charge. But he also had been finding abandoned campsites, old caves, and the occasional lost structure that had clearly been left to the elements, or whatever creatures had taken up in it. After that, he had a little collection of precious stones.
Two shiny emeralds, a handful of polished rubies, a couple of pearls. Gemstones kind of fucked with him. He knew that some of them were actually useful, largely in magical affairs. But most of them were just...shiny. Why were people willing to pay so much for a fucking shiny rock? And yet, despite that, he couldn’t deny the wordless but powerful appeal they had whenever he looked at them. He’d taken the time to shine them up, partially because they sold better that way, but partially because they looked good and felt good to hold.
It was just so fucking weird.
He also could sell his old equipment now, so that was something. There were a few other odds and ends that might scrape together a few dozen coin as well. And so this was how he spent the next two hours moving through the marketplace. He was unhappy to see many of the vendors got that look in their eyes, that spark that said: This is an adventurer, I can probably fuck him out of a lot of gold. He supposed they had the advantage, and they knew it. It wasn’t like this was an overly populated island. So far he’d come across two other settlements, and while neither had been in such a sorry state as Windhaven, they were definitely a lot smaller.
He sold off his dagger, and his old bow, and for not a lot, either, since the bow was almost kindling at this point. He managed to get rid of the magical items, since most of them had lost their charge and he had no idea what they were supposed to do. The only one he actually kept was a ring that helped protect against the harsher elements of the weather. It would keep him a bit warmer in the cold, a bit colder in the heat, a bit dryer in the rain. It went onto his hand with his only other piece of jewelry: a ring of infertility and ward against infection.
It was what made unprotected sex viable with anyone who was willing.
Cyrus would lose basically everything else before he lost that.
He sold a few of the gemstones before deciding to just hold onto the rest, because he was getting shit prices for them. Despite that, by the time he was finished, he had added a good three hundred gold to his already decent stash, so that was nice. And also by the time he had finished, the skies had darkened considerably. Right as he made the decision to be done with selling and haggling with cheap villagers for the day, a strong gust of cold wind blasted through the market, and on its heels was a loud crack of thunder.
He looked up. The skies were no longer gray but almost black.
Well, after the last couple of days, which had been a bit rough, he was tired, and still horny, and fucking starving. A meal, and a bed, and the company of an attractive woman would go a really long way towards making him feel good right now.
He looked around the square he was in, and among the buildings, spied a two-story structure called The Windhaven Inn. Well, the ones that were named after the village they were in tended to be the best, if only because they were supposed to be representative of the village itself, and so people tended to invest more in it.
Then again...from what he’d seen of Windhaven, maybe that wasn’t the best metric.
Nonetheless, he crossed the square as a light rain began to fall. Right after he stepped in through the front doors, a crack of thunder boomed directly overhead and the skies really opened up, beginning to pound the settlement with rain. A few dozen people were gathered in the dining area, eating and chatting and looking out the windows. They mostly looked like villagers, but there were some merchants and fishermen and sailors mixed in.
Cyrus walked over to the counter and after dealing with a few people, the waitress, who was an exceptionally attractive puma woman with the most beautiful rust red fur he’d ever seen, tinged with orange, came over to him. Her cat ears twitched when her bright yellow eyes locked with his, and a smile began to creep onto her face.
“Hello,” she said, and she had a very silky voice. And some fantastic breasts. They were showcased very nicely in her low-cut dress. Behind her, he could see her tail swaying gently back and forth, though it was picking up speed.
“Hi,” he replied. “I’m Cyrus.”
“Emily,” she murmured. “What can I get you?”
“A few things come immediately to mind,” he replied as he felt another wave of lust hit him. He was normally attracted to most of the women he saw on some level, but it was rare that he ran into three gorgeous women in a row that he wanted to fuck very badly.
“Oh yeah?” she asked, and she put her elbows on the counter and leaned forward a bit, and her big, furred breasts nearly fell out of her dress. “Well, a lot’s on offer. For the right price.”
He was tempted to keep teasing around this issue with her, it was fun in its own way, but he was just too horny. “How much do I have to pay to get you all to myself for the night?”
Her eyes widened a little bit, and her smile broadened as well. “Okay then,” she said. “You have a rent a room, first off. Cheapest is ten coin, most expensive is thirty.” She paused. “The most expensive one comes with a bathtub and hot water...and I really like baths.”
“I’ll take that one, because so do I,” he agreed.
“Good. And to get me...fifty coin.”
“And I get you all night?”
“You get me all night, all right, and you get me however you want until...let’s say nine in the morning tomorrow. Does that sound worth it?”
“More than,” he replied immediately, taking a hundred-coin bag off. “How much food will twenty coin get me?”
“A lot,” she replied.
“Okay. What’s on offer in that regard?”
She ran through a quick list, and he got himself some steak, some vegetable and potato soup, some venison, and a bottle of wine to be sent up to his quarters after about an hour. “And whatever’s left out of that hundred, you can use to get whatever food you want.”
“Well, aren’t you nice?” she said, grinning. She leaned over the counter suddenly, grabbed his shirtfront, pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his. He kissed her back, feeling like he’d just gotten hit by lightning. Her lips were wonderfully soft and hot. She slipped a somewhat roughened tongue into his mouth briefly, then pulled back. “I’ll be right back,” she murmured. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“Oh, I won’t,” he replied, staring intently at her.
Oh yes, this was going to be amazing.
He watched her the whole time as she walked over to an older, balding, portly man who probably ran the place. They had a quiet exchange, and the man shot a look at Cyrus. He looked a little...disgusted, Cyrus would say. Well, no surprise there. People didn’t really like the idea of humans fucking pumas, or humans fucking elves, or anyone other race for that matter. Well, they could go fuck themselves. It was one thing if you just weren’t into other species, that was totally fair. You didn’t really get to choose what got you hot and bothered. But if you started judging people for who they slept with...well, as long as the relationship was between consenting adults, who the fuck were you to judge? Fuck off.
Cyrus had a lot of love for pumas and elves.
She passed the bag of gold to her boss, after taking out her own share, and he reluctantly passed her back a key. She then glanced back at him and winked, then disappeared through a door at the back of the room, presumably one that led to a kitchen. He glanced at the boss, who was still staring at him in confusion and, yeah, there was some disgust there.
“Do you have a problem?” Cyrus asked, straightening up casually to his full six foot two height.
“No,” the man grumbled, turning away. Cyrus didn’t exactly like to make it a habit to intimidate people, but...he knew he looked intimidating. He was tall, he was built, he was decked out with adventuring gear, he looked hard-weathered and well-traveled, like he’d been in hundreds of fights and won most of them. And he had.
You know, for the most part.
About half the fights, he’d won.
That was technically most.
Emily returned a moment later, looking as sexy as ever, with his key. “I put in the order,” she said, coming around the counter. “And that means I can show you to your room.”
“Perfect,” he said, reaching down and grabbing her ass as she stepped up next to him. Oh yes, she had a fit and nicely padded ass.
She giggled and started leading him away, deeper into the inn. He noticed a few people glancing uncertainly at him and ignored them. Still no surprise there. This was a human-dominated island, and people who lived in human-dominated areas tended to think fucking non-humans was gross. Cyrus and Emily found a door in the back wall and moved down a stairwell together. She shut the door behind them, then unlocked the one at the bottom of the stairs.
“And this is your room,” she said, stepping in. There was hardly any light, although there were a pair of small windows high up on the wall. Rain beat against the glass.
“Our room,” Cyrus said.
She smiled in the dim light. “Yep. You really like me, huh?”
“I really like you,” he agreed, setting his pack down and lighting a candle with the tip of his finger.
“You know some magic, huh?”
“A little,” he replied.
She lit another candle with the tip of hers, lighting the room a bit more. “You’re gonna like me even more in a moment,” she said, taking the candle and walking over to one corner of the room, where a stone tub had been built into the floor.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep.” She pulled a lever and a metal seal over a pipe jutting a few inches out of the wall next to the tub, just above it, opened up, releasing a torrent of water. It took about a minute to fill up the tub. Once it was full, she closed the hatch and then put her hands into the water. “Not just clean water, but hot water,” she said, and there was a flash of magical light.
She pulled her hands back, and immediately the water began to steam.
“Holy crap,” he muttered, taking his armor off. “That’s awesome.”
“Yep.” She stood up and began getting out of her dress. She pulled it up and off, freeing her breasts, and they looked even better than he had hoped they would.
“Wow, you have got big tits,” he murmured.
She laughed again, a little louder this time. “You’re so articulate. And yes, I do.”
She finished stripping naked, taking off her panties. Her body was a wonder to look at. She was in great shape, but had some really nice curves to her. Nicely padded thighs and big hips that supported, he saw as she turned around, a thick ass. Her sexy tail sprouted from her lower back, just above that ass, and brushed his bare chest. It then trailed down to his boxers, as if to remind him that he had yet to complete his task.
Emily walked over to the water. He quickly finished stripping and joined her as she got in the tub. Slipping down into that hot, steaming water, the lust temporarily left him, for just a few seconds. Everything left him as he became overwhelmed by the paradisaical splendor of submerging his body in hot water. It had been a rare pleasure recently. Hot springs were, evidently, hard to come by on Grayrock, and not all that many people seemed interested in magic, which meant heated tubs were rare and difficult to make happen. It had been a few weeks, and being here in this steaming hot water seemed to take away all the rainy days and nights, the aches and pains, the sore muscles, the days of walking and the bruises from fighting.
The lust didn’t stay away for long though, and as it came back, gathering in his crotch and giving him another powerful erection, he opened his eyes and looked across the water at Emily, who was smiling at him with her beautiful cat face. He got up and moved across the tub, then picked her up, sat where she had been sitting, and set her in his lap. And then he kissed her. She moaned as their lips met, and kissing quickly turned to passionately making out. As their tongues twisted and danced, and he tasted her, they began to run their hands all over each other. He touched her everywhere, first starting with one of her breasts.
She really did have big tits. Big, beautiful, firm tits.
He groped it for a bit, then let his hand continued to wander. He felt hers doing the same, running over his arms, his chest, down to his lap.
She wrapped a hand around his cock. “You might have trouble fitting,” she murmured, massaging his dick slowly.
“I guess we’ll find out,” he replied.
She giggled. “We sure will.”
As they kept kissing, he shifted her in his lap, so that she was sitting sideways, and got his hand in between her thighs. She let out a loud moan as his fingertip found her clit and he began to massage it slowly. “Oh...I knew there was a reason I liked you immediately,” she murmured, then gasped and moaned louder as he pleasured her more.
They kept making out, but she kept breaking the kiss to yell in bliss whenever he hit a sensitive spot. Before long, he slipped a finger into her, and she shivered and then cried out as he started fucking her with it. Inside, she absurdly wet and tight. Pumas were a rarity, in his experience. The lands he tended to travel were human heavy, and so he had come to see puma ladies, or cat people, as most other humans like to call them, as a delicacy. But not just because they were rare, but also because their pussies were wetter than any of the other species, in his experience. They felt so amazing to have bareback sex with.
And he had yet to have a puma woman insist on protection, given it was literally impossible for him to impregnate them, and there were almost no diseases that spread between the two races, and even those that did were reasonably easy to deal with. Plus, rings of protection helped with that. Well, certain kinds of protection, like what he had now.
Cyrus fingered Emily until she had a screaming orgasm, and he wondered how soundproofed this room was. Well, who cared? They could deal with it. He’d been through a lot lately and he imagined she had to put up with a lot bullshit from racist humans and she probably deserved a few great orgasms. She held onto him tightly as she came, thrashing in the water, and he continued fingering her throughout the climax.
When she was done, she went slack in his arms, gasping.
“Oh wow, oh...wow,” she whispered, panting. “That was a really good one. You’re good at that.”
“I’ve had practice,” Cyrus replied.
She laughed softly. “I’ll just bet. You want to slide me up and down your fat cock now?” she asked, looking intently at him.
“I would love that,” he replied, and shifted her around again so that she was straddling him. “Put it in you, Emily.”
“Yes, sir,” she murmured, and slipped his dick slowly inside of her pussy.
They both groaned in pure pleasure as she penetrated herself with it. She was tight as fuck. And that wetness was beyond amazing. Cyrus took her wonderfully padded ass in his grasp, gripping it tightly, as she worked him into her. She was right, it was a tight fit. But before long, she had him all the way inside of her.
“Oh fuck, you feel so big,” she moaned, and kissed him hard on the mouth as he brought her up, then slid her back down. Honestly, this kind of thing worked best with little petite chicks, like elves, but it was a pleasure all the same with basically any sexy woman who wanted a ride. He felt the pleasure burned slowly into his body as he slid her up and down his dick, feeling her raw vagina clenched hard around it, all that heat, all that wetness, all that tight, insane pleasure. Both of them began moaning and panting as they fucked furiously, rapidly picking up the pace, the wonderful rapturous bliss building quickly in both of them.
He knew this was going to be a quickie, which was why he’d gotten her off beforehand, and then groaned as his suspicions were fulfilled a minute later and he began coming in her.
“Oh fuck! Oh Emily!” he cried as he began to come inside of her.
“Mmm...there’s a good boy,” she moaned, and hugged him to her, pressing her big breasts against him. “That’s it, fucking come in me. Fill me up.”
“Oh fuck!” he groaned, holding her tightly, his dick jerking violently inside of her as he sprayed her insides down, filling her with his seed in hard contractions and thick spurts. The pleasure blasted through him, lighting him up, a wonderful, amazing release after the past few days. He came long and hard into her, and when he was done, he released her and fell back against the side of the tub, panting, awash in ecstasy.
“That was a good one,” she murmured, getting off of him.
“Yeah,” he replied softly. He looked around around and spied his pants. Grateful that he’d managed to remember to drop them near the tub, he reached over, grabbed them, and fished a hand-rolled cigarette out of his pocket. Sticking it in his mouth, he lit it up with the tip of his finger, took a long inhilation on it, and then exhaled, releasing a big puff of smoke.
“You gonna share?” Emily asked.
“Uh-huh,” he replied, and gave it to her.
She accepted it, took a puff, then passed it back, breathing out her own smoke. “So, tell me about yourself.”
CHAPTER III
“My name is Cyrus Walker. I’m thirty years old. I’ve been traveling the world as a wandering adventurer for eight years.”
“My. That’s a long time,” Emily murmured.
She had settled against him and he’d put an arm around her. They sat in the hot water together, soaking, cuddling, and passing the cigarette back and forth, killing it a puff at a time.
“It feels like a lifetime, honestly,” he replied. “Looking back at my time before starting out is...a little like trying to remember a novel I once read awhile ago.”
“What did you do before that?” she asked.
“I was a guardsman, and a hunter. I lived in a small village on a continent quite a ways away from here. You’d have to travel by boat for...three weeks to get there. Maybe longer.”
“Why’d you leave?”
He sighed, considering it. It was a question he asked himself a lot, even though he had his answer. “Where I come from, there’s a lot of...I guess it’s like, a lot of my life was already being chosen for me. Like, I didn’t get a say in it. My father was a guard, so I’d be a guard. My parents were lining me up to marry this girl...we didn’t really like each other, and I was supposed to spend the rest of my fucking life with her? Marry her? Raise kids with her? And I guess a lot of people are just okay with that. I always thought I was kind of, you know, broken. I couldn’t fit into the role I was supposed to. So one day I just...packed up my shit and left.”
“Wow,” Emily murmured. “That’s...”
“Stupid?”
“Brave, actually. Really brave.”
He laughed softly. “I’ve met some really smart people who say they’re the same thing, sometimes.”
“I guess I can see that, but I think it was brave. And, I mean, if you’re looking at a life of unhappiness, why wouldn’t you leave it? I think...it’s not that a lot of people don’t have a problem with that, it’s more that people just...put up with it. I think that the other option, what you did, is scarier than just...living with it.”
“It sure was fucking scary,” he muttered. “But it was a lot of fun, too. I’ve done a lot of fun things, a lot of dangerous things, a lot stupid things. But mostly it was fun.”
“How’d you end up here, on Grayrock?”
“It’s where the ship was going. I got off on the dock on the other side of the island and just...wandered away. I wanted to see what was on the island.”
“You disappointed yet?” she asked.
“Well...” he caressed one of her furry breasts, “I was. Until I met you. I also saw a few other women coming into town that...I may tumble with.”
“Oh yeah? Tell me their names, I might know them.”
“Rylee and Hazel.”
“Oh! I know Rylee, the blacksmith. I love her, she’s so nice and fun.”
“Have you two...”
She giggled. “Oh yes we have. She’s a really good friend of mine, and sometimes she’s more than that, when we’re in the right mood. I know Hazel, too, though not nearly as well. She and Rylee are close friends, but Hazel’s...distant. Guarded. I always thought she disapproved of me, somehow. Probably cause I’m a hooker on the side. Technically my real job is helping run the tavern.”
“You see a lot of business?” he asked.
She sighed. “Not as much as you’d think. Most people are here aren’t into fucking a girl like me.”
“Hard to believe,” he murmured and kissed her. “You are so hot.”
“Thanks...you wanna go again?” she asked.
“Fuck yes I do. Although on the bed this time.”
“Then let’s do it.”
They finished the cigarette, then got out and dried off quickly. “How do you want me?” she asked as they headed for the bed.
“Edge of the bed, hands and knees,” he replied. “Show me that sweet ass and tail of yours.”
“You got it,” she replied, crawling onto the bed and positioning herself. He got up against her backside, still standing, and looked down at her as she settled into position. She had a fantastic ass, and her pussy looked so inviting. He rested the head of his cock, which was back at full attention, at the entrance of her pussy, and she shivered. Cyrus slowly began to push his way into her. Emily let out a tremendous moan of sexual satisfaction as he pushed all the way into her. Grabbing her hips firmly, he started to fuck her again.
“Oh my fucking...that is so good,” she moaned, hanging her head. “So fucking...oh wow, your cock feels amazing.”
“Your pussy is fantastic,” he groaned in reply, feeling the incredible hot slickness to it, the tight drag enveloping his cock. It sent pleasure spiraling out into his body from his core, filling him. Cyrus went harder and gave her wonderful ass a smack. It didn’t quite have the same satisfaction as smacking a bare skin ass, but it was almost as good.
“You like your tail pulled?” he asked after a few moments.
“Fuck yes I do!” she replied.
He grabbed her tail and pulled on it, and she let out a loud cry of bliss.
“That’s it!” she yelled as he yanked on her tail again, harder, and continued pounding the fuck out of her pussy. “Oh fucking yes! That’s it right fucking there, Cyrus!” she yelled.
He kept pulling on her tail and fucking pounding her pussy like a hammer striking an anvil until she came all over his cock. She let out a loud shriek of pleasure and he knew they had to have heard that. It was hard to care when you were in the middle of amazing sex. Feeling her orgasm on his bare cock added another level to the already intense pleasure. Grunting and moaning, he kept pounding the fuck out of her, burying himself inside of her orgasming pussy again and again, until finally he popped and he was coming right along with her.
They both came together, shouting and moaning in sexual unity, lost in their shared sea of absolute sexual gratification.
When he was done, Cyrus pulled out, patted her ass a few times, then moved back over to the water and slipped back in.
After a moment, she joined him.
“You are one amazing fuck,” she said as she slipped back into the water.
“So are you,” he replied. “You alone are worth coming to this island.”
“Well thank you. I’m glad you did.”
Now that he felt like he’d gotten the most immediate and worst of his lust out, Cyrus relaxed and waited for his meal to come.
He was in the for the night, and he and Emily sat together in the tub, listening to the rainfall overhead.
…
“Hey,” Emily murmured sleepily, looking up at him as he finished gathering his things.
“Yeah?” he replied.
“If, uh, you want to come see me again for some more fun, it’s free.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Honestly I’d rather treat you kind of like a boyfriend than a client. I like you.”
“I like you, too. Although I’m not...super great at being a boyfriend.”
She giggled. “Just a casual boyfriend. No pressure. Drop in if you want to bang or take a walk or something, or if not, that’s fine, too. But if you fuck any other ladies, and you can think of some way to involve me...please do. I would kill to have a threesome with you and another chick. I love pussy, too. Oh!” She sat up suddenly. “Maybe you, me, and Rylee can do a threesome.”
“That would be so fucking awesome,” he replied, glancing at the window. The sun was streaming in through the glass now. They’d had their giant dinner last night, lounging, eating, and getting to know each other, and after awhile, he’d fucked her again and they’d gone to sleep in the big, comfortable bed. He’d fucked her twice more in the night, and she’d just got done bouncing on his cock about fifteen minutes ago.
He’d caught a wash, a fast breakfast of some leftover fruit, and had just got done dressing and gathering his things.
“I’ll see you again, Emily. I do like you. And whichever one of us runs into Rylee first, try to make that threesome happen. Rylee is...wow, she’s beautiful.”
“She is, isn’t she? She looks amazing naked.”
“I bet she does.” He finished looking through his pack, sure that he had everything, and stood up, then pulled it on. “Okay, Emily. It was fantastic meeting you. I’ll make it back here at some point over the next few days.”
“What are you gonna do?” she asked, rubbing one eye.
“I’m not sure...I mean, right now, I’m going to go to the board where they post jobs, find the biggest bounty, and go hunting. Not sure after that. I feel like...I need to do something here. In Windhaven. I just don’t know what.”
He leaned down, gave her a kissed, thanked again for the sex, and then headed out of the room.
…
Outside, the storm had passed.
The sun shined down and there were puddles everywhere, but he imagined they would be mostly dried out before too long. He walked along the road, back over to the village board he’d seen earlier, hoping people remembered to waterproof their papers, or at least put new ones up. Well, he supposed the important ones would already be replaced if they’d gotten destroyed during the storm last night. Despite the tremendous good mood he now found himself in, Cyrus felt that same sense of unease that had been plaguing him for a few weeks now. It was vague and annoying, and more than a little worrisome sometimes.
It felt like he was missing something, something important.
But what?
For the past eight years, with some exceptions, Cyrus’s life had been largely responsibility-free. Well, sort of. He was responsible for his safety and health, and whenever he worked with people or took on jobs, those were other responsibilities. But he didn’t have a largely responsibility. And that was a good feeling.
But now he just felt this vague sort of...fear, and some kind of need.
What did he needed?
He put it out of his head, as best he could, as he found the board and started studying it. Sure enough, a lot of the papers were missing or only a little bit of soggy remains were left. There were a few waterproofed ones, though hardly any, and new ones put back up since the rain had stopped. He looked over the bounties and out of all he could see, giant spiders were the biggest ones. They were paying fifty coins per fang, which was a hundred coins per giant spider. Not bad. Of course, giant spiders were crazy dangerous, but he’d dealt with them before. As he reached for his sword, it abruptly occurred to him that he needed to visit the blacksmith.
“Oh yeah,” he muttered, spying it not too far away, “I’m going to see Rylee first. Duh.” He set off towards it.
A moment later, he was walking in through the front door, and he heard her banging away back there.
Damn did he want to bang away at her.
He hammered on the front counter. “Rylee!”
The hammering stopped. “Is that Cyrus?!”
“Yeah!”
“Got your sword!”
He heard her moving around back there, and a moment later she emerged. She looked a little tired, but pretty much the same: sexy. She walked out and set his blade down in its sheath between them on the counter. He took it and pulled it out.
“Holy shit,” he muttered. It was sharp, polished, practically looked new. “That’s...good work.”
“Thank you,” she replied. “It’s a good blade.”
“I really appreciate it,” he said, and sheathed the blade. “I ran into a friend of yours.”
