Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

DEMONESS

THE ORIGINAL SERIES

by

Misty Vixen

DEMONESS

CHAPTER I

John Greenfield woke up drunk and for several minutes, couldn’t remember why.

He also couldn’t place where he actually was, because although the ceiling looked familiar and the bed felt familiar, it almost certainly was not his home. After a little bit, he decided that it didn’t actually matter at the moment, because his throat was so dry that he felt if he didn’t get a drink of water in the immediate future, he was going to die. It probably wasn’t true, but it didn’t matter either because that’s what his body was telling him.

John groaned thickly and sat up. Stumbling out of bed, he forced his eyes open, squinting painfully in the early morning light. Where was the water, anyway? His eye fell on his pack, discarded haphazardly at the foot of the bed, lying on its side. He took a few lurching steps towards it and dropped slowly into a crouch. His head was aching fiercely, and he was worried he might vomit. His stomach felt violent enough for it right now.

Fumbling with his pack, he got it up and reached inside. After rooting around for a moment, his hand finally wrapped around a bottle. He pulled it out and studied it briefly. Confirming it was water, he tore the cork out with his teeth, spat it onto the bed, and began drinking. He drained the entire bottle in one go.

He almost threw it all back up, but he sat down on the floor, eyes closed, breathing slowly and heavily, concentrating on not vomiting, and managed to keep it down. Slowly, he took a deep breath and let it out.

“Okay...where am I?” he muttered.

Opening his eyes, he found that the sun wasn’t quite so bright as he’d initially thought. It had that grayness to it that indicated storm clouds. It often stormed near his village. It was part of the appeal, to him at least. No rain yet, though. He surveyed the room he was in and it finally came to him: he was in his cabin.

Why was he here?

He decided he should probably try to eat something while he pulled together his memories from last night. It wasn’t like him to get blind drunk. He’d done it before, sure, but it was a very rare occurrence. Usually there was a reason behind it. Maybe not a good one, but a reason nonetheless. He wasn’t much of a drinker, honestly.

John moved across the small cabin towards the kitchen area and then stopped. Even the sight of food-related items, let alone food itself, made his stomach rumble dangerously, threatening sickness. He sighed and turned away, moving over to the washbasin instead. He crouched down to the chest on the floor beside the basin and opened it up, where several bottles of water resided. They were at least a month old, but whatever, water didn’t really go bad. He opened and drained four of them into the basin, not really feeling like going out to the well at the moment, or outside at all, and then used some of the basic magic he knew to heat the water.

After locating a washrag and a bar of soap, he stripped down naked, he’d gone to sleep fully clothed, apparently, boots and all, and began washing up. He remembered last night. He remembered...being furious. So angry it felt like his blood was boiling. No, he realized. Not just last night, but the whole day.

A lot had happened.

He remembered...a felis. A beautiful felis. He wasn’t sure of her name, it started with an H though. She had a nice tail and beautiful red-orange fur and her cat-ears were quite fetching. She was a merchant, traveling through town, and they had met at an inn he liked to eat lunch at. He’d been having lunch when it had happened.

They’d started chatting. She had been cautious, and he didn’t blame her, because this part of the country wasn’t really known for its progressive attitude towards felis and beryl. Okay, most of the country wasn’t known for that, but they had gotten on really well. John was hoping for a roll in the hay, and from the way she was smiling at him, brushing against him with her tail, he thought that maybe she was hoping for the same thing.

He loved having sex with felis. They were often extremely enthusiastic lovers.

And then one of his fellow citizens had wandered over, drunk, and started causing shit, asking the felis why the fuck didn’t she just go back to where she belonged? Asking if she was going to rob him when he wasn’t looking like all the “lying, lowlife felis fucks”? It was insanely rude even by the standards John had gotten used to among the idiot locals. So, he’d politely told the guy to fuck off. He recognized him, vaguely, as a local butcher.

Well, it had kind of just snowballed from there.

A couple of the butcher’s friends came over, and a beryl and another felis who also happened to be nearby and overheard what could hardly be called a conversation, came over as well. It wasn’t long before a fight broke out. By the time the guard got there, the butcher and his friends were on the floor, two of them passed out, and the butcher with a broken nose. Although it ended up working heavily against the felis and the beryl, the fact that the guards were pretty racist themselves actually ended up working for him. While they did arrest the two felis and the beryl, they didn’t arrest the asshole and his friends. They also didn’t arrest John.

He’d followed them to the local garrison, where they were locking the three up, intent on doling out sentences and fines to them, and John had done his best to talk them out of it, trying to explain the situation. Thankfully, the captain of the guard wasn’t a complete and utter moron, although he was kind of shitty, so after close to two hours of going back and forth, hammering all the details out, and trying to get the situation sorted out, (all of that time, of course, the three out-of-towners had been put in the local prison), he’d finally gotten the man to drop the charges and let them out on the condition that someone paid a hundred and fifty gold and they left immediately.

Frustrated, just wanting to be out of there and for them to be free, because this was fucking ridiculous, he’d paid the money himself and gotten them out of the prison as fast as he could. From there, he’d explained the situation to them, and they agreed they had no problem leaving. He ended up going with them back to the inn, (all three of them had actually been renting rooms there, and that’s where their stuff was).

Thankfully, the asshole butcher and his friends were gone.

The innkeeper hadn’t been all that happy to see them, but John had told him that they were leaving, and he’d quieted down. John kept apologizing as he helped them get their things together. That hadn’t taken too long, and the beryl, who had been a hunter, had left promptly, thanking John stiffly and heading right for the edge of town. The second felis, also a merchant, had needed a healing potion, which he’d neglected to mention until just then, and since he didn’t want to fuck around with finding one, John just given him one of the two he happened to have on him. They’d headed to the city’s edge then, but the woman he’d been talking to lingered.

She’d explained that she was desperately low on money, and kind of needed to sell some of her wares in this town, as she’d spent the last of her money on the inn. John helped her out best he could, basically buying some of her wares. She sold furs, mainly, and he knew he could resell them. After that, she’d thanked him. Then, after a bit of consideration, she’d leaned forward and given him a long, lingering kiss on the lips.

“I live up north, in Redwood,” she’d said, smiling. “If you’re ever there, come find me. And I can thank you more...personally.”

That had brought a genuine smile to his face, and he’d said that he would definitely look forward to that, and he’d watched her walk away, towards the setting sun, unable to keep from checking out her ass just a little.

It was really nice. She was in great shape.

And then he had realized that the sun was setting, and hadn’t it just been lunchtime? Frustrated, hungry, and tired, he’d gone back to the inn for a drink. He’d just wanted to get drunk, because this whole thing had him so pissed he could spit. He’d grown up in this town, had left it a few times, but always wound up coming back for one reason or another. He’d always been more attracted to other species than his own, and that was something that was hard to live with in a small town, which was what drove him away.

After heading back to the inn and grabbing a drink with what money he had left, John had half-expected to run into the butcher or his friends. But he didn’t. Instead, he ran into another idiot. By then, news of what had happened had spread across the town. Gossip often did. The guy had come in and sat next to John at the bar, asking if he’d heard about how old Rick had given some no-good, thieving fucking felis a good ass-kicking after they tried to rob him, and John had bought a bottle of heavy booze and walked out.

He’d do something stupid otherwise.

He hadn’t wanted to go home. No, he wanted to be out of this town, isolated, somewhere in the woods, and the cabin he owned was perfect.

Which took him to right now.

He’d apparently gone here on an empty stomach and drank the whole bottle. Which was why he was still kind of drunk, and on the way to a bad hangover. When he was done washing up, John shoved his worn clothes into the basin to soak for a bit. He dried off, grabbed a new outfit, and dressed. Once he had his boots laced up again, he felt a bit better. Not good, but at least on the road to decent. He grabbed another bottle of water and drank only half of it in one go this time. He still didn’t want to eat. Instead, he washed his clothes, then wrung them out and walked outside.

The clothes line was still up at least.

It was a couple hours past sunrise, and there was indeed a cloud cover overhead. The sun was peeking through, but he thought it might rain soon. That’d be nice. After hanging up his clothes, not caring if they got wetter if it did rain, John went back into the cabin and decided it was time to get some food in him.

His stomach didn’t turn over at the thought of it, at least.

He considered using his remaining healing potion, because that would actually help with the hangover that was slowly coming on, but something told him not to. His instincts. They were usually right, so he held off on it and instead began hunting through the kitchen. It had been about a month, maybe a bit longer, since he’d been here. Several of his food stuffs were bad now, and he threw them out. When he looked at what was left, nothing was particularly appealing. With a sigh, he realized he was going to have to go catch and kill something. It would take effort, but he suddenly wanted to be out of the cabin.

Yearning the fresh air, John hunted around for a bit, finding his bow and quiver, made sure it was filled with arrows, and pulled on his pack. Sufficiently ready, he headed out the back door and struck off into the forest surrounding his cabin.

…

John began to feel better as he moved out into the forest.

There was a pleasant chill to the air and he could feel the forest around him, a living thing. Peaceful and serene, for the most part. At least around here. Nothing like the Emerald Wild, far over on the east coast of the land, full of magic and monsters and chaos. He’d been there more than once, and it had certainly been fun, but he preferred his peaceful forest. For the first stretch of time, he didn’t even try to stalk anything, he just wanted to let his thoughts settle, because last night had upset him more than he’d realized.

The last few months hadn’t really been going too well for him.

It wasn’t until now that he actually realized why that was, what it was that was bothering him. His life. It was just...boring. He was thirty years old now. He’d spent the majority of those three decades in Falling Rock, for better or for worse. He’d been born here. His parents had raised him here and been a constant part of his life, until they’d died, unexpectedly, one day out on the road. It had been ten years ago. He’d stayed home to watch their house while they took a trip to the next village over. His father had been looking for a new buyer for furs and pelts, and apparently there was someone offering a good deal over there.

They’d been attacked by a pack of wolves and killed.

A traveling merchant had found their remains. It took two days for them to figure out who they were and report the situation to John. He’d gone a little numb there for awhile, having the remains brought back and burying them in the local graveyard. He still visited them, once a year. For a little while, he’d been too busy to really think. His father had been in debt, it turned out, and they had been in danger of losing the house.

Naturally, the debt fell on John’s shoulders. Whereas before he’d been one of three people with an income, paying the bills, now he was just one, and burdened with debt to boot. It had been a hectic few months after that. He remembered frantically searching both the home and the family cabin for anything of value, because he had to pay at least some portion of the debt within the next few days or they were going to boot his ass out.

He’d managed to find some gold stashed out at the cabin, and he’d been hanging onto a handful of precious gems he’d been collecting for years, and he managed to find enough odds and ends, stuff that wasn’t going to see any use anymore, and had managed to sell all that at the local market. He’d scraped together enough coin to buy himself another month. From there, he’d hunted as much as he could, and took any job that was on offer. He was at the town board every day, taking up any job, from basic roof repair to hauling trash to gardening. Within a month, he got the debt taken care of, the various coffers paid off.

Apparently, his father had something of a gambling problem.

The next month was spent getting enough coin together to pay off the past few months’ bills, which apparently hadn’t been paid either. And from there, finally, his life began to stabilize. He’d just...kept working.

John didn’t think about leaving until five years later.

He left town for three months, traveling abroad, deciding to see if he had what it took to be an adventurer. He’d plundered a few ruins, earned some good gold selling off loot he got from there and from a few bandits he’d managed to surprise on the road. Then there was the coin he’d earned protecting merchants traveling between cities.

That was where things began to get...interesting, sexually.

He’d done okay with the local women, or he thought so at least. He’d had a few longer relationships since he’d become old enough to date, and the sex ranged from boring to pretty good. But he’d always wondered what it might be like to make love with a felis, or a beryl, or an elf. And he had found out, on the road.

A beautiful felis with stunning blue eyes and the most vibrant red-orange fur he’d ever seen asked him if he’d be willing to help her clear out a cave of spiders. She was willing to split the reward. He’d agreed and afterwards, they’d collected and decided to stick together, and move on to another town. They’d stopped to make camp that night and she’d basically jumped him, and he’d learned that all his hopes were true: sex with a felis was simply stunning. And so, he’d gone on to try and pursue casual sexual relationships with a lot of women after that, felis and elves and beryl. And...a few others, during his travels.

He didn’t really talk about those. No one would understand.

But he’d come back, after that first time, because he’d made enough to pay off his house and the cabin. And he had, and had lived in a bit of luxury for a time. But the call of the wild came back to him within a year, and he left once more, for two months this time, heading north, to the Frost Mountains. And this became his life, heading out about once a year and then coming back. The only problem was...he didn’t know why he was coming back.

And that simple problem had become a big one lately.

Because he realized, all at once, that he hated Falling Rock.

He hated the small-minded idiots, the racism, the corruption among the guard, the local lord who didn’t give two shits about any of them.

So why did he come back?

Why stick around at all?

As he was contemplating this, John’s trained eyes fell across something that didn’t fit at all. He saw blood on a tree, but it wasn’t normal blood. It was very, very dark, almost black. He wasn’t sure he knew of anything that bled almost-black blood. Moving quickly and quietly, suddenly in hunter mode, his bow drawn, arrow notched, John followed the trail. Something had been injured, and judging by what his senses were telling him, it was not an animal, but something like a human or an elf. But what? He had his answer a moment later.

Stepping into a clearing, John’s eyes fell immediately onto an unconscious figure wearing a tattered gray traveling robe. He could see three arrows sticking out of the figure’s back. The feet were covered in boots, the hands gloved, and a hood hid the face. He put the arrow back and instead took out his dagger, wary. Something was weird about the hood, something poking up into the top of it, almost like...mini-antlers or something. Crouching, using the tip of the dagger, he slowly pulled the large gray hood back. He gasped, stumbling backwards.

The figure was a demon.

She was injured, being hunted. John heard a shout come from somewhere not too far away. They were looking for her.

“Shit,” John muttered after a few seconds, coming to a decision.

He sheathed the knife, knelt, carefully scooped her up, and trying to mind the arrows, he started heading back to his cabin.

The shouts seemed to be getting louder.

CHAPTER II

“What the fuck am I doing?” John whispered to himself.

He felt sick again, but this one was a totally different sickness. This was the illness born of anxiety. His head still hurt though. Looking down, John stared at the unconscious face of the demon. She wasn’t evil, and that was the only reason he was even doing this. Although just because she wasn’t flat out evil didn’t mean she might not straight-up murder his ass if she woke up now. She’d certainly passed out under less than ideal circumstances. And that also didn’t mean she didn’t have some possible hatred for humans.

He had a vague idea of the demon types and hierarchies. It had been taught to him by a succubus he’d encountered once, two years ago. An absolutely beautiful succubus named Lexi. There were, in fact, evil demons, who wanted nothing more than to murder and torture those of this realm. But they weren’t all like that. Not even succubi, who, if you believed the myths, would seduce and murder you at the drop of a hat.

Lexi hadn’t been like that at all.

She hadn’t even asked for anything in exchange for sex. She’d just liked him, she’d said, when he’d asked why she was doing this for him.

And nothing bad had come of it, so he was inclined to believe her.

What he was seeing with this demon, (or demoness, he supposed), what with the vaguely human appearance, what he now saw as horns coming out of the top of her head, the darker skin tone, the deeply black hair, all of these pointed to the fact that she was...not exactly good, per se, but her species should have no specific problem with those of this realm, and could probably be reasoned with. Unless he was mis-remembering.

Well, here’s to hoping she was reasonable.

John managed to get back to his cabin in record time. He got the front door opened and closed without putting her down. For the moment, he laid her on his bed, staring unhappily at the arrows still sticking out of her. Had to get those out of there. As he reached for the first one, he heard another shout, distant, but not distant enough. Shit! They were getting closer. He was convinced now that they were hunting the demoness.

She’d at least stopped bleeding while he’d been carrying her, so they wouldn’t have much of a trail to follow.

After a moment’s indecision, he finally moved around his bed to the other side, where he hauled open a hatch. The cabin had a basement that had once served as his parent’s bedroom. It was small and sparsely furnished, and he’d often wondered why they had their bedroom down there. As an adult, he now knew: to fuck in private. Although when he fucked the occasional felis huntress or beryl merchant here, he hadn’t had to do it in private. Actually, he hadn’t been down here in awhile, months at least. It was dark down there.

With no time to waste, he gently set her at the edge of the opening. Crawling down, he then pulled her carefully through. She was heavier than she looked. He used magic to light a candle sitting on a nearby table, then he laid her out on a dusty bed. Working fast, making sure there was nothing in the room that shouldn’t be, he snuffed out the candle, scrambled up the ladder, and closed the hatch. He pushed his bed partway over it, then quickly began stripping down until he was completely naked. The voices were definitely getting closer.

John managed to rub his eyes until they were red and grab the almost empty bottle of booze he’d brought with him before there was a heavy knock at the door. Acting miserable and hungover, (not much of an acting job right now), John cursed and made a few noises, praying to whatever God or Goddess was listening that the demoness wouldn’t wake up, and hauled the door open. He stood there, squinting in the light, butt-ass naked.

Three men in armor, not guards but hunters or mercenaries maybe, stood holding swords outside. They looked invigorated by their hunt, but upon seeing him, became at once both bewildered and distinctly uncomfortable.

“Yeah?” John grunted.

“Uh...sir...um...” The leader cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Have you, by chance, seen a demon around here just lately?”

“Demon?” John replied, squinting at him. He drained what was left of the booze, belched, wiped his mouth on the back of his arm, spat. “No. Been asleep. Haven’t seen anything.”

“Okay. Well, perhaps it’s best if you stay inside. There is a demon around. If you see anything, please, let the city guard know. They’re patrolling the area.”

“Uh-huh,” John replied.

With that, they left. Quickly.

Sighing with relief after he closed and locked the door, John waited until they were far out of sight, then quickly redressed. Double-checking to make sure his doors and windows were locked, and that no one else was around, he grabbed the healing potion, and then moved back over to the hatch. Pulling his bed aside, he lifted the hatch, then paused.

“Hello?” he asked, waiting.

No sound. Okay, she was probably still out. Either that or waiting for him down there. He poked his head down through the hole and scrutinized what he could see. She was still breathing regularly, and she seemed unconscious. Okay. John moved down the ladder and lit the candle once more. By its flickering light, he sat down carefully on the bed. He wanted to get the arrows out. Setting the healing potion far away on the floor, just in case, (he didn’t want it to break, it was his only one), he grabbed onto the first arrow shaft.

Better to do this while she was out.

As he pulled, her eyes suddenly snapped open and bright, flickering eyes of flame zeroed in on him. She let out a snarl and punched him in the face, sending him sprawling.

“Wait! Wait! I’m trying to help!” he cried.

She was on him in a blur, a knife to his throat.

“Where am I?” she growled, her voice rough.

He laid there frozen, looking up at her, his eyes wide. “You’re in my basement. My name is John. I found you unconscious in the forest less than an hour ago and men were hunting you. I brought you here and hid you, then sent them away. They don’t know you’re here. They think you’re still out there in the forest somewhere,” he said as quickly and calmly as he could, making sure to enunciate everything he said carefully.

The demoness stared at him intently, seconds ticking uncomfortably by. The blade was against his throat, but she held it with such precision that it wasn’t actually digging in. The metal was warm and sharp.

“Fine,” she said, pulling it back and sheathing the blade. She straightened up slowly, then winced, looking down at the arrows.

“I was just going to take those out. Um...I have a healing potion over there,” he said, pointing to the bottle on the floor. “...can I get up now?”

“Fine,” she repeated, and sat down heavily on the bed.

He got up slowly, carefully, and grabbed the healing potion. He turned to look at her. “The arrows. You want me to-”

She grabbed one of the arrows and yanked it out, wincing but otherwise remaining silent. “Okay then,” he murmured.

She ripped the other two out and tossed them aside, her face unreadable. He pulled the cork out of the potion and offered it to her. The demoness took it, studying him closely, then scrutinized the potion. She smelled it, then threw it back without pause. The demoness drained the entire bottle in one go, then set it back down on the floor.

“Where are we?” she asked after a bit.

“In my cabin. Um...not far from where you collapsed,” he replied.

“Is there anyone else here?”

He shook his head. “Just me. And there shouldn’t be anyone else. I mean, I’m not expecting anyone else. It’s rare, but sometimes people come knocking.”

She grunted and stared at the floor. The blood that had begun flowing from the reopened wounds was beginning to slow, but not as fast as he would have liked. Health potions were supposed to work faster than that. Maybe it was because she was a demoness. He moved slowly over and sat down in the only chair in the room.

Neither of them spoke.

“Um...would you...like anything?” he asked cautiously.

The demoness sighed. “I require food,” she replied quietly.

“Okay. I can do that. Can you eat food from this, uh, realm?”

“Yes. Meat, preferably.”

“Okay, perfect. I’m a hunter, so I can make that happen without too much trouble.” He stood up and she tensed slightly. “Uh...I’m perfectly okay with you staying here, but if you want or need to, I mean, I won’t stop you from leaving.”

“I am injured and weak,” she replied. “This is the most logical place for me right now.”

“Okay, fair enough. Would you like to come upstairs?”

“It will be safer if I stay out of sight.”

“That makes sense. All right. I’ll...I’m going to close the hatch, but it won’t be locked or blocked, so if you have to, you can come up.” He moved over to the ladder, then hesitated. He turned to look at her. She stared back inscrutably. “My name’s John.” Had he told her his name already? He suddenly couldn’t remember.

This was all happening so fast.

She stared at him a moment longer. “Yelena,” she said finally.

“It’s, um, good to meet you.”

“And you,” she replied, not quite meeting his eyes. He decided it would be less awkward if he left, so he climbed the ladder.

…

This was pretty insane.

John had no idea what he was doing, but as he began stalking once more through the forest, (rain was definitely on the way), he noticed that he wasn’t upset anymore. He was nervous and excited and a little afraid, but he wasn’t pissed off or depressed any longer. He felt like he was doing something now, like his life, however temporary, had shape.

He was also realizing that yes, he could, in fact, be attracted to demons.

Being sexually attracted to elves and felis and beryl wasn’t really that weird, at least he didn’t think so. It was taboo, but most people didn’t actually freak out about it. Sleeping with dryads and mermaids and harpies, on the other hand, was...not technically forbidden, but certainly a damn sight more dangerous than the ‘civilized’ species in terms of letting someone know. Telling the story about that one time you met a pretty dryad lady on a solo hunting trip deep in the woods and ended up making passionate love with her, (not once but four times), was liable to get you thrown out and reviled by your neighbors.

Having sex with a literal demon, on the other hand?

They might actually kill him for that.

But did he care? And did it even matter? Although he thought Yelena was quite striking, he very seriously doubted she felt the same way about him. Even if she hated him, (he didn’t think she did, she just seemed wary of him, which was perfectly understandable), he didn’t have a problem with letting her stay in his cabin while she healed up. He didn’t even mind spending coin on her to help her. As crazy as it sounded, she’d given his directionless life a direction. And that just felt fucking good, not just to have a purpose but also to help someone.

Even if that someone was a demoness.

John spied a rabbit, froze, aimed, waited, then fired. The arrow sailed true and killed the rabbit instantly. A good, clean kill.

As he grabbed the rabbit and moved on, he spied another, not too far away.

He hoped Yelena liked rabbit.

…

He ended up catching four rabbits and by that point was too hungry to keep going.

After getting back to the cabin, he skinned and cleaned them, then started a fire in the backyard in the pit and skewered them, then set the skewer slowly spinning with a simple spell he’d learned awhile ago, and then he headed inside.

“It’s John!” he called as he closed the door. That’s all he needed, for her to freak out and hit him again. Or worse.

He moved over to the hatch and opened it up. “You okay down there?”

“Fine,” Yelena replied.

He’d half expected her to be gone, actually. “I’m cooking up the meat right now. It shouldn’t be too long. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” she repeated. She seemed to like that word. She was lying on the bed. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed like she might have been sleeping.

“Did your wounds stop bleeding?”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“Sorry. Just...trying to be helpful,” he said. He thought for a moment if he was forgetting anything. A thought occurred to him. “Do you want to wash up?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back.”

It took a little bit, but he drew a bucket of water from the well, heated it up, then carefully lowered it in through the hole and onto the bare stone floor of the basement. He then got her a washrag and a bar of soap.

“I’ll be up here,” he said.

“Fine,” she replied.

He closed the hatch, then moved back outside and checked on the rabbits. They seemed to be coming along nicely. John looked up at the sky, staring at the gray clouds that were moving in. A chilled wind blew through the area. A layer of uncertainty fell across him. There was a demon woman in his basement washing up, and he was making them both breakfast. He had lied to cover for her before he’d even exchanged a single sentence with her. And yet...he didn’t regret it. He wasn’t very nervous, either.

John supposed this was one of those situations where you just had to let it play out and deal with it as it happened.

After a little while, the meal was finished. He doused the flame and brought the rabbits inside. He looked through his selection of drinks and finally just settled on a pair of bottles of water. He then set the small table, two rabbits for each of them. As he finished up, he heard the hatch opening up and turned to face her.

Yelena came up out of the basement completely naked.

Judging from the absolute lack of attempting to cover herself in any way, it was apparent that she had done this intentionally. He tried very hard not to look at her, to check her out, but for a few seconds he couldn’t help it.

She had a very nice body.

It was trim and spare, the muscles well defined and wiry, though her thighs had a pleasant thickness to them, her hips a nice roundness. Her breasts, topped by dark nipples, were somewhere between small and medium.

He also noted two other distinct features about her.

She had a thin, black, prehensile tail, and she had polished black hooves for feet.

“Um, hi,” he said.

“Hello,” she replied, standing up fully now that she was free of the hatch and the basement. She momentarily studied her wounds. They had stopped bleeding, though they didn’t look closed entirely. He was surprised to see that she was actually taller than him, maybe six-foot two or three. “It’s colder up here,” she said, looking at him.

“I...um, let me get you some bandages for those wounds, and some clothes,” he said.

“I would appreciate it.” She didn’t seem so...hostile wasn’t the right word, standoffish, maybe, or wary. She’d been a bit stiff and terse before, but she seemed marginally more relaxed now, a bit more casual. And apparently very casual if she was okay with walking around completely naked. As he gathered up the supplies, he was unable to keep from noting that demon women apparently did not have any pubic hair.

Or maybe she just kept it shaved.

“I could bandage those for you,” he said as he got his rarely used medicine bag out. Healing potions normally did the trick for almost everything.

“If you wish,” she replied. Even calmer, her voice still sounded rough and kind of dangerous. She laid down on her side on his bed and he came to sit beside her. It felt very strange. He cleaned and bandaged her wounds as quickly and proficiently as he could. To her credit, she didn’t wince or make a noise. Once that was done, he gave her a pair of his pants and a long-sleeved shirt. They just about fit her, he saw after she’d pulled them on.

The pair of them then sat down at the table and began to eat.

Neither of them spoke through most of the meal, but eventually, John’s curiosity got the better of him and he asked her the question he’d been thinking about for awhile now.

“So...Yelena. How did you, uh...end up in this situation?”

She looked up at him, and her expression suggested she’d been expecting this. “I came to this realm the previous night,” she replied. “I was looking for something. I ran afoul of one of your awful bear creatures. It...surprised me. Clawed me. I ran and ended up hiding in a small cave. I healed myself, but it took most of my magical reserves. When the morning came, I continued looking for...what I was looking for in the first place, and again ran afoul of something. Men. I believe they might have been hunters. They tried to kill me. I ran, they gave chase. I was still weak from the bear attack, so they managed to shoot me with their arrows.”

“I’m sorry,” John murmured.

She shrugged. “It is what it is.”

“What...were you looking for?”

“Something personal,” she replied sharply.

Okay, so, they weren’t going to talk about that.

“I have a question for you now,” she said after a moment of silence.

“Yes?”

“Why did you save me?”

He had been considering that. He was sure she would ask, and he’d been piecing together an explanation. Even he wasn’t entirely sure. “Well, a few practical reasons, I guess. The first is that I’m decent at identifying demons and which ones are outright violent towards humans and which ones only might be. You fell into the second category. The second was that I’m...not too fond of my fellow humans at the moment. And, I mean, I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“How did you know I would not simply attack you when I woke up?”

“You did attack me when you woke up.”

“That was reflexive.”

“I know. And I know what you’re asking. The short answer is: I didn’t. I just...had a good feeling about you, I guess. Or at least not a bad feeling.”

Yelena scrutinized him silently for several moments. “Fine,” she said, apparently accepting this answer. “I...require something from you.”

“What?”

“I need a safe place to stay. The combined efforts of traveling to this realm and healing myself, and dealing with those hunters, has left me magically drained. I will need time, and a safe place to stay, to reclaim the magic naturally, enough to get back to my own realm.”

“How long?” he asked.

She paused for just barely longer than she should have if it had been a natural answer, and he thought she might be lying. “One week.”

Well, even if she was lying, what difference did it make right now?

“I’m okay with that. You can stay here. I’ll help you out however I can,” he replied.

“Thank you,” she said flatly, as though saying it was a difficulty. She looked away for a moment. “As you are offering me a service, I am honor-bound to offer something in return.”

“You don’t have to,” he replied.

Now she stared at him intently. “I am honor-bound.”

Well, this seemed important to her. One part of him, a deeper, darker part of him, whispered that he should ask for sex. He’d be lying if he claimed it wasn’t very tempting. But he didn’t, and he wouldn’t. He’d never tried to trap or trick someone into having sex with him. If he was going to be making love, he wanted it to be with an enthusiastic and consenting partner. Besides, he doubted she’d react well to it.

“I, uh...can’t really think of anything. How about you let me think on it today, and I’ll let you know what I come up with?” he suggested.

“Very well,” she replied.

They kept eating.

CHAPTER III

The rest of the day passed with relative speed.

After breakfast, John had started feeling embarrassed about the state of his cabin. Since Yelena seemed intent on doing something to help out, he asked if she would sharpen his dagger, which she began doing immediately. He started cleaning up his cabin, disposing of the refuse, putting things where they belonged, he even made his bed. When Yelena finished with the sharpening and all but demanded something else to do, he gave her her cloak and gloves back and had her draw water from the well to refill some empty bottles.

It felt weird, assigning her tasks, (although really he was just asking her to do stuff), but he also understood where she was coming from. He’d hate to be in the care of someone else and not be pulling his own weight. He hated feeling useless, not having anything to do. While she did that, he ended up going down into the basement and cleaning it up, since she was going to be down there. Though there wasn’t much to do besides a little organization and dusting, he did decide to wash the blanket and sheets.

Besides having a little bit of her blood on them, they hadn’t been washed in probably a year or so. After he washed them and hung them out to dry, the two of them went out into the backyard and spent awhile pulling up weeds.

They slowly got to know each other as they worked.

He mostly told her about his own life, such as it was, because she seemed more liable to ask questions than answer them. But she did answer some. He learned that her original name was something that couldn’t be pronounced by anyone in this realm, and that she was fairly old, though clearly she didn’t look it. He learned that most of her time was spent defending her realm from invaders, as two demon clans were at war, but that the rival clan had finally, after several decades, yielded, after sustaining heavy losses at a large-scale battle recently.

She also said that, in the wake of nearly constant combat, (the war ended about nine months ago), she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself, and had been trying to indulge herself recently. Though when he probed a little further on that, she wouldn’t say what she was indulging in. He also learned that she was a fairly frequent visitor to his realm. In that she visited, in some capacity, about once a year.

Which was pretty frequent compared to most demons, she explained, who often went centuries or their entire lives without ever coming here. Most saw no reason to. And so, they chatted, pulling up weeds, until it was well past noon and there were no more weeds to pull from the backyard. So, the two of them went back inside.

“Are you an obligate carnivore?” he asked. She just stared at him. “Do you have to eat meat?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Okay. I don’t have anything left, so I’ll have to get to hunting. Do you want to come with me?” he asked.

“I do not think that would be wise,” she replied.

“No, I guess not. Okay, I’m going to go hunting. I’ll try not to be too long.”

“What should be done in your absence?”

“Um...well, I never got a chance to organize the kitchen. Would you be willing to do that?” She seemed both amused and annoyed that he posed everything as a question.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Okay. I’ll be back.”

He grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows and left.

…

Part of the reason he needed to leave, and he was grateful that she didn’t want to come with him, was that he was actually becoming more attracted to her. It was strange, but not unprecedented. Yes, she was a demoness, but she was beautiful, and very interesting. Obviously intelligent. He met women who he was attracted to and would like to make love with often. But every now and then, there were those who captivated him, who almost drove him crazy with desire. There was something about Yelena that called to him in a deep and primal way. Maybe because she was a demoness. He was almost intoxicated by her presence.

He wanted to make love with her so badly.

Of course, he had no idea if she felt anything similar for him, or if she found him barely tolerable, or even just unattractive. Or if she was even into sex with anyone outside her own species. Or sex at all. She seemed to be warming to him, a little, but she was also very difficult to read. Another thing he was noticing, seemingly unrelated, was that it was definitely getting a lot colder. That storm was drawing ever closer.

He relished it. Relished the rain, the wind, the comfort of being indoors during heavy rainfall.

John spotted a deer.

He set to work.

…

He killed two deer and three rabbits, and spent a little while hauling them back to the cabin. No easy task, but he managed it. By the time he was done skinning, cleaning, preparing, and then storing the meat in a sealed container he put a cold spell on, (one he’d have to remember to renew once a week or the meat would eventually go bad), it was past dinnertime. He skewered and cooked one of the rabbits and some of the deer meat, then washed up and prepared the table. He was surprised to find the kitchen extremely well organized.

It wasn’t necessarily that he thought the task was beyond her, it was more than he wasn’t sure it was something that would translate too well from human-to-demon. What he found logical and organized might not necessarily be the same as what she found logical and organized. But no, the kitchen was cleaned and squared away.

At this point, he felt bad that he only had menial tasks for her. He wished he could give her something more substantial, and it was only going to get worse, for both of them really, because there wouldn’t be a whole lot to do after today, since they’d both worked so hard and gotten a lot of the immediate, basic stuff out of the way.

As they ate dinner, he noticed that Yelena seemed suddenly quiet and, if he didn’t know any better, awkward. Could demons be awkward? They didn’t really talk much, and he wondered if he’d done or said something to upset her. Or if maybe something had happened while he’d been away hunting.

A little bit after dinner, he found out why she was so awkward.

“I have another request,” she said.

“What is it?” he replied.

Night was coming on a little prematurely. The rain was almost upon them and the storm clouds blocked out what sun there was left. He’d lit some candles.

“I think it would be safest if I slept downstairs. It is colder in your realm than it is in mine. Noticeably. And while I am able to ward it off for the most part while I am awake and active, this is not so when I sleep. Body heat will help with this. Would you be willing to share a bed with me?” she asked, not quite meeting his eyes.

He said yes almost immediately. He could have told her a couple different logical counter-arguments. That the basement was naturally very warm. That an extra blanket or two would help. But he didn’t want to, because he thought the argument was kind of flimsy, and more so, he thought that she thought the argument was flimsy, and she wanted to share a bed with him, but needed a pretense to do so, and in fact gave him a way to say no by offering her extra blankets. He was glad. Maybe this would lead somewhere.

Or maybe he was totally reading way too much into this and she had her own reasons for asking this that had nothing to do with intimacy and sex.

He hoped that wasn’t true, though.

He really wanted to make love with her.

“Thank you,” she said, still not quite meeting his eyes.

After they finished dinner, he washed the dishes and put them out to dry, then took a moment to straighten up the cabin just a little bit more, including bringing in the laundry from outside. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and lightning flared occasionally, seen as white flashes against the windows in the cabin. No rain though, not yet. He felt like he was stalling a little bit, even though he was really tired at this point. It had been a really long day, longer than he’d anticipated. But he could almost sense that Yelena wanted to go down there. She didn’t actually say anything, or even give him any specific looks. She just sat at the table, waiting. But he could feel it.

He yawned unexpectedly. “I guess we should go to sleep,” he said. “Are you tired?”

“Yes,” she replied simply, standing up.

“Okay. Why don’t you head down, and I’ll be there in a moment? I want to make sure the cabin is secure,” he said.

“A good idea.”

She headed for the hatch and began to crawl down into the basement area. John moved through the cabin, checking that the windows and doors were secured and locked firmly, and looking out into the darkness that surrounded them.

Nothing seemed to be out there.

He put out the candles, and now all he could see was a mellow glow coming from the hatch. Well...now it was time to do this. To go down into the basement of his cabin and lay in bed with an actual demoness and sleep. He swallowed, nervous suddenly, and then moved down the ladder. Pulling the hatch closed behind him, he hesitated, then locked it. Having her here made him paranoid. Not of her, he wasn’t nervous because he thought she was going to hurt him, (probably), but because men were looking for her.

As he stepped off the ladder, he saw that she was already beneath the blankets, looking at him with her flickering eyes.

“I am not going to hurt you,” she said, when she saw him staring back at her.

“I didn’t think you were going to,” he replied awkwardly. He sat down on the bed and pulled his boots off.

“You are different from most in this realm. Most from the ‘civilized’ areas, anyway. The settlements. My kind are not nearly so reviled among the natural kind,” Yelena said.

“Well...I try,” he murmured, then reached out and put out the candle.

There was still a sullen, faintly flickering glow in the room. It was her eyes.

“You are succeeding,” she said.

He didn’t know what to say to that, so he simply got beneath the blankets and put his head on the pillows. The bed was not a large one.

“John?”

“Yes?”

“How did you get this cabin?”

He considered her question for a moment, wondering if she wanted to keep talking because she was interested, or maybe because she was nervous, and realized he didn’t mind talking some more either. Although he was quite tired.

He rolled over, laid on his back, stared up at the wood-cut ceiling. “It was my parent’s originally,” he replied. “And before them, my grandparent’s. We each inherited it.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Dead.”

“I am sorry.”

“So am I, but it was a long time ago...what about your parents?”

“It is...complicated.”

“Fair enough.”

They laid there in silence for a bit longer, until Yelena spoke up again. This time, she sounded cautious again. “Are you...mated?” she asked.

“Mated?”

“With someone else...uh, romantically?”

“Oh. No. I’m not. I haven’t been for a little while now.”

“I did not think so. I imagine having someone like me in your cabin would prove difficult to explain to a lover...why have you remained alone?”

“I guess it’s because of a few reasons,” he replied, thinking it over. He realized that the glow of her eyes had softened a bit. Or maybe he’d just adjusted to the light. “A lot of women in town are married, uh, mated. Those that are single...I dunno, I don’t really get along with. We tend to have conflicting ideals,” he explained.

“Oh. Then, do you...what is the phrase your people use? Hmm. Ah, yes. Do you sleep around, then?” she asked.

He glanced over at her. “That’s kind of a personal question,” he replied. He wasn’t offended, more surprised than anything else.

“If you do not want to answer, just say so,” she replied in much the same tone.

He issued a small laugh. “Fair enough. Yes, I do. We get travelers through town, and some of them are women, and those who travel around a great deal tend to enjoy one-night stands or casual sex. And so do I...I guess that’s another thing I have trouble with. Almost everyone who lives in my town is of my own race.”

“You are attracted to other races?”

“Yes. Most definitely,” he replied.

They laid there in silence once more. He was beginning to fall asleep, his eyelids heavy. John drifted, hearing only his own breathing and the soft respiration of the demoness beside him. He wasn’t sure how long he laid like that, perched at the precipice of sleep, waiting for her to say the next thing. She didn’t say anything though.

She did something.

He felt something on his chest and came slowly awake, out of the gray half-sleep he’d been in. It was very warm, and a little rough.

It was Yelena’s hand, she’d reached up under his shirt and was caressing his bare chest. His heart skittered in excitement.

“John?” she whispered.

“Yes?” he replied very softly.

“Is this what you want?” she asked, and she moved closer to him, then she pulled her hand out of his shirt and instead slipped it into his pants. He gasped in surprised as she wrapped her long fingers around his cock, which was already fully on its way to hard. Her skin wasn’t just warm, it was hot. “Do you wish for me to pleasure you?” she whispered.

Her face was close to his now.

“I want to make love with you, Yelena, yes,” he replied, trying to get a grip on himself. His lust was almost overwhelming now, his desire to be within her, to her feel her moving against him, to hear her voice moaning in sexual gratification so powerful. “But only if you want to. I don’t want you to do this if you don’t want to do it. I don’t want you to feel like you have to, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, and now he was looking at her, looking into those flaming eyes. “I want it,” she said simply.

And then he was kissing her. He had never kissed a demoness before. A succubus, yes. He didn’t really classify them as the same thing. Here, he was kissing a real demoness, a warrior woman. She moved against him in the near darkness of the basement bedroom. He put his hand up beneath the loose shirt he’d given her to wear, remembering seeing her breasts. He’d wondered how they would feel, how well his hand would fit around them.

Now he knew.

They were firm, a little rough, (her skin wasn’t as rough as he thought it might be), and they fit very nicely into his grasp. Her nipple was hard against his palm. He squeezed gently. Yelena pushed her tongue into his mouth.

It was forked and narrower than he was familiar with, and that just made the kiss in the dark that much more exciting and intoxicating. He was kissing a demoness. Her lips felt good against his and as he began to pull her shirt, (his shirt), up and off her, they broke the kiss for the second it took to get the thing off of her. She tossed it aside and resumed kissing him, pulling him closer to her, and then they paused once more as he took off his own shirt.

Now there was skin on skin contact and it was wonderful.

And she was massaging his cock slowly, skillfully, with her wonderful fingers.

She was hot, very hot, hotter than any woman he’d been with. So being cold really must be a problem with her.

The kissing became more heated as he wrapped his arms around her, feeling her breasts against his bare skin, and her hands on his back. She was breathing more heavily now, panting almost. Acting on some unspoken agreement, they stopped kissing and each quickly got their pants off. Once they were both completely naked, she growled and pulled him on top of her. “Mount me, human!” she almost snarled.

Her eyes were brighter now, much brighter, no doubt fueled by lust.

“Is there anything we have to worry about?” he asked as she spread her legs. “I mean, I think I have protection around here somewhere.”

“There is no need for protection,” she replied, and reached down between them. She gripped his cock, hard as tempered steel now, and placed it at the entrance of her demoness vagina, then wrapped her long legs around him and squeezed.

They both moaned as he penetrated her.

This was really happening, he thought as he pushed deeper into her. He was actually inside a demoness.

He was inside of her.

He’d expected her, for some reason, not to be too wet. But this was not the case. She was very wet, and if she was hot on the outside, then holy shit was she hot on the inside. He had never felt so much heat inside of a woman before.

“Oh, Yelena!” he moaned as he buried his entire length into her.

“Yes,” she growled, staring up at him, her eyes flaring in the darkness. “Fuck me. Do not hold anything back!”

Her voice was almost a harsh rasp and he could sense that she was as lust-ridden and horny as he was just then.

John didn’t hold back.

He began to furiously fuck her, sliding rapidly in and out of her demon pussy, feeling that raw heat, that incredibly wetness, that insane taut tightness to her vagina as he did. The drag of her bare skin against his own was pleasure that was out of this world. He wasn’t tired anymore, he was fully awake and aware and alive.

And he was kind of catching vibes from Yelena, who seemed to like her sex rough, almost animalistic, primal. She was grunting and growling, her legs still wrapped tightly around him as he fucked her. He grunted along with her, kissing her roughly.

“Give me your seed,” she groaned. “Give it to me. I want it. I want it inside of me.”

“Oh, fuck...” he gasped. That was one of those things that just triggered him, that didn’t just push him over the edge, but threw him. He wanted to make her come, too, though. Even as he was thinking it, she let out a guttural growling scream as he felt hot sex juices begin to spray out of her vagina, coating his balls and inner thighs.

He let go.

He gave her his seed.

Groaning loudly, crying out and giving voice to his own pleasure, he felt that first hard contraction of the orgasm come to him, hitting him like a hammer striking an anvil. Sparks of pure bliss flared within him, an eruption, like a lightning strike, and began to overwhelm him. The orgasm was powerful, intense, far more so than any he’d had in recent memory. He cried out her name in the darkness, feeling her begin to twist and writhe against him, in the throes of her own climax. Her vaginal muscles were trembling and squeezing as she continued to come. Those muscles were massaging his cock, clenching around it, forcing him to orgasm even harder. The pleasure robbed him of his other senses to a certain degree.

Faintly, he could hear her, and he loved the sound her rough voice made as she growled and yelled in ecstasy.

The orgasm continued, transporting him to a realm of pure bliss, of rapture. It felt too good. Waves upon waves of pleasure pulsed through his body, a new wave sent out with each fresh violent jerk of his cock, spitting out another thick spray of his seed into her. They each reacted to the other, their orgasms a primal dance of sexual gratification and intense pleasure, bathing them both in bliss and ecstatic release.

John didn’t know how long he came, but it felt like a long time.

When it was over, he came back down from the orgasm slowly. He found himself gasping for breath, hot and sweaty all over, Yelena holding him tightly, wrapped around him. She was in an equal state and for several minutes, the two of them simply laid there together in the darkness, entwined with each other.

“That was amazing,” he whispered, finally breaking the silence. His softening cock was still inside of her. He liked it in there.

“Yes,” she agreed. “Truly amazing.”

He yawned, suddenly, and felt a wave of exhaustion come crashing down on him. Carefully, he pulled out of her, and she released him.

“Do you want to wash up?” he asked, yawning again.

“No. I do not want to move. I wish to sleep,” she replied quietly.

“Me too.”

She laid on her side, facing away from him, and he immediately pressed himself up against her, placing an arm almost protectively over her and holding her against him. Yelena settled more firmly against him, her somewhat rough skin hot and comfortable.

He realized, as he began to drift off, that it had finally begun to rain. He could hear the raindrops tapping faintly overhead.

And that was how they fell asleep.

CHAPTER IV

John opened his eyes.

For a moment, he didn’t have the faintest idea of where he was. He remembered waking up in a similar predicament not all that long ago...yesterday, in fact. Gods, that had only been yesterday. So where was he this morning?

In the basement. Yes.

Right after he’d made love with-

He realized that he was alone in the bed. Where was Yelena? Had she decided to leave? Had something happened to her? He heard a floorboard creak overhead and pulled the blankets back. No weapons down here, why hadn’t he thought to bring something down? Moving as silently as he could, he slipped up the ladder and through the hatch.

All the tension went out of him when he saw Yelena’s naked backside, (wow, she really did have an amazing ass), and he relaxed.

“Hey,” he said, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. Once intimacy had been experienced, and the woman who he had been intimate with was still around, he tended to get affectionate with them, and for the most part this was well received. He felt her tense briefly. “Are you okay? Should I...not hug you?” he asked.

“No, it is fine,” she replied, and laid a hand over the back of his, as if to prove it. “I am just not used to...affection. Typically, my relationships, such as they are, are brief and passionate, furious sex and nothing more.”

“Do you like affection?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I have not experienced much of it.”

“Well, I’m very affectionate,” he said, and hugged her, then kissed along the back of her neck. She shuddered briefly.

“That is...very nice,” she whispered.

“What are you doing?” he asked. She was standing in front of the basin. He let go of her and readjusted his grip, beginning to massage her shoulders.

“Oh...that feels nice,” she murmured, stopping what she was doing for a moment. He felt her tail drifting back and forth, brushing his thighs. “I woke up earlier and you seemed very...content to continue sleeping. And I did not wish to wake you. I was restless, so I decided to wash my cloak, and our clothes from last night.”

“Thank you, I really appreciate that,” he replied.

They fell silent for a little bit. He stopped massaging her, and then she turned slowly around, staring at him with her glowing eyes. She looked a little...grave. Sure enough, she asked a heavy question. “Do you regret last night?”

“What? No, of course not,” he replied. “...why, do you?”

“No, not at all,” she answered. “I just...I have not, traditionally, had much success when fornicating with beings of this realm.”

“Have you tried a lot?”

“I have tried several times.” She turned back around suddenly. “I have finishing washing these. Perhaps we should hang them out to dry.”

“That sounds like a good idea, provided it isn’t still raining outside. And then we can make ourselves some breakfast.”

“That sounds like a great idea. I am quite hungry,” Yelena replied.

John pulled on some boxers and traveling pants, then gave Yelena another set of his clothes. He poked his head out and saw that although it wasn’t raining, the sky was still gray and overcast. He decided to risk it, because worst case scenario, they’d just get...wetter. Or, he supposed, they could get tossed off the line by the wind and thrown into the dirt, but then they’d just wash them again. Not really a big deal.

As soon as they’d wrung the clothes and cloak out and hung them up, they pulled several cuts of venison and rabbit out of the cold storage. This time, he decided to fire up the wood stove in the kitchen and he laid them to cook in two skillets.

“I’m going to have to make a trip to town at some point. I’m craving bacon and eggs. And milk. And maybe I should get you some clothes of your own.”

“You do not have to, I can keep wearing my own,” she replied.

“I don’t mind. The only thing left I have to spend coin on is paying taxes on the land I own, and that’s not overwhelming or anything. I do everything else myself.”

“Do you now?” she asked.

He glanced back at her. “Yeah. Why?”

She had a small smile. “It is an attractive quality.”

“Oh...” he couldn’t help but return the smile. “Well, thanks. You’ve got several attractive qualities of your own.”

“I am pleased to hear that.”

They finished making breakfast after that, then sat down across from each other at the table, eating their meals silently. He noticed that she was a lot less tense, far more relaxed, today. He was glad. She seemed very nice.

“I would like to talk about why I was here now,” Yelena said suddenly.

He looked up. She’d finished her meal. “Okay. I’m ready to listen,” he replied.

“I have always had a keen interest in fornicating with beings from this realm. Elves. Felis. Beryl. Dryads and werewolves, too. But humans have always been my favorite. I do not know why. Perhaps because they are the most elusive, the most difficult to bed.”

He snorted. “Was I disappointing because I was so easy?”

She smirked. “No. Last night was not disappointing. But that is why I was here. Since the war is over and we find ourselves with more time, I have decided to indulge in my more deviant desires. So yes, I was here looking to get fucked.”

“Well...big success then,” he replied.

She nodded. “Yes. I agree. I think...” She hesitated.

“You think?”

“It is tempting to believe that Bliss was watching out for me. Given the way events played out yesterday...and last night.”

“I could see it,” he replied.

“I just want to confirm, though, that you are okay with continuing this...sexual relationship, such as it is,” she said.

“I’m thrilled to continue this relationship. I really want to keep having sex with you,” he replied, and she grinned at him.

“And you have not even seen what I can do with my mouth,” she said.

“And you haven’t seen what I can do with mine,” he replied, and she raised an eyebrow.

“Shall we find out?” she asked.

“Yes. But we should wash up first.”

“That is a good point.”

The two of them quickly stripped back down and moved over to the washbasin. He could feel his whole body awakening in response to this new sexual experience he was going to be engaging in. He was kind of dating a demon now, or really just being friends with benefits. This was really happening. And she was amazing in bed. The sex session last night had been one of the most pleasurable, invigorating sessions he’d had in years.

Possibly his entire life.

As soon as they were clean, the two of them hurried back downstairs, getting down the ladder as fast as they could. They all but dove into the bed, both of them clearly eager for the engagement. They were kissing again, and it was wonderful, even better than before. Last night, he’d been exhausted and in an almost dreamlike state and it had been dark. But now it was better lit, and he was awake and aware and so turned on.

He ran his hands over her body as they made out and she slowly began to slide her long, forked tongue into his mouth, seeking his own and, upon finding it, twining together with it. Her body was a little rough and very fit. She clearly worked out a great deal, though her body was built more for speed rather than strength.

She was wonderful to touch, to kiss.

He never thought it would be like this with a demoness, not that he’d ever actually thought he would get to do this with a demoness.

Almost without thinking about it, he pushed her onto her back, a little roughly. He wasn’t sure why he’d done that. There was something about her that brought out his rough side. He wasn’t a stranger to getting rough in bed.

“Sorry,” he said, breathing heavily now.

“Do not be. Be rough with me,” she replied, her voice almost a growl now, as it had been last night, her eyes wide and flickering.

“All right,” he replied. “Spread your fucking legs.”

She spread her long legs for him. He got down in between them, now getting to see her pussy up close for the first time. It looked basically like other vaginas he’d seen, it was just a different color, much more dark pink he saw as he carefully spread the lips with his thumbs. And her lips were smooth and very taut.

Her clit was a pale pink color.

Time to see what it took to make a demoness come.

He stuck his tongue out and touched the tip of it to her clit. She groaned, a low sound that was almost a growl, and he felt her body shudder in response. Good. She seemed sensitive. He began to massage it slowly, gently, with the tip of his tongue and she moaned again, louder this time. He slowly began to increase the pressure and speed with which he tongued her clit. Before long, he had her panting and moaning loudly.

“John,” she gasped, reaching down and laying a hand across the back of his head. “You are very skilled with your tongue.”

He continued pleasuring her orally, stimulating her as best he could, going faster and faster, using more of his tongue. Soon he was licking rapidly at her clit, and then he was using his lower lip, getting more of her sensitive skin.

Then he slipped a finger into her tight, wet opening.

“Oh yes!” she shrieked as he began pushing up, and he was glad to find that her sensitive areas were the same as other women he’d been with. He pressed up rapidly into it, fucking her with his finger, pleasuring her intensely.

“I am orgasming!” she screamed.

And he pulled back, continuing to finger her as she came. He felt her muscles begin to clench around his finger, as though trying to suck it into her pussy. And then there was the release, as she screamed in pleasure, her rough voice filling the basement, (fuck, he hoped no one was nearby, she was being really loud), and a very hot spray of demoness sex juices escaped her, getting all over the bed and his wrist and forearm.

She orgasmed for a good half a minute, her whole body convulsing and clenching and twitching in absolute release, total bliss.

When it was over, she fell back against the bed, gasping for breath.

“That was amazing,” she whispered between gasps. “John, you are amazing.”

“Thank you,” he replied.

She sat up. “I have to pleasure you now. I want to give you as good an orgasm as you just gave me,” she said.

“I’d love that,” he replied.

They switched places, him laying down where she just had. He could feel a wet spot where her pussy had been and figured he’d have to wash the blanket again. Whatever, he didn’t care. He loved making women orgasm. Yelena got down in between his legs, grinning up at him, her flaming eyes flickering powerfully now. He’d become familiar with that grin, that almost feral, primal grin of lust and ‘I’m going to so fucking make you come and you belong to me right now’. That grin. Yelena was definitely the best at getting that feeling of almost primal lust across, like she was precariously balanced between desire and craziness.

She opened her mouth and her long, forked tongue snaked out. She wrapped it around the head of his cock, and he gasped slightly at the heat he felt now encasing it. And then she began to move her tongue, which was now longer than any human woman’s could possibly get, and more prehensile, around the head of his dick, massaging it with small but powerful motions, stimulating the whole thing all at once.

“Oh my-holy fuck, Yelena!” he moaned as the pleasure slammed into him like a drug, like a lightning bolt, like a gale force gust of wind.

He’d never felt anything like this before, except maybe in his dreams and fantasies. Yelena had a deeply satisfied look on her face, her eyes locking with his as she continued to massage just the head of his dick, all the most sensitive parts of it, with her tongue. There was a certain look in her gaze, something that said, ‘Right now, I fucking own you, I lay claim to you, I alone control your pleasure’, and that look was so true because right now, he felt like hers, and she felt like his. They belonged to each other, in this tiny basement bedroom, hidden away from a world that would condemn, violently condemn, their coupling.

And then she took it up to the next level.

Still massaging his cock with her long tongue, she opened her mouth a little wider and then took his whole dick into it. Her lips wrapped firmly around the shaft, she began to bob her head, and still she was using that impossible tongue of hers. He groaned loudly as she did this, and then she reached up and took his balls in her hand. Her skin was hot, really hot, and she began to gently massage his balls in her grasp, slow and sensual and very deliberate. This was getting insane. This was, easily, the best blowjob he’d ever had.

John liked to think that he’d built up some sexual endurance in his time. He was no stranger to sex, or long sessions, but also knew that there were some things that just blew through your endurance and the tricks you could use to keep yourself from getting off. One of the most powerful and potent of these was making love with a brand new woman. There was a deep, intense excitement in making love with someone for the very first time.

And Yelena was new to him, not just because they’d met just yesterday, but also because she was a literal fucking demon from an infernal plane.

And oh Gods she could suck dick like the divine Goddess of Love and Sex, Bliss, Herself.

“I’m going to come!” he cried.

Before he could even finish the sentence, his orgasm exploded within him. He cried out, yelling hoarsely in raw pleasure as the first of his seed began to leave him in one, hard contraction, shooting right into her willing, waiting demoness mouth. And fuck, she was still sucking! And still massaging his balls! It was too much for him. He was panting and moaning in desperate pleasure as his cock kicked over and over and over again, each time releasing a fresh, powerful spurt of his seed. And each convulsion sent out a fresh wave of blissful ecstasy, filling him like a pink light, like some kind of magic.

John didn’t know how long he laid there moaning and coming. He only knew that Yelena continued sucking the entire time.

She sucked his cock dry, and swallowed everything.

She even kept sucking after he was done, and then she slowly pulled her pressed together lips along the still rigid length of his dick, sucking as she did, getting every last drop out. “There,” she said, sitting up, grinning broadly at him.

“Yes. There,” he gasped. “I mean, just...holy shit.”

“Was I good?” she asked.

“Yelena, that was the single best blowjob I’ve ever had in my entire life. Like...by several magnitudes,” he replied.

“You are not just saying this, are you?”

“No. Gods no. I mean it. I really mean it,” he replied, sweaty and almost shaking now, trying to get his breath back.

“You are still hard,” she said, reaching out and brushing his cock with her fingertips.

He nodded. “Uh-huh.” He was still fucking horny.

“Would you like to put your penis inside of me again?” she asked.

“Uh-huh,” he replied, feeling stupefied by his desire just then.

“Then do it. Take me. Mount me, human,” she said, her voice a growl.

This time, he didn’t hesitate. He got up, grabbed her, and forced her onto her hands and knees. She growled again in response. Moving fast, he got behind her, working on instinct now, delirious with lust for this beautiful, growling demoness with wild black hair and horns and fire for eyes and a tail. He was on his knees now, behind her, looking at her ass. She had a very well-maintained ass. And her pussy, a glistening, dark pink slit between her thighs, was beautiful and inviting.

“What are you waiting for!?” she snapped.

“Shut up, demon slut,” he growled in response, smacking her ass hard, and she moaned. He got up against her and shoved his cock into her.

It was like paradise.

Her vagina was so fucking tight. And the heat! It was even more intense than last night, easily the hottest, wettest, and tightest pussy he’d ever been inside of. Gripping her trim hips firmly, he started pounding the fuck out of her. Yelena seemed to like, no, to demand rough sex. He supposed it fit with her character.

She growled and moaned and almost howled as he drove into her, burying his entire length into her perfect demonic pussy over and over again. He reached forward and grabbed her hair by the roots, then yanked it, and she screamed in pleasure.

“Yes!” she cried. “You know how to do it right!”

“That’s right bitch,” he replied, and slapped her ass hard again, causing her to moan louder.

They fucked like rabbits for another few minutes, and he managed to make her come twice more. He loved feeling her orgasm when he was inside of her, when he continued fucking her orgasming vagina and felt that release, that hot spray of feminine sex juices all over his balls and lower stomach and hips and thighs. Felt those inner muscles clenching and twitching and squeezing around his length. And the noises she made when she came!

And then he was coming too, coming inside of her, filling her with his seed.

“Ah!...Yelena!” he screamed as his seed began leaving him again, spraying from him, pumping her full of it, and she moaned loudly.

“Oh yes! Give me your seed! Fill me with it! Claim me!” she screamed, pushing back against him, her hot ass grinding against his hips.

She emptied him out entirely, or that’s what it felt like, as he drained his cock into her one, hard contraction at a time, the pleasure washing through him, blasting through him really, like bursts of pure blissful magic.

He almost passed out.

Instead, he pulled out of her and collapsed, gasping, onto the bed, and she did as well. For a moment, they said nothing, the two of them simply laying there, gasping for breath, covered in sweat, entangled in each other and basking in the post-orgasm bliss. There didn’t seem to be words, so they just laid there, holding each other.

CHAPTER V

“Wait...” Yelena hissed, and John froze.

He waited, looking around, and then he sensed it: a creature, nearby. How had he missed that? Damn, she had good senses. He prepared to draw his bow and notch an arrow, but Yelena beat him to it. It was crazy, watching the fluid and utterly perfect way she did that. Then she took aim and let fly the arrow without hesitation.

There was a brief, startled sound and then the thump of a body falling to the ground.

“It is one of the brown four-legged ones, with horns,” she said as she began walking forward, through the trees and underbrush.

“A deer,” he said.

“Yes. A deer.”

He was teaching her whatever she didn’t yet know. She knew rabbits, and bears, and wolves. And more, he imagined.

He joined her, moving forward towards the kill.

After their oral swapping and furious, frantic fuck session in the basement, they had laid together for nearly two hours in that bed. Nude, sweaty, adrift in that wonderfully serene, blissfully post-orgasmic sea of calm emotions and an almost drug-like pleasure, they had held each other and drifted in and out of sleep during that time. Occasionally she would ask a question, or he would, something simple about the other’s realm or life, and they would answer, and then fall back into happy, satisfied, companionable silence.

Eventually, the need to do something, to work, got the best of them. Her before him though. He had an idea that Yelena was a very driven woman whose mind and body would not allow her to be idle for too long. Even after sex. He knew what it was like. Work could be its own reward. And so, they had gotten up, and washed themselves off, and dried and dressed. From there, he’d checked outside and saw that the rain had let up, though the clouds were still gray and heavy. He decided to risk doing another load of laundry.

He and Yelena had washed all the blankets and sheets, then hung them out to dry. While that was happening, John’s mind finally turned towards the immediate future. He was basically out of coin. He’d spent practically his last gold piece helping out those three people from before, and although he had zero regrets, he knew that he’d need more coin in the near future. And the best way to get it was to hunt.

Plus, it was the best way to get food, which he and Yelena would need.

And so, he’d decided to go hunting, and after a bit of consideration, she had decided it would be worth the risk to join him. He almost tried to convince her to stay behind, fearing for her safety, but he didn’t for a number of reasons. The first was that he hated the idea of, in any capacity, being the guy who tried to keep his...girlfriend? Lover? His female companion, ‘busy at the house’, as a lot of husbands put it. He knew this more than likely wouldn’t be misconstrued that way, that Yelena would more than likely see the logic of his request if he did ask her to stay behind.

But the thought of it just made him very uncomfortable and unhappy.

Beyond that, he was having a really hard time with the notion of separating himself from her. He wanted her around. He was intoxicated by her mere presence. And he also didn’t want her to feel frustrated at not being able to help, to work, to do something.

He wanted her to be happy.

And so, he had agreed, glad that she would join him.

She’d donned the clothing he’d given her, as well as her cloak, boots, and gloves, had accepted his spare bow and quiver of arrows, and they’d gone out hunting. So far, it had been a fruitful day. They’d been at it for close to four hours now. They’d managed to catch half a dozen rabbit and a deer. Well, now two deer.

“You are an amazing shot, Yelena,” he said as they came to stand over the deer.

“Thank you. I have had a tremendous amount of practice.”

She’d nailed it expertly, a perfect kill-shot.

She bent to retrieve the arrow and almost without thinking about it, he settled his hand against her ass. She stopped halfway down, and then began to straighten back up. John swallowed, feeling a pulse of lust shoot through him.

Gods, he wanted her so bad.

He hadn’t even realized just how powerful, how bad his lust had gotten as they’d been working over the past several hours together.

“You desire to be within me,” she said as she straightened up. It was not a question.

“I do,” he replied, then looked around, the reality of their situation coming down on him like a bucket of cold water. They were in the woods, exposed. This was already dangerous enough as it was. There could be hunters out, or guards or others still looking for her. Or even just a traveling merchant or wandering local…

“Then make love to me,” Yelena said, her voice surprisingly seductive.

He was learning that Yelena knew a lot about being sexy, and sexy in a way that he responded very powerfully to.

“We shouldn’t,” he replied, then cleared his throat. Fuck, he was so turned on, his cock now a throbbing erection, straining against his pants. He was breathing heavily, his face flushed. It was hard to think.

“That will make it more pleasurable,” Yelena said, and she stepped closer to him. He felt her hand lay against his crotch. “You are aroused,” she whispered, staring directly into his eyes with her own flaming ones, “you desire me greatly.”

“I do,” he managed, his voice thick with raw desire.

“Do not worry, John. I have keen senses. I will let you know if someone is coming. But otherwise...I want you to be coming.”

She kissed him then, and he absolutely could not refuse her. He had to have her. She slipped her forked, elongated tongue into his mouth, immediately seeking out and finding his own, twisting and twining with it, dancing the joyous dance of lust and desperate need. She was breathing heavily as well. He opened up the cloak she wore and pulled up the shirt, freeing her breasts and laying his hands against them, squeezing and groping them. He could feel her nipples pressing against his skin. She was hot to the touch, almost buzzing with lust.

He hugged her to him and then shoved his hands down the back of her pants, past her tail, which was twitching rapidly against the cloak. Getting her extremely fit, nicely padded ass in his hands, he groped it as well, loving the feel of her. Her body was almost like an exemplification of a fit, female form, a toned, tight ideal.

She pulled away from him with a huff and then dropped to her knees. He watched as she dug his throbbing cock from his pants and began to suck on it, bobbing her head rapidly, coating it in her hot saliva.

He groaned, slipping his hand into the big, gray hood and settling it in between her horns.

“Oh fuck, Yelena,” he whispered. “That’s right you little demon slut,” he growled, and heard her moan in response.

He always felt a little afraid saying stuff like that to her, but she’d said that she liked it, and always responded well to it. She kept going until she’d coated his cock completely in her saliva, then took it from her mouth and turned around. She fell to her hands and knees.

“Do it,” she said. “Fast.”

How could he say no to that? How could he possibly hope to resist her?

He looked around again, making sure that there was no one around, and hoping that someone wasn’t just hiding nearby, and he dropped to his knees as well. He pulled up and pushed aside the cloak, pulling down the pants she was wearing, and exposing her marvelously fit demoness ass. Her tail was twitching back and forth excitedly. Fuck, that tail of hers was so sexy. She was wet and ready to be fucked. He quickly got up against her and laid his stiff dick at the entrance of her pussy. She gasped softly as contact was made.

John slid into her.

They both groaned quietly in sexual unity. As he gripped her firm thighs and began sliding in and out of her, making love to her, he thought that the sex felt better than it had before. And he immediately realized why as he kept tossing glances back over his shoulder. This was really risky and probably really stupid. But he’d fully admit that right now he was thinking with his dick. He’d done it more than once and so far it had worked out, for the most part. Right now, he just wanted to pound that sweet demon pussy.

That wonderful, forbidden demon pussy.

She was so incredibly wet inside, and he still marveled at how hot she was. Her vagina was the hottest he’d ever fucked, and he’d been with a succubus before.

“Oh, Yelena...” he moaned, grunting as he humped her, pounded her.

“Keep going,” she whispered, “keep going hard, John.”

He did, fucking her hard and fast, knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to last long. This was going to be a quickie.

“John,” she whispered after another minute or so.

“Yeah?” he replied, looking around again, worried she’d sensed someone coming.

“Do not come inside of me, I have no way to easily clean up. I will let you come in my mouth, okay?”

“That sounds great, thank you,” he replied.

“You are welcome.”

He kept going for another bout of time, just enjoying feeling her against him, seeing her tail twitch as she reveled in their sex, listening to the sounds she was making, and just the purely rapturous feeling of having bareback sex with a demoness.

“Gonna come!” he grunted harshly as he pulled out of her.

Yelena was no stranger to this, as she expertly whirled around and took his cock into her mouth in one smooth motion.

“Oh fuuuuck...” he moaned loudly as he began to orgasm into her mouth. She sucked him, milking his cock with her thumb and first two fingers. They were wrapped around his shaft, working it expertly, as she continued to suck him off. He spilled his seed into her willing, hot mouth and she pumped him dry, draining everything he had to give and swallowing it all. He had his hand on her head again, once more between those sexy black horns of hers.

“Thank you,” he whispered, trying to get his breath back as she pulled his cock slowly from between her luscious lips.

“You are welcome,” she replied.

“When we get home, I am going to pleasure you until you orgasm twice,” he said, tucking his cock away and fixing his clothes.

“That would be greatly appreciated,” Yelena replied as she stood and fixed her own clothes. Once they were about back to where they had been before, he looked down at the nearby deer carcass that he’d pretty much forgotten about.

“Well, let’s carry it back,” he said, crouching to grab it.

Yelena helped him and the pair started to return to the cabin.

…

After bringing the deer home, they’d taken the time to skin, clean, and cut its meat away, then put it into storage. He’d have to prepare the hide for sale, but that could wait. The pair instead decided it was time to wash up.

And John knew how he wanted to do that.

“Where are we going?” Yelena asked as they walked away from his cabin, each holding a towel, a bar of soap, and a washrag.

“I had pretty much completely forgotten about the fact that I have a natural hot spring in my backyard,” he replied.

“I have heard of such things,” Yelena murmured.

“They are wonderful,” he replied.

The hot spring in question was actually in the woods behind his cabin, maybe a hundred paces away. It was partially hidden from view by trees, and by a collection of large rocks he’d rolled into place, forming a very rudimentary barrier around the hole in the ground. As they came in between two of the rocks, he saw that the hot spring was as he’d left it: bubbling, steaming, crystal clear water in a rock hole in the ground that was, thankfully, largely worn smooth by the constantly churning water. He set his supplies down and began undressing.

“We can bathe here,” he said, then added, “and have sex.”

“Very good,” Yelena replied, and began to strip as well.

Soon, both of them were nude and slipped into the water. It was a wonderful, welcome feeling. And when Yelena dipped her head below the water, then came back up, pushing her now wet hair away from her face, he found his eyes drawn to her more than usual. For some reason, women just looked way sexier with wet hair.

“John...” she said, sounding vaguely uncomfortable as she squeezed water from her dark hair.

“Yeah?”

“Are you truly attracted to me?”

He resisted the urge to let out a short laugh. “What? Of course I am. Why would you even ask that? Isn’t it obvious?”

“I...” she hesitated, and it was strange seeing her hesitant. She was normally so self-assured, so firm, so certain. “I find it hard to believe, is all.”

“You’re extremely attractive Yelena.”

She twisted her lips. “I have been able to determine that I am quite attractive among my own kind,” she said, “but like you, I greatly enjoy the company of those not of my species. It is very difficult to tell if I am considered attractive in this land.”

“Rest assured that at the very least, I think you are extremely attractive. All of my enthusiasm is genuine. I am positively thrilled to have sex with you, Yelena. And I think there are a lot of people in my realm who would feel the same way.”

“Hmm. I do find that hard to believe...but it does not matter right now. In this moment, I have you, and you have me.”

“Yes,” he said, grabbing a bar of soap and a rag, “and in this moment, I will give you pleasure, as I promised you. We’ll start simple.”

“How simple?” she asked.

“Turn around, Yelena,” he replied.

She did, showing him her back, and he lathered up the soap and rag, then began to run it across her back. She took in a deep breath, then let it out in a long sigh. “That is very pleasurable,” she murmured softly.

“Good. I’m glad. I want you to feel good, Yelena.”

He continued washing her back, then slipped around to her front, gently washing her stomach, her sides, then, because he really couldn’t help himself, her breasts. He set aside the rag and bar of soap and began to massage them slowly, then leaned in and kissed the side of her neck. She gasped quietly as he did this and leaned against him.

Then she moaned as he began to caress her nipples.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked.

“Tremendously,” she whispered, then moaned again.

John let one hand slide down her smooth, fit body until it disappeared in between her toned thighs. He gently led her backwards, then sat down on a natural shelf that was the perfect height, leaving just their heads above water, and pulled her into his lap. She spread her legs for him and he found her clit, then began to massage it.

“Oh, yes...” she moaned, her voice low and deeply satisfied.

He switched to the other side of her neck, kissing up and down it as well, across its back, as she seemed very sensitive there and to enjoy the kissing greatly. He rubbed her clit more, gradually applying more pressure, doing it faster, making her cry out and then whispering for her not to be too loud.

“It is-ah!-difficult,” she moaned.

“I know,” he replied, grinning, and then he slipped a finger into her.

“Oh yes! Mmm...place your hand over my mouth. Silence me,” she whispered.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He stopped playing with her nipple and instead slipped his hand firmly over her mouth. She moaned loudly as he did this, shuddering, and he suddenly had the impression that maybe she was into a specific kind of sex.

Well...maybe he could ask her about that at some point.

Holding her firmly in place, he fucked her with his finger, pressing into her most sensitive spot, pleasuring her immensely. He loved feeling her writhe and twist against him, hearing her moan and cry out, her voice muffled.

And then she orgasmed.

It was a wonderful, beautiful, sensual, full-body orgasm. She kept it at for almost half a minute, and he rubbed her clit throughout the whole thing, keeping his hand firmly over her mouth. And she was screaming, too.

She loved it.

When she was finished, she laid against him, breathing heavily, and he removed his hand from over her mouth.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” he asked, his mouth very close to her ear. She shuddered.

“Yes,” she whispered, still getting her breath back, “oh yes. So much.”

“Good. That was the first orgasm. I believe I promised you two.”

“Oh my,” she murmured.

“Let me know when you’re ready.”

They relaxed for a bit longer, then finished cleaning themselves off with the soap and rag, and then he had her sit up on the side of the hot spring. She did, pulling herself out of the water with an easy grace. Once properly seated, she spread her legs for him. He settled in between those trim, athletic thighs of hers and got right back to work.

Eating Yelena out was a pleasure all its own.

She had a very strange taste to her. It was kind of strong, but he quite liked it. And the sounds she made as he pleasured her clit, massaging it with the tip of his tongue, were a fantastic delight. Now she had to keep her own hand pressed over her mouth, to keep from getting too loud. And loud she was getting.

He kept going, licking her clit over and over, going faster and harder, sending waves upon waves of pleasure into her tight, fit body. She was twisting and writhing, like she was having a really hard time sitting still, and finally he got her to pop a second time. Now she pressed both hands over her mouth, crying out and trembling violently as she orgasmed. A hot spray of her demoness sex juices escaped her pussy and got onto his jaw, chin, shoulders, and chest.

Yelena was definitely a squirter.

He reached out, settling his hands on the sides of her stomach to keep her stable, looking up at her. She was like a vision of dark beauty and lust. When the orgasm was over, he helped her slide back down into the water, then washed himself off.

“You are truly gifted in the art of orally pleasuring women,” she whispered.

“I think maybe you’re just really turned on cause I’m a human,” he replied. “I don’t know if I’d call myself gifted per se...”

“You are gifted,” Yelena replied firmly. “Now, what would you like to do with me?”

“I’d really like it if you rode my cock until I came in you,” he replied.

“I will gladly do that,” she said, and she pushed him back onto the natural shelf. As soon as he was sitting, she mounted him, staring down at him, smiling. Her eyes were beautiful and seductive, her face exotic and alluring. He felt a bolt of pure excitement run through him as she took his cock, which was as hard as tempered steel now, and slipped it skillfully into her hot, wet pussy. That perfect demoness vagina encased him in a pocket of absolute pleasure. She growled as she took him all the way inside of her.

“Oh fuck, Yelena!” he cried as she began to ride him furiously.

“Yes,” she whispered, moaning as she bounced on his cock, fucking herself with it hard, the water splashing around them, “you need this? Tell me you need this...”

“Yes,” he groaned. “Fuck, Yelena, I need it so badly...”

“Good boy,” she growled, and continued fucking him.

He was so keyed up from pleasuring her, it didn’t matter that he’d fucked her hard and blew a huge load in her mouth barely an hour and a half ago. Her pussy felt so fucking good and he felt so connected with her, so in tune with her, staring into her exotic, glowing eyes, that she had him coming quickly.

He groaned, gasping as his cock kicked hard inside of her, and she moaned as she felt him orgasm into her.

“Yes,” she said, grinning a smug grin, “give it to me, John. Give me your seed.”

“Oh...Yelena...” he moaned, coming hard inside of her, filling her pussy up with his seed, spraying thick spurts of it out one, furious contraction at a time. She held him close to her, staring into his eyes the entire time, and kissed him halfway through, a long, firm kiss on the mouth that he responded to in kind, making out with her passionately as he finished coming.

And then he was done, and he fell back, gasping. She stayed on top of him and he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to him. Yelena rested her head on his shoulder, and he on hers, and they stayed there, embracing, him still inside of her.

“Yelena, are you happy?” he asked softly after a bit.

She remained silent for a long moment. “Yes,” she said finally, “yes John, I am very happy right now.”

“So am I.”

They stayed there like that for awhile longer. He found thoughts drifting through his mind. What he had with Yelena...what was it? It was more than deviant desire or even lust. He liked her. A lot. And not just because she was a demoness that was screwing him, nor because she was incredibly sexy and good at pleasuring dick.

He actually really liked her, personally.

Was it…

He was afraid to even think the word love because good Gods, they had just met! And she was a demoness! Was love between humans and demons even possible? Sex was, clearly, as they both enjoyed similar things, but love?

Then again...wasn’t a favored saying of the followers of Bliss, ‘love is blind’?

He didn’t want to think about it. This was a passionate tryst, nothing more. She was staying with him until her magic recharged, and then she would leave his world, and he would probably never see her again.

He didn’t want to think about that, either…

…

The rest of that day and the next one passed slowly, but pleasantly.

They hunted a lot more, catching several more rabbit, a few deer, a few wolves, and even a bear, which Yelena seemed to take a personal vindictive interest in. Was this the same bear that had assaulted her? There was no way to tell, and if she knew either way, she wasn’t saying, but the whole experience of killing, hauling, and skinning the bear seemed very cathartic to her.

On the dawn of his fourth day with Yelena the Demoness, John decided it was time to walk into town. He did so with a backpack and two bags, one in each hand, all three of these items packed almost to bursting with meat, skins, claws, teeth, and whatever else he thought he could sell to people. He’d be happy to be rid of it all.

As he walked, he found himself thinking, as this was the first time he’d been alone in over two days. Not that he minded the company. He actually wished there was some way Yelena could have come with him, but it just wasn’t possible. At least not without a lot of magic. But it did get him thinking. Primarily that he had accepted Yelena into his life really fast. He thought it was the sex, at first. She was exotic and wild and absolutely crazy in bed. She was, literally, a demon in the sack. But he’d realized it was more than that.

John had gotten good at identifying what went into his relationships. He’d say that most of them stemmed from a common desire to fuck. And that was fine with him. There were things he liked about the women he messed around with, things he didn’t like, and ultimately it always amounted to the same thing: a fling that lasted anywhere from a single night to an entire week. But there was something different about Yelena.

And it wasn’t just that she was a demoness.

There was something basic there, something between them, that just...sparked.

He didn’t know how else to describe it. But it made him wonder about a few things. What did it mean? More importantly, where could it possibly go? She was going to stay with him for perhaps four more days, and then disappear out of his life forever. Normally, he would be okay with that. He wasn’t necessarily glad to be free of the women he hooked up with, he tended to like their company, but he’d found it simply easier when they parted ways before too long. And, consequently, so did the women he tended to sleep with.

They were on the move, or from other villages, merchants, hunters, adventuresses. In a few cases, any kind of extended relationship was impossible, just because their lives were simply too different. How was he supposed to have a long-term, daily relationship with a dryad? He wasn’t against seeing her again, making love with her, talking and taking long walks through the woods with her, but living together? It just wasn’t going to happen for either of them. So how could he possibly make it work with a demoness from another realm of existence?

Why was he even thinking about this?

It didn’t matter because while Yelena seemed to be a very enthusiastic lover who had a fetish for human guys, she didn’t seem like the ‘settle down’ type. Then again, having a long-lasting relationship didn’t actually have to mean settling down. He knew plenty of couples who just traveled the land together, adventuring. They seemed to have a lot of fun. They also seemed to die easily, but maybe all that fun was worth it.

But Yelena was a literal demon, most people would kill her on sight. Or try to, anyway. Was there some way around that?

He thought there might be, but now he could see the main gates to Falling Rock. As he came up to it, the one guard on duty grinned as he saw him. “Godsdamn, John. You look like you’ve been busy,” he said.

“Extremely,” he replied, hefting the bags. “Hoping to make a bundle today.”

“I imagine you will.”

“Anything interesting happen while I was gone?” he asked, trying to keep it amicable. The guard, Thomas, was genial enough, and apparently word of his deed, paying out of his own pocket for some out-of-towners, let alone non-human out-of-towners, either hadn’t gotten around that much, or had got around and then flamed out, with some new, more interesting piece of news eclipsing it. Which was fine by him.

“Yeah, actually. Some hunters came through town, said they saw a demon. They’ve been looking for it ever since and there’s a bounty,” Thomas replied merrily.

John felt his stomach go cold but kept his face carefully neutral. “A demon? Here?”

“Yeah. They shot it, but apparently it got away. Crazy, huh?”

“Indeed. Crazy. A demon...well, I hope they catch it. If I see it, I’m gonna be sure to put it down and collect the bounty. How much is it?”

“Five hundred gold,” Thomas said.

John began to feel a little sick, but let out an appreciative whistle. Five hundred gold was a lot for a small town like Falling Rock. Fuck, they must really want Yelena. He said his farewell to Thomas and walked into town, heading towards the market, thinking furiously. She would probably be okay. Probably. There were some half-decent hunters and trackers living here and nearby, but most of them hadn’t really had much reason to hone their skills since the wildlife in this region wasn’t all that hard to hunt down.

They were probably going to be fine. He doubted anyone would honestly think that he was harboring a demon in his cabin.

And fucking her.

Damn, he wanted to get back to the cabin and have sex with her again. Yelena was phenomenal in bed. John tried to keep focused as he hit the marketplace. The next two hours passed by in something of a blur. He’d gotten good at selling his wares. He knew who to go to, who to avoid, who to manipulate and how. He never outright ripped anyone off, but he wasn’t above making a bit of profit. Slowly, bit by bit, he sold off all the things he’d gathered over the past few days from the forest. By the end of it, he had nearly three hundred gold.

Not a bad haul.

When that was finished, he began buying supplies. He didn’t need food, but he did buy several bottles of juice, strawberry and blueberry and blackberry, as well as a bottle of wine. He didn’t know if Yelena might want to get drunk, or even if she could, but hey, getting a little drunk and making love sounded good. Or staying sober and making love sounded good, too. He bought a few healing potions, and a fair amount of arrows to replace all the ones he’d used up, and some clothing for Yelena. He ended up buying better fitting menswear, since buying women’s clothing might tip his hand, even a little, since everyone knew he was single.

Plus, to be honest, he just didn’t see Yelena in a dress.

She actually looked pretty good in his clothes.

By the time he’d finished up his rounds at the marketplace, he’d mostly depleted the gold he’d made, but he was feeling pretty good about the whole situation. He was looking forward to several more days of hot sex with a hot demoness, good food, and some soaks in the hot spring out back. And that’s when he noticed the strange man.

He was tall, middle-aged, thin. His hair was long and white. He wore a robe and carried a staff. Shit. A mage.

“Who’s that?” he asked as casually as he could. He was just finishing up buying the healing potions from Susan’s stall. The mage was walking slowly through the marketplace, paying attention to none of it, apparently.

“Who? Oh, him. He’s a mage,” Susan replied. She was the closest thing they had to a mage in town, though she was more of an herbalist than a mage.

“I know he’s a mage, why’s he here?” John replied.

“For that bounty. Surely you’ve heard there’s a demon running around in the woods. Gods knows why. But he’s going to divine the beastly thing’s presence and take it down. Collect on that bounty, I imagine,” Susan replied.

John felt cold all over again.

“Huh,” he said. “Thanks for the potions.”

“Anytime,” she replied, counting the gold he’d given her.

Crap.

For a moment, John was utterly stymied. This man was going to find Yelena, and kill her, and possibly him. Or they’d kill him in self-defense. Harboring a demoness was one thing, killing a probably innocent man was a totally different thing. He stood off to one side of the main thoroughfare, staring at the ground, thinking furiously.

Then an idea came to him.

John struck off hurriedly towards his house in town. It would work.

Probably.

…

John glanced down his shirt one more time at the small green crystal he now wore as a necklace, hidden away. It was glowing, very faintly. That gave him reassurance. It meant she was still somewhere within a reasonable distance, somewhere within these woods that he knew so well. And she might be able to help him.

His pack was just as heavy as it had been went he’d been walking into town, but now he at least didn’t have the two full bags as well. They were tucked into the pack with everything else. He kept his pace relatively calm as he left Falling Rock, but it grew brisker the farther away from the settlement he got. When he was out of view entirely, he started running. They were going to have to act fast. Damn, that mage might even suspect him. He’d been extremely intimate with Yelena several times, did that leave some kind of...magical residue on him, maybe? Like a magical scent? Well, worst case scenario, he’d pack up and just leave.

Yelena could probably hide herself fairly well with that cloak and those gloves. His cabin was coming up. Good.

He slowed, getting his breath back, as he approached the front door. He didn’t sense anything out of place. Better still. John unlocked and opened the door, stepped in, then firmly closed and locked it against the world.

“Yelena?” he called, setting down his pack.

“Down here,” she replied, her voice coming up to him from the basement. Okay, good. He wished she didn’t have to spend so much time down there, but even with the windows closed and shuttered, it was still too easy for someone to sneak a glance in. There were open spaces between the edge of the window and the edge of the curtains in some places. He’d have to fix it, but how, without making it look suspicious?

“We have a problem, Yelena,” he said as he began taking all the extraneous stuff out of his backpack. They’d have to travel light.

Yelena poked her head out of the basement. “What problem?”

“There’s a bounty in town, on you. People are looking for you,” he replied.

She frowned. “Maybe I should leave...” she said hesitantly.

He shook his head. “No, Yelena. I mean, I won’t keep you if you really want to go, but I don’t want you to go. And besides, while I’m not worried about the guys around here, they more than likely won’t find you, I am worried about a mage that has showed up. They have ways of tracking someone like you magically.”

“They do,” she murmured, coming up out of the basement entirely. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Packing. Here. Put these on.” He passed her the clothes he’d bought her. She was presently naked, and it was a genuine effort not to take a break and have a quick fuck session. She had such a fantastically fit body.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she started dressing.

“I have a friend in the forest who should be able to help us. If we get to her fast enough, we should be able to get her help before the mage finds us.”

“I see,” Yelena replied.

He glanced over at her. Something had changed subtly about her. “Something wrong?” he asked hesitantly.

She stared at him a moment longer, then looked away. “I am fine,” she said, finishing dressing and then pulling on some heavy boots. “Just worried. I would rather not be found.”

“Agreed,” he replied.

He finished taking out all the extra stuff, then checked the pack over one more time. There was some food, drink, health potions, a spare change of clothes. Nothing else. He made sure the knife was in its sheath, on his hip, double-checked that his quiver was full of arrows, then grabbed his bow. He looked over at Yelena. He’d given her his spare bow and a quiver of her own earlier, when they’d gone hunting together. She had on her large gray cloak and gloves now.

“I am ready,” she said.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

He led her out of the cabin, locking up behind them.

CHAPTER VI

John fell into conversation with Yelena as they walked through the woods, talking quietly, trying to clear his mind, not to worry too much.

He told her about his past, growing up here, a few of the more interesting adventures he’d had during the rare occasions when he actually left his hometown. She told him mostly about the battles she’d fought in her own realm. She was a seriously badass warrior. She had over a thousand kills under her belt, though she’d been fighting for decades at least. Whatever escapades he’d gone on paled in comparison to hers.

They had fallen into a bit of silence when Yelena asked a question. “Why did you save me?” she asked.

He glanced over at her. “How many reasons are there?” he replied.

“You are avoiding the question.”

He sighed. “I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“You said that earlier. Most would. Actually, most would have just finished the job.”

“I know,” he replied quietly.

“But you did not do this.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because...” He thought about, pausing to check the crystal. It was glowing a much brighter green now. They were headed in the right direction. “Because, I’ve seen too much hate. My whole life, it’s always been about not trusting outsiders, about the ‘lesser’ species, about taboos and hypocrisy and so much bullshit. Always been about the stereotypes. The felis are going to rob you, the beryl rip you off, the elves are going seduce you and you’ll wake up naked in the woods with a lump on your skull. I just...I’m sick of it. I hate it.” He laughed bitterly. “I hate the hate.”

“I understand,” Yelena said.

“Do you?” he asked.

“Of course I do!” she snapped. He paused, turned fully to look at her. “Why do you think I was fighting for decades? I was fighting my own kind, except they look a little different and they worship a different deity, and is that enough for murder? For attempted genocide? Apparently. It is nothing but luck that we managed to stop before we wiped them all out. I think they had just had their fill of murder. But how long before we find another excuse?” She stalked off into the forest, and he followed her.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

She sighed heavily, slowed her pace. “It is not your fault. I am just...upset. It is fine.”

“Yelena,” he said, reaching out, placing a hand on her shoulder. She stopped. He thought she might shrug it off, but she didn’t. He turned her around. She looked out at him with her flickering eyes from beneath the big gray hood. “I’m sorry I upset you.”

“I know. It is fine. I forgive you,” she said. He leaned in and hugged her, and she hugged him back, fiercely. When they parted, he realized there was a green flashing coming from his shirt. They both looked down at it.

“She’s very close,” he said.

“She can see you,” a new voice said from behind him.

He turned around and for a second, couldn’t see anything. Then a buxom figure, wreathed in nature and greenery, seemed to appear out of the trees and foliage.

Yelena growled and raised her bow, notching an arrow almost faster than he could follow. “Wait!” he said. “She’s a friend.”

“It would not be a good idea to attack me here,” the dryad said, and all around them, plants rustled and twitched, as if in response to her words.

“Hello, Lily,” John said.

“John, it’s so good to see you. You never come to visit me,” she replied, favoring him with a genuine smile.

“I know. I try not to bother you too much. You said you were busy,” he replied, feeling himself flush slightly.

“That is true. I’m one of only a few maintaining this forest,” Lily said. “But I’ve missed you all the same. I see you are keeping stranger company than usual.”

“Lily, this is Yelena. She’s my...friend. Yelena, this is Lily. She’s...also my friend,” he replied awkwardly.

“I can smell you on each other. I think you’re more than friends,” she said with a smirk. “Intimacy with a demoness, you’re very brave.”

“We do not have time for this,” Yelena growled. Man, she was in a bad mood today.

“I know. Listen, Lily. I’m sorry to show up like this needing something, but...well, we really need something.”

“What is it?” she asked, becoming more serious.

He tried not to get distracted by her fantastic body. Damn, dryads were curvy. And naked. He really missed those amazing thighs of hers, and her fantastically beautiful, large, perky breasts. She was exceptionally skilled at pleasure.

“Yelena is being hunted. By a mage. I was hoping you could use some of your magic to conceal her,” he explained.

Lily frowned, considering it, then slowly nodded. “Yes, I could do this. I will do it, but I’m going to need something from you in return. It’s...dangerous.”

“Fair enough,” John replied, feeling relief. “What is it?”

“There is a cave not far from here, I can imbue you with the knowledge of where it’s at. It has become corrupted with a unique kind of evil that repels my sisters and I. We cannot enter it, and it is tainting the land around it. Go there, cleanse the evil however you see fit, and find me again. In the meantime,” she looked at Yelena, “I must touch you.”

“Why?” Yelena replied.

“To give you temporary cloaking from those who seek you.”

“Very well.”

Lily came forward, fluid and graceful, and he saw that the plants near where her feet touched gently swayed and moved with each step. She came to stand before them, then reached out and into the gray hood. She settled her hands on Yelena’s cheeks, closed her eyes, and bowed her head in concentration. There was a small burst of green light. She opened her eyes and stepped back. “It is done. You have one day before it wears off,” she said.

“We’ll be back soon. Thanks, Lily,” John replied.

“You’re welcome.” She reached out and placed a hand on his head. There was a small burst of green energy and suddenly he knew where to go. She didn’t pull her hand away immediately, instead she pulled it lovingly down along the side of his face, caressing his cheek. “Be careful, John. Okay?” she asked, losing a little bit of her bravado.

“I’ll be fine,” he replied.

She slowly pulled her hand back. He realized that he had missed her touch immensely. “Come on, Yelena. Let’s do this.”

They set off.

…

“So, what’s wrong?” he asked.

They’d been walking for about fifteen minutes and Yelena hadn’t said anything to him. She seemed upset.

“Nothing,” she replied.

“Obviously something is wrong. Is it what we were talking about earlier?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

He sighed. “Come on, Yelena. I’ve been nothing but nice to you. If you really want me to, I’ll leave you be, but I think this is something we should talk about.”

She was silent for a moment longer, and he thought she was going to tell him to leave her be, but she responded with something else. “The dryad, I do not trust her.”

“What? Why? Lily’s a very good friend of mine. You can trust her as much as you can trust me,” he replied.

“A very good friend,” she repeated.

He stopped, and after taking a few steps, she realized he’d stopped and did so as well, turning around quickly.

He tried hard not to smile, but couldn’t help it, just a little. “Are you...are you jealous, Yelena? Of Lily?” he asked.

“No,” she snapped, then she looked away from him and growled. “Deities be damned, yes! There, I said it. Yes.”

“Yelena, don’t be,” he said.

“You have been intimate with her,” she replied.

“I’ve been intimate with a lot of women, Yelena. I mean, you found that out about me the first day. And I imagine you’ve been intimate with a lot of guys.”

“I have,” she murmured.

“So, what’s the problem?”

She looked at him for a moment, then huffed in annoyance, spun around and stalked off. “I do not know. Nothing. Do not worry about it,” she replied.

He followed her. “Hey, come on. Don’t be like that.” She stopped again, and he nearly ran into her.

She turned around. “I am not being rational,” she said. “You are exactly right, there is no reason. I am glad you find it amusing.”

“I’m sorry, Yelena. I’m not trying to tease you. I just...hadn’t realized that you’d gotten so attached to me.” She opened her mouth to start to say something, and he tried to smooth it over. “Listen, if it makes you feel any better, I’d probably be really jealous too if I saw you getting touchy-feely with a former lover.”

“You would?” she asked, now smirking just a little.

“Yeah. I...um, I’ve gotten pretty attached to you too, you know.”

“I was not sure,” she said, a little more serious now. She reached out, began to touch his face, then sighed in frustration and yanked off the glove. She caressed his skin with her dark, rough hand. “It is hard to tell with you.”

He smiled, placed his hand over the back of hers. “Is it? And here I thought I was being pretty obvious about it. What with all the awesome sex.”

She snorted. “Sex for pleasure is one thing, John. You can fornicate with someone you do not really care for.”

“I suppose that’s true,” he replied. Then he leaned in suddenly and kissed her. It was a long, lingering, deep kiss. “But I really, really like you, Yelena. I’m very attached to you.”

“Truly?” she asked, quietly.

“Truly,” he replied.

They resumed walking, and neither of them spoke for a little bit.

“We should take care of this,” Yelena finally said. There was an expression on her face he’d never quite seen before, or perhaps had never seen pushed to such an extent. It made him feel...good. Really good.

Was he crazy?

“We should,” he agreed, making himself focus again. “And then we can talk about...this, when we get back to the cabin.”

She smirked again and stopped, then ran one finger down his cheek. “Yes. Talk.”

John resisted the urge to take her right then and there, made himself focus and started walking again. They walked for another ten minutes before John stopped in front of a large, long-dead tree with a hollowed-out trunk.

“Why are we stopping?” Yelena asked.

“I left something here. In case of emergencies. I’m not sure bows and arrows are the best inside of a cave. How are you with a sword?” he asked as he ducked into the trunk.

“Exceptional,” she replied.

“Oh. Good.”

He found his stash buried beneath a bunch of dirt and dead leaves, grateful that no one had found it. He’d gotten good at hiding things out here. He tried not to do it too much, he didn’t want to disrespect the forest, for obvious reasons and less obvious reasons, but he was sure Lily and her friends wouldn’t begrudge him an emergency cache here or there. He took two good, sturdy silver swords, still wrapped tightly in their leather sheaths, and came back out.

“Here,” he said, tossing Yelena one. She caught it easily.

“Silver,” she said as she pulled the blade out and inspected it. “Nice. Good craftsmanship.”

“It should be, I sure paid enough for it,” he replied, inspecting his own blade. It looked good. They attached the sheaths to their belts and then hurried off once more. Judging by the strange sense of location now in John’s head, he figured that they were getting fairly close to the cave by now. Silver was good, if you were fighting evil things.

They rarely reacted well to silver, and barring even that, most things died when you stabbed or chopped them enough times.

He wondered what awaited them in the cave.

As they neared it, he began to sense what Lily had been talking about. The vegetation started to thin out, and there was a chill on the air that grew colder and more powerful the closer they got. John could feel fear begin to well within him. This was definitely a bad place, a tainted place. He wondered what it was that had gotten into the cave, which he could see now, a dark opening in the earth, descending into a deeper darkness.

“Can you see in the dark?” he asked.

“Yes,” Yelena replied.

“Good, because I can’t.”

“Hold on.” She raised her hand and cast a light spell, throwing back the darkness.

“Perfect,” he said.

They set off towards the entrance, swords out now. The cold was getting worse. As they began to descend into the cave, John could see his breath on the air.

“I hate the cold,” Yelena whispered.

“Same,” he replied.

They followed the sloping tunnel to its end. It terminated in a small cavern with a handful more tunnels leading away from it. Immediately, John could tell that the place was lived in. He saw a table stained with blood and scattered with tools, a bookshelf that had a lot of books on it, a few chairs, and another table, this one bare.

Most of the furniture was overturned.

“Necromancer, gotta be,” he muttered.

“What is that?” Yelena asked.

“A mage who specializes in the dead and undead. They do good work, and are often good people, but sometimes, one of them gets crazy one way or another and attempts to do something really awful. They take magic and turn it evil. Something bad has happened here. Likely there’s going to be zombies around, and a necromancer. Be careful, they can be quite powerful.”

“I am ready,” Yelena growled.

John waited and listened, but after a moment realized he didn’t have to. There was a trail of blood leading into one of the tunnels, off to the right. He indicated it silently and began to take the lead, but Yelena beat him to it. Well, she did have more experience. They began to hear sounds as they pushed deeper into the rock tunnel, and there was a lot more blood. What had happened? They kept going until they reached the end of it.

John began to hear stomping footsteps, getting closer.

“Yelena, what-” He broke off as something charged them and batted her aside, sending her flying. “Yelena! Oh shit!” he cried.

An abomination was right in front of him.

It was a tall, stitched-together horror. He saw antlers, and bear claws, and leathery flesh, and then he was stabbing his blade into it. The beast shrieked with the muzzle of what might have been a wolf, and backhanded him. Pain burst in him as he was picked up and thrown back down the hallway. John cried out as he landed and bounced a few times, then struggled to his feet. Right as he did, he saw the huge thing coming directly for him.

He tried to raise his sword, but there wasn’t enough time.

Then he saw Yelena’s blade explode outward through its neck. The monster issued a gurgling roar as it stopped and stumbled. She ripped out, to the right, and half-decapitated it. That seemed to do the trick. The monster fell heavily to the ground.

“What is this?” she asked, disgust plain on her face as she poked it with her sword.

“Monster,” John groaned.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Just fine...just need a potion,” he replied, shrugging carefully out of his pack. “What about you?”

“Split one?” she asked.

He nodded. Honestly, he didn’t need a full healing potion. Nothing was broken, he wasn’t losing blood. He was just in a shitload of pain. He pulled one of the glowing blue bottles out, tore the cork free with his teeth, and drank half of it, then passed it to Yelena, who finished it off. She passed it back and he put the cork back in, replaced it, and pulled his pack back on. Now that it wasn’t moving so much, he had a chance to really study the thing.

John began to get an idea of what must have happened, and immediately hated it.

“Ugh, Gods,” he groaned, staring at the hideous monstrosity. “We need to find the bastard that made this thing.”

“I think I saw him in there. Not moving,” Yelena replied.

They moved back into the room where they’d originally encountered the monster and sure enough, there was a dead body. A pale man with half his face ripped off and most of his limbs broken. John stared contemptuously at the body.

“He built that monster out of woodland creatures,” he said. “And then it turned on him. Killed him. I have to admit, I haven’t heard of anyone trying to build a monster out of creatures. At least not like, regular creatures.”

“He is the monster,” Yelena muttered.

“Yes. He is. Do you know fire magic?”

“I do.”

“Then we should burn the bodies, and see if we can find his notes, and burn them, too. Then we’ll case the joint, see if he had anything worth taking, or any coin tucked away. I doubt it, though. Rogue necromancers aren’t traditionally well-off.”

They set to work.

There were four tunnels that led off of the main cavern, each leading to their own cave. It wasn’t a particularly large underground section. The pair of them worked quickly but proficiently, searching over every area, poking into every crevice and nook they could find. Yelena was exceptionally dedicated and seemed to have a near endless endurance for this kind of thing. She didn’t take a break the entire two-hour period they were there, and she found a decent number of things. Two of the caves were basically empty, although in one of them Yelena discovered a very old, dirty dagger that had probably been there for decades.

The third offshoot led to a disgusting, grisly pile of remains. John quickly surmised that this must be where the bastard had tossed all the spare parts he ended up not using for one reason or another. The reek was awful and only partially contained by a small wooden wall that had been erected over the mouth of the tunnel. Back in the room where they’d encountered the main horror, as they were picking over the remains, Yelena made a discovery. The necromancer who’d been engineering this nightmare had not been alone.

They found a second corpse tucked up into a little shadowy niche. He’d probably crawled in there to escape the creature when they had lost control of it, but it was obvious that it had injured him, and he’d died of his wounds, as he now lay in a pool of dried blood. John spent a moment patting him down, searching his pockets. He found a dagger, a few gems, and a leatherbound book. He almost wrote it off, prepared to toss it into the flames that they were going to use to burn all the remains, but then he reconsidered.

What if there was important information in here?

He was deeply, deeply glad that he’d had that thought.

After finishing their search and coming across a meager sackful of gold, a pair of emeralds, and a sword that obviously hadn’t done the pair of men much good, they burned everything. They burned the two corpses of the necromancers, they burned the pile of bones and meat. The abomination that the men had created, as well as the research papers, were all set ablaze. Then they hurried out of the cave system as it began to fill with smoke.

“What is that?” Yelena asked as they stepped back out into the light and he pulled out the journal, suddenly eager to read it.

“I think it was a journal of theirs,” he replied, opening it up and glancing over the pages of scribbled ink. “I think I need to read it.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure, honestly. Maybe there’s some kind of information in here identifying them. Maybe someone will want to know they’re dead. Even monsters have family. Though their family may be dead as well...”

“We should return to your dryad.”

“She isn’t my dryad.”

“I suppose not. You seem more her human.” He glanced at her. She had a small smile on her face. “Or am I wrong?”

“I mean...I don’t know. We don’t really belong to each other...”

“I more mean that you are very attracted to strong women, John. But I am teasing. You have been intimate with her, have you not?” she asked.

They began walking. “Yes. Many times. She is...I like her a lot.”

“More than you like me?”

John considered it. His reflexive answer was to say that he didn’t know, or that he liked them in different ways. But...no, he had his answer. In fact, he knew immediately. “No, not more than you. I think...I like you more than I’ve liked any woman I’ve ever been with.” He immediately regretted saying that because wow was that a heavy statement for a fling.

“Do you now?” Yelena asked. She didn’t seem worried or angry or embarrassed. She seemed...was that relief? Happiness? He honestly couldn’t tell. She looked away, facing forward, before he could get a good read on her expression. “We should track her down.”

“I suppose so,” he murmured, and looked back down at the book.

They began walking.

…

“We have a problem,” John said as they came into another clearing.

Yelena stopped abruptly and looked around. “What?”

It had been difficult, but not impossible, to read and walk. Most of the journal was just rambling nonsense about attempting to perfect the idea of making a new creature for war and combat, combining the deadliest elements of nature’s savage beasts. But what he’d managed to divine was one simple fact: these two sadistic madmen had not been working alone. There was apparently a whole operation in progress.

He didn’t know where it was, but he at least knew one of the places they’d been using as a temporary outpost: an isolated cabin.

He relayed this to Yelena, and before she could respond, a voice came to him from the right.
“That is a problem indeed.”

Both Yelena and John whirled around, before John sighed heavily. “You really need to stop doing that, Lily,” he said, vaguely irritated.

He hated being snuck up on.

Lily seemed to materialize out of the trees and greenery and foliage. “I’m sorry,” she replied, though her little smile seemed to indicate otherwise. He could feel Yelena tense at his side and imagined it must be practically an insult to sneak up on her. “It is...very tempting, when you have the ability. But I overheard your conversation. Who are these people?”

“Necromancers,” he replied. “They’re doing something with the animals. I’d...rather spare you the specifics. It’s ugly.”

A look of sadness passed across her beautiful features. “I imagine it is,” she murmured. “You know where this cabin in question is, then?”

“Yes.”

“You are willing to pursue this situation? Technically speaking, our arrangement was for you to clear the corruption in the cave...”

“I’m willing to pursue this. This is an abomination. Yelena?”

“I will pursue this to its end,” she replied firmly.

“Thank you so much,” Lily said, genuine gratitude in her voice. “We dryad number so few in this forest. We could, probably, handle the situation, but we are particularly vulnerable to death magic and necromancers.”

“We’ll handle it, Lily.”

“I really appreciate it. I’ll try to stay within a decent range of you. I can track the pair of you well enough, especially with that crystal, but I’m afraid I have several things that need tending to that really can’t wait.”

“It’s okay. We’ll take care of this, Lily. This isn’t right.”

She thanked them again and gave John a kiss, though she shot a quick look at Yelena and suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

Yelena just smiled at her.

Then Lily left quickly.

“Let us go,” Yelena said.

He hesitated, then began walking towards where he thought the cabin in question was. At least she wasn’t angry anymore.

CHAPTER VII

“Where are we going now?” Yelena asked.

“Another cache I’ve hidden. I tucked away some silver-tipped arrows with a little bit of magic on them so that they hurt anything evil a little bit extra,” he replied as they walked through the forest.

“Hmm. We are hunting evil,” Yelena murmured.

“So...just curious, you still aren’t, uh, mad about Lily, are you?”

“No, John.”

“Okay, good. I saw that look on her face before she left. She kissed me, then looked like she was worried she’d pissed you off or maybe that it might have been really impolite to do. Dryads aren’t exactly known for their...restraint, or social etiquette.”

“She should be worried about pissing me off,” Yelena said, then offered a small laugh. “But no, I am not angry. Honestly, I find her...very pleasing to look at.”

“Me too,” John murmured, then hesitated. They were close to the cache. He turned to look at Yelena. “You said that with significance...are you attracted to her?”

“Of course, who would not be attracted to Lily?” she replied.

“Well, a lot of people. Or at least a lot of people would lie about it. I just didn’t know if you were also into girls or not,” he said.

“Bisexuality is common in my realm,” Yelena replied.

“I see,” he murmured, then turned and moved over to a nearby trunk and squatted close to the ground. Already, thoughts of having a threesome with Yelena and Lily were coursing through his mind, making it difficult to focus.

“Why do you...” She trailed off. “John,” she said, and he looked over his shoulder at her. She had that smug smile on. “You wish to make love with both of us simultaneously.”

“I mean...who wouldn’t?” he replied.

She laughed. “Many, I believe, considering I am a factor in this sexual encounter, but I see your point. Have you had two women at once before?”

“Yes,” he replied, a touch defensively, though he wasn’t sure why he was feeling defensive. He resumed his search for the cache, hidden in the tree trunk. “Have you?”

Yelena laughed. “I am no stranger to orgies, John.”

“Oh...all right then.” He fell silent again, kept looking, pushing aside dead leaves and other stuff that had ended up in there from wind and whatever animals used this place as their home. “So...you’d be interested in a threesome between us?” he asked.

“I might be,” Yelena replied.

“That would be truly something spectacular,” he replied. “Ah! Here it is.” He pulled out the leather-wrapped bundle and laid it out on the ground. Rolling it open, he studied the pair of arrow-stuffed quivers and the bow. It was a good one, solidly built, though it hadn’t seen much use. “Want to use this one instead?” he asked, holding it up.

Yelena took the bow and studied it, then handed him the one he’d supplied her with earlier. “This is a much more efficient model,” she murmured, looking it over.

“Yep,” he agreed. Transferring several of the arrows to their quivers, he wrapped it all back up. Making sure it was secure, he stuffed the bundle back into the trunk. After double-checking it was hidden away from prying eyes and opportunistic hands, he stood up. “All right, now we can get to the cabin. It isn’t all that far from here.”

…

If he didn’t know any better, John would say that Yelena was in a great mood. Her stride was steady, her stature firm, she even had a grin on her face, from what he could see of it huddled within the big, gray hood. That made him feel bad and he hated that she had to wear it, that she was risking her life simply by taking a walk with him in the woods. But that was the state of the world. Hating it didn’t change it.

Maybe Yelena was just thrilled at the chance to fight, or kill something, or someone, evil. He could understand that. John didn’t really think of himself as a fighter, in that he didn’t really like fighting...for the most part. He’d fight if he had to and he did like fighting against assholes for the most part, but he wouldn’t say he lived for the thrill of combat. Yelena seemed a bit closer to that. He wouldn’t necessarily call her bloodthirsty, but...she clearly loved to fight. She looked more eager the closer they got.

John thought about the cabin they were walking to. He’d come across it sometime about two years ago when he was out, sort of hunting but really, he was just wandering. When he had checked it out, it looked like it belonged to someone, much like his own cabin, but there didn’t seem to be anyone home, so he’d left it alone. But occasionally, he would come back this way every few months, and after awhile, it seemed obvious that no one was living there any longer. The last time he’d been up this way, maybe three months ago, he’d finally gone inside. Several of the windows had been broken out and the door had been hanging open.

Inside, it was obvious that the place had been ransacked.

He still wondered who had built it, who it had belonged to.

Now, he was coming up on it again. John carefully laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, resting on his hip in its leather sheath, and saw Yelena do the same. They reached the edge of the clearing that the cabin was built in. That clearing was a lot smaller than it had once been, with the plant life growing right up to the small rock-and-mortar wall that surrounded the simple structure. John studied it quietly, frowning as he considered it.

“There’s a door in the back,” he whispered softly, “we’re going to go up to the wall and slip into the yard. I’ll go to the front door, you go to the back. We go inside and clear the place out. If at all possible, try not to kill anyone you find inside.”

“Why?”

“I want information from a live subject. Plus, you know, there might just be some innocent traveler in there, looking for a place to sleep for the night,” he replied.

“Very well. Let us go.”

And so they went. John moved stealthily, but Yelena was like a ghost. They reached the low stone wall and stepped carefully over it, each checking the area constantly, hunting for any clues that someone or something was around. But, as far as he could tell, they remained alone. The cabin was in worse shape than ever. Every window was broken out and a lot of weather damage had been done to the front wall. The yard was overgrown. It looked like someone had been here recently, though, so that was a good sign.

Hopefully.

Yelena split off and disappeared around the edge of the cabin, crouching low to avoid being seen through the windows as much as possible. He did the same, getting to the front door and pressing his back to the wall beside it, waiting, listening. Still nothing. If they were in there, they were being dead silent right now.

He crouched and peered inside, through the space between the edge of the partially open front door and the frame. Nothing moved within. All he saw was some debris scattered across a largely bare floor and a time-rotted chair. He slipped carefully inside, securing the front room. It was a dead zone. There were boot prints in the dust, but they didn’t look all that fresh. He moved slowly across the room and into the kitchen, where he found Yelena checking the area. They finished searching the cabin, their movements slow and deliberate.

But the place was a bust.

It was obvious no one had been here in a little while.

“So now what?” Yelena asked, sounding frustrated.

“I guess we search again for clues this time,” John replied.

“I suppose that is a logical next step.”

“Don’t worry, Yelena. We’ll find them.”

“I hope so.”

They spent another half an hour checking over the cabin, although it wasn’t like there was a great deal to search. In fact, as they finished going over the whole structure bit by bit, John almost began to give up hope that there was anything to find. Until he stepped over into the far-right corner of the main room and felt the floor give just a little. The corner was thrown into shadow, which was why he’d missed the fact that a section of it was actually cut away from the rest of it. He called for Yelena as he crouched, pulled out a dagger, and began to work it up.

She came to stand behind him, no doubt towering over him. Her presence was very comforting. He finally got the loose floorboards pulled up and away, it came up in a whole section instead of several different pieces, and they stared into the darkness below.

“Hold on,” Yelena murmured, and he felt a soft rush of magic, before the whole area was lit up very nicely.

“Thanks,” he said, peering into the hole.

There was a box there, as well as a discarded parchment beside it. He opened the box and found it empty, then grabbed the parchment and read it.

“What is it?” Yelena asked as he finished reading, pocketed the paper, and stood.

“Instructions. Basically, in the event of emergency, there’s a supply cache here. There’s two other locations on this paper and a rough map, though I’m not sure precisely which location is what. One of them is an old mansion on the far side of the forest, maybe an hour’s walk from here, the other is a waterfall on the way, about twenty minutes from here.”

“So, we investigate both of them,” Yelena said resolutely.

“Yes,” John agreed, “we investigate both.”

The pair hurried out of the cabin.

…

As they continued making their way through the forest, John realized that he was feeling pretty good, and not just for the fact that Yelena was with him, nor that they were hunting down evil rogue necromancers.

He realized, finally, that it was simply the fact that he was actually doing something with a bit more importance in his life now. Helping Yelena had given him a great sense of purpose, but in a different way. Hanging around, talking with, and fucking a demoness in his cabin didn’t have the same feeling as grabbing some weapons and marching through the landscape, on the hunt for some malicious bastards.

That was a purpose, and he liked having purpose.

Plus, he really did want to help Lily and her few friends out. From what he understood, the dryads really were overworked in this area. John came out of his thoughts as he realized that he could hear the waterfall they were searching for.

“What do you know about this waterfall?” Yelena asked.

“Not much, really. I’ve seen it a few times. Nothing super remarkable about it that I can think of. But I guess that makes it a good place to hide something shady,” he replied.

“It does indeed,” Yelena agreed.

He listened to the sounds of nature around them, the growing sound of the waterfall, hoping to hear some warning, some sign of something wrong. But there was nothing, save for a growing sense of unease as they drew closer.

Finally, they broke through a treeline into a fairly beautiful glade. The waterfall in question was directly ahead of them. Though there were no signs of disturbance, there were also no creatures around, which seemed to be at least somewhat improbable.

Maybe they sensed the evil in the area, if there was any.

“Let’s do this,” John said quietly as he drew his blade.

Yelena did the same and followed as he approached the waterfall from the right. After a moment, he saw that there was indeed a cave behind the waterfall. Navigating carefully around the wet rocks, he slipped in quietly and studied the rocky opening beyond. The sunlight extended only so far, and from what he could see for now, it just looked like a normal cave.

“We’ll need light,” he said quietly as Yelena joined him. She responded by raising her hand and producing another sphere of light that hovered over them. On the one hand it would make them pretty visible, but on the other hand, they needed to see. And if he was going to have to use a light source, he’d rather use a more reliable one than a simple torch. They set off down the tunnel, pressing deeper into the cave, each sticking to one side of it as not to present an easier target, their swords drawn and ready.

The pair were silent as they stalked down the passageway, battle senses on top alert. John kept a sharp eye out for any possible sign, and saw his first one only a few moments later. A blood splash on the rocky ground. They stopped to examine it.

“It’s at least a day old,” he murmured.

“Let us keep going,” Yelena replied.

They did, and eventually came to a cavern at the end of the tunnel. As they stepped into it, the smell of the dead and old blood hit him. His grip tightened on the sword. This was very reminiscent of the previous cave they’d visited, only now they had the pounding echo of the waterfall at their backs. The light pushed back the darkness, revealing the walls of the cavern...and the slaughter. There were at least a dozen corpses spread out across the area. He counted four men in dark outfits who’d died fighting more than twice their number in abominations.

Some of them were simply zombies, but some of them had things grafted onto them. He saw one man whose right arm had been chopped off and replaced with what looked like the arm of a bear, complete with huge claws. It only got more disturbing from there. One person’s limbs had been cut completely away and replaced with the legs of a wolf. Looking at the corpse turned John’s stomach. Another had been beheaded and a godsdamned elk head had been attached to the neck. John felt like he might lose his breakfast.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

“This is rather disturbing,” Yelena said quietly.

“Deeply,” he agreed. “Let’s just...get this over with.”

The search was miserable and disgusting. Another cavern was adjacent to the primary one, with a tunnel that descended even deeper into the earth. They cleared the second cavern, finding what seemed to be a combination bedroom and dining area that had been thoroughly trashed. After making sure it was safe, they moved down the tunnel. There were a lot of bloodstains on the floor and there was more smeared across the earthen walls.

John thought he heard something shift up ahead, and from the way Yelena tensed, he knew she had definitely heard it. He kept going, silver sword at ready, and finally came to the end of the tunnel. The way ahead was dark.

“Here,” Yelena whispered, and sent her ball of light ahead of them, into the room, banishing the darkness once more.

A visage of horror was revealed.

He saw a dozen flat, wooden tables spread across the room, each with their own side-table scattered with tools and pieces of people. Some of the tables were still occupied by the corpses that the rogue necromancers had been experimenting upon. The smell of blood and death was almost overwhelming.

“We should burn-” John began, and then one of the corpses moved.

He let out a small shout of surprise and fear as it sat up. He found himself looking at what had once been a felis man, a fit one, maybe a hunter or adventurer, who had been decapitated, his head replaced with that of a wolf. Behind this horrible abomination, another one began stumbling to its feet. It was missing an arm, had once been a human woman, and had its head replaced with a horse’s. “Oh Gods,” John whispered, his voice ragged.

“We must end their suffering,” Yelena said.

He nodded and moved forward as they began stumbling towards them. This was a real nightmare, and he knew he was going to have to work hard at forgetting this, or at least not thinking about it. He went to meet the first creature, the one sporting the wolf head, and brought the blade around swiftly in a tight arc. It cut cleanly through the neck, near to where the stitching that kept the head and body together was, and send the head flying off.

He expected the body to fall.

It didn’t.

Instead, whatever dark magic still lingered in this place, in this corpse, drove it to attack him, even headless. It jumped at him, bashing his sword aside and wrapping one shockingly strong hand around his throat. He gagged, dropping his sword, and began to beat at the thing’s wrist with his fists. He heard Yelena growling as she fought off her own attacker, and what might have been a third. This thing was fucking strong!

Knowing that he had to get out of this situation, and fast, John ended up jerking his entire body backwards. It worked. The sudden motion caught the dark horror by surprise and they went down in a tangle of limbs. Although it kept a firm grip on him, his own groping hand finally found the handle of his sword. He grabbed it, raised it, and brought it down as hard as he could manage onto the thing’s arm, near its shoulder.

There was a sickening sound and the blade shook in his grasp as it struck bone.

The grip began to loosen. It got back to its feet, stilling holding him. John chopped again, and a third time, and on the fourth, finally managed to cut the arm off completely. Its grip loosened more, but the arm still held onto him as he stumbled away. John pulled it off with some difficulty and gasped, coughing violently as he got his breath back. The undead thing was now reaching for him with its other hand.

He didn’t give it the chance. Bringing his sword around, he chopped down as hard as he could, and now that he had a better angle and more strength, he cut completely through the second arm. Stabbing it twice more through the chest finally finished off the corpse. Turning, ready to help Yelena, he saw that she had already dealt with not only the horse-headed horror, but another decaying corpse that had gotten up as well.

She was a damn good fighter.

They locked eyes and she began walking quickly towards him. “Are you okay?” she asked. “I am sorry I could not get to you...”

“I’m fine,” he replied, rubbing his throat and grimacing. “Just need a little bit to catch my breath.”

“Okay, good. I believe that is all of them,” she said, coming to stand before him and looking around the room. “This is an awful place.”

“Yeah. Let’s perform a search for information, and then burn all the bodies.”

“A gruesome task.”

John nodded unhappily. They got to work.

CHAPTER VIII

“Why do you keep looking at me, John?” Yelena asked, amusement in her voice.

John was finding that thinking about Yelena, and looking at her, was helping keep his mind from the horror of the cave. She was wonderfully distracting. They hadn’t found anything all that useful after searching the place, save for a bit of gold and a few more gems. With no new information, they’d set a fire to burn the cave out, and left, heading toward the mansion.

“You’re, um...you’re really good at fighting,” he replied.

She gave a small laugh. “Am I now?”

“Yeah.”

“This surprises you?”

“No, not at all. I just didn’t realize, you know, how good you were at fighting.”

“Am I to understand that you find this an attractive, or even an arousing quality?”

“Yes. Definitely.”

“Interesting.”

They kept pushing through the foliage and underbrush. The path to this mansion was seriously overgrown.

“Why’s that?”

“I admittedly do not have much knowledge of your realm, but from what I have gathered, is it not normal for that to be an unattractive quality in your women? Is it not abnormal to be attracted to such a feature?”

“I’m not a normal human,” John replied.

“No. You are not,” she agreed happily.

He reached out and took her hand, stopping her. “Are you aroused?” he asked.

“Quite.”

“We should fuck. Right here. Just real fast,” he said.

“Right here?” she asked, amused, turning to face him.

“Yes. Do you want to?”

“I do, in fact.”

He looked around quickly. The foliage was pretty dense, and he didn’t think anyone was around. Yelena didn’t seem to either. He pressed himself against her, pushing her up against a nearby tree, kissed her deeply. Moaning, she kissed him back, hugging him fiercely. He felt her shove her long, forked tongue into his mouth and that only made him fucking hornier. He wanted to be inside of her so bad, wanted it more than anything in the whole world right then. He reached down and began messing with her pants.

She growled, her hands coming down and moving his aside, then she grabbed the cloth and ripped it open at the crouch.

“Fuck me,” she snarled.

They moved together. As soon as his cock was out of his pants, she hopped up a little, wrapping her legs around him, and he held her, grabbing her ass and slipping his cock inside of her. Gasping at the sensation, he started fucking her up against the tree as she moaned loudly. She still had her hood on and he pressed his face to hers, kissing her again, feeling an immensely powerful concoction of lust and connection with her as he made love with her.

She groaned and grunted, pressing against him with her powerful hips and squeezing him against her with her legs, and he thought about how those legs ended in hooves, and that just made him even more turned on somehow. Inhuman women just did it for him so fucking much and Yelena had to be the most badass, toughest woman he’d ever been with, and she seemed to want him just as badly as he wanted her.

His mind was an incoherent mess of lust and desire and desperate need and blissful pleasure and rapturous unity. He made passionate, furious love with her, driving into her, pounding her, and she was staring directly into his eyes, growling and groaning, panting.

“Yelena,” he gasped, “I’m going...fuck...I’m going to go...”

“Do not pull out,” she growled.

“I thought-”

“Do not dare pull out of me,” she said, grinning fiercely, and hugging him tightly to her with her legs. “I will not let you.”

“Oh fuck!” he gasped and started coming inside of her.

She moaned and kissed him hard on the mouth, passion obvious in her body language as she held him firmly against her. He groaned, lost in her, as he filled her with his seed, coming into her perfect, hot demoness pussy.

When he was done, he carefully pulled out of her and then tucked his cock away. Now that he’d orgasmed, he was again paranoid that they might be watched.

“That was a lot,” she murmured, looking down at herself.

“Uh, yeah, sorry,” he replied.

She looked back up at him and smirked. “I wanted it. Stand watch,” she said, and got out of her backpack. He stood watch, occasionally checking to see what she was doing. She got out of the pants she’d ripped open and used them to clean herself up, then prepared to toss them away.

“Wait,” he said, and she looked up. “The dryads may not, uh, appreciate that.”

“A fair point,” Yelena replied, and instead set them down. She pulled out a fresh pair of pants, pulled them on, then balled up the ruined pants and shoved them into her pack. Once that was done, she pulled it back on and stood.

“Okay, I am ready to go.”

“Sorry I didn’t get you off,” he said as they set off again.

“You can make it up to me when this is over,” she said.

“I definitely can,” he agreed.

She took off her glove and held his hand, and they walked on.

It took another ten minutes to track down the isolated mansion. The pair came to stand at the edge of the huge clearing it was built into, although it was obvious that time had taken its toll on the place and the once rigidly uniform lines of the clearing cut into the forest were now ill-defined, nature pushing back, reclaiming what it had lost to whatever rich family bought this land, chopped away the trees, and thrown up their mansion.

He and Yelena studied it from afar. Several of the windows were broken out, and there were holes in the walls in some places. The wraparound porch had partially collapsed from what might have been a particularly bad storm one day, after months and months of no maintenance. He hunted for signs of life, of anyone having passed through recently, but it was honestly too hard to tell. He looked over at Yelena.

“What do you think we should do?” he asked softly.

“Circle the area, look for activity, mark all the potential entrances. Then figure out how best to proceed,” she replied succinctly.

“Good plan,” he agreed. She glanced at him and there was a sudden wariness on her face. She studied him for a few seconds, and the wariness faded away. Instead, she just nodded and set off. Did she think he was mocking her? He hoped not, but, well...he imagined that maybe she didn’t have the best environment where she came from, in terms of people being nice. Demons weren’t exactly known for their kindness.

Although clearly Yelena knew how to be kind. Was that a stereotype on his part, or was she the exception to the rule?

Right now, it didn’t matter.

They set off, moving slowly along the perimeter.

It was slow going, and ultimately it didn’t really yield much. They didn’t see anyone else or any signs of life, and all they found was a back entrance and a side entrance. Done scouting, they met back together to discuss how to move forward.

“We should go in through the side entrance,” he said. “I think it’s the least obvious place. I mean, theoretically. They could have all three trapped or watched.”

“The side entrance it is, then,” Yelena replied.

Quietly, they set off. He hated leaving the relative safety of the treeline, but honestly, a good eye would have spotted them already. It was possible that they were being watched this very minute, someone lining up a shot from one of the darkened, broken-out windows or some other shadowy niche they couldn’t see. Although, thinking it through, he doubted it. His senses were good, and Yelena’s were clearly better than his. It was certainly possible, but it was also possible that they were alone, and that this place was abandoned. It could either be a dead end, or the simple fact that the necromancers had moved on. Well, whatever the case, he at least felt confident they could handle it.

He felt like he could handle a lot with Yelena watching his back.

They crossed the overgrown yard and made it up to the wraparound porch. Moving as quietly as they could, the pair stepped onto it and up to the side entrance. John tried the handle. It was unlocked. Good start. Probably. He opened it. The door squeaked as it opened, making him wince, but otherwise nothing happened.

Swords drawn, the pair slipped inside.

They’d come to an empty hallway. “We clear this floor, then move up until we hit the top, searching as we go.”

“Understood,” Yelena replied.

As they began their hunt through the mansion, John thought about those they were hunting. Necromancers were typically good people. Men and women dedicated to the art of death magic. They offered cures for the rarer illnesses, put down the undead, laid hauntings to rest, and did a lot of other things that John could only guess at. They were often dark and gloomy and difficult to approach socially, but he knew they weren’t really all that different. He’d had a relationship with a necromancer once, a tall, whipcord lean woman with very short blonde, almost white, hair. They’d worked together when she’d wanted some backup taking on a haunted house not all that dissimilar from the one he and Yelena were now searching.

Although she’d been a bit severe and unapproachable at first, they’d gotten to talk during the adventure, and by the time it was over, she seemed much more at ease around him. Then she’d basically jumped him and they’d had fantastic sex three times that night in a camp he’d made out in the woods. She’d explained later, in between the sessions, that it was extremely difficult to get laid by anyone outside of the necromancy circles, and trust was hard to come by. And she was very grateful about his open-minded attitude.

They’d traveled together for nearly two weeks, having a joyously sex and fun filled time during their travels.

But he knew it wasn’t all good with the necromancers. They were a little more prone than most magic users to going bad. He wasn’t entirely sure why, and neither were the few necromancers he’d spoken to on what was, reasonably, a sensitive topic. The best theory was that it happened because they were working with death magic, which gave you a sense of power greater than most other magics. Basically, it went to their head more easily. If you had control over death itself, then it felt like you were almost a god.

It was a false feeling, though, he’d been told more than once.

In the end, there didn’t seem to be a way to permanently cheat death. Not without ascending to godhood, which was basically impossible. And hey, if you dedicated yourself to a God or Goddess and were a good person, it wasn’t all that difficult to at least get into a decent afterlife. At least, that’s what a lot of people believed. Not so much in his own land. People mostly tried to keep out of the eyes of the pantheon.

It was hard to tell for sure. Not a lot of people spoke to deities, and some could just be lying.

Religion was a thing he didn’t really like to think about.

The pair moved slowly through the mansion’s first floor. It was about what he’d expected from his imaginings after seeing the place every now and then when he went this far out hunting or exploring over the years. There was a receiving room, a dining room, a kitchen, a pantry, two bedrooms, a few closets, and a way upstairs and a way into the basement. They left the basement alone for now, since the door was closed, and they wanted to secure the upstairs first. Most of the furniture they found was old and dust-covered, though there were definitely signs of a recent disturbance, though not many. He imagined they’d been trying to hide their presence.

It seemed as though whoever had owned the place had taken anything of any real value when they’d abandoned it, given that although there wasn’t much evidence of ransacking commonly associated with prospective thieves and adventurers, there wasn’t really anything of any real significance left beyond the basic furniture. The second floor didn’t exactly yield a great deal of useful items or information either.

Some bedrooms, a giant closet, a sun room, a lounge, they’d found more derelict furniture, and even fewer signs of a possible recent disturbance. He felt tension beginning to well within him. The longer nothing happened, the more it felt like something was going to happen. From the way Yelena was moving, he could tell she felt it too. The attic, though creepy, was just more of the same. Finally, the pair of them came back downstairs to the basement door and opened it up. A long, dark stairwell descending into the earth awaited them.

“I will go first,” Yelena said. “I have better vision in the dark.”

“All right,” he replied, and followed her down, closing the door behind him, trying to will his eyes to get used to the darkness faster.

For now, he trusted Yelena to be his eyes.

As they got to the bottom of the stairs, he waited by the entrance to the room beyond, trying to detect any light at all. He heard the faintest hints of Yelena searching the basement and grew frustrated that he couldn’t help her, but before too long, he finally began to detect some light in the room. He joined her and tracked the source. It was coming from a very thin outline in one of the walls. “I am going to make some light, be ready,” she whispered.

“Ready,” he confirmed, blade held tightly in hand.

She created a very dim source of light, but after the darkness, it was just the right level for him to be able to see basically everything. The basement largely resembled the rest of the house. They took a moment to quickly clear it out, finding what might have been a room to sit around and chat or play cards, a storage area, and a wine cellar that had long since been cleared out. All that remained was to investigate the outline.

It was clearly a false door, not too terribly well-hidden. Though there was no obvious way of opening it from this side. They were in the process of attempting to hunt down whatever mechanism was necessary to open it when they began to hear sounds.

“Someone’s coming,” Yelena whispered, her voice barely audible. “I’ll handle it.”

He slipped away as she extinguished her magical light and waited. Footsteps drew closer. They waited in rapt silence until finally there was a grinding sound and the door slowly swung open. A shadow fell across the square of flickering torchlight. The second he stepped out, there was a solid thwacking sound, followed by a very brief cry, and then the thump of a body hitting the floor. They waited for any kind of retaliation or even acknowledgment of the attack, but apparently he had been alone.

Crouching over the man, John determined he was unconscious.

“Is he one of the ones we are looking for?” Yelena asked.

“Yeah,” John murmured, recognizing the same clothing as the others. He patted the man down, checking his pockets for anything useful, and came up with even more proof: a small text on the undead arts.

And if that wasn’t enough, he could smell a strong whiff of undead, decaying flesh blowing up at him from the tunnel the man had come from.

“I wanted to be sure. Should we kill him?” she asked.

“Yeah,” John replied after a moment. It would probably be too much trouble to try and wake him back up and get information out of him. Rogue necromancers were quite stubborn. So, Yelena quickly slipped a dagger through his eye and then pulled his body out of sight. The pair of them stepped into the tunnel and, after a moment of deliberation, left the way behind them open, just in case they needed to retreat somewhere quickly.

They kept going, moving deeper and deeper, following the rough stone tunnel down. It was lit by torches attached to the right wall, and for several minutes, there was just tense silence as they progressed further. Finally, the tunnel came to an end, opening into a simple stone chamber. There was no one around, but it was obvious that this was used as some kind of training area. There were large mats on the ground, and racks of swords on the walls, and stands for armor, with two separate tunnels leading off elsewhere.

There were a lot of bones scattered around, and blood.

“What is this?” John whispered. It didn’t make any sense. Necromancers didn’t bother with swordplay, or armor, typically. They had others do it for them…

“A training area for their undead creations,” Yelena said, right as he figured it out.

“Shit,” he muttered. “This is a bigger operation than we thought.”

“We must end this,” Yelena replied.

Grimly, John pointed to one of the two openings. “Let’s start there.”

They headed into the tunnel, swords drawn. John thought he could hear someone, or something, moving up ahead. He froze as soon as the sound came to him, Yelena pausing a little before he did, and ears straining, they listened. The sound didn’t come again. Moving on, he saw that there was a break in the tunnel up ahead to the left. He stopped again as he got to it and peered down it. The passageway led to a room only a few feet away.

The sound came again, from further down the hallway.

“Wait here, watch my back,” he whispered.

Yelena sheathed her sword and drew her bow. As he stepped in, she hid herself just within the entrance to the side tunnel, arrow notched. “Understood.”

He hated splitting up, but this seemed like the best option right now. John slipped into the room, picking up the pace, and looked around it. More torches on the walls, and against the far rock wall, there were a series of simple wooden tables lined up. On them, corpses. He spied two dead human men and a dead beryl woman and felt his skin crawl. Other than that, all he found was a lever built into one of the walls.

He hurried over to it and opened it up. A section of rock began sliding up into the wall. Good craftsmanship, he surmised, as it hardly made any noise. He looked down into the tunnel that slanted even deeper into the earth. Thinking he saw something further down there, John took a few steps into the tunnel’s entrance.

“Yelena,” he began, turning back around when he didn’t see anything, “there’s a tunnel here and-”

Someone shouted, then someone else shouted: two different voices, and neither of them Yelena’s. John spun around as he suddenly heard a grinding sound. “No, no! Shit!” he screamed as he scrambled to get back through the door, which was closing quickly. He slammed into it as he heard Yelena shout. The muffled sounds of swords clashing came to him and he frantically began to look around for another lever on this side.

But before he could make any significant progress in his hunt, a huge explosion erupted on the other side of the rock door, and immediately the ceiling overhead began to collapse. John turned and began sprinting away. He was not going to die in a damned cave-in. He ran off into the darkness, trying to stay alive, praying to anyone that might listen that Yelena would be okay.

…

It was darker where he was now, and it smelled worse than before.

John had run for almost a solid minute before finally coming to a halt. The ceiling wasn’t caved in where he was, and the bits of rock that had fallen in and started chasing him down the slanted tunnel had finally ceased. After that, he’d walked for another several minutes. Anxiety was a palpable thing now, as he couldn’t stop thinking about Yelena. Was she okay? Was she injured? Trapped? Dead? He tried to shake off these despairing thoughts as he finally came to the end of the tunnel. It opened into a small cave where water dripped.

There were a few torches along the walls, but not many. It was a good sign, though: it meant people came through here at least semi-regularly. Although with magic, it was hard to tell how long a torch had been burning. He knew there were ways to keep them burning for days, if not longer, if you were powerful enough. And most necromancers were powerful enough. John studied the cave in the dim light afforded to him.

The only real thing of interest besides the torches was a small pool of stagnant water, fed by dripping stalactites. He could just barely make out another opening across the way and immediate set off towards it, moving around the small pool. As he did, however, something shifted inside that tunnel, just out of his sight. Gripping his blade more tightly, he prepared himself for whatever it was, because then he heard footsteps. They were slow, and one of them seemed to drag a little bit. Zombie, had to be. Well, he could deal with those.

Sure enough, a former human lumbered out of the tunnel and began coming for him. John met it head-on and cut straight through its neck. That both decapitated and stopped it. He studied it as it hit the ground. It looked to be in pretty bad shape, the clothes ripped and torn, barely hanging onto the thing’s frame, which was gaunt, its skin badly decayed. This one seemed a lot weaker and older. A rear guard? Or maybe a reject?

Maybe they’d just lost track of it.

Whatever, it didn’t matter. It was dead, he wasn’t, and he needed to find Yelena, put an end to this cavern of horrors, and get out of here. Gods, did he already miss sunshine. And sex. Weird to be thinking of it at a time like this, but his mind often turned to sex in stressful situations. Sex was something to look forward to.

John entered the tunnel and moved down it. Almost immediately he began to hear the occasional groan and something shuffle. So, there were more zombies around. John sighed and tightened his grip again on his silver blade. As he kept moving, he wondered about where he actually was. Why had that mansion connected to this series of caves? He’d seen setups similar to this before on some of his adventures. There could probably be a few reasons. One: escape route. Rich people were always looking to have escape routes for one reason or another. Two: something dark and dirty. If you were going to do something illegal or ‘shameful’, like maybe have orgies or something, well...a dark, damp cave wasn’t exactly the best place to do it, but if you threw down enough rugs and beds, he supposed it could work.

He’d fucked in the forest more than once now.

John also didn’t discount the notion that it was because they could.

People with too much coin often did things because they could, because they had enough gold to do it. He didn’t really understand it, but then again, he clearly didn’t have a mindset for being rich. Anytime he had an abundance of gold, which granted hadn’t been that often in his life, he tended to spend it on his friends or any woman he happened to be sleeping with at the time. He loved buying people stuff, making them happy.

John checked down a handful of small tunnels he came across as he continued his journey. Almost all of them were empty. One held another zombie in similar condition to the first he’d fought. He cut its head off and kept searching. Another held some old, empty crates. He was getting closer to the awful reeking smell of death and old blood, though. His footsteps sounded too loud to him. And lonely. It was weird: John was used to being alone. After his parents had died, he’d had a kind of trial by fire in loneliness. He hadn’t really known it, but people in the town didn’t really regard his parents, and by extension him, very well.

A lot of people knew about his father’s debts.

It was one of those open secrets.

John wished someone had warned him. But they’d all kind of pulled back. Oh sure, they’d made the appropriate comments when they passed him in the market, how sorry they were about what happened. But no one actually helped him, for the most part. So, he’d spent a lot of nights alone in his parent’s house. He’d cried himself to sleep a lot, because it had felt like the end of the world. Honestly though, he’d been kind of lucky, because he’d been so desperately working his ass off hunting and gathering coin that for the most part, he didn’t have time to grieve. By the time he’d been able to really take a breath, the worst of the grief seemed to have passed. It still hurt, a lot, but he no longer quite felt like he might completely lose his mind to despair.

Consequently, he’d gotten used to spending a great deal of time alone. Sometimes it got bad, but mostly he enjoyed it. The peace. The quiet. The solitude. And although he did tend to not want to be alone after hooking up with another woman, typically another adventuress, it didn’t take all that long to get used to being alone again. But it felt different right now. At least some of it was probably the fact that this was a really stressful situation and he was very concerned for Yelena’s safety. He knew she could kick ass with the best of them, but all it took was one slip-up, one bit of bad luck, for even the greatest warrior to die.

But he thought that he was especially desperate right now because there was something special about his relationship with Yelena. Again, down there in the near-darkness of the tunnels, slicing up the occasional zombie, John pondered that. Was he falling in love? Was that possible? It had to be, he supposed. What was stopping them from falling for each other? Was a life together even possible? He didn’t think so, but maybe…

Maybe.

The network of tunnels was finally coming to an end. John set his thoughts aside for now. It was more than likely about to get more dangerous, and he was no good to Yelena dead. This tunnel opened up into a much larger cavern, and the reek of death was nearly overwhelming. He saw why: near the center was a pile of corpses. He couldn’t count them for sure, but there had to be several dozen, many of them from different races.

A half dozen or so of those things shambled about.

John set to work. He moved forward as the nearest one took notice of him and began coming. Its skin was yellowing and ripped in several places, covered in old, long-dried blood. It was in pretty bad shape, with graveyard dirt still clinging to it in a few places. He realized, as he struck it down, that they must’ve been digging up corpses to help supplement their experiments. It was horrible and disgusting, but in some small way, he was at least glad for every already-dead body they took, instead of an alive person.

Being captured for experimentation by necromancers was one of people’s biggest, darkest fears, and he didn’t blame them at all. This group had been operating under his nose for awhile now. This operation looked extensive. As he cut down a second, then a third zombie, both humans, he realized why Lily and her other allies hadn’t been able to sense this mess: it was too deep underground. It wouldn’t have kept up forever, because eventually the evil would seep up into the earth like poison, and then they’d know about it.

He wondered what Lily would have done if he and Yelena weren’t around. Probably ask for help from another forest. Like Yelena, he knew Lily was straight up badass and knew all sorts of magical abilities to help her fight, but he knew this would be a pretty bad environment for her to fight in. Not much in the way of nature, and she’d be fighting necromancers to boot. The last zombie fell, another one of those disgusting stitched-together monstrosities. This one was a man with a wolf’s head, jaw snapping occasionally, one eye rotted out. John killed it gladly. There was another pool in this place and although the water certainly wasn’t anywhere near clean, he took the opportunity to rinse the decayed gore off his blade.

The way out was obvious, at least.

There was a big, very crudely hammered out stone stairwell leading up. This was progress. Hopefully. John headed up it. He tried to keep quiet, but his boots sounded too loud to him. It seemed to take ages to climb those stairs. Finally, he reached the top and found himself staring through a large, open archway into another big room, this one a lot more developed. The awful stench of death hadn’t dissipated.

“Shit,” he whispered.

It was the motherlode. It was a giant version of the other room they’d found earlier, with the bodies on the tables, only disgustingly upgraded. This place looked like a damned torture chamber assembled from a madman’s fever dream. The walls were covered in things meant to cut and restrain and torment. There was also a tremendous amount of magic in the area. He could feel it on the air, and he wasn’t all that magical of a person.

Someone was coming. He heard voices.

He hurried over across the room, fast as he could, and just barely managed to make it to the wall right next to the other entryway, where the voices were coming from. He began listening, crouched down, sword ready.

“...would be perfect! Just perfect! We’ve never had a demon before.”

“I know, but we’ve got to find her first. She’s somewhere on this level, she has to be. She’s already killed Paul and Wesley...”

“We’ll get her. We can use her. She’ll have a lot of potential power...”

That was all John needed to hear. Yelena was alive! And kicking their asses! As soon as they walked into the room, he drove his blade through the neck of the one nearest to him. He issued a strangled wail as blood sprayed the second man, who screamed in surprise. He began backing away and hurled a fireball at John. Well, since he already had this guy on his sword, he just turned a little and let the dying necromancer take the fireball. As soon as the fireball hit, he ripped his sword free and hurried forward, trying to take the second man out.

But he was fast, and very agile.

The man was preparing for another fireball. John was too far away. Doing the only thing he could think of, he hurled his blade as hard as he could. The necromancer tried to dodge but couldn’t. His fireball discharged into the ceiling as the blade sank into his guts. He fell screaming to the ground. John drew his bow, notched an arrow, and let it fly. It sank halfway into the necromancer’s eye, and the man stopped screaming instantly.

He flopped back onto the stone ground and grew still.

“Damn,” John whispered. He replaced his bow, and moving forward, drew his blade free from the dead man. As he looked around to see if anyone else had heard the combat, he heard something else instead.

Sounds of conflict drifted to him, and the voice of someone shouting, nearby.

It had to be Yelena. Another noise, this one a shout of pain and surprise. He hurried down the tunnel the two necromancers had just come out of. He could hear some kind of scuffling going on up ahead, to the left. Another passageway, he took it eagerly and almost called out to Yelena, but that might cause problems, he didn’t know exactly what her situation was. It had gone silent by now. He hurried, hoping that she wouldn’t move on before he could get to her. John finally hit the end of the passageway and looked around the large cavern he’d come into.

“Yelena?” he asked softly.

There was no one here. Although he saw a lot of very fresh blood near the center of the cave. He looked around again. There were no other ways out, as far as he could tell. “What the fuck?” he whispered, moving forward, cautious now. Where was Yelena? Was there someone else down here murdering people? Well, there were a lot of experiments around here, maybe one of them had gotten loose and started doing some damage to the bastards who had made it. But if that were the case, then where was it?

Where was the person it had killed?

This much blood, there had to be a corpse. And he didn’t see any blood trail leading away. What was happening?!

John heard dripping coming from somewhere behind him. A cold fear gripped him as he turned around. He saw blood dripping down from above…

Above.

He looked up.

“Oh, fuck me!”

A huge spider was dropping down from the ceiling, holding the corpse of a necromancer in its awful mouth. It landed right in front of the only exit. John swallowed, frozen in indecision for a few heartbeats, staring at it, as it stared back at him. And then, his survival instincts kicked in and he sheathed his sword. Drawing his bow decisively, he notched an arrow, aimed, and let it fly. It sailed through the air and struck true, right in one of the spider’s eight huge eyes. This thing had to be the size of a damned horse! Bigger even!

It let out a horribly loud shriek, dropped the corpse, and began scrabbling towards him. John screamed in fear and shot another arrow, and one more, as he moved backwards. They both landed in the thing’s awful, enormous black body. It didn’t slow it down, though. If anything, it seemed to make the creature speed up, enraging it. John fired off one more arrow, which missed, and then screamed as he tried to dive out of the way.

But he was too slow, and got backhanded by one of its huge limbs.

Feeling like he’d been hit with a log, John flew through the air, and cried out miserably as he slammed into a rock wall, then again when he hit the ground.

Well, he thought, this is it. Apparently, this is how I die. To a giant fucking spider.

This is bullshit.

The ground vibrated as the spider came for him. Groaning in sick pain, he rolled over, grabbing blindly for his sword, having no idea where it had gone, when he saw the monstrous long legs scuttling towards him.

Then, suddenly there was a flash of light, and the spider came to a halt. It issued a wild shriek of rage and spun around. Another flash of light, and John recognized it for what it was: a fireball. And then he heard her.

“John!? Where are you!?”

“Yelena! Kill it!” he screamed as he began struggling to his feet. There was his godsdamned sword, ten feet away to his left.

He hissed in pain but clamped down on it, refusing to make too much noise. He didn’t want to distract Yelena. From what he could see, she was taking the thing on alone, and she was fast. As he witnessed her combating the giant spider, John began to truly get a feel for just how skilled she was at combat. She dodged one swipe of its massive leg and brought her silver blade down hard, cutting cleanly through the leg. The spider shrieked wildly as it leaped at her, mad with pain and rage. She dodged it, tucking into a smooth roll and then coming back up.

Spinning around, she aimed and loosed another fireball that nailed it right in its cluster of eyes, effectively blinding it. Pressing the advantage, Yelena rushed forward, leaped up, and brought the tip of the blade directly down into its head. The spider went rigid, then collapsed into a pile of twitching limbs, before it began to grow still.

Breathing heavily, Yelena yanked her sword from its head before allowing her eyes to sweep the room. Her fiery gaze centered on John and she went from badass warrior to concerned lover in a second, hurrying over to him.

“John! Are you injured?” she asked.

“Think I cracked a rib maybe,” he replied. Now that the thrill of battle was no longer crashing down on him, he was really beginning to feel his injuries.

He couldn’t stand any longer and instead sat back down heavily against the wall.

“Here, hold still,” she said, dropping to her knees and placing her hands gently against his chest. He winced in pain, but otherwise held still and stayed quiet. After a few seconds, a wondrous warmth began to flow into him as her hands glowed a gentle white. It didn’t take long for the wound to heal and the pain to subside.

“Thank you,” he murmured as she helped him to his feet.

“You are welcome,” she said, and then immediately wrapped him in a tight hug. He hugged her back firmly. “I was so afraid for you. I thought you had died.”

“I had similar fears about you,” he replied. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

“We should finish what we started,” she said after a moment, collecting herself and releasing him.

He nodded. “We should. Now that we’re back together, and you’ve killed this big bastard, it hopefully shouldn’t be too hard.”

“I have managed to kill nearly a dozen of them so far, and I found this.” She pulled a folded-up piece of parchment from her pocket. He accepted it, opened it, and studied it closely. A map, he realized after a moment. A map of the whole underground area, hopefully.

“Well...let’s get started then.”

CHAPTER IX

It didn’t take as long as John worried it might to clear out the cave system, as it wasn’t nearly as large as he had initially thought. Several passageways were collapsed, and clearly had been for months or even years at this point. There were only two more necromancers still alive, hiding out, and about a dozen undead still lingering among the caves and caverns. Between the two of them, they managed to put them all down without too much trouble.

This time, they decided to leave the cleanup to someone else, given the extent of it. And at this point, he thought that it really needed to be shown to the proper authorities, also known as the necromancer’s guild. He imagined they would enjoy the opportunity to get in there and clean it all up without too many people knowing about another group of necromancers gone rogue. After they finished climbing back out of the cave network, they decided they were going to find Lily, fill her in, then go straight home.

It had been a long day.

As it turned out, they didn’t even need to hunt down Lily again. She was waiting for them maybe a hundred feet from the mansion.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Necromancers were under the mansion, in some caves, doing really fucked up things. We killed them all, and all their creations. This needs to be reported to the guild,” John replied tiredly. He wasn’t looking forward to the walk home.

But he was looking forward to being home with Yelena.

“Thank you so much. Both of you. I had no idea it had gotten this bad...Vivian’s tits,” she cursed, shaking her head angrily, “this is what happens when there just aren’t enough of us.”

“Do you need us to track down the guild?” John asked.

“No, no, I can handle that. I have my own means of getting in touch with them.” She stepped forward suddenly and hugged him fiercely, then she hugged Yelena as well. His demoness companion seemed not to know what to do at first, and then tentatively hugged her back. Dryads were naturally very loving and, at least in his experience, very touchy-feely.

“Really, thank you both so much. This was...this is a big deal. You risked your lives for the safety of the forest, and those traveling through it.”

“I’m always happy to help you, Lily,” John replied.

As she released Yelena, he noticed that Lily had a green gem hanging between her breasts. Her large, beautiful breasts. With a sidelong glance, he realized that Yelena was actually checking the dryad out as well.

Lily glanced down and, mistaking heir gazes, said, “Oh! Yes! Here, this is what I promised,” taking the gem, with its necklace of magically twisted and reinforced stems, from around her neck. She gave it to Yelena.

“What is it? What does it do?” Yelena asked, accepting it.

“It’s a gift from the forest, a gift of the forest. Wearing it will mark you as an ally of the dryads, an ally of nature and the Goddess Vivian. When you are in this forest, you will be protected.” She paused. “This is not a gift given lightly, Yelena. Do not abuse it, or there will be consequences. This is not a threat, just a warning given out of compassion.”

“I...thank you, Lily,” Yelena said after a little bit. He wondered if she was uncomfortable, being marked as the ally of a Goddess. Could it even work that way? Well, he supposed if Vivian had a problem with it, She would do something. Did Lily even know if it was awkward? Surely, she must, or maybe not.

“This seems like so much. Not that I am complaining. I am just a little...confused. And very appreciative,” she said, putting on the necklace.

“You have done a great service to us. We were beginning to worry about the problem, and you managed to nip it in the bud before it truly spiraled out of control. But John is special to us...to me. He has earned my trust, and the trust of the forest, more than once. If he claims you as an ally to be trusted, then we extend that trust to you,” Lily explained.

“Thank you very much, Lily,” Yelena said.

“You’re welcome.” She shifted slightly, and somehow, in some way that he was unsure of, in that small gesture she had become much more alluring, much sexier. She favored them with an almost erotic smile. “I wouldn’t mind your...company again John. I miss you. And...” she looked at Yelena. “I also would very much like to get to know you on a more personal level, Yelena. Just know that I’ll be in the area, should you feel the need for my company.”

“Uh...okay, Lily,” John said, trying hard not to flush and grin like an idiot. But damn, Lily could turn it on and way up when she wanted to.

The beautiful dryad disappeared back into the trees and plants, just like that.

“So that was, um, interesting,” John said as they began the long walk back to the cabin.

“Yes. Very,” Yelena agreed. “Lily is very...beautiful,” she murmured.

“Yes, she is...having a change of heart about her?” John asked.

“Maybe. I feel much better after, uh, earlier. After our talk. It helped me focus. And Lily is definitely very beautiful.”

“Are you attracted to her?”

“Of course,” Yelena replied.

“I don’t suppose you’ve given anymore thought to, you know...a threesome?” he asked.

“I am still considering it,” she replied. “She has such large, beautiful breasts. But for right now, all I want to do is go back to the cabin, strip down naked, soak in that hot spring you have out back, and then have multiple, long bouts of sexual intercourse with you.”

“I’d like that very much, too,” he replied.

“Then let us hurry.”

They hurried.

…

It was getting to be prematurely dark again by the time they finally got back to the cabin. The clouds were thickening, and thunder was crashing distantly. As soon as they got into the cabin, Yelena pushed him up against a wall, kissing him fiercely.

“You are mine tonight, John,” she growled, staring at him intently with those flaming, flickering eyes of hers. He stared back, his heart pounding in his chest, his erection a powerful, pulsing thing between his legs. “I claim you tonight.”

“Do you now?” he asked, breathing heavily.

“Yes. You are mine,” she growled again, and kissed him deeply.

He pushed back against her suddenly, realizing that there was no way he was going to be able to wait for the hot spring. He shoved her towards his bed and she landed on it with a grunt. “And you are mine tonight, Yelena,” he said, taking off his shirt and tossing it aside.

“Claim me if you can,” she replied, hastily getting out of her own clothes.

He almost leaped onto her, grabbing her wrists and holding her down against the bed, staring into her strange, exotic face that spoke of danger and dark lust. There was something about Yelena that called to darker desires in him he’d only occasionally explored. And she seemed to know that...and encourage it.

He kissed her roughly, running his hands across her body, feeling the hot, firm weight of her breasts, her hard nipple against his palm. She wrapped her legs around him, holding him to her, grabbing his shoulders.

“Enter me!” she cried.

He didn’t even have to reach down and adjust himself, he was right there, at the entrance to her pussy, and he could feel the heat coming off her like an open flame. Her body was alive and almost thrumming with lust and desire, and his own body responded in kind, wanting nothing more in the world than to be inside of her.

She let out a shout of satisfaction as he pushed his way into her.

“Oh, fuck!” he groaned as he slid his length inside of her, feeling all the hot wetness there. Her vagina constricted around his cock, clenching hard.

“Fuck me!” she demanded, her voice a throaty growl.

He started to fuck her, the bed rocking violently in response. She began growling and moaning, holding him close to her as he drove into her over and over again. This was different. Whatever sex they had had before, whatever fucking they’d done or love they’d made...this was somehow different. More violent, more furious, but also far more passionate, closer. He stared intently into her eyes, his face inches from hers, and she stared back. Her eyes were flaming more brightly now, and whereas before they’d been orange or yellow, they were now red.

Deep red.

“Your eyes...” he groaned.

“What about them?” she gasped, then cried out as he pushed deeper into her with a particular thrust.

“They’re red. I’ve never seen them like that before.”

“Red?” she asked, startled.

“Yes...are you okay?”

“Do not stop!” she moaned. “I am fine, do not dare stop!”

He didn’t really want to stop, wasn’t even sure he could at this point. The passion for her was burning through him, consuming him. It wasn’t just the sex, he didn’t know what it was, but he loved it. It felt amazing.

John kissed her deeply and she moaned in response, her hips pressing against him, grinding against his own, and each time he thrust into her she would respond in kind. She broke the kiss, panting and moaning, her voice getting higher as the pleasure mounted, and he could sense that she was going to come soon. He wanted to make her come, wanted to give her that rapturous release and experience it with her at the same time.

When she came, she howled in pleasure.

John moaned, feeling her vagina tighten around his cock, feeling her hot feminine sex juices spraying out of her, and he began to come into her demonic pussy, began to fill her with his seed, pump her full of it one hard contraction at a time. Explosions of pleasure blasted through him, rushing through his entire body with each fresh pulse of his dick as it filled her with his seed. He could feel her orgasming pussy, could feel the physical manifestation of her pleasure as he came in her, could feel the passion rising from her.

Slowly, gradually, their orgasms wore off.

Neither spoke for a long time, simply laying there together, him still inside of her, their foreheads resting together, staring into each other’s eyes without speaking. Her eyes had changed to a more sullen glow, but they were still red.

“What does it mean?” he asked softly. “Your eyes?”

“It is...complicated,” she replied. “I...prefer not to speak of it right now. Not yet.”

“Okay,” he said, and that only made him more curious.

He kissed her and then decided it was time to bathe. He was sticky and sweaty and filthy and imagined she was in much the same condition. A long soak in the hot, clear waters would do them well. He gently pulled out of her, his softening cock very sensitive, and stood up slowly, groaning as several of his joints popped.

“It’s been a long day,” he groaned.

“It has,” she agreed, getting up. He stared at her, up at her, a little bit, and smiled. “What are you looking at?” she asked.

“You. You’re so tall,” he replied.

“Am I? I am about average height in my realm,” she replied.

He took her hand and laced their fingers together, then led her out back, pausing to grab a pair of towels. “You are definitely tall. I’m a little tall for my race, and gender. Human women tend to be shorter than I am by about half a foot.”

“Oh. I suppose I am very tall. Do you...prefer that? My study of this realm, cursory though it may be, seemed to indicate that human men preferred women who were smaller than them. I believe it may have something to do with fitting...traditional roles? Is that the right phrase? The right way to put it?” she asked.

“Traditional roles?” he replied.

They were approaching the hot spring now. It was almost full dark, and the cloud cover was thick. Rain seemed to be on the way again. The water was clear and steaming. They began to slide down into it. “Yes. As I understand it, men typically take on tasks that are more dangerous and physically laborious to provide for the women, who typically take on more...uh, maternal and homestead tasks.”

“I know a few women who would disagree with you on that,” he replied. “Oh wow, this water is fantastic.” She laid down against him. “But...well, around here at least, I suppose you’re right. There’s no rules saying that it has to happen like that, but it sure does end up that way often. And I guess it’s kind of expected in a small village like this. Gender-defined rules start to blur when you get out in the wilderness, and the larger cities, like Mist. Honestly, in my times of travel, I’ve met more capable women adventurers than men.”

“So, what do you prefer? Do you mind that I am taller than you are?”

“No. I like it. A lot actually,” he replied.

“Oh. Good. I am glad.”

After sitting together and just soaking for awhile, they spent a little bit cleaning up after their hard day’s work and their harder night’s sex.

“Yelena...” John said.

“Yes?” she replied.

“Why do you like humans?” he asked.

She was silent for a long while. “I am not sure I could give you an adequate answer, because I have never had one myself,” she replied.

“How long have you known?” he asked.

“A long time. I first visited this realm when I was young, perhaps seventy or eighty of your years ago. I was tracking someone, another of my kind that had betrayed us. He came here, thinking he could hide. It was not in this land, but one far away, I believe. The indigenous people, I think you call them the far elves,” she replied.

“Oh, yes. That is quite a ways away.”

“I was wounded, much as I was when you found me, though it was because I had found the traitor, and engaged him in combat. I had intended to take him back alive, but he forced me to kill him. But he nearly killed me in the process. A far elf found me. He was very handsome, and young, like you,” she said.

“I’m not that young,” John replied.

She smiled and patted his hand. “You are to me. I thought he would finish the job, but he did not. He healed me, and then talked with me, and then took me to his camp, which was inside of a cave nearby. He was an alchemist. While I rested and healed, we talked more. I was very cautious, and nervous, and just wanted to get home. But traveling between realms takes magic. A lot of it. On the third night, he propositioned me. I was so surprised. I did not think anyone from this realm would ever be interested in me in any capacity, let alone sexually. When I first met him, I did not think he was handsome. I thought he was funny looking, weird, alien. But over those few days, I began to realize that he was quite attractive, and that I was attracted to him, and I had begun to entertain the possibility of sleeping with him, trying to seduce him...”

She smiled, looked away briefly. “I am considered quite attractive among my own people. I was no stranger to sex, even then. But I had never considered having sex here, in this realm. I was not even sure you did it the same way we did...of course, that was stupid. And I found that out that night. The sex was very, very good. I did not want to leave, honestly, and I stayed with him for several more days, making love, until he had to go home. After that, I was intensely curious. I knew there were many species in your realm.

“So, I used every excuse I could think of to come back here. It was rare, but on each occasion, I did manage to snag a lover or two. I have made love with both male and female beryl and felis, and female elves, they are very...open, I’ve found. And only male humans, and only twice. Well...” She looked over at him and smiled, kissed him briefly on the lips. “Three times now.”

“Which ones are the best?” he asked.

“Humans. Beryl and especially felis are more...passionate lovers, though you are, by far, the most passionate lover I have ever had, even among my own kind. Or maybe that is just my mind tipping bias in your favor. But there is something about human men...I do not know. Of course, it is not as though I have a huge list to pull from. Although you...you are my favorite lover,” she said.

“And you’re mine,” he replied, wrapping his arms around her.

They rested there for a bit longer, and John had things he wanted to ask her. About her eyes, about her feelings for him, to talk about his own feelings for her, because he thought this was more in-depth than just a fling, but where could they possibly go from here? They couldn’t live in this cabin forever.

But before any of that could happen, she was kissing him again, and he felt the tip of her tail dragging along his stiffening cock, teasing it. Then she gripped it, wrapped her hand around it, making a firm fist, and began to jack him off slowly.

“You want me again,” she murmured.

“Mmm-hmm,” he replied, kissing her and touching her.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

“I want you, Yelena.”

She smiled and straddled him. “Do you need me?” she asked, her voice thick and husky.

“Yes.”

“Then tell me, John. I want to hear you say it.”

“I need you, Yelena,” he replied, staring up at her. Her eyes were still that deep, deep shade of flickering red.

“Then you shall have me,” she said, and lowered her body, taking him smoothly into herself once more. He moaned as he slid into that tight, perfect demoness pussy. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this sexually active. Reaching back, he grabbed her perfect, fit, thick ass and pulled her down while pushing up, causing her to cry out in pleasure.

“Do you need my body? My sex? My pleasure?” she gasped.

“Yes, Yelena,” he groaned, grabbing her hips and helping her begin to ride his cock. “I need it all. I need you,” he said, as she began to ride him faster and harder.

“Fill me with your seed,” she whispered harshly, and kissed him. Her lips were hot and full, and she tasted of something dark but rich, intoxicating. She slipped her long, forked tongue into his mouth and that was when he began to do as she desired: he filled her with his seed one more time. He wasn’t sure how much he had left in him after that last time, but his cock started kicking hard inside of her nonetheless.

And from the way she began moaning, and how much hotter she got, she was orgasming as well. She seemed to orgasm easily, which was really nice for both of them. The two of them came together, writhing against each other in the water, lost in their own worlds of pleasure, but together, linked physically and emotionally.

As before, when they finished, they sat together, entwined with each other, breathing heavily, him still inside of her.

He loved being inside of her.

“Are you happy?” he asked after several moments of silence.

“Very,” she whispered in his ear.

“I am too.”

“Good. I want you to be.”

They continued sitting there until he felt the first frigid raindrop fall and hit his cheek. He looked up. “It’s starting to rain,” he murmured.