“Oh yeah? Which one? I don’t have a lot of them.”
“Emily.”
Her eyebrows went up a little. “Oh...by ‘ran into’ do you mean ‘rammed into...repeatedly’?”
He laughed and began tying his sword and sheath to his belt. “You could say that.”
“I figured. You treat her good?”
“Of course, you can ask her yourself. She mentioned you.”
“I’ll bet. She’s got a thing for me...I’ve got a thing for her, too.”
“I’ve got a thing for both of you,” he said, finishing the tying and looking back up at her.
She was staring at him hard from behind the counter, hands on her big hips. “Maybe we should all get together and compare notes.”
“Emily and I would like that very much,” he agreed.
“Good...” She lost her smile suddenly and sighed. “Not tonight though. Assistant’s still out, still got work to do. Normally she’s fantastic, but you know how sickness can be.”
“I do at that,” he agreed. “Okay, we’ll get together sometime soon. See you around.”
“See you. Oh, and Cyrus?” she asked as he began walking away. He paused and looked back over his shoulder at her. “Yeah?”
“A little appetizer.” She raised up the shirt she was wearing and showed him her bare breasts. Holy fuck, they were big. They looked fucking amazing: big and pale and firm, with a dusting a freckles across them and topped by wonderfully pink nipples. She put the shirt back down and smirked at him. “Just to...whet your appetite.”
“It’s more than wet,” he replied, feeling another erection, a powerful one, growing in his pants. “Uh...you wanna-”
“I do, but I can’t. I’m too busy,” she replied, still smirking. “Don’t worry...it’ll keep.”
“Uh...okay,” he replied. “Um...see you later, Rylee.”
“See you, Cyrus,” she replied, looking particularly pleased with herself.
With a sigh, Cyrus left the blacksmith and headed back outside. He took a moment to get himself back under control, because Rylee really was exceptionally attractive. It wasn’t just her beauty, or her fantastic tits, but her personality. He loved wild women, loved those crazy-ass women who were highly sexual and flirtatious and fun, who could probably drink him under the table and could hold their own in a fight with a monster or a band of thieves.
They got him going in a way few other women did.
Cyrus shook his head, popped his neck, then set off towards the northern gate so that he could track, fight, and kill some giant spiders.
CHAPTER IV
There was a post-storm calm in the forest.
It wouldn’t last, Cyrus knew. Soon, it would be thriving with life once again, everything coming back out to feast and fuck and fight. But not yet, which made tracking giant spiders a bit easier. He was five minutes beyond the gates of the city now and already he was on the trail. Which was a bad sign, which was also probably why they had that bounty out there. Giant spiders were to be trifled with. He had his bow drawn for the moment, ready for an attack from anywhere, given that they could, and often did, climb trees.
He moved slowly down a natural path between the trees. It was the end of summer and everything was still in pretty much full bloom, bursting with life. Plants and vegetation and foliage everywhere. Lots and lots of places to hide. As he stalked on, he thought he heard something else moving up ahead. Might be a spider, but usually they were quieter than that. Now he just had to be quieter than that. He moved slowly forward, silently drawing an arrow and slipping it into place. He got right up to the foliage between some trees.
There was a giant spider in a small clearing beyond. It had managed to snag a young deer and was feeding on it. It was lean and angular, black in color, with red stripes across its body. Nasty bastard. It had a really dangerous poison in it. He aimed carefully for that sweet spot in what passed for its head, the one that would kill it instantly, and once his aim was lined up, he let the arrow fly. At the exact same moment, another arrow sailed into the clearing from his left and hit it in almost the same spot. The spider died immediately.
“Shit,” Cyrus snapped, instantly drawing another arrow and twisting in that direction.
“Who’s there?!” a woman snapped.
“I’m an adventurer...bounty hunting spiders,” Cyrus replied clearly and loudly.
A pause. “Are you an asshole?”
He laughed. “I mean...I don’t think so.”
A sigh. “I guess that’ll have to be good enough. I’m coming out.”
“Okay, me too.”
He walked slowly into the clearing, not aiming his bow, but not relaxing his grip on the drawn arrow, either. Honestly, he was curious to see who he had bumped into. She sounded hot. And she was, he saw as she emerged in the clearing with him. She was a trim, petite, tight-bodied blonde in a shirt with ripped-off sleeves and pants chopped off above the knee. She held a loaded bow like he did, though she didn’t aim it directly at him at least.
“So, where’s this going to go?” she asked.
“I was intending to hunt some spiders, grab some fangs, and cash them in,” he replied.
“I was in the process of doing something similar,” she replied.
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, waiting for the other to give any kind of ground first. “Well...we could hunt together,” Cyrus said.
A small smile twitched at her lips. “Maybe. You any good with that?” He pointed at the dead spider. She walked slowly over to it and crouched, studying it, then sighed softly. “Yeah, you are good with that. That’s a fucking good shot,” she muttered, then pulled her own arrow out. She wiped it off and replaced it in her quiver, then pulled out a dagger and started working the thing’s big fangs out of its awful face.
“Fine,” she said, “we hunt giant spiders together, we each get a fang. After we clear the area, we part ways.”
“You really wanna part ways so fast?” he asked, and she looked up at him. “You don’t even know me. You might like me a lot.”
Again, a small smile twitched at her lips. “We’ll see,” she replied, and popped one of the fangs out. She studied it, then slipped it carefully into a leather satchel on her belt. “Your turn,” she said, getting up and stepping away.
He crouched by the spider. “I’m Cyrus.”
“Lena,” she replied after a moment.
He wondered if he’d been hit with a dose of luck magic or something to run into so many attractive women who might be interested in a roll in the hay, or a tumble in the dirt. He was less sure about her, she was kind of guarded, but her body language and facial expressions and tone of voice was indicating that she might be open to some fun. Well, if not, having someone who was competent to watch his back while hunting spiders was plenty good, too, and he still had Emily and Rylee waiting for him. He got the fang out and slipped it into his own leather satchel, secured it, then stood back up and replaced his new dagger in its sheath.
“So, it’s a deal then? We work together?” he asked.
“Yes, for now,” she replied.
“Cool. Then let’s get hunting.”
…
Lena, he quickly discovered, was a competent woman. She was the kind of woman a lot of men might initially mistake as demure, as she didn’t say a lot. But he knew the truth. She wasn’t demure, she was just quiet. She struck him as the kind of person who was selective about what she said and when she said it. Her words carried weight because they were distributed rarely and carefully. And he appreciated that a lot.
He also found it a little annoying, but for his own reasons. Cyrus liked to talk, liked to carry on conversations with people. He imagined he could talk for hours and hours with Rylee and Emily, but not so much with Lena.
He learned a little about her though, as they stalked through the forest, hunting spiders.
She was from the village. She had been born there and had lived there for most of her life. And she had done some traveling across the island.
“Have you ever been outside of Grayrock?” he asked after they’d killed their third spider and were in the process of getting its fangs out.
“No,” she said after a moment. “Not yet.”
“It’s weird out there,” Cyrus murmured. “Depending on where you go. In some ways, it’s the same old shit. In others, it’s totally different.”
“Is it worth it?” she asked after another long moment.
He considered that, pocketing the third fang and standing up. They looked around, and she struck off suddenly, heading west into the trees again. He followed after her, as she seemed to have keener senses than him.
“Yes,” he replied. “So far, I think so. I’ve been at it for eight years. But I suppose it really depends on who you are.”
She didn’t say anything to that, and so they lapsed once more into silence. Cyrus thought of himself as decently quiet, having picked up, practiced, and perfected a number of tricks in stealthy movement over the years, but Lena was like a ghost, almost totally silent. They continued on for another few minutes until they came into another clearing, this one larger. As they stepped into it, Lena stopped moving abruptly, and so did Cyrus as a sense of alarm began to rise within him. Something was wrong here.
“Fuck,” Lena said, looking up.
He followed her gaze and said the exact same thing.
It was darker in the clearing, and at first glance he had mistaken it for a thick canopy. Only it wasn’t. He quickly realized that it was webbing, a lot of webbing. And there were eight or nine giant fucking spiders up there.
“We should-we should fall back,” Cyrus said, aiming up.
“Yes,” Lena agreed.
The spiders began a rapid descent, hanging from their webbing. Cyrus fired off his arrow and put it straight through the body of the nearest spider, causing it to drop from its webbing. It hit the ground and began thrashing violently. Lena killed it with a headshot, then quickly drew another arrow and killed a second one with another headshot. The rest of them hit the ground and began coming for them, moving with a horrifying speed and dexterity. He fired off one more arrow, managing to graze one of them, before hastily abandoning the bow and drawing his blade. Time to see if this thing handled as well as it looked.
He stabbed outward as he took two big steps forward, to help maintain some distance between the spiders and Lena, and also to give himself some fallback space. The blade pierced the nearest spider’s hideous face, cleaving through two of its cluster of blood-red eyes, and sliced right into its brain, killing it. Ripping the blade out in a spray of blood, he sliced to the right, chopping off another giant spider’s front legs. It began shrieking madly and thrashing about. An arrow sailed into its face, killing it. Man, she was a good fucking shot.
Cyrus leaped back as another one made a jump for him. Its legs hit him hard enough to send him stumbling and then falling right on his ass. He grunted and then shouted and rolled as another one leaped right at him. It landed with a heavy thud and he stabbed out, forcing his blade into its side. It squealed and thrashed and he shoved the blade in harder, then forced it up, towards its head. That did it. The thing went limp.
He heard another arrow fly, and another body hit the ground, and then nothing but his own heavy breathing.
“Fuck,” he grunted as he slowly got to his feet. “Is that all of them?”
“For now,” Lena replied.
“Fucking hate these things,” he growled, and kicked one of them. Cyrus hated being scared, and giant spiders still scared him a fair amount.
“They are rather repulsive,” Lena agreed. She pulled out her dagger and crouched by the nearest spider.
Cyrus went and retrieved his bow. He pulled out his own dagger and joined her. For several minutes, they silently went about ripping fangs out. It was ugly work, but there was something at least a little satisfying about it. He pocketed eight fangs by the end of it.
“Now what?” he asked. “That enough, or...”
“I suppose that’s enough for today,” she replied. “You’ve fought well.”
“Thanks. You did, too.”
She looked at him for a moment, then turned and began walking back towards Windhaven. Cyrus followed after her, glancing down at her ass. Damn, she had a nice, tight, fit ass. He’d kill to see it, and to fucking pound her doggystyle. He loved big, tall women, but he also had a particular love of petite little chicks, mostly elves, but sometimes humans, like Lena. They were fun to kind of throw around, if they were into that, fun to just fucking dominate if they were into that. It was especially good to bounce them on his cock.
He thought this as he followed her into the forest.
That was enough adventure.
For now.
…
“How do we know you didn’t just find some dead spiders and pry their fangs off, huh?”
Lena sighed and Cyrus uncrossed his arms. It was a simple move, normally a non-threatening gesture to the average person looking, but it made the guards in the room sit and stand a little straighter. The first reason being that Cyrus was a big fucking guy. He was the tallest person in the room. The second was that uncrossing your arms, even casually, was one of those moves you did if you were gearing up to fight. Hard to get the first punch in if your arms were crossed.
“You really want to walk all the way out there and see the fucking corpses? Because I can take you to them. Pay up,” Cyrus replied.
“You’ve got some nerve,” one man, who had a bit of authority in his stance, said. Probably the captain, or maybe one of the lieutenants.
“Yep,” Cyrus agreed. He didn’t want to have to fight these guards, (he looked around the room, there were four of them altogether, he liked his odds with Lena at his side, though he really didn’t want to force her into it, this was her home after all), but he would if they made him.
“Paul, we have a good working relationship. I pay my taxes. I don’t cause problems. I hunt for food, for pelts, for the safety of the village. When have I ever given you reason to doubt me?” Lena asked suddenly.
The man in charge, Paul, looked at her for a moment. “Fair enough,” he said. “Pay them.”
The man at the desk sighed and passed them each a pair of bags of gold, two hundred and fifty coin per bag. All in all, five hundred coins for a bounty wasn’t too bad. They collected them up and began to walk out of the barracks.
“You, adventurer,” Paul said as they reached the door, and they paused, and Cyrus looked back over his shoulder.
“Yeah?”
“Watch yourself.”
“Right back at you, Paul,” Cyrus replied, then walked out of the room, back out into the daylight. It was approaching lunchtime.
“You’re a little bit of an ass, aren’t you?” Lena asked.
“Eh...a little bit. He earned it, though...uh, sorry, if that made things difficult for you. I didn’t realize your guards were such pricks,” he replied.
She laughed. “Honestly, I hate most of them. They are pricks. Too many of them I’ve had to threaten to kick in the nuts, or actually do it, because they don’t take no for an answer. Honestly, I think that’s why they were giving us a hard time: they thought I was with you.”
“Oh.” He paused. “Uh...speaking of that, you wanna get some lunch?”
She turned and looked at him for a long moment, again studying him, sizing him up. “Okay, we can do lunch,” she said finally. The implication seemed decently clear: lunch and no more, for the moment.
He was okay with that.
Lena seemed like the kind of woman who was worth putting some effort into.
Again, she led him, this time towards a square similar to the marketplace and not far from it. Here, there were a lot of stalls and tiny buildings that were mostly serving fish, given that this was a port town. But some sold meat, some stews, some bread. They managed to make it in just before the lunch rush got there, and so managed to grab their meals, which they ended up settling on some skewered assorted meat and some bottles of blueberry juice, and then left the area as the crowd began to surge in, looking for food.
“So, uh, there’s a few things I’ve got to say,” Cyrus said. She waited, so he continued, since she seemed like she was listening. “I’m an up-front kind of guy. I’m interested in sleeping with you, but I’m not interested in a serious relationship. I don’t know how long I’ll be sticking around Windhaven. I’m also involved with two other women in town.”
“Didn’t you say you just got into town yesterday?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You work fast.”
He chuckled. “I guess so. And, well...that’s what I wanted to say.”
“All right. I respect blunt honesty. Here is my response. I don’t know if I’m interested in having sex with you. I’m certain I’m not interested in a relationship. I am at least entertaining the idea of taking you home for the night, but it really depends on how the rest of the day plays out. So now I present to you an offer: spend the rest of the day with me, and I might take you home for sex at the end of it.”
He thought about it, but not for very long.
“Deal,” he said, and offered her his hand.
She actually cracked a real smile and snorted softly, then she shook his hand. “I’ll be judging you, just so you know,” she said.
“I feel confident I’ll measure up,” Cyrus replied.
“Then let’s see what happens.”
They continued eating and walking through Windhaven.
CHAPTER V
It was an interesting date.
There was a sort of power...not struggle, that was too strong a word, but it was the only one that came to mind for him, at play. Sometimes, Lena wanted to guide them, and sometimes she wanted him to step up and be the guide. Which was difficult. It was difficult to identify this distinction, but also difficult because he’d never fucking been in this town before. Despite all this, Cyrus thought he managed pretty well.
For a little while, they walked through the town, eating their meat, drinking their blueberry juice. He saved the skewer and the bottle when he was finished, as it could be useful to him while camping. As they walked, he did most of the talking, and Lena seemed okay with that. He told her about himself, because he didn’t have much reason to hide most of the things in his life. He told her about his adventures, mainly, places he’d been, people he’d met, monsters he’d killed. He had a long list of these adventures prepared for date talk.
Eventually, they ended up near the docks.
“Do you want to see the ocean for a bit?” she asked. “I have a little place I like to go.”
“I’d love that,” he replied, and he meant it. Although he’d been traveling on the ocean a lot lately, he loved viewing it, especially from land.
And so she took him away from the docks, along the rocky shore, until they reached a rise in the land. Together, they climbed up an incline studded with the occasional tree. It was a difficult climb, but as they finally reached the top, and followed a small trail towards the coastline, Cyrus came to realize that it was more than worth it.
The trail let out on a rise of land about fifty feet above the sea, its own little plateau with a natural barrier of trees.
The view was beyond stunning.
He felt like he could see forever, the ocean extending into infinity, small waves heading towards them. A few other islands dotted the horizon, as did several ships coming and going from Grayrock. He saw dark storm clouds gathering on the horizon. They were in for another storm tonight. That was fine, he loved the rain.
“Thank you,” he said after several moments.
“What for?” Lena asked, but he could tell she wasn’t confused, she wanted to hear his answer.
“For sharing this with me,” he replied. “I imagine this must be a very...personal place. And I appreciate this opportunity.”
Apparently it was the correct answer, because she slipped her small hand into his, and laced their fingers together, and stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You’re welcome, Cyrus.”
They stood there together for what felt like a long time, until finally they were ready to leave. They walked back down into the village, and there was a subtle shift in their dynamic. She wanted him to lead now. And so he led her through the town, following the streets as best he could, trying to keep an eye out for interesting things. Mostly there were some inns, places to eat, a couple more blacksmiths, and shops. Lots of shops. Shops that sold weapons, or armor, or cutlery, or travel gear, or a few dozen other items people might need.
And then he saw something he thought she might appreciate: a book shop.
He led her inside and they came into a quiet building packed with shelves, which were themselves packed with books. There had to be hundreds of them.
“Wow,” he murmured.
“You read?” she asked.
“Yes. Often, if I can manage it.”
“What’s your favorite kind of book?” she asked.
He chuckled, a little embarrassed. “Romance.”
She smiled and said, “Thank you for sharing that with me. I imagine it couldn’t have been easy to own up to that.”
“You know how it is,” he murmured.
“I do, actually. Big tough adventuring men who look like you have a reputation to keep. But I don’t care much about your reputation. I care about who you are, as a person. And what you do. I love to read, too. Let’s do some shopping.”
“That sounds great,” he replied.
And they went into the aisles. There were a lot of books, just everywhere he looked. Before long, the two of them ended up drifting apart as they found titles worth investigating. He stopped and scanned the titles printed on the spines. A lot of them seemed uninspired and a little bland. That was an inevitability, he supposed, when the ability to mass produce books came about, which it had about ten years ago: everyone and their mother took a stab at writing.
Not that he was looking down on anyone who did it, it wasn’t like he could write. Okay, well, he could write, just not imaginatively. He was happy that people were getting the chance to write and potentially be seen, but it was a little frustrating watching obviously inferior and bland works getting popular while more and more, novels of genuine effort were being relegated to obscurity. And so he hunted through the stacks, looking for anything that might catch his fancy. Honestly, his favorite type of book was a rarity.
Interracial love stories.
He would have thought that even though they were still a taboo (as stupid as that was), that whole taboo thrill would make them popular to write about. But now he was thinking that society as a whole wasn’t quite at that tipping point yet. Writing about interracial romance didn’t make you brave you, it made you an outcast. As such, he tended to genuinely treasure the occasional interracial romances he could get his hands on.
In the end, they spent over an hour wandering that store. He managed to find a pair of interracial romance novels, one between a human and an elf, (by far the most common among an uncommon genre), and one between a human and a puma, which made him think of Emily. It also made him wonder if Lena was at all into other girls, and how she would feel about a threesome with Emily, because holy shit, that would be amazing.
The woman behind the counter, an attractive brunette, gave him a small smile and a curious look when he brought the books up for purchase, but otherwise said nothing. Lena got her hands on half a dozen novels, and they all looked to be from different genres. An adventure book, a romance, a historical text, a horror novel...she clearly liked to read a great deal. They made their purchases and stored their books in their packs, then left the bookshop. Although it was still as bright as ever, the storm front was now clearly visible in the distance, and occasionally a flash of distant lightning would occur.
“Your turn,” he said.
She smirked. “Okay. Come on.”
And onward she led him.
Windhaven was a bit bigger than he’d originally thought coming into it. He’d initially assumed it had a population of maybe a couple hundred, but now he thought it had to be double that, maybe even triple that. And that wasn’t counting all the sailors and merchants and passengers who came through on the ships.
And he had to admit, the more of Windhaven he saw, the more frustrated he became.
It seemed like it should be a good village, but there were still obvious signs of incompetency, poor maintenance, and even outright criminal activities everywhere. Twice he saw guards shaking down store owners for coin, and came very close to stepping in. But Lena stilled him with a calm but firm hand on his forearm and a shake of her head when he looked down at her. After the second time it had happened, after they had enjoyed dinner together at a cafe near the dockyards with a view of the ocean, he couldn’t help but ask.
“So what’s up with your village?” he asked. “Why is it this way?”
She sighed. “I’m not completely sure myself, but I know a lot of it has to do with our local governor dying five years ago. His brother took over, as his only son had since left the island because he had no interest in being a governor. And his brother...is not good at his job. He is lazy, and arrogant, and difficult. I think that criminal elements among the guard and the others who run this village had previously had to keep their illicit activities hidden, but under the reign of our new governor, they began to flourish. Now they pocket coin meant to help in all sorts of ways. It’s...very disheartening, I must admit.”
“I can imagine so...why do you stay?” he asked.
“Oh, you know, similar reasons to why I imagine other people stay. I grew up here, I love it here for some reasons that are nostalgic, some that are sentimental. I don’t have many friends left, but the few I do are very close to me. And I’m not sure where else I would go.”
“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment.
“So am I. Sometimes I wish someone would do something about it, but what can be done? Short of overthrowing the local government, I guess. Or just fixing a lot of problems yourself. Of course, if you do that, eventually they’d sit up and take notice that you’re making them look bad, and they can’t have that, so then we’d be back to the first option...” She heaved a tired sigh.
“Something to think about,” he murmured. They were walking down a road in a part of town that looked almost abandoned. There were a few houses that didn’t look to be in great condition, and at the end of the road was a big, three-story building that almost looked like a manor. It certainly had enough space to be one.
“What’s this place?” he asked, honestly curious. It was clearly abandoned, but it looked somehow important.
“Oh, yes. This is the guild hall. Or was,” Lena replied as they came to stand before it. She looked up at it, sounding sad.
“Guild hall?”
“Some adventurers came into town some ten years ago and basically moved in, had this place built, called themselves a guild. They solved problems. They helped defend the town, they hunted monsters, they dealt with threats big and small. They were great people. I lived and worked here, for a time,” Lena replied.
“Wow, seriously? What happened?”
“The corrosion of time, largely. A few tragedies. The guild leader was killed two years ago while on a hunt for a really dangerous creature. None of us were really leaders. A few of us tried to step up and keep it going, and it limped on for awhile, about a year and a quarter or so, but even then we were facing problems for the exact reason I mentioned earlier. The old governor loved the guild, but the new one didn’t, because they made him look bad. I mean, at first, I think he was content enough to just let them deal with problems. But then he saw how much respect they got, and how much respect he didn’t get, not to mention the coin they earned...I was there when they disbanded about nine months ago. It was sad.”
“I imagine it was...”
Overhead, thunder cracked violently and lightning split the sky. Another storm was now upon them. Lena glanced skywards. “So, I’ve decided,” she said. “I’m going to invite you back to my house to have sex and, if you do a good job, spend the night.”
“I very heartily accept this invitation,” Cyrus replied.
She smirked at him. “I thought so. Come on.”
…
Although Lena didn’t exactly hurry home, Cyrus was pleased to see a bit of a spring in her step and some anticipation and perhaps impatience in her movements. Most other thoughts were pushed out of his head as they got back to her place, which was a small but neat house in a row of them in a nicer part of the village. As soon as she closed and locked the door, she turned to him, shrugged out of her pack, let it drop to the floor, and then leaped at him. He caught her easily, supporting her by grabbing her wonderfully fit ass as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. Lena stared at him briefly with a feral grin, then began to kiss him hard on the mouth.
He kissed her back, holding her easily, he doubted she weighed more than one ten at most, and she was a full foot shorter than he was. As he held her, Cyrus began trying to navigate her home, looking around while making out with her. He needed to get her to her bedroom and her bed, because he needed to be inside of her.
Among doing other things to her.
He managed to get her across her living room and thankfully guessed correctly on which door led to the bedroom. They didn’t break lip contact as he got her into her room until he gripped her a little more firmly and then threw her onto her back.
She let out a little shout of surprised and lusty happiness as she landed on her bed.
“You cool with bareback?” he asked as he took off his pack, then his shirt.
“Yes, I have a ring of protection,” she replied, unbuttoning her shirt.
“Same,” he replied. “How about finishing inside you?”
“Make me come, and yeah,” she said.
“I can do that,” he replied.
“Is that confidence or arrogance?” she asked, getting her shirt off and tossing it aside, then peeling off her bra and doing the same.
“Confidence,” he replied, kicking off his boots and undoing his pants.
“I guess we’ll find out.”
He finished stripping first, then grabbed her pants and pulled them off, as well as her panties, revealing a beautiful vagina dusted with blonde pubic hair. Cyrus got down on his knees in between her legs and gently pushed her onto her back, then he leaned in and began to kiss up and down her inner thighs.
“Oh! Oh my!” she gasped. “That’s-ah! Sensitive!”
“That’s what I like to hear,” he replied, then licked along one of her inner thighs, and she let out a sharp cry and shivered violently in his grasp.
“You don’t-oh!-really hesitate, huh? You just dive right in,” she whispered.
“Mmm-hmm,” he replied, and then gently parted the lips of her pussy with his thumbs, exposing her clit. He leaned in and began to lick it slowly.
“Oh my fucking-fuck!” she cried and grabbed the blankets she laid on. “Holy shit, Cyrus!” He continued licking her clit and could feel her slim, trim body shivering and shuddering against him as he lavished pleasure upon her. He still found it interesting that even gently stimulating a tiny part of a woman’s body could effect the entire thing to such a degree. He also found it very nice, because he loved pleasuring women.
He listened to her cry out and yell his name as he kept pleasuring her, licking at her clit faster and faster, applying more pressure, using more of his tongue. She went from shivering to twitching and finally, after a few moments, he got an orgasm out of her.
“OH FUCK!” she screamed and a spray of feminine sex juices came out of her, coating her inner thighs. He watched her come, watched the way it seemed to roll through her fit body in waves, watched her lose control of herself as the pleasure consumed her. And when she was finished, she laid back down and stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily.
“Fuck me,” she said.
“You got it,” he replied, standing up. He was as hard as a rock and ready to tear into her. “How rough can you handle it?” he asked.
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I can handle it plenty rough,” she replied, then she looked down the length of her own body at his cock as he got into position. “Huh.” She looked slightly less confident. “Probably.”
“I’ll try not to break you,” he said.
Now she laughed. “Please, I’m not fragile.”
“I just want it to feel good for both of us,” he replied as he brought the head of his cock up against her hot, wet entrance. He began to rub it up and down slowly.
She shivered. “I...appreciate that.”
He began to slip it inside of her. Lena let out a loud moan as he did so. Rapturous ecstasy began to boil into him as Cyrus slipped his inches inside of her bit by bit, working to bury his entire rigid length within Lena. There was a particularly powerful satisfaction in seeing, and feeling, his entire cock inside of a woman.
Especially a woman like Lena.
She moaned and cried out as he fucked her, sliding deeper and deeper until at last he was completely inside of her.
“Holy fuck, that’s big,” she whispered, spreading her legs out.
“You’re so fucking tight,” he groaned and he grabbed her legs and then pulled them up, yanking her a little closer to him.
“You’re a fucking foot taller than me and more than twice my weight,” she moaned.
“That’s right, and now I’m going to fuck your brains out.”
He grabbed her hips and began fucking her. She let out a long, almost howling moan as he got right into it. Cyrus groaned her name loudly as he slid smoothly in and out of her. The tightness was just phenomenal, a deep and powerful pleasure that only increased as he kept screwing her. Her small, firm breasts bounced as he pounded her, and her thighs were just amazing. Her skin was marred by the occasional scar, and was tan along her arms and legs, and paler where clothes normally covered her. She was incredibly fit and he loved looking over her body, the way her small but well-defined muscles moved beneath her skin as she twisted and writhed against him.
Both of them shouted and moaned, locked together in sexual ecstasy. He grunted, panting, lost in carnal lust and a primal desire to ravage her pussy. She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, he was happy to see.
After several more minutes of wordless grunting and shouting and moaning, Cyrus found the urge to pump her sweet pussy full of his seed almost overwhelming. She had yet to come, and he had the idea that she was a little tougher than average to get there. But that wasn’t a problem. He slid a hand over her lower belly, and his thumb found her clit as he kept fucking her. She gasped as he made contact, then began shouting louder as he started to rub her clit vigorously.
“Oh fuck, Cyrus! FUCK!” she shrieked wildly as he pleasured her.
It didn’t take much more to get her coming this time. He moaned loudly, letting the pleasure take him as her pussy began to convulse, becoming much hotter and wetter as she squirted and began screaming her way through her orgasm.
Well, he’d fulfilled his half of the deal, time to claim his reward.
And oh how fucking rewarding it was as he began to come inside of her, to fill her pussy up with his seed, to pump her full of it in hard, powerful contractions. The pleasure exploded within him and slammed through him like waves pounding a beach during a particularly powerful storm. It was a tremendous feeling, an all-encompassing feeling of raw ecstasy that honestly nothing had topped yet in his life.
They came and screamed together.
When they were finished, his disengaged himself carefully from her and sat down next to her. She held a hand over her pussy.
“Holy fuck, that feels like a lot of it,” she murmured.
“Yeah. I come a lot,” he replied.
“Well, you certainly earned it.” She got up after a moment and moved over to a washbasin, wet a rag, and began to clean herself up. After a moment, he joined her. For several minutes, they silently cleaned up, not just from the sex, but from the adventuring. After wiping off all the sweat and dirt from his body, he dried off and then walked back over to her bed and fell into it.
“So, did I do good? Can I sleep here or do I have to pack up?” he asked.
“You did good. You can share my bed tonight. That pussy eating was above and beyond,” she replied, joining him.
“I’m glad you liked it.” He heard the rain, then. It tapped the roof overhead, the single window, covered by a heavy curtain, in the room. “Now what?” he murmured.
“I thought we could relax. I wanted to read a bit before going to sleep. I plan to get up early. I have a lot to do tomorrow,” Lena replied.
“Sounds good to me,” he said, and he dug one of his two books out of his pack, the one about the human and the puma, and got beneath the blankets with Lena, who got one of her own books. As they laid there together, listening to the rain, reading, Cyrus found it hard to focus. His mind kept wandering back to the abandoned guild hall.
There was just something about it…
Well, he would find out what, in due time.
PART TWO
CHAPTER I
“Oh yeah...that’s it...come on...almost...THERE! YES!”
Cyrus groaned loudly as Lena began to orgasm, her hips firmly in his grasp as she rode him. Her perfect, firm breasts bounced in sync with the motion of their sex. She let out a loud cry of intense pleasure as she started to come, and he wasn’t far behind her. Soon, they were enjoying their climaxes at the same time, both of them yelling and panting and moaning furiously as they came. There was a particularly powerful gratification and sexual release that came from morning sex. The kind you had immediately upon waking up.
As they finished, she rolled off of him and then fell onto her back, taking deep, slow breaths, staring at the ceiling. And Cyrus was right there with her. It was quite the way to wake up.
“Thanks,” she said, and then got up.
“Thank you,” he replied, and she laughed. He glanced at her ass as she crossed her bedroom to the washbasin.
Damn, she was in fine shape.
“So, uh, you kicking me out?” he asked as he stretched, feeling his shoulders pop.
“I’m afraid so, though not through any fault of your own. I may have mentioned I have business to tend to today,” she replied.
“Yeah. Just double-checking. Thanks for the sex, it was really appreciated.” He stood up and did a few stretches, then joined her at the washbasin.
“I should hope so. It’s very rare I take anyone home. Rarer still that I take men home,” she replied. “And, just to be clear, I appreciated it as well. You were...good. And you listened. That’s an important quality in a lover. Even a temporary one.”
“Agreed,” he replied.
He washed up and pulled his clothes on, then began checking around to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.
“Any chance of a repeat performance?” he asked.
“Perhaps,” she replied after a moment, looking at him intently. She now wore her underclothes. She pursed her lips, continued to stare at him. “Probably. You know where to find me. I’m sure I will see you around the village.”
“Yeah,” he replied, finishing his search. He pulled on his pack. “If you want any help with anything, you know, I’ll probably say yes.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” she said. Then she walked over to him, stood up on her toes, and kissed him. He kissed her back, embracing her. “Good luck, with whatever you are doing.”
“Same to you,” he replied.
And then he left her house.
…
Cyrus found that he needed to think, and so he swung by the village board again, seeing that someone had put up a lost and found request. They had gone hunting in a clearing southwest of the village and had lost a ring there when they were forced to flee some wolves. They were willing to pay fifty gold for its return. Well, he had an eye for stuff like that, sort of a knack for tracking shit down, so he took it and headed southwest. Mainly, he just wanted a bit more of an excuse to leave the village. Or maybe just to feel like he was maximizing his time spent. He could be thinking and earning some coin at the same time.
He headed out of the village and shot a rabbit with an arrow. Then he found a little place to stop and make a campfire, skinned the rabbit and set the meat to cook on a skewer, and he sat on a rock and thought.
Mainly he thought about that abandoned building.
Or really, what it had once been.
Cyrus had spent a long time thinking he was kind of dumb. He didn’t really think shit out so much as get notions. He’d tried to correct this, but his way of thinking hadn’t changed much. Really, he didn’t so much think about things anymore than before, more he got a notion and then spent more time poking and prodding it. At some point, sometime last year, someone had told him he wasn’t stupid, he just had a different way of thinking.
To be sure, he’d done stupid things before.
Sometimes he’d hop on a notion too fast, when he was younger, and discover it wasn’t a notion, it was a whim. And those were two different things. Whims kind of just took you in the moment, but notions was, in a way, his brain noticing something and trying to tell him to do it for reasons that it couldn’t quite translate.
It was like…
Whims were waves on the surface. They could take you here, there, anywhere.
Notions were the currents below the surface. Stronger, surer.
Mostly he’d learned to follow notions through because generally they were good ideas. And today, he’d woken up with the notion to go and purchase that abandoned building. He had over a thousand gold on him right now, maybe that’d be enough. Cyrus finished cooking the rabbit and ate it, downing it with a bottle of water he had in his pack, then he killed the flame, got up, and kept going on his path towards the clearing.
He found it ten minutes later, and kept an eye out for wolves as he began hunting around for the lost ring. As he hunted, he kept prodding at the notion. So, he was going to try and buy a building. Cyrus had to admit, he’d never done that before. He’d done a lot of shit before, he’d even tried his hand at being a captain for awhile and bought his own boat. But that hadn’t turned out well. He’d ended up shipwrecked and marooned on island barely a month into his new job due to a really bad storm and some bad luck.
The good news of that was that he’d been marooned on an island with both a bit of adventure on it, and also with three other women, all of whom were pretty happy to fuck him and each other, so that had been fantastic. They’d stayed there for another month, living off of the land, fighting monsters, and just fucking the shit out of each other.
But he’d never owned a building before.
Nor had he ever been in control of his own business, because apparently that’s where this notion was leading. It was obvious what he wanted to do with the building once he bought it: restart the guild. He already had a few people in mind that might be interested in helping him out. Lena, for one. She seemed to genuinely miss her time with the guild. Rylee, maybe. She was a fucking good blacksmith, and obviously they need one to help maintain their arms and armor. He’d need someone to coordinate the whole thing, find them jobs, divvy up the payouts, basically do all the little shit that he was so bad at and didn’t want to fuck up.
And obviously they’d need fighters.
Maybe that one guardswoman Hazel. She’d looked pretty capable, and Rylee seemed to know and like her. Plus, she was really hot.
How awesome would it be to staff this place with hot women who were all fucking him?
...maybe he could actually make that work.
“There you fucking are,” he muttered as he finally spied the ring. It caught the sunlight and he marched over to it, crouched, and picked it up. He inspected it as he stood, then nodded to himself. Yep, gold band with a small emerald set into it, just like the paper had described. Now he just had to find the person in question.
And then he’d go see about buying the guild.
…
“Tabitha Meadows?”
The woman in the stall looked a bit anxious and distracted. And also really attractive.
“Yes?” she asked. The stall she was running had what he’d expect of a hunter for sale: meats and furs, and a handful of other ‘goodies’ that came from slaughtering some animals, things that mages would be into for potions and...whatever else mages did with eyeballs and livers and testicles of wolves or foxes.
“I have something for you.” Cyrus set the ring down on the counterspace between them.
“Oh...thank you!” she whispered, immediately grabbing it and holding it up, studying it closely. She smiled fiercely and slipped it back onto her finger. “Thank you so much for this...what’s your name?”
“Cyrus Walker,” he replied.
“Thank you, Cyrus. Really, this...this is a big deal. This means a lot to me. Um, here,” she said, and reached down beneath the counter. She came up with a bag of gold and passed it to him. “For your trouble.”
“I was happy to help,” he replied, taking the bag. It felt like fifty coins, so he didn’t take the time to count it out, instead adding it to his collection of coins so far.
She looked at him again. “Cyrus...are you an adventurer? I don’t think I’ve seen you around.”
“I am, I just got into town yesterday,” he replied.
“You single?” she asked.
“Yeah...why?”
She leaned closer, and he couldn’t help but at least glanced down her shirt. She was...chesty. “Would you be interested in a more...intimate reward?”
“If it’s coming from you, then yes. Enthusiastically yes,” he replied.
She smiled, (and for some reason looked a little relieved), and straightened back up. “Okay, perfect. Don’t move.”
She reached forward and shut the shutters of her stall. He heard her locking up, (presumably), and a moment later she emerged from a door in the side of the small structure. He studied her as she stepped into the sunlight.
Tabitha was quite attractive.
She was average height, more on the buxom side, but still in good shape, judging by the way her clothes sat on her body. She had tan skin, red hair, and beautiful green eyes.
“Okay,” she said after locking up, “my house isn’t far from here.”
“Lead on,” Cyrus replied.
…
“And so, this is my house,” Tabitha said as she let him in.
“It’s a nice place,” he replied, looking around her home.
“You don’t have to lie, I know it’s not great.”
“No, really. I’m not shitting you or anything. It’s nice. It’s...you know, it looks cozy. It’s pretty well organized.”
“Well...thank you. I do try to take care of it, keep it neat...” She turned to look at him, look up at him. “My...you are tall.”
“Yep,” he agreed. “So, about this reward...I just want to be clear, you mean-”
“Sex,” she said. “I mean sex, yes. Although I’m not sure I have any protection laying around right now...it’s been a little while.”
“It’s okay,” he said, and held up his hand. “You know what this is?”
“The ring? Is it magic?” she asked.
“Yeah. Means I can’t get you pregnant, nor give you anything, nor catch anything from you.”
“Well...I have heard of those before.”
“If it helps, I can pull out and shoot my load somewhere else.”
“I can think of a place or two,” she replied, now smirking at him. “Come on.”
She grabbed his hand and led him deeper into the house. They moved through the living room and into her bedroom.
“You live alone, I take it?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I live best that way. But it does get...lonely.”
“I know the feeling.”
She let go of his hand and turned around, looking up at him again. He knew that look. She wanted him to take the lead. Well, that was fine, he’d done it often enough. Generally he preferred it. Cyrus stepped up to her and hugged her to him, then kissed her deeply on the mouth. She had very nice lips, and he found them soft and hot. It took a few seconds to get into a good rhythm of kissing, that happened sometimes and it wasn’t surprising, given they’d just met. Once they got into a nice rhythm, he made out with her for several moments, running his hands up and down her back. After a bit, she slipped her tongue slowly into his mouth.
He moved his own forward to dance with hers, and they met, touched, and he felt the excited spark of lust desire hit him. Kissing was intimate, but tongue-kissing was a lot more intimate, and being deeply intimate with a new person was a tremendously exciting thing. Apparently she felt the same way, because she moaned softly and closed her eyes. He felt her body shudder a bit. She deepened the kiss after a moment, pulling him closer to her. As they continued making out, he carefully began guiding her over to the bed.
“Oh my,” she murmured as they stopped for a moment.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s just...like I said. It’s been awhile since I’ve been intimate with anyone. I’m admittedly doing this on quite the whim,” she replied.
“If you want to stop, just say the word.”
“So far, not yet. But I do appreciate that. A lot. I don’t think I’ll want to. Now, um, let me get this off...” She took off her shirt, then her bra came off, freeing her big breasts. Oh did she ever have some beautifully big tits. She hesitated and hugged herself. “It’s also been awhile since anyone has seen me naked, and I’ve...let myself go a little,” she murmured.
“Tabitha, you look great,” he replied.
“You’re a very nice adventurer, aren’t you?” she asked, slowly lowering her arms.
“I mean, I try to be, for the most part. I can certainly be an ass. But I’m not just being nice right now. Really, you’re very attractive.”
“Well...thank you,” she replied, and now her smile was more genuine, less nervous. She kicked off her shoes and pulled her pants and panties down, revealing some wonderfully thick thighs and some excellent hips.
“Oh my, you are so attractive,” he murmured as he took off his shirt. “I love your thighs.”
She giggled. “Well, I can tell that is honesty,” she said. “I’m glad.”
He pushed her gently back onto her bed, and she landed on it, opening her legs a bit. Her pussy looked really nice, and she had a bit of red hair down there. He quickly finished taking all his clothes off and climbed into bed with her. Getting up against her, he resumed kissing her and began groping one of her bare breasts.
It felt amazing in his grasp.
Different things were attractive to different people, but he had noticed that men along these islands and the nearest continent preferred their women a bit on the slimmer and sleeker side. Women closer to Lena’s build. They liked their women smaller than them, and trimly built. Cyrus had found that, and sentiments similar to it, rather limiting. He didn’t know if it was just the way he was made, or if it was the culmination of a conscious effort on his part, but he liked a very wide variety of women. So far, there was a skin color or race that turned him off. He’d been with elves and pumas and the reptilian tyl women, with their wonderfully smooth, greenish snakeskin. He’d even made it with a mermaid twice and a dryad once.
Not something he really talked about in public. Not that he was ashamed, far from it, he was fucking proud of that, but people tended not to react well to those particular facts, for the most part. Although some women loved hearing about that shit. He bet Emily would be into it. He’d have to broach that topic sometime in the near future.
Things heated up as he continued making out with Tabitha, running his hand over her body, groping her thick ass. She had a hand down between them now and was massaging his cock slowly. As they kissed, he moved his hands in between her thick thighs, and she gasped as she parted them for him. Then she moaned loudly as he began to rub her clit gently with his fingertip. She shuddered again, more violently this time, and cried out.
“Oh Cyrus!” she gasped.
“Someone likes that,” he murmured, and kept kissing her.
He fingered her for a bit longer, rubbing her clit harder, and then slipping two fingers inside of her. He vagina was wonderfully hot and wet, very inviting.
And then she gasped, “Fuck me!”
“You got it,” he replied, and he got on top of her.
She spread her legs wide for him, inviting him inside of her, and he got into position. And intense wave of excited and pleasure rolled through him as he first penetrated her. Tabitha moaned loudly as he began working his way into her, careful not to go too fast.
“Yes...oh yes...” she moaned.
That was exactly what he loved to hear.
Cyrus kissed her passionately as he continued pushing his way into her, burying himself within her pussy an inch at a time. And when he finally got all the way inside of her and began making lover to her, she wrapped her legs around his midsection and he felt her hands on his back.
“Yes! Yes! Oh fuck don’t stop!” she screamed.
Okay, so she liked the rough sex. Awesome.
Cyrus didn’t hold back as much. He really started to give it to her, driving his cock deep and hard into that sweet pussy of hers. Tabitha cried out, and she had a great voice for it, a little rough, very sexy, and she sounded so good when she was in ecstasy. He listened to her yell and moan his name, begging him for more, feeling the pleasure building up inside of him. She kissed him passionately, all of her apprehension gone now. She was lost completely in the passion and the pleasure. He continued pounding her, sliding smoothly in and out of her, for several more minutes. The bed shook and groaned, as if in protest, but he ignored.
This felt too good.
“I changed my mind,” she panted.
“You want to stop?” he asked, hesitating.
“No! I’m just okay with you coming inside me.”
“Oh. Okay, great,” he replied, and started going faster and harder again.
And then the quality of her moaning changed, the pitch of her voice going up, and he knew he was on the right course to giving her an orgasm. He kept up, increasing the pace of his fucking, and she panted and moaned louder and faster.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! OH YES!” she screamed as the orgasm began within her.
Cyrus moaned loudly as he felt her vagina begin to spasm and a hot spray of sex juices escaped her, making his pleasure even better. He kept screwing her, pounding into her as her hips bucked and she cried out in feral bliss and sexual release.
And this his voice joined her as he began to come into her. His cock jerked violently and his seed began shooting out of him, filling her up. He came inside of her and became lost in that perfect paradise of orgasmic bliss. She moaned and she writhed against him, awash in her own sea of pleasure, and he drained his nuts into her, feeling his whole body pulse with the rhythm of his orgasm. It was a true release, a perfect wondrous beauty.
And at some point, they were both finished, and they came back to themselves, sweaty and gasping.
He was the first to break the silence that followed. “I feel bad about taking the coin now. That was great.”
She laughed. “You earned it. The coin and the pussy. Really...that ring’s been in my family for over a century now. Trust me, you really earned it.”
“Okay, I believe you,” he said, and he kissed her. Then he carefully pulled out of her, stood, and tracked down her washbasin.
“So now what?” she asked as he began to clean up. She laid in the bed and watched him.
“Now, I have to go see a man about a deed,” he replied.
“A deed? You buying a house or something?”
“Something like that,” he replied.
“Well...does that mean I’ll see you around? Or, I mean, if you want this to be a one-time thing, that’s okay, too.”
“I’d love to see you again, Tabitha,” he replied.
“Okay, good. Because your dick feels amazing, and you’ve got strong fingers. You were on fucking point with that foreplay. Plus, I didn’t even get a chance to blow you. Also, we can do it in my favorite position next time...”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Doggystyle.”
“That’s a great position. Especially with you. Your ass in amazing.”
“Thanks.”
He finished washing up, dried, then pulled his clothes back on. Once he was dressed and he had his pack, he kissed her, wished her farewell, and left her house.
It was indeed time to go see a man about a deed.
CHAPTER II
The fact that the castle was in poor repair told Cyrus pretty much all he needed to know about whoever was in charge of this place.
As he walked up the main road towards the castle, which was built on a rise in the land, (as were most of them), he didn’t like what he saw. Although it wasn’t really a castle, honestly. It was more of an estate. He supposed he’d just been expecting a castle. Well, maybe it was closer to an estate that tried to be a castle. It had a big stone wall around it, but the wall was crumbling. He’d com expecting to see one of two things: it being in perfect pristine condition, or it looking like this. If it was the first situation, it would’ve meant that the guy in charge was an arrogant dick who was closer to a tyrant than a governor, who was happy to keep his own home clean, stocked, and guarded, while letting everyone else around him wither and die.