“We should go inside. I do not want to be cold,” Yelena replied.

“I’ll keep you warm,” he promised, and they got out of the water.

The two grabbed their towels and quickly moved across the backyard as the rain began to pick up. Getting inside, they dried off and then hung the towels up to dry. “What should we do now?” Yelena asked.

“We should sleep,” he replied, and yawned. “I’m exhausted.”

“Then we shall sleep,” she said. After he made sure that the cabin was secure and locked, they headed for the basement.

They crawled into bed together after he closed and locked the hatch, and put out the candle, and he curled up against her back with an arm over her beneath the blankets. She settled more comfortably against him.

And he fell asleep almost immediately to the sound of the rain and her steady breathing.

CHAPTER X

John awoke to heavy breathing.

He opened his eyes and saw only a dim, red, flickering light. It was moving. He rubbed sleep from his eyes and studied the movement, confused, but quickly realized he was seeing Yelena’s eyes. She was doing sit-ups.

“I am sorry I woke you,” she said as he shifted.

“It’s fine,” he replied. His inner timetable told him that it was early morning, though it was harder to tell without the sun. “Would you mind opening the trapdoor?” he asked.

“Not at all,” she replied. She did a few more sit-ups, then got up, climbed the ladder, and unlocked the hatch, before pushing it up and open. Dim sunlight spilled weakly into the room. Given that he’d been sleeping in almost utter darkness, it was enough to see by. And he could see Yelena clearly now as she began to do stretches.

“I haven’t seen you do this before,” he murmured.

“I was too sore,” she replied. “From the wounds. And all the...activity I have been getting. Honestly, I was getting enough work in with the morning sex.”

“You could’ve woken me up if you wanted that,” he said.

She grinned. “I know. I missed doing this, though. And you looked so cute sleeping, I did not want to disturb you.”

He just grinned back at her, staring at her wonderful, beautiful naked body as she continued stretching. She was extremely fit. And limber.

“What are you looking at?” she asked after a moment.

“You. You’re so beautiful, Yelena,” he replied.

“You really think so?” she asked, stopping, staring back at him.

“Of course I do. Do you really doubt that?”

She came over and sat down beside him on the bed. “I know that you are sexually attracted to me. But...thinking someone is attractive and thinking someone is beautiful are two different things. I did not know if you could...if you thought I was actually beautiful,” she said quietly.

He reached up and ran his fingers along one of her horns. “You’re beautiful, Yelena,” he said quietly. “You’re pretty and gorgeous. And I love your horns.”

She smiled, and it almost seemed like a shy smile. It looked strange on her otherwise confident face. “Thank you,” she said softly. “The people I have been with, in this realm...they never touch them. It is...” she hesitated.

“It’s what?” he asked, pausing.

“It is very intimate, in my realm,” she replied. “To touch the horns of another.”

“Oh...I...I think I might’ve grabbed them when you were giving me head once. Is that...I mean, is that okay?” he asked.

“Oh yes, definitely. Do not worry. There are different levels of intimacy. I like that, but...I like this, too. I like it more,” she said, and bowed her head slightly towards him.

He sat up and reached out with both hands, running his fingertips along the hard material. She shuddered as he did this. “Can you feel that?”

“Yes. It is not as sensitive as most other parts of my body, but...yes. Yes, I can feel that, John,” she whispered.

He loved it when she said his name.

After a little while, she reached up and took his hands, bringing them down and holding them. “I need to tell you something,” she said, “but...over breakfast. I am very hungry.”

“Okay,” he replied. “Also, I was thinking about something we could do today,” he said, getting out of bed. The two of them crawled up out of the basement. He looked outside. Well, the rain had cleared up again during the night. “Come on, let’s wash up, then we can eat,” he said, grabbing the towels again.

“What should we do today?” she asked, following him outside.

“There’s some places in the forest I want to show you. Pretty places. I’ve discovered them over the years, and I don’t think many other people have.”

“I would love to see them, and to spend the day walking with you. I have always loved your realm. My own is...stark, by comparison,” she said.

They washed up in the hot spring and, unable to resist the urge, had a quick but passionate fuck in it, going until they each had orgasmed. Far more awake now, they got out, dried off, and headed back inside. Hanging up the towels, they pulled some clothes on.

“Thank you for these,” Yelena said, gesturing to the clothes he had purchased for her in the local market. “They fit better. And they are softer.”

“I’m glad you like them,” he replied. “You wear them well.”

They made a stew for breakfast, cooking and chopping up some rabbit, venison, potatoes, and vegetables, and some bacon and eggs. He poured them each a glass of strawberry juice. He kept thinking about what it was she wanted to tell him, and she actually seemed a little nervous about it. Which was making him nervous, too.

But finally, breakfast was prepared, and they soon sat across from each other at the table, eating. “So...” he said.

“So...” Yelena replied, looking sheepishly up at him. “I have a confession to make.” She must have read his expression immediately. “Do not worry, it is not a bad one. I mean, I think.” She sighed. “I guess I should just come out with it. I have enough magic to make the journey safely back to my realm,” she said. “I have had enough since yesterday.”

“Oh,” he said. “And...”

“And...I do not want to go back yet. I want to spend more time here, with you,” she replied. “And I am apologizing for the deception.”

“It’s fine, Yelena. I want to spend more time with you, too.”

“How much more?”

“Well...I’m not sure. How much more do you want to spend together?” he asked. “It’s not like I have any pressing engagements, and I’m not too keen on seeing anyone from town for awhile. I don’t have any family left, and all my friends are spread out across the land, doing their own thing. So, I have some time,” he replied.

“Good. I am, uh, not sure. How long I want to stay, I mean.”

“Do you have anything you need to tend to? Responsibilities?”

“No, not precisely,” she replied. “I have the time.”

“Then stay with me.”

She smiled broadly. “I will. I will stay here with you for awhile longer.”

“Good. Now I have a question. I already asked it once, though I’m very curious. But if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t make you. Your eyes...they’re still red,” he said. “They used to be orange or yellow, and sometimes it seemed like they were going towards red, but now they’re full-on red. Does that mean something?”

“It does,” she replied, sounding a little reluctant. “Our eyes...if we are not careful, they can show our emotions. The orange and the yellow, that’s what we show to those we do not know, or do not trust, or are on a casual basis with.”

“So you...trust me,” he stated, with a hint of questioning in his tone.

“Yes. I do. I trust you.”

“I trust you, too, Yelena,” he replied.

She smiled. “I am glad. I have had lovers in your realm, but I do not think any of them actually trusted me. Not like you do. You rescued me. You let me into your home. You sleep next to me, against me. I am very grateful.”

“So, what does red signify beyond trust?” he asked.

“It signifies...a deep connection with a lover. A deep intimacy,” she replied. He thought she might be holding something back, but if she was, then it was her own business. And he didn’t think it was bad. And what she’d said so far was good.

“If my eyes changed color, they’d be red,” he said to her. And that made her smile again, a more genuine, less nervous smile.

They finished up breakfast, then grabbed their bows and quivers and cloaks, and headed out into the forest.

…

The forest surrounding Falling Rock, even in gray sunlight, was beautiful.

Even in the dead of winter it was a thing of awe-inspiring beauty. John had an idea that he was never quite as happy as when he was outside, among the trees, the wildlife, among nature and all its vast, limitless beauty.

Okay, well, he was happiest when he was fucking a really hot woman, (preferably not of his own species), but that wasn’t really a fair comparison.

It was what made him leave about once a year to go adventuring, usually when spring hit, but sometimes he’d wait for summer. Never winter, though. The land was miserable during the winter. It was honestly best during the spring. Right now he was wishing that Yelena had arrived just about three months ago, as presently it was approaching the end of summer.

He first took Yelena to the waterfall. Not the one they’d visited already.

There was a beautiful waterfall maybe a half mile from his cabin. Not particularly large, but stunning nonetheless.

“I love your realm, your land, so much,” Yelena said as they stared at the waterfall, watching rainbows appear in the mist, and the greenery, the brilliant, many-colored flowers all around them. “It is so...amazing.”

“I know. I love it, too,” he replied, holding her hand. She was resting her head against his own. “I’m so glad I’m getting this chance to share it with you.”

“So am I,” she replied.

After the waterfall, he took her to the tallest tree in the forest. Only it wasn’t just that. There was something special about it, and he knew that he could only find it because Lily allowed him to. It was very strange. When she had first shown it to him, (after they’d met and made love several times over the course of their first month together), he was positive he’d walked past this place more than once, but he’d never seen this tree before. And he should have, not only was it very tall, shooting up into the sky over several others, but it was broad, and a brilliant shade of green that was unlike anything around it, and it sat in its own clearing.

“What is it?” Yelena whispered, as they stood in the clearing, staring up at it. “It looks...different. Unique from all the other trees.”

“Lily calls it the heart of the forest, but she won’t actually tell me what it is or what it does,” he replied.

Yelena smirked. “And that annoys you.”

“Yeah, a little. She likes being coy about it. One time she told me that it was the very first tree in the forest. Then she told me it was a tree planted by Vivian herself. Then she told me a myth about a great dryad huntress that fought valiantly for the safety of the land, thousands of years ago, and though she saved the land from a great evil, she died, and this is where they buried her, and this tree was what grew. Funny thing is, there’s another tree a lot like this over in another, much bigger forest, to the west, and a dryad I met there told me similar things. I’m not sure.” He shrugged.

“How did you meet Lily?” Yelena asked.

He was glad to see that he didn’t detect any jealousy in her voice. “Kind of like how I met you, actually, although the roles were reversed. It was three years ago. I was chasing some bandits through the woods. They’d just robbed a merchant. They got the better of me and were going to kill me, they’d wounded me, and that’s when Lily showed up. She killed them. She later told me they were evil, damned, and no use to anyone alive. I don’t suppose she was wrong, but sometimes I wonder...not that I haven’t killed before. But she healed me and began talking with me. She was interested in me, she said. She’d never actually spoken directly to a human before, and she had always been curious. And I was...” he hesitated.

“You were mesmerized by her large, bare breasts, no doubt,” Yelena replied.

He sighed. “Yeah, kinda. I mean, you saw them, they’re fucking amazing. But I was also very interested in her. I’d never spoken with a dryad before, or even seen one. She walked with me all the way back to my cabin, which took almost an hour. We talked the whole way there. I invited her inside. She said she’d prefer to stay outside, but wouldn’t mind my continued company. We got into the hot spring, since I was filthy and needed a wash, and she enjoyed soaking as well. And...well, one thing kinda led to another.”

“And you fornicated with a dryad,” she said.

“I did.”

“What was it like?”

“It was amazing. Dryad are very sexual, very intimate, and very familiar with the ways of pleasure,” he replied.

She was silent for a moment. “Perhaps...I would like to see her again.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied, nudging him as they began walking away from the tree. “We should find her and proposition her. I bet I can show her a thing or two about pleasure. I was not only interested in the men in my realm. As I said earlier, I have had much experience with pussy.”

“That sounds so fucking awesome. We’re definitely finding her. But later. I want to show you more,” he said.

“Show me more,” she replied, and they walked on.

…

They’d packed a basic lunch of cooked rabbit that he’d placed in a simple metal box that he’d imbued the interior of with a very low-level heat spell. He’d been a little concerned that it might make his backpack catch fire, but the chances of that were slim, and as it turned out, it was worth it. The meat was still warm and fresh.

The two of them sat together on a fallen tree, ate rabbit, and drank blueberry juice.

He found himself taking sidelong glances at her, and wondering how long they would spend together. He didn’t want her to leave. But how long could it last? How long could they stay like this? Living in his cabin, in this forest? They were safe now, or safer, at least. Having the forest on your side didn’t exactly make you immune, but it sure helped. And they were both careful, for the most part. And smart.

Well, she was obviously smart, he didn’t know how smart he was.

But what more was there for them? If they left this place, if they decided to travel, (something that was looking more and more tantalizing with each passing day), then how could they deal with the problems that would arise? Yelena was a demon. Even if they hid her well, (and what kind of way was that to live?), mages could still tell. All it would take was one slip-up and most people would try to kill her on sight.

How could this possibly work?

But he thought he might be getting ahead of himself, or even just seeing something where there was nothing. Yelena was obviously very infatuated with him, but infatuation faded. And would she really leave her realm, her life, just to do some adventuring with him? Could he even bring himself to ask her to do such a thing? It didn’t seem right. So, John did what he always did when faced with something unhappy yet inevitable: try not to think about it and just enjoy what was happening. He was determined to enjoy his time with Yelena.

After lunch, they continued walking through the forest.

He showed her a few more sights: a particularly beautiful patch of land that a creek ran through, a small pond where they managed to catch sight of a pair of deer drinking at the water’s edge, a long-abandoned shack that he had never learned the history of. By the time it was beginning to head for evening, the pair decided to finally track down Lily and see if she was still interested in her earlier proposition.

John pulled the crystal he’d been keeping in his pocket out and was surprised to see that it was glowing powerfully, pulsing almost.

“What-” he muttered, looking up and then around. He turned around. “Lily! How long have you been there?” he asked.

She was standing right behind them, in between a pair of trees.

“Right here? As long as you have,” she replied.

Yelena seemed startled, turning around as well. “Have you been following us?”

“All day,” Lily admitted.

“How?” Yelena asked.

“The forest keeps me hidden, if I desire it. It is my domain,” Lily replied.

“Why?” John asked.

She looked away briefly. “I just...wanted to see what you two were like, when you were alone together. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it, I was just-I mean, I was curious. I never thought I’d see you with a demoness. Not that I have a problem with that, it’s just that traditionally your kind doesn’t do too well in this realm,” Lily said.

He wasn’t sure he’d seen her embarrassed before.

“And?” Yelena asked.

Lily seemed startled. “And what?” she replied cautiously.

“How do we measure up, as a couple?” she asked, her arms across her chest, a small smirk on her face.

“You’re so cute together,” Lily replied.

“Cute isn’t the word I was hoping for,” John murmured.

“Well, you are. You two are very cute together.” She seemed to lose some of her uncertainty and embarrassment, instead adopting a coy smile. She fixed Yelena with her sharp green gaze. “And I believe I overheard you making certain claims that you know your way quite well around a pussy, and could show me a thing or two about pleasure.”

“I did say as much,” Yelena replied, almost challenging her.

“Prove it,” Lily replied, just as challenging.

“Take us somewhere private,” Yelena almost growled back at her.

“Follow me.”

“Come on, John,” Yelena said, marching off after the dryad, who disappeared back into the woods. John thought that this was one of the hottest things he’d ever seen. He’d honestly not expected it to go this well.

They hurried through the woods, but they didn’t have to travel for very long.

Lily led them into a clearing.

“This is what you call private?” Yelena asked, looking around.

“No one will see us,” Lily assured them. “As I’ve said before, I and my sisters have dominion over this land. We will be safe and unseen here.”

“Very well then,” Yelena said.

She shrugged out of her cloak, letting it fall to the soft, grassy ground. John noted, as he took off his boots and began to disrobe along with her, that it was warmer in the clearing. Comfortably warm, actually, whereas it had been a little chilly for most of the day. As he started to undress, John really looked at Lily.

It had been awhile since they’d had sex.

She was tall, almost as tall as Yelena was. And she was so beautiful. Almost painfully so. Her dryad nature lent her an alien, exotic, almost ethereal beauty. She was truly curvaceous, with a very full figure. Her hips were broad, thighs pleasantly padded, her ass nice and thick. Her breasts were distinct and large, almost unnaturally perky. He loved how full and round and perfect they looked. Her skin was dark green, the same color as most of the plants in the forest, and had a faint design that resembled tree bark. She had branches that stuck out of the top of her head that looked kind of like antlers, and her hair was made of leaves, patterned to resemble a short haircut. He didn’t know if she did that on purpose or if it just naturally came in like that.

And her eyes. They were the most beautiful, vivid green.

They always made him think of the lushest landscapes on the brightest, most glorious spring day, when the world was bursting with new life.

There was this air about her, some hidden feature to her, that had driven him crazy when they’d first started making love, in a good way. It was still there, though not quite as powerful, and he had identified it, after a lot of thought. Everything about Lily, about her dryad nature, spoke of fertility. She was a manifestation of nature and fertile ground and renewal, and something about that called to something deep in him, some deep-seated part of his brain that desperately, senselessly wanted him to reproduce.

He had no interest in having children, but he happily allowed himself to respond fully to her beautiful, fertile body, secure in the knowledge that there were going to be no children as a result of their coupling. It was impossible.

“Are you just going to stare?” Lily asked.

“It’s hard not to,” he replied, quickly finishing up as he realized he’d stopped in the middle of undressing.

Yelena was already nude, and wow did she look fantastic.

“You are so beautiful, Yelena,” Lily murmured. “Such a wonderful, exotic body.”

“I have something special, as well,” she said.

“Oh?” Lily asked.

Yelena opened her mouth and let her forked tongue snake out. Lily’s eyes widened. “Oh my...that...that’s going to feel really good...” she murmured.

“It sure will,” Yelena replied smugly. “Think you can keep up?”

“We’ll see,” Lily replied. She raised her arms. “Come to me, both of you, and we shall make passionate, happy love together.”

This was really happening, John thought as he and Yelena went to Lily. He was really going to have a threesome with a dryad and a demoness.

They came to stand together in the center of the clearing, and Lily took him and kissed him firmly on the lips. She tasted of honeysuckle and tree sap and crystal clear springwater, of clean sunshine and berries. He felt her large, bare breasts pushing against his chest as he hugged her to him, then reached down and got a wonderful handful of her thick, huge ass. She moaned softly as she slipped her tongue into his mouth, her taste becoming almost overwhelming, intoxicating him, making him want her desperately.

She broke the kiss, suddenly, and moved over to Yelena, and John watched, enraptured, as the two tall, beautiful, inhuman women began to make out. They locked lips, both of them tilting their heads slightly, really starting to get into it. Each woman closed her eyes and Yelena began to grope Lily’s large, beautiful breasts as Lily slipped one hand over the back of her neck, deepening the kiss, and slid the other down her back, coming to rest on the smooth swell of her awesomely fit ass. He was probably wrong, but he thought that this might be the most erotic thing he’d ever seen. And the sounds they were making…

Both women were moaning softly, their voices so sexy, and they seemed so into it, into each other, their bodies responding to each other’s touch. Yelena slipped her tongue smoothly into Lily’s mouth and he saw her eyes open in something like surprise, then she closed them again contentedly. The two ladies went on making out and groping each other for quite awhile, and John didn’t even consider asking for another turn.

After maybe five minutes, Yelena broke the kiss and looked over at him. “I think we should get back to John,” she murmured.

“Oh my,” Lily said, looking over at him as well. “We should. Sorry, handsome.”

“It’s fine,” he replied.

“Come. Lay down,” Lily said, motioning to him.

He thought the ground would be more uncomfortable but, as the three of them laid together in the middle of the clearing, he found it very soft and warm, just as comfortable as his own bed at the cabin or even at home.

The women seemed intent on making him the center of attention for now. They each took turns kissing him, caressing his body, running their warm hands across his skin, sending little bursts of pleasure into him.

Then the two of them began kissing down his body, and came to rest near his crotch. Yelena reached out and gripped his cock firmly in one long-fingered hand, her skin hot against his. Both women leaned in, tongues out, and began to lick the head. John groaned and found himself panting as both inhuman ladies pleasured him with their amazing tongues. He had been in threesomes before, and they had ranged from okay to just stunning.

But this…

It was something else entirely. Next to Yelena, he thought that Lily might be the woman he’d felt the most for. And now both of them were orally pleasuring him, putting their exceptionally skilled mouths to use. Yelena let go of his cock and took its full length into her mouth while still pleasuring him with her demoness tongue. She stared directly into his eyes and her eyes were pulsing, flashing red now, a deep red.

He groaned loudly in ecstasy, the sexual bliss rolling through him in waves. After a bit, she took his cock out of her mouth and passed it to Lily, who started sucking his dick herself. He felt Yelena begin to massage his balls. The sexy dryad bobbed her head rapidly, coating his dick in her saliva, then took it out and licked the head several times, then passed it back to Yelena. They did this until he had to make them stop, because he didn’t want to come yet. He wanted to come inside of both of them, to fill each of their inhuman pussies with his seed.

But first came more pleasure of the oral kind.

“Lay down, dryad, and I will introduce you to a world of pleasure,” Yelena said.

“Yes ma’am,” Lily murmured, pausing to kiss her once, then laying down where John had been laying.

Yelena didn’t start eating her out, not right away. Instead, she joined John in kissing her, before they both began to kiss down her face, her neck, to her breasts, where they each took one large, firm breast and began to lick across it. Lily moaned loudly, gasping as they pleasured her. John slipped a finger down in between the lips of her pussy and began to gently rub her clit, making her moan louder. Soon, they were both sucking on her huge tits.

“Yes, that’s it...” she moaned. “That’s so good...”

Yelena then moved down, settling between her thick thighs, and opened her mouth. Her tongue slowly came out and John watched as she began to lick at Lily’s clit. The dryad let out a sharp gasp, followed immediately by a loud groan.

“Oh yes, that’s fucking amazing,” she whispered, her voice thick with lust. “I can immediately tell why you are so into her.”

“There’s a bit more to it than that, but that tongue is fucking amazing,” John replied.

Yelena continued to pleasure Lily, starting out slow at first, applying more and more pressure as she went, then beginning to build the speed, until she was licking rapidly at her clit, and Lily was trembling all over now, jerking in response to the intense waves of pleasure bursting through her, and she was panting and yelling, her voice getting higher and higher in pitch until, within about two minutes, Yelena had her coming.

John always liked watching her come.

Her orgasm was full bodied, her thighs bunching as she clenched them, and she let out a gasp that became an almost gagging moan, her eyes squeezed shut, her whole body jerking in response as her clearish-green tree sap sex stuff began to come out of her pussy.

“Wow,” Yelena whispered, staring.

“Yes. She comes differently,” John murmured, joining her now, watching the beautiful, full-bodied dryad orgasm.

The climax lasted for awhile, and when it tapered off, Lily let her breath out in one harsh, explosive gasp and went slack against the ground, gasping.

“I’m in love with your tongue,” she murmured.

“I am glad,” Yelena replied. “Now...show me your own skills, dryad.”

“Oh, I will, demoness,” Lily replied, and she sat up suddenly, full of intent and determination.

She got in between Yelena’s firm thighs and set to work, pleasuring her just as she had been pleasured by Yelena. Although Yelena seemed to enjoy herself tremendously, he thought that maybe Lily didn’t quite have the skill to match the demoness. Nonetheless, Lily licked and licked and licked, and slipped a finger into her tight, wet opening, stimulating her and pleasuring her until Yelena let out a growling cry and orgasmed.

When she was finished, she sat up.

“Now, I wish to fuck,” she said. “John, lay down, now,” she growled, getting up.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, quickly laying down.

“She’s kind of bossy, isn’t she?” Lily asked.

“Shut up,” Yelena replied, then grabbed and kissed Lily, before letting go of her and mounting John. She took his rock-hard cock into her insanely hot, tight opening, and he slipped easily into her, the saliva still on his cock and her sex juices from the orgasm more than enough. John groaned loudly and reached out, grabbing her trim, beautiful hips, thrusting up into her as she rode his cock, enjoying her sex, her blissful ecstasy, her wonderful body. She grunted and growled as she furiously rode his dick, fucking herself with it, pleasuring herself, and when Lily got closer, Yelena began kissing her once more with a fiery passion.

Yelena’s pussy felt like pure, uncut rapture as she kept bouncing on him, taking his dick into her over and over again. She fucked him until the pleasure built to a climax. Staring down at him, her red eyes wide and flaming, she grinned. “Fill me, lover,” she whispered harshly. “Give me your seed, John. Fill me with it.”

He groaned, his orgasm finally coming, as he was letting it come. It overwhelmed him briefly and then he was spilling his human seed in her demoness pussy, groaning and crying out loudly as the pleasure pulsed through him.

She took everything he had, grinning down at him with a look that conveyed both satisfaction and maybe a little bit of smugness.

Maybe because she had gotten him to come first?

There seemed to be some kind of subtle rivalry between the two women.

Or maybe it wasn’t so subtle, he was just distracted.

“Your turn,” Yelena said after he had finished spraying his seed into her and she got up off of him. Lily grinned down at him, only she, apparently, had one more trick up her sleeve. And it was a good one. She straddled him, but facing the other way, and he found himself staring at her pussy and her huge, thick ass as she took his cock into her.

“That’s it, John!” she cried, pushing herself down along his semi-hard length, accepting it into her fantastic dryad pussy. “Oh, yes!”

She rode his cock with her slicked-up vagina, moaning loudly. He was often amazed at how different some women felt. Each species seemed to have their own texture, their own unique feeling. Dryad pussy felt a little like moss. Demon pussy felt like...he didn’t know what it felt like, beyond amazingly good.

He’d missed Lily, missed everything about her.

She continued riding him like that, pussy bare to his view as she went up and down, her phenomenal ass jiggling from the power of her thrusts, until he was fully hard again. Unable to look away, he kept his eyes on her huge ass, thinking that she’d ride him until he came. But she didn’t. Instead, she pulled forward, making him slip out of her, then looked back at him.

“Put it in my ass,” she said.

“Oh, with fucking pleasure,” he replied, and once he’d aimed his cock properly, she began pushing back against him, sliding it up her fat ass. “Your ass is amazing, Lily,” he groaned as she started riding his dick with it.

“Your cock is quite nice, John,” she murmured in reply, then moaned in sexual pleasure.

In spite of having orgasmed just barely a few minutes ago, he could feel another one coming on, though he imagined Lily wouldn’t mind. She seemed to be trying to make it feel as good as possible. He reached up and grabbed her thick, well-formed ass and pulled it down against him while thrusting up, causing her to yell in pleasure.

Then, Yelena caught his eye. She grinned at him and motioned for him to lean back and take Lily with him. Curious, but willing to see what she was planning, he repositioned himself, following her instructions. Making sure to keep himself inside Lily, he kept thrusting, short and shallow bursts into her jiggling ass as he adjusted them both. Yelena stalked forward, smug and confident and smiling down at the two of them. Getting down on her hands and knees, she opened Lily’s legs even wider so that she had access to the entirety of her.

“Now, I’m going to introduce you to a new world of pleasure,” she said, and lowered to head to Lily’s dripping pussy.

Starting at the top, Yelena decided to do something different from before. Circling Lily’s clit, she then ran her tongue down the length of Lily’s pussy, pushing shallowly into her vagina with her tongue, before sliding her tongue all the way back up to circle her clit again. Slow and steady, she kept up her meticulous torture, repeatedly swiping up and down, circling and probing over and over again, as Lily moaned and quaked under her efforts. John looked down at Yelena in something like awe, as her oral skills were causing Lily to come apart at the seams. Impaled from behind, an oral assault on her front, he could see that Yelena clearly knew what she was talking about when she told Lily she had a thing or two to show her.

Holding off on his own orgasm, he deliberately joined Yelena’s steady pace, wanting to see Lily come. It didn’t take long, as Lily quaked under them even faster than before. Yelena kept up as Lily’s entire body erupted beneath her assistance, leaking sap and soaking her front. Lily’s thighs shook with sensation, and she babbled and moaned between them as she came. The noise didn’t let up for over a full minute, and none of it was intelligible, and still Yelena kept up her steady up and down. Thrust in, up to circle the clit and back down, she kept going, prolonging Lily’s orgasm with her efforts. John looked down at Lily as she came, once again enjoying the unique view of watching a dryad come. Fucking her wonderful dryad ass, he enjoyed watching her come. Holding off on his own orgasm was definitely worth it.

Breasts heaving, John’s eyes followed them as they swayed, while her eyes were squeezed shut. It was clear that Lily was enjoying herself. When at long last Lily stopped shaking, she gasped out, “Gods, I am really in love with your tongue. Oh, by Vivian.”

Pausing, Yelena raised her head and stopped her teasing. “I am not finished with you yet.”

Lowering her head once more, Yelena returned to Lily’s sap-soaked vagina, and once again began her measured pace. Switching things up yet again, she added a hand into the mix. Up and down and probing went her tongue, but she put two fingers into Lily’s wet hole and started gently pumping in time with the thrusts that John was making into Lily’s ass. They seesawed into her, one after the other, all the while Yelena’s tongue did not stop the up and down.

Looking at the two women, John admired the erotic sight. Reaching around to grab Lily’s breasts, he fondled them and started to truly pound into Lily’s ass. Knowing that she could take it, after the multiple orgasms, he held nothing back. Yelena picked up her finger thrusting in time with John’s fucking, and Lily started coming yet again. Shivering, quaking, her whole body seized as she rode out her orgasm, babbling and shrieking in turns.

Feeling Lily’s muscles bear down on him as she came yet again, John let out his own yell of rapturous release as he began to come again, shooting his seed into her, pumping her full of it one hard contraction at a time. He held her there against him until he had finished coming.

When he was done, she got off of him.

The three of them sat there together for several moments in silence, in the warmth and comfort of the clearing.

“That was fun,” Yelena said.

“It was,” Lily agreed. “I’ve never had a sexual encounter with a demoness before.”

“I have never had one with a dryad.”

“Did you find it satisfactory?” John asked.

“Yes,” they both said.

“Good. So did I. Can we find a hot spring?” he asked.

“Yes. Follow me,” Lily replied.

The three of them got up, and John took Yelena’s hand as they began to follow the dryad deeper into the forest.

…

After soaking and talking for awhile longer, John and Yelena dressed and returned to the cabin. They had dinner and then took another short walk in the woods around his cabin. John began to get a little worried, as Yelena was becoming quieter, more reserved. He could tell she was thinking about something, but what?

She must have been considering returning home, and how best to break that news to him.

But she didn’t say anything through dinner, or the walk, or the soak in the hot spring out back. She didn’t speak up when they went back into the house and made passionate love on the bed he’d come to think of as theirs.

She spoke up, though, when they were laying together in the darkness, drifting off to sleep, awash in their post-orgasm glow.

“John?” she asked softly in the darkness, her voice strangely gentle.

“Yes, Yelena?” he replied.

“I have something to ask you, but...I am anxious about what your answer might be.”

“Yelena. In the short time that I’ve known you, I’ve come to understand that you’re very brave. And you don’t let fear or anxiety hold you back.”

She was silent for a moment. “I suppose you are right, though this is far different than the dangers I have had to face in my life.” She paused once more. “John...I do not want to go back,” she said. “I do not want to go back to my realm. Back to the genocide and the war and the misery and the whims of a lunatic despot. I want to stay here...but I want to stay here with you,” she said. “And...I lied, earlier. A lie of omission. About my eyes.”

“What about them?” John asked. A tremendous relief and happiness flowed through him. She wanted to stay as much as he wanted her to stay.

“When our eyes turn red like this, it is...it does mean that we feel very close to someone, but the depth of that intimacy, that closeness, is very extreme. We become joined, linked together...should we choose to be. There is a word for it here, in this realm, I am not sure...”

“Love, Yelena,” he said, and he reached out beneath the blankets and touched her, pulling her closer to him. “The word is love.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Love. I...love you,” she said quietly.

“I love you too, Yelena,” he replied gently.

And she kissed him then, and held him so tightly that it hurt, but he didn’t stop her, just kissed and hugged her back fiercely.

“But how can it work?” she asked, pulling back. “How can it possibly work? I am a pariah here, in your land. In your realm. Your people, they will try to kill me on sight...”

“I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot,” John replied. “And I think I have a way. It will be difficult, and dangerous, but I think it might work. But...I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. For now, I just want to lay here with you, and hold you, until we sleep.”

“I want nothing more,” she whispered.

And they stayed that way until they fell asleep together.

CHAPTER XI

“We’re going to need a magical amulet,” John said.

It was the next morning, and they’d cooked up a large breakfast. Both of them seemed to be bursting with good cheer, and couldn’t stop touching each other, or kissing each other. They’d made love three times before even getting out of bed, seemingly unable to let the other go without one more lovemaking session.

“What kind?” Yelena asked, more serious now.

“It is similar to the kind of magic Lily used to protect you. But even more powerful. I’ll have to do some more research, but I know there exist spells of illusion. I think that, perhaps, we can get some kind of combination amulet, something that both makes people not pay much attention to you and also one that will make you appear human. That should make this doable. I think. But obtaining such an amulet will be extremely difficult and expensive. And I’m not even entirely sure where we would go to find it...but I think I know where to start.”

“How will we get there? Where will we find currency?” Yelena asked.

“For starters, I’m going to sell my house in town and pretty much everything I own,” he replied.

“What? John, I cannot ask you to make a sacrifice like that for me.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Yelena. It’s not a sacrifice. I don’t want to live in this town any longer.”

“You don’t?”

He shook his head. “I’ve been trying to leave for years. Once a year, I’ll strike off into the wilderness, live out there, have adventures...but something always brings me back here. But now I think I’m ready, I’m really ready to leave this behind. I’m going to keep this cabin, though,” he said, looking around the small interior. “It feels...lucky now. And it makes me think of you more than anything or anyone else.”

She smiled. “I can see why.”

“Yep. The place we must go to is far from here. There’s a long stretch of forest, it’s very dangerous, called the Emerald Wild. We must get there. It will, ironically, be safer for us to travel there. Not many people in the Wild, just monsters and creatures. But we’ll need to buy a lot for the journey. Arrows, better weapons, supplies. And I’ll finally need to buy that damned camp-in-a-bag I’ve been thinking about for ages.”

“Camp-in-a-bag?” Yelena asked.

“Magical item. A bag that’s larger on the inside than the outside, contains a whole camp. You’ll love it. Hmm...” he fell silent, his mind racing, thinking about all the various ways he could get coin quickly. He felt invigorated. “I’ll have to make a list of all the things I own and have access to, everything I can sell.” He grinned at her. “This should be fun.”

…

It was fun, and it didn’t take as long as he thought it would.

It took three days.

The first thing he got done was something he thought would actually be the hardest. But he’d held out hope, because he’d spent the previous year enduring frequent requests to purchase his house by his neighbor, a middle aged man who’d come into some coin and was apparently looking to expand his house, instead of buying a new one. The last request he’d gotten was about two months ago. He’d gone to see the man and his wife, and asked if they were still interested. Apparently, they were indeed interested and the deal worked out best for both of them: John wasn’t willing to take coin in installments, and they didn’t have nearly enough gold to buy the whole house, all the furniture, and the land it was on.

So, they agreed to give him three thousand gold up front.

He could have gotten a lot more for the house, but honestly, he didn’t care. John knew that he was fully capable of making gold on his own, on the road. Especially now that he had Yelena with him. She was exceptionally skilled at survival, and obviously at things like killing monsters and plundering old ruins and exploring caves. And she’d probably be thrilled to. This was literally a whole new world for her. Well, basically. He’d have to figure out how much actual time she’d spent here in her travels at some point.

After going through the house and taking out the most valuable things, and a few personal items he wanted, John went back to the cabin and made passionate love with Yelena. They ate a meal and then went out into the woods. He decided it was time to go and grab his caches. Not all of them, but most of them, since he wasn’t going to come back here for a long time. Maybe forever. (Though he wanted to keep the cabin, just in case he needed a place to hide out for a little while. Or just to relax in an isolated location.)

He had some more swords, a few quivers’ worth of arrows, a shield, a basic suit of leather armor, a bag of gold and gems, and a few healing potions buried or otherwise hidden across the forest. He left the potions and gold and gems, and he and Yelena took everything else back to the cabin and spent the rest of the day sorting through it and everything else in the cabin, seeing what they could sell off. When night fell, they made love and slept.

John spent almost all of the second day going all over the market, selling off everything. He came away with close to another thousand gold, but ended up having to pay fifteen hundred for the only camp-in-a-bag in town, since they were very rare out where he was. He spent another fifteen hundred on brand new swords, quivers, bows, arrows, clothes, healing potions, and all the other various things he thought they might need.

It was going to be a long, dangerous walk.

When night fell on the second day, he returned back to the cabin and spent time with Yelena. He couldn’t get enough of her, and she seemed to be of a similar mind. And they were in love. There was a part of him that was still reeling from this idea. He was in love with a demoness. That was crazy, right? But as the Goddess of Love and Sexuality was supposed to have once said, love was blind. And he thought that maybe Bliss was smiling on the two of them. It wasn’t unheard of. Although it was rare, rarer still, given that Yelena was a demoness.

But there was no denying it: he was in love.

John had never been in love before. He realized that when he’d realized that he loved Yelena. If he had thought he was in love previous to this, he’d clearly been mistaken.

Since he was so tired from hauling stuff all over the place, John and Yelena opted to take the third and final day off, to just relax, and eat, and bathe, and fuck. And he spent most of that trying to figure out his relationship with Yelena, because if you approached it from the outside, if you somehow could look at all the available evidence, even removing any bias...it seemed kind of weird. They’d known each other for about a week, and they were literally from different worlds, and hadn’t exactly met under the best circumstances.

And somehow, in their time together, they’d fallen in love.

As he drifted off to sleep during their last night in that cabin, he found himself coming to one conclusion.

There were some events, some relationships, that went beyond understanding. It seemed like a lazy thing to think, but what had happened between them, why they had fallen for each other as fast and as hard as they did...it was beyond words, beyond explanations, it just…

It just was.

It simply was the way it was, and there was nothing that could explain it any further than that. At least, not in his mind.

Not that he wouldn’t try over the coming weeks and months and, hopefully, years.

John fell asleep staring at her, and hoped that he should be so lucky as to see her last thing before he went to sleep, and wake up to her first thing in the morning, every day.

…

“Are you completely sure about this?” Yelena asked suddenly.

They were standing behind his cabin, (their cabin), staring into the forest ahead of them, packs on their backs, swords at their hips, bows slung over their shoulders.

“What?” he asked, looking over at her.

“I just...wanted to ask, one more time,” she replied, turning to face him fully. “I wanted to make sure, absolutely sure, that we’re both committed to this. Because we are not just...this is not just some task, some adventure, some job. This is...we are committing to a life together, John. We are committing to each other, wholly.”

He turned to face her fully as well, then reached out and took her hands in his. They were both wearing gray cloaks.

“Yelena,” he said, “I’m completely sure about this. I want this. I want you. I’m not having any doubts or reservations. Are you?”

“No. Not at all,” she replied, and he could feel the certainty in her voice, in her grasp. He had an idea that Yelena was fully capable of lying, (and she’d, well, not really lied to him, but had hid some small truths from him over the past few days), but she rarely bothered with it. Yelena was an up-front, blunt woman. “I want this, too. Completely.”

“Good.” He kissed her, fully and deeply, on the lips. “I love you, Yelena,” he said as he pulled back, staring into those flaming red eyes of hers.

“I love you too, John,” she replied.

He turned to face the forest again, and so did she.

Hands together, fingers laced, they walked away from the cabin, towards their new life. It was going to be hard, but it didn’t matter.

It would be a life lived together.

DEMONESS II

CHAPTER I

“I smell a hot spring nearby, John. We should make camp here for the night.”

John looked up at the sky as they slowed to a halt. The sun was still up, though twilight was certainly beginning to descend across the land like a red-gold curtain. In his head, he knew that they had easily another good hour of travel time, and really, there was even more than that, because they were both fairly hale and in high spirits, although they’d been walking all day since dawn. But in his heart, he didn’t want to take another step.

He wanted Yelena.

He wanted to be nude with her, wanted to be relaxing in hot water with her, ached to feel her moving against him, to hear her strange demoness voice moaning in sexual pleasure. Well...in his heart and in his pants, if he was being honest.

To complicate matters more, he knew that they were close to a crossing.

Given that he was now in love with a demoness, John was a fugitive. Pretty much anyone who saw him with Yelena would either try to kill them outright or go find someone else to try and kill them. Their best bet was to hide among the forests that dotted the land. As such, they had been traveling along his own homeland forest for most of the day, making their way east. John knew that these woodlands would eventually run out and give onto open fields and grassy plains. As such, he’d been considering how best to deal with that situation.

Yelena was presently wearing a cloak with a large hood, but even that would only work for so long. Anyone within a decent distance would begin to realize that something was wrong with the shape of her hood, and that it looked suspiciously like horns poking up, creating that shape. And everyone knew that there were no ‘civilized’ species living among the land that had horns. That was if they were facing away.

If they caught a glimpse of her face, even buried in the cowl, well...those glowing eyes would give it away pretty fast.

John knew of a spot where the edge of his forest was closest to the edge of another forest. It was just the first step on their journey, but they had a big journey ahead of them, and it was really just better to take things in steps.

Twilight would technically be the best time to make a break across that expanse of open space. Night would probably be best. But it was more dangerous at night. Well, more dangerous for him, he supposed.

Yelena was more than capable of taking care of herself.

But what ultimately decided him was something not born of intelligence, logic, or reason, but of desire. And lust.

And the way Yelena was looking at him with those intensely flaring red eyes of hers.

“We shall make camp,” he said. “Lead the way, my love.”

She favored him with a smile that seemed equal parts warm and surprised, and maybe a little embarrassed.

In a fit of excitement, Yelena took his hand in her gloved one and eagerly began leading him off the natural path they were following, into the thickets and trees. John felt a rush of excitement as they touched and hurried off.

They had had sex this morning once before leaving, and had somehow managed not to give in to desire a second time. It had been exceedingly difficult in some moments. He knew that he was letting his feelings get in the way to a certain degree. They could have easily made it to the other forest by now, but he had taken his time. He’d shown things to Yelena in the forest, special places or beautiful scenes or curious oddities he’d come across in his years of roaming the area, hunting or exploring. Encountering these things by himself or even with a special friend, (a woman he was currently sleeping with, in other words), paled in comparison to experiencing it with Yelena for the first time. Although she had difficulty showing some emotions, he could tell that she found his world wondrous in her own way. He was glad to be her guide to his realm.

“It is close,” Yelena said.

Now he could sense it as well: the steam on the air, that particular faint scent of a natural hot spring. Damn, she had really good senses. As they drew closer to the hot spring, John felt a wave of sleepiness wash slowly over him. It had been a long but pleasant day. Honestly, a long but...well, mostly pleasant, week.

Had it only been a week since Yelena had entered his life?

That struck him as a little crazy. Well, more than a little crazy.

How many stories had he read or heard of people who ‘ran off’ with their ‘true love’? How many times had that gone awry? How many people shook their head at the absurdity of young lovers? Not that John or Yelena, (especially Yelena, how old was she exactly?), were young. Not that he was particularly old, either. At thirty he felt...he wasn’t sure how he felt anymore. He didn’t feel young, that was for sure, he just felt…

He felt like the passing of one year no longer held such significance.

Thirty looked just about the same as twenty-nine. Okay, that wasn’t true. His life looked completely different now, but that wasn’t because he was getting older. John supposed he had, at some point, hit the age where age no longer really mattered. Or at least it wouldn’t matter again for (hopefully) quite some time.

“There,” Yelena said.

They stepped through a treeline and came into a clearing that almost seemed perfectly sized and suited for their needs.

“Okay, I’ll set the camp,” he said.

“I’ll secure the area,” Yelena replied.

Even lust-addled she was smart and quick. She slipped off into the treeline again. John untied the small bag attached to his belt and studied the area for a moment. After deciding on the best location, he tossed the bag at the ground and quietly muttered the activation word of power. There was a flash of white-blue light and an odd sound and suddenly he was looking at a campsite. It was a simple one, even the fifteen hundred gold he’d dropped on this had only gotten him a primitive model, but it was more than worth the time it would save having to set up a camp every night and break it down every morning.

There was a tent that was big enough for the two of them and little else, a small fire-pit, and three chairs around it. John moved past the pit and into the tent itself. Their bedding took up most of it, and all that was left were a pair of small chests on the ground. One had a subtle chill coming off of it. John shrugged out of his pack, set it down and crouched in front of the chests. The one with the chill was magically enchanted, and would require a once-a-day recharge to maintain its chill spell. The reason for this being that they could store food and drink inside of it, and not have to worry about it spoiling as quickly.

There wasn’t a great deal currently inside: some beef, some venison, a handful of potatoes and tomatoes and some stalks of celery, a couple of bottles of water and blueberry juice. That would last them for a few meals, no more than three if they were cautious. But there was plenty of wildlife around and they both knew how to hunt and skin and clean. He checked the other chest, which held some basic emergency supplies: a bit of gold, some gems, a few healing potions, a quiver of arrows, a dagger, a few changes of clothing.

Everything looked to be in order.

He came back out as he heard a whisper of movement and saw Yelena rejoining him. “We are safe, and alone,” she confirmed.

“Good,” John replied, and kicked off his boots while pulling his shirt off.

“I am glad to be free of this,” Yelena said as she pulled the hood carefully down, to avoid tearing it, and then tossing the large gray cloak into the tent.

“I’m sorry you have to wear it,” John replied.

“As am I, but it is worth it to be with you. Now strip. I wish to make love,” she said, favoring him with a more feral grin as she undressed.

He returned it and quickly stripped of his clothing.

John stared at Yelena as she revealed her nude body to him. He remembered the first time they had made love. It had been intense and erotic and surprising. He hadn’t expected it to happen, but she had come onto him.

He had certainly hoped it would happen.

And he was sure glad she had.

Yelena had a slim, fit body of somewhat rough, dark reddish skin. She took off her bra and tossed it as well, freeing her high, firm breasts. Her dark hair was a mess, making her look even sexier than he already thought she looked, and her horns poked straight up through it. He found himself staring at her movements, entranced by her graceful dexterity as much as her physical beauty. And then his eyes were drawn down to her hooves. They were black, shiny, and polished. Yelena finished undressing by pulling her panties down.

Gods, she was so wonderful to look at naked.

“You are doing it again,” Yelena said with a smug smirk.

“Doing what?” he asked, but he knew.

“You are staring at me, not getting undressed yourself. Denying me the sight of your own wonderful bare body.”

“Fair enough,” he replied, not that he particularly agreed with her. He was fit, a result of his lifestyle, but he didn’t think he was handsome or in any way good-looking. In his mind, he was, at best, plain.

But he stripped down naked, tossing his clothes into the tent.

John always felt a twinge of discomfort at being nude in an outdoor setting. He’d gotten over it for the most part, but he still felt the urge to cover his dick. But Yelena was apparently totally at ease being nude, even exposed outdoors like this. He didn’t think she had any reason to be uncomfortable with her body, she was damned fine to look at, but she had to feel exposed. This was an entirely new land, a new world, a new plane of existence for her. And yet, she seemed at ease. Well...as at ease as Yelena got, for the most part.

She stepped forward and embraced him, pressing her lean, hot body against his own. She kissed him, pressing her smooth, dark red lips against his own. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss, hugging her, before sliding his hands down her back. He settled them on the swell of her firm ass, giving it a good squeeze, then he found her tail. She gasped as he brushed his fingers against her thin, prehensile tail, growing from just above her wonderfully fit ass. He gripped it gently and felt it twitch in his grasp.

“When you do that...” she whispered, breaking the kiss, her lips brushing his as she spoke, her eyes bare inches from his own.

“Yeah?” he asked. Now it was his turn to wear the smug smirk.

“It arouses me so much...”

“Good girl,” he replied, and kissed her again, then began to run his hand up and down her thin black tail.

She moaned into the kiss as his fingertips found the triangular tip and began to massage it gently. Her tail was really sexy.

“To the water,” she said, almost out of breath with lust and desire. “Now,” she growled.

John heeded her demand and moved over to the hot spring with her. They both slipped nimbly into it and immediately everything else seemed to drop away. His concerns of the days ahead, the difficulties of moving among the shadows, his worries about Yelena’s safety. Being here, nude in steaming hot water with the woman he loved, the both of them horny and desperate for each other, craving physical affection and sexual gratification...that’s what consumed him.

Yelena mounted him almost immediately, making him find a natural rock shelf to sit on. She straddled him, staring down at him with her wide red eyes. They were blazing, flaring like a powerful flame, a physical manifestation of her love and desire for him. He felt absurdly lucky to be the center of that attention.

She kissed him again, and now slipped her long, forked tongue into his mouth. He moved his own tongue forward, seeking hers, finding it and twisting the two together. He never thought he’d be tongue-kissing with a demoness.

Her forked tongue was really sexy, affording her a lot of interesting abilities when it came to oral pleasure.

Yelena reached down in between them, her long-fingered hand finding his cock and wrapping around it. Her grasp was so firm and so sure. She had been like that basically from the beginning when it came to sex. When they made love, even that first time, it always felt so...right. So natural. The idea that he would feel this way about a woman from a different plane of existence, a literal demon, struck him as a little nuts.

But he didn’t care.

He loved her, he loved being with her.

Without a word, staring directly into his eyes, she raised herself up and then lowered herself, smoothly sliding his steel hard cock into her absurdly hot, wet pussy. Good fuck was she so godsdamned tight! The two of them moaned loudly in sexual unification.

“Oh, John!” she moaned as she began to ride him.

“Yelena, you’re so amazing,” he groaned, feeling the wonderful pleasure of her bare demoness vagina clenching hard around his human cock and sliding up and down. She moved slowly at first, satisfying them both, luxuriating in the raw sexual rapture. For the next stretch of time, there were no words, there was only the two of them together. He inside of her. The pleasure of sexual connection, the raw bliss of bareback, completely unprotected sex, the emotional high of lovemaking. They both reveled in it.

Yelena held him to her, one hand along the middle of his back, the other on the back of his head. She pressed her forehead to his own, her eyes wide and unblinking, almost feral with desire. The water began to slosh around as she started to ride him more violently, bouncing furiously on his cock, taking it all the way inside of herself and moaning loudly in pleasure. Pure burning sexual satisfaction melted slowly into John, radiating out from the core of his body. He was doing this to her, as she rode him. She got this excited being with him. Inside, Yelena was extremely hot, approaching almost painful.

Which made sense, given she was a demoness.

He loved it.

Yelena pulled back slightly. “John,” she said quietly, slowing down. “When you were having sex with Lily, earlier, you fucked her in the ass.”

“Yeah?” he replied, sensing she seemed to be going somewhere with this.

“Would you like to do the same with me?”

He felt a fresh wave of lust and excitement surge through him. “Fuck, yes, I would. You have such a hot ass, Yelena,” he replied.

“Then we shall do that. Don’t move.”

Having anal sex with Yelena was something he had thought about since they had hooked up, (she did have a fantastically fit and hot ass), but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Partially because he’d been so enamored with the rest of her, and partially because he wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Honestly, there was a lot he was having to rediscover and explore anew with her. And so far, it was all very exciting.

Yelena got up, allowing his cock to slip out of her. He stared up at her. Standing over him like this, his demoness lover looked like some kind of personification of lust and desire, a sex deity. He was certain she would enjoy this comparison. She turned around and then stepped off the shelf he was sitting on. Now the water was up to her shoulders. He wondered if they would need lube. Well, Yelena would know.

With yet more skilled precision, Yelena lowered her fit ass down into his lap, reached back, gripped his cock and laid it at the entrance of her tight ass. Her tail was in between them now, pressed up against her back. He stared at it, at her glistening dark red skin. And then she began working his cock into her ass.

John groaned and closed his eyes as the pleasure began to hit him.

“Oh wow,” he whispered. “Yelena...”

She continued slowly lowering herself, taking him into her ass. It was just as amazingly tight and hot as he had imagined it.

“I want to please you,” Yelena murmured as she rose up and lowered herself, rose up and lowered, slowly and smoothly, again and again, pushing a little further each time, until she took his entire length into her ass.

“This is extremely pleasing,” he groaned, grabbing onto her hips as she situated herself on him.

Yelena leaned forward a bit and he looked down, seeing her demoness ass below the water, grinding into his lap, his cock inside of her. Balls deep in her, and trying not to be overwhelmed by sensation, he reached out and gently grabbed her tail. She gasped in surprise, and then began to gently ride his cock with her ass.

Both of them moaned again in sexual pleasure, in gratification and unity.

He was going to orgasm soon.

But he needed her to come first. It was an unspoken promise he had made her at some point. Partially because he wanted to get her off, wanted her to have at least as much pleasure as he did, if not more, and partially due to practical reasons. He wasn’t entirely sure he could keep going after blowing his own load.

This was why he typically went down on her or at least fingered her before they got started. She wasn’t all that hard to get off and unlike him, an orgasm for her could really be just the beginning. Yelena could fuck until the sun came up. So, with one hand he continued massaging her tail carefully, and with the other he reached around and fitted it between her thighs. She moaned much more loudly when he found her clit and began to rub it.

“Oh, John!” she cried. “That’s so good...”

He made her come inside of ten seconds.

He could feel her twitching and spasming as she orgasmed, and she moaned loudly, her rough voice becoming harsher. Her climax triggered his own. Grabbing her trim hips again, he thrust up into her incredibly tight ass and made her cry out as he started to come. His cock kicked hard, a thick jet of his seed spurting out of him and into her, and then it was repeating over and over again, as rapidly as it could, his cock spitting his seed out and pumping her ass full of it. Each time it kicked, a fresh wave of raw bliss careened through his body, filling him with blinding pleasure. He felt Yelena moving against him, felt the pulses and twitches of her own orgasm as they climaxed together in blissful unity and wondrous satisfaction.

His orgasm tapered off, his cock dry-kicking before long, and then it was finished, and he was softening inside of her. Closing his eyes, he relished the feeling of her ass flush with his pelvis, and how close they were in this position. Wrapping his arms around her in a hug, he playfully squeezed her boob and nuzzled at her back affectionately, before reluctantly letting her go.

Yelena gently slid him out, and got up off of him slowly, before sitting down beside him, both of them still breathing heavily. They sat together in silence for a few moments.

“Why haven’t you asked me for that kind of sex before?” Yelena asked eventually.

“To be honest, I was so enamored with the rest of your body, I hadn’t gotten to it. And I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” he replied. “Why didn’t you offer?”

She offered a short laugh. “The same reasons, actually. Anal sex is very common in my realm. I love it. It feels wonderful.”

“That is so awesome to learn. I want to fuck you in the ass a lot more,” he replied. “I really want to do it to you when you’re on your hands and knees.”

“That would be very pleasurable,” Yelena said. She paused. “I suppose we should be more open in our communication with each other. I must admit, I’m still...cautious.”

“Cautious?”

“Of how to broach certain topics. Especially related to sex. I have studied your realm and your species in particular, and I feel that I have a basic grasp of it, but social situations...”

John smiled and hugged her to him. “Yelena, social situations are a difficulty even for me sometimes. How about we have a simple policy: If you are uncertain about something, curious about something, or confused about something, ask me directly. I won’t be offended or get angry. I love you, and I’ll give you as direct an answer as I can.”

She was silent for a few seconds, perhaps considering the wide implications it had, and then she nodded. “Okay. I agree to this...thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I want you to be happy and comfortable here. That isn’t going to be easy, I think, but it shouldn’t be impossible. Well, provided we do what we’re supposed to do.” He paused a moment, feeling lightheaded. “How about we finish washing up and get out of here? I’m starving, and this water is actually pretty hot.”

“That sounds fine to me,” Yelena replied. “And speaking of our plans, I think it would be prudent to go over them once more.”

“Agreed. We can talk it through while we make dinner.”

They took the time to wash up. John dunked his head under the water and splashed his face after coming back up. He was feeling really good. After the pair were through with the hot spring, they got out and walked across the clearing to their camp. They toweled off and John pulled on some boxers, though Yelena remained nude.

They took the time to gather up some kindling, and then Yelena used her magical abilities to get a fire going in the fire-pit. For the next several minutes, they moved in silence together. Again, John thought it was amazing that they had only been together for about a week. From the way they made their meal together, spearing the chilled meat on a turn-style set up over the pit, John setting it to spin automatically, (one of the few spells he’d picked up over the years, it seemed like a must), the pair of them setting up for dinner…

You’d think they’d been doing this for months, or years.

“We need to get you an amulet,” John said as they waited for the meat to cook and got out some bottles. He grabbed one of water, Yelena grabbed one of blueberry juice. “This amulet will be expensive to create or purchase, and we will need to obtain it secretly. It will hide you in plain sight to the average person.”

“How?” Yelena replied.

“Essentially, it’s an illusion. It will make you appear human to those who look at you. Such magic is a rarity here in these lands, and there’s only one place I know of where we could go. There is a city called Stafford, also known as the City of Lights. It’s at the base of a mountain rich in magical metal. The mountain glows. It’s at the head of the Emerald Wild, which is a stretch of very dangerous forest that takes up most of the eastern coast. That’s where we’re going. First to the Emerald Wild, then up along and through it, to Stafford.”

“Traveling through the Emerald Wild is safer than traveling alongside it?” Yelena asked.

“No, it’s a lot more dangerous...but I’d rather fight monsters than people. Killing monsters is...a lot easier, in several ways,” John replied. “It’s also a decent way to make some coin if we need to. Which we will, to make the purchase.”

“I imagine you do not become a pariah in your land by killing monsters. Sleeping with one, on the other hand...” her features fell.

“Yelena,” he said, reaching out and taking her hand. “You are not a monster.”

She sighed, squeezed his hand. “I know, but sometimes I feel like one. I have...done things. Terrible things. If you knew-”

“Yelena,” he said, “I will listen, if you wish for me to know. Or I will respect your privacy. But I think that what you did before...I cannot judge. Because I don’t know the rules of your society, how you were raised, what you had to do to stay alive, to function in your own civilization.” He paused, seemed to consider it. “To be clear, though, I will judge you going forward. And you should judge me. I do love you, but I will hold you accountable to your actions. Not that I think I’ll have to. From our experiences so far, Yelena, I believe you to be a good person.”

“I want to be,” she said quietly. “I want to make you happy. I want to be happy.” She laughed suddenly, bitterly. “Happy has not been on my list of requirements for a long time. But I don’t want to hurt people, I do not want to bring suffering into this world. I just want...a life with you. A happy life with you.”

“And that’s exactly what I want,” he replied, and offered her a smile.

“And you are correct. I have seen what you speak of far too many times. We should not have blind faith in the other. I trust you, and I will trust you if you ask me to, I have a faith in you, but if I see you doing something reprehensible, I...will do what needs to be done.”

“Good. That’s how it should be. A healthy relationship isn’t letting your partner do whatever they want and turning a blind eye if they do something you think is wrong. It’s holding them accountable, just as they hold you accountable.” He laughed suddenly. “That got heavy. I don’t think we’ll have to deal with that anyway. I don’t think either of us will do something like that. And I trust and have faith in you, as well, Yelena. Now, I think the meat’s ready. Let’s eat.”

They got the meat off the turn-style and, after it cooled, ate it off the skewers.

“What will we do after?” Yelena asked.

“After we get the amulet? I don’t know. Whatever we want, I guess. What do you want to do?” he replied.

“I want to see this land. I want to meet more people...though not in the settlements. For obvious reasons. I want to meet more beings like Lily.”

“And by meet you mean have sex with?” he asked.

She sighed a huff of annoyance. “Maybe,” she replied.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed. I want to have sex with dryads, too. And with serpentine. I’ve never done that before.”

“What is a serpentine?”

“A snake woman,” he replied.

“Oh. That would be...interesting. Are there many kinds of fantastic beings in your world that would be open to casual sex?” Yelena asked.

“I think so. I mean, I’d like to hope so. Personally, I’ve only ever had sex with dryads. And a mermaid once. And a succubus. Do you know what a mermaid is?”

“Yes, I believe so. A woman who lives in the ocean?”

“Yes, although there is more than one kind of woman who lives in the ocean. There are ocean nymphs. As for other species, well, there are harpies. Bird women.”

“What about the more common species? Are there only humans in this land? I believe there are supposed to be elves, although I have a hard time telling the difference...”

“No, there are more. And yes, humans are the most common, elves are the second-most common. They’re basically pale, petite humans with pointy ears. Most of them have red hair. But there are also beryl and felis.”

“I do know of felis and beryl. I believe I mentioned having encounters with a few of them...” She paused, a look of curiosity, then of mild embarrassment going across her beautiful, demonic features.

“You’re wondering if we can find some felis and beryl to have sex with?” he asked.

“Yes,” she murmured.

“Why are you so embarrassed?”

“I am not.” She paused, then heaved a sigh. “Okay, I am. It is more of an automatic reaction. In my land, the idea of sex with any being from this dimension was considered...well, very demeaning. I had to keep my sexual attraction to humans and others from this realm a complete secret. There was a chance I would be killed, or at least forcefully reeducated.”

“That’s horrible, Yelena,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you.”

“No, it’s okay. I am not upset at you. But you asked. I know that it is wrong, that there is nothing inherently incorrect about my attraction to you or your kind, but it is the society I grew up in. Those ideals...I lived with them and among them for a very long time. Weakness was not tolerated in my realm, and that was seen as a grave weakness.”

“I think I understand,” John said. “Whenever I had sex with a new friend I made who was not of my own species, I felt a kind of...reflexive guilt, I guess. I knew I was doing nothing wrong, and that it was stupid to even think about it, but growing up your whole life with people who would condemn my sexual encounters with a beryl or a felis, let alone a dryad...well, it left some scars. But I didn’t care. You’re right, there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with our relationship. There was nothing wrong with my relationship with Lily.”

“You are very correct about that.”

They both jerked violently in their chairs, nearly toppling them, and Yelena actually shot to her feet at the sound of the new, yet familiar, voice. John tracked the source of the voice and immediately saw her.

Lily, and another dryad, stood just beyond the edge of the clearing.

He heaved a sigh. “This is why I will never, ever make an enemy of a dryad. I had no fucking clue you were there...hello, Lily.”

“Hello, John. Yelena. I am sorry, but I am also fond of my entrances. And I only got as close as I did to you because you accept me so much, John. That and I am very, very good at what I do. Yelena, you can relax now,” Lily replied.

Yelena let out a huff of irritation. “I was led to believe it is impolite to listen in on a private conversation,” she growled, righting her chair but not sitting down.

“I am sorry,” Lily said, seeming a little embarrassed. “I was going to approach you before that, but then I started listening and your conversation was just so...interesting. You two are good people. I want you to know that. Although I must admit, I am annoyed with the two of you.”

“Why?” Yelena asked, although John thought he knew.

“You two are leaving and you didn’t think to give me a proper goodbye fuck?”

“I thought you were busy, and it’s not like we’re going to be gone forever, Lily,” John replied, though he did feel bad.

“You’re going to be gone for a long while I imagine,” she said curtly.

“I know. I’m sorry. It is, admittedly, part of the reason I agreed to make camp here.”

Yelena looked at him. “So you could potentially fuck your dryad lady on the side?”

“Well...our dryad side lady?” he answered cautiously.

“You’re both lucky I’m okay with being on the side,” Lily said. “Now stop being rude and say hello to my good friend Rose.”

“Hello, Rose,” Yelena said.

“Hi, Rose. It’s very nice to meet you,” John said, focusing on the dryad who had been quietly hanging out in the background during this entire exchange.

“Hello,” she replied, a little cautiously. “Is this...a good idea, Lily?” she added quietly.

“Oh relax, Rose,” Lily replied easily. “We’re just poking fun at each other. I am annoyed, but it’s easy to forgive John. And Yelena, I suppose. She’s very good with her tongue, I’ve learned. Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get down to it. I came here because I want some goodbye sex from both of you. John, I see you wanting to argue with me. Fine, not goodbye sex, ‘farewell for now sex’, how’s that sound?”

“That sounds fine,” he replied.

“Good. Rose here is a good friend of mine and she’s very shy and awkward around anyone not a dryad, because she’s had so little experience with them. And she is aching to try out some hot, filthy fucking with a human man. She knows about our relationship and since I’m obviously open to sharing and I want everyone to have their secret desires satisfied, within reason, of course, I thought I’d bring her along. And I can’t imagine you’d say no to her.”

“I don’t sleep with every woman I meet who’s interested,” John replied.

“Is that even close to true?” Lily replied.

Yelena looked at him. He sighed. “Okay...maybe that was a lie.”

“And are you really going to say no to Rose? I mean, look at her. Her tits are fucking fabulous,” Lily said.

“They are,” John agreed.

“Yes, they are,” Yelena said almost at the same time.

“And so there we go. Can we get to it? I’m quite horny,” Lily said.

“Well, I’m good to go. Yelena?” he asked, looking at her.

“Always,” Yelena replied, and there was an almost predatory gleam in her eye as she stared at Lily. He had an idea that there was something of a friendly sexual rivalry between the two women. Something he didn’t fully understand, not that he really needed to. It was pretty hot to watch them go at each other.

“Good. I’ll take Yelena. Rose, have fun,” Lily said, and walked right up to his demoness lover. The two women began kissing.

Rose approached John. “Hi,” she said. “I, um...sorry if I’m a little awkward.”

“It’s okay,” he replied. “Take your time.”

Rose smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “Lily told me you were really sweet.”

“I try to be,” he replied. “Where would you be most comfortable?”

“I want to try it in your, ugh, what’s the word? Tent! I want to try this in your tent. I’ve never been inside of one,” she answered.

“Sounds fine to me.” He extended his hand and she took it. Her skin was soft and warm. Which still surprised him. Like all other dryads he’d seen, Rose’s skin had the visual texture of tree bark. In her case, it was a light tan color that had a bit of a rough look to it. He looked up at her branches, which stuck out of the top of her head like antlers. Leaves and other bits of vegetation hung off of them. She had a beautiful face with eyes that nearly glowed with vibrant, green vivacity. Her hair was a combination of leaves and vines, longer than Lily’s, also a deep green in color. And she was curvy, her breasts large and full, fabulous, as Lily had stated. Her hips were wonderfully broad, her thighs pleasantly padded. And she had a pretty big, firm ass.

She laid down in the mess of bedding and John laid there with her.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other. She seemed somewhat more relaxed now. They were still holding hands. After a moment, she brought his hand up and laid it across one of her large breasts, let go and then placed her own hand on his hip. She scooted closer to him, staring into his eyes, as he began to gently grope her breast.

Rose leaned in and pressed her lush lips to his.

Her mouth was soft and hot, and as she began to kiss him with a bit more passion, he tasted that wondrous taste all dryad women seemed to have. That taste of crystal clear springwater, of honeysuckle, of fresh summer days, of rainfall. Rose immediately became more impassioned when his tongue met hers. She pressed herself more firmly against him and started to twist and twine her tongue with his own, closing her eyes and moaning softly. He let go of her breast and reached down, settling it on the swell of her ass.

She had a wonderful ass.

John heard a familiar voice moan suddenly in pleasure and he broke the kiss, glancing back out of the tent. Rose did so as well. They watched, spying Lily and Yelena lying in front of it, in between the tent and the fire-pit. Lily was on her back with her legs spread, Yelena was lying on her stomach, her face buried in the dryad’s crotch, no doubt putting that prehensile, forked tongue to use. Lily let out another loud moan.

“That is so arousing,” Rose whispered.

“Yes, it is. Would you like some similar treatment?” John asked.

She returned her attention to him immediately. “Yes. I would greatly appreciate that,” she replied earnestly.

He smiled and kissed her again, then decided to stretch the foreplay out even further. This was her first time with a human. He wanted to make a good impression. John reached down, slipping his hand between her thick thighs, and found her clit. She moaned as he touched it, then began to massage it with his fingertip. At the same time, he began to lick across one of her nipples. She moaned louder. Soon, he began to rub her clit a bit harder and faster, sucking on one huge breast as he did so. He loved sucking on women’s tits.

John stopped rubbing her clit and slipped a finger inside of her as he switched over to her other breast, kissing it several times before beginning to lick at her nipple. Inside, she was very tight and slick, and oh so hot. He began to finger her, slipping his finger in and out of her, pressing into her sensitive spots, eliciting further moans of pleasure from her. John kept going like this, really getting into it, into the whole encounter.

After a few minutes, Rose gasped. “Wait-I’m going to, oh my, you, I-” She let out a wordless scream of pleasure as she began to orgasm. Her whole body jerked and jiggled wonderfully as she began to come against his fingers. He didn’t feel the spray of sex juices he normally would, but instead the thick ooze of tree sap that he remembered from before when he’d made a dryad come. It was a strange but perversely wonderful thing to experience.

Rose enjoyed her orgasm for close to half a minute.

When she fell back, panting, he let up, sitting up and staring down at her.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “That felt so good.”

“I’m glad. This next part is going to feel even better,” he replied.

“Oh, you don’t have to do anymore for me,” she said.

“I want to,” he replied simply, then he kissed her again and settled down on his stomach in between her thick thighs. She spread her legs wide for him, staring down at him intently with her vivid green eyes. Behind him, he could hear Yelena moaning now. He spread the wet lips of Rose’s pussy and exposed her clit, a small light-green nub. Leaning in, he touched the tip of his tongue to it and began to massage it gently.

“Oh my, yes...” Rose moaned. “That’s so fantastic...”

Invigorated further, John continued. He began licking faster, increasing the pressure of his tongue and how much of it he used. Rose continued moaning her sexual satisfaction, giving voice to it, twisting and writhing around in pure pleasure. He kept tonguing her clit until he provoked her beautiful body into a second orgasm. She let out another cry and bucked her hips. He pulled back, staring as she orgasmed again, more of her sexual tree sap coming out of her. He could feel his erection now, a thing that could not be ignored.

“Rose,” he said as he straightened up and quickly got out of what little clothes he had left on. “Can we make love now?”

“Yes,” she moaned. “Please, make love to me. I want you inside of me.”

That was all he needed to hear. He laid down in between her legs and laid his cock at the entrance to her extremely wet, inhuman pussy. He could feel the heat coming off of her. John pushed forward and slipped in without a problem.

She was so fucking wet.

Rose moaned even louder as he penetrated her, sliding smoothly into her. “Oh, that’s so good,” she cried, spreading her legs out wider and pushing up against him. “Oh, John!” she screamed as he began thrusting into her, fucking her wondrous dryad vagina. The slickness of her was pure, absolute bliss and it encased his cock in a blinding rapture. He stared down at her and kissed her hard on the mouth as they fucked.

“Oh, Rose,” he moaned, wrapping his arms around her, holding her close to him. Sex with her was suddenly very intimate and passionate and powerful, and he could tell she felt it too. She stared intently into his eyes. “Rose, you feel so good...”

“Yes,” she panted, kissing him several times. She wrapped her legs around him. “This pleasure...I didn’t think it would feel this good,” she moaned. “Please, don’t stop,” she begged, panting in desperate pleasure. “Don’t stop...”

He kept thrusting deep into her, pounding her pussy, sliding rapidly in and out of it. Pleasure washed through him like a living thing. He heard both women moaning behind him now and just for a few seconds glanced back over his shoulder. They were on their backs now, facing each other, their hips locked together as they rubbed their pussies against each other. They both had intense looks of pleasure and concentration on their faces, and he had an idea that they were both trying to make the other come first.

John returned his attention to Rose.

Rose, and her large breasts.

Rose, and her amazing dryad pussy.

Rose, and her beautiful face and eyes.

She orgasmed shortly before he did, screaming as she enjoyed a third climax that night. John moaned loudly, grunting as he felt her vagina begin to clench around his cock, to massage it as it grew even hotter and wetter, and he started to come inside of her. His hips jerked forward involuntarily in time with his orgasm. He emptied his seed into her, spilling it inside of the vagina of a new woman, a beautiful dryad named Rose, and she was crying his name, screaming in blissful passion as he pumped her full of his seed.

John didn’t know how long he came, only that for awhile there, he was awash in a sea of impassioned, hazy bliss.

When he came back to himself he was laying against her, his forehead resting against hers, staring into her green eyes.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She still had her legs wrapped around him.

“You’re welcome. And thank you. That was incredible,” he replied.

She smiled sedately at him and slowly unwrapped her legs. “Yes...can we do it again?” she asked eagerly.

“Not until I get my turn in,” Lily said.

They both looked back and saw Lily and Yelena crouched at the threshold of the tent. “Having fun, my love?” Yelena asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Good. You’re not done yet,” she said.

“I had that idea,” he replied, and carefully pulled out of Rose. “Maybe we should wash up, then we can have some more sex?” he suggested.

“Fine, but I’m riding you in the water,” Lily said.

It was going to be a long night, John realized.

…

“I have to say, you two are extremely brave,” Rose said.

Two hours had passed. He’d had sex with all three of them, Lily twice, and now he was utterly exhausted. Thinking about the combinations of the women as they pleasured each other though, that made every sore muscle worth it. Now, he was laying in his bedding with Yelena on one side, and Rose on the other. Lily sat at their feet, eating some rabbit meat.

“I think ridiculous might be more accurate,” Yelena replied.

“No, it’s endearing. You two are walking away from your lives to be together. Risking everything for your mutual love. It’s so romantic,” Rose said.

“It is romantic, and brave, and kind of ridiculous,” Lily said. “But to not do this, I think, would be more ridiculous. You two are obviously extremely happy together. I wish I could come with you, honestly.”

“Can you?” John asked.

She sighed. “No, my heart is here, in this forest. I must, and want, to stay. But know that you two will always be welcome here.”

“We appreciate it,” John replied. “I’m positive we’ll come back from time to time.” He paused, yawned. “Wow, you ladies really wore me out.”

“I’m impressed you’re still awake,” Rose replied.

“My lover has a lot of endurance,” Yelena said, rubbing his chest affectionately.

“I have to,” he replied, “having you as my girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Lily said. She sighed after a few seconds. “I’m afraid that Rose and I have to leave. I’m sorry we can’t spend the night, but this will have to be farewell for now.”

“Yes, we have responsibilities to tend to,” Rose agreed.

John and Yelena sat up. “It was very good seeing you, Lily. And it was great meeting you, Rose,” he said as they all stood and left the tent.

“We’ll have to meet again later,” Rose replied with a small smile.

“I wholeheartedly agree,” John said.

They all exchanged goodbyes, hugs, and lingering kisses, and then John stood with Yelena at the edge of their camp, watching the two nude, beautiful dryad women disappear into the trees. And then they were alone again.

John yawned once more. “I really am tired,” he said, rubbing at one eye.

“Come on then, let’s sleep,” Yelena replied.

They secured their area one more time, making sure they were alone, (although John felt that Lily would help ensure nothing would mess with them through her nature magic), and then climbed into the tent together.

“So, you’re really okay with all of this?” John asked after they had gotten beneath the blankets and cuddled up together. “Sex with other people?”

“Yes,” Yelena replied. “I’m comfortable with it. I trust you.”

“Okay. Good. I trust you, too. Goodnight, Yelena.”

“Goodnight, John.”

CHAPTER II

They stood at the edge of the forest and stared out into the rolling fields beyond.

“Are you ready for this?” John asked quietly.

“I am,” Yelena replied.

She sure sounded ready, but then Yelena seemed to live for challenges. By John’s estimate, they had about a half hour’s walk ahead of them, provided they kept a brisk pace and didn’t have to deal with any detours or mishaps.

He didn’t believe they would be so lucky.

“Well, let’s do it then.”

They set off.

This morning was not as bright as yesterday. The sun was obscured behind a thickening gray cloud cover. Summer was coming to an end, and Fall was preparing. With it came rains. John preferred the Fall season. It was cooler, and he loved rainfall. Loved the sound it made, loved traveling through it, loved drifting off to the peaceful ambiance of rain at night. And the cloud covers tended to make beautiful scenery.

Today was no exception.

As he looked up, he thought that the clouds looked almost like the ocean, tossed into a frenzy, frozen in time, and then swapped into the sky. It was beautiful, especially back-lit by the sun. He could smell rain on the air, brought in from the sea. It would likely arrive within the next few hours. He turned his attention to Yelena, and felt a small pang of sorrow, mixed with a little guilt. She was done up in her gray cloak, huge hood pulled up, hiding her face in shadows. She told him she didn’t mind traveling this way, but he thought she did, she just didn’t want to bother him with that detail, or maybe she didn’t want to appear weak.

Strength was clearly a point of contention for her.

He had an idea that she had been forced to prove her strength perhaps consistently in her past life. Her past life...was that accurate?

“Yelena...”

“Yes?”

“I have questions.”

“What about?” she asked, glancing over at him as they moved quickly across a field that clearly belonged to no one, as it was overrun with plant life and stuck with random stumps and rocks. They were making good time.

“Your past.”

She paused. “Ah.”

“If it is something you don’t want to talk about, I’m okay with that.”

“I’m willing to talk about it with you,” she said after a few seconds’ consideration. “What would you like to know?”

“Thank you. A lot, I guess. I mean, your realm...what is it like? Where did it come from?”

“I do not know where it truly originated from. We have stories, of course. Myths, legends, lore. If you are smart, you will accept it as fact there. As history. Some are overly concerned with the past, others with the future, others still with the present. All I know is that our realm has existed for a very long time. If I understand your own timeline correctly, tens of thousands of years, at least. My kind are long-lived. Although I myself am not particularly aged.”

“How old are you...if you don’t mind my asking.”

“I am...as close as I have been able to calculate, around one hundred of your years.”

“Wow.”

“I do know that that is considering quite old for one of your kind, but I am still relatively young. Although I have much experience. We do not idle in my realm. As for what it is like? The sky is red, covered in an unending red cloud front. Sometimes it rains, though not often. Most of our structures are built of black stone and iron. My land is divided into what you might call countries. Each has a population of demons that differs in appearance.” She frowned and fell silent for several seconds. “It is a point of contention.”

“Is there a reason for that?” he asked.

She let out a huff of irritation. “I used to think so,” she admitted. “I am ashamed that I did. There is much rhetoric and the like about the dangers of the other species, the...” she shook her head, “the ‘lesser breeds’. That is what we call each other. I found out, only more recently in my life, that our realm used to be far more diverse. There were over one hundred different kinds of demons. Perhaps much more than that. Different clans. Different races. When I left, I knew of only two dozen. And I...helped in the eradication of at least one clan,” she said quietly.

“I’m sorry,” John murmured.

They finished crossing the field and now came to a road. John looked left and right as they crossed it. He could see no one moving in either direction. Good. They pressed on, this time coming into another, bigger field that was home to several copses and a few buildings that he knew to be abandoned.

“I am too,” Yelena replied. “I...try not to dwell on it. I still dream of it at night sometimes. Although it is better, now that I am with you. I sleep better.” She paused, and this time he sensed it was for a different reason. “We are not alone,” she murmured.

She stopped and drew her bow, notching an arrow almost faster than he could follow. He drew his own blade and looked around. There was a stand of trees ahead of them and to the right, a collection of boulders behind them, to the left.

“I’d put down your weapons if I were you!”

John hissed a curse and heard Yelena growl. He saw several armored figures emerge from the copse ahead of them, and, as he glanced back, he saw even more coming out from behind the collection of boulders. He counted an even dozen.

“Who are they?” Yelena whispered.

“Highwaymen,” John murmured. “Thieves.”

She growled. “Then we shall end them...unless you object. This is more your world than it is mine.”

“We end them,” he agreed. “But give me a moment. Maybe we can bluff them...I suggest you turn around and leave!” he called back.

He’d bluffed before.

The man who’d spoken before, who was standing near the front of the group that had come out of the trees, let out a loud laugh.

“Perhaps you have difficulty with numbers-” he began.

“Go ahead, Yelena,” John said quietly.

She loosed her arrow. It crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye and planted itself deeply in the man’s neck. “I’ve got the ones behind us!” he called, already turning around, off and running.

He heard a second arrow whisper out in response.

This was a bad situation. Neither of them had any real armor, not even leather. John was fast, and he knew Yelena was certainly faster, but still. This was dangerous. There were eight at the copse, four of them ahead of him. Well, time to play his first good card in the game. They were waiting for him, sneering and stepping into sloppy battle stances. They were indeed just thieves, petty criminals who figured their larger numbers would do them service.

The poor bastards.

As John came within a dozen feet of the group, he grabbed a throwing dagger from his belt and whipped it out in a flash. It sailed through the air and stuck up to the hilt in one man’s eye. The others let out shouts of surprise and anger as he stumbled backwards and slammed to the ground. John had spent a long time practicing that.

And then he was among them.

He slashed with his sword and cut across the chest of the one man who, like him, wore no armor. The man cried out and stumbled backwards as blood began to leak out of the wound, staining his clothing. John brought his blade up, blocking off a clumsy swing with a loud ring of metal striking metal, then jerked forward, bashing the man’s nose with his own forehead. It hurt, but it hurt the other guy a lot more as he heard a sharp crack and blood began to flow freely from his nose. “Bastard!” the thief screamed, swinging blindly at him.

John dodged another attack from the last able-bodied assailant, then drove his sword hard and fast directly into his neck. The man let out an awful gagging sound, standing there for several seconds, his whole body rigid and twitching, transfixed on John’s blade, then he ripped it back out in a gush of blood.

The man tumbled to the ground, dead.

Two down, two to go.

John had to admit, this was exciting. He didn’t consider himself a bloodthirsty or violent man, but he was not one to shy away from battle if it was called for. He and Yelena were defending themselves, and he had an idea that these guys had no problem killing anyone who wouldn’t submit to them...and probably even some who did. The man he’d sliced was back on his feet and tried to stab him with a dagger. John sidestepped and then bashed his shoulder into the bastard. It hurt, but he was high on the thrill of combat.

The thief went sprawling.

John let out a short bark of pain as he felt a thin line of burning agony slice across his right bicep. He spun while backing away, seeing the other man, despite his ruined nose, had made a go at attacking him. John prepared to return the favor when an arrow whistled from his right and went straight through the man’s head.

He pitched forward with a surprised expression on his face.

John glanced over quickly, spying Yelena lowering her bow. He saw no other figures standing beyond her.

Godsdamn but was she skilled with that bow. And fast.

He turned and stabbed the final highwayman through the heart in a quick and brutally efficient motion. He turned to face Yelena as she approached.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I am fine. They were pathetically under-skilled,” she replied mildly. She frowned as she came to stand by him. “You are injured.”

“I’m fine,” John replied, glancing down at his bicep.

“Here,” she said quietly, and laid a hand across the wound. It stung, then there was suddenly a wonderfully warm sensation and a small flash of light, and then the pain receded.

“Huh. I wasn’t entirely sure if you could heal me,” John said, flexing his arm after she let go of him, studying the now unbroken skin.

“I had to learn that myself at one point. I once met a felis hunter who was injured after the creature he was hunting got the better of him. I saved him.”

“Did you sleep with him?” John asked.

She offered a small smile. “I did. He fancied me. It was rare. It was a good few days.”

“I’ll bet. Felis are quit tenacious lovers.”

“So I understand.” She frowned, looking at the corpses. “If I comprehend the situation correctly, these men wished to take what is ours by force?”

“Yes,” John replied, crouching by one of them and beginning the process of patting him down, looking for supplies or gold or valuables.

“Is this common?” Yelena asked, joining him in his search.

“Unfortunately, yes. Although it’s more common in more isolated locations, like here. This is not a main road. Let’s search them and then head on. I don’t want to be around if anyone or anything else shows up. Too exposed,” he replied.

They worked quickly, checking pockets. Once they were done with the first group, they moved over to the larger cluster of corpses and searched them as well.

“Godsdamnit,” John muttered. “They were pretty shit at this job, apparently. There’s hardly a hundred gold between them and their weapons are crap.”

“Unfortunate,” Yelena said.

“Perhaps it’s for the best. If they were better equipped, they might have killed us.”

“No. They would not have,” Yelena said firmly.

He looked at her. “I suppose you have a point. You’re exceptionally skilled with that bow.”

“I’m exceptionally skilled with many weapons. And I will not have anything happen to you,” she replied.

“I can take care of myself, you know,” he said mildly.

Yelena smiled. “I know you can...feeling a bit emasculated?” she teased.

“No, actually.”

“Really? I’m surprised. I understand there is a great deal of...conversation about ideas as to where men and women fit in your society.”

John felt an unexpectedly loud laugh escape him. “Conversation? Yes. I’d say there’s been a great deal of ‘conversation’. It’s an, uh, unfortunate state of affairs as far as I’m concerned. In the smaller villages and even the medium sized ones, which constitute most of my country, there’s a lot of conservative ideas about women and men. About what they should be doing. And about what they shouldn’t be doing. And people can get angry, or annoyed, or upset, or condescending, or righteous, if you happen to be a man or a woman doing something that they don’t think is ‘normal’. It is, as I said, a sad state of affairs.”

“Have you ever faced any such scrutiny?” Yelena asked.

They began walking again after making sure they hadn’t overlooked anything. “I suppose I have, though not necessarily because I am a man. I was scrutinized because I enjoyed the company of, both socially and sexually, those who are not of my own species. I’m sure I would’ve gotten it much worse if I was a woman.” He sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Can you share any specifics of this attitude?” she asked.

They could see the other forest now.

“Yes. Women are expected, generally, to stay home and raise children, tend to the household. Typically, they are expected to be subservient to the men in their lives.”

“What if there are no men in their lives?” Yelena asked.

“That’s another thing that’s expected. That there will be men in their lives. First, their father, and maybe their brothers if they have any. Then, their husbands. Do you know-” he laughed, a somewhat bitter laugh, “do you know that there’s a tradition in our wedding ceremonies, where the father ‘passes off’ the bride to the husband? It’s like men are afraid of women being by themselves. And then there’s the expectation of motherhood, which, if that’s what someone wants, then fine. But it just seems to me that some people, too many really, get pressured into reproduction.”

“Reproduction seems like a very large responsibility in your world. I must admit, I’m not as familiar with it,” Yelena said.

“Really?”

“Well, obviously I am familiar with the act of reproduction. It is not very different for us demons. But the manner in which we are raised is. There are breeders in our realm, fertile demonesses and succubi who are chosen to help shore up our numbers.”

“That sounds...unpleasant,” John replied.

“Perhaps. It is the way of things. There is much less choice in my realm. And most of us are, I suppose, designed to conform to the roles given to us. Which is why, I think, I was so unhappy in my life. I was not content. But it led me here, to you, and to this life.”

“I have a question, but...I don’t want you to take it the wrong way,” John replied.

“Ask your question,” Yelena replied.

“Are you scared? I mean, you left everything behind to come and have a life with me. A life you knew was going to be dangerous and difficult in a way you aren’t necessarily familiar with.”

She didn’t speak for a few moments. “Yes,” she said finally. “I am scared. But not as scared as I thought I might be. Are you scared? Of abandoning your life?”

“A little,” he replied. “But it’s easier for me, since I’ve already had this life, in bits and pieces. Traveling around, having adventures...but I always gave up and came back home out of some kind of strange sense of security and comfort. I think it was a very false sense of comfort. And I believe that now that I have you in my life, I really won’t go back this time. I’m ready to live out here, to travel, to see the world.”

She smiled. “I look forward to seeing it with you.”

“I’m glad.” They were nearly to the other forest now. “This forest up ahead will take us most of the rest of the way to the Emerald Wild. There is just one more stretch of land in between the two we have to cross, even smaller than this one.”

“What will be our first act upon reaching the Emerald Wild?” Yelena asked.

“We’re going to need coin for this adventure of ours. A lot of it. What we’re looking for is very expensive. Now, the Emerald Wild is a great place to make a lot of coin. There are a great deal of abandoned ruins and castles and military outposts and other structures. I believe that would be the most reasonable place to at least begin. Specifically, there is an old abandoned ruin I marked on my map last year. I passed it by during one of my travels and never got a chance to see inside. I imagine there could be some valuable things inside.”

“I look forward to exploring it,” Yelena said.

“Perfect. Let’s get a move on.”

They plunged into the forest and kept moving east.

…

“So, this is the Emerald Wild,” Yelena said quietly.

They stood at the edge of the vast forest. It stretched away from them to either side, fading into the horizon.

“Yes. It takes up almost this entire coastline,” John replied.

“What makes it special? You talk about it as if it is,” Yelena asked.

They began walking into the Wild, following a small path off the main road that ran along the length of the forest. “Nobody is entirely sure. Technically what makes it special is that it’s very dangerous, but what no one can agree on is what causes the danger itself. The generally accepted theory is that the mountain to the north of the Wild, Mount Lumos, is a highly magical mountain, full of magically conductive metal. A large river comes down off of that mountain and runs through the whole of the Wild.”

“That would make sense, I suppose,” Yelena murmured.

“Yes. Whatever the cause, the creatures of the Emerald Wild are numerous, both in quantity and variety, and they are typically very dangerous. One of the things that translates to is that because the Wild is so dangerous, only dangerous people tend to travel it. And dangerous people, on the whole, tend to be unstable and unreasonable. Not all of them, but more than usual.”

“If this place is so dangerous, why was a structure built in it?” Yelena asked.

It was a fair question. “Well, there are always people who like to conquer, who like to try to do something because it’s difficult, to overcome. As a result, there’s a number of structures scattered across the Wild. Research outposts, military forts, encampments, a few trading posts, thief’s hideouts, and a handful of crazy people just living out here for their own reasons. Most of them fail, given enough time, and are abandoned and left for whoever wishes to investigate them. And this has been going on for centuries, so there’s a lot out here.”

“I see. What kind of structure are we going to investigate today?” Yelena asked.

“I’m not entirely sure what it once was, honestly. I think it might have been a military outpost, judging by the looks of it. Or it could have been a mercenary fort. Whatever it was, it looked like it was made to last. Not that that necessarily means quite as much in the Wild. We’re about half an hours’ walk from it. Provided nothing goes wrong.”

They fell into a companionable silence as the pair walked into the forest.

John studied his surroundings, partially out of a justified paranoia, but also because he had forgotten how beautiful the Wild was. Trees surrounded them on all sides, a proliferation of so many different kinds of trees that were alive and lush. Vegetation and plant life was mixed in among the forest. He saw a half-dozen different types of berries growing just in the immediate vicinity, and twice as many types of flowers. Beautiful blues and yellows and greens and reds were all over the place. Overhead, the sun shone through the canopy in glittering golden shafts. He had honestly forgotten how wondrous it was here.

Dangerous, too.

He saw tracks of a Minotaur and evidence that giant spiders had been through this area at one point in the not-too-distant past. He glanced at Yelena. Well, there was no one else he’d rather be walking into the Emerald Wild with, and not just because he was in love with her. She was the most capable fighter he’d ever encountered.

They continued walking, listening to the sounds, taking in the sights and scents of the forest. John found his mind turning to many questions that had been assailing him ever since they had set out. He had an idea of how to deal with most of the problems that would and might arise from this sudden course-correction of his entire life, but one thing he was uncertain about was where they would stay. It was generally a bad idea to just pitch a tent regularly in the Wild, for obvious reasons. Even a camp-in-a-bag.

He knew that Lily’s blessing, such as it was, would carry at least some minor weight even here, and would offer them some small degree of protection, especially if they were around other dryads. And he knew there were several large clans of dryads up and down the Wild. But he didn’t want to rely on that. So where could they stay? He had an idea of maybe finding some kind of more permanent location, somewhere abandoned that wasn’t too messed up, somewhere he and Yelena could stay at in between their adventures.

They made it to the fort without running into any monsters, and John was glad to see that his memory was still sharp.

The structure was a crumbling ruin of weathered gray stone. The surrounding wall was mostly wrecked, whole sections of it collapsed. The front gate itself was wide open. Something about that gave John pause. He wasn’t sure why, but from the way Yelena stiffened slightly, he saw that she had picked up on it too, whatever it was. But they had no obvious reason to leave, and besides, he had an idea that it was going to be full of bad things anyway.

Most places in the Wild were.

Still, as they pressed on and slipped in through the open gate, the bad feeling persisted. There was something familiar about it. John looked out across the overgrown yard of the fort. He still couldn’t be sure what kind of fort it once had been, only that he was reasonably sure it had been a fortress. The style put it at...at least a hundred years. He wondered how long it had lasted before finally being abandoned for one reason or another.

“Someone’s been here recently,” John murmured, spying evidence of such.

“Do you have any ideas about who or why?” Yelena asked.

“One person, I think,” he replied, studying the clues he saw in the grass and the dirt. “Not very big...possibly an elf, but maybe a felis.”

“How can you tell?”

“Footprints, here. They’re small, light. They didn’t disturb the plant life very much, so someone in tune with nature. That’s something felis and especially elves do as second nature,” he murmured, now staring up the stone steps that led to the main entryway of the structure itself. It loomed over them, a three-story monolith of wood and stone. He could hear nothing, and the windows, those that were still intact, were too filthy to see through. Those that were broken open revealed nothing. The front door, too, was open.

“Well, let’s go investigate,” John said.

Yelena nodded, and drew her blade.

He did so as well, now finding himself wishing for armor more than ever. That was going to have to be something he did, and soon. None of the thieves’ armor had fit, or had been worth taking. The two of them moved in through the open door and came to a large room. Like most of the forts built in this land, the main hall was a dining hall. John had the idea this was done because in the event of an attack, it would be easy to slam big wooden tables up against the windows and doors. Plus, it was already a big, open space, so why not have a dining hall there?

Curving stone stairwells sat on either side of them, leading up to the second and third stories. Most of the tables and benches and chairs were surprisingly intact. Old plates and silverware and cups lay scattered about. There were armor and weapon stands along the sides of the room. Some of them still had swords or axes or suits of armor on them, which was even more interesting. At a glance, they didn’t look like particularly good pieces, but they were so easily accessible that at least some enterprising adventurers should have checked them out. That, combined with the ominous, negative feelings, made John even more suspicious.

“It’s cold in here,” Yelena said quietly.

“Yes...I think we might be looking at a curse, or a haunting,” John murmured back to her.

“What does that entail?”

“Undead, typically. When something very bad happens at a location, if it’s left to itself, over time, evil will gather. This results in either a curse or a haunting, sometimes both. Evil attracts evil. Undead and other creatures are drawn to these locations. Of course, it could be the other way around. Something evil came here and began drawing other evil things to it. You still feel like investigating this place?”

“Yes,” she replied immediately, her flickering eyes scanning the area around them. “I do.”

He smiled. “You do so love a challenge.”

“I do,” she repeated.

“Well then, let’s be ready. We’ll take it slow. I want to head up to the top floor and then clear it, room by room, floor by floor, of any hostiles. Once they’re all dead, we can begin to search for valuables,” he replied.

“I’m ready.”

They set off.

Their footsteps echoed loud and lonely through the old stone structure as they headed left, up the stairway. John listened and looked, hunting for clues as to what horrible thing might be haunting this old fort. He heard things, he was sure Yelena heard more. He heard the bony clack of a skeleton walking around somewhere. He heard the quiet, mindless groan of a zombie somewhere else. So, undead then.

He could deal with undead.

It was why he’d bought them both silver swords. They worked especially well against undead, and all things evil, generally. They crept up the final set of stairs and came to the third story. Moving slowly down the hallway ahead of them, John spied nothing in the dim light coming from a window half-covered in a tattered old cloth at the hall’s end. He stopped at the first doorway and peered inside. A lone figure stood in the center of what had once been a bedroom. It uttered a low groan and took a few shuffling, aimless steps forward.

He smelled rot and decay. Definitely a zombie.

John raised his blade, drawing it back, and moved slowly into the room. Zombies were hard of hearing, so he didn’t have to try that hard. Once he got in range, he drove the blade forward and stabbed the tip of it into the base of the zombie’s neck. It died without uttering a sound. Just as he was starting to feel pretty good about how he’d handled that, the body pitched forward and smashed into a table.

Random items, many of them metal, were scattered everywhere, creating a chorus of awful noise. As it fell silent, a second chorus rose: that of zombies groaning in discovery of fresh meat and of skeletons clacking across the flagstones.

“Shit,” John muttered.

“Good job, my love,” Yelena said with a smirk.

“Don’t you start,” John replied, hurrying to join her back out in the hallway.

“Truly, I bow before your superior combat skills and stealth techniques,” she continued. Zombies and skeletons were coming out into the hallway now from over half a dozen open doorways stretched along its length.

“Yelena...” he growled.

Her smirk only broadened. “What are you going do about it, love?” she asked. He thought it both interesting and amusing that she was teasing him in such a way. He hadn’t exactly seen this side of her so far.

“I’ll punish you,” he replied.

“I look forward to that,” she said, and then shot forward with a growl.

Okay...so that was a new aspect of their relationship. Well, not entirely new…

John realized there were better times to think about sex and moved forward to join her. The pair of them moved swiftly down the length of the corridor, taking down the undead as they came to them. Bones clattered as the skeletons were dismantled and heavy thuds sounded as zombies were relieved of their heads.

They fell into a surprisingly comfortable pattern, the two of them killing their way swiftly through the top floor, and then moving down to the second floor after clearing it. He had fought alongside many different people, most of them he liked, several of whom he’d slept with, and there was always a certain connection there, a kind of unspoken bond. Sometimes it was hardly there, very thin, but other times it was more powerful. It let you move in tandem with the other person, you could almost anticipate their moves. It was like...he supposed it was the fighter’s version of finishing each other’s sentences.

With Yelena, it was almost like they were of one mind.

It felt good to fight alongside her, to take down these undead menaces with her. And watching her...she looked so beautiful, so sexy in a feral, primal kind of way, with her wide, flashing eyes and the way she growled as she killed the zombies and skeletons. He wasn’t sure how long they were at it, fighting through the dusty stone corridors, but eventually, the two of them stood together before one final door.

“Do you think that was all of them?” John asked.

“All of them on our side of this door,” Yelena replied. “Where do you think it leads?”

“Underground, would be my bet. A wine cellar or something. Shall we continue?”

“Try to stop me,” Yelena replied.

John’s smile faltered as he reached out and touched the doorknob. It was cold. “I think whatever’s causing the problems here is down there,” he said quietly.

“I am ready,” Yelena said.

He opened the door. The first thing that he noticed, as he studied the dim stairway beyond, was that whoever had come in here, (they had yet to find a body), had gone down here. There were footsteps in the dust.

“Our mystery guest is down here,” he murmured.

“Dead, do you think?”

“Likely.”

“Unfortunate.”

“Probably.”

John led the way. He saw flickering candlelight at the base of the stairs. It smelled...old, down there. It smelled of dust and time. Yelena was deathly silent behind him. He gripped his sword tightly. His good cheer and arousal from the battle above was falling away now. It felt cold and dangerous down here. It felt like something was waiting for them. They came to the end of the stairwell and examined the room beyond. It was simple, bare except for a round table and a trio of old wooden chairs. One of them was knocked over.

There were three doors leading into darker rooms.

“Something is down here,” Yelena said quietly.

“Do you see anything?” John replied.

She paused, then growled in frustration. “No. We must search.”

They moved left first, coming into a wine cellar. The room consisted almost entirely of long wooden shelves that were mostly empty, although he saw a few bottles left. Now those would probably fetch a decent price. Or at least taste pretty great. Or, at the very least, assist vastly with getting drunk. He suddenly wondered if Yelena had ever been drunk, or if she would be interested. Questions for later. Yelena raised her hand suddenly and a small ball of white light appeared overhead. Why hadn’t he thought of that?

Well, his light spell wasn’t really that good, and he wasn’t very magical to begin with. It was hard for him to do much more than start a fire or chill a bottle. The light revealed more of the room, banishing the shadows. They didn’t see anything in the wine cellar and moved back to the main area, then headed through the right door this time. The feeling of ominous tension was only getting worse. John kept looking over his shoulder, expecting to see someone or something standing behind him, prepared to murder him.

But there was nothing in the doorway.

This room looked like it had once been someone’s private quarters. It, too, was empty of any obvious threats. They moved on to the final doorway. Now, the light revealed a larger room, the biggest of the three. It looked like it had been partially a storage area and partially a training area. By now, it was so cold that John and Yelena could see their breath on the air.

“It’s here,” Yelena whispered.

“Where? I don’t see anything,” John replied, his voice harsh and strained.

“I am not...” She trailed off as an armor stand across the room suddenly rose up off the floor, as though lifted by an invisible brute, and launched itself directly towards them. John dove out of the way and Yelena sidestepped nimbly.

“What the fuck?!” John cried, for a few seconds so stumped that he had no idea what was going on. But as he got to his feet, trying to avoid the armor and bits of wood that had clattered everywhere when the armor stand had struck the wall behind him, and he saw a sword rise up and begin to aim for him, he realized what was happening.

“Ghost!” he cried, leaping out of the way a second time.

“I see it!” Yelena snapped, and suddenly a brilliant red light filled the room. John just caught sight of a bolt of red energy smashing into something that became a vaguely shaped humanoid outline. There was a powerful shriek and then it was gone.

Yelena walked over to him and helped pull him to his feet. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he replied. “Gonna be bruised, but whatever. How’d you see it?”

“An ability I have. I’ve dealt with ghosts before,” she said.

John began to respond, but froze as a sound came from across the room. Still hopped up on the battle high, they both snapped their gazes over and settled them on a large wooden cabinet. Neither spoke as they advanced on it. Yelena drew her bow and notched an arrow, nodding tightly to John. He stepped up to the cabinet.

He waited, then yanked the doors open and stepped back.

Someone was inside, and she shrieked.

John found himself staring at a pale, redheaded elf in dirty traveling clothes. She cowered in the empty cabinet.

“Um...hi,” she said. “Please don’t kill me.”

CHAPTER III

Yelena lowered her bow.

A few seconds of silence passed.

“Um...hi,” John replied awkwardly. “What are you doing in there?”

“Hiding,” the elf replied.

“Obviously. Why are you here?” Yelena asked.

“I...oh my, you’re a demon,” the elf whispered, her fear coming back.

“Relax, she’s not going to hurt you,” John replied. “My name is John.”

The elf woman seemed not to be able to stop staring at Yelena. “Uh...Tanis. My name is Tanis,” she replied finally. “Can I come out now?”

“Yes,” John replied, stepping back, giving her some space.

Tanis stepped out of the cabinet, studied each of them for a few seconds, then slowly stretched. “Well, thank you for helping me,” she said finally. “I was in there for quite awhile.”

“What happened?” Yelena asked.

“Can we talk about it outside? I need a break from this place, and I’m fucking freezing...is it safe?” she asked.

“Yes, we’ve cleared it out,” John replied.

“Okay. Wow, you two are hardcore if you cleared this whole building. And I believe it, given what you did with the ghost. I heard that.” They left the room and began heading back upstairs. Already, John could feel the chill and the evil presence fading. It would take a long time before it was completely gone, but it was a start. “I’m a scholar,” Tanis explained as they headed up and out of the fort. “I’m here doing research.”

They stepped back outside, and Tanis took a deep breath, then let it out in a happy sigh. She stretched out her arms and spun a few times, then walked down the stairs and, as soon as she was on some grass, laid down on her back, staring into the sky.

“You seem pretty relaxed for someone who was cornered by a ghost and rescued by a human and a demon,” John said.

“It feels so good to be back outside,” Tanis replied. “And if you were going to hurt me, I think you would’ve by now. The fact that the two of you are traveling together and so easy around each other means that you’re obviously working together, and I don’t sense any evil coming from either of you now that we’re out of the fort, so I trust that you probably won’t hurt me.” She looked at Yelena. “I’m sorry for freaking out that you’re a demoness, it was just a surprise. I don’t have a problem with your race or you, so long as you aren’t actively trying to hurt me.”

“That is a very progressive attitude,” Yelena replied. She sat down at the base of the steps with John.

“I’d like to think I’m progressive,” Tanis replied. “Anyway, I’m here following a lead for an elf noble from another continent, a far elf. He found out that his grandfather might own this place and if so, he wants to claim the deed as the last living relative in his bloodline. I went down into the basement first because I figured, you know, that’s where I’d hide important stuff, and ran into that damned ghost. It forced me into the cabinet. I think it just liked having someone trapped.”

“How long were you in there?” John asked.

“A few hours, at least. I got here earlier today, in the morning. And it’s...” she looked up, “a little past midday now. Oh, and it’s going to rain. Nice. I love the rain.” She sat up and looked at them intently. “So, John and Yelena, why are you here?”

John studied her before answering. She was, like pretty much all the other elf women he’d seen in his life, extremely beautiful. She was tall for an elf, and fairly chesty, too. Her skin was fair and pale, her hair short and blood-red, some of it pulled into a short ponytail, some of it left to hang and frame her beautiful face.

Her eyes were green and bright with intelligence and a playful guile.

“We’re looking for coin,” he said finally. Yelena seemed content to let him decide how much to tell her.

“Coin, huh?” She seemed to consider it. “Why are you together? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human and a demoness traveling together.”

John looked at Yelena. She offered him a small shrug. Your call. “We’re lovers,” he said, looking back at Tanis.

She didn’t seem particularly surprised. “I kinda figured.”

“Really?” Yelena asked.

“Yeah. I mean...maybe I’ve just got sex on the brain, but I mean it’s a big reason why the two of you would be traveling together and so comfortable around each other. And there’s just a kind of...I dunno, an energy between the two of you.” She shrugged. “Not to demean your relationship by implying it’s just sexual or anything!”

“I...Tanis, you are very strange. And I mean that in a good way,” John said. “Not only are you okay with the idea of us having sex, you’re okay with the idea of us having a full-fledged relationship. Most people would try to kill us.”

She shrugged. “Like I said, I’m a progressive person. I’m a lover. I’ve taken many different kinds of lovers. I don’t judge.” She paused, seemed to consider something else. “So...what if we joined forces?” she asked.

“Join forces?” Yelena replied.

“Yeah! Team up, be friends, help each other out. I honestly don’t want to go back in there by myself, but I have to if I want to get paid. And you two seem really cool! And I’ve been pretty lonely. I’ve been traveling by myself for close to a week now, I’m dying for some godsdamned conversation,” she said.

“I am okay with this idea. She seems very nice,” Yelena said when John looked at her. He had an inclination that she had an ulterior motive. He looked back at Tanis. She was leaning forward slightly, showing off some of her cleavage. Godsdamn did she have some nice tits. Well...elves were known for their sexual openness. He didn’t plan on expecting sex from her, but if she continued on in this way, well, he fully intended to at least ask.

If he could manage a threesome with Yelena and this beautiful redheaded elf Tanis, then that might actually be one of the hottest threesomes he’d ever had in his life. He seriously, seriously had a thing for redheaded elves.

And Tanis was so fucking hot.

“We’d love to,” John said.

She smiled and leaped gracefully to her feet. “Great! Let’s go!”

…

Tanis was an absolute delight.

Which was nice, because the fort didn’t yield nearly as much as he had hoped it would. The three of them moved back into the long-abandoned fortress, which had indeed been built by, (or at least purchased by), a mercenary clan a long, long time ago.

“So, what’s the story with this place?” John asked as they headed into the main hall and began heading up to the third floor again. They agreed: like John and Yelena’s initial tactic, start at the top and work their way down. Only this time they would be going much more slowly and be looking for valuables and information.

“Here’s what I’ve managed to piece together,” Tanis replied. They were currently all in the same room, a huge bedroom that once had likely belonged to the boss. “A long, long time ago, this far elf joins a mercenary clan over here. He kicks ass and rises through the ranks, and finally he challenges the boss. And wins. By killing him. So, he takes over the clan and is actually pretty good at it. Leads them on campaigns for like twenty years, mostly as a private army for one lord or noble or another, sometimes going in and clearing out monsters, shit like that. Then another mercenary clan that was looking to make a name for itself signed up with two other mercenary clans that were pissed off, because our guy’s clan had been kicking ass for so long. By then, they had built this fort for themselves. Well, those three clans stormed this place.

“It was a bloody, brutal fight. The end result was that the guy died, but he managed to send his son off to the next continent over. After that, the son had a son of his own, then died of an illness some years ago, and neither of them really thought much about this place or anything on this continent. Until just recently when the grandson fell into financial ruin and began desperately trying to find assets to sell off, and then he remembered good old granddad’s mercenary fort. So, he hired me to track down the deed to the land, to see if it still even exists. It’s a long shot, but, eh, this is fun. And it had been awhile since I’d gotten to go into the Wild.”

“So, you like it here?” Yelena asked.

“Of course! It’s exciting. There’s always something going on. Always interesting people around to meet. And the danger! There’s so many creatures to elude,” Tanis replied.

“You don’t fight them?” John asked.

“I mean, sometimes. But I really like being stealthy and dexterous. I can outrun a lot of things. I mean, I spent all my time moving among the trees. I’m fast as fuck and I can dodge like you wouldn’t believe. But I’m good with a bow and arrow, too, and I’ve got some magic to help. Although I get the idea you two fight a lot,” Tanis replied.

“We prefer it,” Yelena said.

“Well...we prefer it to running. No offense to you or anything. I’m just shit for running. But I’m okay with living and let live if at all possible,” John replied.

“Okay, I get that. Neither of you strike me as particularly bloodthirsty. You both are pretty cool to be around,” Tanis replied. “Which reminds me...how’d you hook up? I have to admit, I’m deeply curious about how you ended up here.”

“Yelena? You mind if I tell her?” he asked.

She sighed, though it seemed exaggerated. “I do not mind,” she replied.

“So, it all started when I found Yelena, passed out in the middle of a forest...”

Their search continued.

There wasn’t a whole lot they could actually take with them on the third floor. All they managed to find was a half-decent dagger and a bag of gold tucked away under a pillow. The second and first floors were only marginally better. Time passed as they hunted through each room and exchanged stories about themselves.

The more time he spent around her, the more John found himself liking Tanis. And not just because she was so fucking hot. She was clearly intelligent, and yet it was definitely not her defining trait. She was so...casual. She was immediately easy to get along with. Within half an hour, he felt like he’d known her for quite awhile, given the ease with which they talked. And he could tell that Yelena, despite her reservations, was feeling the same way. If he was less in tune with her, he thought his demoness lover might be jealous, but he didn’t think so. At this point, he thought any natural wariness on Yelena’s part was automatic.

She felt out of her depth most of the time, because she was in a completely different plane of existence. Even if she’d been here a few times before. And he completely understood. Shit, he got a little nervous just walking into a new village. It was the main reason he welcomed every question she had, and tried to encourage her to ask anytime she had one. He had an idea it didn’t come easy to her. Asking questions was...he supposed, in a way, it was like showing weakness. Showing ignorance on a subject, no matter how trivial, must feel like a concession, a defeat even. But he knew she trusted him, and Yelena was also a quick learner and very smart herself.

Which was great, because this place was definitely more disappointing than he had initially hoped. There were a few gems and a half-decent sword on the second story, and the ground floor held what he initially took to be a treasure trove. But most of the swords and armor that were still on display were crap, not even worth the effort of hauling them out of the Wild to sell them at the nearest town. And so, they finally gathered at the basement.

“I really hope to find the deed down here,” Tanis murmured as they descended.

“What happens if you don’t?” John asked.

“I have one other lead at the moment. My research thus far has indicated a hunting lodge not too far away from here. There’s a chance it might be there. If not there, then...I guess I’ll have to hunt around for a bit longer for more clues,” Tanis replied.

They moved back into the basement. The chill was still there, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as before. And there was definitely that ominous, anxious feeling. John tried not to let it bother him as he moved over to the wine cellar to begin inventorying the wine, which he hoped at least was as it appeared.

That stuff would be decently pricey.

The uncomfortable feelings he felt were nothing more than the lingering aftereffects of the haunting Yelena had so thoroughly quashed. Tanis took the opportunity to move into the second room, the bedroom, which John thought would be the most promising place, and Yelena came in to join him in his own search.

“So, what do you think of her?” she asked.

“I like her. A lot. What about you?” he replied.

“I do, as well. She’s so...pleasant. And extremely...what is that phrase I’ve heard? Easy on the eyes, I think.”

“Yes, that’s it,” he said, unable to keep from smirking. “So, you wanna...”

“Fuck her until the dawn comes?” Yelena asked.

He chuckled. “Yes. That.”

“Of course. And I imagine you do, as well. You seem to be looking at her a great deal.”

“I have a serious thing for redheads...and elves.”

“Should I change my hair to be red? I understand that can be done in this realm.”

“Only if you want to, love. I very much enjoy you as you are now,” he replied.

Yelena was silent for a few seconds. “You really mean that, don’t you?” she asked.

He paused, looking over at her from the bottle he’d been inspecting. “Of course I do...did you doubt that?”

“No, I do not doubt you, John. It is just that...I’ve come to understand that humans, well, that’s not entirely true, not just humans, but those of your realm often say one thing while secretly desiring another. And that most would prefer to have their partner change to suit their own desires. Am I wrong in that understanding?”

“I...don’t think you are, no. A lot of people are like that, in my experience,” he replied.

“But not you.”

“No. I don’t agree with that philosophy, if it could be called such a thing. I have desires, and you have desires. I think we should both be open to the possibility of making changes for the other, compromises, concessions...but we should be just as open to not. Relationships are give and take, on both sides. But honestly, above all else, I just want you to be happy, love.”

Yelena was staring at him intently now. “You make me feel guilty,” she said finally.

“What?” he replied, startled.

“You are an amazing person, and an excellent lover and partner. I am sure there are very many deserving women in this world who would be overjoyed to have you as such...and yet you are my partner, you have entered into a relationship with a demon,” she replied. She said it with such calm certainty, like she was explaining a math problem to him.

“I don’t know how great I am,” he replied after considering it, “and I don’t know how well matched I’d be for most women. I think...we should just be happy that we found each other, and we’re together, and leave it at that.”

“I suppose you are right.” She moved forward, wrapped him in a hug and kissed him firmly. “And tonight, hopefully, we will be happily having a threesome with a beautiful elf.” She paused, smiled. “And I know what you mean about the red hair. There is something particularly alluring and erotic about it.”

“Oh my Gods, I know, right? Well, hopefully she’ll be into us,” John replied.

“I think she will be,” Yelena said.

John let thoughts of Tanis naked and bouncing on his cock entertain him as he continued hunting through the wine bottles. The stuff he was finding was actually pretty decent. Most of these were a good fifty years old. He’d have to check over them more thoroughly, and probably save a few for themselves, but this would likely be the best part of their haul. After packing a few of them away inside of his and Yelena’s bags, they regrouped with Tanis and helped her wrap up her search. And, unfortunately, found nothing.

“Shit,” she said as they came to stand in the wine cellar again. “Well, this is a bust. I guess I’m going to have to go on to that lodge. And it seems like this place was kind of a bust for you, too.” She paused, seemed to consider something. “Well...wanna be my bodyguards?” she asked.

“Bodyguards?” John replied.

“Basically, we just keep hanging out together and you come with me to the lodge, but I can pay you if I call you my bodyguards, and I can also add it to the expense list. And no one will bat an eye, because I mean, look at me and look at where I freaking am. I’ll give you two hundred coin for it,” she said.

“That...would be awesome,” John replied, and Yelena nodded.

“Great! Just one thing...can I have one of those bottles?” she asked.

“Yes. It’s not like we necessarily laid claim to them,” John replied as she grabbed one of the bottles off the shelf and looked over it.

“Well, our agreement was that I get the deed, you get everything else. I know you two are pretty cool, but I want to respect our agreement,” she replied.

“That’s appreciated. And so yes, we’re totally fine with you having a bottle.”

“Great! This one is gonna be a good one,” she said, tucking her bottle away into her pack. As soon as she was done, she pulled it on again and stood. “Shall we go?”

…

“So where are you from, Tanis?” John asked.

“The Redwood Forest,” she replied, “a settlement called Bryne.” She glanced at Yelena. “The Redwood Forest is a large forest on the opposite side of the continent.”

“Is it like the Emerald Wild?” Yelena replied.

Tanis shook her head. “No. It’s much, much more peaceful. There are monsters, and dangerous animals in the woods, but it’s far, far safer. And it’s largely where the elves live in this land. It’s a very peaceful place.”

“It sounds nice...I wish to go there,” Yelena said.

“We can definitely do that,” John replied.

“You’d love it there. And I bet you can totally get laid over there a bunch, too. Elves are much more free with their love than humans...no offense.”

“Oh, none taken. Elves are awesome,” John replied.

Tanis smirked. “Yes, we are.” She paused and seemed to consider her words for a few seconds. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, though I don’t think I am, but it’s come to be my understanding that in most cases like yours, and by that I mean cases in which a human loves a...non-human, then that human also tends to enjoy a great deal of non-human sexual partners. Is that the case with you, John?” she asked, wearing a small smile.

“That is the case,” he replied.

“Interesting. Would you be willing to tell me about some of your exploits? I must admit, it is rare that I find a human as open as you,” she said.

“I don’t mind if Yelena doesn’t care.”

“I do not,” Yelena said. “I admit, I am interested to hear if there was anything you neglected to tell me.”

“I didn’t neglect to tell you anything...I might’ve forgotten, though.”

“Indeed.”

Tanis laughed.

John sighed. “Well, let’s see. Almost all of my relationships have been casual affairs lasting between one night and a few weeks, typically with traveling merchants and fellow adventuresses. I’ve slept mainly with felis, beryl, and elves. The only, uh, exotic women I’ve slept with, besides Yelena, are a few dryads, a succubus, and a mermaid once.”

“Ooh...mermaids are so pretty. I’ve met a few in my travels. Swapped oral with one of them. She was really good with her tongue. So okay, that’s cool. I’ve also had sex with dryads, men and women. Never a succubus, though. I did get fucked by a werewolf once,” she said.

“Whoa, really?” John replied.

“What is a werewolf?” Yelena asked.

“That’s a little difficult to explain...” John murmured, considering it.

“Do you know what a wolf is?” Tanis asked.

“I believe so. A furred, four-legged creature?” Yelena replied.

“Yes. Basically, some humans are infected with a disease that grants them the ability to transform into a hybrid of a human and a wolf. It’s exclusive to humans, as far as I know, though I don’t know why. Most werewolves are killed, partially because they are considered abominations, but mainly because the majority of people who become werewolves cannot control themselves. They turn into their bestial form and go crazy, killing whatever they see. Some people cure it, though it is difficult. Others learn to control it, typically adventurers. They can turn and retain themselves, their sanity, and their control. And oh, wow, can they ever fuck,” Tanis explained with a big grin.

“I’ll bet. I’ve always wanted to fuck a hot werewolf chick,” John said.

“The thought of a woman at least half a foot taller than you and way stronger than you doesn’t make you go soft?” Tanis asked.

“I fuck Yelena regularly,” John replied.

Tanis looked at the two of them. “Hmm, yeah, she is a bit taller than you. Especially with those horns.”

“And I’m certainly stronger than him,” Yelena said.

“Fair point. So obviously you aren’t afraid of tough women,” Tanis said, looking at John.

“I’m attracted to them,” he replied.

“A generally good idea, I’d say,” Tanis said. She paused. “Look, ahead. There’s the hunting lodge we’ve been looking for. Although it looks like it’s two cabins. Nice. Come on, if we can wrap this up, we can get drunk and relax!” she said, and hurried forward.

They moved after her.

The trio came into an overgrown clearing where not one, but two cabins sat, positioned in an L, surrounded by a decayed iron and stone fence. As they made their way through the front gate and into the chaotic front yard, Tanis hesitated.

“Someone’s been here recently,” she said.

John spied an open front door and considered it, letting his senses hunt. “I think you’re right,” he murmured.

“I’ve got magically-enhanced senses,” Tanis explained. “Someone was definitely here. Thieves, more than likely.” She sighed. “Come on, let’s investigate.”

They headed into the first of the pair of rectangular buildings. They looked old, though not as old as the fort had been. They were also made mostly of stone bricks. John took the first structure in as they came into it. The windows were mostly broken out, the furniture inside was busted and time-eaten, there was refuse everywhere.

“This place is a mess,” Yelena murmured.

“Figures,” John replied. “Tanis, any ideas where to look?”

“Unfortunately not, which means we’ll have to do it the hard way: search everywhere. Luckily this place isn’t all that big...”

They got to searching.

John’s mind wandered as they hunted. He thought that he would be more anxious and concerned. After all, he was now, technically speaking, a fugitive. It was against the law in most settlements and towns to harbor a demon. It was similarly illegal to consort with them, or vampires or werewolves, and most other monsters. The thing was, it was kind of a...flexible law. Especially the demon thing. Because succubi were demons.

But guys liked fucking them. It was one of those things that was tolerated so long as it went on behind closed doors and no one who would seriously object found out.

Like the guy’s wife.

It was one of those ‘dirty secrets’ kind of thing that was most often swept under the rug. Yelena, on the other hand, was no succubus. Nor was he just fucking her, which would be bad enough in most people’s eyes, but he was in love with her. He had given up whatever semblance of a life he’d had before now to help her find her own in this new land. So, functionally speaking, John was a fugitive from the law.

Very few people in the land would be okay with what he was doing, even though they weren’t trying to hurt anyone.

Consequently, he thought his mind would be constantly filled with anxiety and worry. And yet...he was happy. In a way, it felt like he was shedding the skin of a life he knew was a lie, and yet had no truly compelling reason to cease living it. He’d tried, leaving about once a year to live a life a lot like this, one on the road, one meeting interesting new people, (and, okay, sleeping with some of them if he could), a life where he explored old ruins and killed dangerous monsters and lived in a state of travel.

And what better way was there to live the life of your dreams than with a person that you had completely and utterly fallen in love with?

There had been a small part of John, one he wouldn’t admit to anyone, hardly to himself, that was afraid, perhaps even terrified, that at some point, he would realize the enormity of a mistake that he had made in throwing away everything to be with Yelena. But with each day that passed, that fear diminished.

He would know with more confidence in several weeks, or months perhaps, but already he honestly was really liking this. He didn’t mind the danger, he didn’t mind having to live in the Emerald Wild, he didn’t mind having to fight monsters. His old life had never made him truly happy, but he’d kept living it out of some sense of obligation. Now, he wasn’t.

He felt free.

The first cabin had clearly been ransacked, and held nothing of any real value. And, unfortunately, the second cabin was in much the same state.

“Someone was definitely here, and today,” Tanis said. She was starting to sound frustrated. They followed her back outside. “Give me a moment. I’ll track them.”

They both watched her. John felt a subtle shift in the air, a gentle breeze of warmth. Tanis seemed to flicker with a blue-white light. Suddenly, she pointed. “There,” she said. “Whoever they were, they went that way. They ransacked this place. Perhaps we can cut a deal with them...provided they are reasonable.”

“Perhaps, though I doubt they’re reasonable,” John replied. “Reasonable people rarely enter the Emerald Wild.”

“Well, we three are here...” Tanis frowned. “Are you both okay with this?”

“I am. I wish for a challenge,” Yelena replied.

“I’m ready to keep going, Tanis,” John answered.

“Thank you. Okay, let’s get this over with.”

They set off once more.

…

Tanis’s magic led them to a cave.

It was a dark hole boring into the earth, perhaps a quarter mile away from the cabins.

“So...now what?” John asked.

“Well, I don’t really think we should just walk in, loudly or quietly, as people tend not to react well to that. I suppose we could call down to them,” Tanis replied.

“Worth a try,” John said.

He walked forward to the edge of the cave and peered cautiously in with Yelena at his side. The daylight gave them a decent view of the dirt and rock tunnel that descended into the earth. There were a few torches along the walls and evidence of people, but he could hear nothing. “Hello down there!” he called. “Can anyone hear me?!”

He paused, waited, listened.

Still nothing, it was dead silent.

“I’m interested in making a deal with anyone down there! I believe you have something of some monetary interest to me!”

Still nothing.

“You sure they’re here?” he asked.

“Yeah. Whoever was at the cabins went here. I picked up a few tracking spells in my youth. I’m positive,” Tanis replied.

“Huh. Maybe they left out a back entrance?”

“It’s possible...” Tanis said, though she sounded unconvinced.

“I do not see that we have any option,” Yelena said. “We must go inside.”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Tanis said. “Well, let’s go.”

They began walking slowly down into the tunnel. Yelena raised a hand and cast a light spell, creating a small but bright sphere of light that hovered overhead. John had to fight the urge to draw his blade, as they were still hoping to do this without spilling blood. Maybe they were just salvagers...hadn’t he, Yelena, and Tanis just come from a fort where they had done literally the same thing?

But they heard nothing as they continued down the tunnel, even as they reached its end and came into a large, open cavern.

“I don’t see anyone,” Tanis murmured.

“I hear nothing,” Yelena said quietly.

“We should check this out,” John replied.

He studied the cave as Yelena upped the light spell, throwing a more powerful glow across the area. There were definitely signs of recent life. It looked like a group of people had set up a very temporary camp in here. There were some basic tables and chairs cobbled together with wood and nails, and a cluster of bedrolls in one corner. Some supplies were scattered about across the tables, and some of it had spilled onto the floor.

“This place smells wrong,” Yelena said.

“Yes,” Tanis agreed quietly. “It does.”

They found a pair of tunnels and moved down the first one. John’s sense of unease grew as they pressed on. Now they did draw their blades. Well, John and Yelena did, Tanis drew her bow and notched an arrow. This fear was different from the kind felt back at the fort. There was no curse here, no haunting.

John wasn’t sure what was here, but things that dwelt in caves were rarely friendly or good. He’d had some bad fights in caves. The three kept silent as they walked down the tunnel, hunting for clues of what had happened, as well as looking for the deed, if it was indeed here. The tunnel eventually came to an end, terminating in another, smaller cavern. It looked like a few people had set up a somewhat more exclusive camp here, though it was little more than some bedrolls, a table, a few chairs, and a chest. Probably the leader of the group, John figured.

They took a moment to search the chest and anywhere else they could see, and although there was a good haul of gold and precious gemstones, as well as a few choice daggers, still no papers. And so, they were forced to retreat back to the main cavern and take the final tunnel. As they began moving down this one, Yelena stopped.

“The smell is stronger,” she said.

“Yes,” Tanis agreed, “but I’m not sure what it is. It’s familiar, but...” she hesitated, then sighed in frustration. “I can’t be sure. It’s dangerous, whatever it is. Still want to go on?”

“Yes,” John and Yelena said at the same time.

They went on. As they drew closer to the tunnel’s end, John smelled it, too. And he began to hear noises. Quiet chittering sounds that were eerily familiar. Tanis was right, definitely dangerous. What had they walked into?

The tunnel came to an end.

The cavern beyond was bigger than the first one, and Yelena’s light spell didn’t seem as powerful now. Shadows gathered along the edges of the room. And right away, John knew what, precisely, they had walked into.

“Spiders,” he whispered.

“What are spiders?” Yelena asked tightly.

“Very dangerous. They are fast, poisonous,” Tanis replied.

“Remember that enormous, eight-legged monster you saved me from near the end of our stint with the necromancers? That is a spider,” John said.

Yelena sighed. “Great.”

Webbing was strung up along the edges of the room, just barely visible in the shadows. And there were dark figures in the webbing.

“The salvagers,” John said quietly.

“Well, that answers that question,” Tanis murmured. “How about we pull back and-”

A high-pitched shriek sounded suddenly, making them all jerk in surprise, and then, like a dark tide, a dozen giant spiders twisted and writhed and crawled out of the nest of webbing they had built for themselves. They came for the group, legs twitching madly as they made awful, swift progress across the cavern.

“Kill them!” John shouted.

Tanis loosed an arrow, burying it in the twisted, alien face of one of the spiders. Yelena jerked her hand forward, palm flat and out, and a small but powerful wave of fire shot forth. Two of the spiders were incinerated outright, and another two caught aflame. John moved towards three that were making rapid progress towards him, brandishing his blade. Well, this was certainly going to be harder to deal with than some highwaymen or a few zombies and skeletons. He fucking hated spiders. He jabbed forward, driving the tip of his silver blade into the awful constellation of red eyes crowning the thing’s strange head and heard it squeal.

Jerking the blade out in a spray of dark blood, he twisted around and chopped off two legs of another giant spider. It shrieked madly and began skittering away. John leaped back as the third spider made a grab for him, trying to get him in its grasp so it could sink its fangs into him. He didn’t give it the chance, stabbing into its awful body three rapid times in a row, drawing more dark blood. Behind him, he could hear the others fighting.

The battle continued for another few moments as the three of them moved among the spiders, dodging and falling back and moving forward, their blades rising and falling. Tanis fell back, putting her bow to very skilled use.

Finally, the last spider fell, and no more came.

“Well...fuck,” John said, lowering his sword. “Is that godsdamned all of them?”

“I sure hope so,” Tanis replied.

“I do not like spiders,” Yelena said.

“Fucking hate them,” John growled. He sighed. “And now we have to begin the miserable process of actually searching this area.”

“Yep,” Tanis murmured. She pulled out a knife and looked unhappily at the nearest dark figure suspended in the webbing. “Well...let’s get this over with.”

…

“I need a bath,” Tanis muttered as they walked back into the daylight.

It was darker now, and at first, as John caught sight of the outdoors through the top of the tunnel they’d been walking up, he thought he’d really lost track of time. But as the trio emerged from the caves, he realized that no, it was darker because the cloud cover was thicker, threatening rain. He could even smell it on the air now.

“I saw a sunken tub inside one of those cabins,” he replied. “Although it was bone dry.”

“Oh, I can produce water, no problem,” Tanis replied. “You think we should head back there? Part of me wants to just leave the Wild, but honestly, I don’t really feel like making the walk all the way out to the nearest village. Plus, I don’t want to stop hanging out with you two yet. You’re so interesting and fun and nice. So, you wanna go hang out back at those cabins?”

“That sounds great,” John replied, and Yelena nodded.

“Perfect.”

They set off through the forest again.

They had spent about two hours down there in those caves. About half of that was spent in that huge cavern infested with spiders, cutting into the webbing. It had been a disgusting experience, but it had at least been fruitful. Among the nine corpses they’d pulled from the webbing, most of them had useful items on them. One had an enchanted dagger, another an amulet that had a protection against cold embedded in it, several of them had at least half-decent rings, some gold and a few gem shards in their pockets, and, most importantly, the deed that Tanis had been hunting for so fervently. It was intact, and exactly what she was looking for.

The remainder of the time was spent sorting through the rest of the caves. They’d turned up some more gear, some more gold, and a few decent swords. Their packs were swollen with supplies. John definitely intended to take a long walk to the nearest settlement and make some gold soon. As they walked back through the forest, he found his eyes drifting to Tanis’s trim body. He was thinking about doing some other things, too.

He was so fucking horny now, and he could tell Yelena was getting agitated from lust as well. Given that she wanted to take a bath with them around, well...that was a good sign. And she’d been kind of flirtatious so far, but then again, most elves were, that didn’t necessarily mean she was into either of them.

Then again, most elves were pretty open to easy, casual sex.

It was hard not to hurry back to the cabins, but they finally managed to get there. As they stepped onto the property again, somewhere distant, lightning forked the sky and thunder boomed. Tanis paused and looked at the sky.

“I love rain so much,” she said. “That would be so perfect for today.”

“Agreed,” John replied. He found himself thinking of that first night he’d made love with Yelena, how he had fallen asleep listening to the rain afterward. They moved into the first cabin and Tanis shrugged out of her pack. She dropped it on the floor and walked right up to the sunken bathtub of stone set into the floor.

She raised her hands. “Gonna do a blast of air, to clean it out, so, you know, cover your eyes, gonna be some dust,” she said.

They both thanked her and stepped back. She let out a short but powerful blast of air magic and a load of dust and random bits of debris escaped the tub. She then raised her hands and waited, then suddenly another burst of light appeared and a kind of random shape of pale red magic appeared to hover over the tub.

John realized what she was doing: she was creating a fire and an ice spell at the same time. It was something he’d seen done before, and something he wished he knew how to do. The ability to create hot, clean water on command...wouldn’t it be nice. When she was finished, the tub was full of clear, steaming water.

Tanis turned and walked back over to her pack, dropped into a crouch, and fished out the bottle of wine she’d taken from the fort.

Well, shit.

That certainly accelerated his timeline.

He didn’t want to try to sleep with her after she started drinking.

“Tanis, uh...before you start drinking,” he said. “I was wondering...”

She looked up at him, and then smirked. “Oh, I know where this is going. Well, aren’t you a sweetheart? You want to have sex with me,” she said, standing back up.

“Yes,” he replied.

“And you want to ask me before I start getting squiffy. You are so sweet. The answer is yes, I would love to have sex with you.” She looked at Yelena. “Both of you. I have always wanted to have a hot demon chick go down on me.”

“She can do a lot with her tongue,” John said, and Yelena smirked and then stuck out her long, prehensile tongue.

“Oh, my fuck,” Tanis said, her eyes widening in excitement, “I am going to fall in love with that fucking tongue. Well, I’m going to start drinking now, because I want to be at least a little tipsy when we fuck, ‘cause it’s been a long godsdamned day.”

“Yes, it has,” Yelena said. “I believe I shall join you.”

“I think I’m gonna stay sober,” John said.

“Oh?” Tanis replied as she tore the cork out with her teeth and spat it skillfully into her open pack. “Why’s that?”

“I don’t, ah, perform well...while intoxicated,” he replied awkwardly.

“Ah. You get mead dick,” Tanis said.

“Yeah...”

She rolled her eyes and took a long drink from the wine, then wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and passed the bottle to Yelena. “Relax, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m sure you perform admirably,” she said.

“I can personally attest to this,” Yelena said, then took a drink. “Oh, my. This liquid is...it tastes good,” she said, and then took another, longer drink.

“Heh heh, I think we’re gonna turn your girlfriend into a drunk slut,” Tanis said.

Yelena frowned as she handed the bottle back to her. “Is not this word, slut, an insult?”

Tanis sighed. “It’s often used as an insult in these lands, yes, but I do not. A slut is...just a woman who loves having sex. And there’s nothing wrong with that. However,” she said, holding up a finger, “if you don’t want me to call you that, I will respect that.”

“I...” Yelena seemed to consider it, “will allow this. I do enjoy sex.”

“Men can be sluts too,” John said as he began getting his clothes off.

“This is true. So, a person who enjoys sex a lot. Although honestly, almost one hundred times out of one hundred, I hear the word being applied to women, in both good and bad contexts. For the record, though, I love being a slut. Sex feels so godsdamned good.” She paused as John finished getting naked. “Wow,” she said.

“What?” he replied.

“You’re hot, and you’ve got a big dick,” she said.

“It’s not that big,” he replied, again feeling awkward.

“I’m a fucking five-foot five petite ass elf, that’s big to me,” Tanis replied. “Looking forward to riding that big fucking thing.”

“It is very wonderful to ride,” Yelena confirmed.

John moved over to the tub and slipped into the water, then watched as the women went through a slow but pleasant process of passing the bottle back and forth between them while also stripping off their clothing. By the time they were both nude, the bottle was drained, as Tanis emptied the rest of it in one go and then set it down.

He looked at her wonderful, naked body as she came towards him with Yelena. She was of average build for an elf: slender and petite. Although she did have some big fucking tits for being so skinny. The effect was awesome. They were big, round, pale, and perky, topped with beautiful, small pink nipples. She was very fit, her thighs slim and athletic. He saw that she had a few scars across her body, one on her right hip, what looked like an arrow puncture wound in her left bicep, a stab wound in her stomach.

Both women slipped nimbly into the tub and settled in on either side of him. They each leaned against him and Yelena laid an arm across his shoulders while Tanis wrapped him in a hug and laid her head against his chest.

“It’s been too long since I’ve been able to be drunk and horny around someone,” she murmured happily. “And, I mean, get my pussy satisfied.”

“You’ll be satisfied,” John replied.

“Mmm...do you eat pussy?”

“Expertly,” Yelena replied. “We both do.”

“Excellent, because I suck dick like a total whore. I’m going to have you coming fast, and I like the taste, so I want to swallow for you,” Tanis replied.

“I wish we’d met earlier,” John said.

“Same,” Tanis replied. She grinned and kissed him.

John slipped a hand over the back of her neck and deepened the kiss, and heard her moan quietly in response. Kissing Tanis was like...biting into a particularly rich piece of chocolate, or eating a stunningly well-seasoned and prepared steak. It was like extravagant decadence. Like doing something that was bad for you, but it felt so very, very good to do. There was an intense, powerfully erotic sexuality to Tanis that became only more apparent as they continued locking lips. She slipped her tongue dexterously into his mouth and wrapped it with his own. They twined together, and he tasted her, both her own natural taste and the wine on her breath.

His new elf friend shifted as they continued making out and straddled him, pressing her big, wet, bare breasts against his chest. John wrapped her in a hug, holding her slim wet body to his own, absolutely in love with the feel of her, the way she was kissing him, the way she tasted, how into the encounter she seemed.

Beside him, he could hear Yelena breathing heavily.

Tanis could too, apparently, and broke off the kiss. Yelena leaned in and gave John a lingering kiss, then moved over to Tanis and began to make out with her as well.

“Holy Gods,” he whispered as both women began passionately making out right in front of his face. “I will never not be amazed by seeing two hot women kissing.”

Yelena snorted but Tanis seemed utterly into kissing his beautiful demoness lover. Her pale hands wandered all across Yelena’s darker body, groping her breasts, then sliding over her skin, around to her back. She hugged her to herself tightly and deepened the kiss. Yelena moaned quietly and closed her eyes, hugging back.

Tanis finally came up for air. “Holy fuck, you are so hot, Yelena. And I mean physically, like, your skin is actually really hot.” She looked at John. “It must feel so good to stick your cock inside of her. Oh man, do you bareback her?”

“All the time,” he replied.

She bit her lower lip. “That is so fucking hot. I can’t wait to watch you two fuck.”

“Before we get to fucking, we need to do some oral. Tanis, since you’re the guest of honor tonight, you get to go first,” John replied.

“Ooh, a guest of honor, huh? Well, I won’t say no to that.”

She hopped up onto the side of the tub and spread her nimble legs open wide, revealing her smooth pussy. “Should you go first, or should I?” Yelena asked.

“You should really be the one to bring her to climax, you’ve got that wicked tongue, babe,” John replied as he got down in between her athletic thighs.

“Good point,” Yelena said.

“I’m so looking forward to this,” Tanis murmured. He noted that she didn’t seem particularly drunk. Maybe just a bit tipsy. She must have a strong constitution. He wondered how many big, burly dudes she’d drunk under the table.

Tanis sucked in a sharp breath as he leaned in and spread the taut, smooth lips of her elf vagina, exposing the small white nub of her clit.

“Oh, yes...” she whispered as he leaned in and touched the tip of his tongue to her clit. Slowly, he began to massage it, to stimulate it.

It had been too long since he’d gone down on a hot elf chick.

John slowly began to go faster and harder, gently applying more pressure. “Oh yes...eat that fucking pussy...” she moaned loudly, leaning back and spreading her legs wider. She began panting as he licked more rapidly at her clit.

He glanced up as he ate her out, seeing her huge, wet tits hanging over him. Reaching up, he began to grope one of them as he kept stimulating her, pleasuring her, getting sounds of pure, erotic satisfaction from her. He finally stopped when Yelena seemed to be getting impatient for her turn. Pulling back, he watched as Yelena opened her mouth and stuck out her long, prehensile, forked tongue. Damn, that was a sexy tongue.

Tanis let out a cry of blissful ecstasy as Yelena began tonguing her clit.

“Oh my-oh wow, that’s fucking incredible!” she cried.

It didn’t take a lot longer before Tanis let out a scream of pure bliss as she began to orgasm. She grabbed Yelena’s horns, making her moan, and pulled her face into her crotch as she came hard, her big tits jiggling wonderfully as she did. When she was done, she released Yelena and then slipped back down into the tub.

“That was the first time I’ve ever been eaten out by a demon,” she murmured. “And I always thought it would be by a succubus...not that I’m complaining.”

“I’m glad I could please you,” Yelena replied.

Looking at John, Tanis asked, “Would you mind if I soloed your lady?”

“Have at her,” John said.

“I’m going to make you come so hard, you demoness slut,” Tanis said, grinning fiercely at her.

“Prove it,” Yelena replied, and got up out of the tub, assuming Tanis’s previous position.

John watched as the little redhead got down in between her firm thighs and began going down on her. Yelena let out a loud, long moan. Tanis licked at her clit and soon slipped a finger into her tight hole, fucking her with it. And apparently Yelena was very wound up, because Tanis had her coming, and coming fucking hard, within a minute.

And Gods did his demoness lover look stunning when she was nude and wet and orgasming.

Tanis must be good with that tongue of hers.

Yelena looked like some kind of sexual deity, some dark goddess of lust as she cried out in rapturous bliss, leaning back on her hands, her legs spread wide, body naked and wet and glorious, her head thrown back.

When she finished thoroughly enjoying her orgasm, Tanis made space and Yelena slipped slowly back into the water.

“Oh my,” she said, breathing heavily.

“Oh my, indeed,” Tanis replied smugly. “Told you.”

“You certainly proved yourself,” Yelena said. She turned her attention to John and smiled seductively at him. “I believe it is time to pleasure my love.”

“Yes, it is,” Tanis agreed, joining her in staring at him.

John looked back at them, feeling a little daunted. There was something certainly intimidating about being stared at by two naked, ridiculously attractive, utterly confident women. But that only made the lust and desire he was feeling that much more intoxicating.

“Up,” Yelena said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, and her smile became a smirk.

He got up, assuming the same position the two women had, and sat on the side of the tub. Both of them drifted closer, both of them absurdly erotic and beautiful. They came to rest before him, between his legs, and Tanis reached out. Her hand emerged from the water, small and pale, and grasped his steel hard cock. She leaned in and kissed the head of it, and that sent a shiver of anticipatory pleasure shooting into him.

Both of them stuck out their tongues. Yelena’s wickedly long, forked tongue looked strange and seductive. They leaned in and began to lick the head of his cock. Pleasure immediately began sparking along the length of his dick like lightning on the horizon before a particularly powerful storm. Their tongues lavished hot, wet pleasure on him as they began licking faster. Yelena took his balls into one hand and began to massage them gently, sending even more waves of warm bliss into him. It was an incredible experience.

Tanis then took his cock into her wonderful mouth and began to suck him off, bobbing her head smoothly and rapidly, like a skilled professional. She maintained eye contact with him as she did so, staring directly into his eyes with her beautiful green ones. It seemed almost impossible that they had met only today.

That added so much thrilling excitement to the encounter.

Tanis relinquished his cock to Yelena, who immediately took it into her own mouth and began to pleasure him with a practiced ease. They had only been together for little over a week and already it was like they’d been pleasuring each other for years. Her eyes were almost blazing with red as she sucked his cock.

She pleasured him for another half minute before passing him back to Tanis, as she could tell he was close to popping, and Tanis wanted his seed. And it didn’t take her long to get it. She began bobbing her head rapidly, working his shaft with one hand, moving in tandem with her lips, while massaging his balls with her other.

Soon, he let out a loud grunt and groan of pleasure as he began to orgasm into her mouth.

She moaned, working his cock, trying to pump him dry it seemed, and he moaned with her. Bliss exploded within him. His seed began to leave his cock in powerful spurts, each one creating a fresh burst of rapturous sexual gratification.

“Oh, fuck, Tanis!” he cried as he came in her mouth and she just kept sucking.

She sucked him completely dry.

When he was finished, she slowly pulled his dick from her mouth and swallowed. “There, now I’ve got both of you off,” she said, and then shifted over to the edge of the tub. Reaching across the floor, she pulled another bottle from her pack, what John realized was mead from the smell of it when she pulled the cork and took a deep drink from it. “My own stuff,” she said after setting it back down, then slipping into the water again. “Now, I’m still horny as fuck and I want to see what that big dick of yours feels like. You up for a go?” she asked.

“Yep,” he replied immediately.

He was still horny too.

“I want to go first,” Yelena said.

“Fair enough, he’s your man,” Tanis replied.

“Come here, babe,” John said, grabbing Yelena and pulling her into his lap.

They began kissing immediately, locking lips and twining tongues. He felt her grinding her powerful hips and thighs against him. He could read the desperate need and primal lust in her body language, her intense, fiery gaze.

With a skill that still surprised him, Yelena raised herself up, adjusted her hips so that the head of his already erect again cock rested at the entrance of her perfect demon pussy, then lowered herself, taking him into her.

They both moaned together in sexual unification.

He reached back and grabbed her ass, gripping her tightly, pulling her against him as they made love. Being inside of her was wonderful in a way that never stopped amazing him. Almost instinctively, he gently grabbed her tail, making her moan. He touched it carefully, running it through his fingers. She rested her head on his shoulder and panted in his ear.

“I love it when you touch my tail,” she whispered.

“So do I,” he replied.

Her pussy clenched firmly around his cock as she rode him, sliding smoothly up and down, her powerful muscles working. She was insanely hot and wet inside. The pleasure was a thing of power, burning into him, filling him.

She felt like no other woman he had ever been with, human or otherwise.

Yelena rode him until she brought him almost to orgasm, then stopped and took him out of her. He groaned. “Come on, babe...”

“You’ll come,” she said, “don’t worry. But Tanis, I believe, should have the pleasure. I get you to come inside of me all the time, my love.”

He looked at Tanis. “Get over here.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, quickly taking Yelena’s place.

He felt a shiver of excitement surge through him. He was about to have unprotected sex with a brand new woman, an insanely hot redheaded elf. She seemed equally excited, staring at him with wide green eyes. She let out a harsh exhalation as he gripped her hips, then she quickly reached down between them and grabbed his cock. As soon as she had it in place, she began working it inside of herself.

They both moaned loudly.

“Oh, holy fuck, John, you are big,” she groaned.

“Fuck, that is a tight pussy,” he gasped as she worked him into her, lowering and raising herself, going and going until he was buried completely within her.

And she was tight.

By the Gods, was she ever tight.

And when she began to really ride his cock, to bounce on it like a complete whore, it felt so good that he actually felt guilty another woman was giving him this much pleasure.

“Come in me...” she moaned, and then she leaned back, showing him her huge, natural tits, big and beautiful and wet and pale, bouncing and wondrous. “Fill me with your seed. I want it so fucking bad, John...”

“Fuck...Tanis...” he moaned, reaching out and gripping her breasts feverishly. “Tanis...I can’t...oh fuck!” he moaned loudly as his orgasm burst into being.

It felt like magic.

Like pleasure magic.

He panted and moaned and grunted in absolute sexual release as he spilled his seed once more. He pumped Tanis’s perfect, tight elf pussy full of it. And, oh fuck, she was coming too. He could feel her vaginal muscles clenching hard around his cock, making the pleasure even more powerful and potent, as her tight pussy became even tighter with her release. He could feel her getting even hotter and wetter. She screamed in raw bliss as she rode him furiously, sliding rapidly up and down his orgasming cock.

“Oh fuck, there’s so much!” she cried. “You’re coming so fucking much!”

He moaned inarticulately, almost incoherent with rapturous ecstasy as pleasure pulsed through him in waves.

When he was finished, and he came back to himself, he felt like he was adrift in a sea of warm, pink paradise.

Tanis was breathing heavily, they both were, nearly gasping for breath. She laid against him, head on his shoulder, and he could hear her panting in his ear.

He hugged her to him, simply holding her petite body to his.

“Wow,” he whispered finally.

“Yes. Wow,” she murmured. “Yelena, I am so godsdamned jealous of you.”

“Oh are you?” Yelena replied, sounding pleased.

“Yes. You get to fuck this dick every night. I haven’t found a dick this good in at least a year, maybe longer.”

“So, it’s just my dick?” he teased.

Tanis sat up and pursed her lips, seeming to consider him. “I suppose you’re pretty hot,” she replied. “And, I guess you’re a pretty great person. That really helps.”

“Gee, thanks.”

She laughed and kissed him sloppily, then took a deep breath and let it out. She was very red in the face. He was sure he was, too. “I’m sorry, but I gotta get up out of this water or I’m going to straight up pass out...” she grinned suddenly, “although if I do, you have permission to fuck my brains out.”

“You want me to fuck you in your sleep?” he asked, then grunted as she took his softening cock from her insanely tight elf pussy.

“Yep,” she replied. “It’s hot. I imagine it’d be hot to watch, right Yelena?”

“It would,” Yelena admitted.

“Fuck me in my sleep if you want, I don’t care. I like you a lot,” she said happily. “Both of you. So, you get that permission.” She climbed out of the tub, dripping water everywhere, and grabbed a towel from her pack. “I am so tired,” she said.

“Same,” John agreed as he got out with her.

Yelena joined them and they each dried off.

“I could do with some sleep,” she said.

A thought occurred to him suddenly. “Tanis?”

“Yeah?”

“Did that deed mention this place?”

“No, I read over the whole thing, it didn’t. Why?”

“I think we’d like it for ourselves,” he replied.

She looked around the cabin, slowly nodding. “Yeah, this could be fixed up. It’d be a great place for a retreat in the Wild, I think. I won’t mention it when I turn the job in.”

“Thank you,” he said.

John looked at the bed in the room. It wasn’t very large, but it was in decent condition. He supposed with a bit of cleaning, it would do well. Although...frowning, he looked around the room. Several windows were broken out and it was beginning to rain. The roof would surely leak. Well...hopefully it wouldn’t get on the bed.

The three of them took a moment to change out the bedding with their own supplies and make sure that the bed itself would hold their weight, then did what they could to secure the cabin, including setting a few ‘alarms’, as Tanis called them. Even drunk and sleepy she was good with magic. Soon, all three of them were together beneath the blankets. Yelena laid against his back, Tanis at his front. He wrapped an arm around the slim elf.

“I’m happy,” she said quietly.

“So am I,” Yelena murmured.

John nodded in agreement. Before he knew it, he was asleep.

CHAPTER IV

He awoke to the sound of rainfall.

It was still early. John opened his eyes and saw the first pale gray light of a rainy dawn seeping in through the windows and openings of the abandoned cabin he and his lovers had lain claim to. He didn’t feel wet, which meant, probably, that the roof wasn’t leaking directly onto the bed. He was, however, feeling extremely horny. He had an awful erection, and there were two warm women in bed with him right now.

John remembered what Tanis had told him last night.

He rolled over carefully and looked at her. She was lying on her side, facing him, the blankets pulled back slightly. She was asleep, looking absolutely beautiful in the early morning light, red hair in a messy disarray. His gaze slipped down lower, to her impressive chest, and he felt his erection throb with anticipation.

He had to have her.

Laying a hand on her shoulder, John gently pushed her onto her back, then moved beneath the blankets, getting atop her. He carefully got her legs spread open and laid his cock at the entrance of her pussy. He could feel heat coming off of her, but wanted her asleep until he was inside her.

“What’s-oh my...” she moaned, coming awake as he penetrated her. “Good morning to you, too, John,” she said, eyes opening.

“Morning,” he replied, working his way into her.

She felt amazing inside.

Clearly, she was as horny as he was. Most people were in the mornings. That’s what made morning sex so godsdamned great. They both moaned loudly as he began really giving it to her, not wasting any time, he pounded her into the bedding.

“Gods, you are so fucking big!” she cried and then she brought her legs up and wrapped them around him.

He loved it when women did that.

He grunted as he furiously fucked her, making her scream, knowing it wasn’t going to last long. Morning fucks never did. Had to make sure she came first though, not that that would be difficult. If last night was any indication, she really liked him, and came easily. She felt tight to him, which meant he was large for her, and she clearly enjoyed his bigger endowment. Tanis was obviously a sensitive woman and she was also into him, which helped. Tanis stared up at him with wide, wild eyes as they fucked.

“Keep going,” she begged. “Fuck me like a slut,” she moaned.

He kept going, pounding her hard and fast, making her cry out in impassioned bliss. He had to make her come soon, he was going to pop. And then she did. She bucked against him, letting out a shriek of pleasure, and he felt her pussy begin to convulse around his cock as she started to come. He didn’t hold back any longer and soon was climaxing along with her. He lost himself to the orgasm, awash in a sea of blinding bliss.

When they were finished, he pulled out of her and rolled over onto his side.

“A good way to wake up,” Tanis murmured.

“I’m not ready to wake up,” John replied, yawning.

“More sleep would be nice,” she agreed.

“I don’t think so,” Yelena said. He looked over at her. She was staring intently at him, her grin almost feral. “On your back, now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, shifting a bit and laying on his back.

Yelena mounted him with a growl.

…

Several hours later, the three of them awoke.

Tanis created another bath and they washed and woke up. When they were dried and dressed, they went about preparing breakfast. Tanis actually had something John had never seen before: essentially a meal station operating on the same principles as a camp-in-a-bag. She set it up outside, in the small, overgrown courtyard of space in front of the cabins. It came complete with a fire-pit and a polished counter set onto the top of an upright chest. It even had a shelf built over the top of it with several knives hanging from it. The shelf had a number of glass jars with spices and liquids on it. The chest itself had a few shelves within it, as well as a sustained cold spell. Inside, she had several bottles of liquid, vegetables, fruit, and meats stored.

“Wow,” Yelena said. “This is impressive.”

“Thank you! I custom-made this. I got tired of not having access to it all, then I got a camp-in-a-bag, but then I got tired of having to pull out my whole camp whenever I wanted to make a nice meal,” she said.

“That is even more impressive. You must be a very skilled magic user,” Yelena murmured.

“I am...although you sound surprised when you say that,” Tanis replied as she crouched down and began sorting through the chest.

Yelena looked at her, suddenly cautious. “Oh...I apologize. I did not mean to offend. It’s just that...magic is much more common in my realm, and I’ve had decades to practice, and my own brief experiences with denizens of this realm led me to believe that the average person does not possess such aptitude, although I understand elves are more adept at it.”

“I’m not offended, Yelena,” Tanis replied easily. “And you’re right. Most people have some magic ability, but on the whole, elves average higher. And in this land in particular, magic users are a bit rarer.”

“I try not to make too many assumptions. I am stranger here,” Yelena said.

“I understand,” Tanis replied. “What do we want for breakfast?”

“I’m discovering that I am very partial to rabbit, and eggs,” Yelena answered.

“I could make rabbit and vegetable stew, and fry up some eggs,” Tanis suggested.

“I’ll help,” John said.

“Perfect.”

They set to work making breakfast. It was a pleasant experience. The rain had since stopped, the skies overhead brighter and a bit more cheery now. All around them, the Emerald Wild made noise, but they remained undisturbed. They chopped up some rabbit, potatoes, and carrots, and put it into a stew-pot that hung over the fire. While they waited for it to boil, the three of them went about setting up a place to eat, bringing out a table and three of the sturdiest looking chairs from the pair of cabins. Once that was done and the stew was ready, John cooked up the eggs. Breakfast was served, and they sat around the table together and ate.

“You two have the coolest relationship,” Tanis said.

“Oh yeah?” John replied.

“You both travel around together, fuck like crazy, fight monsters, and you’re in an open relationship. And you two are just...I mean, you’re so in tune with each other. I don’t believe in soul mates, personally, but...well, let’s just say that it’s hard to believe that the two of you have been together for little longer than a week. I mean, I do believe you, it’s just that you seem like you’re a couple that has been together for years,” Tanis explained.

“Thank you,” Yelena murmured.

“Is there a reason you travel alone? Or do you have someone waiting for you somewhere?” John asked.

“Not as such, no,” Tanis replied. “I’ve had many lovers, most of them one-night stands, and a few good friends that I visit a few times a year to catch up with and fuck. I used to have a serious boyfriend, but eventually he decided he wanted to settle down after a decade and a half of adventuring, and I wasn’t even close to ready. So, we split up.”

“Oh, that must have been hard,” Yelena replied.

“Yeah, it was. It doesn’t really hurt anymore, at least. It’s been ten years. He’s back in the home village, married, thinking about having kids someday.”

“Twenty-five years adventuring...” John murmured.

Tanis laughed. “I’m sixty-five, if you’re curious. Started adventuring thirty years ago. Still not even close to sick of it,” she said. She paused. “I’m curious...”

“Yeah?” John prompted.

“Both of you...well, in my experience, humans aren’t the best at dealing with open relationships, and with my admittedly limited knowledge of demons, I’ve come to understand that they are, um...territorial, so to speak.”

Yelena laughed. “Yes, we can certainly be territorial, violently so. Relationships are...different, in my realm, in that they don’t quite exist. We do not have marriages, sometimes we have longer-term trysts. Typically, we have...alliances, more than relationships. If sex is involved, it’s either for pure gratification or a power play. But we are fiercely territorial about it, though not because we love each other. Honestly...it was a concept I was unfamiliar with for most of my life.”

“That’s so sad,” Tanis said quietly.

“I would agree, now. In a way, I am extremely grateful. I only began to get an inkling of the notion that there could have been more to relationships perhaps a few years ago. It grew slowly over time, accruing, but it was when I had a chance to come to this realm for an extended time without...distraction, I was able to observe a couple, traveling through the woods. They were...strange, to me. I didn’t really understand, but when I did begin to comprehend what I was seeing, when I realized it was true affection, I...” she looked uncomfortable suddenly. “It hurt. It hurt a lot,” she said quietly.

“I’m sorry, Yelena,” John said quietly, reaching out.

She immediately took his hand and squeezed it, and he squeezed back.

“I am too, that’s so very sad,” Tanis said.

“Yes. I thought it was interesting, and I have often wondered: do most of my kind have the capacity to enjoy sustained relationships, to be affectionate, to...love? Or am I a mutation? Am I rare, unique in my ability? I cannot truly say. But, all that aside, at present, I am simply happy that I have John in my life now.”

“And I’m quite happy to have you, too,” he replied.

“You two are just so damned adorable as a couple,” Tanis said. She sighed suddenly. “Makes me regret having to leave, but I do. I have work to finish and I’m deep in wanderlust mode right now. I just wanna...you know, go. Wherever that is. But listen, if you’ll have me, I’ll swing back around and see you two again sometime.”

“We’d love that,” John said, after glancing at Yelena, who broke into a smile.

“We would,” she agreed. “You are...very skilled, Tanis.”

“So are you. Now, give me goodbye kisses, and I’ll be on my way.”

They did, each of them giving her a lingering kiss. They helped her clean up, then she packed up, wished them farewell, gave them their pay cut, and walked out of their lives.

John hoped he would see the elf known as Tanis again at some point.

“What should we do today?” Yelena asked afterward.

“I had two thoughts on that, I wanted to run them by you,” John replied.

She smiled at him and took his hand in hers. “I am listening.”

He couldn’t help but smile back. “My first thought was that it would be nice to have a sort of base of operations in the Wild. And these two cabins, well...perfect isn’t the right word, but I think they’d be a pretty good place to call home, at least for now. We could do some work on them, fix them up in between finding coin. I almost didn’t mention it, but...well, I mean, what timeline are we acting on but our own? We have no reason not to move at our own pace, and to enjoy ourselves. And I...would enjoy making a home with you, Yelena, even a temporary one.”

She opened her mouth to speak, then didn’t, as though considering her words. “Sometimes, you steal my thoughts with your words, John. You are...so very sweet. I would love to make a home with you. I love the idea.”

“Good!”

“What is the other idea?”

“Ah. Yes. Well, we’ve accumulated some supplies and valuables. I want to sell them. There’s a town about two hours’ walk from here. I figured I’d sell some stuff off. Unfortunately, I’ll have to go alone...”

Yelena sighed. “Yes, I suppose you would. Well, what if I stayed here and began the process of organizing this mess, and you dealt with the selling?” she suggested.

“That sounds perfect to me,” he replied.

“Good. You should hurry.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, indeed. The sooner you leave, the sooner you will return to me, and the sooner we can both indulge in a break for sex.”

He smirked. “That’s a very good point,” he replied.

John gave her a kiss and quickly set to work.

…

The nearest settlement was a small village with a population of maybe a hundred and fifty called East View.

John had been through once or twice, and from what he remembered, it wasn’t a great place. It was a lot like his own home village: mostly human, kind of racist. Small town, small minds. As he approached the settlement’s edge, staring at the wall of stone and mortar that surrounded the cluster of buildings, he hoped to be done with this quickly. It was past midday now, and although the low gray cloud cover had held, the rain had stayed away. Probably for the best. John loved rain, but he didn’t quite like walking through the Emerald Wild in it.

There were a pair of guards by the front gate, men in dull gray armor.

“Help you?” one of them asked as John approached.

“Looking to trade,” he replied, shrugging a bit to indicate his packed backpack.

“Huh. Adventurer type, huh?” the other asked.

“Yep.”

“Right. Go on in. Marketplace is just beyond the gate.”

“Thanks.”

John stepped in through the gate and looked slowly around the place, getting a feel for it. There were half a dozen shops and a dozen stalls spread out around a courtyard. There were a handful of people still around, lingering after the midday lunch rush. He picked out what kinds of places were available, marking them in his mind: blacksmith, potions shop, restaurant, clothing shop. He immediately set out for the blacksmith, as most of what he had to sell was weaponry in nature. He stepped in through the open front door and immediately became immersed in that familiar smell of burning metal and sweat.

He’d spent his fair share of time in blacksmiths.

There was a familiar hammering sound coming from somewhere in the back of the building and no one was at the front desk. John moved up to it, grabbed a stone that had been placed on it and banged the stone loudly three times.

The hammering ceased, then a middle-aged man with a sweaty, soot-stained face emerged.

“Help you?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m looking to offload some weapons and armor,” John replied.

And he set to work.

The next hour or so passed too slowly for his liking. As he haggled with the blacksmith, showing him the handful of swords and daggers and bits of armor he’d procured from the highwaymen, the thieves in the cave, and the abandoned fort, he found his mind wandering. His mood had soured on the long walk from the Wild. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Yelena had said, how much she had hurt when she’d realized what was missing from her life, what could have been.

In a way, he was also scared.

John knew that he was rare. He didn’t think that he was the only being to walk this plane of existence who would love Yelena, and who she could love in return, but he did think that if something happened to him, and she was alone again, she could go for years searching for someone to take his place. Their meeting had been shockingly fortuitous, and he found himself agreeing with her assessment that perhaps Bliss, the Goddess of Love and Sex, was looking out for them. He cherished his relationship with Yelena more so than any other relationship he had ever had, and likely ever would. There was no question there.

But he had an idea that Yelena cherished it even more.

If something awful happened to her, John would be devastated. He would carry that scar for the rest of his life.

But he would still be in a familiar land. He knew how to live his life alone if he had to. But if something awful happened to him? Would Yelena go back? Could she? He had faith that she could find some way to survive in this land of his, but...it would be insanely difficult. As he finished up his haggling with the blacksmith and moved over to a stall that would probably buy his gems, he tried to shake off the dark thoughts.

It was miserable thinking about that.

But their lives were dangerous. What was he to do? Neither would compromise and hide from danger for fear of death.

He supposed all he could do was try very hard to keep them both alive and do his absolute best to make Yelena as happy as possible.

It felt like a cause worth dedicating himself to.

That still struck him as so strange, but not in a bad way. The notion that he was in love with a demoness, that he was dedicating his life to her, willing to abandon his previous life and travel the land with her, was a little crazy.

But Yelena made it easy to love her.

He knew there would be difficulty in the future, no relationship was perfect, but he didn’t care. He loved her, loved being with her, traveling with her, doing everything with her. He remembered Tanis’s words as he sold off the gems and other handful of magical trinkets they’d discovered, her assertion that they seemed as though they had been together for years now. It was true. He still had difficulty believing they were only a little over a week into the relationship. But, apparently, that’s how it went sometimes.

“Excuse me, sir.”

John turned around as he finished counting up the coin he’d received for the gems and magical items. It was good. He tied the bag off to his belt. “Yes?” he asked, and suddenly felt nervous, staring at this person looking to garner his attention.

She was a felis, and she looked dangerous.

She had a hood up, bathing her face in shadows, and she wore well-traveled, light leather armor. She had a bow and quiver peeking up over one shoulder.

“My name is Bianca. I’m a bounty hunter,” she said. “You look well-traveled, like you might have been spending some time in the Emerald Wild recently. Is this the case?”

“Yes...why do you ask?” he replied, trying not to appear too nervous. Something about her just set him on edge.

“I’m hunting a demon,” she said, and he felt his whole body go cold.

He had an awful sense of deja vu.

John was very careful to keep himself neutral. “A demon? In the Wild?”

“Yes. I’ve been tracking it for several days now. Have you seen anything? Heard anything?” Bianca asked.

He made a show of considering it, and briefly considered trying to point her in the wrong direction, but this grim woman in a hood seemed very sharp. “No,” he said finally, “I can’t say that I have. Sorry.”