But this just meant that Windhaven was run by a man who just did not give a shit about anyone but himself, and hardly even himself. He couldn’t even be bothered to maintain his own home. For a few seconds, Cyrus entertained the idea that maybe the town had just fallen on really hard times. But he quickly rejected the notion because this was not only a port town, but one with pretty fertile territory. Every other settlement he’d come across on this island had been doing pretty well for itself, everyone who was in the business told him that this was an excellent place to fish and sell. He supposed it was possible that there was something he could be missing, but well...ultimately, this wasn’t why he was here.
He approached the front gate and found a somewhat familiar face standing guard.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hello,” Hazel replied. “You’ve been busy.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, because that could mean a few different things.
“I heard you pissed off Captain Carter,” she replied with a smirk.
“Oh. Yeah. Well...he was kind of a dick. I mean, him and whoever else was there.”
“He is a dick,” she agreed. “I was complimenting you. So why are you here? I thought you’d be out fighting monsters or something.”
“I’m looking to buy a building,” he replied.
“Seriously? Why?”
“I guess...I want to start a business. I want to buy the old guild hall.”
“How’d you hear about that?” she asked, now sounding genuinely curious.
“I was walking around town with someone I ran into and we came across the building, and I was curious about it. She told me about it and I just kept thinking about it. So I want to see about buying it,” he replied.
“And what do you plan on doing with it?” she asked. She crossed her arms and the question almost seemed like a challenge. “What do you mean by ‘start a business’?”
“Why are you so curious?” he asked.
“It’s my job,” she replied after a few seconds.
“Nice try. You strike me as a rarity among the guard in that you actually give a shit. You aren’t asking me on before of official city business, you’re asking me out of personal curiosity.”
“Fine,” she said after a moment. “So I am. So what?”
“I just think that’s interesting. And to answer your question, I’m going to take a shot running a guild and maybe helping out around here, since, based on what I’ve seen so far, it doesn’t look like the guard is too great at their job,” he replied.
“No argument there. Although I’m good at my job,” she said.
“I don’t doubt that. So yeah, that’s why I’m here. You wanna help me out?”
She seemed to consider it for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I do. Hold on.” She turned and looked deeper into the area beyond the front gate. “Edger...yeah you! Get the fuck over here!”
“What, Hazel?” an annoyed voice responded.
“I’ve got some business to deal with. Watch the gate,” she replied.
A heavy sigh. “What business?”
“None of your fucking business.”
Another really heavy sigh. “Fine.”
“Come on, let’s go,” she said, leading him into the courtyard beyond the gate. The yard was overgrown in several places, and he saw a lot of weak points, places that could be exploited by anyone looking to get in and case the estate or even overthrow them. She took him to one of the side entrances and down a long, stone hallway, past several doors. She stopped at one of them and banged on it a few times.
“What?!” came the response. Whoever it was sounded a little like they’d been caught doing something they shouldn’t have.
“It’s Hazel, Phineas. Got a customer for you. He wants to buy a deed.”
“Oh! Hold on!” Now he sounded almost desperately eager.
“Town treasurer,” Hazel murmured as more sounds came from inside. A few drawers slammed shut, he heard some coins fall and hit the floor, some muttered cursing, and finally the door opened up. A slight man with glasses, some very well-cut clothes and expensive looking shoes, several shiny rings, and a real shit-eating grin appeared.
“You’re looking to buy a deed?” he asked, looking up at Cyrus intently.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“He wants to buy the old guild hall.”
“Oh. Whatever for?” he asked. Then, before Cyrus could respond, he threw up his hands and quickly crossed the room again, to his desk. The place was packed with all sorts of shelves and cabinets, and there were papers everywhere. Also a lot of coins scattered about. “It doesn’t matter! What you do with it is your business, good sir. However, I’m afraid that is on some prime land, so the price will be rather steep.”
Hazel crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. Her armor clanked as she did. Phineas glanced up, and the sheen in his eye faded a bit. “Although I’m sure we can come to a reasonable offer,” he added hastily.
“I’m sure,” Cyrus agreed.
“Let me just find it...” He muttered to himself for another minute as he fervently searched through stacks of papers and finally, he grabbed one, studied it, and then held it up. “Ah ha! Here we are. The deed to the guild hall. I think I could part with it for...oh...fifteen hundred gold,” he said.
“Give me a fucking break, Phineas. It’s been sitting there abandoned for almost a goddamned year now. And someone with some real coin walks in, someone who could buy it all at once, and you’re trying to fuck them over?” she asked.
He sighed heavily. “Hazel...you make life...very difficult for me sometimes, you know that?” He frowned intently, staring at her, then at Cyrus. “Fine. What would you offer?” he asked.
“Five hundred coin,” Cyrus replied.
“Not a chance,” Phineas said immediately. “Twelve hundred.”
“Eight hundred.”
“One thousand, and that’s it. Take it or leave it,” he said.
Cyrus frowned, studying him closely. He was scrawny, and had a kind of weaselly look to him, but...the guy had some hardness in him, he’d give him that. He thought he really did mean it. Plus, Hazel’s intimidation and influence would only go so far. Honestly, he thought she’d probably already played her hand, and he wasn’t actually out to make enemies right now.
“Deal,” Cyrus said finally.
“And that has to be all right here, right now,” Phineas added, relaxing.
“Fine.”
Cyrus began pulling out his coin, and he dropped the bags onto the man’s desk one by one. Phineas opened one and carefully poured them out, then began going over them.
“Phineas, I don’t have time to sit here all day watching you count out a thousand fucking gold,” Cyrus said.
The man shot him a quick, dirty look, but then relented. “Fine. Sign the documents,” he replied, passing him two pieces of paper. Cyrus signed them both, one was a copy of the other, one for him, one for the city’s official records. He was kind of surprised to see that not only did they have a copy, but that they had one ready. Although based on what he could tell about Phineas, he had the idea that the man was extremely up-to-date on all the deeds in the town, because he didn’t want even a single extra second between him and gold if someone like Cyrus came calling. He also imagined the man was going to fudge the numbers, probably say that he sold it for eight hundred coin and pocket the rest. But whatever, it was his now.
“There. And if you short-changed me, I will know where to find you,” Phineas said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Cyrus replied, studying the deed, then folding it up and putting it into his backpack, in a safe place. “If I short-changed you, then it was an accident. But you come calling on me, you better be waving a white fucking flag, you hear me?” he asked, getting really fucking frustrated with these assholes who thought they were so superior talking down to him.
That made Phineas looked up and pale slightly. “Yes, of course,” he murmured, and then went back to counting his coin.
He turned and walked out of the room, and Hazel followed after him. They began heading for the exit. “You don’t take shit well, huh?” she asked.
“Fuck no, I don’t,” he replied.
“Well, you sure as shit won’t fit in around here then. People have learned to shut up and keep their heads down when the guard comes around, or anyone ‘official’.” She paused. “I like that. I think we’re a lot alike.”
“I get that impression, too,” he replied.
“You hit on me earlier,” she said.
“I did,” he agreed.
“Were you just talking game or are you actually looking to play?”
“I’m really looking to play with you,” he replied.
“I’m not sure if you could handle me.”
“Oh yeah? You wanna find out?”
She paused as they reached the exit to the courtyard and looked at him with a big smirk on her face. “You know, I like you. I’ve got a friend...I bet she’d be interested in playing with both of us,” she said.
“Would that friend be Rylee?” he asked.
A look of surprise briefly came across her face. “How’d you know?”
“I met her. She worked on my blade. She’s extremely skilled, and we already made heavy passes at each other, so she’s definitely interested,” he replied.
“Hmm. Maybe we can make that happen sometime soon. Maybe I’ll come by your new guild hall,” Hazel replied.
“I would love that,” he said.
“I’ll bet.” They resumed walking until they reached the gate and Hazel sent the guard off. “I hope you aren’t full of shit,” she said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like. You seem tough, competent, capable, fair, fun, respectful...but it’s not too hard to fake those things. I’m not interested in fakers, not on any level. You have my attention, but I’ll be very disappointed. And if you do anything to hurt Rylee, I’ll break your fucking arm.” She said this with no threat, no real malice, more like she was stating a fact.
And he believed her.
“Deal,” he said.
Hazel laughed. “You are an odd man, Cyrus...I’ll be by sometime in the near future. Don’t disappointment me.”
“Right back at you,” he replied.
“You are a cocky bastard, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “Only when faced with cockiness, I guess.”
“Hmm. Fair point. Good luck.”
“Thank you.”
He began walking away, heading towards this new building he had purchased.
CHAPTER III
Well…
Now he owned a building.
As Cyrus walked through the streets of Windhaven, he suddenly realized that he probably should have actually gone and had a look at the building. Like, more than a passing glance. Maybe poked around inside for a bit. He had no idea what was actually in there. For all he knew, there could be a group of assholes squatting there that he’d have to evict. Shit, it could’ve burned down in between now and then.
This was the problem with his way of thinking, sometimes the difference between notions and whims was a bit too much of a razor’s edge.
Of course, sometimes that was his own damned fault.
He was getting really distracted by all the women he kept bumping into. Literally and figuratively. He hurried through the streets, almost desperate to see the guild hall now. Finally, he came to the street that it was on and felt a bit of relief.
It at least hadn’t burned down since the last time he’d seen it.
As he approached it, he realized, suddenly, that he’d never gotten a key for it. Well great. Then again, maybe that was a good thing? He didn’t want anyone else having a copy of that key if at all possible, and Rylee probably knew a trustworthy locksmith that could replace the handle, get him a new key. Or maybe she knew how to do it herself, she seemed like she might. Cyrus walked up to the front of the building and stared up it.
It sure was a big structure, big enough to be a mansion. He’d always hated mansions, they seemed like wastes of space for one family or even just one person. An extravagant, ugly display of wealth. No, this was more what mansion-sized buildings should be used for. He tried the handle, it was locked. With a sigh, he leaned into it and tried to force it. There was a protesting groan, then the door gave and he nearly fell into the room beyond.
Well, there was something he was going to have to fix.
Cyrus looked slowly around the entryway. It was a good-sized room, seemingly serving as an ingress to everywhere else. There were two stairways leading up to the second story, one on either side of the room. Through the right he could see what appeared to be a dining hall, dead ahead was what might have once been a meeting room where guild members gathered and discussed business. To the left he saw what might have been a training room.
He walked to the right, into the dining hall, as something caught his eye.
There were the remains of a meal on the table, and it looked...recent.
Someone was here.
Cyrus laid his hand on his blade and looked around. At that exact moment an arrow whirled past him and landed in the table ahead of him.
He spun around, drawing his blade.
A woman now stood in the entryway, holding a bow. She looked like she knew how to use it. She had a good stance and a calmness to her that spoke of a lot of practice.
“That was a warning shot,” she said. “Get out of my house.”
“Technically, this is my house now,” Cyrus replied.
She frowned and he studied her. She was a really, really hot redhead. “Do you have any proof of that?” she asked.
“I do. It’s in my backpack. Can I get it without you freaking out?”
She lowered the bow. “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
He shrugged out his pack and set it on the table, then began digging around in it. He found it and held it up. The woman crossed the room and took it from his hands, then looked over it. As she read it, some of the fire seemed to go out of her. If anything, she looked a bit glum.
“Looks real,” she said finally, passing it back.
“So who are you?” he replied, replacing the paperback.
She sighed and set the bow and arrow down on the table. “Jezebel. I live here. Or I did, I guess. I always knew I was on borrowed time.”
“Okay, but why do you live here? I mean, did you break in and you’re just squatting or something?” he asked.
“No, not at all. I used to help run the guild, back when it was a thing. I was...I mean, I did a lot of things. I guess you could call me an organizer. A scheduler.”
“So you just...never left?” he asked.
“Yeah. Everyone else did, and I didn’t want to. I mean, I wasn’t willing to fight over it.”
“Clearly,” Cyrus muttered, glancing at the arrow lodged in the table between them.
“Hey, I thought you were a thief or something. You obviously don’t work for the governor and you don’t seem like the kind of person who buys buildings. But anyway, I just kept waiting for someone to show up and kick me out, but no one ever did.”
“How long have you been here by yourself?” he asked.
“Like around half a year,” she replied. “Sometimes I have a few friends who come and hang out, and every now and then someone shows up looking to rent a room for the night, and since it’s pure profit, I let them if I feel like they aren’t untrustworthy...” She looked at him again, scrutinizing him closely. “So why did you buy the place? Who are you?”
“Like it says on the deed, my name is Cyrus Walker. I’m an adventurer. I’m relatively new to the island, definitely new to Windhaven. I bought the building because...well, I want to restart the guild and run it and maybe help this town out a bit,” he replied.
Her eyes flashed with excitement. “Really? Shit. Well...can I tempt you into letting me keep living here?” she asked, and something about her changed. She was wearing what might be a nightdress, and it was a bit low-cut. The way she shifted herself, leaned forward, flashed her cleavage, put her hands on her hips, her expression...she suddenly became far more demure and alluring. And she was already pretty fucking alluring. “Besides the fact that I know this place in and out, as well as the town, I’ve got a network of trusted contacts and I know how to manage finances, make schedules, and a number of other things needed to run a guild...I’m very okay with performing other more, shall we say, intimate favors as part of the deal.”
Cyrus raised his eyebrows. “You’re hired,” he replied immediately. “But...you don’t need to put fucking me down as part of your contractual obligations. If you aren’t bullshitting, and I don’t think you are, you’re more than qualified. However, I will be very happy to just, you know, fuck you regularly if you’re into it.”
“I’m into it,” she said, stepping closer to him. “Can it be now? I haven’t found a guy worth fucking in this town in forever.”
“Let’s go,” Cyrus replied.
She grinned fiercely, then turned and hurried off through the building. He followed her, feeling that intoxicating pulse of intense arousal taking him. It only got worse, much worse, as he followed her up the stairs and saw that, beneath her short nightdress, she wasn’t wearing any panties. Her ass looked amazing, and so did her pussy.
Oh how he loved redheads.
He was happy to see that there was a bounce in her step, and she was just as excited as he was about the sexual encounter that was to come. They got up to the second floor, then hooked a right and hurried up another flight of stairs to the third floor. There, they came to a single door at the top of the stairwell, which she opened and slipped inside. Following her in, he saw that this was the master bedroom, what was going to be his bedroom, because he needed the giant bed that dominated the center of the room.
“Throw me,” she said, turning to him.
“Okay,” he replied, and he grabbed her by the hips, picked her up, took a few steps forward, and then tossed her onto the bed. She let out a small yell of excited pleasure as she sailed through the air. She had a wonderfully fit, trim build. He took off his shirt and kicked off his boots. Jezebel hastily shed her nightdress, pulling it up over herself and tossing it aside, revealing a very pale and very attractive body.
“Holy shit you’re hot,” he said.
“Thank you,” she replied. “I work hard at that.”
“It really pays off.”
She laid on her back in the middle of the huge bed and spread her legs, showing him her trim thighs and her smooth pussy. She had the body and demeanor of some prostitutes he’d slept with. Which reminded him: Emily. He still needed to see Emily. And Rylee. He had a lot to do. But that could wait until after he’d fucked the shit out of this insanely hot redhead. Cyrus finished taking his clothes off and hopped onto the bed with her.
Cyrus felt alive and alight with pure lust as he climbed over her. Keeping on his hands and knees, he ducked his head down and began making out with her while simultaneously reaching down and finding her clit. She moaned into the kiss as he found it and began to massage it with his fingertip. Her body responded fully to his touch and he grinned, then kept making out with her, intensify the experience, slipping his tongue into her mouth and wrestling it with her own. She moaned loudly, reaching up and running her hands over his body.
Soon, he had her hips rolling, pushing up against his hand, especially when he slipped two fingers into her pink, wet opening.
“Oh fuck yes...” she groaned, writhing in pleasure. “That’s just-oh! Don’t stop!” she begged.
He fucked her with his fingers, feeling that perfect wetness, and from the way her pussy responded to the attention, he knew immediately that she was a very sensitive woman. Especially when, about ten seconds later, her hips bucked, she screamed, and began to orgasm. He kissed her hard and kept finger-fucking her through her climax, feeling that hot spray of feminine sex juices escape her pussy around his finger.
She screamed like she was getting murdered, totally lost in the moment.
And the second she had control of herself again, she sucked in a deep breath and shouted, “Fuck me! Now!”
Then she put her hands down between them and grabbed his dick. As soon as she got it lined up with her fantastically wet vagina, Cyrus began to push himself in. He groaned loudly, his entire body shivering in response to the burst of pleasure he received from going inside of her. Holy fucking shit was she wet.
“Oh yes! Yes! Fucking shove it in me!” she screamed.
He pushed hard and deep into her and she yelled in response.
“Don’t fucking hold back!” she yelled into his face, staring up at him with wide, almost crazy eyes. Man, she was a fuck demon in the sack.
So he didn’t fucking hold back.
He gave it to her hard, pounding her into the fucking mattress, and the bed immediately began to shake in protest. In fact, the headboard started to bang up against the wall almost right away. Well, that was going to have to change.
Or maybe not. He actually liked the idea of everyone being able to hear it when he was fucking. Then again, most of the women he slept with were really vocal, and if they weren’t, he tried to go out of his way to make them vocal, because so far, he hadn’t actually met a woman who wasn’t noisy during sex, only women who tried, with varying levels of success, to hold it back during sex. And where was the fun in that?
“Oh yes! Oh yes! OH FUCKING YES CYRUS! FUCKING WRECK MY PUSSY!” Jezebel screamed at the top of her lungs.
He pounded the absolute fuck out of her, spurred on by her words and how fantastically responsive her body was. His dick felt like it was engulfed in flames of pure pleasure and passion, and the fire was spreading throughout his whole body. He felt like he was being hit by lightning of absolute ecstasy. He moaned her name several times as he fucked her brains out. She had her legs spread out wide, sticking in opposite directions almost, and she was grabbing at his back. He thought he was going to wind up with claw marks on his back.
Well, he’d had them before.
He made her come again within another minute or two, and oh holy fuck how good her vagina felt spasming crazily around his rock-hard cock as he kept screwing her, pounding her like a hammer pounding an anvil. That spike in heat and wetness magnified his pleasure like crazy. He was actually a little worried he was going to hurt her hips, but she was still begging for more, demanding more really. And so he gave her more, the headboard banging violently into the bed as he fulfilled her request and fucking wrecked her pussy.
He made her come a third time before that was it, he was done, he couldn’t hold back his own orgasm any longer.
“Oh fuck, Jezebel!” he screamed.
“Oh yes! Oh, Cyrus, come in me! Fill me up!” she shrieked.
He moaned loudly, his whole body going rigid except for his hips, which began to jerk forward in time with his orgasm. He felt his seed explode out of him like a volcano, a huge spray of it filling her pussy, and immediately there came another one, and another one. He pumped her full of it, his cock contracting violently, sending a fresh pulse of total pleasure out each time. He felt blinded and deafened, his senses robbed and replaced with nothing but the thrilling bliss of the orgasm. He came for what felt like a long time.
And then, eventually, he was finished, and his senses came back to him, and he found himself looking down at Jezebel.
She looked up at him, smiling sedately, smugly, looking very satisfied. Her pale face was flushed, her red hair was a total mess, she had a sheen of sweat on her. He looked down. Her tits looked amazing. Cyrus groaned as he pulled out of her, his dick incredibly sensitive, and he fell onto his side, getting his breath back.
“Wow. You can fuck,” he said.
She laughed. “So can you, boss.”
“I guess I am,” he murmured, reaching over and cupping one big breast in his grasp. “You are contender for best employee.”
“Right now, I’m your only employee. Unless you’ve already hired people.”
“I guess you have a point,” he said. “So, if we’re going to be working together and living together and fucking, tell me about yourself.”
“That’s fair,” she replied. “Well, my name is Jezebel Grayson. I was born on Grayrock, on another village, much smaller, near the center of the island, call Bloom.”
“I passed through there,” he said.
“Still a shit little village?” she asked. He shrugged, then nodded. “Figured. Well, I moved here about ten years ago when I came of age. I love my parents but...we can’t stand each other. We ultimately decided that it’d be best if we were apart. They moved to the other side of the island. I see them...once a year, so we can make sure we aren’t dead or disfigured, learn any major updates. We spend some of a day together, and if we’re very lucky, leave without a fight.”
“What do you fight about?” he asked.
“They are...much more conservative than I am.”
“Holy shit, seriously? You don’t strike me as conservative at all.”
“Exactly. They wanted me married by the time I was like sixteen, and I was not having any of that. Marriage isn’t my thing, family isn’t my thing, monogamy isn’t my thing. I want girls. Lots of girls. And like one guy. Like you.”
“I think I love you,” he said, and she laughed loudly.
“Love is nice,” she replied, then glanced at him. “You gonna hire girls? There’s a lot of badass chicks in this town who feel very underappreciated because this town is a fucking man’s town, and they’d love the opportunity to work at a place like this.”
“I was thinking about that, actually. To be totally honest, I wanted to have a place where it’s just me and a lot of women and most of us are fucking each other.”
“Oh my fucking...that sounds like paradise,” she murmured. “I know a few who’d be down for that...but that comes later. I want to enjoy this a little bit longer before I start everything back up. Because there’s going to be a lot to do. But anyway, me. So yeah, I moved here and I was decent at hunting, so I hunted. That’s why I’m so good with a bow. Did that for like five years. Then I got bored. I already had skills with financing because I lived on my own and relied completely on myself, so I finally stopped selling my meats and pelts to other people and cut out the middle man, opened up my own stall.
“I learned more about organization, got better at it, eventually hired another person to help me run it and stay open more and free me up for more hunting. Finally, I ended up getting a job offer to basically be a secretary here two years ago. I took it, gave my stall to my employee, and started working here. I got so good at doing all the sort of background stuff that they promoted me, gave me more money, and put me in charge of finances, scheduling, all sorts of shit. Also, if we’re going to be fucking, just call me Jez.”
“Okay,” he said.
“And that’s pretty much me. What about you?”
Cyrus began to get antsy, so as he filled her in on his own background in a similar manner, he got out and looked around. She had a washbasin set up, so he walked over to it and began to clean himself up. By the time he finished bringing her up to speed on his own personal history, he was washed, dried, and dressed.
“Okay, I think it’s time for you to give me a tour,” he said.
“That’s fair,” she said, and got up.
He waited for her to get ready.
CHAPTER IV
After she finished washing up and pulled her dress back on, (still with no bra or panties, he saw, he was really getting to like her), Jezebel began the tour.
“So, this is to be, I imagine, your bedroom,” she said before they had left the third story, which seemed to be all one room. “It’s where the guild leader is supposed to sleep, anyway.”
“Definitely claiming this,” Cyrus replied. “Although you can stay up here too, if you’d like.”
“I would like that, actually. Thank you. Now, let’s go down to the second story.”
She led him back down the stairs and spread her arms. “This room,” she said, indicating the room the stairs let out into in the middle of the area, “is the armory. Or was. Actually had to sell off a lot of the leftover weapons and armor. Sorry about that, but it was a bit of a dry season for hunting.”
Indeed, all he could see were mostly bare shelves and empty armor stands. There was the odd helmet or shield or battered old dagger or sword here or there, a few stray arrows scattered around. And cobwebs. He noticed two more doors, one to either side, and walked over to the one on the right. “And here?” he asked.
“Dormitories, on both sides,” she replied.
He stepped in and saw a row of bare metal bunkbeds, eight of them, lined up along the walls. He considered it for a moment. It was very minimalist, very stark, barracks-style. He leaned back out, looking along the length of the wall, and nodded to himself. There was a walkway of space where the stairs came up, in between the stairs and the inner wall, meaning that if he put doors along the wall, even down there at the end, they would still be accessible.