“That’s fine. Thank you for your time,” she said, and turned away.

Did she know he was lying? He didn’t think so. He’d gotten very good at lying. Besides being a bit of a natural at it, he often had to lie to people in his village involving anything even slightly controversial. But this Bianca...he’d met people like her before: cold, clinical, calculating. There was something in her face, in her voice, in the way she walked with a chilled purpose through the market. She was a skilled and lethal bounty hunter.

Would she find them in the Wild?

Even as he thought that, he felt a bit of relief. No, he didn’t think so. It was notoriously difficult to hunt a moving target through the Wild, unless you had the help of the locals. The locals being dryad and serpentine and harpies. And although he did not know any personally, both he and Yelena carried the blessing of a dryad, and they were both being respectful to the forest. He didn’t imagine many dryads or serpentine would give up their location, and it was hard to intimidate a dryad or a serpentine. Like, seriously hard.

He’d never seen it successfully done, nor had he ever been stupid enough to try.

Nonetheless, John found himself wanting to go home, and right now. He finished selling off his items, and although he’d intended to make this an extended shopping trip on top of a selling one, he ended up just purchasing a scattering of fruits, vegetables, juices, and meats. As much as he could shove into his pack.

Everything else could either wait, or they could get it for themselves if they really needed to.

As soon as he was finished, John made sure that he was not being followed by anyone, namely Bianca, and left the small settlement.

Then he began the long walk home.

…

He managed to hunt and kill a few rabbits on the way back, since he, and especially Yelena, had an affinity for them.

By the time he got back to the cabins, he found that Yelena had gotten quite a bit of work done. He found a pile of refuse in the front lawn, mainly broken furniture, and found the woman herself half under the bed.

“Hello, love,” she said, her voice muffled.

“Hello, Yelena. Find anything interesting under there?” he asked.

“Not really. Some old clothing. Some trash.”

“I see...we might have a problem,” John said.

Yelena was silent, then nimbly extracted herself from beneath the bed and rose to her feet. “What problem?” she asked, suddenly serious.

“There’s a bounty hunter looking for you.”

She sighed heavily. “Again?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so, although I don’t think she’ll be a problem.”

“Why not? How did you discover this?”

“She approached me in town, pegged me for someone who traveled the Wild, asked if I’d seen anything. It could be a coincidence, but I’m not entirely sure. I just thought you should be aware of the situation,” he replied.

“Should we deal with her?” Yelena asked.

John shook his head. “I don’t think we should seek her out. We don’t know if she’s necessarily an evil person. I mean, I don’t think she deserves to die. Probably.”

“But if she comes after us...”

“I don’t think she will,” he replied, and quickly explained his thoughts on the subject, on how hard it would be to track them. By the end of it, Yelena was pursuing her lips, clearly not entirely satisfied with his answer.

“I suppose you have a point,” she said, then she offered a small smile. “And I suppose we have enough trouble in our lives without going to search for more.”

“Good. How are the cabins? What’d you find?” he asked.

Now she frowned again. “They are in poor condition. Clearly, there are many holes in the roof, as evidenced by the leaks from last night. There are many broken windows, and the back door to the other cabin is nearly broken off. The exterior is weathered, though decently intact. We will have to make repairs, and find some way to get more furniture, if I am to understand your desires appropriately,” she explained.

He grinned suddenly and set down his backpack. “Right now, Yelena, the only thing I desire is you,” he said.

A new but familiar smile came onto her face. “Indeed?”

“Indeed,” he confirmed, and came for her.

…

The rest of the day passed in a state of sheer pleasure, both physically and emotionally.

They made frantic love in the bed, then took the time to skin and clean the rabbits he’d killed, then cook them up. From there, they worked together to finish cleaning out the cabins. John found a broom stashed in one of the closets and swept up after helping Yelena get the rest of the old, broken furniture out into the yard. At the very least it would serve nicely as firewood. For the time being, John stopped worrying.

He didn’t think about the bounty hunter, or the unhappy possibilities the future might hold. He simply thought about Yelena, and what was happening in the moment. And he was enjoying himself. For now, that’s all that mattered.

There was a simple serenity to making a place yours.

It was made that much more intoxicating when you did it with the one you loved.

They kept getting distracted, and not even in a sexual way. He was so happy just to touch her, to rest his hands on her shoulders for a moment, to brush his fingers across her, to give her quick kisses, to wrap his arms around her and hold her. Their pace was pleasantly slow and leisurely, and the sun made its way slowly towards the horizon.

By the time the night was coming on again, they had cleaned out the cabins and begun making a list of all the damage and what it would take to fix it. When the sun disappeared, John activated their camp-in-a-bag and got out a meal. He cooked them up some beef-and-vegetable stew, finding his darker thoughts returning, though he wasn’t sure how to broach them again. And he didn’t, not at first, because Yelena still looked so happy. She smiled so easily when she caught him looking at her. And he couldn’t help but smile back.

So, they sat down at the table he and her and Tanis had set up and ate and talked and laughed. And when the food had settled, they went inside and locked up and made slow, passionate love together in their new bed.

And afterward, when they were laying together, floating in the tranquil seas of post-orgasm bliss, near sleep, John spoke up.

“Yelena...” he said quietly.

“Yes?” she replied.

“How do you feel about everything?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I guess I was just thinking about what you said earlier, to Tanis. About affection, and love, and about how you never had it. And about how much that hurt.”

She was silent for several seconds. “I’m very, very happy with this relationship. Sometimes, though...” she hesitated. He waited. “Sometimes I worry that I’m missing something. That my happiness is blinding me. I...” she hesitated further.

“It’s okay, you can tell me,” he said.

“I just wonder sometimes if this was the right decision. But I don’t want you to think that I am regretting this at all, or even that I think I will regret it. It’s just that...I left everything behind to come to a world where I am a pariah, an outlaw. I hated my own realm, and I do like it here, and I obviously love you, I just...” she trailed off.

“It’s okay, Yelena,” he said, and hugged her to him. “I understand. I imagine it must be scary, coming into this life, this realm, with just one person to rely on.”

“It is, and it’s very difficult to talk about. Although I trust that you would not ever take advantage of me...revealing weakness, admitting to fear, or anxiety, anything of the like, is often dangerous in my realm. Compassion is a bit of a foreign concept in my lands.”

“I kind of figured,” he replied. “And I’m very sorry about that. I just...want to make you happy.”

She squeezed him back. “I know, and I appreciate that. And I want something similar for you. I just think that it will take time for me to get used to the idea. And I feel like I’ve made great strides already, although I think that some of that has to do with the fact that I went for so long without having someone in my life that I felt like I could trust, someone I could talk to about these things, that it’s all coming out.” She paused. “Let’s change the subject.”

“Okay, um...so, you seemed to like Tanis.”

“Oh my, yes, I loved her. I’ve always had a certain lust for female elves, especially the ones with red hair. And her breasts were just...I’m not sure I’ve ever seen breasts that great. She was quite the wonderful experience,” she replied. “Although, I am curious...I’ve heard of open relationships before, and I know that we have one, but I have heard that there are some who have relationships as committed as ours with a third person involved. What do you think about that?”

“Well, to be honest, I don’t think that I could love anyone as much as I love you, Yelena,” John replied.

She sighed and smiled broadly. “John, you are...so gratuitously romantic.”

“Well, I’m not just saying that to be romantic.”

“I know, and that’s what makes it better.”

“But for a straight answer? I mean, yeah, I could see it. Although...”

“Yes?”

“Well, I’ll be totally honest, it’d have to be a woman. I mean, for a three-way relationship to work, we would both have to be able to invest thoroughly in the relationship, and I’m just not into men. So logically speaking...”

“Logically speaking, it would indeed have to be a woman. I am okay with this. I am bisexual and I don’t think I have a preference. But this does raise another question...”

“How do I feel about you fucking other men?” he asked. She nodded. “I’m okay with it. Again, don’t know if I’d ever join another guy in fucking you. I mean, I guess I could, if you really wanted it. I want this to be fair. I don’t want you to think that I just want to fuck other women and I’m trying to subtly keep you from having sex with other men.”

“No, it’s fair,” she replied. “If I were not into women, I would request a similar arrangement. I feel this is a moot point, though, given that I imagine it will be difficult to find men to have sex with me that I can trust. It is just...in my experience, there are more women who are into me and they are easier to trust. And, well, you are right. I imagine I will have a difficult, if not impossible, time finding someone I love as much as you. Not that I’m looking.”

John yawned suddenly. “Oh wow, I’m really tired,” he murmured.

“As am I. Sleep love. We have much to do tomorrow.”

“Okay. Goodnight, Yelena. I love you.”

“I love you, too, John. Goodnight.”

CHAPTER V

“How do you know about this fortress?” Yelena asked.

They were walking through the Emerald Wild again. The pair of them had awoken bright and early, eager to tackle the day and whatever it might bring. They’d gone through their morning rituals of fucking, bathing, and eating breakfast. Then John had suggested they hit up another abandoned fort that he’d marked on his map.

“I found it last year while I was traveling with an alchemist, looking for a rare plant that only grows in the Emerald Wild,” he replied.

“Did you make love with her?” Yelena asked, smirking.

“You didn’t even know if it was a guy or a girl!”

“Come on, John, would you really help a man hunt down an elusive plant in this place?” Yelena asked, her smirk broadening.

He sighed. “Yes, I slept with her. She was a very beautiful, very enthusiastic felis woman who was frighteningly intelligent. We had two great weeks together.”

“Do you know where she is now?” Yelena asked.

“Why, you interested?” he replied, grinning. “I don’t know. She might still be up in Stafford. That’s where she was living when we hooked up. But I’ve noticed that the women I sleep with tend to be very mobile, never staying in one place for very long. Well...for the most part.”

“For the most part?”

“There are some women I meet in small towns. Typically, either more mature, single women who really, really want to get laid, but can’t do it with any of the locals for fear of the rumors or other bullshit, or those rare non-human women living among humans in small towns, who also have a hard time getting laid. I’m coming through town, I probably won’t be around long, if they’re attracted to me, I’m easy.”

“Mature, huh? Well, I am over three times your age,” Yelena said.

“You enjoy teasing me,” he replied.

“Perhaps. It is something I’m getting used to enjoying. Teasing is another alien concept to me. Well, okay, that’s not true. I supposed...making snide remarks and sly comments is a concept in my realm, but it’s always perceived as negative. But I’m learning that it’s a lot of fun to tease you, I suppose. Is that wrong?” she asked.

“No, not at all! It is fun. And it can be a bad thing here in this realm, too, but between you and me? No, I like it. And I like teasing you as well sometimes...look, there it is.”

They fell silent as they approached the edge of the massive clearing that the abandoned military fort was built in. It was about as big and imposing as the last one they’d been in. In about as good condition as well: the stone walls crumbling to dust and ruin, the windows broken out. “Where did it come from?” Yelena murmured.

“I believe it was built about sixty years ago, back when some local lord decided to make a more concerted effort to ‘tame the Wild’, as it were. It’s been done before. Many times. It always fails. People believe there are many resources to be exploited here, and they’re not wrong. It’s just that they always go about it wrong,” he replied.

Yelena suddenly whirled around, drawing her bow and notching an arrow almost faster than he could follow, and John felt his own body react on instinct, even if he hadn’t heard a damned thing. He drew his blade as he whirled around, and felt a mindless terror rip through him. There were half a dozen serpentine women behind them now. They were unarmed, but that didn’t matter. He knew what they could do with their bare hands.

He really hadn’t heard a thing.

“Impressive,” one of them said. She was large, a snake woman covered in green snakeskin that glistened in the light. She had long brunette hair and bright yellow eyes with slit pupils. Her ears were pointed, like an elf’s. Indeed, she did resemble an elf, they all did. “It’s very rare that anyone can hear us when we do not wish to be heard. But you are from the demon realms, so it is not unexpected. Who are you, why are you here?” she asked.

She had a beautiful voice, and, like pretty much all of the women of the wild, she went nude. His eyes were drawn to her large breasts.

“I am John Greenfield. This is Yelena,” John replied after finding his voice. He carefully reached out and put a hand on Yelena’s bow, gently lowering it. She growled, but allowed him to do so. This was a fight they couldn’t win.

So, he was hoping to avoid it altogether.

“We came here to scour these ruins for resources,” John said.

The serpentine stared back at him, then the other five looked at the one who had spoken, perhaps their leader. “I believe you,” she said. “You are fortunate. We are here tracking a lead on a group of magic-users that have been performing experiments on local wildlife. They are disrespecting the forest. I would suggest you wait until we are finished with them.”

“Would you like some help?” John asked.

“We do not require help from your kind,” another said quickly.

But the leader held up her hand. She smiled. “We would appreciate the help,” she said after considering it. “My name is Brynne. It is nice to meet you, John and Yelena.”

“You, too,” John replied. “Yelena, you okay with this?”

“Yes,” she replied, though she still sounded tense. “If these men are evil, it would be good to remove them.”

“They are quite evil. To make matters worse, they are stupid,” Brynne replied.

“A bad combination. And they must be if they pissed you off,” John said.

“Indeed.” She turned to the others. “Split into two groups, circle around, find alternate paths in. Move inside and kill all those you find.”

“Understood,” the other who had spoken said, looking uncertainly at John and Yelena.

“I will stay with these two,” Brynne said. The other serpentine seemed like she wanted to argue, but simply nodded tightly and turned away.

John watched, almost mesmerized, as they slithered away, disappearing into the vegetation around them.

“We should move swiftly,” Brynne said.

“Agreed,” Yelena replied.

John just nodded and joined her as she moved forward. They approached a hole in the wall. So...this was certainly a different situation than what he had initially anticipated. But hey, helping out some serpentine was a decent thing to do. Plus, it was always smart to get in good with the locals. He followed her through the hole in the wall once she’d confirmed it was secure. He and Yelena came into a huge, overgrown courtyard.

John took it all in at a glance: he saw what had once been a training area, and an archery range, even a few supply huts.

A flicker of movement around the huts caught his eye. He realized it was another one of the serpentine, checking it out. Damn, but were they fast and sneaky. It was creepy. He studied the front of the fortress as they approached quickly. It had held up pretty well, definitely a classic military fort. There were a few signs of life, someone had definitely been here recently. He and Yelena moved swiftly after Brynne, deciding to head up the front steps. He trusted the serpentine’s instincts, and his own were telling him they weren’t being watched for now. The trio made it to the front entrance, which was ajar, and slipped carefully inside.

He couldn’t help but remember the necromancers he and Yelena had taken out back in his own home forest, and their awful experiments.

He wondered if they’d find something similar here.

They came to another food hall that had been emptied out. No tables. Where were they? That was rare to see. Someone must have brought them elsewhere. Somewhere distant, John heard a sharp, strangled grunt. He felt a chill: the serpentine. They were fast. He made himself focus, he would have to be sharp and on top of his game to keep up, and he intended to. He knew Yelena wouldn’t have a problem, given how effective she was.

The three of them moved through the vast, empty hall, towards a door at the back. They shifted through it and came to a tall hallway of old stone and wooden bracers. There were several doors along the walls. Brynne pointed silently to the left as she broke right. John and Yelena immediately moved that way, notching arrows. John made for the first doorway, peered inside, arrow raised. He saw no one. Yelena moved beyond him to get to the second door. They kept going like this, clearing out the rooms one by one.

Although there was definitely evidence of someone having been here, and recently, they did not find any actual people.

Though there was blood in some of the rooms.

They ended up at the back of the hallway, standing before a pair of large, closed doors.

“They are behind these doors,” Brynne said quietly. “Are you ready for the assault?”

“Yes,” Yelena replied.

“I am...but I smell something,” John murmured.

“Death, and something worse. Perversion of life,” Brynne replied grimly. “Ready your bows,” she said, and pushed the doors open.

John and Yelena were there, ready with their notched arrows, and found themselves staring down a descending stairwell, lit by flickering torchlight. They heard sounds. Something was grunting, something else was wheezing, and the smell was much worse. Blood, spilled guts, and yes, something else.

It was a smell he’d experienced earlier, indeed the same one he’d encountered when going after those rogue necromancers that made the abominations of wildlife. Clearly, someone had had a similar idea and decided it was worth pursuing.

Brynne took the lead.

They moved swiftly and silently down the stairs. As they drew closer to the cellar, John began to hear voices. He felt his stomach turn over, felt his breakfast threatening to come up. Besides the smell, it was just the idea that there were people who were willing to do this, to come out here in the middle of nowhere and torture creatures, or other people. And for what? Power. They didn’t care who they hurt or what they had to do to get it.

And it usually blew up in their face anyway.

The sounds and smells grew louder as they reached the bottom of the stairwell and came into a stone chamber. There were a pair of open doorways, one to either side. Someone came walking out of the one to the right.

“What the fuck!? We’ve got intru-”

He didn’t finish his sentence as Yelena loosed an arrow and put it right through his forehead, but it had been enough to raise the general alarm. Several shouts went up and running footsteps could be heard.

Not all of them were even, the lopsided shuffling sounded closer to zombies.

Great.

John and Yelena took the left-hand door, Brynne the right. It was time to get to work. Another man in a black robe came out, his hands raised and glowing red with magic. John didn’t give him a chance to get a single spell off.

He shot the man through the mouth and immediately notched another arrow. Yelena let fly her own as a second man, who John recognized now as a necromancer, rushed out wielding a staff with a crystal set into the end that glowed a dangerous crimson light. The arrow took him in the eye and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. His staff hit the floor, magic discharging randomly. They downed two more necromancers before the first of the creations came out into the main room, and John felt his stomach rebel again.

It was a man with grasping hands, a lurching gait, and a deer head with huge antlers attached to his body.

“Fuck!” John snapped.

He’d seen some shit in his time, but damn was this fucked up.

He and Yelena fired at the same time. One arrow went through its right eye, another through its neck. The thing gurgled and collapsed to the floor. More things came through the door. A felis man with large claws for hands. An elf woman with a pincer replacing her right hand and a lot of teeth stuffed into her mouth.

John and Yelena killed them all.

John swapped out his bow at one point, switching to his sword, and got in close, chopping away at the horrors. Mainly, he just wanted to end their misery, in case there was any chance that these were actually still living people and not resurrected corpses with spare parts sewn on. And behind him, he could hear Brynne going to work on her own group. By the time the last corpse fell, and he turned around to see how she was doing, he found himself staring at a picture of strangely erotic horror. She was splashed with blood, her hair a mess, her big breasts liberally coated in it. She looked deadly and lethal and he didn’t like how much it was turning him on.

“Is that all?” she asked when she saw him looking at her.

“I think so,” he replied.

“Make sure, I’ll do the same.”

He nodded and joined Yelena in moving into the next room. The smell was the worst here. This is where the tables had gone. What had once been a wine cellar had been turned into a slaughterhouse, a butcher’s shop of the worst kind. There were a dozen big tables set up, all of them covered in blood, some still with bodies on them. Bodies of humans, of elves, of forest creatures. He saw a Minotaur head on one such table.

“Gods,” he whispered.

“This is...wrong,” Yelena murmured quietly. “This is disgusting.”

“Yes, it is,” John replied.

“I am glad we can stop this atrocity. Will we be destroying the bodies, like last time?” Yelena asked.

“I imagine so,” John answered.

After making sure it was clear, they regrouped with Brynne in the main room. “I overheard what you were saying. You’ve dealt with this before?” she asked.

“Yes, we saw something similar in another forest after we were asked by a dryad friend to help deal with the issue,” John replied.

“You are friends with a dryad?” she asked.

“A few of them,” John replied.

“Good friends,” Yelena said.

John tried not to sigh. He was feeling awkward enough as it was, what with Brynne’s big, naked breasts constantly distracting him. “That would explain the feeling I sensed from you. Do you have an artifact of the dryads?” she asked. Yelena nodded and showed her the green gem Lily had given them. “Ah, yes. You are marked as allies of nature, of the forest. To set your minds at ease, I do intend to destroy these bodies,” Brynne said. “If you would be willing to help, I would be willing to stay behind and help you search this area.”

John considered it. Why did she want to bother to help them look for stuff? It wouldn’t help her at all. It wasn’t that he was adverse to the idea of her hanging around, he just immediately felt like she had an ulterior motive.

Well, why not?

“That’d be great,” he said.

“Good. Come, we shall reunite with my sisters.”

They headed back upstairs.

…

It took the better part of two hours to gather up all the bodies, the necromancers and their experiments. At John’s request, they buried the bodies of the victims on the land itself, mainly because he might someday, somehow, be able to point friends or family towards them. The other serpentine seemed wary or almost outright hostile towards John and Yelena, but Brynne became increasingly friendly and chatty.

When it was all over, and a controlled funeral pyre was burning in one corner of the courtyard, they all gathered.

“I’m staying here, with them, for now,” Brynne said.

“I do not believe that is a good idea,” one of the other serpentine said.

“Duly noted, you may leave now. You have duties to attend to, if I remember correctly,” Brynne replied curtly.

They all frowned at her, exchanging glances, and finally nodded, assenting to her command and slithering silently out of the courtyard. John, Yelena, and Brynne watched them go. After they were gone, Brynne turned to face them.

“I apologize for my sisters,” she said. “They are...” she sighed. “Humans are not always welcomed among my kind. Although I, personally, like humans a great deal. Although I must admit, I do not have any real experience with demons.”

“Most do not,” Yelena replied.

“Well, I’m very open to getting to know you. I’m admittedly very curious about the two of you and your relationship. You both seem close. I hope it’s okay if I ask questions,” she said.

“It’s fine,” John replied. “Everyone we come across who doesn’t want to kill us is very curious about us. And you seem very nice. Now, as for how we ended up together...”

The day continued.

John had to admit, he was happy to tell the story of how he and Yelena met and fell in love. And Yelena seemed to like hearing it, and throwing in her own bits sometimes with an easy smile. They went to the top of the fort, finding evidence of the other serpentine’s assault in the upper stories. It was pretty gruesome.

“So, what about you?” John asked after he’d told Brynne his story and they had finished searching the top level for valuables and moved down to the second story.

“What about me what?” she replied.

“Why are you fond of humans and demons?”

She chuckled nervously. “I mean, how many reasons are there?” she answered.

“Aw, come on, Brynne. Don’t get evasive on me now. That’s not a real answer,” he replied. She hesitated, staring at him. “It’s okay,” he said, “I don’t want to pressure you. I’m just joking. If you don’t want to tell me, it’s fine.”

“I just...I have my reasons. They’re just...personal. And they can be embarrassing, given who I’m telling them to,” she replied uncertainly.

“Well, we’re a human and demon couple, so obviously we’re pretty open. And it’s not like I’m going to judge you or anything,” John replied.

“I won’t, unless it is evil,” Yelena said.

Brynne laughed. “People have many different ideas about what is evil. I often find them arbitrary. But I do trust the two of you. You remind me of someone, both of you, actually. And being as magical as I am, it gets to be that you can get a sense of people. But I suppose I’ve beaten around the bush enough as it is, and I’m getting a little impatient.” She sighed. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in humans. In, um, being intimate with humans. And other species. But mainly humans. I don’t know why. But finally, a little over a year ago, I met a young human boy. He was introduced to me by a friend. We...mated. It was wonderful. Unfortunately, I had to leave with my clan to come here. Ever since that encounter, I’ve been a bit more confident. Or, I mean, I’ve tried to be. I’ve managed to have sexual encounters with a felis man, a human man, and two beryl males since then. So...I guess what I want to ask is...are either of you interested in me, sexually? I realize that’s a very forward question, but you two seem very, uh...open.”

John couldn’t help but smile, nor could he help but check her out again. She had cleaned the blood off of her after they’d burned the bodies, and her snakeskin was shiny and beautiful. Her hair was a bit wild and messy, and her face seemed more beautiful than ever. He glanced at Yelena, and he could already tell she was very aroused.

“We would be okay with this,” he replied.

A small shiver of anticipation seemed to roll through her. “Are you sure about that? I’ll understand if you aren’t interested.”

“Brynne, you’re incredibly beautiful,” John replied. “I’m extremely interested in having sex with you.”

“As am I,” Yelena said.

“Okay...although I’m afraid there won’t be much I can do for you,” Brynne admitted sheepishly. She stuck her tiny snake tongue out at them.

“Your fingers seem strong,” Yelena replied.

Brynne raised her hand and looked at her fingers. “Good point,” she said. “I do at least know how to do that. Okay then. Um...I saw a suitably sized bed upstairs. Shall we go there?”

“Yes,” John replied immediately.

Brynne turned and slithered out of the room. He and Yelena hurried after her. He felt his own burst of excitement shiver through him. So far, his experiences in the Emerald Wild had been very nice. First Tanis, now Brynne. Gods, he’d never had sex with a serpentine before...how often had he fantasized about it?

And now, here he was, getting ready to have a threesome with Yelena and the beautiful, friendly serpentine known as Brynne.

He was going to have sex with a snake woman.

They hurried back up the stone steps and came back to the bedroom that she had indicated. It felt a little strange to be having a threesome in a fort where they had just slaughtered necromancers performing experiments, but there was no death in this room, nor on this floor, and when John closed the door behind him, it seemed like just another abandoned room in any one of a few dozen abandoned forts and outposts he’d explored in his lifetime.

And he’d fucked a lot of women in places like that.

Right now was definitely a time when concerns were getting pushed out of his head by his lust and desire. Really, all that was left right now, for the most part, was his intense desire to make love with Brynne. After locking the door, he turned to face Brynne and saw that she had gotten up onto the bed. It was huge, a classic four-post bed, like the kind a lord or noble would sleep in. It was certainly big enough for them to have fun in.

Yelena was taking off her clothes.

Brynne looked...stunning. She was probably about nine feet long, from head to tail. It was weird, looking at her, but not in a bad way. All that beautiful, smooth snakeskin. Her shoulder-length, messy brunette hair. Her pointed, elfin ears. Her hauntingly beautiful, slit-pupil yellow eyes. And her breasts. Good Gods her breasts.

They might be the biggest, most beautiful he’d ever seen.

“Hurry up,” she said.

He laughed, surprised at how nervous he felt, and began undressing. “Sorry, I just...you’re really beautiful,” he replied.

“Thank you,” Brynne said, sounding about as nervous as he did. “It’s always surprising to hear a human say that. I mean, uh...no offense.”

“It’s fine,” he replied. “Most of my kind aren’t too open-minded.”

“That makes you very unique, in a very wonderful way,” Brynne murmured.

“Agreed,” Yelena said.

He glanced over. She was nude now. Brynne stared at her as well. “Oh my, you are so very...attractive, Yelena. Kind of...darkly beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Yelena replied, climbing onto the bed.

John finished taking off his own clothes as Yelena moved forward to embrace Brynne. Their lips met, and Yelena began groping one of her huge green breasts. As soon as he was naked, he crawled eagerly onto the bed and laid down against her other side. Yelena soon stopped kissing her, allowing John to, and instead shifted down lower.

“You’re in for a treat,” he said as Yelena placed her face over Brynne’s pussy.

“I appreciate it,” Brynne replied.

Yelena’s tongue slithered out and she began to stimulate Brynne with it. The serpentine woman let out a loud moan at the attention. She grabbed John and began kissing him intensely. He locked lips with her. Couldn’t really twine tongues, given her thin snake tongue, but he didn’t mind. She was a very passionate kisser, regardless.

And her breast.

He couldn’t even start to get it into his grasp. He groped and massaged her huge breast, feeling that smooth, dry snakeskin. It was an odd feeling, but not a bad one. Brynne let out a loud moan that broke the kiss.

“Oh my!” she cried, and he saw that her tail was twitching violently now. “Yelena...keep going...” she groaned. “I’m about to-to...oh my yes!”

Now her tail was thumping the bed violently, shaking it, as she began to orgasm. Brynne almost howled in feral pleasure as she jerked and twitched, her tail hitting the bed repeatedly. Damn, she came hard. Yelena continued to pleasure her all throughout the orgasm. When she finished, she was left gasping, her considerable breasts heaving.

“Oh my,” she whispered. “That was...invigorating. I am very horny now for sex.”

John grinned. “You weren’t before?”

She growled. “Stop teasing. Get inside me.” She looked at Yelena. “I will pleasure you now,” she said.

“I appreciate it,” Yelena replied. “How would you have me?”

“Rest on your knees beside me, with your legs spread,” Brynne replied.

John mounted the serpentine as Yelena got into position. Brynne laid a hand beneath Yelena’s exposed pussy and his demon lover let out a gasp, then a low moan, slowly closing her eyes and beginning to chew on her lower lip as Brynne began to finger her. John could feel excitement shivering through him like a low pulse. He laid his cock at the entrance of Brynne’s pussy. He looked at her, she stared back at him.

Her exotic eyes were full of hunger.

John slipped inside of her, and then began to push his way in.

“Oh fuck...” he moaned as he buried himself slowly in her.

Her pussy felt weird, but so good. It was like...wet silk, stretch tautly over muscles. She was really tight inside, but there was a great slickness to her. “Brynne...” he moaned loudly, and then cried out as he felt her clench her vaginal muscles tightly around his cock. He began to fuck her faster and harder.

“You like me, I take it?” she asked, then gasped as he buried himself completely within her, shoving his entire cock into her.

“Yes,” he moaned. “Oh fuck, Brynne, I can’t...this feels so good.”

“This is his first time with one of your kind,” Yelena said, then moaned as she felt her own spike of lusty pleasure.

“Mmm, I am honored,” she said, then cried out. “Yes...just like that...fuck me...” she moaned, and he could feel her writhing and twisting beneath him in pleasure.

John looked down. He’d been staring at her breasts, her face, but now he looked down. Her vagina was a little strange. It was a little bit recessed within her lower body. She had what basically looked like hips and pressed-together thighs, with the pussy between them. Watching his cock slip rapidly in and out of it was just stunning. He felt nothing but raw, unabated pleasure bleeding into him, doing a slow burn up his cock, radiating out from his core, filling him. It pushed him inevitably towards orgasm.

But not yet.

He could enjoy this for a bit longer.

John settled on his hands and knees and fucked her, thrusting his hips forward, making the bed bang against the wall.

Brynne cried out noisily, and Yelena joined her, voicing her own pleasure as the serpentine’s skilled fingers worked her clit. John was having a hard time processing it all. He looked up at Brynne’s enormous snakeskin breasts, watching them bounce beautifully in time with his thrusting, jolting each time he thrust his cock deep into her perfect inhuman pussy. Each time he sank himself into her, buried himself completely within her, it sent a fresh pulse of pleasure into him. It brought him that much closer to orgasm.

“Brynne,” he groaned, “can I come inside of you?”

“Yes,” she replied immediately. “Please, yes. I want you to. I want to feel you filling me with your hot seed. I want to feel your orgasm,” she moaned.

John could hardly hold on any longer.

Hearing women actually asking him to come inside of them when he was already fucking their brains out completely bareback…

It was just too much.

He let out a sharp grunt and moaned loudly as his orgasm kicked into existence. His cock jerked, held tightly within the confines of her serpentine pussy, and released a thick spurt of his seed. Yelena was moaning even louder now as well, no doubt enjoying her own orgasm and coming all over Brynne’s fingers.

John was lost in a world of sexual gratification and rapturous bliss.

He closed his eyes, his hips jerking forward automatically, as he released his seed into her. His cock kicked and twitched and spasmed, each time releasing a fresh spray of his seed deep within her, trying fruitlessly to impregnate her. And with each new jerk, a fresh wave of absolute, mindless ecstasy was released into him, filling him with a pink light, almost like magic. Coming inside of a new woman was a pleasure all its own.

Coming inside of a serpentine was a new level of pleasure.

He filled her up. He pumped her pussy full of his human seed.

He gave it all to her.

When he was finished, John carefully pulled out of her, flopped over onto his back, and tried to catch his breath. Above him, the tattered top of the four-post bed was spinning. He could feel his body overheating, slicked with sweat, gasping for breath.

“What a wonderful orgasm that must have been,” Brynne said. “It feels as though you have completely filled me with your seed.”

“It feels about like that for me, too,” John replied breathlessly. “I’m drained. That was...wow.”

“The first time is always intense, from my understanding. It certainly was for me.”

He nodded, then closed his eyes, just enjoying that post-orgasm feeling. “Uh-huh.”

“It was quite a nice orgasm for me, too,” Yelena murmured.

“Good! I’m glad I could return the favor. Your tongue is a gift from Bliss Herself,” Brynne replied happily.

Yelena snorted. “Perhaps.”

“I’m gonna need a break,” John murmured.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to enjoy it on your own,” Brynne replied. She sounded regretful, and the bed shifted as she got dexterously off of it.

“Where are you going?” Yelena asked.

“I’m afraid I also have duties to tend to. They cannot be put off for long, nor taken lightly. But I am higher ranking in my clan, so I can indulge at least somewhat. And I have indulged. That was a very nice sexual session. Do I have your permission to track you down in the future for further sexual encounters?” she asked.

“Yes,” Yelena replied.

“Definitely,” John said. He made himself sit up. “It was very nice meeting you, Brynne.”

“And you, John and Yelena. Good luck in your journeys.”

And like that, she was gone, slithering quietly and quickly out of the bedroom. She didn’t make a sound as she exited the abandoned fort. Now that they were alone, Yelena snuggled up to him, laying her nude body against his.

“I take it you enjoyed that?” she asked, running a hand lazily up and down his sweat-slicked chest.

“Immensely,” he replied.

“Good. I enjoyed it as well. I have never been with one of her kind. Someday, I would enjoy trying sex with a male serpentine.”

“That, I imagine, would be interesting,” John replied. He stretched and popped his back. “I guess we should probably keep searching. I do want to make it back to the cabins before too long,” he said, looking around the room.

“What do we intend to take from here?” Yelena asked.

“Wood, maybe some brick and mortar if we can find it, perhaps some basic furniture. Glass. And whatever valuables we can find. The only problem is...I’m honestly not sure how we’re going to get it all back to the cabins...”

Yelena smiled suddenly. “I think I know a way.”

CHAPTER VI

John had never doubted Yelena’s intelligence, her mind was as sharp as her combat skills, but he was very impressed with her idea. It was a good one, and it worked very well. It was something he felt he probably should’ve thought of, but he was never particularly intelligent. His strength lay more in fighting and being stubborn.

They found some building supplies, a few basic pieces of sturdy furniture, and a decent amount of blades, some good pieces of armor, and a handful of hidden gems, sacks of gold, and jewelry that might sell well.

And they stored the big, bulky stuff in the camp-in-a-bag.

It was the perfect storage device.

As soon as they finished up, they walked back to the cabins and spent the rest of that day and almost all of the next cleaning up the cabin a bit more, then making simple repairs to the walls, the floor, the ceiling. They managed to patch some holes in the roofs, replace a few windows, and did some major repairs to the front door of one of the cabins. John knew that it would take quite awhile to get it all shipshape again, but the work felt good, and the relatively slow progress didn’t bother him in the slightest.

It felt like they had all the time in the world.

Despite this, the next day, after the pair of them woke, made love, bathed, (Yelena had figured out how to replicate Tanis’s hot water spell after a bit of practice), and ate breakfast, she suggested that they begin focusing their efforts on earning some coin. He figured she had a point, it was time to get back to work in that regard.

So now they were heading up towards another abandoned area that might yield a bit more in the way of currency.

They were going to need a lot of it. John didn’t know exactly how much, but he imagined this kind of thing would cost somewhere north of at least a few thousand gold. Or at least a lot of gold and a healthily hefty bag of rare gemstones.

“What can you tell me about this next location we’re visiting?” Yelena asked.

They had been walking for close to two hours in relative peace and quiet, broken only by a few attacks by monsters in the Wild. All of which were dispatched quickly and efficiently. He was glad that they could spend so much time just being together without needing conversation. He’d been in a few short-lived relationships where it seemed like the other person always needed to be talking. It was never a good sign.

He did love conversation, but only when it was natural, not forced.

“I don’t know much about it, but it’s rare,” he replied. “There aren’t hardly any settlements in the Emerald Wild, all of them very small. So far as I know, none of them have worked out, and they usually get burned down or destroyed or taken over by nature or looted out of existence. This one was up and running when I last went through. I get the feeling they were trying to serve as a trading post and security waypoint for adventurers in the Wild. Which would make sense. There’s a lot of coin to be made in doing that...if you can get it to work. I had heard from another adventurer a few months ago that it had failed, like all the others. So, I’m hoping we can get some rare valuables, or at least some more furniture,” he explained.

“My hope mirrors yours,” Yelena replied.

He smiled. “You have such an...interesting way of speaking.”

“Do I? I have noticed that the manner in which we use words in your language is not entirely in sync,” she replied.

“Yes. It’s...interesting. I notice you don’t use contractions all that often. Although...come to think of it, you’ve been using them more recently.”

“I suppose I have.” She smiled. “Your influence, I imagine. I notice you are a bit more well-spoken than when we first met. My influence,” she replied.

He rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m just a backwater idiot,” he replied.

“Not my point, but you could do with a little more articulation, my love,” Yelena said.

He laughed. “Thank you, love.”

He was glad to see her poking fun at him, she’d taken him at his word. He loved the levels of trust they had built between each other. It had been too long since he’d been in a relationship like this. Come to think of it...he wasn’t sure he’d ever been in a relationship like this. This deep? This connected? This communicative and trusting?

And all with a demoness from another realm that had sucker-punched him right in the face when they’d first met.

Yelena stopped suddenly and so did he.

Something was wrong.

He’d almost picked it up as soon as she had this time. Good to see his survival instincts weren’t totally in the chamber pot.

Yelena began to draw her bow as she twisted around to her right, but an arrow whizzed out of the treeline and sank into her right bicep.

“Yelena!” he shouted as he heard her snarl in angry pain.

John felt panic and fury ignite within him as he drew his blade and raced forward. Yelena let fly an arrow that sailed right past him. He could hear it whistling through the air as he charged the treeline, and someone shouted in pain. The voice was frightening familiar. John burst into a smaller clearing and found himself looking at a familiar figure.

A felis woman with her hood up, arrow notched.

Bianca.

“You,” she said, sounding startled and confused. An arrow was protruding from her right thigh now. She shifted aim and fired.

John growled and jerked to the right, narrowly dodging the arrow. He sprinted forward and bashed his shoulder into the woman, sending her stumbling back. Another arrow flew out of the trees behind him and barely missed her neck. Bianca shouted in surprise but immediately regained her footing. She replaced her bow and drew her sword in an instant.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, traveling with that thing,” she snarled, “but you will die with it, traitor.”

“Wouldn’t count on it,” John growled and brought his sword around in a tight arc. She snapped her own blade up and sparks flew as their swords met. He called on his various swordplay techniques and training as they began fighting, their blades clashing again and again, steel ringing each time. It was clear that she was as skilled with a blade as she was with a bow. Great. She probably had him outmatched.

But he had backup, and she’d been shot. He hadn’t.

Another arrow flew from the treeline and Bianca managed to deflect both it and John’s blade almost at the same time. Damn, she was good! She blocked or dodged his every attack, and then suddenly put him on the defensive. She began fighting him back, and he started losing ground. Two more arrows came out and she dodged them both. Suddenly, Yelena was there, at his side, her own blade drawn.

Bianca let out an angry growl. “Demon bitch!” she screamed and suddenly jerked her hand forward.

A hidden dagger flew out of her sleeve and sank hilt-deep into Yelena’s stomach. John felt fear and fury surge, but Yelena hardly seemed to notice. She threw herself at Bianca, sword rising and falling, and a look of real fear passed across Bianca’s face. Now they had her on the defensive and she was clearly no longer liking her odds.

And then a shadow fell across them.

John glanced up. “Oh fuck,” he snapped, and both women looked skywards as well.

Their little skirmish had drawn the attention of a clutch of giant spiders. Nasty ones, too. Very poisonous. One of them dropped directly onto Bianca. She let out a scream and began struggling as she went to the ground. John tried to take advantage of the situation, but the rest of the spiders were coming for them.

He and Yelena dodged, and another seven giant spiders landed all around them, descending from the trees with a lethal grace. Both of them worked fast, their blades rising and falling over and over again, spider blood flying and spilling. Their awful shrieks filled the air. They were nimble, slender, black things with red spirals across their bodies. John hated them. He’d only ever encountered the Red Spirals a few times, but it was more than enough. Their poison was said to be enough to kill you inside of an hour.

He had no intention of testing that.

He chopped off limbs, stabbed faces, and cut into bodies.

In the end, he and Yelena stood back to back, together and untouched. Well, untouched by the spiders, at least. Their blades dripped blood and ichor. John looked around, trying to find Bianca, but she was nowhere to be found.

“She got away,” Yelena growled, venom in her voice.

“Yes,” he murmured. The spider that had landed on her now lay dead, and he thought he could hear, distantly, someone hurrying through the underbrush. Well, at least it was away from their destination and away from their cabin.

“Was she the bounty hunter you mentioned?”

“Yes. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” She grunted. He turned to face her. She tossed away the dagger angrily, then she yanked out the arrow and tossed it away, too. She raised one hand, and a white glow suddenly enveloped her. Both of her wounds ceased bleeding. “There.”

“She was good,” he said.

“Yes, she was. Fast little bitch,” Yelena said. “We should find her. Kill her.”

“I’m hoping we won’t have to,” John replied uncomfortably.

Yelena turned to face him. “What?”

He sighed and then pulled out a cloth and began wiping his sword. He led Yelena out of the clearing, back onto the path. “She isn’t evil just because she wants to kill you, Yelena. You have to remember-”

“That I am reviled among your culture,” she growled, cutting him off. She stared hard at him and he felt a wave of guilt and frustration and empathy. She sighed sharply and returned her focus to the way ahead. “I know, John. I am...trying, to be patient. But if it comes down to it-”

“Yelena, if it comes down to it, I will kill her. If I have to. I just...if we can just talk to her, reason with her...” he sighed.

Yelena looked angry, but it seemed to be seeping slowly away. “John, my love, you shame me sometimes, you know that?”

“What?” he replied, startled.

“I would have killed her without a thought. If you were not here, I would have hunted her. I would have stalked her. I would not have stopped until my blade was buried in her chest or her throat. But you...make me better. I hated, still hate, my realm, my kind, those who ruled us, for their blind obedience to violence and bloodshed. Would I be any better than them had I given in?” She shook her head. “You make me a better person. I do understand your point, and I don’t want to kill her. I mean, getting past the initial fury and automatic hatred at her trying to kill me, I don’t want to. I won’t, if I can help it, I want you to know that. I won’t kill her if it can be helped. But I will kill her to defend myself, and I absolutely will kill her, or anyone, to defend your own life.”

“I...thank you, Yelena,” he murmured. “And I’m glad you’re feeling, uh, better. About certain things.”

Here, she smirked. “Remember what I said about articulation earlier, my love?”

An unexpected bout of laughter hit him. “Shut up,” he replied.

“Make me.”

“It’s tempting...but we have more important things to worry about,” he replied as they continued their journey. “I’m a little concerned that she found us so quickly. It’s especially difficult to track out here in the Wild, even for a felis. And there was something...off, about her. She seemed particularly to hate you...”

“It is not surprising, given what you tell me about your land and its people.”

“Perhaps.” He sighed. “We’ll just have to be careful. Maybe she’s dead anyway, she probably got bit by that spider. Maybe she’ll give up. Come on, we’re close to the settlement. We should be there in another ten minutes if we keep up a brisk pace.”

Yelena nodded, and they pressed on.

…

John was starting to feel better by the time they reached the edge of the settlement.

They hadn’t heard or seen any further evidence of Bianca, and Yelena seemed okay now, both physically and emotionally. Though he imagined there was going to, at some point, be some very furious fucking.

She got like that when she was frustrated about something.

The settlement was indeed abandoned. It could hardly be called a settlement, barely a village even. More of an outpost. The walls they’d built around the edge of the structures were basically gone, ripped down and given to the elements. The pair of them walked slowly down a main path and came to stand in the central square.

The village seemed to be built around a courtyard. There were ten buildings, and they mostly looked the same, given their ruin, eaten away by weather and the Wild itself. Most of the windows were broken out, the doors kicked open, holes in the walls, even a few dead bodies here and there. “Well, let’s get started,” John murmured.

He glanced over at Yelena. She was frowning intensely, brows furrowed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly, laying his hand on his sword’s hilt. He didn’t sense anything around, didn’t see or hear anything.

“I sense...something,” she murmured. “It is like...a frozen wind blowing across you when you are trying to sleep. Or an ache at the back of your skull...”

“That’s definitely not good,” John replied, looking around. “I don’t feel it.”

“I’m not sure why I do, but I think...it is magical in nature.”

“I’m not very magical,” John said.

“Yes, perhaps that is it. We should investigate. It feels dangerous.”

He tried a laugh. “It’s dangerous, so you want to go closer to it.”

“What if someone else stumbles across it accidentally? What if it harms them?”

“Wow, I really am rubbing off on you.”

She looked over at him. “I am not a bloodthirsty savage, John.”

He frowned. “I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply-”

“It’s fine.” She shook her head. “This magic bothers me. Come on, it’s over there.”

He followed her as she drew her blade and stalked across the ruined encampment. He drew his own blade, keeping a sharp eye out for not just threats related to this magic, but also anything else that might be hanging out in the area. She led him across the courtyard and in through the front door of what turned out to be an inn.

John immediately spied a few pieces of half-decent furniture left that would make for good use at his and Yelena’s new home. They crept quietly across the ground floor of the derelict inn and moved smoothly between the chairs and tables. As they passed through the area, John frowned. “Someone’s been here,” he whispered.

“Yes,” Yelena agreed quietly.

Bootprints in the dust, disturbed furniture, other signs of life. Definitely humans. Elves or felis would’ve been more subtle, even beryl would.

“Something’s wrong,” he said.

Yelena froze. “What?” she hissed.

“Look,” John replied, pointing. In one corner of the room, on a counter, was a chest. It was open. Even from here, he could see a golden glint. “There’s some gold in there.” He moved over to it and looked inside. Indeed, there was a bag of gold that had spilled open, as well as a few gems and an old but high-quality dagger. “They clearly searched through this area and found this, and didn’t take it. So, they aren’t just salvagers or adventurers.”

Yelena just grunted and pressed on.

He followed after her. She found a door that was left ajar and opened it up. The dark maw of a descending stairwell awaited them.

“Okay, now I feel something,” he whispered as they began heading down.

It was cold.

Yelena created a ball of light that illuminated the area. John heard nothing coming from the basement. He had an idea that there was no one down there, but he could be wrong. He kept his sword out and ready. They reached the base of the stairwell and came into a large, open room that had clearly both recently seen people and a lot of activity. Destructive activity. The bottom floor was one large room, no doubt meant to cater to adventurers with coin who wanted a big, decadent room. The furniture had been shoved aside or flipped over and there were holes in the wooden floor. It looked like someone had chopped it up.

“They were looking for something,” Yelena murmured.

She was staring at the biggest hole, in the center of the room. John cautiously approached the edge of the hole with Yelena and looked into it. There was just dirt beneath the wooden floor, and someone had dug into it about five feet.

“They must have found whatever it was they were looking for,” John replied quietly. “What are we looking at here?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Something is wrong.”

He was definitely feeling what Yelena had been talking about. It was cold, and uncomfortable, but in a way that wasn’t quite physical. It was like...the memory of a frozen wind whispering across your naked skin after crawling out of water. It felt awful and it made him deeply uncomfortable, set him on edge, like he was being threatened.

Overhead, a thump sounded.

“Someone’s here,” Yelena growled, turning and moving with a frighteningly silent swiftness back across the room.

John followed her, trying to keep up with her while also keeping quiet, but she was built for this, and she disappeared into the stairwell and up them before he could make it across the room. He hit the bottom of the stairs and then gave up trying to be silent when he heard someone, a woman, though not Bianca, at least he didn’t think so, shout in surprise.

“Don’t hurt me!” the voice cried.

John hurried up and found himself looking at Yelena with her sword drawn, blade extended, pointing at a slim beryl woman, cowering on the floor.

“Yelena,” he said.

She sighed. “Explain yourself,” she said, lowering her blade.

“I...my name is Elise. I’m, um, I’m a researcher. Uh...who are you?” she asked.

John came forward and stood next to Yelena. He sheathed his sword, there was nothing dangerous about this woman. “My name is John. This is Yelena. We’re adventurers,” he replied. “We came here to scavenge. What about you?”

“I...” Elise looked uncertainly at Yelena, who relented and replaced her sword, then crossed her arms. John felt bad. Today was shaping up to be very trying for her. “I study magic,” she said, “thank you,” she added when John offered her a hand and helped her to her feet. She brushed off the simple traveling clothes she was wearing. “I live here, in the Wild. Just recently, I began picking up something strange. Here, let me show you,” she said, and reached into her pocket. Yelena tensed, but relaxed as she pulled out a small stone.

It was glowing with a strange black light.

“What is that?” John asked quietly.

“It detects magic, simply put. I mean, it’s a little more complicated than that, but basically I have several of these, each tuned to different types of magic.”

“So, what does this one track?” Yelena asked.

“Necromancy,” she replied.

John sighed. “Of course, always necromancers,” he muttered.

“Only there’s something wrong. You see how powerfully it’s flashing? That indicates that there is some very powerful magic at work, however, it didn’t even start flashing until I got close to here,” she murmured, staring at it.

“Then how did you know to look?” John asked.

“A feeling. I began to feel uncomfortable in a specific way a few days ago and I knew that I had to go looking, I knew what it was. It took me almost three days of searching before I finally found this place. But once I got within a few hundred feet, it immediately began flashing, which means that it’s...being blocked, somehow.”

John frowned. “Well, someone was clearly doing some excavation down in the basement,” he said, indicating the stairwell, “they obviously found whatever it was they were looking for.”

“Oh! This is perfect,” Elise replied, sounding excited.

“How is it perfect? It is missing, whatever it was,” Yelena said.

“No, this works! I can do research here. I brought supplies...” She stopped, suddenly staring at them with a renewed interest. “You two are adventurers, you say? You seem, um, on the level. Would you like to work for me? I can pay you well.”

John glanced at Yelena, who nodded tightly. “Yeah, we can do that, depending on the specifics of the job,” he replied.

“Good! It’s simple. I need to research this magical energy. Basically, I just need your help setting up a work area downstairs and then making sure no one and nothing interrupts me.”

“So manual labor and basic security?” John asked.

“Yes, precisely. What is your fee?” she asked.

“Uh...shit, I don’t know,” he admitted.

“Well, how about this? I admit that I think this is not going to be a simple one-and-done job. I think this will take time, and I could use help. Obviously, something is happening here. So how about you keep helping me and we’ll negotiate at the end?”

John looked at Yelena again. “I’m okay with this arrangement,” she said.

“Okay, sounds good. Um...well, come on, let’s get to work,” he replied.

…

John had to admit, he was intrigued.

This whole ‘necromancer magic mystery’ thing had him interested. He’d made it kind of a personal goal to fuck with them wherever he came across them. Okay, that actually wasn’t true at all. He’d made it a personal goal to fuck with the ones who had gone bad. He’d encountered several necromancers who were great people, working hard to provide services that no one else would or could. In fact, he’d made very good friends with a few of the Sisters of Death branch, who were basically the face of necromancy, as they typically dealt with the more social aspects of the school of magic.

They tended to be extremely attractive and extremely sexually frustrated, since no one wanted to fuck a necromancer and they couldn’t really seem to hide that aspect of themselves well. He had no problem fucking a necromancer, so he’d gotten to know some of them extremely well. He still saw them from time to time, he was happy to be their friends.

He and Yelena led Elise down into the basement.

The first order of business was to get some light down there and clean the place up a bit. So, they lit some torches and pulled all the crap to the edges of the room, clearing up a big space for Elise. Then they carried down a heavy table and a chair for her to work with. Then she shrugged out of her pack and started pulling a lot of gear out of it.

“That’s some backpack,” Yelena murmured.

“Hmm? Oh, yes! It’s got an enchantment on it. Bigger on the inside and all that. It’s how I can carry around basically a research suite with me,” she replied as she set down a variety of strange looking instruments and bottles and amulets on the table they’d brought down for her. “Now, um...I don’t mean to be rude, but I do work better alone...”

“It’s fine, Elise. We’ll be up top, scouting the area. Let us know if you need anything.”

“Understood...and thanks again,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

John and Yelena headed upstairs, back into the ruined lobby of the inn. “So...you doing okay?” he asked.

“I am fine. I’m okay with this turn of events. I like Elise. She seems...sweet. I am just agitated. We should get to work, it will help. I can focus my frustration,” she replied.

“Okay, love. Come on.”

They set to work.

The next few hours passed slowly at first, but the pair began to pick up steam. They started picking over the inn and the rooms in a precarious second story, searching for valuables and the most intact furniture. As they worked their way through the rest of the structures, a blacksmith, another inn, a trio of houses, a barracks, and several basically empty structures, John noticed that Yelena was becoming increasingly frustrated and agitated. At first, he thought it was because they weren’t finding much of anything after that initial cache at the inn, as clearly adventurers and salvagers had been through, but as time passed he began to suspect it was something else.

“I believe we are done,” Yelena said as they stepped out of the last structure.

“Yes, that was the last building. I guess we should head back and check on Elise,” he replied, glancing at the sky. It was overcast, rain on the horizon again.

“No,” Yelena said, and he looked over at her, startled by the hardness of her voice.

“Is there, uh, something else you think we should do?” he asked.

She grinned and grabbed his wrist. “Yes. We’re fucking. Now.” She began pulling him towards one of the houses. “I saw a bed in there. A good one.”

“I...well, okay,” he replied.

How could he say no to that? They hadn’t encountered anyone or anything so far. This place didn’t feel safe, but it did feel pretty dead, which was close enough. He let Yelena pull him across the abandoned courtyard and then into the first house they’d checked out. They moved through the living room and through a door at the side.

John began to move towards the window, to draw the curtains, but Yelena growled and shoved him towards the bed.

“Now!” she snapped.

“Oh, you fucking asked for it,” he replied, and quickly began getting naked. She cast off her cloak and pack. He dropped his pack onto the floor, kicked off his boots, and shed his shirt. Yelena was faster than he was at getting naked and so by the time he was messing with his belt, trying to get it undone, she was already nude and ready for him.

“Fuck it,” he muttered, then grabbed her, swung her around and threw her onto the bed. She let out a sharp growl as he flung her, and she rolled nimbly, landing on her back, her legs spread, pussy glistening and exposed.

John got his belt undone and managed to yank his cock out before he fell onto Yelena. She immediately wrapped her long, powerful legs around him. Staring up at him, her eyes blazed blood red. He reached down between them and managed to get his cock lined up with her demoness vagina, then pushed his way inside.

Holy Gods was she ever wet.

And so hot. Almost painfully so.

He moaned loudly, and Yelena growled fiercely as he penetrated her, burying himself inside of her in one, hard thrust.

“Take me!” she snarled.

He kissed her hard on the mouth and she kissed him back, squeezing him with her legs as he began to fuck her. She wrapped him in her arms, grabbing his shoulders from behind, and thrust up against him with her hips.

As she demanded, he took her.

He took her hard.

John felt the pleasure burning into him, filling him, consuming him. She felt simply amazing inside and the lust she was feeling, all of her frustration and anger, was translating really well during this particular session. He’d been pretty horny as well, he realized as he buried himself furiously into her over and over again.

Yelena all but rammed her tongue down his throat, twisting and twining it with his own, her sharp demoness taste flooding his mouth. She growled and grunted as they fucked, and he knew this wouldn’t last very long.

Sure enough, Yelena broke the kiss, letting out a sharp sound of fierce pleasure as she began to orgasm, and John moaned loudly, feeling her pussy clenching around his cock, feeling that hot rush of sex juices escape her. He triggered almost immediately, moaning louder as he began filling her with his seed, and she growled fiercely, squeezing him harder, almost hurting him. He moaned as the rapturous ecstasy flowed through him in a hot rush. His seed left him in several hard bursts, spraying her insides down, and then they were done.

Their session, what could barely even be called fucking, more just pure, animal rutting, came to an end, leaving them both gasping for breath and sweaty.

Yelena let out a sedate growl, looking to the side. “We have a spectator.”

John felt a bolt of fear shoot through him and looked over. Elise was peering in through the window at them with wide eyes.

“I’m sorry!” she cried, ducking out of sight.

“Wait!” John called, sighing and then trying to pull out of Yelena. “Love, I need to get up,” he said. Her legs were still wrapped tightly around him.

“I do not wish to release you,” she replied, sounding tired and deeply satisfied.

“I know, but we need her to not run away in embarrassment.”

She sighed and released him. “Very well.” She smiled up at him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Yelena,” he replied, and gave her a quick kiss, then pulled out of her and stood up. He quickly pulled his clothes back on and then hurried outside. He was definitely going to need to wash up and change his pants before going anywhere.

He found Elise sitting with her back to the wall, just below the window.

“Well, you didn’t get very far,” he said.

She looked tremendously embarrassed. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “I just...I was going to run, I mean, but, you told me to wait...I was just coming to look for you, because, I mean, I finished my work. Um...then I heard you. And I just...”

“Couldn’t help yourself?” he asked, grinning as he crouched in front of her.

She sighed and looked away. “Yeah. I mean...I don’t get a lot of visitors out here, you know? I haven’t gotten laid in like three months. I just...I’m so sorry.”

“Elise,” he said firmly, and she looked reluctantly at him again, “it’s okay. Really. We’ve had people watch us fuck before. It’s fine. So long as you aren’t freaked out by a human fucking a demon, which, given your voyeurism, I’m doubting you find repulsive, I don’t really care.”

“Really? I mean, Yelena isn’t going to like...hurt me?”

“No, Elise, I am not going to hurt you,” Yelena called.

“You can hear me?” Elise groaned.

“Yes. I have exceptional hearing.”

“Elise, it’s really okay. Don’t freak out. We’re not mad. Honestly...it’s kinda hot that you were spying on us,” he admitted.

“You think so?”

He nodded.

“I knew you were spying,” Yelena said.

“You couldn’t have said anything?” John asked.

“I was busy. And I didn’t want to scare her off.”

“Well, I-um...thank you,” Elise murmured sheepishly.

He stood up and offered her a hand. She took it and regained her feet. “So, you said you had finished your work?” he asked.

“I...” she hesitated, glanced back in through the window. Yelena was still lounging nude on the bed. She smiled at the two of them. “Um, yes. I finished my work. I mean...not all of it. What I mean to say is that I now know how to properly track any further sources of this magic. Which I want to do. Partially for curiosity’s sake, but also because I’m concerned that whoever is messing around with this kind of magic is up to no good. So, if you’re still up to helping, then I would like to go back to my home and continue my research there. I need to enchant an amulet and it will take most of the night to, uh, soak, I guess you could say.”

“And then, tomorrow, we would see if there are any other sources?” John asked.

She nodded. “Yes. Exactly. And go after them.”

“Yelena?” he asked.

“Fine by me,” she said.

“Same. Okay then, do you need help with anything?”

“No,” Elise replied. “I’ve already packed everything up. I’m ready to go.”

“Good, then. In that case, Yelena and I need to, uh, wash up.”

“Okay. I’ll leave you to it.”

John got up and headed back inside.

…

“So, Elise, how’d you end up out here?” John asked.

After getting washed up and redressed, the trio had headed back into the Wild, making for Elise’s home. Despite the embarrassment, Elise seemed to be shedding her social anxiety and opening up to them a bit.

“Well, I grew up in a little town called Blue Bay. It’s a fishing village along the southern coast. My mother and I immigrated here from the beryl homeland when she fell in love with my adoptive father. My biological father died when I was young from a sickness. My mother met my adoptive father, a human fisherman, a few years later. He was visiting because of his work and they met and just...fell in love. We were living in poverty, so when he offered to take us back with him, to give us a place to live, a better life...well, my mother leaped at the opportunity.”

“How’d it turn out?” John asked cautiously.

“Happy, I’m glad to say,” she replied, smiling. “He and my mother are still alive, still in love, still in Blue Bay. That was thirty years ago. He has a few of his own ships now and basically runs his own business. My mother, as difficult as it was to be a beryl woman in love with a human in a small human settlement, managed to ingrain herself among the community. She is amazing at cooking, mainly fish. She makes all kinds of fish and sells them to the townspeople and adventurers and visiting merchant ships. Now, as for how I ended up here, well...the short answer is, I’m restless. And I’m really, really good at magic.

“Naturally, this made me...dangerous. Reckless, I guess. My mom did whatever she could to curb my crazier tendencies. I was always running off, trying to cast spells, causing problems. When I was sixteen, my mom and dad finally agreed to send me to Stafford to train with a mage. That was...so freeing. It was wonderful. I stayed in Stafford for close to ten years, exploring the city, learning magic, the study of magic, the practical application of it...pretty much anything and everything I could. Finally, I became restless again, and I decided to leave Stafford and go adventuring, see how I could do magic in the real world.

“I traveled the land for a decade, spent some time down in Tomontica, went back to my homelands for a year, spent some time over in the land of the far elves...it was fun. And then, about a year ago, I had just had enough. Enough of moving around, anyway. In my travels, I kept hearing stories, good and bad, of things happening in the Emerald Wild. I’d certainly spent enough time in here in my travels, but I decided I wanted to do some good. So, I had a home built and I’ve been living here, doing research ever since.”

“What kind of research?” John asked. Honestly, this was fascinating to him.

“Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes I go looking for certain plants. Sometimes I talk with the locals: dryads, serpentine, harpies, a few mermaids here and there. I get to learn about them, about what they want, what they do. They’re very secretive, but sometimes they open up. But I also keep a sharp eye out for strange or anomalous magic. And this definitely counts as that.” She paused. “Now, to be totally honest, I am absolutely dying to hear how the two of you hooked up. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a pair of adventurers like you...if you don’t mind.”

“No, we don’t mind,” Yelena replied.

They caught her up as they finished their trip through the Emerald Wild, and by the time they were done spinning their own tale for another listener, they had arrived at her place. And John was immediately impressed.

“Wow,” he said.

She had a two-story house built of sturdy stone bricks and mortar that came complete with a yard and a three-foot wall along the edge of the clearing. Mainly he was impressed with two things: the first was that it was in such good shape. It looked like a sturdy, high-quality, high-class house. Which was impressive because it was in the godsdamned Emerald Wild. The second was that it didn’t appear to have many actual defenses beyond being sturdily built.

“I know, you’re wondering how it’s still standing,” Elise said.

“I am,” Yelena replied.

“Well, it started with location scouting. This area has, statistically speaking, not seen as many dangerous creatures and incidents as most other locations in the Wild. Still trying to figure out why. Second, sturdy building materials. Third, magic defenses. I know how to defend myself and my house, and I can just warn away most people and monsters that come this way with ill intent with some one-and-done magical wards. Finally, I’m good friends with a few clans in the area. Specifically, a dryad clan and a serpentine clan, as well as one harpy. If you can get in good with the locals, they’ll leave you alone and make sure you are left alone, provided you keep being good. Which I’m very good at,” she explained.

“I know all about getting in good with the locals,” John said, unable to keep from grinning.

“Oh? That sounds...sexual,” Elise murmured as she led them into the house.

“It is,” Yelena replied. “We’ve made love with a few dryads and a serpentine.”

“Oh my,” Elise said. “You...um...get around.”

“We do,” John agreed.

“Well, uh...let me show you my house,” she said.

John glanced at Yelena, and saw that she was eyeing Elise, staring at her trim ass in her traveling pants. John followed her gaze. It was a nice, tight ass. Elise had that tight, toned figure to her. Wiry with trim muscle, athletic, beautiful. She looked like she could fuck for days. And she’d already seen both of them not only naked but actually fucking, and hadn’t really freaked out. Well...maybe he could turn this into a threesome.

How long had it been since he’d slept with a beryl?

Too long.

Her house was extremely cozy, comfortable, and organized. It seemed like a great place to live, so long as you could get past the isolation. She had a very nice living room, kitchen, bathroom, and guest bedroom set up on the first floor, and the second story was almost entirely dedicated to her own personal bedroom, complete with a huge closet and bathroom, and a porch. It was the basement that she ended the tour in.

It was probably the most impressive of all.

She’d clearly spent a long time decking it out, setting up a customized laboratory. Tables and desks lined the walls, most of them covered in instruments, glass bottles, samples, gemstones, magical artifacts, books, parchment, and so much more.

“Wow,” he whispered. “This is very impressive.”

“Thank you. It took me about three months to get this all set up. Now, um...if you would be so kind, would you two mind going upstairs and getting dinner ready? You can make whatever you want, I like everything up there. I need about an hour, maybe an hour and a half to get my magical formula set up,” she said.

“Not a problem, Elise. Let us know if you need anything,” John replied.

She smiled. “Will do. You two are so nice and helpful. Also, you’re lucky, as I let very few people into my home.”

“We appreciate it,” Yelena said.

They left her to it, heading back upstairs and dropping off their backpacks in the guest bedroom on the floor at the foot of the bed. Then they headed into the kitchen and began looking around. John found several cabinets packed with food and drink and seasonings, several of them treated with cold spells to help preserve the food and drink.

“She is really something else,” Yelena said.

“Yes, she is,” he agreed as he began hunting for something to make.

“You want to fuck her,” Yelena said.

“I imagine you do, too,” he replied.

“That I do. I want to make her mine for the night. She is exceptionally pretty. And you didn’t answer my question.”

“That wasn’t a question. And, I mean, well, obviously I want to sleep with her.”

Yelena smirked. “We won’t be doing much sleeping tonight. Now, what shall we make?” she asked.

“I was thinking of some venison with vegetables and potatoes,” he replied.

“I smell several interesting seasonings. Perhaps we could experiment,” Yelena said.

“Sounds good. Let’s make some dinner, babe.”

They set to it.

It went pretty smoothly. They chopped up potatoes, carrots, and celery, and fried it up with a few of the stronger seasonings, then did the same with several slices of prime cut venison. They took their time, frying it up right, making, for once in what felt like a long time, a full, decadent meal. By the time they were done and had set the table and poured the drinks, Elise reemerged from the basement. She was smiling.

“I’d forgotten just how wonderful it is to be in a house with guests. Especially ones that can cook! That smells so good,” she said, joining them at the table.

“Thank you,” John replied. “Figured you’d appreciate it.”

“Definitely. I’m a good cook, I just get tired of cooking for myself day after day after week,” she said.

They all began digging into the meal.

“So, do you want to talk about sex?” Yelena asked after a few minutes of eating had passed.

Elise looked up from her meal, staring at Yelena.

John snorted and began coughing.

“I just figured, since you have already seen us both naked and having sex, and we’re seasoned adventurers, you might be interested in sharing sex stories,” she said.

“I...um...okay,” she replied.

“Did you think I meant something else?” Yelena asked, smirking.

“I...I mean...” she cleared her throat. “I’m okay with talking about sex stories,” she said. John had the idea that if beryl could blush, she’d be fire red by now.

“Okay. What was your last sexual encounter?”

“Oh my, it was wonderful,” she said. “I encountered a man, a human adventurer, and I got good vibes from him, so I hired him to help me collect some spider poison. We connected, we got close, I invited him back here. He admitted to me, after we started fooling around, that he was a werewolf. He said he wanted me to know, in case it was too much or something I wouldn’t be interested in. I had never made love with a werewolf. So, I told him I wanted him to transform. I wanted him to fuck me as a werewolf. He was surprised, and eager. So, he...” she paused, swallowed, “he bent me over and fucked me from behind. He fucking destroyed me.”

“That must have been wonderful,” Yelena said.

“It was. Oh, it was. We fucked about a dozen times over the next few days. Then...he had to go. And that was three months ago. That was the last time I got fucked.”

“That’s very depressing,” John said.

“Psh yeah, of course it is. Not like you two. You two got laid freaking today,” she replied.

“Well...we could fix that, you know, if you’re interested,” John said after a moment of silence had passed.

Elise sat up straighter. “I...really, then?” she asked. “Both of you?”

“Yes. If you’re interested in having sex with a demoness,” Yelena replied. She stuck out her forked, prehensile tongue and wiggled it at Elise.

“Oh my. I would be deeply interested in having sex with both of you. This, um...this won’t interfere with our agreement, will it?” she asked.

“No,” John replied. “We’ll continue along like we would have otherwise, only there will be sex involved.”

“Well then, in that case...maybe we should take a soak, let our food settle, and then have a wonderful night of sex?” she suggested.

“That sounds fantastic,” John replied, and Yelena nodded.

They stood up.

…

They took it slow.

John was grateful. After today, especially his encounter with Yelena in the abandoned settlement, he felt like he needed to. He was getting sore. As they went upstairs to Elise’s bedroom, he found himself getting very excited. It was interesting, in a way: meeting and falling in love with Yelena had done much for his sex life. It had been a little while since he’d gotten laid before they met, and now he was meeting several highly interested, extremely attractive women. And he was certainly widening his sexual circle.

A serpentine as well as a demoness now, and a beryl.

It had been over two years since he’d made love with a beryl, now that he thought about it. He watched Elise strip down naked. As her clothes came off, she revealed a slim, athletic body to him. She was indeed made of trim, wiry muscle, a fit, toned body that spoke of a great deal of walking and dexterous mobility. She had high, firm breasts, small and beautiful, and slim thighs. And her tail was pretty sexy.

“Wow,” he said as he kicked off his boots.

“What?” Elise asked. She seemed a little self-conscious.

“You’re extremely attractive,” he replied.

“I love your body, and I must say, seeing you nude...your eyes are especially beautiful, Elise,” Yelena said.

“I...thank you,” she murmured. “You both look really good naked, too,” she added hesitantly, then laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m nervous.”

“It’s fine,” John replied. “Just know that we’re happy to have sex. Also, if you want to stop, just say the word and we’ll stop, no hard feelings.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate that. I...” she hesitated again, sighed. “When I was younger, it was quite a lot easier to pressure me into sex. I had a few boyfriends in the village, one other beryl a few years older than me at one point, and some human guys who secretly had a fetish for interspecies fucking. I’ve certainly found my voice since then, but I still don’t like telling people no. But, don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I’m down to fuck all the way through with you two, and if I’m not, I will let you know. Now, let’s get in the water,” she said.

Her tub was ready to go, full of clear, steaming water.

It looked amazingly inviting. John and Yelena quickly stripped down nude and slipped into the water with her.

“Oh, fuck yes...” he groaned, settling back into the water. “There is nothing quite like this.”

“I must admit, this is one particular joy of life in this realm that I am getting used to. We were not afforded much in the way of luxury in my world.”

“You didn’t take baths?” Elise asked.

“No, not usually. For the most part, we dealt with it. We used magic to cleanse ourselves otherwise.”

“That’s awful,” Elise murmured.

“I’m beginning to see that much of my previous life was awful. Not that it matters. I’m not going back. I’m here, and I’m happy.”

“It’s amazing that your relationship is so...healthy. So functional,” Elise said, then her eyes widened slightly. “Oh, Gods, that was incredibly rude.”

“No, it’s fine,” John replied.

“My kind have not traditionally been the easiest to work with,” Yelena said.

“And humans haven’t been all that great when it comes to acceptance of those we literally share the land with, let alone demons from another realm,” John added. “So, your surprise is understandable, Elise.”

“Okay. That’s good then. I must admit that I’m a bit out of touch, socially speaking. I spend so much time alone and even when I do talk to people it’s usually dryads or serpentine, and they’re just so...blunt. Not much nuance there, usually. I like it.”

“Blunt is good,” John agreed.

The three of them sat there in the tub, soaking, lounging, and eventually got to washing up. Elise passed them bars of soap and washcloths. John took the opportunity to scrub himself thoroughly. It had been a long couple of days and it was always good to go into sex clean when you were fucking someone brand new.

When they had let their food settle and the lust build up, the trio finally climbed from the tub, dried off, and got into bed together.

“Would it be okay if, um...” Elise hesitated.

“What?” John asked.

“Could I start out just with John? Or would that cause problems?”

“I’m okay to watch...for now,” Yelena replied.

“Okay. I just...”

“It’s been awhile,” John replied. “I understand. We’ll take it slow.”

“Thank you.”

Yelena laid off to the side, watching them intently, her tail drifting lazily behind her. John and Elise laid together and for the first few seconds, she simply stared at him. After a bit, she reached over and laid a hand on his chest, then ran her fingers slowly across it, across his shoulder, down to his bicep. Then she leaned in and kissed him. He locked lips with her and she let out a small sound of happiness and pressed herself slowly against him. John laid a hand on her breast, massaging it gently, loving the feel of it.

His cock was fully erect now, throbbing in anticipation of going inside of her, and of the pleasure that would bring.

He slid his hand around and down the smooth curve of her back and let it rest gently on her tail, which he began to caress.

“Oh my,” she whispered, breaking the kiss and shuddering.

“Is this okay?” he asked.

She closed her eyes and nodded, apparently relishing the touch. “Y-yes,” she whispered. “Yes, this is very okay. I...I trust you, John. And this feels so good.”

He continued running his hand up and down her tail and she began to make out with him with a renewed vigor. He kept touching her tail for a bit longer, then slipped his hand lower, getting a grip on her tight, firm ass. She hooked a leg over his, pulling him closer to her, deepening the kiss and slipping her strange tongue in. He immediately moved his own forward, twisting it with hers, enjoying every second of this.

She opened her eyes again when he broke the kiss and pressed her gently onto her back. “What now?” she whispered.

“You’ll see,” he replied, and started kissing his way down her body. He kissed her neck, then lingered on her breasts, licking across her nipples, making her moan in pleasure. Then he kept going, kissing gently down her torso, across her trim stomach, then over her slim, athletic thighs. Here, he got down in between her legs, spreading them out. He looked at her pussy, then at her tail, laid out in between her legs.

“He’s good at this,” Yelena murmured.

“I imagine so,” Elise whispered.

John laid down, resting on his elbows so that there was enough room for her tail under him, and carefully parted the lips of her taut, light green pussy with his thumbs. He found her clit, an even lighter shade of green, and leaned in. Elise let out a low moan as he began to tongue it gently, massaging and caressing it.

“Oh, by the Gods I had forgotten how good this could be...” she groaned.

He kept going.

Elise began to get much louder. In a way, he was glad that they were in the middle of nowhere, where no one would hear them. Then again, there was a certain kind of pleasure out of making a woman scream in pleasure where other people could hear it. He kept eating her out, licking more rapidly at her clit, using his tongue more powerfully. And damn did she have a good voice for screaming in sexual gratification.

Elise began to orgasm hardly half a minute later.

“Oh-please! Too sensitive!” she cried, and he pulled back, watching along with Yelena as their slim beryl friend climaxed beautifully. Her whole body twitched and spasmed as she came, her hands clenching and releasing, groping blindly at nothing, her hips jerking in time with her orgasm. She screamed in pure pleasure, eyes squeezed shut.

When she was finished, she collapsed against the bed, gasping. Slowly, she opened her eyes. “Thank you, John,” she whispered.

“You’re quite welcome,” he replied.

“Can we make love now? I desperately want to feel your cock inside of me,” she asked.

“Yes, Elise,” he said, and began to get into position.

“Wait,” she whispered, reaching up to her headboard. “I need, uh, lube. I need lube when I make love with any but my own kind.”

“That’s fine,” he said, waiting.

She found what she was looking for and her hand came back wrapped around a slim bottle of green lubricant. He was familiar with it. It was made out of tree sap and a few other things that he hadn’t been able to figure out, but it worked very well. She poured some into her hand and replaced the bottle while making a fist a few times, then she began to massage his cock, running her hand slowly up and down its length.

“Are you ready for me?” she asked, her voice husky.

“Yes,” he almost gasped. Her touch sent an intense anticipatory spark of lust through him. He almost needed to be inside of her.

Elise spread her legs wider.

She laid his cock at the entrance of her pussy, pretty much pulling him closer by the dick, and he fell forward so that he was resting on the heels of his palms and his knees. As soon as he felt that he was there, John began to push his way slowly into her.

“Oh yes...” she moaned. “Careful...it’s been awhile,” she whispered.

“I won’t hurt you, Elise,” he replied, staring down at her.

She looked up at him, her eyes full of lust and longing and need. He carefully worked his way into her beryl pussy, making her cry out. Slowly, he inched inside of her, burying a little more of his cock into her at a time before pulling back. She had her legs spread out wide now. “Oh John,” she moaned, “give it to me. Give it all to me...”

John groaned as he began making love to her hard and fast, sticking his entire, slicked-up, rigid length into her. He made her scream in pleasure as he really started fucking her. “I fucking missed dick!” she yelled.

Beryl pussy felt even better than he remembered. It was certainly different than most other women, inhuman or otherwise, though not entirely unlike serpentine vagina. It filled him with pleasure, with unhindered ecstasy and rapturous bliss.

Elise was very tight.

And the lube made it easy to really pound her once they got going. She was panting and moaning and shouting in desperate pleasure, staring up at him, grabbing him hard. She pressed against him with her hips, forcing him deeper into her.

After another good minute or so of this, she looked over at Yelena. “Yelena,” she said, breathing heavily, “I’m sorry, I’ve indulged too much in your lover. Let me pleasure you.”

“I would appreciate it,” Yelena replied.

Her tail was shifting back and forth a bit more rapidly now.

“Here, John, let me up. You can fuck me from behind and touch my tail some more,” she said, gently pushing at him.

“Happy to,” he replied, pulling out and getting off of her.

They all maneuvered around. Yelena gave him a brief but firm kiss in passing, and did the same with Elise. The pair of them briefly got engaged in making out, and then Yelena laid on her back with her legs spread. Elise stared at her for a lingering moment, then got onto her hands and knees as John got into position behind her.

She had a great ass, and a sexy tail.

With one hand guiding his cock and the other gripping her tail, he slid back into her. She moaned loudly, the sound muffled because her face was buried in Yelena’s crotch, and Yelena was beginning to groan in pleasure as well. He began to thrust into her again, making her cry out, and pushing him towards a climax. Running his hand slowly up and down her tail, John settled his other hand on her hip and watched his cock slide smoothly in and out of her pussy. It was a seriously erotic sight, especially when he glanced up and saw Yelena, completely naked and on her back, getting eaten out by the woman he was currently fucking.

It was all too much and before he knew it, he was letting off inside of Elise. He could tell she felt it and responded to it immediately, pushing against him, forcing him deeper into her pussy as he came hard. He filled her up, his cock jerking, frantically spilling his seed inside of her and sending out pulses of raw pleasure throughout his entire body. He groaned loudly, panting and grunting, both of her hips in his hands now as he came inside of her, thrusting deep into her. He filled her up, and when he was finished, he pulled out and sat down heavily, then kept watching as she continued eating out his lover, pleasuring her with her tongue.

It wasn’t long before Yelena let out a long cry of bliss.

Elise pulled back and watched his demoness lover as she came, her whole long, beautiful body twisting and writhing in full-body orgasm.

They all enjoyed her climax.

“You are so beautiful, Yelena,” Elise murmured as she finished her orgasm.

“Thank you,” Yelena replied, stretching and getting her breath back. “You are very skilled with your tongue. I hope to show you my own skill later tonight,” she said, sticking her tongue out. He noted she seemed to like doing that a lot.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Elise replied. “Are you two okay to sleep here, with me, in this bed tonight?”

“We’d love to,” John answered.

“Good. So...another bath and then another round? Because I feel like I have a lot of missed sex to make up for,” she asked.

“Yes,” both he and Yelena replied at once.

CHAPTER VII

“So, what is this thing, precisely?” John asked.

They were standing together in Elise’s basement. He was feeling pretty good after a few more rounds of sex and then a long, heavy sleep in between Yelena and Elise. And then having some wake-up sex and a soak, followed by a hefty breakfast.

“Precisely, it more effectively tracks that necromancy magic I mentioned earlier,” Elise replied, staring intently at the amulet she was slowly extracting from a bowl of dark, murky blue-green liquid. She extracted it carefully with a pair of shiny metal tongs. “There’s a strange little quirk to that magic, something unique about it,” she added as she carefully laid the amulet, which was smooth, hard, and octagonal in shape, on a thick, dark rag.

“What kind of quirk?” Yelena asked.

“I don’t know. Basically, I extracted a portion of the lingering magic from the air and the dirt, the site itself, and trapped it in this liquid here. I then took a simple tracking amulet, a clean slate one, and imbued it with a spell to absorb that unique magical signature, and to track it. That’s why it had to soak overnight,” she explained.

“That’s really neat,” John murmured.

“Isn’t it? I love magic. There’s so much you can do with it,” Elise replied. She picked up the rag the amulet was resting on and rubbed it vigorously, then without touching it directly, placed it in a glass bowl. She took a glass bottle of water that had been sitting over an open flame and upended it, filling the bowl.

The amulet hissed violently.

She waited for it to finish hissing, then extracted it with a new set of tongs and placed it on another rag, and rubbed it down once more. Here, she pulled out a hard glass case slightly bigger than the amulet and placed the item carefully inside, then closed and locked the case.

“There,” she said, “all done.”

“Is it dangerous?” John asked.

“Yes. That liquid could make a very potent poison. I plan on doing some studies on it when we’re done here. But now it’s safely contained, and we can use it. Now, just a moment...” she murmured, and focused on the amulet laying flat in her palm. A white glow suddenly appeared in her hand and briefly enveloped the amulet.

As the white glow began to fall away, it was replaced by a very slow, sluggish black pulse that was just a shade darker than the amulet itself, which was a blue so dark that it was almost midnight black.

“There,” she whispered, “now we can begin. Well, uh, are you ready?”

“Yes,” John replied.

“I am.” Yelena smiled. “You seem more...relaxed today, Elise.”

Elise laughed as she slipped the amulet into her pocket. “I am! Sex with the two of you is intensely gratifying. I mean, intensely gratifying. Those orgasms you gave me...they were even better than the werewolf. That tongue of yours, Yelena...”

“It’s very wonderful,” John agreed.

“I appreciate it. And I’m glad I could return the favor. You’re quite skilled yourself, Elise,” Yelena replied. “I am looking forward to another night of pleasure.”

“Oh yes, so am I,” Elise murmured as they left her basement.

They spent a little while gearing up, and once they had their weapons and supplies all in order, the trio left the house. They stepped out into Elise’s front yard and she held up the amulet, then spun in a slow circle. After a bit, she stopped.

“There,” she said, “it’s that way.” And she set off.

They followed after her, the three of them leaving her yard. They headed once more into the lush and dangerous Emerald Wild. For the first leg of the journey, no one spoke. Elise watched her amulet and made adjustments and course corrections, moving through the trees and plants and bushes, mostly ignoring the dense foliage and vegetation. John and Yelena kept a sharp watch on the area. From the outset, John felt paranoia creeping slowly in. His good mood gradually seeped away, and he became convinced that they were being followed.

Yelena seemed to sense something similar.

Bianca? It was more than likely she was still alive, and if she was tenacious, which she really seemed to be, then she wouldn’t give up. He didn’t want to have to fight her again for a number of reasons, though he supposed that what was weighing the heaviest on him, was the idea that he wanted to prove to Yelena that not every person was a godsdamned jackass in his realm. He supposed Elise and Tanis and Brynne and their dryad acquaintances were decent proof though, and if he dug down deeper...maybe he was just trying to prove that to himself.

He knew it was true, but dammit, they were hardly a few days into their attempt at making a new life together, and already someone was out for their blood. It was ridiculous. What had they ever done to Bianca? Something about her just seemed to make it so...personal. She seemed genuinely offended at Yelena’s existence, and at him being with her. Why? Why did she care? He supposed it didn’t matter at the moment.

Either she’d track them down and confront them again, or she wouldn’t.

But she was a risk. They weren’t really safe while she was still lurking around. Another part of him wished that there was another confrontation, if only so that the whole situation could have some kind of closure.

These were the thoughts that plagued him as they walked on, winding their way through the woods, hunting for this elusive magic that they had stumbled across with their new friend. As the journey wore on, the conversation began to pick up.

“Got any good stories?” John asked.

“I’ve got a few, I suppose,” Elise replied. “There was this time I got shipwrecked on an island in between here and my homelands. I was on my way back here. Terrible storm struck, and the ship went down. Just me and a few others managed to get off and swim to the island. We found an old military outpost, a small one, and used it to wait out the storm. That was fun. Just me, this cute human guy, a sailor, and a female felis I’d been hitting on a lot. Oh, that poor boy. He was acting like he wanted nothing to do with us ‘non-humans’, the beast races. But it was obvious that he wanted some. So, we both started having sex with each other, and we weren’t quiet about it. During the day, we’d explore the island, during the night, me and this felis would fuck noisily. And I could tell he was going out of his mind. He wanted us, he just couldn’t admit it to himself. It became a bit of a game. We were very...playful with him.”

“Did he break down? Did you fuck him?” John asked.

“I wouldn’t,” Yelena muttered. “He does not deserve it.”

“Nine times out of ten, I would agree with you. But he wasn’t a complete ass, and we felt a little bad for him. Plus...well, let me just say that getting the opportunity to prove a racist idiot wrong is sometimes just too tempting a target. We finally got him to break. He begged us for sex. We teased him for about an hour.”

“Damn, that’d be torture,” John muttered.

“Oh yes, it was. But when we gave it to him...we got him to say all sorts of things. You better believe he fell in love with felis and beryl pussy that day. We had him do every little thing we wanted while he waited three more days to flag down a ship. He ate pussy like you wouldn’t believe. And afterward, it turned out for the best. He opened up to us after, told us about his life, growing up under his idiot, racist father. I ran into him about a year later...he’d moved to a bigger town and he was actually engaged to a felis woman. She was very sweet, but also pretty tough. She was a blacksmith. That’s how I’m a bit more sure we changed him: she wouldn’t put up with any behind-closed-doors racism. He tried to pull any shit on her, she’d boot his ass.” Elise smiled. “We had a fun couple of threesomes.”

“That’s a good story,” Yelena said.

“I’d like to think so. What about you?”

“Yelena?” he asked, glancing at her.

“I...suppose I have one,” she replied.

“Okay, go for it,” John said.

“Is it sexy?” Elise asked.

“I think so,” Yelena replied. “It was my fifth trip here, to this plane of existence. It was on this continent, what I know now is the Sage Woodland. I was alone, and it was raining. By then, I was beginning to get the hang of hunting down a mate. It was...very dangerous, and difficult. But worth it. I met an elf woman. She was a beautiful redhead with the sexiest breasts, a huntress. She almost killed me when she first saw me. I gave her a terrible fright, but we started a dialogue and she quickly determined that I wasn’t evil. And she found me quite attractive apparently. And so, we went to her cabin and had two wonderful nights of sex.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty hot,” Elise said. “Oh...wait.” She paused, staring intently down at the amulet in her hand, and made an adjustment. John moved forward and looked at it. The artifact was pulsing rapidly now.

It hurt his head to look at it.

He didn’t know how Elise put up with it.

“There,” she murmured, looking dead ahead, “we’re almost there. Get ready.”

John and Yelena drew their bows and readied arrows. They moved ahead of her and the trio silently broke through the treeline and came at last into an open area. John immediately didn’t like what he saw: a cave opening.

“Great,” he muttered.

There were signs of life around the entrance of the cave: some discarded waste, an empty crate, a broken chair. Someone had definitely been here. He was willing to bet it was necromancers. As before, Yelena went first, cautiously activating a light spell as they gathered in the entrance of the cave. It was a rough stone tunnel descending into the earth, twisting off to the right.

“You’re sure it’s here?” John asked quietly.

“Positive,” Elise replied, looking down at her amulet. She pocketed it and raised her hands. They began to glow a cherry red.

“Then let’s do this,” Yelena said.

They moved down the tunnel. Their progress was slow at first, but it picked up as they kept going and didn’t hear anything at all. Yelena hit the bottom of the tunnel first and John immediately realized it was a good thing they were alone: the tunnel let out into a cavern. A big one, with no place to hide if you were coming down from the main entrance. He could see why they’d chosen this place, if they had chosen it.

Then again, he had an idea they were looking for something.

“Search the area,” Yelena said quietly, her voice harsh.

They split up when it became obvious that no one and nothing was in the main cavern with them. John moved off to the right, checking out a pair of tables scattered with random remnants of whoever had been here before. The next several minutes passed in paranoid silence. There were more remains of those who had passed through, but John soon realized that he was seeing two different layers. Some of this stuff was fairly old.

It looked like someone had been here at one point, months or perhaps even years ago. They’d set up camp for one reason or another and had likely died. In one offshoot cavern, they found a makeshift sleeping area, which was definitely more recent. This must be from the second, more recent group. People who were here within the past few days.

Another cavern revealed a very temporary research area, tables that had corpses on them. The place stank of death.

“Definitely necromancers,” Elise muttered.

As she spoke, some of the bodies on the tables suddenly stirred. Four of them began to get up, stumbling to their feet, groaning and grasping.

Zombies.

“Poor bastards,” John muttered.

He let fly an arrow at about the same time Yelena did and two of the zombies went down, arrows sticking from their heads. They quickly notched and let fly two more arrows, putting down the other pair of shambling horrors.

“We should burn these bodies on the way out,” Elise said. “Best thing we can do for them.”

“Good idea,” John replied. “Let’s get this over with.”

They finished searching that cavern and, finding nothing of value beyond a few gemstones and a small bag of gold, they left it and moved back out into the main cavern. There was just one more way to go: another tunnel leading away from that cavern. Here, there was evidence of conflict. Scorch marks on the walls, mostly, and some blood here and there. And then they began to encounter a few bodies, zombies, clearly, that looked like they’d been smashed by brute force. It only got worse as they drew closer to the end of the tunnel.

Finally, they got the whole picture.

John realized they were looking at the aftermath of a big battle. He was glad he’d missed it, if he was being honest. It looked like it had been brutal. The tunnel opened up again into another large cavern, this one even bigger than the first. There were close to two dozen corpses scattered about, most of them zombies, but some of them clearly necromancers. And there was one body in particular that grabbed his attention.

It was big, whatever it was, and mostly made out of bone. It had to be ten feet tall.

“It’s a guardian,” Elise said quietly.

“What kind?” Yelena asked uncertainly.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve seen these kinds of things before. They’re set to lay in wait, lay dormant, until disturbed. Then they come up and kick the ass of whoever is trying to disturb the area,” Elise explained.

There were clear signs of excavation again, namely a big hole dug rapidly in the middle of the cavern.

“Well...let’s search the bodies, see if we can figure out what exactly it is they’re trying to do. Whatever it is, it can’t be good,” he said.

Both women agreed with him and they set to work.

It took close to half an hour of miserable work patting down corpses and searching the darker niches of the chamber before they finally found something. Besides a bit more gold and a few nice daggers, Elise turned up a bloodied leatherbound journal that must have been flung from one of the dead necromancer’s pockets off to the far side of the room. She quickly began reading through it. It didn’t take long for her to find something bad.

“We have a problem,” she said.

“What?” John asked, feeling a cold hand clutch at his heart.

“They’re definitely up to no good. They found some kind of artifact and activating it has allowed them to reactivate a collection of other artifacts scattered across the land. Apparently, they’ve been gathering them up quickly. They’re...heading somewhere. Though I can’t tell where.”

“I don’t understand, why isn’t anyone else in on this? Like, why aren’t dryads or serpentine dealing with them?” John asked.

“It says that whatever type of magic they’re using...it conceals them from those who rely on nature magics and abilities. This is bad,” Elise said.

“Does it say what they are actually doing?” Yelena asked.

“No, they’re vague about it. Something about ‘restoring order’ and ‘returning the world to its natural balance’ and ‘resurrection’,” Elise replied.

“That’s definitely not good,” John said. “We have to find them. Does it say where they are actually going?”

Elise sighed, frustrated. “No, it doesn’t. But I can use my amulet to track them. I just need to nullify this area so it doesn’t interfere with the tracking.”

“You can do that?” Yelena asked.

“Yes, temporarily, at least. It’ll take a more concerted effort to fully cleanse this place, but I can at least nullify the source for a few days. It should be enough...”

Yelena spun around suddenly and notched an arrow. John did as well, sensing movement behind them at almost the same time.

“You,” Yelena hissed.

“Wait,” Bianca replied. Her hands were empty at her sides, clenched into fists.

“What do you want?” John asked, trying to stay steady. So, she had been following them.

“Who is this?” Elise whispered.

“That bounty hunter we mentioned earlier,” John replied.

“I’ve been following you,” she said. “I overheard what you said and...” she sighed, looking away, like it pained her to say it, “and this is more important than some bounty. I...want to help.”

“You must be joking,” Yelena said.

“Fuck you, demon bitch!” Bianca snapped.

Yelena snarled and let fly the arrow.

“Yelena!” John snapped.

The arrow barely missed Bianca’s head and instead caught her hood, tearing it in passing and flipping it down and off. The arrow disappeared into the tunnel behind her, trailing cloth. “I do not miss twice,” Yelena growled, notching another arrow with lightning speed.

“Yelena, please,” John said. “Bianca...if you’re offering help, you’re really shit at it.”

She sighed heavily. “I’m...sorry,” she growled. “I just...I hate demons. But I mean it. This is important. Rogue necromancers are bad news. And I’m not a bad person, despite what you might think. God, I can’t believe you’re actually traveling with a demon.” She let out a disgusted sigh. “But I am willing to help.”

“Yelena? Elise?” he asked.

“I’m fine with it if she can play nice,” Elise replied.

“I can be...accommodating,” Yelena growled in response.

“Fine. A few conditions. Obviously, you try anything and we’ll kill you. We stick together until the job’s done. And the big one: how did you find us?” he asked.

“I’m good at my job,” Bianca replied through gritted teeth.

“No one’s that good, not without help. I’ll ask one more time: how did you find us? This is a condition of working together, otherwise, you can fuck off,” John said.

She stared hard at the three of them, her ears flattened, her tail twitching madly behind her. Finally, she sighed and reached into her pocket. They tensed, but she pulled out something small and tossed it. It landed halfway in between them.

“It tracks demons,” she said.

John moved forward and carefully grabbed it, then moved back and passed it to Elise. “Elise?” he asked.

She studied it closely for a few seconds, then nodded. “Yes, it is as she says.”

“Destroy it,” Yelena said.

Elise looked at John. He nodded. Bianca sighed heavily but kept her peace. Elise dropped it to the floor and hit it first with a fire spell, then a frost spell. It burst and shattered, and then was no more. Well, that was out of the way.

“So...are we good?” he asked.

“Yes. What’s the next step?” Bianca replied tersely.

“We follow the amulet. But first we need to burn these bodies,” John answered.

“Fine, let’s do it,” Bianca said.

They set to work.

…

The next walk through the Wild was long and uncomfortable.

Yelena and Elise walked ahead of him and Bianca. He kept close to her, mainly out of paranoia. He didn’t entirely trust her to not do something reckless...or ruthless. As they pressed on, he decided to try and get some information out of her.

“So, what’s your story?” he asked.

“What’s yours?” she snapped at him. “Why are you with her? She’s a fucking demon.”

“She can hear you,” he replied.

“I don’t give a shit. Why are you traveling with her? You seem...normal. You don’t seem like you’re enthralled or enslaved. Does she have something you want? You fought pretty hard to protect her,” Bianca said.

“I’d tell you, but I think you might kill me. It’s none of those things, though. And I am with her completely of my own volition.”

She let out a huff of annoyance. “You want to know my story? Fine. I grew up in Mist.”

Well, that explains some of it, John thought. Mist was the only permanent settlement in the Emerald Wild, and it wasn’t all that deep in the Wild. It was a little ways south of Stafford, towards the north end of the forest. It was a port town, basically the only place ships could land on the east side of the continent, and it was also a big, kind of ‘anything-goes’ city. He knew there were a lot of brothels up there, including at least one vampire brothel called Suck Lust that he’d always wanted to visit. Sex with a vampire sounded amazing.

But there was also a lot of crime and bad shit in that town.

“My dad left before my mom could even give birth to me, and so it was just the two of us for awhile. And then there were a string of men who entered my mom’s life and left just as rapidly. She was a prostitute and normally you can have a pretty decent life in Mist, but my mom...was a bitch. She argued with everyone, hated working, wanted to do everything on her own terms. Obviously, this is kind of inconsistent with being a hooker. So, we kept getting kicked out of brothels and eventually she started just doing it on her own and that didn’t go well either. You could be a solo prostitute in Mist, but if you had a bad rep, which my mom did with like every goddamned brothel in town, well...they didn’t take kindly to her.”

“So, what happened?” John asked quietly.

“They made it hard to make coin. You’ve got to understand, my mom hated actually working. She went through a string of jobs: bakery, blacksmith’s assistant, merchant. She took up with whoever would let us stay with them. She hated me because I was just a dead weight to her. She usually had me cover her shifts sweeping up or selling fruit or whatever job she had that week. Then she met this guy, this elf, who she just...fell in love with. I don’t know why. He was a sweet talker and obviously he saw something in her because he didn’t leave. He offered to take us in and of course she moved us in with him. He was a con artist and it didn’t take long for the abuse to start. He’d get drunk, hit my mom, hit me, and she never went anywhere because he was at least half-decent at robbing people,” she explained.

“I’m sorry,” John said.

“Yeah, whatever,” Bianca muttered. “Skip ahead. I’m fourteen. He got his ass killed trying to rip off some sailors. And I’d actually gotten used to not having to work by that point. I’d gotten used to being able to slip off and do things on my own. I learned a lot hanging out on the streets. After he died, my mom tried to tell me I was going to have to go back to work. I’d had it. I told her to fuck off, told her at first to get her own lazy ass up and be a parent for once in her fucking life. She came after me and tried to hit me. I hit her, broke her nose. And then I left. I just grabbed my shit and walked out. And I never saw her again.”

“What’d you do afterward?” he asked.

“Traveled. Earned gold. Learned trades. Found out I was good at bounty hunting, so I made that my craft. Then I...met someone.”

“So how does that translate to you absolutely hating demons?” John pressed.

“Do I even need a reason?”

“Normally, I’d say no. But there’s just something about you. You make it personal. Yelena didn’t do a single thing to you beyond defend herself.”

“I just hate them, all right? Fuck off with your questions,” she snapped.

John sighed but kept his peace.

It didn’t take them much longer to reach their destination.

“Well shit,” John muttered when they found what they were looking for.

“What is this place?” Yelena asked uncomfortably. “I sense...evil.”

“It’s a catacomb. A crypt,” Bianca growled.

“The dead are buried here,” John explained.

“And it’s an easy place to turn to evil if you are a necromancer,” Elise added. She sighed heavily. “And we have to go in there.”

“You sure you’re up for this?” Yelena asked, looking at Bianca.

Bianca bared her teeth.

John sighed. “Yelena...”

“Whatever. Let’s just get this over with,” Yelena said.

John resisted the urge to sigh again. He sympathized with her, Bianca was...difficult. But they weren’t going to get anywhere by pissing each other off. He focused on the catacombs that lay before them. Really, it wasn’t much more than a simple, old stone building. The four of them moved out slowly, carefully, working to secure the exterior first. They moved in silence, falling into the professional precision that came from years of traveling as an adventurer or extensive combat experience.

There was nothing along the exterior of the building, and the only thing they found in the interior were some sealed crypts and evidence that someone had been through very recently. They finished their search and gathered at the entrance into the underground portion of the crypt. John suppressed another sigh. He really didn’t want to go back into a dark, enclosed space, and he really didn’t want to fight the undead again.

But this was important. The amulet was clear: this is where the next site of the dark energy was coming from, and obviously someone was here. And there was a ridiculously high chance that they were up to no good. So, John just steeled himself and set off. Yelena immediately joined him. He had his sword drawn and she had an arrow notched. There was torchlight coming from down there. As they moved slowly down the stonework stairwell, John began to hear voices. He tensed, and they moved as carefully and quietly as they could.

The stairwell let out in a broad, low chamber with five tunnels snaking away from it. Two to the left and the right, one bigger passage dead ahead. The voices were coming from the bigger one, which was mostly closed off by a huge pair of wooden doors. John moved carefully up to it and peered through. He paled at what he saw. There were a little over half a dozen necromancers inside the room beyond, which was of a pretty good size. The walls were covered in dug-out niches, each one filled with a wooden coffin.

A lot of them were open and there were at least a dozen corpses shambling around, roughly pulling more of the coffins out of their niches and onto the floor, then prying them open. They were making themselves a little army. There were a good dozen more corpses lying in small rows on the floor before the necromancers, who were in the process of raising them from death. One of them just happened to look at the door as John peered in, taking this all in. The pale man’s eyes widened, and he sounded the alarm.

“Shit! Kill them!” John screamed, flinging the door open with his shoulder and stumbling into the room.

No time to do anything but attack.

He pressed the element of surprise, surging forward, and drove the blade into the chest of the nearest necromancer. The man screamed, a spray of blood escaping his mouth. John placed a boot against his stomach and ripped the blade out while shoving him back. He flew into another pair of necromancers, who in turn fell over and knocked over a handful of the recently raised dead. Two arrows flew into the room, taking down a pair of zombies.

“Keep them busy!” someone, one of the necromancers, shouted.

John brought his sword around in a tight arc, decapitating one of the nearest zombies and sending its headless corpse stumbling. He intended to go for the other necromancers, but then the undead crowded in on him and he was lost in a sea of dead flesh and grasping hands. He bashed one’s skull in with the pommel of his blade and shouldered another hard enough to send it toppling, then cut through the neck of a third. Two more fell as arrows flew again, and more arrows came. Frustrated, he kept slashing and slicing and stabbing, trying to break past the wall of dead flesh. He finally fought his way to another necromancer and cut the man’s throat, sending him stumbling away, eyes wide as he clasped his throat, trying to close the wound.

It was kind of embarrassing how many necromancers didn’t invest in healing spells.

He could see the lead necromancer, the one who had been demanding more time. Well, his time was up. Whatever spell he was trying to cast wasn’t going to be enough to save his ass. John lurched forward, raising his blade for the killing blow.

The man screamed and released a wave of dark energy that briefly blinded and deafened John, sending him lurching, fighting blindly. As his sight and hearing came back, he suddenly heard a great deal of banging and groaning. He fell back, seeing that the man he’d intended to kill was now heaped on the stone floor, unmoving. As he looked, the last of the necromancers were put down by arrows. Unfortunately, it was about to get a whole lot worse.

Every body was twitching; every wooden tomb was shaking.

Suddenly, pale fists began punching out of the wood, breaking through, trying to get free. He must have resurrected every corpse in the vicinity as an act of desperation, John realized with a growing horror.

“Get ready!” he screamed, decapitating another zombie. “Get ready for them!”

And then it was nothing but chaos.

John wasn’t sure how long the battle lasted, he only knew that he was living in the second, and that he was fighting for not only his life, but the lives of the others, as they were fighting for his and each other’s as well.

There were suddenly zombies everywhere.

His blade rose and fell. He cut away an arm and it went flying, fingers still twitching. He bashed a zombie in the chest with his shoulder, sending it sprawling. He cut cleanly through the neck of another undead monster, and then yet another. His blade plunged into cold, dead flesh, cutting and cleaving. Arrows flew, and somewhere, something was burning. Magical bolts joined the fray. He could hear the others screaming, roaring their battle cries over the sound of the zombies moaning and groaning and fighting.

Seconds went by.

Then what might have been whole minutes went by.

His muscles burned and ached, his head pounded with blood. He took down four zombies, then six, then a dozen. His clothing was getting coated in old blood and now more than ever he was frustrated with his stupid decision to forgo some form of armor. There were clammy hands grabbing at his clothing, tearing it up, and sometimes old, jagged fingernails would pierce his flesh. He was bleeding from a few different wounds by now.

And then he heard a different kind of scream.

It was Bianca. He twisted, wrenching his blade free of a zombie he’d just stabbed through the chest, and saw that one of the undead had been buried with a blade, and it still knew how to use it. It had gutted her, its blade punching straight through her stomach and out her back. He roared in anger and began cutting his way through to her. He could see Yelena fighting with a grim determination and an amazing skill and dexterity, her blade slicing relentlessly. And from the way the battle had gone behind them, it was clear that even more undead had been resurrected from the other tunnels. That’s where the burning was coming from.

He could see Elise releasing bolts of fire magic into more shapes.

He reached Bianca and the zombie that had stabbed her, then cut it down with a brutal motion. The three of them moved in around her, as she’d gone down, teeth clenched, blood coming out of her mouth, hands over her guts. Her eyes were unfocused.

“Bianca! Stay with me!” John yelled.

She didn’t respond. He glanced down again after cutting down another undead fiend. She had passed out.

“Fuck!” he snapped. “We have to finish them!”

“Get in close!” Elise yelled suddenly.

John didn’t ask, he just backed up, his heels now touching Bianca’s unmoving form. He felt the others near him. Elise sucked in a deep breath and suddenly she let out a scream. At the same time, he felt a tremendously hot blast encompass him, and a brilliant light consumed his vision. When he got it back, all he saw was a collection of blackened, skeletal corpses.

“Gods,” he whispered, and then turned around.

He saw Yelena crouching over Bianca and Elise staggering away. She got up against the door’s frame and leaned there, breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” she replied.

“I’m going to help her,” Yelena said, and placed her hands against Bianca’s stomach. There was a brilliant flash of white light and when Yelena pulled her hands back, they were bloody, but Bianca’s stomach was no longer wounded.

“There,” she muttered.

“Are you okay? That had to have taken a lot of magic. You know we have health potions...”

Yelena gave an angry shake of her head. “I will not have her saying I’m a bad person, dammit. I will not have it be said that I did not help in a time of need.”

“Yelena...”

“Check on Elise,” Yelena replied firmly.

John sighed and stood up. He moved over to her, placed a hand on her shoulder. “You used a lot of magic,” he said.

She nodded. “I know, but it got the job done. Come on, we really need to search the necromancers, see if anything survived.”

“Okay, I’ll get to it, take a break,” he replied.

She sighed and nodded, then sat down heavily on the floor. “Yeah, just a few minutes,” she said, rubbing at her eyes.

John let them recover and quickly began hunting for the necromancers. Most of them had been at least charred in the blast, but it seemed that the fire spell had spared most of the dead bodies, as it had been released a few feet above the floor, going outward, not necessarily downwards. He quickly identified the necromancer’s bodies and began hunting through their pockets. He absentmindedly pocketed any gold or gems or jewelry he found, adding to their fund, and finally, after about five minutes, he came across something.

Another journal, this one seemed to be magically sealed against water or fire damage.

And when he tried to look at it, all he saw was a jumbled confusion of letters he couldn’t identify. He walked back and passed it to Elise.

“Can you read this?” he asked.

She looked over it, frowning, then slowly nodded. “It’s a magic cipher. I can figure this out, I just need a few hours somewhere quiet,” she replied.

“Then let’s go back to your place,” John said. “We could all use a break.”

She nodded, and he helped her to her feet. “Yes,” she agreed. “We could.”

He helped Yelena up and after a bit of deliberation, he ended up picking up Bianca. He carried her out of the crypt, following after the others.

They began making their way back home.

…

Elise’s place looked more welcoming than it ever had before.

It was raining again, the skies gray and roiling. Bianca had since come awake and once they’d explained the situation to her, explained what had happened, she’d just looked at Yelena, who had been in the process of searching a body, and then not said anything. She hadn’t said anything in the following hours beyond simple yes or no answers. John wasn’t sure what to make of that, but they had too much to do for him to worry about Bianca much beyond keeping an eye on her. But as the hours wore on, he found himself getting angry.

In fact, by the time he was walking up the front porch of Elise’s place, he was so angry that it frightened him a little. He looked at Bianca, but she immediately walked away from the group and stood on the edge of the porch, staring out into the Emerald Wild and the rainfall. He sighed and left her to it.

He should talk to her, but…

He needed to calm down first.

Instead, he followed Elise into her house. She was still holding the journal. She had been silent the whole way home, and clearly, she was desperate to get to work. Even now she had finally cracked it open and was studying it intensely. Yelena was walking slowly and that worried John. It was the first time he’d seen her move with any real sluggishness or lethargy since they’d met. Clearly that spell, combined with everything they’d been doing recently, had taken it out of her. When she moved straight for the stairs leading up to the bedroom, he followed after her. Elise walked away from them, towards her basement.

John slipped an arm around Yelena’s waist and she did the same seemingly without thinking about it, holding him closer to her and accepting his assistance.

She must be exhausted.

“You going to be okay?” he asked quietly as they moved up the stairs.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied. “I just need sleep.”

“You sure?”

She laughed softly. “Don’t dote on me, John.”

“Comes with the territory, I’m afraid,” he replied.

She laughed again. “I suppose it does. I’m still getting used to it. I still have to fight not to snap at you when you offer me help. Where I come from, offers of help are an insult at best, a means of betrayal at worst.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I, but I am not sorry that I’m not there anymore.”

They reached the top of the stairs and moved into the bedroom. He began helping her get out of her clothes and when she moved over to the bathtub, she hesitated, looking at him. “You aren’t going to join me?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he replied. “I want to see you off to bed, then I need to go talk with Bianca.”

Yelena frowned and then slipped into the water. “Don’t be too hard on her.”

“You’re telling me not to be too hard on her?” he asked.

“You’re angry, John. I can sense it. You are furious.” She offered a somewhat grim smile. “Don’t look so surprised. Humans are easy to read. I pick up on cues like that quickly. I had to. Honestly, it’s a little worrying, how angry you are. I don’t think I’ve seen you like this before.”

He sighed, clenching a fist, then slowly released it. “I am angry,” he replied. “You saved her fucking life and she’s out there ignoring you...and that’s not even the worst part of it. I just...” he growled.

“I’m not sure if talking to her would help, but it might. She hides her feelings well, beyond disgust and hatred, but I think she might be feeling a bit guilty and confused. Just...don’t be too angry, okay?” she asked.

He sighed and then chuckled, some of his fury going out of him. “Yeah, I guess so,” he replied. “I’m not an angry person by nature, it’s just...she hates you because you’re a demon. That’s it. No other reason.”

“There’s often another reason. Usually it’s a bad one, in my experience, but sometimes it is at least understandable,” Yelena replied.

John nodded. He supposed Yelena would know about hate, given what she’d told him about her past life so far. He stuck around until she was clean and dried off, then took a moment to wash his hands and face and refresh himself a little bit. By the time she was beneath the blankets, he was feeling a bit better.

“Sleep, love,” he said, and leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“I will. Whether I want to or not. I am exhausted,” she murmured. “Don’t be too long, yes? I...” she hesitated, then laughed, “I’ve grown used to you next to me in bed.”

“I’ve grown used to that too, babe,” he replied. “I’ll try not to be too long.”

He kissed her again, then began to leave. “John...”

“Yes?” He paused, looked back at her.

“When you come back, will you fuck me? I don’t care if I’m still awake or not, and I don’t care even if I don’t wake up. Will you fuck me, even in my sleep?”

“I...yeah,” he replied, and felt a pulse of dark excitement shoot through him. “I sure won’t say no to that. Any particular reason?”

“Well, if I wake up, we’ll both like the sex. If I don’t wake up, you’ll like the sex. Plus, it should give me good dreams, at least. And...I guess I was curious about your answer.”

“My answer to the question of whether or not I would fuck you?” he asked.

“Whether or not you would fuck me in my sleep.”

“Why does that matter?”

She simply smiled and shrugged. “I guess we’ll see in the future.”

He sighed but couldn’t help but return the smile. “You’re being coy.”

“I like to indulge in that, sometimes.” She yawned suddenly.

“All right, Yelena. Good night. I love you. I’ll fuck you one way or the other.”

“Good. I love you too, John.”

He put out all but one of the candles and then left the room, mostly closing the door behind him, then headed back downstairs. He expected to find Bianca somewhere in the house by now, but she was in the exact same spot, staring out into the gloom of the Wild. He considered going to her, but no, not yet. Elise might have made some kind of progress, and he probably needed a bit longer to get his head back on straight.

John moved down into the basement.

He found Elise at a desk, staring intently at the journal.

“Elise-”

“Busy,” she replied. “Go get some sleep, gonna be up for awhile figuring this out.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” he said, turning right back around.

“Thank you.”

Obviously, she was deeply entrenched in her work. Well, all the better. The sooner they figured this out, the sooner they could go kill the rest of the necromancers. He headed back upstairs and finally walked out onto the front porch. It was raining harder and the sun was almost gone now. Bianca looked back at him, then looked away.

He walked up and stood beside her.

Neither of them said anything for several moments.

“There’s a part of me that hates you, you know?” John said finally.

She looked back at him, startled. “What?”

“I mean hates, Bianca. A part of me that loathes you.”

She continued staring at him, seemingly bewildered. No doubt she’d expected some small talk or maybe some subtler way.

But John wasn’t feeling subtle right now.

“But it’s that same part of me that makes me understand you. At least to some degree. I understand how easy it is to hate. But racism is a sore spot for me, Bianca.”

“Racism?” she replied. “You think-”

“I think you hate Yelena because of her race. Because she’s a demoness. That sounds a lot like racism to me, Bianca. You don’t know her at all. For fuck’s sake, you showed up trying to kill her! Because she was a demon. That’s it. That’s the only reason. I’m willing to bet you’d have tracked and killed her for free. Am I wrong?”

Bianca continued staring at him, her mouth open, her tail twitching violently behind her. “I guess no one’s ever said that to my face before,” she replied quietly. “I guess you have a point.”

John felt a lot of his anger burn off then. He’d come out here expecting to argue with her, to fight with her, maybe even physically, since she seemed the type to escalate to violence quickly. He hadn’t quite expected this.

Well, apparently, they both had surprises in store for each other.

“I grew up surrounded by racism,” John said, “but I was on the other side of it. Grew up in a small village full of fucking morons who hated elves and beryl and felis,” he said, staring at her. “And I had to see all that ugly hate. Had to see merchants and hunters and travelers coming through, having to just fucking deal with that ugly shit. Because you know what it’s like when you don’t just deal with it, don’t you?”

She sighed heavily. “Yes, I do. You get angry, and they’re just waiting for you to get angry. And there’s always more of them than there are of you. And they put you down. They’re just waiting for an excuse to beat you half to death, or even go all the way and straight up murder you. And they’ll say, ‘It was self-defense’. They’ll say, ‘See, look, nothing but an animal. You saw the way it came for me.’ And they’ll all laugh and pat each other on the back, and no one will say anything else.”

“I did, usually,” John said quietly. “Tried to help, whenever I could.”

Bianca stared at him for a few seconds longer, then turned away and looked back out into the rain. She was quiet for a moment, then started speaking in a low voice.

“I was married, once,” she began. “I loved him. He was a beryl, a hunter. We met when I was twenty. We began a tryst, and that became a partnership, and that became love. We went everywhere together. Not long after we married, we decided we wanted to put more meaning into our lives. So, we began traveling with a group of people, among them his brother, and we dedicated ourselves to seeking out and slaying evil. We were good at it...”

She paused, took a deep, shuddering breath. “After a few years, we were up north, beyond the mountains, running down a group of rogue necromancers. They were consorting with demons, we discovered. We tracked them, ambushed them, but they were more well-prepared than we thought. The battle was vicious and hard-fought, and they had demon allies to call on. We killed the necromancers, but the demons...they killed my husband, and his brother, and several of my friends. In the end, just two of us walked away from that fight.”

“I’m so sorry, Bianca,” John whispered.

“I am, too,” she said quietly. “I...went through a dark time, after that. Eventually, I came back here. I began bounty hunting demons and necromancers with a vengeance. It gave me fuel again, gave me purpose. It...became me. And I became it.” She turned suddenly to face him again. “You love her, don’t you? You love Yelena.”

“I do,” he replied.

She let out a small huff, her tail twitching again. “There is a part of me that hates you for that. Abhors you for that. But...you are right, John. I hate her because of her race and I hate you for consorting with her kind. And that...isn’t right.” She paused, then she looked suddenly tired, exhausted even. She walked over and sat down on a bench up against the front wall of the house, beneath the windows in the living room.

He sat beside her.

“Tell me why you love her. Why is she different? Why is she special to you? I’m admittedly deeply curious about how this came to be,” she said.

“Well...that’s going to take awhile to explain,” John replied. “But when I first met Yelena, she was unconscious, injured, and on the run...”

…

By the time John was coming back upstairs, close to two hours had passed, and now he felt as tired as Yelena had looked. But he felt so much better. He felt like he’d made an actual connection with Bianca, and she had with him. He’d told her everything, and Bianca had listened. Clearly it had been difficult for her, but she had held her peace, and listened, and in the end, after it was all over, she’d just said, “I can see why you love her. And why she loves you.”

Then she’d yawned and said that she should really be getting to sleep.

He had agreed with her and they’d gone back into the house. He’d poked his head briefly into the basement and saw Elise doing something with magic and figured she needed more time. So now here he was, stripping down, preparing for bed.

John slipped into the tub after checking on Yelena. She was out cold. Thinking about her request earlier, he quickly washed up. He was horny, but also a little uncertain. Part of him wanted to let her sleep, but she’d been very specific, and damn but was he horny. So as soon as he finished cleaning himself and drying off, he hurried over to the bed and got beneath the blankets. Lifting them up, he got a good look at Yelena’s trim, fit backside and knew immediately that, yeah, he was doing this. He was definitely going to do this.

Laying a hand on her shoulder, he rolled her over onto her back and spread open her legs. There was something darkly exciting about this. He found his breath coming faster and heavier, as was his heartbeat, as he got in between her athletic thighs. This was something he’d done before, always with permission, like with Tanis, and there was always a similarly dark excitement to it. As he began sliding into her pussy, finding her extremely hot and wet, he found himself wondering other things. There was certainly a darker side to sex, not bad, just a bit more...primal. He’d had friends, casual acquaintances, who were into this kind of primal sex.

Sex that involved violence.

Sex that involved screaming.

Sex that involved ropes.

That was really fun and exciting sex. It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed that particular kind of sex, and he wondered, suddenly, if Yelena might be interested in it. There was something about her, about the rough way she fucked him sometimes, or demanded he fucked her, that seemed like she would be.

And some of their conversations so far had hinted at this.

Maybe he should ask her sometime.

But for now…

John groaned as he buried his entire cock inside of her and started fucking her sweet, sweet demoness vagina. Yelena groaned and shifted slightly, but otherwise, she remained asleep. John propped himself up and stared down at her slim, fit body as he fucked her hard, driving furiously into her, the raw ecstasy burning into him. He knew he wouldn’t last long, her pussy felt too good and this was too fucking hot.

That dark edge was exciting him, that illusion of taking advantage of Yelena in her sleep, of fucking her without her knowing. It was a fucked up thing to fantasize about, but...well, he supposed everyone was fucked up in their own way. It was what you did that mattered, and Yelena had asked him for this.

So, he let himself enjoy this fantasy, let himself enjoy fucking her in her sleep.

Within another half minute, he was coming inside of her, filling her pussy with his seed one hard twitch at a time. He groaned, his whole body going rigid, hips jerking forward in time with each fresh spurt of his seed as he emptied himself inside of her. The orgasm was a good, long, hot one, and when he was finished, he pulled out of her and curled up beside her. Within a few seconds, he was already drifting off to sleep.

Tomorrow, he knew, was going to be a long day.

CHAPTER VIII

“John, Yelena, Bianca! Wake up!”

John jerked awake, and felt Yelena do the same beside him. She leaped up off the bed, raising her hands, and a red glow began to emanate from them. For a few seconds, he simply stared at her, enraptured by her nude body, her messy hair, the lethal look on her face.

“What is it!?” he called, tearing his gaze from her and looking around for a weapon.

“I’ve decoded the journal!” Elise called.

Yelena sighed and lowered her hands, the red glow bleeding off into the air around her. John groaned and rubbed at his eyes.

“It’s important!” Elise added. “We need to hurry!”

“Shit,” he muttered, pulling the blankets back and getting up. “Be down in a minute!” he called at her.

“Not a good way to wake up,” Yelena grumbled as they walked over to the washbasin.

“Yep,” he muttered, then yawned.

They each grabbed washrags and soap and took a moment to wash themselves up quickly. John had a bad hard-on, as he always did in the morning, but there was no time to satisfy it right now. From the way Yelena was moving, he had an idea that she was equally horny. Probably the feeling of him and what he had done to her contributed to her arousal, he was sure she could feel what he’d left inside her. They were going to have to make time for things at some point, but now there was business to tend to. As soon as they were washed up, they dried off and dressed.

As they came downstairs, they saw Bianca emerging from the spare bedroom she’d slept in. She looked sheepishly at Yelena.

“Yelena...” she said, hesitating.

“Yes?” Yelena replied, sounding guarded. John tensed, wondering where, precisely, this was going to go.

“Thank you...for helping me...yesterday,” she said haltingly.

“You are welcome, Bianca,” Yelena replied, and he was glad to see there was no superiority or recrimination in her words. Just a simple ‘you are welcome’.

Bianca seemed relieved.

“Come on!” Elise called from the basement.

The trio hurried downstairs. They found Elise at one of her many desks, nose in the journal. “Did you even sleep?” John asked.

“Yes, I caught some sleep. This had a magical cipher on it,” she replied, speaking fast. “Had to set a spell on it to decipher overnight. But I have it! Listen: they are gathering these artifacts because they’re attempting to free an old, undead demon lord who was buried on an island. This magic they’re using cloaks them somehow to the natives of the Wild, the dryads and serpentine, which is how they’ve been able to operate like this. I know where the island is. According to this, they may have everything they need to resurrect this undead asshole.”

“Any idea why they’re doing this?” Bianca growled.

John glanced at her. She was scowling. He had the idea that this was a particularly offensive situation for her, after what they’d discussed last night.

“Same reason as always. Power. Immortality. Stupid shit like that,” Elise replied. She sighed. “We have to find some help and get to that island. We have to stop them.”

“And we’re the only ones who know about it,” John muttered. “Great. Who can we ask for help?” he asked.

“There’s a place I can go in an emergency,” Elise replied, “a meeting place where a dryad should meet me. We have to hurry. Go get ready.”

“On it,” John replied, turning on his heel and marching up out of the basement.

It was time to act.

…

John was nervous, but he was feeling pretty good, too.

They were making progress. No more stumbling around uncertainly, following an amulet blindly into what could be a nest of necromancers and undead horrors, (that last battle had been too damned close for his liking). No, now they knew where they were going. But knowing you were heading into a pack of undead nightmares and necromancers felt only marginally better than not knowing. He’d pulled on some armor they’d recovered from the tomb. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was a damn sight better than just some clothes.

He had a quiver full of arrows that had been treated with poison and Yelena had a quiver of arrows that had been treated with fire magic. They would burst into flame on impact. Bianca also had her own bow and arrows, and they all had blades of some sort. They were geared up and ready for one crazy battle.

Hopefully they would be able to find some allies for this mess.

They hurried through the woods, making rapid progress towards this secret meeting site of Elise’s. He was also deeply grateful to see that they were all more or less on the same page now. He didn’t sense much in the way of tension between Bianca and Yelena anymore. He doubted that they would ever be friends, but it was nice to see that Bianca didn’t appear to actively hate the woman he loved anymore.

As it turned out, Elise’s emergency spot really was good for an emergency. Not only did they only have to travel about ten minutes to get there, but they only had to wait a few minutes until a pair of dryad women showed up. The spot itself was at the base of a small waterfall in a clearing. Before the dryads showed up, John noted something behind the waterfall and it took him a minute to figure out what it was.

A small statue of Vivian, the Goddess of Nature.

It was in its own small niche behind the water and glowed with a faint green luminescence. Sometimes John thought that maybe he should pick a God or Goddess, or two, and start praying and maybe doing a few things in their name.

“Elise, what is wrong?” one of the dryads who had appeared through the treeline almost like magic asked.

“Necromancers,” Elise replied. “They’re resurrecting an undead demon lord on an island maybe two hours’ walk from here. There’s probably at least a couple of dozen necromancers, and who knows how many of their undead ilk doing excavation right now.”

“Are you sure about this?” the dryad asked uncertainly. “We have not sensed-”

“Cypress, I wouldn’t have come here and made these claims if I was not sure. We’ve been personally tracking these necromancers for a few days now, and we killed several of them yesterday. I had to translate a journal,” she said, holding up the leatherbound book she’d been deciphering all night, “and their magic is specifically designed to hide from your kind. If we don’t stop this now, with force, it will get out of hand very, very fast.”

Cypress, a very tall dryad, frowned intensely, studying Elise and the others. Finally, she nodded tightly. “Elise, you have been nothing but trusting and truthful with us, and a good friend. I will return that trust. Are you willing to go ahead of me while I gather the necessary forces? We at least need someone there to assess the situation and intervene if necessary.”

“I am,” Elise said without hesitation.

“As am I,” Yelena said. Cypress looked at her intently once again, and he could see the question on her lips. What is a demon doing here? But she held the question back.

“I’m ready,” John said.

“So am I,” Bianca said.

“Very good then. Thank you so much, all of you. Fauna will go with you to provide support. I will hurry and gather as many forces as I can. Please, hurry.”

“We will. Good luck, Cypress,” Elise replied.

“And you. Thank you again,” Cypress replied, then turned and rushed off into the woods.

“We need to hurry,” Elise said, looking at Fauna.

“Lead, and I will follow,” she replied.

They immediately plunged back into the Emerald Wild, making haste towards the island, hoping it wasn’t already too late.

…

There was no conversation as they hurried through the woods.

John immediately saw the benefit of having what must be a fairly powerful dryad on their side. The way ahead of them seemed to open as they approached and it closed behind in their wake. Nothing bothered them while they rushed through the forest, no monsters or creatures. John’s mind wandered as they kept going, his thoughts seemed like a ship that had been cast adrift in a tumultuous, storm-tortured sea. Sometimes he thought of the people who had joined him, his relationships with them. Sometimes he thought of the Wild around them, the creatures that dwelt within it, what their lives might be like.

Sometimes he thought of Fauna, and what it would feel like inside of her.

Mainly he kept coming back to the necromancers.

Necromancers were not inherently evil. In fact, most of them were a force for good in the world. They provided services, laid the dead to rest, helped dissipate curses, cleared out hauntings, cured diseases. They combated the undead a great deal, as they saw it as their provenance, and their problem. He’d met and befriended several of them. He’d had sex with more than a few. Sometimes they were a bit grim and solemn, but sometimes they were pretty pleasant and amiable. They weren’t all that different from other people or mages.

But sometimes they went bad.

And when they did, they tended to go bad in huge, dangerous ways.

He’d fought them before, in his times adventuring out into the land. It was always pretty nasty, always unpleasant. And now, here he was, fighting against them again. But at least he had allies this time, people he could count on. He could personally attest to Yelena’s, Elise’s, and Bianca’s combat skills, and Fauna didn’t strike him as a slacker. She was intimidating all her own, a good six feet tall at least and with a clear command of nature magic. She was going to be a good ally. But would it be enough?

He supposed it all came down to one simple thing: would they have to engage the enemy when they got to the island or could they afford to wait?

They wouldn’t know until they got there.

As they finally reached the coastline, another question he’d been silently worrying about the whole way there was answered, and in a good way. How were they going to actually get to this island? But there was a boat waiting for them. Whether this was left there by the necromancers, probably intended for those who had been killed, or it had been left here by chance alone, it didn’t matter. They were going to use it.

And the island wasn’t all that far away, either.

John looked for activity as they all got into the boat, but whatever was happening must have been centered on the other side of the island, out of view. Perfect. The five of them carefully boarded the boat, which was tied off to a very simple, old dock that rocked a little too much for comfort when they walked along it.

To make matters worse, it looked like the storm that had been lingering over the past few days was coming back. Even as he thought it, John saw lightning split the sky. Almost immediately thunder boomed furiously overhead.

“We need to hurry,” Bianca said quietly as John slipped onto the boat.

He was the last one on. As soon as he settled in, John grabbed the oars and began rowing, getting them through the water and towards the island. He tried not to groan: his muscles were already aching after everything that had been happening over the past several days. After this, he was looking forward to a nice, long vacation, filled with nothing but hot foot, hot baths, and seriously hot sex with Yelena, and hopefully Elise.

And maybe a few dryads.

“What if they see us?” Yelena asked quietly.

“We’ve got bows,” Elise replied.

“I’ll get us there quick,” John muttered, rowing hard across the choppy waters.

They fell silent as he kept going. In a way, this felt a little crazy. There were people, whole groups of people actually, to handle things like this. Typically, paladins handled it when necromancers went rogue, or when evil things were afoot. This was something the lord of the land should at least have one godsdamned hand in. And yet, John knew that the king would probably never hear of it. And he didn’t really care.

He knew that there were a lot of adventurers out there who sought glory and fame, and riches if they could help it, not all of them, but a lot of them. John didn’t necessarily begrudge them this, he’d even shared similar desires at one point or another in his life. But now? Now, he was really just concerned with keeping Yelena and his friends safe, in having a good time and, when the situation called for it, helping people.

Whether or not they ended up knowing it.

The tension swelled as they finished crossing the final distance to the island. It remained unbroken as they hit the rocky shoreline and hustled out of the boat. John made sure to bring them in as out of sight as possible, behind a large boulder. The rocky beach extended away from them to either side, quickly curving out of sight. It didn’t seem to be a particularly large island. Up ahead was a rise in the land. John could see trees and sky, but nothing else. He could hear things now, though: voices. Shouted commands.

And there was a presence on the air now, like a foul smell or a charge upon the air before a particularly bad storm.

As they made for a path cut into the rise in the land, it began to rain.

John honed his focus down so that his environment, those around him, sights and sounds and smells, were all he knew. This was it, do or die. Bianca was leading the way up the incline and he was right behind her. The others moved silently at his back. His fingers wrapped tightly around his bow and he was itching to notch an arrow. As they crested the rise and got back to level ground, John began to hear more sounds.

Far more than he’d been hoping for.

A small forest waited for them, and beyond it, through the trees, John could see a flurry of activity. The rain picked up as they hurried across the small open field and got to the treeline. They moved quickly and quietly, and as they slunk through the trees, trying to get closer, John began to get an idea of what they were up against.

It was already looking pretty bad.

There was some kind of excavation going on in a huge clearing beyond the trees ahead of them. He immediately spotted a good dozen necromancers, maybe even more, it was a little hard to tell with all the movement going on. Besides the necromancers themselves, there was a small army of the undead moving back and forth, doing the digging and the heavy labor. Dirt flew through the air as they cut into the earth with all manner of tools. There had to be a good fifty or sixty zombies and skeletons just in his field of vision alone.

And some of them looked pretty tough.

And were carrying weapons.

Definitely not the mediocre things they’d been fighting so far. This was going to be tough. And that hole looked deep, so who knew how many more were out of sight, digging? Not to mention, there had to be a good amount elsewhere on the island, perhaps securing the area. There could be over a hundred hostiles in the immediate area. John felt his stomach go icy with fear. He was crouched on an island in the freezing rain with four allies, outnumbered probably twenty to one. Perhaps even more than that.

And they were all necromancers or their undead servants.

What had he gotten himself into?

“What do we do?” he whispered.

“We can’t launch an attack,” Elise murmured back softly.

“No, we can’t, not against this number,” Fauna agreed quietly. “We should stay out of sight, perhaps fall back to the coast. I should remain here. Although my abilities to remain unseen in nature are greatly diminished in the face of such naked evil, I will still have the best chance of remaining undetected. I can keep watch on them. And hopefully they will take enough time in their excavation for our reinforcements to arrive.”

“All right,” John said, “that sounds like a good-”

A shriek cut through the frigid air and shattered his thoughts. He jerked to the left and saw a zombie, a sentinel half out of the treeline a few dozen meters away. It was shrieking, raising the alarm, and aiming a notched arrow at them. Even as John was preparing his own arrow, one flew through the air from behind him and hit the thing right in the socket. Its shriek continued on in a broken kind of way as it staggered around for a few seconds, then cut off, and it collapsed to the ground. John twisted around to look back at the general congregation of evil past the treeline. It was too late: they knew. And they were all coming right for the group.

“Intruders!” one of the necromancers screamed. “Death to the unbelievers!”

“Aw fuck,” John growled, snatching an arrow out, notching it and letting it fly. It cracked into the bony, wet skull of a skeleton and knocked it right off. The bones collapsed into a pile, but were quickly snapped and crushed underfoot as several dozen zombies and other skeletons began making for them in an undead tide.

“Looks like the decision just got made for us!” Bianca yelled, loosing her own arrow.

Then, there was no time for talking. At first, the trees worked with the group and against the undead. It slowed them down, made them easier targets. The five of them backed off and began firing arrows feverishly. Well, four of them did. Fauna brought her hands up and did her best to turn the local plant life against the undead horde. It tripped them up, got them caught on twisting limbs, tangled in writhing vines, and provided a series of slower targets for them.

But the advantage didn’t last for long.

Fauna hadn’t been overselling the effect the evil magic had on her own abilities. Before long, the skeletons and zombies tore themselves free and surged forward with a renewed strength. John kept firing arrows as fast as he could manage, but he could see that their position was quickly about to be overrun.

There were simply too many hostiles.

He fired off his last arrow and then dropped his bow, drawing his blade and liberating it from its leather sheath as fast as he could manage. Just in time: a zombie bore down on him. He brought his blade around in a tight arc and decapitated the nearest zombie, then quickly raised his blade up and brought the pommel down as hard as he could on a skeleton as it came for him with twin daggers. Its shiny white skull shattered under the impact. He heard the others begin to grunt and shout as they were forced to rely on their melee weapons.

The next several moments came to him as nothing more than rain-drenched chaos.

He drove his blade into a zombie’s open, screaming mouth and ripped it out the side. He kicked a zombie in the chest and sent it stumbling back into several others. He bashed a skeleton’s head off with his elbow and then drove his fist into another madly grinning skull. It sent the thing’s head flying off and, if not for his gauntlet, he’d have broken his hand. As it was, the blow hurt like shit. The undead tide closed in around them.

It was the tomb all over again.

John fought his ass off, trying to keep track of the others. He saw Yelena fighting furiously, a look of intense and lively bloodlust on her face. She was sneering as she hacked off a zombie’s arm and then drove her blade into the chest of a necromancer that had given in to his own bloodlust and charged them. Bianca had a look of cold, concentrated fury on her face as she ducked and dodged the blades and arrows intended for her, and retaliated with a startling precision. Elise was going at it with a pair of wicked-looking daggers that were glowing with a deep red magic that caused bursts of flame to appear each time she stabbed or slashed at someone.

Several of the zombies lit aflame.

And Fauna.

Good Gods.

She had produced a staff of thickly knotted wood from somewhere that she was using with a brutal efficiency. She cracked her staff down on zombie’s heads and caved in their skulls. She smashed bones into dust whenever she connected with skeletons. John forced himself to endure even as he felt a blade slice across his bicep, and then another cut too close to his neck and draw a bit of blood. He cut off the heads of another two zombies and smashed a skeleton to pieces with a full-body blow and managed to clear a bit of space around him.

Then something smashed into his head from the side, blindsided him and sent him stumbling. He heard someone scream his name as he went to the ground, the world twisting madly, spinning into a confusion of the undead and the sky and the trees and some part of him thought: Well, this is it. This is how I die.

Here, on some island I don’t know the name of, and my friends and lover are going to die along with me.

He prayed that Yelena made it out alive.

A pair of zombies loomed over him, reaching down for him, preparing to finish the job. And then something flashed by, something huge and green, and the zombies were suddenly gone. A roar went up, the kind of roar you heard when an army rallied, and the voices he heard were not undead. He saw more movement around him, and suddenly a face was hovering over his. Yelena. She looked worried and knelt.

“Hold still, my love,” she whispered, and laid a hand against his head.

He hissed in pain. The blow had definitely split his scalp. “What’s happening?”

“Reinforcements. Now be still.”

A sudden warmth flowed from her hand into his head and the pain lessened, then receded, then disappeared completely.

Another person appeared suddenly, a familiar face stared down at him. “Is he okay? Did we get here in time?”

“He is okay,” Yelena replied, sounding deeply relieved.

“Brynne,” John said as the world came back into focus.

“Hello, John. Get up. We need your help.”

He nodded, then almost regretted it, as he expected a wave of pain to come, but Yelena had done a good job healing him.

As they helped him to his feet, he saw that the undead tide had been turned. A hectic confusion of battle surrounded him. The zombie and skeleton horde were being slaughtered by a small army of dryad, serpentines, and harpies.

“How’d you get here?” he asked as he retrieved his blade.

Brynne laughed. “We can swim, John.”

“Better than most of us can, I imagine,” Yelena said.

“Yes. Now let’s go.”

She turned and suddenly surged forward, into the trees, with a disturbing speed and lithe dexterity. It warmed his heart to see her, and the others. As he and Yelena charged forward with their bloodied blades, he caught sight of Bianca and Elise among the fighters as they pushed their way through the forest and into the clearing. The dryad and harpies were certainly proficient at killing, the serpentine looked like they were designed for it. They were merciless and brutally strong, tearing off limbs and heads with a sickening ease.

John charged in between them, mopping up those that survived the initial wave of slaughter. He heard hysterically shouted orders coming from somewhere nearby. The necromancers. No doubt trying to buy time to get one last-ditch, desperate spell off. John did not intend to give them the time. His sword arm rose and fell, rose and fell, and zombies and skeletons fell before him. This time, he was on the side that was clearly winning. There had to be a good three dozen serpentine and dryads fighting beside him.

And overhead, he could see perhaps eight or so harpies, soaring through the skies, raining down death from above with bolts of magical fire. It looked like they were going to wrap this up. And that’s what John was thinking as he finally broke through the opposite treeline and came into the excavation site. He saw a necromancer go down, the man’s head ripped from his body by a serpentine, and another still take a sword to the chest as Bianca murdered him. He hurried forward, eager to finish this battle, to kill the rest of the necromancers and be done with it.

That’s when everything seemed to hesitate.

A new chill entered the air.

A strangely dark light burst into being, coming from the excavation site.

“No!” he heard someone scream, “stop him! Stop him!”

There was a great thunderclap and a brilliant flash of dark light, and suddenly a wave of pure magical energy escaped from the excavation site. Everyone was thrown off their feet. John scrambled away, though he was confused and nervous to see that the zombie he’d been preparing to kill had fallen and was not getting up.

In fact, none of the undead were stirring.

While it seemed like a good development, he knew there were ways this could go wrong.

And then, in the silence that fell, broken only by the rainfall, he heard something that sent frozen fear shooting through him. It was laughter. A deep, dark laughter that sounded horrifically vengeful and triumphant.

And someone was gagging.

Then there were footfalls. Heavy footfalls.

John watched, realizing he was holding his breath, and forced it out, as the footfalls drew closer. And then he saw it, and knew that the situation had become a lot more desperate. A skeleton cast aglow in that same dark light was walking slowly from the excavation site. It was covered in black armor that looked like obsidian, and was holding one of the necromancers, presumably the leader, easily aloft in the air, its bony fingers wrapped around the man’s neck. The necromancer was gagging, beating uselessly at the skeleton’s arm.

With a twitch of its bony hand, the undead demon lord snapped the man’s neck like a twig and tossed his body aside.

It swept the battlefield with its gaze and shouted something in an old tongue that John imagined roughly translated to: Face me!

John, his allies, and the small army of nature warriors surged to their feet.

“Kill it!” someone screamed.

The harpies, who had been knocked from the air in the initial blast of dark magical energy, rose from the ground and shot into the stormy skies. They immediately began raining down magical fire on the dark lord. The serpentine and dryad all rushed forward, brandishing whatever weapons and natural magic they could.

John saw Bianca hurry forward with her own blade.

He and Yelena began to go but Elise suddenly appeared. “No! Yelena! I need you!” she cried. John looked back, she was flanked by a dryad and a serpentine. The dryad was Cypress, she looked worried but determined.

“What for?!” he snapped.

“It’s the only way to defeat this thing! We need Yelena! Please...just keep it busy, okay?! Yelena, please!”

She looked uncertainly at John.

“Go,” he said. “I trust her.”

“Please...” she replied, and he knew she wanted to tell him to stay safe, or be careful, but there was no safety, there was no being careful in this situation. “Stay alive,” she said finally, and gave him a fierce kiss.

He kissed her back. “Just hurry,” he said.

“I will.”

He saw Yelena go off with Elise, Cypress, and the other serpentine. As he twisted around, raising his sword, he shouted in surprise as he saw a body, a dryad, flying at him. Narrowly ducking it, he regained his footing and then rushed forward into the battlefield. It was a hectic chaotic nightmare. There were now a couple dozen combatants all rushing towards a single tall, dark figure, which was gleefully bashing them aside with its bare hands. They were landing blows on the thing, but it didn’t seem to be doing much good.

It was too powerful.

What in the fuck were they going to do?

What magic trick did Elise have up her sleeve?

The only way to find out was to keep it busy and stay alive. John hefted his sword and then rushed into the fray. It was pure chaos. He saw a ball of dark energy shoot into the sky and smash cleanly through a pair of harpies. All that was left behind were some burning feathers. He spied the dark demon lord backhand a dryad and send her flying. A serpentine got in close, wrapped her long-fingered green hand around its neck and begin to punch into its helmet with a tremendous force. It began to dent, and a look of frustration passed across what might be called facial features. It made a fist and punched clear through her chest.

Blood flew.

Bones cracked.

“Gods,” John heard himself whisper.

They were getting slaughtered, but she had done at least some damage. It was not invulnerable. Which meant they had some kind of chance. He kept shouldering his way through the others, sword ready, screaming for blood. He pushed on, ducking and dodging as the dryads and serpentine fought to get in. For a few seconds, it seemed like they were going to deal the monster a serious blow, as it became briefly overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. He saw weapons of wood bash at it, thick vines wrap around its limbs and torso.

And then he was finally there.

He brought his blade around in a hard arc, as fast as he could, putting all his strength behind it. The blade smashed into the demon lord’s neck…

And shattered.

A bony arm came out in a similar arc and smashed into John’s arm. He screamed in raw agony as something inside of him snapped, and felt himself be picked up by the sheer force of the hit, a force that felt impossible, like getting smashed by a battering ram. And then he was flying through the air. He hit the ground, and something else cracked inside of him, and he screamed again. The world swayed and darkened as the breath was driven from his lungs. John gasped, struggling feebly to move, and all he managed to do was roll onto his side.

And then he saw her.

Yelena was running. She was charging.

She looked like how he had looked in his mind as he charged the dark demon lord. She was holding a blade of some kind. Cypress and the serpentine warrior were charging along with her. He stared, breathless, as the world swam and twisted, darkness threatening to overwhelm him. The way was clear, as through acting on some unseen signal, those still left standing on the battlefield had moved aside, knowing what was coming.

The blade Yelena held glowed with a brilliant blue energy.

Time seemed to slow.

Yelena surged forward, blade drawn back, and the demon lord twisted to face her. It presented her with the perfect target.

She plunged the blade into its chest.

The thing let out a shriek so loud that John thought he would be deaf. As the blade pierced its black armor and sunk into its chest, a brilliant blue-white light burst into existence, and then it was not darkness that consumed his vision, but light.

…

“John? Please, please talk to me, John. Please...”

The voice was coming to him from a great distance. But it was familiar, and so warm, so welcome, so desperate.

“Yelena,” he murmured, and opened his eyes.

Her face was the first thing he saw. The sky above was gray, but it was no longer raining. There was pain, but it was muted.

“John! Oh...you have no idea how relieved I am,” she whispered.

“I think I have something of an idea,” he replied. “What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later, we need to get you somewhere safe. You’ve suffered a lot of damage.”

“Did we win, Yelena?” he asked, needing to know.

“We won,” she replied firmly.

He nodded weakly. “Good. I saw you...you looked amazing, Yelena. You looked like...like a warrior goddess.”

She smiled. “Thank you, John...now rest. Please. I will take care of you.”

“Wait...Elise, Bianca, Fauna...are they okay?”

Yelena frowned, then nodded. “Yes. Elise...she helped in a way that was extremely taxing. She’s unconscious and likely will remain as such for at least a day. Bianca was injured, she broke her leg and took a bad blow to the head, but she’s okay. Fauna is doing well, also. But...we suffered losses. Several dryad, harpies, and serpentine...”

“They went willingly, Yelena. We would all sacrifice ourselves to stop evil.”

Cypress appeared overhead, staring down at him, and crouched. “John,” she said, gently laying a hand on his forehead, her touch warm and comforting, “you know of this. Sacrifice. Stopping evil. You charged without hesitation into the field against overwhelming odds. I saw you. From this day forward, you are our ally, our friend. Call on us, and we will come. You have shown yourself a true friend of nature, and of Vivian. All four of you have.”

“Another Goddess that I am certain is uncomfortable of Her association with me,” Yelena muttered with a snort.

“No, Yelena,” Cypress said, now touching her forearm, “we were proud to fight beside you. You fought bravely. We care not for your race or realm or origin. It is what you do that matters. You are a friend now.”

“Thank you, Cypress,” Yelena said quietly.

“I’ll be happy to help you, too, if I can, in the future,” John said weakly.

Cypress offered him a smile. “I appreciate the offer, and accept it. But...rest for now, John. You need to recuperate.”

“Good idea,” he said.

Then he drifted off once more.

CHAPTER IX

He was here, finally.

Stafford, the City of Lights.

He had only been a few times in his life, and it had that same stunning effect as before. There were spires, and though there were not many of them, they were no less brilliant and magnificent. There were structures beneath them, simple yet elegant in design. And, behind the city, the mountain. It glowed a pale blue.

“Wow,” Bianca whispered. “I can feel the magic coming off of this place...”

“Yep,” John replied. “I only regret that we couldn’t come at night.”

“I can see the faint glow. I imagine it would be very beautiful,” Bianca said quietly.

“It is,” he replied. “Come on.”

They set off, out of the Emerald Wild and towards the City of Lights.

It had been three days since their battle on the island. He’d spent most of it recovering. They all had, honestly. He’d woken up a few times as he was being transported through the Wild. Once on the boat, his head resting on Yelena’s lap. Once as he was being carried through the woods. When he woke up again, he was laying in Elise’s bed, nude. Yelena was there. She had smiled and told him she’d undressed and washed him, and that he was healed, but he would need rest. He’d asked her for sex. She’d laughed and then ridden him until they both had come.

And then he was asleep again.

It was the next day that he’d gotten the full story of just what had happened.

The dryads had managed to get their hands on an old emergency relic, a weapon meant to combat evil. They had been saving it for such an occasion as this. The only problem was that it required a magical charge, a powerful one, and they hadn’t had time to charge it up on the way over. That’s why Elise had been required.

Yelena had been required to wield it, because she was realistically the only one who would be able to get close enough to deliver the blow, both because of her speed and strength, and because of the fact that she was the only one not being weakened or somehow subverted by the demon lord’s evil magic.

And so, she had delivered the killing blow.

Although technically, with enough power and intent, the damned thing could be resurrected again. Which was why the dryads had called upon their mermaid friends for some help. They had apparently not only dispelled as much of the magic as they could from the artifacts and the remains of the undead demon lord, but had broken it up and had the evil being’s remains and the artifacts taken to the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean by the mermaids.

So, there was very, very little chance of it coming back again.

Despite making the killing blow and being the most prominent figure of the battlefield, Yelena had gotten away from the incident pretty much without injury. Between his and Bianca’s serious wounds and Elise’s massive draining of her own magic, Yelena was the only one still mobile and did her best to take care of them as they recovered at Elise’s house. He’d gotten to know Bianca better, and Elise had basically declared him and Yelena among her best friends now, so she chatted them up a great deal.

And slept with them.

There were several threesomes that probably weren’t exactly helping with the recovery, but they sure felt fantastic.

And something else quite wonderful had come of it.

Once Elise fully understood his and Yelena’s situation, what they were after, she had pointed them towards a good friend of hers in Stafford. He was a powerful mage and someone John could trust. She said that he could provide what they were looking for, an amulet that would essentially hide Yelena in plain sight.

And it would be expensive, even with a friend discount.

But after gathering up all the gold, gems, and magical trinkets and artifacts, and the payment that Elise had given them, he was fairly positive that they could come to some kind of deal. And if not, well, there was a lot of coin to be made in the Emerald Wild.

As they were walking into the city, Bianca spoke to him.

“So, I’ve got a question, and it’s kind of weird.”

“Shoot,” John replied. “I’m all about weird questions.”

She laughed. “I guess you are.” She paused, then sighed. “Given your, uh, history...why did you never proposition me for sex?”

He looked over at her. “I...mean...did you want me to?”

“Well, duh, who wouldn’t want to be propositioned by someone they find attractive?”

“Would you have said yes?” he asked.

She looked at him, seeming to seriously consider it for a few seconds, then shook her head. “No, I would have turned you down. Even now.”

“Well if you were going to turn me down, why would you want me to ask?”

“Oh, come on, are you dense?” she asked, and he was glad that she was actually teasing him, not just straight up insulting him. Their temperament towards each other over the past several days had warmed considerably.

She sighed again when he didn’t respond. “People like getting propositioned. They like knowing that someone wants to have sex with them. I mean, provided they aren’t, you know, a total idiot about how they proposition. Even if they aren’t interested in sex, people like to think that they’re attractive,” she explained.

“I guess that makes sense...” he frowned. “Why would you turn me down?”

She lost her smile suddenly. “It’s because...you remind me too much of my husband. You’re brave and kind and thoughtful and a little dense. And yes, John, for your ego, you are very attractive. I’d have sex with you in a heartbeat under better circumstances. But also...I guess part of it, and I hate that I feel this way, I hate more that I’m admitting it to you, but I’m...jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Of Yelena. What she has with you...even I can see that it’s amazing. The two of you are an amazing couple. I miss having that. And you two deserve each other. Yelena...is an amazing woman. She’s very brave. I think she’s braver than I am.”

“Wow, that’s...quite the change of heart,” he murmured.

“I know. The past several days have made me rethink a lot of things in my life. I was so miserable for so long, I’d kind of just gotten stuck being pissed off and full of hatred and I just...became blind to it. It’s honestly a little terrifying how bad it had gotten. I would have killed her without a second thought and destroyed one of the most honest, loving relationships I’ve seen in a very long time. Not to mention all that happened on the island. That would have just gone on unchecked if I’d had my way...”

“But you didn’t. You chose to help us.”

She sighed again. “Yes, I did. But it was far, far too close for my liking. I just...” she shook her head. “Whatever, it’s over, we got out alive. We did a good thing.”

She stopped suddenly. They had made it into the city a fair distance now and had come to stand before a large fountain. John knew that, at night, the fountain glowed with a magnificent blue light. People walked and talked around them, going about their business, a hundred different men and women from all walks of life.

“This is where we part ways, I think,” she said.

“All right, Bianca,” he replied. “What will you do now?”

She looked slowly around them, then returned her gaze to him. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think my days of hunting demons are done. I still want to hunt evil, but...I don’t know. Before I do anything, I need a vacation. A real vacation. I think I’m going to go down to Tomontica and just fuck around.”

“That sounds wonderful,” he said.

She laughed, then offered him her hand. He took it and shook it. “Thank you, John. You’ve...well, you’ve opened my eyes. You probably changed my life. You’re an actual good person. I can’t say I’ve met too many in my life. Stay with Yelena, enjoy your relationship.”

“Oh, I plan to,” he replied. “And thank you for your help, Bianca. I don’t think we could have done it without you. You’re a good person, too, I think you just need to remember that. Now, go enjoy yourself. Let yourself be happy.”

She nodded to him. “I’ll at least give it a shot. Good luck, John.”

“Same to you, Bianca.”

She turned and walked away. He watched her go, disappearing into the shifting crowd, and just like that, she walked out of his life.

He hoped she could be happy again.

Turning, John began to hunt for the shop Elise had told him about.

…

He found it an hour later.

It took longer than it should have because he kept getting distracted. There was always something happening in Stafford. Stage shows, magic displays, shops offering a thousand and one interesting magical trinkets and items.

But he found it: an unassuming little shop with a simple sign that read GIL’S over the door. The only window was covered by a heavy curtain, almost as if in direct opposition to the ‘come-one-come-all’ attitude most of the other shops took on. John tried the door, almost fearing it locked, but it opened under his touch.

He came inside and found himself within a dim place. Blue-burning candles hung on the walls and were planted across several shelves and tables. The place was packed with all sorts of books and scrolls and magical items. There was no one in the shop. As he traced his way through it, John began to wonder if the guy had fallen asleep or something. Old wizards were a little notorious for taking a fairly whimsical attitude towards most things, especially customers, if they had shops. John figured he couldn’t blame them.

If he lived to old age, he’d probably have seen so much shit he’d be kind of whimsical too.

“Can I help you, lad?” a voice asked.

John tried to hide his surprise as he turned around and found a portly, balding man sitting on the floor against the far wall, tucked up in between the front of the main counter and the end of a shelf. He was smoking calmly on a long pipe and reading a book.

“I...Gil?” he asked.

“At your service,” he replied, closing the book and looking up at him.

“Okay. Um...Elise sent me.”

“Did she now?” Gil squinted at him, then smiled. “Yes, I can sense her on you. That girl has got such a particular magical aura.” With seemingly no effort, the man rose to his feet and set the book down on the counter. “How is she?”

“Tired,” he replied. “She helped me and my friends kill an undead demon lord on an island off the coast of the Emerald Wild a few days ago. It was quite taxing.”

Gil laughed merrily. “That girl is still getting up to such trouble! It gladdens my heart to hear this. So then, lad, who are you to her?”

“I’m a friend,” he replied. “I require a rare item and she sent me to you.”

“Well, if Elise claims you as a friend I suppose that’s good enough for me. What is it you’re looking for?”

John hesitated. He’d been wondering about how to word this for awhile now. Not every wizard had a ‘kill-on-sight’ policy with demons, but still…

“I’m looking for an amulet that would make someone not be noticed by the general population,” he replied.

“Hmm...that’s a rare and powerful magical item. I have such an item in my possession, but I’m afraid that I cannot part with it easily. It was...a hard find.”

“I’m more than willing to pay,” John replied.

“Very well. Why do you want it?”

“I...have a friend...who would benefit from its use.”

Gil laughed loudly. “Is that so? I don’t think I’ve heard such a vague response this year, and I have a lot of people coming in here looking for a lot of things.”

John sighed and decided fuck it. “I’m in love with a demoness, and we just want to live our lives together in peace,” he said.

The humor left Gil’s face and he took on a thoughtful expression. “That would certainly explain the situation.” He considered it for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Who am I to deny love? I will sell it to you. All I can really ask is that you don’t abuse it.”

“I don’t plan to,” John replied.

Gil disappeared back behind the counter, into a room at the back of the shop. He returned a moment later, holding a gently glowing blue gem embedded in an amulet of polished golden metal. It was on a similarly polished golden chain.

“I used to adventure,” he said. “I’ve been up and down this land, and to others. I know what...unconventional love is like. Now, let’s see what you’ve got to haggle with.”

John set his pack down and began digging in it.

…

There. Finally. Elise’s house.

John had been a little worried that he might’ve gotten lost. He had a naturally good sense of direction, but the Emerald Wild was a crazy place. But no, he’d found it. He felt almost over-bursting with good cheer as he walked up the front lawn. The price had been high, but not as high as he was worried it might have been. He’d parted with all of his magical trinkets, all of his gems, and a little over two thirds of their gold.

But he had it, and there’d been enough left over to buy a few cool items to help them on their journeys ahead. Namely, a camp-in-a-bag version of a pretty big storage chest. He’d bought it figuring that it would help them move furniture and supplies and whatever else they found in the Emerald Wild, as he and Yelena had spoken before he’d left, and they knew that one of the things they wanted to do was finish fixing up those cabins.

“I’m back!” he called as he came in through the front door.

“We’re up here!” Yelena called back.

The bedroom. John hurried up the stairs, eager to see her. He’d quickly grown to hate being apart from her.

He found the two of them laying nude in the bed he’d been sleeping in for several days now. “Having fun?” he asked.

“Had fun,” Elise replied easily, then she yawned. “Ugh, Gods, I’m still feeling that magical drain from the island. That took all I had and more. But your lady was feeling anxious with you gone so I figured a good fucking would keep her occupied.”

“I appreciate it,” Yelena said. “Did you get it?”

“I got it,” he replied.

“How’s Gil?” Elise asked as John pulled the amulet out.

“He seems fine. I found him sitting on the floor in the corner of his shop, smoking a pipe and reading. He was very amiable,” John replied.

“Sounds like Gil. Try it on!” she said, watching eagerly as Yelena accepted the magical item. John watched as well, very interested.

She held it in her hands for a moment, then brought it up over her head and, careful of her horns, lowered it. There was a strange kind of transition, and suddenly John found himself looking at a nude, plain-looking human woman.

“I don’t feel any different,” Yelena murmured.

“It’s working,” John replied, studying her. And it was interesting, too. There was nothing remarkable about her. She was tall and a little thin, her face very plain, her brunette hair limp. She wasn’t unattractive, she wasn’t beautiful, she just...was there. If she was wearing clothes, she’d look like any one of a thousand village women he’d seen in his life. And there didn’t seem to be anything unnatural about her at all, no strange sense of magic or uncomfortable feelings. It was shockingly effective.

No wonder it had been so expensive.

“I really look different?” she asked, looking at her arms, down at her body.

“Yeah, you look like...just some human woman,” Elise replied. “Wow, Gil really knows his shit,” she murmured.

“Well...okay then. Good. Can I take it off now?” she asked.

John smiled. “Yes, love. I prefer you without it, anyway.” Yelena took it off, set it on the bedside table, then laid down on the bed again.

“Me too, you are so fucking hot, Yelena,” Elise said, stretching. She yawned again, then shook her head. “Well, I can sense that you two want some alone time. I just have one question...will you be willing to stay with me a few more days? I really want more sex.”

John and Yelena laughed. “Yes,” he said. “I think we can manage that.”

“Good! Then I’ll leave you be. I’m going to go get started on...lunch? Dinner? I don’t care. I’m making food.”

“Thank you, Elise. We’ll be down soon.”

“No rush.”

She got up and pulled on a robe, then left the room.

John sat down beside Yelena, who sat up and shifted to be close to him. He reached out and found her hand, squeezed it gently.

Yelena squeezed back. “So...we did it?” she asked after several more seconds of silence. “We completed our goal? What we first set out to do?”

“Well...we completed a goal,” he replied. “And yes, we did that. We have the amulet. It all worked out. But I think what we first set out to do was to live a life together.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“Whatever we want, Yelena.”

FUN IN THE FOREST

John Greenfield had an erection, and couldn’t stop looking at the love of his life.

Yelena was currently crouched down, investigating the perimeter fence, no doubt scrutinizing it with a cold gaze. She seemed to take a lot very seriously. And he was trying to, as that was their goal for the day. She wanted to make repairs to the fence that surrounded their property, as she knew a spell or two that could imbue the fence with a kind of early warning system. Since she knew more about this than he did, he’d been mainly just cleaning up the front yard. It had been about a week since they’d tracked down the magical device, and now they were just beginning to settle into a new life, and a new routine.

Right now, though…

Yelena had stripped down so that she was just wearing some underwear and a bra now. And oh fuck, her underwear was riding high, showing off a lot of ass since she was crouching. Her tail was swaying back and forth just a little too fast, so he could tell she was kind of agitated. As he stared at her beautiful, trim, firm backside, he suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about bending her over and just fucking her right there in the front yard. Should he? She’d probably be okay with it...and it wasn’t like there were people around…

Though they might get spied on by dryads or serpentine.

But whatever, that didn’t bother either of them.

So, he began walking over to her, wondering exactly how it was he was going to word this, because right then, he suddenly couldn’t think of anything but having sex with her.

“Can I help you, love?” Yelena asked without turning around when he got within a few feet of her.

“I, uh...yeah, I think you can,” he replied.

She laughed softly. “I know that voice. You want to fuck me.”

“Yes. I do. I really, really do.”

“Well, lucky for you, I want to fuck you. Shall we go inside?”

“I don’t want to wait that long.”

“Oh...I see.” She shifted back a little bit, away from the fence, and then got down fully onto her hands and knees, raising her ass a bit. “Then let’s not waste another second.”

John didn’t respond with words, but with actions as he quickly undid his pants and almost ripped them open to get his cock free. It sprang out, rigid and ready to reunite with her again. They’d had sex about six hours ago and all at once that seemed like way too long ago. He dropped to his knees behind her and began grabbing at her panties, trying to get them down or at least out of the way. Finally, he just became frustrated and ripped them off entirely.

“Another pair,” she murmured.

“Shut up,” he replied, and smacked her ass.

She groaned softly and pushed herself back towards him. John quickly finished getting up against her and guided his cock up to the smooth, glistening slit of her demon pussy. He could tell she was really wet, and feel the heat coming off of her.

Both of them moaned loudly, voicing their pleasure as he penetrated her.

And then he was inside of her again, and being inside of her was possibly the best experience of his life. John gripped her hips more firmly and started driving into her with a steady, smooth precision, making her moan loudly, hanging her head, pushing against him, her ass grinding against his crotch. He fucked her like that for a little while, enjoying the raw physical pleasure and the loving intimacy of being connected with her.

Then he reached up and wrapped his hand around the base of her tail.

“Ah!” she cried. “Oh, John...”

He gave it a little tug. “Oh! Fuck!” she cried, and that got her coming.

John groaned loudly, feeling her pussy clench around his rigid cock, feeling the pure bliss of it as she released a hot spray of demoness sex juices. He loved making her come so much. Loved the way it felt to be inside of her, fucking her, while she climaxed. And, typically, that was enough to push him over into his own climax.

And he was turned on and wound up enough that he started coming into her almost immediately. John moaned loudly, hunching forward, his cock beginning to spew his seed into her orgasming, demoness pussy.

They came together, lost in lust and bliss.

When his orgasm ran out, John let out a long breath. Before he could pull out of her though, Yelena suddenly raised one hand and pointed ahead of her. “Don’t. Fucking. Move!” she shouted. “Or I will incinerate you where you stand.”

John felt a cold stone land in his gut and he pulled out, getting to his feet, looking around. Clearly, she had seen or heard someone.

“Dead ahead, John, behind that tree there. The one with the thick trunk and the two angled branches that look like antlers,” Yelena said, her voice low and hard.

He saw the tree.

“Come out!” Yelena called as she rose smoothly and effortlessly to her feet. Her fingertip was glowing an angry red now. Even naked and freshly fucked, she could be extremely intimidating if she wanted to be.

“Please don’t hurt me,” came the reply. A woman.

“I will not hurt you. Come out,” Yelena said firmly.

There was a pause, both of them staring intently ahead, waiting.

Then movement. A felis, not wearing much beyond a simple bra and a short skirt, stepped out. He immediately pegged her for an adventuress. She had on a backpack, a bow and quiver of arrows peeked over her shoulder, a short sword displayed on one hip, and a pair of small bags tied off at the other hip. She looked afraid, and also very beautiful. Her build was slim and athletic, like Yelena’s, though shorter and a bit skinnier.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she repeated. “I’m sorry.”

“Who are you?” John asked, suddenly feeling awkward because now that he didn’t really feel threatened by her, he remembered that he was naked, or, well, had his dick out, and she had just watched him fuck. He supposed there was the concern that she might tell someone what she’d seen, but...she didn’t look disgusted.

She looked turned on, actually.

“My name is Millie. I’m really sorry for spying on you. I just...heard the sex and...I mean...thought I could just slip in, watch you fucking and then slip away.”

Yelena laughed. “Is that what you thought?”

“Yes...are you going to hurt me?” she asked.

Yelena sighed and lowered her hand, her finger losing its glow. “No, we are not going to hurt you, Millie. You can go if you want, though...for obvious reasons, it would be very much appreciated if you did not tell anyone what you saw here.”

“I won’t say anything. I respect privacy,” Millie replied. “But...could I, um...I guess, if you don’t mind, I have questions. You two seem very interesting.”

“John?” Yelena asked, looking back at him.

“I...don’t mind, I guess,” he replied. “We’ve dealt with this before.”

“Mmm, yes. But if I am going to answer questions, it will be from water. I need to wash,” Yelena said, then turned and walked back into the cabin.

“Come on,” John said. “I’m John. She’s Yelena.”

“Okay...” Millie murmured, still a little hesitant and turned on. He wondered if he could talk her into sex. Gods, to have a threesome with her and Yelena…

They walked into the cabin with the tub and Yelena used the spell she’d learned to make hot water to fill the tub.

“Wow,” Millie whispered. “That’s...I’ve never seen that spell before,” she murmured.

“Ice and fire, basically,” Yelena replied.

As soon as the water was ready, both of them slipped in. “Ah...yes,” Yelena murmured. “That is so much better. It’s been a busy day so far.”

“So, Millie, what kind of questions do you have?” John asked as he splashed water on his face.

Millie brought one of their better chairs over, set it down beside the tub, and sat. “Well...I guess I’m mainly curious about what the two of you are doing together. I’ve never even seen a demon in the flesh, let alone one apparently living with a human...uh, sorry if that’s an offensive question, I didn’t mean for it to be.”

“It’s fine,” John replied. “Almost everyone who learns about our relationship asks. And for obvious reasons we keep it secret. Speaking of which...before we go any further, what are your specific thoughts on this whole thing?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t have a problem with it. Since we’re being pretty open here, uh, I adventure, have for a little while now. I love wandering the land. I love fucking people outside of my own species. Including the, um, ‘monster’ races, not that I like using that term. Actually, just yesterday I had sex with a male dryad.”

“That is quite hot,” Yelena murmured.

“It was. Oh, it really was. But no, no problems with what you two have going on. You clearly are very comfortable with each other.”

“We are indeed,” John replied. “Okay then, so how we met...”

As he and Yelena washed up, he gave her the basic details of how they met, maybe putting a little bit of emphasis on the first time they’d had sex and some of the other times they’d had amazing lovemaking sessions, because clearly, she was a bit of a pervert and a bit of a voyeur. By the time he’d wrapped up the tale of how they’d ended up out here, both he and Yelena were washed up and dried off. They began pulling their clothes on.

“That is just fucking amazing,” Millie said. “I’ve heard some crazy love stories before but never anything like that. You two just...this blows my mind.”

“Well, you are certainly in the minority,” Yelena replied.

“I guess so...people at large tend not to react well to interracial coupling. Especially with a demon.” She paused, chewing on her lower lip. “So...would it be weird to ask you a favor?”

“Depends on the favor,” Yelena replied.

“The main reason I’m out here is because I’m looking for something. I’ve been following a trail for quite awhile now. I’m looking for a relic that belonged to an elven military leader from...wow, probably about six hundred years ago. It’s a family medallion that’s supposed to be imbued with magic. Resistance to most elements. I figure it’d be a useful thing to have on top of my already natural resistance to some of the elements.”

“So, do you know where it is?” John asked.

“Yes. There’s an old structure to the south, an old fort. That’s where it ended up...I mean, I think at least. It’s the latest in a string of places it’s supposed to be. I want to go there and look for it. And given how dangerous the Emerald Wild is...”

“You’d like some backup,” John replied.

“Yes. Would you be willing to help?”

He looked at Yelena. “I’m up for it,” she said.

“Okay then. Me too,” John replied.

“Great! Now, I honestly don’t have much to offer as way of incentive or reward. I’m not planning on selling this and I can’t really split it, plus I’m not exactly rolling in coin right now. So...guess I’ll just throw this out there, uh...any interest in a threesome? Cause I’ll totally fuck both of you if you’re down for it. Or even just one of you.”

“We would most certainly be interested in a threesome with you,” Yelena said.

“You didn’t even ask me,” John replied.

Yelena laughed loudly. “Is there even the tiniest, smallest chance that you would not be interested in sex with her and me at the same time?” she asked.

“Well...I mean, no,” he replied.

“Exactly, love.”

“Awesome then! You wanna head out now? Cause I’m actually really horny.”

“Yeah, let’s go get this dealt with,” John replied, moving over to where his adventuring gear was stored. Yelena joined him.

Millie watched them intently as the pair suited up in their armor, then pulled on their traveling packs. John found it hard not to stare back at her, she really was very attractive, and it had been quite awhile since he’d enjoyed the pleasure of sex with a felis. Had Yelena? He couldn’t remember. Well, not during their time together, as far as he knew. Oh, what a wonderful night this was going to be. Hopefully, provided the adventure went well and Millie still felt like fucking them both afterward. He and Yelena finished getting their armor and gear on, then led their new felis friend out of their cabin. Yelena took a moment to lay a few simple magical traps around the area, as she’d become accustomed to doing since they’d moved in.

So far no one had tried to break in.

And then they were off, striking out due south, heading deeper into the Emerald Wild. John never thought that he would actually be trying to live in the Wild. He’d been here often enough, gone on adventures and recovered old relics and fought monsters...and had some sex. But never tried to live here. Then again, he never really assumed he’d be in a loving, committed relationship with an actual demoness.

“So, what about your story, Millie?” Yelena asked after several minutes of silent progress.

“My story?” Millie replied.

They were moving together in a loose group down a decently clear path, one of the many that were cut through the Wild by the traffic that it did see. The forest was alive around them with wildlife and plants shifting in a cool breeze and other, larger things.

“Yeah. How’d you get into adventuring?” John asked.

“Well, it wasn’t easy. I grew up in a small village on the far west coast, near the Redwood Forest’s edge, seaside. It was a mixed village, mostly elves and felis. I became a hunter after trying out a few other things, along with my best friend, a woman named Kat. We did everything together. Eventually, a little while after we came of age, we decided to travel the land together. It was fun at first, but then we started getting into fights from time to time. Then all the time. After several months, we decided we were making each other miserable and should just split up, then meet back up later. Well, I went on to become a mercenary for awhile, protecting merchants or villages from monsters or bandits. It was fun. Then I hooked back up with Kat after...longer than I want to admit. Honestly, all this stuff is boring and there’s really just one thing I feel like talking about, given the current, uh...nature of our relationship,” she said.

“What’s that?” John replied.

“Sex. My sex life. It was boring until about two years ago.”

“Oh?” Yelena asked.

“Yeah. I had just hooked back up with Kat, and then we both went into Heat. If you don’t know what that is, basically, felis have a time of year where we get really fucking horny because our bodies really want us to reproduce. Naturally, if you don’t want to reproduce, this can be a very trying time. Especially because the Heat is powerful. Like, a lot of the typical methods of birth control aren’t guaranteed to work. We all deal with it in our own way, but a good way to deal with it is to get fucked like a complete horny slut by someone not of your own species. Absolutely guaranteed not to get pregnant that way. It’s impossible.

“Well...at that point, I’d never had an opportunity to have sex with someone outside my own species. I found it very difficult to do. Kat and I were desperate, and she managed to find a very handsome young man who was actually very interested in sex with women outside his own species. And he’d never done it with a felis before. Well, Kat seduced him and fucked him, then brought him back to me, and we fucked him a lot. Oh, did we fuck that boy. After that, I realized that I was kind of holding myself back with regards to interspecies sex. I started focusing on it a bit more, and I even realized that some of the men I was traveling with were actually interested in me, but they were, I think, waiting for me to make a move, or were even positive that I wasn’t interested. I was into a lot of them, I just didn’t think it was even a possibility that they could be into me, so I never did anything. But after my experience with him…

“Well, let’s just say that my sexual adventures took off for awhile there. I ended up getting into fights with Kat again not much later. I love that girl and she loves me, we just...don’t operate well together for very long. I don’t really know what it is. So, after we split again, I kind of serial fucked my way across the land. Humans, elves, beryl. Then I fucked a werewolf, and then a vampire, and then a male serpentine. That was, uh...oh wow, that was an experience. A weird one, but in a really good way. Got me off so hard.”

“John has fucked a serpentine,” Yelena said.

“Was it wonderful?” Millie asked.

“Yes. She was, uh...an excellent lover,” John replied.

“They were both quite vocal during the experience,” Yelena said, smirking.

“Oh, I’m going to be so loud tonight, just so you know. I’m a noisy partner.”

“I very, very much look forward to making you noisy,” Yelena said.

Millie looked over at her, chewing on her lower lip. “I just can’t get over how amazingly beautiful you are, Yelena. Your body is just...oh and your eyes are so sexy...John, how do you not just fuck her brains out all the time?”

“Well, you did discover us by spying on us fucking in our front yard,” John replied.

“Good point. That was so hot by the way. You two look amazing fucking.”

“Not that I do not enjoy this line of conversation, but perhaps we should talk more about our intended destination,” Yelena suggested.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Millie replied. “Honestly, I don’t know much about it, or even the area it’s in. It’s an old fort. Like, really old. Something like nine hundred years or so. I’ll be surprised if it’s still there at all. But I at least have to try.”

“Any idea how it ended up here?” John asked.

“Ended up with a diary from a traveler from about a hundred years ago. In one of the passages, he mentions hearing a rumor about another adventurer that had this medallion who went looking for this fort we’re heading for and never came back.”

“That’s not a good sign,” John murmured.

“Yeah, but you know how it is. Those ‘and he was never seen again...’ stories are horseshit half the time. Either someone doesn’t know what they’re talking about or it was intentionally started to keep people away or some such shit. I mean, if it really does look too dicey I am willing to walk from this. I don’t need this thing, I just want it. And I mean, at this point, I mainly want it because it’s proven so elusive so far.”

“I do know that feeling,” Yelena said.

They walked on through the Emerald Wild, chatting about their experiences, their adventures and their sexual escapades. The places they’d seen. The monsters they’d killed. The dangerous situations they’d barely made it out of alive. The more he talked with her, the more John got to like Millie. There was something kind of...whimsical about her, he supposed. A lot of adventurers postured. They had a kind of ‘been there, done that’ air about them. He was guilty of it himself sometimes, and Yelena...well, that’s just naturally how she was. She was very iron willed, very serious, very competent, most of the time.

He was glad that she’d been learning how to relax and open up since they had begun their relationship.

But Millie was something else. He believed that she was an adventurer, just as skilled as he or Yelena was. Well, maybe him. They paled in comparison to the demoness, with her decades upon decades of experience. Millie was...free spirited. She was a little goofy, very animated, very clear about where her interests lay. She was a heart-on-her-sleeve kind of woman, he thought. And it was refreshing. He liked that about her. And Yelena seemed to like her too. The women had a lot to talk about as they walked on among the trees.

And then the conversation began to die off as they drew closer.

“Okay,” Millie murmured as they moved off the path they had been traveling along for a little while now, “we just passed that waterfall, and the rock that looks kind of like a dull blade with its tip broken off, and that means the fort should be...right through here.”

They followed her through some thick, vividly green vegetation. The trio walked further and further. First ten feet, then twenty, then fifty.

“Shit, where is it?” Millie muttered, irritated.

“Maybe-” Yelena began, then Millie cried out as her foot caught on something. She nearly fell forward but managed to catch herself with some excellent reflexes.

“You okay?” John asked.

“I’m fine. What the fuck did I trip on?” she replied, turning around and crouching. They joined her in inspecting the ground.

“There,” Yelena said, pulling back some branches of a bush. It revealed some stonework, sticking out of the ground, worn almost totally smooth and half buried.

“I think we may have found your fort,” John said.

“Damn, I was worried about this,” Millie murmured, slowly standing back up.

“We should keep looking,” Yelena said.

“There’s probably nothing left.”

“In my experience, almost all of these large stone structures have subterranean sections,” Yelena pointed out.

“I suppose that’s a good point. Okay, if you’re willing to keep going, then so am I.”

They set off again, this time moving more carefully, spreading out, looking for some way into what could possibly be the cellar of a long abandoned, long destroyed fortress. It took them another ten minutes before John nearly fell down an opening. He didn’t have amazing reflexes like the two ladies he was traveling with and only managed to shift himself to the left, still falling on his side and narrowly avoiding falling down the hole.

“Shit!” he snapped as he landed with a grunt.

“Are you okay?” Yelena called. He heard both of them moving towards him.

“I’m fine,” he said as he picked himself back up. “Found the basement!”

“Oh, thank the Gods,” Millie said as she tracked him down. The three of them gathered and stood at the entrance to what John saw was a very old stairwell of stone and wood, cut into the earth, descending into darkness. He could see a few vague remains of what had once been the fortress itself around them in the form of some low stonework masonry and a few other random bits and pieces of the structure.

“Well...I guess we go down now,” Millie murmured.

“I guess so,” Yelena agreed, drawing her blade and casting a light spell. She went down into the old stairway.

“Wow, she’s very, uh...”

“Brave,” John said.

“Yeah. And sexy. Good Gods, she’s amazing.”

“Yes, she is,” John agreed. “Let’s get to it.”

“Let’s.”

They followed her down.

It quickly grew colder as they descended the stairs. John felt a shiver ripple through him and knew it was more than just the cold.

“Something bad’s down there,” he murmured.

“I feel it, too,” Millie replied, hesitating. “Should we do this?”

“I want to see it,” Yelena said, almost eager.

“If it’s evil, which I’m pretty sure it is, then clearing it out would probably be the best option. Plus, we’d be doing the forest a favor,” John said.

Millie sighed. “I guess that’s true. Well, I’m not backing down,” she decided.

They pressed on. Before long, they hit the bottom of the stonework stairwell. They drew their blades. The light spell Yelena had cast only pushed the darkness back so much in the large room they’d come to. She raised her hand and renewed it, pressing against the shadows that gathered. They revealed the edges of the room, which featured several old tables and chairs, as well as some armor stands and empty wooden weapon cases.

There were three exits, broad, open doorways cut into the stone, leading to further darkness.

“Now what?” John muttered.

“We should stick together. Clear this place out slowly and surely,” Yelena replied. Millie muttered an agreement. He noted that both women’s tails were twitching back and forth in anxious agitation. Although for Yelena it was probably more battle lust than anything else. She really loved a challenge.

They opted to go left first.

The chill worsened as they moved through the archway and into the room beyond. John could feel the press of the weight of all the earth overhead, and the weight of time as well. Centuries had passed, and this place had been here for all of it. What had it seen? Probably not nearly as much as most places, given its remote location, but surely a fair amount of people had stumbled across it down the decades and centuries.

The first room was just about barren, just a small collection of furniture that had been broken down to kindling by the erosion of time. There was dust on the floor, and on the remnants of the furniture. Nothing had been through here for quite awhile. They left the room alone after making sure it was a dead end, then moved across the initial chamber to the right opening. John felt his body tense up a bit more as they found basically more of the same, another empty, cold room. Silently, they moved to the final opening.

It led to a long tunnel.

The trio kept going, and it definitely felt colder the further they went. John tensed and relaxed his muscles, trying not to get too worked up. Could be anything down there...or nothing. Although he no longer believed that.

Something was down here.

Finally, the tunnel came to an end, letting out into another large room that looked like it was once a training area. There were old, decayed mats on the dusty floor, more armor stands and weapon cases, more wooden tables nailed together. And more openings along the walls. It was so cold now that John could actually see his breath on the air.

“What do you think it is?” Millie whispered.

“Ghost, maybe. Some kind of spirit. Or maybe just a curse. If it’s a curse, we’ll need help from someone else. Or, if the curse is tied to something specific we can destroy that and then the curse will sort of evaporate over time,” John replied.

“Whatever it is, let’s find it and end it. I have dealt with troublesome spirits before,” Yelena said softly.

They resumed their search, starting at the left again, investigating the rooms they found, listening closely for any signs of life. Or whatever passed for life down here. But it was eerily silent. They found what had once been a barracks, which made John feel a true sense of empathetic misery for the poor souls that had to sleep down here on a regular basis way back when. They found another training area, what appeared to be a dining room, and a few more empty rooms. When they did finally track down the source of the chill and foreboding, it happened abruptly.

John had taken the lead and was walking into another one of the rooms. As Yelena’s light pushed back the shadows once more, he caught sight of something, something white and glowing and a sinister shape with the appearance of tattered cloth.

And then, right as he was calling out a warning, a shriek cut through the air and something smashed into his chest and sent him flying backwards.

Yelena screamed and charged into the room, sword glowing a brilliant red now, and Millie ran in after her. John gasped for breath as he struggled to his feet. He’d had the wind knocked out of him but was otherwise okay. He grabbed his own blade from where it had landed when it’d been thrown from his grasp and ran into the room after the women.

And then he saw it.

It was a wraith.

It had the vague appearance of a human, though it hung a few inches above the floor. It was like a floating, glowing man covered in a ripped and tattered blanket that had somehow become part of his skin. It had long, reaching arms and skeletal fingers. And its eyes glowed a baleful white-blue. Yelena was slashing at it with her blade, dodging its arms. Millie ducked and jabbed her blade into the thing’s central mass, and it swiped at her, connecting and sending her sprawling as it shrieked madly. Yelena was screaming right back at it, cutting at the thing. John knew they would be able to kill it, at least, as he moved forward, looking for an opportunity.

He and Yelena had silver blades, which were good against wraiths.

As he came forward, Yelena miscalculated something, and the wraith got the best of her, hitting her hard and sending her flying. She cried out and John ran forward with his own war cry. He ducked beneath the thing’s sweeping arms and spindly fingers, then drove the tip of his blade up into its head. The wraith let out a shriek that nearly ruptured his eardrums and sent him staggering, and then burst into a thousand floating motes of light that quickly faded. Everything went quiet as the shriek faded and all three of them slowly got to their feet.

“What was that?” Yelena asked, groaning as she rubbed her neck.

“A wraith,” John replied. “They’re from an alternate plane. Sometimes they get drawn in when the conditions are right. Basically, when a certain kind of evil energy begins to gather and then generate in an area. I don’t really know the specifics, but they feed off of evil and are very territorial. Hopefully it consumed enough of the energy that this place will lose whatever evil charge it has left. Is everyone okay?”

“I’m fine,” Millie replied. “Might need a long soak in a hot spring, though.”

“We can arrange that,” Yelena replied. She moved over to John and hugged him. “I am okay, my love. Are you?”

“I’ll be fine. Nothing some sex won’t cure,” he said.

She laughed. “Ever the pragmatist.” She kissed him. “Let us find your lost artifact, Millie, so that we can return home.”

“Let’s,” Millie agreed.

They began their search.

…

They didn’t find what they were looking for, but Millie didn’t seem all that upset.

As they searched the underground remnants of the old fort, the chill began to fade, and had started to approach merely mild by the time they had finished up their search a few hours later. Although they didn’t find the amulet, they did manage to locate a bit of gold, a nice old sword that would probably sell for a decent price, and a few gems. Millie agreed to take half the gold and the sword, and let them keep the rest.

Now that the job was done, all three of them quickly and eagerly returned home.

John couldn’t help but keep sneaking glances at Millie. She had the most amazing thighs, and her ass was just...ah! Beautiful! He was going to enjoy seeing her naked, enjoy pleasuring her, feeling her soft fur against his skin as he fucked her brains out…

Finally, after what felt like ages, they made it back home.

He and Yelena quickly checked over the area, making sure no one had been by while they’d been gone, and that nothing was lying in wait for them. Once they were sure the way was clear, the three of them moved into the main cabin and quickly began stripping everything off their bodies.

“Will it be okay if I spend the night here?” Millie asked.

“Yes, if that’s what you want,” John said after glancing quickly at Yelena, who gave him a small but firm nod.

He loved how many things were unspoken between them.

“That’s definitely what I want. You got any wine? I wouldn’t mind getting a little drunk for this sex session,” Millie said as she finished stripping.

Damn, she had a nice body. A really nice body. And all that beautiful, soft fur.

“We do have some wine,” Yelena replied. “I believe this is a good occasion.”

“Have at it ladies,” John said as he finished getting naked as well. He felt that slight bit of discomfort as he took his undershorts off. It always felt strange getting nude in front of a new woman, though there was a certain exhilaration to it. And, typically speaking, if he was getting naked, then so was she.

And he absolutely loved seeing new women naked.

Millie was certainly no exception.

Yelena returned with a bottle of wine and tore the cork out with her teeth. She spat it aside and drank a healthy amount before passing it to Millie. Yelena gave John a firm kiss on the mouth, favoring him with a sultry grin, then cast the spell that filled the sunken tub with new water. Millie started coughing as she pulled the wine bottle from her mouth.

“I somehow forgot you can do that! You have got to teach me that!” she cried.

“It’s not too difficult. I will show you tomorrow,” Yelena replied.

“Much appreciated.” Millie tried to pass him the bottle as John approached.

“You can hang onto it,” he said and slipped down into the water.

“Not partaking?” Millie asked, joining the two of them in the steaming, crystal clear water.

“Not really my thing,” he replied.

“Fair enough. More for us,” she said, and took another healthy swig of the wine. As he watched the two women relax and pass the bottle back and forth, he realized that he hadn’t really gotten drunk since just before meeting Yelena. Besides the fact that he had difficulties performing while drunk, he also realized that he now kind of associated it with all the bad things in his life. He’d used to get drunk when he was pissed off or depressed or feeling lonely. It was how he’d spent the night before meeting the woman who would change his life forever.

He didn’t feel the need to drink any longer.

Not that he minded when other people did it. He knew how relaxing it could be to be a bit tipsy, a bit dizzy, a bit bubbly.

And drunk sex was actually pretty nice when you weren’t the one drinking.

He took the opportunity to wash up quickly, wanting to be ready for sex whenever it started. He was very horny, and he could tell Yelena was too. She’d gotten fidgety and had been giving him those looks she liked to give him when she was about to fuck him like crazy. Before long, the women had emptied the wine bottle and washed themselves off.

“It sucks about that artifact,” Millie murmured. “I was looking forward to finding it. Not even to having it anymore really, but just to finding it. That was my last lead...”

“What will you do now?” Yelena asked.

She sighed. “I really should be getting back to my home village. I promised my mother that I would visit her once every few months, and it’s going on four now. She’s going to think I’ve died out here, and if I wait much longer, she’ll be so pissed when I get back. She won’t let me hear the end of it for days.”

“Fair enough,” John replied.

“But enough about that. Let’s fuck. I’m seriously horny right now,” Millie said, grinning fiercely at the two of them.

“You want to do it here?” Yelena asked.

“Yes, I want to fuck in the water. I don’t even want to dry off.”

“Well, all right then,” John said. “Let’s get started.”

Millie moved across the tub and sat in his lap, straddling him. She immediately leaned in and began kissing him. He kissed her back, holding her firm, furry body against his. It was always a little strange, feeling wet fur, but really, he didn’t mind it. Especially when Millie reached down between them and began to massage his cock, which was already growing stiff.

“Mmm...there you are,” she whispered, grinning into the kiss. She kept kissing him, slipping her tongue into his mouth. He could taste the sweet wine on her breath as she wrapped his tongue with hers, moaning as she kissed him. Abruptly she pulled back and then looped an arm nimbly around Yelena’s waist, pulling her closer, tilting her head and kissing her firmly on the mouth. Yelena moaned softly in response, groping Millie’s firm breasts as they locked lips and twisted tongues together. John was fully erect now, throbbing in anticipation.

While still kissing Yelena, Millie proved her impatience by raising up slightly, shifting his cock so that it lay at the entrance of her felis pussy, then lowering herself. She broke the kiss, moaning as she took his dick into her.

“Oh, fuck yes...” she groaned. “I have so been missing human cock. I forgot how fucking fantastic it feels...”

She began riding him and resumed kissing and groping Yelena. John just sat back, letting himself get fucked, happy to let Millie use his cock to pleasure herself as she made out with his lover, both women groaning and touching each other, hands wandering over nude bodies. The pleasure was beginning to fill him, a hot wondrous feeling as Millie rode his cock, taking him into herself over and over again, her bare felis pussy sliding smoothly up and down his rigid length. She felt amazing. She was beautiful and so tight and wet and perfect inside.

Sex with her was a rapturous pleasure.

He reached back around her and grabbed her ass, finding it tight and firm, then reached up and grabbed her tail. She gasped, breaking the kiss.

“Oh!”

“He’s got your tail, doesn’t he?” Yelena asked, breathing heavily.

“Yes...I...oh my, not many do that,” she whispered.

“You like that?” he asked.

“I do. A lot. So much...oh my, it feels good, keep squeezing...” she moaned.

He squeezed a little harder, his hand wrapped around the base of her tail. Fun fact he’d learned about women with tails: almost every single one of them considered it very pleasurable and deeply erotic when he touched, squeezed, or caressed their tail. Yelena particularly liked it when he gave a little tug on hers.

“You keep that up and I’m gonna...ungh...gonna...oh yes!” Millie screamed suddenly, and she bucked against him, water splashing as she enjoyed her orgasm. Her back arched and her head raised, exposing her neck to him as she moaned and writhed, grabbing his shoulders firmly. He could feel her pussy clenching around his cock, hot, increasingly wet spasms making the sex better as she kept furiously riding his dick.

Somehow, he managed not to come.

When she was finished, she groaned and fell against him. He hugged her, felt her panting, heard and felt her hot breath in his ear.

“Think I need a minute,” she whispered.

“That’s fine. I believe it is my turn,” Yelena said.

“Oh...yeah.” Millie got off of him, his cock slipping out, and Yelena quickly and nimbly mounted him. She slipped him inside of her without a second’s hesitation and began riding his cock, pleasuring both of them immediately.

“Oh, fuck yes, babe,” he groaned, feeling her firm, fit body against him as she rode his dick, satisfying herself with it. “I fucking love you so much...”

She kissed him hard on the mouth. “I love you too, John. And I love fucking you.”

She moaned loudly as he thrust up into her and both of them fucked each other hard, locked together, water splashing over the sides. He fucked Yelena for a good minute or so, and then she settled down and stretched. “I want to do that one position,” she murmured.

“Oh the-yeah, perfect. I know which one,” he said, standing and lifting her up.

She smiled at him. “I love how you can read me so well.”

She locked her legs around his midriff and then leaned back. As he grabbed her lower back, holding her up, she rested the heels of her palms behind her, against the side of the tub. Her breasts, wet and firm and fantastic, looked absurdly sexy as she arched her back and let him fuck her in this position.

“Wow, that is seriously fucking hot,” Millie said.

“It feels wonderful,” Yelena replied, then cried out as he hit a particularly sensitive spot.

John was lost in the world of pleasure that was Yelena’s body. Bareback sex with a demoness that he was in love with was the greatest pleasure he had ever felt in his entire life. He grunted as he screwed her, burying his cock completely inside of her bare pussy, building closer to an orgasm. Speaking of which…

“Anyone got a preference where I come? In or on anyone?” he asked.

“I want you to come inside me,” Millie replied immediately. “I fucking love feeling guys come inside me. Can we do that?”

“Yeah, definitely,” he replied. “Yelena?”

“I am okay with it, so long as Millie licks my clit.”

“Deal,” Millie said.

He fucked Yelena in this position for a bit longer, then pulled out of her and they all switched. Yelena sat on the edge of the tub with her legs spread open and Millie got into position in front of her, bending over and planting her face in her crotch. Yelena let out a loud moan of pleasure and settled her hand atop Millie’s head, in between her cat ears, as Millie began licking at Yelena’s oh-so-sensitive clit with her rough tongue.

John quickly got in behind her, sliding his cock back into Millie’s sweet felis pussy, and started pounding her, staring down at her hot ass and the way his dick looked disappearing into her over and over again.

It didn’t take a particularly long time for him to come.

All three of them were moaning in pure sexual gratification. John had Millie’s trim hips in his hands as he pounded her hard enough that she had to place her palms against the side of the tub to keep her face from getting shoved too deep into Yelena’s crotch. He couldn’t help it, her pussy felt so fucking good, and now that he knew she wanted him to come inside of her, he was almost racing towards orgasm.

There was nothing quite as gratifying as orgasming inside of a woman without any kind of protection between you.

Right before he began to come, Yelena let out a loud, impassioned moan of bliss as she started her own orgasm. And then he was coming. He was climaxing into a new woman, into this beautiful felis adventuress named Millie. He was pumping her full of his seed, groaning at the absolute rapture his orgasm was giving him as his cock kicked furiously inside of her, emptying himself out. Yelena was adding her own voice to the mix, grabbing Millie’s head and forcing it deeper into her crotch as she came hard from the oral pleasure.

And Millie was clearly enjoying the experience as well, letting out loud muffled groans of sexual satisfaction.

Slowly, his orgasm ran down, and he was left overheated and on the way to passing out. John carefully pulled out of Millie as he finished up and then got out of the tub. He laid down on the floor, cooling off, trying to get his breath back.

“That was a lot of fun,” Millie said after Yelena let go of her.

“Yes,” Yelena agreed, “a great deal.”

“You know,” Millie said as she got out, grabbed a towel and began drying herself, “maybe I can stay another day or two...”

“We would really like that,” John replied.

“Yes,” Yelena murmured, then let out a long, happy sigh. “Your tongue is amazing.”

“Great! So, who’s up for dinner? I’m starving,” Millie replied.

“Just caught and killed a deer recently. We were gonna cook it up tonight,” John said.

“Sounds great. I’ll help.”

Millie tossed the towel aside and John found his eyes drawn again to her trim, fit body. Oh yes, it was going to be a fantastic next couple of days.

DEMONESS III

CHAPTER I

“Here. They are in here,” Yelena said.

John felt a ripple of anticipation mixed with fear shiver through him as he slowly drew his blade, standing behind Yelena, who was crouched just at the treeline, peering intently through the curtain of vivid green vegetation.

“Are you sure?” he asked, although it felt like a pointless question. Yelena was always sure when she spoke, and her senses were a lot better than his. But this was important, and he felt the need to be extra cautious.

“Yes,” she replied quietly.

Her tail had ceased all movement. It had been whipping back and forth for most of the day. But now her focus was honed down to a fine point. John shifted to get a better view, staring at the old stone structure. Yes, he could definitely tell something was in the area, more than likely in the structure itself. He studied the darkened openings along the front wall, looking for any indication of movement or signs of life.

“What is this place?” Yelena asked.

“I’m not sure,” he replied.

The building had a hasty, unfinished look to it, and it didn’t resemble any particular style. It looked like little more than a place to get in out of the forest, and not even a very good one. It was more than likely that it had been in the process of being built at some point several years ago, and whoever it was who had been doing the building had been driven off or even killed. Lots of derelict structures like these dotted the Emerald Wild.

“We should go now,” Yelena said, “while they are in there. I can smell them.”

“Then we’ll go,” John replied.

His grip on the silver blade tightened. Yelena drew her bow and notched an arrow with a dexterity that still startled him. The pair of them slipped silently through the vegetation, into the overgrown clearing beyond, moving slowly towards the bare stone structure. In the month that had passed since they had successfully stopped a resurrected, undead entity and gotten Yelena her amulet to help her hide, John had finally gotten himself some armor. It was simple but sturdy chainmail, magically infused to make it pretty strong.

It had saved his life a few times so far.

Right now, he and Yelena were doing a special favor for their dryad friends. Cypress, the leader of a powerful clan of female dryads, had asked them for their help in hunting down and eliminating a pair of beasts that had gotten into the Emerald Wild and were causing problems. They were called Withers and they were toxic to plant life and to dryads, and pretty much any other being that was of nature. They were evil beings that were summoned from another realm, one similar to Yelena’s own. She was familiar with them.

The dryads could have, given enough time, taken care of it themselves, but John and Yelena could do it quickly and with less risk. And it wasn’t like they minded. Their bond with the dryads was strong, and they’d helped each other out more than once over the past month. And so, they’d immediately answered the call and set out to kill some Withers. They had spent some of yesterday and all of today so far tracking the awful things after Cypress had pointed them in the right direction. And now, finally, they had found them.

John heard a low, wet clicking come echoing out to him from within the structure, and from the way Yelena tensed, he knew they were on their mark. There were two primary entrances from this side, and John and Yelena split up naturally. They had gotten very good at moving without speaking, knowing where the other was, almost being able to predict what the other was going to do and then matching their own decisions to build on that.

John focused, letting all else fall away.

It was do or die now.

He moved up to the dark, rectangular opening, sword firmly in hand. He could feel his heart thudding, low and powerful, in his chest, beginning to build up speed. He was sweating badly now, and he thought briefly but wistfully of a long soak with Yelena. Then John was through the door. He found himself in a broad passageway that went left to right. Off to his left, he saw Yelena, arrow notched firmly. He knew those arrows were silver-tipped and treated with a spell meant to damage beings of evil.

The wall directly ahead of him was unfinished, and holes and gaps in it gave a view into the room on the other side. John moved carefully up to it. The sounds he’d been hearing had stopped very abruptly. That wasn’t a good sign. He peered cautiously through the nearest hole and studied what lay beyond. He could see more of the same, though it was definitely darker. More stone, an earthen floor with a little bit of plant life, what might have been a few dead bodies, and...something seemed to move, deeper in.

And then a face appeared suddenly on the other side of the hole, and John found himself eye-to-eye with some maddened beast. A red eye with a sickened yellow-green slit pupil stared at him and then suddenly disappeared.

“Oh, fuck!” he screamed.

A horribly triumphant, shrieking roar sounded and then the wall before him exploded as the beast on the other side burst through. John cried out as he was at first pelted with stone bits and then was picked up by sheer force and thrown back out the door he’d come in through. He grunted harshly as he landed on his back and heard Yelena yelling. The breath driven from his lungs, John gasped for air as he struggled to sit up.

The Wither came out into the sunlight and he saw it clearly for the first time.

It was a ten-foot horror cast in black and red. It had long, spindly arms and legs, and its bizarre, triangular head ended in a mouth full of jagged teeth. Behind it, a barbed tail whipped violently back and forth.

“Holy Gods,” John moaned, wondering what in the fuck he had got himself into.

The Wither came for him. And from the sudden fury of sound coming from inside the structure, it seemed that Yelena had her hands full with the second one. Well, he could handle this on his own. Probably.

John rolled aside as the Wither struck at him with its tail. A viciously long, spiked tip stabbed into the dirt, narrowly missing him. John whipped his sword around as he saw a good opportunity and brought the silver blade down hard on the thing’s tail. The Wither shrieked madly as the blade cut right thought its tail and a viscous black blood began to pump out of it. John stumbled away, trying to steer clear of its madly whipping half-tail and reaching, clawed hands. He had to take this thing out fast and hard or it was going to take him apart.

He backed up several more steps as he fully regained his feet, then lashed out as the beast once again reached for him. The bright silver blade made contact again and sliced along the thing’s tough skin, slitting it open and spilling more of the awful black blood. The beast shrieked and moved forward faster than he could track. It struck him in the chest and sent him flying once again. John let out another bark of agony as his second flight was abruptly stopped by a particularly thick and sturdy tree trunk. He slammed to the ground again.

It was time to end this.

He fell forward, crouching on one knee, his blade’s tip in the dirt now. He rested on it, trying to look like he was barely conscious, like he was more injured than he really was. (Although fuck, from the amount of pain he was in, it wasn’t hard to fake.) The Wither let out another roaring shriek and came for him, barreling at him like an enraged beast of burden. Perfect. A few seconds that felt like hours passed and…

John jerked up, bringing his blade with him, then pulling it back and shoving it forward with all his might into the Wither’s chest as it drew close enough. This time its shriek was loud enough that his eardrums felt like they would burst. Pressing the advantage, John stepped back, ripping the blade out in a spray of dark gore, and then quickly whipped it around in a tight arc, putting all his strength behind it. The blade cut through its neck and separated its head from its awful body. John stepped back as the body took a few uncertain steps, nerves still twitching as the blood sprayed from its neck, and then it slammed to the ground.

“Thank the fucking Gods,” John whispered, then groaned as a fresh wave of pain rolled through him. He hoped he hadn’t cracked a rib or something.

Then he realized he couldn’t hear any fighting.

John ran forward, suddenly worried. He knew Yelena could handle herself, but that was the problem with real life: one little slip up, one moment of bad luck, one seemingly simple mistake could end up getting you killed.

“Yelena?” he called.

“I’m here, my love,” Yelena replied calmly from somewhere deeper in the structure.

Relief flooded him, and he stopped running. So, everything had worked out. He moved into the building and then headed down the bare hallway. Yelena was in the main room, crouched over the other Wither, which was now dead.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’ll be fine,” he replied. “Though I think I’ll need a small healing potion. I might’ve cracked a rib,” he added, frowning as he gently probed his chest.

Yelena yanked her arrow free of the Wither’s corpse and stood. “You should be more careful,” she said, walking over to him, studying him.

“Well, we’re not exactly doing safe tasks here, babe,” he replied.

She frowned and then reluctantly nodded. “Yes, I suppose so.” She reached out and placed a hand against him. “We do not need to use any healing potions,” she murmured, and he suddenly felt a warmth enter his chest and begin to spread across his body. “How many times must I remind you of my abilities?”

“Sorry, love,” he replied, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just...you know, have difficulty asking for things.”

A look of discomfort came onto her face, then she slowly nodded. “I know. I do, too.”

He laughed and hugged her to him, then kissed her. “It’s something we’ll have to keep working on,” he said.

“Yes. Although given our current lifestyle, I must admit that I’m comfortable with my current skill-set,” Yelena replied, looking back at the dead Wither.

“Fair point. We ready to burn them?” he asked.

“Yes. Although maybe we should take a moment and check this structure. There could be valuables,” Yelena replied.

“Also a fair point.”

They split up, moving across the main room and investigating the handful of dead bodies that were in the building. Some of them had been there for quite awhile, and some looked a bit more recent, although it didn’t seem as if anyone had been here for months at least. They patted down the bodies, searched pockets and packs, and at the end of it, managed to gather a handful of coin, a pretty nice emerald, and a silver dagger, which John tucked away for himself. Yelena didn’t really do daggers, but he liked them well enough.

“Ready?” Yelena asked as they moved back to the entrance of the inner room.

“Ready,” he replied.

She raised her hand, palm flat, and loosed a ball of intense fire. It burned so powerfully that it was white, and it consumed the body of the Wither almost immediately, then burned itself out within a few seconds. Fire wasn’t really something you wanted to just be throwing around in a place like the Emerald Wild.

Especially if you were friends with the locals.

They moved back outside quickly to avoid the toxic smoke, and then repeated the process with the other monster, and its head.

“You decapitated it. Nice,” Yelena said.

“Yeah. I got lucky,” he replied.

She snorted and nudged him as they began walking away, back into the Wild. “Luck plays a part in all we do, but you are skilled and dedicated. Do not do yourself a disservice. You are an amazing warrior and man.”

“Thank you, love, but you’re definitely a better warrior than me,” he replied.

“I know,” she said, “but that does not diminish your own abilities.”

He laughed. “You’re very confident, Yelena.”

“I know what I am capable of. And besides, you told me you liked that about me.”

“Oh, I do. That, uh...that’s a very, um, appealing aspect of you.”

She grinned and prodded him with the tip of her tail. “That means that you really want to fuck me,” she said.

“Guilty,” he agreed.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be doing a lot of fucking tonight.”

…

They walked back through the Emerald Wilds, heading south, towards their home and their typical meeting place with the dryads.

Now that he was no longer hunting dangerous monsters, John felt his mind sifting over his past, mainly over how his life had changed so rapidly and so utterly. It was a topic he found himself thinking about frequently. In the month since Yelena had gotten her amulet, the pair had largely dedicated themselves to fixing up the two cabins they had discovered in the course of helping a beautiful elf scholar hunting for a lost deed.

They had yet to see Tanis again, but that was how flings often went.

Despite how dangerous the Emerald Wild was and how much John thought his new life would be fraught with wild adventures and insane battles, things had gone pretty smoothly. Most days they just spent working on their place, repairing holes in the walls and roof, finding good replacements for doors and windows, and looking for good furniture. They’d made a few pilgrimages to some of the abandoned forts in the surrounding area, occasionally finding a good, sturdy chair or table or bookshelf that they liked.

Speaking of books…

That was what he always kept his eye out for now. Books. Yelena loved books. She was absolutely fascinated by them. Storytelling was certainly a concept in her realm, but it was almost always used very bluntly, like a tool. Typically, it was used to make the storyteller seem fierce or brave or vicious, someone to be respected, or at least feared. The idea of stories meant to evoke other feelings, feelings of compassion or lust or even simple, escapist joy, was something that Yelena hadn’t really considered.

John had always known that Yelena was smart and very sharp, but it had never so thoroughly been illustrated to him than when she took it upon herself to learn his written language. She was vaguely familiar with it, but once she put her mind to it, she started getting it pretty damned fast. And she was a voracious reader. John felt a kind of jealousy of her, because he remembered when he first discovered the power of books, the way they could suck you in and captivate you. The effect had almost been intoxicating in his youth.

It wasn’t that he no longer cared about books, he still read when he got the chance and he enjoyed it a lot, it was just diminished from what it once had been. And because he loved her and wanted her to enjoy that immensely powerful feeling, he was always looking for more books for her to read. Especially if he had read it as well, because she loved talking about the stories and characters and locations and themes at length with him, and it was difficult to do if he hadn’t read the book. So now he found himself reading as well, but she was outpacing him by a lot. But it was another thing that he absolutely loved doing with her.

Whatever fears or uncertainties John might have had about the speed with which their relationship had formed, or about its long-term stability, were basically gone now. He loved Yelena. He was as sure of this as he was anything in his life. He knew he would do anything for her. He was as happy as he had ever been, and he wanted to spend every day with her. And as such, the past month had been basically paradise.

And there were nice bonuses, as well, for both of them, in the form of some friends they’d made that were interested in casual sex. Namely, Cypress’s clan of dryads. Sometimes they would come to visit to satisfy their lust by having a really hot threesome. And Brynne had visited twice now. Good Gods, could that serpentine fuck.

And, of course, they’d made a few treks up to see Elise.

She was always very receptive to their visits.

“I am still curious as to what the dryads wish to gift me,” Yelena said, breaking him out of his thoughts of Elise riding his cock.

She was exceptionally skilled at it.

“I honestly don’t know,” John replied.

When they’d agreed to track down and kill the Withers, Cypress had promised a special gift for Yelena, one that she would appreciate deeply. When he’d jokingly asked, “What about me?” Cypress had just favored him with that slightly condescending, mostly sexy expression she wore so well and said, “John, your present is the one you always receive. Would you have it any other way?” Knowing that she meant amazing, unprotected dryad sex, he answered honestly that no, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m very interested,” Yelena said.

“I have to admit, I am too,” he replied.

They were almost at the meeting ground. As they had with Elise, the dryads gave them a place they could come to for meetings. Although John had once asked them how they could tell the difference between when he or Yelena showed up with an emergency, or if they were just looking to talk about something a little more casually. All Cypress would say was that they would know. John sometimes wondered how much dryads were actually capable of, and if any of it was just them saying stuff like that, merely implying that they were more powerful than they actually were. Although what he knew about them so far was sufficiently impressive, and he wasn’t really looking to press them for details if they wanted to be secretive.

They came into the meeting ground, and as he always was, John was struck by its beauty. A small waterfall fed into a crystal-clear pond that ran off into a creek, leading out of the clearing. Vividly blue and red and green flowers grew around the edge of the clearing and in random patches. Butterflies fluttered peacefully along in shafts of warm, golden sunshine. Frogs sat, seemingly in meditation, on lily pads resting atop the pond’s surface. Mice and rabbits and other small creatures scurried about. “I love it here,” Yelena murmured as she looked around the clearing.

“It’s very peaceful,” John agreed. He took her hand and laced their fingers.

“Peace is something that I would not have thought I would seek,” Yelena said. “For a long time, I valued constant action. I valued...well, many unfortunate things. But peace was not one of them. Tranquility and serenity have brought me more happiness than I ever thought possible.” She smiled and kissed him. “Although I imagine you have a great deal to do with that. I love you so much, John,” she said, and hugged him to her.

“I love you too, Yelena,” he replied, squeezing her to him.

“You two make the cutest couple,” Cypress said.

John jerked and then sighed.

“I knew you were there,” Yelena said.

“You did not,” Cypress replied as she and another dryad slipped silently into the clearing through the vegetation. Her partner was Fauna, the dryad warrior who had fought alongside them on the island last month, making a grim stand against the resurrected horror. They had met several times since then, and John had gotten to know her very intimately, as he had Cypress. He was extremely grateful that these amazing women were in his life, and that they were all so casual, with him and each other. Yelena’s initial jealousy had worried him, but so far, it hadn’t resurfaced. It was probably helping that pretty much all the women they encountered were just as interested in having hot, passionate sex with her as much as him.

“You have defeated the Withers,” Cypress said. As it almost always was, this was a statement of fact, not a question.

“Yes. Did you figure out where they came from?” John replied.

“We did. Some young, stupid mages who were trying to play with power beyond their means. They were very lucky that the Withers they summoned did not kill them. They are also lucky that I did not kill them,” Cypress explained.

“You let them go?” Yelena asked.

“Indeed. They were not evil, merely stupid. I do not believe they were even trying to summon Withers. It’s my guess they were attempting to summon a succubus. I informed them that if I saw them in my territory again, they would not be so lucky as to walk away a second time. I don’t believe we will be seeing them again.”

“I also doubt they’ll try something like that again without a lot more training,” John said. He realized that Cypress was holding something behind her back. “So, I must admit, I’m extremely curious about this gift you have for Yelena.”

“As am I,” Yelena said.

Cypress smirked now. She brought her hand out from behind her and presented Yelena with...a sex toy. John recognized it, he’d seen ones like it used a few times by some of the adventuresses or female merchants he hooked up with.

“Are you familiar with this, Yelena?” Cypress asked.

“I believe it is a strap-on,” Yelena murmured, accepting it, studying it. “I’ve read about this in some of the, ah, sexier books I’ve found recently. I wear it, and fuck women with it, correct?” she asked, turning it over.

“Yes. Or men, depending,” Cypress said, glancing at John.

“Admittedly, not really my thing,” he replied.

“Fair enough. But, Yelena, this is a very, very special strap-on,” Cypress said, returning her attention to Yelena.

“What makes it special?” she asked, looking up.

“It is infused with magic. When you wear it, and use it, you will actually feel the sexual pleasure,” Cypress explained.

“Oh my,” Yelena whispered, looking back down at it again. “Truly?”

“Truly. And Fauna here is very eager to let you test it on her, to make sure it works. It has never been used before. We crafted it for you personally, as a way of saying thank you for helping us, and for helping the forest.”

“Thank you,” Yelena said, and suddenly moved forward and wrapped Cypress in a hug. “I deeply appreciate this.”

“You have earned it. You are a very good person, Yelena,” Cypress replied, hugging her back.

As she stepped back, she glanced down at the strap-on she was holding, then over at Fauna, who smiled at her. She looked at John, who just grinned at her as well.

“I’m using this now,” she said, and began shedding her clothing and armor.

“Excellent. And now, I believe that I offered your lover a reward for his help as well,” Cypress said as she began walking towards him.

Damn, she was an intimidating woman, he thought as he stared at her. A six-foot-six dryad was no one to mess with, and he was extremely glad that she loved having sex with him. Everything about Cypress was sexy and beautiful. She had a wonderfully curvaceous body, and her broad hips, thick thighs, and big, firm breasts all called to something buried deep inside of him, an unconscious desire that he thought the majority of men had and didn’t even realize they were reacting to: reproduction. There was something very...fertile about Cypress, about almost all dryad women. Which made sense, given how in tune they were with nature, how they were basically manifestations of nature and fertility itself.

He already felt lust and desire shooting through him, filling him, making him desperate to be inside of Cypress.

She came to stand before him, nude and wondrous, and then leaned down and kissed him. He kissed her back immediately, pressing his lips to hers, feeling that wonderful fullness, how hot and wet her lips were, how soft they were. He reached around and grabbed her thick, full ass. Cypress moaned and pressed herself up against him, hugging him to her, having to duck down to kiss him properly. He loved how tall she was.

She broke the kiss. “Take your clothes off and we shall get in the water,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied immediately.

He heard a loud moan, followed immediately by another and glanced over as he began the process of getting out of his armor. What he saw made him even hornier. Fauna was on her back with her long, beautiful legs spread out wide. Yelena was on top of her, kissing her fiercely, groping one breast firmly, her other arm wrapped around the dryad’s back, and she was driving furiously into her with the strap-on.

And it must be working, because she kept breaking the kiss to cry out in intense pleasure, moaning and panting.

“Wow, she really likes that,” he murmured.

“Indeed,” Cypress said. “It’s a very useful toy. I imagine it will invigorate your sexual escapades with other women even more.”

“Oh yes, I’m very much looking forward to that,” John agreed. He finished getting his armor off, then quickly took off his clothing. It felt good to be naked. It was something he was definitely getting used to, being around Yelena and the dryads so much now. Once he was nude, John took Cypress’s hand and they moved over to the pond. He expected it to be cold, but it was pleasantly warm. Not exactly a hot spring, but it would definitely do. And it would be good to wash up. They waded into the water together and once they were mostly submerged, resumed kissing. Now, Cypress slipped her tongue into his mouth.

He liked how it felt different from a human tongue.

John had always known that he had a taste for inhuman women, but it was only since he’d met Yelena that he realized how truly powerful and far-reaching that desire was. He loved having sex with elves, felis, and beryl, but there was something simply amazing about engaging in passionate, unprotected sex with a dryad, a demoness, or a serpentine. And not just sex, but everything about them. Kissing them, touching them, embracing them, pleasuring them. Even laying there and talking with them was an experience.

He reached up between them and began to grope one of Cypress’s large, firm breasts. She moaned softly and twined their tongues together, filling his mouth with her wonderful taste of crystal clear water and honeysuckle and clean spring days. He hugged her to him, deepening the kiss, listening to his lover moan in powerful sexual gratification, and her current sex partner joining her in crying out in ecstasy.

“We don’t have to wait,” Cypress whispered, reaching down between them and gripping his cock. He groaned as she began to massage him.

“I, uh, I can go down on you, if you want,” he replied.

She smiled and kissed him again. “I can sense urgency in you. Desperate need. And, unfortunately, I do not have time for an extended session. Duty calls. So, we will make love now,” she replied, and brought one of her legs up, then wrapped it around him, spreading her legs a bit and granting him access to her.

As soon as she laid his cock at the entrance of her inhuman pussy, John pushed up with his hips and entered her. They moaned in sexual unity and she embraced him, kissing him again. He began to breathe more heavily as he started sliding in and out of her pussy. Dryad vagina was always so fantastically tight and wet, and hot. Not as hot as Yelena, (no one had hotter pussy than she did), but still, it felt so fucking good!

Getting a firm grip on her thick ass, John began driving up into her, holding her to him. Normally when he tried to have standing up sex in water it went...okay. It was easier if the woman was smaller than he was, and he could just hold her, but harder if she was his size or bigger. And Cypress was definitely bigger. But Cypress was like a rock in that he could press against her hard and fast and neither of them went anywhere unexpected as they floated in the water. She broke the kiss, letting out a loud cry as he buried himself all the way inside of her and hit something sensitive. He started to go harder and faster.

The pleasure…

John was panting now, grunting and moaning, completely, utterly lost in the sex he was having. Blissful ecstasy burned into him, filled him, took away his thoughts and worries and fears, bringing him to a place that was nothing but passionate, sexual rapture. He could hear Yelena letting out a series of high-pitched cries of pleasure and knew she was building towards a climax. He was nearing one himself. They had to have been making love for about five minutes now, and he wanted to keep going for a lot longer.

But Cypress said she had pressing engagements, and she never overplayed that.

If he was going to come, though, it was going to be after her. Or at least with her. Coming at the same time was just...paradise. John kissed her again, deeply and firmly, pressing their lips together, and continued making passionate love to her. She seemed to sense what he was trying to accomplish and began grinding herself against him, fucking herself with his cock and rubbing her clit against him, and Cypress let out a loud moan.

“Oh yes! Right there!” she moaned. “Oh, I fucking love human dick so much!” she cried, going harder and faster, pleasuring herself with his rock-hard cock.

And then he felt her orgasming against him, and it was one of the greatest feelings in the world. Her vaginal muscles clenched hard around his rigid cock, then began to spasm, massaging it and making her even tighter. John grunted and grabbed her, then started fucking her harder, slipping his cock rapidly in and out of her climaxing dryad pussy, making her scream in pleasure. As he felt a hot wave of her sex juices begin to escape her, making her even hotter and wetter than before, his own orgasm was triggered, and he let out a cry of pleasure as he started to come.

It was like a drug.

Like magic.

He orgasmed into Cypress, filling her up, pumping her wondrous dryad pussy full of his human seed, and waves upon waves of pure pink pleasure crashed through him. Each time his cock kicked hard, and a fresh spurt of his seed was shot into her, his pleasure was renewed, a fresh burst of hot ecstasy radiated out from his core and filled him.

He felt nothing but pure bliss.

When he was finished, John came back to himself, and had to fight not to collapse into the water. He carefully let go of Cypress, and then moved over to the shore, where he laid so that his head was still above water.

“Wow,” he said.

“You always say that after I fuck you,” Cypress said, grinning smugly as she came over to join him in resting.

“It’s always accurate,” he murmured, then he splashed some water onto his face, then thought better of it and dunked his whole head under the water. Coming back up, he ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Man, that is so much better.”

“Sex always brightens the day,” Cypress agreed.

John looked over and saw that Yelena was laying with Fauna, kissing sedately, basking in their own post-orgasm bliss.

“You two really do make a wonderful couple,” Cypress said, following his gaze. “I have never seen a human and a demoness together, but you two...well, if I’ve ever seen proof of the concept that love is truly blind, you and Yelena are an embodiment of it.”

“Thank you,” John murmured, not completely sure how to respond to that.

“I would tell you to treat her well, but it is clear you already know that.” She smiled suddenly and hugged him to her. “You are a very good friend, John Greenfield, and a good person. I’m so very glad to have you in my forest and in my life.”

“I feel the same way about you, Cypress,” he replied, hugging her back.

“Now,” she said, letting go of him and standing, the water running easily off of her tree bark patterned skin, “I’m afraid I must go. It has been fun.”

“Very fun,” he agreed.

He heard footsteps and glanced back again, seeing that Yelena and Fauna had come to join them. “I heard you talking about me,” Yelena said.

“I know,” Cypress replied. “What I said to him applies to you as well, Yelena.” She hugged and kissed her. “It was good to see you.”

“And you,” Yelena replied.

John got up to give Fauna a hug and a kiss as well. “Next time, we will make love,” she said, grinning at him.

“I’m very much looking forward to it,” he replied.

They said their farewells and the two dryads left them alone in the clearing, disappearing silently back into the foliage. Yelena settled down in the water beside him and wrapped her arms around him, holding him.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too,” he replied, then grinned. “I take it your toy was functional?”

“Oh my,” she replied, pulling back, staring at him with bright and excited eyes. “It was! Oh, was it ever functional. That thing...we must visit Elise. I want to use it on her and let her use it on me. And if we could find Tanis...this opens many doors.”

“That it does. And we can double-fuck our friends now.”

“Oh my, yes. And I can be double-fucked as well. That would be very nice,” Yelena agreed. “I’m curious, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?”

“Well, I figured we’d check out that fort one more time. The one we first found Tanis in. I think there’s another really solid chair we could use. And then we can head back to the cabins, maybe do some work, then...fuck and sleep?” he suggested.

“That sounds wonderful,” Yelena replied.

“All right, then. Let’s wash up and get dressed.”

CHAPTER II

The rest of the day went by pleasantly.

There was indeed one more chair in decent condition that John intended to use outdoors, since it matched a few of the others they’d recovered so far. As they started making their way back, he began to think about something, and once he got thinking about it, it became a bit hard to stop. Over the past month, Yelena had begun experimenting with him in bed. It was a type of sex that he was familiar with, and they had somewhat skirted it since the beginning of their relationship. It was something that she had difficulty with, but something that she really wanted to indulge in. And he actually really wanted to indulge in it, too.

It was really hot.

It was rough sex. Violent sex.

The kind of sex that involved screaming and hitting and choking and hair pulling and really, really hard fucking, and sometimes bindings and gags. That kind of sex was hot. That was the kind of sex he’d discovered one day during his second year of adventuring after a long crawl and a hard fight through a cave infested with spiders with an insanely beautiful elf that had been hitting on him ever since they’d agreed to team up and tackle the spider job. After getting paid, she’d asked him to spend the night with her out in the woods and he’d agreed immediately. That was when she’d asked him to tie her to her bed in her camp-in-a-bag, gag her, then beat the shit out of her while brutally fucking her brains out and screaming at her.

John had known about this kind of sex. He’d read about it growing up, and it had turned him on in a way he wasn’t quite comfortable with. But that had been his first real encounter with it. And he’d decided to give it a shot, because having her ask him for this, and with how fucking hot she was, he was so turned on that his brain felt like it was melting.

And he had brutally fucked her all night long.

That had been one of the most arduous, strenuous sex sessions of his life, and he had enjoyed every second of it.

They’d needed a healing potion afterward, and although he’d felt really guilty, because he was sure he’d gone too far, the elf had told him that she absolutely loved what he’d done, that it had been one of the best sessions of her life.

So...yeah, that had kind of firmly rooted how he felt about really rough sex from then on out. And he had been getting a lot of hints from Yelena almost since the beginning that she was really into that, but for some reason she hadn’t brought it up at first, and even when she did, she was strangely reluctant to go fully into it. And he hadn’t pushed. Obviously, she had had some kind of experience, and he would absolutely let her move at her own pace and help her where he could. But she’d been getting bolder lately.

As they came back to the cabin and went through the process of unloading the supplies they’d gathered, John could tell that Yelena was growing agitated and amorous, much like himself. Her tail was whipping violently back and forth by the time they’d finished up and moved into the cabin. The pair began stripping down, preparing for a bath.

“How are you doing, love?” he asked as they slipped into the water.

“Very, very horny,” she replied.

“Me too,” he said.

She smirked and glanced at his cock. “I could tell.” She began to wash herself. “I was thinking that tonight, um...” She hesitated, then looked away.

“Is that...is that actual shyness on your face, my love?”

“Oh, shut up!” she snapped, twisting back around to face him, her fiery eyes blazing. “If you want to be such a smartass, you can go without demon pussy tonight.”

“But can you go without human cock?” he replied, unable to keep from smirking.

She growled and splashed him. “You are very lucky I love you so much.”

“I am,” he agreed.

Yelena heaved a sigh and kissed him hard on the mouth. “You make me so very happy, John. Now...I want to do something tonight. Something special. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, and I believe I’m ready to try it.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I don’t want you to rush into anything, honey.”

“You’re so sweet,” she replied, hugging him to her again. “I am sure. If I change my mind, well...that is why we have that safe word concept, is it not?”

“Yes, that is why it’s there, basically.” He felt his heart beginning to pulse in excitement. “So...what do you want to do?”

“I was hoping that we could...oh, what was it called? Role play,” she said. “Pretend. Act something out.”

“Yes, I can definitely do that,” he said.

“Good! I was hoping...” she hesitated again. “This is embarrassing.”

“Take your time, Yelena. I’m not going to laugh at you or judge you.”

“Thank you...” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I want to act out a fantasy...where I am summoned against my will, and forced to have sex with the man summoning me.”

“That...sounds really hot,” he said. “I mean, I’m probably kind of fucked up for thinking so, but...”

“But I’m the one suggesting it and wanting to be violated. So, if you are fucked up, then so am I. But you will do it then?” she asked, eager now.

“Oh yes, I will most certainly do this,” he replied.

“Good. I am, uh, grateful. It is nice to have someone I can trust to explore this with.”

“Same from my end,” he said. “Now, how about we wash up and get started?”

“That sounds like an excellent idea.”

The pair quickly began washing up, grabbing bars of soap that John had bought on one of the rare trips he took outside of the Emerald Wild to the nearest village. Once they were all lathered up, they washed each other with rags, scrubbing the day off. Their movements were quick and eager. Once they were clean, the pair got out and dried off. Then they came to stand at the foot of their bed. They’d since managed to get a bigger and sturdier bed. One that came with posts. Yelena raised her hand and John felt a small wave of magic travel out, across the room.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A quiet spell, basically. It will largely keep the sound made in this room staying in this room. I’m going to be...very loud. And it would be best if any potential people in hearing distance did not hear what sounds like you forcefully having your way with me,” she explained.

“That is a very good point,” John replied. “Now, uh, how are we going to do this?”

“I thought that for most of it we would improvise, but a good starting place would be for you to grab me and bind my hands behind my back. We have those manacles we found earlier...”

“Those would be perfect,” he replied.

She smiled at him. “You seem distracted.”

“Sorry, this is just...this is going to be really hot,” he replied.

“I’m glad you think so. So, um...after that, I thought I would leave it up to you with regards to how you wish to...demean me, and use me.”

“Okay.” He hesitated. “Are you positive you want to do this? I want to be sure.”

“I am,” she replied. “This is something I have wanted to do for a little while now, and I’ve had my concerns, not of you. I trust you with my life. But of my own...response to it. But as it has for my entire life, I know that fear must be conquered, and often that is...well, scary. But that is the nature of fear. So, I’m going to do this. But I promise, if I feel it is too much, I will use the word. Now...shall we begin?” she asked.

“Yes. Let me get the manacles,” he replied.

John moved across the room to one of the chests they’d salvaged over the past few weeks. He’d seen her grab the iron manacles last week, but hadn’t said anything, curious about what she might want them for. He didn’t want to get his hopes up too much, but he had been secretly wishing that she’d grabbed them for this exact reason.

This was going to be amazing.

He quickly hunted down the manacles and moved back to join Yelena. They were basically just two clamps attached to each other, meant to lock firmly into place and bind someone’s wrists together. To release them, the piece of metal holding them together had to be squeezed in a specific way. Not exactly as effective as a lock-and-key mechanism, but it would do for what they needed. He stepped up to her.

“What’s the safe word, love?” he asked.

“Flower,” she replied, and he could tell she was resisting the urge to roll her blazing red eyes at him. It seemed that this aspect of their relationship was something that had carried over from the first day they had met. He remembered her all but demanding to be given tasks to complete in return for him letting her stay there, and him awkwardly not wanting to tell her what to do. She’d been so annoyed at him for that.

But he kind of liked that dynamic.

“I’m ready if you are,” he said.

“Okay, back up a bit. I’m going to use a bit of magic for some, ah, dramatic flair.”

He nodded and stepped back, his heart racing now. He watched as she crouched near their bed, then raised her hands. There was a sudden flash of light and a red mist appeared. Dramatic flourish indeed. She was good with this stuff. As the red mist spread out and she disappeared from sight, John thought that although he’d never seen anything be summoned from another realm, this looked like what he’d imagined.

His heart hammering harder now, he thought about how he was going to do this.

Then he saw Yelena’s outline as she shifted in the red mist, which was quickly dissipating. She coughed and began to stand. And he moved forward, knowing that he didn’t really need to think about how he was going to do this. This wasn’t something he should plan, it was more something that he should just do.

“Where am I?” Yelena growled, and damn, she was good at acting, he could tell that immediately. She sounded threatening and dangerous.

He moved fast as he saw that she was standing now, and the mist was clearing away. She was facing away from him. Striking fast, he grabbed her wrist and clamped one of the shackles over it, then twisted her other arm behind her back as she yelled in anger and surprise, and repeated the action. And just like that, she was cuffed, her hands held firmly behind her back.

“Who are you? Release me!” she screamed.

“Shut the fuck up,” John replied as he grabbed her and roughly turned her around. She stared at him with raw fury as he got her around facing him. He looked down at her nude body. Fuck, she had such an amazingly fit, sexy figure. He laid a hand on one of her firm breasts, groping it.

“Do not touch me!” she yelled.

“I said shut up!” he snapped and slapped her across the face.

She growled at him. “Touch me again, filthy human, and I promise I will-”

He slapped her again, hard enough that she stumbled, then, as she was righting herself, he wrapped a hand around her throat and squeezed. She gasped, and he yanked her up, holding her so that they were face to face.

“Let me make this clear right now, you demon whore,” he growled, “I’m the one in charge of this situation. You might be able to struggle, but you can’t hurt me. I know that much. I summoned you here, I control you. You’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do, or I’m going to hurt you. You will submit to me. Do you understand me?”

“You are pathetic, human scum,” she wheezed at him.

He grinned savagely at her. “Good, I was hoping you wouldn’t submit. Now I get to break you, demon whore.”

He let go of her throat and backhanded her hard enough that she fell onto the bed. He marched over and grabbed her by her black hair, then yanked her off the bed, onto the floor. “You are going to submit to me, you worthless slut. I am going to break you if it takes all night.”

“You are pathetic!” Yelena screamed at him. She tried to get up and he kicked her in the stomach, then planted a foot on her shoulder and shoved her onto her back.

“You’re the dumb bitch on the floor,” he said, staring down at her. “Looks like you’re the pathetic one here. Now, time to make you do something you’re going to hate.”

He grabbed her and yanked her back up, then slapped her twice across the face and began to kiss her hard on the mouth while groping her roughly. She let out a muffled shriek and struggled against him, but he held her firmly in place. He shoved his tongue into her mouth as he groped one of her breasts and slipped his hand down her back to get a firm grip on her ass. He fucking loved her ass. It was so fit and firm, with just the right amount of padding to it. She struggled against him, trying to break free of his grip.

John stopped kissing her abruptly, planted his hands firmly on her shoulders, and forced her roughly to her knees. She growled in anger and tried to get back up, but he kept her down there. “Open up,” he said.

“If you dare try to-”

He shoved his cock into her mouth. She let out a muffled yell of anger and frustration and tried to pull back, but he grabbed her horns and began furiously fucking her mouth, shoving his rigid cock hard into her. He could feel its head slamming into the back of her throat and going partway down it, and he couldn’t deny that he felt a powerful rush of dark thrill from doing this. He was very glad that Yelena was into being taken advantage of, because it was kind of the perfect combination. He’d been with women who were into this before, and he had definitely noticed a pattern: the tougher the woman was, the more satisfying it was to dominate the fuck out of her. And so far, Yelena was the toughest woman he’d ever met.

His demoness lover groaned and struggled, clearly screaming something angrily at him, but it was lost given that he was pretty much ramming his cock down her throat. He hoped she was getting off on this, and when she looked squarely up at him and they locked eyes, he could immediately tell that she was. A lot. He could see the lust in her eyes. Damn, she looked good. And he loved grabbing her by the horns and just fucking her mouth.

He kept going for a good minute, the pleasure burning into him, and then he pulled his cock from her mouth and let her go. She fell to the floor, coughing harshly. “That’s just the beginning, you fucking whore,” he said, then reached down and grabbed her up again.

“Let go of me!” she growled.

He ignored her, flipping her around and then bending her over the bed. Her tail whipped back and forth violently.

“You would not dare,” she said, twisting around, trying to get up.

“You are going to be such a good fuck,” he replied as he laid his saliva-slicked cock at the entrance of her pussy.

She was insanely wet, and he could feel the heat radiating off of her like an open flame.

“Don’t you dare, you filthy human!” she screamed.

He pushed into her. “Oh fuck...” he groaned as he penetrated her, shoving his cock forcefully into her extremely wet, perfect demoness pussy. “You are so fucking tight. I knew demon pussy was going to be fucking excellent.”

He grabbed her hips and started pounding her hard. She grunted and screamed. “Get off me!” she shrieked. “I will murder you for this!”

“Shut up,” he replied, and slapped the back of her head. She began to yell at him again, but cut off abruptly as he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked hard. “I said shut up!” he screamed, then started really pounding her.

John realized that he wasn’t going to last a whole lot longer. Yelena had the best pussy he’d ever fucked in his entire life, and he’d actually been kind of embarrassed with how difficult it was to last longer than a few minutes, maybe five at a stretch, of constant fucking. But demoness pussy was out of this world, especially when he was so deeply in love with her, and they connected as deeply emotionally as they did physically. When he’d brought it up to Yelena, she said that she didn’t mind. If anything, she enjoyed shorter sessions, provided they both orgasmed. Prolonged sessions could be nice, but apparently Yelena was a quickie kind of lady.

Which was good for him, because godsdamn did it just feel too fucking good. And right now, he thought that maybe ending this session might be a good idea, because he had the idea that Yelena was enjoying herself, but maybe would need some time to process how this all had gone, and that was better done sooner if at all possible.

“Don’t try to lie to me, demon slut,” he said as he kept pounding her. “Your body reveals you. You are enjoying this, whore.”

“No...” she moaned, but he could tell she was breaking character, that the pleasure of it was overwhelming her. Well, another good reason to blow his load.

“Yes, I can feel how wet you are, you worthless slut. You want to be dominated like the submissive whore you are.”

“No!” she cried, but he was really pounding her now, feverishly slamming his cock deep into her pussy, feeling all that hot, wet, tight perfection.

And then he had her coming.

And what a fucking orgasm it was.

Yelena let out a powerful shriek of raw, rapturous ecstasy as she began to orgasm all over his dick. She squirted powerfully, releasing an intense spray of hot sex juices all over his stomach and hips and thighs.

“YEEEESSSSSS!!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

John moaned loudly as he felt his own orgasm burst into being and he began pumping her climaxing demoness vagina full of his seed. And it felt like a lot. It felt like he was coming buckets worth of his seed into her. He moaned and cried out, giving voice to his own intense pleasure, joining hers.

“Oh, Yelena!” he cried, fingertips digging into her skin as his hips jerked forward violently in response to his orgasm, his cock jerking furiously as it spat thick spurts of his seed into her, absolutely filling her with it.

He felt blinded and deafened by the raw, impossible bliss he was feeling right then.

It was like paradise.

When he came back down to reality from his heightened state of impossible rapture, John found himself still inside of her, both of them gasping and sweaty, and it was a genuine struggle to stay upright.

“Oh...fuck...” he whispered, slowly reaching forward and undoing the manacles that still bound her wrists together.

“Thank you,” she murmured as he freed her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, pulling carefully out of her, his cock so sensitive that it was painful right then.

“I am fantastic,” she replied, slowly straightening up. She reached down and placed a hand over her vagina. “And you blew, I believe, the biggest load of our relationship. I feel like you absolutely filled me with your seed.”

“I think I did,” he groaned, his legs aching. It was weird, it hadn’t been a long session, but he supposed it had been an intense one, and that could take a toll.

He followed her as she moved over to the bathtub and the pair slipped in. They sat together, holding each other in silence, for several moments.

“Was it good?” he asked finally.

“Good...does not even come close to describing how amazing that experience was,” she replied dreamily.

“Oh...well, I’m glad.”

She laughed softly. “Was it good for you too, then?”

“Yes. Extremely.”

They were silent for a bit longer. “Yelena...” he said, hesitating.

“Yes, my love?”

“I was wondering if you would be okay with talking about your, uh...experiences, with this kind of sex before. It’s okay if you don’t want to, I just feel like there’s some history there and you might be interested in sharing.”

She was silent for a few seconds. “Yes,” she said finally, “you are correct. I don’t mind telling you. In my realm, there was a lot of domination and submission in our sex. It could be said that that’s all the kind of sex we ever had. I spent about half of my life, perhaps more, being entirely submissive, because I enjoyed it. It brought me pleasure, and from the way my society was set up, it was...I suppose, it was seen as correct. It made sense that I should want to be submissive. Because of my caste, my place in society, it was natural that I would be dominated by those above me. I even spent several years as a...what’s the word...prostitute. I pleasured those who came to me...” she hesitated, looked at him. “Does that...bother you?”

“No, it doesn’t,” he replied.

“Good. I have been learning a lot about your culture, and it has come to my attention that many in your culture do not respect prostitutes. Although I have not exactly been able to discern why this is the case.”

He sighed. “It’s...it’s complicated. But suffice to say, I think it’s just another way for people to judge each other. It’s something that you should pay no mind to. Sometimes, people hate other people for stupid, pointless reasons. This is one of them.”

“Oh...well, that is a bit of relief. Also, very saddening. But, anyway, as I grew older, and became more heavily involved in conflict, and in what I suppose could be referred to as politics, I learned more about power dynamics. And I learned more about respect, and consent, and trust. And how these ideas are very...lacking, in my own society. As I grew more ambitious, it became my understanding that if I was to be taken seriously, not only would I have to fight for respect, often very literally, but that I would have to suppress this submissive side of myself. I could not be both a fierce, competent warrior and sexually submissive in the eyes of my society.”

She sighed and shook her head, then shifted and stretched. “Are you uncomfortable? Your face is very flushed.”

“It is very hot in here,” he replied.

“We shall move to the bed then,” Yelena said.

He nodded, grateful. He hadn’t realized how hot he was, but it made sense. Have an extremely intense fuck session, then get into some hot water, not exactly the best way to cool off. They finished washing up, got out, dried off, and then crawled into bed.

“So, to sum up, I came to internalize my submissive side, to try and hide it from everyone, and as such, I have many negative feelings associated with the fact that I enjoy being...demeaned and humiliated and dominated. I have not found anyone I can trust to share that very, ah, personal and hidden side of myself with.” She smiled and hugged him close to her. “Until I found you.”

He hugged her back, holding her fiercely to him, and kissed her. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that, but I’m so glad I can share this with you.”

“So am I. The amount of relief, and release, that I am feeling right now...oh my, that orgasm was one for the ages.”

“Agreed,” he replied, and kissed her again, then yawned. “Wow, I’m tired.”

“As am I. Let us sleep.”

He nodded, and they took a moment to put out the candles, make sure the door and windows were locked, and then settled together beneath the blankets.

“Goodnight, Yelena. I love you so much,” John said as he held her to him, laying against her back.

“And I love you too, John. More than I have ever loved anyone. Goodnight.”

Before long, he had drifted to sleep.

…

John was torn from his sleep when he heard Yelena scream in fury.

His heart felt like it might burst from his chest as his eyes flew open and he snapped up in his bed, tearing the blanket from him. The room was lit by a powerful, flickering red light and for a moment he had no idea what in the fuck was going on.

“Release me!” an unfamiliar voice snarled.

John got to his feet, grabbing the dagger he kept on his bedside table almost without thinking about it.

“What the fuck is going on?” he asked when he found Yelena. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine,” Yelena growled, her voice low and angry. She was standing at the foot of their bed with her hoof planted firmly on…

“Who is this?” he asked, feeling a cold wave of fear slither through him.

A demon.

He was dressed in black and John realized that he resembled Yelena. They must be from the same clan, or at least the same race. Though from the way Yelena described her home realm of reality, they were one and the same.

“I do not know,” Yelena growled. Her hands were raised and covered in writhing, bright red flames. She stood nude and furious. “Who are you?”

“No one to you, but I do know you, and I have been sent to track you down,” the demon replied, staring daggers at her. John could sense a seething, disgusted hatred pouring out of him and realized he could hear a rapid, thin slapping sound.

It was the demon’s tail, hitting the floor in agitation.

“What do you want?” Yelena growled.

John came to stand beside her, wondering where this was going. Nowhere good, he could imagine. How had the bastard gotten in? They had traps set, or at least alarms, in the form of Yelena’s magic.

Yelena’s magic…

John felt another cold chill settle over him. Had she raised the silence spell? He honestly couldn’t remember, but it would explain the situation.

“I was to bring you back!” the demon snarled. “You have been missing for a long time now and Hagan demands your return!”

John frowned as he said that. When the word ‘Hagan’ had come out, it didn’t quite match the demon’s mouth, and something about the word twisted and ripped on the air.

Yelena snarled, and the brightness and intensity of her magical flames increased. The demon she was stepping on lost some of his bravado. He was actually beginning to look nervous. “Why has he sent you?!” she snapped.

“As I said, to bring you back! Obviously, something has gone wrong with you,” the demon said, and shot a glance at John, who had to fight not to take a step back. Demons could be intimidating when they wanted to be, even if this one was on his back and unarmed. “Obviously you have broken, and require fixing.”

“Get this straight, peon: nothing is wrong with me. I highly recommend that you go back to Hagan, tell him that I’m dead, and be done with this whole mess, because I promise that if this escalates any further, it will result in a very unpleasant ending for the bastard.”

Here the demon snarled in a cocky grin. “You have no idea how powerful he is now,” he growled. “He will get what he wants. And he wants you. And clearly you need help. I found you here, sleeping with a...ugh, a human! Clearly your mind has broken.”

“You have my warning, peon.” She lowered one hand towards his face. “Or would you prefer to remain here? I have all night, and extensive knowledge of anatomy, and methods of inflicting the most pain for the longest amount of time.”

The demon’s bravado seemed to slip another notch, and then he abruptly disappeared in a flash of red light. Yelena’s hoof stamped into the floor and she snarled again, then extinguished the flames engulfing her hands, bathing them in darkness.

Neither spoke for several seconds.

Then Yelena raised her hand again and released a new spell. Several sparks of light flew out across the room and lit every candle they had spread across the cabin. Within seconds, the entire room was bathed in a soft, flickering yellow glow.

“What was that about?” John asked finally.

Yelena looked over at him, almost as if she’d forgotten he was there. She looked...worried. Angry and worried.

She sighed and walked over to the bed, then sat down. “My own foolishness,” she murmured.

John replaced the dagger on his bedside table and then sat down next to her. He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. She squeezed back.

“Yelena? Who is Hagan?”

“Is that what you heard?” she asked.

“Yes, although...there was something strange about the name, when he said it...”

“Mmm, yes. Although it is easy for us to adopt a new language through our magical abilities, names have difficulty translating. I remember telling you that you could not properly pronounce my given name. It’s interesting what happens when you heard his given name.”

“What causes that?” he asked, wanting to get to the meat of the matter but, nonetheless, finding this interesting.

Yelena shrugged. “I am not entirely sure. It’s probably to do with magic. Our language is very different from your own and everything about us is infused with at least some form of magic.” She sighed and shook her head. “I forgot to lower my fucking spell. I am a fool. That was how he managed to get into the cabin.”

“I forgot, too,” John murmured.

“I should have remembered...” she growled, and he felt her tail twitching against the bed through the vibrations of its movements. “Hagan is my...I supposed the most appropriate term would be ex-lover. Or the closest thing I ever had to a lover. We had a long-standing relationship...more of a partnership than anything else. I was a fine prize for him, and he was in a higher standing than I. It was a long time ago. Over twenty years.”

“Why did you split up?” John asked.

“I outgrew him. Eventually, I began to assert myself more, and he didn’t like that. He could not tolerate a dominate female in his life and we ended up having a lengthy fight over it. A real fight. We tried to kill each other. In the end, we parted ways.”

“So, why’s he suddenly sending some...scout? Assassin? Why is he sending someone after you now?” John asked.

“I don’t know. The little bastard said that Hagan’s more powerful now. It could be that he’s acting on someone else’s behalf. I always worried that this was a possibility. That they might try to come after me. I was hoping that I could use this realm to cloak myself appropriately, but apparently not. My nature betrays me...”

They were silent for several more seconds.

“So, what do we do?” John asked finally. “Because I don’t trust him to do what you told him to. I don’t trust him at all.”

Yelena nodded. “Yes, I have no illusions that this is over. I have been thinking about this day for some time, hoping it would never come...”

“Yelena...why didn’t you tell me about this?”

She looked over at him now. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I...my past life is very difficult for me to handle. I know I should have mentioned it, but I thought I...” she paused, looked away, gave her head a small shake of annoyance. “I thought I was protecting you from worry of something that might never come to pass, but now that it has...I have to face the reality that I was really just protecting myself. I didn’t...I didn’t want you to know any more about my past than was necessary.”

“Yelena...you know you can trust me.”

She sighed angrily. “It is not a matter of trust, it is a matter of...acceptance. The division between the person I was and the person I am now is… it is not as wide as I would like it to be.” She paused and then suddenly twisted around and hugged him fiercely. “I am afraid of my past, John,” she whispered. “I am terrified of it. And of what it might mean to our relationship.”

He hugged her back, holding her firmly against him. “Yelena, whatever it was you did...it has no bearing on our current relationship. What you do now matters to me. I know you’ve done things that you regret, things that I’m sure were terrible, but I understand that your culture was very, very different from my own, and from the way you make it sound, atrocities were everyday occurrences over there, and it makes sense that it would take time for you to realize that what you were doing was wrong. But I want to be clear: who you are now, the woman I know now, is a good person. That’s one of the main reasons I love you so much.”

“One of the reasons?” Yelena asked after a moment, her head still resting on his shoulder.

“Well...yeah. There are many,” he replied.

“Like?”

“You are so good at sucking dick.”

She laughed loudly and pulled back, staring at him. She sniffed and rubbed at her eye, but she was smiling.

“You’re crying,” he murmured.

“I am,” she replied.

“I wasn’t sure if you could.”

“We demons can. It is very rare, though. And dangerous, for obvious reasons. Signs of weakness and all that.” Her expression soured, and she looked down at the floor, where there was a faint black residue where the demon had been. “He thinks I am broken...but why wouldn’t he? My people are almost all backwards. It is disgusting.”

“He seemed rather disgusted by our, uh, coupling,” John murmured.

“Yes. Much as I loathe to discuss it...well, our relationship here is about as reviled and hated in my realm as it is yours. Although from our perspective it is more like...well, some of my kind would liken it to a relationship between you and an animal, I suppose.”

“Wow.”

“Yes, highly insulting. Although they will never talk about it, I know some men from my realm slip over here to enjoy interactions with the women of this realm. I think, in their hearts, they can conceive of at least a sexual encounter with beings of this realm, although really, it is only okay for the men to do it, not the women. Very few, I imagine, could conceive of the idea of a sustained, loving relationship like we have...”

“Well, sucks for them,” John said.

“Yes.”

“So...what are we going to do?”

“I suppose we should discuss that. We must not be idle. I have been thinking about this problem for a long time now, as I said, and I believe that they will be able to track and find me unless I am able to change my fundamental nature.”

John frowned. “That...doesn’t sound like a feasible solution. And I don’t like the sound of it at all,” he replied.

“Neither do I, but I think I have a solution that isn’t nearly as dramatic as it sounds.”

“And that is?”

“Shape-shifting magic. It’s something I’ve been studying for a little while now. Shape-shifting magic is more than merely making yourself look different. Or it can be. At its highest levels, it can be used to cloak your very nature, even from magic users. If my amulet didn’t work out, it was something I was going to consider pursuing. And now it looks like that time has come.”

John was nodding. “Okay...this sounds feasible. I think. Not that I underestimate your abilities, love, but shape-shifting magic is, from my understanding, very difficult.”

“Yes, it is. It will take time, I imagine. And it may not even be possible for me to learn that level of ability. But at present, it is our best option. There is a part of me that wants to return to my realm, to hunt and kill Hagan, but...I’m positive this would get me killed. Or worse, you. We’re going to be in enough danger as it is just traveling in this realm, as I very much doubt that the peon who visited us is going to be the last we’re going to see...”

“All right. Well...what’s the first step?”

“The most direct path would be to find someone who is knowledgeable in shape-shifting magic and ask for their assistance. Someone we can trust,” Yelena replied.

“Oh man...that’s...that’s going to be difficult. I wouldn’t even know where to start,” John murmured, considering it.

“Elise might know someone. She seems well connected,” Yelena said.

John nodded. “Yes, I suppose that would be a good starting point.” He stood up. “We’ll need to let our dryad friends know the situation.”

“They would definitely appreciate being informed.” She sighed and stood as well. “This is so frustrating. I was very much enjoying our life together here.”

“This isn’t the end of that, just a detour. And besides, I saw how alive you were, how engaged you were, when we were hunting those beasts. You have been craving a real adventure, some real action, haven’t you?”

She smiled and brushed some hair from her face. “Yes. How well you know me, love. I get the feeling you have been yearning for it as well.”

“I have,” he admitted.

“Well, then let us get underway. We’ve much to do.”

They set to work.

…

Close to an hour later, the pair were making their way to the emergency meeting area their dryad friends had set aside for them. It was still dark, sunrise yet hours off. They had bathed and sadly had to resist the urge to fuck, because the near-death experience had, as it often seemed to, put them into a very amorous state. But they didn’t feel they had the luxury of time right then. So, they’d finished bathing, dressed, and packed their backpacks for a long journey. Then they had locked up the cabins to the best of their abilities, and Yelena had laid several more magical warnings and wards, to fend off any would-be thieves.

And then they had set off, into the Emerald Wild.

Despite how relatively safe the Wild had been recently between his and Yelena’s own natural abilities and their protection from the dryads, John found himself paranoid of every sound. The moons and stars were out, but the shadows surrounding them were deep. And having been woken up in the manner he had was pretty fucking stressful. Especially considering that he was convinced that this wasn’t even close to over.

But at least they had a plan.

Even if it felt like an admittedly thin one.

“We are close,” Yelena murmured.

John came out of his thoughts and realized she was right. Navigating the Emerald Wild wasn’t easy, but he’d gotten good at it. And Yelena had gotten amazing at it. He’d learned that she had a stunning sense of direction and was truly skilled at memorizing landmarks and routes. John refocused as they broke through into the clearing where they had been, not all that long ago, having some amazing sex with dryads.

Cypress was already waiting for them.

“What has happened?” she asked.

“How-” John began.

“This is my forest. I can sense much. I know something happened.”

“One of my kind tracked us down,” Yelena said flatly. “I believe that more will follow, and John and I are leaving to deal with the problem.”

“...I see. I’m sorry,” Cypress said.

“As am I. I don’t suppose you would know anyone with extensive knowledge of shape-shifting magic?” Yelena asked.

Cypress shook her head after considering it. “No, I’m afraid not.”

“That’s too bad,” Yelena murmured. “We are going to have to track someone down. And I am not sure how long we are to be gone. We’ve secured our cabins to the best of our abilities.”

“You won’t have to worry about that. Your residence is under our protection,” Cypress replied. “It will come to no harm. And moreover, if any more of your kind show up looking for you, we will...deal with them.”

“I would appreciate it, although I would not wish you to put yourselves in danger.”

“Life is dangerous,” Cypress said. “And danger is worth it for true friends.”

“Yes, it is,” Yelena murmured. Her hand sought his in the moonlight and he took it and laced their fingers together.

“I wish you luck,” Cypress said.

“Thank you, Cypress,” John replied. They each gave her a long hug and a firm kiss in turn.

“Cypress...you are a true friend,” Yelena said. “I was not sure if I would ever find that in this realm, and I am so glad that you have helped lay those fears to rest.”

“As am I,” Cypress replied.

“What about me?” John asked.

Yelena sighed and shoved him. “You know where you stand with me, John.”

“Apparently to be shoved around.”

“You two make a very good couple,” Cypress said.

“Thank you,” Yelena replied, still staring at John. “You have a strange sense of humor,” she said to him.

“It’s how I sometimes react to stress,” he admitted.

“Indeed,” Yelena said. “We should be leaving.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “We’re going to Elise’s house. I’m hoping she can help us.”

“Give her my regards,” Cypress replied.

“We will. Farewell for now, Cypress,” John said.

“Farewell for now.”

They left the moonlit clearing and, sticking close together, the pair headed north.

CHAPTER III

They made good time getting to Elise’s house.

John found thoughts drifting through his head as he and Yelena cut a path through the Emerald Wild. One he kept coming back to was that he should be more worried. It was very likely that demons were going to be coming for him and Yelena. Demons who were as skilled as, or more than, Yelena. And she was ridiculously effective at hunting and murder. And yet, he wasn’t all that worried. Maybe he was just in a bit of shock, although he wasn’t sure if that was it. Maybe it was the fact that he felt way more confident about his and Yelena’s abilities to tackle any problem. Having Yelena with him sure was a confidence booster, but there was more to it than that.

Ever since actually leaving his home, walking away from his sad old life, he’d faced some pretty serious situations. And although he’d gotten his ass kicked a few times, it was really proving to him just how good he was at surviving out here, at solving problems, at handling situations. And honestly, just living this lifestyle, this life of adventuring, of being able to just pick up and go at a moment’s notice, was so liberating.

Living a life tied to a small town and a single house meant that it could all be swept away at a moment’s notice. And that was horrifying. One monster attack. One natural disaster. One fire. And your life’s work, your home, your everything could be ripped away from you, and it might take years to recover.

But that just wasn’t the case when you lived your life as he and Yelena did.

If they were to lose everything, literally everything but each other, sure, it would suck, but it wouldn’t take them all that long to earn some serious coin and replace what they’d lost, or just to move on and find someone else to hang out with for a few months.

Of course, if he lost Yelena…

Well, that would certainly be devastating on a level he couldn’t even imagine.

But he tried not to think about that. Yelena was the one aspect of his life that he would die fighting to protect.

“I wonder if she’s still awake,” Yelena said, startling John back out of his thoughts. Neither of them had said almost anything during their long trip through the darkness.

“I can’t remember if she was a night owl or an early bird,” John replied.

“Owl?” Yelena asked.

“Oh, it’s a bird that sleeps during the day and operates primarily at night.”

“I see. You have strange sayings.”

“I guess we do. It’s one of those things that I just grew up hearing, so I never really stopped to consider it.”

“I see lights,” Yelena murmured.

John saw that she was right. Through the trees and the dim moonlight, he could see flickering lights. Candles or a fireplace maybe. They pushed on through the dense foliage until they came into the clearing that held Elise’s house.

Yep, she was awake all right. Most of the windows shone with light.

Well, hopefully she was receptive to company. How long had it been since they’d last seen her? He wasn’t sure. Too long, it felt like now as they crossed her front yard and came up onto the porch. He knocked on the front door.

There was a pause, then he heard footfalls somewhere deeper in the house. They approached the door, then there were a few seconds of silence, then the door opened.

“John! Yelena!” she cried, and threw an arm around each of them, hugging them to her.

“Hello, Elise,” Yelena replied as they hugged her back. She gave them each a kiss on the mouth, then stepped back.

John couldn’t help but look down. She was wearing a robe and it had fallen open as she’d hugged them. And she wasn’t wearing anything beneath it.

He’d forgotten just how fucking sexy she was.

She had a nice body.

She looked down at herself and then sighed suddenly and closed it.

“What’s wrong?” John asked.

“I just...I’m feeling a little less comfortable with myself recently,” she replied, losing her good cheer.

“Why? Did something happen?” Yelena asked.

“Not exactly,” Elise replied, letting them in and closing the door behind them. She paused. “I mean...ugh, it’s kind of hard to talk about.”

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” John said.

“No, I do want to. I mean, I don’t want to, but I really should. Come on.”

She led them upstairs and they gathered in her bedroom. “Could we use your tub?” John asked. “We had a long, hard march up here.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Why are you here? Not that I’m complaining.”

“You first,” Yelena said.

She sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I guess I should. I’ll just keep distracting myself and putting it off. It’s fucking stupid, anyway.”

“It’s important to you. It’s not stupid,” John replied.

She stared at him, then moved forward and wrapped him in a hug, almost crushing him against her. He hugged her back.

“You are ridiculously kind and understanding, you know that?” she murmured.

“Well...I mean, I try,” he replied.

“You succeed,” Yelena said as she stripped down.

Elise let go of him and, after a few seconds, he began undressing.

“After our stint on the island, I was a little...rattled. I’ve been finding it difficult to go out into the Emerald Wild. More and more I’ve just been staying home. That’s my real problem, the one I should be addressing. But honestly, what got me all freaked out was yesterday I was getting out of the bath and saw myself in the mirror and...it was just obvious to me that I’d put on some weight.”

“Have you?” Yelena asked, halfway into the tub. “I did not notice a change.”

“I definitely have. I’ve got more of a stomach now and my thighs are bigger.” She heaved another angry sigh. “It’s so fucking stupid. It’s such a dumb thing to worry about when I’ve dealt with so many huge things that literally threatened my life. I guess that’s just where I’m at right now.” She looked at Yelena suddenly, seemingly deciding something, then she opened up her robe and dropped it, letting it fall to the floor. “You really don’t see a difference?” she asked.

Yelena scrutinized her, frowning. “Hmm, perhaps a small difference,” she said.

John sighed. “Yelena.”

“What?” she asked, looking over at him.

“I just think-”

“No, it’s okay,” Elise said. “I want an honest opinion.”

“There is some difference,” Yelena said, though more uncertainly now. “But I suppose I am confused as to why this is a problem. I have changed since coming to this realm.”

“You have?” Elise asked.

“Yes. I have put on weight since coming here.”

John looked over at Yelena. Had she? He thought about it, thought hard about when he’d first seen her, and he realized that yes, she was heavier. But it clearly wasn’t a bad thing. She’d been pretty thin when they’d first gotten together, and now she was a bit more filled out. Well, either way he was happy with her and hoped she was happy with herself.

And Elise, too. He felt bad for her.

“I guess I can’t tell any difference,” Elise murmured.

“It is not a great deal, but my frame is somewhat more filled out now. I took it as a good thing. It seems to be a side effect of having more regular access to food and happiness,” Yelena explained.

Elise snorted. “Well, I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”

“If it helps, I do know how you feel. I mean...kind of,” John said.

“How’s that?” Elise asked, looking at him now.

“I’ve always pretty much operated under the assumption that I was fairly unattractive,” John replied.

“That is just ridiculous,” Yelena said.

“Yeah, I kind of have to agree with Yelena. Or I mean, really have to agree with her. You are like really attractive, John. I masturbate to you a lot. I mean,” she glanced at Yelena, “I pleasure myself to both of you, but to John like a lot...um, is this weird?”

“I think it is natural. John is very attractive,” Yelena replied.

He sighed. He was positive that he was blushing fiercely right now. “For what it’s worth, I, uh, appreciate the thought, I guess. My point is, I know what it’s like to feel unattractive, and I feel like we might have gotten off track, because this seems to be devolving into all of us sitting around, telling each other how attractive we find each other.”

Elise nodded. “Yes, I suppose you have a point.”

She moved forward suddenly and slipped down into the water. John joined her and felt a powerful relief begin to permeate through him as he became immersed in the clear, steaming water. He settled in and relaxed.

“I guess, if I’m being completely honest with myself, it isn’t about the weight. I feel bad even complaining about it just to you two, because I know there are people out there who genuinely struggle with real weight issues. It isn’t even about how attractive I perceive myself as. It’s...I guess, it’s just my confidence. I feel like that showdown on the island sapped me of my confidence and I don’t know why. I mean...how do you deal with it, John? You got it really bad.”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I mean, it scared me, I had nightmares. Still have one or two every now and then. But I guess I just...keep going. I just keep pushing, even if something scares me. I go out and do things.” He shook his head. “That sounds so dismissive and cavalier. I’m sorry. I don’t mean for it to. But that’s honestly the only thing I can think of. I’m not dismissing your concerns or fears, Elise,” he said.

She shifted closer to him and laid against him. He took her hand. “I don’t think you are, don’t worry about that. I trust you, John. I trust that you wouldn’t dismiss or belittle me.”

He wrapped an arm around her slim, wet, nude body. “I’m glad.”

“It sounds like you have an issue of confidence, then,” Yelena said. “It is as John says, I’m afraid. The only way to deal with this is to face it.” She moved closer, staring at Elise intently. “I believe that I have come to know you. I have certainly come to trust you. This is not easy for me. But I want to say that I...that you inspire me.”

“I do?” she asked.

“Yes. You clearly love your life out here. You are passionate about your goals, your research. You love what you do. You moved out into the Emerald Wild and successfully established a presence here. You are smart, talented, powerful, brave. I would hate to see you robbed of any of your greatness by your own fears.”

“That, I think, is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me,” Elise replied after several seconds. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome. And I mean it. I believe it.”

Elise laughed softly. “If there’s one thing I’ve gathered about you, Yelena, it is that you do not throw words around lightly.” She paused. “You know, I actually feel better. I think I still need some time to work things out, but...I feel a lot better. I think it’s just actually having another person to talk with about this.”

“Good,” John said, hugging her to him.

“Now, um, before I so rudely interrupted, what did you come here for?” She lost her smile as she saw them exchange glances. “What?” she asked.

“One of my former clan has tracked us down, and we believe they have ill intent, and will continue to track us,” Yelena replied.

“Oh, my Gods,” Elise whispered. “That’s...very bad. Um...well, you can stay here for a bit if you like. I have protections here that should make it very difficult to track you. Wow, I’m sorry, this really sucks.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Yelena said. “And I wouldn’t mind staying here and getting some more sleep.” She looked at John.

He nodded. “Yeah, same.”

“But we believe we have a solution to our problem. I wish to learn shape-shifting. I think it will help mask my essence enough to make it too difficult for my former clan to track me,” Yelena explained.

“Oh. That...actually is a good idea. And you’re clearly very adept at magic. But I’m afraid I don’t know anything about shape-shifting magic,” Elise murmured.

“Could you point us toward someone who does?” John asked.

Elise fell silent, thinking about it. Suddenly her eyes widened. “Yes! I can, actually. I don’t think she’ll be able to teach you, as she only knows a bit of it, but she might know someone who could teach you. And...um, shit, there was something else I learned recently. I went up to Stafford last week and I bought a map...oh! Yes. Now I remember. I ended up getting a map that has the location of an old research outpost in the mountains. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a very precise location marked down. But I’ve heard that they were doing research there with anti-tracking spells and illusion. I bought it because I thought it might be something you might someday want to track down, in case your amulet ever stopped working or you needed something more powerful.”

“Thank you,” John said. “That’d definitely be useful.”

“Yes, it might be a good temporary measure,” Yelena said. “Who is it you are sending us to?”

“Oh! Yes. Her name is Morgan. She’s a half-giantess.”

“Morgan? Oh shit, I know her,” John said.

“You do?”

“Yeah. We ran a job together once. You don’t forget a nine foot tall woman. She was a straight-up badass.”

“Yes, she is. Hopefully she is home. I can give you the location of her house. It’s about half a day’s or so walk from here, if you keep a brisk pace. When you get there, tell her I sent you. Also, ask her about the research outpost. Morgan is a big-time adventuress. She’s been all over the continent, so she might know something about it.”

“All right. Thanks, Elise. This is really helpful,” John said.

“I’m happy to be helpful when I can,” Elise replied. She paused, looked at him, then at Yelena. “I was, uh, wondering if I could ask a favor.”

“Oh?” Yelena replied, a sly smile coming onto her beautiful face. “What kind of favor?”

“As dumb as it is, it would go a long way towards making me feel good if you two could give me a wonderful fuck,” Elise replied.

“Do you even need to ask at this point?” Yelena asked.

“I suppose not. But it’s always nice to ask, in my opinion,” Elise replied.

“Fair enough. Yes. We would be thrilled to fuck you,” Yelena said.

“Oh, so you’re speaking for both of us now?” John asked.

Yelena fixed him with her fiery gaze. “John, is there even the tiniest chance that you are not interested in making love to the two of us at once?”

“No,” he replied. “No there is not.”

“Then yes, I speak for the both of us. Oh!” Yelena’s gaze snapped back over to Elise and brightened a bit. “I have a new toy! It’s amazing! I want you to try it on me. I think you will absolutely love it, Elise.”

“I’m very eager to do this,” Elise replied.

“Good. Let us wash up and get to it.”

They did just that, washing themselves off with soap and washcloths, then getting out of the tub and quickly drying off. As soon as they were dry, they hurried over to the bed. Yelena paused, crouching in front of her backpack and hunting through it. John and Elise laid beside each other on the bed, waiting.

“What is it?” Elise asked.

“You’ll see. You are going to love this,” he replied.

Yelena stood up a moment later, holding the magical fake cock.

“Oh, I’ve seen one of those before,” Elise said.

“Not like this you haven’t,” Yelena replied, crawling onto the bed. “It’s imbued with magic. It allows the wearer to feel the pleasure of sex.”

“Whoa, whoa...wait. So, I could put it on, and fuck you with it, and I would feel it?” she asked, visibly excited.

“Indeed.”

“Oh my...where did you get this!?” Elise asked, accepting and studying it.

“From Cypress,” Yelena answered.

“Ugh! Why didn’t she ever give me one!? I didn’t know the dryads could make these...I’m so asking for one.” She set it aside. “Come here. I want kisses. And lots of tongue.”

“You got it,” Yelena replied, crawling closer and laying down on her other side.

John watched as the two women, his demoness lover and their beautiful beryl friend, locked lips and began to kiss passionately. Both women moaned softly and began to touch each other, run their hands over each other’s smooth bodies. John was already stiff, but now he felt a pulse of lust shoot through him, felt his cock begin to throb in anticipation. This was going to be one amazing threesome. Yelena reached back and laid a hand on Elise’s tail, making her cry out. She began to massage it gently. John reached around, laying a hand on one of Elise’s breasts and beginning to play with her nipple, running his fingertips across it.

“Oh my...” she gasped. “It’s been too fucking long since I’ve been touched.”

“We are going to touch you all night, you beautiful woman,” Yelena whispered in response, and kissed her deeply again.

Before long, Elise stopped kissing Yelena and moved over to John, pressing her lips to his and kissing him deeply as he groped her. She tasted good, a kind of dark, natural taste that he always enjoyed experiencing. Elise reached down, and he felt her fingers wrap around his cock. He groaned as she began to massage it slowly.

“I have missed both of you so very much,” Elise murmured.

“We’ve missed you as well,” John replied, slipping his tongue into her mouth.

She moaned again and kissed him back harder, pressing herself against him. She cried out suddenly, breaking the kiss, and John glanced down. He saw that Yelena had a finger in between her green skinned thighs and was pleasuring her, slowly rubbing her clit. John kissed her once more, then slipped down lower and licked across one of her high, firm breasts. She groaned again, and then cried out as he joined Yelena in pleasuring her, sliding a finger into her pussy. He started fingering her and sucking on one of her nipples.

“Oh fuck!” she moaned. “I-I forgot all this. Has it really just been a week and a half since you visited? It feels like forever...” she whispered, then cried out again.

Yelena joined him in sucking on her other breast, and they stimulated her, pleasured her, pushed her hard and fast into an intense, full-body, screaming orgasm. She twitched and writhed against them, crying out her pleasure as she came. When she was finished, she was left gasping between them, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes.

“Gods,” she whispered. “You’re so good at that. Both of you.”

“Thank you,” Yelena replied. “Now, would you like to fuck me?”

“Yes, I would,” Elise answered quickly. She got up from in between them and grabbed the fake cock. She studied the rig for a moment. “Interesting,” she murmured. “Very intricate. They made this for you? Really?”

“Yes,” Yelena replied. “We did a favor for them.”

“Huh. Okay, I’ve got to see how this works.” She pulled it on, putting her legs up into the air to do so, then got onto her knees. She glanced over at John. “You don’t mind if I borrow her for a little bit?” she asked.

“Go right ahead,” he replied.

“He greatly enjoys watching me with other women,” Yelena said. “And he will be taken care of soon enough.”

“Great.” Elise laid down on top of Yelena. “You are so tall,” she murmured as she got into position. “How tall actually are you?”

“She’s six foot two,” John replied.

“I understand that is tall for women in this realm,” Yelena said.

“Well, you’d be abnormally tall if you were an elf, pretty tall for a human, and short for a far elf...oh, there we go...” Elise whispered, and Yelena moaned quietly.

She penetrated his lover with the fake dick and both of them groaned loudly.

“Oh my-I can feel that!” Elise moaned as she started having sex with Yelena. “I can actually feel that! This is amazing!”

“Yes...it’s quite nice,” Yelena murmured as she laid there with her legs spread, letting Elise pound her demoness pussy.

John watched, enraptured by the display.

Both women were moaning and crying out now as they made love. He did notice that Elise’s ass was a bit bigger now, beneath her sexy tail that swayed back and forth as she furiously drove into Yelena. And it sure wasn’t a bad thing. Honestly, he thought her ass looked even better with a bit more weight on it.

He was looking forward to fucking her from the back.

The look on Elise’s face was one of beautiful rapture and lusty excitement, still with a bit of surprise mixed in. And Yelena looked so sexy, lying on her back with her legs spread wide, her hands up on Elise’s small breasts, groping them as she got fucked.

The two women continued having sex until Elise let out another prolonged cry of bliss, orgasming a second time, and then she collapsed against Yelena, who wrapped her arms around her and held the sexy beryl.

“Holy shit...I’m still horny,” she murmured.

“So is John, I imagine,” Yelena replied.

“Oh yes...here, lemme get this off, and you can like, take turns fucking us,” Elise said.

She pulled out of Yelena and rolled off of her, then got out of the magical rig she was wearing. She set it aside, then opened her legs and reached for him. “Make love to me.”

“Gladly,” he replied. “We need any lube?”

“No, I think I’m wet enough. I had two orgasms,” Elise replied, smiling sedately at him.

He nodded and laid down on top of her. Gripping his cock, he rested it at the entrance of her beryl pussy and started to push his way in.

“Oh, yeah...” he groaned.

She was definitely wet.

She moaned as he penetrated her, and once he was comfortably inside, began making love to her, thrusting into her.

“I fucking love your cock,” she moaned, wrapping her legs around him and reaching up, running her hands across his chest. He was propped up on his hands, staring down at her wonderful green body, her high breasts bouncing in sync with his thrusting.

“I really love your pussy,” he replied, grunting as he pounded her. She cried out and he felt Yelena’s hand on his back, running smoothly down it.

“His dick is quite nice,” she murmured.

“I am honestly jealous of you,” Elise groaned. “You get fucked like this all the time.”

“Every day,” Yelena confirmed. “Often twice.”

“How do you have the stamina?” she moaned.

“I’m a demon,” Yelena replied simply.

“I meant John. How do you keep up with her?”

“I really don’t know,” he replied, then groaned as he started going faster and harder, the pleasure of her bare, slick pussy on his cock filling him. Whatever coherent thoughts were in his head began to dissolve as he felt that true sexual bliss. He stared into Elise’s eyes as he fucked her, sliding smoothly in and out of her pussy, and she stared right back at him. He kept going until Yelena began to rub his back again, then began to use her fingernails. Not seriously, but enough to get his attention. He looked over at her.

She was lying on her side, and her tail was rising and falling behind her, hitting the bed repeatedly.

“Oh, your turn?” he asked.

“My turn,” she confirmed, her gaze having gone from demure to demanding.

John kissed Elise, then pulled out of her and got on top of Yelena. He slid smoothly into her and she groaned in response. He loved making her make those noises. There was something especially sexy about her strange voice. John kissed her deeply as he made love to her, pressing his hips against hers, burying himself within her. There was such a connection from being inside of her, from making love with nothing at all between them, and he loved every second of it. He continued fucking her, kissing her deeply, until it became obvious that Elise was getting impatient.

“I have an idea,” Yelena said.

“What’s that?” Elise asked.

“How would you like to be fucked by both of us at once?”

“I...” she grinned. “Yeah, I’d like that. I’d fucking love to get double fucked by you two.”

“I am going to take a guess and say that John will want to fuck you in the ass.”

“That would be pretty great,” John said.

“He likes doing that.”

“You do have a great ass,” he replied.

“I’m very down for this,” Elise said. “How are we gonna do it?”

“Get me the sex toy,” Yelena replied.

Elise grabbed it for her and John got off of her. Yelena pulled it on, then motioned for Elise to mount her. She did, and slipped the fake cock into her pussy, both women groaning. “Okay, now, John, you get behind her and fuck her in the ass.”

“Gladly,” he replied, lubing up his cock with a bottle of green lube he knew Elise kept in her headboard.

As soon as he was ready, he tossed the bottle aside and got behind Elise.

“Careful now,” she murmured.

“Do not worry, John knows what he is doing,” Yelena said.

“I won’t hurt you, Elise,” he replied, reaching down and laying a hand on her tail. He began to run his hand up and down it slowly as he guided his cock into her, making her moan and shudder.

“I trust you,” she whispered.

Once he had worked his way carefully up Elise’s very tight ass, all three of them began to get into a rhythm. It took a little bit to figure out, but pretty soon they had it down. John had to admit, he loved this position.

Although honestly, he loved pretty much every position so long as sex with a beautiful woman was involved.

He groaned, bringing his hands up and around her, cupping her breasts and groping them gently, and Elise moaned loudly, both of her holes getting fucked at the same time. The pleasure was intense, burning slowly into him as he pumped into her ass. It was only made more potent by the fact that he could hear both women moaning loudly, all three of them being pleasured at the same time, an intensely intimate moment where it felt like the only place in the whole world was this room. It was just the three of them and their sex and their deep connection. He began to fuck her faster, pushing deeper into her ass as Yelena did the same with her pussy.

They fucked her brains out.

In the end, he wasn’t sure who came first: him, Yelena, or Elise.

He felt Elise gasp and twitch against him about the same time he heard Yelena cry out. And his climax burst into being, and he was filling her tight beryl ass with his human seed. His cock twitched and spasmed as it emptied itself as fast as possible. He pumped her full of his seed, wave upon wave of pleasure washing through him in a rapturous release. He could feel both women twitching and spasming in response to their own orgasms, dancing the dance of sexual release and gratification. It was wondrous.

When he was finished, John groaned as he pulled out of her and fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling, which was spinning now.

“I really, really needed that,” Elise said as she fell onto Yelena again.

“Same,” John replied. “Do you feel better?”

“So much better,” she answered. “Thank you. You two are amazing friends.”

“You are pretty amazing yourself,” Yelena replied, hugging Elise to herself.

Elise let out a long yawn. “Oh wow, I’m fucking exhausted now.”

“Same,” John repeated. “Bath and then sleep?”

“Yes,” Elise said, and Yelena murmured in agreement.

He began to pick himself up and head for the tub.

…

They found themselves back on the road again several hours after noon.

After sex and bathing, they’d all curled up together in Elise’s bed and had slept for what turned out to be quite awhile. John had had a few nightmares, and had woken up uncertain and somewhat afraid, but seeing Yelena doing stretches on the floor and Elise still asleep in the bed next to him put him back at ease.

They’d ended up having another threesome to wake up, then another bath and breakfast. They’d gone over the map and John saw that the research outpost was somewhere in the mountains that ran from coast to coast in the north. Specifically, it was somewhere in the far west. Morgan’s house, on the other hand, was closer to the middle of the country. It was somewhere in the woods roughly between two small settlements called Birchwood and Westwood. He’d been through Westwood and it hadn’t been anything special.

He felt confident they could get there without too much trouble.

Well, maybe confident was too strong a word. He had hope. Right now, he was feeling good. He hadn’t realized that Elise was still feeling the effects of their time taking down the undead lord. He still had a nightmare here or there, but he felt bad for her, and he honestly hoped she was going to be okay. John had promised himself that he and Yelena would start making more regular visits to see her, because it felt like Elise was among the first real friends they’d made since starting their new life together.

And real friends were rare, and valuable.

That was, of course, provided they survived this mess, however long it took to deal with.

Their plan was simple: they would walk to the edge of the Emerald Wild, but stay within it, then begin to head south, leaving only when they had come roughly parallel with Westwood. From there, they would press on across the land, taking the most direct route and hopefully reaching Morgan’s place before the next sunrise.

John glanced over at Yelena, and frowned.

She had her hood down. She was wearing her amulet, looking like a plain human woman. The more time went on, the more he hated it. Hated what it represented. Yelena had to hide her very identity, the core of who she was, simply because the people here could not tolerate the sight of a demon. Because they would likely give her no chance. He remembered Bianca, and how, for a time, she seemed almost a manifestation of the blind hatred people here had for demons. To be fair, she had a good reason for hating them, and it wasn’t like all demons, or even most of them, as far as he knew, were great, or would treat humans any better. From his understanding, most demons looked at those from his realm as little more than animals.

But still.

Yelena shouldn’t have to hide who she was just to live her life.

His thoughts stumbled to a halt when Yelena snapped her head to the right, freezing in place. He did the same, hunting for the threat that she had sensed. And he began to smell something. Something burning.

“Move!” Yelena screamed and shoved him out of the way as a huge fireball suddenly burst out of the vegetation to their right. John fell to the ground, feeling the scorching heat of its passing, momentarily blinded. He blinked several times, furiously trying to get his vision back as he stumbled to his feet.

“Ragnostal, you cannot hide!” a deep, resonating voice called, and he heard heavy footfalls, drawing closer.

John surged to his feet, drawing his blade, and looked around. There were several small fires crackling, blackening the forest around them. He saw Yelena with an arrow drawn and notched, aiming it towards a hulking figure that seemed to have a glowing outline.

“Agoston,” she spat. “I am so disappointed.”

She let fly the arrow. The huge demon, Agoston, released a small fireball that consumed it in midair.

“I thought you would be grateful to see me,” Agoston replied. He let out a huff of irritation. “It is worse than I had heard. Not only are you traveling with one of these feeble creatures, you have changed yourself to look like one! Ragnostal, what happened to you?”

When he said that word, Ragnostal, it was a little like nails digging into John’s ears. He realized that he was hearing Yelena’s original name.

“Nothing worth dying over,” Yelena replied, another arrow already notched. “You and I both know that I outclass you, Agoston. I can, and will, murder you. Leave.”

“I am afraid I cannot do that,” Agoston replied easily. He reached behind him and drew a large blade that was wreathed in flames. “Hagan would not accept my return alone. I come back with you, or not at all.”

“You are pathetic,” Yelena growled, and loosed another arrow.

He again struck it out of the air with a small but powerful fireball.

“Yes, I am pathetic. You left our land, abandoned your holdings, your respect, your life, and came to live a pale imitation of life with a human, and yet I am the pathetic one.”

“Enough!” Yelena snapped, dropping her bow and drawing her blade. “We will fight. I will end you.”

“So be it,” Agoston replied easily.

John had drawn his own blade. He was angry, but mainly he was just afraid. This demon had to be seven feet tall. And was basically on fire. Shit. This was going to be tough. Though Yelena seemed confident.

Agoston began coming at them.

John and Yelena moved forward in sync with each other, blades raised. John sliced at the demon’s broad, bare chest, but the big bastard brought his sword around in a tight arc so fast that John barely got his own blade up in time. The demon warrior crashed their blades together so hard that John was sent stumbling several steps. He grunted and caught himself from falling. Yelena sliced down, drawing the blade across the demon’s big forearm, and drew blood. But Agoston had no reaction to this, other than to try and backhand her.

Yelena was a lot quicker than he was. She leaped back and slashed out again, cutting across his bicep, then jabbed for his stomach. Now Agoston looked annoyed and as he moved back, John surged forward, trying to hit him while he was distracted. And his blade connected, coming down hard on the demon’s right bicep and jerking to a halt as it actually hit bone. Agoston let out a gruff grunt and hit John in the chest with a fireball that picked him completely up off the ground and sent him flying back several feet.

He felt flames begin to engulf him and he cried out, rolling around and dropping his blade, trying to put himself out. It was all on his armor but was quickly spreading and if he didn’t get it out very soon he could suffer some serious damage. He heard the other two fighting viciously as he put himself out. After a few torturous moments, the flames were dead. John grabbed his blade and surged to his feet again just in time to see Yelena duck under Agoston’s blade and run him through with her own. Her blade punched out of his lower back in a spray of dark red blood and the demon let out a short bark of real pain.

“Bitch!” he roared and kicked her.

Yelena was picked up and thrown much as John had been, disappearing into the trees and dense foliage.

“Yelena!” John screamed, running at Agoston. They had to end this fast.

The big bastard turned around and punched him squarely in the chest.

The breath burst from his lungs and an eruption of pain slammed into him like a hammer striking an anvil as he heard as much as felt something crack sharply inside of him. He tried to scream as he flew backwards, but had no air with which to do so. Then he crashed onto the ground, falling flat on his back, and gasped for air as a fresh wave of pure pain hit him.

“You are pathetic, both of you,” Agoston growled as he stomped towards John, who was struggling for air, trying to get to his feet. “I will end you, and bring her back for reeducation, because clearly, if she willingly stays here with something like you, she is broken.”

Words formed in John’s head, fueled by fury and rage, but they could not escape his throat. He stared up at the massive demonic being, whose features were now largely hidden by flames, sword still sticking out of his gut.

“Time to end this,” he said, raising his blade.

An arrow exploded out of his right eye in a spray of gore.

He didn’t die, not right away, but he froze, and then slowly turned around. John heard footfalls, softer than the demon’s but growing closer. Suddenly, the blade protruding from his back was torn out, making him grunt.

“Ragnostal...” Agoston growled.

“Now who is broken, bitch?” Yelena snapped.

Her blade carved straight through his neck, separating it from his body in a tremendous spray of blood. His head went one way, bouncing away, and his body went the other, mercifully not falling backwards onto John.

Yelena came into view, teeth bared, breathing heavily, bloodied sword in hand. He realized that her amulet must have fallen off, as he could see her true form now. Her expression changed abruptly as she saw him, and she rushed forward.

“John,” she whispered, crouching and setting her blade aside. “Hold still, love.”

“Think a few ribs are broken,” he groaned.

“I’m sorry. I will fix you.”

She placed her hands gently on his chest and he winced at the fresh wave of pain that hit him but kept silent. He’d had to put up with broken ribs before. He waited, gritting his teeth, and felt a wave of gentle warmth pass through him. Yelena closed her eyes, concentrating, and he saw a flickering white light begin to emanate from her hands.

He felt his ribs being knitted back together.

It was painful, but her powerful magical skills made the pain distant. After close to a minute, the pain had faded. Yelena opened her eyes and let out a long breath.

“There,” she whispered. He began to try and sit up. “No. Stay,” she commanded.

He sighed but didn’t try to fight. She smiled, then shifted around and ended up sitting beside him, putting his head in her lap.

“I am sorry about that,” she said, gently running her fingers through his hair.

“Not your fault. Are you okay? You took a solid hit,” he replied.

“I am fine, my love,” she said, smiling down at him. “I’ll heal myself after I regain some of my magic.”

He sighed, frustrated. “You should have healed yourself first.”

“Your injuries are more threatening and severe, and I only had enough magic to heal one of us. This was the logical decision. I will be fine, John.”

“You and your logic.”

“One of us should be logical.”

“Oh, I’m not logical?”

She pursed her lips. “Let us just say that...perhaps you find yourself entranced by the promise of vagina a bit too often.”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t do fucking anything for my cock.”

She reached down and flicked his nose. “Ow!”

“Try not to think too highly of yourself, love.”

He sighed. “Fine, fair enough. I would go pretty far for sex, I guess. Well...less far now that I’m with you. And I wouldn’t sleep with anyone you didn’t want me to.”

She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair again. He loved when she touched him. “I know, John. We are both highly sexual, and I trust you.”

“I trust you, too...” he glanced around. “Um, shouldn’t we be leaving?”

“We have time,” Yelena replied. “They will be confident in Agoston. Foolish. My people, especially the men, are not known for their innovation. They prefer to rely on blunt strength, as evidenced by Agoston.”

“Anyone else I should be worried about?”

Yelena frowned now. “I am not sure,” she admitted. “I do not know what may have transpired in my absence, but clearly something is different. That peon said that Hagan was powerful. When I left, Agoston outranked Hagan. If the situation is truly as it appears, then somehow, Hagan has indeed gained much more power. But I should not speculate on who may come after us next. We should just be prepared. And we should probably take advantage of whatever time we have, now that I think about it. I do not know their level of surveillance, or how they are tracking us.” She sighed and then helped him to his feet.

They waited another few moments, then Yelena healed her own wounds after gathering up enough magic.

They took a moment to gather up things that had fallen off of them during the battle, including Yelena’s amulet.

Then they were off and walking again, their pace a bit faster than before.

CHAPTER IV

The walk along the interior of the Emerald Wild was mostly quiet.

There was just one instance where they thought they were going to get jumped by another demon, but it turned out to be only a few giant spiders, and the pair put them down with ease. As soon as they reached the area that was roughly parallel with Westwood and Morgan’s house, they debated briefly about whether to stick to the main roads or try to move among the fields. Ultimately, they decided to risk the main roads, since it would cut time off of their journey and Yelena had her amulet back on now.

So, they could hide in plain sight if need be.

Hitting the road, walking to one side of it, they kept up a steady pace.

John found his thoughts drifting to Morgan as they walked. He’d run into her once in the Redwood Forest a few years ago when he was hunting a Minotaur that was apparently terrifying the locals. In the process of doing so, he’d met Morgan. He’d actually, embarrassingly, mistaken her for the Minotaur initially, given her size. But, once they cleared up his confusion, she and an elf friend of hers had been happy to team up with him. They’d found the Minotaur and killed it, and then someone else had shown up while they were on the way back with the thing’s head to cash it in. She’d needed help, and Morgan and the elf had apologized, told him he could keep the gold, and left.

He’d been a bit disappointed, because honestly, he’d really wanted to sleep with Morgan and her elf friend, although he wasn’t sure if it could work with her. The woman was nine feet tall, a half-giantess apparently, and he wasn’t really all that big down there. But who knew, maybe there was some way it could work?

He wondered if Yelena would be into watching him fuck a nine-foot woman.

He also wondered if he was a freak, since he was seriously horny at the thought of having sex with a half-giantess. It seemed like most guys wanted women smaller than them. He glanced at Yelena. They also tended to prefer their own kind.

Well, if he was a freak, then it was way more fun than being ‘normal’.

They kept moving, the sun beating its track across the sky slowly, making a burn for the distant horizon. They held hands, they chatted, picking up conversations every hour or so about this or that, nothing of any real consequence. Mostly, they were just happy to be together. There were a lot of things that made up love, some of them big, some of them small, but that was probably one of the biggest indicators for John personally. That they could just be together, even if they weren’t doing the same thing, just being in the same room or area, and that was enough.

Eventually, the sun set, and they were left walking in twilight, then in starlight. There were no clouds, and the moons and stars shined down on them. As they kept going, he found himself wondering about other things.

“How did you know Agoston?” he asked, trying to pronounce it best he could.

“We fought together for several years. He was not very intelligent, but he was very strong, and for the most part, that was enough. We got lucky. He was overconfident. Next time, we may not be so lucky.”

“I’ll be ready,” John replied.

“I hope so. And anyone we enlist the aid of, we will have to be up front about our situation.”

“Definitely,” he agreed.

They kept walking.

By the time they finally reached the woods in which Morgan resided and tracked down her place of residence, it was probably approaching three in the morning. John’s muscles were aching as he pushed through the foliage. Hopefully they could have a chat with her and, if she was as friendly and open as he remembered, she’d let them spend the night. But, worst case scenario, they could just walk to the nearest village and rent a room at an inn. Provided they could wake someone up. Smaller villages didn’t have all-night staff sometimes.

“This is a nice place,” Yelena murmured.

John nodded as he studied her house from a distance. The house was strangely proportioned and quite large, which made sense. It sat in the middle of a large clearing, with a cobblestone path leading up to the front door. On either side of that path were gardens that looked like they had received some extensive tending, with a proliferation of flowers that looked absolutely beautiful. He was glad to see that she was still probably awake, as there was flickering firelight in her windows. He moved forward onto the cobblestone path.

“Let’s do this,” he said.

They walked up to the front door, and John kept expecting to see it open up. But it didn’t, and as soon as he reached it, he knocked on it. There was a pause, then he heard the scrape of a chair and heavy footfalls.

The door opened up.

He and Yelena found themselves staring up at an enormous, and very attractive, woman.

“You,” she said, her eyes lighting up with recognition. “John, right?”

“Yes. Morgan?”

“Yep, that’s my name.” She glanced at Yelena.

“Yelena,” she said. “It is good to meet you.”

“That is an interesting accent,” she murmured. “What brings you to my place in the middle of the night, John and Yelena?” she asked, stepping back.

John glanced back over his shoulder once, wondering if they had been followed, but he saw no one and they walked inside.

“Well, we need your help,” he said.

“I like being helpful. If I remember, you were a very skilled and polite man. We had a good time together hunting that Minotaur.”

“It was a good job,” he agreed.

John looked around her place. Her whole house seemed to be one big room, each corner taken up by something. One was a bedroom area, one was a kitchen area, another a dining area. She led them to the dining area and took a seat in one huge chair clearly meant for her. They sat in two of the smaller chairs.

He wondered how often she had company.

“We have a few things we need to tell you first,” John said.

“Okay, shoot.”

“First of all, we are being hunted. So, our presence here might be dangerous.”

She shrugged. “I’m more dangerous than most things, and danger doesn’t bug me. Next.”

John glanced at Yelena. “I am a demon,” she said.

“Oh. I knew that accent was familiar. That must mean you’re projecting or you’ve got some kind of spell on. You can take it off, you’re in a safe place in my house,” Morgan replied.

“Thank you,” Yelena said, and took off her amulet.

“Goodness,” Morgan murmured. “You are so beautiful...sorry if that’s weird.”

“No, it is fine. You are quite attractive yourself,” Yelena replied.

John looked at her. Morgan was very sexy. She had dark blonde, almost brown, shoulder-length hair pulled into a simple ponytail. She had blue-gray eyes that made him think of a stormy ocean. Her skin was tanned and mostly smooth, with some scars here and there. She was wearing a sleeveless button-down shirt, and the top two buttons were undone, which meant she was showing off a lot of cleavage, and damn she had some big tits. She was also wearing some cut-off traveling pants that she filled out pretty nicely.

“So, you’re being hunted and you’re a demoness,” Morgan said.

“That’s the situation. Um, basically, we’re looking for two things. The first is someone who would have extensive knowledge of shape-shifting magic, the second is information about a research outpost that might contain an artifact we could use to further hide ourselves. We have a map of the general region, but we were hoping you might be able to pin it down. Um...oh yes! We’re good friends with Elise, she pointed us your way,” John explained.

“I was wondering how you found me. How is Elise?” Morgan asked.

“She’s doing...okay. We were involved in an incident in the Emerald Wild last month. Basically, the three of us and several dryads and serpentines and harpies had to take down a necromancy cult and their resurrected undead demon lord. It was a...taxing experience. She’s still kind of dealing with the emotional aftermath of that,” John explained.

“That’s not good. Maybe I should go see her soon, it’s been a long time,” Morgan murmured.

“I’m sure she would welcome it,” Yelena said.

“Well, let’s see this map then. And I actually can point you in the direction of a friend of mine who is a master of shape-shifting. She’s...rather far away though.”

“How far?” Yelena asked as John dug the map out of his pack.

“She’s on this continent, but she lives in the frozen lands beyond the mountains.”

“That’s quite a trek,” he said. “But we have to go to the mountains anyway.”

“Indeed.” Morgan studied the map as he placed it on the table. “Okay, I see what you mean. Yeah, this area is a pain in the ass. I have heard of this outpost, but only in passing. I’ve never been there. It was kind of on my ‘to-visit’ list someday. But I can also point you in the direction of someone who knows that area very well and might be able to guide you there. She’s a close friend of mine. Actually, she was with me when we were hunting that Minotaur. Her name is Indigo.”

“I remember her,” John said.

“So now that I’ve answered your questions, would you mind answering some of mine?” Morgan asked.

“Probably not,” Yelena replied.

“Are you two together? You’ve got that couple feel about you.”

“We are,” John replied.

“I am deeply curious as to how that happened. And I love a good story, would you be open to sharing it with me?” she asked.

He glanced at Yelena, who nodded. He smiled. It was something he’d gotten used to telling those that came into their life. He gave her a somewhat shortened version of events, and also used the opportunity to fill her in on why they were being hunted. As he finished up the story, Morgan suddenly sat up straighter, frowning.

“What’s wrong?” John asked.

“Someone’s outside. And they intend harm.” She stood up.

“Shit,” Yelena whispered, both her and John rising as well.

Morgan walked to the far wall and pulled an enormous broadsword off of its mounts. “Not a problem,” she said. “Come on.”

John felt a little thrill rush through him. Honestly, he’d gotten used to fighting, and he even kind of liked it, if the circumstances were right. But man, was he interested to see Morgan in action again. She was a fucking force of nature. Morgan led the way, opening the door and walking right out without a care in the world. He and Yelena drew their own weapons, Yelena her bow, he his blade, and followed after her.

John’s confidence slipped a notch when he saw exactly what was waiting for them outside of Morgan’s house.

There were a good dozen demons.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Ragnostal!” one of them called. “Stop hiding!”

Yelena growled, stepping out from behind Morgan. “Damion, you pathetic whelp, they sent you?” she asked.

“Yes, Ragnostal, they sent me to retrieve you. I warned him not to send the halfwit after you,” the demon, Damion, replied.

John joined her, studying them. The others were silent, wearing an assortment of polished silver armor, wielding swords and bows and staffs that all had nasty, sharp points to them. The demon in the center, the one talking, didn’t look particularly threatening. John wondered if he had any tricks up his sleeve.

“So instead they send the whelp,” Yelena replied, then laughed.

Damion’s cocky grin disappeared.

“I am no whelp,” he replied, his voice firmer now. “Hagan saw my potential and I have been given the proper station that I deserve.”

Now Yelena laughed openly. “No, he didn’t, you pathetic fool. He sent you here to die, because of your family ties, he could not do it himself. He sent you to me to rid himself of you. He still sees you for what you are, Damion: a whelp. Nothing more. That is all you will ever be.”

“Enough!” Damion snarled. “Take Ragnostal, kill the others.”

His demon squad began to move forward silently, brandishing weapons.

“Still having your underlings do your dirty work for you?” Yelena asked. “Pathetic.”

She let fly an arrow. One of the demons tried to move out of the way but it caught the thing right in the eye and dropped it like a rock. Four arrows sailed back in response, and two of them landed in Morgan, one in her huge thigh, another in her right bicep. She laughed and ignored them. “You guys have no fucking idea who’s garden you’re stepping in,” she replied, then began charging forward. Yelena let fly another arrow.

John ran forward, ready to meet them in combat.

Morgan hit them like a hurricane, bringing her enormous broadsword around in a massive arc and actually cleaving one of the demons completely in half at the waist. That seemed to give them some hesitation.

“Kill her!” Damion roared, then ducked and cursed as Yelena fired another arrow his way.

Sparks flew as John’s sword crashed against another demon warrior’s blade. He was immediately launched into a serious sword fight, their blades ringing as they came together again and again, each looking for a weakness in the other. He could hear the others fighting and shouting and hoped they were holding their own. It was obvious that even the underlings were pretty damned well-trained. Well, why not?

How old was this demon? As old as Yelena? Older?

Even if he was younger, he probably had four times the amount of combat experience that John had. He was going to have to push himself hard.

Or cheat.

Cheating was always an option.

He didn’t particularly like doing it, but hey, fuck these guys. They saw Yelena as broken for loving him and him as little more than an animal. So, John let the demon overwhelm him and pretended to lose his footing. The demon let out a huffing snort of satisfaction and moved in for the kill. John grunted as he fell on his ass, then brought his foot back and drove his heel forward, smashing it into the demon’s shin. He didn’t fall, or yell, but he definitely grunted and stopped. John did it again, heard something crack, and then surged up with his sword, driving it up into the bastard’s chin and pressing it all the way into his brain.

A spray of hot blood splashed across him as he ripped the blade out and then scrambled back to his feet. He turned just in time to barely manage to duck and avoid another demon flying through the air. He hit a tree with a solid sounding crack.

“Sorry, John!” Morgan called.

Yelena was fighting with Damion now, their swords ringing as they clashed together. Morgan, as he looked at her, was just driving her broadsword directly into the chest of another demon warrior. She picked him up, raising him high on her enormous sword, then whirled him around and sent him flying into another pair of them.

She was so goddamned strong.

Well, the fight wasn’t over yet, but it was sure going their way. He surged forward and tackled another demon fighter that was charging right for Morgan’s back. They both went to the ground, crushing several of her flowers in the process, and John felt a twinge of guilt. Morgan obviously cared a lot about her garden.

But he had bigger concerns at the moment.

He was currently lying on a demon’s back, and it was struggling fiercely, trying to get up. John reached down almost without thinking and felt the hilt of the dagger he had in a little sheath on his hip. He ripped it out, brought the dagger up, and then slammed it down into the back of the demon’s neck. The bastard stopped moving all at once, going totally slack. He heard someone scream and jerked up, pulling the dagger free and staggering to his feet. He saw that Morgan had finished off the other demons still alive and Yelena was standing over Damion, the tip of her blade hovering over his eye. He snarled up at her.

“This is how you die, whelp,” she said. “All these peons you brought to do your dirty work, wasted. You should not have come here.”

“What choice did I have?” Damion growled.

“Exactly why I left,” Yelena replied. “You know I cannot let you live.”

“You had better finish me quickly,” Damion growled. “Because I-”

Yelena jabbed her blade straight through his eye, his brains, and the back of his skull. Damion jerked violently for several seconds, gagging, then went slack.

“Bastard,” she whispered, then yanked the sword out. Turning, she looked at John and Morgan. “Are you two okay?”

“I’m fine,” Morgan replied.

“You have arrows sticking out of you,” John said.

She grabbed one and yanked it out. “I’m fine.”

“John?” Yelena asked.

“I’m okay,” he replied. “No injuries. You?”

“I am uninjured,” she said. She slowly looked around the front yard. “Morgan, I am sorry...your yard, your flowers...”

“Oh, it’s fine,” she replied easily, tugging another arrow out. “We should make sure they’re all dead, and that there’s no one else, and then go inside. I’ll clean up the bodies in the morning.”

“You’re...pretty calm about all this,” John said as they started checking the bodies.

“Eh, this kind of thing has happened before,” Morgan replied. “My house has been attacked before. Garden’s been burned to nothing before. I mean, it gets destroyed every winter anyway. I love remaking my garden. Plus, hey, demon armor is good coin, and the bodies are good fertilizer.”

They finished up their search, first confirming that Damion and his demon underlings were truly dead, then making sure there were no stragglers hiding in the woods around them. Morgan apparently had a magical device to help her detect such a thing. Once they were sure they were once again alone, they retreated back into her house.

“So, before we were so rudely interrupted,” she said, sitting back down.

“Let me heal you,” Yelena said.

“Oh yeah,” she murmured, glancing down at her wounds, which had since stopped bleeding. “Okay.”

Yelena moved over to her and laid her hands upon one of her arms, then let her healing magic flow out, sealing the wounds, making them disappear.

“Thanks.”

“You are welcome.” Yelena sat down with John across from her.

“So, uh, where were we?” John asked.

“Information. Here, lemme see your map again,” she said. He passed it to her and she studied it. “Okay, making a little notation here. There’s an elf settlement in the Redwood Forest. About six hours east of Redwood itself. It’s called Brynne. Nice place. Indigo should be there. She’ll be able to help you. Now...” she murmured, moving her finger up, way past the mountains, into the northern portion of the continent. “My friend, Kesley. She’s a dragon, just so you know. One of the only dragons on this continent. She should be here,” she said, carefully marking a lone mountain far to the north. “At the top. There’s a path along the east side of the mountain. You find it, you follow it up to the top. That’ll take you to her place. She might give you a bit of a threat, just tell her I sent you. And you’ll want to give her this,” she said, getting up and crossing to her bed. She rummaged around in the headboard, then came back.

She set a small amulet on the table. It was bronze and had a surprisingly intricate knot on it. “One of our little trade secrets. Just make sure you bring that back to me. If I’m not here, you can just slip it under the front door.”

“Thank you so much for this,” Yelena said, accepting the amulet and slipping it into her pack. “We really appreciate it.”

“Not a problem. You two seem really nice. Now, one more thing. Kesley might not be at her home. She tends to travel across the continent sometimes. The last I heard, there was another warrior traveling in the north. She’s a mutual acquaintance of ours. Her name is Piper. I think finding her would be beneficial, because she probably will know where Kesley is and will help you. Plus, well...I think she’ll be into the both of you, so you could probably get a threesome. And she is hot. She’s tall, fit, and blonde.” She paused, stared at them, her lips twisting. “So, what are your plans now?”

John sighed. “Well, I feel bad for leading these assholes to your place, and now they know we’re here. We probably shouldn’t stay.”

“I think it makes more sense to stay,” Morgan replied. “Either they’re going to show up here looking for you again, or they’ll try to hunt you down in the near future. In either scenario, strength in numbers makes more sense. And you two look exhausted. You need a place to sleep, which you can do here. You can bathe, too. I’ve got a kickass natural hot spring out back. I’ve also got food. Plus...I kind of want to fuck you.”

John felt his eyebrows shoot up in response to that as he looked at her. “Really?”

“Yep. Based on what you told me, you two are in an open relationship, and I always intended to have sex with you. I just got called away in an emergency. You were honestly kind of my ‘one that got away’,” she admitted.

“Wow, seriously?”

“Yeah. I’ve thought about you a lot. Don’t worry, I don’t want a relationship or anything. I just want you to stick your cock in me. And I’ve seen the way you check me out. Yelena? Would you be okay with this?”

“Yes, I would be okay with this,” Yelena replied. “Though I fully expect to be fucked before this night is through.”

“Would it, um...would it work, between us? I’m not that big, really,” he said awkwardly.

Morgan just smiled. “It’ll be fine. I know a small bit of shape-shifting magic myself. Basically, I can shrink my pussy. It’s going to feel fucking awesome, I can promise you that.”

“Well...okay then,” he said. He looked up at her. Even sitting down, she was fucking huge. It was kind of strange, seeing her, almost like he was looking at an optical illusion or something. She basically just looked like a hot, tough, well-built and busty woman that had been grown to much larger proportions. The tallest woman he’d ever had sex with, as far as he could remember, was Cypress, and she was six and a half feet tall.

Morgan would tower over her.

“Well, since we’re all filthy and dirty, how about we go out back and wash up before we get to the fucking?” Morgan suggested.

“Sounds great to me,” Yelena replied.

“Awesome,” Morgan said, standing up quickly, “because I actually haven’t gotten laid in about a week and I’m fucking dying for some cock, or at least to get eaten.”

“I could eat you,” Yelena said.

“Oh, could you?” Morgan replied, looking back at her as they headed for the back door.

Yelena stuck out her elongated, forked tongue and wiggled it at her.

“Oh fuck,” Morgan said, “I think I’ll try to talk you into sticking around.”

“That’d sure be nice,” John replied. This would be a nice spot to vacation from all the crazy shit that had been happening lately.

He started at her huge ass as she led them out back. Damn, she really filled out those pants she was wearing nicely. As they came out back, he looked around more. She definitely worked hard on her garden. There were even more flowers of all different types and colors surrounding the cobblestone pathway that led to a hot spring.

“Whoa,” he said as he caught full sight of the spring.

“Customized it a little over the years,” Morgan replied as she kicked off her boots and shed her top, undoing the buttons.

“That seems like an understatement,” Yelena murmured. “It is beautiful.”

What had once been a natural hot spring, basically a rocky hole in the ground with water, had been reshaped by years of work. There were dozens of little niches in the rocks that all held gently flickering blue-flamed candles. Along the back of the spring was a brick-and-mortar wall with a wooden shelf attached to it, a long one that had a number of small bottles, washrags, and other items spread out along it.

A tree in full bloom presided over all of it, providing excellent shade.

“This place is amazing,” he said, beginning the process of getting undressed.

“Thank you,” Morgan replied.

She pulled her shorts down and took them off. Wow, she did indeed have an enormous ass. She had that great balance to her where she was in great shape, but she was also clearly eating pretty heartily, so she had a nice bit of extra weight to her. Her thighs and hips were goddess-like. She walked into the hot spring, disappearing slowly into the crystal clear, steaming water. John and Yelena quickly finished stripping down.

“Wow, Yelena, you are beautiful,” Morgan said as she settled in, watching the pair of them come towards the hot spring.

“Thank you,” Yelena replied. “You are quite attractive yourself.”

“I’m honestly jealous of both of you. You’re both so fucking hot. I’d love to have regular sexual access to either, or, ideally, both of you,” she murmured as they slipped into the water.

John let out a long sigh of relief as he dipped beneath the water. He dunked his head, then came back up, running his hands through his short, dark hair. “Not a bad prospect,” he replied. “This is definitely what I needed after today.”

“Yes,” Yelena agreed, squeezing some water out of her hair.

“I’m going to probably be staring at you a lot,” Morgan said, looking at Yelena. “I apologize if this annoys you. I’ve just...I’ve never actually been around a demoness before. I’ve been around a succubus, and had sex with one a few times, and that was fantastic. But there is just something about you, something so sexy and exotic and alluring...” she glanced at John. “You must fuck her brains out like every day.”

“I do,” he agreed.

“I don’t think there’s been a single day where we have not made love at least once,” Yelena replied. “I’m glad you approve of my appearance.”

She laughed. “I already like you for other reasons. Nothing’s quite a turn on like a badass warrior woman, and you handled yourself quite well out there.”

“As did you,” Yelena replied. “You clearly have experience in combat.”

“Yeah. I’ve fought a lot. I hire myself out to caravans looking for protection, sometimes I hunt dangerous creatures, sometimes I go on adventures. Last year I went across the country helping a few friends of mine hunt down an old necromancy artifact.”

“That must’ve been interesting,” John replied.

“Yeah, it was. Definitely fun, and we did a great thing. And I made a new fuck friend out of it. I don’t have a lot of those.”

“Really?” Yelena asked.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m nine feet tall and live on my own half the year, then the other half I go out and kick ass. I usually find an adventurer to fuck me, but I intimidate a lot of guys. Girls, too, but mostly guys.” She sighed. “You know, guys all talk tough and big, like how they don’t back down and love challenges, but as soon as I show up, it’s like they can’t handle me. I know they wanna fuck me, I can tell when someone’s checking me out, but they can’t get it up! Too many guys are all talk, no fuck,” she groused.

“Not my lover,” Yelena said.

“Clearly not. Anyone who fucks you on a regular basis, I think, has a lot of love for living on the wild side...” she paused. “That wasn’t offensive, was it?”

“I am wild,” Yelena replied.

Morgan laughed. “Yeah, you are.”

“And I believe I offered you oral.”

“And I believe that I accepted that offer,” Morgan said, smiling at Yelena.

John watched as his demoness lover drifted across the hot spring. This was going to be awe-inspiring. Yelena came forward until she was next to Morgan. The two women stared at each other for a few seconds, then Yelena leaned in and pressed her lips to Morgan’s. The half-giantess moaned as she started locking lips with her. They ran their hands over each other’s bodies. Yelena fondled Morgan’s enormous, glistening breasts, apparently enjoying them very much. John imagined he was going to enjoy touching them a lot too.

Her tits were easily the biggest he’d ever seen.

They continued making out for another good minute or so before Morgan pulled back. “Okay, let me get my big ass up on the side,” she murmured, then kissed Yelena again firmly on the mouth and moved over to one side of the hot spring where the rock had been worn smooth, probably by her. He wondered how often she got eaten out or fucked out here. And she stood up, again showing him that huge ass of hers, then turned around and settled down on the smooth stone. She spread her legs and Yelena disappeared in between those immense thighs of hers. John shifted position so that he had a better view of the action.

“You two make an awesome couple,” Morgan said as Yelena got into position.

“I think so, too,” John replied.

“Ohhhh fuck yes...” Morgan moaned as Yelena began tonguing her clit. “That fucking tongue of yours...oh wow...”

She propped herself up on the heels of her palms and leaned back, making her huge breasts more prominent as she opened her legs wider. John watched Yelena’s head moving slowly as she ate the half-giantess out. Morgan began to moan loudly. He watched her squeeze her eyes shut and begin to chew on her lower lip.

“Yes...yes yes! Yes, Yelena!” she cried, and within half a minute, Yelena had her coming hard. A hot spray of sex juices was released, and she convulsed several times as she enjoyed the intense orgasm his demoness lover had induced. As soon as she was finished, Yelena pulled back and washed up. When she glanced at John, he saw that she looked pretty satisfied with herself. Well, she’d made a nine-foot half-giantess come hard.

He was hoping to feel good about that as well.

“Oh my, I really needed that,” Morgan said as she caught her breath and then slipped back down into the water. “Been way too long since someone made me orgasm.” She grinned at John suddenly. “So, you wanna get to the bed and pound my pussy?”

“Uh...yeah, that’d be fantastic,” he replied. He had to admit: it was intimidating to have a nine-foot woman looking at you with an almost feral intensity of sexual desire. But it was more exhilarating than it was intimidating.

Given that he had a powerful erection, John quickly finished washing up, then got up out of the hot spring. He grabbed a towel from where Morgan had some stashed and dried off. As soon as the others were dried off, they headed back into Morgan’s place. John was almost trembling with anticipation as they got back inside, and he followed Morgan up onto her huge bed. She laid on her back and spread her legs.

“Fuck away, handsome,” she said.

He got a better look at her pussy as he got into position and saw that it was indeed oddly small compared to the rest of her. Well, whatever. It might look kind of weird, but it was going to feel fucking awesome for both of them.

Yelena settled in to watch.

John got up against her and rested his cock at the entrance of her pussy. She was extremely wet. He waited just a few seconds, then slipped it into her, savoring the feeling of sliding his bare cock into the pussy of a nine-foot half-giantess. Immediately he learned, as he buried his cock inside of her, that she was right about how godsdamned tight shape-shifting could make her. It felt incredible! He groaned loudly as he began driving into her, humping her furiously as he quickly became lost inside of her, unable to help himself.

“Mmm...yes,” she groaned. “Fuck, that’s so good. Fuck that pussy.”

“Fuck, Morgan,” he moaned as he reached up and groped her enormous breasts. He couldn’t even begin to get his hands around them.

The blissful ecstasy of unprotected sex made a slow burn into him as he continued to pound her, ramming his hips into hers.

“Yes! Fuck me!” she screamed, spreading her legs wider.

“Oh, Morgan...gods, you’re so wet...” he moaned.

“You can come inside me whenever you want,” she replied.

“Wanna go longer,” he groaned.

“We’ve got time,” Morgan panted.

He nodded and continued humping her furiously, the intense bliss filling him. He knew he wasn’t lasting much longer, her pussy just felt too good. Even with the endurance he’d been building up fucking Yelena’s brains out over the past month. He could feel her vagina clenching around his cock, wrapping his most sensitive part in all that hot, wet rapturous perfection. And the sounds she was making, the intense moaning and the way she would cry out when he hit a sensitive spot. And he had an idea she was trying to make him come.

Especially when she moaned, “Fill my pussy, John...”

That was his button. She’d pushed it and thus had pushed him over the edge and into orgasm. He let out a long moan as his cock twitched hard inside of her, a thick spurt of his seed leaving him, ejecting from him violently, shooting into her half-giantess pussy.

She groaned in response. “That’s such a good boy,” she moaned. “Mmm, yes...come in me, John. Fill me up with that stuff...”

“Oh, Morgan!” he cried as his cock emptied itself as fast as it could, shooting thick loads of his seed into her. Each time it happened, a fresh wave of raw pleasure blasted out through him, filling him with pure bliss.

He slowly came down from the high that felt like pure magical rapture and it was like being deposited back into his own body, gasping for breath, slicked with sweat, tired. He carefully pulled out of her and then sat down, his feet dangling over the edge of her bed.

“That was very...arousing,” Yelena said.

“Don’t worry love, I’ll do you just as hard,” he replied.

She smirked. “I know, dear. Take your time.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Morgan, will we be safe here?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I have a number of spells and wards that I’ll activate in just a moment, since you blew like a huge load in me and I need to wash up again, so I’ll be going out anyway. Plus, I’m a light sleeper. This place is safe.”

“Okay. I just...feel guilty, putting you in danger like this,” John replied.

She laughed. “Relax, I don’t care about danger. And riding Yelena’s tongue and getting fucked by your dick is more than worth danger. Don’t worry.”

“All right,” he replied with only a little reluctance. He did believe her. And he was fucking exhausted at this point.

He glanced at Yelena as Morgan got up off the bed and headed for the hot spring again. She stared back at him with smoldering crimson eyes.

Yes, he would be even more exhausted before the night was out.

CHAPTER V

“So, do you remember where you’re supposed to go and what you’re supposed to do?” Morgan asked them.

“Go to Brynne. Find Indigo. Ask for her help. Then track down Piper, who will help us track down Kesley, and give her the amulet and ask for her help,” John replied.

“Good! Also, when this is all over, come see me again! I want to see both of you.”

“We fully intend to,” Yelena said.

“Excellent. Now,” Morgan murmured, looking out over her garden, “I have a lot of work to do today.”

“What are you going to do with the bodies?” John asked.

“Sell them, probably. I know some mages that would pay good coin for them. And if not, fertilizer. Blood and other meat is really good for plants and helping them grow.”

“Good luck...and thank you. For everything,” John said.

“You’re welcome. And thank you. And good luck to you as well,” Morgan replied.

They each gave her a hug and a kiss, wished her a final farewell for now, then turned and began walking away from her place. It was well past noon, as they’d slept for quite awhile, and even still John was tired. He had an idea that they were going to walk until a bit past nightfall, then make camp for the night and sleep.

And hope no one interrupted them.

It was another good length of distance they’d have to be walking between Morgan’s house and the township of Brynne.

But John was in high spirits, and so was Yelena.

They felt like they had a clear goal and a sure path to it. As such, he felt good enough about their situation that he wanted to take the time to show Yelena some of the more interesting (and, hopefully, romantic) locations of the Redwood Forest. They made quick work of the distance between Morgan’s place and the forest.

“So, this is the place you mentioned earlier? The...Red Forest?” Yelena asked as they worked their way into the trees.

“Redwood Forest,” he replied, “and yes. What do you think?”

“It is...much more peaceful, and serene, than the Emerald Wild.”

“Yes, it very much is. I spent a lot of time here when I first started adventuring. It can be dangerous, but it is far more peaceful. I have a few places I want to show you.”

She glanced over at him. “Are you sure? Given our current situation, I am not sure we should linger...”

“Don’t worry, love, they’re on the way. And between the two of us we’ll be able to deal with anything they throw our way. Not to mention that we do have that blessing of the dryads,” he replied, then looked around, wondering if they were being watched.

Dryads had a way of sneaking up on him.

Serpentine, too.

“It did not seem to count for very much in the Wild, nor the woods Morgan’s home was in,” Yelena murmured.

“I suppose so. I guess I’m just looking for excuses to have a romantic day with you,” he replied, taking her hand.

She looked over at him again and sighed. “I suppose it has been long enough since we enjoyed one of those. And I wonder if I will ever get used to this idea that you want to do something nice for me for the sake of doing something nice. You don’t want anything in return?”

“I mean...I would enjoy some sex later, but, you know, honestly, spending time with you is enough for me,” he replied, shrugging. “It’s its own reward.”

She laughed. “I see. Well, lucky for you I am a very amorous woman.”

“Very lucky for me,” he agreed.

“What is the first place we’re visiting?”

“There is this amazingly beautiful grove I want to show you. These rare blue flowers grow there, and I want you to see them, given your favorite color is blue.”

“Did I...tell you that?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“A few days after we got your amulet.”

“You remembered that.”

“I did.”

“Very interesting.”

“Why’s that interesting?” he asked.

“It would be considered very inconsequential in my world. Trivial.”

“Nothing’s trivial,” John murmured.

“What do you mean?”

He sighed. “I was talking with an older adventurer once. We were talking about relationships. I made some comment about something being trivial, how I thought that the small things didn’t matter in life...he told me that nothing’s trivial. He had a relationship before, a great love, and she died. He told me that the little things do matter. The day-to-day stuff. Relationships thrive on people who put in effort every day. Not big, showy effort, but little efforts. You make it second nature almost: giving your lover a little kiss on the forehead, holding hands, grabbing a drink for them when they don’t feel like getting up, making time specifically for them every single day, giving them a foot massage or dealing with a chore they just don’t feel like putting up with that day. It’s the little things that build the strongest relationships,” he replied.

“That...is so interesting. It is so antithetical to my own cultural. And it is sad, too.”

“Yes, it is. Sorry, didn’t mean to bring the mood down.”

“No, it is okay. I do enjoy all the little things you do for me. I notice them. I appreciate them. With you, I feel...loved. I hope you feel the same way. I know that I have difficulty with these things...” she murmured.

“I feel loved, Yelena. I love our relationship,” he replied, pausing and turning to face her. When she turned to face him, he hugged her to him and she hugged back fiercely. “This relationship is easily the best I’ve ever had.”

“Same on my end, though the bar is not very high,” she said, and laughed. When she stepped back, he realized her eyes were wet.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She sighed and shook her head, looking up and rubbing at her eyes. “It is nothing.”

“Tell me.”

“I just...I still have worries, sometimes, that you would be happier with someone else. Someone easier to deal with, someone of your own kin, or at least from your own realm. I know this is just my own insecurities. I believe you when you tell me how happy you are with me, how you would not trade our relationship for anything. But then something like this happens: this huge, massive, dangerous situation is entirely my fault and it has uprooted and disrupted our lives and all those insecurities come crashing back...”

“Yelena,” he said, hugging her to him again and kissing her forehead once more, stroking her hair. “This isn’t your fault. It’s just circumstances. It’s just life. Life sucks sometimes. But being in danger is more than worth having you in my life. I would go to great lengths for you, my love. And our life is meant to be uprooted. We live our life on the go. We live dangerous lives because we want to. But I understand about insecurities. If there’s anything I can do to help you feel better, please tell me, okay?”

“Okay. I will.”

A few seconds passed as they held each other. “As for being with someone from my own realm, well...no one from this realm fucks like you, Yelena.”

She sniffed and then laughed loudly. “I suppose that is true.” She pulled back and looked at him again. He was so glad she’d taken off her amulet not long after they had gotten into the Redwood Forest. It was dangerous but what wasn’t? He had the idea that the amulet bugged her, and he didn’t blame her at all, it bugged him, too.

“Thank you, my love,” she said, and kissed him firmly on the mouth.

He kissed her back. “You’re welcome, Yelena. Now, come along, the grove is close by.”

She nodded and took his hand again. He led her deeper into the forest.

…

Despite the fact that they were actively being hunted by demons, it was a good day.

While he could never fully forget the fact that he was being hunted, for a few hours, John at least was able to enjoy himself. As they made their way through the Redwood Forest, he thought about how he didn’t want to let the threat of danger get in the way of enjoying his life with Yelena. Although he kept a sharp eye out, because obviously he couldn’t outright ignore the fact that demons were looking to kill him.

But he trusted Yelena’s razor-sharp senses.

So, he took her to a few of the spots he’d memorized during his travels through the forest. He took her first to the grove he’d discovered tucked away in a deep part of the forest, a wonderful, beautiful clearing with a small pond of crystal clear water surrounded by flowers of brilliant, bursting blue color. Butterflies drifted lazily through the air and as they stood among the clearing, several woodland creatures came and went.

“This place is magical,” Yelena murmured as she stood there with him, holding hands, watching the deer and rabbits and birds come and go.

“It does seem that way,” he replied quietly.

“I mean that literally. Something here is magical, imbuing this place with an amplified ambient wonder,” she said. “And it’s bringing in the creatures. This place makes them feel safe. I wonder what is causing this.”

“It could be an artifact...or it could be one of those meeting places for dryads or serpentine. If that’s the case...we’re probably being watched.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Yelena said, annoyed, looking around.

He couldn’t help but smirk. “They annoy you, do they?”

“Yes. I do not like those that can sneak up on me.”

They began to leave the clearing. “Oh, I don’t know. They aren’t so bad.”

“You’re only saying that because of how many horny dryads you have fucked.”

“...maybe.”

She laughed. “I suppose they are quite nice. What’s next?”

“A very tall tree,” he replied.

They walked on.

…

“You were right,” Yelena said, looking up, “that is a very tall tree.”

John just nodded, looking skywards. It was indeed a tall tree. As far as he knew, it was the tallest tree in the forest.

“There is something special here, too,” Yelena said quietly, taking a step closer to the tree. “This tree is imbued with magic somehow.”

He had thought the same thing, when he’d first seen it, and the two times since then. It seemed to catch the sunlight and hold it sometimes. And there was a comfortable feeling that seemed to emanate from it when you were close enough, a sense of peace and tranquility.

“How did you find this?” Yelena asked. She smirked suddenly and looked back at him. “Did a dryad show it to you?”

“Uh...yeah.”

She laughed. “Before or after you had sex with her?”

“Uh...after.”

“Are you capable of traveling with a woman without sleeping with her?” Yelena asked, turning to smirk at him with her hands on her hips.

“Yes!” he replied.

“Okay, let me rephrase that. Are you capable of traveling with a woman who offers to sleep with you, and then you do not accept the offer?”

“I...” he stopped, having to think about it. Had he? Had he ever actually said no? Even once? John was sure that he must have at one point, he must have…

But…

He couldn’t actually think of even one time. “Apparently not,” he replied. “Is that bad?”

“I do not think so,” Yelena said. “It means you are very handsome and charismatic, as far as I am concerned. Do you think it is bad? Truly?”

He thought about it and looked up at the tree again. It made him think of Adara. That was the dryad he’d been traveling with several years ago who had shown him this tree. She’d been very whimsical and fun and flirtatious. The sex with her had been wondrous. He thought of the other women he’d slept with through the years. He usually had one or two lengthier affairs per year, and maybe half a dozen one-night stands.

“No,” he said finally, “I don’t think that’s bad. I never lied to anyone. I never tried to trick any woman into sleeping with me. I never tried to force or manipulate or apply any pressure. They all slept with me because they wanted to, as far as I could tell. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with sex, nor interracial or interspecies sex.”

“I think that may be something you need to remind yourself of occasionally, in the same way I need to remind myself of certain things,” Yelena said.

He looked back down at her. She looked absolutely radiant in the sunshine, wearing simple black traveling clothes now. They’d opted out of armor today so that they could make better time in between the scenic stops. Her smile was warm and genuine and happy.

“Like what?” he asked.

Her smile fell somewhat. “Like how all your kindness and your generous gestures are not to be treated with suspicion. After decades of mistrust and betrayal and subtle social subterfuge, suspicion is embedded in my psyche. It is a reflex. But I do trust you. And I let myself trust you. I’m surprised that I have made this much progress, honestly.”

“Well...suspicion does have its purposes. But I am glad that you trust me, Yelena. I want to earn that trust every day.”

“You have so far,” she replied, then stepped closer and hugged him. “Ever since that first day when you saved my life. When I woke up in your basement...I was so scared. I thought you were going to kill me.”

“I kind of thought the same thing,” he replied, hugging her back.

“I am sorry for how I reacted then. I don’t know if I ever apologized for striking you. And for putting a blade to your throat.”

“I think you did, but I forgive you again anyway. It was honestly an understandable reaction, given your circumstances.”

“I suppose so.” She looked up at the tree again. “Where did this come from?”

“I don’t know, actually,” he replied. “I’ve heard a few different stories. Some say an extremely powerful dryad matriarch died defending the forest a long time ago, and was buried here, and this tree grew. Others say it’s the true center of the forest...and of the planet. I think I heard that this forest was once made of trees like this one, and it’s the last one. I’m pretty sure that there’s some kind of rare leaf up there at the top that’s used in some difficult-to-make potion. I think someone also mentioned that a dead god was buried here.”

“Do your gods die?” Yelena asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Do yours?”

“We have no deities,” Yelena replied. “I think we might have killed them long ago.”

“Wow. That...must have been really hard,” John murmured. That statement alone made him realize just how little he knew about Yelena’s people and realm and history.

“I doubt if it is true. It is just what our historians tell us. Personally, I think we have none. Either they left, or we never had any to begin with. I do not really care. Although...I think I may care now, living here. I do not truly know if the Goddess Vivian or the Goddess Bliss accept me, but...given the events of the past few months, I believe I accept them.”

“We fell in love despite the fact that we come from different realms, and we’re in pretty deep with the dryads and serpentine. I think we are at least on those Goddesses good sides,” he replied.

“I think one of us is in deeper with the dryads than the other,” Yelena said.

He laughed. “I suppose that’s true,” he replied. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

Hands clasped together, fingers laced, they walked on, deeper into the Redwood Forest.

…

They continued walking through the forest until about two hours after sundown. With the moons riding high into the clear night sky, they set up camp by a hot spring and cooked up some rabbits they had caught, skinned, and cleaned. After the meal, the pair soaked in the hot spring, then Yelena had gotten atop him, kissing him firmly on the mouth, her forked tongue searching for his, and she had ridden him until they both had come.

Eventually, they’d gone into the tent after Yelena had laid down a few magical alarms, simple spells that would let them know if anyone breached their perimeter. Then they had made love again, furious and passionate, until they were worn out, and drifted off to sleep together. John dreamed that night.

Some nightmares.

Some good sex dreams.

When the sun rose the next morning, he opened his eyes, half-expecting to see someone in the tent with him, bearing down on him and Yelena, but they remained alone. From there, the pair had gotten up, bathed, eaten, and broken down the camp quickly. John felt like they were really beginning to push their luck.

As they picked back up their journey, sticking to a brisker pace this time with no breaks, John found himself wondering (hoping really) if the demons had given up. Would they? Could they even? The motivations of his own species and those he shared the land with were often uncertain enough to discern, what about beings from another realm? Yelena wasn’t all that different from him in regard to what she wanted, what motivated her, or how she acted. Sometimes she’d do odd things or come to conclusions that he found strange, but not often. He imagined that she had a similar reaction to him. But Yelena, he thought, was different from her kin.

Who knew how much historical and societal subtext he was missing out on. Even something as simple as a gesture could mean a completely different thing between cultures on this planet, separated not by the unthinkable gulfs of realms, but merely by water.

Despite that, John didn’t think they’d give up. Maybe they had just temporarily exhausted their supply of assassins. Or magic. Yelena had said it took a lot to travel between realms. Maybe they were trying to trick them into a false sense of security. Or maybe some other, completely unrelated thing had come up, waylaying them.

Whatever the case, John ultimately surmised, it didn’t matter.

They would proceed as they had been planning to, and hope for the best.

They came to the elven settlement of Brynne a little past noon. John had heard of the settlement more than once and had always intended to visit it. It sounded like a nice place, plus...well, elves were known for their open sexual nature. Although a lot of them were just open with each other, there were clearly some beautiful elf women who were very, very open to the idea of sex with a human. He wondered how they would react to a demoness.

He was sad to see Yelena put her amulet back on as they drew closer to civilization, but it was a necessary evil. Elves were typically more welcoming than humans, but...well, Yelena was still a demon. They walked in through the city limits and started making their way slowly through the town. John found it very interesting.

When humans made a settlement in a forest, they cleared a plot of land of trees, stumps, and larger plants.

When elves did the same, they apparently just built around the trees. Brynne didn’t seem like a village so much as a collection of structures built into several large clearings. There was something wonderfully chaotic and yet strangely harmonious to the layout. And it seemed pretty well populated. There were dozens of people walking around. Most of them elves, but there were a decent number of humans, felis, and beryl walking around. He wondered, suddenly, how close the relationship between the general elven and dryad populations were.

The elven women he’d slept with had all, while they were getting to know each other better and talking in the post-orgasm glow of wonderful sex, admitted to having slept with some kind of forest ‘monster’. A dryad, a serpentine, a harpy, a mermaid. So clearly, they seemed pretty in touch with nature, and all that came with that.

The pair of them finally came to an inn and stepped inside. John was relieved to see that no one was giving him or Yelena weird looks. Going into towns with his love always made him nervous now, and it was making him grow to resent his own society more than he already had. But he tried not to think of that as they approached the front counter. A beautiful, slim elf woman was behind it, counting coin.

“Help you?” she asked.

“Yes. I’m looking for someone named Indigo,” John replied.

The woman stopped counting and looked up fully at him. “Why would that be?”

“I’m hunting something quite rare, and I was pointed towards Indigo by a mutual acquaintance,” he answered, wondering how much detail he should go into. Probably not too much, but then again, he didn’t want to seem intentionally evasive and shady.

“What mutual acquaintance?”

“A half-giantess named Morgan.”