“I think that we could divvy this up and make four reasonably sized bedrooms, on either side,” he murmured.
“That’s...quite the investment and change,” Jez replied.
“I’m looking for quality, not quantity,” Cyrus said. “And I’m going to want my fellows happy, and to have a place to call their own.”
“It would make life here easier. Close quarters means fights, more often than not. But yeah, I could see make little bedrooms. But like I said, an investment. You’re probably looking at like two thousand coins for that, at an extremely rough estimate.”
“Okay,” he replied. “What’s next?”
“This way, boss.”
She took him down to the ground floor. There was the dining hall to the left, and it gave access to a kitchen area, which itself gave access to a storage room. And it was all pretty messy. Most things were covered in dust, which made sense, but it was clear that Jez had been making meals and not really cleaning up after herself for awhile now. They stood in the kitchen for a bit as he poked around through the cabinets, seeing what they had to work with.
“Yeah, so...I’m great with organizing schedules, I’m actually shit at organizing rooms, or cleaning up. I mean, I can get by when I live with other people, or if I know other people are coming, but when I live by myself? No, it gets way worse.”
“I can tell,” he murmured.
“Sorry.”
“Well it’s not like you knew what I was coming or anything. It’s fine. Although I’m bad at this stuff, too. We might want to invest in someone to help.”
“Probably want to hire a cook, too, ‘cause I’m shit at that, too. I mean, okay, I can get by, but honestly, if you’re going to have a bunch of fighters around kicking ass all day, it be really nice to come home to like a real meal. You know? Unless you can cook.”
“No, I can get by, but you have a point. You know anyone?”
“I’ve got one or two people in mind,” she replied.
“Good. Okay, what’s next?”
“The briefing area,” she replied, and led him back into the main ingress room, then forward, through the door at the back of the room. Mainly it was a room with a big wooden table surrounded by chairs. “This is where stuff like guild business or monthly meetings or big, important missions that required the whole guild would happen. Next up is the recreational room.” She led him through a door in the left wall and into a room that looked like it saw a lot use.
The recreational room had one wall that was almost totally a window. The only part of it that wasn’t a window was a fireplace and chimney. Three large sofas took up most of the space, as did a few reclining chairs. The rest of the space was taken up by bookshelves, and they were packed with books, and there were more books scattered across the area.
“So you spend a lot of time here, I take it,” he said.
“Yep,” she replied. “I relax here and read, a lot of the time.” She paused. “I’m not getting rid of the books, just so you know. That’s a condition of my employment.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “Books are good, I’ve found.”
“I’m glad we can agree on that. Okay, through here is the infirmary,” she said, and led him across the room, through another door. They stepped into the corner room of the upper left side of the first floor. Mainly it was taken up by a row of cots. There was a washbasin, a desk, and a pair of shelves with a scattering of old herbs, empty potion bottles, and medicinal tools leftover.
“We’re hiring a magical healer,” Cyrus said almost at once. “I’ve seen people who try to rely on herbal remedies. They’re useful, to be sure, but potions and magic is so much better. And given our line of work, we’re going to want quick and quality healing.”
“Won’t argue with you there,” Jezebel replied. “But finding a good magical healer is going to be...a challenge. But I like a challenge.”
“Good.”
She led him through another door to the left of the one they’d come in through, taking him into the final room, what did indeed turned out to training room, though there wasn’t much left of the original apparatus.
“Tell me this isn’t the only training room,” he said.
“No, there’s another one downstairs, a lot bigger,” she replied.
He nodded. He’d noticed that the stairwells leading up also had doors beneath them, and had guessed those led to stairwells leading down. Or hoped, really. More space was almost always a good thing in a situation like a guild hall.
From there, she led him back into the main room and opened one of the doors beneath the stairwell and walked down it. It was dark down there. Cyrus raised his hand and created a ball of white light. One of the few real spells he actually knew how to do.
“Thanks. I haven’t been down here in forever, actually. I’m not sure what might be down here,” Jezebel said.
The stairs led out into a large room that ran the length of the building, front to back. And it was obviously the other training area. There was more leftover this time: mats on the floor, a pair of archery targets, some dummies to practice whacking with a sword or a mace. It was all in pretty poor condition, though. There were two big doors, one to either side, and he walked over to one of them and opened it up.
“What’s all this?” he asked, looking into the room and seeing just a shitload of stuff. Mostly they were crates, but there were a lot of random things in there. He saw a dresser, several desks, a stack of old armor pieces that had cleared rusted to shit, some tables, a...rocking horse.
“The previous guild master had no family,” Jezebel replied. “So when he died, no one showed up to claim all his shit. This is it. There’s also just stuff he bought for the guild and never used, or shit that broke that he didn’t want to quite get rid of yet that he might use later or fix...you know how it goes. I’ve been meaning to come down and start sorting through it, but...”
“Yeah, this is pretty daunting,” Cyrus muttered.
He closed the door and walked over to the other door. Opening it up, he expected to see more of the same, but this room was mostly empty.
“This is where all the guild members could store their shit. They took it with them when they left. Everything left in here is ours,” Jezebel said.
“Huh. Well, this is going to be fun to sort through,” he muttered. “So this is everything?”
“This is everything. Tour complete. Everything else within the property is just...like grass and flowers and shit outside. There’s a tree out there, too.”
“All right, come on,” he said, and headed back upstairs.
They came back into the main foyer and he stood in the center of it, slowly looking around. The place was definitely going to take work. A lot of work. Probably a shitload of work. It would be an uphill battle. He glanced at Jezebel. He thought of Hazel. Of Rylee. Of Emily and Lena. Women like them that might be in the village. Competent, possibly frustrated, maybe looking for something a bit more. They might be very interested in a job like this.
He was certainly interested in offering them a job like this.
Certainly, it was going to be a lot of work. But honestly, he wasn’t daunted by that at all. Cyrus tended to value specific things in his life: excitement, sex, comfort, good food. But lately a lot of that had grown a bit stale, and he was seriously beginning to think that he was craving something more meaningful, something deeper, something more difficult to achieve. Going into an abandoned fort, killing the monsters, and finding the gold was several hours of hard work, to be sure, maybe a day or two at most, depending on how big it was, but this?
This was weeks, months of investment, probably. Maybe more.
And he was actually looking forward to that, some part of him was responding to it intently. “All right, Jez,” he said, gathering his thoughts. “There’s a lot to do. A fucking shitload to do. But there is one thing I know for a fact that we’re going to need, and that I’m decent at generating that, and that is coin. We’ll need a lot of coin.”
“We sure will,” she agreed.
“So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go looking to earn some coin. What I need you to do while I’m gone is to come up with a comprehensive list of all the shit we’re going to need to purchase to get this place shipshape again. I honestly want to appear more presentable and competent, like we’re actually serious about this, before I go around recruiting or trying to get people to hire us as an actually guild,” he said.
“That makes a lot of sense. I’ll get right on it. When can I expect you back?”
“Tonight,” he said.
“Okay.”
He stepped up to her and slipped an arm around her. “So, we’re going to keep sleeping together, then?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” she confirmed. “Definitely. You are really good at sex and having you around to fuck regularly is going to do wonders for my health.”
He laughed. “Same. Okay. I’ll see you tonight, Jez.”
He kissed her and she grabbed him and deepened the kiss, slipping her tongue quickly into his mouth. “See you tonight, Cyrus.”
For a few seconds, he hesitated, feeling an intense urge to stay around for another session. But no, he had a job to do, and the sex could wait for later.
He headed out of the guild hall.
…
The village board looked more inviting than ever.
As he studied over it, however, almost giddy with how much work there was to be done, something occurred to him. Maybe he shouldn’t rely too heavily on the bounties that the city was offering. He’d already pissed off the guard captain, which was in and of itself a problem. Even just turning in a bunch of jobs might piss them off more because they wouldn’t like the idea of making him rich. But what if they caught wind of what he was trying to do? Exactly how far might they go if he started making actual progress in helping the people of Windhaven? Because people in positions of power had all kinds of ways of making your life miserable if you drew their unwanted attention. Another reason Cyrus kept on the move.
He wasn’t exactly the kind of person who respected authority.
Well, no, that wasn’t true. Although Cyrus did have a bit of a rebellious streak in him, he honestly didn’t have problems with respecting people of genuine authority. He’d used to be a guard, after all, so he knew what a pain in the ass that job could be. It was dangerous work, honestly, and the men and women who did it probably deserved at least some measure of respect for it. That is, if they weren’t corrupt.
And therein lied the problem.
In Cyrus’s experience, a lot of people let power go to their head. It was disturbing how many almost sadistic people he’d come across in his life. Guards, politicians, even business owners. People who had power over other people tended to abuse it more often than not. They got off on demeaning, belittling, and humiliating their underlings. They were bullies. And Cyrus just had no tolerance for bullies.
All this aside, he thought that he was going to have a problem somewhere down the line. At some point, he was going to come into direct confrontation with the local governing body. He felt sure that this was a certainty, an inevitability.
With this mind, he knew he needed to plan accordingly. If outright avoiding this outcome was impossible, then the sooner you discarded that line of reasoning, the better, so he did. He tossed the thought away and instead focused on how best to handle it when it came. Now, just because it was inevitable didn’t mean that the timeline was set in stone. If he could avoid it, put it off, it would give him more time to get ready.
Which meant avoiding the guards, avoiding causing a ruckus, and just generally keeping his head down. Well, he’d learned how to do that, too.
So the next stop on this path of reasoning was how to handle the conflict when it eventually arrived. He needed to approach from a position of strength. Having a solid foundation and a group of sturdy, competent, professional allies, combined with a history of getting the job done, and done well, and getting in good with the locals, would go a very long way towards a position of strength. If at all possible, Cyrus would like to coexist with the local authorities, but he wasn’t sure about the feasibility of that.
He supposed it made the most sense to prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.
Right now, preparing for the worst meant getting a fucking shitload of gold as fast as he possible could. And he could double up on his goals by also making some of the locals happy. Village boards tended to have a few dozen smaller jobs put up by local villagers. For them, it was a big deal, maybe even impossible to do, these jobs. But to someone like Cyrus, it tended to be...well, not exactly a walk in the sunshine, but very doable.
He spent ten minutes scanning every piece of paper there, looking for stuff he could do or was good at that wasn’t being offered by the guards or the local government. And one by one, he tore down and collected scraps of paper until he had a dozen of them.
And then he set off to hustle hard.
CHAPTER V
The first job was, potentially, an easy one.
There was a household near the edge of town, a stone’s throw from the forest, and a big wolf had been menacing them lately. He thought it was a bit of an odd problem, given most people who lived out on the fringe tended to be hunters, or at least people who could take care of themselves. But as he got out there and knocked on the front door, he realized why. The person who answered the door couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, and didn’t exactly look like the adventuring or hunting type. When he saw Cyrus, he looked afraid.
“I’m here about the wolf,” he said, trying to put the kid at ease.
“Oh. Oh, good.” He laughed nervously. “My parents are out of town and I’ve been left the watch the house and it’s been coming into the backyard several times over the past few days. I’d take care of it myself, I do know how to shoot a bow and arrow, but it’s...it’s a big wolf.”
“Not a problem,” Cyrus replied. “Show me to the area.”
They walked around the side of the house and he drew his bow and an arrow, just in case it happened to be there. They made the short trip and came to an empty backyard. Cyrus took a moment to look around checking the area, and indeed found evidence of a big wolf having been hanging around the area. The yard was edged by a wooden fence and maybe ten feet beyond the fence was a thick collection of trees that went on for quite a ways.
“Okay, why don’t you head inside. I’ll wait around for a bit and see what happens. If it doesn’t show up after too long, I’ll set a snare that should be strong enough to trap him, then I’ll have to go. I have several things I need to do today, but I will be back before too long to check. If you see him, stay inside, got it?”
“Got it,” he replied. “Thanks.”
“Yep. Head in now, I’ll get to work.”
“Okay.”
The kid disappeared back inside. Cyrus took a moment to study the area, moving around it, trying to get a feel for the place, points of ingress into and out of the yard, in regards of how a wolf might get inside. Finally, he found a good hiding spot, (a shed where they kept some tools for yard work and other random assorted things), and waited. Cyrus was a patient man, but today he was feeling particularly impatient, because he had such a long list of things to do and because he was so desperate to do them.
He let fifteen minutes go by, and when the wolf didn’t show any signs of turning up, he threw together a snare. Normally these were used to trap rabbits and stuff like that, but he’d learned how to make them bigger and beef them up with some magic to make them good enough to trap and hold wolves. He set it at the likeliest location of entry, took another look around for the wolf, and then finally left the backyard.
He’d be back, later.
…
The next three jobs were easy.
Cyrus had organized them in the way that made the most sense to him. The wolf in the backyard job was potentially one of the most pain in the ass, so that’s why he’d tried to get it out of the way first, and it had sure turned out to be a pain in the ass. Next he organized the easiest, to get himself started. After that would be the second biggest pain in the ass, followed by the third biggest pain in the ass, and then book-ended by the rest of the half-dozen jobs left, arranged in the order of easiest for the first two, the most annoying for the next two, and the pretty simple and straightforward ones for the end, since by that point he was sure he’d be kind of drained.
He’d had to hustle before, many times, and he’d gotten good at it.
Not every town had a fuck-huge bounty just waiting for some random adventurer to show up, risk their life, and cash in on it.
The first two jobs were courier jobs.
He showed up at someone’s house first, introduced himself, showed them the paper, and then they decided he was trustworthy enough to give their parcel to. He had to run it across town and come back with a signed piece of paper saying that the other person had received it before he’d gotten the payout, but that was fair. They were giving this parcel to a literal stranger, which had enough of a trust deficit built in as it was, no way they’d give him the parcel and the gold. So he accepted it and got back to work, figuring that he could do a second job on the way.
Cyrus had managed to map out the village in his head fairly decently so far. He’d always been good with direction, but he knew at some point he’d really need to pick up a map to get all the specifics worked out. Windhaven was of a decent size. So he jogged through town until he got back to the marketplace and found his second courier job. Which was actually three courier jobs, it seemed. He had to deliver three pairs of boots that a cobbler had finished fixing, but the people in question either couldn’t or didn’t want to come get them.
And so on Cyrus ran, dropping off three pairs of boots, getting signatures, getting payments, then dropped off the first package and hurried back to the cobbler. After making sure everything was square, he took his cut, shook the woman’s hand, and then hurried back to the initial house. And once that was all sorted out and he got that payment, he headed on to get the second biggest pain in the ass job done and out of the way.
Pulling a stump.
It was simple but brutish work, the kind of he was good at because he didn’t consider himself very smart, but he knew he was strong. Besides having a body made for strength, he’d spent years capitalizing on and developing that strength. He made his way over to the house in question, met with the owner, and then spent half an hour ripping the stubborn stump up out of the ground. Mostly he just used a few tools, but he got some magic in there to sort of smooth out the process. He also earned a bonus because he filled the hole back in and took the time to chop up the stump to produce a bit of firewood.
The extra gold was nice, but the trust and hopefully good foundation he was laying for a reputation was the real bonus.
From there, he hurried back across town to the initial job, to see if his snare had got the job done. He walked up and knocked on the door.
The kid answered it, looking a little pale, but also kind of amused. “He was here,” was the first thing out of his mouth.
“Did it work?” Cyrus replied.
He shook his head. “No. He’s gone now, but...you should go look.”
“Okay, stay inside.”
Cyrus moved around back, drawing his bow and notching an arrow again. Still no wolf actually hanging around, but the bastard had been through all right. He’d apparently come up and torn the fucking snare to pieces.
“You are shitting me,” Cyrus muttered as he moved slowly over to it. That was...rare. He’d come across ornery wildlife before, but it was definitely rare. He’d really shredded it, almost like a ‘fuck you’.
“Well fuck you, too,” Cyrus growled, and gathered up the remains, slipped them into his pack, then went about the process of setting down another one, this one even more powerful, imbued with a bit more magic to strengthen it and then gathered his stuff and stood back up. He looked around the woods once more, this time less certain that he wasn’t being watched, but he still couldn’t see anything. With a sigh, he finally walked back around to the front of the house, updated the guy on the situation, let him know he’d be back in another few hours, and left.
And got back to work.
…
“Oh fuck...yes...holy shit, keep going, Lena...” he groaned.
Lena moaned loudly in response and kept riding his cock, fucking herself with it furiously. He had not expected to run into her at all, and honestly, this was a stupid thing to do, because he still had a lot of shit to do, but fuck, she’d seduced him and how could he say no to her? And now he was back in her house, both of them naked and sweaty and panting as she bounced on his cock, making her bed tremble and shake.
“Don’t you fucking dare come, not yet,” she panted. “Not yet...not yet, Cyrus...”
“I’ve got...a little more self control than that,” he replied, but it was a bit of a bluff.
She. Was. Tight.
Besides being petite, she was fucking fit. Like, crazy fit. She had this amazingly tight, trim body. Her beautiful, pale breasts were bouncing in rhythm with her, nearly hypnotizing him. “Bullshit, I can read you like a book. You’re close, but so am I. I need to go first or I won’t go at all...”
“I know. Here,” he said, and he laid his hand flat against her lower belly, moving his thumb until he found her clit, and she gasped as he touched it.
“Oh yes,” she whispered.
He began to thumb it firmly, and she let out a loud cry of pleasure. She began to fuck him more furiously, crying out in intense ecstasy. It didn’t take much longer. “Yes! Oh yes! OH YES, CYRUS!” she shrieked madly and began to orgasm.
He groaned loudly, then grabbed her hips and began thrusting his cock furiously up into her. She screamed louder, totally lost in her climax. He gripped her hips tightly, sliding her up and down his cock, and within seconds he was getting off too. He came inside of her, shooting his load into her wonderful pussy, draining his nuts into her in furious spurts that sent waves of pleasure shooting through him like a maelstrom.
They came and moaned and writhed together.
When they were finished, she rested on him for a bit, getting her breath back, then got up. “So, you looked busy earlier, what’d I interrupt?” she asked.
“Lots of work today. I’m earning coin,” he replied.
“Any particular reason?” she asked, crossing to the washbasin and cleaning up the mess he’d made inside of her.
“I, uh, bought the old guild hall,” he said.
She stopped, turned, looked at him. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah. I walked to the governor’s estate. I bought it. That’s why I’m earning coin, I’m going to fix it up and reopen it,” he replied. “You know Jezebel?”
“Yeah, of course,” she said. “Why? Did you see her?”
“She’s living there still.”
“Holy fucking shit, really? She never left?”
“Nope.”
Lena smirked suddenly. “Did she jump you?”
“Yeah. I hired her, and then we fucked. She is...quite skilled.”
“She is,” Lena agreed.
“Did you and she hook up?”
“Oh yes. We have. She’s fantastic. So...” Her expression grew serious again. “So you really plan on restarting the guild? Helping people out? Defending the town? All that?”
“Yes. I have a lot of plans.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “You hiring?”
“I will be. Why, you interested?”
“Of course. I loved working there.”
“Okay. I was hoping you’d feel that way. Although I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone. Not yet. I want to get some more coin together and do some work cleaning it up a bit, have a stronger position when I start looking for people to help out. I’ve got a few candidates in mind already. But, uh...you want to help out?”
“Yes, I do,” she replied simply. “What do you need?”
“Right now: coin. Just a lot of coin. Everything that needs to be done will cost gold, so the more of it I can generate, the better. I actually had a thought.” He told her about avoiding city bounties, and she agreed with his logic, and agreed to the plan.
“Yes, I can do that. I can start hunting monsters, collecting bounties.”
“Thank you, that will be so helpful. I’m running around doing oddjobs, trying to earn coin, but also to get a good rep around town.” He’d since joined her at the washbasin, cleaning up. Now he dried off and began to get dressed.
“That’s a great idea. I’ve already got a good rep with several of the locals, so having me around will help as well.”
He finished pulling his pack back on, thanked her again, began to head out, then hesitated and looked back at her. “Why are you so willing to just believe me and throw in with me?”
“You seem trustworthy, and this feels right,” she replied.
“Oh.”
“Plus, if you betray me, I’ll track you, and I will find you, because I am excellent at tracking, and then I will stab you in the cock.”
“Oh...well, good thing I don’t ever plan on doing that,” he said.
She just smirked. “See you later, Cyrus.”
“See you, Lena.”
He headed back out.
…
The sun was lowering, heading for the horizon, and twilight wasn’t that far off.
Cyrus was pretty damned tired. After his pleasant interlude with Lena, he’d gone back to work. He’d basically filled the rest of the day with the remainder of his jobs. He’d run a few more courier jobs, helped an old man haul a load of stuff to market, and even stuck around for an hour selling it. He’d acted as a bodyguard for someone who’d had to make a deal they weren’t too certain about, and thankfully that hadn’t amounted to anything, though it looked like it might have gone bad if Cyrus hadn’t been around.
Finally, after wrapping it all up, he was heading to the initial house to try and deal with the wolf. It was the last thing he had left to do. After this, he was looking forward to getting to his new home, having a big, hot meal, washing off, and banging the fuck out of Jez, and then sleeping all night long. That bed had actually been really comfortable.
Cyrus walked up to the front door and knocked on it. It opened up a few seconds later. The teenager looked excited and anxious. “It’s here now. It’s in the snare and trying to get out.”
“Shit, okay, stay inside,” Cyrus replied, grabbing his bow and notching an arrow. He hurried around the side of the house. Sure enough, as he approached the backyard, he heard growling and snarling, and it sounded really pissed.
“Whoa,” he muttered as he stepped around the corner and finally saw this wolf that he’d been trying to deal with all day.
It was, in fact, fucking big.
Really fucking big.
It’s right front paw was trapped in his snare and it was furiously chewing on the snare, and it was actually making progress. In fact, after maybe another minute or so of effort, he thought that the giant gray beast could probably free itself.
It looked up at him suddenly, and he found himself caught in a gaze of furious rage. It let out a deep, loud growl that raised his hackles.
Okay, yeah, he had to kill this thing right now, because it was a viscous, violent thing. He could already tell that. It wasn’t a normal wolf. Normal wolves didn’t really hunt people down and intentionally brutalize them. They came after you if you got into their territory, or if they happened to catch a whiff of you around mealtime. But this was something else. It might be tainted with some kind of dark magic, it did happen.
He aimed his arrow.
“Sorry,” he muttered as he lined his shot up.
The wolf lowered its head, as if recognizing what was happening, and furiously began to chew on the snare. He adjusted his aim and let the arrow fly. His aim was true, and the polished steel head of the arrow punched through the wolf’s skull, becoming lodge in it. The beast jerked violently and blood sprayed out onto the ground, then it collapsed, becoming still. Cyrus sighed softly. He walked over to the backdoor, and it opened as he approached.
“Wow, that was a great shot,” the kid said.
“Thanks. It’s dead now. You any good with skinning? Cleaning a kill?”
“I’m learning.”
“Then I’ll leave it for you. You can get a good supply of meat out of that, and a great fur to sell. Shit, you can tell your parents you killed it, if you want. I just need my payment.”
“Oh, right. Hold on.” He disappeared back into the house, and Cyrus heard him rummaging around for a bit, and then he came back with the payment. “Here. Sorry it’s not more. And thank you again for helping with this.”
“Not a problem,” Cyrus replied, taking a glance in the bag. The payment, thirty gold and an emerald, looked to be in there. He secured it. “You did the right thing. That wolf was damned dangerous.”
The kid thanked him again, and Cyrus said his farewells, and then he started heading home.