The woman’s demeanor changed, and her features brightened. “Morgan! I know her. Okay, then. I don’t mind pointing you in the right direction. She’s actually not in the village right now. She’s out in the forest. She and another are dealing with a little undead problem that cropped up. Just go to the edge of the village to the west and follow the path for about half an hour. You should be able to find her somewhere in the area,” she explained.

“Thank you very much,” John replied, and they left the inn.

The pair were silent as they moved through the elven settlement, though he noticed how Yelena was looking around, taking everything in. As they walked, he suddenly felt guilty. It had been a month now since they’d gotten that amulet, and yet they had only traveled up and down the Emerald Wild. How many times had she asked him about other parts of the world? Other parts of this country even? And they’d just stayed in the Wild. Granted, there was a lot to see in the Wild, but still. He supposed it was because he was still scared that someone would find out she was a demon and try to kill her. And although he didn’t think most people were a danger to her, he didn’t want either of them to be forced into a situation where they hurt or even killed someone who genuinely thought they were doing the right thing.

Because as much as he loved Yelena, he knew from his own research and primarily from Yelena’s own admission on the subject, that most of her kin were violent psychopaths who had a tremendous disdain for beings from this realm. Finding a demon that could genuinely get along with and respect someone from his realm was far rarer than finding a human who could do the same with one of the ‘monster’ races.

Probably what bugged him the most was that their long-term solution for their relationship’s natural conflict with society at large was so unstable. But what could they do? Was there some other society out there that accepted demons? Did they also accept humans? Maybe that was something he could look into.

They reached the west end of Brynne and began moving down the path.

“Are you okay?” Yelena asked a few minutes later.

“What? Well...I guess I’m kind of anxious about the assassins hunting us,” John replied.

“I am concerned something else is bothering you. I noticed it when we entered the village,” Yelena said.

“I mean, I always get nervous that someone will somehow figure out who you are and...I’m also feeling guilty because you so obviously love traveling and seeing new parts of the land and we’ve just been shut up in the Emerald Wild,” he replied.

“John,” she said, “I am okay with that. I’ve loved all the time we’ve spent together in the Wild. Honestly, I figured we would travel sooner or later. We are traveling now, and despite the reason for that, I am having just as good a time. I am happy with you, is the point I am trying to make. So long as you are here with me, I will be happy. But if I do get restless and want to travel, you can at least trust me to let you know.”

“I guess that’s a good point,” he replied, “you’re pretty good about telling me stuff. So, you like Brynne?” he asked.

“Yes. It is a beautiful place. And...there are many attractive people in the village. I was wondering if we might perhaps...ah...”

“Fuck some of them?” John asked.

“Yes.”

“Maybe. Although that’s going to have to be secondary to figuring out exactly how we’re going to approach Indigo. I mean, do we tell her everything? That you’re a demoness?”

“Yes,” Yelena repeated, her voice and expression growing more serious. “We should. I have spent so long, so many decades mired in lies and secrets and betrayals, I want to tell the truth from now on. I never want to lie again if I can help it. Part of the reason I hate this,” she murmured, reaching down and clasping the amulet that hung between her breasts. “But beyond that, it is only right and fair. If she agrees to help us, she will be risking her life, and she should be made aware of that fact.”

“Okay, we’ll tell her,” John said, because Yelena made a good point, and he was generally in agreement with her.

He didn’t like having to lie.

They continued walking west for awhile, and at the half-hour mark, they began to hunt for signs or clues of Indigo’s passing.

“Here,” Yelena said, stepping off the path, “I believe she went this way.”

“How can you tell?” he asked.

“I smell elf,” Yelena replied. “And undead. And I think I can hear fighting.”

“Your senses are amazing.”

“That they are. Come along, my love,” Yelena said, drawing her bow and notching an arrow. John drew his blade and followed her.

As they moved deeper into the forest again, moving between tall trees and across underbrush, moving as quickly and quietly as they could, he started to sense what she had reported. Well, except for smelling elf. He wasn’t sure what they smelled like. But he did start to smell the undead, and soon he heard someone shouting and the sounds of combat. He thought he heard two people fighting. Undead didn’t make much noise beyond grunts or inarticulate screams. He and Yelena picked up the pace, and before long, they’d tracked the source of the combat.

Two women stood in the center of a clearing. One of them was a very tall, well-built human in leather and chainmail armor with a big broadsword. She reminded John a little bit of Morgan. The other was a slim, redheaded elf wielding a bow. Both were very efficiently eliminating a horde of zombies. The undead all looked pretty old, and almost all of them had combat gear and armor on. Yelena let fly an arrow, expertly putting down the nearest undead.

“Friendlies coming in!” John called as he hurried forward.

Both women jerked their heads towards his voice, hesitated for only a second, then resumed their combat. Well, at least now they wouldn’t try to take him down. Hopefully. He ran forward and drove his blade through the back of another zombie. Ripping it back out, he kicked the zombie forward, where it hit the ground and fell into several pieces. John brought his blade around in a tight arc, decapitating another undead monster. He heard Yelena working behind him, taking more of the undead fighters as they began to notice the new players on the battlefield. John shot forward, blade rising and falling, swinging and chopping.

He lopped off decayed limbs, cleaved through old but surprisingly strong bone where he could, and put down as many zombies as he could. When the last one finally fell and all became still in the clearing, he took one last look around.

“That’s all of them in the immediate area,” the big woman with the broadsword said as she slowly sheathed it on her back.

“Who are you?” Indigo asked, lowering her bow and studying him as Yelena approached to join them.

“My name is John. This is Yelena. I’m guessing you are Indigo?” he replied.

“Yes.”

“We’re looking for help. We were sent by Morgan,” John explained.

The tension seemed to go out of her slightly, and she smiled. “Morgan? I don’t suppose she sent along her amulet, did she?”

“She did,” he replied, pulling it from his pocket and approaching her with it. Indigo took it and studied it, then nodded and passed it back.

“That’s hers,” she said. “What kind of help do you need?”

The big woman shifted. “We really should press the attack while there is a lull. We are very close to ground zero. I can feel it,” she said, then she looked at Yelena suddenly, frowning in concentration. She had a pretty hot scar down one side of her face. She scrutinized Yelena with sharp green eyes. “We could use some help,” she said finally.

“Yeah, we could. There’s more around than I thought. Tell you what: help us clear out this undead problem, then I’ll listen to what you have to say,” Indigo offered.

“Deal,” John replied.

“Just so you know, we’re doing this gratis, so there isn’t a bag of coin to split or anything,” Indigo said as they set off.

“That’s fine,” John said.

“Good then.”

As the four of them made their way quickly through the forest, John found it difficult not to keep looking at the two women. Indigo was extremely attractive in the kind of way he’d come to expect from elves. She was slender and petite with what he imagined was an excellent, toned figure beneath her light armor. She had dazzling blue eyes and ridiculously sexy red hair pulled into a tight ponytail. The big woman on the other hand was sexy in a completely different way. She had to have at least three or four inches on him in height, and she was filled out, pretty broad with a solid frame and, from the looks of it, some pretty big breasts, big hips, and a nice, thick ass. Her chestnut brown hair was cut quite short and she moved with an easy competence that spoke of years, if not decades, of combat experience.

He had the idea that she was middle-aged, which honestly just turned him on more.

John couldn’t actually figure out which one he was more attracted to. Not that that mattered right now. Right now, they had undead to combat. He and Yelena followed the pair of warriors deeper into the woods.

“So, what’s the actual situation here?” he asked.

“An old makeshift graveyard from the human-elven conflicts finally hit critical and gathered enough dark and evil magic to it that the occupants began resurrecting,” Indigo explained. “And it was a fair-sized graveyard. We need to get there and defend Lydia while she cleanses it. She’s a paladin, so it should be easy.”

John cut his gaze to Lydia again. Fuck. She was a paladin? Nothing about her seemed to say that. There weren’t a lot of them in his land, but if she really was one, then there was a decent chance that she’d be able to figure out that Yelena wasn’t what she appeared. Maybe she wouldn’t figure out that she was a demoness in disguise, but she would know that something was up. Well, they’d deal with that when they came to it.

A low groan sounded from somewhere ahead.

John gripped his blade more tightly. Time to fight. He began moving away from the others, to give them, and himself, room to fight. They did the same, all four of them spreading out. Yelena and Indigo notched arrows.

They found the old graveyard.

There were remnants of a very old, very makeshift fence tracing a roughly rectangular outline to a plot of land in a large clearing. The trees almost seem to lean away from the graveyard, and the grass and other plants around it were dead. The place had an air of chilly menace to it and it seemed somehow darker than everywhere else. Close to a dozen uncertain figures in various states of decay roamed aimlessly around.

“They’ll be stronger here,” Lydia said quietly.

“How long do you need?” John asked.

“I must get to the center of the site, and then I will need roughly one minute. I will be incapable of defending myself from even the most basic attack, as this requires complete concentration. So, I really will be trusting you three with my life,” she explained.

“We won’t let anything happen to you,” Indigo said. John and Yelena nodded tightly.

“Then let’s go,” Lydia replied.

They set off.

As soon as they made it into the clearing, the zombies took notice. They all turned towards them, as if some silent warning bell had been struck, and began to come straight for them. John noticed how they all seemed to be more focused and less shambling.

The two forces met as they passed the perimeter fence.

Lydia got things started by bashing the skull of the nearest undead with the pommel of her huge sword, shattering its cranium and effectively decapitating it. It stumbled away, not going down immediately. She kicked it and sent it flying, then charged on. John stabbed into the decayed ruin of a zombie’s chest and ripped upwards. His blade was torn free of its body, coming out through the section of dead flesh between its right shoulder and neck, in a spray of old blood and rotted meat. As he shifted, an arrow flew past him, barely avoiding him and nailing the zombie in its right eye. Yelena, he was sure.

He shouldered the zombie when he saw that it wasn’t going down yet, sending it stumbling. They had to get to the center first and foremost, then they could focus on killing the bastards. As he ran on, he saw a good opportunity and ducked down, bringing his sword around in a tight arc and chopping off a zombie’s legs just below the knee, causing it to smash to the ground. It grabbed for him as he ran on. Yelena and Indigo fired relentlessly, always hitting their marks. Lydia was sweeping any zombies she came in contact with aside with her huge broadsword.

And there were more zombies appearing.

Some were coming into the clearing from the surrounding forest. Some were climbing up out of their graves.

By the time they reached the center, they’d put down a good eight or nine of the things, but easily three times that many had appeared.

“I’m going!” Lydia called, then abruptly knelt in the dead center of the graveyard, her sword’s tip planted in the ground, hands clasping the pommel, head bowed, eyes closed. She began whispering fervently, and quickly started to glow white.

“Here we go,” Yelena growled, drawing her blade now. The arrows just didn’t seem to be doing enough damage. Indigo had her own short sword out.

The zombies came at them.

John readied himself, covering his third of the center area. Behind him, he could hear Lydia whispering to herself, no doubt a spell of cleansing. He tensed, raising his blade, and went at the first zombie.

He slashed, and its head came off, though that didn’t quite seem to stop it. The beheaded thing, a man who had once been quite large and intimidating in his past life and was now that much more so as an undead, reached for him. John slashed again and brought off its left arm. The undead horror stumbled closer and finally he gutted it, then kicked it back as hard as he could, planting his boot on its chest and sending it sprawling. It stumbled backwards down the small incline it had to climb to get to him and crashed into a trio of others, sending them flailing to the ground as well. All around him, he heard groaning and growling.

It went well at first.

He dropped four of the ugly bastards without too much trouble. And then a fifth surprised him, coming up from his left when he’d been too focused on his right, and crashed into him. “Shit!” he screamed as he went down. Acting on instinct as his sword flew from his hand, John grabbed a dagger he had sheathed in his boot and drove it up into the zombie’s chin, breaking through the roof of its mouth and piercing its brain.

This one was weaker than the others and it went slack, though now it was atop him. Growling in frustration, trying to get it off of him, he saw another two coming closer, too close for comfort. He brought his boot up and then jammed it forward, into another zombie’s shin. He did it again and then heard a crack. The zombie lost its footing and stumbling into the other, buying him a precious few seconds to roll the first creature off of him. John found his sword and snatched it up, then struggled to his feet.

He looked around-

-and found himself staring into the twisted, mask-like faces of a good dozen undead, coming for him, bearing down on him, too close to do anything about.

John raised his blade.

Then Lydia screamed something, a shout not of pain but of exertion, and suddenly a wave of solid white light flew outwards in all directions, momentarily blinding John. But it felt good, he could feel a comforting warmth passing through him as the wave expanded rapidly outward. When he managed to get his vision back, he saw that all the zombies had been reverted back to just corpses, laying haphazardly everywhere, strewn across the makeshift graveyard. He turned around and saw that the three others were okay.

“That was close,” Indigo murmured, wiping old blood from her blade. John grabbed a rag from his pocket and did the same for his own sword.

“Yes, but we did it,” Lydia said. She turned to face Yelena. “There is something about you. Now that we are clear of the threat, I must know your true nature. Something about you is activating my instincts, I honestly cannot tell if you are friend or foe.”

“I am a friend,” Yelena replied, “and I will tell you the truth. It only seems fair,” she added, glancing at Indigo, “if we are to work together.”

“Please don’t freak out,” John said, stepping closer to Yelena, praying that this wasn’t going to go in a violent direction.

He still had nightmares about Bianca.

“If you are not evil, then you need not fear me,” Lydia replied simply.

“If that is true, then I do not fear you,” Yelena said, and reached up. She took off her medallion, slipping it off of her neck, and the illusion spell fell away. Lydia and Indigo tensed, but that was the extent of their reaction.

“I am a demon,” Yelena said.

“I see...and yet I sense no evil from you,” Lydia murmured. “Curious. I know there do exist demons that are not evil, but to find one is indeed quite rare.”

“Okay, now I’m very curious as to why a human and a demoness have tracked me down,” Indigo said, studying Yelena intently. “Before we go anywhere or do anything, I need to know.”

“Yelena?” John asked. “You have a skill at succinct explanations.”

“To put it simply: I am a fugitive from my realm. I abandoned it, my people, and my life when I met and fell in love with John. Now, we are being hunted by some of my people. I require a more powerful illusion artifact and the location of a friend of Morgan’s, a dragoness named Kesley. Morgan said you knew the location of an abandoned research outpost in the mountains that might hold such an artifact.”

“Wow, that’s...that’s a pretty heavy set of circumstances,” Indigo murmured. She rubbed the back of her neck, considering it. “Yeah, I know the place Morgan is talking about. You want me to take you there?” she asked.

“It would be appreciated. If you can’t, we were hoping you could at least show us how to get there on a map,” John replied.

“Hmm, no...it’s hard to get there unless you know what you’re doing. I found it by accident. No, I need to take you there myself.”

“Will you?” Yelena asked.

She looked at the two of them, then glanced at Lydia, who was silently cleaning her broadsword now, looking like she just wanted to see how this played out. Would she come with them? She was clearly an extremely capable fighter.

“Yeah,” Indigo said finally, “yes. I will take you. I was hoping for something in return.”

“What’s that?” John asked.

“Sex. From both of you. I want to have sex with both of you. A lot of it.”

“Really?” Yelena asked.

“Yes,” Indigo replied, and immediately looked at Lydia. “Don’t judge me!”

“I didn’t say a thing,” Lydia replied.

“I could hear your thoughts.”

“I’m not judging you, Indigo. I don’t care who you have sex with,” Lydia said, apparently unable to keep from smirking just a little.

“She thinks I’m sex-obsessed,” Indigo said.

“No, I don’t think that at all. I know it.”

Indigo sighed heavily. “Whatever. Are you interested?” she asked, returning her attention to John and Yelena.

John glanced over at Yelena. “I don’t even need to ask,” she said, staring back at him, now wearing a small smirk herself. “Of course, he’s interested in you. He has a fetish for redheaded elf girls. And yes, I am interested in you. We’d be more than willing to sleep with you. But I really must emphasize that this will be dangerous. The hunters could come for us at any time.”

“They’re unlikely to try something inside an actual village,” Lydia said. “I’ve hunted demons before and so far, that’s never happened. Which I think means we should be getting back to Brynne.” She sheathed her broadsword.

“Will you come with us?” Indigo asked.

“I would like to, but I can’t. If you’ll recall, I told you that I was passing through. I am on a quest of my own. But...” She glanced at John. “I would be willing to stay the night in Brynne. Are you interested in sex with me, John?” she asked.

“Extremely,” he replied.

“Excellent. How about this? John, you spend the night with me in my room at the inn, and Yelena, you can go home with Indigo, and we’ll fuck each other.”

“That sounds like a very good plan to me,” Yelena said, already eyeing Indigo, who was looking right back at her.

“Same,” John said.

“Yep! Let’s go!” Indigo replied merrily, then quickly headed off towards the settlement.

“What about all these bodies?” John asked as they all followed after her.

“The forest will see to them,” Lydia replied.

John figured she had a point.

He took Yelena’s hand as they walked back towards Brynne, feeling very good about how all this was going so far.

CHAPTER VI

Indigo had a lot of questions.

Honestly, John was surprised. In a good way. He knew elves were more open and accepting than humans...though Indigo did warn Yelena that she really should keep her illusion amulet on for the duration of their stay in Brynne, and probably until they got out into the deep wilderness. But that was really as close as she got to any kind of poor reaction to Yelena’s true identity. She seemed positively fascinated with both of them and had a lot of questions about their relationship. Lydia was more surprising, however.

She had some questions for John, but not many.

“This really doesn’t bother you?” he asked after they had fallen silent for a few moments. They were nearing the settlement now.

“Your relationship?” Lydia replied.

“Yeah.”

“No. I meant what I said. A lesson I had to learn the hard way was it doesn’t really pay to put stock into who people present themselves as, nor what race they are, what job they have, or what they appear to stand for. I was betrayed by someone I thought I could literally trust my life with, and I was very lucky to get away alive.”

“Oh...I’m sorry.”

“So am I. It’s why I am no longer a member of the paladin order, nor really associate with them at all. They’re too...righteous. Believe in themselves too much. I’m more interested in what a person does than how they appear. I must say I find your relationship quite interesting though...you really love her. I can tell. And she loves you. Your bond is very powerful. I honestly believe that Bliss was somehow involved...”

“You think so?” John replied.

“Yes...although don’t get me wrong, I in no way wish to diminish the strength of your love. I’m not saying that Bliss augmented your emotions in any way. She doesn’t work like that. She more...if I had to guess, I’d say she gently nudged events so that the two of you would meet. She didn’t make you fall in love, she simply put you in the right place at the right time. Real love, true love...that’s natural. That’s organic. It has to happen on its own terms. Not even a Goddess can make it happen. I could be wrong, but this is a star-crossed romance if I’ve ever seen one. Speaking of which...there really won’t be a problem if we have sex? Because I really want to have sex with you,” Lydia said.

John glanced over at her. Fuck, she was intimidating. And hot. So hot. She was staring at him with an intense focus. Why was he so attracted to women that had that almost predatory gaze? That looked at him like they were getting ready to go into battle or like they were a carnivore that had just spotted a particularly tasty meal?

“There won’t be a problem,” he replied. “This won’t be the first time we’ve fucked other people. And it certainly won’t be the last.”

“That’s good. The bond is strong. And it means I can throw myself completely at you. I’ve been on the road for about a week now and haven’t run into a single guy I felt like fucking. So...sorry if I hurt you during,” she said.

“If it happens, it will have been more than worth it,” John replied. “You are seriously one of the most attractive women I’ve come across.”

She laughed. “Well, that’s good to hear. We’re definitely going to have some fun.”

They headed for Indigo’s house first, as they still had a little way to go before it was time to sleep. Although John was admittedly looking forward to hitting the hay as soon as the sun started going down, not only because he wanted to get an early start, but also because he was fucking tired. The past few days had been harsh, and he was sure that sex with Lydia was going to be exhausting. Not that that was a problem.

Being pretty much fucked to sleep was fantastic.

Indigo lived by herself in a small cottage near the edge of town.

“I’ll go report to the guards that we got the job done,” Lydia said. “Then I’ll be back.”

“We’ll be here,” Indigo replied.

They entered her cottage and John looked around. It was a small but tidy place. Indigo shrugged out of her backpack and hung it on the wall by the door, then did the same with her bow and quiver of arrows.

“Okay, let’s talk a bit,” she said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a glass bottle of water from a cabinet that had clearly been infused with a chill spell. “Want one?”

“Yes,” both John and Yelena said.

She passed them two more bottles of chilled water and they sat down around a table.

“So, the place you’re looking for is pretty remote. We might, if luck is with us and we bust ass, be able to make it there in a day if we leave early in the morning, but I doubt it. We’re first going to have to walk to Redwood, which is about six or seven hours from here. From there, we’ll find the main path that leads up into the mountains, then start up it and eventually start working our way back west. Unfortunately, this is the only route I know to take. What’s likely going to happen is that we’ll get most of the way there, then find a place to make camp for the night. I remember a cave or two that would serve well. From there, we should be able to finish the trip within a few hours. And then hopefully we’ll be able to find whatever it is you’re looking for.”

“What do you think the odds of it being there are?” Yelena asked.

“Pretty good, probably. The one time I went there it looked like no one had been there for a few years, and it’s an extremely isolated location...so what about after?” she asked.

“After what?” John replied.

“After we get to the outpost and do or don’t find this artifact? Would you be interested in me staying with you longer? I do know my way around the northern parts of the land...”

John looked at Yelena, who simply gave a little shrug. Obviously, she knew nothing about that way. And he knew very little.

“Well, provided everything goes well and we keep liking you, sure. We could use the help.”

“You’ll like me,” Indigo replied, smiling at them and leaning forward a bit. “I’m pretty sure you’ll like me. And now I’m curious...you’re obviously open to sex with other people. How many others have you fucked so far?”

“Like...a dozen?” John replied uncertainly.

“Most of them were dryads,” Yelena said.

Indigo’s eyes widened. “Oh my...dryads? That’s...that’s really hot,” she murmured, and he saw that her pale face was flushed a bit and she was breathing more heavily now. “I’m into some pretty, um...unusual sexual hookups.”

“Obviously. You are drooling over me,” Yelena said. “And you should be. You will be amazed at what I can do with my mouth.” She stuck her forked tongue out and wiggled it at Indigo, who began to chew on her lower lip.

“I really don’t want to wait to have sex with you, but...ugh! We really should stock up on supplies before then. Although if Lydia doesn’t get back before too long, I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold out.” She sighed and glanced at the door.

“So, you’re into fucking outside your species then?” John asked, because part of him kind of wanted to jump into a threesome right then.

“Oh yeah, big time. It started with just humans. I love fucking cute humans. And then I started messing around with felis and beryl. They can fuck so well. And then I...met some dryads, in the forest. And I decided to take a chance. I mean, there’s a lot of kind of, you know, underground talk about how we elves like to fuck the ‘forest folk’. And I think it’s true. It’s just one of those unspoken things, you know? And I loved it. It was so good.”

She looked over at the door again. Still no Lydia. Indigo cut her gaze back to the two of them, more flushed now, breathing a bit more heavily. “So, do you two want to-”

The door opened, and Lydia walked in.

Indigo sighed again, explosively now, and then sat back in her chair, crossing her arms across her chest, clearly frustrated. John knew her pain. He had a bad erection right now. They had been that fucking close to just saying fuck it and having a crazy threesome.

“You guys look pissed,” Lydia said as she came into the kitchen. She smirked suddenly. “You were about to go have sex, weren’t you? You two are just as bad as she is.”

“We’re horny,” Indigo growled.

“Aren’t we all?” Lydia replied. “But we have business to attend to. I need to stock up and I know you’re going to want to get it out of the way so we can all have a long night of filthy, filthy fucking to enjoy. So, come on, let’s go.”

“Ugh...fine,” Indigo replied, getting up. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Agreed,” Yelena said as she and John got up.

They all headed out of Indigo’s house and began making for the marketplace.

…

“Oh, fucking finally,” John whispered as they approached the inn.

“I feel your pain,” Lydia replied quietly.

He couldn’t help but look at her and grin. There was something just so wonderful about knowing that you were going to fuck a woman and she was just as thrilled about it as you were, she was just as desperate as you were to get to the fucking, just as horny as you were. Being wanted by someone was an intoxicating feeling.

They’d spent close to three hours at the marketplace. It was a long, frustrating three hours, but at least a fruitful one. Despite how Indigo portrayed herself, and how Lydia seemed to like to rag on her for being horny and impulsive, as they began to prepare for the long walk ahead, she proved herself to be a very intelligent, experienced, and competent individual. She had them stock up on a good amount of food and drink, several healing potions, had grabbed a replenishment of arrows, and had them buy some new clothing and armor that was not only made with a special kind of fabric weaved in a certain way that made it both lightweight yet durable against most attacks, but also was treated with a magical ‘coating’ that kept the cold at bay. They spent most of the time hunting down some more obscure but useful magical trinkets.

But finally, eventually, she was satisfied that they had what they needed to make the trek up into the mountains.

And so, they’d parted ways. John had given Yelena a long kiss and a longer hug, and they shared ‘I love yous’, and then had split up.

Now he was coming into the inn Lydia was staying at.

“I got the basement all to myself,” she said as they moved through the inn. It was crowded, there were probably twenty people around, almost all of them elves, eating dinner and talking among themselves. Here was hoping the basement was soundproof, or this was going to get really awkward. John felt a little odd about effectively heading in for the night when the sun was still up. Sunset was probably still a few hours off, and he was used to staying out and using as much daylight as he was given, but he was just too fucking horny.

Lydia was insanely attractive.

It wasn’t just that she had some pretty big tits and a fat ass and some really broad hips, (he was in lust with her hips probably more than anything else), but more just that sexy air of confidence about her. The fact that she was probably about a decade older than him, the fact that she was taller than he was, noticeably taller, that she was definitely more experienced than he was on the battlefield. There was a lot to like about her.

She led him to a stairway at the back of the room, tucked away into a back corner beside a large stonework fireplace. The pair of them were silent as they hurried down the stairwell. Lydia quickly unlocked her door and they slipped inside. She closed and locked the door once more, then shrugged out of her pack and quickly began getting out of her armor. John did the exact same thing. Still no words between them as they hastily disrobed. He found his eyes drawn to her as armor came off, and then her clothing.

Her body was wondrous.

She was clearly in fantastic shape, but had some nice padding to her. And a lot of scars. She took off her bra and tossed it aside, freeing her enormous breasts.

“Wow,” he whispered.

“Hurry up,” she said. “I need cock as bad as I imagine you need some pussy right now.”

“Yep,” he agreed, quickly finishing stripping down. They got naked at about the same time and as soon as they did, they came together in the center of the room, embracing and then his lips were being pressed against hers and he could immediately tell that this was going to be a very fast and rough fuck session.

She was breathing heavily, groaning as they embraced. He hugged her to him, feeling her huge, bare breasts pressing against him as she shoved her tongue into his mouth. He groaned, reaching around behind her and running his hand down her back, settling it on the swell of her huge ass, groping and squeezing it.

“Okay,” she said, breaking the kiss, “enough. Fuck me. Now.”

She guided him over to a mat that was laid out on the floor beside a large sunken bathtub. He saw a shower beside it and longed to use it.

But sex first.

His cock was fully erect and throbbing in desperate need and powerful lust. Lydia kissed him again, then laid down on her back and spread her legs, putting one foot in the water. “Come on,” she said, staring up at him, “take me hard.”

John quickly laid down on top of her, in between her powerful thighs, staring at her smooth, glistening pussy. He slid easily into her, feeling how wet she was inside, and they both moaned loudly, giving voice to that intense burst of pleasure that came from the initial penetration. “Oh, Lydia,” he moaned as he began to thrust into her.

“Yes, John...oh fuck, yes! Fuck me!” she moaned, panting now.

He fucked her like they were rutting animals. As soon as he’d buried himself completely in her, he began furiously thrusting deep into her pussy, and he could feel her pushing against him with her powerful hips.

John kept himself propped up, his hips working overtime as he pounded her mature pussy, enjoying that unmatched lusty thrill of fucking a brand-new woman completely bareback, and he stared down at her amazing body. He loved seeing her twist and writhe, seeing her huge, sweat-slicked breasts bouncing in time with his manic thrusting. He absolutely loved listening to her moan and grunt in furious, passionate pleasure that he was giving her. He loved seeing her face, the way her expression changed as he hit new levels of pleasure, driving deep into her.

“Fuck...I’m almost there...” she gasped. “Almost...keep going, John...”

He was almost there himself. Clearly this was not going to be the main event, just an appetizer to satisfy their appetites in the moment so they didn’t both go crazy from how horny they were. He didn’t stop, slow, or even maintain his pace near the end. He just kept going faster, as fast as he could, burying his cock into her fantastically wet, tight pussy until finally he pushed her over into orgasm and heard her cry out intensely as she began to come, her vaginal muscles clenching and releasing over and over again around his cock, massaging it as a hot spray of feminine sex juices escaped her pussy and got all over his thighs and balls.

“Come in me!” she cried. “Oh fuck, come in my pussy!”

“Oh, Lydia!” he screamed in reply as his orgasm flared into being like a hammer striking an anvil or a bolt of lightning striking the land.

His dick jerked violently inside of the tight confines of her pussy and began to empty itself as rapidly as it could, spitting thick, powerful gobs of his seed inside of her. He filled her pussy with spurts of the stuff, emptying his balls into her. Each twitch of his cock sent a fresh wave of absolute bliss careening through his body, a fresh hit of pure pleasure hitting him every half-second until finally he was empty, and she was full, and they both were done.

“Wow,” he gasped, and then pulled out of her and sat down heavily on the mat, trying to get his breath back.

“Yeah. Wow,” Lydia murmured. “That was so worth the wait.”

“Yep,” he agreed. “Can we shower now?”

“Yeah...yeah, good idea,” she said.

After a little bit, the pair of them got up on shaky legs and moved over to the shower stall. Lydia turned on the water and they stood together beneath the waterfall, enjoying the simple pleasure of the water and each other’s presence in the post-orgasm glow for several moments. They took the time to wash up. As soon as they were done, they left the shower and then slipped down into the hot tub full of clear, steaming water.

“That is just fantastic,” Lydia whispered as she finished settling herself. She rested her arms on the side of the tub to either side of her, her huge breasts just above the waterline.

“So...who are you?” John asked. “How’d you end up here?”

“That’s a fair question, I suppose. Telling stories is almost like our currency, we adventurers. It’s not a happy story, just so you know. But I’m to the point where it mostly doesn’t affect me as much any longer. When I was very young, my parents were killed by an undead attack. I was taken in by a group of paladins. I was raised to be a paladin. I loved it. By the time I was seventeen, I was quite deadly. My mentor began taking me out into the world, doing things you’d expect paladins to do: righting wrongs, purifying tainted sites, hunting evil. And then, when I was twenty, everything changed. My mentor and I were called to an isolated location by some of our fellow paladins. They claimed to have found a ruin, an old castle, that was too infused with evil for them to handle alone. Naturally, we responded and went out there…

“Our allies were indeed waiting for us, but no longer as allies. They had turned. They had begun working with necromancers. We were captured. My mentor was killed. I endured torture all in the name of their ‘research’ for close to one week. It may have been longer, or shorter. I honestly cannot remember. I would have died if I had not been rescued by a band of adventurers. They helped heal me. After that...well, let’s just say that my world view was pretty broken. Eventually, I found a new ideal to adhere to, or rather my original one, I guess. I wanted to be what a real paladin should be: honest, hardworking, and effective.

“That’s what really drives it home for me. I don’t waste time with ceremony. I don’t bullshit around, I don’t pretend I’m better just because I have these abilities and I’ve done these things. I seek out evil and I kill it. I lay ghosts to rest. I save lives. I save villages. That’s my life. I don’t try to control people who have a different point of view and honestly, so long as they aren’t being evil, I don’t fuck with people.”

“That sounds...pretty amazing,” John said. “It seems like you’re doing a great job, just based on the experiences I’ve had with you so far.”

“Well, I think you’re biased because you just had amazing sex with me, but I appreciate it. Now, as for how I ended up with Indigo? We’ve been friends for a little while now. I ran into her one day when I was hunting down some cultists who were trying to gain power so they could enslave a lot of people. Obviously, I couldn’t have that, and she was tracking the cultists because they’d beaten a friend of hers to near death for a powerful amulet that she had recovered while adventuring. Indigo and I tracked them down, killed them, and burned all their damned books, then took back the artifacts of power they’d stolen. We really just hit it off after that and she stuck with me for a few weeks. I tend to travel alone but I like friends every now and then. And I run into her here and there, probably a few times a year, sometimes by chance, sometimes just to check in. I had something I needed to pick up in town and I figured I might as well take the opportunity to see if she happened to be in, since she goes out to adventure a lot, too.”

“That’s so amazing. Man, it kind of makes me feel like a failure, like I wasted all this time...I’d been trying to get my adventuring life going for a decade before I finally really left my old life behind a month ago. I’d always kept coming back to my home town,” John replied.

“Why do you think it’s permanent this time?” Lydia asked.

“I have Yelena, now. Before, I never had a reason compelling enough to keep me out here, to keep me moving. But now that I have her...I feel like this is real.” He frowned suddenly. “Man, I miss her already. Heh. It’s rare that we’re apart for very long now. We do just about everything together. I hope she’s having fun with Indigo.”

“I’m sure she is...you really love her,” Lydia murmured, then shook her head slightly. “I’m sorry, that’s offensive. I just...I’ve never seen a relationship like yours. I’ve seen, and had, plenty of flings with those not of my own species. I love having sex with felis men, personally. But I don’t think I could have sex with a demon, even one as good as I think Yelena is. But don’t in any way take that as condemnation. I don’t have to fully understand a relationship to respect it. I’m more...in awe, I guess, than anything else. It’s a good surprise, is what I’m trying to say. After seeing so much hate, so much greed and cruelty and even apathy in the world, seeing your relationship is truly inspiring. Sometimes I begin to lose faith in our races...”

“I do know what you mean,” John replied. “There’s a lot of cruelty out there. A lot of horror. It’s overwhelming sometimes.”

“Yes, it can be. In my experience, the best you can do is to just help people where you can.” She shifted and stretched suddenly, popping her shoulders, then her neck. “Gods...okay, enough of that. I want some more sex. And I’m very much down to trade oral.”

“Same,” John replied immediately, happy to be focusing on more pleasant things. “I would absolutely love to put my cock in your mouth.”

“And I bet you’d love for me to swallow for you...do a good job with your tongue, and I’ll do just that,” Lydia said with a slow smile.

“Done deal.”

He moved closer to her, and then she made her own move, getting on top of him, straddling him. He loved the feel of her body against his, her naked, wet skin. Reaching back and settling his hands once again on her huge ass, John began making out with Lydia. This time as they locked lips and twisted tongues together, it was slower, calmer. They had time, time to enjoy the encounter, stretch it out a bit.

Kissing Lydia was a great experience, a wonderfully sensuous one. He was always thrilled when he could be intimate like this with another woman. Some were oddly uncomfortable with making out, and yet had no problem with frantic sex. He never quite understood it, but the closest he’d been able to come to figuring it out is that they were trying to divorce sex as much as physically possible from actual intimacy. And while he supposed he could kind of see that point of view, he never actually understood it.

Being intimate was just as fun as having an orgasm.

If anything, it always seemed to make the sex and the orgasm that much more powerful.

They continued making out until John began motioning for her to move. “Get your big ass up on the side,” he said.

“You have a thing for my big ass, don’t you?” she asked.

“I very, very much do. And your hips. My fucking Gods, your hips are amazing, Lydia.”

She laughed as she dismounted him and then got onto the side of the tub, spreading her legs open. “I’m glad you like them. If you’re a good boy, I’ll let you fuck me in the ass.”

“I very much intend to be good,” John said, getting down in between her thick, powerful thighs. He was going to make her come hard, because right then, fucking her in her huge, thick ass was something he wanted desperately.

John set to work.

He parted the smooth, taut lips of Lydia’s pussy, exposing the white nub of her clit. He leaned in, intent on doing a very good job, and breathed slowly out. Lydia shivered in response and he heard her inhale sharply. Good signs. She was wound up, her senses heightened, very tuned in to his every move. Leaning in more, John stuck his tongue out and touched its very tip to her clit, then began to gently caress it.

“Mmm...you’re gonna make me beg, aren’t you?” she murmured.

John didn’t respond, instead just opting to continue teasing her clit. A little frustration could go a long way, he knew. Lydia groaned in annoyance and shifted. “Come on...” He didn’t change anything, only continued to lightly tease her clit. “Ugh, fuck John! Come on! Please...” she moaned. He began to press just the barest, tiniest bit harder.

“Oh fuck, you little bastard...” she whispered, tensing and releasing her muscles, panting now. He could tell she really wanted to reach down and ram his face into her crotch. But that would break the unspoken rules.

“Please, John, I want it so bad...” she moaned.

He started to go a bit harder, increasing the pressure very slightly. He ran his hands along her inner thighs and she shuddered in response.

“Yes...fuck, give it to me please!” she cried. “I fucking need it!”

That was probably enough. He knew that if he pushed Lydia too far she might actually grab his head and force his face into her crotch, not that that would necessarily be a bad thing...but it would break the thing they had going on in the moment. So, he started to lick her clit faster and harder, and she let out a long moan of release.

“Oh, Gods fucking yes...” she almost growled, leaning back, resting on her hands, spreading her legs open wider. “Fucking lick my pussy!”

John licked her pussy.

He spent a good several minutes orally pleasuring her, licking at her clit faster and harder, using more of his tongue, until eventually he slipped a finger into her tight opening and began fucking her with it while simultaneously eating her out.

She lasted for maybe another twenty seconds before she began to orgasm.

“OH, HOLY FUCK!” she shrieked, and he pulled his head back, though he still kept finger-fucking her, because he thought she might accidentally crush his head between her thighs. And oh, how amazing her pussy felt clenching around his finger as she released a hot spray of sex juices, getting all over his wrist and forearm as she screamed her way through an intensely powerful and erotic full-body orgasm. She moaned his name several times, crying out in passionate, rapturous bliss. It lasted a good half-minute or so before finally Lydia took in a deep breath and let it out in a loud, long groan, then slipped back into the water as he pulled his finger out of her.

“So, was I a good boy?” he teased.

“Uh-huh,” she managed, getting her breath back. “Oh wow, such a good boy. And because you were such a good boy, I’m going to be an extremely bad girl for you.”

“That sounds fucking fantastic,” he replied, “because I am crazy horny.”

“I’m going to make you come so hard. Get up on the side.”

He did as she commanded and got out of the water, taking up her place. She grinned a fiery, lusty grin up at him as she got into position.

“One of the best things about being an actual paladin, instead of sticking to that ridiculous code? I get to be a complete fucking whore,” she said, then she gripped his cock and cupped his balls. John groaned loudly as she started licking the tip of his dick and massaging his balls at the same time. Her tongue felt amazing, hot and wet and perfect.

“Big bonus,” he gasped.

She continued licking his cock, sending pleasure sparking into him. His dick throbbed in response to her tongue and her hands. She then lowered and tilted her head. Pulling his foreskin down, she began to suck on that area just below the head on the bottom of his cock. It was extremely sensitive without being painfully so, like his head could get if it was overstimulated, and he let out a loud, long groan as she did this, flicking her tongue occasionally against it.

“Oh, my fucking...holy shit, Lydia,” he groaned loudly. “That’s...oh fuck.”

She kept going for a bit longer, then slipped his cock into her mouth and started bobbing her head, sucking him off expertly. The pleasure was intense and hot and so powerful. Lydia was clearly very skilled and experienced at pleasuring dick. She kept going for another solid minute of blissful ecstasy, then took it out of her mouth and brought her enormous breasts up. Pressing them together with his cock in between, she began to slide them up and down.

“So, where do you want to come?” she asked.

“I, uh...fuck, that’s a really hard question. I really want to come in your mouth, but I also really want to blow my load all over your hot fucking face...fuck it, I want the mouth. I want you to swallow my seed,” he decided.

“You got it. I’ll suck you dry and swallow every last fucking drop,” she replied, then let him tit-fuck her for a bit longer.

When she got back to sucking him off, he didn’t make it much longer. She was massaging his balls with her hot, firm grasp and working his shaft with her other hand in tandem with her luscious lips and her tongue and it was just too much…

“Oh Lydia!” he screamed, and put both hands on her head, then shoved his cock deeper into her mouth, practically down her throat. She didn’t try to stop him as he started coming down her throat, instead swallowing, which made him scream in pleasure as all of her wet throat muscles clenched around the head of his orgasming dick, sending an even more intense burst of pleasure into him, boosting his orgasmic bliss as his cock emptied itself. Lydia kept on sucking and swallowing, sucking him dry, letting him empty his cock down her throat.

She sucked out every last drop and let him fuck her mouth, his hips jerking forward, nothing but pure, magical bliss filling him.

When he finished coming, she slowly pulled his cock from in between her pressed together lips, sucking as she did, and he groaned again. He loved it when women did that. He fell back onto the mat, legs still in the water, trying to get his breath back, floating in that post-orgasm bliss, eyes closed, feeling like paradise.

“You’re lucky,” Lydia said as she washed up, then she gargled and spat, “I only let guys I really like throat-fuck me like that.”

“You didn’t say anything,” he murmured.

“I know. If I didn’t like you as much as I do, I would’ve warned you beforehand.”

“Why do you like me so much?” he asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“Just a feeling about you,” she replied, running a fingertip up the bottom of his cock, making him groan and twitch. “Plus, I mean, I love your relationship with Yelena, and you also helped us deal with a serious threat without hesitation. You’re a skilled fighter, brave, compassionate, and an absolutely phenomenal eater of vagina.”

“As good as I may be at that, you’re better at sucking cock.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” she replied. “You doing okay? You gonna pass out?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” he replied.

She laughed. “I’ve done that to guys before. I suck and fuck them so good in a hot spring or tub that they passed out.”

“Nice,” he murmured.

John slipped back into the water after a bit and they sat together, luxuriating, enjoying their sexual highs.

“What is it you have to do?” he asked. “I don’t suppose it could be put off, could it? We could really use your help.”

“I’d like to, honestly. If I didn’t have this responsibility I absolutely would join you. But I can’t. I made a promise to someone down along the southern coast. In short, there’s a site that requires bi-yearly cleansing. It has to be within a certain window of time or it gets out of hand, and I need to do it,” she explained.

“All right then. I guess good luck,” he replied.

“It’s pretty easy. Maybe we could hook back up later...”

“Well, based on what we’re planning, we’re probably going to be up north for awhile. Yelena’s very skilled with magic, but even still, I imagine it’ll take more than a few weeks or even months maybe for her to learn shape-shifting.”

“Well, perhaps I will come visit you. It’s been a little while since I’ve headed north. It’s...very cold, but it’s a lot of fun up there. Or it can be, anyway. Fun in a dangerous kind of way,” she replied. “Okay, I need to get out. I’m getting overheated.”

“Same,” John agreed.

Both of them got out of the water, then took a moment to dry off, and finally headed for the large bed at the back of the room.

For a little bit, they simply laid there together, holding each other, relaxing. He found his mind drifting again to Yelena, wondering if she was having as much fun as he was. He also was worrying about more of her ex-brethren showing up and trying something. Lydia and Indigo sounded fairly confident that they wouldn’t...but there were just so many unknowns. Certainly, it wasn’t impossible to sneak into someone’s house.

But Yelena was a capable warrior, and clearly so was Indigo. And Lydia. And he at least wasn’t too bad, though he considered himself more of a blunt instrument than a finely-honed killing blade. Not that he didn’t try and train a lot, he just knew that Yelena was always going to be faster and stronger than he was. Which did make her an excellent training partner. And lover. Well, he supposed they were committed to staying in by now. Maybe committed was too strong a word, but they’d made their decision and they could handle it if something happened.

Lydia reached over suddenly and gripped his cock, which was just partially rigid now. It stiffened up quickly as she began to massage it.

“You want to be ridden?” she asked.

“Very much,” he replied.

“Good, ‘cause I want to ride.”

She kissed him and then briefly got down between his legs, taking his cock into her mouth and sucking on it, bobbing her head, coating it in a thick film of her saliva for some quick and dirty lube. As soon as she was finished, she got up and straddled him, gripping his rock-hard cock. Grinning down at him, she lined it up with her smooth pussy and then lowered herself. Both of them moaned loudly as she slid him into her perfect, mature, wet pussy. She settled more comfortably onto her knees and placed her hands against his chest, then began moving up and down, taking him deeper into herself each time, until he was buried completely in her.

“There we are,” she whispered as she took his last inch in, resting briefly with him totally inside of her, as if savoring the sensation. John knew that he was, it felt so amazing to be inside of a woman with no protection at all.

Then she began to fuck him.

Being inside of her again was like a return to paradise. John was actually beginning to feel a little guilty for how much he was enjoying fucking Lydia, but fuck, there was something just special about her, something amazing. And it was easy to quash the guilt anyway, because he knew he couldn’t confuse what was happening here with love. They were connected, to be sure, on a very intimate level, but it was not love.

So, he decided to fully enjoy this, and reached up and grabbed her huge, bouncing breasts as she continued riding him, making the bed shake as she put her huge hips and powerful thighs to good use, impaling herself on his dick over and over again.

“Fuck...yes...fuck yes!” she cried, groaning loudly as she satisfied herself. “Fuck, your dick is so great,” she gasped.

“Your pussy is better,” he moaned.

“And my ass is better than that,” she replied.

John had to keep from coming from when she said that, because immediately he began fantasizing about fucking her in her huge ass.

He felt desperately eager for that.

Lydia rode him for another few minutes, then finally dismounted him. “Okay,” she said, “I can tell you’re gonna lose your mind if you don’t put it in my ass.”

“Sorry,” he replied, rolling over and getting up.

“It’s fine, I know how you men get,” she said with a smug smirk.

She got onto her hands and knees for him, and he quickly got behind her. She reached forward and fished around in the headboard. “Here,” she said, twisting around and passing him a slim glass bottle with tree sap lube. He grabbed it, opened it up, and lubed his cock down quickly. Tossing it aside, he looked at her enormous ass, then settled his cock into place and began working it slowly back inside of her.

“Oh fuck...” he groaned loudly, becoming slowly incoherent with pleasure as he started to fuck Lydia up her ass.

It was simply stunning.

Her huge, thick ass was so fucking tight and hot, and immediately began to fill him with a wonderful pleasure that made a slow burn into his body. He settled his hands on her broad hips, sinking in his fingertips, gripping her firmly as he drove into her, shoving his cock up her ass. Lydia moaned loudly as his hips slapped against her ass.

“Mmm...that’s so good,” she moaned. “I bet you fucking love this.”

“I do,” he groaned, lost completely in lust and pleasure, “your ass feels so fucking good, Lydia...” he almost growled.

“Come in me, John,” she said. “Come in my ass.”

He groaned loudly and started pounding her huge ass harder.

This kept up for maybe another thirty seconds before he let out a loud cry of intense bliss and felt like his core was exploding with nothing but raw pleasure. He moaned loudly, hunched over Lydia as he kept humping her ass, driving his climaxing cock deep inside of her, pumping her ass full of his seed one hard contraction at a time.

John was lost in the orgasm.

When he was finally deposited back into his body, he looked down and saw Lydia before him, looking amazing, slicked with sweat, waiting for him to pull out of her.

“You okay back there?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he replied, getting his breath back, “I’m good. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said.

He pulled out of her and laid down on his back. Lydia got up and made for the shower again. He waited a bit longer, then got up and joined her.

“Think we can go another round before sleep?” she asked.

“We can go two,” he replied.

She regained that smug smirk. “Oh, you think so?”

“I know so.”

“Good.”

CHAPTER VII

John had nightmares that night.

They were powerful yet vague. Uncertain landscapes of darkness and terror, with midnight black figures sporting glowing red eyes stalking them. He could remember running and fighting in his nightmares that night.

But mostly he was aware that Yelena was not there.

Yelena was missing. Had she been taken from him? Had she left him? He remembered terror, and loneliness like nothing ever before felt…

…

John’s eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright. He felt her moving, shifting in the bed beside him, and twisted around to look for her, to see her, because he had to.

“Yelena-” he began, but froze up as he saw that it was not Yelena he was sharing a bed with, but someone who he couldn’t in that moment recall the name of. A tanned, weathered, strikingly sexy face stared back up at him.

“John? What’s wrong?”

Lydia. She was Lydia. And they were in an inn, in the basement of an inn in the elven settlement of Brynne in the Redwood forest.

“I, um...I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” he murmured, suddenly embarrassed, yet also terribly lonely. He wanted desperately to see Yelena just then.

“It’s fine. What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?” she asked, sitting up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Yeah,” he replied quietly. “I just, uh...I need to see Yelena, is all.”

“Okay. Come on, let’s get up and shower, then we go back to Indigo’s place,” Lydia said.

She got out of bed and he hesitated for a few seconds. His head was still rushing with the maelstrom of intensely horrific emotions the nightmares had conjured. He felt almost overwhelmed in their aftermath, like he was trying to keep a boat from capsizing in the wake of a terrible storm. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly and then rubbed sleep from his own eyes. Finally, he stood up and crossed the room with Lydia.

“Thanks,” he said quietly.

“It’s okay. I understand. I’ve had some bad, bad nightmares in my time,” she said. They got into the shower stall together and Lydia activated it. “Would you like a hug?”

“I...yeah.”

She enfolded him in her strong arms and held his head against her bare chest. He hugged her back. It wasn’t the same as physical affection from Yelena, but it was appreciated and at least somewhat effective nonetheless. They stood there like that for a few moments, nude and wet, hugging in the warm waterfall.

When he let go of her, John felt better. Not great, nor even good, but better, at least.

“I, uh, don’t suppose you’d be up for some sex?” Lydia asked.

“I...” he hesitated again, considering it. Part of him really wanted to, but another part of him knew he probably couldn’t get it up, not right now.

“It’s okay,” she said, “I understand.”

“Thanks,” he replied. “I’m sorry, it’s not you.”

“I know,” Lydia said, smiling kindly at him. She passed him a bar of soap and a washcloth. “I’ve encountered this before, been on both ends of it. Sometimes, you don’t realize how stressed out you are until you go to sleep, and then your stress really finds you, when you’re at your most vulnerable.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. I think it’s just because I wasn’t sleeping next to Yelena. I think that’s what really got me. I mean, not to, you know, diminish anything you’ve done for me.”

She laughed softly. “John, it’s really okay. I’m not upset. I’m not Yelena. I’m not your love, just your temporary lover. I’ve experienced love before, I know what it’s like. It hurts to be away from them sometimes.”

“It does,” he agreed.

Was this the first time he’d slept away from Yelena since they’d met? Surely it couldn’t be, but he could think of no other time since then. They’d shared a bed every night since hooking up, or at least they had as far as he knew. And he probably wouldn’t be freaking out like this if they weren’t currently being hunted by demons intent on murder. Ugh, that just made him worry even more. What if something had happened in the night?

He quickly washed up, then got out, dried off, and dressed. Lydia moved with a decent pace as well. After dressing and pulling his chainmail armor back on, John gathered up his things. Lydia did the same, and the pair of them headed back upstairs. It was early morning, the sun just beginning to crest the far horizon, painting the landscape beyond the windows in various shades of gold. Lydia returned the key to the innkeeper and they left the inn.

Neither of them spoke as they moved quickly through the village, towards Indigo’s house. He wanted to start even a casual conversation, and almost did twice, but John knew that he’d be useless for conversation right now, too distracted to focus on even that basic thing. It was weird, he’d never felt this awful before about being separated from someone he’d been intimate with. He supposed that certainly made enough sense, given that he’d never been in love before, not like this, not like how it was with Yelena.

After what felt like ages, they finally came to Indigo’s house. John marched up to the door and almost just opened it and walked right in, but he stopped himself and knocked instead, given that he didn’t think he was nearly close enough to Indigo to just walk right up into her house. Although maybe Yelena was by this point.

For several seconds, nothing happened, then the door opened up a crack and one blue eye peered out. Then the door opened the rest of the way, revealing Indigo.

“Hey, you two! Have fun?” she asked with a sultry grin.

“Yes. Um, how’s Yelena?” he asked as they came in.

Indigo closed the door. “She’s...a little fidgety, actually. And kind of upset, I think. I’m not sure what’s wrong, she hasn’t really said anything...”

“He’s like that, too,” Lydia said. “They miss each other.”

Indigo’s eyes widened suddenly, and she regained her smile. “Oh my Gods, that’s so cute! You two are the absolutely cutest fucking couple I have ever seen. Come on, she’s in the basement working out.”

John just nodded and followed. They moved to a hatch that was open, and he could hear that now intimately familiar sound of Yelena breathing rhythmically. It was a sound he often woke to, since she tended to wake before him and get started working out on the floor. They each climbed down the ladder, and as soon as he hit the floor and laid eyes on her, he felt relief and warm, soothing comfort flow through him.

“Yelena,” he said.

She was lying on the floor, doing crunches, but she stopped and immediately rose to her feet. “John. I missed you,” she said, quickly crossing the room. She hugged him fiercely and he hugged her back.

“I missed you, too,” he whispered, holding her firmly against him, “I missed you a lot, Yelena.” They stayed like that for another moment that seemed to stretch on, and eventually they let go of each other.

John felt considerably better. He looked over at Indigo, who was staring at them with that same, wide-eyed gaze.

“What?” he asked. Yelena looked over, too.

“I just love how much you two love each other,” she replied.

“Indigo is a romantic,” Lydia said. “And now that I have helped reunite the two of you, and had some fantastic sex, I will admit that I am jealous of Yelena for getting to fuck John and make liberal use of his tongue every single day, and then I’ll be on my way.”

Yelena laughed loudly. “Well...thank you,” she said. “Though that was really more of a compliment aimed at John.”

“Uh, yeah,” John replied, suddenly a little awkward and nervous again. Now that he was actually with Yelena again and his emotions were being kept at bay, his natural awkwardness was coming to the forefront again. He thought he’d made some pretty good progress when it came to being more confident around women, but something about Lydia just kind of...made him feel like an inexperienced teenager again.

There was something tremendous and powerful about her, in a very good way.

“Thanks for the sex, Lydia. You are fantastic in bed. And on the floor. And in the tub.”

Lydia laughed. “Same for you, John. Now, I do have to go.”

She gave them all hugs, and kissed John, and then climbed up out of the basement. John couldn’t help but stare at her big, broad ass the whole way up. When she was gone, and they heard the front door close, he faced the two women. Yelena was completely naked, her firm, trim body slicked with sweat, her tail swaying gently behind her. Fuck, she looked so good. Now that he wasn’t filled with anxiety and dread, he now actually regretted not taking Lydia up on her offer of sex. One more fuck with her would have been fantastic.

“How was your night?” he asked.

Yelena walked over to a washbasin and began to clean herself off. “It was quite pleasurable,” she said.

“John, I have to confess, I am hopelessly in lust with your lover,” Indigo said. “Her tongue is just...I mean, it’s phenomenal. She gave me like three screaming orgasms with just her tongue alone. And then that toy of hers. I’ve heard of sex toys like that, but I didn’t know they were so effective. I mean, holy fuck, being able to pound Yelena in the ass with that fake cock was just...oh, as much as Lydia is jealous of Yelena, I am jealous of you, because she is so amazing at sex. She’s the best fuck I’ve had in years.”

“Well...I’m glad to see it was a good night,” John replied, trying not to laugh. Indigo clearly didn’t hold anything back.

“She is a very enthusiastic lover,” Yelena said.

“I hope to experience that firsthand,” John replied.

Indigo favored him with a smug smile. “Oh, you will. I’m gonna fuck your brains out.” Her expression grew suddenly more serious. “But later. There’s a bad storm coming onto the mountains, down from the north. I can feel it. I think, if we move fast, we should be able to get to where we’re going before the worst of it hits. Although I’m not even sure if it will hit our path, but it’s best to assume the worst, typically.”

“Yes,” John agreed, “we should be moving then.”

“Good!” Indigo regained her smile and began moving about the room, gathering things for the journey ahead. Yelena had finished washing and was now drying her wonderfully fit body. Maybe he could just have a quickie with her…

“No, love,” Yelena said, smiling, “I know that look. We must be off, John.”

He sighed heavily. “Yeah, I know. I know.”

“It will be worth the wait, I promise.”

“It always is.”

He crossed to her suddenly and hugged her to him again as she finished drying. “I love you, Yelena,” he said quietly, hugging her tightly. “I’m not sure I should sleep away from you again.”

“I love you too, John. So much. And I agree. It was...very difficult.”

They kissed once more, then parted again and got to it.

It was time to get back to work.

…

They walked through the Redwood Forest, and as they did, making for the trading village that bordered the area between human land and elven land, John found it hard to believe the idea that there was a snowstorm coming on. But he knew how sharply divided the weather could be between this land and the mountains. There could be a blizzard going on up there in summer. Something to do with magical currents, he thought, or he’d heard at least. All the way there, Indigo wanted to hear everything about him and Yelena.

Especially their sexual adventures.

She was particularly happy to hear about their multiple encounters with the dryad ladies of the Emerald Wild.

“So, in your fantasies, what other sexual encounters are you interested in?” Indigo asked after several hours of back and forth about what had already happened.

“A werewolf,” John said.

“Mmm yes, that sounds quite pleasant,” Yelena agreed.

“Oh man, I had a werewolf once. He was...oh, he was a beast,” Indigo said fondly. “We fucked for two days. I met him when I was out on a hunt once, several years ago. How about vampires? You interested in vampires?”

“Yeah, definitely. I’ve really got a thing for pale women, and vampires are about as pale as they come,” John replied. “And then there’s the nymphs and the elementals. Water nymphs, flower nymphs, ocean nymphs.”

“Oh yes, quite the variety, all of them so beautiful. And the elementals as well. What about a mermaid? Have you ever made love with a mermaid?” Indigo asked.

“No, I haven’t,” John replied.

“Me either,” Yelena said.

“I got eaten out by one once. It was so wonderful. Hmm...” she fell silent for a few seconds. “You said you’re tracking down a dragon, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” John replied.

“As far as I know, dragons are very rare, and if Morgan sent you towards this dragon...I think that she has told me a few stories about this dragon, who is, in fact, a dragoness. Who knows shape-shifting. I’m curious...if you could, would you fuck a dragoness?”

“I mean...I’d have to think about that,” John replied.

“I, too, am curious,” Yelena said, amusement obvious in her voice.

“Morgan has mentioned that her dragoness friend has fucked a few humans, and elves and beryl, too, so I’m guessing that it must certainly be possible to couple with her.”

“Well, I’d have to meet her, but...yeah, I’d probably be down to fuck a dragon. I mean, that would certainly be quite the experience. But fucking a dragon would be insane...how big are they? Then again, she can shape-shift, so maybe that would even out the size difference. Although that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I mean, I did fuck Morgan...”

“I completely forgot to ask that! So, you did fuck her? How was she?” Indigo asked.

“She was fantastic. And intimidating,” John replied.

“Yes, she is. I’ve had her fuck me a few times with a strap-on. It’s...uh, quite the experience,” Indigo said.

They continued walking, and John found himself wondering if he really could fuck Kesley. He’d never even seen a dragon. Honestly, before Morgan had sent them on this journey, he wasn’t even sure if they existed anymore. They were so rare. Thoughts of sticking his cock into a hot dragoness filled his mind as they pressed on.

Eventually, after about six hours, with noon coming on and the sun high overhead, they hit Redwood. John had been through here before, more than once, and liked its familiarity. It was a place that wasn’t too small, nor was it too big. It was kind of that perfect compromise between a cozy small town, but also a town that was big enough that lots of different people passed through, and it had a lot of amenities, and people tended to be less racist. Or at least less obviously or vocally racist. He liked Redwood.

Although maybe some of that had to do with the fact that elves often passed through here, and they were usually down to fuck…

It was hard to focus with Indigo walking ahead of him so much. She was absolutely beautiful and clearly a very lusty girl with an enormous appetite and zeal for sex. Gods, he wanted to fuck her so bad. He had no doubt that she was absolutely fantastic in bed. But no, they had to keep up a quick pace. They decided to at least stop for lunch here, if only for a bit, because they’d eaten breakfast on the go, and not much of one at that.

So, they bought some hefty skewers of meat and bowls of vegetable stew and sat down at one of a few tables positioned behind the stall that was selling the food.

“You ever left the country, Indigo?” John asked as they dug in.

“Yeah, a few times. Biggest run was kicking around Tomontica for about a year and a half or so. Now those people know how to fuck! I mean they love sex down there. But there’s a lot of adventuring fun to be had there, too. Lots of cool old ruins and caves and stuff like that. It’s so beautiful down there on the islands. I did briefly make the trip all the way south to the beryl homeland, but I didn’t like it much there. Kicked around for maybe two weeks, but nothing much happened. I mean, I got laid by a few beryl guys, and one girl, so that was nice, but, eh, I mean, it’s a desert. Not much happening there, as far as I could tell.”

“There’s so many places I want to see,” John murmured.

“I do, too. I hear about how massive this world is, how diverse it is...” Yelena agreed.

“You will definitely have to try it someday. There’s the beryl homeland, which you might find fun, a ton of islands off in pretty much every direction from here. The far elf homeland. That place is supposed to be so magical and crazy. But unfriendly to outsiders, too. Oh! The kit homeland. Oh, you have to go there. I have to go there. I’ve heard so much.”

“The kit?” Yelena asked.

“Oh yeah, I’ve never told you about them. You’ve seen foxes?” he asked.

“Yes, I have encountered them,” Yelena replied.

“They’re kind of like felis, but they resemble foxes instead of cats. I’ve never met a kit.”

“There’s a good reason for that. They hate it here,” Indigo said glumly.

“I don’t blame them, but any particular reason?” John asked.

“Because of how closed-minded all the damned humans are...uh, no offense.”

“None taken.”

“So, they never come here. But their land is supposed to be magical and wonderful and so happy and open and free-spirited. And interesting, too! I’ve heard that their land is littered with ancient ruins from another race that vanished.”

“That sounds very interesting indeed,” Yelena murmured.

A thought suddenly sparked in John’s head. “Hey, Indigo...you said that the kit are extremely open and free-spirited. Do you think maybe they would accept...us?” he asked, looking over at Yelena, who stared back at him, her illusion amulet active.

“I...hmm...” Indigo murmured. “I don’t know. Maybe? I think it’d be at least worth looking into at some point.”

“I agree,” John said. “What do you think?”

“I think...if we could find a place like that, where we could live without...scrutiny, it would be worth it. Although...” She chewed uncertainly on her lower lip. “It would mean leaving here. It would mean leaving your homeland.”

“Your happiness is more important to me than my homeland,” John replied.

“Oh my Gods,” Indigo whispered, “you are so amazing as a couple...”

“Thank you, Indigo,” Yelena replied, unable to keep from grinning. “Perhaps we should shelve this conversation for later, my love.”

“Okay,” John said. “Let’s finish up and keep going.”

They did just that, finishing off their meal and tossing away the remains. They let the food settle for a bit, then got up and began making for the northern border of the settlement. The frozen mountains loomed ahead, a jagged line against a sky that was just beginning to shade towards gray now. As they drew closer to the mountains, following a well-traveled path, John felt a cold wind blowing down onto them.

It was definitely going to be a long walk.

…

It was indeed a long walk, but not an altogether unpleasant one.

He got to know Indigo better, heard more about her travels, her adventures, what interesting monsters she’d killed and people she’d slept with. And, of course, he got to spend a lot of time being around Yelena, which was highlighted more than usual because of his experiences last night. Although that was somewhat weighing on him, taking up his thoughts. John had never been in love before, not in the way he was with Yelena. He had never so thoroughly relied on another person, well, since hitting adulthood.

His life had never been so utterly entangled with another’s.

In one way, it was the best thing he’d ever felt. Sharing everything with Yelena, having her around all the time and being absolutely thrilled about it, falling asleep beside her at night and waking up beside her in the morning…

All these things were fantastic.

But he could admit, even if only to himself, that it scared him a little. The more time went on, the more he knew how utterly crippling it would be if something happened and he lost her. But, he told himself, this was the price of love. You made yourself vulnerable, you had to. And he at least was grateful that there was no question about whether or not this price was worth paying, this vulnerability. Of course it was.

They stayed on the main path for a solid four hours, and it drew colder and dimmer the higher up they went. At some point, Indigo stopped and took them to the left, off the main trail and onto a smaller one, mostly obscured by a collection of trees. They kept going, walking ever onward. For the most part, it was a decent, simple walk. Although the deeper they went into the more uncharted regions of the mountains, the more dangerous it became.

And that danger finally came to a head after another two hours.

“Stop,” Yelena said, and both he and Indigo froze up instantly.

Both women drew their bows and notched arrows at almost exactly the same time, their movements eerily quick and dexterous.

John drew his blade, looking around.

They were down in the middle of a small valley, beset on either side by long stands of trees topped by slowly melting snow from a previous storm. Anything could be hiding there. He studied their surroundings, waiting to see exactly what it was that was going to be coming for them. Several seconds passed, only the soft whispering of the wind to be heard. And then something shifted, high up and to their left.

And he saw it.

Or rather, them.

“Ice spiders!” Indigo called and loosed an arrow.

Yelena did so at the same time. As they did, a half dozen giant ice spiders, which had been hiding among the treetops, launched themselves. He hated spiders. So did most adventurers though. They were creepy giant fuckers. Two of them landed with heavy thuds, sending up sprays of snow and dirt, and began coming right for him. John went to meet them with his blade. He surged forward, sprinting to cross the distance.

Had to do this fast and right.

When he was within range, he stabbed forward, shoving the blade most of the way into the gray-white body of the first giant ice spider. The awful thing let out a high-pitched shriek and shuddered violently as he ripped the blade back out. John leaped back, narrowly avoiding the other spider as it made a lunge for him, certainly intent on sinking its venomous fangs into him. He slashed out and severed one reaching leg. A gush of pale blood splashed the icy ground and the second spider began to shriek violently as it made a mad dash for him. John kept moving, trying to keep at least some distance between them as he looked for another opening, while simultaneously keeping out of Yelena’s and Indigo’s way.

The opportunity presented itself: the spider came to him, but stumbled at a crucial moment. He drove his blade into its hideous alien face and killed it instantly. Pulling his blade back out, he looked around, seeing if anything else had shown up during the conflict. As he laid eyes on her, Yelena let fly another arrow, which perfectly hit another ice spider in its collection of crimson eyes and killed it. That was the last one, he confirmed.

“I hate those things,” he said as they regrouped.

“Don’t we all?” Indigo replied. A cold, harsh wind suddenly cut across the valley. She shivered and looked up into the darkening sky. “We really need to keep going. The storm’s a lot closer now. There’s a cave I want to get to.”

John and Yelena both agreed, and they set off once more.

…

They managed to make it to the cave after another two hours of hiking through the mountains, just as the storm was hitting hard. It had begun to snow half an hour before they got to the cave, at first just some dry flurries, but soon big, fat snowflakes were coming down hard, covering the landscape. The cave that Indigo was looking for turned out to be a decent one, and as Yelena raised one hand and cast a spell of light, illuminating the interior, John found himself deeply grateful. He was exhausted. He was looking forward to sleep.

John looked around the cave, first searching for threats, then just checking it out. It wasn’t too big, and it seemed like it hadn’t seen any visitors in quite a while. There were a pair of tunnels snaking away from the main area.

“Looks clear. You two head down the left tunnel and check it out. That’s where we’re going to be making camp. I’ll look into the right tunnel,” Indigo said.

“On it,” John replied, drawing his blade.

He and Yelena moved down the left tunnel. It angled downward and curved to the left for a ways. The bare rock walls were unmarred by signs of life, and John wondered when the last time someone had been in here. They reached the area at the end without trouble, and found it empty. It was smaller than the initial cavern, but definitely big enough to set up camp in. John tossed down their camp-in-a-bag, said the activation word, and watched it appear in the center of the cave with a bright flash of magical light.

The two of them went inside the tent that showed up, thanks to their magical bag, and began taking off their armor. They set their packs and weapons off to one side, and stripped down to their clothing.

“I hope it warms up soon,” Yelena murmured. “I do not like the cold.”

“Same, although we shouldn’t start a fire. There’s no ventilation in here and we’d just fill the place up with smoke,” John replied.

They were still trying to discern how to deal with this when Indigo showed up. “Okay, we’re all clear, and I set up a few basic warning spells in the tunnel leading out.”

“Perfect. Um...any ideas about heat?” John replied.

“Yes, actually. Hold on.” She brought out and activated her own camp-in-a-bag, then disappeared into her tent. “Follow me, I’d like some help.”

They followed her into her tent, which was small and cozy and clearly had been with her quite awhile, as it had seen a lot of use and was very customized. She pointed to a large, smooth stone in one corner. It resembled, to John at least, a giant whet stone. “Bring it out and I’ll hit it with a heat spell. We can cook on it, too.”

“That is genius,” Yelena said as she bent and picked up the rock.

“Thanks. Something I came up with awhile ago,” Indigo replied.

They all headed back out into the cave and Yelena set the rock down not far from the tents. As soon as it was on the ground, Indigo crouched by it, gathering up magical energy, and then placed her hands on the rock. There was a flash of light and suddenly the rock began to very gently glow with red light.

“There!” she said, standing up. “Now it’ll be warm in here, and we can cook dinner.”

“Dinner sounds very appealing,” Yelena replied. “I’m starving.”

“What do we want to eat?” John asked.

“Something meat,” Indigo replied. “Got any rabbit? I could really go for some rabbit right now. And maybe a bit of...” she sighed suddenly. “No, no wine. Probably not a good idea to get drunk until this whole mess is over.”

“Yes,” Yelena agreed reluctantly, “that is a sound idea. But once this is over...”

Indigo grinned. “Once this is over, we’ll get sloppy drunk and have sloppy sex.”

“That sounds wonderful,” John said.

“Yes, it does,” Yelena agreed. “But for tonight we shall have to satisfy ourselves with sober sex,” she added.

“Oh, what a tragedy,” Indigo replied, laughing. “Yelena’s talked up your dick quite a bit, John. I’m eager to see it. And play with it.”

“Well…I mean, it’s not amazing or anything,” he replied as he headed back into the tent to grab some of the rabbit he had in a chilled container.

“I believe Yelena,” Indigo said. “Plus, you’ve gotta remember, I’m an elf. What’s even average for a human is big for me. Although I don’t really put much emphasis on size anyway. But it is a nice bonus. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do fine. Lydia seemed pretty satisfied and she’s like forty, fucking six-foot-four, and very experienced. And she doesn’t really pull her punches when it comes to telling you how you are at sex. And then of course there’s the fact that you have Yelena, who I’m almost convinced is incapable of lying, raving about how fantastic you are in bed.”

“I am certainly capable of lying,” Yelena replied.

John found the rabbits he’d killed, skinned, and cleaned not too long ago and returned to the rock, laying the meat carefully out on its baking surface.

“Okay, but do you lie?” Indigo asked.

“No, not to people I like. Not if I can help it.”

“Exactly. I’m not sure you’d lie for the sake of John’s ego.”

“I would not have to,” Yelena replied. “He’s such an amazing lover that I do not have to exaggerate anything.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” John said as he tended to the rabbit.

“So, based on that, I think we’re all going to have a night of absolutely fantastic sex, is my point,” Indigo said.

“And I’m very much looking forward to it,” John replied.

They went about winding down for the night as the rabbit cooked and the cave quickly began to fill with a comfortable warmth. Outside, John could hear the snowstorm raging, the winds shrieking. He wondered if it would be done by dawn. If they had to, he was sure they could press on through a snowstorm. Then again, maybe they should just stay put if that was the case. They were pretty isolated, probably in a hard to track place. Although demons traveled between dimensions by some powerful methods, could they just appear in this cave?

He didn’t want to think about it.

Yelena and Indigo stripped nude and washed up, using the washbasin in their tent. Once they were done, Yelena took over the food prep and John did the same, happy to clean the grime and sweat off of his body. Especially his cock, given he was hoping to be sticking it in two women’s mouths pretty soon. By the time he was washed up and back in at least his undershorts, the rabbit was done. He brought out three bottles of water.

“Why aren’t you naked?” Indigo asked, accepting the bottle.

“I just, uh...feel a little exposed,” he replied, chuckling awkwardly.

“I have learned many things since beginning to live here,” Yelena said. Both her and Indigo hadn’t opted to put any clothes on at all after washing, “and one is that men have difficulty exposing themselves when they aren’t fully erect already.”

“Hmm...that’s true,” Indigo murmured. “I just thought you’d be past that, John. You have every reason to be pretty damned confident.”

“Well, um...thanks. I appreciate that,” John replied, still feeling awkward.

“We should eat,” Yelena suggested.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Indigo replied.

They sat together around the table that came with John and Yelena’s camp-in-a-bag and dug into the meal. John found that any and all desire to converse fell away now that he could actually eat. He was fucking starving. The walk had taken more out of him than he’d thought. And apparently the women were in much the same way. They all didn’t say a thing as they tore through their meal, and after a little while, they sat back from three empty plates and drained bottles. Indigo was looking at her plate unhappily.

“Is something wrong?” Yelena asked.

“Very,” Indigo replied. “I want to eat more but I also don’t want to because then it will take even longer until my food is fully settled. I’m hornier than I am hungry, and I can’t fuck on a full stomach. As it is I’m going to have to wait a good twenty minutes before riding your dick,” she added, looking at John.

“I can very much sympathize,” he replied.

“I have never had that problem,” Yelena said.

“Ugh! So lucky...although not for you, I imagine,” Indigo said.

“Yeah, there are times where we’re not, uh, in line with each other. She wants to fuck right after a big meal and I just...can’t.”

“It is difficult to wait,” Yelena agreed.

“I get to watch her masturbate though, so that’s nice.”

“Ooh, I bet she looks so fucking hot masturbating,” Indigo murmured, looking over at her. “Fuck! It’s so hard not to just jump you both right now. I think this is the most in lust I’ve been in the past decade. I mean, you’re really hot and everything John, don’t get me wrong, I like you a lot, but Yelena...”

“Oh, I agree,” John replied. “She is truly an avatar of sexual desire and raw beauty.”

“Yes, she is. I need to fuck her so bad...”

Yelena shifted uncomfortably under their gazes. “I am not that attractive...” she replied.

“No, you really are to people who find you attractive,” Indigo replied.

“That seems...obvious and redundant,” Yelena said.

“No, what I mean is, uh...so, people who are open-minded enough to explore interspecies lust will, I think, more often than not, find one such as yourself attractive. And those that do, I think, find you not just kind of attractive, but deeply attractive. You are so...I don’t even have words. You are probably the hottest lady I’ve seen in my whole life. Your eyes and your horns and that sexy black tail of yours...and your body. You are just so wonderfully fit, but you’ve got just the right amount of padding with that tight ass of yours and your hips and your thighs are just to die for...sorry, I’m really drooling over you.”

“Well, it is appreciated,” Yelena replied.

John found himself staring at Yelena and fidgeting as the seconds ticked by and the wind continued to shriek outside. Indigo was right. Yelena really was insanely attractive. It was a realization that seemed to hit him randomly each day when he caught sight of her one of the hundreds of times that he looked her way. Although he imagined it was even more powerful for him, because he knew her, was getting to know her, was attracted to her personality, her perverseness, her kindness, her intelligence.

Her bravery in the face of change, she was living in a world almost totally different from the one that she had spent her whole life in. The way she was willing to take on massive tasks, learn new things, and try to escape the bad habits and negative thoughts and paranoia bred into her by her previous life and society. All of it was what made him love her as much as he did, all of it and more, he was sure. John imagined he would be discovering new things about her decades from now. She was looking back at him, smiling softly, and she reached out suddenly, taking his hand in hers. They didn’t even need to speak sometimes.

“You two are so fucking cute,” Indigo said. “I just can’t get over how great you are together.”

“I do enjoy our relationship,” Yelena agreed with a serene smile.

“Has it been twenty minutes yet?” Indigo groaned. “I’m so horny. One of the best types of threesomes to have is with a really loving couple that also is totally secure and confident in their relationship and they are also both so hot, and you two fit that perfectly.”

“I think enough time has passed,” John replied. “Well...I hope anyway.”

“Let’s go,” Indigo said, shooting to her feet almost fast enough to tip the chair over.

John and Yelena stood, and the three of them retreated into the tent. Both women all but dove onto the nest of blankets and embraced, locking lips immediately. Someday, John thought as he stripped his boxers off, we’re going to have to buy a real bed for this tent. Or maybe they should just upgrade to a bigger, better camp-in-a-bag.

Whatever. Right now, he was going to have an amazing threesome.

Naked now, he joined the women, laying down against Indigo’s back and kissing the back of her neck while sliding a hand in between them, groping one of her breasts. Now that there were no other distractions, he really got a chance to size up Indigo’s slim, pale body, and he found her to be as sexy as he figured she would be. Her breasts were wonderfully firm, medium-sized, fitting nicely into his grasping hand, her nipple pressing against his palm. She was breathing heavily, moaning as she and Yelena kissed, and started pressing herself against him. He groped her breasts for a bit longer as he kissed the back of her neck, then let go and slid his hand down the length of her body to her hip, finding it firm, the skin soft and hot. Her tight ass felt good grinding into his crotch. He groped her ass for a bit, then slipped his hand around to her front and in between her fit thighs.

She gasped and moaned as he began to massage her clit. “Oh yes...” she whispered harshly, her body twitching in response to the pleasure.

“He’s very skilled,” Yelena said with a sultry smile.

“I can-ah!-tell.”

Working together, they rolled Indigo onto her back and he kept fingering her, then leaned in and began kissing Yelena. He felt that wonderful spark of lust and love and connection as their lips met and she slipped her strange, long, forked tongue into his mouth to twist and twine with his own tongue. Indigo let out another surprised cry of rapture and he glanced down, seeing that Yelena had joined him in pleasuring her, slipping one of her fingers inside of their tight little elf friend. They kissed for a bit longer, then Yelena broke it and leaned down, kissing Indigo again. John studied the two women intensely as they made out.

Holy Gods, Indigo was attractive.

Her body slim and fit, muscles clear and well-defined beneath her pale skin. Her sexy blood red hair, and her seductive elf ears poking up through it. Her vividly bright blue eyes and wonderful breasts and those perfect pink nipples of hers. John shifted a bit so that his face was near her chest and he began to lick across one of her nipples.

“Oh fuck!” she moaned. “You two are gonna...oh this is too much!” she moaned.

Yelena let out a low, lusty laugh. “We have not yet even begun to pleasure you,” she replied, then began fingering her harder and faster and shifted as well. Indigo let out renewed cries of passion as Yelena joined John in licking her nipples and breasts. He then took her nipple into his mouth and began sucking on it as he pressed faster and harder on her clit, making fast little circles. He could feel her muscles tensing and releasing, her tight, fit body jerking and twitching and writhing in pure bliss as the two of them expertly pleasured her.

She managed to last maybe another twenty seconds before she had a wonderful, screaming, full-bodied orgasm.

They continued pleasuring her throughout her climax as she screamed and twisted, her hips bucking furiously as a hot spray of feminine sex juices escaped her wonderful, pale elf pussy. “Yes! Fuck yes! I LOVE IT SO FUCKING MUCH!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs, writhing madly with blissful ecstasy.

He absolutely loved it when women came, when he was making them come, the sounds they made and the knowledge that he had given them that pleasure. From the look on her face, it seemed that Yelena felt the same way.

Indigo’s orgasm slowly burned out and she was left panting and sweat-slicked and beautiful in its wake. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down at herself. “Oh my, I’ve made quite the mess,” she murmured.

“It is okay,” Yelena replied, and put her hand over the large, dark spot on the blankets and cast a small spell. There was a brief flash of light, then the spot was gone.

“Whoa! How’d you do that?” Indigo asked, sitting up. “I felt warmth…”

“Simple modification of a fire spell,” Yelena replied. “It seemed prudent to learn given the frequency of our sex and my tendency to have powerful orgasms.”

“You need to teach me that before we part ways. Please!”

“I will,” Yelena replied.

“Good. Now that I’ve had my good orgasm and we’ve already had each other...how about we get to work pleasing your amazing man?” Indigo suggested.

“That is a plan I am happy to enact,” Yelena replied.

“Fine by me,” John said.

They all shifted places and John felt his heart beating harder now, blood rushing through him, his cock fully erect and pulsing in anticipation of the attention it was about to receive. This was something he’d been hoping for and then anticipating since he’d first laid eyes on Indigo, then received confirmation that she was totally down to fuck.

Both women laid down on their stomachs, Yelena to his right, Indigo to his left, their faces near his cock. He trembled in anticipation as Indigo reached out and gripped his dick. “I knew it was going to be big,” she said softly, then leaned forward, stuck out her tongue and licked up the bottom of his cock. He groaned loudly as the pleasure hit him like a drug. Then did so again when Yelena joined in, licking across the side of his dick’s head.

“I think he likes it,” Indigo said, grinning and continuing to lick.

“I know he likes it,” Yelena replied. She reached out and cupped his balls in her hot grasp, then began to massage them gently. “He loves it, don’t you dear?”

“Yes!” he gasped. “Yes, I love it...oh fuck...”

Both women were freely licking the head now, their hot, wet tongues dragging across every part of it, lighting up his body with a powerful, absolute bliss that never failed to amaze him. After licking every inch of his cock, Indigo took it into her mouth and started sucking him off, bobbing her head smoothly up and down the length of it, sending a fresh, solid blast of pleasure into him. Yelena stuck out her elongated tongue and began licking his balls.

“Holy fucking Gods,” he groaned. “You two keep up like that and I’m not gonna last much longer.”

“Fine by me, I want to ride you,” Indigo replied, passing his cock to Yelena, who began sucking him off slowly, sensuously, massaging the head with her tongue at the same time. “But I do want you to come in my mouth.”

“I think I can manage that,” he replied.

Yelena sucked him off for a bit longer, staring intently up at him, her eyes burning and flickering bright and deep red. When she sensed that he was close to orgasm, (he still wasn’t entirely sure how she knew, but she always knew), she took his dick out and passed it back to Indigo. “Suck my lover dry,” she said.

“Gladly,” Indigo replied, and the sexy, pale, redheaded elf took his dick back into her hot, wet mouth. She continued pleasuring, sucking him off fast, her lips gliding rapidly over the head of his cock. She was going in for the kill, delivering nothing but pure pleasure, trying to push him over the edge.

And it didn’t take much longer.

“Oh...Indigo, fuck!” he cried as his orgasm burst into existence.

He felt it as a blast of pure, hot pleasure expanding rapidly from the core of his being. His dick jerked violently inside of her mouth and she moaned as she kept sucking. So did he, groaning loudly in pure rapturous release as he orgasmed into her mouth and holy fuck how good it felt that she was still sucking, working his shaft with her hand, Yelena’s hand on his balls, still massaging them, both women working his cock furiously to get every last drop out of him. His dick twitched over and over again, spraying thick spurts of his seed into Indigo’s mouth. She took it all in, sucking him dry, as the hot bliss filled him.

She sucked until he was done coming, then for a bit longer.

Then she pulled his cock slowly out of her mouth, her lips looking so wonderful wrapped around it tightly, sucking as she did to make sure she’d gotten it all. She swallowed and then sat up, grinning at him. “There,” she said, “that is a blowjob.”

“Yes,” he managed, breathing heavily, “a fantastic one.”

She laughed and then stood to find a bottle of blueberry juice among their things. First, she took a swig of it, swished it around in her mouth, and spit it out the tent. Then, she took another healthy drink of it and passed it to Yelena, who took a few swallows from it herself.

“Oh my, someone’s still hard. Perfect,” Indigo said happily as she clambered quickly and nimbly up onto him.

“Wait, I think I need a minute-ah!” he cried as she gripped his cock and slammed her pussy down on him enthusiastically. Fuck, she was so wet!

“I need you to not need a minute,” she replied, then moaned as she started riding him.

John winced, but grabbed her hips and obediently began thrusting up into her. His cock was still sensitive from that orgasm, but fuck, it just felt too amazing, that stunningly tight elf pussy.

“Fuck! Oh, I told you it’d feel big!” she cried. He just groaned in response, staring up at her beautiful tits as she rode his cock. “You like that?” she moaned. “You like it when I fuck your huge cock?!”

“Yes, Indigo!” he groaned, and thrust hard up into her, making her shout. “I fucking love it!”

“This was so fucking worth the wait,” she moaned.

John reached up and grabbed her wonderful, pale tits, groping and squeezing them as she bounced on his dick, satisfying herself with it. She seriously was amazingly tight, her vaginal muscles clenching hard around his cock.

He really, really hoped she let him fuck her in the ass.

After a minute or so, Indigo suddenly seemed to remember Yelena. “Oh my, I’m being rude,” she said as she slowed, and then stopped riding him. “You haven’t even gotten to come yet.”

“I would like to ride him for a bit,” Yelena replied, “and then you can eat me out while he fucks you from behind.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Indigo replied happily.

She got off of him and Yelena took her place, sliding his rigid, pussy juice-soaked cock inside of herself. Both of them let out sounds of pleasure as they enjoyed sexual unity, and he was inside of her. He absolutely loved being inside of her, being connected to her in the most basic, primal way that was possible. His hands found her hips, firm and smooth, and he could see her tail twitching back and forth behind her as she started to ride him.

“Oh, John, yes!” she cried as she fucked herself with his cock, burying his rigid length completely inside of her over and over again.

The pleasure was amplified by the nearly overwhelming feeling of love and connection he had as he stared up at her. Yelena quickly laid down against him and he hugged her to him, kissing her deeply, loving how quickly and eagerly she slipped her tongue into his mouth. He slid his hands slowly down her back, then settled one on her shapely, very well-maintained ass, and with the other gripped her tail, gently making a fist around its base, where it connected to her lower back, just above her ass. He gave it a small, gentle tug and she cried out.

“Oh fuck!”

“Ooh, she likes that, huh?” Indigo asked.

“Yes,” Yelena moaned, panting now. “I like it a lot, but...oh, only John can do it. Okay? I should have mentioned that earlier. You can touch it, just don’t-ah!-don’t tug on it, please...”

“It’s okay, Yelena. I completely respect that boundary. It’s something special to the two of you,” Indigo replied.

“I love you so much, Yelena,” John whispered into their kiss.

“I-ah!-I love you, too. I love you so much, John, I do not even have the words for it...”

He let go of her tail and grabbed her ass with both hands now, helping her bounce on his dick, thrusting wildly up into her, pounding her hard and making her scream. They fucked like that for awhile longer, and then decided it was time to switch again. Yelena dismounted him, and he quickly got up, very eager to be inside of one of the women again. Yelena took his place, laying down and settling herself among the blankets and pillows, then spreading her long, athletic legs out. Indigo got in between them, but paused, and ran her hands up and down Yelena’s lower legs.

“I don’t know why, but the fact that you have hooves is really fucking hot,” she murmured.

“I know exactly what you mean,” John said.

“It is curious,” Yelena replied. “I do not have a similar fascination with your feet. But I am very glad you like them as much as you do.”

“They’re so sexy,” Indigo said, then got onto her hands and knees, presenting her nice, fit ass to him. Damn, she had a hot ass.

He got behind her as she lowered her face into Yelena’s crotch and began to pleasure his lover. Yelena let out a loud, long, sensuous moan.

John settled his cock into place at the entrance of her hot, wet, elf pussy and slipped his way inside of her. She let out a loud, muffled cry of bliss as he gripped her slim hips in his firm grasp and started fucking her pussy. She might have ridden him earlier, but he was in control of their pace now. He groaned, closing his eyes for a few seconds, absolutely lost in the rapturous bliss of sliding his cock in and out of seriously tight elf vagina. He could bury himself completely inside of her tight opening, and felt her bare pussy against him each time he shoved his way back inside of her.

It was paradise.

It was like magic.

He fucked that sweet pussy of hers for another few minutes as he watched and listened to her pleasure Yelena, who was moaning loudly and freely now, her legs spread out wide. She was running her fingers through Indigo’s red hair, making a mess of it, enjoying every second of the oral pleasure she was receiving.

And then she was coming.

John watched, enraptured and continuing to pound Indigo’s pussy, as Yelena began to orgasm. It was a beautifully intense one, her muscles tensing, and then she was screaming in pleasure. “Oh yes Indigo! Yes it is so good! ITFEELSSOFUCKINGGOODINDIGO!” she babbled, almost incoherent as the climax tore through her body, making her twitch and shudder and spasm. Indigo moaned and kept licking her clit throughout the whole thing.

It was quite the spectacle.

When it was over, she fell back, panting, and Indigo raised her head up. She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, then twisted back around to look at John. She looked almost painfully erotic with her pale face flushed, blood red hair a wild mess, her gaze wild and lusty. “You guys wanna double fuck me?” she asked.

“Oh, fuck yes,” he replied. “I really want to put it in your ass.”

“Do it. Yelena,” she said, turning back around, “you can fuck my pussy with that special strap-on of yours.”

“That sounds quite wonderful,” Yelena agreed.

John pulled out of Indigo and they quickly grabbed what they needed. Yelena grabbed the magical fake cock from the dryads and pulled it on over her firm hips, and John found some lube and rubbed his cock down in preparation.

After a bit of conversation, they decided on the position. Yelena remained on her back, and Indigo mounted her, slipping the fake cock up into her pussy, which made both of them moan. Then John got up against her from the back.

“Careful now,” she whispered, “my ass is really tight. And you are big.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” John replied, and ran his hand gently over her back.

“I trust you,” she whispered. “I feel safe around both of you.”

“Good,” Yelena murmured. “We want you to feel good, Indigo. We want you to feel safe. You are among friends.”

“I’m so glad I met both of you,” she said, and began kissing Yelena.

John started working his way carefully into her ass with one of his lubed-up fingers. Taking her concerns to heart, he decided to start slow, and ease her into the anal play.

Oh, how tight her trim little elf ass was. Clenching around a single finger, John smiled to himself thinking about how that was going to feel on his cock. Yelena gently fucked herself into Indigo, the magical toy making them both moan, and John pulsed his finger into Indigo’s tight, sexy ass in time with their thrusting. It slipped back and forth into her easily, and she moaned loudly at the clear pleasure that he was giving her. Looking over her shoulder at Yelena, John nodded at her to speed up a bit, and distract Indigo. Hearing both women moan, he knew he’d made the right choice, as they were both clearly enjoying themselves.

Deciding to step it up a notch, a few moments later he slipped a second finger into her firm little ass, and began gently thrusting with both digits. Hearing Indigo moan louder and push herself down onto Yelena even harder as she rode the magic dryad toy, he decided to take her noises as encouragement and push her a little further. Fingers slid in and out, in and out, not quite so gently anymore, until he slowed and then flexed them while they were inside of her. Scissoring his fingers, he stretched her from the inside, preparing her for his cock. “Holy fuck John, what are you doing? Oh, I’ve never felt…”

Indigo moaned, fucked from both sides, and Yelena thrust upwards violently, distracting her from what he was doing to her behind, the thrusts making both of them moan. Alternating with vigorous two-finger thrusting, and scissoring, John prepped Indigo carefully. He wanted to respect her concerns about her tightness, but with the noise she was making and the ease with which his fingers were now moving, he knew it was time.

He was careful, easing his way gently and slowly into her ass, listening to her gasp and moan as he pushed deeper inside of her and filled her with more than fingers. Pushing in a little at a time, he let himself slide deeper into her with each thrust, inch by careful inch, until he was fully seated in her exquisitely tight ass. Indigo continued making out with, groping, and fucking herself onto Yelena through it all, clearly enraptured by his demoness lover. Hilt deep, he paused for a moment and enjoyed the feeling of her ass being pressed up so close to him. He really could push no further. Gently, he slid an inch back out, before pushing himself back in. The pressure of her clenching around him, bearing down on him with her tight and powerful muscles…there really was nothing to compare to the feeling of anal.

Eventually, he could comfortably fuck her in the ass, and as soon as that was happening, the three of them worked to get a good rhythm going. It didn’t take long to do so, as he and Yelena were so linked that they read each other’s body language with ease. And they were both fucking Indigo at the same time.

And it was wonderful.

Especially for her.

“Oh my...oh fuck, I haven’t been double-fucked like this in way too long. Oh wow. You two are just fucking filling me up,” Indigo panted.

“You like that, huh?” he asked, reaching around and groping her firm, pale breasts.

“I fucking love it. Fuck! I love being fucked like a whore,” she moaned.

“Good.”

He and Yelena started going faster, both of them fucking her holes vigorously, knowing she could take it. Every thrust pleasured all three of them, building towards a tremendous climax.

“I can control when I come,” Yelena said, breathing heavily. “John has some control over his own orgasm. When you are about to go, let us know. We can all come together.”

“Oh, fuck yes,” Indigo moaned. “Not long now...”

They kept fucking, John and Yelena seesawed into her, the three of them locked together in rapturous, sexual bliss, the pleasure consuming them, filling them. Nothing else mattered.

About another thirty seconds passed before Indigo shouted out in a strangled voice: “Gonna go now!”

John had been holding back his orgasm inasmuch as he could, but now he stopped holding it back, pounding Indigo up the ass faster, groaning in pure ecstasy as he hugged Indigo to him, humping her hard. Reaching around wildly, the rammed his fingers to where we thought Indigo’s clitoris was, trying to set her off.

Indigo began to orgasm with a scream.

Yelena let out her own almost feral cry of release as she started to come as well.

And then John was lost, tossed away into a sea of absolute pleasure. He was coming into Indigo, his body being filled with a perfect bliss. It was wonderful and rapturous and stunning. He could feel his seed leaving him in hard contractions, could feel that unity between himself and Indigo and Yelena, all three of them physically connected and orgasming together. It felt perfect. He came into her, pumping her tight elf ass full of his seed, feeling her writhe against him, hearing both of the women moaning loudly in sexual release.

When he was finished, John carefully pulled out of Indigo’s ass, then sat down heavily on the blankets, just trying to get his breath back and keep from passing out. That had been one of those great, fantastic orgasms.

Indigo moaned and fell forward onto Yelena, who held her and stroked her bare back. “You are such a sexy little elf,” Yelena whispered to her.

“And you are such a fucking hot tall demon chick,” Indigo murmured back.

“I need to sleep,” John said as a wave of tiredness washed over him. He slowly got to his feet and went about the process of washing up again.

“Yes, sleep,” Indigo agreed, and yawned loudly.

The three of them took a moment to wash off, and John made himself go out and check the cavern they were in again, and the tunnel they’d come down, to make sure that they were still truly alone. Outside, in the distance, he heard only the shrieking of the winds. It was quite the storm. He hurried back to the tent and found both women in bed. He got down in between them, under the blankets, and felt truly content.

He was asleep almost immediately, curled up against Yelena’s back, hugging her to him, while Indigo laid against his own back.

CHAPTER VIII

The next morning was good, at first at least.

John woke very horny and was happy to find that so was Indigo. He had pretty much come to expect that from Yelena. She seemed to need significantly less sleep than he did. He almost always woke to the sound of her heavy breathing as she was working out on the floor of wherever they were sleeping, usually doing sit ups or sometimes practicing hand-to-hand combat. It was a good thing to wake up to, and it was what he and Indigo did wake to the next morning. Their hot, new redheaded elf friend quickly hopped onto him and rode his dick until they both had experienced wonderful orgasms. Then she’d gone to wash up.

Before John could do the same, Yelena got back into bed, pushing him back down with a sly smirk and fiery eyes, declaring, “My turn.”

And then she had ridden him until they both had come as well.

After the sex, all three of them washed and dressed, preparing for the day ahead. John could no longer hear the sounds of the snowstorm. He couldn’t hear anything out there. Hopefully the skies would stay clear for the duration of their journey, though somehow, he doubted it. Once they were washed and dressed, the trio ate a quick breakfast of some more rabbit meat and a few grilled leaks, then Indigo extinguished her hot rock and they got it back into her tent. After breaking down their camps and making sure nothing was left behind, the pair moved back out of the cave system, checking the magical traps and warnings they’d set.

Either nothing had gotten in, or someone very skilled had gotten in and apparently done nothing. John was willing to bet that nothing had gotten in and they were still in the clear. But he couldn’t help but feel the growing sense of paranoid pressure: where were the other demons? He doubted they were going to just give up after they’d murdered as many of their kin as they had. Had they lost track of them? Were they biding their time? Had something else come up? Or were they being tracked this very minute?

As they left the cave and looked around, finding a bright blue sky that was marred by a solid line of dark gray clouds on the horizon and a fresh snowfall covering the land, John studied his two companions. Yelena seemed more tense than usual, very alert, checking every detail. She was normally very observant, but it was obvious that she was very likely having roughly the same thoughts that he currently was. Indigo, on the other hand, seemed cheerful and almost carefree. He was almost willing to chalk it up to her general nature, as she was clearly not naive and no stranger to combat, but he found himself wondering…

Was she this calm because she didn’t truly believe that they were being hunted by demons? To hear something was one thing, but to actually understand it was quite another. Well, whatever the case, this was the way it was, and the way it would remain. He was going to have to trust in Indigo to react fast and hard should the time come for such actions. With these thoughts twisting around in his skull, he followed after Indigo with Yelena as their elf guide struck off westward again. The snow crunched beneath their boots.

For a long time, it was the only sound, save for the occasional wind or the call of some indigenous animal.

“Indigo,” Yelena said after awhile, “I am curious. Do you know anything about this place you are taking us?”

“Not a whole lot,” Indigo replied. “I learned a little bit about it when I was asking around. All I really know is that it used to be some kind of remote outpost for...I think the human military? It isn’t a fort, really, more like a resting place. I think they originally intended to establish some kind of settlement or something farther on, but for whatever reason that plan never fully got off the ground. It likely passed hands for years. It’s old, several hundred years at least. And it was probably lost more than once. But the most recent thing it was supposed to have been used for was an isolated research outpost for a group of mages out of Stafford. I think they were experimenting with some dangerous new magic techniques or devices or whatever, and wanted to do so either away from prying eyes, or somewhere remote enough to not harm anyone if something went wrong. Or, well, probably both really,” she explained.

“And then it was lost?” John asked.

“I guess so. Dunno what happened. When I was there, there didn’t seem to be any kind of massive damage or anything to it. Maybe they were killed, or maybe they just left. Or maybe one of their experiments got them?” She shrugged. “Either way, provided it’s in the same state I found it in, it should be easy to track this thing down.”

“I sure hope so,” John murmured.

They walked on.

…

Roughly an hour later, John found himself cresting a rise in the land and then looking down into a depression. There, surrounded by copses of snow-capped trees and the rising peaks of the mountain range they were traveling along, he spied the structure that they were looking for. It wasn’t particularly large, nor impressive, but it was there. That’s all he needed it to be. Now, they just had to get inside and pray that the amulet was there, and it did what it was supposed to do. Then they could continue along with this whole thing.

He studied the surrounding area and the structure as they approached. It was roughly circular in nature, just one large building made mostly of wood and stone. The remnants of other, smaller structures lay scattered in the fields to either side of it, long since taken by the elements, burned down, or buried by the snow and ice.

There didn’t seem to be any signs of anyone around, but John knew that was meaningless. Unless they had come or gone in the last few hours, the snow could have hidden an army’s tracks. As such, he drew his blade as they approached the main entrance, which was just a large opening in the side of the structure. Whatever doors might once have been there were long gone. The interior was dim and hidden in shadows.

Yelena and Indigo each drew their bows and notched arrows.

“Now or never,” Indigo said.

John just nodded and moved forward, taking the lead, sword held tightly in hand. They all moved in through the main entrance, coming to stand in a large, open space that seemed to encompass the entire interior of the structure. From what he could see, there had once been walls dividing up the area, creating rooms, but someone had taken them down.

“We need more light,” he whispered, and his voice sounded too loud in the gloom.

Yelena gestured sharply, and a ball of light appeared near the center of the room, throwing back the shadows and revealing a number of things. Mostly furniture, a wide variety of it, and trash, and several corpses, all of which looked old. There were openings in the floor to the far left and right that curved down and out of sight. Stairwells, leading into a basement area.

“Something is here,” Yelena said quietly.

John nodded, he could sense it, too. They waited...and heard something. Footsteps. Light ones. Echoing, coming from the right. They all turned, both women aiming their arrows at the openings in the floor, as it was clearly something ascending the stairwell. The seconds ticked by, the footsteps getting closer, louder.

Then a small head with big black eyes suddenly appeared. It had pale green skin and patchy, dark hair. It stared right at them, and for the life of him John couldn’t figure out what exactly it was, although he was certain he’d seen it before, or something like it.

The moment stretched out.

Then the thing opened its mouth and let out a wild shriek that was cut off an instant later as two arrows cut through the air and met in the middle of its face, sending it flying back down the stairway it had ascended.

That was when a loud group of screams and shrieks rose up from the depths.

“Ice goblins!” Indigo growled.

“Aw crap,” John groaned as he readied himself. Goblins were nasty little fuckers, and they tended to travel in packs.

There were more footsteps, running now, scrambling really, and the first wave of them emerged from both sides of the room. Only they weren’t alone, they weren’t just ice goblins. Several of them were actually riding on the backs of ice spiders.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” John cried.

Yelena and Indigo immediately began firing off their arrows and John ran forward to meet the first of them to the left. He threw himself into battle, stabbing one ice goblin through the chest and then sidestepping the spider it was riding on. He hurled the nasty little thing away, freeing his blade, and stabbed down into the body of the giant spider as it twisted and tried to come for him. Ripping his blade up and out in a spray of dark gray blood, he grunted as a goblin rushed him and tried to stab him. Its blade went into his chainmail armor, but didn’t break through. Still hurt though. He brought his sword around in a tight arc and decapitated the little bastard, then brought his foot up and lashed out, kicking another square in the chest and sending it flying back into several others. Another giant spider tried to latch onto him.

He sidestepped, barely avoiding it, and chopped two of its legs off in a clean swipe. The thing began shrieking and thrashing about wildly, knocking over several goblins. Occasionally an arrow would fly into view and expertly kill a goblin or a spider. The battle raged on. Blood flew on the air. John cut through limbs and necks, killing the horrible ice creatures as fast as he could. There were so many of them!

Finally, he stabbed into the pale body of an ice spider and tore his blade out, killing it, and then as he looked around, preparing himself for the next attack, there was no one else, nothing left to kill. Gasping for breath, trembling from the exertion of fighting and killing dozens of enemies, he twisted around to make sure the others were okay. Yelena had drawn her own blade at some point, rushing off to the opposite side of the room to slay whatever she found there, and Indigo was still where she’d originally been, one more arrow notched and ready. When she saw that they seemed to have exhausted their supply of enemies, she slowly lowered her bow.

“Is that all of them?” she asked.

“I think so,” John murmured.

“We really should check the basement to be sure,” Yelena suggested.

“Yeah...yeah, we should,” John said, and flicked blood from his sword, looking around at them all. They’d probably killed fifty goblins and spiders between the three of them. He was smarting in several places where someone had landed a lucky blow, but so far, his armor was holding up well. He was glad to see that his reflexes and combat skills were still pretty sharp. Though living in the Emerald Wild probably helped. They typically didn’t have to fight as much as he thought they would, making their home there, thanks to the dryad’s influence, but it could still be dangerous. Keeping his sword out, John rejoined the others.

They moved as one down the rightmost stairwell, and Yelena cast another spell of light, this one moving with them. Immediately, John noticed a foul smell. Great. Obviously, the goblins had made their home down here, and who knew how much shit and piss was down there, how much rotted meat from things they’d killed and dragged down there. Sure enough, as they came into the lower portion, they saw signs of all that and more.

“Great,” John muttered.

“Ugh, the smell,” Indigo moaned, covering her nose.

“We will have to search this place,” Yelena said.

“Yep,” John replied morosely. “Come on, faster we do it faster it’ll be over with.”

They headed into the basement. It wasn’t as open as the upstairs. There was a large, central chamber with rounded walls, but it was smaller, maybe half the size of the whole structure, and there were about a dozen open doors along its peripheral. They first swept the area for anything still alive, checking each of the rooms, and after close to ten minutes found that the goblins had committed the entirety of their tribe to the assault. Not one was left alive. After that, the trio began the unhappy job of performing a more thorough search.

It was clear that this is where a lot of the research had gone on. Each of the rooms seemed to be a kind of combination laboratory and domicile. Each one had a different configuration. John tried to imagine what they must have been researching here, and what it must have been like living here, as he hunted, if only to keep his mind off the reek. In a way, he thought it might be fun. Living with like-minded people in an isolated location, devoting yourself to what you really cared about. In a way, it was what he’d chosen to do.

He lived in isolation with Yelena and dedicated himself to what he cared about most: her. Her happiness and well-being.

And he loved his life.

It looked like some rooms were more dedicated to alchemical pursuits, and some to more magical pursuits, and one definitely to making weapons. It was very unfortunate that most of this had been utterly ruined by the goblins that had been camping here. Time slipped by as they searched the rooms, trying to find a compromise between going fast and doing a thorough job. Whenever he found something that looked like it might be valuable, like a gem or an artifact or piece of jewelry, he shoved it into his pocket or pack.

John wasn’t entirely sure how long they were down there in the smelly dim basement, but finally Indigo called out: “I think I found it!”

He quickly left the room he was in after pocketing another emerald and saw Yelena coming from another room. They tracked down the room Indigo was searching and stepped inside. She was crouched over a small lockbox, its lid flipped open, peering into its interior.

“That’s not the only thing, either,” she murmured as she held up a medallion on a silver chain. “There’s more stuff in here.”

“How are you sure this is the one?” John asked.

“I’m not, but I found a work journal in this room. The woman working on the artifact we’re seeking wrote it and she described it as this, in this box,” Indigo explained.

“I should be able to determine its nature,” Yelena replied as she accepted the artifact. John looked it over with her. It was a simple golden coin, about as big as his palm but thin. One side was smooth and blank, but the other had an image of a faded, closed eye surrounded by several small dots, almost like a miniature snowstorm.

“I will need time,” she said. “We should return to the surface.”

John nodded, and Indigo agreed immediately. She snapped the lockbox closed again and tucked it under one arm as she stood. As they began heading for the curving stairwell once more, grateful to be free of the wretched basement, John began to hear the sounds of rising winds. The next snowstorm was likely going to be upon them soon. Did they have time to get somewhere else? Back to that cave? Or another one maybe?

He did not want to spend the night here.

“Where will we go now?” John asked.

“After I confirm that this is indeed what we are looking for, perhaps we can go back the way we came,” Yelena replied.

“I think-” Indigo began, then Yelena hissed a warning and they all fell silent.

They had just crested the top of the curving stairwell. John began to look around for whatever it was that had tripped up her finely tuned combat senses, but he didn’t have to look any further than the front entrance.

The figure standing there made no attempt to hide.

“Gaaz,” Yelena growled, drawing her blade.

“Hello, Ragnostal,” the slim demoness that stood in the doorway replied. She wore simple, black, formfitting armor and held a very thin sword loosely in one hand. “You have been very difficult to track down.”

“Oh, please forgive me,” Yelena replied, her voice acidic and sharp.

The demoness, Gaaz, seemed unperturbed. “Quite the contrary. I very much enjoy a good hunt. Although I never thought it would be you that I would be hunting.”

The three of them slowly finished coming out of the stairwell and spread out slightly. “Who is this?” John asked quietly.

“This is Gaaz. We used to fight together. She is exceptionally skilled with a blade, and she is very fast,” Yelena responded softly.

“I am glad you remember that about me, Ragnostal,” Gaaz said. “I think it is only fair to warn you that the rules of engagement have changed. Hagan is no longer interested in returning you to our homeland. The orders are to kill you, and your companions. I am to bring him your head. He tells me he wishes to mount it beside his throne.”

Yelena sighed. “Of course he does. I do not suppose there is anything I could say or do to get you to turn away?”

“No,” Gaaz replied, her voice still neutral. “Aside from the fact that Hagan instructed me to return with your head or not at all, I have always wondered. Which of us is the best? You were always so swift and strong, so resolute and steadfast. But now we shall see. Before we begin however...I have but one question: What are you doing here?”

“Nothing you could possibly comprehend,” Yelena replied.

Gaaz was silent for several seconds. John’s hand rested on the hilt of his blade now, ready to draw it in an instant, his heart hammering in his chest. He was tensing for combat. Gaaz looked dangerous. Beside him, Indigo was tensed as well. She hadn’t moved her hands yet, but he had no doubt that she would have her bow drawn and an arrow notched in a second as soon as the battle began. Yelena was scowling fiercely, blade in hand.

“I suppose you are right,” Gaaz replied.

She raised her blade.

Yelena shot forward.

John drew his blade.

Indigo notched an arrow and prepared to fire.

And then Gaaz raised her other hand, aiming it palm outward, and released a concussive blast of pure force magic that slammed directly into Indigo and sent John and Yelena stumbling. Indigo screamed as she was thrown back down the stairwell. John yelled her name as he scrambled to get steady, but there was no time to help her.

Gaaz was sprinting across the room and already she’d somehow managed to cover over half the distance between them.

She was fast.

He and Yelena went to meet her with their blades.

John’s mind was whirling, already hunting for weakness in Gaaz’s stance, in her armor, thinking of ways to take her down as quickly as possible, because there was no honor in this. Whatever she thought, John was out for blood right now.

Gaaz intended to kill Yelena.

And so, John fully intended to kill Gaaz, and would, without hesitation or remorse.

Of course, all this courageous bravado didn’t stop Gaaz from jerking her free hand at him and hitting him with another blast of concussive force that sent him flying across the room. He heard Yelena snarl his name, and then his trip of sailing through the air came to a sharp and painful end as he smashed into the stonework floor and bounced a few times. He grunted and cried out as pain erupted across his body. The wind knocked out of him, sword somehow still in his grasp, John struggled back to his feet, gasping for breath.

He heard the sound of metal striking metal again and again.

As he got to his feet, he saw sparks flying. Yelena and Gaaz were locked in combat. He started making his way towards them, but wondered if maybe he should stay back. He wasn’t as skilled a fighter as either of them and what if he got in Yelena’s way? But he had to help. He began moving forward, hunting for an opportunity to present itself. He believed in Yelena, he knew how capable she was, but what if Gaaz was better? John ignored the pain and got as close as he could. Both women were locked firmly in combat, blades ringing as the pair stamped back and forth across the dusty old stonework floor of the abandoned research outpost.

Then it came, his moment.

Gaaz and Yelena crashed blades together and came face to face, pressing against each other, testing strength.

And Gaaz headbutted Yelena hard, causing her to cry out and stumble backwards. Before Gaaz could capitalize on this, John rushed forward and tried to bring the pommel of his blade down on the back of Gaaz’s head. He could end this here and now. Gaaz sensed this and sidestepped at the last second. The pommel instead struck her armored shoulder, though from the way she let out a short growl and exhaled sharply, it was obvious that he’d caused her pain. John brought his blade back and up just in time as Gaaz whirled around and launched a dizzying assault, her blade flashing. He parried best he could, but she was so fast!

He’d really gotten himself into a bad situation here.

He was just barely managing to keep Gaaz from running him through with her blade, losing ground all the while, being forced back step by step. It was only a matter of time before she got past his defenses or he tripped on something. There were a lot of bodies around. And then suddenly Yelena was there, coming for her from the back, blade raised.

And Gaaz beat aside John’s blade, sending him stumbling, and struck out behind her with one booted foot, landing a perfect kick into Yelena’s stomach. Yelena let out a pained gasp, staggered but not put down, and John surged forward, seeing an opportunity.

He beat aside Gaaz’s blade as she was regaining her posture and went to run her through.

That was when she loosed a dagger hidden away somewhere on her armor and stabbed him right in the stomach. The blade punched right through his chainmail armor and gutted him, sliding hilt-deep into his belly.

It felt like his guts had been lit on fire.

“JOHN!” Yelena screamed, and surged forward. Gaaz turned to meet her and their battle began again with a renewed intensity.

John cried out in pain, staggering backwards, his sword falling from his hands as he placed them reflexively over the thing that was hurting him. He forced himself to stop moving backwards, trying to stay within range of the two women. He managed to stop, but then fell heavily to his knees. The pain...it was enormous, it consumed him. Her dagger was no regular dagger. It had to be treated with something.

His insides were burning!

Gritting his teeth, John gripped the hilt and pulled the dagger out. He screamed hoarsely, his gaze never leaving the two fighting figures, though his eyes did water. And that did it. His scream. Gaaz looked back one crucial half second and Yelena beat her blade aside and returned the favor of the headbutt, smashing her nose with her forehead.

Gaaz roared in pain as she fell backwards. Her foot caught on something and she fell right on her back, right in front of John.

Without hesitation, he raised the dagger up and sank it hilt deep into the demoness warrior’s eye. Gaaz went stiff, twitched violently a few times, armor rattling and banging and scraping against the floor, and then she went slack.

And moved no more.

John groaned and collapsed on his back as well, gasping for breath.

“Oh John,” Yelena moaned, dropping to his side. He saw that her nose was bleeding heavily. “Honey, let me heal you.”

He just nodded, wincing. “Hurry,” he whispered. “Something about that dagger...”

“It was treated with a fire spell,” Yelena replied. “Please, hold still.”

He screamed as she laid her hands against his bloody stomach but forced himself to lay still. She released a powerful wave of healing magic. The pain began to recede, and the burning sensation slowly fell away, though not as fast as he would have hoped. Yelena had to keep healing him for close to half a minute, which he knew must have been exhaustive. When it was over, she gasped and opened her eyes, as she’d closed them tightly in concentration.

“There,” she whispered, “you are okay now.”

“We need to have Indigo heal you...oh shit, Indigo!” he groaned, getting to his feet.

“No, we need her magic to activate the amulet,” Yelena replied.

“Are you okay, Yelena?” he asked.

“I’ll be fine, John. We must find Indigo,” Yelena replied firmly.

They hurried across the room and down the stairs. Indigo was at the bottom, unmoving. They hurried down and crouched over her.

“Get a healing potion out,” Yelena said.

John nodded and shrugged out of his backpack. He hoped nothing had broken when he’d landed from that giant push. He hadn’t really had time to get his pack off. One of the annoyances of being an adventurer. But it was a sturdy pack, and the bottles were well-made. He found one, pulled it out, ripped out the cork, and carefully began pouring the liquid into Indigo’s mouth after laying her head gently in his lap.

She was breathing, at least. And she swallowed the potion reflexively as he fed it to her. Yelena had the amulet in her hands now, staring at it intently. She jerked her head a few times, as though she was trying to stay awake.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” she whispered, her voice harsh. “Need to concentrate.”

John finished the potion and set the bottle back into his pack. He waited. Indigo continued to breathe, Yelena continued to focus. He realized she must be doing what she was originally going to: figuring out if this amulet was the one they needed. Finally, after another few minutes, Indigo opened her eyes.

She blinked several times, tensing, but relaxed as she looked up at him.

“John,” she whispered. “What happened?”

“That bitch knocked you down the stairs and I think you hit your head on the way down. I’ve given you a healing potion and the demon is dead,” he explained. “We’re safe.”

“For now,” Yelena muttered. “Okay, I have confirmed it: this is the amulet we seek. Indigo, you must imbue it with magic. It isn’t activated. It needs a magical charge.”

“I can do that,” she said, slowly sitting up. “Oh man, I’ve got a bad headache. Is...is everyone okay? Yelena, you’re bleeding.”

“I am fine,” Yelena insisted, passing the amulet to Indigo. “Please, activate it.”

“Drink a healing potion. I have some in my pack if you’re out,” Indigo replied firmly.

Yelena sighed. “Very well, I have my own. Please, hurry. I do not know if they are already sending someone else. We must activate it and get out of here.”

Yelena found the potion and drank it, and Indigo worked up a powerful magical charge that took five minutes to gather. She shunted it all into the amulet, which began to glow gently blue. Finally, there was a pulse of blue light that rushed out briefly and John felt the magic pass through his body as a warm wave.

“Is that it? Is it working?” he asked.

“It’s working,” Indigo confirmed. She passed it to Yelena, who draped it over her neck, settling it where the other amulet would have resided.

John felt a wave of frustration and anger roll through him as he saw that. Two now. Two fucking things that Yelena had to wear to hide who she was. She didn’t deserve this.

“What do we do now?” Yelena asked.

“I know a place we can go. Come on, we have to move now. I can hear the winds. Another storm is coming, and it sounds worse,” Indigo replied.

They helped her to her feet and the trio headed back upstairs.

As they looked out the windows, John realized she was right. It was already starting to snow, and he could sense a worse storm on the horizon.

They left the research outpost and hurried off, bearing south.

CHAPTER IX

Indigo’s hiding place turned out to be an old, long-abandoned hunter’s cabin.

John threw open the front door, helping Yelena now with one of her arms over his shoulders, as all her magical use, the combat, and the extensive travel had really taken it out of her. He stepped in and looked around. The place wasn’t very big and was mostly cleared out. Just some furniture and refuse scattered across the old wooden floor.

Indigo shut and locked the door behind them, then began going to the windows, looking out them and then closing them off as best she could.

“How’d you find this place?” John asked as he got Yelena over to a chair and helped her settle down into it. She looked pissed and tired.

“Exploring after running into that outpost,” Indigo replied from across the room. She was staring out one of the windows. The snowstorm had hit sometime during the hour or so walk they’d had to endure to find the place. It was bad, the kind of storm that swept in and locked a whole region into a deep freeze for days.

They weren’t going anywhere for a little while, which was honestly fine by John. After all that they’d been through, being locked up in an isolated place with two very attractive, very sexually activate women sounded like paradise.

“It was in this condition when I found it. I think it’s pretty safe to say that it’s abandoned. There’s a basement we can hang out in. It’s actually nice down there, or should be, anyway. I think we’re secure here, though we should lay a few alarms and traps,” Indigo replied.

Yelena nodded and rose to her feet. “I can do that,” she said.

“Yelena, maybe Indigo should. You need rest,” John said uncertainly.

“I can handle it,” Yelena replied flatly.

“Yelena, you’ve expended a lot of magic-”

She turned towards him suddenly. “I can handle it! I do not need to be coddled!” she snapped, and John took a step back.

Indigo turned and looked at both of them uncomfortably.

Yelena stared at him, her eyes blazing brightly, and suddenly her shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “John, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

He stepped up to her and hugged her. She squeezed him back hard. “It’s okay,” he replied softly. “You’re stressed. We all are. It’s fine, honey.”

“I cannot believe I yelled at you,” she whispered. “I am so sorry, I have never...I do not...”

“Yelena,” he said, and he shifted so that they were face to face, instead of having their heads resting on each other’s shoulder, “it’s okay. We’re going to snap at each other sometimes.”

“I...I don’t want you to think I had stopped loving you,” she replied, and he could see that she was clearly more upset than he thought she might be.

“I don’t think that at all, honey!” he replied immediately. “Yelena, it’s okay. I really understand. Couples fight sometimes. I love you. I know you love me.”

“...okay,” she murmured. “I just-I’m sorry. I do not have much experience with this. I...conflict like this among my people can turn very bad very quickly. Alliances can be lost, relationships destroyed. I lost my temper, and...okay. I, uh, I need to eat. And to lay down somewhere.”

“I’ll lay the traps Yelena. You and John head downstairs and make sure it’s secure,” Indigo said quietly.

“Okay.” Yelena hesitated as she and John let go of each other. “I am sorry you had to see that.”

“Yelena,” Indigo replied, and smiled, “it’s fine. I’ve seen way, way worse. Gods, I got walked in on by a guy’s wife when we were in the middle of fucking because he had told me he was fucking divorced and that was just...oh man, now that was a bad situation. Yelena, you’re stressed out. You just had to fight for your life. This is a stressful situation. It’s really okay. I mean really, I think you’re holding up very well. If I was in your situation, I’d be spitting and cussing and pretty much ready to just crawl in a hole and give the fuck up by now. Go on downstairs and we’ll have a big meal and a nice soak. There’s a tub down there, and then we could have a nice, long screw, before we get some sleep.”

“That sounds deeply appealing,” Yelena said, and laughed. “Thank you, both of you, for helping me with this, and being so kind.”

“You’re welcome,” Indigo replied.

“I love you so much,” Yelena said, hugging John again. They headed over to a hatch that led down into the basement.

“I love you too, Yelena. More than anyone anywhere. Come on, honey.”

They opened the hatch and moved down into the basement after Yelena used a little bit of magic to cast a light spell. It was a good-sized basement, actually a little bit bigger than the cabin itself. There was a bed down there, a sunken tub, a dresser, a table with four chairs around it, a small kitchen area, and a fireplace, too.

“This is a very nice place,” Yelena said softly as they checked it out.

“Yes, it is. This is going to be a very great place to hole up,” John replied, taking his pack off.

“How long do you think we shall be here?”

“I’m not sure. We should stay here for at least a day, maybe two. All three of us need to rest and regain our strength. Besides all that’s happened to us so far, we still have quite a ways to go before we get to Kesley.”

“Mmm...you have a good point. I will get us some water. Can you light some candles?” Yelena asked as she took off her own backpack and walked over to the tub.

“Yes, love.”

He walked slowly around the room, finding a half-dozen candles spread out across the area, and lit each one in passing as Yelena cast her spell to conjure up some clear, steaming water. He didn’t like her using up even more magic after she’d expended so much, but he knew they really needed to take a long, hot soak. It would go a very long way towards soothing their frayed nerves and helping their battered bodies feel better.

Once he was done with the candles, John joined Yelena at the tub. She was standing at its edge, staring down into the water. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She settled immediately back into his grasp, laying her own arms over his.

“John,” she murmured.

“Yes, love?”

“I want...” She hesitated.

“Tell me what you want, honey,” he replied after a few seconds.

“I want...to be abused again,” she said softly. “I want you to fuck me hard, and humiliate me, and abuse me. I suddenly want that very badly. I want to be submissive, and I want you to dominate me. Do you think we can do that?”

“Yes, honey. We can do that,” John replied. “If that’s what you want, what will make you feel better, then we can do that. Absolutely.”

“Will you be okay with it?”

“Oh yes, I very much will,” he replied, and she laughed softly. “Will you? I mean, Indigo is going to be here in the room...”

“Yes. I have thought of this. We, ah...we briefly discussed it during the night we had together. Well, I didn’t say much about the subject, but I did learn that Indigo is very, very much into being submissive and being abused. I did that to her a little bit during that night. She had me choke her, and that was...I enjoyed that. I wanted to ask her to do the same to me, but...it’s not...I need it to be you, for now. Plus, I am not sure she is capable of switching roles. I think she can only be effectively submissive.”

“Well, I have to admit, the idea of dominating the fuck out of both of you is very, very appealing to me,” John replied.

“Good. Ooh...I can feel your erection,” she murmured. “I am suddenly very turned on.”

“So am I.”

“Okay,” Indigo said, her voice coming to them as she began descending the ladder. She closed the hatch and locked it. “I’ve secured the upstairs as much as I can. We should be safe.”

“Thank you, Indigo,” Yelena said. She moved over to their elf friend as she finished coming down the ladder and hugged her. “Your help has been invaluable, and it is deeply appreciated.”

“Well, I dunno about invaluable,” Indigo replied, hugging her back. “But the appreciation is appreciated.”

Yelena laughed. “Such a way with words. Now...how about we have a soak in the tub and then discuss what...activities we will be engaging in tonight.”

As they parted, Indigo looked up at Yelena and arched an eyebrow. “Activities, huh?” She glanced at John with a smirk. “Well it’s obvious that we’re going to fuck. I mean, that’s a given at this point. But...since you already know that, that must mean you have something else in mind.”

“Quite astute you are,” Yelena replied.

“I’m suddenly very interested in this discussion,” Indigo said.

“Then get naked and in the water,” Yelena replied, stripping her clothes off.

“Gladly.” Indigo began to do the same.

John joined them in undressing and shucked his clothing quickly, and soon all three of them were relaxing in a wonderfully hot, soothing bath. John rested his head against the side of the tub, the water up to his neck, and simply luxuriated. Being immersed in hot water was another pleasure that he thought he would truly never get tired off. The only thing more inviting than a hot bath at the end of a long day was a comfortable bed.

Well, the only non-sexual thing, anyway.

The trio found bars of soap and washcloths and went about the process of cleaning up, getting all the sweat and grime and blood off of them.

“Okay,” Indigo said after several minutes of comfortable, companionable silence. “So, what is this...extra sex thing you’ve got in mind?”

“John?” Yelena replied, looking at him.

John couldn’t help but smile. He leaned forward. “So, Yelena mentioned to me that you said you’re into rough sex, like submission and domination stuff.”

Her eyes practically lit up. “Yes, I so fucking am,” she replied immediately. “Oh Gods, tell me you are going to fucking dominate me because that will make me have an absolute shrieking orgasm,” she added.

“That’s the plan. Yelena is into being submissive as well, and so the plan is for me to dominate the fuck out of both of you.”

“Ohhh man, I’m almost drooling at the thought of that, although...” she glanced at Yelena, “you didn’t actually mention that you’re into submission.”

“It is a...sensitive subject,” Yelena replied. “I feel comfortable enough around you that I can talk about it now. Plus, John is here, that helps.”

“I can respect that,” Indigo replied. “Now, do you two have any kind of specific narrative in mind...‘cause I fucking love roleplaying and narrative.”

“Uh, I don’t. Do you, love?” John asked.

“I am open to suggestions,” Yelena replied.

“Oh, perfect! So, I think my absolute favorite sex fantasy is being a fuck slave and having a dominating master forcing me to service him and fucking me so hard, maybe slapping me around, or choking me, mmm...oh Gods yes,” she whispered. “You’ve got really strong hands, John. You and Yelena both. I so want you to fucking choke me.”

“I am...very aroused by this conversation,” John admitted. “And I really want to choke you.”

“And slap me, too. And scream at me. Both of us.”

“This sounds like a deeply satisfying experience,” Yelena said.

“So, we’re gonna do this?” Indigo asked, sounding very eager, practically bouncing in the water.

“I’m ready if you are,” John replied.

“I am ready,” Yelena said.

“Well, let’s get to it, then. First though, safe word?” he asked, looking at Indigo. He and Yelena already had theirs.

“Moonlight,” Indigo replied.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

They left the tub quickly and dried off as fast as they could. John thought about how he was going to handle this as they did so. He’d done some roleplaying in his life, most notably recently with Yelena. And that had been just...so fucking much fun. And so hot. This was going to be a little different. He was eager to explore with these two women. As they finished drying and tossed the towels aside, he realized both women were looking at him expectantly. He stared back at them for a moment, and tried to really get into character.

He snapped his fingers. “Foot of the bed, now!” he snapped.

Both women let out small gasps and immediately hurried over to stand at the foot of the large bed. He was glad it was big enough to accommodate all of their activities. They both stood at its edge and held their hands clasped together in front of themselves, looking down. John moved slowly over to them, taking his time. Having seen both of these women act with such courageous ferocity in battle multiple times now, it was so strange to see the look of submissiveness, almost fear, on their faces. It was also kind of hot.

John knew that he was attracted to strong women for a number of reasons. But he had to admit to himself that one of the reasons was because he absolutely fucking loved to dominate them. Not all of them were into being dominated, and that was fine. In the same way that Indigo couldn’t be dominating, John couldn’t really be submissive. Although he could at least let the woman sort of take the reins during sex.

He didn’t really have a problem with that.

But tonight, he was the one in charge. He came to stand before them. Indigo looked up, then quickly looked back down again.

Fuck, she was so hot! Such a hot, fit, trim body, and all that smooth, pale skin. “Now that both of you filthy whores have been cleaned,” he said, and he began to walk slowly around them in a circle, “it’s time we get to the next part of the night. I spent a lot of gold on you two sluts, so I expect both of you to perform excellently.” He stopped behind them and ran his fingertips down Yelena’s back. She shivered. He settled his hand on her ass, gripping it. “Do you understand?” he asked.

“Yes,” they both murmured.

He marched back around to the front of them suddenly and slapped each of them across the face. “You will refer to me as master, do you understand!?” he screamed.

“Yes, master,” they both replied immediately, flinching away. Indigo was chewing on her lower lip nervously now, shifting from side to side.

“Stand up straight! Stop fidgeting!” he snapped.

Both of them became still. Yelena’s tail was whipping nervously back and forth behind her. He stepped up closer to her and began to grope her breasts.

“Both of you are in very good shape,” he murmured. “And I know that both of you were criminals. Both of you were very bad girls. And while I am breaking you in tonight,” he moved over to Indigo, ran a hand across one of her perfect pink nipples, then suddenly pinched it between his fingers, making her cry out, “I will be breaking you in hard, you filthy, stupid whores,” he let go of her, “I want it to be absolutely clear that any wrongdoing, any defiance, will be punished severely. I will tolerate absolutely no bad behavior in either of you worthless sluts. Do you understand?” he asked, staring hard at them.

“Yes, master!” they both said in unison.

“Good. Very good. Now, before I start breaking you in, both of you, on your knees. Right now!” he yelled.

They both quickly dropped to their knees and he stepped a little closer to them. He was fully erect now, his whole body thrumming with anticipation.

“Lick it, both of you,” he said.

They both immediately leaned in. Yelena cupped his balls in her hand and began to massage them gently while Indigo wrapped her pale fingers around his shaft. They both stuck their tongues out and began caressing his cock with them. He let out his breath in a long, slow exhale as he started to enjoy that hot, wet pleasure burning slowly into him.

Oh, how fucking good this felt.

And how much better it was made by how convincing the two of them were with their roles. He didn’t know why any of them enjoyed this roleplaying, but he no longer really cared why he enjoyed dominating and abusing and humiliating in the bedroom, nor why some of the women he came across enjoyed being on the receiving end of that. It was just something buried in some people, across all cultures apparently.

It wasn’t just a human thing, or an elf thing.

He’d encountered it in several different races now.

“Suck,” he growled, placing a hand on Indigo’s head, “suck my dick, elf whore.” As she began to do this, taking his cock into her hot, wet mouth and starting to suck him off, bobbing her head slowly, he looked at Yelena. “And you, lick my balls.”

“Yes, master,” she whispered.

He caught the tiniest flicker of the intense arousal in her eyes as she locked gazes with him briefly, then lowered her head and began to tongue his balls. He loved how much she enjoyed their sexual encounters.

And that they could share this with a select few other people they came across.

“Switch,” he said, and they did immediately.

Yelena took his cock into her mouth and began sucking him off as Indigo began to lick his balls. The sensation was fantastic, the rapturous ecstasy intense and wondrous. He had them switch up two more times before he set them back on their original task.

They both began licking the head of his dick again.

“That’s it,” he whispered, one hand on Yelena’s head, one on Indigo’s, “keep going you stupid whores. Keep going. I’m going to come all over your faces. Grab it and jack me off when I start coming. You do it right and you do it well or I’m going to hit you so fucking hard, do you understand me?” he asked, gripping their heads.

They both indicated that they did to the best of their abilities, their tongues currently occupied. It didn’t take much longer for him to orgasm. As soon as he started letting off he cried out in pure bliss, the pleasure of the climax made more powerful by the encounter itself, and immediately Yelena grabbed his cock and began jacking him off quite successfully. He groaned loudly as he emptied himself all over first her face, then Indigo’s, as Yelena shifted it. His seed left him in hard spurts, his cock kicking and twitching, releasing fresh bursts of raw rapture each time. And how fucking erotic it looked as he sprayed the women’s upturned, beautiful faces with his seed, getting all over their cheeks and lips and foreheads.

When he was finished, he shoved his cock into Yelena’s mouth. “Clean it!” he snapped. And she did, closing her lips around it and sucking as she pulled it slowly back out again, making him moan as a fresh pulse of bliss was shot into him.

“Okay,” he murmured, stepping back, “you did good, girls. Now get up, go wash your faces off. Hurry.”

They both moved quickly to comply. He looked at them go as they washed up, getting his seed off their faces.

What wonderfully fit backsides they had. He was really looking forward to fucking them from behind, or on their backs. He considered what to do next while they washed up, and by the time they came back over, faces fresh and scrubbed, he knew precisely what he wanted to do. He snapped his fingers again.

“On the bed, on your backs, next to each other,” he said.

Both women replied with quick “yes master”s, and moved to comply. They laid next to each other, looking nervously up at him. This was going to be a long fuck session, he imagined. Well, it had been a long day, and he felt fairly confident that he could keep it going and enjoy a few orgasms. “All right, press your legs together and raise them up, knees to your chests, hands on the backs of your thighs, and don’t fucking move after that.”

They did just as he told them to and he found himself looking down at two pairs of pressed together, beautiful thighs, and two vaginas, smooth and bald and glistening. They were ready to be fucked. And he was rock hard again. He’d never gone entirely soft. He stepped up to Indigo and laid his cock at the entrance of her wet pussy.

She whimpered as he penetrated her.

“There’s a good little bitch,” he whispered, laying his hands against the back of her thighs, below her hands, closer to her ass.

She cried out as he pushed his way deep and hard into her.

“Oh, master, please,” she moaned, “it’s too big!”

“Shut up!” he screamed, and suddenly grabbed her legs and forced them open, giving him better access to the rest of her. He slapped her hard across her pale face, leaving a red handprint.

“No!” she cried, flinching.

“I said shut the fuck up!” he screamed at her and he slapped her again. When she tried to put her hands up, he grabbed them and forced them down. Her wrists were small enough that he could hold both of them with one hand.

He made a fist and socked her in the eye.

“I told you what would happen if you disobeyed me, elf slut!” he roared at her.

“I’m sorry!” she cried. “Please, master, I’m sorry!”

“Shut up!” he snapped and slapped her again, then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Little worthless elf, you are going to learn the meaning of submission.” Holding her down, he wrapped both hands around her slim throat and squeezed as he started fucking her harder. She let out a strangled scream and gripped his wrists, but he jerked her hands away from him, still holding onto her throat. She tried to say something, but he squeezed harder and continued fucking her brains out. He kept this up for another twenty seconds or so, then let go of her.

She gasped, sucking in a lot of air, coughing.

“Are you ready to behave?” he asked.

“Yes master...I’m sorry, master...I’m so sorry...” she gasped.

“Good girl. Think about what you’ve done,” he said, and pulled his cock out of her. “Now,” he said, stepping up to Yelena and forcing her legs open, “your turn.”

He penetrated her and started fucking her. She cried out but otherwise remained silent, staring at him, chewing on her lower lip, her face a study of submission and fear. Good. She was definitely getting into this, and so was he.

He fucked Yelena hard, grabbing her wrists and holding them together roughly just below her breasts, which looked so sexy right now, bouncing with his intense thrusting as he buried his cock hard and deep inside of her wonderfully tight demoness pussy. She was moaning loudly, staring up at him with her flaming red eyes.

“You love getting fucked like a whore, don’t you, demon?” he growled at her.

“Mmm...yes, master,” she moaned.

“And you need to be punished, both of you,” he said, squeezing her wrists harder.

“Yes, we’ve been bad...”

“Yes, you have.”

He reached up and slapped her hard across the face and she moaned loudly, pushing against him with her firm hips, practically begging for more. He let go of her wrists and then wrapped both hands around her neck. She gasped, then moaned even louder as he began to squeeze, fucking her harder. “That’s it, you worthless slut,” he gasped as he pounded her, the pleasure building inside of him, “you get what you fucking deserve.”

He let go with one hand and, while continuing to choke her with his left, balled his right into a fist and punched her in the ribs. She let out a strangled cry and he did it again, and tried not to show how much it had hurt.

She had hard fucking ribs!

But he was close to coming now. He didn’t want to come in her pussy, not yet.

“Elf! Here, now! On your knees!” he screamed.

Indigo scrambled up off the bed and dropped to her knees beside him. Right as he was about to come, John pulled his cock from Yelena and stopped strangling her. She gasped and moaned and then he twisted and shoved his cock into Indigo’s mouth. Grabbing the back of her head, he began fucking her face violently, shoving his cock hard into her mouth, down her throat, as he started orgasming. She gagged and tried to push him away, but he held her in place.

“Take it!” he screamed, then groaned, the pleasure soaring through him as he came down her tight throat. “Fucking take it, you worthless bitch!”

She moaned and gagged, but stopped struggling after a bit. When he finished coming, John pulled his cock from her mouth and shoved her away. She cried out, falling flat on her ass, and looked up at him.

“That was bad,” he said. “I thought I warned you what would happen if you were bad.”

“No, please! I didn’t mean to!” she begged. “Please, please don’t hurt me...”

“Shut up,” he said, and grabbed a handful of her hair. “Get up!” he snapped, pulling her up. She cried out and scrambled to her feet. When she was upright, he slapped her across the face hard enough to send her sprawling back onto the bed.

“Now you’re going to get it,” he growled, climbing onto the bed with her and then hauling her over with him roughly to the center. He shoved her onto her back, grabbed her legs and forced them open, and she screamed as he penetrated her again.

“It hurts!” she moaned. “It’s too big!”

“I don’t give a shit!” he screamed at her, and slapped her twice across the face. Holding her down, he fucked her brains out as hard as he could, slamming his hips into her, shoving his cock as deep and as hard as he could inside of her pussy. She screamed and cried and begged, and finally he grew frustrated and got up, pulling out of her.

“You, here, now! On your back!” he snapped at Yelena as he grabbed Indigo and pulled her roughly up with him. “I’m tired of your fucking mouth,” he growled as Yelena got into place. “So you’re gonna put it to use, and you’re gonna be a good girl from now on, or I’m really going to give you something to scream about. Do you understand?” he asked. He had grabbed the back of her head and held her firmly, his face just a few inches from hers.

“Y-yes, master,” she managed.

“Good. Fucking stupid bitch,” he replied, then flipped her around and forced her onto her hands and knees. “Now, eat her!”

He shoved her face into Yelena’s crotch, and Indigo quickly began eating her out. Yelena moaned loudly. “That’s a good elf whore,” he said, and then shoved his cock back into her, grabbed her hips, and began pounding her brains out once more.

She screamed, the sound muffled by Yelena’s crotch, and Yelena grabbed her head and held it in place. Both of them were using Indigo’s wonderful, pale, trim body as a sex toy now. John kept fucking her hard for another minute or so, then pulled out, wanting something new. He let Indigo keep licking Yelena’s clit until his beautiful demoness lover experienced a tremendously powerful orgasm that made her growl and scream, her hands on Indigo’s head. She thrust her hips forward as she climaxed, forcing her to keep tonguing her clit throughout the whole experience. When she was finally done, she let go of Indigo.

“Move,” he said, shoving their elf friend aside and getting back on top of Yelena. He slipped his cock back into her now considerably wetter and hotter pussy and began thrusting into her again. She cried out in pleasure.

“I think you are going to be my favorite,” he said, looking into her eyes.

She moaned loudly. “Ahh...yes, master,” she murmured. “I love your cock, master.”

“You’re a good little fuck slave, aren’t you?”

“Yes...” she groaned. “Yes, master...”

He kept thrusting into her, fucking her hard. Feeling the urge, he wrapped both hands around her throat again. She gasped and moaned, then he began choking her.

“Master,” Indigo complained, closer now, “I can be good, too. Please, give me another chance...”

“Shut up!” he snapped and backhanded her. “You will speak only when spoken to, you worthless little elf whore. Sit there and shut the fuck up,” he growled.

She did as she was told, falling silent, watching them fuck. He kept choking Yelena, who was letting out a series of strangled gasps and moans. He kept squeezing her throat, loving how into this she was, because as odd as he found it for himself...he was really fucking into choking women. He kept this up until it seemed like Yelena was really on the verge of passing out, (and he wondered if she would seriously let him choke her into unconsciousness, she probably would), and then he stopped, letting go of her and pulling out.

She gasped and as she came back to herself, she looked at him. She looked a little...disappointed. Damn, she really did want to go all the way. Well...maybe sometime later. He’d never actually done that before.

“All right, you whores, I’m almost done. Now, you,” he said, looking pointedly at Indigo, “if you want to prove what a good little fuck slave you are, lay on your stomach, arms at your sides, legs flat, and don’t fucking move.”

“Yes, master,” she said submissively, quickly getting into position.

John got up off the bed and moved over to his pack. He spent a moment digging around until he found the bottle of lube he brought everywhere, then began to stand up. But then an idea came to him, and he smirked, then dug around in his bag a bit more until he found the same iron manacles he used to cuff Yelena’s wrists together a few days ago. He moved back over to the bed and hurried onto it. He was enjoying this a lot, but...fuck! He was almost dead on his feet now. Well...dead on his knees, he guessed.

He was seriously fighting to stay awake after all that had happened.

So, he lubed his cock up good, then wiped his hands off on the blanket, grabbed the manacles and clapped them on her wrists, locking them firmly into place at the small of her back. She gasped and tried to move. “Master-”

He reached forward, grabbed a handful of her red hair and yanked on it. She cried out. “Shut your fucking mouth, Indigo!” he screamed.

“I’m sorry!” she moaned.

He dropped her hair and then laid down against her backside. Oh, this was going to be so good. He laid his slicked-up cock at the entrance of her pussy, then shifted up and began putting it up her ass. Indigo cried out and began squirming.

“No master, please!” she begged. “Please, it’s too big! Your dick is too big!”

“That’s right it is,” he growled as he pushed deeper inside of her ass. Godsdamn she had a tight fucking ass.

“It hurts!” she moaned. “Please!”

“Shut up! You’re a terrible slave,” he growled, and started fucking her up the ass harder, slamming into her and pushing her into the bed, which was shaking now. The headboard began to bang against the wall. She continued squirming and begging him to stop, but he was a lot bigger than she was, and her hands were bound, so it did her no good. In punishment for her mouth, he decided to spank her. First one cheek, then the other, he alternated a spank on each side as he brutally fucked her up the ass. “Maybe I’ll stop if you learn to shut your mouth!” he gritted out, the clenching of her tight anal muscles distracting him. The pleasure was mounting fast and he was well on his way to pumping her ass full of his seed.

If he could just get her to come. Maybe she needed a little more persuasion.

He reached under her neck and gripped it again, choking off her begging, and she began to squirm and writhe harder.

He got closer to her until his mouth was right next to her ear. “You’re going to be a good slave, you worthless fucking bitch,” he growled, breathing heavily in her ear, and she moaned. “You’re going to take it up the ass every single night, you stupid fuck slave. No one is going to save you, no one is going to help you. You’re nothing but property, elf.” He squeezed harder. “I don’t give a fuck if you hate it, your dumb slut. You will learn to love it, as it’s the only sex I’ll give you!”

She let out a long, strangled cry of bliss and the quality of her twitching movements changed. She was coming, she was coming hard. He let go of her throat and she shrieked in absolute rapturous release. He felt a hot spray of her pussy juice hit his inner thighs and he didn’t hold back, instead pounding her tight ass harder and faster, letting the pleasure overwhelm him. And then he was coming, and it was absolutely perfect.

It was paradise.

It was magic.

He pumped her full of his seed, coming hard inside of her, pure bliss washing through him in waves, filling him. He almost passed out from how tired he was and how good it felt. It was a powerful, intense orgasm that seemed to shake him. It was like a seismic event, like a lightning strike or a volcanic eruption.

When he was finished, he pulled out of her ass and rolled off of her.

“That was one for the history books,” Indigo said, then groaned. “Ah man...you really gave it to me hard, John. Fuck. That hurt. But don’t worry, in a good way. Damn, that was a good, hard fuck. You are actually better than I’d hoped you’d be.”

“Oh yeah?” he replied, trying to get his breath back.

“Yes. What you were saying to me at the end there...your fucking voice and words alone made me come so hard. I mean, your dick was great, and those shackles were a fantastic touch, but oh! What you were saying to me, threatening me, just...oh you are perfect at this. I am so fucking jealous of you Yelena. You get this masterful domineering man in your life and he can treat you like shit any time you want.”

“Well, you can enjoy him while we are together,” Yelena replied, smiling sedately. She sounded tired. That was rare, John realized as he sat up. Yelena needed less sleep than him, and always seemed ready to go.

This whole experience really had taken it out of her.

“Sleep now,” Indigo murmured, then yawned.

“Wash again, then sleep,” John said.

Indigo heaved a sigh as he and Yelena got up off the bed. “I guess so. I don’t wanna move...” she griped.

“You’ll be all sticky and gross if you don’t,” John advised.

“I’ll be sticky and gross anyway,” Indigo replied as she got up and moved to join them, “because how much do you want to bet that you’re gonna wake up in the middle of the night, shove me onto my back, and fuck me hard in my sleep?”

“I would never do that without your permission,” John replied.

“You have my permission, because that sounds really fucking hot. I mean I’ll probably at least halfway wake up, but being fucked awake is really hot.”

“It is,” Yelena murmured.

John settled down into the water and began washing up again.

This place felt good, this basement beneath an abandoned cabin. They had made it their home, a warm, safe place, a comfortable place.

He didn’t know how long they would stay here, surely not more than a day or two, but during that time, they would enjoy themselves.

CHAPTER X

They stayed in the cabin for close to two days.

Those two days were very pleasant. They fell into a long, powerful sleep after their rough threesome. John had indeed woken up very, very horny at one point and had fucked Indigo. She’d come partway awake. After they both had come he’d gone back to sleep. Then sometime the next day, he’d been woken by Yelena, who had all but demanded to ride his cock. When they were finished, all three of them had bathed, then enjoyed a long, relaxing meal.

It was sometime during midday that John finally gave Yelena the gift he’d been intending to give her for a little while now. He’d almost forgotten with what had gone on, but he’d managed to gather up a few books during his search of the outpost.

“Here you go, honey. I got these for you,” he’d said, handing her the three novels. He was fairly sure she hadn’t read these ones.

“Oh my,” Yelena had replied softly, taking the books and looking over them. “Thank you so much for this, my love.” She had set the books aside and hugged him tightly. When Indigo had asked about the books, they’d explained the situation to her, how Yelena had learned to read (he said had learned, Yelena said was learning, but he thought she had a very good grasp of it now), and her fascination with and newfound love of books, and Indigo had actually teared up at that.

“Just when I think your relationship can’t get any more adorable. This is too much, you’re gonna make me cry,” she had declared.

They’d spent the rest of the day lounging around, eating, sharing stories, having sex.

There was a lot of sex during those two days. It was so good, fucking Indigo and Yelena. He came on Indigo’s face more than once. She seemed to really like that. And she’d managed to convince Yelena to let her have a solo and very, very rough fuck session with John. He’d gone very hard on her while Yelena had watched, and gave her a few bruises, too. Something he felt bad about, but she almost seemed to wear them like badges of honor on her pale skin.

“I love bruises from rough sex,” she’d said. “I don’t know why, I just do. It’s hot.” She had shrugged, looking at herself nude in a mirror. “I’m just weird, I guess.”

“We’re all weird, I think,” John replied.

“Yep,” Yelena agreed.

When dawn of the third day came, the intense blizzard, which had kept up for almost all of those days, had finally died off. When they’d gone to the surface to check it out, they found the skies clear, the sun shining down, the whole world awash in a smooth snowfall. And so, they had decided that it was high time they’d get a move on.

Not before a quick threesome, a good wash, and a hot breakfast, though.

And then they had begun their walk.

“Where are we going now?” John had asked as they struck off northward again.

“We’re going to get back to one of the main paths and head north. I can get us to a small trading post town on the other side. It’s kind of a stopping point on the west side of the continent if you’re entering the north that way. There’s another, similar town about sixty miles to the east, near the coast, and that’s it really.”

“For the whole of the area?” Yelena asked.

“No, not precisely, just as a stopping point to trade and rest. A few other settlements dot the land, but for the most part...yeah, it’s pretty barren up there. There’s some ruins, though. A group of far elves settled up there about fifteen hundred years ago, and some of their old stone structures still exist. Don’t know what exactly they were doing, but they all died or left or...I don’t know. No one really knows as far as I can tell. So, we’ll get there, the place is called Frost Flats, and then we’ll, uh...look for your dragoness?”

“We’re supposed to find someone to help with that,” John had said, remembering. “A mutual friend...Piper was her name.”

“Then we’ll look for Piper.”

And so, they’d walked.

They had trekked back to the nearest main road and stuck to it, managing to make some decent progress before night fell. They tracked down a cave, set camp, made love, and slept. Then the next day they’d woken and kept up their brisk pace. John was feeling a lot better now that he’d had an opportunity to rest and recuperate, and they had found that artifact, and killed another would-be demon assassin, but…

He’d be lying if he said he felt at ease.

There were more out there, and now they intended to kill Yelena instead of recapture her to ‘fix’ her. In a way, he felt oddly better about that. He didn’t know why. Maybe just because it was more straightforward. The notion that she was broken simply because she loved a human made him sick and angry. And he knew that his own people would react very likely the same way. There was nothing perverse about their lives, there was nothing wrong with their relationship on some base, primal level. Why couldn’t they just...live and love in peace? Without having to hide at the fringes of society, in isolated locations?

It wasn’t that John had some secret desire to ‘settle down’ with Yelena, live in a house in a small village and be domestic. But he would at least like to walk through a village with Yelena at his side without people openly freaking the fuck out. As it was, now that they were in more traveled territory, Yelena had to wear her original amulet, making her look like a plain brunette human woman. And they walked, and walked.

And then walked some more.

It was boring sometimes. Sometimes they carried on long conversations, swapped more stories about adventures and monsters and sex. And sometimes about sex with ‘monsters’. John did wonder how many people were into fucking monsters. Even secretly, even if they never did it, how many fantasized about fucking a dryad? A serpentine? A harpy?

He still wanted to have sex with a harpy.

They were attacked twice, but by nothing substantial. Once by a pack of ice wolves, and another time by another group of ice spiders. They were pretty easily dispatched, especially with Yelena’s powerful fire spells.

And then, finally, they arrived.

…

Frost Flats, from what John could tell, was nothing special.

It was a low, sprawling village that sat in the shadow of the mountain he was currently making his way down. Its population was maybe in the high two hundreds. Either way, it was actually a beacon of comfort among all this frozen wasteland. He could see for several miles beyond the village from his vantage point, and it didn’t look very inviting. Just a lot more frozen forests and lakes and empty plains.

“What a nice place,” he muttered.

“Yeah, it kind of sucks here,” Indigo replied.

“Let us get this over with,” Yelena said. “I am cold.”

“Yeah, me too,” Indigo agreed. “What should we do?”

“Well, we’ve still got a decent amount of daylight left,” John replied, glancing up. The skies were still clear, for the most part. “How about we catch lunch, restock on supplies, then ask around for Piper and figure out what to do from there.”

“A sound plan,” Yelena said.

“Fine by me. Let’s do this. I’m fucking starving,” Indigo replied happily.

They kept walking. John studied the village as they entered it. It was...about what he expected. Busy, bustling, rustic. Slush and mud made the smaller paths difficult to navigate, and the larger roads merely annoying. People came and went, breaths foaming on the air. Some were adventurers, some were miners, some were loggers. He saw merchants and a few soldiers and several guards. They passed houses of wood and stone for several minutes, and finally came into a more commercial area, passing an inn, a blacksmith, two weapon shops, a magic shop…

Almost every single building had smoke billowing out of a chimney. He imagined that this settlement went through a lot of wood.

The next few hours passed by with a kind of irritable sluggishness. It was the same feeling John got when dealing with something during winter. Although winter itself was at least two months off, it felt like it was already here up beyond the mountains. The first order of business was to track down a meal, and they at least found that with ease. If there was one thing people in small villages where hard work was the standard knew how to do, it was eating big, giant, hearty meals. They all got steaks made out of some local kind of beast of burden, thick vegetable and meat soup, and baked potatoes. They sat for awhile inside of one of the inns, by the windows, warm and comfortable, feeling all the more so as they stared out, watching the cold people walk by.

The food was wonderful, the company better.

Despite their dire situation, and the fact that her former comrades were trying to murder her for doing no more than loving him...Yelena was in high spirits. She was laughing and smiling easily as she chatted with him and Indigo.

It felt genuinely good to find a kindred spirit.

John thought about that as they finished eating and let the food settle. How many kindred spirits to him and Yelena and Indigo and Morgan were out there? How many people that weren’t ‘normal’, or that could pass for it but had no real interest in it, like him, like Indigo? He wondered what percentage of the population was like them? He’d found a few people, and he’d heard of several more, given the stories the women he slept with sometimes told him of other partners they had taken. And that made him wonder further.

What was ‘right’?

Was it ‘right’ to only sleep with your own kind? Or even with the ‘civilized’ races? Was that ‘correct’ because the majority of people believed it? Was there even a ‘correct’ way to be? He didn’t really think so. He thought that there were certainly things you just didn’t do, no matter who you were or whatever justifications you had. Some things were plain evil. But beyond that there seemed to be a lot of ambiguity in the world…

He supposed what it all came down to was a simple fact: John wasn’t going to come after people who didn’t live like he did with blades or torches for their choices. No one was going to get dragged out of their homes and exiled, or worse, killed, for getting married to someone of their own species. It wasn’t going to happen to most of the people like him, either.

But how many had been harassed, threatened, shut out, attacked, or even killed just because they preferred the company of those outside their own races? He’d seen it happen. Maybe not outright murder, but he’d seen interracial couples being harassed before, some even attacked, and he’d done whatever he could.

Had his nose broken twice and his arm snapped once getting into fights over people messing with interracial couples or even just non-humans passing through the village. He’d walked away with more than a few black eyes, split lips, and bruises. Sure, it hurt, but it was worth it. Maybe if he was smarter...or if they were smarter, he could talk them down. But a lot of times it just seemed like the only language they understood was that of the fist.

“John...are you okay?” Yelena asked.

He realized that the women had stopped talking and were looking at him. “I’m okay,” he replied, “just...thinking.”

“What about?” Indigo asked.

“About...life on the fringes of society. Its difficulties, its...benefits.” He couldn’t help but smile at that, thinking about what Indigo looked like, nude and sweaty and like a goddess as she rode his cock furiously with Yelena beside her, kissing her passionately.

She smirked back at him. “Yes, benefits.” She sighed suddenly, losing a bit of her good cheer. “I guess we should get a move on again...”

“Yes, we should,” Yelena agreed reluctantly. “Much as I might enjoy the notion...we cannot count on our most recent discovery to hold true for long.”

“Yeah,” John said, and stood, “we should go. I’ll ask the innkeeper about Piper.”

And so, they set back to work.

It took another two hours tromping around the village of Frost Flats, asking here, there, and everywhere about a tall, blonde, fit adventuress named Piper. It was a decently unique name. After awhile, John began to consider the fact that maybe Piper hadn’t come through here or hadn’t gone up north at all or maybe she preferred to keep to herself…

Then, they finally got a lucky break.

One of the merchants who ran a small, cramped magic shop knew exactly who they were asking about.

“Yes, I remember this woman,” the merchant said as she sorted through a rack of small glass bottles. “She mentioned that she was looking to hunt, as she put it, ‘dangerous game’. Fearsome beasts, I imagine. I replied to her that there have been tales of a raksha near the settlement of Borean Falls. She seemed excited about that.”

“A raksha?” Indigo asked.

“A large, furred beast. Easily twice your height,” she said, indicating John. “It has white fur and can summon icicles. It is very dangerous and very rare. Borean Falls is a large, sprawling logging settlement in the biggest forest this area has. They provide most of our wood. If there is a raksha causing problems for them, then it will be bad news for all of us.”

“Well, I guess we’re going to Borean Falls,” John murmured. “Would you be willing to point it out on a map?”

“Yes,” she replied, turning towards them.

He unrolled their map and she made a mark on it. At a very rough guess, John figured they could probably make it there in a day. He began to ask her if there was an inn or another settlement in between here and there, then thought better of it.

“Would you have a map of the area I could maybe copy?” he asked.

“Yes,” the woman replied.

“Thank you.”

She found him the map he wanted and while he copied it down, he suggested Yelena and Indigo search the shop for something they might want to pick up. The shopkeeper was being helpful, so it seemed only polite to spend some coin. After a good half hour, (John managed to get the names of a few forests and landmarks, three more villages, including a port town, and several isolated inns, logging mills, and farms), the women had found some stuff to buy. Mainly a few magical recharge amulets, a few magic potions, and Indigo located a ring that would protect against the cold. They spent close to two hundred gold and a pair of emeralds on all the stuff, pocketed it, thanked the woman, then left.

“Okay,” he said as they began heading out of town, striking off north, “there’s an inn about five hours north of here. We’ll stop there overnight, then head on tomorrow morning to Borean. Hopefully Piper will still be there.”

“Hopefully,” Yelena murmured.

They headed out of the small town of Frost Flats and into the far north.

…

“John? Yelena?” Indigo asked.

“Yes?” they both replied at once.

“I have a question.”

“You may ask,” Yelena replied.

“What will you do?”

They had been walking for over four hours now. The weather was still good, but John knew from bitter and frustrated stories that other adventurers had told him about this land that such weather was quite fickle. It could turn very quickly from a half-decent day to a blinding whiteout of a snowstorm. He wasn’t looking forward to one of those again. Not after that awful, harrowing death march from the abandoned outpost to the hunter’s cabin.

“What do you mean?” he asked finally.

It was getting darker now, and he figured they could make it to the inn they were heading for before full darkness came and the temperatures began to plummet.

“Let’s say we find Piper, she points you towards this dragon, who agrees to teach you how to shape-shift. Then what?” Indigo asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Well, I imagine that even with my very rudimentary knowledge of shape-shifting and very in-depth knowledge of and practice with magic in general, it will still take awhile. Several months, at least,” Yelena replied.

“Wait, you know some shape-shifting?” John asked.

Yelena smirked and stuck her tongue out at him, then waggled it and pulled it back in. “Yes, love. That’s not all natural.”

“Oh...how’d you pick that up? It doesn’t seem very...practical, I guess.”

“It is if you are a professional giver of pleasure,” Yelena replied.

“You were a prostitute?” Indigo asked. Yelena nodded. “I was, too. That was a good year, for the most part. Lots of guys and girls wanted to fuck me.”

“Well, you are a wicked hot redheaded elf,” John replied.

“I am indeed,” Indigo said with a small, sly smirk on her face. She grew more serious. “But after that, I mean? Let’s say you learn shape-shifting to your satisfaction. What will you do?”

“Well...I guess go back to the Emerald Wild. I mean, it was pretty good there, wasn’t it?” John replied.

“It was. I had so much fun there,” Yelena agreed.

“Yeah, but...I don’t know, it just seems so...sad. You have to live in isolation and hide your true self, your most basic identity, in this land. It’s awful here.”

“Is there any alternative?” Yelena asked.

“Well, I mean maybe. We spoke earlier of the kit. The fox-people. Their homeland is supposed to be a very welcoming place. I don’t know if you’d be able to walk around openly...but I also don’t know that you wouldn’t be able to. All I’ve heard of the kit homeland is that all races are welcome there. But again, this is all just secondhand stuff I’ve heard.”

“Would you be interested in that?” John asked, looking at Yelena.

She looked back at him uncertainly. “Would you be...I mean, would you honestly be willing to leave this all behind?” she asked.

“Yes,” John replied. “I mean, there are people here I will miss dearly, but they would understand. And it’s not as if we need to leave here forever. There’s nothing saying we couldn’t go over to the kit homeland and live there for a few years, then maybe come back here for a visit. Or even just keep on traveling. Honestly Yelena, as long as you’re there with me, I don’t really care where I am.”

“I feel the same way,” she said, smiling, and she reached out and took his hand. He laced their fingers together.

“Too cute,” Indigo said softly. Yelena sighed but was still smiling.

“I am glad that you so thoroughly approve of our relationship.”

“Sorry, it’s hard to stop gushing over you two.”

“I meant that genuinely, actually. It seems difficult to find people who tolerate or even enjoy our coupling,” Yelena replied. “Although, reflecting on that, most of the people we have encountered so far seem to like this fact about us…”

“We’re in a pretty unique situation,” John replied. “The few people we do happen across that actually learn the truth are typically like us.”

“I suppose so.”

“I do love your relationship though,” Indigo said. “I mean, I’ve been around the continent a lot. Many of the relationships I see...I don’t know, even to a casual observer something seems wrong with them. One person is obviously not in love with the other. Or there are signs of abuse. Or both of them are miserable and unhappy. Some of the older couples...” she sighed unhappily, “they have been in a loveless marriage for so long that it seems they both exist to spite each other. And, I mean, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that every relationship needs to be a blissful paradise of constant happiness. I guess I just wish more people were happier. It seems like too many people marry because their society tells them to in one form or another.”

“Marriage...I have come across this concept many times in the romance novels I read,” Yelena said. “It seems that your society places great importance on it. And this union, this specific coupling, seems to be a kind of...end goal, I think. The stories typically end when the two people get married. That always bothers me. I want to know what happens afterwards. It seems to me that that is when it would get most interesting.”

“Well...unfortunately most people don’t agree. I think too many people are in love with the idea of marriage,” Indigo replied.

Yelena seemed thoughtful. She looked at John. “How do you feel about marriage? How would you feel about it between us?”

“I would marry you without hesitation, Yelena, if that was what you wanted. I would do it eagerly,” he replied. She smiled.

“Is that what you want?” Indigo asked.

“No, it is not,” she replied. “What would change?”

“Well...part of the idea of marriage is that you agree to give yourself only to each other...and that includes sex.”

Yelena pursed her lips unhappily. “Yes, I have read that in the books as well. This idea of...monogamy, I think is the word?” Indigo and John nodded. “Yes, monogamy. I do not like this idea. I feel as if our relationship would suffer were we no longer able to make love with others, it would put a strain on both of us.”

“It would,” John agreed. “But there are such things as open relationships, open marriages. Though they are often kept hidden.”

“Well, again I would ask, what would be different? Does something functionally change when two people get married?” Yelena asked, genuinely curious.

“Well...” John considered it. “In a typical case, when two people get married, they stop living with their parents and instead have a house of their own. And they probably begin raising a family, having children.”

“But can this not be achieved without marriage?” Yelena asked.

“Oh certainly,” John replied. “It’s just...not generally a good idea.”

“I suspected as much. I’ve gotten that idea from the novels I have read as well, and some of the things you have told me. I still do not understand this obsession with marriage. I feel like our lives are much easier. I feel like nothing would change were we to go through this ritual.”

“Nothing would change for the two of you,” Indigo said, “but for a lot of people, it is kind of life-changing. As John said, it opens certain doors. Doors that would otherwise be closed for someone living the small village life.”

Yelena was silent for several moments, as though gathering her thoughts. Finally, she spoke up again. “I am confused. Where does this strange obsession with...with society being set up the way it has been set up come from? It is not unique to this whole world, I have been able to determine that much. Your kind do not seem nearly so constricted when it comes to lovemaking, to marriage, to living arrangements.”

“We are not, no,” Indigo agreed. “Neither are the kit. The felis and the beryl are...a little more stringent with their societal rules, but most of that comes from them just being uncomfortable with the idea of interspecies fucking.”

“So then where does it come from? Where does this oddly specific idea of marriage and living arrangements and impregnation come from? I have come across this phrase of a ‘bow and arrow wedding’ more than once, in which a young woman becomes pregnant accidentally and they are forced by their parents to get married. How does this solve the problem? Why did they not just use proper protection? I was under the impression that you had adequate magical infertility spells and artifacts in this realm,” she said.

John sighed heavily. “Okay, okay. I can explain this...sort of. A few thousand years ago, our pantheon of gods was a little different than it is today. I’m not particularly religious, but I do know this much, at least. There was a god named Vout.”

“Ugh,” Indigo muttered.

“Yes, he was rather...anti-elf. Among other things. But one thing he and his followers harped on about was marriage, how it was godly, it was righteous, and how sex for pleasure or sex outside of marriage, or even reproduction outside of marriage, was forbidden and sinful and filthy. Oh, did Bliss ever hate him. Bliss and Vivian both. I am admittedly not sure what happened to Vout, but I do know that he...died isn’t the right word, I think. I don’t know if gods can die. But, functionally speaking, he lost influence, lost followers, eventually lost it all. He was largely forgotten. And although we no longer follow him, in fact, few humans in this land follow any of the gods really, his annoying doctrines have clearly left their mark. That’s the basics of it.”

“How unfortunate,” Yelena said after absorbing this information. She seemed to think of something else. “I just realized that I have never thought to ask, nor learned, the name of this continent I now call home.”

“Oh, it’s called Veridis,” John replied.

“Hmm. A curious name. What about the other lands? I have come to understand that there are other continents.”

“I don’t know all of them,” John replied, “but I do know of a few. To the south there’s Tomontica, the island nation and home to the Tomontican people. They’re human. Way farther south than that is Sarras, the beryl homeland. It’s mostly desert. To the east is Hesh, the homeland of the felis people. It’s mostly jungle, I think. And uh...off to the northwest are two more areas that belong to my own kind. The Stoneland Islands, basically like Tomontica in that they’re an island nation, and my people’s own homelands, Loam. Other than that, there’s the far elf nation of Empyrean...”

“There’s a few others that I know of,” Indigo added helpfully. “The kit homeland is also to the southwest, Kindress. And I also know that somewhere out west is Cypress. It’s where the cyprean people come from.”

“I have not heard of these people,” Yelena said.

“I know so little about them,” John murmured.

“They are...hedonists,” Indigo replied.

“I do not know this word,” Yelena said.

“They focus on pleasure in its many forms,” Indigo explained. “Food, sex, fun. That is the foundation of their civilization.”

Yelena looked from Indigo to John. “...I wish very much to visit Cypress.”

John and Indigo laughed. “Me too,” he agreed.

“It’s on my wish list of places to go,” Indigo said. “As for the cypreans themselves, they’re like...half goat, half human, I think? I’ve never seen one myself, just a picture once.”

“It sounds like we have a great deal of exploration to do,” Yelena murmured.

“Yes,” John agreed. “We do.”

They walked on.

…

They came at last to the settlement of Borean Falls, and they did indeed pass through several miles of snow-capped trees to get there.

John was feeling good.

The weather was holding, and he’d made love with Yelena and Indigo more than once during their overnight stay at the inn. Still though, he couldn’t help but look around as they made their way into town, and glance back over his shoulder. So far, they had sent three demons after them. Well, technically like fifteen, but most of those had been minions.

Agoston, with his fire and his rage.

Damion, with his dozen underlings.

Gaaz, with her speed and masterful swordplay.

So, what was next? What was the next demon assassin they were going to send over? Had they already done so? Was this demon somewhere within range of them this very minute? It was difficult not to keep coming back to this concern, and to obsess over at least a little every now and then. He wanted to believe that the artifact was working, and would continue to do so, but...well, that would be easy, wouldn’t it?

And dangerous.

The shopkeeper had been right about Borean. It was a long, sprawling settlement, spread thin. For awhile, they just passed logging camps. Then they began passing the occasional house or lodge or inn. Finally, after what seemed like awhile, they came to what must serve as the city center. It was at least very busy. People were coming and going, mainly caravans getting loaded up with a lot of freshly cut logs. The three of them kept on going through the city, pretty much repeating what they had done at Frost Flats.

It took another two hours to track down the woman named Piper.

…

John let out a startled cry as an arrow landed right in front of his nose in the tree next to him. He fell back, sword drawn in a flash, and Yelena and Indigo beside him had arrows drawn and notched even faster than that.

“That’s close enough,” a voice said from somewhere nearby. He saw that Yelena was already aiming for precisely where the voice had come from.

A female voice.

“Who are you?” the voice asked.

“My name is John Greenfield. This is my lover, Yelena, our friend, Indigo...are you Piper?” he asked cautiously, still unable to actually see the person who’d fired the arrow.

There was a pause. “How in the name of the Gods did you know?”

“Morgan sent me,” he replied.

Another pause. “Seriously? If she did, she’d have given you the amulet. Show me.”

He carefully reached into his pocket and pulled it out, then raised it up. One more pause, then movement. “Well, damn,” she said, and emerged from the trees she’d been hiding behind. “I guess Morgan did send you.”

Piper stepped into the clearing they were in and lowered the crossbow she was holding. “So, lovers John and Yelena, and their friend Indigo, what brings you all the way up here apparently looking for me? Is Morgan okay?”

“She’s fine,” John replied. “At least as far as I know. Um...given that you’re friends with Morgan and the fact that she sent us to you to help us with a...unique problem, I can assume that you are okay with, uh...abnormal acquaintances?”

“That’s a lot of awkward pauses,” Piper said, smirking at him. She slung her crossbow around, settled it on her back, before crossing her arms and studying him. “But I think I get your drift. Either one of you isn’t what they appear to be, or you’ve got a vampire or undead or something friend somewhere nearby. Don’t worry, I don’t freak out so long as everyone’s friendly. In case Morgan didn’t mention it, I’m a werewolf.”

“Oh. Wow,” John murmured.

“Yes. Wow. So, you can assume I’m a very open-minded person. Morgan isn’t really friends with people who aren’t,” Piper replied.

“That makes sense. Well, love?” he asked, glancing at Yelena. “You wanna handle this?”

“Yes,” Yelena replied. She stepped forward. “I am a demoness.”

“Oh...that’s quite the illusion spell you’ve got then,” Piper replied, eyebrows raising a bit. “I’m cool around friendly demons and demonesses.”

“Okay, good then. I am being hunted by my kind. They wish to murder me because I left my realm and my life behind after meeting and falling in love with John,” she said, and looked briefly back over her shoulder at him, favoring him with a smile.

“That...sucks. I mean it’s awesome about the love part, but everything else sucks. So...you want help killing your old demon allies?”

“No. Not precisely,” Yelena replied. “We seek Kesley, the dragoness. I wish to learn shape-shifting from her.”

“Oh! That makes sense, actually. Yes, I know where she is, and I can take you to her. She won’t care that you’re a demon. She just cares that you’re a good person. And if you two are willing to put up with this for love, and Morgan sent you, then that’s certainly a big step in the right direction.” She paused, glanced at Indigo. “How do you fit into this?”

“I’m Morgan’s friend, too,” Indigo replied, “and they needed my help finding a temporary stopgap to help with the situation. And I wanted to fuck both of them. Yelena is wicked hot in her natural form and John is really handsome.”

“He sure is,” Piper agreed.

“You have another admirer,” Yelena said, smirking at him.

“That’s...always a good thing,” he replied, trying not to blush too hard, realizing that all three women were looking at him now. “We should probably focus...”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Piper said. “Okay, tell you what: I’m in the process of trying to hunt down a pain in the ass monster. It’s dangerous, it’s screwing with the logging community, which means it’s screwing with this entire region, and it’s killed some people that didn’t deserve it. Help me hunt it and kill it, and I’ll take you to Kesley.”

“Deal,” John said. He glanced at Indigo. “Still in on this?”

“Oh yeah,” she replied. “Love hunting monsters.”

“It is fun,” Piper agreed. “Let’s go.”

They set off once more.

…

Piper was…

Interesting.

John had a hard time keeping his eyes away from her. He was glad that Yelena wasn’t jealous, and he was also glad to note that Yelena couldn’t really keep her eyes from their new blonde friend as well. Good Gods but was she hot!

So hot.

She was probably about as tall as Yelena, a good six foot two, maybe even a little taller, with a nice, athletic build. Trim but fit, wiry muscles were packed onto a thin frame. She was dressed in leather armor, with a short sword at her hip, crossbow across her back, a few small sacks tied to her belt. Her blonde hair was bright, the color of sunshine, and tied into a simple ponytail that hung just down to the bottom of her neck.

She had a really, really hot ass, he saw. Or maybe it was just the leather armor she was wearing that seemed to sit so well on it and accentuate her curves. Well, he had no doubt that her ass looked amazing bare, too.

He truly hoped that this tall, blonde werewolf would be interested in sex.

Because he had never fucked a werewolf before, and because he was deeply attracted to tough, tall women who knew what they were doing and didn’t beat around the bush. He and Yelena had been filling Piper in on their backstory as they’d helped her track down this beast she was hunting. She seemed very intrigued by what they had to tell her.

“Kesley is going to love the two of you,” she said after he’d told her everything.

“Really?” Yelena asked.

“Oh yes. She’s a bit of a romantic, but more than that, she’s lived quite a long time. At least a thousand years, I think. Maybe longer, she won’t tell me precisely. But she has seen many things, and new and interesting situations have almost become their own currency for her. I’ve never seen a relationship like yours, never even heard of one, and I’ve seen a lot. So yes, she will be absolutely fascinated by you.”

“I know I am,” Indigo said. “They’re the most adorable couple I’ve ever seen.”

“We’re close,” Piper said suddenly, her voice growing harder.

All of them fell silent. The quartet stalked quickly forward through the frozen forest. John wondered how Piper could tell, but she was a werewolf, probably had an extremely strong sense of smell. Or other tracking abilities that he knew nothing about. They moved through some trees into a small clearing in front of a large cave.

It was dark inside the cave.

John felt a bit of fear settle into him as he looked into that darkness. There were bones strewn about the entrance to the cave. Human bones, animal bones. Some picked clean, some still had some meat clinging to them.

“Stay here,” Piper said as she drew her blade, her voice low and hard. “I’ll draw it out, we all attack it. It’s weak against fire, if any of you know flame spells.”

“I do,” Yelena said.

“Start preparing one. Quicker we can kill it, the better. It’s fast, and strong.”

“Understood.”

John drew his blade as Indigo notched an arrow. Yelena merely focused, closing her eyes, and raised her hands in front of her. They began to glow. This should be interesting. Piper walked forward calmly, disappearing into the shadows of the cave. Her footsteps began to fade away. A few seconds of silence went by.

“Shit!” her voice echoed out to them.

And then suddenly there were a few running footsteps and then a hard, flat sound. And then Piper abruptly reappeared, only she was flying forwards, a look of almost comical surprise on her rough, angular face, and then she hit the ground hard, rolling several times.

“Piper!” Indigo cried.

“I’m fine!” she wheezed. “Just kill the damned thing!”

John had kept his eyes focused on the opening, and now he heard heavy breathing and lumbering footsteps. And then it appeared. The raksha arrived in a blur of white fur and fury. John caught sight of long claws and a muzzle full of teeth before the thing was upon him.

“Shit!” he cried, trying to back up, and it backhanded him casually.

He landed with a heavy grunt right next to Piper, who was already getting to her feet. As he did the same thing, or tried to, anyway, he prepared himself for a hardcore battle. Indigo was firing off arrows, and the thing was easy to hit, but so big that it would be difficult to do real damage to it. Piper was lining up her own shot.

John looked down at his blade as he staggered to his feet. Maybe if he got lucky he could get in close, stab it somewhere vital…

He groaned and started forward.

This was going to be a long, painful fight.

He’d made it three steps before Yelena suddenly let out an almost roar and the entire area lit up with a brilliant orange-red glow that temporary blinded him. He cried out as a wave of heat washed over him, making him stagger, and he heard Indigo and Piper make similar sounds. But it was all overridden entirely by a brief but painfully powerful roar of absolute rage and pain. Then it was cut off suddenly, and the fire faded, and John’s vision slowly came back.

When he could see again, all he saw was a lot of melted snow, burned rock, and a scattering of ashes and charred bones.

Yelena slowly lowered her hands.

Piper began to laugh. “Well, I can see why you like her so much!”

John laughed as well. “Uh...there are other reasons,” he replied. “But she is...”

“Powerful? Badass? A true fucking warrior?” Piper said happily. “We should hang out more often. You are a fucking killer.”

“I have some skill at it,” Yelena replied.

“Modest to boot. Well,” Piper said, turning to look at him and Indigo, who had come to stand beside him, “now that that’s out of the way, let’s-”

She stopped speaking. Her eyes widened. She began to shout a warning.

John heard the barest whisper of a bolt leaving a crossbow. He heard Indigo cry out and turned to see a bolt emerge from her stomach in a spray of blood. He twisted to catch her as she began to fall to the ground, and she brought both of them down.

He turned around to see who had fired the shot.

A lone figure dressed in all white held a crossbow. He was dressed completely head to toe, save for a rectangle of space revealing his eyes, which glowered a flickering yellow. His skin was dark reddish-brown.

A demon.

“Time’s up, Ragnostal,” he said, and fired the crossbow again.

CHAPTER XI

A lot of things seemed to happen all at once.

Yelena let out a battle cry and launched herself forward, narrowly dodging the second bolt fired from the would-be assassin’s crossbow. Piper fired her own crossbow and began to run forward, her feet pounding the snow. John looked down at Indigo, who stared up at him. She looked to be in great pain.

“Go,” she whispered. “Kill it.”

He nodded tightly and set her down, then surged to his feet, snatching up his blade. He saw that Yelena was already at the assassin, which had dropped its crossbow and drawn its own wickedly thin and sharp blade. Sparks rang as metal slammed against metal.

“Rok!” Yelena screamed, launching herself in a furious assault that put the assassin on the defensive for a few seconds. “I will kill you!”

“No you will not, Ragnostal,” the assassin replied calmly, and abruptly ducked down and slid smoothly to one side, tucking into a roll. He avoided both Yelena’s blade and another bolt from Piper. John ran on, trying to get in on the fray. He was badly frightened, trembling with adrenaline and terror. This was different than the others. This Rok, this assassin...something was different, much deadlier and more lethal than even Gaaz had been. He felt like they’d been lucky so far. Would that luck hold out? He screamed and barely managed to twist and dodge as Rok simultaneously landed and flung a throwing star at him.

It whizzed by, tearing at the cloth of his shirt. That was how close it was. John ran on. Piper kept firing as fast as she could manage as Yelena charged Rok again. More sparks flew. John reached the bastard and drove his blade forward, trying to take advantage of the opportunity presented to him in the form of Rok’s exposed back. But the demon bastard shifted and he very nearly stabbed Yelena. Cursing, he backed up and tried again. Another one of Piper’s bolts flew through the air, and this one actually connected this time, sinking into the demon’s left thigh. His only reaction was to whip one hand out towards Piper.

A small dagger flew through the air and landed in her stomach. She let out a cry and staggered, then seemed to lose her strength and fell to her knees.

“He’s using poison!” Yelena snapped.

John fought on, trying to get a good stab in, but that disturbed him. Indigo was down, and Piper possibly was too. Poison made the situation a lot harder. The demon’s fist suddenly shot out and cracked him in the eye. He cried out, stumbling away, fighting viciously to clear his vision as white stars washed across it. Rok beat Yelena’s blade aside and tried to run her through. She barely managed to avoid the blade and instead backhanded Rok right across the head with a closed fist. The demon staggered, tried to find his footing, but John was there, having just regained his feet, and instead threw himself into a rough tackle, hitting Rok’s back and sending both of them sprawling to the snowy ground.

He fully intended to land a few blows on the bastard’s head, but Rok was fast and damned strong. He jerked around, brought his elbow into John’s face, hitting him twice, fast and hard, and then shoved him violently off. Yelena was there then, but he swept her feet out from under her with a hard-swiping kick and she screamed in frustration. John managed to get to his feet again and shot his own foot out and kicked the bastard in the back, then made another jump, trying to get hold of him, maybe get an arm around his neck and either choke the assassin or try to break his neck.

But Rok was already rolling away, regaining his feet with an otherworldly skill.

In a sudden blur of motion, he reached down, snatched Yelena’s foot out from under her as she was trying to get back to her feet and, holding her by the ankle, swung her around and threw her into a nearby tree. She cried out and there was an awful cracking sound and John screamed in rage and terror as he saw her hit the ground and struggling to get up. But even as he was preparing to attack Rok again, throwing himself at the bastard, Rok snatched him, twisted him around and wrapped an arm tightly around his throat.

“Is this your prize, Ragnostal?” Rok called. John gagged and tried to pull free, but the fucker had a grip of steel, his muscles and tendons like iron under John’s grasp. “Is this what you gave it all up for? That sad fool Hagan made the right decision. You cannot be repaired, Ragnostal. This is a mercy killing.”

“Stop!” she screamed as he began to tighten his grip on John’s neck.

Rok ignored her and John saw darkness begin to edge in on his vision. His head started to turn and something in his neck began to protest violently, pressed too far, and he felt death beginning to close in on him…

Then he heard something.

Something else. Footfalls.

Heavy ones.

Getting closer.

And then Rok screamed in surprise as much as pain, and John felt his neck twinge painfully, but heard nor felt no snap, followed by darkness. Instead he was picked up and thrown clear of the bastard demon that was trying to kill him. He hit the ground hard, crying out and then groaning, struggling for breath and to regain his feet.

He heard heavy breathing.

Looking up as he barely managed to get to his hands and knees, he tried to make sense of the situation. There was a great beast standing in the clearing now, breath foaming mightily on the air as its chest heaved. It was wearing familiar leather armor, its fur dark blonde in color. It looked somehow familiar.

Finally, it clicked.

“Piper,” he wheezed. She had transformed.

Godsdamn she was intimidating and magnificent in her werewolf form.

She surged forward to where Rok lay unmoving on the ground.

“Wait!” Yelena screamed.

Piper hesitated as she stood over the demon’s body. “What?” she growled.

Yelena got painfully to her feet. “Don’t kill him,” she replied, then groaned, hand going gingerly to her chest. “John,” she said.

“I’m okay,” he gasped. “I’m okay...what’s going on?”

Yelena staggered over to Rok. She pointed, repeatedly stabbing at the air with one rigidly outstretched finger, at Indigo, who still hadn’t moved. “Get her over here. Now, Piper,” she growled, and fell to her knees before Rok.

Piper hesitated for just a second, then hurried over to Indigo and did as she was told. John tried to get to his feet, failed, crashed painfully to the icy ground, then, gasping for breath, finally managed to get back up.

He staggered over to Yelena and Rok, and saw that Rok was still breathing. Piper returned and sat down, cradling Indigo in her large, furred arms.

“Finish the bastard,” he groaned, staring scornfully at the demon assassin.

“Not yet,” Yelena hissed, sounding frustrated and in pain. She quickly began patting Rok down. John tensed. If the demon was faking, or were to suddenly come awake, it would be bad for all of them. But the first thing Yelena did was locate a length of fine rope, flip the bastard over, and bind his wrists together tightly behind his back. Then she did the same with a second length for his ankles. She did this briskly and proficiently.

John wondered how many people she’d tied up.

Next, she began pulling out small vials of strangely colored liquids. She would pull the cork out of each and smell it, then mutter to herself, replace the cork and carefully set the vial down on the ground beside her. She did this three times before apparently finding what she was looking for. She didn’t recork it, instead she upended the vial into Rok’s mouth, then, once it was empty, tossed it away and continued searching.

“What was that?” Piper asked.

“Paralytic poison,” Yelena replied offhandedly.

“What are you looking for now?” John asked.

“A cure. He poisoned Indigo. Piper, open her eye, tell me if it is a different color.”

Piper looked down and carefully pulled one eyelid open. “Yes. It’s white.”

“I had hoped as such,” Yelena murmured. She sniffed at another vial, then rose slowly to her feet and walked over. She crouched. “Hold her mouth open.”

Piper did as Yelena upended this vial into Indigo’s mouth.

“What’s happening?” John asked. His head felt heavy and everything seemed a bit slow.

“Rok poisoned her. I found the correct antidote and have administered it,” Yelena replied, then winced.

“You’re hurt.”

“Two of my ribs are broken,” she said.

“You need to heal,” he replied.

“I want to see if the antidote takes, if we got to her in time.”

“Heal, Yelena,” Piper said firmly.

Yelena sighed, looked at Piper, then up at John. “I should heal you first,” she said.

“I don’t have anything broken, I’ll be fine,” he replied.

Yelena looked like she wanted to argue, but then finally just placed her hand against her chest. It glowed, and she closed her eyes in concentration.

“What about you? Aren’t you poisoned?” John asked.

“No,” Piper replied, “werewolf blood. Poisons don’t work on me.”

Yelena finished healing and straightened up. “A useful trait.”

“Yep,” Piper agreed.

“Hold still, my love,” Yelena said quietly as she turned to face him. She hugged him to her gently and kissed him, and at the same time he felt a comforting warmth flow through him, erasing his pain and aches and bruises.

As far as healing went, it was a great one.

“Thank you,” he said when she was finished.

“You’re welcome,” Yelena replied, smiling gently and tiredly. She’d used a lot of magic. She frowned suddenly and turned to look back at Indigo. “I do not know if I applied the antidote in time. That poison is a killer.”

“How soon until we know?” Piper asked.

“If she does not die within the next ten minutes, we will know.”

John sighed and looked angrily at Rok’s unconscious form. “So why did we have to keep this fucker alive?”

Yelena’s frown deepened. “I...have been thinking,” she replied, sounding reluctant.

“Thinking about what?” John asked.

“I am concerned that learning to shape-shift will not be enough. Nor will this artifact. It occurs to me that this is happening solely because of Hagan. He is obsessed with me. I think that if it were not for him, this would end.”

“So...what, you wanna kill him?” Piper asked. “Isn’t he in another realm?”

“Yes. He is. But...I can pull him to this one.”

“You can?” John asked.

“Yes. In fact, I’ve come to believe it is becoming more imperative that I do. And I think I know why he is so obsessed with me.”

“Why?” Piper asked.

“Because he is afraid. And because I can pull him to this realm, if I wanted to. I know his true name. He foolishly told it to me, some years ago. I never told him mine. As far as I know, no one there knows it...but it is possible that it was recorded somewhere. The more I think about it, the more I am certain that this is his true objective. He sees this as a stalemate, and because I know how he thinks, he believes I threaten his power because I know his true name. Although I do not care, he cannot take that risk.”

“So then let’s summon and kill him,” John said.

“Why haven’t you already?” Piper asked.

Yelena sighed uneasily. “It requires a life. A sacrifice. And I have been...unwilling to do so. It is a profane thing to do.”

“...and that’s why you want Rok alive,” John murmured.

“Yes. At least with him as a sacrifice, we won’t be sacrificing anyone who doesn’t deserve it. But it isn’t that easy. It is dangerous to do, and requires a great deal of magical energy. More so than I have ready access to. It requires far more energy to summon someone against their will than a regular summoning,” Yelena explained.

They were quiet for a moment. “Would a powerful magical artifact do?” Piper asked.

“Yes...if it were sufficiently powerful. And it would be destroyed in the process.”

“I know of such an artifact. At least, I think I do. It might be powerful enough. Actually, the initial reason I came up here: I’ve been hunting it for a few months now.”

“And you would be willing to offer it up?”

“Wouldn’t have mentioned it if I wasn’t willing,” Piper replied. She grimaced suddenly. “Hold on. I really should change back.” She stood up and then passed Indigo’s slim form to Yelena, who accepted it. They watched as she rapidly changed back, her fur disappearing, body shrinking down. When she was finished, she looked as she had before, though her hair was ragged and wild, and her pale face was flushed.

“Your armor shrunk with you,” John murmured.

“Yeah, clothes and backpack too. Took awhile to find the proper enchantment for that. Used to rip out of my armor and clothes when I had to transform mid-battle. So that’s the plan? What about Indigo?” she asked.

“Well-”

“Who’s talkin’ ‘bout me?” Indigo asked groggily, shifting in Yelena’s arms. “Oh Gods, what happened?” she moaned, becoming a little clearer. “I feel like I’m fucking dying.”

“Oh, Indigo, you are okay,” Yelena said, her relief plain and powerful. John and Piper gathered around her.

“Yelena?” she asked. “You’re holding me...what happened?”

“You were poisoned,” John replied. “Yelena managed to cure you.”

“Is that fucker dead?” she groaned.

“Not exactly. But he is paralyzed and tied up. We need him,” Yelena explained.

“What for?”

“It’s complicated. Can you walk?” Yelena asked.

Indigo considered it for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. “I don’t think I can fucking stand right now. What was I poisoned with? Seriously, this is the worst I’ve ever felt, I think. I feel sick and my whole body is so sore...I fucking hate it.”

“I know. It was a poison from my own realm. We were very, very lucky that Rok carried the antidote with him. But you are going to be down for awhile, Indigo.” She frowned, then looked at Piper. “Do you know somewhere safe we can keep her?”

“Yes. There is a friend in this village. Well, in this village inasmuch as isolated cabins on this land are. We can take her there. My friend will help us,” Piper replied.

“Then let’s go. Will you carry Rok?” Yelena asked apologetically.

But Piper just nodded and hauled him up, draping him over her shoulder. “How long’s that paralytic work?”

“It should be good for at least a day,” Yelena replied.

“Fine then. I’m a bounty hunter by trade. I’ve had to haul tied up morons long distances before. But the sooner we get going, the better.”

“Are you ready?” Yelena asked, looking down at Indigo.

She nodded tiredly. “I’m ready, although I think I’d like to sleep.”

“If you can, do so,” Yelena replied.

She nodded and closed her eyes, resting her head against Yelena’s chest.

They set off.

…

Piper’s friend, it turned out, was a middle-aged felis woman who lived alone in a cabin. Her name was Lyn.

She was very friendly.

“I’m so sorry to drop in on you like this, Lyn...” Piper said.

They all stood together in her living room, which was a very well-organized but cozy place. One corner of it was taken up by a small bed where Indigo was presently laying beneath the blankets. A fire crackled in a stonework fireplace nearby and Lyn was sitting in a chair beside Indigo, who was still asleep. She had yet to wake up since she’d gone to sleep with Yelena carrying her, and it had been about an hour since then.

“It’s perfectly fine,” Lyn replied. She laid a cool, damp cloth against Indigo’s forehead. “This is the kind of friendship we have, Piper. I’ve shown up on your doorstep, inasmuch as you have one, bloody and desperate more than once.”

“That’s true,” Piper murmured.

“She can stay here as long as she likes, and I will tend to her. I owe you, but I also believe in taking care of people.”

“Thank you so much,” John said.

Rok was slouched in one corner, where Piper had unceremoniously dumped him. If he was awake, they couldn’t tell. His eyes weren’t open, and he wasn’t moving an inch beyond breathing. Yelena wasn’t sure if he might be inoculated against his own paralytic poison or not, so they were checking his bindings every so often.

“You’re welcome. What will you be doing?”

“Probably better if you don’t know,” Piper replied. “It’s stupid and dangerous, but I have to see this through. I’m involved now.”

“You don’t have to,” Yelena said.

“Well, I sure want to,” Piper replied. “I’m not going to stand for this shit. Neither of you deserve this, and you need help.”

“We appreciate it,” John said.

“Deeply,” Yelena agreed.

“Not a problem. Sooner we get going, the better. If we hurry, we should be able to reach the place by nightfall.” Piper turned to Lyn. “How are you for supplies? Or gold?”

“I am running low,” Lyn admitted. “In the normal course of events I’d be going out hunting for something valuable right about now to pay for a supply run. But I don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone.”

“We can give you some gold, if maybe you have someone you can ask to buy for you,” John offered.

“I do, actually. A young man from a nearby farm comes around and I let him run errands for me,” Lyn said. She had a small smile on her face.

“Is that all you let him do?” Piper asked.

“Well...there are other things he’s happy to do for me.”

“I’ll bet,” Piper said, smirking.

“He’s very...enthusiastic,” Lyn said.

“You’re talking about fucking,” Indigo said, sounding a little drunk, and they all looked over at her. “Hi,” she said, “I don’t know where I am.”

John and Yelena came to stand over her. “You’re at a safe place,” John said. “This is Lyn, Piper’s good friend. She has agreed to care for you while you recover.”

“Thank you very much, Lyn,” Indigo replied. She had a somewhat goofy grin on her face. “I don’t suppose you’re into girls? ‘Cause you are so hot and I really wanna have sex with you.”

“Is this because of the poison?” Lyn asked.

“No, I’m afraid I’m naturally a bit of a whore,” Indigo replied.

“She is,” John agreed. “And I mean that in a good way.”

“Well then,” Lyn said, looking down at Indigo, “I think you’re very attractive, and I would love to have sex with you when you’re feeling up to it. And I’m positive the handsome young man that comes around will absolutely love to have a threesome with us.”

“That sounds wonderful. What race is he?”

“Human.”

“Mmm. I like human,” Indigo murmured, looking at John.

“As do I,” Lyn agreed. “Though I prefer beryl.”

John untied one of the bags of gold he had with a hundred pieces in it, reconsidered, then untied a second one and handed them off to Lyn, who accepted them both and thanked him.

“There is one more thing,” Yelena said.

“Yes?” Lyn asked.

“Do you have any magical items that you could stand to lose? It would be helpful. Anything with a magical charge.”

“Yes, I think I have a few things. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Thank you.”

She disappeared deeper in her cabin, into another room, and began rummaging around. “How are you feeling?” Yelena asked, coming to stand closer to Indigo.

“Ugh. Tired. Sore. Sick.”

“I am so sorry. I feel so guilty. It is my fault this happened to you...”

“Yelena,” Indigo said, reaching up and taking the demoness’s hand, “I agreed to danger when I said yes to helping you undertake this task. Really, I’m glad that I’m not dead. That’s enough for me. And I got to meet the three of you. And have sex with two of you.”

“We can fix that if you’d like, you’re really hot,” Piper said.

Indigo grinned. “Good.”

“You’re going to be okay to stay here for a little while?” John asked.

“Yeah, I will be. Especially if I’m going to be getting laid. Lyn seems nice. And interesting. How long do you think I’ll be down, though?”

“At least a week,” Yelena said.

Indigo sighed. “Well, I’m still alive. And in good company. Don’t worry about me. Go, deal with your situation. I’ll be here.”

“Okay. Thanks again for your help. It is truly appreciated,” Yelena said. She leaned down and gave Indigo a kiss. As did John and Piper.

“You’re welcome. And thanks for the fun, and the sex. Come visit me.”

“We will,” Yelena promised.

Lyn returned a moment later with a small collection of magical trinkets. She passed them a pair of rings, an earring, a small stone of polished obsidian, and an amulet on a necklace. “All of these have some magical charge to them,” she said, “and I don’t need them any longer. I was going to sell them at some point. I hope this helps.”

“This will. Thank you very much,” Yelena replied.

“In my pack,” Indigo said tiredly, “there’s a ring with a red stone set into it. It’s got a pretty good enchantment on it against heat and fire. I was gonna sell it at some point, but this is more important. Take it.”

“Thank you,” Yelena repeated, and retrieved the ring from her pack.

They said their goodbyes once more, and then headed back out into the cold.

…

They didn’t speak much for the rest of the day.

The trio set off from Lyn’s cabin, bearing east this time, marching off at a very brisk and steady pace into the cold and the trees. Piper led the way and carried Rok the entire time. She seemed to have a near endless capacity for endurance, not having to stop or to pass off the demon, though lean and wiry, still certainly heavy, once the entire way there. And of course, Yelena was a demoness, and a hundred years old, and most of that had been spent keeping in top shape. So, John was the one who was really suffering.

He was suddenly very glad for the change in his sex life recently, and not just for the obvious reason. Sex tended to work out a lot of different muscles, and sex with a demoness in particular tended to really build up endurance. If he had to guess, he’d say he’d put on several pounds of muscle over the past month and a half, all of it owed to his new life of sex, frequent travel, and all the combat he’d been participating in while living in the Wild. Honestly, he was in the best shape of his life now, and he was glad.

Because he needed it.

It took them just over six hours to make the trek. Most of it was spent following a trail eastward through either barren wastelands or snow-capped trees. Eventually, this gave way to a fairly deep valley. As they descended into it, following a narrow path down, they quickly fell into shadow. The sun was setting, and darkness was maybe an hour off.

Rok didn’t move or make a sound throughout all of it.

John kept glancing at the demon every so often, paranoid that he was going to do something violent and sudden.

When they finally reached the valley floor and kept walking, he broke the long silence. “Yelena...” he said.

“Yes, love?” she replied.

“What can you tell me about Rok?”

She was silent for a few seconds. “He is an assassin,” she said finally. “He prefers secrecy and stealth and silent deaths. He poisons almost everything he uses. He was old when I got started fighting. He...frightened me, sometimes,” she admitted reluctantly.

“He freaks me out,” Piper muttered. “I know bastards like this. Live for the assassinations. It’s all they do, like they worship it.”

“Yes,” Yelena replied immediately. “We say our devotion and faith lie directly towards the...we have a word for it. It basically means warlord or...I supposed blood baron would be more accurate. We serve he who is at the top. But in practice some of us have our own other devotions. I never believed that Rok lived for anything beyond his assassination missions. I know he killed at least two other blood barons while I was, uh, active, in my own military. Honestly, we are lucky that we managed to take him down.”

“Bet he wasn’t expecting my big ass,” Piper replied.

“Yes,” Yelena agreed.

“So where is this place?” John asked.

“It’s an old...you know, it says it’s a monastery or something in what I’ve read about it, but I’ve wondered.” She paused. “Then again, there’s a lot of different kinds of monasteries I suppose. Depends on who or what you’re worshiping. Either way, it’s built into a cliff face in this valley. The sword was supposed to belong to the head monk, kind of a warrior monk. It was supposed to be very powerful,” Piper explained.

“How do you know it’s still here?” Yelena asked.

“Because everyone who’s gone after it doesn’t come back.”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed. So we should be ready.”

John wasn’t looking forward to fighting...whatever it was, not after walking hard for six straight hours. But he had to. Who knew? Maybe they’d get lucky and the place would be empty. Though he really doubted it.

They walked through the darkening valley for another twenty minutes before finally locating the monastery. It was indeed built into the face of a large, rocky cliff. He saw closed windows going up for five stories, and huge stone steps led up to the front entrance. There didn’t seem to be anyone or anything around. The whole area felt dead. Well...not entirely dead. They moved up the steps, and John and Yelena drew their weapons.

“Stay ready,” Piper said quietly.

The huge wooden doors that permitted entry were partially open. The interior beyond was dark. Yelena went first, igniting a light spell and pushing back the shadows. John went in after her, his blade drawn. Ready for combat. They came into a long room, the ceiling maybe two stories high. Stairwells were cut into the stone to either side of them, leading up and away, into darkness, and there were more stairs ahead of them, in the center of the room, leading to a raised second half of the area. John spotted a scattering of old tables and chairs, a pair of dead fireplaces on either side of the room, embedded in the walls.

And several corpses. They all looked like adventurers.

“Check them,” Yelena whispered. “Maybe we can learn what killed them.”

John nodded tightly and hurried over to the nearest corpse. It was a beryl man adorned in leather armor. His pack had split open when he’d hit the floor where he now lay, his neck cut halfway open. He’d obviously bled out very quickly. His supplies were scattered around him. The blood was long frozen over. He checked a second corpse, this one a human woman, who had been stabbed in the heart. A third, a felis woman, had been gutted.

“I’d say it’s someone with a sword doing it,” John said finally.

“Great,” Piper muttered.

What did that mean? Usually these places had some kind of ancient horror guarding them, something that used brute force or magic or some strange form of attack. A blade seemed almost...dull by comparison.

Then they heard it: footfalls.

They were strangely clattering footfalls, like wood striking stone over and over again. The footsteps were unhurried, almost measured, and growing closer. They were coming from the front of the room.

“Get ready,” Piper whispered. She had set Rok aside in a corner and now had her own blade out. Yelena drew and notched an arrow. John raised his sword. They all waited in rapt silence. The clacking footsteps grew louder.

And as the figure wandered into view, it suddenly made sense.

He found himself staring into the glowing, bony sockets of a skull. Whoever he was in life, he must have been quite large, at least six and a half feet. As a skeleton, he was still very intimidating. He wore the ragged remains of some old, ceremonial armor, and carried a long sword that glowed a dull red in the shadows of the room.

“Oh,” Yelena said.

“I believe this is the monk,” John muttered.

“Well, let’s put an end to him,” Piper replied.

The undead monk began to walk briskly down the steps, and all three of them went to meet him with their own weapons. Yelena fired an arrow and it connected directly with the thing’s skull. John skidded to a halt in surprise as sparks flew and the skull popped right off. It stuck the stonework floor with a hard, hollow sound, and the bones collapsed.

Piper laughed. “Well, that was easy,” she said.

Abruptly, the bones began to vibrate, and they suddenly snapped back up into place, reforming themselves in a second.

“Oh...shit,” Piper muttered.

“Well that explains why all these people are dead,” John said. “How, exactly, are we planning on dealing with this?”

And then the skeleton launched itself at them, and he was busy defending himself. He brought his blade up barely in time to deflect the undead skeleton’s own glowing blade, but the force of the impact was so hard it sent him stumbling back several steps. Yelena immediately jumped in and launched a furious assault that the skeleton quickly began repelling. Yelena growled, stepping up her attack, and managed to at least fight it to a standstill.

But she could not push it back.

The skull seemed to grin malignantly at them.

Then Piper stepped in and began hacking away at it. Her blade rebounded off its arm and the arm came off, sword and all. It clattered to the floor. Yelena didn’t hesitate to smash the pommel of her sword into the skull and it cracked into two pieces with a very satisfying sound. The skeleton again collapsed into a pile.

And again, immediately reformed.

“Well, shit! How do we stop this thing?!” John cried.

“Let’s try this,” Yelena said, and as the skeleton finished reforming, she extended her hand, palm flat towards it, and released a massive fireball. This blew the skeleton to pieces and several charred, smoking bits of it flew across the area.

Unfortunately, within a few seconds, it had reassembled again, still smoking.

“What are we going to do!?” Yelena snapped.

“Oh shit!” Piper cried, sounding excited. “I know how to fix this! Keep it busy!” she yelled, and sprinted off up the central stairs, disappearing into the shadows.

“Well...I hope she’s right,” John said, and raised his blade again.

“As do I,” Yelena growled, doing the same.

Having to rely completely on the notion that Piper knew what she was doing, the pair threw themselves at the skeleton again. They tried to keep it busy, and did so for about a minute, knocking it to pieces four more times, before an idea occurred to John.

“Wait, why are we fighting it?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Yelena replied.

“We just have to keep it busy. Let’s just keep away from it.”

“Well...all right,” Yelena murmured, considering it.

They kept away from it. It felt fairly ridiculous, almost like playing a children’s game. It wasn’t particularly fast, and all they had to do was keep backing up, staying apart from each other. Occasionally they would throw something at it to get its attention switched from one person to another. And this new tactic seemed like it would work, and did so until suddenly, about two minutes in, the thing abruptly turned and began hurrying back the way it had come.

Towards Piper.

“Aw shit,” John muttered.

“Whatever she’s doing must be worrying it,” Yelena said, and released another fireball that knocked its head off.

It quickly reformed and continued its resolute journey back into the shadows, up the stairs. They repeated this twice more before it reformed and suddenly twisted back around, leaped forward, and smashed John aside backhandedly. For something that was so easy to disassemble, it sure packed one crazy punch.

John screamed in pain and surprise as he flew back down the stairs and landed with a heavy thud. Yelena shouted and launched herself at it, but it struck out with its foot when she got close enough and sent her flying as well.

“Get after it!” John gasped as he surged to his feet.

Yelena growled in reply as she did the same. This time, it was moving a bit faster. They hurried up the stairs, across a short, open area beyond with old, decaying benches lining either way, and through a large doorway at the back, into a long, dark corridor. Up ahead, they could hear it clattering away, towards Piper.

It was picking up speed.

Yelena tossed another fireball at it, but the skeleton dodged it and ran on. Why was it suddenly getting faster and smarter? Maybe it had just been toying with them earlier, John reasoned. Or maybe whatever Piper was doing was dredging up long dormant survival instincts, or deeper reserves of strength and intelligence.

There was a light at the end of the hallway.

As they drew closer, he saw a figure standing in the doorway. Piper. She was holding something in her hand, which was raised in front of her. The skeleton released a strange sound of fury and ran faster still.

John had just begun to realize that he was looking at a heart in Piper’s hand, a big, ugly, black heart, when she squeezed. The heart turned to dark pulp in her grasp, and the skeleton fell to pieces mid-run, bits and bones scattering across the stone floor with a loud, echoing roar of rage. This time, however, it didn’t reassemble.

“What the...what was that?” Yelena asked.

Piper was shaking her hand, spattering bits of the dark heart everywhere. She began to wipe it off on a cloth. “It was his heart. It’s an old necromancer trick. Tie their life energy to their heart. I could smell it, found it locked away in a lockbox. Had to rip it open to get at it, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to if it wasn’t so old. You kill the heart, you kill the skeleton, since the energy sustaining it no longer exists.”

John and Yelena came to stand before Piper. The blade that the skeleton had been carrying had come to rest between them, at their feet. Piper bent and picked it up. “This is it,” she said, holding it up. “Honestly, I’m not sad to see this go, this is an evil thing. I can feel it.” She handed it to Yelena, who accepted it. “So...now what?”

“Now, we check on Rok. Then the two of you should scour this place for magical trinkets. The more we have, the better. And I must prepare the...ritual,” Yelena replied.

“Then let’s get to work,” John said.

…

Rok was still unconscious, or at least unmoving and silent, and his bindings were still secure.

They dumped all the magical trinkets they had on them, with the exception of Yelena’s original amulet that changed her appearance.

“Are you sure you want to give that up?” John asked, indicating the second amulet they had found at the research outpost.

“If this works, we won’t need it,” she replied.

He figured she had a point. He and Piper began searching the monastery. An hour passed. Two. Three hours passed. They periodically came back to check on Yelena, who spent most of the time apparently meditating. Though during the third hour that changed, and John was unhappy to see that she had cut herself and was using her blood to draw a complex diagram on the stone floor of the main room, which she had cleared and cleaned. The gathering of magical artifacts and items was at the center of the diagram.

Finally, they had done their sweep of the area, and had managed to find another handful of magically infused gemstones, rings, earrings, and necklaces. When they came back with their last batch of collected items, which included a fairly fat sack of gold, they found her arranging the items and artifacts in rings around the circle they initially occupied, which was clear now. He and Piper dropped off their final findings.

“Are you done, uh, bleeding?” he asked.

“Yes, I took part of a healing potion,” Yelena replied, distracted.

“Can we help?” Piper asked.

“No,” Yelena answered simply.

They took the hint and grabbed a seat together on a bench, keeping an eye on Rok. After several more minutes of arranging the items, Yelena finally stood and moved over to Rok. She knelt, checked his bindings once more, then picked him up and hauled him over to the blood diagram. She then set him down in the middle and picked up the powerfully magical blade they had taken from the skeleton a few hours ago.

“Get ready,” she said. “I think we should have more than enough magic to haul him here and disorient him properly, but it is hard to tell.”

Both of them nodded and got to their feet, blades in hand.

Yelena hesitated. “If at all possible, I want to be the one to kill him.”

“Understood,” Piper replied in a manner that suggested she had a deep understanding of the kind of thing Yelena was feeling right then.

Finally, Yelena knelt over Rok. She began chanting quietly, her eyes closed, face scrunched in concentration. John could feel the magic. It was very heavy on the air, subtly vibrating everything in the room. It was like the charge of lightning just before it struck, or the way the wind shifted, the pressures changed, just before a powerful storm. The lines of blood began to glow a bright red. Yelena was speaking a language he didn’t understand and hurt to hear, but he remained resolute, sword ready, Piper beside him.

Yelena ceased speaking abruptly.

She raised the blade, aiming it directly over Rok’s heart, the demon assassin on his back, wrists still bound behind him.

Right before she plunged the tip into his heart, Rok’s eyes shot open. For a second, John felt the tiniest bit of sympathy for the sorry bastard.

What a way to go, waking up right before someone plunged a blade into your heart.

But he had tried to kill Yelena, and had damn near succeeded in killing Indigo. John did not regret it in the slightest when the blade penetrated the demon’s heart. Rok let out a short scream and began to twist and writhe on the floor, among the trinkets and the blade. Yelena stood, leaving the blade there, which, surprisingly, remained standing straight up. She must have plunged it all the way through down to the floor.

Blood pumped out of Rok’s body, mixing with Yelena’s, and his struggles quickly weakened, until finally the life drained from his body, and he was left staring at nothing, his eyes empty of life. Yelena now held her own blade in hand, baring her teeth, as angry as he had ever seen her before. This was it.

The moment of truth.

The magical presence began to intensify and now many items were rattling. Dust fell from the ceiling. The monastery around them groaned uncertainly and John wondered if they might collapse part or even all of it.

Wouldn’t that be a stupid fucking end to their journey?

The pressure of magic on the air became so much that for a few seconds, John couldn’t breathe. And then, finally, all at once, everything seemed to contract, and there was a brilliant red light in the exact center of the blood diagram.

And then, an intense pulse of light.

When John got his vision back, blinking furiously, he heard a cry of surprise from a new voice, and John saw Yelena standing over a prone figure, lying on the floor, hands up in defense. Hagan. It had worked.

“Yelena...” he whispered, the terror obvious in his voice as he fully realized the situation. “What have you...you did it, didn’t you? You crazy bitch, you pulled me over...”

“You should never have tried to bring me back!” Yelena screamed.

“Please...I-I will stop sending the assassins. Just send me back. I swear I will leave you alone,” Hagan said.

John had to admit, he was surprised. He thought this ringleader would be stronger, harder to beat, but here he was, begging for his life.

Well, Yelena looked pretty fucking terrifying right now.

“No, Hagan. It is too dangerous to let you live. You foolish bastard, look at you. Wasting all these resources on me...why? Why would you even bother?”

“You knew my true name,” he groaned. “I thought at first I would just find you, try to figure out what happened to you. I...I was in the right place at the right time. Our leader...I killed him. And I became the leader. That was when I sent for you, but no one could find you. I wanted you at my side. I wanted you to rule with me...you still can.”

“There is nothing you can offer me, Hagan. There is nothing you have, nothing that exists in our world you can possibly offer me,” Yelena growled.

He looked around again, his eyes flicking briefly to John, and then Piper. He looked back at Yelena. “I do not understand. They told me...you were bound to a human. I did not believe them. I thought you had been enslaved. But I can see it in your eyes...what is here? What could possibly be here that would make you stay? That would make you abandon your entire way of life? Make you abandon everything about yourself? Your culture? Your people? Your society? That would make you refuse an offer of absolute power?”

“I found someone that I genuinely care for, and someone who genuinely cares for me. That is worth more to me than our entire realm, Hagan. It is not something you could possibly understand,” Yelena replied.

“Then send me back. I will leave you alone, please...”

“No. It is too dangerous. I know you. You may wait weeks or months or even years, but eventually you will find some way to learn my true name, and summon me against my will, and kill or enslave me. The risk is unacceptable.”

“So be it!” Hagan yelled, and his hand came up with a dagger.

Yelena was faster. She drove her blade into his eye, killing him instantly. Hagan went slack. The magical resonance on the air began to dissipate rapidly. There was silence in the large chamber, save for the wind blowing outside.

“Is that it?” John asked finally.

“That is it. It is over,” Yelena replied softly. She turned and walked over to him, then wrapped him in a tight hug, holding him to her.

He realized she was crying. He hugged her back fiercely.

“I’ll uh...make sure no one’s outside,” Piper said, suddenly awkward.

“Thank you,” Yelena whispered.

Piper left, and they stood there for a long time, holding each other.

“Are you okay?” he asked finally.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I am okay. I truly am. I just...I knew that I loved you...that I do love you more than I have ever loved anyone or anything in my entire existence. But it was not until I had that conversation that I realized how deep, how profound, how all-encompassing that love was. Even if Hagan was telling the truth, and who knew, maybe he was, I still would not have hesitated to turn him down. I meant what I said, every word of it. There is nothing that anyone anywhere could possibly offer me to give you up. I am crying because I am happy. And, okay, because I am stressed out and exhausted, but mainly because I am happy.”

John felt his eyes burning, blinked, realized he was crying as well. “I guess I am too,” he murmured.

She pulled back slightly, still holding him, and looked at his face. “I do not think I have ever seen you cry before,” she said softly.

“It’s not something I do often,” he replied.

They kissed, and stood together like that for a long time.

EPILOGUE

Ten days came and went.

They spent most of it with Indigo and Lyn, though John did feel a little guilty, because although both women, all three women, actually, Piper included, had asked him and Yelena, in their own ways, for sex, the pair had declined. They weren’t closing their relationship, but for now...well, for now it only felt right to make love with each other. And they did, every night. It was somehow closer, somehow more intimate than it had been before. Something John didn’t think was actually possible. But it was.

Nonetheless, they spent time with Indigo, Piper, and Lyn, getting to know Piper and Lyn better, and just generally enjoying their company. They helped with chores around the house, went on long walks together, hunted, and swapped stories. Lyn used to be an adventuress, but had finally grown tired of it and decided to retire out here. After about a week or so, Indigo was back up to full strength, and had decided she’d had enough adventure for now. She wanted to go back home to Brynne. Piper, who had promised to help them find Kesley, had asked if she wouldn’t mind waiting a little bit longer, because she also wanted to return to south of the mountains for awhile. She had people she wanted to see, things she needed to do.

Indigo had agreed.

After they’d said their goodbyes, the trio had begun walking north.

It had taken them most of three days to find what they were looking for. A mountain, with a path up along one side that was easy to miss, but also easy to ascend once you’d found it, and Piper knew where it was.

They walked until they reached the top…

…

“Here we are,” Piper said.

“This is it?” John asked, looking up. They had finally ascended the path and now stood on a relatively flat patch of snowy ground. He had to admit that the view was absolutely fantastic. He could see for dozens of miles. Of course, most of it was just snowy wastelands and forest, but still: it looked simply stunning.

“Yep. Looks like just a big empty cave, right? Well, that’s the idea. Come on.” She strode confidently into the huge opening.

“She’s just...okay with us walking in?” John asked.

“She won’t bite, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not even sure if she’s here right now...hey, Kesley! You home!?” Piper called.

John couldn’t help but wince nervously. He had never actually seen a dragon before, let alone talked to one.

His hand sought Yelena’s, and she accepted it without comment, their fingers lacing together. Then came the reply.

“Yes, Piper, I’m home.” Her voice was...not as deep or powerful as John imagined it to be. Still, it was unique, and although the response wasn’t a shout, he could hear it clearly. It was powerful in a different way.

And it had a rough, kind of smoky edge to it. It was a sexy voice.

“I’m coming in! And I’ve got guests!”

“I’m ready. And I can smell them. A human male, and...is that...a demoness?”

“You’ve got a good nose,” Yelena said, not quite raising her voice.

“I do,” Kesley agreed.

They followed Piper into the darkness, which was oddly not as complete as he had initially thought. It had to be some kind of magic trick, because he could actually see quite well now.

The cave narrowed, though not a great deal, and eventually became a tunnel. They followed it for quite awhile, and finally it opened up again into a larger cavern that was...set up like a house, he realized. The walls looked fairly smooth, and came to a domed ceiling overhead, all of it rock. There were several paintings and tapestries adorning the walls, and one whole section of it was taken up by an utterly massive bookshelf, filled with books.

Yelena gasped softly when she saw that, and John smiled.

There were chairs and tables and benches in several areas, for what seemed to be several different reasons. Some were arranged around a large fireplace, some were set up like a dining area, some seemed simply to lounge in, and some of them were quite large. They reminded him of the huge chair in Morgan’s house.

There were a few openings along the walls, which led to other rooms, he imagined. And out of one of them walked…

He wasn’t sure what he was seeing at first. She was...a dragon, true, but not nearly as large as he thought she would be. Although she still was quite large. She looked to be somewhere between a serpentine and a beryl in how her skin appeared, though her scales were black, with the tiniest hint of green in them in some places. Her tail swished behind her. And her head...her face resembled that of a dragon’s, but it was also a bit more human, or what he thought of as human. She had horns coming from her forehead, and a frill of cartilage growing from the back of her head, almost like a crown. It was tinged with the deepest crimson.

Her wings, folded behind her, had that same black-and-crimson style to them.

Her eyes flickered yellow, and…

She was naked. Wow, did she have a fantastic body. And fucking huge breasts. And some wonderfully broad hips.

He wondered suddenly if there would be any opportunity for sex with this dragoness. But not now, that might come later, hopefully.

“Piper, who are these strangers you have brought into my home?” she asked, her voice calm and kind and vaguely amused.

“This is John, and this is Yelena. They have come seeking your assistance,” Piper replied.

“Oh have you now?” Kesley asked.

“Yes,” John replied, and fumbled for the amulet. He held it up. Gods, but she was tall! Maybe eight feet. “Morgan sent us.”

“That is certainly hers. Well, between you showing up with Piper and that amulet, I’m more than willing to at least hear you out, John and Yelena. Come, sit with me by the fire, you look cold,” she offered.

“Thank you,” Yelena replied.

They all gathered around the fireplace and sat down. It felt wonderful after the frigid chill of the northern winds for almost three days.

“So, tell me, what is it you ask of me?”

“Well...it’s a long story,” John replied.

“I have time.”

“Okay. Well, it all started about a month and a half ago...”

They spent nearly two hours telling her the story of how they had met, fallen in love, begun to build a life together...and all that had come as a result of that. Kesley seemed fascinated by all of this, asking questions several times. Piper threw in something helpful a few times when they got to the part where she got involved.

“And so,” John said, after they’d told her everything, “that’s, uh...all of it. That’s why we’re here. Why we want your help.”

“I see,” Kesley replied. She was smiling a small smile. Although nothing was small on her large dragon face. “Having heard your story, I have decided that...I will offer to teach you how to shape-shift, Yelena. Although I must ask: it seems to me that your motivation for learning has changed, given that you no longer need it to hide from your former brethren. Would you mind telling me what your new motivation is?”

Yelena was silent for several seconds. “I have been considering that during our journey here,” she replied finally. “On a practical sense, it is because it would be a good thing to know, for life here, in this world.”

“That is very true,” Kesley agreed.

“But on a more personal note...I guess it just feels right. Being here, seeking out your wisdom, it just feels right. And I’ve learned to trust these feelings.”

“They seem to have led you on a true path so far,” Kesley said.

“I’d have to agree...but I’m biased,” John replied, making Kesley laugh.

“So, it’s decided then. You shall live here with me, and I shall teach you. I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll quickly be able to determine that after a few weeks of practice, I think. I can sense a great deal of skill and endurance and magical knowledge in you, Yelena.”

“I have spent decades honing and mastering magic, among other things,” Yelena agreed.

“Well, this is good to hear,” Piper said, standing up, “but I have an elf to get back to. Kesley, it’s been good seeing you. John, Yelena, I wish you both the best of luck.”

“Thank you so much for helping us,” Yelena replied, a sentiment which John echoed.

“Your next stay should be a bit longer,” Kesley suggested.

“I know, I’ll try not to have other responsibilities next time,” Piper replied. “But I’ll be back, probably after winter lifts.”

“We’ll more than likely be here,” John said.

She hugged and kissed each of them, wished them farewell once more, and then began making her way back out into the cold.

“Let me show you to your quarters,” Kesley said, and led them off to one of the other exits from the main cavern that John had initially missed, probably because this one actually came with a door, and was human-sized. She opened the door and led them inside, ducking to get in. He was very surprised to see a pretty decent setup there: a big bed, a desk with a chair, a small kitchen area, more shelves, half of which were filled with more books, and even a sunken tub.

“This is amazing,” John murmured.

“I’ve been known to have visitors from time to time, so I figured awhile ago that it would make sense to have a place like this. I’m going to be making dinner soon. If you could help, we can have a big feast to start off this partnership right,” Kesley said.

“That sounds wonderful,” Yelena replied.

“Okay. Come out when you’re ready.”

She left them there together, closing the door behind her.

Yelena immediately began to head for the tub. “I need to at least wash off,” she said.

John wholeheartedly agreed with her. After that hard trek, he desperately felt the need for a bath. But he lingered for a moment, looking around the room slowly until his gaze settled back on Yelena, who was undressing.

Despite everything, despite how this all had begun, having their house broken into in the middle of the night, all of the pain and suffering and desperate anxiety that had followed...he was happy with how this had turned out.

This felt good.

Yelena had been correct: this felt right.

THE FORMER PRINCESS

John and Yelena looked up from where they lounged in bed, reading books, as there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Yelena called.

The door opened and their new roommate, (it felt a little odd to think of her like that, but that’s what Kesley had started calling them all: roommates), came in.

“You two are so adorable,” she said, smiling at them as she stood a few feet in front of the open doorway.

“I am glad you think so,” Yelena replied.

“Well, I didn’t come here to dote on you. I had a suggestion,” she said.

“What’s that?” John asked, sitting up.

“Winter’s on approach. Real winter. I can feel it. There’s going to be a big storm in about a week or two. And once winter gets its icy grip on this land, it’ll be very difficult to leave this place again. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were stuck here for three solid months. Good for training, bad for sanity. I’ve got a lot of things here to keep you both busy, but I figured you two would enjoy getting out for some fun,” she explained.

“I’d be interested in this,” Yelena said, already getting up out of bed.

“Yeah, I would too. Got any suggestions?” John asked, joining her.

“I do, actually. The far elves colonized this area about two thousand years ago. Only a handful of their structures remain. One of them is about three hours walk from here to the north. I can mark it on your map. Maybe it’s worth checking out. Although...be careful. There’s a lot of rumors about the ruins, and I honestly don’t know what’s true, but they all agree on one thing: they’re dangerous. And several people have gone into some of the ruins and haven’t come back out.”

“Hmm...” John looked at Yelena.

“I am interested,” she said simply.

“Well okay then. We’ll be careful. Thanks, Kesley,” he said.

“You’re welcome. If you aren’t back in a day, I’ll come looking for you.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Yelena said.

John nodded. It was good to have a contingency plan. As he got their map for Kesley, Yelena began pulling on her clothing and armor.

…

It had been a month since all the nightmarish chaos of Yelena’s former brethren (he wasn’t sure what else to call them, certainly not allies), and they had finally tracked down Kesley. It had been a very good month, as far as John was concerned. The trek, and all the fighting, that had happened in between their cabin and their final arrival at Kesley’s cave in the far north, had taken it out of him in a way he hadn’t even realized until he’d had a chance to actually, genuinely relax. And relax he and Yelena had.

The first five or so days had largely bled into one another, becoming a semi-coherent blur of sex, sleep, big meals, long soaks in a big sunken tub, and pleasant conversations with Kesley. She was an excellent hostess: kind, funny, more than a little lewd, thoughtful, and fun. She also made the best food he’d ever tasted, absolutely no contest. He had an idea being hundreds of years old gave you a lot of time to practice.

After that long session of rest, relaxation, and, most importantly, recuperation, Yelena had been more than ready to begin her training. And she had. She and Kesley disappeared into a large room behind another one of the doors in Kesley’s cave for hours at a time. Sometimes John went in to watch, as both women invited him to do so, but mostly, at least at first, he hadn’t been sure what to do. Poking around Kesley’s place proved to be interesting for about three or four days, especially checking out the books she’d gathered, but eventually, John began to feel like he really should be taking this opportunity to better himself as well.

And so he had.

He set up a workout and combat training regimen for himself. Sometimes he practiced swordplay and hand-to-hand by himself, sometimes with Yelena. (She was still faster and stronger than him, and he doubted it would ever change.) Working out was something he did off and on, trying to make a habit of it but often falling out of it. Hunting and traveling tended to keep him pretty fit, and although his recent lifestyle had brought a lot more hunting and fighting to his life, he was eating and lounging a lot more too, and beginning to go soft around the edges again.

Not something he particularly enjoyed.

Maybe it was the sudden change of location, or maybe it was just that he’d legitimately come close to death probably a dozen times on the way up here, and had been forced to combat people far more skilled than him, but John suddenly found it a lot easier to get focused and stay focused. He knew that if he was going to protect himself, and Yelena when she needed it, he was going to have to be in the best shape of his life, and then keep pushing.

But after a little over two solid weeks of it, he had to admit that he was starting to get a little cooped up. And damn, winter hadn’t even started yet. How was he going to keep his sanity doing this for another three solid months?

Well…

He had Yelena, and he had a lot of books, and Kesley to talk with, and a lot more training to do. It would be a challenge, but, he supposed, he now fully realized the truth of the matter about himself: John Greenfield lived for challenges.

Right now, he was off to face a new one.

They were making their way briskly down the mountain. It was still before noon. Yelena had on her amulet, the one they’d originally found to mask her appearance. He still didn’t like it, but even here, in this remote location, they couldn’t risk the wrong person seeing her. As they reached the base of the mountain and began to head north, he spoke up.

“So, how’s your training going?” he asked.

“Very well, as far as Kesley is concerned. She seems surprised by my abilities and how fast I am learning. She says that even so, it would take a few years of practice to make me a master of the art, but I could definitely learn enough to pass as another species within five or six months,” Yelena replied, looking down at herself. “I wonder what species I would choose...”

“Do you maybe wanna stick around and learn more?” he asked.

“Oh no, not at all,” Yelena replied quickly. “I mean, I would certainly appreciate the opportunity, it’s just...I am already having difficulty with the notion of being here for another four or five months. I am already growing, uh, restless.”

“Glad I’m not the only one,” John murmured.

“Are you? You seem very enamored with your new routine of training and endurance building. And I see you reading a lot more now.”

“It’s great and all, I’m just...used to travel by now, I think. After all the traveling I’ve done since meeting you, I think the wanderlust has got me.”

“Mmm...yes. I understand. I feel the same way. What do you think we should do after I’ve learned the basics?”

“I don’t know. Maybe travel to another country? There’s so many different places we could go, if we wanted.”

“I’ve been reading up on this world, other countries and faraway lands. I do like the idea, but I’m not ready to make any choices yet. More research, first.”

“More research,” he agreed, because it was something he wanted to look into as well. He was actually embarrassingly ill-informed about his own world.

They kept walking, finding a trail that headed north.

The walk there was actually fairly pleasant. John kept worrying that snow would begin to fall, or a storm would creep up on them. But although there was a chilly bite to the air, the sun shining down on them from a largely cloudless sky made the day pleasant enough. And he had to admit, the countryside was just beautiful here. The trail they walked along passed over a valley with a river running through it, past huge stands of trees, past a lake surrounded by trees and melting snow, and, in the distance, there were more mountains.

It was easy to find a breathtaking view around here.

Yelena seemed absolutely enthralled by it, despite her hatred of the cold. She chatted animatedly with him, pointing out animals in the distance. They spied several deer, some rabbits that hopped along the ground, prospecting for food, and a variety of birds that passed overhead. She seemed particularly happy with the birds.

“There! Look!” she whispered, stopping him.

They’d come around a corner, as the path butted up against the hills they were currently walking along, and off to the right, down a gently sloping curve of snowy land, he saw a tree where a cluster of tiny chestnut brown birds were gathered. As they watched, the whole group, a good twenty or thirty of them, all flew down to a patch of ground maybe a few feet away. They all cheeped and chirped as they fed. They were very small things, maybe two inches tall. Something startled them and all at once the entire clutch raced back up to the tree.

A few seconds later, they returned to the ground again in a cluster.

Yelena laughed merrily. “You really like them, don’t you?” he asked.

“They are adorable!” she replied. “Don’t you think?”

“Oh yes, they are definitely adorable,” he agreed.

“We do not have things like birds in my realm. Well...not precisely. We have things that fly, but they are nightmarish beasts with enormous, bony wingspans. There are many things different about your world, but this might be one of my favorites. I am not sure why, I just love seeing birds so very much,” she said, grinning widely.

“I’m glad,” he said. “I love seeing you happy.”

She turned and smiled at him. “I know the feeling.” She leaned in and gave him a long, lingering kiss on the mouth, then took his hand and set off again.

Yes, definitely a fantastic walk.

And it remained fantastic until they had nearly reached the place they were going to. As they were drawing closer, Yelena stopped suddenly and snatched a dagger from her belt. Raising it up into a throwing position, she faced right.

“Who is there?!” she demanded.

John drew his blade. He hadn’t heard or seen anything. Shit, she was good.

“Don’t attack!” came a female voice. “I’m not a foe. I’m coming out now.”

“Slowly,” Yelena replied.

A very tall, very curvy blonde woman in leather armor stepped out from behind one of the trees to their right.

“Hi,” she said. He noted that she didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest. “My name is Ellie Lennox.”

“Hello, Ellie Lennox. Are you truly not a foe?” Yelena replied. She hadn’t lowered her dagger.

“I’m not. I won’t attack you. I’m not here to cause problems,” Ellie replied.

Yelena lowered her dagger, hesitated, then re-sheathed it. “I apologize. We have had...trying times lately.”

“I completely understand,” Ellie replied. “That’s actually why I was hiding. I was a little paranoid someone might be following me when I heard you coming up the trail and decided to hide and see who it was. How did you hear me?!”

“I, uh, have good ears,” Yelena replied.

“Godsdamned good ones...can I approach?”

“Yes,” Yelena replied. “My name is Yelena.”

“John,” John said, sizing her up.

There was something about her. She was clearly hot as fuck, there was no doubt about that, but something about her face. Not familiar, at least not that he’d ever seen her before, but something about the features of it.

Ellie came to stand before them. Holy shit she was tall. Taller even than Yelena. She had to be pushing a good six and a half feet. And she looked like a straight-up badass, a veteran adventurer. She had a scar on her face, specifically on her left cheek just below one very blue eye, and all her gear was weathered and well-worn.

But that name…

That last name.

“Wait a minute, Lennox? As in-”

“The Township of Lennox? Yes. Ex-princess Ellie at your service,” she said with a sour smirk.

“Ah. Sorry,” John murmured. That’s what he saw in her facial features: that vague notion of aristocracy that a lot of the ‘elite’ in the land seemed to have.

“Oh no, it’s fine. I just...don’t like to think about it. I’m actually thrilled not to be a princess anymore. It was my choice.” She paused and studied them, her eyes lingering on Yelena. “So, uh...what are the two of you up to, if you don’t mind my asking? You both seem like adventurers.”

“We are,” John replied. He briefly considered withholding that information, or being deceptive about where they were going, but decided not to. He wasn’t getting any bad vibes from Ellie at all, and Yelena had relaxed completely. She was actually very good about picking up on things from people they came across. “We’re heading for a far elf ruin up the road.”

“That’s what I thought. I’m heading there myself.” She paused, studied them both for a bit longer. “Wanna make it a threesome?”

John’s eyebrows raised a little. “Uh...yes?” he replied.

Ellie laughed.

“Is that an invitation for sex?” Yelena asked, and John felt his head snap around to look at her. She could be extremely blunt sometimes, and he really didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose or not in some instances.

Ellie laughed again, louder. “No...but maybe we could get to know each other a bit and see what happens,” she said, now wearing a confident smirk.

“Okay,” Yelena said.

“Come on,” Ellie replied, and began leading them down the path.

John found his eyes drawn to her ass. It was fucking huge. Everything about her seemed big. He looked at Yelena as they began walking. She favored him with a big smile. Okay, she had definitely done that on purpose, no social miscommunication or lack of tact there.

Well…

Gods did he want to fuck Ellie!

There was an immediate attraction there. Something about her tall, built frame and the scar on her face and the fact that she seemed pretty rough around the edges, maybe even a little dangerous, called to him in a way that only women like that did.

But if that was going to happen, in fact if any of this was going to happen, then they were going to need to be up front with her. Although it was definitely becoming a policy, he did discuss it with Yelena first, in case she had some reason to keep her identity a secret.

“You want to tell her?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” Yelena replied. “We need to, it is only fair. And I don’t think she will mind. Something about her...she reminds me of several of the other women we have seduced.”

He snorted. “You mean you have seduced.”

“You are quite good at seduction yourself. You did it quite well with me. I’ve seen you work it, John,” she said.

“What are you two whispering about back there?” Ellie asked, her tone teasing.

“We should do it now,” Yelena murmured.

“Ellie...uh, we have something to tell you,” John said.

Ellie stopped and turned around, and they stopped too. “Well, that’s ominous,” she said, though she seemed more curious than suspicious.

“We believe in honesty among adventurers and allies,” Yelena said.

“I do too,” Ellie agreed. “So what do you want to be honest about? There’s something about you, isn’t there? I can feel it, very, very subtly, but there’s just something about you...”

“There is,” Yelena said. “I am not human.”

“What are you? A beryl? No...you wouldn’t be bothering with what has to be an illusion spell or amulet, since you sure look human right now. An undead? You’re an undead, aren’t you? It’s okay, my best friend was cursed to be undead for a long time. And if we’re putting our cards on the table, I’m okay to fuck girls and fuck undead.”

“I am not an undead,” Yelena said.

“Huh...okay, interesting. Wait, don’t tell me, I want to guess. Not an undead, there’s no way you’re one of the native races. Not a beryl or felis or elf or kit. Shit, a dryad? But why would a dryad bother with it either? They have their own ways of misdirecting people...” She stared at Yelena for a bit longer, then sighed heavily. “Okay, I’m stumped. I give up.”

“I am a demon,” Yelena said.

Ellie’s eyebrows shot up. “Whoa, really?”

“Yes. Really.”

“Can I, um...see?”

“Yes,” Yelena said. She took off her amulet and the illusion spell fell away. Ellie let out a low whistle.

“By the Gods, you are beautiful,” she whispered. She walked closer and studied Yelena intensely. “I mean just...wow! I’ve never seen a demon before. And your horns. And those eyes! I can see why you’d hide this, sadly...” She seemed to get control of herself a little bit. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I feel like I’m going a little fast, and being rude.”

“No, I do not mind,” Yelena replied. “It is always a pleasure to come across another in this realm who is not horrified by me. And you are quite attractive yourself.”

“Well, thank you. Hmm...my Gods, a demoness. How did you get here? And how do you fit into this?” she asked, looking at John. Before he could properly respond, she got another big grin. “Oh my-you’re together, aren’t you!? Like a couple?!”

“Yes,” John said.

“That’s so awesome! How? You have to tell me how you met,” she said.

“We will. We should walk though,” Yelena suggested.

“Good point. Two birds with one stone.”

And so they walked, and the pair of them relayed the story of how they’d hooked up to Ellie, the ex-princess badass adventuress.

“And you’re living with a fucking dragon right now!?” she asked when they wrapped it up.

“Yes, we are,” Yelena replied.

“Holy shit, that’s just...nuts. I mean, some of that sucked a lot, but mostly it was amazing. You two have such awesome lives.”

“For the most part,” John agreed.

“I am curious to hear your tale,” Yelena said. “If I understand right, princess is a title of authority, correct?”

“Eh...sort of. It means daughter of a ruler in this land. It’s nothing special, but I don’t mind running through it. Basically, I was the firstborn daughter of the lord of a township. I’m expected to marry some prince, the firstborn son of another lord, so that when my dad’s done, I and my husband can pick up the job. The only thing is: I’ve never given a shit about ruling over a town. Since I was a little girl, I was always getting into trouble, digging in the dirt, going on adventures. I kept it up for my whole life, frequently leaving the town to walk around the countryside, plunder old ruins, fight monsters, hook up with hot people.”

“A very great lifestyle,” Yelena murmured.

“Yep. My dad...I love him. He was a great father, but he was constrained by tradition. It was getting to be about that time to get married, and I just...I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. At the time, I was having a dry streak for sex and I was just out of my mind with lust. I wanted dick so fucking bad. I ended up taking my best friend, Lena, who is a rich girl from the town and had been cursed to be an undead due to, ah, a mistake made by myself while plundering one of those ruins, but she’s since been cured, and the local healer, a very cute, shy young man named Warren, who had been drooling over me for a few years at that point, to the family cabin.”

“You fucked him, didn’t you?” John asked.

“I fucked his brains out. Lena and I seduced and fucked him into a coma basically. It was absolutely stellar. We kept up the threesome, though he and Lena fell in love. I’m so glad that happened. He’s so sweet and honestly the kind of guy she deserves. Not one of those rich assholes who just give a shit about appearances. Ugh. But anyway, while I was dealing with my damned stupid princess shit, I managed to talk my captain of the guard, a sexy middle-aged elf named Cassie, into fucking Warren, too.”

“He must have been particularly thrilled,” Yelena said.

“Oh yes. He was. He loved it so much. Eventually, I told my dad that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t settle down. He did understand, although he had to basically disown me publicly. My little sister took over my place now that I was out of the picture, and Lena, Cassie, Warren, and myself all started adventuring. And we have been since then. We all fuck each other all the time, and it’s totally fucking awesome.”

“Where are they now?” Yelena asked.

“All of them are back in Redwood. They wanted to take a break and maybe think about settling in for the winter, but I was desperately craving another good adventure. And I could tell Warren and Lena wanted some alone time, and Cassie had been catching the eyes of a lot of young men, and women, around Redwood, so I figured she’d want to ride some cock and rub pussies with the locals. I told them to stay put, and that I’d be back in a few weeks. I’d heard about these far elf ruins for awhile now, and got pointed towards this one.”

“Why this one specifically?” John asked.

“I guess a lot of them have been plundered, or even destroyed. I mean, it makes sense, given how damned old they are. I wanted to get into one of them and see what it was all about for myself,” Ellie replied.

“Well, I suppose we are about to find out,” Yelena murmured.

Up ahead, the path came to an end. Down an incline, at the end of the path, not far from the ocean, they saw it. It was a simple stone structure, vaguely rounded, and it seemed to be giving off a very faint bluish glow.

“That is magic,” Yelena said.

“Yeah it is,” Ellie agreed. “Even after all this time. Although it’s very faint.”

“What do you know about these things? I have to admit, I’m completely ignorant,” John asked as they resumed their walk.

“Not a lot,” Ellie replied. “I know they’re supposed to be magic, and that they were built by the far elves, and that they’re supposed to be dangerous. I also know that not all of them are still magic. So either they faded over time, or whatever is providing that magic broke, or died, or was taken maybe. There’s hardly any written accounts of them and the few that I have come across contradict each other, so I don’t know to believe any of them.”

“Mysterious,” Yelena said.

“Yep, and I love a good mystery.”

They finished walking down the road and grew silent as they entered the patch of land that the stone structure was built onto. Now that they were actually here, he could feel a very faint buzzing on the air. John didn’t really know too much about the far elves. Honestly, he didn’t know much about anything beyond his own land, and he was really beginning to realize that just recently. Well, that was probably going to change.

The trio made a slow circle around the perimeter of the structure, checking to see if there were any unfriendly people or monsters hanging around in obvious sight. They were alone, at least as far as they could tell. John had to admit, it was a little harder to concentrate with the low background buzz of magic in the air.

There was just one entrance into the rounded bluish structure, so after securing the area, that’s where they gathered.

“Everyone ready for this?” Ellie asked. She’d drawn a good-sized silver sword that had a faint red glow to it.

“I’m ready,” John said. He’d drawn his own silver blade.

“As am I,” Yelena murmured. She held a wickedly thin blade of shiny metal that Kesley had given to her as a gift.

John was actually really interested to see how it handled in combat. He doubled down on his efforts to remain focused as they approached the entrance. Time to get serious, there could be anything in there. Ellie opted to lead the way, so he and Yelena backed her up. They moved slowly through the broad opening in the stone. The room beyond was almost totally barren, the size of the entire structure, maybe fifty feet across. There was evidence that people had been here, though: scuff marks, ashes from fires once made to stave off the cold, some old blood, a few abandoned weapons. They moved slowly through the broad, open space, checking to see if there was anything of value, or any kind of traps in the area.

It felt very uncomfortable in here, but not like a curse or like there were undead about. This was different. This was a kind of uncomfortable that John had never felt before. It was strange and eerie and made him apprehensive.

“This place is weird,” Ellie whispered as they finished their sweep of the area.

“Indeed,” Yelena murmured.

The only way to go was down a wide set of stone stairs, cut straight into the earth, descending into the misty depths.

“Still feel like doing this?” John asked.

“Do you?” Ellie replied.

He laughed. “Yeah, I guess I do. I’ve been locked up for a month. Best thing to stave off cabin fever is a good life risk.”

Yelena grinned. “I suppose we will find out.”

Ellie set off down the stairs, sword still ready. John and Yelena followed her. They moved slowly, carefully, spreading out, John to the right, Yelena to the left, Ellie dead center. Their footsteps echoed as they descended. The stairwell seemed to go on for quite a long time, though John knew that it was probably just his nerves making everything seem worse than it really was. The only light was that faint bluish glow coming from the stone all around them. It provided just enough light to see maybe ten feet ahead of them.

None of them spoke the entire time.

Finally, John spotted a new source of light. Slowly, it grew, then resolved into a square of more powerful light that was closer to white than blue. As they drew nearer to the end, they came to a halt, waiting, listening.

“Do you hear anything Yelena?” John whispered.

“No,” she murmured. “Nothing at all. It is dead silent.”

“I don’t hear anything either,” Ellie muttered. “Come on.”

They finished the journey, coming to the end of the stairwell and exiting through the large opening. The light was now bright enough to show them a new chamber, a bit bigger than the one above, rectangular in shape. Along the walls, to either side of them, were openings, three per side. Only darkness could be seen beyond each opening. Dead ahead, at the end of the room, was another opening that was also quite dark.

What was most disturbing were the bodies. There had to be a couple dozen of them strewn out across the area. Some of them were nothing more than piles of old bones inside of suits of armor or traveling clothes. Some were at least somewhat recent, maybe a year old, maybe less. They all looked like adventurers.

“What’s down here?” Ellie whispered.

“It must be dangerous, whatever it is,” John said.

“We have faced worse,” Yelena almost growled.

“We don’t know that,” John said, but they had faced some pretty badass stuff so far. Standing here among the dead and the darkness, he was very glad that he was not in this place alone. Being here by himself would probably be unbearable. He didn’t think of himself as a coward, but by the Gods, this place was horrible.

“Be ready,” Ellie said, and took a step deeper into the area.

Nothing happened. She took another step. And another.

Something happened.

Noises came from ahead of them as something shifted. John tensed. The noises were coming from farther down the room. A few seconds later, two figures stepped out of the two farthest openings set into the walls.

They were tall, about as tall as Ellie was, but there was something oddly...perfect about the way they were moving. They had stepped out in absolute synchronicity, and now they began marching swiftly across the room in step with each other. As they came closer, John got at least something of an idea of what he was looking at.

Far elves. Undead far elves.

Only it wasn’t that simple. There were what appeared to be pieces of metal embedded into them. It was old, corroded metal. They each held simple blades and their eyes glowed with that same faint bluish light. The closer they drew, the more he saw how decayed and horrible they were. “Well...that’s not quite what I was expecting,” Ellie said.

She moved forward suddenly and slashed at one of the undead elves. But it ducked, its movements shockingly fast, and stabbed at her. Ellie cried out and narrowly avoided it, but didn’t avoid the fist that punched her in the stomach and sent her stumbling back hard enough that she tripped over one of the dead adventurers. John and Yelena shot forward, swords raised. This was going to be fairly difficult.

Deciding to go for something a little different, John narrowly dodged the far elf’s blade and tried to do a leg sweep and knock the bastard over. But the undead thing simply leaped up and avoided his leg completely! It stabbed at him again and John jerked to the side. The blade sliced cruelly into his flesh as it cut into his side. He grit his teeth but tried to press the attack, jabbing forward with his own blade. And made contact! The blade punched into the thing’s emaciated chest and out the back. It roared and backhanded him, sending him flying.

As he went down, Ellie came back into the fray, sword flying.

Struggling to his feet, John saw that Yelena was working on the other one and had locked it into a straight-up sword fight. Sparks flew and steel rang as they clashed, their movements extremely fluid and dexterous. And now he was without a sword. Great. He pulled out his dagger and began moving forward, trying to both keep from tripping over any of the corpses and to keep out of Ellie’s way, as she was smashing her blade against the undead far elf’s own sword. With it occupied, he had to get in there and find some kind of advantage.

He kept moving, keeping close to the wall, and suddenly wondered if there were more. Great, now he was paranoid of that. But for now, all he saw were the ones ahead of him, so he’d help deal with them. As he got around behind the undead creature, Ellie suddenly bashed the monster’s sword aside with a powerful blow and then brought her blade down as hard as she could on the wrist of the skeletal hand clutching the blade.

It was a clean cut, completely severing the hand. She raised her blade up and brought it down on the undead’s head, but the thing raised its arm up and the sword rebounded off of the metal plate that was embedded in the old flesh there. At the same time, it hit Ellie in the gut and again sent her staggering backwards in what was no doubt immense pain. John knew it was now or never. As he raised the dagger and began to bring it down, the undead both simultaneously whirled around to face him while, with its remaining hand, ripped out his own blade, which was still stuck in its chest, brought it up and around to face him, and stabbed him.

But his dagger still pierced its skull, and as it did, the light faded from the undead’s eyes. It clattered to the floor, and John went with it, screaming hoarsely as its hand was still attached to the sword currently plunged into his gut. Gritting his teeth, struggling to stay conscious, he reflected, briefly, that he was getting stabbed at an alarmingly high rate just recently. Thank the fucking Gods that healing magic and health potions were a thing or he’d surely be dead by now. To her credit, Yelena did not break her concentration on the creature she was facing. And neither did Ellie. He watched the big blonde surge back to her feet and rush over to help Yelena. It took them a little over a minute to finally overwhelm the thing and cut its head off.

The second it was dead, Yelena rushed over to him.

“Fuck, John,” she said as she came to stand over him.

“I’ll be fine,” he managed, then hawked and spat a mouthful of blood.

“I’ve got a healing potion,” Ellie said as she began shrugging out of her large pack.

“No, I can handle it,” Yelena replied. She crouched, setting her sword aside, and gripped the handle of John’s sword, which was still sticking straight out of him. “I’m going to have to pull it out, okay? You ready?”

“Yeah, just give me a three count,” John grunted. The pain was getting pretty bad.

Yelena’s face became pained, like she was guilty. Why would she be guilty? “One,” she said, and then ripped the blade out.

John blacked out.

He came to a few moments later feeling a whole lot better, though he was a bit pissed. “What the fuck happened to two and three!?” he cried.

“I am sorry, my love,” Yelena said, gently running her fingers through his hair, as he now had his head resting in her lap, “but you weren’t going to be ready for the pain by three. I have dealt with that before. The sooner the better, always.”

He sighed. She had a point. “Well, thanks,” he said.

She smiled. “I’ll make it up to you.”

He grinned back at her.

“You two are cute,” Ellie said. They glanced over. She had just finished drinking a healing potion.

“I could have healed you,” Yelena said.

“No, I’m fine. I appreciate it, though. You two really handled yourselves well back there, especially you Yelena. Good Gods, you are something else,” Ellie replied.

“She is,” John agreed.

“Now what are these things?” Ellie muttered, crouching over the undead far elf that she and Yelena had killed.

John slowly got to his feet and Yelena helped him up. They moved over and joined her. “Undead far elf, as far as I can tell,” he said.

“Yeah, but this metal...this is creepy. Effective, though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this. This is so weird. Although I’m wondering what happened to the others. I’m guessing all six of these niches should have been full.”

“Look,” Yelena said, pointing. “There.”

He followed her finger and saw that she was pointing to a corpse. It took him a few more seconds to realize that he was looking at another undead far elf, though it was much more decayed and had a knife sticking out of its skull.

“Some of those who came before us must have succeeded in killing the other four,” Yelena said quietly, looking at all the corpses.

“Well, let’s do what we came here to do,” Ellie said, straightening back up.

They set to work.

…

After ensuring that they were alone and checking out all six of the small side chambers where the undead elves rested, they’d set to work. Each of those chambers was completely bare, nothing more than scarred stone, with one exception: one of the poor adventurers that had come here had crawled in there to die. From there, they went to the final chamber at the end of the room. Yelena had to cast a light spell to properly illuminate the interior of that chamber, which was larger and more intricate than the others.

There were curious carvings all over the walls, engraved in the stone, all of it centered around a sophisticated platform about four feet tall. It looked like it was meant to hold some kind of orb that had been maybe a foot or so in diameter.

“What was here?” Yelena asked softly.

“I have no idea,” Ellie replied. She heaved a weary sigh. “But it’s gone, whatever the fuck it was. Dammit! I was looking forward to finding something cool.”

“Sorry,” John murmured.

“Oh, it’s fine...I mean, I got to fight something cool and meet the two of you,” she replied, turning and favoring them with a sly grin. When neither of them responded, she turned away from the pedestal. “Come on, let’s strip search these poor bastards and get out of here. I need some air.” She walked back into the main room.

They looked at each other, then followed her.

The trio set to work, spending close to an hour searching over all the bodies, rifling through pockets and packs. Sometimes it still struck him as uncomfortable, but it was kind of standard procedure among adventurers, just sort of an unspoken thing. All the people he’d asked about it, those who wandered the land, looted old structures, fought monsters, adventured, had said roughly the same thing:

Shit, if I’m dead, I’d rather my stuff go to good use than just sit there forever.

And John felt the same way, not that he particularly liked thinking about it. Eventually, they finished the job and then headed back upstairs.

“Not a bad haul,” Ellie said as they stepped back out into the sunshine.

“Yeah,” John agreed, shifting his pack. They’d found a decent haul of gold and gems, a few cool blades, a few magical rings and amulets.

“So...” Ellie murmured.

“So?” Yelena prompted.

“Um...you wanna have a threesome?” she asked, and he was surprised by how awkward she suddenly seemed.

“Are you...blushing?” John asked.

“No, I am not,” Ellie said firmly. She stared at him and Yelena, who stared back at her. Finally, she sighed. “Maybe.”

“We would love to,” Yelena said. “If you’d like, we could go back to Kesley’s place. She’s already given us permission to bring back people we trust.”

“That sounds fantastic,” Ellie replied, “I’d love to meet her. She sounds fascinating.”

“She is,” Yelena said.

They began walking.

“Were you...uncertain about whether or not we’d say yes?” John asked.

“I mean yeah, kinda,” Ellie said. “Why?”

“It just seems a little, I don’t know, unlikely that...well, you seem like a seriously confident person,” he answered.

“I am confident,” she replied. “It’s just that-I mean, normally, I feel really confident about most shit I do. I try not to assume, but very, very few people turn me down. And usually those that do have their reasons, like they’re already in committed relationships, or they aren’t into my species, or something like that. Really, the biggest problem I put up with is that I intimidate too many guys. It happens a lot less now that most people don’t know I was a princess, and the guys I do ask are mostly adventurers that I get a good feeling about. Same for girls. But Yelena...you are just like on another level. For once, I feel fucking intimidated. I haven’t felt that in years...in easily over a decade. I’d forgotten what it had felt like.”

“Do you like the feeling?” Yelena asked.

“Kinda yes, kinda no. It’s invigorating, but it also makes me feel a little powerless. Which I don’t like.”

“Why do I intimidate you?”

Ellie sighed. “I don’t know. I guess part of it is that you are just so beautiful, in so many ways. You’re so attractive. You’re like something out of a godsdamned legend, Yelena.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” John said.

“And then the way you fight. You’re so fast and strong. I know that I can kick most people’s asses, but you could easily beat me if you wanted to, I think.”

“I’m not that skilled,” Yelena replied. “You do yourself a disservice. I was there. I saw you fight. You are strong and tenacious.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got that godsdamned speed. And that just makes you sexier. And you’re so nice and friendly, but you also had absolutely no problem threatening me before you knew if I was friend or foe. It’s like there’s no deception in you at all.”

“When we met, I was wearing an illusion amulet. That is about as deceptive as it gets,” Yelena pointed out.

“Which makes it even more impressive!”

“I am capable of lying.”

“I figured you were, that’s not it. It wouldn’t be impressive if you couldn’t lie. I just get this feeling from you that you simply don’t lie. You refuse to lie. Maybe I’m wrong.”

“No, you’re right,” John said.

“John Greenfield, I can and have lied to you,” Yelena said firmly.

“Two lies of omission, and I could tell.”

“You could not!”

“I so could tell. Even then you were falling bad for me. You couldn’t lie to me if your life depended on it,” John replied, adopting a very rare smirk.

“John, if you keep this up, I won’t let you come,” Yelena growled.

“You aren’t that cruel,” John replied.

She sighed and shoved him. “I am, but not to you. Never to you, my love.”

He kissed her.

“You two are a fantastic couple,” Ellie said. “The others are going to be so fucking jealous when they hear about this.”

They kept walking.

…

“So this is where a dragon lives?” Ellie asked as they walked down the main cave.

“Yep. Looks empty, doesn’t it?” John replied.

“Mostly. Yeah.”

“That is the idea,” Yelena said.

“I guess that makes sense.”

“I hear a new voice!” Kesley called from somewhere deeper in the cave.

“We made a friend, Kesley,” John replied.

“Good! Will she be staying for long?”

They came out of the tunnel and into the main chamber, where they found Kesley sitting in one of her huge chairs, waiting for them.

“I’m...not sure,” Ellie replied. Wonder had slipped into her voice. He knew how she felt, seeing Kesley for the first time was pretty amazing.

“Hello, I’m Kesley,” she said, standing up.

Ellie looked up in awe. “I’m...Ellie.”

Kesley smiled. “It’s good to meet you. Just so you know, there’s a storm coming in tonight. It will more than likely arrive sometime in the night and stick around for probably a day or two. A worse one is on its way next week, I think. If you don’t feel like traveling in such miserable conditions, you can stay here.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate that,” Ellie replied. “You have a very nice home.”

“Thank you, Ellie.” She paused, then a small, sly grin appeared on her face. “I can tell you all are anxious. I imagine to have sex with each other. We can share a meal and a long conversation together after if you’d like.”

“Thank you so much,” Ellie replied. “Can we?” she asked, turning to look at John and Yelena. “It’s been a little too long for me.”

Yelena laughed. “Yes, Ellie, we can. Come, I’ll show you our room.”

They headed across the main chamber, through their door and into the bedroom that John had already become very familiar with.

“Oh yes,” Ellie said as she caught sight of the huge tub they had, “this is exactly what I needed to see right now.”

“You out of your armor and clothes is what I need to see right now,” Yelena replied, fixing Ellie with her red gaze.

“Well, all right then,” Ellie replied, and began taking off her armor.

John and Yelena joined her, and soon all three of them were quietly and eagerly stripping off everything on their bodies. The bath was probably the best one John had seen so far. Besides being expertly constructed and deep enough to easily submerge your entire body, it was obviously made for fucking, with a lot of different places to sit built into the design, and a soft, padded ring around the exterior, easy to grip or just comfortable to rest your head on. It was also, through a magical spell, self-renewing. Twice a day fresh, heated water replaced whatever was currently in it. Which was good, since they had a lot of sex in there.

Ellie had a fantastically curvy, and also very fit, body, and it seemed all the larger simply by the fact that she had a good half foot on him. Except for Morgan’s, he thought she might have the biggest breasts he’d ever seen. Ellie easily had the biggest on a human woman he’d seen so far. Oh, and by the Gods, her thighs and those big, broad, powerful hips she had.

This was going to be amazing.

All three of them slipped happily into the hot water and let out sighs of relief. “This is one of my favorite things,” Ellie murmured after she dunked her head under the water and came back up, squeezing water from her hair.

“Soaking in hot water is a particularly wonderful pleasure,” Yelena agreed.

“However,” Ellie said, her tone changing, “I know a more powerful pleasure.” She moved across the tub and sat next to Yelena, then picked her up and settled her in her lap, so that they were face to face. Ellie began to kiss her, and Yelena kissed back immediately.

John shifted closer, watching the two women kiss. Ellie ran her hands down Yelena’s back and gripped her fit ass under the water.

“I can’t believe how fucking sexy you are,” Ellie whispered between kisses.

“You are very attractive yourself,” Yelena murmured back.

They twisted tongues together and Yelena settled her hands between them, groping Ellie’s huge, pale breasts, squeezing and massaging them. After a moment, she broke the kiss. “Your turn, love,” Yelena said, moving back a little.

John settled in next to Ellie, who immediately turned and began kissing him. She was a very good and very enthusiastic kisser, making good use of her tongue. He began groping one of her breasts, lust shooting through him like hot magic as he touched her, and he saw Yelena lean in and began to kiss the side Ellie’s neck, making her gasp and shudder. He groped her huge breast for awhile longer as their tongues danced together, and he enjoyed her taste and her touch. Then, he slipped his hand down in between the two women and began to pleasure Ellie, rubbing her clit slowly, causing her to break the kiss and cry out in surprised pleasure.

“Oh fuck, that’s really good,” she gasped. “Keep doing that.”

He laughed and kissed her again, then let Yelena take over the making out. As he continued fingering Ellie, he watched his lover and their new friend lock lips and twist tongues. After continuing to rub her clit, getting stronger and more vigorous with his attention, he slipped a finger into her and started pleasuring her that way. Ellie let out a new cry of pleasure. He kept fingering her until she had an orgasm.

She nearly threw Yelena off, her big hips bucked so hard, and he managed to stay inside of her, fucking her orgasming pussy with his fingers, until she was finished. She was pretty loud, and he imagined that Kesley was listening to them with interest. Although she hadn’t made any sexual advances of her own, (he really fucking wished that she would, but respected that she didn’t seem interested in either of them), she had a lot of fuck stories to tell, and it was obvious that she greatly enjoy interracial sex.

“Oh wow, that was good,” Ellie whispered as she finished coming. “You two wash up, I’m going to do both of you.”

“Gladly,” Yelena replied, getting off of her.

Both John and her quickly grabbed the washcloths and washed themselves off. As soon as they were clean and ready, they hopped up on the side of the tub, sitting next to each other, and Ellie settled into place in front of Yelena.

She leaned in, tongue stuck out, and started orally pleasuring Yelena. His demoness lover leaned her head back and moaned loudly, voicing the burst of rapturous ecstasy that was no doubt entering her tall, fit body. At the same time, Ellie reached over and gripped John’s fully erect cock, massaging it smoothly as she worked. Yelena’s tail was twitching behind her as she spread her legs open wider, one hand planted on the back of Ellie’s head.

She looked phenomenally erotic.

After another minute or so of putting her tongue to good use, Ellie pulled back and switched over to him, still gripping his cock. She leaned in and began to lick the head, sending bursts of pleasure sizzling rapidly into him, making him groan and shiver. She looked very satisfied and very in control. Ellie then took his cock into her mouth and he watched it disappear as she slipped her luscious lips down the entire length. He felt it hit the back of her throat, where she held it and swallowed several times, making him groan louder, all those hot, wet muscles contracting firmly around his most sensitive part repeatedly, sending spikes of pleasure into him. Then she pulled back and began bobbing her head, wrapping her thumb and first finger around his shaft, having her lips and her fingers work in tandem as she moved up and down.

“Holy fuck, this is good,” he managed, leaning back and watching her work.

Ellie was probably the most attractive human woman he had ever slept with, for a number of reasons. How she looked sucking dick and eating pussy was definitely one of those reasons. He imagined she looked even better fucking.

As she sucked him off, with her other hand, she fingered Yelena.

After another minute or so, she switched back.

“You are very skilled at this,” Yelena said between moans.

“I do this a lot,” Ellie replied, briefly halting her tonguing, instead opting to finger Yelena’s pussy. She looked up. “Those I travel with, the couple, Warren and Lena, I frequently do this for them,” she explained.

“They must both be in love with you,” John replied as she massaged just the head of his cock in her fist.

“In lust, at least,” Ellie said, then resumed eating Yelena out.

Between the two of them, Yelena was the first to pop. A few minutes later, she let out a loud cry of bliss and grabbed Ellie’s head with both hands, forcing her face deeper into her crotch, yelling in pleasure as she orgasmed. Ellie kept pleasuring her throughout the whole thing. When she was finished, she pulled back, grinning, looking up at her as she splashed some water onto her face. “That good, huh?” she asked.

“That good,” Yelena replied.

“Your turn to come,” Ellie said, and moved over to John.

She started sucking him off again, seeming to be going for nothing but pure pleasure now, staring up at him with her intensely blue eyes. He let it happen, let the pleasure wash over him, focusing on the fact that he was getting sucked off by this amazing, tall, busty, badass adventuress with the love of his life right next to him, actually holding his hand now, looking intently at him. He wondered if she loved watching him orgasm as much as he loved watching her do it.

And then he was coming in Ellie’s mouth.

Ellie worked his cock like a professional whore, now massaging his balls, working his shaft, just his head in her mouth as she kept sucking, pumping him dry. He cried out as blissful sexual release burst into his body, filling him, his cock kicking violently in her grasp. She drained him, temporarily at least, and sucked out all of his seed, swallowing the load and then releasing him. He let out his breath in one long, slow exhale as she let him go. Leaning back, he enjoyed that wonderful feeling of post-orgasm bliss.

“Got any wine?” Ellie asked after rinsing and spitting. “I wouldn’t mind some.”

“We do,” Yelena replied. “Let me dry off and I’ll get you some.”

“Thank you,” Ellie said.

John slipped back into the water with her and hugged her. She hugged him back and he could feel her huge breasts pressing against him.

“Thanks for that. It felt amazing,” he said.

She laughed softly. “You’re very welcome, John. You gave me quite the nice orgasm, too. And I plan on swapping some more of them very soon. I want your cock in me very badly.”

“I think I want to put my cock in you even more badly,” he replied, reaching around and grabbing her huge ass.

“Probably,” she agreed.

“Here it is,” Yelena said, setting a half-empty bottle of red wine down next to the tub. Ellie took it and pulled the cork out, then began drinking it.

“This is excellent,” she said after finishing off half of what was left.

“We have more if you’re interested,” John said. He pulled himself out of the water and began drying off.

Already he was stiffening up again, knowing that sex with two insanely attractive women was on the verge of happening.

“I’m going to want a very large meal after this,” Ellie said. “Well, after relaxing for awhile. I’ll be happy to help make it.”

“We can all make a big meal in the kitchen and swap stories,” Yelena replied.

“Perfect. A good meal is an excellent epilogue to a fantastic fuck session,” Ellie said. She finished off the bottle of wine and then got out and began drying off.

It didn’t take long for all three of them to get into his and Yelena’s huge bed. From the way they were moving, John figured that the women were just as horny as he was.

Before he could get settled, or really figure out where to get settled, Ellie grabbed his wrist. “Can I have him first?” she asked, looking at Yelena.

“Yes, that is fair,” Yelena replied.

“On your back,” Ellie said, fixing John with her intense gaze.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, laying on his back.

“You have him well trained,” Ellie said as she mounted him.

Yelena laughed. “No, I’m afraid not. He is just polite...and very eager to get fucked by attractive women.”

“Yes I am,” John agreed.

“Works for me either way,” Ellie said as she gripped his cock and slipped it expertly into her. He groaned as she worked her way down his rigid length.

Something occurred to him. “You’re on some kind of birth control, right?” he asked.

“Duh,” Ellie replied as she grabbed his wrists and brought his hands up to her huge, bouncing breasts.

He almost automatically began groping them as she started riding his cock, and he groaned at the hot wave of pleasure that rolled through him. “I just thought I’d asked. It’s been awhile since I’ve had sex with someone of my own species.”

“Fair enough,” Ellie replied. “Tell me the most exotic woman you’ve had sex with...I mean, besides Yelena,” she continued as she stopped and began to shift her big hips, stirring his cock around inside of her for a few seconds before beginning to bounce on him again. She was making the bed shake at this point.

“Um...” he thought about it. Would it be Brynne the serpentine? Or the succubus he was with long ago, Lexi? “I can think of two,” he said finally.

“Wow, two? You do get around,” she murmured.

“We both do,” Yelena said. She was beside Ellie now, watching her intently, her tail again twitching behind her.

“I had sex with a serpentine named Brynne, and a succubus named Lexi.”

“Oh wow,” Ellie murmured. “That is hot. I’m going to go with Brynne. Succubi are great and all, but a serpentine...now that is kinky.”

“We have also fucked several dryads,” Yelena murmured.

“That’s pretty hot. I’ve encountered a few myself. I think more people have fucked dryads than are willing to admit. Especially elves. My friend Cassie has had sex with at least a dozen, both male and female. But a serpentine. That is so fucking hot,” she moaned and began to ride him harder and faster.

“It really was,” he groaned, the pleasure hitting him in rapturous waves.

Ellie rode him to the edge of orgasm, then stopped, getting off of him. He let out a breath he’d been holding in almost subconscious expectation of the orgasm to come.

“Can’t have you coming yet. Yelena hasn’t had her way with your cock,” Ellie said.

“Much appreciated. Fuck me from behind, love,” Yelena said.

“Gladly,” he replied, getting up quickly, desperate to be back inside of a woman. Yelena got onto her hands and knees, showing him her wonderfully fit ass and the glistening slit of her pussy. Her tail waved back and forth as he got closer to her, and she moaned loudly as he slid into her. He still never grew tired of penetrating her, of making love to her, gripping her hips and driving into her. They both moaned in sexual unity as they fucked.

He gripped her tail and gave it a small tug, making her cry out.

Grabbing her firm hips, he really started pounding her sweet demoness pussy. Ellie laid down beside them, watching them with a keen interest. As she watched, she slipped a finger down in between her big thighs and started to masturbate. As she moaned, Yelena took notice and turned her head towards Ellie.

“If you lay in front of me, I will pleasure you with my tongue,” she said, and then stuck her forked tongue out and waggled it at her.

Ellie’s eyes widened. “Oh fuck yes,” she replied and immediately shifted.

As John kept fucking Yelena from behind, giving her tight ass a hard smack and making her moan, Ellie laid down on her back and spread her legs before Yelena, who immediately went to work on pleasuring her pussy with that amazing tongue of hers.

“Oh my fucking Gods!” she cried, then reached out and gripped Yelena’s horns. She hesitated suddenly. “Uh...is this okay?”

“I’m fine with it,” Yelena replied, and resumed her work.

“I fucking love doing that,” John said as he kept fucking her, burying his cock into Yelena’s tight, hot pussy over and over again. “I love grabbing her horns and fucking her in the mouth and making her choke on my dick.”

“That sounds so fucking hot,” Ellie moaned loudly. “I so want to see that. When I’m done, please do that to her.”

“Oh I will,” he replied, and slapped Yelena’s ass again, hard enough to leave a print and make her moan very loudly.

“Are you two into rough sex? Like hitting and screaming? ‘Cause my best friend is. Me and her boyfriend abuse her all the time.”

“We very much are,” Yelena said. “I love getting abused by him.”

“That’s so hot. Can you do that? Can I watch?” Ellie asked.

“I am okay with it if John is...which I imagine he is.”

“Definitely,” he replied. “Can I abuse you, too?” he asked.

“You know, I’ve been less on the receiving end of it lately, but I’m actually turned on by the idea of you fucking me up. Yes.”

“Oh thank you so much,” he said.

She smirked. “I’ll just bet you’d love the chance to fuck up a woman who could beat your ass, huh?”

“Admittedly, yes,” he replied. “I do get a kick out of choking and slapping Yelena around.”

“And I could definitely beat your ass,” Yelena said.

“Definitely,” he agreed, making Ellie laugh again.

Yelena tongue-fucked Ellie until she had another tremendous orgasm, then straightened up and had John pull out of her. As soon as he was free of her, he moved over to the edge of his bed and grabbed her wrist, then yanked her closer to him.

“On your knees, you stupid bitch,” he growled at her, and she immediately began moving to placate him, both of them sliding almost effortlessly into their roles. They had been...practicing this kind of sex a lot more recently.

He loved it a lot, and so did she.

He paused once and glanced at Ellie. “Safe word?” he asked.

“Avocado,” she replied after thinking about it for a few seconds.

“Okay.”

As soon as Yelena was on her knees, he grabbed her horns and forced his cock into her mouth. “Suck on it, you slut!” he screamed at her and began fucking her violently in the mouth. His cock hit the back of her throat several times and then he forced it down her throat as far as he could, holding her horns firmly in his grasp, listening to her gag and groan.

“Holy fuck, this is hot,” Ellie whispered, watching intently beside him.

“Your turn is next,” he replied.

She said nothing, just kept watching them intently. John kept fucking Yelena in the mouth until she seemed like she’d had enough, and then let go of her. As soon as he did, she fell back, gasping and coughing.

“Please, master,” she gasped, “please...”

“Shut up,” he replied and slapped her hard enough that she fell over. “And you,” he said, turning to Ellie, “on your back, now.” She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn’t give her the chance, slapping her hard across the face. “Now!” he screamed.

She quickly got onto her back, and as soon as she did, he got atop her, straddling her face, and shoved his cock into her mouth. She groaned and then gagged as he grabbed her head and began fucking her mouth, shoving his cock deep and hard into her throat. As he had with Yelena, he forced himself deep into her mouth, pounding her head into the pillow. He did this for a bit longer, then pulled out, wanting to be back inside of her pussy and in a better position to get rough with her. Ellie’s eyes were wide and conveying a lot of arousal and enjoyment.

As he settled in between her thighs and began fucking her again, he slapped her twice across the face. “You’ve been very bad,” he growled at her.

“I’m sorry,” she moaned. “Please, sir, please-”

“Shut up!” he screamed and backhanded her. Then he wrapped both hands around her throat and applied pressure, choking her slowly. She gasped and jerked, but he maintained his grip, tightening it. She moaned and gagged.

“You’re going to be punished,” he said.

She bucked again, almost throwing him off, and he gripped her throat for a bit longer before finally letting go.

“Get over here!” he screamed at Yelena, who quickly climbed back onto the bed. He grabbed her by the hair and, pushing himself up, yanked her closer to him. “Hold your fucking legs!” he screamed at Ellie, and slapped her again.

She cried out and did as she was told, gripping her legs and holding them up. He pulled out and grabbed Yelena, then put her on top of Ellie, placing her legs so that they held Ellie’s into place. Now he had ready access to both of them. He grabbed Yelena’s tail and pulled on it, making her yell in pleasure, as he pushed his way back inside of her. As he went back to fucking her, he let go of her tail and reached forward.

Getting some of her dark hair in his grasp, he pulled and she let out another cry. “That’s right, you little demon slut,” he said to her in a low voice.

“I’ve been bad,” she moaned.

“That’s right you have.”

He yanked on her hair again, then switched to her tail, getting a good grip on it and pulling on it again. Yelena particularly liked that. When he tugged again and pushed deep and hard into her, she let out a louder cry of bliss and began orgasming all over his dick. He kept fucking her, pounding her climaxing vagina until she was finished, then he pulled out of her and slipped back into Ellie, who let out a surprised moan of pleasure.

He was about done and he really wanted to finish inside of Ellie.

And it didn’t take a whole lot longer.

John reached around between the two women, groping Yelena’s breasts as he fucked the six foot six ex-princess, (he realized he’d never, at least knowingly, had sex with a princess, ex or current, and for some weird reason that just made the whole thing even more erotic), and then he started coming. He groaned loudly, losing himself in the bliss as he began spurting his seed into her in thick sprays, pumping her pussy full of it.

It was an excellent orgasm, bursting through him like waves of hot pink bliss, radiating out from his core and filling him.

Sometime later, he carefully pulled out of her and then sat down.

“How was that?” he asked.

“It was really good, actually. You are good at that whole rough, abusive sex stuff. And I have to admit, it looked really fucking hot, you completely dominating Yelena like that. Although now I need another bath.”

“I think we all do,” Yelena agreed.

“Bath, then food,” John said.

“Then we figure out what to do next,” Yelena said.

“So long as it involves more sex, I’ll be happy,” Ellie replied.

A CHANCE VISIT

John stood at the entrance of the cave that was his home, for now at least, and stared unhappily at the snowstorm that was raging outside.

He had gotten used to taking a walk each afternoon out here and looking out over the barren wastelands of the northern region of his homeland. It was desolate and snowy and bleak, but it was also beautiful in a way only winter landscapes could be. And, well, he was hundreds and hundreds of feet up in the air. The view, on a clear day, extended for so many miles. He could even just make out the mountain range that divided the northern tip from the rest of the continent. He could see the forests and fields and lakes and rivers, and the ocean off in the distance. It was a view that rivaled any he had ever enjoyed before in his life.

Well, a view of nature anyway.

Seeing Yelena naked and taking his cock took the number one spot of things he’d like to be seeing. Speaking of that…

With a final sigh, John turned away from the snowstorm and began walking back along the rocky, earthen tunnel, shivering as he went. If someone had asked him what he saw his life looking like a year ago, he would have in no way predicted that he’d be living in a cave at the top of a mountain with a dragoness while his demoness lover learned how to shape-shift. He’d always heard of people, mostly adventurers, telling stories of how their lives had transformed very rapidly. But usually they were exaggerated, or the stuff of legends.

Or at least the stuff of novels.

Kesley had a lot of those and he was glad to be reading on a more regular basis. Honestly, he’d probably read more books in the past several weeks than he had his entire life. He appreciated Kesley and all she was doing for them, and he didn’t resent Yelena for asking to stay here and learn shape-shifting, but…

Fuck!

He was so bored!

He’d taken to training much more seriously, working out a great deal, building his endurance, practicing all manner of combat with Yelena and by himself. He was seeing results by now, too. It had been a month since they’d had that wonderful encounter with the busty, six-foot-six ex-princess Ellie. Good Gods had that woman been great at sex, and she sucked dick like a goddess. Well, one Goddess in particular, he supposed.

That had been a very pleasant distraction, but she’d had to go back to her friends, and not too much after she had left, winter had settled in for good. They hadn’t had a chance to leave the cave even a single time beyond perhaps walking a few feet. Well, he supposed that wasn’t entirely true. They probably could have left a few times, but it was such an ordeal to make their way all the way down to the bottom of the mountain and then go anywhere. They were looking at a day or two of travel, with half of it going up and down a mountain, depending on the weather, and where was there to go within easy walking distance?

No, they were committed to staying here.

As far as places to hang out for the duration of the winter, Kesley’s place wasn’t a bad one. In fact, it was fascinating. Honestly, if he had to spend five months straight in one location without really getting to go outside hardly at all, this was a great pick. Mainly because Kesley was an excellent hostess. She had so many stories to tell. He had an idea that she was over a thousand years old, and he’d never met a dragon before. Let alone an attractive dragon that he wanted to fuck. Although that hadn’t happened yet, and he wasn’t sure if it was going to. He and Yelena flirted with her, and she flirted back sometimes, but nothing serious.

He kind of got the idea that she wasn’t too interested in sex.

He wondered if he’d still care about getting laid if he somehow made it to a thousand years old.

John walked back into the main cavern and saw Yelena just walking out of their shared bedroom, drying her dark hair vigorously with a towel. She was otherwise completely naked. Kesley, equally naked, lounged in one of her chairs by her huge fireplace, reading a large, leatherbound book as she often did during their midday breaks between shape-shifting practice sessions. They usually left Yelena drained and she’d soak in a tub for awhile.

“Hello, love,” she said as he approached her.

They kissed. “Oh, you are cold. I take it the snowstorm is still raging.”

“Yep,” he replied.

“Snow is such a curious phenomenon. I was terrified when I first encountered it.”

“When did you first encounter it?” Kesley asked.

“During one of my initial trips to this realm. I was in a forest and it was so cold. I made camp in an abandoned structure and woke up to shrieking wind. I thought I was under attack, especially when I looked out and saw the snow whipping by the window. It was...a trying experience.”

“Did you get lucky during that expedition?” John asked.

She smirked and hung up the towel by the fire. “I did, in fact. I tempted a beautiful redheaded elf girl into a wonderful sexual experience. She was skilled. We kept warm for three nights before she had to return to her village.”

“Nice,” Kesley said. She set her book aside, stood, and stretched. “I hunger. I was thinking we could cook up a nice big meal of venison. That bread I began baking this morning should be ready. And we could roast some vegetables.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Yelena replied, and John nodded.

Kesley began to respond, but then stopped, tilting her head slightly. “Someone’s coming inside,” she said.

Yelena turned immediately to face the entryway, raising her hands. “Who?”

“I’m not...” she paused, sniffed the air lightly, then smiled. “Don’t worry. It is a friend.” She cleared her throat. “Eliza?”

“Hi, Kesley! Can I come in?” a voice called back. A female voice.

“Yes, but I have company: a demoness and a human. And the demoness and I are nude.”

A pause. “Okay,” she said, and then they began to hear her footfalls over the distant sounds of the snowstorm outside.

Kesley chuckled softly. “Eliza has seen a lot.”

“Apparently,” John murmured.

A moment later, a woman with a very pale face appeared. All he could actually see of her was her face, and a few wisps of blood-red hair sticking out from beneath a heavy wool cap. She was bundled up pretty heavily.

“I hate snow!” she snapped as she walked over to the fireplace and began taking off her heavy coat. “Even with two cold-resistance rings and a cold-resistant amulet necklace, I’m still fucking freezing.”

Kesley laughed again.

John and Yelena watched as a curvy, mature elf was revealed. She took off everything save for a very small undershirt that he was happy to see barely contained some pretty large breasts for an elf, especially one who was perhaps a few inches over five feet, and some panties that clung very nicely to her pleasantly padded hips and thighs.

“I fucking hate clothes,” she muttered as she finished stripping down. She stretched a few times, facing the fire, and he was given a great view of her ass.

She had a really nice, curvaceous ass.

Yelena was staring intently at her as well.

Eliza turned around and looked at Yelena. “By the Gods, you are beautiful,” she said.

“Thank you. So are you,” Yelena replied.

Eliza looked down at herself. She had the look of someone who had been fit for most of their life, but as they settled into middle age were starting to soften around the edges as they enjoyed more meals and fewer travels. “Well, I used to look better,” she said, looking back up.

“There are many kinds of beautiful, and you are very beautiful,” Yelena said.

“Yeah,” John said.

“Well, thank you,” she said. “I wouldn’t even have brought it up but you’re totally naked...” She looked at Kesley. “And you look as glorious naked as you ever have, but that’s nothing new.”

Kesley snorted. “Appreciated. What brings you back to my home? I’ve missed you,” she said, walking over to Eliza.

The elf hugged her, looking absurdly tiny against Kesley’s broad, eight-foot frame, but her demeanor and body language spoke of great comfort and familiarity. He could already tell they had been friends for a very long time.

“It’s a long story. In short: I had a long, miserable assignment, I just got back, and I wanted a break from the world. You and your cave were always good for that.”

“My cave and I still are,” Kesley said. “We were just about to make venison and vegetables.”

“Perfect! I’ll help and we can have a big, hedonistic feast.”

John thought that they were going to get along pretty well. Yelena walked into the bedroom and emerged a moment later wearing a comfortable, fluffy white robe that Kesley had given her as a gift. The four of them moved into the kitchen and began the process of cooking up a big heaping meal. As they did, Eliza asked about them, and he and Yelena happily spent close to an hour filling her in on the details. She seemed very enamored with their story, only getting more so the longer they went on, and she asked several questions.

At the end, she just sighed happily and said, “I love a good love story. Triple when it’s true.”

“What about you?” Yelena asked.

“Me? Oh, there’s so much to tell, but it’s also...meandering,” she replied.

“How did you meet Kesley?” John asked.

“That’s a nice story, at least.”

Kesley snorted. “Seriously? You think it was nice?”

“I mean, yeah. The first half sucked, but after you showed up it got great.” They were done preparing the meal now and finished setting it up on Kesley’s huge table. “I met Kesley a hundred and seventy years ago.”

John’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh...wow.”

She laughed. “Yes, I’m an old, ancient bitch.”

“Still young to me,” Kesley murmured.

“Hush it. I’m two hundred, for the record,” Eliza said. “Turned two hundred this year, in fact. But anyway, when I was but a young lass of thirty, I was on a boat. There was a bad storm. I’m from the Stoneland Islands. I was on my way here after getting bored with them. I wanted to see the Redwood Forest. And the Emerald Wild. Anyway, the storm. The ship sank, and I barely managed to survive on some driftwood through the night. I thought I was going to die, because I was in the middle of the ocean. And then I saw a dragon, flying through the skies...”

“After particularly bad storms, I used to go out flying,” Kesley said. “Just in case there were shipwrecks and survivors. I rarely found anyone, but something told me to do it that day in particular. I used a bit of magic and found her.”

“I thought I had gone mad,” Eliza said. She laughed. “I remember thinking, well, there are worse ways to go mad. How many people get to see a dragon so clearly? Even if it is a hallucination. But Kesley saved me, and flew me to a nearby island. There she seduced me like the slut she is,” she said with a broad smirk.

“Mmm. Indeed. If I recall, you were so hot for me that you couldn’t keep your hands off me. There was no seduction at all. You put out so easily I didn’t even have to try.”

“You’re a dragoness!” Kesley just rolled her eyes. “Anyway. We had sex, and a fun time on that island. We stayed on that island for a week, actually. There was a little port town there, and the locals were mostly Tomonticans. And they were...very sexual. There were a few dryads on the island, too, and they were also quite sexual. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a stranger to sex in those days, but my most adventurous sexual encounter was doing it with a human.” She let out a mock gasp. “Can you imagine the scandal!?” She laughed. “So yes, that opened up my world. And my legs. And it really changed the course of my life. I became addicted to adventuring after that. And a few times a decade I would track Kesley down and catch up with her.”

“Where have you been? It’s been...oh...four years?”

“Almost five,” Eliza said between bites. She ate more of her venison, then washed it down with some pink wine. “I was over in the far elf homeland most recently. And let me tell you: fuck that place.”

“What were you doing over there?” Yelena asked.

“Oh, running down something for a client. I’m a hunter of artifacts, but sometimes that just means information. I ran into a far elf who had retired to the Redwood Forest. Apparently he’d run out on his son some decades ago, well, his wife and son, but he wasn’t too concerned about the wife. He regretted running out on the son and wanted to see if some kind of connection was possible. Asked me to find him, deliver a message, see if I could convince him to come to Redwood. Well, let me just cut to the chase and say this story doesn’t really have a happy ending. Took me a week on a boat to get there, three weeks to track the son of a bastard down, just so that I could learn that he didn’t give a shit about his father and had no interest in seeing him, though he at least had the decency to write out a response for me to deliver, so then another week on a boat, back to Redwood, gave the guy the message, and then started heading north.

“And I must have done something to piss off Bliss, because I didn’t get fucked once! Not one fucking time the whole time! It has been two months since I last got laid.”

“Maybe she just didn’t have as much reach over there,” John murmured.

“It is the far elf homeland. They get off on research and archiving,” she muttered.

“Perhaps she was...saving up?” Kesley suggested.

“Saving up for what? If that’s the case it better be one godsdamned fuck of a lay...” she trailed off, looking at Yelena, then at John, and something seemed to change suddenly. She shifted slightly in her chair, and with doing seemingly little more than showing off her cleavage a bit more, she suddenly seemed to radiate raw, sexual energy. He’d seen women do that before and he had no idea how it was they achieved it.

“You know...I’ve never had sex with a demon before,” she said. “And I’ve certainly never had sex with a demon and a human at the same time.”

“Is that so?” Yelena asked with a smirk. She shifted in her chair and her robe fell open a little, revealing more of her chest.

“That is a fact,” Eliza murmured.

John looked at Kesley, who seemed very content to just sit back and watch this happen. She looked pleased.

“Perhaps we could rectify that?” Yelena suggested.

“Oh yeah?” She looked from Yelena to John, a very sure grin on her face. “You two are interested in an old elf slut?”

“Very,” Yelena said.

“Yes,” John replied, feeling lust begin to pulse through him. Eliza was very attractive. She was hitting several of his fetishes: elf, redhead, curvy as fuck, mature. He loved older women. It was ironic that that didn’t occur to him more with Yelena, given she was over three times his age. He supposed it was because she didn’t really seem a hundred years old. She certainly didn’t seem young, more just...experienced. She still looked fairly youthful. He’d never know for sure, but if he had to guess, he thought she was in her mid-twenties, if they were comparing demon lifespans to human. But Eliza was clearly older.

Besides the wrinkles that had begun to gather at the corners of her eyes and a few other simple telltales, she just looked mature. He’d gathered that elves aged more gracefully than humans, not just by living longer, but they didn’t actually look old until they were pushing past two sixty or two seventy. At least, that’s what he’d gathered.

Eliza stood up.

“Well, my food’s had enough time to settle and I don’t see much point in waiting,” she said.

“Neither do I,” Yelena agreed as she rose smoothly to her hooves. John joined them and glanced at Kesley.

“You three go ahead, I’ll clean up,” she said with a small smile.

The trio quickly left the kitchen after thanking her, and Yelena and John led Eliza towards their bedroom.

“Ah, she gave you this room,” she said as they came in. “I’ve stayed here a number of times and...yep, the tub’s still there. Perfect. I need a wash. Also, I wouldn’t mind fucking you in the water,” she added, looking at John. She glanced at Yelena. “Based on what I’ve heard so far, you two are in an open relationship and you’re both down to fuck? Just to be completely clear?”

“Yes,” Yelena confirmed. “We are.”

“Yep,” John said.

“I knew you were down to fuck,” Eliza said. “You’ve been eye-fucking me since the moment you first saw me.”

“Heh, yeah,” he agreed, chuckling nervously.

“He is like that,” Yelena said as she shrugged out of her robe, letting it fall and pile up around her hooves. “I am lucky to have snagged a man with a lust nearly equal to my own.”

“I’ve heard that demons are particularly lusty, though mostly I hear that about the sex demons. You’re a warrior, though, aren’t you?” she asked.

“I am, indeed,” Yelena said with a smile. “And I fuck as good as I fight.”

“I bet.” She looked at John as he disrobed. “My you are very handsome,” she murmured. “I have to say, I’m intrigued by the two of you, for different reasons. I mean, you’re just phenomenally attractive and a demoness, but you...” she paused, staring at John. “I’ve known a lot of humans, hundreds, thousands even, I’ve met in my travels. I’ve bedded less than ten percent of them, and not necessarily for lack of trying. So many of you humans are stubborn, steadfastly maintaining that you only lust after your own kind. It’s not true for most of you. For some, yes, but not most. I can tell when someone is looking at me with lust, and that’s not just bluffing. I’ve got some magical talents, I can actually sense lust directed at me, so I’m not guessing. A lot of men, and women, too, from the human population at least casually lust after me, or those like me. But so few of them admit to it. To be fair, I did spend a lot of time in the Stoneland Islands, and they’re even more repressed than this land. But still…

“It’s hard enough to find a human man who will stick his cock in an obviously attractive elf, but it’s a genuine rarity to find a human man who would not just fuck a demon, and not a succubus but an honest-to-Gods demoness, but also spend his life with her, love her, live and travel with her. Plus, there’s the whole obsession with youth. Can’t tell you how many human women over forty I’ve run into who are hot and horny and would love to get laid by cute, young twenty-something guys. But they’re all obsessed with the bashful, youthful girls,” she rolled her eyes and sighed. “Anyway, I’m prattling on. What I wanted to say,” she said as she pulled her bra off, up over her head, and tossed it onto the floor, freeing some pretty big tits, “is that I really like both of you.”

“I like you, too,” John said.

“Mmm-hmm,” Yelena agreed. “Your breasts are so beautiful.”

“They used to be perkier,” she muttered, looking down at them, then she shrugged and took her panties off.

“They’re still spectacular,” John said.

“Well, given the fact that you’re going to be fucking me, I’m glad you think so.” She turned around, showing him her nice, thick ass, and walked over to the tub. She slipped into the water and let out a long, contented sigh, then dunked her head under the water. John and Yelena joined her, doing the same, and the three of them simply sat there and soaked for a few moments.

“This is just as nice as I remember,” Eliza murmured, resting her head against the side, her eyes closed. John found it hard to stop looking at her body beneath the water. She was really hot. Her hips and her thighs were just fantastic. He loved trim, fit thighs like what Yelena had, but...he really loved broad hips and thick thighs.

Especially thick thighs.

Suddenly, Eliza opened her eyes and locked gazes with John. She got up and began drifting across the tub towards him. Her eyes were so green. She drifted closer until she was right in front of him, and then she straddled him, sitting on his lap, planting her knees on either side of him and draping her arms over his shoulders.

“Hi,” she said with a tone that spoke of a depth of confidence and experience he had known few women to possess.

“Hi,” he managed.

“You’re not nervous, are you?” she murmured with a small smile.

“A little,” he admitted.

“Strong women intimidate him. But it works out because intimidation makes him horny, provided he likes the woman in question,” Yelena explained.

“Good for me, then,” Eliza replied, and then she kissed him.

“Very good,” he managed between kisses.

Eliza kissed with an amazing confidence and sensual intimacy. He could immediately tell that she was a wondrous kisser. His hands slid down her smooth back, coming against the occasional scar that he knew all adventurers, especially two hundred year old ones, collected in their travels across the decades. And fuck, her big, wet tits pressed up against his bare chest felt amazing. He groped her fat ass while she slipped her tongue smoothly into his mouth, expertly seeking and finding his own, twisting them together, dancing the glorious dance of lust and desire and intense sexual euphoria. She kissed him for a long moment, then pulled back.

She looked down, then reached between them and wrapped her hand around his cock. “I have an ability I bet you’d really like,” she said.

“What’s that?” he asked, finding it hard to focus.

“I can hold my breath for a long time...want me to demonstrate?”

“Yes. Very yes,” he replied.

She laughed, kissed him once more, then got off of him and slid gracefully beneath the water. He watched with rapt interest as she settled on the bottom of the tub and took his cock in between her luscious red lips. He groaned loudly as she started sucking him off.

“She is skillful,” Yelena murmured.

“Oh yeah...very skillful...” John groaned in response.

He looked at Yelena as he got amazing head from their new elf lover. She sat across from him, lounging with her arms out to either side of her, resting on the side of the tub, leaned back. She looked very content and relaxed, almost like a sexual deity in a place of easy worship, watching the two of them with a casual interest.

“You always look so good with the women we entice into our lives,” she murmured.

“So do you,” he replied, then groaned again as Eliza put her tongue to excellent use.

She bobbed her head smoothly, her lips gliding up and down his stiff cock, lingering on the head and sending sparks of pleasure into him like sexual magic. After a few minutes of this, she resurfaced and stared at him with a sultry smile.

“Told you,” she said as she pulled her hair back and squeezed some water out of it.

“Never doubted you for a second,” he replied.

She looked shockingly beautiful, like a visage of divine perfection. Her red hair wet and clinging to her, her green eyes bright and glittering, her face pale and smooth. Without a word, she mounted him again, straddling him, and this time she raised herself, gripped his cock firmly, lined them up, and began sliding down.

She let out a very loud, very long moan of pleasure and what sounded like tremendous relief, as she penetrated herself with his rock-hard cock.

“Two! Fucking! Months!” she cried as she worked him all the way into herself.

“It must have been difficult,” John groaned as she started fucking him.

“Oh fuck, it was awful,” she moaned. “I haven’t gone two months without dick in years!” she yelled, and began to go harder and faster.

Another thing he really loved about older women.

They. Could. Fuck.

They tended to fuck like no others, and Eliza was no exception to this. She moved with an immediately obvious grace and skill, taking him smoothly into her at an angle and speed designed to maximize pleasure for the both of them, and oh her pussy…

That sweet, sweet elf vagina.

Elves always held a special place in his heart and good fucking Gods was Eliza doing it for him. She kissed him with a heated passion, pushing her huge, bare tits against his chest as she fucked him furiously. She grunted and growled as she rode him, shoving her tongue into his mouth, and he got his hands between them, squeezing her big tits. After groping her for a bit, John ultimately just sat back and let her use him like a sextoy. It seemed like she needed it and he sure as fuck didn’t mind because her pussy felt fantastic.

After a bit he reached down between them and managed to get a finger on her clit. “OH YES! DON’T FUCKING STOP!” she screamed as he started to rub it.

He didn’t stop, and as a result, over the next five minutes, he managed to get three orgasms out of her. It was a genuine test of his will not to come during the first two and he held on as hard as he could. Besides feeling amazing, she was so fucking sexy in such a sultry, mature way that he wanted to just fill her up with his seed.

Finally, on the third orgasm, he couldn’t hold back any longer and he started letting off with her, shooting his load inside of her. Her moaning got louder as she felt his cock twitching inside of her and she began to grind furiously on him, stirring his orgasming dick around within her. “That’s it!” she screamed. “Fucking fill me up like a slut!”

John moaned in inarticulate pleasure as his whole body was blasted with pure ecstasy. They came together, moaning and kissing in deep, tremendous passion, lost in a world of total bliss. The orgasms seemed to last for quite awhile.

Eventually, they were spent, and they both washed back up on the shores of post-orgasm paradise, gasping for breath, holding each other.

“Holy fucking shit, Eliza,” John groaned. “You can fuck like...crazy,” he panted.

“You’re a really good sport,” Eliza murmured happily. “And you’ve got like a perfect-sized dick for me. That was just spectacular.” She groaned as she got off of him. “Oh fuck I am getting old. I need a minute.”

“You aren’t old, I need one, too,” John said.

Yelena laughed softly. “You two make for excellent viewing pleasure.”

“I’m sure the two of you do, as well. I imagine Kesley has watched you fuck tons,” Eliza replied.

“Not that often,” John said. “But some, yeah.”

“Have you fucked her yet?” Eliza asked.

“No, she hasn’t offered, but we definitely would,” John replied.

“Oh. She must be in one of her down periods. That’s too bad. Sometimes she just doesn’t want to do sexy things for months at a time, sometimes even years. It’s always unfortunate when I happen to come during those down times, but it’s not like our friendship is contingent on sex. She’s got many other wonderful qualities.”

“Kesley is a wonderful woman,” Yelena agreed.

They soaked in the tub for a bit longer, then got out and dried off, and retreated to the bed. They climbed into it and laid together for a little bit. Though before long, Yelena’s lust began to get the better of her and she started to grope Eliza’s breasts.

“Oh yes, I suppose you have been very patient,” Eliza said. She yawned. “I apologize, it was a very long walk up the mountain, after a very long walk up from the south.”

“I completely understand,” Yelena replied, then she kissed her on the mouth. John watched as the two women started to make out, and Eliza either forgot or banished her weariness as Yelena put her forked tongue to use. They looked wonderfully beautiful, a pair of exotic, alluring women, both highly skilled and experienced, their hands roaming over each other’s bodies, touching and caressing sensually as they locked lips.

Yelena pulled back after a moment. “You lay back,” she whispered, then licked across Eliza’s lips, making her shiver, “and we shall take care of you.”

“Okay,” Eliza murmured, and the look in her eyes made John wonder if she was a little intimidated by Yelena.

It wouldn’t be the first time an extremely confident woman had come up against Yelena and felt that confidence slip for, perhaps, the first time in years.

It was an interesting phenomenon.

Eliza settled back and John joined the love of his life in pleasuring her. They had taken up this position many, many times since they’d begun taking women into their bed. They laid on either side of her, each one beginning to suck on one of Eliza’s very large breasts after licking across her pink nipples several times, making her shiver and shudder. At the same time, they reached down in between her thick, pale thighs and pleasured her. Yelena began to rub her clit while John started fingering her, fucking her smoothly with first one, then two of his fingers, finding her wonderfully slick. She let out a loud, carrying cry of pleasure.

“Holy fucking Gods, this is exactly what I needed...” she moaned.

“You will find that being pleasured by a demoness is an exceptionally pleasurable experience,” Yelena murmured.

“I have no fucking doubt,” Eliza groaned.

John listened to her scream and shout and moan in pure ecstasy as they pleasured her. He loved sucking on her huge breast, loved feeling her twist and writhe in between him and Yelena. They brought her to climax in under a minute, and as soon as she finished twitching and spasming, Yelena immediately got down in between her thighs.

“Prepare yourself,” Yelena said, grinning up at her, and she waggled her elongated, prehensile, forked tongue.

“Oh fuck, that tongue,” Eliza whispered with wide eyes.

Then she screamed as Yelena started eating her out. Again, John watched with an intense interest as his lover pleasured Eliza. Her tongue was amazing, already skilled beyond what almost all others could do simply by the fact that it had mild shape-shifting properties. Combine that with the fact that Yelena had put decades into practicing pleasuring pussy with it, and it meant that she could bring most any woman to orgasm very quickly.

And Eliza was no exception.

She was treated to yet another intense, full-body climax that made her voluptuous, beautiful, pale body shake and shudder pleasantly as she came. He was kind of glad they were so isolated, because she was an exceptionally vocal woman.

“Oh fuck!” she cried when she had finished coming again. “I think Kesley was right about Bliss saving up, because this is worth two dry months. Fuck!”

“You ready to get fucked again?” John asked.

“Oh yes,” she replied with enthusiasm.

John patted Yelena’s tight, fit ass. “Move it, love.”

“Oh, yes sir,” she murmured, getting smoothly out of the way.

“Yelena...you can ride my tongue,” Eliza said.

“Excellent,” Yelena replied with a broad smile. She moved into position, straddling the redhead’s face, while John got in between her thick thighs, laid his cock at the entrance of her exceptionally wet pussy, and then slid inside. She was wetter than ever, and he groaned at the pleasure that ensnared him. It was like stepping out into a storm of absolute bliss. He grabbed her broad hips and began sliding smoothly in and out of her, fucking that amazing elf pussy and making her scream. Her yells were muffled from beneath Yelena, who had straddled her successfully by now, and his demoness lover began to moan as Eliza started to eat her out.

The three of them fucked and pleasured each other, lost in their little world of bliss and sex.

John drove into her, staring down at her beautiful body. At her broad hips between his hands, her thick thighs on either side of him, her perfect, pink pussy as she took his dick over and over again. He loved being able to thrust every last inch into her, going all the way in repeatedly, each thrust bringing him a fresh burst of raw rapture.

He looked up at Yelena’s tight, fit ass and her sexy tail whipping from side to side. He could see Eliza’s tongue as she worked Yelena’s clit, and then, as he was watching, their elf lover began to finger her, reaching up from behind her and slipping a finger up into her tight pussy. Yelena let out a fresh shout of bliss.

“Oh you are quite skilled yourself!” she cried.

“Definitely,” John moaned in agreement.

He kept fucking her, hammering away at her elf pussy, feeling the pleasure building up in her. He was going to bust before too long, but not yet. There was something else he wanted to try. He patted her thigh. “Can we switch positions?”

Eliza raised a thumbs-up.

“What do you want love?” Yelena asked, getting off of her.

“I want to fuck Eliza doggystyle,” he replied.

“Oh yes, I can keep eating pussy that way,” Eliza agreed.

“I am very amenable to this,” Yelena said.

They all switched positions, and Yelena ended up on her back with her legs open, John ended up hitting it from behind, staring at Eliza’s seriously hot fat ass, and Eliza ended up between them, getting used like a worthless fucktoy.

He listened to both women moaning loudly, shouting occasionally in bliss, and thought that this was absolute paradise.

He managed to last another minute or so before Eliza triggered with another orgasm, what might have been her sixth or seventh so far, he’d lost count, and that shoved him over the edge. He let it happen and started coming inside of her again, moaning as the hot pleasure pulsed through him in waves. His seed spurted out of him, filling her up, and Yelena let out a shout of her own, grabbing Eliza’s head as she began to orgasm as well.

All three of them came and moaned together, locked in a union of threefold bliss.

And when it was over, they ended up laying in a naked, sweat-slicked pile, basking in that sweet, post-orgasm glow.

“So, it was truly worth two months of waiting?” Yelena asked after a bit.

“Yes, definitely. Holy fuck,” Eliza managed. “Godsdamn the two of you can fuck.”

“If you intend to stay longer, you will see just how much we can fuck,” John said.

Eliza laughed. “Definitely worth the wait.”

DEMONESS IV

CHAPTER I

“Okay John, you can come in now,” Kesley said, her voice muffled from behind the closed door he was staring at.

“Coming,” he replied as he moved forward eagerly.

Kesley had come to get him from his and Yelena’s bedroom just a few minutes ago and told him that she had a surprise. Well, that Yelena had a surprise for him, really. He had an idea of what it might be, and as he twisted the knob and opened the door, he saw that he was right. Even though he was expecting it, what he saw was still a bit of a shock.

In the middle of a large, mostly empty room with earthen and rock walls stood a woman he and Yelena had once met in their travels several months ago and had a quick, but extremely satisfying, fling with. Tanis, a very beautiful redheaded elf. She was nude and looked spectacular. Except he wasn’t actually looking at Tanis.

“Holy shit,” he said.

Yelena laughed. It was odd to hear Yelena’s voice coming out of Tanis’s mouth. “So, I take it my transformation was successful?”

“Yes. Very successful. You look just like her,” he murmured, staring intently at her, (and also remembering that he really, really wanted to meet and fuck Tanis again someday). “I mean, just...wow! If I didn’t know, I’d have no idea that you were a demon.”

“Good. That is the idea,” Yelena said.

She closed her eyes, her face and body relaxing, and suddenly she began to change. She grew in height, filling out a bit more, her skin darkening from very pale to her natural reddish-brown color. Her hair went from red to black and lengthened a bit. Her feet morphed back into polished black hooves. When she opened her eyes, they were a flickering fiery red.

“I do believe I have taught you well,” Kesley said.

John glanced over at their benevolent hostess. He had never entirely gotten used to the fact that he was living with a dragoness. Let alone one who spent most of her time nude. He’d only ever seen her natural size once, when she’d shown him and Yelena and transformed into a thirty or so foot dragon with huge wings and an enormous tail. But she’d explained afterward that when she was at home, she largely had gotten used to her other state: an eight-foot dragon woman with very shapely curves and large breasts and beautiful scaly skin.

“You have,” Yelena agreed.

“You really have,” John said. “I honestly thought it would take longer. Not that I didn’t think you could do it, but more that I thought shape-shifting was a lot more complex.”

“Oh, it is,” Kesley said. “But Yelena is very magical by nature, and has an incredible discipline to her, and has spent decades and decades practicing magic. Plus, she already knew a little bit of it, so we were able to skip the basics and get to work on the harder stuff. Six months is a very short time to be able to do this.”

“Has it been six months?” Yelena asked, she stretched and popped a few of her joints. Behind her, her tail swayed gently. “It feels like longer.”

“It does,” John agreed.

“I’m afraid it’s been six months since you first arrived on my doorstep, half-frozen and bedraggled,” Kesley replied. She paused, looking first at Yelena, then at John, her lips pursed, as though considering something. “I’ve taught you pretty much all you need to know to transform into another person. You’ll have to practice to build up your endurance, because it takes focus and energy, but you can reliably do it. I would offer to take it to the next level, but I get the feeling that you two are very eager to get on with your lives. Am I right?”

John looked at Yelena. “Yes,” she said, locking eyes with him. “I know I am, and I’m fairly positive that John is even more desperate than I to get back out into the world. Especially now that this world’s accursed winter has lifted and spring is upon us...right?”

“Well, it should be that way,” Kesley said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some more heavy snowstorms hit us, but yes, you should be able to enjoy spring now.”

“Excellent. My love? Would you like to depart?” Yelena asked.

“Yes. I really, really would like that,” John replied, then looked over at Kesley suddenly. “Um...not that you’ve been a bad hostess or anything. I’ve greatly enjoyed your company, Kesley, it’s just...”

“You are eager to resume your nomadic lifestyle. Don’t worry, John, I completely understand. And thank you for your kind words. I definitely understand that desire of wanderlust. Given that it’s almost nighttime now, I imagine you’ll want to wait until tomorrow to leave?”

“Yes,” Yelena said. “We’ll need time to pack.”

“Good! In that case, I have something I wish to offer you. Both of you,” she said.

“What’s that?” John replied.

Kesley’s smile changed, going from pleasant and kind to kind of sultry. “I know that both of you, especially you John, have been wanting to have sex with me since you first got here. For which I am grateful. The reason I haven’t approached either of you is because in my older age I find that I’ve been hitting dry spells where I’m just not horny. I had been about a month into one of them when you two showed up. But my dry spell ended a few days ago and I find that I am very turned on and very into the idea of having sex with both of you. So what do you say? If you’d like, we can go back into my chambers and make love.”

“Emphatically yes,” John replied immediately.

Yelena laughed. “Yes, Kesley, that would make me very happy. I’ll go get my toy. I’ve been wanting to use it on you very badly.”

“All right. Come on, John,” Kesley said, turning and heading out of the room.

John and Yelena quickly followed after her. Yelena broke left, heading for their shared bedroom, while he moved right, following Kesley through the main chamber of her home. It was admittedly very strange to live for almost half a year with a dragoness in a cave at the top of a mountain, but not in a bad way. Especially considering that Kesley had spent years, if not decades, (or longer even), making it into a warm, comfortable, inviting home.

He studied Kesley as she led him into her bedroom, through about a nine foot tall door. He realized that she seemed a little bit shorter than normal. He guessed that for most of their time spent together, she was about eight feet tall, but she looked closer to seven feet now. Well, however she felt comfortable fucking.

Her bedroom was a large place, mainly dominated by an enormous sunken tub and probably the biggest bed he’d ever seen before. Kesley turned around and looked at him intently, standing at the foot of the bed. She was intimidating and beautiful. Her skin was somewhere in between that of a beryl and a serpentine, almost totally black and smooth, with the tiniest hints of green mixed in. She had pleasantly thick thighs and very broad, smooth hips. And a big ass, from what he had seen when she walked in front of him, given that she almost always walked around nude. And she had some very large, shapely breasts.

Her eyes were somewhat like Yelena’s, they burned red with a hint of yellow, and twin horns rose from her forehead. Behind her, her wings were folded. They were very beautiful and had a black-and-red coloring to them.

“Are you eager?” she asked, hands on her big hips.

“Extremely,” he replied.

“I thought as such. I can sense sexual energy, you know. You’ve managed quite admirably, I must say. I thought that at least you would proposition me.”

“Well, I mean...”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you didn’t, because I didn’t want to have to turn you down. I wasn’t even sure if my dry spell would last beyond our time together. Maybe Bliss is smiling on me. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. Anyway, this works out just fine. We get to enjoy sex together, and you get to resume your life tomorrow...take off your clothes,” she said.

John just nodded and started stripping down. By the time he was finished, Yelena walked into the room holding the magical strap-on sex toy that their dryad friends had crafted for her as a gift last year. She looked first at Kesley, then at him as she came to stand beside him.

“Wow,” she murmured, still staring at him.

“What?” he replied, glancing down at himself.

“I am really noticing how much you’ve changed since we first arrived here. You’ve always been in good shape, but there is much more definition now.”

“Yes,” Kesley said, “I’d say you put on about fifteen pounds of muscle, maybe more. You look extremely handsome.”

“I, uh...thanks,” he replied. About a week or two after they had arrived and Yelena had begun her training, John had decided that it wouldn’t do for him to just sit around doing nothing. For his health and his sanity, he’d started seriously working out. His life of activity, especially since meeting Yelena, (activity in many different forms), had kept him decently fit, but even he could see it looking down at himself: he was easily in the best shape of his life. And yet...something was bothering him. Something had been bothering him for a few weeks now, but he couldn’t really put his finger on it. He pushed the vague feelings of discomfort aside and instead focused on the two exotic, exceptionally attractive naked women near him.

“How shall we do this?” Yelena asked.

“Could I go first?” he replied. “I really want to have sex with you, Kesley.”

“I’m okay with that,” Kesley said.

“Yes, love, you can go first,” Yelena said with a grin. “I will enjoy watching.”

“Come on.” Kesley got onto her bed and he eagerly clambered up there as well. He wondered how this was going to work as Kesley laid down on her side and beckoned him closer. Well, probably just like every other encounter he’d had so far. He’d had sex with a woman taller than Kesley before and it had worked out.

He laid down beside her, staring at her reptilian face, into her fiery eyes. She was beautiful in an alien and dangerous kind of way.

“Kiss me,” she said, and he did, leaning in and pressing his lips to her smooth, dark lips.

She moaned softly and ran her hand across his body. He felt her tongue slide smoothly into his mouth, twisting with his own, and her taste came as well. It was a smoky taste, a strange one, but not a bad one. More exotic than weird. Wondrous. He laid a hand across one of her huge breasts. An expression people liked to use about women with big breasts was how they were bigger than their head. Often, it was an exaggeration, but with Kesley, it was true. They were huge. And they felt amazing to touch.

And she was a very good kisser.

He had no idea how old she was, but some hints she’d dropped seemed to indicate that she might be a thousand years old, maybe even older. How long did dragons live? He had no idea, but he figured it gave her a lot of time to practice kissing and sex and other things. Suddenly, she broke the kiss and opened her eyes back up.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“I’m afraid that, ah...I don’t want to wait any longer. I very much want you inside of me,” she replied.

“That horny, huh?” he asked.

“Yes. That horny.”

“I’ll be happy to oblige.”

As he got up and then settled in between her massive thighs, Kesley beckoned to Yelena, who crawled onto the bed with sensuous, languid movements. “Kiss me. Touch me, Yelena,” Kesley said as Yelena drew closer.

“Gladly,” Yelena replied.

As John rested his rigid cock, which was absolutely throbbing with anticipation now and felt as hard as tempered steel, at the entrance of her dragoness pussy, Yelena got up against her and began to passionately kiss Kesley.

Both women moaned, and Kesley moaned louder, as they began to make out and John slipped his dick inside of her. A loud, intense groan of pleasure escaped him as he penetrated her. Dragon pussy felt simply beyond fucking amazing. She was actually a little bit hotter inside than Yelena was. He could feel that fucking heat coming off of her pussy. She wasn’t quite wet so much as she was slick. It was an odd feeling, and the texture of her vagina was bizarre but it felt so godsdamned good! It was somewhat like having sex with his beryl friend Elise, and also a little bit like making love with Brynne, his serpentine lover.

And yet different than both in a way he couldn’t properly articulate.

John stared going harder and settled into a good, smooth rhythm. He’d been fantasizing about this for the last six months straight, pretty much, and now he was living it. Her huge breasts bounced and jiggled as he fucked her, pounding her sweet, incredibly tight dragon vagina. She knew shape-shifting, which meant she had a lot of control over her pussy, like Morgan had...like Yelena now did. She’d been doing some really fun things in bed with her pussy recently that she said would become part of their usual sex sessions.

Something he was very much looking forward to.

Watching the love of his life kiss Kesley as he drove furiously into her just made the whole thing that much more erotic and stimulating. His entire body seemed to pulse with lust. He’d had sex today, first thing in the morning when he and Yelena had woken up. (Okay, when Yelena had woken up and then roused him for sex since she needed less sleep than he did.) But it felt like he hadn’t fucked in too long now that he was finally getting to make love with Kesley.

“That is wonderful, John,” Kesley moaned as Yelena began licking across one of her huge breasts while groping the other.

“You feel pretty fucking great yourself, Kesley,” he panted as his cock throbbed in absolute pleasure from being inside of her, from thrusting into her over and over again, from feeling all that hot, wet perfection.

“Do not take too long, I very badly want my turn,” Yelena complained.

“I guess that’s fair,” he replied. “Although you’ll definitely need to wash up when I’m done, because this is going to be a huge load.”

“Good,” Kesley murmured. “I like that.”

That just made him even more turned on. He looked down at her body, her wonderful, curvaceous dragon body, enjoying every second of their encounter, every sensation. Loving seeing her scaly skin and her huge breasts that Yelena seemed obsessed with, he watched as she touched and groped and licked and sucked on them. Seeing Kesley’s enormous, thick thighs, he ran his hands over them, before settling on her huge hips. She was easily three times as wide as he was. Making love to her was unreal.

Even though he’d been building up a lot of endurance lately, John realized that it was still very easy to come before too long. Some of his sex sessions with Yelena had been pushing up to an hour some nights because they were both so fit and horny and wanted to try a lot of different positions. But he wasn’t even going to make it ten minutes this fuck session, because endurance tended to crumble when you were faced with factors like having sex with a new woman, with a woman of a different species, with a fucking dragoness, and a damned shape-shifter that could make her pussy do all sorts of wonderful things.

Even now he felt her vaginal muscles coiling and clenching and sliding around his cock, squeezing and milking and massaging it, and he knew she was trying to make him come. He lasted maybe another ten seconds, then he let out a guttural sound of primal bliss as he hit that wonderful sensation of the orgasm, the climax, the release of his seed in a burst of absolute pleasure. He started coming inside of Kesley, emptying himself, his cock jerking violently as he felt a tsunami of pleasure wash through him.

Each time another spurt of his seed sprayed out of him, a fresh pulse of rapturous ecstasy flowed out from his core, filling him.

He felt his body going rigid, his hips jerking in automatic response to the orgasm, thrusting his cock deeper into her each time a contraction of release hit him, making Kesley cry out with each pulse that pushed him deeper and deeper into her. It was a very good, very satisfying orgasm.

When he was finished, John stayed inside of her for a few seconds, resting on his hands and knees now, trying to get his breath back. Slowly, he raised his head and found both women looking at him. Kesley had a sedate smile on her face.

“I’ve still got it,” she said.

“What?” he replied, and slowly pulled out of her.

“The ability to make men have very intense, powerful orgasms.”

“Oh. Yeah. I doubt you’re ever going to lose that, Kesley.”

She laughed. “It’d be nice to think so. Although it will be a long time, I think. Mmm...you were right. That is a lot. And that’s saying something for me. Let me wash, and then Yelena, you may enjoy my body.”

“Hurry,” Yelena replied. “I really need it.”

“Oh, yes ma’am,” Kesley replied with happy sarcasm as she got up. “She’s kind of bossy, huh?” she asked John as he got up slowly to join her.

Nothing quite like a good soak in hot water after hard sex.

“She can be,” he replied. “Although she really likes me bossing her around.”

“I know. I’ve heard you screaming at her,” Kesley said, settling down into the steaming water.

“Oh...I thought the walls were a little more, uh, soundproof,” John murmured as he did so as well, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“I have good hearing,” Kesley replied. “And it seems to me that Yelena is never going to learn.”

“What do you mean?” Yelena asked, amused.

“I can’t tell you how many times he’s told you how bad you are, and how you need to be taught a lesson. You never seem to learn that lesson,” Kesley said, grinning.

“I guess I just need more punishment,” Yelena replied.

“I guess you do,” Kesley agreed.

“She definitely does,” John said. “Honestly, I think you’re right. She’ll never learn. But that’s fine by me.”

Yelena laughed. “I guess we’ll have to keep finding out.”

While he and Kesley washed up, Yelena got the magical sex toy pulled on over her hips. John was quick to finish up, since he was quite eager to see the two women go at each other. Although she didn’t move quite as fast as he did, he got the notion that Kesley felt the same way, given that the normally calm and reserved dragoness was moving more quickly than usual. As soon as they were both washed up, the pair got out and dried off, before moving back over to the bed. John sat on the edge and watched as Kesley moved back to her previous position. Yelena waited for her, a hungry look on her face.

“How would you like me, Yelena?” Kesley asked.

“On your hands and knees,” Yelena replied immediately.

Kesley responded by doing just that, getting up onto her hands and knees, showing Yelena her big ass and tail. She got up against her, resting a hand on her scaly tail and running it slowly up and down as, with her other hand, she guided the fake cock into Kesley’s pussy. Yelena gasped softly as she made contact and pushed her way inside. Her tail twitched and she reached out and grasped Kesley’s broad hips as the pleasure hit her. John stared intently, feeling his erection coming back again already. Well, Yelena would no doubt want to be fucked again, given her large sexual appetite, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

“Oh yes, Yelena...” Kesley moaned.

She unfolded her wings, stretching them up as Yelena began making love to her. She was breathing more heavily now, panting almost, as she thrust repeatedly into Kesley’s pussy. Now they could both say that they’d had sex with a dragoness, something probably very few other beings on this planet could claim with truth.

“Kesley...you feel so pleasurable...” Yelena moaned softly.

“You feel pretty great too,” Kesley replied, then moaned loudly as Yelena made a particularly violent thrust.

Both women kept going, Kesley pushing her big ass up against Yelena, both of their tails twitching and swishing back and forth. Both women moaned and writhed in bliss as they made love, and they kept going at it. Yelena put her powerful thighs and hips to good use, until each of them enjoyed a powerful orgasm.

It was quite a sight to watch.

When they were finished, all three of them slipped into the water again.

“Kesley,” Yelena said.

“Yes?”

“I feel like we should repay you, somehow. You’ve housed us for months, fed us, kept us entertained, and trained me a great deal. It was a significant investment of time and resources,” she said, and John thought that she had a point.

He’d been thinking something similar.

Kesley just smiled. “Honestly, Yelena? I’m just happy for the company. And to be able to pass this knowledge on. Plus, the sex was good. But...I don’t know. I can’t really think of anything. If I think of something, I’ll let you know. For now though? You can repay me by going out there and helping people. Going out into the world and enjoying yourselves. Live a good life. You two are something special. There are a lot of lovers out there, some for life, some casual, but a love like what you two have is very rare. I have lived for a very long time, and have only encountered a relationship such as yours a handful of times.”

“I think we can manage being happy,” Yelena said, looking at John. Under the water, he felt her brush against his leg with her tail.

“Yes,” he agreed. “But, Kesley, in the unlikely event that you ever need our help, please don’t hesitate to find us, wherever we are.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the offer. And I will. I don’t think I will need to, but...” she paused, frowning suddenly, “sometimes I feel like something is on the horizon. Something big.”

“What do you mean?” Yelena asked, sitting up straighter. “What is on the horizon?”

Kesley sighed. “I don’t know. Live as long as I have, and you get to see a world-changing event every now and then. Cataclysms, world wars, evil ancient entities threatening to rise to power again. I’ve taken part in my share of wars when I thought it was necessary, when the natural order of things was threatened. We haven’t seen something like that, something world-changing, for a long time. Centuries, at least. But I don’t know. I feel like maybe something is coming.” She fell silent for several more seconds, then shook her head and offered a small laugh. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe I’m just getting old. But if something like that does happen, I have no doubt that I can count you among my allies in the fight for Good.”

“I don’t either,” John said, though Yelena hesitated, a thoughtful look on her face.

“A fight for Good,” she murmured. “For most of my life, I was convinced that I would never be accepted by any save for a handful of horny and adventurous souls, and even then tolerated more than accepted. And yet, since I have arrived here and fallen in love, I’ve been told by many that Bliss smiles upon me, that Vivian Herself favors me. I have fought evil and darkness. I have made friends, real friends that I would trust with my life. I guess...hearing you say this, that you would trust me in a fight for what is right, it really underlines all of these experiences.”

“You are a good person, Yelena,” Kesley said firmly. “From what I can tell, you stand for what is right. You stand for empathy. For peace. For trust. You stand against evil, in its many forms.”

“She’s right,” John said, taking her hand. “You are a good person, Yelena.”

Yelena sighed. “I like to believe this. It’s just that...I have done many bad things. I have killed so many. I have performed torture on my enemies. Not because they were evil, though that is what we were led to believe, but because they were not the same as I. I...I don’t know if...”

“Yelena,” Kesley said, and she looked up, and John realized suddenly that she was close to crying. He wrapped an arm around her, holding her close to him, and she squeezed his hand and sniffed.

“Yes?” she asked softly.

“I know your struggle. I do. I...have done things I am not proud of. Things that I would give everything to take back. I don’t want to talk about them, as much as I’m sure you don’t want to talk about what you’ve done. It hurts. I know that it hurts. Bad deeds are like a poison you will always carry with you. A stain on your soul, a scar on your spirit. Some people can at least try to make it right, but many of us can’t. I can’t. Those I have wronged are long dead at this point. As are their children, and their children’s children. I imagine those you wronged are similarly out of your reach.”

Yelena nodded. “They are.”

“Then it is my belief that all you can do is to no longer commit evil deeds, and to try to make the lives of those around you better. Remove darkness, add light. You are incredibly skilled at combat Yelena. Use those abilities to fight evil. To stop those who would visit pain and suffering on the innocent. And, with regards to your past, lay it to rest, Yelena. I know it may take time, a long time, but eventually you will have to forgive yourself for what you have done. You can’t escape your past, but you can at least make peace with it. Do you understand?”

“I...think so,” Yelena said softly. “Thank you, Kesley. That helped.”

“I am glad. As I said, you are a good person, Yelena. You deserve to be happy.”

She laughed, sniffed again, wiped at her eyes. “Well, deserve or not, I am at least happy most of the time. I have you,” she said, and kissed John firmly on the mouth.

“And I have you, Yelena,” he replied. “If you ever need to talk about this, or anything, please come to me. I want to help you.”

“I know. I know you do. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it up earlier to you. I know we talk so rarely about it. I just...it’s a problem that has no easy solution, and I hate burdening you with such problems. I have seen you get into bad moods before. Something will make you sad, something that I can’t fight, or explain away. Something that I can’t just...fix. It hurts. I know you do not want that for me, but it hurts to see you suffer when I have no way of fixing it. And that is exactly what my problems are: suffering with no easy solution, no fix.”

“I can appreciate that,” John replied. “But part of a relationship is that you share burdens. You share suffering. Even if I can’t fix it, I’m always here to listen.”

“Yes...I am learning that. That is not true where I came from. To reveal that you are suffering, either emotionally or physically, even to an ally...it was potentially dangerous. Every ally eventually turns on you in my realm, and if they know your weak points, it makes it that much easier to take you down.”

“I really hate your realm,” John muttered.

“So do I. I like this place much better,” Yelena said.

“It is pretty great, sometimes,” Kesley agreed. “Now, how about we wash up and you two can help me cook up a big goodbye dinner?”

“Does it have to be goodbye?” Yelena asked. “Goodbyes are sad.”

“They are,” Kesley said. “How about a ‘farewell for now’ dinner?”

“That is much better,” Yelena replied.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

…

“Is this everything?” John asked, looking at the pair of backpacks sitting at the foot of the bed he’d been sleeping in for almost half a year now. It was weird, thinking about that. In some ways, it felt like they had been here for a lot longer than that. But on the other hand...it still oddly felt like the events that had chased them across the continent had happened just a few weeks ago. Time was really fucking weird.

“I believe so,” Yelena replied, doing one more sweep of their bedroom.

John decided to join her. If they left something behind, it wasn’t like it was gone forever. Kesley would keep it safe for them. Plus, they could just come back and get it.

Last night had been a great night. They’d made a big meal and had chatted for hours, long into the night. After that, he and Yelena had gone to bed, had a great round of happy sex, and had gone to sleep. After waking up, they’d fucked again in the bathtub, as was their usual routine at this point, and begun the process of packing.

It was time to leave.

It was time to get back to their life, to continue this wonderful journey that was their relationship. To move on to new territories. It was something that they still weren’t sure about, and for now they only had vague notions of exploring the northern portion of the current continent they were on. Kesley told them that although a lot of it was just bleak wilderness, there were definitely a lot of interesting places to see and visit.

“Yes, this is everything,” Yelena finally concluded.

“Great. Let’s go say goodbye to Kesley then,” he replied.

They picked up their packs and pulled them on, then, after taking one last look around the bedroom they’d spent so much time in, they left it. Kesley was in her usual spot in the main chamber: an enormous chair meant to hold her large frame beside a fireplace that held a magical flame. She smiled as they approached her.

“I’m very glad to have met the two of you,” she said, standing up and giving them both a hug. “And-” She paused suddenly, tilting her head. “Someone is coming into my cave.”

John placed a hand on his sword’s hilt and turned around. He hadn’t heard anything, and neither had Yelena apparently, but Kesley was a dragoness. “No,” she said after a few seconds, placing a hand on his shoulder, “it’s okay. A friend is coming. You’ll like her.”

“Who is she?” Yelena asked.

“An adventuress.”

Before long, they began to hear footfalls. Then a female voice called out. “Kesley! You still in there!?”

“I’m here, Fiona,” Kesley replied.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“Smell. I remember all the smells of my friends.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“I didn’t say it was a bad smell.”

“Should I hide my appearance?” Yelena asked uncertainly.

“No. She won’t mind.” Taking a breath, Kesley called out, “I have company, Fiona.”

The footsteps drew close enough that the latest arrival, Fiona, finally appeared around the corner of the entrance/exit tunnel. She paused there, looking at the three of them, a look of surprise on her face. “Well...that you do. Hello, I’m Fiona.”

“John,” John said, studying her.

“Yelena.”

“Pleased to meet you.” She kept walking closer.

Fiona was, as far as John could remember, the first kit he had ever seen in his entire life. He’d seen drawings and paintings of them, had heard stories about them, but he had never actually seen one in the flesh. Or maybe in the fur was more appropriate. In the same way that felis were like a cross between a cat and a human, and beryl were like a cross between a lizard and a human, a kit was a cross between a fox and a human.

This particular kit definitely resembled an adventuress. She had on leather armor, though it lacked the modifications he normally saw for cold weather environments. Which made enough sense, given that she had fur. She had a pack on her back, a sword on her hip, and a bow and quiver of arrows peeking over her shoulder. She regarded them with bright green eyes that seemed somehow playful, and had an easy smile.

She was also tremendously attractive.

Yelena thought so too, he could tell. Her tail was twitching against him now.

“What brings you back to my home and continent, Fiona?” Kesley asked as she walked forward to greet her. “Last I remember you were visiting the far elf homelands.”

Kesley wrapped Fiona in a hug and picked her up, before gently setting her back down. “I was there for awhile. Got tired of it. Went to Cypress for awhile. Had a lot of fun there. Kicked my way up and down Tomontica after that. Finally wound up back here. As for why I’m back here...well, I had an idea. And I wanted your help.”

“I’m always willing to help you, Fiona. Sit with me. With us, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t...you two are adventurers, aren’t you?” she asked, sizing them up.

“Yes,” Yelena replied. “We are.”

“Maybe you can help me.” They all sat down around the fireplace. “So, I’ll cut to the chase. I’m a little anxious to get started. This whole region north of the mountains is shit. Lots of miserable people. No real infrastructure. Lots of dangerous creatures around, unsafe travel conditions, bad paths, all sorts of shit. I want to fix that.”

John raised his eyebrows. “You do? Um...how? That’s quite the task.”

“Yes it is,” Fiona replied almost eagerly. “It’ll take years and a lot of effort, but the thing is, I’ve been thinking about that precise question for almost a year now. And I have a plan. I’ve been doing research, figuring shit out, walking all over this damned place for the past four months or so. Getting to know the land and the people. There’s this old mine near the middle of the region, long abandoned, a platinum mine. Good stuff, and rare stuff, platinum. At least around here. I want to get the mine up and running again, and the village around it rebuilt. It can serve as a hub, a waystation for weary travelers, a trading outpost, a place of safety. I think it could be the central support beam for the whole region. Obviously it would take a long, long time, but I think this might just be a way to kindle the first few sparks of the fire that will make this region more inhabitable, safer.”

“People have tried this before,” Kesley pointed out.

“Yes. Yes they have. I’ve looked into some of those. Some failed due to bad luck. Some failed due to corruption. Some people just gave up. I can do this, though. With the right people, I can do this. And I think I’ve found the right people, Kesley,” Fiona replied.

“And you want me to help? I’m flattered, and I will if you ask me to, but I do think that my help might be more of a hindrance than anything else. I’m afraid I have a bit of a reputation in the area. People tend to be scared of dragons. But...” She looked over at John and Yelena. “Last night, you mentioned you wanted a way to repay me...”

John looked at Yelena, then at Fiona. “You want us to help her?”

“Yes,” Kesley replied. “She’s a good person. She’s honest. This is a good cause.”

“Well...love?” he asked, looking over at Yelena.

“I am willing,” she replied after a moment’s consideration.

“If you’ll have us, we can help,” John said, looking back at Fiona.

“All right...what are your credentials?” she replied.

“I can vouch for them,” Kesley said. “They are both very strong, swift fighters with a lot of endurance and skill and practice. I trust them with my life.”

“Well damn, that’s quite the endorsement,” Fiona replied. She studied them a bit longer. “Okay. I get good vibes from you, and I trust Kesley. Although...not that I have a problem with race, but do you have the ability to hide yourself? An illusion amulet or something? Most people will react very poorly to a demon.”