All in all, he’d made about four hundred gold running these jobs, if you counted the handful of gems he’d gotten as well. Not exactly a great haul, but, well, he supposed it wasn’t a terrible first day as the leader of an adventurer’s guild.
PART THREE
CHAPTER I
“I’m home!” Cyrus called as he walked in through the front doors of the guild hall.
And as he said those words, he realized that this place actually was his home. Inasmuch as he had a home now. The realization kind of struck him hard and he looked around the entryway, he wondered not only how it would change as he and the others who agreed to help him fixed it up, but how familiar this would become to him.
It had been a long time since something had become intimately familiar, seen over and over again over the course of months or even years.
And that was something he realized he actually missed.
“In here!” Jezebel replied from somewhere upstairs. She sounded distracted.
He headed up the stairs to the third story where he found her in their bedroom, sitting at one of the desk, which was now covered in parchment. On the other desk was a collection of gold, gems, and jewelry.
“Hey. Uh, how’s it going?” he asked.
“Good,” she murmured, writing something down.
“I got some gold and gems.”
“Over there.” She pointed to the other desk. “How much?”
“About three hundred in gold, another hundred in gems,” he replied, depositing it onto the desk. “Where’d all this come from?” There had to be close to a thousand gold there, and maybe double that if you added in all the gems and jewelry. There were even a pair of really nice daggers there.
“I started scouring the building. People are sloppy, they left some of their shit behind, and they never came back for it. Plus a lot of it is my own stash,” she replied.
“Wow. So, what are you doing now?” he asked.
“Drawing up plans, figuring things out. Going through the list of contacts. We’ll need to run these down sometime soon. They’re merchants and fighters and just people that we should be able to trust. But that list hasn’t been updated in about a year, so I don’t know how different it is. And I’m compiling a list of all the things we’ll need to bring this place back up to snuff. Also going through our list of people who were coming to us with regular jobs back then. They’ll be the first we want to hit up and see if they want to get back into business. Speaking of which,” now she actually looked at him, “I was thinking you and I should stay on the down-low, business wise.”
“Way ahead of you,” he replied. “I only took non-city jobs, helping out civilians. I also ran into Lena and let her know about this. She agreed to help. She’s going to take on city jobs, since no one has any reason to be suspicious of her, and she’ll funnel coin to us.”
“Wow...that’s a good idea. You are actually pretty good at this,” Jezebel murmured, favoring him with an intensely alluring smile. He took a step towards her and she lost it. “I’m sorry. I...can’t. Not right now. I’m just too busy. This is going to take all night. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “Uh...do you need my help with anything, or would it be a problem if I left for the night? I have someone I want to meet if you’re busy.”
“That would actually be helpful,” she said. “I work better when I’m alone sometimes, and this one of those times.”
“All right. I’ll be back in the morning,” Cyrus replied. He began to head for the door.
“Cyrus,” Jezebel said, and he stopped, turned to look at her. She got up and crossed the room, then hugged and kissed him. “This isn’t like the ‘real me’ or anything. Don’t worry, I’m not going to just stop fucking you or talking to you. I’m just...I haven’t had to do stuff like this for so long, and now that I’m doing it again, I’ve forgotten how invigorating it can be to have to organize all this stuff. It’s a challenge and I love it!”
“It’s fine, Jez,” he replied. “You look happy, I want you to be happy. And I appreciate this.”
“Thank you,” she murmured. “I promise, we’ll fuck like rabbits.”
“We don’t have to-”
“I want to, Cyrus,” she said, grabbing his shirt. “I’m actually horny right now. Believe me, I’m so tempted to rip your clothes off, suck your cock, and then ride it half the night! But I need to do this more than you right now.”
“Okay. We’ll fuck like rabbits tomorrow,” he agreed.
She grinned suddenly. “You’re going to go pound some other girl, aren’t you?”
“Two, hopefully,” he said.
“You’re a very bad boy.”
“Apparently.”
She kissed him. “Have fun. Come back tomorrow morning.”
“I will. I’ll either be at the Windhaven Inn or Rylee’s.”
“Ooh, okay. Going to try mounting her, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Well, like I said, have fun.”
She headed back over to the desk and got back to work, and Cyrus headed out of the room, down the stairs, and back out into the night.
…
It was full dark by the time he had made his way back over to Rylee’s blacksmith.
He didn’t hear the hammering, but the front door was still open, so he walked in and banged on the counter like he had before.
A moment later, Rylee appeared in the doorway that led deeper into the building. She looked at him and smiled. “Hey, you,” she said amicably. “You really mean to make good on that conversation we had, huh?”
“Fuck yes, I do,” he replied immediately.
“I don’t scare you?”
“I’ve noticed that a lot of the women I chase tend to ask me that.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I kinda figured. It’s just...with guys like you, it’s kind of a coin-flip. I guess I wouldn’t scare you so much as just not doing anything for you. Some guys like you really go for women like me, but some go for the opposite and obsess over the tiny, petite chicks. Tavern wenches.” She paused. “Not that I have anything against them, just, you know, it gets old.”
“I can understand,” he replied. “Speaking of tavern wenches...” She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “How would you feel about a threesome? With Emily?”
“Oh yes,” she replied immediately. “Go grab her. I’ll finish up here, and we have do it. I live here, in the basement.”
“Okay, be right back,” he said, and left.
Cyrus quickly hunted down the Windhaven Inn, hoping that Emily would still be there, and that she wouldn’t be busy with anything. As he walked in through the front door, he was happy to see that the place was mostly dead at the moment, and Emily was washing tables. She looked up when he walked in through the door, locked eyes with him immediately and grinned.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hello, beautiful,” he replied. “I talked with Rylee.”
Her eyes widened. “She’s down?”
“All the way down. She’s winding down the place right now, sent me to fetch you.”
“Okay. Let me finish washing these tables, then I can go.”
“Get me a rag, I can help,” Cyrus replied.
“Oh...thanks. Sure.”
She smiled, then retrieved another rag and passed it to him. She paused, then kissed him on the mouth quickly, then went back to work. He joined her and together, they managed to wash the tables down within a few minutes. Once they were done, she told her boss that she was taking off for the night, and the two of them walked back out into the cool night air.
“So what have you been up to?” she asked, taking his hand as they began making their way back to Rylee’s.
“Work,” he replied. “Lots of work. I’m, uh, putting something together.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“I’ll tell you about it later.” He hesitated as something occurred to him. “You might be interested in getting involved.”
“Really? Cool. Honestly, I’d love a new job. I hate my current one.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. It sucks. It pays the bills, but having to put up with my idiot boss and racist morons all day? Unfortunately, I’m just...not very good at a lot of other stuff. I mean, the only other jobs I could take are similar to this one. I’d still have to put up with the same shit. I’d kind of like to try out the adventuring gig but...I mean, I don’t know, I guess I’d just end up dead, you know? I’m a puma, but I’ve never been particularly outdoorsy. So I mean if you can think of something for me to do in this new job, I’m all over it. Plus,” she said, grinning, and she brushed the back of his legs with her tail, “it would mean I would get to be near you more often. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’ve got a really big crush on you.”
He chuckled. “I, uh, got that. I like you a lot too, Emily.”
“I’m glad,” she said.
They reached Rylee’s blacksmith and found the woman herself waiting for them. “Emily!” she said, and stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug.
“Rylee! It’s been too fucking long,” Emily replied, hugging her back tightly.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been crazy busy.” She released her and grinned at Cyrus. “I’m glad the two of you met.” She glanced at Emily. “How is he in the sack?”
“Great,” Emily replied, her eyes widening in excitement.
“Oh. Wow. Awesome. Emily isn’t easily impressed. Well, let’s go downstairs and we can all wash up and then have just a nice, long fuck,” she said.
“Sounds great,” Cyrus replied.
After all the work he’d done today, he was looking forward to this threesome. And to sleep. He hoped her bed was big enough. Emily wasn’t too big, but he and Rylee were both pretty large. Rylee locked up and finished winding her place of business down, then led them through the door at the back of the room and two a stairwell that let out into what was apparently her house. It was one large room, the size of the entire building.
It was a bit of a mess, but it looked well lived-in, like a place Rylee was comfortable in.
And she did indeed have a huge fucking bed.
She also had a tub built into one corner that was quite large.
“I have been needing this all day,” she murmured as she walked over to the tub and began to fill it.
“I forgot how hot it gets down here,” Emily said.
“Oh! I found a fix for that!” Rylee replied, walking over to a desk in the corner. She pulled open a drawer and extracted a bottle that had a curious light blue gas floating in it.
“What’s that?” Cyrus asked.
“Kind of like a slow cold spell in a bottle,” she said, and popped the cork out. She walked to the center of the room, dragging a chair with her, and stood up on it as she got beneath a small metal platform hanging from leather straps nailed into the ceiling. It hung about a foot down. She placed the bottle on the platform, settling it into place, then got back down. “It seeps out over the course of a few hours, and cools the room.”
“That is so awesome,” Emily murmured.
“Yeah. I made friends with this elf woman and she sold me some. They are great. Now...to the bath,” she said, walking back over to the tub. She began taking her clothes off. Cyrus and Emily joined her as the bath finished filling up.
He saw Rylee’s body as she revealed it bit by bit, her clothing coming off smoothly. She was really fucking fit. Not trimly built, either. She had muscles. That’s what happened when you had a big build naturally and also spent every day banging away on an anvil and all the other things that went with being a blacksmith. She took off her bra and freed some really big tits. Her panties came off, revealing a really firm, really thick ass, and some awesomely broad hips. Holy fuck. She was going to be an absolutely incredible fuck.
She slipped into the water as soon as she was naked, and Emily joined her soon after. Cyrus finished stripping and joined them. There was just enough room for all three of them.
“Oh I fucking needed this,” Rylee muttered as she sank gratefully into the water.
“Same,” Cyrus agreed.
“Yep,” Emily said.
“So Cyrus, tell me about yourself, since I’m about to let you stick your cock in me,” Rylee said as she grabbed some soap and a rag and began washing up.
“Well, I’m an adventurer. I was a guard before that, a long ways away from here. I started adventuring because I didn’t want to get locked into a life that I didn’t really care about. I’ve plundered a lot of ruins, found a lot of riches, and lost them, and fought and killed a lot of monsters. I’ve done somethings I’m not proud of, but I’ve never done anything outright evil. And I tend to sleep around as much as possible.”
Rylee snorted. “Obviously. How many women have you fucked since coming to town?”
He thought about it. “Four.”
“Wow, really? Three others? Nice. Not much to say about myself. I was born and raised here. Mom was a tavern wench, dad was a sailor who didn’t stick around. Mom raised me by herself and with the help of the occasional boyfriend. She runs a bakery now in one of the other villages. I learned how to blacksmith from a friend and fell in love. Worked at it until I made enough money to buy my own place,” she replied.
“That’s really impressive,” Cyrus said. “And you’re really good at blacksmithing.”
“That’s not the only thing I’m good at,” she replied.
He was already mostly hard just from being around these two hot, naked women, but that pushed him into full salute and he moved across the tub to her. She looked ready for him, her blond hair darkened, wet, and plastered to her head, a smirk on her face. They embraced and kissed and he could tell right away that she would be a fierce lover.
Probably his favorite kind.
They began making out and he ran his hands over her body, groping her huge, wet tits. He felt her own hands going over his body, roving, searching, touching. They began to twine tongues together, and she caught his cock between her thick thighs and began to rub them together, sending sparks of pleasure into him.
After a few more moments, he pulled back, suddenly desperate to be inside of her. “Bend over,” he said.
“You got it,” she replied, just as eager.
She turned away from him and stepped up to the edge, her ass to just above the waterline. Fuck, she had such a big, toned ass. She bent over. Emily watched intently as he got up against her and looked down at her big ass and her invitingly wet, pink pussy. Then he slipped himself into her and they both moaned in sexual unification.
“Oh wow, you are big,” she murmured as he pushed his way slowly into her.
“He is,” Emily agreed.
“Come here,” he said, reaching for Emily.
She got up against him and he pulled her close, looping an arm around her lower back. He began to make out with her passionately as he started to fuck Rylee’s pussy. She felt incredible inside. She was really taut and smooth inside, and her fucking ass looked amazing. He tried to split his attention between watching his cock disappearing into her pussy again and again, and making out with the hot, naked puma beside him.
Emily moaned as she tongue-kissed him, reaching down and running a hand over Rylee’s huge ass. They made out and he pounded Rylee’s pussy for a good two minutes, sloshing water over the side and spilling it on her floor.
Then he wanted to change things up.
“Rylee, lay on your back, beside the tub, put your feet in the water, spread your legs,” he said, pulling out of her.
“Okay,” she said. “I hope this is going where I think it’s going.”
“Pretty sure it is,” Cyrus replied. “Emily, would you bend over and-”
“Eat pussy? Yes,” she said immediately.
“Oh fuck yes,” Rylee whispered. “Been too long since I’ve enjoyed that tongue.”
“Been too long since I’ve enjoyed your sweet pussy,” Emily replied.
Cyrus stepped back, making room for her, and she got in between him and Rylee, bending over, showing him her thick, furry, well-padded ass. Her tail was swaying back and forth, looking as sexy as ever. He got up against her and slipped his cock into her vagina, and she moaned loudly as she finished bending over, settling into place in between Rylee’s tremendous thighs. Rylee let out a loud moan of pleasure as Emily began to lick her clit, began the wonderfully sensual and beautiful process of eating her pussy out.
“Oh fuck,” Cyrus groaned as he began sliding in and out of her.
Puma pussy was so fucking good. He settled into a good rhythm, fucking that pussy of hers smoothly, pushing his whole length in and out of her. Fucking unprotected vagina was still probably the best thing he’d ever experienced in his entire life and on his long list of experiences that he’d managed to gather so far.
Rylee began moaning and panting even louder as Emily picked up the pace. He saw her arm moving back and forth, shifting rhythmically, and he realized she must be fingering her now. Fuck, she looked so good going down on Rylee. And Rylee herself looked just stunning, her huge, wet tits swaying as she writhed in pleasure. He gripped her hips more tightly, squeezing her, and really began hammering her pussy. He listened to Emily let out muffled shouts of pleasure as she took his dick, and he kept going until he made her orgasm.
It was hard not to come along with her as he felt her pussy clench and shudder around his cock, spiking his pleasure, but he managed to hold on. He wanted to come inside of Rylee. He desperately wanted that. He kept screwing her through her orgasm and beyond until she managed to bring Rylee to her own climax. And watching that woman orgasm was a particularly wonderful joy. She let out loud, long, crying moans of pleasure, her legs spread out wide, hands on the back of Emily’s head as she kept licking, stimulating her clit.
She screamed and shrieked her way through the orgasm, her big breasts heaving, her face twisting and contorting in pure bliss.
When she was finished, he patted Emily’s ass and pulled out of her. She took the message and moved to the side, pulling her head from Rylee’s crotch, and he closed the gap between them.
“Oh,” Rylee said, still panting, as he stepped up to her and ran his hands up and down her thick thighs. “Hello.”
“Hi,” he said, and slipped into her pussy.
She moaned loudly, and so did he. She was so fucking wet.
He grabbed her big hips and started fucking her.
“Oh fuck! Yes! Yes!” he screamed.
She looked incredible on her back like this, with her legs spread, totally naked and water beading on her skin. After a bit, he reached forward, grabbing her huge tits and groping them as he pounded her relentlessly, making her scream and wail.
Cyrus kept going and going, giving it to her hard. She seemed to love it hard.
“Can I finish in you?” he asked.
“Yes!” she cried.
That was all he needed to hear. Within ten seconds his orgasm popped off and he started coming inside of her. He groaned loudly as the first spray of his seed escaped him and spilled inside of her. Pleasure shot through him like he’d been hit by magic or lightning. It blasted into his body with each pulse of his cock, with each fresh release of his seed into this tall, beautiful, badass new lover he was experiencing the amazing joy of casual sex with.
He emptied himself into her, and when he was finished, pulled out and sat down heavily in the water, getting his breath back.
CHAPTER II
“That cold spell in a bottle is fucking amazing,” Cyrus murmured.
He was laying on Rylee’s bed, completely naked, in a bit of a daze after the frantic, furious sex and soaking in hot water.
“I love it,” Rylee agreed. She had a robe on and was sitting at a desk, writing something down.
“So tell me about this business thing,” Emily said softly. She was laying beside him, equally nude, her soft fur feeling amazing against him.
“Oh. Yeah. You know that old guild hall?”
“Uh...the one that used to have like the adventurers in it last year on the other side of town?” she asked.
“Yeah, that one.”
“Yes. Isn’t it abandoned?”
“Yes,” Rylee said. “A sad state of affairs. I used to do business with them, occasionally.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked.
“Yep. They had a blacksmith who was pretty good but he...died.”
“Oh.”
“What about it?” she asked.
“I bought it.”
She stopped writing and looked at him, twisting in her seat. “Why?”
“I’m reopening it.” He laughed. “I was hoping to put some more work into it before telling people, but I guess I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut. But yeah, I’m hoping to start it back up again. Help people. Maybe make the town a little bit better.”
“That’s going to stir up trouble,” Rylee muttered.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Well, the governor and guards didn’t exactly get on well with the guild in its original incarnation. They were all relieved, I think, when the leader and several of the members died...who else have you told so far?”
“Just this huntress named Lena, and a woman who helped run the old guild, Jezebel.”
“Oh shit, Jez is still around?” Rylee asked.
“Yeah. She was living there. She asked me to hire her. She was...really persuasive.”
“Oh ho ho, I’ll just bet she was. We had some wild sex.”
“Oh really?” Emily asked. “What’s she look like?”
“This this crazy hot redheaded human,” Cyrus said.
“Yep. She’s got like perfect tits. Okay, so that’s awesome. Lena, you said? I...think I might know her. I think she’s been in the shop a few times. Petite, hot little blonde chick? Way too serious all the time?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s her. We ran into each other in the woods while hunting giant spiders.”
“I’ll bet you did more than run into her,” Emily said.
“No,” he lied, “I’d like to, though.” When it came to sex, and who he’d had sex with, and he felt unsure about whether or not they’d like that information shared, or, in Lena’s case, sure that they wouldn’t, he just lied instead of leaving it ambiguous, because then people would assume that he had fucked her, and he didn’t wan to embarrass her.
“She is pretty,” Rylee murmured. “So...you looking for a blacksmith?”
“You offering? Because fuck yes I am if it’s you,” he replied.
She cocked an eyebrow. “You sure you can handle a girl blacksmith doing all your work?”
He laughed. “What? Why would I give a shit about that? Did I give you that impression?”
“No, I guess not. Sorry. I’m not trying to insult you. I just...I’ve run into more than my share of guys who suddenly aren’t okay with me working on their stuff when they found out that I’ll be the one actually doing it, and that I run my own shop,” she replied. She rolled her eyes. “Girls don’t know how to blacksmith, clearly.”
“Well that’s clearly a load of shit,” Cyrus replied. “My sword is in fucking great condition. You did an excellent job and I’d love to have you work on my gear regularly and work for my guild.”
“I bet you’d like me to work on more than that,” she murmured.
He chuckled. “Well...I mean, yeah.”
“Lucky for you, I like you a lot. I’ll consider it while you take some time and put your guild together,” Rylee said.
“Could I...work for you?” Emily asked hesitantly. He looked at her. “I mean...I can do...some stuff.” Her ears perked up suddenly. “Oh! I can fuck you.”
“You want to be, like, my live-in prostitute?” he asked.
“Yeah! I’ll fuck you whenever you want! And I’m totally down for threesomes, foursomes...orgies. I love girls. And I’ll do other things around the place if you want. I can clean, and cook. Sort of. I’m not great at cooking.” She paused, chewing on her lower lip, staring at him. “Please? This would make my life so much better, I hate living and working at the fucking inn-”
“Yes,” Cyrus said.
“Really?” she asked, looking a little suspicious, like she thought he was pranking her.
“Yes, Emily. I like you. A lot. And honestly...I mean, of course I’d love to have a hot, slutty girl around sucking and fucking me every day who also fucks other women. If you’re offering, like genuinely offering and you’d be okay with it...”
“I am. And I would be. Don’t worry, you aren’t taking advantage of me or anything. I love sex, and I clearly love sex with you, and I don’t think you’ll do anything bad to me, like hit me or try to force me to do something I’d really hate...”
“Of course not, Emily. I would never do that.”
“You’d better not, or I’ll break your neck,” Rylee muttered.
“You know, Hazel said almost the same thing to me about you,” he said.
She laughed. “Seriously? Yeah, that sounds like her.”
“Exactly. I’ve never-” He paused.
“Yeah?” Rylee asked.
“I’ve never hit a woman who wasn’t trying to kill or rob me or something, or who wasn’t asking for it.” Rylee’s eyebrows shot up and she turned fully around in her seat. “Whoa! Okay! Sorry, I just realized how bad that sounded! I meant that literally. I meant, if she was literally asking me to hit her. Or choke her. Or whatever.”
“Ohhhhhh,” she said, relaxing, then laughed. “Fuck, man, that was close. You know how many fuckheads I’ve had use that excuse? ‘She was askin’ for it!’ Fucking hell. But yeah, no, I get that. I’m down with the ‘hit me, fuck me, abuse me hard’ scene.”
“You abused or abusive...in that context?” Emily asked.
“Abusive,” Rylee replied. “Getting slapped around isn’t my thing, but as you can imagine, I’m really appealing to those who want to be abused,” she said, raising an arm and flexing her impressive musculature there.
“Yeah,” Emily murmured.
“Are you into it?” she asked.
“Uh...a little,” Emily replied. She looked at Cyrus. “So, I mean, for real? You’ll hire me to suck and fuck your cock and maybe like clean up around the place? Like, you’ll give me a place to live, and food, and coin?”
“Yes. And I’ll protect you, and keep you safe, and as happy as I can,” he replied.
“Oh fuck, I think I love you,” she said, and immediately wrapped him in a tight hug. She pressed herself against him. “Seriously. Holy shit. You just lifted the biggest weight off my shoulders. I fucking hate my job so much. I’m quitting tomorrow. First thing in the morning.” She paused. “Uh...can I spend the night?”
Rylee laughed loudly. “Yes, Emily. You can spend the night here. You’re always welcome in my home, you know what.”
“Thanks,” she murmured, then yawned. “Thank you, Cyrus. I appreciate this so much. You know what, I can blow you right now if you want.”
“I...well, I mean...I wouldn’t say no,” he replied.
She smiled and kissed him, then started getting down into position.
…
“You excited?” Cyrus asked.
“Fuck yes, I am,” Emily replied.
They’d had a nice, long sleep in Rylee’s bed, and then a morning fuck, (both women had taken turns riding his dick until they all had come), then they’d had a wash and breakfast. And then Rylee had pretty much kicked them out. She’d told them that it had been fun, and they were welcome back, but she had work to do.
Now, they were going to get Emily’s stuff and quit her job.
And he was happy, because she was so damned happy. Everything about her seemed positively bounding with joy. Up ahead, he could see the inn where she worked. They walked in through the front doors and almost immediately, the inn owner began walking over to her.
“Where the fuck have you been!?” he snapped as he stormed over. “You’re almost a fucking hour late, Emily!”
“Fuck off,” she replied merrily.
He stood dead in his tracks as he came to stand before her and he looked like she’d just spit in his face. “What?” he asked. He honestly sounded confused, like he must have misheard her.
“I said, ‘fuck off’. I quit. I’m done putting up with your shit,” she replied.