“I can shape-shift,” Yelena replied.

“Okay, great! Then I accept your offer of help.” She stood up suddenly. “I really don’t mean to rush off, and I will totally come back and have a nice, long meal and conversation with you at some point in the near future, but I am very eager to get going.”

Kesley smiled knowingly and stood back up. “I understand, Fiona. You’ve always been a rather impatient girl.”

“I am a woman, not a girl,” she complained.

“When you’re my age, everyone else looks like boys and girls, I’m afraid,” Kesley replied.

Fiona sighed. “Fair point, I guess. Are you two good to go?”

“We’re ready to head out. We were just going to actually,” John replied.

“Perfect.” She gave Kesley a long hug. “Thank you so much for putting up with my impatient ass, Kesley. I have missed you very badly, and I do deeply appreciate this.”

“I understand, Fiona. Don’t worry. I’ll be here. I’m a patient woman.”

“Thank you.” She let go of Kesley and then whirled around, heading for the exit.

She really was impatient. John and Yelena each gave Kesley a hug and a kiss on the mouth. “Be sure to visit me sometime before you two leave the continent for good, yes? Last night was very invigorating and I would love to do it again.”

“Oh, so would I,” John replied, and Yelena nodded.

Fiona paused. “What was so invigorating about last night?”

“I thought you had somewhere you desperately needed to be,” Kesley replied, smirking at her. Fiona sighed explosively. “Don’t worry. If you ask politely, I’m sure John and Yelena will be more than willing to tell you all about it.”

“Okay good. Let’s go, new friends,” she said, and resumed her walk.

They followed her out of the cave, and towards the next chapter in their life.

CHAPTER II

Over the course of the past six months, John had walked down this mountain a few times. Mostly back during the beginning, before the true storms had set in. A couple times just to see a few sights and get some air with Yelena. Twice for little adventures. The first one had been very interesting. They’d risked their lives exploring an old far elf ruin, fought some undead, and had a stunning threesome with a beautiful badass ex-princess named Ellie who was blonde, scarred, and six foot six. He wondered what she was doing nowadays.

But walking down the mountain this time with Yelena and Fiona felt different.

It felt fantastic. The view was simply magnificent. He could see for miles upon miles of snowy, forested land, the landscape cut through with valleys and rivers, dotted with lakes and ponds. The skies were clear today, blue and beautiful, the sun shining down happy, healthy light on the land. The air was crisp and chilled.

Walking down the mountain felt kind of like...a new beginning.

In a way, he felt somewhat similar to how he did when leaving the forest surrounding his home village with Yelena for the first time. Although this was a better experience. They’d faced down several adversaries, had some adventures, and had dealt with the biggest issue of their continued relationship in a more effective way.

Speaking of which…

John glanced over at Yelena. She had chosen the form of a human woman with short brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and a plain face with a scar over her right eye. It was very weird to look at her and to know that he was, in fact, looking a shape-shifting demoness. He wondered how long she could hold that form.

He turned his attention to their newest friend, Fiona.

He tried to remember what he knew about kits as he studied her. She had such beautiful fur. It was a very vibrant deep red that shaded to orange in some areas. Her big fox ears seemed to poke up alertly out of her head and her bushy tail was swaying back and forth. If he had to guess, he’d say that she was anxious. Or, maybe not anxious. More eager, given her demeanor. From what he could remember reading and hearing, the kit were supposed to wear their hearts on their sleeves. They tended to be fairly emotional and vibrant.

They were also supposed to be like elves usually were in that they were quite happy to engage in casual sex, and they weren’t too choosy when it came to species. Of course he was already wondering what sex with her would be like.

What a threesome with her and Yelena would be like.

But that would be later, if at all. He’d just have to see how the situation played out. He still wasn’t great at bringing stuff like that up without being extremely awkward about it. But...John frowned slightly as he looked again at Fiona. He had a good first impression of her, he liked her, and yet there was something bad there. A negative feeling when he looked at her. What was it? He didn’t think it was her specifically because he’d been having this feeling for a little while now. A general kind of dread, a baseless anxiety that didn’t seem centered on any particular problem. Maybe he’d just lashed it onto her because she was new in his life.

Well, couldn’t let that happen. It definitely wasn’t fair to Fiona.

He pushed away the bad feelings, hoping that the true root of the problem would become more clear as time went on and he could actually deal with it, and instead decided to strike up a conversation. “So where are we going, precisely?”

“The mine is close to the center of the land,” Fiona replied. “Well, it’s actually a bit north of the center, but not too far. We’ll probably be able to make it there by midday tomorrow if we keep up a brisk pace and don’t run into too much trouble. But that’s the problem with this land: there’s a lot of trouble everywhere and not a great infrastructure for traveling the land. Not like down south where there’s actual roads and paths and settlements.”

“You have quite the goal,” Yelena said. “What motivates you?”

Fiona shrugged quickly. “Just, you know, seemed like a good thing to do. And I don’t really have anything else to do.”

John thought that was slightly evasive, but if Fiona had other reasons for doing this, he doubted they were evil. Probably just personal. He knew what that was like.

“So what can you tell us about yourself?” Yelena asked.

“Hmm...well, we’re going to be traveling and working together for awhile, so I guess that’s fair. I’m originally from Kindress, the kit homeland. Well, technically I’m from one of the smaller islands off the western coast, but whatever. Grew up an island girl, though I was so much trouble and such a pain in the ass that my parents finally agreed to let me travel with my aunt, who was an adventuress. So, we went to the mainland and had a grand old time for about a decade.”

“Is it true that you share your land with another species?” Yelena asked.

“Yes. The manix. They live in the enormous forest that takes up the center of our continent.”

“How big is it?” John asked.

“Roughly the size of the southern portion of this continent.”

John let out a long, appreciate whistle. “That’s big.”

“Yep.”

“I’ve read so little about your homeland. How did this arrangement come to be?” Yelena asked.

“You know, I don’t actually know. All I know is that the manix have lived among my people for centuries at least, likely longer. I’ve heard several stories, but the closest I’ve come to hearing what I think is the truth, I heard from a manix elder. My aunt and I traveled among them for awhile and I met one in a small settlement. I asked him several questions, since he seemed open to sharing knowledge and I always like knowing things. He said that over five hundred years ago the manix homeland was destroyed in a cataclysmic event. At the time, their people and my people were close allies, and we kit offered the refugees and survivors of that event a home in our largest forest. It’s certainly possible, I think.”

“That’s fascinating,” John murmured, wondering if it was true. Had he ever heard anything like that? Gods, how little he knew about his own world! He’d brushed up on the histories of most of the other continents while living with Kesley, as she had a lot of books. Would she know the truth of that? Maybe, she was probably alive back then.

“What else did you learn among them?” Yelena asked.

Fiona adopted a sly grin and laughed. “Well, I learned that the manix are extremely fierce and, uh, vigorous lovers. The men and the women.”

John’s mind went in a different direction, and he thought Yelena was reading his mind, or more likely just sharing his thoughts, with her next question. “What do they look like?”

“They’re a bit bestial. They’re tall, averaging between six and a half and seven feet. They’ve got curling horns and dark fur. They look a little bit like Minotaurs. Typically they’re very built and wear very little. The men are very large and strong, the women also very large and strong and...curvy.” She laughed. “My aunt brought me there maybe a year into our adventures together to, ah, enjoy the pleasures of the manix. My mom would have freaked the fuck out if she knew that. But she knew very little of my adventures, and with good reason. I sometimes think that my aunt was my real mother, since the woman I grew up with...I love her, but she’s so timid and anxious. We’re nothing alike.” She sighed and shrugged.

She smiled again suddenly. “So I’m deeply, deeply curious about how the two of you hooked up and started fucking and fell in love. I mean it’s obvious that you’re quite a couple and I know what it is to enjoy sex with demons, but humans, in my experience, are very...conservative. It’s hard to get you fuckers to admit that deep down you want to stick it in elves, and they’re basically just petite humans with pointy ears. I can’t imagine what it would take to get you to openly be in a loving relationship with a demoness...”

She paused, frowned. “Am I being rude?”

“A little,” Yelena said.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t had many good experiences with humans.”

“Honestly, it’s fine,” John replied. “Not every human is like that, but...yes, a lot of them, in my experience, are like that in this land. Well, they get a bit more relaxed and less stuck up their own ass in the bigger cities, but there are a lot of villages around. As for how we met, well, it’s a bit of a story,” he said.

“We’ve got quite the walk ahead of us,” Fiona pointed out.

“That we do. All right, well, I was out hunting one morning...”

…

The rest of the day went along fairly smoothly.

They chatted all the rest of the way down the mountain and for several hours after as they moved north and east, traveling whatever paths they could find. Fiona was right about the landscape, it was a hectic, overgrown, and often dangerous mess. Twice they were accosted, once before they stopped for a simple lunch, sitting together on a toppled, dead tree, and once after. The first time by ice wolves, big, nasty beasts with huge teeth and dull gray fur, and the second time by a clutch of ice spiders that came descending from the bare trees overhead, as silent as death. But Fiona proved herself to be a very capable fighter, both with her bow and her blade, and John was glad to see that all his practice was actually paying off.

He felt swifter and stronger than before.

As the sun began to set and a stronger chill started to settle across the landscape, Fiona took them into a valley and showed them to a shallow cave that was more of a simple opening than an actual cavern in the valley wall.

“Think this is a good place to camp?” she asked, looking around it.

“Yes, this will do fine,” John replied. “Which one of us should make camp?”

“Well, I do have a camp-in-a-bag, but it’s rather small...” Fiona replied.

“Okay, we can use ours then,” John said.

They cleared out a space, moving some rocks and dead branches to form a clearing, and he tossed down the bag while speaking the activating word. There was a bright flash and suddenly a whole campsite was there before them. He’d taken the opportunity to upgrade it with a few items during their stay with Kesley. Mainly just upgrades to the cooking wares and putting in a bit more storage space. And they were fairly well stocked this time around, too. John began assembling a meal while Yelena and Fiona gathered kindling from dead branches and dry brush scattered around. They had their own supply of chopped firewood, but it was good to supplement it with whatever they could find. Before long, they had a meal going.

They settled on meat, potato, and vegetable stew. Yelena started a fire while John chopped everything up and tossed it into a pot. Once they had the pot hanging over the flame, Yelena broke out a bottle of wine, uncorked it, and took a big drink. She sat down at the table they had set up outside the tent and passed the bottle to Fiona as she sat as well. Fiona took a drink and handed it to John. He almost reached for it but hesitated. He actually hadn’t had any booze the entire time he’d spent with Kesley, though that wasn’t why he was hesitating now. A few times he’d gotten drunk and hadn’t been able to get it up.

Those times were rare, but it did make him paranoid, and although he had no idea if Fiona was interested, he was at least wanting to entertain the possibility. Plus, he was pretty sure that Yelena was going to jump him at the very least. Although it might be a bit more difficult to make that happen if Fiona was around and unwilling to get involved or watch.

“I’m good, thanks,” he said.

“Not much of a drinker?” Fiona replied, passing the bottle to Yelena.

“I know why he doesn’t want any,” Yelena said with a sly grin.

“Why’s that?” Fiona asked, immediately gaining her own grin as she picked up on Yelena’s playful tone.

“I might tell you later,” she said.

“I hate secrets, and waiting,” Fiona muttered, slouching in her chair.

“Don’t we all,” John replied.

“So what exactly is this plan of yours? All we’ve had so far are broad strokes,” Yelena asked.

“Well, the beginning of it will largely rely on tracking down people and convincing them to help. Really, the biggest, baddest part of this plan I think is getting the ball rolling. We’re going to go to the mining village itself and kind of assess the situation. From there we’ll start tracking down people and also working on whatever problems have presented themselves at the town and the mine. Mainly I think we’ll just need to do some renovation work, maybe clearing out some monsters that have taken up residence.”

“What kind of people are we going to be tracking down?” John asked.

“Well, let’s see...there’s a felis merchant I want to find to help us. She’s an ex-adventuress with a lot of experience. She’s going to be able to help us with the business side of things, as well as, I’m hoping, hooking us up with a supply of lumber, food, tools, stuff we’ll need to purchase. There’s a woman named Carrie I’ve heard of who is supposed to be a very experienced miner who works in dangerous conditions. I’ve also heard that her crew is recently out of business and looking for work. I would love to have them working the mine, as they have a great reputation. There’s also Shay, a traveling healer from Tomontica. She’s supposed to be very powerful and kind. It’d be great to have a healer and magic user on hand. And finally there’s Nora. She’s a human and leads a band of mercenaries called the Defenders. They’re supposed to be good people with a reputation for helping and doing what’s right, and I think I can convince them that this is for the good of the land. Their help would be a fantastic.

“Those are the main ones. I’m also willing to take help from wherever else it shows up, provided whoever it is, is on the up and up. What about you? Can you think of anyone who might be willing to help?”

“Honestly, we don’t know anyone north of the mountains,” Yelena replied.

“Yeah. We actually know several people down south who would probably be interested to at least pitch in, but that’s a long journey,” John said.

“Well, maybe after we get the ball rolling you can make a pilgrimage down there and see who you can send up. This is going to be a long project. Years at least.” She paused. “I mean, not that I expect you to stick around for years...how long are you going to be around?”

“Not sure, honestly,” John replied.

“I think it is a, ah, what is that phrase I’ve heard...play it by ear, kind of situation. We’ll leave when it feels right. And it will not feel right until we have given you sufficient help.”

“Thank you. I, um...I do really appreciate this. I’m basically a stranger with a big, insane dream and you just...helped.”

“Well, Kesley vouched for you. And we did not precisely have a solid goal in mind. So it isn’t a problem,” Yelena said.

“Plus helping is something we tend to do,” John added. He glanced at the pot. “Let me go check on dinner.”

He stood and crossed to the fire, then checked the stew. It was ready. He filled three bowls and they set in to eat. They ate in silence, focused wholly on their meals. That was something that was a great side effect of living a life back on the road again: every meal tended to taste better. He was really fully realizing this after living in a cave for so long. Not that Kesley didn’t make amazing food, but meals simply seemed to taste better after a whole day of walking and fighting. Besides making you hungry, you just looked forward to that wonderful time where you could finally sit down and relax and enjoy the food.

After they were done, they sat back and swapped stories for about half an hour, mostly just him and Yelena relaying some of their smaller adventures. As the conversation went on, Fiona seemed to get more fidgety. Her ears were twitching and he caught sight of her tail swishing back and forth, appearing to her left and right periodically. She seemed to be having a harder time focusing. Well, focusing on what they were saying, anyway.

She hadn’t really looked away from them.

“So...” Fiona said after about half a minute of silence passed following a natural lapse in conversation, “how hard would it be to tempt one or both of you into sex?”

Yelena simply smiled and leaned forward a little. “It would be exceptionally easy to tempt us into sex. Especially John. He’s so easy.”

“Yep,” he agreed.

“Oh thank Bliss!” she cried in relief. “I haven’t gotten fucked for like a month! And you two are some of the hottest people I’ve ever seen. Definitely the fucking sexiest couple I’ve ever come across, and I fucking love having threesomes with couples.” She paused, looking at Yelena. “Will you be in your natural form for it?”

“I most certainly will. I imagine John wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I like it best when she’s herself,” he replied. “You’re most beautiful then.”

“Oh? You aren’t interested in me shape-shifting in someone hotter to fuck?” Yelena asked.

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

Yelena snorted. “What do you mean?”

“There is no one hotter than you.”

Her smile turned somewhat awkward. “Come on, that’s not true. You’re just saying that to be nice.”

“I don’t think we really have that kind of relationship. I’m telling you the truth.”

“Well...thank you, love.”

“This is going to be awesome,” Fiona whispered.

Yelena laughed. “What do you mean?”

“Having sex with a hot couple, especially a hot interracial couple that are also not the same race as you are, is rare and fantastic. But when you add that in with a couple that is so totally in love with each other and you get an absolutely amazing threesome. So, uh...may we?”

“Fuck? Yes,” Yelena replied, standing up.

John stood up quickly and nearly knocked over his chair.

Fiona smirked. “You are eager,” she said.

“I am. You are amazingly attractive,” he replied.

“Glad to hear it. Come on. I really want to see both of you naked.”

John headed into the tent and began undressing quickly. As the two women joined him and began doing so as well, he stole glances at Fiona. As she shed her armor and then the simple traveling clothes she wore beneath it, she revealed her wonderful body. Like pretty much all the adventuresses he met and hooked up with, she was very fit, leaning more towards the thin and trimly built side. Her short red fur was very beautiful and he imagined it would feel very soft and warm. She took off her bra and tossed it aside into a growing pile of clothes, freeing her firm, beautiful breasts. They were about the same size as Yelena’s and were quite wonderful to look at.

He quickly finished stripping and moved over to the washbasin, then went about cleaning himself up quickly. Yelena and Fiona joined him, each of them cleaning up in preparation for the threesome that was about to commence. As soon as they were ready, all three of them moved over to the bed that dominated the center of the tent.

John let out a small surprised shout as Fiona basically tackled him, shoving him onto his back and mounting him. She grinned fiercely down at him, her green eyes flashing with excited desire. “I so rarely get to enjoy human,” she said, and then ducked down and kissed him firmly on the lips. He kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her to him. Oh how wonderful she felt, rubbing against his naked body. Her fur was the softest he’d ever felt, she was so warm and vibrant and alive as she rubbed herself against him. He slid his hands down to the firm curve of her ass, squeezing it, loving how it felt.

She moaned as she kissed him, slipping her tongue into his mouth, eagerly probing it. He felt the bed shift as Yelena moved closer to them, then saw her as she straddled him as well, getting behind Fiona. Her hands appeared to either side of their new foxy sex friend and she began to grope her breasts. Fiona broke the kiss with a loud moan of pleasure as Yelena kissed the side of her neck and began to play with her nipples.

“Oh fuck yes,” she whispered.

John reached down and slipped a finger in between them. He found her clit and began to stimulate it, rubbing it slowly. Fiona groaned again, louder. “Fuck, you two really know how to do this. You fuck a lot of women together, don’t you?”

“A lot,” Yelena murmured.

“I imagine it’s hard to bed humans,” she whispered.

“It can be,” John said. “Although we fucked a six and a half foot tall ex-princess badass several months ago.”

“She was amazing,” Yelena added.

“That sounds hot. So you do a lot of interracial, huh? How far do you go on that? Just elves or felis or beryl? Or something more interesting?”

“We fucked Kesley before you showed up,” Yelena said.

“Kesley!? Seriously!? Holy shit, that’s so hot! So jealous!” she replied, then moaned loudly as Yelena reached down and slipped a finger inside of her pussy. Both of them were stimulating her now, making her cry out in intense pleasure.

“We’ve fucked dryads too,” John said.

“And a serpentine,” Yelena murmured, kissing up and down her neck.

“Now that is wicked hot,” Fiona moaned.

“How about we switch up? You get on your hands and knees and pleasure my lover, and I’ll lay beneath you and pleasure you with my amazing tongue,” Yelena suggested.

“That sounds simply fantastic.”

They made the necessary adjustments, John staying where he was. Fiona looked exceptionally sexy as she got onto her hands and knees between his legs. Yelena settled on her back beneath Fiona’s pussy, in between her firm, red-furred thighs.

“I’m gonna make you so happy that you met me,” Fiona said, staring John directly in the eyes as she reached out and gripped his cock.

“Already there,” he replied.

She smirked and then stuck her tongue out. He groaned as she began to drag it along the head. Sparks of pleasure burst into existence as she licked all over the head of his dick, her movements slow and deliberate. And then Fiona suddenly let out a loud moan of surprised pleasure as Yelena got to work on her.

“Oh fuck, finger and the tongue at the same time is so good!” she moaned.

“Yelena is exceptionally skilled at pleasuring pussy,” John replied.

“Yeah, I can tell that already.”

Fiona took his cock into her mouth and began to bob her head smoothly up and down. She looked incredibly erotic, the effect heightened by the fact that he had never been with, let alone seen, a kit before her. He reached down and began to touch one of her ears, making her moan and shudder. “You like that?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she moaned enthusiastically.

He used both hands and began to rub her large fox ears, and she moaned louder as she kept sucking him off. The rapturous bliss she was giving him was increasing, filling him. Her mouth was a place of hot, wet perfection.

She gasped suddenly and stopped the blowjob. “Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Your girlfriend’s tongue is fucking in my pussy and what are you doing down there, Yelena?!” she cried.

“Shape-shifting has many applications,” John replied.

“Apparent-fucking-ly, this feels amazing!” she moaned, then went back to sucking him off.

He was close to blowing off when she stopped. “Okay,” she said, “I want sex. Like really bad. I want it right now.”

“I think John can help you with that,” Yelena said.

Fiona quickly shifted forward and crawled back on top of him. Immediately, she gripped his cock and slipped it into herself. Both of them moaned as she lowered herself, taking him inside of her. Her pussy was incredibly wet and slippery and hot. She began to ride him rapidly, moaning loudly as she took his dick, fucking herself furiously with it. Her furry breasts bounced freely above him and her mouth hung open, tongue out.

“Oh my fucking...that is so satisfying,” she moaned.

“Godsdamn you are wet,” he replied, his hands finding her hips.

“I’m so fucking horny, and this dick feels so fucking good. It’s like scratching an itch that’s been bugging you all fucking day. Just like ripping off your clothes and just scratching like crazy! Fuck, I love sex so much! And you are so fucking hot!” she cried, running her hands across his chest.

“He’s been working out a lot over the past several months,” Yelena said.

“It really fucking shows,” Fiona panted. She gripped his shoulders suddenly and shifted, actually getting up and resting on her feet instead of her knees, still fucking him, her thigh muscles tightening as she slipped up and down him.

“You’re quite fit yourself,” Yelena murmured.

“Oh yeah. I’ve got quite the active lifestyle, put a lot of work into my endurance, and my legs,” she panted. “Although I’m gonna wanna switch soon.”

“How about I fuck you on your back?” John suggested.

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

She settled back down against him after another minute or so, and he grabbed her and flipped them both over, making her let out a small shout of joy. As soon as she was on her back and her legs were spread open wide, John started fucking her brains out, making her scream in pleasure. “Can I ride your tongue?” Yelena asked.

“Yes. You most certainly may,” she replied between gasps.

Yelena straddled her face, facing John, and gasped, then moaned as Fiona began tonguing her clit. He stared at his love and she stared right back with her blazing red eyes and sexy grin. He divided his attention between the two women, or tried to. Looking at Yelena’s features as they twisted in pleasure, at her nude, fit body, then down to Fiona, her own red-furred, sexy form, the way his cock was disappearing into her over and over again. The sheer raw pleasure of the encounter seemed to fill him, consume him.

After another few minutes, he motioned to Yelena. “Your turn.”

“Good. Back up,” she replied.

He pulled out of Fiona and backed up, giving her space. She got onto her hands and knees in between Fiona’s spread open legs and buried her head in her crotch. He quickly got up against her fit ass and slipped his way into her pussy. A groan escaped him, a loud one of absolute pleasure, as he entered her, feeling that familiar wave of tight, hot perfection, that rapturous bliss. Gripping her hips he started pounding her, making her scream and push against him, her tail twitching wildly. After a bit, he grabbed it and pulled on it, making her scream again.

“Ooh she likes that,” Fiona moaned.

“She does,” he agreed, and pulled again a little harder.

Yelena let out a loud moan and suddenly started orgasming all over his dick. He moaned as he felt her muscles clench and squeeze his cock. He kept fucking her climaxing demoness pussy all the way through, getting a lot of interesting noises out of her as she kept eating out Fiona.

“Fuck, yes...keep going, Yelena!” Fiona screamed.

And then she started orgasming as well. He listened to both of them come as he held off his own orgasm, wanting very badly to come inside of Fiona. As soon as they were finished orgasming, he pulled out of Yelena.

“Move aside, love,” he murmured.

“Uh-huh,” she managed, laying down on her side and getting her breath back.

“Back for more?” Fiona asked, grinning up sedately at him.

“Yes. Can I finish inside of you?” he replied as he laid back down in between her thighs and reentered her.

“You most certainly can,” she answered.

He kissed her. “Thank you.”

She moaned as he started making love to her again, sliding smoothly in and out of her. He started to go faster and harder, and Fiona moaned loudly in pleasure as she stuck her legs up in the air. “Yes! Fuck me! Fuck me, John!” she screamed.

He fucked her and went faster. She wrapped her legs around him. “That’s it...come on...I want to feel it...” she moaned. Smirking at her, as he panted and worked his body against hers, he moved a hand and reached for her clit. Finding it, he began rubbing it vigorously, trying his best to time it with his thrusts. Hearing her moan loudly in response, he knew he’d chosen correctly. Upping his thrusts, he poured on the power, trying his best to make her come again. He wanted to feel her clenching around him as he came, knowing his own orgasm was close.

“So close,” she panted, writhing under him. “Ohhhhhhhh, yes! Harder!”

Grabbing one of her hands, he pulled it to her pussy.

“Play with yourself!” he demanded, as he began to slam into her. Seeing her fingers begin working feverishly, and hearing the noises and moans that came babbling out of her mouth, he leaned back, changing the angle and giving himself more leverage so that he could thrust into her from a stronger position. Wrapping his hands around her legs that remained up in the air, he used her own body as a basis from which to fuck her. Holding nothing back, he pounded as hard as he possibly could. Straining, he fucked her as roughly as she begged him to, and smiled when he heard her screech that told him her orgasm was happening.

Just a few seconds later, he started coming inside of her, finally allowing himself to finish, and he groaned loudly as the hot, powerful, sexual release hit him like a bolt of lightning. He felt her wrap her arms and legs around him and hold him as he emptied himself into her, coming inside of her in hot bursts, his seed leaving him rapidly. He was again temporarily lost in that world of absolute bliss, in the pure perfect rapture of releasing his seed into a woman with no protection between them. When it was over, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then pushed himself up. Fiona released her hold on him, staring up at him with a happy and serene smile.

“That was really good,” she said quietly.

He nodded. “Yes, it was.”

“Yes,” Yelena agreed. “Very good. I’m glad we could do this.”

“Can this be a more regular thing while we’re together?” Fiona asked.

“Yes,” Yelena said, and John nodded. He was more than thrilled to keep this going.

“I need to sleep now,” he said.

“We all do. We’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Fiona said.

“Goodnight, then,” Yelena said.

He and Fiona responded in kind as they situated themselves. As soon as he was comfortable, pressed up against Yelena’s back with his arm around her, and with Fiona’s soft, furry body against his own back, he fell asleep almost immediately.

…

John opened his eyes.

He was cold and something was wrong.

He sat up, realizing at once that he was alone in the bed. Sitting up, he sensed movement somewhere else in the tent. Yelena was crouched at the foot of the bed, fully dressed in clothing and her leather armor. She was shoving items into a backpack.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Hurry up,” Fiona said from somewhere outside the tent.

“Yelena, what’s going on? What are you doing?” he asked again.

“I am leaving, John,” she replied.

He felt cold fear shoot through him and got up out of the bed. “What do you mean you’re leaving? I...what?”

She sighed and looked up at him. There was a horrible look of sad sympathy in her eyes. “John...I am sorry,” she said quietly.

Her eyes...weren’t red anymore.

“Where are you going?” he asked. John felt stupefied with terror.

“What’s taking so long?” Fiona asked.

“John,” she said, “I am leaving with Fiona. She’s...a lot more interesting than you, I am afraid. She offered to take me with her.” She closed her pack and stood up suddenly.

“But...I love you,” he whispered.

“I know, John. Sometimes love isn’t enough, I’m afraid.” She hesitated, looking at him with that same sad, yet somehow distant, sympathy. “Goodbye, John.”

…

“No!”

John jerked awake violently and sat straight up.

Fiona came awake beside him. “What?!” she cried, sitting up. “What’s wrong?!”

John sat there gasping, looking around the tent, trying desperately to find Yelena. She suddenly appeared into view, standing up from where she must have been laying at the foot of the bed, a look of deep concern on her face.

“John, what’s wrong?”

“I...” he felt a tremendous relief settle over him at the sight of her, though there was still a chilled core of fear somewhere in the deeper parts of him. “Nightmare,” he said, glancing over at Fiona, now feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Oh, man. You scared the shit outta me,” she replied.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he said.

“It’s fine. I have nightmares too. Bad ones sometimes...it’s fine.”

“What was it about?” Yelena asked, coming and sitting next to him. She took his hand. He looked up at her. Her eyes were very red.

“I...can’t remember,” he replied, and immediately felt bad about it. It might have been the first time he’d directly lied to her.

She frowned, her gaze lingering on him for just a few seconds, then she nodded. “If you have anything you want to talk about, I am here,” she said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“I know...I love you, Yelena. So much,” he replied.

Her smile broadened and she hugged him. “I love you, too.” She pulled back and glanced at them. “So, I guess we are all awake now.”

“What time is it?” Fiona complained, rubbing at her eyes.

“A little past sunrise,” Yelena replied.

Fiona sighed heavily. “Well, we should probably get going then.”

John nodded. He wanted something else to focus on, to take away the cold lonely terror he’d been infused with by his nightmare.

As he got up and went to the washbasin, he thought that at least one good thing had come from the nightmare.

At least now he knew what was bothering him.

…

Their journey to the abandoned mining village was largely unremarkable.

Or maybe it felt that way because John was thinking so furiously for so much of it. After they’d washed and dressed, he and Yelena had made breakfast. They’d chatted lightly as they ate, but it was obvious that Fiona was eager to get going, so after they were done, they broke down the camp and struck off once again towards their destination.

Was John boring?

This was what he kept coming back to, ruminating on and almost obsessing over, as they walked northeast. His nightmare had been deeply frightening, but it wasn’t like he honestly believed Yelena was going to just up and leave him like that. No, his fears were a little more...grounded. Because relationships did erode slowly over time. They required upkeep and maintenance. That didn’t bother him at all. But when the years started to go by...what if Yelena found eventually that she’d rather be with someone who was more interesting?

Because honestly, he’d been realizing that he was fairly boring.

Maybe not by a villager’s standards, but that was a low bar. But by adventurer’s standards? By Yelena’s? She was a fucking demon who had been alive for over a century. She was over three times his age and had certainly packed a lot of living into those decades, given where she’d come from. And sure, right now she was probably distracted by the love she was feeling for him and the fact that she was living in a brand new world. There was all this exploration, new places to go, new adventures to have.

But…

Eventually, that would wear off. And then she would begin to realize that she’d tied herself to a boring person. What did he have? He was a human. At least in his eyes the blandest of all the species. He wasn’t particularly magical. He was decent at swordplay and archery. He supposed he was brave enough, but brave adventurers were easy to come by. You didn’t really get to be an adventurer by being a coward. He wasn’t particularly good looking. Although he was glad that there had been a noticeable improvement to his physique, he’d always thought his face was fairly average, leaning towards unappealing.

And you couldn’t really fix that.

He wasn’t particularly smart, either. He wasn’t an amazing cook. He couldn’t weave a compelling story. John thought that he was at least fairly good at getting her off, but like brave adventurers, you could find sexually skilled adventurers everywhere. They tended to get a lot of chances to practice on each other, and obviously there were people out there way more skilled than he was.

Yelena was a shape-shifting, magical, badass warrior demoness. Why should she be with him when she could get probably anyone else now that she could shape-shift? Because they’d met by happenstance and she’d gotten bit by the love bug? Was that fair to her? Now he felt guilty because he knew right then and there that he desperately wanted to keep her in his life. How to fix this? Well, he supposed the most obvious answer was ‘be more interesting’. How in the fuck was he supposed to do that?

John was still contemplating this when they finished their journey a few hours after midday. Getting there at least gave him the opportunity to focus up again. The three of them came to stand at the edge of the settlement.

“Wow...it’s worse than I thought,” Fiona murmured.

“You had not visited it already?” Yelena asked.

“No. I wanted to go to Kesley’s first. Not exactly the kind of place you want to walk into alone. Although this place definitely looks abandoned...”

She was right about that. The place looked like crap. They were standing at the end of a simple dirt road partially covered in snow. A row of eight buildings made up the right side of the road, while two pairs of structures and another pathway set in between the pairs made up the left. Slowly, the trio walked down the central road, studying the buildings as they went. John picked out a few buildings as they progressed.

There was an inn.

That one had to be a blacksmith.

There were a pair of what might have been large boarding houses.

That stone squat square was definitely a guard’s quarters, likely housing a barracks, commander’s office, and jailhouse.

The rest of them could have been anything, really.

Two of them were burned out husks and the blacksmith was partially collapsed. All of them had broken windows and bashed in front doors and a great deal of weather damage. As they reached the center of the T shaped intersection, John looked down the other pathway and several hundred feet away spied the mine itself: a dark opening in the side of a broad, not particularly tall hill. Another structure was there, to the left of the mine’s entrance.

“Ah, there’s the mine,” Fiona murmured softly.

“What first?” John asked.

“I think we should check out all these buildings, make sure we’re alone here and also check to see if we can find any valuables. Honestly, we’re going to need a lot of fucking gold to properly fund this whole mess, even just to get it off the ground. I’ve been hoarding as much as I can ever since I got this idea, but it’s not nearly enough. After that, we check that building down there, then poke around in the mine a bit. And then...we’ll figure out what comes next.”

“All right then,” Yelena said, drawing her blade, “let’s get to work.”

They moved back the way they’d come, opting to start at the beginning of the row of structures. Its front doors were smashed in by what might have been looters at one point. John led the way, blade out and ready. In the pale light, he saw that this place might once have been a shop. There were several bare shelves along the walls and smashed wood that may have been more shelving. The place was pretty cleaned out, though there was some evidence of fighting that had gone on. As they split up and began searching, he wondered what had initially driven this settlement out of business. The location? Bad luck? Monsters?

It was hard to imagine, because platinum was a quality and rare metal. Why weren’t more people trying to do this?

John found a stairwell at the back of the building. “Heading upstairs,” he called and then began his ascent. The old stairs creaked and groaned under him. They were going to have to do a lot of work to get this place safe, let alone appealing, again. Coming to the top of the stairway, he moved through the bashed open door he found and looked around. This had to be where the previous shopkeeper had lived. And it had been pretty thoroughly ransacked. The dresser drawers laid open, the furniture was flipped, old trash and ripped up clothing lay scattered across the dusty wooden floor. John sighed and began his search.

After ten minutes, he finally found something. It was hidden beneath the bed in the far back corner of the room, and it looked more like it had been very hastily hidden there at some point by maybe the shopkeeper or some forgotten and likely dead adventurer. It was a small sack, cinched tightly. John retrieved it, opened it up, and poured the contents into his hand. Several gold coins, a pair of emeralds, and a very beautiful ruby fell into his waiting palm. He studied them for a few seconds, then replaced them.

It wasn’t much, but it was at least a good start.

…

“You know...maybe we could do this tomorrow,” Fiona said.

They were standing at the entrance to the mine five hours later. The sun was almost gone now, hiding once more beyond the horizon, casting the land in long, uncomfortable shadows and a very cold wind that had picked up.

“We should at least look around the entrance,” Yelena replied.

Fiona sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get this over with. I want to eat and have sex and then sleep.”

“Same,” John said.

All three of them drew their blades and moved slowly into the mine. Yelena cast a light spell that pushed back the heavy darkness of the mine. They’d managed to search all thirteen of the buildings, and it had been about as John had expected. Probably dozens of wanderers and adventurers and opportunistic merchants had been through this place and largely picked it clean, although they hadn’t found everything. The trio had found a scattering of gold and gems and a few daggers across the settlement. The biggest find was a small lockbox hidden away in the building next to the mine that contained a few magical rings and another bag of gold. Again, not a tremendous haul, but definitely a decent start to the adventure.

Although John was reconsidering that as he looked around the first cavern that served as the entrance to the mine. There was a lot of evidence of the mining crew strewn about: flipped over mine carts, a scattering of pickaxes and shovels and other tools, and several corpses. Two tunnels snaked away from them, one dead ahead and rather large, another to the left and smaller. John hesitated as he decided to head towards the main tunnel.

Something was wrong.

He was getting a very bad feeling about this place, which could mean a number of things. “Uh, I think that maybe-”

Something skittered up ahead.

“Oh shit,” Fiona said.

“That sounded like a giant spider,” Yelena said, sheathing her blade and drawing her bow. She quickly notched an arrow.

“Probably an ice spider,” John muttered, doing the same.

“We can handle ice spiders,” Fiona said.

More skittering came to them, and the sound of a great many giant spiders coming towards them followed.

“That sounds like a lot,” John whispered.

Yelena strengthened her light spell and revealed horror. The tunnel ahead of them, the main one that led deeper into the mine proper, was alive with movement. There had to be dozens of them, maybe as many as fifty, or more, it was near impossible to tell.

“Something’s wrong with them,” Yelena murmured.

“We should back up,” Fiona said. “This is...uh, a little out of our league, I think. Unless you two are a lot more badass than you seem.”

“Yelena is,” John said. “But...”

“We should back up. Get out. Now,” Yelena said firmly, her voice hardening.

John knew not to argue and began backing up, as did Fiona. As they reached the mine’s ingress, a tremendous flash of yellow-orange light flared into being and John felt a wave of heat pass over him. Yelena released a solid wave of fire, sending it racing down the length of the central tunnel. The nearest ice spiders were maybe five feet shy of entering the cavern itself. They fried and roasted instantly. The flame licked across the walls and floor and ceiling, consuming the spiders in seconds, turning them into withered husks.

But as it died out, John could see even more spiders coming their way, dozens more.

“Crap,” he muttered.

“Out of the cave!” Yelena yelled, then turned and sprinted towards them.

As soon as all three of them were out of the cave, she turned back around, raised her hands and fired off a small but extremely bright fireball towards the roof of the mine’s entrance. It struck with a brilliant explosion that sent rocks flying everywhere and quickly caused a cave-in. Rocks and earth tumbled and fell, covering the way in.

When they finished and all was silent, Fiona sighed. “That’s going to be a lot of extra work,” she muttered.

“I am sorry. I saw no other option in the moment,” Yelena said.

“It’s not your fault, and I was more talking about the spiders...you said something was wrong with them?” she replied.

“Yes. They did not look like normal ice spiders. They had streaks of darkness along them, and they seemed more...angular. They almost appeared corrupted by something.”

“Well great,” John said. “That’s never a good sign.”

“No, it is not. But they’re trapped, and we should probably make camp in the basement of the inn. It looked pretty intact,” Fiona replied.

“A sound plan,” Yelena agreed.

The women began walking away. John gave an uneasy look at the mine, but it seemed pretty solidly caved in. It would take something powerful to break through. He turned and started following the women, then found himself giving an uneasy look at Fiona. She was walking very close to Yelena and had already picked up an animated conversation. He pursed his lips, then shook his head as he moved to catch up. His dream came back to him in a rush, but it was just a dream. It was ridiculous. It didn’t mean anything.

But it was hard to shake that uneasy feeling as he followed them into the old inn.

CHAPTER III

“So, who are we tracking down first?” Yelena asked.

The three adventurers walked along an unkempt trail through huge stands of dead trees that extended away from them in every direction for miles. Overhead, the sky was mostly clear and the sunshine was bright. It felt good and warm, streaming down on them, melting the ice and snow that had ensnared the land for so long. John wondered if it would last. How long before the next snowstorm came in and refroze everything?

Despite his misgivings yesterday, John felt good. For the most part. He hadn’t had any further nightmares last night, and the pair of threesomes he’d had with Yelena and Fiona, before and after sleep, had been very good. Fiona was extremely vigorous and enthusiastic. The big breakfast before heading out had helped too, he imagined.

“Her name is Elora,” Fiona replied. “She is the felis merchant.”

“Any particular reason we’re going after her first?” John asked. After what had happened with the mine, he honestly thought they were going to head off after the mercenaries. It was going to take a small army to clear that place out, probably. Or several more exceptionally well-trained warriors, and a few mages, too.

“Well, since the mine is collapsed, I figured it can wait for now. We really need to start getting supplies in, and Elora is supposed to be the one who can help with that. She’s apparently got connections all over the continent,” Fiona explained.

“How’d you hear about her?” Yelena asked.

“I started asking around as soon as my feet hit shore coming up from Tomontica. Not a lot of info south of the Frost Mountains, but once I got up here people had a lot to say. Elora has good references and every merchant seemed to like her and know her at least in passing. So I figured if anyone would know how to help funnel supplies to an isolated location for a reasonable price, it would be her. Hopefully she’ll listen.”

“Hopefully,” John murmured.

He looked around, continually keeping an eye out for monsters. They’d been on the road for half an hour so far and this forest seemed pretty dead, but that could change at any moment. After another few moments, Yelena asked, “I am curious, how did you meet Kesley?”

“She saved my life,” Fiona replied. “Several years ago, I was here, in the far frozen north, looking for something. Thought I’d found a good old treasure map. Turned out to be complete horse shit. I got lost in a bad blizzard, a whiteout, and I was pretty much fucked. Kesley happened to be out and about at the time and she saw me, and decided to save me. I...kind of freaked the fuck out when I saw a godsdamned dragon descending from the sky, and actually passed out. Partially from exposure, but also from fright. When I woke up, I was in her cave, and she was more...reasonably-sized. We got to talking. For whatever reason, she took to me quickly. And I really liked her, once I wasn’t afraid of her anymore.

“I stayed with her for about a week, waiting out the blizzard mostly. She has so many stories to tell, they’re fascinating! She talked for hours and hours and hours, and I loved every minute of it. When I started to get restless, she pointed out a spot on my map and said that she’d heard a treasure was supposed to be there and that it would be dangerous. I thanked her, and she gave me some supplies and told me I was always welcome back in her home whenever I wanted. She’s really fun and nice. And the only dragon I’ve ever met.”

“Yes. She seems a rarity. I’ve read as many books as I can get my hands on, but I am not certain how many dragons there might be in the world,” Yelena said.

“I think that’s because no one else is certain either. Certainly they’re very rare. There used to be a lot of them...I mean, I think. They’re supposed to be most common on Cypress...maybe. I’m not sure. Hard facts are difficult to come by and Kesley is always a little evasive,” John said.

“Do you think she knows something we don’t?” Fiona asked.

“A shitload, I’m sure. But when it comes to her fellow dragons, I think, and it’s a total shot in the dark, but I think that maybe she just doesn’t know herself anymore. I think she’s been alone, or at least separate from her own species, for so long that she doesn’t know much about them. And she doesn’t really want to talk about that fact.”

“That is sad,” Yelena murmured.

“I have wondered if she gets lonely up there. She seems to spend a lot of time up in that cave...” Fiona replied.

“I think she just prefers being alone most of the time. I have no idea how old she is, maybe five hundred years old...maybe even more than that. I think after enough time you just go through phases. Now she’s in a ‘I want to stay in my house’ phase. Although she said her ‘dry spell’ of being horny is lifting, so maybe she’ll get out more and fuck people,” John said.

Yelena and Fiona laughed. “Hopefully,” Fiona said.

And they walked on.

…

The township of Blizzard was small and miserable, but honestly, it was a fairly welcome sight after mile upon mile of bleak, desolate, wintry wastelands. The sunshine was nice, but the land was still a frozen husk after months of heavy snow. There was slush in the streets from the recently melted snow, and water dripped from roofs into muddy puddles on the ground. There were a good number of people around, dozens at least, moving through the streets, all off on their own tasks. It felt strangely good to be among society again.

Most of the people they passed by seemed to be loggers and merchants, focused mainly on their own goals. Though that changed when they passed into the marketplace. Then everyone wanted their attention. He supposed it was obvious enough that they were adventurers, and adventurers probably made up at least a decent portion of their local economy. The trio began moving among the stalls, perusing the items, selling off the few weapons and trinkets they’d gathered so far on their journey, and always asking about Elora.

Almost all of them had heard of her, and finally, one of the merchants, a human woman selling mainly bows and arrows, (they each bought several arrows), gave them some real information. “You’re looking for Elora? She was here, last night. Stayed at the inn. Why are you looking for her?” the woman asked.

“I want to hire her,” Fiona replied.

The woman considered it for a moment, a look of uncertainty on her face. Fiona quickly read the situation, sighed softly, and put down ten gold. The woman snatched it up. “See that castle there?” she asked, nodding to the north.

They all turned. John had noticed the large, looming structure as they’d come into the town. It sat on a rise of land, though it was mostly hidden by the particularly tall trees that grew here. It looked like a lonely, dangerous place.

“She’s headed up that way, from what I heard. Looking for something. She left maybe an hour ago. If you hurry, I bet you can catch her there.”

“Thanks,” Fiona said, then quickly turned and set off.

John and Yelena hurried after her. Fiona was practically jogging, trying to get out of the marketplace. “You’re in a hurry,” Yelena said as they caught up to her.

“I’m just...eager! I want to get this damned process started. I’ve done nothing but walk and walk and walk for months now and I want to make real progress on this!”

“Try to keep everything properly framed,” John advised as they approached the northern edge of Blizzard.

“What do you mean?”

“This project is massive. Utterly. Others have tried and failed. You might fail. And you have made progress. You found the town, you’ve assessed it, and you’ve learned that the mine needs to be taken care of and cleaned out,” he said.

“Also, you found us,” Yelena added. “We are probably going to be exceptionally useful tools in getting this done.”

Fiona grinned and giggled suddenly. “And in getting me off.”

“That too,” John said.

Despite his unfounded misgivings about Fiona, he had to admit that she wasn’t just really good at sex, she was pretty charming and charismatic in her own way. Although...that fact did make him feel a little uncomfortable. He wasn’t either of those things. John tried to push those thoughts away. What was with him? He normally wasn’t so insecure. There had to be more to this, but what? Maybe another painful and terrifying nightmare would give him the answer. He looked up, focusing on the huge castle as they left town and struck off towards it.

It was much more visible from this angle, and it was indeed very foreboding. The road that led to it was overgrown and not at all traveled. Though there was evidence of one person having made their way up the path recently. Not much evidence, though. Definitely a felis. They were always very light on their feet. The trio kept walking, falling into a steady pace as they slowly ascended the path, wary of any prospecting monsters or hostile people hanging around, looking for an easy score. Not that they’d find one with John, Yelena, or Fiona.

Within forty or so minutes, they were at last on their final approach to the castle wall. Before they could get close to the huge, weather-worn wooden doors, which were open just enough for someone to slip through, Yelena stopped and put a hand on John’s shoulder. He froze, as did Fiona. Although she didn’t even have to explain as, just a few seconds later, someone laughed loudly, and someone else began to say something, though it was too indistinct to make out. Yelena looked around quickly, then pointed to the left.

There was a narrow trail of land up against the wall that surrounded the castle proper, and after about a dozen feet, John spied a break in the wall, a crumbling opening. Not exactly the safest route, but he doubted they’d be expecting it. As it was, no one was up on top of the wall looking around, and it seemed best to view the situation from afar.

Yelena went first, John after her, Fiona bringing up the rear. They put their backs to the wall and slowly moved along the narrow strip of land. John tried not to let the terror of the fact that he was about forty feet up right now get in the way of his focus. Yelena and Fiona didn’t seem to be bothered. He forced himself to keep going, then glanced down. There was an even more narrow spot up ahead and as he passed over it the tips of his boots almost poked out over the edge. But he made it, and waited as Yelena peered through the gap in the wall.

After a few seconds, she looked over. “I believe I have found Elora. She is in the main courtyard, surrounded by men. They are threatening her.”

“Fuck,” Fiona hissed. “We have to save her.”

“I know. Follow me through. We will mount an assault.”

She slipped through the opening. John went after her, taking in the courtyard at a glance. Behind them were a lot of dead trees and bushes, left was the castle itself, and dead ahead was the courtyard, which looked like it had been hastily (and shoddily) cleared out recently. A female felis stood in the center of about a dozen men in grubby leather armor. Several of them were jeering and one was standing near her, a dagger in hand, poking it at her and saying something threatening or demeaning. Elora, (if it was her, he felt confident it was), didn’t look particularly worried. Which typically meant that the ‘interrogation’, such as it was, was about to go in a different direction. When ‘tough’ guys didn’t get the desired result from the intimidation tactics they employed, they pretty quickly ended up turning to violence.

He, Yelena, and Fiona drew their bows and notched arrows.

“Now,” Yelena hissed at about the same moment one of the bastards finally glanced over and took notice of them.

“Hey!” he screamed, then let out a different kind of scream as an arrow pierced his throat. Yelena immediately drew another one and John and Fiona let their own arrows fly. They split apart from each other as they opened fire and the men all began to come for them, drawing their blades as their numbers rapidly began to diminish. He saw the leader begin to do the same, but in a flash Elora reached out and snatched his dagger from his hand, then twisted it around and slammed it into his throat. It went all the way through, and then she ripped it out in a spray of blood. He gurgled and clutched his throat as he began stumbling around.

Elora ignored him and leaped at the nearest man, who had his own bow and arrow and was trying to line up a shot. She slit his throat and kicked him onto the ground. John managed to catch three of them, one in the eye, one in the throat, and one in the chest, before the battle was over. As the last hostile fell, Elora stood in the middle of the field of death and stared at them. She was still holding the bloody dagger.

“I don’t recognize any of you. Who should I be thanking?” she asked calmly.

Fiona glanced at John and Yelena, who nodded to her. This was her show, after all. She stepped forward, for the first time looking a little anxious. Her tail twitched behind her. “My name is Fiona. These are my friends, John and Yelena.”

“Well, thank you then Fiona, John, and Yelena,” Elora replied. “Now my next questions: why did you help me and where do we go from here?”

“We’re looking for you, actually. I’m working on a rather large project, and I find myself in need of your expertise,” Fiona said.

Elora considered that response for a few seconds. “My marketing connections?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of-” She paused as someone groaned behind her. Twisting around, she hurled the dagger directly into the eye of a man who was beginning to sit up. He let out a short scream that was cut off abruptly and went slack. She turned back around. “What kind of project, exactly?”

“Well...as crazy as it sounds, I’m looking to build a sort of hub for the whole region. I’ve got a spot picked out, a list of candidates to help out, and goals prioritized.”

Elora’s eyebrows rose a little bit. “That is quite the project. How do you two fit into this?” she asked.

“Muscle, basically,” John replied.

“Okay, fair enough. You’re all obviously skilled warriors.” She twisted her lips, considering it further. Finally, she nodded. “You know what? Yes. I want to help with this. I imagine you’re going to need a lot of supplies. I can help facilitate that. I have a few terms, though.”

“What are your terms?” Fiona asked.

“First, payment. I want five percent of every sale I make in your name for the duration of my employment. Second, I want your help. I’ve been tracking something and I’m almost positive it’s here in this castle. Help me get it, then we can get to work.”

“Deal,” Fiona said.

“Okay then. Come on, I think I know where it is,” Elora said, then she turned and began walking up to the castle.

Fiona glanced back at John and Yelena, then started following their new friend.

They trailed after her.

John was interested to see where this went.

The entrance to the castle itself sat at the top of some relatively intact stone stairs. The four of them walked up the stairs and came to stand before the ingress. The doors were open. Elora peered into the dim room beyond, then glanced back at the scattering of bodies. “Thanks for helping me with those assholes. I guess they were set up inside the castle and they rushed me when I came into the courtyard,” she said.

“We’re happy to help,” Fiona replied. “What are we looking for, precisely?”

“A family relic,” Elora said. “It was my great-grandmother’s wedding ring. Got stolen some thirty years ago from her godsdamned grave. I’ve been tracking it off and on for awhile now. Finally got a solid lead. Apparently it was sold to whoever owned this place about a decade ago. The local lord. He went and died in a hunting accident a few years back. Technically speaking, this land now belongs to another lord down south, I think Lord...Lennox, maybe.”

“Lennox?” John asked, glancing at Yelena.

“Yeah? You ever been there?”

“We fucked his daughter last year,” Yelena said.

Both Elora and Fiona stopped progressing deeper into the main entry hall of the castle and turned to look back at them. “Really?” Elora asked.

“The badass princess you mentioned?” Fiona asked.

“Ex-princess,” Yelena replied.

“She didn’t give a shit about being a princess and pretty much just left with her friends to be an adventuress. We ran into her and one thing led to another,” John explained.

“Huh. Small world,” Elora murmured. She resumed looking around the large stone room. “Anyway. Whoever owns it clearly doesn’t care about it or doesn’t want to bother with it. The off chance that someone official might once come up here to lay claim to the castle, or the possessions in it, keeps most people away. Although from the looks of this place I think that prospective thieves like the ones we killed have already been hard at work looting it.”

John nodded as he surveyed the dining hall that served as ingress into the castle. The place was a mess, the floor covered in soot-stains from makeshift fires, bedrolls, clothes, broken furniture, and picked-clean bones from meals.

“You said you know where to go?” Yelena asked.

“Yeah,” Elora replied, striking off towards a stairway to the right. “One of the people I talked with back in town used to be a servant here. She said that if there’s anything valuable still left in the castle, it’ll be in the attic. That’s where the lord kept all his nice stuff. And my great-grandmother’s wedding ring was very nice. It was a blue pearl.”

“Oh wow,” Fiona murmured. “Those are so rare...”

“Yes. I want that ring back where it belongs, or at the very least back in my possession,” Elora replied firmly.

They followed her up the stairs.

As they did, John studied Elora more closely. She was very striking, her fur a vibrant mix of yellow and red. She had a lean build, her body trim and athletic. She didn’t wear much, just a small shirt and a basic skirt. She definitely seemed to rely on speed more than strength, and her fur would keep her well insulated from the cold. She had a dagger on each hip and a bow and quiver on her back, as well as a small pack. Her eyes were vividly yellow and had slit pupils, like all felis. She had the air of a very experienced, confident adventuress and although it was definitely harder to tell age with felis, she did seem older. If he had to guess, and it’d be a real stab in the dark, he thought she might be in her forties.

He found it hard not to check out her lean, tight body.

Or think about what she might look like naked.

It became easier to focus, however, as they went higher up into the castle. A feeling of ominous dread began to ebb slowly into them. From the way the others tensed up, John surmised that they could sense it as well. He tried to figure out what exactly the feeling meant. Being an adventurer, you began to get good at parsing out which feelings meant what. Typically, a bad vibe or a chill wind coming from inside a location meant that it was haunted, or cursed, or stricken with undead. That was also a possibility.

It wasn’t a precise measure and certain kinds of curses or undead could hide their presence to varying degrees.

“Something’s here...how good are you all at magic?” Elora said softly as they reached the third floor.

“I’m okay at it,” Fiona said.

“I am exceptional,” Yelena said.

“Then you’re our best candidate to fight whatever it is. I think it might be a poltergeist, but I can’t say for sure,” Elora replied.

“I have fought one of these before,” Yelena said.

“Perfect. Be ready.”

Yelena nodded tightly and replaced her sword, instead raising her hands and charging her magic. John swallowed, feeling anxiety settle in. Poltergeists were creepy. The stairwell let out onto a landing area that connected to a broad hallway. There were several doors along the walls, most of them open. At the end of the corridor was one final stairwell that led, presumably, to the attic. Their destination. As they drew closer, pausing to peer into all the open doors, the air began to grow colder. Before long, John could see his breath foaming on the air. He tried not to shiver as they reached the end of the corridor and began making their way up the stairs.

He was kind of useless against the likes of poltergeists.

Maybe he should have been beefing up his magical skills as well as his physique, although he wasn’t really that magical to begin with and there was only so much you could do with that particular well. You couldn’t just make yourself more magical. Okay, well, you could with the aid of magic, but he wasn’t really willing to go that far. Although it might be smart to invest in a more versatile blade and dagger…

Man, he’d really been slacking in the equipment department for awhile now, he was really realizing. Maybe it was because he relied on Yelena so much. And that thought just made him anxious again. If he was the one doing all the relying on her, then didn’t that make him closer to dead weight in the relationship?

“It’s up here,” Yelena said quietly as they finished ascending the stairs and gathered around a single doorway at its top.

Yelena opened the door and slipped into the room beyond. John was right behind her, ready to do whatever he could to help. He found himself standing in the middle of a fairly big room, though most of it was lost to shadows. There were a lot of pieces of furniture covered by dusty old sheets. In fact, he quickly realized that he was standing in the middle of a sea of bed sheets, there were dozens of them, and they were all covered in a thin layer of frost. Yelena was scanning the shadows, but she let out a huff of annoyance and raised her hand. She released a light spell and a green ball of magic light snapped into existence a few feet above her.

It pushed back the darkness, revealing the dimensions of the room, which was quite large. John wondered what the purpose of all this stuff was, why it was up here in storage. Yelena took a step deeper into the room.

“Do you see anything?” Fiona asked softly.

“No, I...wait,” Yelena murmured in reply.

She was looking off to the right. John followed her gaze. The shadows seemed thicker over there for some reason. As she took a step closer, one of the covered items, what might have been an end table, abruptly rose up and sailed through the air.

“Move!” Yelena called, ducking.

John barely managed to jump out of the way as the item was hurtled through the air. He felt its passing and heard it smash to splinters as it hit something hard and heavy behind him. Another item, a chair he surmised, from its shape under the sheet, rose up, trembled briefly in place, then shot forward. They dodged again and Fiona let out a surprised yelp.

Yelena shot forward, her light spell growing stronger, and John moved after her. Another chair rose and was thrown at them. Then another. This one winged him, smashing his right arm in a burst of dull but hard pain that whirled him around. He stumbled and as he found his balance again, turned just in time to see what had to be a fucking wardrobe being thrown his way. It was a huge, solid rectangle and he yelled in surprised terror, then threw himself bodily to the side. The wardrobe flew over him, narrowly missing him and making a truly loud series of crashes as it met a collection of furniture on the other side of the room.

Yelena let out a yell of triumphant effort right as John struggled back to his feet, and as he looked, his vision was overwhelmed briefly by a burst of red magical light. Something shrieked in an inhuman voice, the sound piercing his eardrums and threatening to blow them out. As his vision and hearing came back, he managed to catch sight of a few floating pieces of dark...something drifting towards the stonework floor.

The room seemed less dim now.

“It is done,” Yelena said. She moved over to John and began checking him over. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” he replied.

“That was some very excellent work,” Elora said as she and Fiona joined them. “You are quite the warrior, Yelena.”

“Thank you,” Yelena replied, still looking at John. There was a look of vague worry on her face. Although this was her human face, so maybe he was misreading it? Or did she sense that he’d been having difficulties lately?

He hoped not. This was an embarrassing problem and he hoped to get it resolved without having to bother her with it.

“Well, I think that solved the problem. Next up we have to find my ring,” Elora murmured. She came to stand with them. Sighing heavily, she put her hands on her hips and surveyed the area. “What a mess this is...well, the sooner we get to it, the sooner we’ll be done.”

With that, she set off into the forest of sheet-covered furniture.

“You are sure you are okay?” Yelena asked, still looking at him.

“I’m fine, love. Just a little sore. Come on, let’s help out.”

“Okay,” she said finally, and smiled. He smiled back and gave her a kiss, then they began to help Elora and Fiona hunt for the ring.

…

“It really is beautiful,” Fiona said softly, staring into her cupped hands as the four of them walked slowly down from the castle.

The ring she held gave off a faint blue glow.

“Yes it is,” Elora agreed. “Now, I need a few details about this place of yours,” she said, holding out her hand. With a sad look, Fiona returned the ring.

“Like what?”

“First of all, what kind of size are we talking about? How many buildings in this settlement?”

“Thirteen. And a mine. They all need work. A lot of work,” Fiona replied.

“Okay. How isolated is it? Where is it?”

“I’ll show you on the map when we get a chance, but it’s decently isolated and near the center of the land.”

“What kind of terrain?”

“Forests, mostly flat landscapes.”

“Hmm. Okay...” Elora murmured as she slipped the ring carefully into an inner pocket and zipped it shut. She seemed to be deep in thought. “I’ve got a few ideas to get started, although I’ll honestly need to see the place myself. Let’s head for the inn. I can start getting together some estimates once I have a place to sit down and I’ve had some time to eat.”

“Great idea! I’m starving, too,” Fiona said. The way she kept fidgeting around as she walked and how much her bushy red tail was swishing around meant she was having a hard time keeping her energy in check. John found it mildly amusing. As he walked back with the others, though, John grew a little more serious and began making a mental list of things he should consider investing in. Namely, a sword. But where to get a great sword? He doubted any of the little villages in the north sold truly great blades.

Well, he did find himself frequently plunging into old, dangerous places where either great stuff was hidden away, or where other adventurers had died. He’d just have to keep his eye out for a killer blade. He kept thinking about this, and other possible trinkets and items he could keep an eye out for, as they walked into town and tracked down the local inn. The quartet walked inside, found a booth in the corner, and put in orders for a big meal. While he, Yelena, and Fiona chatted quietly, Elora sat in her corner, scribbling on a piece of parchment she’d produced, muttering to herself. By the time their food arrived, she had finished up.

“Okay,” she said between bites as she began consuming her meal, “I’ve got a very rough estimate. And it’s probably low. I mean really, this is just to get the town up to snuff, based off of what I know about buildings, conditions around here, prices, availability...you get what I’m saying. It’s an extremely rough estimate because so much can change. But this is based off of the amount of lumber, glass, tools, equipment, supplies, furniture, stone, food for the workers, and I’m not even sure about the mine. I’m not as familiar with them, admittedly. But, based off some simple calculations, I’d say this is going to be a thirty, maybe forty thousand coin investment.”

Fiona dropped her spoon. “I...are you sure?”

“No, I could be wrong,” Elora replied.

Fiona swallowed and looked unhappily at Yelena and John. She looked ill. “And that could be...a low estimate?”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s to get started?”

“Yes, Fiona.”

“Oh, Gods...” she moaned.

“I take it you don’t have anywhere near that amount of coin?” Elora asked. She didn’t sound particularly surprised.

“No,” she murmured. “Not even close. I just...I didn’t think it would be that much...”

“Try not to panic,” Elora said, reaching over and laying a hand on her shoulder. “There are some things we can do. Although I must admit that some of the things I can do will put my reputation on the line. So if you’re full of shit, or you don’t come through...well, there’s going to be problems.”

“I can at least say I’m not full of shit,” she murmured.

Elora stared at her steadily for a long moment, then slowly reached into a pouch on her hip. She fished around in it for a moment and then pulled something out. She set a stone about the size and shape of a gold coin on the tabletop. It was slate gray and smooth.

“What is that?” John murmured.

“It’s a truth stone,” Fiona murmured, staring at it.

“What does it do?” Yelena asked.

“When applied directly, it will tell us if someone is telling the truth,” Elora said, staring at Fiona. “This is another condition, I’m afraid.”

“Why now?” Fiona asked.

“I’ve been trying to gauge you since we met, to see if you’re honest, if you mean it. This is a big project, and this requires a lot of personal risk from me. I need to know if you’re a scam artist or not. It’s not personal, it’s just that you showed up out of the blue with all this.”

Fiona sighed, then shrugged. “Yeah, that’s fair. And I’ll do it. I am telling the truth.” She reached out and picked up the stone, then held it in the palm of her hand.

“I swear that I fully intend to go through with this project, that I’m not trying to rip anyone off, that I’m doing this because I want to make this land a better and safer place,” she said.

The stone began to glow a gentle blue.

“Okay,” Elora said, taking it and putting it back.

“It’s that easy?” John asked.

“Is it possible to...get around it, somehow?” Yelena asked.

“Yes, although it’s very difficult and most people don’t know how,” Elora replied.

“Why doesn’t everyone have one of these?” John muttered.

“Because they are quite rare, difficult to make, hard to find, and a pain in the ass to maintain. I use it sparingly for that reason alone. If you use it all the time it’s a huge magic suck. It takes a certain kind of somewhat refined magic to charge it. It’s complicated. And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of maybe a handful in this entire country. They don’t exactly look kindly on magic here, and don’t trust magic hardly at all,” Elora explained.

“That sure is right,” John replied.

“Sometimes I think Stafford was founded ironically, just to piss the locals off,” Elora said, grinning. She resumed her meal.

“So...we’re good?” Fiona asked.

“Yes. As I said, there’s some things I can do. I can probably talk one of the local lords into giving us access to some resource, lumber or gold or weapons, something big, in exchange for some percentage of the production of the mine. What’s actually in the mine, anyway?”

“Platinum,” Fiona replied.

Elora’s eyebrows went up. “Wow, yeah, we can leverage a lot with that. Not much platinum at all in this land.” She frowned suddenly. “That doesn’t make any sense. If there was a platinum mine, then why isn’t it being used?”

“A lot of people have tried apparently. Right now it’s infested with ice spiders. A shitload of them. We have to collapse the entrance because they were too much for us,” Fiona replied.

“Mmm...” Elora still had her frown. She shook her head. “Well, anyway. The coin. I can also write credit notes, essentially fancy promises saying we’ll pay them back later. So we won’t need all the coin all at once. But honestly, we’re going to have to get I’d say a good ten thousand gold together to really get started.”

“Well...we did just leave an abandoned castle,” John said.

Fiona’s eyes widened. “Why the fuck didn’t I think of that?!” she hissed. “Okay, can we go back there? Take some time to search for like gold and rings and fancy shit?”

“It would be a good start,” Elora replied. “And I think I might be able to point you towards another good stash. Well? You up for it?” she asked, looking at John and Yelena.

They both nodded.

“Great then. Let’s finish eating, wait for our food to settle a bit, then get back to work.”

…

Their shadows were beginning to lengthen by the time they got back up to the castle. They got things started off by doing a more thorough search of the bodies they’d made earlier, and hunting around the exterior of the castle grounds. Although that turned up a few hundred coin, they didn’t find much worth talking about, and headed inside.

“At least it’s warmer in here,” Yelena muttered as they reentered the main hall.

“Yes,” Elora said. “How about we split up for now? Yelena, you and I can start searching down here. John, you and Fiona can search the second floor. We regroup here in two hours and go over our findings. Sound good?”

“Fine by me,” Fiona said. She seemed especially eager to get started.

“Love?” John asked, looking at Yelena. She nodded. “Okay then.” He gave her a hug and a kiss. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Farewell for now, love,” she replied.

They split up. John followed Fiona up the stairs, hurrying to keep up with her as she bounded up them, taking them two at a time. He was unhappy to find himself irritable as he made his way up to the second story. He was cold from all the outdoors walking and the skin on his face hurt, as did his fingers. He was admittedly frustrated that Fiona had so blindly gone into this without realizing what kind of a huge investment this was going to be. It seemed like such a reckless thing to do. On top of all that he had a headache.

And he was thinking about Yelena.

She was off with another very interesting, very attractive person and-

John stopped himself. Fuck, he was not going to become a godsdamned fucking jealous type. How was he going to deal with this? He pondered over that some more as he started hunting around in the nearest room, what once might have been a study. There were at least a lot of places to hide. How had he dealt with his problems before? Well, his own personal problems, his emotional problems. He tended to deal with other problems in his life by hitting them, or stabbing them. Usually his problems could be solved that way, or by lifting something heavy, or maybe climbing something. A good feat of physicality usually did the trick.

Well, he used to drink.

That obviously hadn’t been a great way to deal with things.

Time wore slowly on as he worried over the problem the way a dog gnaws at a bone, hunting slowly through the rooms. In the study, he managed to find a little stash of precious gemstones under a false bottom in a drawer and a small bag of gold behind a chair. He moved on to the next room, and the next room, searching a pair of bedrooms, and then a lounge after that. Eventually, he found himself to be in a small library with Fiona.

“John?” she asked suddenly.

“Yeah?” he replied.

“Are you mad at me?”

He looked over at her, startled. “No,” he lied. Okay, well, it wasn’t fully a lie. He wasn’t mad so much as annoyed, and not entirely at her…

“You’re lying,” she said, frowning, staring directly at him now. “I know you are. Where’s that godsdamned truth stone...what did I do?”

“No, Fiona, I’m not mad at you, I’m just...I’ve got a headache, and I’m tired. And...admittedly, I thought you’d know at least a little bit more about all this. I mean, I could tell that you were obviously completely blindsided by what Elora was telling you.”

She stared at him for another few seconds, her lips pursed, what might have been anger bubbling beneath her surface. Then it broke away and a look of guilt and anxiety replaced it. “I know, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I thought...” she sighed heavily and then sat down in a chair that groaned under her weight. “I don’t think things through, usually. It’s how I live my life. It’s kind of how we live our lives, we kits. Not quite as crazy as me, but kit society is just a lot more loose and social and crazy. We just, you know, do stuff. And this...I mean, this is crazy. What if I fuck it all up? Apparently everyone else who’s tried this has fucked it all up? Fuck, I mean, I’m putting Elora’s reputation on the line, and our lives, honestly. And others, if they choose to help. I just...” she trailed off, staring down at the floor with wide eyes.

“Fiona,” John said, and she looked up at him. “Yes, it’s a risk. But everything worth doing tends to be risky and difficult. And Elora’s more grown up than you or me. She clearly knows what she’s getting into. You aren’t lying to her, you aren’t trying to deceive her. She knows that this could fail. She herself said that. And so will everyone else who chooses to get involved, because you’re an honest, open person. And you aren’t doing this alone. You have help.”

She kept staring at him, then laughed. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then stood up. “Thanks,” she murmured, and stepped forward and hugged him. He hugged her back, admittedly slightly surprised at how quickly he’d slipped from irritated and annoyed at her to wanting to make her feel better.

All the more reason he had to get this stupid shit out of his head. Fiona was a good person. She didn’t deserve his ire.

“You’re welcome,” he replied. “You should feel good about this.”

They let go of each other and Fiona looked around the room. “We should probably finish up our search. Our time to get back downstairs is almost here.”

John nodded. “Yep. Hopefully they’ve been more successful than we have.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” Fiona replied a little glumly.

They went back to searching the library. John made sure to grab whatever books he didn’t recognize, hoping that among them would be one that Yelena would enjoy reading. After he’d stuffed ten titles into his pack and finished up helping Fiona with the hunt through the library, finding a fairly nice ring that someone had lost or forgotten stuck between two of the books, he followed her back downstairs, where Yelena and Elora were waiting for them. He hesitated briefly as a small stab of panic hit him upon seeing Yelena in her natural form around someone new. But the two women were talking amiably, so obviously she must have told Elora the truth, and Elora hadn’t reacted poorly to this information.

“Did you find anything good?” Yelena asked as they approached.

“Just some gems and gold and a few pieces of jewelry,” John replied. “If it were just us and we were doing a simple search, I’d say it was a good haul. But for what we need? Nothing great, honestly,” he added.

“About the same on our end,” Elora said.

Fiona sighed. “I really hope there’s going to be something worthwhile around here.”

“There probably will be in the attic. The jewelry box we found my ring in was a relatively small haul. I figure there’s a good chance there’s something else hidden up there. We just need to do a more thorough and diligent search,” Elora replied.

“I guess so...well, I’m honestly ready to keep going. What about you?” Fiona asked, looking around at all three of them. They all responded positively. “Okay! How about Yelena and I search the attic, and John and Elora takes the third floor?”

“I’m okay with that,” Elora said, and John and Yelena nodded.

“Perfect! Let’s go!” With that, Fiona turned and hurried back up the stairs again.

“She’s very enthusiastic,” Elora murmured, watching her go.

“She is indeed,” Yelena replied. Then she gave John a kiss and moved off after their new friend. John watched the two of them go, then looked over at Elora.

“So...obviously Yelena told you,” he said.

“Yes, she told me. She said she thought it was only fair. It was very brave of her,” Elora replied. She started up the stairs as well and he followed after her.

“Yelena is extremely brave,” John said.

“I got that right away,” Elora replied. “She’s an absolutely fascinating woman. One of the most interesting I have ever met.”

John laughed softly. “Same here. I bet you’re wondering what she’s doing with me.”

“I am curious. Your relationship is...unique, to say the least. Although it’s just as obvious that she loves you dearly. I...” here, she hesitated, then sighed. “I must admit, before I met the two of you, I honestly didn’t think that demons were capable of love or meaningful relationships. I try to think of myself as an open-minded person, but honestly, I’ve only ever met demons who want to kill me or fuck me. Usually it’s just the kill variety. And I like incubi plenty. I’ve had some very wonderful nights with a few of them, but all of them were really just interested in sex and some company for a little while. And it’s not even as if I’m judging. I’m not sure I’m capable of love or a long-lasting relationship, honestly…

“But seeing Yelena...that really caught me by surprise. Not that she’s a demoness, but that she’s so obviously in love with you. She seems exactly like other women I’ve come across who are just so in love. I find it fascinating how similar it looks, even though she is literally from a different realm.” She paused. “Sorry if this is coming off as weird.”

“It’s fine. Pretty much everyone we meet are deeply curious about our relationship. I’m guessing she filled you in on the basics. How we met, how we fell in love, stuff like that?”

“Yes. It’s pretty much all we talked about.”

They reached the third story and just caught sight of Yelena disappearing into the attic. He could hear Fiona exclaiming something loudly and happily, followed by a crash. John began to move forward, but Yelena came back down quickly.

“Don’t worry, Fiona just got overexcited and destroyed a piece of furniture by knocking it over,” she said.

Elora giggled. “Unsurprising.”

“I heard that!” Fiona called down.

Yelena sighed and headed back upstairs. “None of us are surprised by your reckless, clumsy enthusiasm,” she said.

“Tell me something,” Elora said as they moved back down the hall to the first door on the right and entered it, beginning a more thorough search. “Fiona...do you think she’s up for this?”

“Well...her heart’s in the right place,” John replied.

“That’s an evasion if I ever heard one.”

“I don’t know. I mean, probably. I think maybe she knows, or believes, she isn’t fully up to the task, which is why she’s getting more competent people aboard the project. Like you. Like Yelena,” he said.

“You aren’t competent?” Elora asked, smirking at him.

“I...get things done, when I have to. I’m fairly self-sufficient and self-reliant. I can fight, I can travel, I can camp in the wilderness and hunt and survive if I have to. But a lot of people can do that. I’m not anything special. I mean honestly, the most special thing about me is that I’m in love with Yelena,” he replied.

“John,” Elora said, and the shift in her tone made him stop poking through drawers and look over at her. “From what Yelena has told me, and based off what I’ve seen so far, you’re an interesting and competent individual. Don’t sell yourself short. Look at where you are, what you’re doing. This is a big deal.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t be doing it if Fiona hadn’t shown up out of the blue and asked for help. I’m not...I don’t know, saving the world.”

“Who the fuck is?” Elora replied. “The vast majority of people grow up, work a job, get married, have kids, die of old age. And that’s fine, the world needs people like that to function. Society needs people to fish and farm and build and mend and bake and sell and guard. There aren’t that many adventurers. I’d say maybe one out of every hundred people becomes an adventurer. That alone makes you unique. And the things you’ve done so far? Putting down a resurrected undead demon lord? Fighting demons from another realm? Hardly anyone does stuff like that, let alone comes out the other side intact. You’re too hard on yourself.”

He continued staring at her, not sure of what to say.

“Sorry,” she said after a moment. “That was a little intense. And I imagine it’s awkward because we just met today. I tend to, uh...accelerate relationships with people that I like.”

“You like me?” he replied.

She laughed loudly. “That’s the first thing you say back to me? Yes, John. I like you. And Yelena. And Fiona.”

“Oh.” He tried to generate a response. “Um...thank you. For what you said. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Um...I’m honestly curious about you. How’d you end up as a veteran merchant in the far north of Veridis?” he asked.

“It’s a long story,” she replied.

“We’ve certainly got time.”

“I guess that’s a fair point. I was born in Hesh, the felis homeland. I spent thirty years there. Both of my parents were merchants, and they were quite successful at it. For the first twenty five years of my life I learned everything I could from them about mercantile, about selling and buying, earning coin this way, and had my own successful store selling magical artifacts and weapons by the time I was twenty two. I had it for three years. And then I decided I’d had enough of village life, I wanted more. So I traveled across my lands for five years, and when I turned thirty, I decided to keep it going, and I spent the next fifteen years traveling across the whole world. I had a shitload of adventures on most of the other lands and it was a lot of fun. As for how I ended up here...well, about a year ago, I was visiting this land, and I was having a run of bad luck.

“I finally got fed up with racist assholes, and honestly, society in general, and I just walked north until there were no more people around. I lived completely on my own for...man, three months or so. Just surviving out here. Hunting, skinning, cooking. I lived in an abandoned cabin. I didn’t see a single person that entire time. Just wildlife and the occasional ice spider or ice wolf.”

“Wow. That’s...impressive,” John murmured.

She laughed softly. “And kind of insane. But it was good, I think. I didn’t just come up here because of what some idiots had said to me. That was just the last straw, I think. I needed some time to myself. And I got it. I spent a long time not thinking, and then I spent a longer time thinking. I thought about a lot of stuff. Eventually, I missed people. And I started traveling the land up here, because I think it’s beautiful up here. And I met so many people in shit situations, and saw how bad the economy was, and I decided to try and help. So that’s what I’ve been doing ever since then, just helping out. And apparently I’ve built up quite the network of contacts in the process.”

“Nice,” John replied. “See, that is impressive. That life story. And you just covered the broad strokes. I’m guessing you’ve got dozens, if not hundreds, of interesting stories to tell.”

“At forty six years old, with about two decades of adventuring all over the world under my belt, I’d better have that many stories,” she said.

“What’s a good example of one of those stories?” he asked.

She smirked at him. “I guess I could tell you one or two. Hmm...well, there was the time I exposed a rogue necromancer who was terrorizing a village by kidnapping people in the dead of night. Turned out he was the local Captain of the Guard. No one suspected him.”

“Okay, I need to hear that story.”

“Well, I was on one of the islands of the Stoneland Islands, and it had been raining for almost three days at that point...”

…

They had been searching for close to another two hours, and had fallen into a conversational lull, when Elora asked: “So...any interest in sleeping with me?”

John had been in the process of going through a desk in the office they were in, sorting through parchment after parchment of records that were of absolutely no use to him. Now he stopped, two fistfuls of parchment before him, and he marveled at just how utterly his thoughts were broken up by even the mere mention of sex.

He put the parchment down and turned around. Elora was across the room. She was on her hands and knees, looking under a table. He could see up her skirt. She had on white panties. “Uh...yeah. Yeah, I’d say I have a lot of interest in sleeping with you.”

“Oh really?” she asked, extracting herself from beneath the desk. She stood and turned around, then leaned against the desk and crossed her arms. She had that smirk on her attractive face again. Her ears twitched.

“Really,” he confirmed. “Truly.”

“Yelena was right. I asked her permission to proposition you because I had a hunch that the two of you were in an open relationship.”

“What gave you that idea?” he asked, honestly curious.

“The way Yelena was around Fiona, and the way you looked at her sometimes. And the way she looked at both of you. I was pretty confident you’d both been intimate with her before. And since you and Yelena are clearly in love, that would mean that it’s a secure and open relationship. And you’re really handsome, and I really like your personality. And I haven’t gotten laid in about a week. So I asked Yelena. I wasn’t too sure if you’d say yes or not.”

“Seriously? Cause you’re a badass adventuress who looks godsdamned sexy.”

She smiled. “Well, thank you. I guess I just feel like I’ve been showing my age a bit recently. It’s actually easier to talk cute young village boys into my bed. It’s...well, I was going to say it’s getting harder to talk adventurers into my bed, but it really hasn’t been. Hmm. I guess it’s something about you, honestly.”

“About me? You’d thought I’d be hard to seduce?” he asked.

“Well...yeah. You’re in love with a demoness, and you’re hooking up with a kit. I mean, there must be something spectacular about you.”

“No...not really. I just...got lucky, I guess. I’m easy,” he replied. “I haven’t turned down a woman for sex for...years, really.”

“How often do you get asked?” she asked.

“Less than you get asked, I imagine,” he replied.

She laughed. “You’re not so good at evasions. I imagine you sleep around a lot.”

“I mean...yeah, I do now. Ever since I got together with Yelena. Our lifestyle kind of...puts me in the path of women who might be interested in sleeping with me.”

“And before that?”

“I mean...probably a few a year. Why?”

“Just curious...okay, let’s finish up. I talked about this with Yelena, and she’s going to talk about it, or already has I guess, with Fiona. I want to spend the night here. That main bedroom has an absolutely massive bed and Yelena said she can make us a bath pretty easily with magic. So I have sex with you, and Yelena sleeps with Fiona, and then we all go to sleep! How does that sound?”

“Pretty good to me,” John replied. “You’re not going to have sex with Yelena? I’m sure she’d do you in a heartbeat.”

“I’m not really into girls. I like kissing girls sometimes, and I do kind of like watching women have sex sometimes. But girls aren’t really for me.”

“Okay. Then we’ll have sex and it’ll be awesome...I mean, hopefully.”

“You aren’t confident?”

“I mean...I don’t know. I don’t want to build up your expectations too much.”

“From what Yelena tells me, you are exceptionally skilled at the pleasuring of pussy,” Elora said, grinning broadly at him now.

“Well...she does love me.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to put you to the test, huh? Come on, finish up the search, I think I can hear them coming back down,” Elora said.

John just nodded and got back to it, hurriedly digging through the desk drawers. Well great, now he was fucking horny, he was already getting a hard-on, and that was going to make searching difficult. Which would just make him get frustrated and try to go faster, which would make it even harder, and it was a vicious cycle.

Finally, he did a good enough job and left the room with Elora. Sure enough, Yelena and Fiona were waiting for them out in the hallway. Although they had clearly become distracted. Yelena had Fiona up against a wall and was kissing her. John felt a twinge of discomfort at that, but made himself focus on the positives of the situation. Like the fact that he was about to have sex with an attractive, older felis adventuress.

That was a pretty great fact.

He took her hand and she looked over at him and smiled, then laced their fingers together. Her fur was soft and warm.

“Shall we, ladies?” Elora asked.

“We shall,” Yelena said, stepping back from Fiona and looking over at them. “You ready to enjoy yourself, love?”

“Very much so,” John replied.

“I promised Fiona I’d use my toy with her.”

“I bet she’s going to love that,” John said.

“I think she’ll love it more when she gets to use it on me,” Yelena replied.

“I’m positive I will,” Fiona said, grinning.

“We should go to the bedroom. I’m quite aroused,” Elora said.

Yelena laughed and started making her way towards it. The others followed after her. John felt his excitement start to mount. Sex was pretty nice in that it tended to wash away all of his other worries and concerns, at least for the moment. Right now, he was going to make love with Elora, and Yelena was going to be very close, and everything would be nice. They made their way to the main bedroom, and closed the door behind them, then locked it. The quartet took a moment to secure the room, and John found that mildly amusing.

Even horny and distracted, they were all seasoned enough adventurers to know to make sure the immediate area was safe before getting down to the filthy fucking. He was grateful that all the windows were intact, and they drew the heavy curtains over all of them to help keep the chill out. It was cold in the castle, but not unbearable. As he thought this, Yelena turned towards a large stonework fireplace and shot a small fire spell into the firewood that was still there. It burst into flame and began burning brightly, throwing shadows across the room.

“I am cold,” she said when she noticed Fiona and Elora looking at her. “Not all of us have the benefit of fur.”

“That makes sense,” Elora murmured. “I guess you’re pretty used to warm temperatures.”

“Yes. It was much warmer in my original realm. I’d say the cold temperatures are the single most annoying feature of this place.”

“Not the racist people?” Fiona asked.

“It’s easier to hide from them now. It’s harder to hide from the cold.”

“I imagine John helps warm you up a lot,” Elora said.

Yelena grinned and her tail twitched. “Yes. Often. Now...let us begin.”

All four of them started the process of undressing. As he watched them get naked, John always thought it was impressive how good the women he tended to run into could make undressing look. The fact that they were stripping was, itself, a hot thing, but they made the actual act of taking off clothes look erotic more of than not. Maybe it was just his own mind giving it a lusty twist, but he thought it had something to do with the natural grace that most female adventurers tended to have. He’d seen women get undressed clumsily, not that he was trying to be disrespectful. He was sure clumsy enough getting naked and doubted it looked anything but goofy most of the time. Elora was the first one naked, as she had the least amount on.

And good Gods did she look fantastic.

She had a similar build to Yelena: trim, athletic, lean. He really wasn’t sure what she meant about looking older, but again, he didn’t know the signs of aging for a felis. He thought she looked pretty sexy. As soon as everyone was naked, Yelena walked over to the huge stone tub that was in the floor and created a hot bath.

“Everyone wash up,” she said.

They all joined her in the water after breaking out washcloths and bars of soap. It was a quick, quiet affair, all four of them scrubbing down quickly and eagerly. John knew that he was fairly desperate to get into that bed with Elora. He fully intended to at least try to prove Yelena right, since she was talking him and his sex skills up. Since she brought that up, he felt kind of compelled to try and live up to it.

John suddenly wondered if that was her intent.

Well, it worked either way, and he would have tried hard even if she’d said nothing. As soon as they were washed up from the day’s events, all four of them got out and dried off. Although Elora used a modified, and very light, fire spell to quickly dry herself and Fiona off. Which was impressive, given how easily fire spells could go wrong. She must be skilled with magic. And now, properly dry, all four of them clambered up into the enormous bed.

Before he could even get fully into it, Elora suddenly pounced on him, shoving him onto his back and straddling him. She stared down at him with bright, vivacious eyes that flickered with excited desire.

“Well...you’re eager,” he said.

“Immensely,” she replied, and leaned down.

She pressed her lips against his and began kissing him passionately. John kissed her back, slipping his tongue into her mouth, eagerly seeking her own. She moved it forward to meet his and they met, twined, twisted. He felt the rough texture of her tongue as it danced with his own, tasted her unique taste, felt all that hot, soft fur pressing against his body. He wrapped his arms around her, slid his hands down her back, found the smooth curve of her tight, fit ass. After squeezing and enjoying it for a moment, he brought his right hand up a bit and wrapped it loosely around her tail. She moaned loudly as he began to stroke it, running his fingers slowly up and down her twitching tail. She gasped, breaking the kiss.

“Oh my...you know about the tail,” she whispered, mouth open, eyes closed.

“I’ve slept with felis women before,” he replied.

“John knows a lot about tails, I can assure you,” Yelena said.

He glanced over. She was on top of Fiona, kissing and groping her. The magical strap-on lay beside them.

Elora resumed kissing him and he continued touching her tail, making her moan. She rubbed her soft, furred body against his bare skin as they made out. Before long, he decided it was time to move on to the next part of the encounter.

“Here, I’m going to flip you over,” he said.

“Oh, okay,” she replied happily.

He grabbed her, held her to him, and flipped them both. Once he was on top, he kissed her for a bit longer, then moved lower, pausing on her breasts, licking across her pink nipples for a few seconds and making her moan loudly.

“You are a very attentive lover,” she gasped.

“I try to be,” he replied as he moved even lower, laying on his stomach and settling in between her slim thighs. He carefully spread the lips of her felis pussy, then leaned in and let his breath leak slowly out, gently stimulating her most sensitive spots. She moaned softly and shuddered, trembling on the bed. He began to please her with his tongue, licking at her clit, making her cry out. He kept going, licking her over and over again, making the pleasure shoot through her, making her shout and cry out in impassioned bliss. And then he slipped a finger into her, fucking her smoothly with it, feeling how hot and wet she was inside.

It didn’t take much longer after that to get her to come.

“Oh, John, fucking yes!” she screamed, and then she was orgasming, hot sex juices coming out of her, getting onto him. He continued pleasuring her throughout the climax, tonguing her clit and fucking her with his finger as her vaginal muscles squeezed it. She was going to be an excellent fuck, he knew. When she was finished, she fell back against the bed, going slack and gasping. As he got up and washed himself off with a rag, John saw how the other two were coming along. Yelena and Fiona were sixty-nining now, Fiona on top, each of them working the others’ pussy, both of them letting out muffled groans of satisfied pleasure.

When he was done, he climbed back onto the bed.

“I need you inside me,” Elora said, spreading her legs wide.

“I can do that,” John replied.

“I’ll return the oral favor in the morning. I understand it’s a great way to wake up.”

“Well, I would appreciate that,” John said as he settled in between her thighs. She began to say something, then cried out as he penetrated her, sliding smoothly into her pussy. She was wet and hot and so tight.

He groaned at the pulse of sexual rapture that hit like a bolt of lightning. “Oh my...you are seriously fucking tight, Elora,” he gasped as he buried himself inside of her.

“I’m in excellent shape,” she replied, then cried out.

“Yes, you are,” he whispered, then began driving into her.

“Oh, yes! Fuck! That’s fucking it right there!” she screamed.

John rested on his hands, staring down at her slim, furred body as he pounded her, working his hips hard to drive deep into her sweet, mature felis pussy. He was right: she was simply stunning to make love with.

“Oh my Gods, John! Fuck me! Fucking fuck me!” Elora screamed.

Man, she was a loud lover. He really liked that. And he loved it when she brought her legs up high in the air, holding them there for a few moments as he fucked her brains out, then wrapped them around his waist. She stared up at him, eyes wide and wild, panting, looking almost feral with desire and lust.

“I want on top,” she growled.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied.

As they switched places, he saw that Yelena was going to town on Fiona now. Their foxy friend was on her hands and knees, moaning and carrying on as Yelena gripped her hips and just fucking pounded her from behind with that magic sex toy. It was seriously hot, although it gave John an uncharacteristic pang of worry.

Yelena was really enjoying herself…

Why shouldn’t she? He certainly was enjoying himself enough. Ugh, none of that right now. He ended up on his back with Elora on top of him, who wasted no time in immediately beginning to ride his cock, fucking him furiously, her high, firm, furred breasts bouncing as she went wild. “I needed this so bad...” she moaned as she grabbed his shoulders and rode him hard, shoving his cock deep inside of herself.

“I did too,” he gasped in response.

“I’m gonna come...” she groaned. She suddenly stopped bouncing and instead began to grind furiously against him, moving herself back and forth, stirring his cock around inside of her. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “So close...” she whispered. “Oh fuck...almost...right...there!” she shrieked, and he felt her pussy begin to orgasm a second time. He groaned, grabbing her hips and fucking her, driving up into her.

“Yes! YES! YES!” she began screaming as she came hard, a second spray of feminine juices escaping her as he pounded her orgasming vagina. His dick was encased in a place of perfect hot pleasure and all it took was a few more seconds of thrusting up into her, pounding that sweet felis pussy, to trigger his own orgasm.

“Oh, Elora!” he cried and thrust once more into her, deep and hard, and began coming inside of her. She moaned loudly, crying out in intense rapturous release along with him, both of them climaxing together in a blissful display of ecstasy. His dick jerked violently, twitching and spasming as he pumped her full of his seed, each fresh spurt released bringing a new pulse of raw, uncut pleasure that shot through his whole body.

And then it was over, and they were finished coming, and she was laying against him as he gasped, trying to get his breath back.

Fiona was shrieking and then, shortly after that, so was Yelena, as they enjoyed their own set of orgasms. After they were finished, the two women switched places, Fiona pulling on the sex toy and getting on top of Yelena and beginning to fuck her furiously, and he and Elora switched to a more comfortable position, watching the show.

CHAPTER IV

“So this is it, huh?” Elora asked as they walked into the abandoned settlement.

“This is it,” Fiona replied. She sounded worried, and John noted that she had ever since they’d woken up. After the amazing sex last night, they’d talked for a bit, but had gone to sleep fairly quickly, all four of them snuggled up together beneath the heavy blankets. The following morning, Elora had made good on her promise, and he’d woken up with his cock in her mouth. That had been exceptionally satisfying, as she’d sucked him off with a skillful expertise that spoke of decades of pleasuring cock, and she’d let him come in her mouth, sucking him dry and swallowing the load. Although he was far from finished, apparently.

Yelena and Fiona had taken turns riding his cock, fucking him until they both had come, and then Yelena had let him finish in her, filling her perfect demoness pussy with a second load. After that, they’d washed, eaten breakfast, and headed out. Fiona was eager, almost desperate, to get back to the settlement and have Elora begin the process of figuring this whole mess out. It had taken most of the day to get back, and it was almost dark now.

“Well, it’s definitely going to take a lot of work,” Elora murmured as they walked slowly between the buildings. “I’ll need somewhere to set up shop.”

“The inn is the most intact, I think,” John said.

They took her to it and she found a table that would support some weight, then set her pack down on it and pulled out some supplies. Namely some parchment, an inkwell, and a feathered pen. She began writing.

“You’re still worried about funding,” she said.

“Of course I am...how much did we find at the castle?” Fiona replied.

“I’ll need to look over it, but at a guess, I’d say somewhere between three and five thousand. It’s not a bad haul.”

“But it’s not enough,” Fiona whispered.

“No, it’s not enough. I have a solution for that, though. Well, probably.”

Fiona stepped forward eagerly. “What is it?”

John and Yelena joined her as Elora stopped writing and pulled out her map of the region. She spread it open. It was absolutely covered in notations and marks. She laid a finger over a small red circle she’d made north of them, at the coastline.

“What’s that?” Fiona murmured.

“A castle, I believe. Similar to the one we just came from. I’ve been hearing rumors about it for about half a year now. I’ve always intended to go check it out. Although, it’s more of a fortress, actually. It’s a military outpost, long abandoned.”

“So why wouldn’t it be picked clean already?” Fiona asked.

“I don’t know. There’s all sorts of rumors. Everything from mercenaries living there, to a haunting, to it being a necromancer hideout. Something is there, guarding it, I believe. I just don’t know what. So you should go there, grab as much as you can. Come back.”

“You aren’t going to join us?” Yelena asked.

“No. As I said, I need to stay here, beginning my assessment. Also, I ordered a runner to come here tomorrow, so that I can begin actually coordinating the shipments...don’t worry, I can take care of myself. I’m a big girl,” she replied.

“All right,” Fiona said, turning and looking at John and Yelena, “so we hit this place and rob it blind.”

“We will set out tomorrow morning,” Yelena replied, and John nodded.

“Ugh...morning? I-” she cut off, interrupting herself with a yawn. She then sighed. “Okay, yeah, morning is a good idea.” She looked around, then suddenly cut her gaze back to John and Yelena. “Threesome?” she asked. Then hesitated and looked at Elora. “Foursome?”

“You three go ahead. Believe it or not, my sexual appetite isn’t quite as voracious as it once was. That fuck last night really helped. And once I get started on a project, I honestly just want to work on the project. Also, I’m not into girls,” Elora replied.

“Okay then!” Fiona said, and headed off towards the basement of the inn.

“Coming love?” Yelena asked, looking at John.

He nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do this, then sleep. I’m exhausted.” He glanced at Elora. “Yell if you need anything, okay?”

“I will. And I might actually come wake you up for sex when I finally burn out. That okay?” she replied, looking at the two of them.

Yelena nodded. “You have free access to him, as far as I am concerned,” she said.

“Same,” John replied. “I’m pretty much good to go whenever.”

“Great! Goodnight, then.”

“Goodnight,” they told her, and headed off after Fiona.

…

“What happened next?” Yelena asked eagerly.

“At that point, our boat was sinking. The pirate ship had done damage that we weren’t getting out of. And that just pissed me off. I mean, everything else pissed me off, but when it really hit me that we were getting overrun by pirates, and that our ship was going down, I just...lost it. I just screamed. I screamed so loud and long that everyone actually paused in combat and looked at me. And then I headbutted the nearest pirate, ran him through, kicked the next nearest guy overboard, and then started fighting like a crazy person. I guess it was a rallying call or something, because we managed to kill the pirates and storm their ship and take it from them. Then we sailed on to our destination, I got off, and went on with my life,” Fiona replied.

“That is so impressive,” Yelena murmured.

“Surely you’ve done more impressive things,” Fiona said.

“Maybe,” Yelena replied. “My past is...blood-soaked. I’ve certainly taken lives since starting my life with John, but those which I have killed since coming here seem to have deserved it. And I have tried to help who I could. I...like my life much better now.”

“Well, you live here, get to roam the land, and are in crazy love with a cool guy. I can see how you’d like it,” Fiona replied.

Yelena laughed. “Yes. I suppose that’s true...are you okay?” Yelena asked. A pause. “John?”

He looked up suddenly. “What?”

“Are you okay? You seem...worried.”

“Uh...yeah. Just, you know...this castle thing. It sounds dangerous.”

“So does most of what we do,” Yelena murmured.

“Just a bad feeling I guess. And I had another nightmare last night. Kind of been throwing me off ever since I woke up,” he replied.

She kept looking back over her shoulder at him, still worried, then nodded and returned her gaze forward. John felt guilty again. Technically at least some of that wasn’t a lie. He had had a nightmare last night, again about Yelena leaving him, and it was making him feel awful. But the castle wasn’t what he was worried about, no more than the usual amount of worry, anyway. No, what had him worried was sitting there and listening to Fiona talk about how interesting she was for hours and hours as they walked up north.

And how much Yelena was impressed by that.

It was really just underlining how boring he was by comparison. John kept telling himself that this wasn’t an issue, that he was just being paranoid, but the more time went on, the more it seemed to grow in his mind like a tumor. It was making him sick to his stomach. But what could he do? What could he do that would make him suddenly more impressive and interesting? He had to stop this, though. He couldn’t feed this, it was stupid and it wouldn’t lead anywhere good. He was pretty sure he was just being paranoid, but…

What if this was where a rift began to grow between them? What if this was the seed that ultimately grew into, years down the line, Yelena realizing that they regularly ran into far more interesting people? What if this was what began to douse the flame of her love for him? This was stupid and he was being stupid…

Right?

But he didn’t want to burden her with this crap, because what was more unattractive and less interesting than self-doubt? It was better to just shut up and keep a lid on it until it went away. And probably try to be more interesting.

Dammit!

Insecurity really sucked.

“There it is,” Fiona said.

John was mercifully drawn from his inner monologue as they crested a rise in the land and were treated to a breathtaking view of the fort in question. It was a huge, monolithic, imposing stone structure right up on the coastline, probably actually partially extending out over the ocean due to erosion at this point. It was a majestic, beautiful sight, surrounded by dead, snow-capped trees, beneath a cloudless blue sky, with the sounds of the ocean meeting the shore somewhere nearby. It was a very captivating sight.

“Wow,” Yelena whispered finally. “That is truly beautiful.”

“Yeah it is,” John murmured. “I really hope we don’t die in there.”

Fiona laughed. “Me too. Now let’s get this over with and rob this place blind.” With that, she set off in a brisk pace towards the fort. John and Yelena followed after her. This, at least, was an improvement. Now that he had a task and a potential threat to focus on, John found it much easier to push the negative thoughts away.

As they walked up the path to the main gate, which was open, John said: “I wonder what this was even here for. It doesn’t seem very strategic.”

“Maybe it was a hundred years ago, or however long. Or maybe someone was feeling ambitious,” Fiona replied.

“Yeah, probably.”

They moved in through the front gate and came to the main courtyard. As they did, John immediately tensed. “Someone’s here.”

The others froze. “Where?” Yelena asked.

“I don’t know, inside somewhere. Footprints,” he said.

They both looked down and saw the vague track ahead of them in the almost-melted snow. “Wow, good eye,” Fiona murmured.

“Looks heavy...but small,” John said softly, crouching by the nearest one. “Someone wearing boots for small feet, but they go in kind of deep. So...I don’t know, maybe an elf or a petite human or beryl in heavy full-body armor.” He looked up at the imposing stone structure, at the windows, most of which were intact and dirty. He looked at the front doors, which were slightly ajar. “The question then becomes: are they hostile?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Fiona said, and set off once again.

“I guess we will,” Yelena murmured.

They walked up the broad stone steps and came to the weathered wood-and-iron front doors. Yelena went first with a light spell. John quickly moved in after her, his sword drawn. They came into a broad training area. There wasn’t too much left after decades of thieves, which meant that people were at least coming into this initial room, grabbing stuff, and getting out. So whatever it was must be deeper inside. Unlike most castles and forts they’d come to, this one didn’t have stairwells to either side. This first room was pretty much stand alone, just a big, broad room with a single doorway at the back. They moved across the way silently, hunting around for potential threats or treasures. There were a few weapons glinting in the light, but they left them alone for now. First: deal with the threats. Then go after the treasure.

It was dangerous to do otherwise unless you were really stealthy or fast.

They came to a hallway at the end. The walls to either side had the gaps of open doorways in them. The trio began moving along it, checking out the rooms in passing. They turned out to be barracks where pretty much all that remained were the skeletal frames of beds stacked in rows. At the end of the hallway was the dining hall. Some of the initial huge wooden tables and benches remained, but clearly a lot of it had been chopped up for kindling by whoever found their way here and needed to spend the night.

At the end of the hallway was a large, broad stairwell, but John hesitated as he studied the room. This portion of the fort didn’t look all that structurally sound. There were huge cracks in the walls and in one area a portion of the wall had actually caved in, letting in sunshine and cold air. Even the stairs didn’t look so stable.

“I do not like this place,” Yelena murmured. “It seems dangerous.”

“I know what you mean,” John replied. “Should we keep going? I know it’s a huge building and everything, but honestly...just the wrong movement, the wrong step, can send over an old structure if it’s starting to go. And you can’t really fight your way out of a collapsing building.”

“I want to keep going...but I’ll understand if you think we should look elsewhere,” Fiona replied.

“Yelena?” he asked, looking at her.

“I suppose we should look further,” she decided, and he nodded, although he was beginning to think maybe they should go. This place looked awful. But they ascended the stairs. An ingress point led to curving hallways to the left and right, and there was an opening dead ahead, leading out onto a balcony. Fiona walked out onto it and Yelena followed her. John hesitated, then went out. Brave was interesting, or it could be.

The view, at least, seemed to be worth it.

It was even more beautiful than before. They found themselves standing out over the ocean, which extended away from them as far as the eye could see. The fort, John realized, was indeed built right up to the edge, on top of a cliff. The waterline was some hundred feet down and made him dizzy to look at.

“This is truly magnificent,” Yelena whispered. “This is one of the things that I love the most about your realm. There are many times where I’ve seen something simply beautiful. And this is one of them. I knew that the water surrounding this country was vast, but...I had no idea. It looks like it goes on forever.”

“Not forever, but definitely a lot farther than we can see right now,” Fiona replied.

“We should probably keep looking,” John said.

“I suppose so,” Yelena murmured, still staring.

After a bit, they went back inside. As they did, John hesitated, and so did the other two. “You heard that?” Fiona whispered.

“Yes,” he and Yelena said at the same time.

It was what sounded like a footstep, and it echoed. Someone was definitely here. After another moment, they moved on. The next half an hour passed slowly as they searched the second story. There were more rooms here, some of them offices, a few more of them training areas, one what might have been a place of healing, another was some place of worship, although they couldn’t tell which deity it was to.

They found a few trinkets and treasures here and there, gathering up what they could, and the occasional body, but nothing indicating a slaughter. Mostly just people who had apparently frozen to death, or maybe had gotten into a fight over something. They found a few more signs that someone was ahead of them, but still had nothing definitive to go off of. Finally, they ascended to what was likely the final story.

Coming up the stairs, they came to a large hallway.

“They are close,” Yelena whispered suddenly. She looked around.

“How can you tell?” Fiona asked softly.

“Honed combat instincts,” she murmured.

They didn’t have to wait long. Suddenly, there came the sound of something scraping against stone, followed by a very loud curse, and then someone was falling from the ceiling across the room. All three of them drew their bows and notched arrows as the person in question hit the floor with an ugly sounding thud. John honestly thought they would be unconscious or possibly even dead, but the person almost immediately sat up.

“Identify yourself!” Yelena demanded, marching forward.

“Wait! Please! I’m not here to fight!” the person, a woman he realized, replied immediately, raising their hands. It looked faintly ridiculous because she was, as he’d accurately predicted, in head-to-toe white armor. All they could actually see of her was her eyes. “My-my name is Ruby.”

“What were you doing up there?” Fiona asked, lowering her bow.

“I heard you coming and I was trying to hide. I...oh Gods, you’re a demon,” Ruby whispered. She took a step back.

“Yelena, relax the bow,” John whispered as he came to stand next to her. “We aren’t going to hurt you if you don’t attack us.”

“She’s a demon,” Ruby replied, still staring at Yelena.

She sighed and lowered her bow. “I will not harm you,” she said.

Ruby looked uncertainly over at John. Now it was his turn to sigh. “Not that you should have to hear it from me, Yelena can speak for herself, but she’s telling the truth.”

Slowly, Ruby lowered her arms. “Oh, so you’ll listen to me but not her?” he asked, annoyance and anger beginning to bubble in him.

“You’re not a demon,” Ruby replied.

“Oh for fucking-” he began, but Yelena cut him off.

“John, it is okay. We have to remember that this is actually the most common reaction to me and my kind among this land. Do not be angry, please.”

He grit his teeth, then made himself nod.

“I-I’m sorry. I just...I had a really, really bad run-in with demons when I was a girl. But...you’re right. That was really disrespectful. I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you,” Yelena replied.

There was a long, awkward pause.

“Now what?” Fiona asked.

“Well, we aren’t going to force you to stay here or anything. Although we would deeply appreciate it if you didn’t mention her to anyone,” John said.

“I can’t leave yet,” Ruby replied. “I’m...looking for something.”

“What?” Yelena asked.

Ruby stared at them for a moment, then sighed softly. “I guess if you’re going to give me a little trust, it’s only fair I give it to you. I need gold. And from what I’ve figured out, um...there’s some in the basement. Which is locked. I mean, the main entrance, there’s a cellar door on the west side of the fort, but it’s collapsed. I manage to get my hands on a map of this place and saw that there’s another, smaller entrance kind of hidden away on the northeastern side. But it’s locked, magically. I figured finding the key would be the easiest solution. Which was what I was trying to do when I heard you.”

“Huh,” Yelena murmured. “Well, it seems we have similar goals. If you would be okay with it, I think we would be amenable to pooling our resources.” She glanced at the others, who both nodded. John didn’t see much problem with it, although there was something about this woman that set him slightly on edge.

“I...yes, I could do that,” she replied hesitantly. Maybe it was how nervous she was. And she kept staring at Yelena. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude, but...I mean, how are you two just so okay around her? Almost everyone I know would totally flip out seeing you, Yelena. And, again, I’m not trying to be a bitch. Believe me, I know a lot about social stigma and people avoiding you like the plague, or even wanting to kill you...uh...” She shut up suddenly.

“Why? What’s given you this unique insight?” Yelena asked.

“I, uh...it’s personal. I don’t really want to get into it,” Ruby murmured.

“Fair enough, I suppose.” Yelena paused and squinted, then stepped a bit closer. “Your eyes...they are extremely bloodshot.”

“I’m...ill,” Ruby replied.

“Are you a vampire? Because we don’t have problems with vampires,” John said.

“No. I’m not a vampire. I’m just...ill. And don’t worry, it isn’t communicable.”

John scrutinized her for a few seconds longer. Something was definitely off here, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. Well, whatever it was, it would probably come out in the future. Or it might not. Hopefully it was nothing dangerous.

“Well, let’s search then,” he said finally, and some of the tension that had been building on the air dropped away.

Though not all of it.

Now numbering four again, they commenced their search of the third story. At least they were more certain of what they were looking for. As they hunted, John began wondering if maybe they should recruit Ruby. So far, she seemed fairly capable. She was obviously stealthy...with the exception of that one giant misstep that had revealed her presence. But that was bugging him. Not the misstep, but the fact that she fell like thirty feet and got up apparently without a problem. Full-body armor was great stuff, but even if it was made really well out of quality material, it didn’t actually cushion you from the concussive impact of a thirty foot drop all that well. He still didn’t know her race precisely, but simply based on what he could see through her eye slit, she had to be human or elf. And then there were her motives.

When it came to running into people in really isolated, dangerous locations like this, although John and Yelena had so far had pretty good experiences, it was genuinely the flip of a coin whether they were good people, or lying, thieving murders who would betray you at the first opportunity. Despite that...he honestly wasn’t getting bad vibes from her. It wasn’t a perfect metric, obviously, but she didn’t seem to be freaking Yelena out at all. In fact, quite the opposite. She was walking closer to her now and talking with her about things, asking her questions, and Yelena seemed happy enough to answer them.

Ugh, Gods, was this someone else to compete with?

She already had him beat on the interesting thing: she was mysterious. You didn’t even have to be interesting if you were mysterious, because people tended to try and fill in the blanks on their own, and because people wanted things to be interesting naturally, they often built the person up in their head as far better than they probably really were. That clearly wasn’t an option for John. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t share with Yelena.

Well...anything until he ran into this stupid, petty problem.

They found the key they were looking for in the commander’s chambers. Or, presumably, his or hers chambers. It had the biggest bed. They also found a lockbox with some diamonds and gold coins inside, which they split up between themselves as best they could. From there, they began to hurry back down through the fortress, going until they were back outside in the cold sunlight and standing together before the door Ruby had mentioned.

“Well...this is it,” Ruby whispered.

“Are we ready?” John asked. He was standing at the door, holding the key. He felt a little compelled to go first.

“Ready,” Yelena replied.

John slipped the key into the lock and turned it. It unlocked with a click that sounded loud in the chilled silence. Pocketing the key, John twisted the knob and pushed the door open. A dank, descending stairwell was revealed. The sunlight pushed back the gloom. John drew his blade and began to make his way down the stairs, his boots echoing as he took each step. The other warriors followed in his wake. The stairwell descended for a good twenty feet or so and finally opened up into a wine cellar. John paused and looked around in the light offered by another light spell Yelena had cast. There were still a fair amount of bottles.

“We have to get these,” he murmured. “They’re going to be valuable.”

“Also probably decent payment, or at least a great signing bonus, for the miners we hope to eventually employ,” Fiona said.

“You’re hiring miners?” Ruby asked.

A beat of silence passed. “Yeah,” Fiona replied finally. “Looking to open up a mine. That’s why we’re here, actually. That shit’s expensive.”

“I bet,” Ruby murmured.

They all split up and began gathering up bottles. Fiona got the most, since she had herself a magical backpack that operated on the same principles as the camp-in-a-bag: bigger on the inside than the outside. John made another note to get one for himself. He had no idea why he hadn’t yet. Well, probably because his life had been spent either obsessively loving Yelena or running and or fighting for his life. Or, for the past six months, living in a cave with a dragoness without going literally anywhere for most of it.

He gathered up a few bottles of his own, studying the label on one of them. “Holy shit,” he muttered. “This is like a hundred years old.”

“A good vintage,” Fiona said, then giggled. “I hope it’s still good.”

“These bottles are magically sealed,” Yelena said, studying one of them.

“Probably then. I know people that’ll buy it just because it’s a hundred years old,” Fiona said. “Or, at least, I bet Elora does.”

After they gathered what they could, the quartet moved on. They traversed a long hallway, checking out any of the rooms they came to. All of them were stuffed with old furniture or wooden boxes full of crap that most rich people seemed to have stored away, stuff from their parents, or their parent’s parents. Stuff that they occasionally added to, probably when they received an official gift and couldn’t really get rid of it, but didn’t give a shit about it, so they threw it down in storage. Finally, one of the doors led to a much larger room.

The left side of it was lost to shadows, but to the right they all immediately noticed something glinting in the light.

“Holy fucking shit,” Fiona whispered.

“Look at all that...” Ruby murmured.

It was gold. Hundreds, thousands of gold coins, scattered in a huge pile and spilling out of an open doorway. The four of them moved slowly over to it. They peered into the room beyond, where they found the floor covered in gold and several precious gems. All along the walls were shelves littered with some more gold and gems and splinters of wood.

“What happened here?” John asked quietly.

“I know what happened,” Ruby replied. They all looked at her. “This is what happens when you have something enchanted with a bigger-on-the-inside spell and the magic runs out. It breaks open, spills everything.”

“So this was where whoever was in charge kept all his earnings, and it just...gave up the ghost,” Fiona murmured. “Well let’s get to work! This should definitely be enough.”

“When was the last time you got your own pack magically charged?” Yelena asked uncomfortably.

“A week ago,” Fiona replied. “Don’t worry, mine isn’t super big. The charges are good for three months.”

“Oh. Okay. Well...yes, let’s get to work,” she murmured.

“There’s so much of it...I think maybe we should store some of it in our camp-in-a-bag,” John said, considering the situation.

“That would be a great idea,” Yelena said.

John nodded. He grabbed it, turned, and threw it onto the open floor ahead of them, saying the activation word. In a bright flash, the camp appeared. He frowned as he managed to catch a glimpse of the whole room in that moment, and he realized all at once that they had allowed themselves to be distracted by the gold.

“So...whatever is killing people is probably down here,” he said. “I just saw the whole area, and I think there are a lot of corpses.”

Yelena sniffed the air suddenly. “Yes...I smell death. It’s faint because of the cold, but it’s there. We should check it out.”

“You three start getting the gold and gems, as much as you can as fast as you can. I’ll check the area,” John replied.

“I...okay. Please be careful.”

“I will,” he said, and set out.

“Wait,” Yelena said, and he paused, glancing back. She gestured towards him and a new ball of light appeared over his head.

“Thanks love,” he said.

“You’re welcome.”

He continued on his way, the ball of light hovering over his head, staying with him. It didn’t take long to find the first corpse. Immediately, he could tell what had killed the felis adventurer: he’d been hit by something massive. His chest was caved in and it looked like he’d been thrown a ways, where he’d eventually landed and hit the floor, bounced a few times, and finally come to a rest. Poor bastard. The next corpse was worse. It was less a corpse and more a smear of blood and cracked bones. Something had basically pounded whoever it had been right into the floor. It looked like someone had dropped a boulder on them, then removed it.

“Gods,” he whispered.

So what was doing this? What incredibly dangerous thing was lurking? Whatever it was, he imagined it would probably be big and obvious instead of stealthy and subtle. Hopefully. The idea of something stealthy that could do this was terrifying. As he kept hunting around the immense room, he found the other, main, entrance. It was indeed caved-in, with a huge amount of masonry and wooden beams clogging the area. And suddenly John became worried about the structural stability of this place all over again.

“Hey, uh...how close are you to being done?” he called.

“Maybe a quarter!” Fiona called back. “Why?!”

“Just try to hurry! This place doesn’t seem all that stable!”

“Got it!”

John stood there awhile longer, still surveying the area, listening to the others work fervently to get as much gold as possible. Finally, he decided to finish checking out the area and start searching the more intact adventurers for some useful loot. He moved off to the left, letting the light illuminate the walls, which showed even more worrying cracks in them, but within a few moments, he had finished his search and hadn’t found whatever it was that had killed all the people down here. John looked back at the pile of rubble.

Maybe it had died in some recent attack, buried under that pile.

Well, he could hope.

With that thought in mind, he began his search. Minutes passed as he rifled through pockets and backpacks, each time feeling compelled to silently apologize to the corpse in question. It was humbling, realizing that this could pretty easily be him. An adventurer’s life was a very dangerous life. Sure it had great rewards, but it also had huge risks that often times relied entirely on luck. You could train yourself day in and day out, learn magic, buy the best gear, best armor, best weapons, enhance yourself in any number of ways.

But…

All it took was one bad second, one misstep, one poorly timed attack or defense, one bad decision and you’d be dead.

Just another corpse in an isolated, abandoned ruin or cave.

He tried not to think about it too much.

Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. He managed to find his own little haul of gold and gems and a really nice dagger that would probably fetch a hundred or so gold at the right market. As he was working his way back to the rubble pile, he noticed something glint as he got closer. It was very close to the pile, practically touching it, and it was dark, whatever it was. John drew closer, intrigued. Finally, he saw it for what it was: a blade.

A black blade, as dark as starless midnight and very smooth.

It was maybe two feet long, very simple in design, but something about it just appealed to him on a deep level. He walked forward, intent on claiming it, seeing that it was clutched in some poor adventurer’s hand who’d been caught in the collapse. Coming forward, he crouched and carefully pried the fingers open, releasing the blade.

As he grabbed it, grinning at his prize, the rubble shifted.

“Oh shit,” he whispered, quickly backing up. The rubble shifted again, more violently. “Oh fuck!”

“What’s happening!?” Yelena called.

“I don’t know! Pack it up! We’re fucking leaving!”

“We’re not done yet!” Fiona yelled.

An explosion happened and chunks of masonry flew everywhere, and something emerged from the rubble. Something huge and blocky and made of stone. It turned two blazing red eyes on John and took a step forward.

“Yes, you’re fucking done! Get the fuck out of here!” he screamed as he turned and began sprinting away.

The footsteps behind him began to sound, then they started to get louder. A slow rumble was building and he screamed and dodged a big piece of stonework that fell from the ceiling. He saw a flash of light ahead of him: Yelena collapsing their camp-in-a-bag. Good. The women had emerged from the treasury by the time he was about halfway across the room. They stared at him with varying states of terror.

“John! Run!” Yelena screamed.

“Go! Go! Get out!” he roared.

They started to make for the exit. John glanced behind him and his terror increased tenfold. Besides the fact that he now fully saw the monster for what it was: a stone golem, probably a magically infused guardian and definitely what had killed all those people, he also saw that the building was coming apart. New cracks were forming before his very eyes in the walls and ceiling, and big pieces of masonry were falling down.

John ran for his life.

The others disappeared into the corridor they’d initially come in through and he sprinted after them, absolutely desperate to be out of here. All around them the old fort continued to crumble, giving way to the corrosive forces of time and age, and beneath it all was the heavy, rhythmic thud of the stone monster coming after them with a mindless, relentless determination. He made it back into the lengthy corridor and kept booking it. More and more cracks were appearing in the walls and the sting of little chips of stone hitting him kept happening across his arms and face. For a few seconds, he had the hope that the stone guardian wouldn’t follow them into the hallway, but when he continued hearing the relentless pounding of its footfalls, he looked back and saw that not only had it followed them, it was actually catching up!

“Run faster!” he screamed.

And then did precisely that. It was going to be very close. He pounded the stone floor with his boots, focusing on nothing but getting out alive, and began to catch up to the others, who had a good lead on him. Fiona, who was farthest along, disappeared first into the stairwell they’d entered through. Then Ruby went next. Yelena hit it, stopped, and turned around, urging him onward. “Come on, John!” she cried.

He almost ran straight into her and then they both sprinted up the stairs, scrambling as fast as they could towards the rectangle of daylight. He could still hear the golem coming after them, although he seriously doubted it could fit in the stairwell. Finally, he burst out into the outdoors right behind Yelena.

Looking around, he saw that Fiona and Ruby weren’t waiting for them. They had kept running, back to the path they’d followed up here initially. And he quickly realized why: it wasn’t just the whole fortress that was coming down, the entire area was falling into the ocean. The land was breaking up into huge chunks and sliding off towards that abyss. A fresh wave of terror filled John’s whole body and he took off after Yelena, who’d already picked up on it and had resumed running. They bolted as fast as they could, dodging more pieces of masonry falling from the three-story fort. They ran until they had cleared the perimeter walls and kept going until they stopped a few hundred feet away from the whole damned site.

“Holy...fuck...” Fiona gasped, hands on her knees, hunched over as she tried to get her breath back. “That was completely fucked.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said quietly. “We did it, at least.”

“Most of it,” Yelena murmured. “Are you okay?” she asked, turning to John. “What happened over there?”

John sighed, feeling stupid now that the terror had passed. “The godsdamned golem must have been partially buried in the rubble and I guess it wasn’t really hindered, just inactive. I broke its perimeter and activated it. Fucking stupid.”

“There was no way you could have known,” Fiona said. “Plus...that was actually pretty freaking exciting. I mean, crazy dangerous, but exciting.”

“I guess so,” John replied. “Uh...how much did we end up getting?”

“Guessing here, but I’d say we got about two thirds of it. At a really, really rough guess, I’d say we got maybe five thousand, based on the gold and gems I saw. It could be more, though. There were some amulets and rings and earrings that looked pretty pricey, too. Right now, I think we should just get back home and count our haul.”

“Fine by me,” Yelena replied. She groaned and rubbed her head. “I got winged by more than one of those rocks.”

“Same,” Fiona muttered.

“Here, I’ll heal people. John, you look the worst, I will heal you now,” she said, raising her hand, which was coated in a gentle white light.

“I’ll be fine, take care of yourself first, Yelena,” he replied.

She sighed and ignored him, laying a hand against his chest. He felt the warm, healing magic flow through him and the various pains assaulting him faded, then disappeared. When she was finished, she smiled and kissed him. “You always do that.”

“So do you,” he replied.

“Because I love you.”

“Oh!” Ruby said suddenly, and they all looked over at her. She sounded like she’d just come to a startling realization. “You two are...oh. Um. Sorry. Just ignore me.”

“We’re what?” John asked.

“I...together. A couple. I didn’t...just ignore me. I just didn’t realize. It surprised me,” she said, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

They continued looking at her, then John and Yelena looked at Fiona, who glanced over at them uncomprehendingly for a few seconds. “What?” she asked.

“You’re in charge of this operation. What next?”

“I said we should go home.”

“I mean...” John nodded to Ruby.

“Oh! Shit. Yeah. Ruby...you want to come with us? You interested in a job?”

Ruby stared back at them for a bit. “What kind of job?” she replied finally.

“Cards on the table, I guess,” Fiona said. “I’m putting together a team to help stabilize this entire region.”

“...how?”

“There’s a mine near the center of the region, abandoned, and I’m going to rebuild the town around it and reopen it. That’s why we came here, to get all this gold. We’ve already got a merchant helping us, and we’re going to get miners and mercenaries. I mean, it’ll take a long time, but I’m just trying to get the foundation built for now. I could use someone else to help get stuff done. That’s what they’re here for,” she said, nodding to John and Yelena.

“It’s not all we’re here for,” Yelena murmured.

Fiona giggled. “I guess that’s fair. Stuff isn’t the only thing you get done...but, um, yeah. If you’d like to help, I’d welcome it. As for payment...I don’t know. We’ll have to negotiate.”

Ruby was silent for a bit longer. “I’ll come back with you and we’ll talk more about it. I need to think about it. But I like this idea,” she said. “The only thing is, I need to stop at an alchemical merchant. I have something I really need to purchase.”

“We passed a little trading post on the way here. We can stop there and see if they have what you want,” Fiona replied.

“Thank you.”

With that, they set off back towards what was, for now at least, their home.

CHAPTER V

They made it back to their little nameless husk of a settlement near sundown.

John felt like he was beginning to dissolve under the corrosive effects of his jealousy. He hated even thinking that word. Jealousy. He remembered lightly teasing Yelena about it near the very beginning of their relationship, before it was even a relationship and just a fling. Now, here he was. Ruby had definitely imprinted onto Yelena. For whatever reason, she’d practically clung to her the whole walk back, talking to her almost nonstop, sharing stories. John tried to tell himself yet again that he was being ridiculous.

So what? Several of the women they’d met had gotten very close to both of them. Sometimes him, sometimes her. It didn’t mean anything. If anything, it was good. Ideally it was good for both of them because they’d both share a connection, a bond of companionship, and that was a bit harder to find when you lived your life on the road. But his mind had caught on something. That whole thing with the collapsing fort had been...exciting. Honestly, it had been interesting. Maybe that was a path towards interesting.

“Wow, this place is going to need a lot of work,” Ruby said as they walked into the village. She hesitated. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re right. It will. It’s why I plan to hire workers to rebuild all this stuff, get it looking brand new and beautiful. We’re going to get a wall up around the village, get these roads cleared out and paved with honest-to-Gods cobblestone. I mean it, I want actual paths that lead all over this region so that it isn’t so dangerous and difficult to get through,” Fiona replied.

“I’m curious, why are you doing this? I mean, it seems like you just...walked up here and decided to do this,” Ruby asked.

“I did. As for why,” she shrugged, “you know, it’s something to do. It seems like something worth doing, a good something. It’s helping people.”

“Yeah, it would.” She hesitated. “Okay, you sold me. I’m in.”

“Really? Awesome! What do you want for payment?”

“Shit, I dunno. I don’t need a lot. I’ve been aimless for...awhile now. Give me some coin to upgrade my gear a bit and...five hundred gold?”

“I don’t know how long this startup will take...”

“Five hundred to start, and you keep me supplied with what I need to get the job done, and I’ll stay until I get tired of it. Maybe you give me a bonus at the end.”

“Deal,” Fiona said.

She laughed happily as they shook hands. “This is so awesome! You weren’t even on my list of people to help. I’m glad we ran into you. Now, let’s go meet Elora, and see how she’s been holding up while we’ve been gone.”

They walked in out of the cold, (it had snowed lightly for the past hour or so), and into the inn. John was immediately impressed with what he saw: Elora had been busy. The main room of the derelict inn had been transformed into a work area. In the middle of the room, Elora sat surrounded by three simple desks in a U shape. She sat on a chair, looking at a scattering of parchments that covered all of the desks’ tops. There were candles set up in holders all over the walls and a few lanterns set up, providing a great deal of light.

Over in one corner of the room was a bed, complete with a mattress and bedding, a nightstand with a stack of books and a candle on it, and a squat storage chest.

“You work fast,” John murmured.

“I had help,” Elora replied. “My runners from the village you met me near arrived today with some of the basics. I’ve sent those runners all over the area, to villages to buy lumber and glass and quarried stone and furniture, and have it shipped here. It will be trickling in over the next week or so. How was your journey?”

“Advantageous,” Fiona replied. “And we made a new friend. This is Ruby.”

“Hello Ruby. I’m Elora.”

“Hello, ma’am,” Ruby replied quietly.

She smiled. “How polite. Now, Fiona, how much did you get?”

“Several thousand at least, but it’s gonna take awhile to get it all counted out. Which I’ll do tomorrow, because I’m exhausted.”

“Okay. I was just about to start preparing dinner,” Elora said, standing up.

“I’ll help,” Fiona said.

John lingered in the doorway. He caught Yelena’s eyes with his own and nodded his head slightly. She came over to him. “I’m gonna go take a walk around the perimeter of the town, make sure nothing’s hanging out.”

“I will come with you,” she said.

“It’s fine. Besides, it looks like Ruby really wants to talk to you,” he said.

Yelena glanced over, following his gaze. Their new friend, who had yet to take off her armor, which he found a little strange, looked away suddenly. Yelena smiled and returned her attention to him. “She’s very friendly. I think she may be a little starved for contact. She is...she sways between very awkward and very excited.”

“Do you like her?”

“Yes. You interested in sleeping with her?”

“I don’t know what she looks like, and haven’t really had a chance to actually get to know her,” John replied.

“Fair point, but I’m guessing you probably already have an answer.”

“I mean...yeah, I probably would if she offered. I doubt I wouldn’t find her attractive. But, uh, speaking of that...would you mind it being just, you know, you and me tonight? No one else? We could camp just out of the door here in our camp-in-a-bag.”

“I...yes, I could do this. I admit, I have already begun to miss our alone time. I missed having people around. Well, more than just one person around, after six months of near solitude, but now we haven’t been alone for days and I do miss it.” She paused. “Are you okay, John? I am starting to get a little worried about you. Something’s bothering you.”

“It’s nothing,” he replied. “Just...sorting out some personal issues.”

“And you won’t tell me?”

He hesitated, suddenly desperate to confide in her, but he pushed that down. Why ruin her good night? “I need some more time,” he replied finally.

She lingered, looking at him, then slowly nodded. “Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too, Yelena.”

They kissed and she went back inside. He watched her walk up to Ruby, who began animatedly talking to her, which looked faintly ridiculous, given she was wearing full-body armor. He had to admit, it was kind of cute, how excited she got about things. And he agreed with Yelena: something about her was a little off. He wasn’t sure what, but he thought he was a little closer to understanding. Or maybe he wasn’t.

With a sigh, John turned and began to walk through the cold darkness to do his job, a silent sentinel moving along the perimeter.

…

“Oh...yes...just a little longer, my love...” Yelena moaned.

John grasped her firm hips more tightly, watching her sweat-slicked body move up and down, her firm breasts bounce as she rode his cock. He reveled in the pure, perfect pleasure of her demoness pussy gripped tightly around his throbbing erection, that slick, extremely hot slice of paradise that seemed to take away all his worries and pains and anxieties. Behind her, he could see the triangular tip of her tail as it swayed rapidly back and forth. He reached back, sitting up a little, and wrapped his fingers around the base of her tail.

He gave it a little pull.

“Oh, John!” Yelena shrieked, and she began to orgasm.

He loved doing that to her. Groaning loudly as her pussy began to clench and spasm around him, a hot spray of feminine sex juices escaping her pussy, he started thrusting madly up into her orgasming vagina, making her scream louder.

And then he was pushed over the edge into his own climax, and he was filling her with his seed, coming hard inside of her.

That was just…

Perfect. It was as perfect as it could get, his body awash in that wondrous sensation, the waves of ecstasy, of blissful rapture and sexual release lapping through his entire self, stealing away every other thought and sensation, overwhelming him.

And then he was done, they both were, coming down off of it. Yelena laid against him, snuggling up to him, and he wrapped her in a hug.

“I love you so much, honey,” he whispered between breaths. “I love you so much.”

“I love you more than you will ever know, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to show you the depths of it,” Yelena replied, her forehead resting against his, blazing red eyes staring directly into his.

“Nothing would make me happier,” he replied, running his hands up and down her back.

He heard something shift outside the tent and they both looked towards the opening, which was ajar, and three people stood outside of it. Their friends.

“Hi,” John said.

“Um...hi,” Elora replied. “We figured you wouldn’t mind us watching...you were being really loud. But now I feel kind of bad because this got really personal...”

“Don’t feel bad! Love is beautiful! And theirs is obviously so wonderful and pure!” Fiona replied happily.

“Well, you’ve seen us naked before,” John replied.

“Ruby hadn’t,” Yelena murmured.

“Well, now she has.”

“I’m really sorry, they said you wouldn’t mind...”

“It’s fine,” Yelena said, laughing easily. “We’ve all seen each other naked and having sex at this point. We are...fairly open.”

“Wait, have all of you had sex with each other?” Ruby asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“John has fucked all three of us,” Fiona said. “Yelena has fucked me. Elora has only fucked John.”

“As I said, I’m not into girls. I love watching sex, though.”

“That wasn’t an accusation!”

“There was a tone of disapproval.”

“Not disapproval...just disappointment. You are seriously so hot. But it’s fine! I’m not mad at you. You’re into what you’re into...” she paused, looked at Ruby. “This isn’t freaking you out or anything? I guess we should’ve mentioned this earlier...”

“No, not at all. Um, I’m actually an elf. So I’m a bit more used to casual sex and nudity. It’s just that I’ve lived in human culture for so long that, you know...”

“They’re prudes,” Fiona said. She glanced at John. “No offense.”

“None taken. Most of us are prudes. I’m not.”

“Not at all,” Yelena replied, then laughed.

“Speaking of which...you could take off your armor, you know,” John said, looking at Ruby. “You can relax around us.”

“Um...no. No thank you. I...I’d rather keep it on.”

He wanted to ask her why, but clearly this was something she didn’t want to speak about, and he wasn’t in the habit of trying to force things out of people. They had a right to privacy. “Okay,” he replied, and she seemed very relieved.

Or maybe not. It was hard to tell, only seeing her eyes.

So, she was an elf. He imagined she was wicked hot under there. Or maybe she had scars or something, or the illness was somehow disfiguring. If that was the case, he wanted to reassure her that no one here would judge her or make fun of her or anything. But the others seemed intent on getting the day started, and so that’s what he did.

He and Yelena got up and began to wash.

After last night, he felt a lot better. He’d had his walk, then had eaten dinner, then had helped them count gold for awhile before finally turning in for the night. He and Yelena had made passionate love and fallen asleep almost right away.

And now it was a bright, new day.

There was so much to get done, he imagined.

After cleaning up and getting dressed, the pair of them emerged from their tent and found the others gathered in the inn, eating breakfast. There were some strips of bacon and a heap of potatoes still left, so John and Yelena split it up between them and ate.

“So what are we doing today?” John asked.

“I want to get that mine up and running,” Fiona replied. “So I think it’s high time we tracked down that mining outfit I mentioned earlier. I really want to get to them because last I’d heard, they were out of business. Something went down at their last job, I’m not sure what. They’re lead by a woman named Carrie Copper, and she’s supposed to be the best in the region.”

“I know of her,” Elora said. “She’s got a great reputation. Very motivated, very loyal, very serious-minded when it comes to mining, which she knows a shitload about. Although, she is apparently kind of reckless, though not inside the mine.”

“She’ll fit right in,” Fiona said.

“Seems like it,” Ruby murmured.

“Where is she?” John asked.

“Last I heard, she was in one of the bigger settlements farther south, towards the mountains. A lovely place called Desolation. Hopefully, she’s still there.”

“How far is it?” Yelena asked.

“About six hours’ walk,” Fiona replied. “Who’s going? Obviously I need to go.”

“We’ll go,” Yelena said.

“I should stay here and keep working. I’ve got workers on the way, as well as someone who should be able to survey the buildings and give us an idea of what needs to be done, what kind of workers we’ll need, and how much it’s going to cost. Plus, I need to keep counting the coin and figure out exactly what we’re working with,” Elora said.

“I can go,” Ruby said.

“Perfect! It’s settled. We’ll head out there as soon as we’re done. Hopefully she’ll be as agreeable as everyone else has been.”

…

“I’ve been meaning to ask...what do you make of Ruby?” Fiona asked.

“I’m not really sure yet, honestly,” John replied. He was staring ahead of them as he and Fiona walked the path south. Yelena and Ruby were leading the way, and had been most of the duration of their walk. He’d tried to talk with Ruby near the beginning, and she was more open with him than she’d been so far, but the conversation had been a little stilted and uncomfortable. She seemed fairly unwilling to reveal much about her past. He felt suspicious of her, but honestly he was getting the feeling that she was more socially awkward than nefarious. After awhile, she’d wanted to ask Yelena a question, and that had turned into a conversation that had basically lasted the entire length of their walk to Desolation.

“She really likes Yelena,” Fiona murmured. “I mean, I really like Yelena. But she seems to have, I don’t know, bonded with her.”

“Yeah,” John replied.

“Are you doing okay? You’ve seemed kind of...distracted, or down, for a few days now,” Fiona asked.

He glanced over at her, startled. He honestly wasn’t used to people worrying about his well-being. Well, except for Yelena. It was something he didn’t want to rely on, something he tried not to expect. It felt a little uncomfortable. “I’m okay.”

“Are you lying to me?”

“What difference would it make?” he asked.

“What do you mean ‘what difference would it make?’? A big difference.”

“I’m getting the job done, regardless.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You think I don’t care about you? You think I just view you as a tool to be used?” She was starting to sound angry.

“No, no,” he replied quickly. “I just...” he sighed. “I’m sorry. I grew up a very...private person, I guess you could say. I’m just not used to, you know, people asking questions about me.”

She twisted her lips as she stared at him, her bushy red tail twitching behind her. “Fine,” she said. “But you’re my friend. I mean, I’d at least like to think of us as friends.”

“Yes,” he agreed, because he didn’t want to say otherwise, and also because...well, she wasn’t not his friend. But they’d known each other less than a week. Then again, how hard was it to make friends? Was there some minimum time limit? They were working together, watching out for each other, having meals and conversations together, they liked each other, they fucked each other. Why wouldn’t they be friends?

“Good. So are you going to tell me?”

“It’s...not something I’d like to talk about,” he replied.

She sighed again, more dramatically. “You’re going to have to eventually. Keeping shit in is bad for you, you know? It’s one of the biggest problems I’ve seen since coming to this country. You humans keep everything to yourselves, you don’t want to appear ‘weak’ in front of each other. And never having anyone to talk to, never discussing your emotions, is toxic. It’s corrosive. Bad emotions are like a poison, and the only way to get them out is to talk about them, or in some way directly confront and deal with them. If you don’t, you’re poisoning yourself.”

He was silent for several minutes. “I’ll think about it,” he said finally.

She rolled her eyes. “Well, don’t think for too long. I mean, how long are you going to make yourself miserable with...whatever this is?”

“I just need some time to figure it out on my own terms,” he replied.

“Okay, okay, fair enough.” She grinned suddenly. “If you ever need a distraction, you can just, you know...fuck me.”

“Oh really?” he replied.

“Really. I’m always one short step from horny.”

John looked around suddenly. There was a forest to their right and he didn’t see anyone else on the road. He took her hand. “I’d like a distraction.”

“Oh wow, okay. Hold up, girls! John wants a quickie!”

Yelena and Ruby stopped and turned around. They began walking back, as they’d made it about twenty or twenty five feet ahead of them while walking. “Is that so?” Yelena asked, smirking at him. “Right here?”

“Yeah. She offered, I’m horny,” he replied.

“Okay. I’ll watch. And keep watch. Ruby?”

“I...um...yeah, I’d like to watch,” she admitted quietly.

“Then let’s go,” Fiona said, and then tugged John over to the trees. He let himself be pulled by her and Yelena and Ruby followed after them. They moved a little bit into the forest, then Fiona suddenly stopped, turned, and shoved him up against the nearest tree. Leaning in, she kissed him forcefully on the mouth, passionately probing with her dexterous tongue. She kept this up for about thirty seconds before suddenly dropping to her knees and digging him out of his pants. Her hands were skilled and eager.

“You are quite, ah, enthusiastic,” John murmured.

“Yes,” she agreed.

She pulled his cock out and he let out a small gasp. It was cold. She grinned up at him as she teased it with the tip of her finger. “Come on, come on, it’s freezing,” he muttered.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to keep it warm,” she replied, then slipped it into her mouth and started sucking him off.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered, leaning back against the tree as this kit adventuress sucked his dick. Her mouth was indeed pretty warm, and pleasantly wet. She coated his cock in her spit, then stopped blowing him and stood up.

“Switch with me,” she said, and he did so quickly, as his cock, now wet, was even colder, and he got her up against the tree. Fiona faced it, bending over. Being that she was covered in red fur, she hadn’t opted to wear much beyond a simple skirt and a traveling shirt. He pulled up the skirt and then yanked her underwear down.

“Don’t rip them,” she murmured, then cried out as he placed his cock against the entrance of her hot pussy and slipped in.

“Quiet,” he whispered, getting his hands up into her shirt and finding her furry breasts. He groped them as he started fucking her and she moaned loudly, hands against the tree, bending over.

“Oh fuck, that’s so good...” she groaned.

“This is extremely arousing,” Yelena murmured.

He glanced over. Yelena was staring at him with naked lust. Ruby stood next to her, also staring at the display. He could only see her eyes, but he had an idea that if he could see the rest of her face, she would be blushing fiercely.

“Enjoying the show?” he asked, grinning at her.

“I, um...yeah,” she murmured. “It’s, um...it’s been awhile since I’ve been around people this openly sexual. I missed it.”

“You want a turn? I’m positive John would be more than interested in making love with you,” Yelena said.

“I-I, um...”

“If you’re interested, I’m up for it,” John said.

“I really appreciate it, I just...I think I need more time. And I’m not quite comfortable doing it, you know, outdoors like this...”

“That’s okay. There is no pressure,” Yelena said.

She just nodded and kept watching.

John let go of Fiona’s tits and instead slid his hands down to her firm hips. He kept ramming her, making her moan loudly as she hung her head. “Oh Gods yes, fuck me...” she groaned, pushing against him as he thrust furiously into her.

“I wish I could come,” she panted after another few minutes.

“You can,” John replied.

“But then your pants will be all wet and they’ll freeze.”

“No, I learned a spell to help with that. I can rapidly dry them,” Yelena said.

“Oh thank the Gods!” she moaned. “Keep going, and then after I come, I’ll let you come in my mouth and I’ll swallow.”

“Very much appreciated,” John replied, and fucked her faster.

She moaned, panting in desperate pleasure as he slid smoothly and rapidly in and out of her, pleasuring her intensely.

And then she was coming.

He groaned, feeling her vaginal muscles clenching repeatedly around the rigid length of his cock. And then her sex juices were getting everywhere, making a mess of his pants. He hoped Yelena’s spell worked. They’d developed it during their time with Kesley, a modified fire spell, and he trusted her, but they had yet to actually put it to use ‘in the field’, as it were. Worst case scenario, he could quickly change pants.

Okay, worst case scenario, his dick would get burned. But Yelena was excellent at healing.

As soon as she was done coming, he was just about to begin, and he told her as such.

“Pull out,” she said, and the second he did, she spun around and dropped to her knees once more. He moaned loudly as she took his cock back into her mouth and began sucking him off again. It didn’t take long for him to start letting off, especially when she began massaging his balls in her hot, soft-furred grasp.

“Fuck! Fiona! Yes!” he cried as he started coming in her mouth.

She kept sucking, massaging his balls and his shaft at the same time, and the pleasure was a bolt of pure magical bliss that filled the whole of his being. For a short segment of time it was his entire universe.

When he’d finished, and she’d finished draining his cock, she slowly pulled it out, then swallowed and looked up at him with a satisfied smirk. “Excellent quickie.”

“Excellent,” he agreed.

As she stood up and started fixing her clothes, he began putting his dick away.

“Uh-uh,” Yelena said, and he glanced over. She began walking towards him. “Don’t you dare put that away. It’s my turn.”

…

The township of Desolation looked exactly as miserable as John thought it would.

Whoever had named it had known precisely what they were getting into, which made him wonder what it was about this place that made it worth building a town in. Although he quickly had his answer as he remembered who it was they were tracking down: a miner. Obviously a mine of some sort was here. Although by the looks of the place, the mine must not be doing so well. The four of them came to stand near the center of the village, looking around.

“Okay, if I were an out-of-work, badass miner, where would I be...” Fiona murmured.

“The nearest inn getting drunk,” John replied.

“That’s a pretty good guess, actually. Let’s start there,” she said, pointing.

They crossed the central square, sloshing through the dirty gray slush of water and ice and mud towards the biggest building around. It stood three stories over everything else, called simply The Desolation Inn. Pushing their way in through the front doors, John looked around the room and his gaze fell squarely upon the woman that had to be Carrie Copper. She was a very tall, well-built blonde with a huge mug of, no doubt, something very alcoholic and very strong in front of her, sitting at a table with a group of other men who were burly and built. They were discussing something, but Carrie(?), fairly quickly picked up on the fact that he was eyeing her.

“Who are you and why are you looking at me?” she asked.

The conversation around the table dropped off immediately, and it began to die off around the whole of the room.

“Fiona,” John murmured, nudging her gently, then shrank back a step. He could practically feel their collective gazes focusing on him.

“Are you Carrie Copper?” Fiona asked.

“I am, who’s asking?” Carrie replied.

“My name is Fiona. I want to hire you and your crew for a mining operation.”

Carrie stared at them for a few seconds longer, then turned and said something to the man next to her, a man with a lot of muscles, a shaved head, and a mean scar down one side of his face. He grunted and nodded, then Carrie stood up. She pulled on a large coat made of skinned snow wolves and had a big sword mounted across the back, then left the table and approached them. John felt himself grow more intimidated.

She had to be as tall as Yelena. No, he realized as she drew closer. Taller. She might even be approaching the height of Ellie, that beautiful, badass, six and a half foot tall ex-princess they’d run into just before winter set in last year.

“Let’s talk outside,” she said, and headed for the door.

They moved after her, shifting back out into the sunlight, which was beginning to weaken. Clouds gathered on the horizon and the cold nip on the air threatened more snow. She began leading them across the main square over to a string of merchant stalls.

“So, Fiona, what exactly are you offering me?” she asked as she began hunting the stalls for something.

“A job. For you and your whole crew. I’m in the process of reopening a mine and I need someone to help get it set up and work it. Your name came up when I asked around for who was the best in the region,” Fiona replied.

“I am the best. We are,” Carrie said. There was a simple truth in her voice, although there was a touch of...not arrogance. Pride. But mostly it sounded like she was stating a fact. “What exactly is in this mine?”

“Right now? Giant poisonous spiders. We’ll need to clear them out. But once that’s finished, you’ll be mining platinum.”

Carrie paused in her hunting and turned towards her. “Platinum, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

She went back to her searching and finally found what she was looking for in the form of a ring with a little black jewel on the end. She talked with the man running the stall, a wizened old human who had the feel of magic about him, and then gave him some precious gems in exchange for the ring. She fitted it onto her finger, then finally turned and fully addressed the group. “Okay,” she said, “I’ve thought about. I have three conditions.”

“I’m listening,” Fiona said.

“First condition: you help me hunt something down and kill it. Right now, actually. It’s a job I took. It’s big, dangerous, and evil, and worth a fair amount of coin. Second condition: one of you has to out-drink me after we kill it and sell it. Any of you think you’re up to the task?”

“I can do it,” Yelena said.

Carrie looked at her. Yelena was currently shifted into a tall and thin human woman with dirty blonde hair. She looked like she wanted to laugh, but then seemed to reconsider. “I guess we’ll see,” she said. “Third condition: you pay us twenty three hundred gold a month for the first six months. After that, we go up to thirty five hundred gold per month. You provide food, a place to live, and tools, to my specifications.” She paused. “I guess a few more conditions. I need to travel with you ahead of my crew to inspect the mine and, I suppose, help you clear it out. And you let me run the mine how I want to run it. You have my assurances that I will run it as safely and efficiently as possible, and we won’t shortchange you. We don’t steal, we don’t lie, we don’t cheat. My company and I keep it very simple: we work hard and smart and give you large and timely shipments of minerals, in return, you keep feeding us the fuel required to keep that going. Do you accept?”

Fiona was silent for a few seconds. She glanced back at the others. John just gave a slight nod of his head. He had to admit, it sounded good. And she seemed pretty on the level, very straightforward. Finally, she looked back at Carrie.

“Deal,” she said, offering her hand.

Carrie grinned and shook it. “Great! Let’s go kill a monster.”

…

“So what is this thing we are hunting?” Yelena asked.

“I don’t know what it’s called. All I know is that it’s evil. And very dangerous. Poisonous. Got a big barbed tail, so watch out for it,” Carrie replied.

“Why are we doing this?” Fiona asked.

“Well first, because it’s the right thing to do. Some magical jackasses who didn’t really know what they were doing accidentally summoned it from Gods’ know where. It killed them and got loose and has been killing traveling merchants and adventurers and locals ever since, for about two weeks now. No one’s been able to kill it.”

“What makes you so confident you can kill it?” Ruby asked.

“Well, I’m me. I wasn’t always a miner. Used to adventure a lot. And I kicked ass. I’m still very fast and strong, and I’m great with this sword. Plus, now I’ve got you. I’m pretty confident that you’re all fairly decent adventurers and fighters. You’ve got that look to you. Second reason I’m doing it is because I needed the coin. My company just lost our contract over on the east coast at another mine to some other company promising to do it for half the gold.”

“I’m sorry,” Fiona replied.

“Be more sorry for the sorry bastards who own the mine. I mean yeah, it sucks, but we’ll always find more work. Guy who used to run the town died last month and his idiot son took over and for whatever reason took issue with us. With me personally, I think. Still not sure why. I tried to warn him, but the company he hired is going to either do a shit job or have a huge accident. Both, probably. Actually, I’m most sorry for the people who live in that town. Now they have to live under the rule of a moron,” Carrie explained.

“I forgot to ask, will you require a signing bonus?” Fiona asked as they walked on through the snow-capped trees, deeper into the forest outside Desolation.

“I’m still thinking about it. We’re doing okay, and we’ll definitely be doing okay after I cash this bounty in. Well...not as much, anyway, given I just asked you for help.”

“How about you keep the whole bounty and that’s the signing bonus?” Fiona suggested.

“That works,” Carrie replied. She paused and glanced at her ring. John noted that it was pulsing gently with a deep blue light. “We’re close,” she said, and then moved in a slow circle. Finally, she picked a direction and kept walking.

It didn’t take much longer for them to finish tracking it down.

“There, look,” Carrie said as she stopped and drew her sword.

John immediately saw what she was talking about. He saw footprints, big, deep ones in the snow leading off towards a large cave in the distance, just barely visible through the trees. He drew his own blade. It was time to test this interesting new blade out. It was also time to maybe get in on the action and take the thing down himself. If he could do that, he could probably impress all of them in one fell swoop.

Blade firmly in hand, John moved forward with the others as they honed in on the cave. He wondered what could be waiting in there for them, what dark creature lurked among the shadows. In a way, this felt good. The last fearsome, lethal thing he’d faced had died (presumably) because the structure it was in had fallen into the ocean. He hadn’t even fought it, simply run from it. This thing, he would get to fight.

“All right, Yelena, Fiona, I see you’ve got bows and arrows. You mind hitting it from the long distance?” Carrie asked.

“On it,” Yelena replied, notching an arrow. Fiona did the same and they moved in opposite directions, aiming at the dark cave opening.

“Okay, Ruby, John, you’re with me, we’re going to-”

An incredibly deep, loud growl cut through the cleaning, echoing out from the dark depths of the cave. Heavy footsteps began to sound and John quickly spotted a pair of glowing red eyes from the shadows.

Yes, this thing was definitely evil.

“Just get ready,” Carrie said.

John and Ruby spread out to give each other space. John kept watching, tensing up. It began to take shape as it came closer, and when it finally walked out into the gray sunlight, he felt his guts tighten up a bit in fear.

It was definitely a sight to behold.

It looked familiar, and he quickly realized why it looked familiar: it resembled those two creatures he and Yelena had tracked and killed for their dryad friends back in the Emerald Wild, before all the shit with the demon assassins went down. It wasn’t exactly like them, but he imagined it came from the same plane of existence. It was definitely bigger. Horns grew out of a broad head. It was covered in dark, shiny skin stretched over a bizarre and angular skeletal structure. It had quite the reach and its hands ended in big, sharp claws. The barbed tail whipped angrily behind it. This was going to be really difficult.

The thing roared and Yelena and Fiona opened fire with their bows.

The arrows struck true, one lodging itself in the thing’s cheek, the other glancing off one of its horns. John, Ruby, and Carrie surged forward, attacking it from three different angles. John ducked as its tail came for him first and he saw Carrie jump as it kept going and tried to sweep her legs out from under her. Ruby wasn’t so fast in her armor and took the brunt of the tail. It sent her stumbling backwards and falling on her ass. As she got back to her feet, their two archers continued trying to put arrows into it, and John and Carrie began slashing with their blades. John struck a blow across one of its arms and drew viscous black blood that hissed where it touched the ground. The creature took a swing at him and he barely managed to duck it.

They kept at it, dodging and ducking and slashing, getting a hit every now and then. It seemed to be a bit more sluggish than he thought it would be, and wondered if being in this cold environment was sapping its strength. Well, every little thing to give them an edge. Because clearly this thing was dangerous. And it became even more clear when Carrie went for the killing blow, raising her blade over her head as John and Ruby had engaged it, and the thing turned and spat a thick gob of something on her chest plate.

It immediately began to boil and bubble and hiss and steam, and Carrie cried out, stumbling away. “Get it off!” John yelled, then let out a startled shout as the thing hit him with its arm and sent him flying a few feet. He landed heavily on the ground and got to his feet just in time to see Ruby get bashed again.

And he saw an opening.

Yelena just now hit it in the eye with an arrow. It roared furiously, tail thrashing. It was distracted. Taking the moment, John rushed forward, blade at ready.

“John! Don’t!” Yelena screamed.

But he was already going forward too fast and besides, this was his moment. He could kill it. John rushed onward and as he got within range, plunged the blade directly into the monster’s mouth. It was a solid attack. The tip of the blade exploded out the back of the creature’s head. Unfortunately, the dark beast had also delivered a solid attack to him as well. An explosion of pain, of hot, burning agony, erupted in his gut.

For a few seconds, he didn’t know what had happened.

Then he looked down and saw the monster’s tail inside of his stomach.

Inside of his stomach.

It began to fall and he fell with it, ensnared in a rising tide of pain, and the last thing he heard was Yelena screaming his name.

…

“It’s okay, Yelena...he’s coming around.”

“I do not know, he is so pale...”

“He’ll be fine. You’re an excellent healer. His stomach looks fine.”

“And I did have the antidote for the venom. He’ll be fine.”

John groaned. His stomach hurt like a bitch, but he didn’t know why.

“Definitely coming around,” someone said. A female voice. Familiar.

He opened his eyes. Above him was a halo of faces, attractive faces (well, except for one, but that was only because he couldn’t see it, as the face was hidden mostly behind a steel helmet). Above them, cloudy gray skies, and big, fat snowflakes were beginning to fall. One landed on his cheek. It was very cold and immediately began to melt.

“What happened?” he asked.

Yelena let out a short shout of anger. “You risked your life like a fucking idiot! That is what happened!” she snapped.

“Oh,” he said, and quickly remembered it all.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Carrie said.

Yelena stared down at him, her eyes baleful, and he felt fear steal into him. Without taking her eyes from his, she said, in a low, angry voice, “May I have a few moments alone with my lover?”

“Yep,” Fiona replied immediately, and shot to her feet.

“Man, you’re in for it. That was a good move though,” Carrie said.

Yelena sighed and looked up at her. “I’m going, I’m going,” she murmured, getting to her feet.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Ruby said quietly, then left with the others.

“What the fuck was that?” Yelena snapped when they were alone.

“I, uh...I saw an opening,” John replied. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to worry you. I was just...I didn’t want it to hurt anyone else.”

Yelena stared at him a moment longer, then her features softened. “You scared the absolute shit out of me. I really thought you might die.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “Guess I was just trying to be brave.”

She scoffed. “You’re already brave. You’re in love with me.”

He laughed softly. “That wasn’t really a decision, Yelena.”

She snorted. “I guess you’re right. I did not decide to love you, I just did. And I do. And I will. Please...be careful.”

“I will,” he replied. “Uh...how long was I out?”

“Almost an hour,” she replied.

He sighed. “No wonder I feel like shit. Come on, we’ve got to get back to Desolation. You still need to hold up your end of the bargain.”

“What end?”

“You promised to out-drink Carrie.”

“Oh. Yes. That.”

“Can you do it?”

Yelena rolled her eyes. “Of course I can, John.” She offered him her hand and he let her help him to his feet. Although as he actually stood up, he realized he hadn’t really let her. He was weak and tired and his stomach still hurt a lot. His whole body kind of did, actually. Likely the poison that was in that barbed tail.

Well...at least he seemed to have impressed Carrie.

“We good?” Carrie asked. She and the others were standing at the edge of the clearing, probably trying to pretend like they weren’t attempting to listening in on the conversation.

“We are good,” Yelena replied. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER VI

John opened his eyes to a world of pain.

He was lying on his back, though his head was pillowed on something familiar and warm and nice. He blinked a few times, trying to piece together where exactly he was, and what precisely had happened.

Because obviously something had.

His head felt like an overly enthusiastic blacksmith had used it as an anvil. Even as he thought this, a fresh pain shot through his skull and he groaned.

“Oh, so you’re awake.”

A somewhat familiar face appeared in his field of vision, looking down at him, and he realized he had his head in someone’s lap. A human someone. He blinked a few more times, then realization snapped fully back into place.

Yelena, in her human form.

“Yeah,” he managed. “What the fuck happened?”

She snorted. “You drank until you blacked out, my love. Otherwise, we’re okay.”

“Did you beat Carrie?” he asked after a few seconds, organizing the events of the previous night in his head slowly and painfully.

“See for yourself.”

John carefully sat up, groaning again as the hangover headache nailed him once again, and he had to fight not to vomit. Maybe he should, if he felt this bad. He slowly took in the area around him. They were in a...cabin, he realized. Not an inn. Then he remembered: they’d opted to get their drink on at a cabin Carrie was renting at the edge of town. The woman herself was passed out on the floor, snoring, an empty mug still clasped in one hand.

“Huh,” he said, then shifted around until he was sitting next to Yelena, who had her back to a wall. He saw the others passed out as well. Fiona was laying in the only bed in the room, lying on her side, mouth hanging open, looking fairly ridiculous, one leg hanging over the side of the bed, most of her clothes off. And Ruby...no, she wasn’t passed out. She was actually sitting at the table. She was just so still that he thought she was unconscious. And she was still in her armor! Helmet included. Why wouldn’t she take it off?

“How are you doing?” he asked, looking at her.

“I’m fine,” Ruby replied. “It’s about an hour past sunrise.”

“Huh. You didn’t sleep?”

“I did, but I’m kind of hyperactive. Don’t need as much sleep. Figured you all would need tending to while you were passed out. Well, everyone but Yelena.”

He glanced at her. “You didn’t sleep?”

“I did for a few hours in the night. I told you, love: I don’t need much sleep. Now, you need a healing potion.”

“Not sure how much it’ll help,” he muttered. He hadn’t blacked out from drinking since the night before he’d met Yelena last year.

“It will. And you need water, too.”

“Yeah. I think I need to throw up, as well. Um...could you get me the potion and the water? I’m going to go vomit,” he said.

“I...all right, dear. Let me know if you need any help,” she replied.

“I will.” He got slowly to his feet and then staggered to the front door. Opening it up, he groaned at the blast of cold air and the early morning sunlight that hit him in the eyes. Shading them, he stepped out, closed the door, turned and threw up onto the snow-covered ground. Whatever was left in his stomach came up all at once, and he spent a few minutes coughing and spitting. When he was done, he felt at least a little better. John straightened up and looked around. It had definitely snowed last night, at least several inches, and everything was covered in a fresh layer of the stuff. He stood out there for a bit longer, remembering the previous night.

After getting stabbed and nearly killed, they’d debated briefly about how to prove that they’d done it, and Carrie had finally hacked off its head, then dragged it back to town with them. It was, admittedly, an extremely effective way to prove it. After getting paid, they’d gone back to the inn where most of her crew was. She’d doled out orders to her second in command, who was the man with the scar down one side of his face and the shaved head, to gather the others and wait for her word, as they’d gotten what might be a job. From there, she’d taken them back to her private cabin she’d rented out and had their drinking contest.

Fiona was a bit of a lightweight, but John realized that he wasn’t far behind her, actually. He didn’t hold his booze too well nowadays. Which, he supposed, was fine by him. He almost didn’t do it, but something in him compelled him to drink, and drink heavily. He felt guilty, and now he felt worse. He’d passed out and Yelena had probably spent most the night watching over him. And here he was like an asshole, hiding shit from her, risking his life, worrying her. Maybe he should talk to her about this whole mess.

The more time went on, the better that prospect was looking.

His memories got hazier the longer the night went on, but he did remember that Yelena and Carrie had put away a lot. Well, he didn’t remember saying or doing anything stupid, and Yelena didn’t seem angry so he was probably okay. Another reason he’d stopped drinking: he sometimes got into fights. Although, he knew there was no chance of that happening with this group of people. Honestly, he was surprised that he hadn’t let anything slip and now that he was standing there in the cold morning sunlight, he wondered what the fuck he’d been thinking. Maybe...he’d wanted to let something slip? About how fucked up he was feeling lately?

He didn’t want to believe that, it felt cowardly. But it made a certain kind of sense. Sometimes you did things and didn’t realize until later why you’d done them. Like your brain was betraying you, or playing a joke or something. He didn’t want to actually face the reality of telling Yelena that he was feeling jealous and insecure, but he was having a really hard time living with not telling her. It was getting painful.

Literally.

Well, if he was going to tell her, now wasn’t really the time. John hawked and spat a few times, feeling better now that he’d cleared his stomach and his head a bit, the cold morning air smacking him in the face, and he slipped back inside. Carrie was up and sitting at the table with her head down on folded arms. Yelena was trying to rouse Fiona.

“Fuck off!” she groaned loudly, rolling over.

“Fiona, this is your godsdamned project, and there’s still a lot to do,” Yelena said in a low and annoyingly patient voice.

“I know, just...I can’t move,” she moaned.

“Yelena,” Carrie said. She turned. Without raising her head, she lifted one hand and pointed across the room. “In the kitchen, third cabinet from the left. Open it. There should be a bunch of glowing yellow vials in there. Get one for me and John and Fiona each.”

“What are they?” Yelena asked, rising and crossing the room. She began to root around in the cabinet. John remained by the door, leaning against the wall.

“Hangover cure.”

“Does it actually work?” John asked. “Cause I’ve come across a lot of those.”

“It does. Family secret. We’re all heavy drinkers. My father perfected it awhile ago. It’s a blend of magic and seawater and some more magic and some plants.”

Yelena returned with three thin glass vials, corked and glowing. She set on one the table in front of Carrie, then gave one to John, then moved back to Fiona’s side.

“Just pour it in my mouth,” she moaned.

“That’s what you were telling John yesterday,” Yelena said with a laugh as she uncorked the vial and gently rolled Fiona on her back.

She let out her own low laugh. “Yeah...he sure did. I do kinda like the taste of human stuff,” she murmured, then Yelena upended the vial and began to pour it into her mouth.

John uncorked his own vial and sniffed at it. It smelled awful, but at this point he was willing to give it a shot. Especially after he saw Carrie drink it without hesitation. He knocked it back and swallowed as fast as he could. The taste was awful, and he heard Fiona groaning again, then coughing. He forced it down, though it threatened to come back up again. Panting, he dropped the vial and planted his hands on his knees. Bending over, he closed his eyes, willing his stomach to settle. Man did that stuff taste like awful shit.

“Yeah, you never get used to it,” Carrie said. “Gods, I hate it. But it works.”

And she was right. Already he could feel his headache receding, his stomach beginning to settle, the general aching pain that saturated his body, sapping his strength and focus, receding. “There’s water bottles over there, too. You still need to hydrate.”

“Gladly,” John said, and made his way over to the kitchen. He found a bottle and drank heavily from it.

“So wait...from that exchange just now...are you two fucking?” Carrie asked. “I mean, I know Yelena and John are fucking.”

“We’ve had sex,” John replied.

“We had sex on the way here,” Fiona said. John found another bottle and brought it over to her. “Thank you,” she murmured, accepting it.

“And Ruby?” Carrie asked.

“I, uh...” Ruby began.

“Ruby’s moving at her own pace,” Yelena said.

“Yes,” Ruby agreed.

“Huh. How do you all fit together? No, wait, this’ll make for great conversation on the road. I imagine it’s a way’s back to this mine of yours?”

“Yeah, an appreciable walk,” Yelena replied.

“Okay. Let me drink some water and pack my shit, then I gotta talk to my crew one more time, then we can go.”

…

“So I’m thinking we can probably handle the mine now,” Fiona said.

They were close to their derelict town again and they’d made pretty good time there. “Oh yeah? You think we can?” Carrie asked.

“Yeah. We were surprised that first time. And now we’ve got three additional total badasses on our side! With you, and Ruby, and Elora, we can totally take them. Plus, Yelena, you’re clearly powerful in magic. If you had more time to prepare some attacks, I really think we could clear out the nest this time around.”

“I think you just do not want to wait until we hire more people to help with this,” Yelena said.

Fiona sighed. “I don’t. And Carrie needs to see the mine...”

“If it’s just ice spiders, we can handle them, sure,” Carrie said.

“They’re corrupted somehow,” John murmured.

“Corrupted? Like...decaying? Evil? What?”

“Black streaks on them,” Yelena said.

“Hmm. Well, I still think we should do it,” Carrie said.

“We’ll have to clear the entrance. We had to collapse it to seal them in,” Yelena pointed out.

“Okay. I’ll take a look at it and assess if we could get it cleared ourselves. Although I’m pretty good at that. I’m a bit magical myself, just prefer to use a blade, or most often a pickaxe. I do know a spell that’ll help with clearing rubble though,” Carrie said.

“Then it’s settled,” Fiona replied.

They finished their walk and came back into town. As they did, they saw that it looked different, and John quickly figured out why: there was a pretty large pile of fresh-cut lumber sitting in front of the inn now, as well as several crates, a worktable, and a chair, all of it covered by a quickly assembled structure of five poles and a roof of tent material stretched over it. Elora was underneath it at the worktable.

“I see you were successful,” she said as she turned to face them. She offered Carrie her hand. “I’m Elora.”