Now he understood what was being said to him, and a look of rage swept across his face. “You cat-eared, furry fucking bitch-” he growled, and raised his hand.
Cyrus stepped forward. “I would strongly reconsider that action,” he said, his voice flat.
That seemed to take some of the piss and vinegar out of him and the man shifted his gaze immediately to Cyrus, having to look up, as he was a good five or six inches taller. “Just get the fuck out of here,” he growled. “Neither of you are welcome back ever again.”
“Fine,” Cyrus replied. “Come on, Emily.”
“Okay!” she said, again very cheerily. She took his hand and led him across the inn, to the stairs, up to the second story. She took him to her room and opened the door.
“This is your room?” he murmured.
It was tiny. There was hardly enough room for the bed, let alone the chair and tiny table that was in there. “Yep. You know honestly, it isn’t too bad,” she said.
“It looks like a closet,” he replied.
“It is, actually. Or was. I guess it will be again. Or, shit, I guess the cheap fuck will rent it out.” She shrugged. “But I didn’t mind,” she continued as she began gathering her clothing, which hung from a line placed up across the small room, “I haven’t had the best luck when it comes to coin or luxury. I’m just happy to have my own space, often. Or...” She paused and glanced at him with a loving smile, “a place to share with someone I really like.” She paused again, now looking concerned. “This isn’t too much too fast, is it? Am I coming on too strong? I can back off...”
“Emily,” he said, smiling at her, “I’m okay with this. I’m okay with affection. As long as you’re reasonable and you understand that I’ll be a very busy man, and that I’ll also have other women in my life, in ever sense of the word, then we’ll be fine. I like you a lot, too.”
“Okay. And yeah, obviously you’ll be fucking other women.” She smirked and resumed packing her things. “So will I. I can’t wait to meet Jezebel.”
“I’m sure she’ll love you. So, uh...what kind of pay are you looking for?”
“Oh fuck, I don’t know,” she muttered. “I mean, really, if you’re giving me a place to live and access to food, I’ll really just want like a weekly allowance maybe? To buy shit for myself?”
“How does...fifty coin a week sound?” he asked.
She dropped the book she was holding. “Holy fucking shit, are you serious?”
“Yeah, does that sound fair?”
“That sounds way, way beyond fair. That’s five times what I was making here.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“No. I’m not.”
“Well, damn.” He smiled at her again. “I like to spoil the girls in my life.”
“Oh fuck, I bet that makes you popular. I am going to fuck you so much. Fuck, fifty gold a week...that will be fine,” she said, and quickly went back to packing. He offered her his backpack when she ran out of room in her own pack, and together they stuffed the rest of her belongings, which were mostly clothes and books, into his pack. Once they were finished, she took a thorough look around her room, checking under the bed and anywhere else she could think of, and confirmed that she had all of her belongings.
“Come on,” she said, taking his hand and leading him back downstairs. As they came into the main room, Emily hesitated, stopping halfway across it. She turned and looked at her former boss, who glared back at the two of them from behind the counter. Cyrus wondered where this would go. They stared at each other for a bit longer, then, abruptly, Emily turned and began walking away. They headed out the front door, back into the sunshine.
“I thought you’d want to tell him off more, or say something,” Cyrus said.
Emily stopped in the road and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, calmly. “I did. There was a lot I wanted to say. That man was such a racist fuck. All the times he insulted me to my face, made me do all the shit jobs, treated me like shit...but you know what? Fuck that guy. He isn’t worth my time. He isn’t worth the breath to insult him. And he’s out of my life now. All of it is. I want to move forward, and start putting together a new life.” She stuck her hand back out and smiled at him. “With you. A new life with you in it.”
He smiled and took her hand. “I’d like that.”
“Me too. Show me my new home.”
“Right this way.”
He began leading her to the guild hall.
CHAPTER III
“It looks bigger than I remember,” Emily murmured as they came at last to the guild hall. “Also, shittier. But I guess it’s been abandoned for awhile. Or, well, it had one person living in it for awhile. But it’s really cool, don’t get me wrong. I’m excited to live here.”
“It’s a bit of a mess,” Cyrus said as he led her into the front yard.
“That’s fine, I think-” She stopped, flat stopped, both talking and walking, as she looked around the yard.
“What, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“I just realized something! I know what else I can do! I can garden and landscape! I spent like five years tending to people’s gardens, so I actually know how to do this shit!”
“Why’d you stop? That sounds like better work than working in an inn,” he asked.
“I hated the people and eventually I realized that they were sucking my love of the work out of my life. I love gardening, but putting up with shithead after shithead was killing it for me. But I can do this. I want to do this!” she said, looking at him eagerly. He thought she was about to start jumping up and down on the spot.
Emily was...spirited.
“Just tell me what you need, I’ll make it happen. And I’d definitely appreciate it. Normally I don’t give a shit about most things relating to appearances, but honestly, I think we need to present a professional front as much as we can if people are going to take us seriously.”
“I can definitely do that. This yard will look awesome. Although I won’t be able to do anything really about the wall...” she murmured, studying it unhappily.
“I’ll handle that,” Cyrus replied. “Come on, let’s get you settled in. For now, you’ll have to share a bedroom with me and Jez. But it’s a big bed, and a big room.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said.
They walked in through the front door. “Jez, I’m home! And I brought our first new employee!”
“Thought you said you wanted to wait until we hired people!” she called back from somewhere upstairs.
“She’s a hot, sexy hooker!”
“...does she eat pussy?”
“Yep!” Emily called.
“Oh my fucking-get up right now!”
Cyrus laughed. “Well, you heard the woman. Come on.”
They hurried upstairs, tracking her down in the bedroom. She looked like she hadn’t moved from the last time he’d left her last night. The desk was covered in papers.
“Whoa, that’s a lot of gold,” Emily murmured. All the gold and gems and valuables were still out on the other desk, although they were much more organized. “And oh wow, you are so hot. Cyrus did not oversell you...”
Jez turned to look at them, and her eyes slid up and down Emily. “I think I’ve seen you around. You are really pretty,” she replied. Then she looked at Cyrus. “You hired a hooker?”
“I gave her a job of cleaning and yard maintenance...and dick maintenance,” he replied.
Jez laughed. “And vagina maintenance?”
“Yes, definitely,” Emily said. “I will fuck both of you as much as you want.”
“Oh I’ll make you regret that,” Jez replied, standing up. “Strip. I want to see what we’re working with here.”
“Yes ma’am,” Emily murmured demurely. She dropped off her backpack and began taking her clothes off. Cyrus felt an intense arousal beginning to grow in him. So, it looked like another threesome was on the menu.
Well, the other stuff could wait.
He quickly began disrobing, watching with interest at the dynamic already developing between the two women. Emily seemed pretty demure, and Jez did, too...towards him, at least. But clearly she had a dominate streak in her, given the way she was looking at Emily. She had a look of pure control, and a look that conveyed...hunger, and a certain pleasure in the devouring that was to come. He really liked that expression.
Emily finished taking off all of her clothes, and Jezebel made a slow circle around her, inspecting her, reaching out and touching her occasionally. She gripped her tail and gave it a small pull, and Emily let out a sharp gasp. Then she stepped up against her and reached up under her. Emily moaned as she slipped a finger into her, then she looked at Cyrus.
“She feels wonderful inside, you must have had a lot of fun with her,” she murmured.
“Oh yeah,” he replied.
She pulled her finger out and walked back around to the front, then reached out and groped her big, furry breasts. “She’s pleasantly padded,” she said and pursed her lips. “Very nice.” She looked over at him again. “So you’re okay if I partake?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Although I plan to partake of both of you.”
“Good,” Jezebel said, then she looked back to Emily, who looked down at the ground quickly. Man, she wasn’t just kind of familiar with the sub/dom thing. Her reacting this immediately and this strongly to it seemed to indicate she knew her role and she knew it well. And loved every second of it. He could read a lot of intense arousal in her body language.
“Do you know what to call me, Emily?” Jezebel asked.
“Yes, mistress,” Emily replied.
“Good. Get on your knees, you furry little whore.”
She shuddered. “Yes, mistress.” Emily immediately dropped to her knees. Jezebel grabbed the nearest chair and yanked it over, then planted one foot up on it, exposing her pussy. Emily immediately leaned in and looked up, and began to lick at her clit. Jezebel moaned softly and placed a hand atop her head, in between her ears. Cyrus stepped up to her and began to grope one of her big, pale breasts. He leaned in and kissed her.
Emily reached up and gripped his cock, began to massage it slowly.
“You’re good at this,” he said.
“You surprised?” she replied.
“I don’t know about surprised, per say...”
“I can switch pretty easily.” She grinned and kissed him again. “Dom to her, sub to you.”
“I like that,” he said.
“She does, too,” Jezebel murmured. “Don’t you, you little fucktoy?”
“Mmm...yes, mistress.”
“That’s right. Eat it until I come, whore.”
“Yes, mistress,” she said, and resumed licking.
Jezebel moaned and shuddered. “Puma tongue has a certain texture to it that-ah!-that makes oral especially delightful,” she whispered, then kept making out with him. He kissed and groped her, running his hands over her soft, pale skin, occasionally glancing down at Emily as she did her job. This was going to be a seriously hot relationship between the three of them.
It didn’t take long to bring Jezebel to orgasm. He had to hold her up while she came and yelled and moaned, as she almost fell over twice. Emily kept pleasuring her until she was finished. “Okay...you’re done,” Jezebel said.
“Now suck my dick,” Cyrus said to her.
“Yes, master,” she said, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand and taking his cock into her mouth. She started to bob her head, her movements sure and slow and sensual. She closed her eyes, and behind her, her tail drifted slowly back and forth.
She definitely excelled at sucking cock.
Pleasure danced into his body as she used her lips and her tongue and her mouth, and she massaged his balls in her soft, sure, warm grasp. Before long, it became too much and the need to drive himself into their pussies overtook him.
“On the bed, both of you. On your backs,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” they both said at the same time.
He watched them do as they were told, and they laid beside each other, two nude, absurdly beautiful women, their legs open, vaginas glistening, ready for him. He quickly climbed onto the bed and got on top of Jezebel, in between her wonderful legs, and slipped his cock smoothly into her. Oh how wonderfully stunning she felt inside, enveloping him in a pocket of tight, pink perfection. She moaned loudly as he began driving into her.
“Oh fuck me, master!” she moaned. “Fuck me!”
“Take it, you little fucktoy,” he replied, grabbing her shoulders and pressing her down into the mattress, holding her tightly in place as he really began to pound the absolute fuck out of her.
“Oh YES! YES! FUCK!” she screamed in wild abandon.
He fucked her for another minute or so, then pulled out and shifted over on top of Emily.
“Wait, no! Please! I need more!” she groaned.
“Shut up, Jez,” he replied.
She groaned, this time in frustration, and put her hand down in between her legs. He reached over and grabbed it. “I didn’t say you could touch yourself.”
She looked at him, her eyes wide, panting. “Please...” she whispered.
“No. Lay there and wait,” he replied.
“Oh...fuck!” she groaned, laying back in a huff.
“Don’t give me attitude or you’ll regret it,” he said as he entered Emily. She let out loud, crying moan and put her legs up in the air. He started fucking her. She let out a loud, long cry of pleasure this time as he began hammering her.
Jezebel crossed her arms and murmured something.
“What was that?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said.
He reached over and then hesitated. “Safe word?”
“Watermelon,” she replied quickly.
He looked down at Emily, his eyebrows raised. “Gemstone,” she panted.
“Good.” He grabbed Jezebel’s perfect pink nipple and twisted it. She let out a loud cry. “Now what did you say, you little redheaded whore?”
“Ah! I said...this is bullshit,” she groaned. “Please, master-”
He twisted again, and she cried out louder, then he let go. “You’re going to regret that,” he said.
“Please, I’m sorry,” she said.
“Shut up. Right now,” he replied, and she closed her mouth and laid on her back. “Don’t fucking talk. Don’t fucking move.”
She nodded and laid still. He resumed fucking the shit out of Emily, pounding her into the mattress, shoving his cock into her again and again. He kept it up for another few minutes, intentionally letting Jezebel sit there and squirm. He’d played this game before. Cyrus wouldn’t call himself an expert, but he knew enough to get by. And he thought he could read her pretty well. He knew what she wanted.
And he was happy to get it to her.
When she seemed like she was going to really lose it, he finished Emily off and gave her a nice orgasm, then pulled out of her and reached up to where he’d stored some lube in the headboard earlier. Grabbing it, he squeezed some into his hand.
“Roll over,” he said as he began rubbing his cock town.
Her eyes bulged a little. “Wait, master, please-”
“Roll. Over.”
She swallowed, then she rolled over, laying on her stomach. Her ass. She had a wonderful ass. He got on top of her and laid his cock at the entrance of her perfect, pale ass. She cried out as he began pushing his way in.
“You’re going to learn to keep your fucking mouth shut,” he said as he pushed his way deeper.
“I’m sorry!” she moaned. “Please!”
“Shut up, Jez.” He shoved his way deeper and she yelled.
“It hurts!”
“I don’t care. You’ve been bad. You need to be punished.”
He settled in, feeling the intense pleasure begin to burn into him, and he started fucking her up the ass. Holy fuck, she had a tight ass. A wonderful ass. He reached under her and gripped her shoulders, holding her tightly against him, and just fucking rammed her up the ass. She screamed and squirmed beneath him.
“Please! Please! I’m sorry! I’ll be good!” she cried.
“I know you will,” he said in her ear. “I know you’re going to learn your fucking place, and shut your fucking mouth, and drop that fucking attitude, Jezebel, because now you know this is what happens to you when you’re bad. Are you going to be bad again?” he asked.
“No!” she cried. “I promise!”
“Are you going to be good?” he asked.
“Yes!” she moaned.
“What’s that? I didn’t hear you.”
“YES! YES, I’LL BE GOOD!” she yelled.
“Good. Now, I need to finish punishing you.”
“No! Please! Please!”
“Shut up, now, Jez. Or I’ll have to punish you even harder and longer.”
She put her face down in the pillow and moaned loudly into it. Fuck, she could really sell this. He pounded her brains out until he felt himself coming up on an orgasm, and luckily, Jezebel apparently loved anal, because he made her come shortly before he let himself start to come. She screamed and squirmed as she orgasmed, and he groaned, forcing himself deeper into her as his hips jerked in automatic reaction to his climax.
He came up her ass. He filled that amazingly perfect ass of hers up and lost himself in the tempest ocean of rapturous release.
When he was finished, Cyrus spent a few seconds coming down from that great high, then pulled out of her and rolled onto his back.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Perfect,” she replied, sounding almost dreamy. “You are...quite good at that.”
“Yes, you really are. Both of you are. Oh wow,” Emily murmured.
“I’m glad you think so. That was a lot of fun. Been awhile since I’ve done that,” Cyrus replied.
“Clearly you have some practice,” Jezebel said.
“Oh yeah. I traveled with this couple, two crazy hot chicks, a redhead huntress and a brunette mage, and they were both really into it and were always looking for someone to dominate the fuck out of them. That was how I got introduced to it. I mean, I kind of knew about it before, but they taught me, and we had...amazing times.” He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then got up and headed for the washbasin. “Time to talk business.”
“Yes,” Jezebel agreed. “What’s your salary?” she asked Emily.
“Fifty coin a week, apparently,” she replied.
Jezebel paused. “Okay...we can work with that.”
“Do you have a working list of what it’ll take to bring this place back up to snuff?”
“No, not yet. I need to get someone in here who really knows buildings. I was actually about to go see her. I can pay her twenty coin to come in and spend the day looking over the whole building, and she’ll give us a comprehensive report to work with. We’re talking foundational repairs, broken windows, roof repairs, and a hundred other things that might need work. She’ll give us a list, and she’ll also give us prices, and a discount if we use her crew to make the repairs. And we absolutely should. They’re fast, professional, and trustworthy.”
“I’ll trust you on that, make it happen,” Cyrus replied. “And don’t forget about the upgrades I want.”
“Why don’t you take a moment and write those down for me, just so nothing gets lost in translation.”
“Okay.”
He finished washing up, pulled on his boxers, then walked over to her desk, found some parchment, and wrote down the list of things he could think of that he wanted changed. Mainly he wanted those barracks-style living quarters split up into four bedrooms and properly furnished. But he also wanted a shed erected in the back, given that he hadn’t actually seen one out there, and it would be nice to give Emily her own space to work on the garden, to keep her tools and supplies. He jotted down a few other things, then straightened up.
“Emily, why don’t you get settled in, and your first job will be organizing this room,” he said.
“Okay,” she replied, getting up.
“She’s going to be sharing with us for now,” he said, looking at Jezebel.
“Well, that’ll be a tight fit. But I’m okay with that if it’s you two. Honestly, I’d forgotten how much I miss having people to live with until you showed up.” She frowned, looking at the coin gathered. “So, even based on low estimates, we don’t have enough. We have like...half.”
“Half of the lowest estimate?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He sighed. “Guess I’ve got more work to do.”
“Yep.”
“Well, just so you know, I told two other people.”
“Who?”
“Lena and Rylee.”
“Oh! I didn’t even know Lena was still around. I thought she’d moved for some reason...how is she? Did you fuck her? How’d you even meet her?” she asked.
“No,” he replied. “She’s fine. We met hunting giant spiders in the woods and we ran into each other again.”
“Hmm,” she said, and the little smirk she wore made him wonder if she could tell he was lying. Well, that was a good skill to have, at least. “Well, cool. She’s very skilled. How did they react?”
“They both want to help. Lena seems to want back in. She’s willing to run city jobs for us, since I don’t want to be seen doing that for the time being.”
“Good idea. Less attention from those assholes the better,” Jezebel muttered.
“My thoughts exactly. She will probably be by sometime in the near future. Rylee seemed interested in helping out. I was thinking of hiring her full time.”
“You think so? We couldn’t ever manage it before. I mean, I’d love to have her being here all the time, working on all our armor and weapons. She is very skilled and dedicated.”
He considered it for a moment. “I think I can convince her,” he replied finally, because he thought he could. He thought he could appeal to her in a specific way. He wasn’t sure, his intuition could be wrong, but he didn’t think so.
“Go for it, then. I love Rylee. Okay, go earn coin. I need to track down this person and have them actually perform the inspection. Speaking of which, something I need to show you,” she said. She walked over to the coins and began to dump them into bags. She glanced at Emily. “Need the room, sweetie. Just for a minute.”
“Okay,” Emily replied. She got up and left, closing the door behind her.
“What’s up?” Cyrus asked.
“The vault.”
“Oh yeah, I was wondering where it was at.”
“Over here.”
She walked over to one corner of the room, crouched and pushed in on a seemingly random portion of the wall. A hidden panel swung open. It was about three feet by three feet, and it was perfectly hidden.
“Holy shit,” he said.
“Yep. There’s two keys, I have both of them. It’s a triple lock.”
“Okay, how’s it work?” he asked.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a long, black key. “First, you need to insert the key,” she said. He looked into the opening. There was a solid block of metal in there with a keyhole in its center, surrounded by three rings covered with numbers. She slipped the key in. “Then, you line up the numbers over the top of it.” She slid the rings around until the numbers lined up to red 827. “Then you turn it.”
She turned the key and the vault opened up.
“So...what’s the third lock?” he asked.
“Magic. Right now, I’m the only one who can open it. Even if you have a key and know the combo, if it’s not my hand touching it, it won’t open.” The vault was presently empty, and she began to fill it with bags of gold and gems and valuable jewelry. “I suggest you and I be the only ones who have access to this.”
“I agree.”
“Good.” She finished, then closed it, locked it, and reached out. “Take my hand. I’ll add you to the list.”
“Okay.” He took her hand. She put her other hand on the vault, closed her eyes, and concentrated. He felt a gentle heat from her hand, and both hands glowed. Then she opened her eyes and the glow and the warmth fell away. She pulled the key out and turned the numbers around a bit, then passed him the key.
“You try.” He went through the process and the vault opened for him. “Okay, it works. Keep that key safe.”
“I will. Thanks.” He stood. “Okay, I’m going to go earn some more coin.”
“Have fun. Hot food and pussy will be waiting for you when you get back here,” Jezebel said with a smirk.
He kissed her, then kissed Emily on the way out, and then left.
Time to get to work.
CHAPTER IV
Cyrus managed to make it six hours of running basic, low-paying jobs and getting face-time in with the local community before he finally broke down and went looking for Lena.
He’d managed to bag another three hundred gold running errands, fixing shit around their houses or place of business, and at one point standing guard for someone’s stall while they went out to deal with some errands. Which he took even though it was pretty low paying, for an hour of work, because that was a really big sign of trust.
He even managed to sell a few things, and kept a record of it.
The person seemed impressed when they came back.
And then he went over to Lena’s house to see if she was home and willing to accept his help doing something dangerous. Even if he couldn’t turn in any of the shit for coin, he still wanted to be doing some meaningful work.
The door opened and Lena looked up at him. She smirked.
“I think I have a problem,” he said.
“Oh yeah?” she replied.
“I’m addicted to-”
“Pussy?”
“No.” He paused. “I mean, yes, but that’s not the problem. I mean, it might be a problem, I don’t think it is, but maybe it is, but that’s not what I’m talking about?”
She laughed loudly and stepped back, letting him in. “What’s the problem?”
“I’m addicted to doing dangerous, stupid shit,” he said.
“That can be a really good thing,” she replied.
“What?”
Lena closed the door. “We live in a dangerous, stupid world, Cyrus. Us in Windhaven especially. A lot of jobs required to keep people safe are dangerous and stupid. And if you’re addicted to doing dangerous and stupid things, then you can twist that addiction into something good. A lot of dangerous monsters need killing. A lot of assholes need their asses kicked, or to be locked up, or kicked out,” she explained.
“Oh...yeah, I guess so.”
“Is that why you came over?”
“Yes. I mean, I’d love to fuck. I will fuck, if you’re interested, but I was hoping to help you out with some of the more dangerous contracts,” he replied.
“I would fuck you, except you made my pussy sore. Not that I’m necessarily complaining. It was worth it. Your dick feels pretty good. But you’re in luck. I’ve collected a few jobs and I’m going to go out and do them. They all lay beyond city limits.”
“Oh perfect,” he said.
“Come on, I was just about to head out.”
…
“So how’s it going with the guild?” Lena asked as they slipped through a hole in the city’s wall not far from her house.
“Good. I hired a prostitute gardener.”
She looked at him. “You hired a prostitute and a gardener?”
“No. I hired a prostitute who is also a gardener.” She continued staring at him. “She’s a friend I made, and she was in a really bad situation, and she asked to come live and work at the guild hall. I like her, I like having her around, I like having sex with her, and that’s what she was offering. But she also can clean, and is apparently good at gardening.”
She faced forward again and walked in silence for a bit, towards the forest ahead. “That was a nice thing to do,” she murmured.
“You think so? You don’t think it was dumb?”
She sighed. “I think that earning coin is important...but only to a point. I’ve never fully been able to understand people who earn coin to ludicrous amounts. I mean, gold is pretty to look at, and you can buy a lot of things, but at the end of the day, gold is valueless unless you’re using it somehow. And I think that spending official guild coin on things that most people would write off as pointless or frivolous is important if it’s making someone happy. Especially if it’s making someone happy who isn’t you, because I see a lot of people pissing away official coin on stupid shit selfishly and there is a clear distinction there. But with this...if you think that you are improving this girl’s life, and it sounds like you believe that, then it is worth being what some people would call financially irresponsible. Does that all make sense?”
“It does,” he said after a moment. “I think it does. And I agree. I want to run my guild professionally, but not with an iron fist. I’m not looking to earn coin. I’m looking to help people. I refuse to earn coin at the cost of suffering.” He paused. “Well...suffering from people who don’t deserve it. I mean, if someone hires us to beat up a gang of thieves or something, obviously they’ll be suffering, but I refuse to earn coin off the backs of those working under me. I’ve run into far too many people who are willing trade the blood of the innocent for coin. And I think there is a clear distinction between having high, but reasonable expectations for those who work under you, and treating them with disdain and disrespect, and running them ragged without a care in the world for their own physical and mental health.”
“That makes you a good person, if you actually enact this belief,” Lena said.
“You think I won’t?” he asked, honestly curious.
She sighed. “I think a lot of people start out that way. I think a lot of people believe something akin to what you just said. But they let themselves get corrupted somewhere along the line.”
“I suppose so,” he murmured. “If it looks like I’m getting there, you have my permission to yell at me about it.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she replied.
“Good. Uh, other than that, Jez is getting the place looked at. We’re going to see how much it will cost to repair and then upgrade the place. I also talked with Rylee, the blacksmith.”
“Oh yeah, I know her. She’s going to work with us?”
“I don’t know. She’s taking a wait and see approach. I think we can talk her into doing regular work for us, but I want her there, at the guild hall. I want exclusive rights to her.”
She smirked. “I’ll bet.”
“Duh.” He paused again. “Lena...”
“Yes?”
“Are you comfortable with the idea of people knowing that you and I have had sex?”
She was silent for a few moments. “I suppose...it depends on who it is. Why? Have you told anyone that?”
“No, I haven’t. But I have lied a few times now. Jez asked me if we’d had sex. And so did Rylee. She’s a little familiar with you. You strike me as a very private person.”
“I really appreciate that,” she replied. “I would prefer not to be spoken of in that regard. I can’t stop you, but I can ask that.”
“Then I will not.”
“That being said...I mean, if this really goes the way I want it to go, which it’s looking like it is, then I’m going to be having sex with Jezebel again, to be sure. And you. So she’ll know. And if this prostitute is attractive...”
“She is. She’s a puma.”
“Oh.” She hesitated. “Wait, is it that girl at the Windhaven Inn?”
“Yes! Emily.”
“Oh! Good! She always seemed so sad when I saw her. That’s so good of you to help her.”
“I mean...it’s not like I’m being completely altruistic here. She is fucking me regularly...”
“Yeah, but I’m willing to bet that you’d make that offer even if she wasn’t. If she just wanted to be a gardener, you’d still help her.”
“I mean...yeah, I would.”
“Exactly. You didn’t try to extort sex out of her...Jez wouldn’t let you. I sure won’t.”
“I seem to be surrounding myself with women who have absolutely zero tolerance for sexism and misogyny.”
“Do you think that’s a bad thing?”
“No, not at all. So far we’ve gotten along fine.”
“I figured. You know how to respect people, and women.” She laughed. “Plus, you’re lucky in the sense that most of the women you meet are interested in sex.”
“I am beyond lucky in that regard. Now...what are we actually doing out there?” he asked.
“Oh yes. There’s a corrupted bear out there, causing a lot of problems.”
“Fuck.”
“Yep. And he’s just number one on our hit-list.”
A corrupted bear, there were other names for these creatures, was a bear that had been somehow, in some way, corrupted by the forces of evil. It manifested in a few different ways, but ultimately what it boiled down to was the fact that it was a bear, (and it could happen to pretty much anything, he’d seen corrupted pigeons, and they were more terrifying than what most people assumed), that was bigger, and meaner, and pants-shittingly scarier than a regular bear. It probably had enormous claws and teeth, and maybe glowing eyes, and maybe it drooled acid now. Something fucking insane like that. He always hated fighting corrupted animals.
Or people. Those were pretty bad too.
Now that he knew what they were looking for, Cyrus got to work, putting his tracking skills to use. He studied the environment as they moved through it, although he had to admit, it was really hard to miss the passage of a fucking corrupted bear. It wasn’t like they tried to hide. They tended to lumber and rampage through whatever environment they inhabited. And, sure enough, it didn’t take all that long for the pair of them to hunt the thing down. They found a tree actually uprooted and knocked over a few minutes later, and found the path that at least something big had taken, and began to follow along it for a ways.
And, then from up ahead, Cyrus heard a loud roar.
Someone screamed.
“Oh fuck,” he growled.
“Come on,” Lena said, and took off.
She was quick. He hurried after her, his blade drawn. Up ahead, through the trees, he could see a huge figure moving about. Another roar sounded. As she approached the clearing, Lena skidded to a halt and skirted right, notching an arrow. Cyrus blew right past her, charging into the clearing. Someone was definitely in danger and if he could save them, he was going to take that chance. And then he caught sight of the corrupted bear and almost hesitated. He was glad that he didn’t, at least, but damn was that thing big!
If it was standing upright, he’d guess it’d be twelve or thirteen feet tall. It was covered in a thick layer of black fur that was tinged with red and looked like it rippled with raw power. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he ran forward, leaped into the air, and brought his blade down as hard as he could into its back, trying to get at its heart. The bear, who, he realized, was menacing two people, hunters probably, let out a roar that shook the nearby trees.
It jerked violently and threw him off of it with ease, though his sword came with him in a spray of blood at least. He yelled, now in a bit of fear, as he flew through the air and landed with a heavy grunt. An arrow sailed overhead, and hit the bear. It roared again and twisted around furiously. Cyrus got back to his feet and sprinted forward again. He really needed to end this, and fast. His initial idea would work, if he could get it to work.
The bear was rearing up. It stared at him with glowing crimson eyes.
He saw his chance and dashed forward.
“Cyrus!” he heard Lena scream.
He ignored her pushed himself as hard and fast as he could, rearing back with the sword, focusing everything he had, all of his attention, on the creature’s exposed chest. He covered the last bit of distance between them and jabbed his blade up into the bear’s chest with all his strength. The blade punched through its outer hide, cutting into its flesh, and he felt the bear shudder in the way that creatures sometimes did when you got their hearts. Then he yanked the blade out and began to roll away.
He wasn’t quite fast enough, and the bear certainly didn’t die fast enough.
He felt a burning explosion of pain rip across his back as it slashed at him with its claws, and he screamed and smashed into the ground. Cyrus pressed himself to get out of the way, because it was almost certainly going to toppled onto him when it did fall over from blood loss. And he was right, and just barely made it out of the way. A wave of dirt and leaves was kicked up as it hit the ground and he felt it pepper his now ripped-open back.
“FUCK!” he screamed.
“Cyrus! Oh shit! Don’t move!” Lena called.
She was at his side within seconds. The pain was his entire world. He’d been in a lot of pain before, had a lot of injuries before, and this one was pretty bad. “Don’t move,” she said, and her voice was very commanding.
“Is he going to be okay!?” he heard someone call.
“Yes,” Lena replied.
He fought and struggled not to move, because his body was screaming for him to move, to somehow escape this pain that was consuming him alive, but he just went rigid and clenched his jaw and his fists and tried to block the pain out.
It felt inescapable, like his back had been lit on fire.
He heard a cork pop out of the top of a bottle. Faintly, he was aware of what was going to happen next, and it was going to her like a motherfuck-
“FUCKING SHIT!” he screamed as he felt a wave of liquid pour over his wounds.
He blacked out.
…
“He’s not dead is he?”
“No, he’s still breathing. He’s fine.”
“Ugh.”
“Oh shit, I think he’s waking up.”
Cyrus opened his eyes. He was laying on his side. He blinked a few times. His head was resting on something soft and warm and comforting. Two unfamiliar faces were staring back at them, both of them crouched.
“What the fuck happened?” he groaned, and tried to sit up.
“Cyrus, dammit, what the fuck did I tell you? Don’t move,” Lena growled, and he realized that his head was in her lap.
He relaxed. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She ran a hand through his hair. “You killed the bear and the bear nearly killed you,” she added.
“You saved our lives,” one of the two people, a woman with short, brunette hair, said. “Thank you for that.”
“Yes,” the other person, a tanned man with a dazed kind of look, said. “Thank you. We-we definitely would have fucking died if you two hadn’t shown up.”
“You’re welcome,” Cyrus murmured. “Not a problem.” He grinned and weakly held up a thumb. “It’s my job.”
“Who are you?” the woman asked.
“Cyrus Walker. I’m here to help.”
“I know you. You’re name’s Lena, right?” the woman asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ve seen you around.”
“We were out hunting this thing. It’s very good luck that we found it when we did,” she said. Her voice was very soothing.
“Yes. It is. Holy shit.”
“I’ll make you two a deal. If you help me skin it and harvest its organs, we can split them,” Lena said.
The man looked uncertainly over Cyrus, surely looking at the bear. “It’s corrupted...”
“Do you have any idea what mages pay for corrupted animal organs? Let alone corrupted bear organs? I know a place. They’re incredibly useful in making certain potions that cure rare illnesses. This thing could easily be worth two thousand gold, and I’m offering to split it,” Lena explained.
“Yes,” the woman said, “we’ll take the offer.”
“Okay.” She looked down at Cyrus and gently patted his head. “I need to get up now. Your back is fine now, the healing potion did the trick, you can move around and lay on it, it’s as if it never happened, but you’re going to be weak for awhile, so get your strength back. Relax. Okay?”
“Deal,” he said, because holy shit, he was exhausted.
“I laid out your bedroll. And your backpack is a goner.”
He sighed, realizing that yeah, it would have gotten ripped open. “Fuck.”
“Yeah. I gathered your stuff. Its by your bedroom.”
“Thank you.”
She carefully got up and Cyrus laid there on the ground for a moment before pushing himself up into a sitting position. He expected the pain to come flooding back, but it didn’t. His back was a little stiff, a little sore, but otherwise fine. Those were some great fucking potions. They normally weren’t this effective. He was definitely going to have to learn where she got them from, because he wanted whoever made them for his guild.
There was his bedroll, he saw, and all his stuff, including the shredded remains of his backpack, next to it. With a sigh, he crawled over to it and laid down. Behind him, he could hear the three hunters setting to work on gutting the bear.
Good, fuck that son of a bitch.
He began to drift off to sleep.
CHAPTER V
Cyrus woke up to a gentle hand on his shoulder some time later.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“We’re finished,” Lena replied.
“Shit,” he muttered, sitting up. “Didn’t think I’d sleep through it. How long was I out?”
“About two hours.”
“Fuck.” He got up and stretched. His back was still a little stiff and sore, but not as much as when he’d drifted off. He imagined he’d probably be back to fine by tomorrow morning.
“It’s okay. Nothing happened, and this is going to get us some real damned gold,” she replied, indicating a collection of about ten jars. Each had what appeared to be an organ inside of it.
“Where’s the other two?”
“They’re gone. We cut a deal: they get the skin and the bladder, we get the rest of the organs. I can sell organs pretty easily, but they didn’t seem too confident about it. Which is fine, they’re more valuable anyway. I mean, not like crazily more valuable, we didn’t fuck them over or anything, they got a good deal out of this. And they were pretty impressed with your stupid stunt.”
“It worked,” he replied.
“Only because I had that healing potion. That was stupid, Cyrus.”
“Yeah...I know. I really thought I could get away in time.”
“You almost did. How’s your back?”
“Good, actually,” he replied. “Still kinda sore, but really good. Where the fuck did you find that healing potion?”
“I know someone who makes them. This elf woman who lives just outside of town,” Lena replied. She knelt and began to put the jars carefully into her backpack. He remembered Rylee mentioning an elf woman who had made her the cooling jars. Were they the same? Possible. Likely, even. Elves were rare around here, it seemed. He didn’t think he’d seen more than a dozen since coming to this island. Well, he didn’t blame them.
Looking at her pack, he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to fit all of his stuff in there, not even half at the rate it was filling up. But he knew how to solve this problem, at least temporarily. He crouched by his bedroll and began stuffing his things into it. It would serve as a sack and help him get his shit back home, until he could solve the pack problem.
“I have a spare backpack you can have,” Lena said.
“I’d really appreciate that,” he replied.
She shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to sell it.” She finished up, then stood. Then she looked over at the remains of the bear. There were a lot of them. Mostly bloody meat. It was too bad it was all corrupted, that was a shitload of meat. “You know any fire magic?” she asked after a bit.
“A little,” he replied.
“Well, help me burn these remains safely,” she said. “After that, we can drop our crap off, get your new pack, and then get back to work.”
“Sounds good to me,” Cyrus replied, and came over to help her.
…
Cyrus held his arrow in place, waited, waited, waited…
He let it fly. It sailed through the air and nailed the zombie in the head, killing it instantly and dropping it to the ground. He drew another one, notched it, and waited. No more sounds came to him. No more groans or stumbling, shuffling footsteps. Just the wind, occasionally.
“Is that the last one?” he groused.
“I believe so,” Lena replied.
Cyrus let out a long sigh and lowered his bow and arrow. He took one more look around the area they were occupying, and when he saw no more shambling figures, he replaced the arrow and put his bow away.
“Thank fuck,” he whispered. There had to have been like twenty of the bastards. They were the last ones on the list, which was good, because he was exhausted. This would have been a full day of work even if he hadn’t been had his back ripped open by a giant bear.
“Indeed,” Lena agreed wearily.
“What do we do about the corpses?”
“I’ll have to come back here with some guards. They’ll want to properly identify them, in case any of them are locals, and that will take time. I’ll be doing that on my own. In fact, that’s where I need to be heading now.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he murmured.
Despite his exhaustion, there was a part of him that wanted to keep going, keep pushing. Do more jobs, earn more coin. But that would be irresponsible. No, he needed to go home. He smiled at that thought. Home. He hadn’t had a real home in years and years, and for all that time, it hadn’t really bothered him. But now he had one, and he liked it. He liked it a lot more than he thought he would. Just the thought of going home to the messy, derelict guild hall warmed and relaxed him, filled him with a strange, keen kind of longing.
“Come on,” Lena said, and they began walking back towards town. They would have to take the long way around, to get back to the hole in the wall near her house, as they still didn’t want to be seen together. That was stupid, Cyrus thought angrily. Okay, no, it was smart, it was just that it was stupid that it was the smart thing to do. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t have been such an ass to the captain of the guard.
Then again, maybe that guy shouldn’t have been such a fucking dick.
Well, he’d show them. He was already pretty much doing the job for them. Normally he wouldn’t think like that, because it wasn’t fair. Sometimes the guard were overwhelmed, and them offering bounties was completely legitimate. But not in this case. They were obviously fucking lazy. Not all of them, but enough of them. Too many of them.
“I’m going to come by the guild hall tomorrow morning, have a look around, if you’ll have me,” Lena said as they walked home.
“I’ll most certainly have you,” he replied.
“I figured. It’ll be good to see Jez again. And meet Emily properly. She sounds nice.”
“She really is. She’s so kind and friendly.”
They soon found the hole in the wall and walked through it, then made their way back to Lena’s house. He stepped inside with her, just for a moment.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” he asked.
Lena looked at him. She seemed surprised, but not by much. She stared at him for a long moment, no doubt considering his words, and her own. Finally, she said, “Because...I believe in you. Because you’re attractive, and kind, and respectful, and decisive, and a little dumb. Just a little. But also because I think that I believe in you, that you want to do something good for this town. That you will do something good for this town. That’s why.”
“Oh,” he said.
She smiled. “Oh. Indeed.” She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. “Try not to wear your cock out. I will expect a lay while I’m there.”
“You can count on it,” he replied.
She laughed. “Good. Goodnight, Cyrus.”
“Goodnight, Lena.”
He left her home and began to head for his.
…
When he came home, twilight was falling, and he found Jez, Emily, and another woman outside of the hall. Emily was on her knees in the grass, wearing a small summer dress and no shoes, and she was pulling weeds.
She smiled broadly when she saw him, and it warmed his heart tremendously. It wasn’t because she looked so beautiful with that smile, it was because she was clearly so happy. He loved seeing good people being happy. Emily waved to him, and he smiled and waved back. Then he glanced at Jez, who was motioning for him to join her. She and the other woman, who was short, slender, and had raven black hair and a rather serious expression, were standing in front of the main entrance, which was open. He moved to join them.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“This is Lissa. She’s the inspector I told you about, who also owns her own construction team,” Jezebel replied.
“I have completed my inspection,” Lissa said, looking at a clipboard.
“That was fast,” Cyrus murmured.
“I assure you, it is very thorough,” she replied, and she passed the clipboard to Jez, who winced when she looked at it.
“Fuck,” she whispered. “That’s...steep.”
“It encompasses all you want, and that is our...preferred customer discount, which you still qualify for, and is of course on the condition of you using my team,” Lissa replied.
She studied it for a moment longer, then passed it to Cyrus. His eyes bulged a little when he saw the final figure at the bottom of the page.
10,000 GOLD.
“Holy shit,” he muttered. “We...don’t have that.”
“Hmm.” Lissa studied him for a moment. She had cold, blue eyes and a pale face. She was very attractive, in a chilled kind of way. “I don’t know you, so I don’t trust you. However, I do trust Jezebel. You have been very steadfast in your trustworthiness, Jezebel, and you also have caught us during a down period. My team and I can start tomorrow, and I am willing to take half of it up front, half of it when the job is completed.”
“How long will the job take to complete?” Cyrus asked.
“Three days.”
“Seriously!? You work that fast?” he asked.
“We are very efficient,” she replied, looking at him. He wondered, suddenly, if she had any kind of sense of humor. Not that he didn’t appreciate the straightforward answers. He thought about it, looking at Jezebel, at Lissa, then up at the guild hall.
“Deal,” he said, looking back at Lissa. Jezebel tensed up a little, but didn’t say anything otherwise.
“Very well. My crew and I will be here one hour after sunup. Good day.”
She turned and walked off the property.
“Cyrus, tell me you made a shitload of coin today,” Jezebel said as she stepped closer to him.
“I mean...sort of.” She groaned. “I made three hundred gold together.”
“Are you shitting-” she began.
“But!” he said, raising his hand. “I worked several jobs with Lena. Good jobs. We earned like twenty five hundred coin.”
“Fuck,” she muttered. “That’s...ugh, come on.” She looked at Emily. “We need your help!”
“Coming!” Emily replied, getting up and jogging over.
They followed her into the guild hall and up two flights of stairs. She pointed at the desk. “Dump all the coin you have on the desk,” she said.
“Both of us?” Emily asked.
“No, I meant Cyrus...wait, how much coin do you have on you?” she asked.
“About a hundred...”
She hesitated, glancing at Cyrus. “Would you be willing to give it up?”
“Would I get it back?” Emily asked uncertainly.
“Yes,” Cyrus said. “We’re in a bit of a bind right now. We need a lot of coin by like tomorrow morning.” He looked at Jezebel. “Does she take gems?”
“No.”
“Fuck.”
“I know. We have work to do. Dump the coin, then both of you have work to do. I need you to go gather up every piece of scrap metal you can find in this place. Every blade, every crappy piece of armor, whatever you can find. Go dump it in the main hall by the front door. Emily, if you have anything you’d be willing to sell, now is the time.”
“I have one or two things,” she said.
“Go get them. Please, hurry.”
“Okay.”
She and Cyrus hurried off while Jezebel hurried over to the vault and began opening it up.
…
An hour and a half later, Cyrus found himself walking through the torchlit streets of Windhaven loaded down with two heavy-ass backpacks, one on his back, one on his front, and carrying to overstuffed bags. This was not how he had hoped, or expected, to spend the rest of his night after a long damned day, but he’d kind of brought this on himself, so he wasn’t complaining. And it wasn’t like the ladies weren’t carrying their weight either.
It wasn’t as bad as he thought it was.
At present, they had fifteen hundred in gold. That, plus the twenty five hundred that Lena should be bringing tomorrow, would bring them up to four thousand. Which meant they needed to make the last thousand selling all this stuff off. Jezebel said that she knew someone who would buy scrap metal in a pinch, and a few all-night stores that would buy the rest of the stuff. Cyrus had thrown in whatever he could.
Even if this worked, it would still leave them flat fucking broke.
And it would mean that they would need another five thousand within three fucking days!
This was going to be intense.
“How much further?” he complained.
“Almost there,” Jezebel replied.
They walked for another few minutes, what felt like another few miles with all this weight, and finally came to a building. One among many. It looked shut down. Jezebel banged on the door a few times. Nothing happened.
She did so again, harder. “Open up, Markus! It’s Jezebel, you fucking owe me!”
There was a long pause, and then finally the sounds of locks being undone and the door flung open. A balding man with a deep frown and a scar across his face answered. “What, Jez?”
“Calling in that favor. I need you to buy all this scrap metal from me for five hundred gold,” she replied, stepping forward. “Move, this is heavy.”
“Five hundred?!” he hissed. “That’s-”
“Markus, move!” she snapped.
He sighed and stepped out of the way. They all came in and Cyrus immediately dropped his bags, letting out a loud, grateful groan of relief.
“You show up here in the middle of the night and demand-I’m not even sure if I have five hundred gold on me right now!”
“Markus,” Jezebel said flatly, staring at him hard, “you owe me still. We saved your ass, and I’m calling it in, okay?”
Markus frowned deeply, looking from her, to Cyrus, to Emily, and finally heaved a long sigh. “Fine, but after this, we’re even, do you get me?”
“Yes, Markus. Get the gold.”
“Fine.”
He disappeared back into his shop. Cyrus looked around. It was another blacksmith, though it looked like he sold more than just weapons and armor there. There were all sorts of metal items. “What’s this favor he owes you?”
“We saved his life one time a few years ago from corrupted wolves. He was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, we agreed to look the other way if we didn’t catch him doing something stupid again,” Jezebel replied.
“Huh.”
They set all their bags full of scrap metal out and waited around for a few minutes. Finally, he returned with two bags full of gold. Cyrus picked them up and checked them, found them to be authentic, and secured them.
“Thank you, Markus. I’m sorry about this,” Jezebel said.
“Yeah, yeah. Just go, I need to sleep. I’m exhausted,” he replied.
“Okay.”
They left and he slammed and locked the door behind them. Jezebel sighed and rubbed her temples for a moment. “That’s half. Come on.”
She led them off once more.
…
Another hour and a half dragged by as they tracked down the pair of stores that Jezebel had indicated, and she haggled with them over all the stuff they had left to sell. Mostly it was just gems and jewelry, some of which Cyrus and Emily had given up. Which he felt bad about. He was going to have to get her a present or something, though he wasn’t sure what she liked yet. Beyond gardening. And sex. He’d figure something out.
When they got down to the last two items, an enchanted ring that protected against the cold and an emerald, he was really, really close to becoming an asshole, and losing his shit, and just threatening the fucking guy into paying them what they needed. But he didn’t, because he knew that would be stupid, and also wrong, and because he trusted Jezebel.
“Fine. Sixty coin,” the man behind the counter finally said.
“Thank you,” Jezebel replied with surprising grace and poise. He wasn’t surprised that she had it, it was obvious she was good at shit like this, it was more that he was impressed that she still had it, after all the shit they’d just waded through to get here. And he wasn’t even sure what she’d had to put up with before he’d made it home.
She grabbed the coin, told him it had been nice doing business with him, and then they walked back outside into the cool night air.
“Okay, that’s all of it,” he said. “Right?”
“Provided Lena comes through? Yes,” Jezebel replied.
“She’ll come through,” Cyrus said. “Now let’s go home, we have to be back up in like...six hours.”
“Yeah, let’s go home,” she said after a moment’s consideration.
They began walking back to the guild hall.
THE END