“Carrie,” Carrie said, shaking her hand. “Elora...a merchant...I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of you. You come up in conversations sometimes when I’m talking with other merchants all over this damned region.”

“Well, I certainly hope so. I am to mercantile what you are to mining,” Elora replied.

“Based on what I’ve heard, it seems that way. Well, I’m glad to have another professional on the job site.”

“So am I,” Elora said.

“Hey, I’m a professional,” Fiona said, stepping closer.

“A professional what?” Elora asked, seemingly unable to resist smirking just a little at her.

“A...professional adventuress!”

“I see. Well, we have come this far, so I’ll give you that.”

“She handled herself pretty well. We had to kill a monster when I met,” Carrie offered.

“Fair enough. So, what now?” Elora asked.

“We’re going to clear the mine,” Fiona declared.

“I see. Well...I guess now’s as good a time as any to get to it,” Elora replied.

“My kind of girl,” Carrie said, and set off towards the mine.

They all followed in her wake.

…

Carrie was right: she could move rubble with an impressive swiftness.

The job was done within fifteen minutes. All of the others had gathered and were ready for a swarm of ice spiders to come out, but there was no such onrush. Just an eerie silence and a stark gloom. Slowly, they relaxed.

“I was expecting more,” Elora murmured.

“Same,” Fiona growled. She heaved a sigh. “I guess we’ll need to actually go in there.”

“Let’s do it,” Carrie said, drawing her blade.

“Are you charged up?” John asked Yelena.

She nodded tightly. “Yes. I am ready.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

As a group, they set off into the mine’s entrance, Carrie leading them. As they entered it, both Yelena and Carrie created spheres of magical light and pushed back the darkness. Carrie stopped and surveyed the area.

“Ugh, still smells awful in here. Going to have to air it out for a few days once we’re done,” she said, looking at the fried corpses of the spiders. “They’re down that tunnel?” she asked, pointing towards the central tunnel snaking away into the earth.

“Yes,” Fiona replied.

“All right. We’ll keep it simple: I’ll lure them out, run back, then we hit them with everything we’ve got. Actually, if at all possible, Yelena, you said you have fire magic. If you can make it powerful enough and use the tunnel as a choke point, I think you might be able to fry them all at the same time,” Carrie said.

“It is possible,” Yelena replied.

“Okay. Get ready.”

She walked into the tunnel. John had to give it to her: she had serious guts. She didn’t seem afraid in the slightest and wasn’t hesitating at all. He hoped that it would truly be that simple. Still, he gripped his dark blade, readying himself for the worst. Carrie disappeared down the tunnel, her boots echoing as she walked on in a steady, sure gait. She went for about twenty seconds before they heard a new sound begin and then suddenly those same boots getting louder and faster. She was running back towards them.

“Get ready! There’s a lot!” she yelled.

Yelena stood at the center of the tunnel, no weapons in her grasp, her hands glowing a bright red, her stance rigid and disciplined. John stared past her, down the tunnel, and saw another living wave of ice spiders. They were getting closer, gaining on Carrie. There were definitely a lot of them. Yelena was powerful, but…

Carrie suddenly cleared the tunnel and shouted for Yelena to go.

She went.

With a scream of furious exertion, Yelena shoved her hands forward, and a solid wall of brilliant blue flame shot forward into the tunnel. There was a brief chorus of high-pitched shrieks as the spiders were fried instantly. The wave continued until it disappeared from sight and a blast of heat washed over the others, driving them back a few paces. As the light faded out, leaving only darkness and the crackling of burning ice spider corpses, they all waited, listening intently. A minute went by, then two. All that was heard was the occasional groan or cough from one of them as the smell really began to waft out into the main ingress.

“I think that was all of them,” Carrie said eventually.

“I’m sure hoping so,” Fiona muttered. “I hate spiders.”

“We’ll have to check. If there are any left, they’ll be weakened, disoriented. We should hit them now, while they’re weak,” John suggested.

Carrie sighed. “I guess that’s a good point. Well, I at least know a spell that will mitigate the smell. Come on. Someone else needs to lead, I have to be in the middle.”

“I’ll do it,” John said, and moved towards the tunnel.

“What’s the spell?” Elora asked.

“It’s a modification of a wind spell. Basically, I consistently generate a low-level bubble of air pushing out from me. It creates a relatively smell-free zone for several feet around me, so you’ll all have to stick kind of close,” Carrie explained.

“That’s a very good idea,” Elora murmured.

“What can I say? I’ve had to figure out a lot of magic on my own,” Carrie replied with a shrug.

They gathered in formation and began the unhappy task of traversing the tunnel full of crispy giant spider corpses. Probably worse than the awful stench was the crunching they made when stepped on, which couldn’t really be avoided since there were so many of them. John held his blade tightly as he led the party down the tunnel. He tried to sense what was up ahead. Something was telling him that this wasn’t just a nest of spiders. And not simply the fact that they had seen a kind of dark corruption on them.

Although that was pretty indicative.

As he drew closer, he started to get a bad feeling. It was a cold, dark sense of terror that gathered in his guts and made him hesitate.

“Whoa...whoa...something’s wrong,” Fiona, who was right behind him, said.

“Yeah,” he murmured, and kept going.

“Wait, hold on,” Fiona said, pausing. “This is a really bad feeling. Like, something is cursed or seriously evil. It could be a powerful undead or a demonic entity or...something. Whatever it is, we are not qualified to deal with it.”

“I think we can handle it,” John replied, and set off again.

“John,” Yelena said firmly. “What are you doing?”

He hesitated, looking back at her. “We’ve come this far. I don’t want to back down,” he replied.

“John-”

Something let out a whispering sound directly ahead of him, from the curtain of perfect darkness that lingered beyond the magical light. It was a sound that immediately sent a chill of fear through John’s entire body.

“Get the fuck out of here. Now,” Carrie growled.

John raised his blade. “John! Get back! Now!” Yelena yelled.

He hesitated, feeling a kind of anger at the fear he was feeling. He really didn’t want to back down, even though his instincts and every fiber of his being was screaming at him to. The whispering was getting louder, closer.

The others were retreating.

Suddenly, he felt hands on him and he twisted, saw Yelena there, looking at him. She looked enraged. “Go!” she screamed, and shoved him back the way they’d come. Then she turned and fired off a fire spell, a powerful fireball, directly at the ceiling ahead of them. He realized what she was doing: a repeat of last time, caving in this tunnel. Immediately, rocks began to fall, sealing it off, and John started running as she began sprinting towards them.

Then they were running, hoping the tunnel wouldn’t continue collapsing onto them, and they ran until they had joined the others, back outside, gasping for breath.

“Holy crap that was crazy,” Fiona said.

As soon as they were actually clear and were sure nothing was following them, Yelena turned slowly to stare at him. “John. Come with me. Now.”

“Yelena-” he began, but she gave a sharp shake of her head.

“Now.” She turned and stomped off in between the side of the mine and the building where the miners would ultimately stay at, towards a snowy forest.

John glanced at the others.

“Good luck,” Fiona whispered.

As he set off after her, a new kind of fear settled over him, and he realized all at once that he was going to have to be direct with her. Thinking back, wondering suddenly just how badly he’d fucked up, he realized that he’d never actually seen her pissed off. Not like this. He’d seen her annoyed and irritated, and she’d snapped at him once last year, actually yelling at him while they were on the run from the demon assassins, but that was just in-the-moment stress. And admittedly, completely justified stress.

Not that she wasn’t unjustified right now.

He’d been acting like a fucking dumbass.

As soon as they were clear of the village, standing near the edge of the forest, Yelena whirled on him and stared at him with wide, baleful eyes. “John, I love you. And I have not, as far as I can recall, made any genuine demands of you during our entire relationship. But right now, I am demanding that you tell me what is wrong with you. Something has been going on, some inner turmoil, ever since we left Kesley’s place last week. I don’t know what it is, but I know it is bothering you. That was the second time you tried to do something really stupid and dangerous, and there was no tactical advantage. That was no ‘in the moment’ decision you were making. That was a conscious choice, which meant that you were lying to me the first time, and as far as I know you have never lied to me during our entire relationship. So, John Greenfield, you are going to tell me what the fuck is wrong with you because I love you and I want to help you.”

John swallowed, staring at her.

He had never actually been afraid of Yelena before, but he was right now. He had never seen the full, blazing intensity of her intimidation.

Even in human form, it was awe-inspiring.

He opened his mouth, trying to think of a response. Two words tumbled out and they seemed to without him having actually deciding to say them.

“I’m scared.”

Yelena’s features slowly softened. “What could you possibly be scared of that you would try to hide it from me?” she asked slowly.

“I...I’m scared of losing you,” he admitted, this time actually choosing what to say and forcing it out, because nothing less than the naked truth would do right now.

“Why!?” she replied immediately. “Why would you ever worry about that!?”

“I...” He swallowed, cleared his throat, tried to gather his thoughts. This was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be. “I just...spending all that time around Kesley, and watching your amazing progress with shape-shifting, and then hanging out with Fiona and all these new, interesting people has just really highlighted to me how fucking...boring I am.”

“What?!” she replied. “What do you mean? You think you’d lose me because you’re boring!?”

“Yes. I mean, not all at once. I don’t honestly think you’ll leave me tomorrow or next week because of it. But, I mean, a few years from now? I think, slowly, you’ll realize that you’ve fallen in love with someone boring. I mean, I’m a human, I’m not particularly good looking, I haven’t even left my own home continent for fuck’s sake.”

“John, the adventures we have gone on since we have fallen in love have been amazing, and the sheer amount of bravery-”

He sighed and shook his head. “Adventurers are a coin a dozen, Yelena. And they’re all brave. Everyone we’ve met is at least as brave as I am, but all the godsdamned stories they have to tell! The places they’ve been! The things they’ve done! And you! Look at you! You’re a hundred years old, you’re so smart, so brave, so hungry for knowledge and experiences and adventures...at some point, you’re going to look at me and realize that you’re dating a boring person. Especially when you keep getting exposed to people like Fiona. I mean, Gods, she’s a fucking kit and she’s been everywhere! All the stories she had to tell, I’ve never done anything half that interesting! And you love it! You’re hanging on her every word!”

“Oh my Gods, you’re jealous of her!” Yelena said, looking more astonished than anything else.

“Yes,” he muttered. “I guess I am. And Ruby. She’s spending so much time around you, and won’t even talk to me...”

“Gods, John. There’s a reason for that, and not the one you think. Ruby’s...she has a secret, but I can’t betray her confidence. Just trust me on that. I mean, we like each other, but there is a reason she’s imprinted on me and no one else. It’s not just you she isn’t talking to. Oh by the Gods...” she whispered, and looked up suddenly, shaking her head, a look of bewildered annoyance and confusion on her face. “John...”

“What?” he murmured.

She smiled and looked back down at him. “I have, since my time here, read and heard about men being stupid in relationships. Doing stupid things, believing stupid things, putting absurd standards on themselves, impossible ones sometimes, and creating problems because they simply refuse to talk to their partner about their problems. And I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I’m so glad John isn’t like that. I love how open and communicative we are with each other!’ And yet, here you are, doing just that! Why wouldn’t you tell this to me?!”

“Well, if I was worried that you were thinking I was boring, I sure as shit didn’t want you to think that I was a whiny, insecure idiot,” he replied.

She sighed. “I suppose that logic, in that context, does follow. But...oh my Gods, John.” She suddenly hugged him tightly to her and he hugged her back. He realized his eyes were burning and frowned, wondering why, the sun didn’t seem that bright, and then Yelena let him go and pulled back, staring at him again, and frowned. “You are crying...” she whispered.

He almost asked, ‘I am?’ and then realized that he was. He blinked a few times, sniffed, rubbed at his eyes. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Why are you sorry? Clearly you are upset and afraid, it is a natural reaction...”

“It’s no reason to cry,” he replied, wiping some more.

“This is what Fiona was talking about! John, it is okay to cry. Don’t be ridiculous. Fiona kept going on about how repressed humans were, especially human men, and how so many of them refused to show emotions, especially crying...”

“Yelena, except for when you were talking to Kesley in the hot tub, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you actually crying, you know.”

She sighed and looked away for a moment. “Okay, okay, you have a valid point. I know...I understand how it feels, hating to reveal yourself, feeling vulnerable. But,” she looked back at him again, “that is one of the things that I love so much about you, about this relationship. I can be vulnerable around you. I can say anything to you and you will love me and try to help me. I trust you. I know you would never try to exploit any weakness on my part. I can be weak around you. I was hoping you could be weak around me.”

“I can...I can...” he murmured. “I just...I’m sorry. I was scared. I mean, remember that conversation we had? You yourself admitted that you rely on me more than I rely on you, because of your true nature. You need me.”

“But that is no longer true. I mean, in that context. I can shape-shift, John. I know a lot about your culture now. I’m fairly confident I could survive on my own. But I still need you, John, because I love you. I love you more than anything in all of my entire life. That isn’t going to change.”

“You’re promising to love me forever and always, no matter what happens?” he asked suddenly.

She sighed. “That is an unrealistic promise, I admit. But I can at least promise you this: I’m not going to leave you because I think you’re boring! Because I don’t think that! You are fascinating to me. You’re funny and brave and kind and you are smart and interesting, and selfless and adventurous. I don’t think you’re boring, John. I don’t think I ever will. Listen to me: I love you. I want this relationship to extend for the rest of my life. I can promise that I will go to unreasonable lengths for you, and honestly, I don’t think there is anything you would intentionally do to end the relationship, which is the only way I could see it ending: if you did something on purpose.” She gave him another fierce hug and he hugged her back.

“John, listen to me, please. If you have something that is bothering you, I don’t care how embarrassing it is or how small it may be, please, please promise me that from now on, you will tell me. Because one thing I have learned about relationships, long-lasting, loving, healthy relationships, is that they require open communication. You cannot allow secrets to dwell and grow, because they are like poison. They will poison us both.”

“I promise, Yelena. And I’m sorry. I was an idiot.”

She smiled and pulled back. “You were, but I forgive you, and I understand. And thank you. I will tell you anything that is bothering me, too.”

“I want you to. I want to help you.”

“And I want to help you, John. You deserve it.”

She gave him a long, lingering kiss, and he felt the last of the tension he’d been holding drain away. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Thank you. I feel so much better,” he said softly.

“Good! I am so glad. I hate seeing you suffer. Now promise me you won’t do anything stupid like those risks you’ve been taking.”

“We do often risk our lives...”

She heaved a sigh and pulled back. “You know what I mean!”

“Okay, okay! Yes. I promise. I won’t do anything stupid.”

“Good. Now, I am starving and I wanted to warn you: Carrie and I talked on the way back here. She asked my permission, and I granted it, and she fully intends to fuck your brains out.”

“What about my permission?” he replied.

“Is there even a chance you’ll say no?”

“Well, I mean...no, there isn’t.”

“Exactly. But don’t worry, it isn’t like she’s just going to grab you, hold you down, and fuck you. She will ask. But I thought you should be prepared, and know that yes, I am okay with you fucking her. Although I want to watch.” She paused. “I think everyone will want to watch.”

“We do attract that sort of crowd.”

Yelena smirked. “Yes we do. Now, let’s go eat and figure out our next move, because obviously what we’re doing isn’t working.”

“Yeah. I have no idea what was in that mine, but clearly it was evil.”

“Hopefully Fiona has an idea.”

Holding hands, their fingers laced together and Yelena resting her head on his shoulder (something she normally couldn’t do because of her horns, which were absent in her human form), they began walking back towards the others.

CHAPTER VII

“Okay, here,” Carrie said, shoving the parchment across the desk to Elora. “And that’s just a bare-bones estimate, all of it stuff I know we’ll need to at least get started on getting the mine back up to shipshape.”

“All right,” Elora murmured, taking it and studying it. “Well, it will certainly be doable. I can have this all here in a few days.”

“How are you coordinating all this?”

“I have runners who come and go all over the place. Mostly cute young felis men who I pay with gold and sometimes sex.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Carrie murmured.

“It is. They’re very fit and very enthusiastic.”

“Speaking of sex...”

Carrie turned suddenly and fixed John with an intense gaze. They were all gathered in the inn. After the incident in the mine and finally clearing the air with Yelena, John had joined them all for a long conversation about the immediate future of the project over a big meal that he, Carrie, and Fiona had cooked up, largely out of a shipment of rabbit and deer meat Elora had purchased and had shipped with the lumber.

He was feeling about a million times better.

“Uh...yeah?” he replied, chuckling nervously.

Carrie was fucking intimidating. Most of the women he met were, but she was kind of in her own class. It was actually kind of rare that he ran into a woman taller than he was, even among adventuresses, who tended to be taller than most village women. As far as he could remember, so far just Yelena and Lydia and Ellie. Okay, obviously Kesley...and Cypress. Was Brynne taller than him? Certainly longer, she was a good ten or eleven feet from head to tail. But...yeah, even ‘upright’, which was a relative term with a serpentine, she had a good half foot on him. Although monster ladies were kind of in their own class, or were they? Kesley wasn’t really a monster, and monster was a pretty derogatory term…

Forest-dweller?

Then again, Kesley sure didn’t live in a forest, and some lived underwater or among the mountains or in deserts. Inhuman didn’t work either because felis and elves and beryl and kit certainly weren’t human, but they weren’t similar to those who didn’t live among village dwellings.

Man his brain started running like crazy when he was being stared at by an intimidating woman who had the gaze of a predator contemplating a particularly tasty looking piece of meat!

“Don’t ‘yeah?’ me. You know what, John. Yelena had to have talked with you,” Carrie replied, leaning back in the chair and crossing her arms across her considerable chest.

“She did,” he replied. “So you want to?”

“Duh.” She looked at Elora, nodded to the bedding in the corner. “That yours?”

“Uh-huh,” Elora replied.

“Can we borrow it?”

“So long as I get to watch,” Elora replied.

“You can all watch, far as I’m concerned. So, we doing this?” Carrie asked, returning her gaze back to John.

“Yes,” he replied.

She stood up and shed her shirt, then kicked off her boots. “Wash up.”

“Yes ma’am.”

He stood and moved over to a washbasin that one of them, probably Elora, had set up. Elora definitely seemed like the most responsible of the group. Carrie joined him as soon as she was naked. As he finished stripping and she began washing, he checked her out. She had a great body. She was built kind of like Ellie had been: tall, big breasted and broad hipped, but her muscles were more well-defined. He guessed that made sense, given how physically demanding her job must be. She had several scars across her body. One on her stomach, one on her shoulder, another above her right breast, several across her legs.

“What do you think?” she asked, seeing that he was checking her out.

“You are so wicked hot,” he replied.

She laughed loudly as she grabbed a bar of soap and a washrag and began to clean herself up. “Well, I’m glad you think so. Normally guys are too intimidated to say much of anything when I get naked.”

“You are definitely intimidating, but I mean, I am dating Yelena,” John replied.

Carrie glanced over at her. “I mean...no offense, but...”

John froze as he realized, all at once, they had not told Carrie about Yelena’s true nature. He looked over at her, and from her own expression, she was realizing the same thing. Carrie was sharp. She picked up on it at once.

“What?” she asked.

“Yelena?” he replied, looking at her.

She sighed. “Yes, I want to stick to the policy,” she said, standing up. “Carrie, do you have a problem with, uh, non-humans?”

Carrie glanced at Fiona, then at Elora. “Obviously not.”

“No, I mean like really non-human.”

“Like a vampire? Or an undead? No. I’ve worked with both before. Worked with a few werewolves, too. Slept with one, actually.”

“How would you feel about working alongside a demon?” Yelena asked.

Carrie frowned, studying her, then looked around at the others. “You’re a demon?”

“Yes. I can shape-shift. If you’d be okay with it, um, I could show you my true form.”

Carrie continued staring at her, and John began to worry. She looked...irritated. All at once, her eyes widened. “That’s why you fucking outdrank me!” she snapped.

“That...did help, I admit,” Yelena replied.

Carrie heaved a huge sigh. “Son of a bitch! Well obviously if everyone here knows and is this cool around you, I have severe doubts about you being evil, since that’s all I’ve ever heard about demons. And based on how you’ve acted around me so far, you seem like a great person. I don’t mind. Show me.”

“Okay.”

Yelena stopped holding her human form and transferred back into her original self, growing taller, her skin darkening, horns reappearing, her eyes becoming more flickering, more red, her hair turning black.

“That is so cool,” Fiona whispered.

“Holy good Godsdamn,” Carrie said, staring at Yelena. “No wonder I don’t intimidate you if you fuck her all the time.”

“Yeah basically,” John replied.

“I mean, fuck, you are beautiful Yelena! I though Fiona was exotic but you are just...wow! No offense, Fiona.”

“Oh none taken at all. Yelena is on a whole different level of hot than pretty much anyone else I’ve met,” Fiona replied.

“You are extremely correct,” John said.

Yelena sighed. He thought that if demons blushed, she would be right now. “Stop talking about me and have sex,” she said.

“Okay, okay, fair enough,” Carrie replied. She turned to John. “Hurry up and wash. If I’m putting your cock in my mouth, I expect it to be clean.”

“A very fair arrangement,” he said, and started cleaning himself.

Carrie resumed cleaning herself up. “Damn right it is, I am fantastic at sucking dick.”

“He’s good at eating pussy,” Yelena said.

“Yep,” Fiona agreed.

“Uh-huh,” Elora said.

“Damn, that’s quite the endorsement,” Carrie said.

John just chuckled awkwardly and shrugged as he finished cleaning up. As soon as they were both washed and dried, they crawled into Elora’s bed together. Carrie quickly pushed him onto his back and started kissing him passionately, her lips, hot and luscious, pressed against his own and her tongue eagerly probed his mouth. He kissed her back, finding himself very suddenly, overwhelmingly aroused. His cock was a throbbing bar of lead between his legs, pressing against Carrie’s thigh as they made out. He laid a hand across one of her large, firm breasts, groping it and only becoming further intoxicated with lust and raw, unbridled desire.

She reached down and gripped his cock, began to massage it slowly.

After making out for a bit, their hands eagerly exploring each other, she broke away and asked, “Who first?”

“I’ll do you first,” he replied.

“My kind of man.”

They shifted around until she was on her back with her long legs spread and he settled down on his stomach in between her thick, firm thighs. As soon as he was in place, he immediately set to work. As he began to tongue her clit, licking at it slowly and making her moan, he felt that nearly overwhelming urge well within him, that intense desire to pleasure the woman he was with, the yearning to get her off, to feel her orgasming. He massaged her clit as skillfully as he could manage, listening to her groan and cry out in pleasure, feeling her twitch against him. And the fact that he had an audience only heightened the experience.

Especially considering he’d done this to almost all of them as well.

As he continued eating Carrie out and began to fuck her with his finger, slipping it rapidly in and out of her very wet pussy, he realized that Yelena was right. What the fuck was he worrying about? He did have an interesting life. All the places he’d explored, dangerous tasks he’d accomplished, the women he’d adventured with and fought alongside and had sex with. And what was this sudden fixation on being ‘interesting’ anyway? Did he even believe that it was the most important metric to measure anyone?

No, he didn’t.

In truth, John thought that being a good person and helping people was the most crucial metric against which you could be measured. And wasn’t he helping people? Hadn’t he risked his life (and almost lost it) putting down a resurrected demon lord? Hadn’t he helped the dryads in the Emerald Wild as often as he could? He’d fought as hard as he could to help Yelena escape her past and now, here he was, helping someone who was attempting to help an entire region of people. John didn’t know if he was a good person. He’d certainly like to think he was, and he thought he probably was, but he honestly worried about going into that territory of thinking, because it felt too easy to head into an arrogant and narcissistic headspace.

So really, he was content to try and do good things and be a good person and help those that he could.

And, well...if helping them sometimes meant helping them have an orgasm or three, and having a few of his own in return, then…

That was a pretty fucking great life.

“John...fuck! Keep going!” Carrie moaned, clenching her thighs as she ran her fingers through his dark hair. “Fuck! You were so right, girls, he is amazing at this...Gods...oh yes! YES! YES!” she began shrieking as she started to orgasm.

John kept fingering her rapidly, pushing up hard and fast, as he felt her vagina clench around it, felt that telltale release of sex juices, felt her whole body responding to the rapidly rising wave of pleasure no doubt being released into it by the orgasm he’d given her. He pleasured her as much as he could as she rode the wave of her climax, which seemed to be intense and deeply blissful judging from the sounds she was making and how she kept twitching and jerking, her hips bucking. Carrie looked really fucking hot when she came.

As she came down from the high, Carrie eventually laid back against the bed, panting. Finally, she took a deep breath, her breasts rising, then let it out slowly. “Wow,” she said finally, blinking several times, “you were not exaggerating.”

“Told you,” Yelena said.

“I am suddenly very jealous of you, because I’m guessing he does this for you every day,” Carrie replied, sitting up as John got up off the bed and washed up. She’d made a bit of a mess all over his neck and chest and shoulders.

Yelena grinned smugly. “Just about every day.”

“Well, I really need to put my coin where my mouth is after that godsdamned display. So lay down and I’ll put my mouth to work,” Carrie said as she got up.

“Gladly,” John replied as he dried off.

“Hold on,” she murmured, and released a small wave of magic over the bed, drying the wet spot she’d made. “Hate cold spots.”

“Same,” John agreed, and laid down where she had been.

Carrie took his place, or tried to. After a bit, she sighed. “Here, just sit on the edge of the bed and I’ll suck you off that way. It looks hotter anyway.”

John quickly did as she wanted and he had to agree, she did look better down on her knees in front of him, for whatever reason. She grinned up at him savagely as she gripped his cock, that same primal lust in her eyes that he saw in the gazes of most of the women he ended up hopping in bed with. She stuck out her big tongue and started licking across the head of his dick. Sexual gratification immediately began to sizzle into him, magnifying each time her tongue made contact with his skin. Before long, she put his cock into her mouth.

“Oh fuck, Carrie. That’s really good...” he groaned, staring down at her as the big blonde pleasured him with her mouth, her lips wrapped around his shaft, head bobbing rapidly. Her mouth was a place of hot, wet perfection and she kept licking across his head, sending an extra burst of pleasure into him between the times when her lips dragged up and down across the skin there. She seemed to be going in for the kill straightaway, trying to inflict maximum pleasure on him as fast as possible. Typically, when women did that to him, it was because they were horny and desperate to get to the part where they were fucking.

He sympathized, and thus didn’t try to hold back his orgasm at all.

“Gonna come!” he groaned, and Carrie kept on doing exactly what she was doing, so apparently she wanted him to blow his load in her mouth.

Which he did.

He groaned loudly as an eruption of pleasure hit him and his cock began twitching in her mouth, furiously spitting what felt like a fucking huge load of his seed into her. Carrie kept on sucking, closing her eyes and bobbing her head slowly as she emptied him out. He heard himself keep moaning in absolute pleasure and sexual release as she sucked him dry, wave upon wave of rapturous bliss shooting through him with each contraction of his dick. And then he was finished, his cock dry-kicking a few times, and Carrie pulled it out from between her lips.

“Sounds like I managed to return the favor,” she said after swallowing. She stood up.

“You definitely did,” he replied, laying back on the bed and getting his breath back. “That was...yeah, you did a fantastic job.”

“Good.”

She rinsed and spat with some wine from a bottle she found somewhere, then drank off a quarter of it and set it back down. “You aren’t done yet, don’t you dare go soft,” she said as she moved back over to the bed and climbed atop him.

“I don’t think I have much choice in the matter...” he replied.

“You’re right, you don’t.”

She took his cock, which, while not necessarily rock hard, was still hard enough that it slipped into her pussy.

“Oh fuck!” he groaned as she took him into her.

She was extremely wet.

“Told you,” she said, grinning and laying her hands against his shoulders. “I’m gonna fucking ride your brains out.”

He finished getting hard again very quickly as she stared bouncing on his cock. He groaned as a fresh wave of pleasure surged through him, and reached out and took her big, powerful hips into his grasp. John watched her, staring up at her, enraptured by her huge, well-built body and her enormous breasts as she rode his cock furiously, putting her considerable strength to use. She was gritting her teeth, grunting as she shoved his cock deep into her.

“Holy fuck, Carrie!” he groaned.

“You fucking love that pussy, don’t you!?” she shouted back.

“Yes! Fuck! Yes!” he cried as she went faster, burying him inside of her slick pussy again and again. It had actually been awhile since he’d had sex with a fellow human. In fact, it had been almost four months or so, and it had been with another woman a lot like the one he now was getting fucked by: Ellie Lennox.

After a few minutes, she stopped suddenly. “Let’s switch places,” she said, breathing heavily, staring down at him.

“Okay,” he replied, and they went about the task of getting her on her back and him atop her. Not easy, but they managed it without him having to pull out. And as soon as she was on her back, she put her legs in the air.

“Come on, fuck me hard,” she growled at him.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, and pushed himself up, staring down at her large body, her huge breasts that started to bounce as he began to pound her, fucking her as hard as she’d fucked him, and she let out a loud scream of pleasure.

Carrie definitely seemed to like her sex hard and fast.

Not that he particularly minded that.

He fucked her like this for awhile longer, watching his cock disappear into her over and over again, then watching her attractive, rough-featured face twist in pleasure, listening to the loud, wonderful sounds of sexual pleasure coming from her. Then he switched positions, wanting to enjoy the pleasure of giving her another orgasm, and of experiencing fucking an orgasming pussy, and finally of blowing his own load into her.

Pumping a brand new woman with his seed was probably one of the greatest in-the-moment feelings he’d discovered so far. Not the best, but definitely very high on that list. And although he preferred doing it with different species, there was actually a unique twist of excited ecstasy to doing it with a fellow human. And so he got up on his knees, continuing to fuck her, but now he found her clit with his thumb and began to rub it vigorously. Carrie let out a new shout of ecstatic, joyous pleasure as he did this.

“OH FUCK YES, JOHN!” she shrieked.

It didn’t take her long to start coming. And then it didn’t take him long to start coming. Both of them moaned in sexual unity as a rapturous release of pure bliss hit them simultaneously. John became lost in his own world as he felt that hot hit of release, that mainline dose of absolute ecstasy. Coming inside of this beautiful, blonde badass was a truly pleasurable experience, taking him to a place of absolute bliss.

He emptied himself into her, pumping her full of his seed, as he felt her come, felt her pussy clenching and shuddering around his cock, both of them locked together in sexual release. And when they were finished orgasming, they laid together, sweaty and nude and happy.

“Yelena,” Carrie said.

“Yes?” Yelena asked.

“I’m more jealous of you now. Your man is a great fuck.”

“He is,” she agreed.

“He is,” Fiona murmured. “And now I’m super horny.”

“You’re going to have to put it off, we have a bit more business to talk,” Elora said suddenly.

“Dammit!” Fiona snapped, then heaved a sigh. “Whatever. When we’re done, Carrie, I want to fuck you with Yelena’s special toy.”

“What toy?” Carrie asked.

John pulled out of her carefully and stood up. He stretched and popped his neck and back, then yawned suddenly. “Holy crap, I’m tired,” he said.

“You’ve had a long day,” Yelena said as she came over and stepped up behind him. She wrapped him in a hug, pressing herself against his back and resting her chin on his shoulder.

“We all have, I imagine,” he replied.

“Traditionally speaking, humans have the lowest endurance of all the species, and you and I are the only humans here. Unless...” Carrie glanced at Ruby.

“I’m an elf,” Ruby replied awkwardly.

“So yeah, we’re at the disadvantage here. Now, what toy?” she asked, looking at Yelena.

“You are going to love it,” Yelena replied. “But first, business.”

“Business,” Carrie agreed. “Get started without me, I need to clean up, your boyfriend’s stuff is leaking all down my thighs.” She walked over to the washbasin.

John turned and hugged Yelena, then kissed her. “Good show?” he asked.

“Excellent show,” she replied. “You want to turn in for the night?”

“No, I should be here for this business, given that we’re involved.”

“Okay. Go wash up and then we can get to it,” Yelena said.

He nodded, kissed her again, then moved to join Carrie in washing up.

…

“Oh thank the Gods,” John whispered as he finally settled into the heated water.

It had, indeed, been a long day. A long week, honestly.

As he finished settling, he simply sat there and relaxed.

It had been several hours since his sex session with Carrie. Although he was tired, he had gotten a second wind, which was much needed, because the business Elora insisted on going over wasn’t all that interesting. Boring as it was, he made himself pay attention, because he honestly was invested in this project. The biggest thing he was admittedly interested in was the finances, probably because gold and coin were the only things he really knew beyond adventuring and fighting and fucking. And he was honestly curious to see what the trip to the fort had yielded.

After the initial payment for the shipment of lumber, as well as the coin given to Carrie for first month’s pay and a preliminary sum of another thousand gold based on what she thought she might need to get the mine up and running again, and adding in everything that everyone else was willing to throw into the pot based off of stuff they’d picked up during their travels so far, Elora finally gave them a fairly definitive bottom line to work with. They had managed to amass seven thousand in actual gold coins, and at least an additional three thousand, possibly five thousand, in gems, jewels, rings, amulets, magical trinkets, and other random things they’d found and could sell off.

“All in all,” she had said after making the report, “I’d say that this is very likely enough to get this operation off the ground.”

Fiona had been ecstatic.

She’d been less so when Elora said they’d have to go over more estimates, shipment locations, potential buyers and sellers, and a half dozen other annoying things related to attempting to breathe the life back into an abandoned mining village. Ultimately, Fiona broke first, unable to keep her hands off of Carrie, who had also grown horny by then. And so Yelena had hooked them up with her toy, after getting a promise from Carrie to use it on her, to which Carrie had enthusiastically agreed. Elora had demanded that they fuck elsewhere, as she had more business to attend to on her own and she was on a roll apparently, so Yelena had offered up her and John’s tent. After Ruby had gotten Yelena’s attention, apparently really wanting to talk to her about something, Yelena had promised to speak to her right after she talked with John, who had wanted to borrow her for a quick chat and her ability to create a steaming hot bath.

So they’d gone into the basement, to one of the most intact rooms, which still actually had a stone tub and a bed, and she’d made the bath for him.

“Will you be okay if I go engage in sex with Carrie and Fiona?” she had asked.

John had thought about it, initially just wanting to give her a quick ‘yes’, because he could tell she wanted to, but given their recent conversation about being open and communication, he’d put some more thought into it. And found that yes, he’d be fine with it. He was actually okay with being alone right now, with just relaxing. Yelena was nearby, she was safe, having sexy fun with their friends, and he was okay with that.

So they’d kissed and parted ways for now.

John sat up as there was a knock at the door. “Yeah?” he called.

“It is me, my love.” It was Yelena.

“You miss me already?” he asked.

She laughed. “Yes, but that is not why I have returned. Ruby is with me. Can we come in?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

The door opened and the two women came in. Ruby was still in her full-body armor. She had to be uncomfortable by now.

“So, uh...what’s up?” he asked. Yelena had a certain look on her face, like she was excited about something.

“Ruby has something she wants to ask you,” Yelena said. “And just so you know ahead of time, the question you’re going to ask: my answer is yes.”

“Uh...okay,” John replied.

“Yelena! You said you’d help me out...” Ruby said.

“Ruby, just talk to him, okay? You can trust him as much as you can trust me. And, Ruby...I know you’ve had a very, very difficult time recently. I understand. But I think, for your own mental health, for the sake of your confidence, you should have this conversation for yourself, okay?”

Ruby was silent for a few seconds. Finally, she sighed softly. “You’re right. Um...thank you for this. So much.”

“It is no problem, Ruby. Talk to him.”

Yelena looked at him suddenly, and he read something in her gaze. It was a real testament to how close they had grown that he could exactly read the message she was trying to get to him with her eyes alone: Be nice to her.

Well, he fully intended to do that.

“Love you, John. Have fun.”

“Love you too, Yelena,” he replied, and she left him and Ruby alone.

They stared at each other for several seconds. It definitely felt awkward, and not just because she was wearing all that armor and he was naked and in a bathtub. Finally, he decided to try and break the ice, but they both started trying to talk at the same time.

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “You go.”

“I, uh...basically I was just gonna ask what this is about,” he replied.

She laughed nervously, then hesitated, then heaved a sigh. “Guess I just have to do this. I’m sorry. That’s actually the first thing I wanted to say: I am sorry.”

“For what?”

“I was rude to you. I kind of ignored you ever since we first met. You were trying to talk to me during the walks, trying to be nice to me, and I just ignored you or brushed you off. And then I only tried to talk to your girlfriend...but I wasn’t trying to be a bitch or anything! Like, I had a reason for doing it. Not that that matters as much, I guess...”

“Ruby, I’m not mad at you. I mean, okay, I was annoyed, and I was kind of having my own problems at the time, so I probably seemed more upset than I was. But it’s okay. Why were you doing it?” he asked.

“I just...I could relate to Yelena. She’s an outcast like me. I mean...I didn’t mean that, like, in a bad way. It’s just, you know, she’s a demoness...”

“You’re right, she’s had difficulty here as a demoness. Why are you an outcast? What’s this about, exactly?” She hesitated further. “Ruby, whatever it is, Yelena’s right. I don’t care about whatever kind of sickness you have. I wouldn’t care if you’re a vampire or you aren’t even an elf under there. I just care about who you are, not what you are.”

“Well, you’ve proven that more than most people, given that you love and intentionally travel with Yelena. The way she tells it, you’ve devoted your life to her.”

“I have. I have gladly. I do love her. I love her more than I’ve loved anyone else in my entire life. Probably more than anyone I ever will.”

“Okay, okay...let me show you what I am,” she said, and reached up.

He watched as, in the flickering glow of the candles he’d lit along the walls and on some of the furniture, she took off her helmet. At first, he couldn’t exactly tell what the problem was. She was clearly an elf, clearly very beautiful, and clearly very ill.

But he realized that it wasn’t any simple sickness that had stricken her.

She was deathly pale, her eyes were incredibly bloodshot, and her veins were very obviously visible beneath her snow white skin.

She looked a little…

Dead.

And that’s when it hit him. “You’re undead,” he said.

“Yes. I am. I am cursed to be the walking dead,” she replied.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured.

She kept staring at him, and suddenly her features, which were largely unreadable up until now, broke down, and her face twisted in a wretch of agony that was painful to see. She sat down very suddenly on the floor and buried her face in her hands.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “You and Yelena are the only ones who know my secret among the group, and you two are the only ones who have shown me even the slightest bit of compassion since I became cursed.”

“Ruby...” he said, and got up out of the tub. Dripping wet and naked, he moved over to her and sat down beside her, then hugged her.

She hugged him back, or tried to, then heaved a sigh. “This fucking armor!” she yelled, and began pulling it off.

He helped her and the pair worked to get it off of her for several silent minutes. She wore simple brown traveling clothes beneath, and as soon as she was free of the armor, she all but threw herself against him. He held her and she squeezed him tightly.

“I hate that armor so much,” she said, and she was crying, or trying to. He didn’t think her body could produce tears at this point, but did they really matter? Crying was crying, tears or no. “I’ve worn it almost constantly since I turned.”

“I’m sorry, Ruby,” he replied, because he didn’t know what else to say. Although he at least knew what to do in this situation: listen.

“I was turned about a year ago,” she said, face buried in his chest. “I was exploring some ruins in the Emerald Wild. They were old, really old. I had a bad feeling about them, but I was reckless. I’d had a really good run the few months prior. I felt invincible. I had a few people with me, other adventurers I was sleeping and traveling with. It was great. We went in, looking for monsters or treasures, and cut into the lowest level. And there was a motherfucker of a curse waiting for us. Honestly, I have no idea how I walked away.

“My memories of the whole thing are a mess. All I know is that my friends all died, and I ended up cursed to be an undead. After that, I was...I was in a dark place for awhile. I almost went feral in the Emerald Wild for about two months. I eventually ran into an abandoned outpost for, I think, mages. Among the ruins, I found a lot of spells and potion books, and finally I found that there’s actually a way to make a potion to make undead more...normal. Less corpse-y, basically. I managed to scrape together enough materials to make such a potion, and it made me about how I am right now. Obviously not passable, but...it helped kind of bring me back to reality.

“After that, I basically just wandered the land. I looked for a cure for a long time, but that didn’t bear much fruit. Mainly I just tried to go back to my life as it was before. I could still adventure, and although I largely avoided villages and other people, sometimes I’d find people to travel with. A few people have found out ever since I turned, and they reacted with everything from outright hostility to being grossed out to terror. So, you can see how I’d be drawn to Yelena...”

“Yeah, I can see that,” he replied. He’d been listening to her, rubbing her back, holding her against him as she seemed to want to be there very much. And it made sense: physical contact was a necessary thing. Not even sexual contact, just basic physical contact. A hug, a touch, an embrace. He tried to imagine being isolated for that long…

After a moment longer, she slowly disengaged herself from him, and she smiled at him. “Thank you, for listening to me, and for touching me, holding me. As you can imagine, that hasn’t really been something I’ve been able to enjoy. I haven’t actually had sex since it happened.”

“Not once?” he asked, honestly surprised.

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve admittedly been avoiding people for most of the time, for obvious reasons. I probably could have found at least someone to screw me, but it just seemed like way too big of a risk. How you see me now is about as normal as I can look. But I mean even that aside, it’s just been so fucking lonely!”

“I know that elves are a lot more open physically among each other,” John said. “Like you mentioned, not even sexually, just in passing, in casual conversation and everyday meetings. This all must have been a living nightmare...”

“Yeah, basically,” she muttered. “But I actually didn’t quite come here to tell you all my horrors and the great tragedy my life has become. Mostly I’ve been talking with Yelena about that. Which was why, once I got to the part about the sex and intimacy, she immediately suggested that I try to have sex with you. I didn’t honestly believe you’d be into me.”

“What? Why not?”

“Look at you! You’re so fucking hot and in shape and you just seemed like...I don’t know, kind of an exemplification of an attractive human male.”

“...I think you’ve been alone for too long,” John replied. “I mean, yeah, I’m definitely fit now. But there’s no way I’m an ‘exemplification of an attractive human male’.”

“Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but you just seem like...really insanely hot. I admit, I’m kind of desperate, but even if I wasn’t, back when I was in my prime, so to speak, I would’ve jumped you in a second. When I realized that you were with Yelena...I had a little spark of hope, but I mean, she’s so brave and smart and hot. Oh, my Gods, she is so hot! She’s like...legendary in her beauty,” she murmured.

“You are correct there,” John agreed.

“But yeah, that’s why I thought there’s no way you’d sleep with me. But I couldn’t stop thinking about fucking you, especially after I saw you having sex with Yelena, then with Fiona, then with Carrie. You just...clearly you’ve had a lot of practice.”

“Uh, yeah...I guess you could say that.”

She laughed suddenly. “Why are you all shy? Normally I can’t get guys to shut the fuck up about all the sex they’ve had.”

“It’s just...I don’t know, really. I don’t really like to call attention to myself, I guess.”

“You’re humble,” Ruby murmured.

“I guess.”

“Okay, Mister Humble, tell me how many different women you’ve fucked?”

“I...I’m not sure,” he replied.

“Come on. A dozen? No...given the rate you’ve been fucking your friends lately, I seriously doubt just a dozen. Two?”

“I...more than that,” he murmured.

“Three?! Come on, three dozen different women?”

“Maybe closer to four,” he admitted.

“Almost fifty women!? Seriously!? I mean, that’s about average for an elf, but a human? That’s crazy. And I bet you’ve had some crazy sexual encounters. I mean, if Yelena’s your lover, you must have some out there tastes...not that I’m trying to diminish your relationship or anything. Yelena told me about your dryad lovers, and that serpentine you fucked...”

“I did fuck a dragon last week,” John replied.

“Holy shit, I’ve never heard of anyone doing that,” Ruby murmured. She shook her head suddenly. “Okay, okay. Need to refocus. I’m getting horny. You are interested in fucking me, then?” she asked.

“Yes. Definitely. You’re extremely attractive. In more ways than one. I’d love to have sex with you, Ruby,” he replied.

“Oh thank the Gods!” she yelled. “Finally! Okay, um, I’ll need to soak in the bath with you to warm up. Obviously, I can’t retain body heat very well.”

“That’s fine. I’m kind of getting cold myself,” John replied.

“Oh, shit! I just realized you’re wet and naked and you came over here to give me a hug...you really are a sweetheart. Yelena was right.”

“She called me a sweetheart?” he asked as they got up and she started stripping off the rest of her clothing.

“No, not really. She said that you were extremely affectionate, empathic, and sensitive to the needs and desires of women,” Ruby replied.

“That sounds more like her.”

Ruby stripped down to her bra and underwear, then hesitated.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I just...like I said, I haven’t had sex in about a year, since I turned, and that includes being naked in front of someone else. It’s just...before I turned, I’ve known I was really attractive pretty much my whole adult life. I never had to deal with being ugly before.”

“You aren’t ugly.”

“I’m an undead,” she said.

“Ruby, you aren’t ugly.”

She sighed. “Where were you a fucking year ago?” she muttered. “I really could’ve used you in my life when I turned.”

“Sorry I missed out,” he replied.

“Yeah, me too.”

She took off her bra, freeing her high, firm breasts, and then, after another moment of hesitation, pulled her panties down and off. “So,” she said, spreading her arms and then doing a quick spin, “this is who I am. Physically, at least.”

He studied her. Like most elves, she was trim and athletically built, her frame petite, though maybe a little gaunt. Which made sense, given her undead status. She had small, firm breasts and slim thighs. Her veins were obvious all over her lithe body. She had black hair, which was a rarity among elves, more than half of whom were redheads. It was shoulder-length and down, framing her pretty, pale face.

“You have a really nice ass,” he replied.

She laughed. “So do you. Come on, I want to warm up.”

As they slipped into the water, they sat apart from each other at first, looking at each other from opposite sides of the tub. “I have questions, if you don’t mind answering,” John said.

“Ask away, I don’t mind. I imagine they’re about the undead condition.”

“Yeah. What’s it...like?”

“Numb, mostly. I don’t need to eat, or drink, or sleep. I can kind of sleep, if I make myself, but I don’t dream. I don’t think I get down to that level. The longer I let myself go, the worse my senses get. The cold doesn’t bother me, which is nice, I guess. But when I take those potions, which was what I actually purchased after we left that fort, because I figured it’d be a good idea since I was going to be traveling with people, and because I had the distant, tiny, infinitesimal hope that this exact scenario would happen...uh, what was I saying? Oh yeah, when I take those potions, I get some of my feelings back. I can see and hear better, I can actually feel things.”

“Do you still get, um, aroused?”

“Sort of...it’s hard to describe. Physically, I only get aroused after I’ve had the potion, and only for about a week. Speaking of which, we will definitely need lube. But I did, and still sometimes do, get like mentally aroused. Nothing was happening down there, because I was drying up, dying technically, I guess, but I would want to fuck really bad. I used to masturbate, but I stopped after awhile. I still do, usually once or twice after I drink a potion.” She paused, then licked her lips and sat up. “So, um, do you have any lube around? We could, you know...fuck now.”

“We’re not having sex yet,” John replied.

“Why not?” She sounded worried.

“Ruby, you just told me that you haven’t been intimate with, let alone touched by, anyone in over a year. It would be a fucking sin to jump straight to sex. We’re going to take our time, and I’m going to do everything I can to pleasure you.”

“Holy Gods, Yelena really was right about you. That’s...incredibly generous.” She shifted across the tub and settled into his lap.

“I want to make you feel good,” he replied. “But if you get uncomfortable or anything like that during, just tell me.”

“Okay...although I seriously doubt I’ll want to stop. Honestly, if you get freaked out by doing sex stuff with an undead, you should tell me.”

He grinned. “I will, but I also doubt that’s going to come up.”

“Then let’s get started.”

Slowly, he slipped his hand over the back of her neck and brought his face closer to hers. She leaned in to meet him and their lips touched. Ruby was cautious at first, somewhat hesitant, as they started to kiss. Within about ten seconds, though, she suddenly seemed to overcome her hesitation and pressed herself more firmly up against him. Ruby began to make out with him more passionately, hugging him closer to her.

As they continued kissing, he felt her body begin to pulse with raw lust and desire. He tried to imagine what it might be like to be almost completely isolated from basically all of society, even from fellow adventurers. No sex, no basic physical contact, barely even any conversation at all, let alone the ability to trust someone. And it must have been especially hard for someone like Ruby. He had the idea that she was a vibrant, social butterfly who thrived on conversation and cuddling and sex, on just being around people.

To lose all that…

It made his chest ache just thinking about it.

He ran his hands over her trim body, groping and caressing and touching her, wanting to convey to her how attractive he found her, how much he wanted her. Being wanted was a pretty great feeling. Spending months and months feeling like nobody wanted you, and might never again want you, must have been a living nightmare.

After making out with her for several minutes, their tongues dancing the old dance of lust and desperate need and impassioned desire, he turned her around in his lap gently. Once she was facing away from him, he reached around and took her breasts in his grasp, massaging them gently. Then he began to caress her small, pink nipples.

“Oh my...oh, I had forgotten how sensitive those were,” she whispered, her voice harsh, like she was having trouble controlling herself. “I-I just...oh wow. I missed being touched so much.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through it for so long,” John replied, and began to kiss along the side of her neck.

She moaned, and then moaned even louder and shuddered as he slid his hand down between her thighs, found her clit, and began to rub it. Ruby shivered and twisted in his lap as he pleasured her, responding to his touch stronger than most of the women he’d been with. Given that she was an undead, John figured that he was going to have to put in more work.

As it turned out, he was very correct.

He wasn’t sure how long they sat there in the tub with him rubbing her clit. He tried going gently at first, but that quickly wore off given that Ruby was a bit more insensitive than most, so he began to go harder and faster, rubbing more vigorously. He also slipped some fingers into her, fucking her with them, working her pussy as best he could with both hands, listening to her scream and cry out in impassioned pleasure.

By the time he had brought her to climax, he was beginning to overheat and his fingers were cramping up.

It was more than worth it though.

“Oh, John! Fuck! FUCK IT’S SO GOOD! I MISSED THIS SO MUCH!” she shrieked wildly as she twisted and jerked in his grasp. He held her, water splashing as the orgasm ran rampantly through her body, filling her with a riotous bliss. It lasted a good half minute and took another half minute for her to wind down, still twitching occasionally, until at last she was slack against him. For a few seconds, something felt wrong. Then he realized what it was: normally a woman would be gasping for breath or at least panting after that, but she was completely still. Undead didn’t need to breathe. He kissed the side of her neck and she shuddered.

“Enjoy yourself?”

“You have. No idea.”

He laughed. “I guess I don’t. I haven’t gone that long without an encounter since I lost my virginity.”

“Same. Gods, I didn’t go more than a few weeks since I lost mine a few decades ago. I thrived on sex. It was amazing.”

“I’m hoping it still is.”

“I am pretty sure you’re going to be amazing. Just your fingers alone were phenomenal. Yelena must just worship you.”

“I think you’ve got it backwards.”

“Oh, you worship her, huh? I’ve talked with her a lot, you know. You come up all the time. I think she doesn’t even realize how much she gushes about you. She is so in love with you. I can see why.”

“It’s more than just the sex.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. You’re so...kind, and caring, and attentive. And you’re completely at ease around me. I haven’t encountered a single other person who was completely at ease around me since I turned. Only you and Yelena.” She paused. “I got close to getting laid once, you know. It was about three months into my curse. I tracked down one of my old flames, another elf. He felt bad for me, and missed me, and wanted to help me. At the time, the biggest help was getting laid, honestly. He was going to do it, but when I took off my armor, he just...couldn’t do it. I mean, he couldn’t keep it up, and I could tell he was really freaked out by looking at me. I wasn’t even mad at him. I’m still not. It wasn’t his fault.”

“I’m sorry, Ruby,” John said, still hugging her to him.

“It’s okay. Given all that’s happened, and, well, the fact that this is happening right now, I guess I’m feeling pretty pragmatic about the whole thing...man, I just realized you must be burning up! You want to get out of the water?”

“I would, actually,” he replied.

He was close to passing out.

“I’m sorry. Come on.”

They got out of the water and dried off. Well, John sat in a chair and waited for his head to stop spinning, then dried off. As soon as that happened, the pair retreated to the bed and crawled onto it. They laid together for a few moments, holding each other.

“You’re very warm,” Ruby murmured, running her hands across his skin. She sighed suddenly. “Eventually, I’m going to cool off.”

“I imagine that won’t be for awhile, this room seems to be holding heat decently well. And I think you’ll be okay under a blanket with me. Body heat tends to stay trapped under the blanket while we sleep,” he replied.

“You...don’t mind if I sleep here?”

“No. What, did you think I’d kick you out after we fucked?”

“I mean...kind of? I guess I thought we’d just fuck and then I’d leave.” She paused. “Um, Yelena...”

“Won’t mind,” he said, running a hand up and down her bare thigh. “I told you, you don’t have to worry right now. Don’t worry about me rejecting or judging you, don’t worry about Yelena getting upset for fucking me or being intimate with me. None of that is going to happen. You really can relax in here, with me. You are safe.”

“I believe you,” she whispered after a few seconds. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Ruby. Now, if you’d like, we can move on to the next part.”

“The sex part?”

“No, not yet. I intend to pleasure you some more.”

“Oh. Wow. Um...thank you. I’m definitely not going to turn you down.”

“Good.”

He leaned in and began kissing her again, gently groping her breasts as they resumed twining tongues together. After a little bit, he got on top of her and then slowly started to kiss his way down her body, taking his time, kissing across her cheek, down her neck, her collarbone, and he paused at her breasts, taking extra care to lick and then suck on her pink nipples. She particularly seemed to enjoy that. And when he was finished there, he worked his way down her body until he had settled in between her thighs.

“I have a question,” she said as he carefully parted the lips of her elf pussy.

“Yeah?” he asked, then leaned in and licked up the skin in between her lips.

She cried out. “Oh fuck! Uh...um...is this, like, a fetish for you?”

“What do you mean?” He kept licking, priming her, making her cry out again.

“I mean, like-oh!-you know, fucking inhuman women. Ah! Fuck yes! Oh! Mmm...that’s so fucking good...”

He began to massage her clit with the tip of his tongue and continued for half a minute before answering. “I think it is, kind of,” he replied. “Certainly inhuman women turn me on a lot. But there’s more to it than that. I do care about the women I sleep with.”

“Ah! I can tell that, at least. Don’t, um, don’t take that the wrong way. I see that you really do love Yelena and you would regardless of what race she was. Oh fuck!”

“Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. My mind’s just kind of wandering. I’m nervous.”

He paused and raised his head, looking up the length of her pale body. “Why?”

“I don’t know...fingering me is one thing, eating me out is another. I just keep worrying that you’ll hit some kind of limit, that you’ll decide this is all you can take of getting intimate with the undead chick.”

“Ruby, I told you, that’s not-”

“I know! I know! I’m sorry. I really am. It’s just...”

“You’ve been undead for a year, rejected by almost everyone you’ve come in contact with. I get it. It’s okay. I’m not angry or offended. Everyone has anxieties and insecurities.”

“Okay, good. I don’t want you to think it’s because of you or anything you did. You are being astounding with me. Like...I’ll be honest. I didn’t really think a human guy could get this good at pleasuring me.”

“That’s probably just the year of no sex talking. I’m good, but I’m not that good. Now, no more talking,” he said, and resumed eating her out.

She yelled in pleasure and seemed to agree with him, spreading her legs open a bit wider and gripping the blankets in her grasping hands as he licked her clit. Like before, it took quite awhile to get her off, though it didn’t bother him. He was definitely invested in helping her, making her feel good, but it was admittedly also kind of a challenge. He’d never gone down on an undead woman before, never even met one, as far as he knew. He’d actually been a little worried that she couldn’t get off any longer, but that had been proven wrong, thankfully.

By the time she let out another long, loud scream of rapturous release and sexual euphoria, his tongue and jaw were sore. But, like before, it was more than worth it. She twisted and squirmed and writhed in sheer bliss as the orgasm rolled through her tight, beautiful body. When she was done, she again went slack against the bed, motionless, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes. John sat up and watched her, glad he had brought her the pleasure.

“Um...you want me to suck your dick?” she asked.

“At some point, that would be very appreciated, but right now I’m actually okay with transitioning to the sex,” he replied.

“I would love that...although, um, we’ll need...lube.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered,” he replied, getting up and moving over to his backpack.

He took a moment to wash up after going down on her, then found the bottle of lube he kept and moved back over to the bed.

“You carry some around with you?” she asked.

“Yeah, definitely. Some women just aren’t as wet, some prefer it, and you never know when you might run into a beryl that’s down to fuck.”

Ruby smiled. “You fuck beryl women?”

“If I can, yeah. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a species on the planet that I wouldn’t have sex with if they were interested.”

“Well, you’re fucking an undead and you regularly bang a demoness, I guess you’ve got a point. And the sex with a dragon, that’s just...man, that’s crazy! And awesome.”

“It was pretty great,” he replied. “You ready?”

She opened her legs. “More than you could imagine.”

“Probably true.”

He rubbed her pussy down with some lube, pleasuring her a bit, and then he rubbed his own cock down. Once they were lubed up and ready, he laid down on top of her, in between her spread open legs, and began working his cock inside of her.

“Oh, fuck yessss...” she moaned as he slid into her.

Inside, she felt a little off, but honestly, not all that different from the other elf pussies he’d fucked. The texture of her was a little strange, but not unpleasant. He stared down into her beautiful, pale, veined face and began to make love with her, pushing his way deep inside of her. Ruby responded immediately, pressing up with her hips, reaching up and around, grabbing his shoulders from the back. She moved her head up and kissed him passionately, then let out a muffled cry of bliss as he started pushing harder and deeper into her.

They were having sex.

He was having sex with an undead elf.

“Oh fuck! It’s so good!” she cried as he picked up the pace, and she put her legs up into the air. “Come on! Faster! Harder! Fuck me! Fuck me like a whore!” she screamed.

He gladly acquiesced to her demands and slammed into her, pushing her down into the mattress, making the bed rattle and shake as they fucked furiously. She kept kissing and grabbing him, her body moving against his, syncing up with him with very little effort. Apparently, she hadn’t entirely forgotten the art of making love. Maybe it was just something you didn’t forget, or your body didn’t let you forget, if you were practiced enough in it. A few minutes into fucking her, he found it a little harder to believe she’d gone over a year without having sex.

And she was loud.

Oh was she so loud.

He imagined that probably every other woman in the area was hearing Ruby right now. He kind of hoped they were. Ruby was almost babbling incoherently as they kept screwing. She wrapped her legs around him and held him tightly in them, begging him for more, screaming in wondrous sexual rapture.

“Come on! More! Keep going! Fuck, I missed this so much!” she cried.

He didn’t hold back, fucking her as hard as he fucked Yelena when she was really asking for it. The bed shook violently and the frame banged against the wall over and over again. They had to be hearing this upstairs.

“Let’s switch,” he said. “I really want to fuck you from behind.”

“Oh Gods, yes,” she replied immediately.

He grabbed one of her legs and sat up, then brought her leg up and around him. Pressing it over onto her other leg, he also had her roll onto her side as he shifted with her, his cock twisting around inside of her until she had managed to get over onto her stomach. As one, they got up, her onto her hands and knees, him on his knees behind her.

“I’m so glad I remember how to do that,” she said, then moaned loudly as he started fucking her again.

“So am I, it’s a great maneuver,” he replied, gripping her slim hips tightly and pounding her, stuffing his rock-hard cock into her repeatedly, burying himself in that tight, perfect, undead elf pussy. The pleasure washed over him in waves.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come soon,” he groaned after a few more minutes. “Your pussy is really fucking good, Ruby.”

She laughed. “I’m so grateful to hear that-ah! Yes!-you can come whenever you want.”

“I mean I want to make you come again, are you close?”

“I could be.”

“Okay, hold on.”

He reached beneath her and sought out her clit. As soon as he found it, he began to massage it vigorously, and she let out a renewed scream of pleasure. He kept fucking her pussy and stimulating her clit, trying to bring her to climax faster than himself. John fucked and rubbed and stimulated and then she was screaming and pressing herself back against him, her orgasm bursting into existence, tearing through her, and he felt her vaginal muscles clench and constrict around his cock. His own pleasure spiked, and then he was coming inside of her, spilling his seed within her in hard, furious spurts.

They came together in a rapturous sexual release.

And when they were finished, they fell to the bed, nude and sweaty. Well, he was sweaty. He ended up on his back and she curled up against his side, head resting on his shoulder. “Thank you so much,” she said softly, reaching over and taking his hand. He squeezed her hand gently.

“You’re welcome, Ruby,” he replied.

John yawned suddenly and realized how dead tired he was. His exhaustion had found him again now that he had come.

“You must be really tired. Yelena was telling me about all the stuff you were doing before we found each other. You should sleep.” She paused. “You really don’t mind if I stay here, sleep in the bed with you?”

“No, I want you to,” he replied.

“Yelena really won’t care?”

“No, she really won’t care. She might come down and get in bed...”

“I’d be okay with that.”

“You into her?”

“Oh Gods yes! She’s amazing on so many levels.”

“I agree.” He yawned again. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Sleep.”

“Okay...will you be able to sleep?”

She nodded and then got up, washed herself, and began putting out candles. “Yeah. I got good at putting myself into like a...fugue, I guess? It’s like where you’re drifting off and don’t quite realize you’re drifting off? It’s way easier when I’ve had the potion, which I have recently.” She finished putting out the candles, leaving on only one, and then got back in bed with him. They curled up together beneath the blankets. “Oh, you’re so warm. I’ve missed this almost as much as the sex. Just the simple intimacy of sleeping next to someone.”

“It is really great,” John agreed, and hugged her to him. She pressed herself tightly against him, seeming deeply contented.

And he fell asleep within a few minutes.

CHAPTER VIII

“John? John, wake up.”

John opened his eyes and sat up blinking, looking around. “What is it?” he asked, for a few seconds thinking he was in bed with Yelena, but quickly remembering that it was Ruby he was sharing a mattress with.

“Something’s wrong. I thought I heard something upstairs-”

Someone shouted overhead, their voice muffled through the wood, and then he heard running footsteps.

“Shit!” John snapped, throwing the blankets back and snatching up his clothes. He yanked them on as fast as he could, but Ruby was already up and out of the room before he was half done, still stark naked, a sword in hand. When he had on the bare minimum, he snatched up his own black blade and rushed out the door of his basement room, making for the stairwell. More running footsteps, more shouting voices, something let out a roar.

“Shit!” he whispered harshly.

Now what was happening?!

Surging up the stairs, John looked around and saw that the inn was empty. He heard his friends fighting outside and kept on running. As he stepped out onto the main road, he stumbled to a halt, looking around frantically for the source of the trouble. That’s when he saw Carrie come flying across his field of vision. She crashed into the side of one of the buildings and actually went through the front wall.

“Carrie!” he called.

Something growled nearby and he spun back around. A pair of ice wolves came around the corner of the inn and started directly towards him. He raised his blade. Up close, they looked extremely intimidating, like they always did. They were huge and dark gray in color, with yellow eyes that caught the moonlight and huge teeth. He knew how fast and lethal they could be. Forcing himself to focus, John lunged forward, stabbing one of them as soon as it was in range. It let out a howl and died gurgling as his blade punctured its throat and stabbed down into its chest. He killed it, but the other one jumped him.

Grunting with effort, John then screamed as it sank its teeth into his forearm. A dagger would be perfect here, but all he had was his sword and now he’d dropped it in the chaos. He balled up his fist and started punching the ice wolf in the face as hard as he could as fast as he could. It snarled and then let go of his arm and bit his hand.

“Fucker!” he screamed and then suddenly it was yanked off of him. John stared in awe as Carrie suddenly appeared, holding the thing up over her head, and then she threw it into the ground with a loud scream of effort. Something snapped and the wolf became still.

“Come on, there’s ice trolls,” she said, then turned and ran off.

Holy fucking shit she was a badass, John marveled as he snatched up his blade. Getting back to his feet and trying to ignore his various bleeding wounds, he sprinted off towards the others. Coming around the side of the inn, he saw where the battle was taking place: at the edge of the town, where the forest met the clearing the town was built in. A pair of ice trolls and a pack of ice wolves were taking on the others. Everyone had come out to fight. Even as he was watching, rushing forward to leap into the fray, Yelena released a massive fireball that straight up incinerated one of the ice trolls and a pair of the wolves.

John rushed into the chaos, seeing a good opportunity to stab the remaining ice troll. He drove his blade into one of its thighs and the thing roared furiously, swiping at him. He dodged, ripped out his blade, and stabbed up into its chest. This time it hit him, sending him flying several feet back. He landed painfully on the cold, hard ground. Rolling over onto his back, he saw the ice troll bearing down on him, preparing to stomp him into bloody paste, but then Fiona leaped up onto its back and began stabbing it furiously in the head with a dagger. John rolled away to keep its body from toppling onto him as it began staggering around, then collapsed to the ground. As he rose to his feet, he saw the other women killing off the last of the ice wolves.

Standing there for a few seconds, breathing heavily, his breath foaming on the air, he sought out Yelena with his gaze and then began moving towards her.

“What happened?” he asked.

“They came out of-John, you’re bleeding. Badly,” she said.

He glanced down, remembering his hand and his forearm, which were indeed bleeding freely now. “Oh man, you got bit bad,” Fiona murmured.

“I can heal you,” Yelena said. “Hold still.”

“Thank you, love. What happened? Where’d they come from?” he asked.

Yelena laid a hand across his wounded forearm and he hissed slightly in pain, then relaxed as her healing magics went to work. Carrie marched up. He saw that she was chugging a healing potion. When she finished, she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “They came out of the forest, all at once. They almost looked coordinated.”

“How?” John murmured.

“I think I know,” Elora said.

“What?” Fiona asked. She sounded afraid and angry.

“That thing in the mine. Whatever it is. The recent activity must have awoken it. Entities of evil have been known to have certain influences on all sorts of creatures, including local wildlife. It’s possible they were trying to get to it, or maybe even acting on its influence,” Elora explained.

Fiona heaved a sigh. “We’re going to have to deal with that fucking thing soon.”

“Yes,” Elora agreed.

“Is anyone else hurt?” Yelena asked.

As everyone else reported that they were more or less fine, John realized that Carrie was staring intently at him. No, not at him. Behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw Ruby standing there, and as their eyes met, she suddenly seemed to remember that she was naked. The others all began looking at her as well.

“Oh...that’s why you wouldn’t take off your armor,” Fiona said.

“Yeah, um...oh Gods...well...I’m an undead,” Ruby replied. “Is that going to be a problem for anyone?”

“No,” Fiona said. “I don’t care.”

“I have no problems with you,” Elora said.

“I don’t give a shit,” Carrie said.

“Uh...okay then, cool.” She looked around. “So, uh...is that it?”

“I think that’s it,” Elora said. “In the morning, we should discuss how to handle this.”

Fiona nodded, then yawned. “Yeah, we should. Dammit, I hate getting woken up in the middle of the night with shit like this. Carrie, can we keep sharing a bed? I don’t feel like sleeping alone tonight,” she said.

“Fuck yes we can, you’re so damned soft and warm,” Carrie replied.

They began heading back to the inn. “Are you okay?” John asked as he took Yelena’s hand. Ruby fell in step beside him, on his other side.

“I am unharmed, but...I wish to join you in bed. I was having a nightmare,” she said.

“I’m sorry, honey. Yes, please come downstairs,” he replied immediately.

“Should I, uh, not join you? I don’t want to impose.”

“No, I would like your company as well, Ruby,” Yelena said.

“Okay, if you’re sure...”

“I am sure.”

John laced Yelena’s fingers with his and kissed her cheek as they headed into the inn and started making their way down to the basement. Soon, all three of them were back downstairs, crawling into the bed together, nude, beneath the blankets. John had Yelena get in between the two of them, which she seemed grateful for, and he spent a little while holding and kissing and caressing her. “What was the nightmare about?” he asked softly.

“I think it was about my former brethren finding us again. They were trying to hurt you...thankfully I cannot remember much of it, as it was jarred from my memories by the abrupt awakening,” Yelena replied.

“That must’ve been scary,” Ruby murmured.

“It was. I...losing John...it hurts, just to think about it,” Yelena whispered.

“I can imagine. I’m sorry you had to,” Ruby replied.

“It’s okay. I am here now, with the two of you. I feel safe.”

“Good. I love you, Yelena.”

“I love you too, John. So much.”

He kissed her again, and they fell asleep holding each other.

…

When John woke up for the second time, it was under much more pleasant circumstances. Almost the second he stirred, Yelena shifted as well, and she mounted him quickly. Reaching down between them, she gripped his cock and, grinning fiercely down at him, her eyes wide with lust, she slipped his rock-hard cock into her slick, incredibly tight demoness pussy and began to ride him furiously. He loved their morning fucks so much. They both grunted and moaned and screwed until each of them had orgasmed, and then Yelena got nimbly up off of him and went to wash herself up, then begin her morning workout, leaving him breathing heavily, still trying to wake up.

Only this time, he found a second woman trying to mount him.

“My turn?” Ruby asked.

“Your turn,” John replied, still mostly hard. He was seriously horny in the mornings. He was slick enough from all of Yelena’s juices that Ruby didn’t need to use lube, and she quickly slipped him inside of her undead elf vagina and fucked him hard as well. He reached up, groping her high, firm breasts as she moaned and cried out, their sexual unity bringing her tremendous pleasure. She fucked him for a good five minutes, going hard and fast the whole time, until she made herself orgasm by rubbing her clit, and then she let him finish inside of her.

After that, John got up, did a quick wash of his crotch, pulled on his undershorts, and joined Yelena in working out. He’d adopted what had once been an on-again, off-again habit throughout his life, and was now a fairly firm routine.

“You two are so fucking hot,” Ruby said as she laid on the bed, staring down at them. “I mean, good Gods, you are so attractive. Your bodies are amazing.”

“Yours is pretty great, too,” John replied.

“Thank you, Ruby,” Yelena said.

The pair finished their morning exercise routine, then Yelena freshened up the tub and all three of them soaked and then washed up. As he dried and dressed, preparing for the day ahead, John realized that he actually felt good. No, not just good, fucking great. He was in a spectacular mood. After a bit of consideration, he realized why: he had solved his personal problems. Well, solved the main one and, subsequently, the others that had stemmed from it. Talking to Yelena had helped lay to rest all the insecurities he’d been having, and sleeping on it helped him put it all in perspective. Because honestly, he had been being fucking ridiculous.

He’d been living in the future, which was typically a terrible idea to do, and one he normally didn’t practice. Because anything could happen in the future. He might die. Yelena might die. They might break up. All this and more was possible. Technically, it was always possible, hanging over their lives like a potential curse or an invisible, odorless gas. That was the nature of possibility. But to try and ferret out or give thought to every terrible possibility that might happen was insane. It was a pretty good way of keeping you from living your life. It didn’t make sense to live life as if consequences never happened, doing whatever you want whenever you want no matter what, but it also didn’t make sense to live in fear of every tomorrow.

He had been doing a fine job living his life up until that insecurity and jealousy had settled in, something he hadn’t had to deal with for years now. But he loved Yelena, and Yelena clearly loved him, and if he kept putting in the effort, kept maintaining the relationship, then the chances of it ending were very low.

It wouldn’t last forever, but nothing did.

After they were all dressed, the trio headed upstairs, where they found everyone preparing for breakfast and the morning discussion. He caught Fiona’s eye and nodded his head slightly. She caught his meaning and came over.

“Come outside with me for a minute?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure,” she replied.

They walked outside, into the chill dawn air. The sun had been up for maybe an hour, and everything was still covered in a thin layer of frost. He could see the frozen blood and the dead bodies from the night before.

They were going to have to do something about that at some point.

“What’s up?” Fiona asked.

“I was kind of a dick to you earlier, and I wanted to apologize. I’m sorry,” he replied.

“So you finally got that problem worked out?”

“Yes, I did.” He sighed. “I was being an idiot, I should have just talked to Yelena. The truth of the matter is, I was jealous.”

She paused. “What? Of me? You were threatened by me?”

“You sound surprised.”

“Well, I mean...yeah! Why the fuck would you be threatened by me?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, you’re this insanely attractive, badass adventuress who’s been all over the world, done all this cool shit, met all these interesting people. And I’m just...me. I’m just this boring human guy who’s never even left my own continent. Anything I’ve done pales in comparison to probably your tamer tales.”

“John, you’re a great person. Being a good person beats being an interesting person.”

“Does it?” he asked.

“Yes! Of course it does!” she said, suddenly angry. He blinked, stared at her. He hadn’t expected that at all. She suddenly lost all her anger. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just...” She hesitated. He waited. She looked away, then looked back at him slowly, her eyes finally meeting his again. “I haven’t been completely honest about why I’m doing this.”

“Okay...do you want to be honest?”

She sighed heavily. “No, I don’t, but I feel like I should. I’ve been feeling jealous of you, you know. You have this amazing relationship with someone you love and someone who truly loves you. Anyone who sees you together can pretty quickly tell that Yelena is just fucking so in love with you. She would do anything for you. But that isn’t my point. You’re a good person, a selfless person. That’s why I’m honestly jealous and kind of bitter.”

“I can be selfish,” John replied.

“I’m sure you can but how often are you? How much have you done for her? How much have you bled for her? Sacrificed for her? How much would you? And how many other people have you helped along the way? How far out of your way have you gone to help someone? I bet it’s a lot. I mean, fuck John, I just showed up out of the blue with this insane fucking idea, and you and Yelena agreed to do it basically sight unseen! And you’re still here! That kind of altruism...that’s the kind of person I wish I could be...”

“Fiona, you’re the one who’s actually organizing this entire thing. You’re the one who’s doing it,” John replied.

“I have to,” she muttered in reply, hugging herself tightly.

“What? Why? Is someone making you?”

“No! Nothing like that. I just...” she closed her eyes and shook her head, falling silent for several seconds. “I did something stupid. Something bad.”

“What?”

“I...before I came here, I ended up putting together an expedition to a cursed island in Tomontica. I had a lot of friends with me, and several of their friends. I heard all these warnings from locals telling me to stay away from the island, but I ignored them. There was supposed to be a lost treasure there, and I wanted it. I mean, more than anything, I just wanted to say that I had been the one to find it. We got there, and right away it felt bad. I should’ve left right away, we never should’ve even made fucking landfall. But I was becoming obsessed. I’d been thinking at that point...what have I done? What big thing have I done to make my mark on the world? When I die, will anyone remember me for more than a few years? I’d had a close call last year, way closer than normal. I almost died. And so it put me on track to eventually become obsessed with going to this island. We got there, we kept pushing, but we started dying, even just trying to get to this abandoned castle. People wanted to leave, some people tried to, but I kept...”

She paused again and he realized she was crying. “I forced them to keep going. I screamed at my friends. Threatened them at one point. We made it to that castle and...it was a fucking slaughterhouse. A lot of people died. A lot of good people died. We didn’t even get to the treasure. It was a cursed fucking nightmare in there. We ran. It finally broke me out of my stupid fucking obsession when I saw some of my closest friends die. I got people killed. I got my friends killed. For nothing. Those that made it away, they never want to see me again, and why the fuck should they? I got on this fucking power trip, thinking I could do anything, that I should do whatever I wanted and everyone should just fucking listen to me because I knew what I was doing, and I got people I cared about fucking killed for fucking nothing.”

She stopped suddenly and began crying louder. Feeling a terrible, painful empathy tearing at him, John offered her a hug, and she immediately hugged him, holding him tightly, squeezing him really, as she buried her face in his chest.

Yelena and Carrie appeared at the door of the inn, having heard her. He looked at them and slowly shook his head. They caught his meaning and left without a word, leaving the pair of them alone. He held her against him, rubbing her back. After several minutes, she slowly stopped crying. She pulled back and looked up at him.

“Sorry,” she said, “I know you didn’t sign up to deal with this crap.”

“Fiona, you’re my friend. Believe it or not, I’m not just here for the sex.”

She laughed. “I know. That’s why you’re such a good person.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “Really though, thank you. I actually feel a lot better now. I haven’t told that to anyone who doesn’t know it yet. But...my point was, the reason I’m doing this, that whole experience changed me. I don’t want to be a selfish bitch who just does whatever the fuck I want anymore and only thinks about myself. I want to help people. And I want to...make up for all the bad shit I did. I’ll never be able to bring them back, but, just...somehow I need to believe that I can...I don’t know, balance the books. I have to make up for it.”

She stared at him for a few seconds. “Say something! Am I nuts? A monster? Irredeemable?”

“You’re not a monster, Fiona. You’re not irredeemable. I...we’ve all done bad things. Some of us have done terrible things. She doesn’t like to talk about it, but Yelena did a lot of killing in her previous life, and she feels, uh, not great about it.”

“She’s from an infernal plane. I mean, she was born and raised in that culture, forged in its fires, she can’t be blamed for it. I’m sure they would’ve killed her if she hadn’t killed them.”

“I know. But I believe in redemption. And I believe you are doing a good thing. Your heart is in the right place.”

“Do you judge me for what I did?” she asked.

“Do you really want to know the truth?” he replied. She chewed on her lip for a moment, then nodded. “I think you did a terrible thing. I think that you were being a terrible person. I think that your choices had horrible consequences and it was largely your fault. But...I wasn’t there. I only know what you’ve told me, and you clearly feel fucking awful about it, so you’re probably making it out to be worse than it really might have been. But I can tell you’re honest, you’re trying to do a good thing, you’re trying to help people. It sucks that it took a tragedy to make you change, but now it’s happened, there’s nothing that can ever change that, so you might as well move forward in as good a way as you possibly can, and this seems pretty good. I don’t hate you. I don’t condemn you. I don’t think I’m better than you, either. On the one hand I want to tell you that you shouldn’t care what I think, but on the other hand, I care what my friends think of me, and I believe that I should. They don’t have a final say on my choices, on whether or not I’m a good person, but I think they’re a good indicator. I trust them to let me know if I’m being a piece of shit.”

She sighed heavily. “Yeah...that all sounds about right. I’ve been living with this for months now, and just...I’m good at burying stuff, but not that great. I haven’t talked to anyone about it.” She paused. “You won’t tell the others, will you? I mean, I guess you can tell Yelena. I doubt there’s literally any secrets between either of you.”

“I won’t tell anyone, including Yelena, if you don’t want me to. I’ll respect your privacy. She understands that,” he replied.

“Maybe they should know...” she murmured uncertainly.

“Fiona, you can tell them if you want, but I think that although why you do something does matter, that you actually did it, and the results that come from it, matter more. In the end, when you build this place, when you employ dozens of people and hundreds, if not thousands more, by successfully reviving the local economy and actually investing in it by building roads and bridges and keeping people safe, if you do all that, it won’t really matter why you did it as much. It matters that it got done.”

“I guess you’re right.” She looked at the sky for a few seconds, then took another deep breath and let it out. “Fuck. What a mess I am.”

“You’re doing pretty well,” he replied.

“Am I? I feel like I’m just fucking winging it and I keep getting lucky.”

“Honestly, I think that’s what most adventurers do.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. All right, come on. I smell that bacon cooking and I’m fucking starving.”

John agreed with her and they headed inside. As they did, he realized that everyone was sitting around the dining table they’d set up and they were also staring at them. He looked at Fiona, wondering how she was going to reply.

She stared back at them, then said, “I was telling John about some horrifically painful memories, and I don’t want to talk about them again.”

A few seconds of silence passed. “Fair enough,” Carrie said, and went back to eating.

The others seemed to agree. Fiona sighed gratefully. The pair of them went and grabbed breakfast, then took their seats at the table.

“So, what’s next? I think we should go after that mercenary company you were talking about if we’re going to clear out that mine, which we really should do next,” John asked.

“No, I still don’t know where they are,” Fiona replied. “Elora, anything?”

“Nothing yet,” Elora replied.

“I might be able to track them down. I know the leader. She’s a bad bitch and an old friend of mine. I honestly need to head back up the way we came and tell my crew not to come down yet, not until we’ve got that...whatever the fuck it is that’s in there, killed. Elora, if you give me coin, I can actually put in for that order I put together. I have some contacts at that village. And I can try and figure out where Nora and her Defenders are,” Carrie offered.

“Okay, you do that,” Fiona said. “And honestly, I think that if we recruit the next person, we won’t need a whole big squad of mercs to deal with the thing in the mines. The woman I want, her name is Shay, is a badass adventuress, a veteran healer, and a former paladin. Obviously whatever it is in there is evil. She would be uniquely qualified to kick its ass.”

“That does make sense,” Elora murmured. “And I know where she is. One of my runners came this morning, told me she was in a town down to the southeast, near the Frigid Forest, called, what else, Frigid Falls. Apparently they’re having some kind of trouble there and she’s helping out. It’s about a day and a half journey.”

“Then it’s settled. Who’s coming with me?” John, Yelena, and Ruby offered. “Okay then! Let’s finish up and hit the road.”

…

“So...you’d be interested in sleeping with me?” Ruby asked cautiously.

“Duh, you’re insanely hot,” Fiona replied.

“And it’s not just cause of this?” Ruby asked, pointing to the amulet that now hung around her neck. Just before they had left, Yelena had given her old illusion amulet to Ruby as a gift, given how useful it would be to her.

“No. I’ve seen you naked without it. You’re hot. I’d go down on you,” Fiona replied.

“Oh Gods, that sounds amazing. Although I think you’ll be hard-pressed to do a better job than John.”

“I’m sure Fiona can eat pussy better than I can,” John replied.

“No, she can’t,” Yelena said very factually.

“I’d be offended, but I have been eaten out by John. Plus, Yelena obviously loves John so...” Fiona said.

“I have been eaten out by both of you. John is better. That isn’t to diminish your own skills, Fiona. You are very skilled. But John is better.”

“I guess I have always been better at sucking dick than eating pussy. Well, how about we put it to the test next time we’re alone?” Fiona replied.

“Excellent suggestion,” Ruby answered merrily. She looked at herself again, marveled at herself, really. “This thing is amazing! How did I never know these existed?! I would’ve sought one out immediately.”

“They are rare,” John replied. “We had to work pretty hard to buy it, and we got lucky at that. It was really-” He paused, stopped walking. They all did. “Do you hear that?”

“Yes,” Yelena said, drawing her blade.

Fighting, from up ahead. People shouting, the clanging of metal on metal, something let out a deep roar.

All four of them took off running down the path they were traversing. They were almost to their destination. As they came around a curve in the path and the town came into view, he saw smoke billowing into the air. They ran on, crossing the distance as fast as they could between the edge of the forest and the outskirts of the town. What could it possibly be this time? What were they going to have to face now?

Whatever they were, they sounded pissed.

The group hit the edge of the village and began making their way down a cobblestone path awash in dirty slush. They moved in between rows of simple houses, and one up ahead had been partially collapsed. There were several people fleeing, running and screaming from the source of the destruction. Something was burning and smoke was on the air. The sounds of conflict grew louder as they sprinted on. Finally, they hit a crossroads and hooked a left, and then they had a clear view of what they were going to be fighting.

Minotaurs.

Easily a dozen Minotaurs were wreaking havoc on the area. The ten foot beasts towered over the gray-armored guards who were trying to fight them off, and failing. Only, there was something different about them. He realized it quickly as he rushed towards them: they were wearing armor and all of them were wielding weapons, mostly huge swords, though some had big axes and one had a mace, and they weren’t mindlessly rampaging. There seemed to be coherency to their attack, cohesion to their group.

John knew that all Minotaurs weren’t mindless, feral beasts, but he’d only ever encountered that variety. And of course he’d have the shitty luck to encounter a group of Minotaurs who were fully capable of higher reasoning, and they would be assholes waging war on the locals. They entered the fight with a fireball launched from one of Yelena’s hands that smacked one of the Minotaurs right in its face and sent it staggering, then collapsing to the ground. Several of the combatants turned to look at them, and as soon as they realized that more people were coming to help, the guards and others who were fighting to defend the village seemed to rally.

The battle resumed. John rushed forward, blade brandished, ready to kill. He sprinted in a burst of speed and slashed as he raced past one of the Minotaurs, slashing deep into its thigh. The beast roared and swung for him, but he was already gone. And then he was among the hectic chaos and deep into the battlefield. He jerked to the side as a huge battle axe came down on him, narrowly avoiding it as it smashed into the earth, throwing up a geyser of dirt and slush and stone. Seeing another opportunity, he slashed out at the arm that held the axe, drawing blood. The Minotaur roared and backhanded him. He was sent stumbling, fighting to stay upright, tripped on something and fell flat on his back. And it saved his life.

A broadsword stabbed at where he had just been. Realizing that it had missed him, the Minotaur wielding it began to bring it up. As it came stabbing down at him, John rolled out of the way and hopped to his feet, then plunged his blade into the chest of the Minotaur as it tried to right itself. His black blade cut through the leather armor the beast was wearing and penetrated its chest, and, evidently, its heart, as it let out a roar and then went slack. John pulled his blade out and turned around just as he heard a loud battle cry, or rather a chorus of them, and saw a fresh group of nearly two dozen armed and armored people appearing.

The Minotaurs paused, and then one of them, who was bigger than all the others, let out a furious call of “Retreat!”

And then they were off and running out of the village.

John watched them go, seeing that altogether ten of them had made it away. He looked around, searching out his allies. He saw Yelena pulling her blade out of the corpse of a Minotaur, and Ruby was okay, standing among the villagers and guards, looking around, a little bewildered. Fiona was helping someone, putting a basic healing spell to work. And then he saw someone looking right at him, a very attractive, mocha-skinned woman with long, dark hair and a sharp gaze. She was approaching him. He wondered if this was who they were looking for. Yelena was approaching as well. The women arrived at him at roughly the same time.

“I don’t know who you are, but you have our thanks,” the woman said.

“I’m John. This is Yelena. Are you the healer Shay?” he replied.

“I am, how do you know me?”

“Reputation alone. I’m part of a group that’s looking to hire you for a job.” He pointed to Fiona. “She’s our leader.”

Shay studied her, then considered it. “Before we can discuss that, I would ask that you continue to assist us further. I have committed to helping end the Minotaur threat. They’ve been causing problems in this region for almost a week now, though this was by far their boldest move. We have them on the run, but also do not have the means to go after them. We need to help the wounded, shore up the village’s defenses to prepare for another attack. But you could go after them, maybe find some way to kill them.”

John considered it, looking at Yelena. “We should talk with Fiona,” he said.

Ruby joined them as the group moved over to Fiona, who had just finished mending a broken arm with her healing magic. “Shay?” she asked, noticing the Tomontican woman who had joined their group.

“I am,” Shay replied.

“She wants us to kill the Minotaurs, then she’ll discuss the job offer,” John said.

Fiona nodded. “Okay. We’ll do it.”

“You seem to know your way around healing spells, will you stay and help me? I’m the only one who knows healing magic in this village. You could save lives,” Shay said.

Fiona frowned, looking at John and Yelena and Ruby. He saw her dilemma. She wanted to help them fight and kill the Minotaurs, but she also wanted to help the injured, and, he imagined, didn’t want to risk upsetting Shay. They needed her.

“You stay, we can handle this,” John said. He was almost tempted to ask Yelena to stay too, but he knew she wouldn’t go for it, and more importantly, they were going to need her in the fight. As it was, he wasn’t convinced the three of them would be able to deal with the Minotaurs. But what choice did they have?

They’d have to figure something out on the way there. They always did, it seemed.

“Are you sure?” Fiona asked.

“We’ll handle them,” Yelena said firmly.

“Okay. Please, please don’t do anything reckless. I want you all to come back to me,” Fiona replied.

“Reckless is kind of in the job description,” Ruby murmured.

Fiona sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. Well...good luck.”

“And you.”

“Come, we must hurry,” Shay said.

John, Yelena, and Ruby left them to it, then began to head out of the village, following the path of destruction the Minotaurs had left.

CHAPTER IX

“So do we have, like, a plan?” Ruby asked. “Beyond just jumping them?”

“We’re definitely going to at least use stealth,” John replied.

They were walking through the dead forest, tracking the Minotaurs, the village having disappeared behind them in the distance. John was currently wracking his mind, trying to come up with some way of not dying from this encounter. Unfortunately, he was kind of a blunt instrument. He could be stealthy if the situation demanded it, and he could set up basic traps, but honestly he was most used to just charging in with a sword and stabbing whatever it was that needed killing. He imagined that Yelena or Ruby, especially Yelena, would have better ideas. But they’d need to actually get eyes on the situation to make a plan.

“Explain to me about Minotaurs. I have only read a little about them, and haven’t encountered many,” Yelena said.

“I’m not sure where they originally come from. I think they might have once shared a homeland with the manix people, and were scattered to the corners of the globe after whatever it was happened there occurred. Most of the Minotaurs that ended up here, on this continent, have gone feral. I’ve actually never encountered one that wasn’t.” He paused. “Well...I mean, as far as I know. I guess it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. But those definitely seemed more well-organized. They had actual armor that looked maintained, as did their weapons, and I heard the leader call for a retreat by actually saying the word. Other than that, I honestly don’t know almost anything about Minotaurs,” John explained. “Ruby?”

“Me neither,” she said with a shrug.

“They are capable warriors, I can tell that much from our skirmish,” Yelena murmured. “Perhaps we can set up some kind of trap.”

“Maybe,” John said.

After another five minutes, Yelena froze suddenly. She drew and notched an arrow in the blink of an eye, twitching to the left. “One of them is near,” she whispered, her voice low and harsh. John and Ruby drew their own weapons.

“Wait,” called a voice, a female voice, “don’t attack. I’m not here to fight.”

John glanced at the others, who just looked back at him. Yelena gave him a look: your call. Well, great. “Fine. Come out. Very slowly.”

There was a pause, then the sound of heavy footfalls came to them, underbrush getting crushed underfoot, branches breaking, then a figure became apparent among the trees, which were packed together in this region.

Finally, a Minotaur appeared in an opening, and stepped slowly onto the path with them. A female Minotaur.

“I’m not here to fight,” she repeated. “My name is Ara.”

John studied her, tried to feel the situation out. He’d gotten decent at telling when people were lying. Damn, they could use Elora’s lie-detecting stone right about now! But they were going to have to go with old fashioned intuition.

“I’m John. Why should I believe you?” he replied.

“Because I could have just killed you,” Ara replied bluntly.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Yelena growled.

Ara glanced at her, frowning. “Perhaps not,” she murmured. “Unfortunately, all I have is my word and my actions. If you would allow it, I would like to assist you in dealing with the problem. I’m guessing you are tracking my brethren.”

“Yes, we are,” John replied after a few seconds of consideration. He wasn’t getting any bad feelings from her. He lowered his weapon. Slowly, so did Yelena and Ruby. “So, what is it you can tell us about your brethren?”

“They’re being idiots,” she growled. “My clan came to this region two years ago. We were fleeing a natural disaster on the islands we had been living on. We had intended to keep going, but as you can imagine it’s difficult to put together transport for a clan of Minotaurs. We ran into trouble after trouble here and ultimately kind of built a nomadic life for ourselves in the untamed wilderness. Unfortunately, several of my kin saw this as an opportunity to give into some of our more basic and...well, sadistic tendencies. Our leader cautioned against it, but I could see him losing control of the clan as the months wore on.

“Finally, we were here, in this forest, last week. A human hunter accidentally killed one of my kin. Got a lucky, or really unlucky, shot in his eye. Our leader cautioned against rash action, and then one of the upstarts, the worst of the troublemakers, finally challenged him for right of leadership. And won, by killing our leader. And that’s when he started leading us on this path of destruction that ultimately culminated in the all-out attack on the village. I tried to stop them, but...they’ve lost it, I think. Nothing but blood, and gallons of it, will satisfy them.”

“So what do you suggest?” John asked.

“There’s one thing I can do, which is challenge the current leader to combat. I think I might be able to best him, but honestly, I think he’s arrogant enough that he would allow for a three-on-one match, which is where two of you would come in. One of you would hang back, just in case things go wrong. If I can best him, the others should respect me as the new leader, but a lot of them are very bloodthirsty now, so it’s not a sure thing. And they’ve never been too keen on having a female leader anyway, admittedly.”

“And you’re willing to do all this?” John asked uncertainly.

“Yes!” she snapped, then made a visible effort to calm herself. “Despite what you humans might think, I am not a mindless beast. I am not a bloodthirsty animal. Those villagers didn’t deserve that and the people that they will hurt and kill if left unchecked won’t deserve it either. This has to stop. It has to. And I’ll stop it if I can. It isn’t right.”

“I’m sorry,” John said. “I didn’t mean to give you that impression. I don’t think you’re a mindless animal.”

She studied him, apparently trying to determine if he was genuine in his words. He took the opportunity to study her. He had never seen a female Minotaur before, and he wasn’t too surprised to find that he found her extremely attractive. Though she was shorter than most of those he’d seen at the village, she still towered a good two feet over him. She was well-built beneath a layer of dark brown fur. She had bull horns sticking forward out of her temples, and a face that was a curious amalgamation of human and bull. Her legs were like Yelena’s: ending in black cloven hooves. She had a large sword across her back and wore simple leather armor.

She was pretty shapely.

“Fine,” she said. “We should get-” She froze suddenly and turned to her left at the same time Yelena did. “I smell werewolf.”

“And I smell Minotaur. And my friends,” came a new voice.

“Is that...Piper?” Yelena asked.

John looked around, realizing that it was indeed her speaking. “Piper?” he called.

“In the flesh. Is it cool if I come out? No one’s gonna freak or anything?”

“Is she an ally?” Ara asked uncertainly.

“Yes, yes she is. A friend,” John replied. “You can come out, Piper.”

From the opposite side of the path that Ara had come from, Piper emerged, tall and blonde and done up in her leathers. She was immediately recognizable, and the memories of their times together near the end of his and Yelena’s harrowing journey facing down her former demon companions came flooding back to him.

“I have missed you,” Yelena said, hugging her as she came to stand with them.

“Yeah, how have you been?” John asked, hugging her as well.

“I’ve been great. Hunting a lot of bounties down south. And you two...” She looked at Ara, and then significantly at Ruby, who shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, “...are keeping much stranger company than usual. I take it you’re friends with her?”

“Uh...extremely new allies of circumstance,” John replied.

“Roughly accurate,” Ara said.

“Fair enough. I heard most of that. Can I get in on this?”

“What business have you with us, werewolf?” Ara asked, crossing her arms.

“I’m bounty hunting Minotaurs,” Piper replied coolly.

“Are you now?” Ara asked, her voice low.

“Okay, okay, let’s not get into a fight,” John said. “Let’s just...work together. Okay?”

“I’m willing,” Piper said.

“As am I,” Ara said.

“Okay. So, you take us to your clan, you, myself, and Yelena make the challenge, if it goes wrong, Piper and Ruby will jump in and help out. Sound good?” John asked, looking around at the women surrounding him.

They all, in their own way, agreed.

As they began following Ara towards her clan’s encampment, John fell in step with Piper. “So...you just showed up? Like that? Not that I’m complaining,” he said.

She laughed. “It was more chance than anything else. I finally decided I wanted to come back and see you two, see how things were going. I went to Kesley’s place and got news about your whereabouts, started heading east, started hearing about Minotaurs causing trouble, and decided to pick up some coin while I was looking for you. Then I started smelling you and your girlfriend, so I followed my nose. I was honestly curious to see how you two were doing.”

“That’s your only reason?” he asked, because he had an idea that it wasn’t, just from the way she was looking at him.

“Well...” She paused, then leaned in very close and whispered into his ear, “and I really, really want to fuck you.”

“Oh, wow,” he replied. She pulled back and grinned at him. “I want to fuck you, too.”

“I know. But the big question: would you be willing to fuck me in my werewolf form?”

“Oh Gods yes,” he replied immediately.

“I figured since you regularly fuck a dem-” she stopped, looked at Ara, then at Ruby, “regularly keep interesting company in your bed, you’d be into that.”

“I very certainly am,” he replied, grateful that she hadn’t let that slip. Ruby obviously was cool, and although he kind of doubted Ara would flip over a demoness, he wasn’t sure. But most importantly, it was Yelena’s choice whether or not that information was revealed. “How’s Kesley doing? It’s been over a week since we saw her.” He paused. “Almost two now, I think.”

“She’s good. Horny, though. She was fucking some felis guy when I showed up and practically dragged me into bed. That was a fun threesome.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” he replied.

“Oh and tell me, please tell me that Yelena will want to fuck me. She’s the single most attractive woman I’ve ever seen in my life,” Piper whispered desperately.

“I’m basically sure she’ll want to,” he replied. He remembered having conversations with her not long after Piper had left about how they both kind of had regrets about not jumping the sexy werewolf, but the timing just hadn’t been right.

“Yes,” she whispered, grinning broadly. “So how’d you get pulled into this mess?”

“Kesley told you what we’re doing, right?”

“Helping some hot kit chick revitalize a mining town, right?”

“Basically.”

“Okay then. Where is she, anyway? Been years since I’ve seen a kit.”

“Back at the village, helping the injured. There was a big attack about half an hour ago. That’s where we’re coming from.”

“Oh, wow. Okay, so this kit chick-”

“Fiona.”

“-this Fiona just asks you to help? And you said yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Makes enough sense, I guess. Especially after being cooped up in Kesley’s place for half a year,” she replied.

“We are approaching,” Ara said from the front.

They instantly fell silent. She stopped and looked at them. “Which of you two is best with a bow and arrow?” she asked, looking at Ruby and Piper.

“I’m great,” Ruby said.

“I’m okay,” Piper replied.

“Okay then, you will circle around wide to the right until you see a rise of land. Climb up it. There is a spot that overlooks the whole area. Be ready. You, werewolf, hide somewhere nearby. If things start going wrong, I’ll give the signal. I’ll shout ‘now!’. That’s when you two jump in and start killing.”

“Do we, I mean...are you okay with...slaughtering your whole clan?” John asked uncertainly.

Ara shook her head mournfully. “Those that are good or those that I care about are either dead or gone now. This will be a final test for them. If they do not pass it, then they do not deserve to live,” she replied firmly.

“All right, if you’re sure.”

“I am sure,” she said, her voice grim.

“All right. You heard the plan. Good luck everyone.”

Ruby took off, disappearing into the woods, as did Piper. John and Yelena joined Ara as they marched along a path towards a clearing not too far away. He could hear them now: shouting, laughing, probably sparring with each other.

Well...he’d faced down worse.

Probably.

The demons had been pretty damned scary, but that was the problem with terrifying situations: they were right in front of you, right there, right then, and everything else seemed to pale in comparison to what was happening to you in that moment. But he fought down his fear and did his best to look like he wasn’t intimidated in the slightest as they walked into the clearing.

“Jarx!” Ara called, her voice booming, “I challenge you!”

All the conversation stopped dead. John looked around the large clearing that the Minotaur clan called home. There was indeed a rise of land to the rear and a hollow in it that was not quite a cave where probably the clan leader dwelt. He could see some simple furniture inside, and a lot of bones. There were fire-pits and more piles of bones scattered across the clearing, as well as several crude beds and what might have been the beginnings of a few simple structures. All in all, he counted a baker’s dozen Minotaurs.

Thirteen of the big bastards. Shit.

The biggest one of all, who had to stand almost twelve feet tall, came striding out of the cave. He held an enormous battle axe that glinted in the pale sunlight. “Ara,” he said, his voice deep and carrying, “I thought you had run away like the others...who are your friends?”

“They’re from the village you tried to slaughter,” Ara replied. “This has to stop, Jarx. You’re being completely insane.”

“Am I insane? For wanting vengeance for our dead brother? What happened to blood for blood? Wasn’t that our code?” he asked, and there was a general assenting murmur from the others.

“Yes, but this isn’t that. What happened was a tragic mistake, and-”

“Don’t give me that shit, Ara! You’ve seen what these fucking humans are like! They think us little more than mindless, rampaging beasts! So why not give it to them?! If they’re going to think that way no matter what, why not be what they fear?! Why not take what is ours!?” he snarled, and now the assenting rumblings were louder.

This wasn’t going well.

“I did not come here to argue, Jarx. I am through arguing. I challenge you to combat,” Ara said.

He laughed long and loud. “You?! You challenge me? You and your new friends? So be it,” he said, growing suddenly serious. He slammed the butt of his huge axe into the ground. “If you three can best me, then you’ll have control of the clan. But I must warn you Ara, I will not stop. I intend to kill all three of you.”

“So be it,” Ara said grimly.

She hefted her immense broadsword. John and Yelena drew their own blades. The black metal of his sword glinted darkly in the pale sunlight as he and Yelena moved slowly away from Ara, not wanting to get in each other’s way. Just as he was starting to try and figure out how best to approach the situation, Jarx let out a battle cry that set every part of him on edge, raised his huge axe, and started running towards Ara. He brought it down on her with a shocking swiftness but, just as dexterously, she raised her own sword and sparks flew as the axe head fell on her blade. John and Yelena struck. They both shot forward like arrows loosed from bows, blades extended, going for Jarx’s exposed torso. Yelena managed to drive her blade up into his chest, eliciting a bark of pain, but John wasn’t quite so lucky.

Jarx struck out with one huge hoof and he barely managed to duck it, feeling the whoosh of air in its passing. The big Minotaur grunted with effort and threw Ara back several feet, then brought the axe around in a broad swing. Yelena ducked it and sliced up, drawing blood from one of his arms. Ara stepped back and John barely managed to leap over it as the axe came around fast and hard. He took another opportunity, stabbing out, going for the gut, and managed to make contact. It didn’t last as Jarx backhanded him and sent him not just sprawling but spinning a few times. Pain blossomed across his head, neck, and torso and as he slammed into the ground and began trying to get to his feet, he thanked the Gods that he hadn’t broken his neck.

It was going to be extremely sore, though.

He heard the other two breathing heavily and shouting as they continued the assault. Finally getting back to his feet, John launched himself again, going for blood anywhere he could find it. He doubted he’d manage to get a killing blow, but every stab, every slice, meant more blood was coming out of the big bastard. That meant he’d be gradually getting weaker and slower, making him more ready for Yelena or Ara to get at.

They stamped back and forth across the bones and the dirt. He dodged the axe and Jarx’s huge hand and hoof several more times as he looked for openings. It was hard, the enormous brute was almost as fast as he was tough. He was huge but he was also extremely fit, not simply bulky musculature. Ara was faster though and she was using that to her advantage, getting in around his blows and stabbing or slicing. He and Yelena were knocked aside more than once and each time staggered back to their feet.

Well, he did. Yelena always seemed to shoot up with a relentless determination.

The battle felt as though it was dragging on for ages. John had built up a lot of new endurance over the past six months, but Jarx didn’t seem to be slowing down in the slightest. Neither did Ara though. For awhile, they were actually evenly matched. But then, as the minutes drew by, he, Yelena, and Ara started to get the upper hand. Jarx was losing too much blood, and John had an idea that perhaps the toll of having to swing around that immense battle axe so often, constantly going for the killing blow, was getting to him. Jarx must not be used to this, either to opponents as small as him and Yelena, or having multiple opponents, and clearly it was costing him. After awhile, his battle lust seemed to be replaced by cold concentration, then anger.

In the beginning, the crowd of Minotaurs had been shouting and jeering, but slowly that drifted away, and now there was only silence.

And then Jarx took a bad step, misjudged his timing, and went sprawling. Ara drove her blade deep into his back and he roared so loud it echoed across the landscape. As she tore it out in a spray of blood, he rolled over onto his back, grimacing hatefully at her, bearing his huge, blocky teeth, breathing heavily.

“Do you yield?” Ara asked, sword aimed at his heart.

“Never,” he spat. “And they will never follow you.”

“So be it.”

She drove the tip of her blade into his chest, into his heart. He convulsed once, violently, and then went slack, falling bonelessly against the ground. Ara pulled her blade from his chest and straightened up, looking around.

John was trying to get his breath back as he studied the Minotaurs around them, trembling from the adrenaline pounding through his body. Now was the moment of truth. Would Jarx’s final declaration ring true, or did they have any honor, or even sense, left in them?

They didn’t look too happy.

“And what say you?” Ara asked, addressing them all.

One of them, now the largest of the bunch and who had perhaps been the second in command under Jarx, stepped forward, hand on the hilt of his sword at his hip. He was glaring at Ara, at John and Yelena.

This was it, the moment of truth.

He drew the blade. “Kill them!”

“Well fuck,” John muttered, and raised his blade.

A general roar went up and they began moving in. At that same moment, an arrow shot forth from up high and struck the second-in-command, now probably the leader, in his right eye. He jerked once, went rigid, then toppled over like a felled tree. Well, he hadn’t been leader for very long. Immediately after that, someone new let out a fierce growl that froze the Minotaurs in their tracks, and nearby bushes trembled violently as Piper emerged. She was completely wolfed out now, over seven feet tall and looking brutal.

And then the fight was on.

It was like the battle at the village, only worse in some ways. Now, they were outnumbered. Although they had Piper and another Minotaur on their side now, so that was a huge boost. He saw Piper, in all her vicious werewolf glory, run forward and half-decapitate one of their enemies by digging her claws into his neck and rip back out in a tremendous spray of blood. And then he found himself facing one of the big brutes wielding a sword. The Minotaur roared and brought the sword around, and John raised his own blade barely in time. Sparks flew and he was sent stumbling several steps to the side.

Righting himself, he snapped his blade up again as the Minotaur drove forward relentlessly and they clashed again and again, metal ringing against metal as he was driven back by the sheer strength of the attacks. Finally, he took a gamble, because he was going to have to or his strength was going to give out, and dodged as fast as he could to one side, then drove the blade sharply up. His aim was good, and he was lucky that the Minotaur was probably about two and a half feet taller than he was, because it made this a lot easier.

His black blade was driven straight up through the bottom of the Minotaur’s jaw where it pressed onward, rammed through his brain, and punched out through the top of his skull. He ripped it out and stepped back as the Minotaur twitched violently, blood coming out of the wounds, and then he collapsed to the ground.

“Watch out, John!” he heard Ara call, and at the same time sensed someone coming closer to him very quickly.

He sidestepped while turning around and saw not someone attacking him, but another Minotaur with a blade sticking from his chest stumbling backwards. He crashed to the mud, crushing several bones beneath his large bulk. Already, Ara had engaged in combat with another of her former brethren. Ruby was standing high atop the hill now, firing ceaselessly down on the battlefield with an expert precision. Yelena and Piper were deeply entrenched in combat with those who had not yet fallen on the field.

John launched once more into combat, joining Yelena.

It was a long battle. He lost track of time, lost track of the number of times he got hit or sliced, how many times he had to dodge, barely avoiding a killing blow. But in the end, he and his allies were the only ones left standing on the battlefield, and every last one of the enemy Minotaurs had been brought down one way or another.

He looked slowly around the clearing as it occurred to him that the battle was actually over. Piper was standing among the dead, panting, her claws bloody, eyes wide and fierce as she searched almost frantically for another foe. Ruby was coming down from above to join them. Yelena was near him, clutching her side. One of the Minotaurs had gotten in a good blow. Ara was standing near the middle of the clearing, staring at the nearest corpses, frowning.

“Are you okay?” John asked, stepping closer to Yelena.

“I am fine,” she replied, and released a wave of magical energy over herself. She inhaled sharply, then exhaled slowly and straightened up. “Better. Your turn.” She laid a hand on his chest and he felt a warmth pass through him, easing his pains and aches, sealing his cuts, and mending his bruised body. By the time she was finished, he felt a lot better.

“Well,” Piper said, and he looked over at her, seeing she had transformed back into her human self, “that was quite the battle. Damn. Is everyone okay?”

“We are fine,” Yelena said.

“I’m okay,” Ruby said as she joined them.

“Ara...are you okay?” John asked when he realized she hadn’t spoken.

“I don’t know,” Ara replied heavily. She heaved a large sigh and shook her head, and then sat down on a huge stump one of the Minotaurs must have pulled and then appropriated as an impromptu seat. “This had to be done. I don’t question that. I just...wish it hadn’t.”

John approached her, came to stand beside her. “I’m so sorry it came to this,” he said.

She looked over at him after a few seconds. “You are a curiosity,” she replied. “You agreed to fight beside me, and risked your life, and the lives of your friends, even when the battle turned against you.” She glanced at Piper, then at Ruby. “You name a werewolf and an undead as friends.”

“You...know?” Ruby replied anxiously.

“Yes. Don’t worry, I don’t care. You smell almost of nothing, and faintly of death. You must be an undead. Or maybe a vampire. But they often smell of blood.” She fell silent, looking at the battlefield again, then abruptly stood up. “I am leaving.”

“Wait,” John said, and she stopped, turned, looked at him.

“Yes?”

“I...where will you go? What will you do?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. I only know that I want to be away from here.”

He hesitated. He felt bad for her. She seemed like a good person. Would Fiona be angry if he offered her a job opportunity on her behalf? He didn’t think so. She seemed pretty damned open to help. It didn’t seem to matter to her who or what was offering the help, so long as the person behind the species was good.

Ara seemed good.

“Speak. I have little patience right now,” Ara said.

“We could use your help,” he replied.

“Help with what? If it involves the village, I cannot imagine that my presence would be welcome right now.”

“No, not that. We’re trying to rebuild a mining town, to help breathe new life into this whole region. It’s difficult and time consuming. It’s why we initially came here. We’re looking for help. We don’t discriminate, and you’re obviously a brave and effective warrior, and you seem smart and reasonable. I can’t promise that the person leading us would accept your help, but I am almost positive that she would.”

“I am a brave and skilled fighter, though I don’t know how much intelligence or reason I have,” Ara murmured. She sighed and shook her head. “Point it out to me on a map.”

He did, taking out his map and showing her where the unnamed mining town was. “Hmm, okay. I can find my way there. I believe I’ve even passed through it at one point.” She was silent for a few more moments. “You would truly welcome my assistance?”

“I would, and as I said, I am almost positive Fiona, our leader, would. You wouldn’t be the only, uh, unusual member of the work crew.”

She glanced at Ruby. “I suppose not.” Again, a silent pause. “I must be alone. I make no promises, but if I decide to help, I will seek you out again. If all is as it appears, this seems to be an honorable goal.”

Ara began walking away.

“Hey, uh...would it be weird if I started cutting off horns? Kind of need them to claim the bounty,” Piper said.

“Do with them what you will,” Ara replied without stopping or looking back. “They all forfeit their honor and right of respect. Farewell.”

“Farewell, Ara,” John replied, watching her go.

“So...that was interesting,” Ruby murmured after she’d disappeared into the forest.

“Very,” Piper replied, and then knelt by the nearest corpse and began the ugly process of getting its horns off. “They’re offering fifty coin a horn, so a hundred a Minotaur. I’m more than willing to split the bounty given all the help you threw in. Also, you gonna offer me a spot on this dream team of yours?”

“I think Fiona would be deeply interested in you,” Yelena replied.

“Oh? You had a certain tone when you said that,” Piper said.

“Yes, she will probably want to fuck you.”

“She’s a kit and John says she’s hot. I’m guessing I’ll want to fuck her. Speaking of which, I told John I-”

“I heard,” Yelena said. “The answer is obviously yes.”

“You are way too good at hearing,” Piper muttered. “Good then. I need to loop back and revisit the village offering this bounty.”

“Okay. How about you meet us at our own town and donate...I dunno, half the proceeds to the project? If everyone’s okay with that?”

“I am,” Ruby said, and Yelena nodded.

“Sounds good. Show me where it is.”

He did the same for her as he had for Ara, showing her on the map. She studied it after she finished ripping off the second horn of the first Minotaur. It was an ugly sound. Then she went to work on the next one. “I’ll be there. And I’ll be wanting sex with John in my werewolf form as soon as I show up. And everyone’s invited to watch.”

“That sounds amazing,” Ruby murmured.

“I’m sure it will be,” Yelena said. “We’ll probably be there within the next few days. If you get there ahead of us, there’s a felis merchant adventuress there. She kind of runs things. Also, we’re going to need your help taking on some kind of evil in the mine.”

“Also, if you get there and Ara’s there, vouch for her, will you?” John asked.

“Of course,” Piper replied.

“Okay. Well, I think we should clear this place out for valuables. Although some of this probably belonged to innocent hunters or merchants they killed in the wild...” John murmured.

“Let’s gather it up and return it to someone who would be able to help with that,” Yelena suggested.

“Good idea,” John said, and they set to work.

…

By the time they made it back to the village, the wounded and dead had been removed. The Minotaur corpses were being burned just outside of the edge of town. After asking around for a bit, they finally managed to track down Fiona and Shay at the local inn. They were sitting in one far corner of the room, talking quietly with each other.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Fiona asked as soon as the trio began approaching.

“They’re dead, we’re fine. We made a new friend, and ran into an old one,” John replied.

“Wow, that’s...it sounds like I missed a lot. Who’s the new friend?” Fiona asked.

“It’s, um, well...we’ll discuss it later,” he replied.

“Um, okay. Well, the good news is that I’ve talked Shay into helping us out.”

“Good!” John offered the woman his hand. “John Greenfield, I’m glad to be meeting you again under less trying circumstances.”

“The same to you. Your help, all of your help, is tremendously appreciated. I can’t believe you managed to kill them all,” Shay replied, shaking his hand. She was introduced to Yelena and Ruby, and then they all sat down together at the table.

John decided to hold off on bringing up the specifics of Ara. And of Piper, too. Given that they were within earshot of several locals, learning that they may have befriended a Minotaur might not be the greatest piece of conversation. And honestly, almost no one reacted well to werewolves. Someone came to take their order and shortly after their food was brought out. When they learned that they were the ones who’d helped, and subsequently killed the Minotaur clan, the local staff was more than thrilled to give them free food and free rooms.

John, Yelena, and Ruby caught Fiona and Shay up on the situation with an edited version of events, although he made sure to make a mental note that he was going to have to fill both women in on Ara and Piper tomorrow on the walk home, because neither of them deserved a surprise like that. Which meant they’d also probably have to mention Yelena at some point...and Ruby, if she wanted to walk around without her new amulet back at home.

Man, they were getting quite the unique group.

A demoness, a werewolf, an undead, maybe a Minotaur…

Well, hadn’t that been his life? Or really, what he always kind of wanted his life to be? Making friends with those on the fringes of society? Not those that deserved to be shunned by society, but by those that didn’t. The pariahs and outcasts who were tossed out and hated simply for being a different species. They always seemed to get along.

“So, what’s the plan?” he asked after they’d finished eating and had spent a little while sitting back and relaxing.

“Sleep, then we get up bright and early tomorrow and go home. And tackle the next big problem on the list,” Fiona replied.

“Which I have been made well aware of. Don’t worry, I can handle it. Although I will need everyone’s help,” Shay said.

“We will be there with you,” Yelena said.

“I’m glad. You all seem very capable.”

“What’s the room situation looking like?” Ruby asked.

“I got the four of us a big room in the basement,” Fiona replied, and grinned big at them.

“Oh...uh, okay,” Ruby murmured.

“Interesting,” Shay said, then she stood up. “If we’re going to do all this tomorrow, then I need to sleep. Goodnight. I’ll meet you here for breakfast after sunrise.”

“Goodnight, Shay,” Fiona replied. Once she was gone, Fiona leaned forward. “And now, I would love it if you three would accompany me downstairs because after today, I could really use a stress reliever and I think you all could too.”

“Yes, definitely,” John said, and Yelena and Ruby agreed.

“Then let’s go.” She got up.

…

John’s heart began to pound with excitement as he followed Fiona through the door at the bottom of the stairwell. Evidently, the whole basement was one big room, probably meant for groups of people or rich people who might occasionally pass through. There were two smaller beds tucked up in the corners, and one huge bed near the back of the room.

“That will probably be big enough,” Yelena said as they came in.

“I don’t care if it is or not,” Fiona replied, “we’re fucking on it anyway. Now, since we’re going to be going absolutely crazy, I think I’ll put a little spell I learned to use. It takes a bit of magic, but basically it soundproofs the room, so no one will hear the fucking orgy we’re about to have. I am going to be screaming.”

She raised her hand and released a wave of white magic. It coated the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and didn’t appear to have any effect as it faded.

“So that’s it? It’s working?” Ruby asked.

“Yep. Now get naked,” Fiona replied impatiently as she began stripping off her own clothes.

John was already on his way there. He was extremely grateful to see that there was a tub roughly twice the size of the ones he was used to using full of steaming water. After today, he was going to need it. As soon as he was free of his clothing and armor, John slipped into the water. Before long, the others had joined him.

And by the time she was nude, Yelena had transformed back into her natural body.

“So, while we’re cleaning up, before we get fucking wild with sex, what was it you couldn’t tell me in polite company?” Fiona asked.

“Oh, yes. We ran into an old friend. She’s a werewolf. We trust her with our lives. She wants to help and will meet us at our mining village. We also were probably only able to win against the Minotaurs because one of them allied with us. Her name is Ara. She’s a badass fighter and she might want to help. She could show up at the village. I offered both a chance to help because I thought you would welcome it. I’m sorry if I was wrong,” John explained.

“Wow. A Minotaur and a werewolf. Hmm...well, I trust your judgment, and we could use the help. Are they hot?” Fiona asked.

“Piper is extremely hot, in both forms, and has extended an invitation to you, and everyone, to watch me and her fuck in her werewolf form when we meet back up at the mining town.”

“Holy shit, I’m so fucking there,” Fiona replied immediately. “And the Minotaur? Ara?”

“I mean I certainly think she is,” John replied.

“She is,” Yelena confirmed. “She is a beautiful and fearsome warrior.”

“Would you fuck her?” Fiona asked.

“Yes,” Yelena replied.

“I mean yeah, if she was into me,” John answered.

“Awesome. I hope she helps, and I hope she’s into you, cause I want to see you pound some Minotaur pussy.”

“You have very strange tastes,” Ruby murmured. Then hesitated. “I mean, not that that’s a bad thing. It works out well for me, and others, obviously,” she added.

“I think having strange taste is practically a requirement for being part of this group,” Fiona replied. “Plus, I’ve never seen a Minotaur in action in the bedroom and I’ve always been kind of curious.”

“Me too,” John said.

“Is there a type of woman you wouldn’t fuck?” Fiona asked. She sounded genuinely curious.

“I mean...” He considered it, really considered it. “As far as I can tell, no. I haven’t really met or heard of a race that is sentient and reproduces in a way that allows them to enjoy sex as I know it, that I would turn down.”

“So you would stick your cock in, like...a harpy?” Ruby asked.

“Oh, yes I would,” he replied immediately.

“An elemental? I once worked with a water elemental and she was very pretty,” Fiona asked.

“Yes, definitely.”

“A giantess?” Ruby asked.

“I have fucked a half-giantess,” he replied. “She was about nine feet tall.”

“How did that like...work?” Ruby asked.

“Shape-shifting magic was involved,” Yelena said.

“Okay, that makes sense. So that’s a yes?”

“I mean I guess so. Put it this way: I would at least try. I mean, obviously it worked once, right? If we got a half-giantess?” he replied.

“Well, I mean...” Fiona stopped speaking suddenly, thought for a moment. “Okay, no, I’m not sure it could go the other way, I guess. I’m not sure how well a woman would survive fucking giant dick...then again, shape-shifting is a thing, so it could work. But then there’s the childbirth. I really don’t think she could survive birthing a half-giantess...whatever. All this talk about sex is getting me horny. Wash up! I want to be fucked!” she demanded.

John quickly finished washing his body off with soap and a rag. The women did the same, and with their eager efficiency, all four of them were quickly washed, out, and dried.

“So, how are we doing this?” John asked.

“Whatever we do, I wish to use my toy,” Yelena replied as she crouched by her pack. He studied her bare, fit ass, and her tail, swishing back and forth.

“Toy?” Ruby asked.

“Oh! Yes! I want to use it, too!” Fiona said. “I love that thing.”

“It’s a sex toy,” Yelena said, and pulled out the fake cock the dryads had given her. She showed it to Ruby briefly before pulling it on. “It lets the wearer actually feel the sex while using it.”

“I...had no idea such a thing was even possible! Why isn’t this more common!? Why isn’t this everywhere!?” Ruby cried.

“Dryads made it,” Yelena replied.

“I guess that would explain it, actually,” she murmured. “Can I use it?”

“Yes.”

“Can I use it on you?”

“Yes, Ruby,” Yelena replied.

“Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Hey, um...I have a request,” John said. They looked at him. “Would it be too much to ask to have all three of you licking my dick at once?”

“It would not,” Yelena said, looking at the others.

“I’m okay with it,” Ruby said.

“Then let’s do it,” Fiona said. “Hold still.”

He felt a fresh wave of excited lust go shooting through him, radiating out from his stomach, as he watched all three nude, beautiful women approach him. They came to stand before him, then each, in turn, gave him a linger kiss on the mouth and dropped to their knees. He studied them each in turn as all three leaned in, tongues extended, and started licking his fully erect cock. Yelena in the middle, in all her glorious dark beauty and fiery eyes. Ruby with her pale, veined skin and slowly evaporating anxiety about being nude in front of other people and her intensely beautiful elven features. Fiona and her red fur and bushy tail and eager, unbridled excitement.

And they were all willingly pleasuring him.

“Holy Gods, ladies,” he whispered as the pleasure and excitement mixed and hit him like a hammer. All three of their tongues began to lavish extensive, immense sexual gratification on him, caressing and stroking his cock. Sparks of raw ecstasy shot into him, making him shiver and tremble. He rested his hand on Ruby’s and Fiona’s heads, watching intently as the three naked women pleasured him. They kept this up for a good whole minute, and then Yelena took his dick into her mouth and started sucking him off, bobbing her head slowly and smoothly. He could feel her long, forked tongue working the head as she did this.

After a bit, she passed his dick off to Ruby, who took up sucking him off, her eyes closed, looking like she was focusing. Yelena took his balls into her hand and began to massage them, her grasp very hot and sure. She and Fiona made out, tongue kissing until Ruby passed him off to their kit friend, and she put his cock in her mouth. He watched Yelena start to kiss Ruby, and Ruby responded with an intense passion, holding her close and kissing her deeply. He had an idea that Ruby felt a very strong affinity for Yelena.

He could appreciate the feeling.

It didn’t take too much longer to bring him right up to the edge of orgasm. “I’ve got another request,” he said between breaths, trying to control himself.

Yelena seemed to take a perverse pleasure in trying to push him over the edge as she continued licking up and down his cock.

“What’s that?” Fiona asked.

“Can I come on all three of you?”

“Can you?” Ruby asked.

“I think he could,” Fiona said.

“You may try, love,” Yelena said.

“Okay good, keep licking, I’m about to go.”

They kept licking, and within about fifteen seconds, he started letting off. The orgasm began with a bang, like a hammer striking an anvil, and an explosion of raw pleasure blossomed within him. “Oh fuck!” he cried as that first pulse of intense, almost overwhelming rapture was released, pulsing madly through him, filling him.

His dick began to jerk violently, held by Yelena’s sure grasp, as he started to orgasm. She began jacking him off and the first spurt of his seed was released onto her absurdly alluring face. “Fuck! Yelena...yes!” he cried, panting, the pleasure racing through him.

She kept going, exceptionally skilled at pleasuring him after over half a year together and having sex almost every day. She knew how to play him like an instrument and read him like a book. He sprayed two thick spurts of his seed onto her face, and then she turned it onto Ruby’s. The sexy little undead elf opened her mouth and about half of the next spray got in there, going across her lips and tongue, then onto her cheek and nose. After another few seconds, she moved it over to Fiona and he came onto her exotically beautiful face, his cock still kicking furiously in Yelena’s grasp. He watched all this unfold, nearly mindless with screaming, ecstatic bliss as the orgasm coursed through him, like a wave of hot, magical pleasure.

As his orgasm finished and his dick was just dry-kicking, Yelena brought it back to her and put it into her mouth, sucking and slowly pulling it out, making him cry out in another burst of rapture as she cleaned it and finished him off.

“Okay, you can,” Ruby said after he was finished.

“Holy...fuck. I can,” he gasped. “Godsdamn, that was one for the books.”

Fiona giggled. “I think Bliss would be proud.”

“I am,” he muttered. His legs felt like they wanted to give out.

They got up and took some time to wash off, then they rejoined him at the bed. Now, it was his turn to provide the pleasure for at least one of them. “On your back,” he said to Fiona.

“Okay,” she replied happily, and sat down on the edge of the bed, then fell onto her back and spread her legs wide.

“You too,” Yelena said to Ruby.

“Oh, um...okay. Thank you,” she murmured.

“Tonight will be a good night. I promise,” Yelena said.

Ruby laid down next to Fiona, who reached out and took her hand, then laced their fingers together. Ruby glanced over at her, slightly startled, and Fiona smiled at her. Ruby smiled back. “Thank you,” she repeated, “for doing this for me...for accepting me.”

“You’re a good person, Ruby,” Yelena replied as she knelt before her.

John did the same before Fiona.

“That’s been hard to believe for a long time now,” she murmured.

“Ruby,” Yelena said, and she ran her hands up and down Ruby’s pale thighs, making her gasp and shudder slightly, “I have been there. I understand what it is to be a pariah. To have to hide yourself from everyone. The absolute best thing that happened to me was how John treated me when we first met and from then onward: no different than anyone else he might meet. It helped so much.” She paused, then smirked. “The sex helped a lot too.”

“I’ll bet,” Fiona said.

“I understand you won’t necessarily be able to just shed all your anxieties and frustrations and fears. It takes time to undo the damage done by a hard life, especially one lived in isolation for any extended period of time. But a good starting place is your own mind. Something I had to learn the hard way is that you cannot feed the negative aspects of yourself. You cannot feed anger, or anxiety, or fear, or sadness. They will always come around, begging for more, and the more you feed them, the fatter and more powerful they will grow, the more they will come around and the more they will demand. But if you let them wither, they will bother you less, and it will be easier to turn them away,” Yelena explained.

“That might be the most profound thing I’ve ever heard,” Ruby murmured.

Yelena laughed softly. “It is not easy. In fact, learning this lesson, and then implementing it in your day to day life, was perhaps one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. To this day it is difficult, and I imagine I will have many moments of difficulty yet to come.”

“I imagine having a stable and deeply loving relationship helps,” Fiona said.

Yelena looked over at John and smiled at him. She brushed him with the tip of her tail. “It does,” she said.

“I’m glad I can help you, Yelena,” he said. “You’ve helped me more than you know.”

“I am glad, too.” He looked back at Fiona. “She’s getting fidgety, I should get to work.”

“Thank you,” Fiona whispered.

Yelena laughed. “And I shall get to work on Ruby.”

With that, they both leaned forward and buried their faces in their respective lover’s crotches. Both women immediately began to moan as they put their tongues to work. After the exceptional job they had done, John wanted to bring them a lot of pleasure too. Fiona began panting and moaning his name, running her fingers through his hair as he ate her out, licking at her clit over and over again. She writhed and twisted in intense pleasure, and he could hear Ruby crying out as Yelena did the same. He lost himself in orally pleasuring his kit lover, happy to begin the process of forgetting, at least temporarily, the events of the day.

Reuniting with Piper and meeting Ara, and Shay, had been good, but those two battles with the Minotaurs had been exceptionally stressful. There had been some seriously close calls. And that was nothing, he imagined, compared to whatever might be waiting for him in the mine. But that didn’t matter. Right now what mattered were the three nude, beautiful women he shared this basement room with.

He licked Fiona’s clit and fingered her pussy vigorously until he brought her to an intense orgasm, and she screamed his name as her hips bucked furiously and a hot spray of sex juices escaped her wondrous pussy.

Almost as soon as she was finished, she gasped, “Fuck me! Now!”

He was more than thrilled to oblige her. Standing up, John stepped closer to her and slipped his cock into her hot, incredibly wet pussy. They both groaned loudly in sexual unification as he sank into her, pushing all the way inside of her in just a few quick thrusts. Her furred breasts began to bounce as he grabbed her legs, brought them up, and started fucking her brains out.

“Oh yes! John! Fucking yes! Fucking give it to me hard!” Fiona shrieked wildly as they fucked.

Ruby’s own voice soon joined Fiona’s as Yelena brought her to orgasm. The little undead elf writhed and groaned and jerked as her climax pulsed through her, and Yelena watched her with a smug smile, no doubt pleased with her work. It was hard to make undead women orgasm, and Yelena had certainly achieved it faster than he had. Well, she did have a lot more practice and experience pleasing pussy.

As soon as Ruby was finished coming, Yelena stood as well and slipped the fake dick into that tight elf pussy.

“Oh fuck yes,” Ruby moaned. “Does it feel good?”

“Very, very good,” Yelena replied, gasping as she started fucking her.

It was an exceptionally erotic sight.

He returned his attention to Fiona, laying his hands on her furry breasts as he continued fucking her, pounding her sweet kit pussy, making her scream in ecstasy. He grunted as he drove furiously into her, feeling the hot, perfect pleasure burning into him, filling him. He gripped her legs more tightly and put her ankles up on his shoulders and continued driving into her, burying his cock as deep and as hard as he could inside of her, just like she’d asked him to do.

They fucked until she had another shrieking orgasm, and then he wanted to switch. Right about that time, Yelena was having an orgasm of her own. She was gripping Ruby’s ankles tightly, holding her legs up, as she pounded Ruby’s tight elf pussy, both of them crying out in ecstatic bliss, and then Yelena let out a growling scream as she orgasmed. He could see her sex juices coming out from around the sex toy she was wearing, running down her legs. Her whole body rigidly convulsed as she threw her head back and screamed in pleasure.

When she was finished, she let go of Ruby.

“Wow,” Ruby said. “That thing must be something else.”

“It is,” Yelena replied.

“Can I have her?” John asked.

“Yes, love.” She pulled the fake dick out. “Let’s switch.”

They switched and he found himself staring down at Ruby in all her pale, undead glory. She smiled up at him, her face a little flushed now, her black hair a mess.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello beautiful,” he replied, and he brought her legs up. She gripped them with her hands and folded them, then spread them out, her pale, bald pussy glistening, a perfect pink slit ready to keep getting fucked.

John slipped inside of her and, once he was in, gripped her stomach from either side and started fucking her. She was so skinny that his thumbs were only a few inches apart.

“Fuck, you are a petite little elf,” he whispered as he began sliding rapidly in and out of her.

“Ah! Yes I-oh fuck!-I am. A lot of men seem to-ughn!-like that about me. Mainly human men. Fuck! You are big!” she moaned.

“I think that’s part of why. You are petite, slim, and fucking tight, Ruby. Plus most men like women that are smaller than them,” he replied.

“I thought you liked women that are bigger than you.”

“I do generally, but there is a certain satisfaction in fucking a tight little five foot tall elf beauty,” he replied.

“Evidently. I could get pretty much anyone I wanted back before I was undead...oh fuck! Keep going! I’m really gonna...OH FUCK!” she shrieked as he took the cue and started rubbing her clit with this thumb as he continued pounding her pussy.

And then he’d made her come, and he felt her pussy fluttering and trembling around his cock, and staring at her beautiful face, her messy hair, her hot, tight body...he started blowing his load inside of her, coming hard into her hot, clenching perfection. He groaned inarticulately as he orgasmed along with her, emptying himself into her, jerking forward and burying himself deeper and harder inside of her, making her scream louder as she came along with him. They climaxed together, locked in an intense embrace as she’d grabbed his forearms and was squeezing them, her whole body rigid and jerking, and they were lost in the bliss.

At some point, their shared orgasm ended, and John was left panting and sweaty. He looked down at her and she smiled up at him.

“Thank you for that,” she murmured.

“Same to you, that was incredible.”

“Oh fuck! Keep-keep going Yelena! Fuck!” Fiona shrieked.

They both looked over and saw Yelena fucking Fiona’s brains out, her legs up in the air, and their kit companion began screaming her way through another orgasm.

“I need to wash up, then I want to use that,” Ruby said.

He pulled out of her. “Two questions: Fiona, can Ruby and I double fuck you, and Ruby, do you want to do that?”

“Yes,” Ruby said.

“Yes,” Fiona replied in between gasps. “Fuck your girlfriend can pound pussy,” she whispered, laying slack on the bed. “I mean, just, fuck.”

“You have a fantastic pussy,” Yelena replied. “Will you eat me?”

“Yes, definitely. I owe it to you,” Fiona murmured. “That was just a wonderful orgasm.”

“I want your ass,” John said as he started hunting around for lube.

“You got it,” Fiona replied.

He found the lube and watched as Fiona laid down in the middle of the bed. Yelena got out of the toy’s harness and set it down on the edge of the bed for Ruby, who was washing up.

“Hmm...” Fiona murmured as Yelena crawled towards her.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“Just thinking of the best way to do this...”

“Oh. You will lie on your side, and then I will lie on my side, and bring one leg up, and you will rest your head on my thigh and lick my pussy,” Yelena explained.

“That works!” Fiona replied, excited.

Yelena got into position, resting one hoof on the headboard, and Fiona laid her head on Yelena’s firm, toned thigh.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Ruby said as she came back over.

“Me too,” John said, rubbing himself down with lube.

“Then let’s recommence this foursome,” Fiona said, and then Yelena moaned as she set to work pleasuring her with her skillful tongue.

While Ruby got up against her front side, short enough that she didn’t interfere with where Yelena was laying, John got up against Fiona’s backside. Fiona gasped and moaned as they both began working their way into her. As soon as he’d gotten a bit inside of her, he reached around and cupped one of her furry breasts in his hand.

“I have been wanting to do this ever since I first saw you,” he said.

“I could tell,” Fiona replied, then gasped as he pushed deeper, as they both did.

“Oh yeah?”

“Duh. Ah! You were always looking at my ass. And Yelena brought it up...oh yes...” she moaned as Ruby worked the fake cock into her pussy. Their elf friend moaned loudly as well. Then Fiona stopped speaking coherently as the pair of them settled into a good rhythm and began feverishly thrusting into her. They pounded both of her holes at the same time as she kept eating Yelena’s pussy. John listened to all three women moan loudly in intensely blissful pleasure as he kept fucking Fiona up the ass.

His own rapturous experience was intensifying as the sexual gratification burned into him. Fiona was right: he’d really thought a lot about fucking her sweet ass. She had a particularly nice one. He felt another orgasm coming on and held onto the feeling, wanting to ride it out, let the sex last. And it did last. He wasn’t sure for how long they all laid there on that bed, a writhing, moaning collection of people locked together in a unified and impassioned lust and desire, but it felt like a long time. A good long while of bliss.

When the orgasm came, he was sweating and gasping for breath from the length and intensity of the fuck session, they all were, and he came hard in Fiona’s tight, perfect ass. His whole body seemed to throb in time with the orgasm and pleasure washed throughout his entire being. The climax seemed to last for longer than usual, and felt simply fucking amazing. When he was finished, he pulled slowly out of her and rolled over onto his back, enjoying the feeling of floating. It was a great feeling and the post-orgasm bliss washed through him in gentle waves.

“That might have been the best foursome I’ve ever had,” Fiona said.

“It could be the fact that I’ve had a year of sexual inactivity before meeting you, but...I’m inclined to agree,” Ruby murmured, sounding dazed. “I feel like I’ve been fucked into...I don’t even know.” She laughed.

“This was a good way to end the day,” Yelena murmured.

“Yes,” John agreed quietly. He yawned. “And I’m fully ready to end this day.” Slowly, he made himself get up off the bed. “I’m taking a bath, then I’m going to sleep.”

The others gave general murmurs of agreement and slowly began to join him.

CHAPTER X

John felt a strange but powerful sense of relief as he crested the rise in the hill they’d been walking up for a little while now and caught sight of their little unnamed, derelict village. He swiftly realized that he had come to think of the place as a home in much the same way he’d thought of the cabins in the Emerald Wild as one. In a way, he supposed it made sense: he’d been helping contribute to this village, helping put it back together. Even if helping was mostly keeping Fiona company and occasionally fighting for his life. He wasn’t sure if she considered it him helping her when they fucked, or her helping him.

They’d probably settle for them helping each other in that case.

The second thought that pushed into his mind was the realization that the small village looked different. He quickly realized what had changed: some of the buildings were in the process of being renovated. As the collection of survivors walked down the main street, he picked out other things: crates, stacks of freshly cut lumber, tables beneath leather coverings that had been hastily erected. Although he could see no people, hear no work being done. Was that a bad sign? He hoped not. But even as he was thinking it, he heard familiar voices coming from the inn: Elora and...Piper, he realized, chatting calmly.

“I’m impressed,” he heard Shay say as they made for the inn, “you’ve clearly already gotten a good head start.”

He glanced at the Tomontican healer. They had gotten to know each other a lot over the walk back home. She was a very interesting woman. She had an air of great calm about her, and there was a relaxed competence to everything she did. But judging by some of the conversations they’d had, and the lewd jokes she’d easily made, and some of the sex stories she had to tell, he could tell that she wasn’t so much a repressed individual as a reserved one. Being relaxed and calm was very likely her baseline.

It was an interesting contrast to Fiona’s eager excitement or Ruby’s timid anxiety. In some ways, she was a lot like Yelena. She was clearly very intelligent and very brave, and she knew a lot about magic, and not just healing magic. When they’d fully described the problem of the mine to her, she said she was almost positive she could deal with it.

As they drew closer to the inn, John found himself wondering intensely if Ara had shown up as well as Piper. He had to admit, he was seriously interested in working with her. She had to be an interesting person. He’d never spoken to a Minotaur, not even once before her. They came into the inn and a very unique scene awaited him: a felis, a werewolf, and a Minotaur were sitting around a table, playing a game of cards.

“You made it!” Fiona cried excitedly.

“I did,” Piper agreed.

“As did I,” Ara murmured.

John glanced at Shay, but she didn’t miss a beat. They’d informed her of their more unique allies, even including Ruby and Yelena’s true nature, after they both saw how well she reacted to the knowledge that she would be working with a werewolf and a Minotaur, and it hadn’t bothered her in the slightest.

When she’d read some of their surprise, she’d just said: “I care what you do, not what you are.” And had left it at that.

Which was a pretty good way to go through life.

“Thank you so much for helping us,” Fiona said as she crossed the room.

Ara, who seemed to be having some difficulty holding the cards properly, given her large hands, frowned, then fully turned to face Fiona and look her in the eyes. “You are the one who is in charge of this operation?”

“Yes,” Fiona replied, now a bit cautious. “Why?”

“Do you truly want my help?” Ara asked.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

Ara sighed softly. “I apologize. I don’t mean to appear ungrateful. It’s just that...most people don’t react well to my kind. I can’t say that I blame them, but still. We hadn’t actually met yet. I wanted to be sure.”

“I’m positive I want your help, Ara,” Fiona replied. “John and Yelena and Ruby vouch for you, and I trust them. And I’ve got a good feeling about you already.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks for letting me come here. I’m kind of at a loose end right now.”

“Yeah, I would imagine so,” John murmured. “What happened after...if you don’t mind my asking.”

“I don’t. I walked for almost a day. I stopped a few times. Twice to eat, once to rest. I let my mind relax, my thoughts settle, my emotions drain away after all the turmoil with Jarx and my clan. Finally, I slept in a cave. When I awoke the next day, I felt a lot clearer, and I realized that I’d been walking towards this location. And so I knew what I wanted to do, what my instincts were telling me to do. Which is to come here and offer my help. So I did.”

“I hate to interrupt, but...it’s your go,” Piper said impatiently.

Ara sighed and looked back down at her cards. “I hate these things,” she murmured. “They’re too damned small.” She considered her cards for a moment, then played her turn.

“Actually, we should take a break,” Elora said.

Piper sighed and laid her hand of cards down. “Fine.”

“What’s been happening? Obviously there’s been progress,” Fiona said.

“There has indeed. More shipments showed up, and I had a team of builders come to do an inspection of the area. The whole team was actually passing through to another town for unrelated reasons and I decided to get the inspection out of the way. Once I saw there were a good twenty of them, I offered them free food and a place to sleep and a little bonus if they spent a day doing some preliminary work,” Elora replied.

“A little bonus?” Fiona asked, smirking. “Did you fuck them?”

“I fucked the foreman,” Elora replied. She paused. “Okay, and two of the cuter guys. That was a lot of fun. But anyway, they did some shoring up of the most immediate problems and probably kept two of the buildings from going down during the next bad snowstorm. At least for now. They gave me the estimate and time frame and I told them to go out and find a second crew because once we get started, we’ll want it done sooner rather than later.”

“So we’re looking at actual full renovation, right? Not just some structural shoring up and rebuilding?” Fiona asked.

“Yep. The full deal. It’ll take awhile. Even with two full crews it’ll be a month or two. Maybe even three. But I told them they’d get the message as soon as we were ready, which, I imagine will be after we clear out that mine.”

“Yes. That’s the last real thing holding us back. By the way, is Carrie back?”

“She is. She got back a few hours after sunrise. She’s catching some sleep downstairs. She said she found who we were looking for,” Elora replied.

“Oh thank the Gods,” Fiona murmured. “They’re the last ones we really need. You know...I was thinking of maybe waiting for the mercenary reinforcements to help us with the mine, but honestly...” she looked around at the people gathered together in the inn, “I think we might actually be able to deal with this thing ourselves. And now.”

“I believe we can, although I won’t know for sure until we actually confront it,” Shay said.

Ruby frowned. “Not the most confidence-inspiring statement...uh, no offense.”

“I understand. Unfortunately, that’s the way it works,” Shay replied. “But I’ve been building up a lot of magical energy.”

“All right. I’ll go wake up Carrie. How about we just get this out of the way now?” John recommended. There was a general murmur of agreement. He gave Yelena a kiss and then headed off down into the basement. He moved through the hallway, checking the rooms. It was obvious that someone had spruced some of them up a bit. He found Carrie passed out in the bed that he and Ruby had fucked in not too long ago. She awoke immediately as soon as he entered the room. She had great hearing.

“John,” she said, relaxing as she came fully awake and caught sight of him. “You’re back.”

“Yep. We’re back and we’ve got the mage. We want to tackle this mine problem now.”

“Good.” She sat up and rubbed at her eyes, then yawned.

“You know about the werewolf and the Minotaur?” he asked.

“Yeah. I had a chat with Ara and Piper before crashing out. They’re both pretty badass. And Piper is wicked hot.”

“That she is,” John replied.

“You fuck her yet?”

“No, not yet. But she said she fully intends to fuck me with an audience in her werewolf form,” he replied.

“Oh fuck, I am so there for that...” she paused, stared at him with a renewed focus, “you wanna fuck? I’m horny right now.”

He opened his mouth to say yes, but knew that the others were waiting for him, and that they’d both need all their strength for the coming battle. “After,” he said.

“Yeah, fair enough,” Carrie agreed reluctantly.

She rose from the bed and stretched, and again he was surprised by how big she was, how tall and built. She was an intimidating woman, and in that moment, he had a bit of a hard time believing that she’d fucked him. And that she wanted to fuck him again. Somehow he still thought, more often than not, that he was beneath their interest. Women like Carrie could be fucking guys way more attractive and interesting than him.

“What are you thinking?” she asked as she pulled her shirt back on, then her armor. He explained what he’d just been thinking to her, and she snorted and rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Yelena’s the most badass woman I’ve ever met in my entire life. The most badass person. And she fucks you every single day. And you’re surprised that I’m into you?”

“Yelena...is, you know...unique,” he replied. “And in love with me.”

“Yelena is unique, and amazing, but her recognizing that you are a fantastic partner isn’t really unique.” She paused as she finished pulling on her big boots, then fixed him with a firm gaze. “What’s this about, really?”

“What do you mean?” he replied, a little startled. He hadn’t expected this.

“How many hot, badass women have you been fucking recently? I know for a fact that you’ve fucked five of us here, and that you fucked a godsdamned dragon. I mean, come on. What more will it take to convince you that you’re attractive, brave, and a great lay?”

“I mean, most of the women I’ve slept with, you know...they’re adventuresses. They’re looking for a quick and easy lay. One night stands. They roll the dice. I could be a great lay or a lame lay. They won’t know until they fuck me. And the other women, I mean...they’ve told me they’re into human guys and they find it difficult to convince human guys to fuck them, so...” he shrugged.

“You don’t think that that’s diminishing their interests in you?”

“I’m not trying to, it’s just, you know, I’m an easy lay.”

“Most adventuresses and badass babes tend to have their pick of the lot.”

“Most villagers are idiots,” John replied.

“Okay, that’s a fair point, but they aren’t all idiots. And there’s a lot of other adventurers around. I mean there may have been some instances where you were the only decent potential lay around, but not all of them. My point is, you think most of the women you’re sleeping with see you as a last resort, as a ‘better than being alone’ lay. I think that’s wrong, and I think that it kind of demeans the women who choose to sleep with you.”

He paused for a long moment, staring back at her. “I mean...I guess I haven’t thought of it like that,” he replied finally.

“You’re not dumb. Maybe a little thick, but you aren’t stupid. You think you’ve found an indescribable treasure in Yelena. You’re right, you have. But she feels the exact same way about you. Try to keep that in mind. Saying that she’s attached herself to a lame guy is still an insult to her. If you’ve got people in your life that love you and care about you, you really can’t insult yourself without some collateral damage.”

He sighed after a moment. “It’s...been rough recently.”

“I can imagine. And I sympathize a lot. I know what it is to feel like shit, like you aren’t worth someone even giving you the time of day. I think most decent people have felt that in their life. I could be wrong, but I think the best way to approach it is not to worry too much about it. If you’re doing the right things, if you’re being a good person, then let that be enough. Don’t obsess over your own self-image, because that either leads to you thinking you’re a piece of shit, or thinking you’re way more amazing than you really are, and no one likes an arrogant dick.”

“That sounds about right to me,” John replied.

“Good. Now let’s go kill a...whatever’s in the mine. It’s been giving me godsdamned nightmares,” Carrie said, and marched towards the door.

“You too?” he asked.

“Yeah. All of us, I think. Whatever it is, it’s gonna be nasty. You sure this healer is up to the task?”

“She says she is, and I believe her,” John replied.

“Fair enough.”

They walked back upstairs and found the others gearing up, getting their weapons ready for whatever battle might lay ahead.

“I would ask if you were having a quick fuck down there,” Yelena said with a smirk, “but I think we all know by now that Carrie can’t keep her mouth shut when she has a dick in her.”

“Not if it’s his dick,” Carrie replied. “I just need some time to wake up. John was very brave in waking me up: I could’ve punched his nose in.”

“Gee thanks,” John said, but tried to convey actual thanks to her with just his eyes. Although he liked how open they all were with each other, it was nice to have even some measure of privacy, and he didn’t want Yelena, or any of them really, worrying more about him than they already might. In a small way, the fact that he was marching into danger and darkness yet again was nice: it really helped him get his shit together and focus.

“I am glad you did not,” Yelena said. “Now, perhaps we should get this miserable chore out of the way.”

“Agreed,” Elora said. “Are we all ready for this?”

Everyone indicated that they were. As they left the inn and began to make for the mine, John studied his companions. Yelena was at his side, as she always seemed to be. It made enough sense that they would naturally gravitate towards each other more often than not. She looked fierce and eager. Ara towered over them all and looked much the same way. She had on grubby leather and chain armor, and her huge sword was resting on her back. Ruby...actually didn’t have any of her armor on. He surmised it must be because she typically relied on speed over strength, and the armor would just weigh her down, and now she didn’t have to wear it. She looked...eager, actually. A little anxious, but mostly just eager for the challenge.

Elora and Shay had fallen into step beside each other. He wasn’t sure if they knew each other, both seemed to be well-known adventuresses in these northern lands, but he could understand why they would like each other. Both kind of had a similar attitude towards how they went about things. If nothing else, he thought that Elora would appreciate a calm, reserved professional in the face of all these rowdy, crazy people she’d had to put up with recently. Piper looked about how he expected her to: a little scary.

She really seemed like she wanted to get on with this. And then there was Fiona herself, their illustrious leader. She looked like a blend of tension and excitement, done up in her armor, her sword already in hand. And finally there was Carrie, who definitely fell in with the ‘really looking forward to testing myself against this monster’ part of the group. For a miner, she sure seemed to enjoy the thrill of combat a lot. Well, he supposed that would be really helpful. Too often mines were raided, or they stumbled into a nest of something wretched as they burrowed deeper into the earth. He imagined she was an exceptional leader.

What an interesting and curious band of people they had gathered.

Seeing them all together like this really seemed to highlight that fact. As for how he himself was doing...he was anxious. Despite his bravado when first going to confront the evil in the mine, even then he’d been feeling genuinely afraid. It had been false bravado. He supposed, as flawed and wrong as his reasoning was, he saw confronting the evil as a means of saving his relationship. Which meant that he was more afraid of losing Yelena than dying, evidently. But all that aside, now he really was afraid of whatever awaited them.

Even as they entered the mine and began the process of unclogging the main tunnel, (mostly Carrie’s magic did the work), he could feel the cold evil that emanated from the mine’s core. When they finished clearing the debris and began making their way down the tunnel, he felt it even more strongly.

“So...what’s the actual plan?” Fiona asked.

“We track it down, you all keep it busy for maybe half a minute while I modulate the magical energy I have stored to attune it properly, then I hit it, it dies. That’s what’s supposed to happen,” Shay replied.

“Supposed to happen?” Carrie asked.

“Theoretically, if it’s strong enough, it’ll survive the blast, but even still, it would be severely weakened.”

“Great,” John muttered.

“We will face it and defeat it,” Yelena said.

She had provided a powerful magical light sphere that moved with them down the lengthy tunnel. Other tunnels broke away to the left and right but always ended in empty caverns. As they drew closer, John began to hear the whispering again. It was horrible, like some kind of monstrous entity whispering in your ear as you slept, but you were paralyzed, unable to move even your eyes. You could sense it, hear it, but you couldn’t see it, you had no idea what it might do. He gathered his courage as they plunged deeper into the chill darkness.

Eventually, the walls opened back up again, and they were brought back into a chamber. A very large chamber. Both Elora and Carrie provided their own magical light spells to push back the darkness. John felt tension singing through his body as he and the others slowly moved away from each other, taking up fighting stances, hunting for the enemy. John let his gaze slide across the environment. It was obviously an old place.

The whispering was growing stronger and louder.

Judging by the fact that there were strange, runic carvings and scripture across almost every wall, he had the notion that this place was very old. Hundreds or maybe even thousands of years old. And he realized that the miners must have burst into this room while digging for more resources. All that there really was in the cavern, besides a few tools and a wooden table, (it looked like the initial miners had begun trying to set up in the cavern before they’d fled or died), was a stone sarcophagus. It resided in the exact middle of the cave.

Well, that and bones. A lot of bones.

There had to be a few dozen corpses worth of bones strewn across the room. How many adventurers had come in here looking for treasure? The feeling of evil was intense and the air was so cold that their breaths foamed upon it.

“So where is it?” Carrie asked. Her voice sounded strangely muted.

John began to respond, but he realized something all at once: the sarcophagus’s lid was missing. It was on the ground next to it. Which meant-

A figure shrouded in darkness suddenly sat up.

The whispering abruptly cut off.

“Oh crap,” Fiona whispered.

“Keep it busy,” Shay said as she backed up, a look of intense concentration on her face.

“Here we go,” Ruby said, and she began to walk towards it, sword raised. Yelena, Piper, and Carrie joined her immediately. John reluctantly moved after them. This thing felt powerful. Ara seemed nervous suddenly, but seeing the others appeared to strengthen her resolve and she marched forward, drawing her blade. Elora drew and notched an arrow, hunting for a good place to fire from. The battle was on.

Hopefully it would be a short one.

Ruby was the first one to reach the living nightmare. John was having a hard time seeing it. There was enough light, but...something about it seemed to exude darkness itself. It was vaguely in the shape of a man, roughly skeletal. A dark mist rolled off of its tall frame and burning red eyes of living flame stared out from beneath a hood of shadows. Ruby raised her blade and began to bring it around in a swift attack.

The dark creature brought a midnight blade that seemed to appear from nowhere out and sliced faster almost than John could see.

The blade cut cleanly through Ruby’s arm, just above her elbow. Half her arm, hand still clutching the sword, fell away from her.

“Ruby!” Yelena screamed.

Ruby staggered away, staring at her stump in amazement. “Ow!” she cried, though she sounded more surprised and even vaguely amused than anything else. John suddenly remembered that she was an undead. They could fix this, he thought, could fix her arm.

If they survived this.

“Stay away from it!” Elora shouted. She loosed an arrow. It disappeared into the dark form and did not emerge from the other side.

Yelena let out a shout of effort and hit the monster with a beam of pure red magical energy. The beast absorbed it seemingly without consequence.

“What the fuck is this thing!?” Carrie cried.

They all circled it warily. It still hadn’t made a move except for slicing Ruby’s arm off. It was staring at them, leering at them really. It’s magical energy was so powerful and potent that it seemed to fill the entire cavern like an invisible, noxious gas.

“Shay?” John called. She didn’t respond. The creature suddenly began to stride forward. “Shay?!”

“Ready!” she screamed suddenly, and a burst of magical light so powerful and so white that it blinded him instantly shot forward and hit the creature directly. John cried out, staggering away, throwing an arm over his eyes as he squeezed them shut. A tremendous roar echoed through the cavern. It was so intense that John felt it as much as heard it. The sound waves crashed through his body, rattling his bones, sending shockwaves of pain through him. All of this seemed to go on for far too long, and then, abruptly, there was silence.

John opened his eyes and tried to force his vision to come back. At about the same time it did and he found himself staring at the dark figure, still there, not dead, he heard Shay curse sharply. “What the fuck happened?!” he cried.

“It’s much stronger than I anticipated,” Shay replied. “Gods...Elora, here! Now! Everyone else, keep it busy! It should be significantly weaker now, but I need more time to gather up enough magical strength to hit it again!”

“Oh great,” Ara muttered. She charged forward suddenly, raised the blade, and brought it down with a harsh swiftness. The blade hit the black figure and smashed off of it, almost as if she’d brought her blade down on a cube of iron or a boulder. Sparks flew. But the figure did react. It staggered, briefly, and then suddenly shot its own blade of darkness forward. It drove the blade into Ara’s gut and John saw it burst out the back in a spray of blood. She screamed in rage and pain, then brought her pommel down on its skull.

More sparks flew and the creature ripped its blade from her in another geyser of blood. Yelena appeared at her side and began hacking away at the creature, as did Piper. John rushed forward, sprinting to cover the distance and get in there. This suddenly felt like his and Yelena’s assault on the undead demon lord back on the island off the coast of the Emerald Wild. Hopefully they could get through it with fewer causalities than that one. Piper suddenly flew away from the group. She smashed into a far cave wall and cried out.

John thought he heard something crack and had to fight the strong urge to run over and help her. As he pressed on, he saw the figure of darkness suddenly reach out, grab Ara’s large arm in one hand and punch with the other. He clearly heard the bone snap and Ara roared in pain. The beast shoved her hard and she flew back, landing heavily on her back. Yelena shoved her palm right into the monster’s face then and released a solid beam of crimson magic that lit up the entire room. The monster let out another sound of fury and suddenly a fist made of darkness and shadows swung around and connected solidly with Yelena’s skull.

There was a sharp crack and she went flying like Ara had.

She hit the floor and did not rise or stir, not even a little.

“YELENA!” John screamed and surged forward, bringing his sword to bear. Not thinking of anything else besides his lover and stopping this beast of darkness, he plunged the blade directly towards it. There was a burst of sparks, but this time the blade actually punctured the monster’s chest. He had no idea why, but he didn’t care. Trying to press his advantage, he ripped the blade out and then stabbed again.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the opportunity because the monster punched him in the chest and he joined the others, the breath driven from his lungs. He wheezed and gasped furiously for breath as he hit the ground and started trying to get to his feet. He caught sight of Carrie snatching up his black blade and rushing forward. She slashed violently with it and made contact. The creature roared and punched her in the stomach hard enough that a spray of blood escaped her mouth as she was thrown backwards by the sheer force of the blow.

John began to try and find the strength to get back to his feet when suddenly another burst of white light appeared. He cried out and covered his eyes again, still gasping for breath, and this time, when he lowered his arm and regained his sight, the thing of darkness was no longer with them in the cavern. All that was left was a stain of ashes and soot on the ground where it had been. He heard various voices groaning in pain and labored breathing. Struggling to his feet, he began a lurching, stumbling half-run towards Yelena, who still had not gotten up.

“Please Gods, please Gods, please Gods,” he whispered over and over as he drew closer. Please don’t let her be dead. Please…

He reached her side and dropped painfully to his knees.

She was still breathing. Relief, though tentative, flooded him. He saw that she was bleeding from her skull. John looked around frantically. None of them had thought to bring a fucking healing potion! They had enough magical healers that he hadn’t even thought of it! Ara was sitting up, studying her broken arm with a grimace of pain. Ruby was standing up, though she had a look of dazed confusion on her face.

He had the idea that she was looking for her arm.

Piper was down but stirring weakly. Fiona was still standing, she seemed to have gotten out of the situation unscathed, but her eyes were leaping restlessly from person to person and she seemed unable to decide who to help. Elora was down and not moving at all beside Shay, who was struggling to her feet.

“Shay! Help her!” John cried.

She shook her head, looking on the verge of passing out. “I can’t...I’m sorry. That took all my magic, and all of Elora’s too.”

“I can help,” Carrie said.

He looked over. Blood was coming from her mouth and she was doubled over in pain, but she was still standing. She walked over to Yelena. John wanted to tell her to fix herself first, but another part of him, one terrified for Yelena’s own safety, overrode it and he didn’t say anything. A smaller, more logical part told him that if Yelena were up and conscious, she could help with the healing, as she was very skilled at it.

Carrie grimaced as she laid a hand on Yelena’s head and began to heal her. John watched, his terror still intense. She had taken a bad blow to the head. He waited and watched, trembling with anxiety and adrenaline. After nearly half a minute, Carrie pulled her hand away. She was breathing heavily and trembling now herself.

“Need to recharge,” she managed.

“Thank you. I’m sorry,” John whispered.

“It’s fine,” Carrie replied.

Yelena’s eyes fluttered open. She blinked several times, her eyes rolled in her skull, then she focused on John. “What...happened?” she asked.

He let out a huge sigh of relief. “Oh thank the Gods,” he whispered. “You took a very bad blow to the head, honey. How are you feeling?”

“I...am dizzy. And my head hurts horribly. Is it dead?”

“Yes, it’s dead. Yelena...I’m sorry but we need your help. Everyone is either out cold, too injured, or drained of magic, and we didn’t think to grab any godsdamned potions. Could you-”

“Yes...but I need a moment.”

“I can help with healing,” Fiona said.

“Help Piper,” Carrie replied, pointing. “She got hit bad.”

Fiona nodded and hurried over.

“Okay.” John grimaced and grunted as he got to his feet. “I’m going for healing potions. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

“Be careful,” Yelena said.

“I will.” He stopped, turned back and looked at her. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said softly.

John started making his way out of the cave. It was agony to move, he thought he’d cracked or even broken a few ribs, but they needed those potions. As he started making his way down the tunnel, he knew that it was going to be a very long walk, and an even longer day. But at least they had done it. They’d killed it.

CHAPTER XI

John opened his eyes and, for several seconds, wondered where he was.

He saw an old, weathered ceiling of wood, and sunlight thrown on it. He heard breathing around him, several people breathing steadily, the respiration of sleep. Someone was awake though, he heard soft conversation nearby.

As he laid there, it all came back to him.

It had in fact been a very long day.

Yelena was beside him in the bed he laid in, and he rolled over, curling up against her back, holding her to him, thinking he might go back to sleep. He was still tired, and she was hot against him, and he was very comfortable.

But the thoughts wouldn’t stop coming.

He’d gotten the healing potions, chugged one for himself so he’d be more useful, and then had hurried back to the others. From there, he’d spent the next two hours helping get everyone healed, up, and out of the cave. Fiona had been the only one to get out of the fight unscathed, which she felt really guilty about, but John was thrilled to have someone to help him. Because they needed all the help they could get.

Although she hadn’t gotten hurt, Elora was straight up out cold. Shay had apparently drained every last ounce of magic from her for that second attack. And Shay wasn’t far behind her, as she’d expended all of that magic and any she had left in herself. She’d helped as much as she could, but for the most part, she seemed like she was trying not to pass out. Yelena and Carrie were the most magically inclined after Shay, and so John had given them healing potions, and they had in turn set to work on healing everyone else.

Ara took a long time to fix, given her size and the fact that she’d broken her arm so badly and gotten stabbed in the stomach. Piper had taken a bad blow to the chest like John had, and had broken a few ribs, as well as cracked her skull when she’d hit the far wall. Ruby had helped as best she could, but she could only do so much with the one arm. He was very glad to see that she didn’t seem to be in too much pain, given her undead status. Eventually, everyone had staggered, limped, or was carried out of that cave. They all ended up in the main room of the inn.

From there, John and Fiona, who were the most able-bodied left, set about getting several cots and mattress set up in the main room. Besides the fact that it would be more convenient to keep an eye on everyone at once, no one felt like going off on their own. They put Elora in her bed and let her sleep after Shay had done a preliminary check on her. She hadn’t stirred once the whole time, and he remembered how Elise had been after that battle on the island when she’d had to drain her own energy. She’d been unconscious for nearly a day.

As soon as the first other cot was available, Shay had instructed Ruby to lay down on it, then had used whatever magic she had built up to perform a spell on her that would reattach her arm. The only problem was that she wasn’t allowed to move at all, and so Ruby had brought herself into the kind of half-sleep she was able to achieve after agreeing to be strapped down to the cot to keep from moving. That’s the only way the spell would work and she’d get her arm back. Once that was done and the second cot was set up, Shay had almost immediately passed out onto it, having spent all her own magical energy nearly three times over now.

Ara, although she was fighting not to show it, had been exhausted by the experience, and silently gathered up a mess of blankets, pillows, and bedding. Once it was tossed into one corner of the inn, she’d laid down and passed out immediately. John and Fiona had helped get Yelena, Carrie, and Piper set up to sleep off their exhaustion and injuries as well. Once everyone was tended to, he and Fiona had set about making a massive meal for their whole crew, as they knew that they both would need it and deserved it after that.

The day bled into night as they cooked the huge meal, and one by one, the others had awoken, eaten, thanked them, and then gone back to bed. Elora was an exception though, as she was still completely out of it. Eventually, Fiona had laid a few magical alarms around and then they both had finally gone to bed. He’d curled up beside Yelena on the floor on a mattress he’d brought up and had gone to sleep almost immediately.

Now he was waking. Judging by the amount of sunlight, it was somewhere around midday. As his thoughts came to an end, John realized that although he was still tired, and content, he wasn’t going to go back to sleep. Although honestly he was enjoying laying here. This was a very rare occasion where he had awoken before Yelena. As he kept laying there, he became aware of the fact that he needed badly to piss and he was starving. So, he slowly got up and looked around. The soft conversation he’d heard was coming from Fiona, Piper, and Ara. All three women were sitting around the table, eating breakfast, talking quietly.

“You’re up,” Fiona said. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Ribs are sore, but otherwise yeah,” he replied. “Did anything happen?”

“No, everything’s fine,” Fiona answered.

“Good.”

He walked out of the inn and around to the side. Standing at the edge of the wooden porch, he pissed into the recently fallen snow. He was wearing only his boxers, and so being outside like this was quite the wakeup call. When he was done, he returned to the inn, found a washbasin, and set to work washing himself off. He hadn’t gotten the chance the night before and although he also hadn’t had the chance, or the energy, to fuck anyone, he still reeked. That helped wake him up most of the rest of the way, and made him feel better.

Once that was done, he dried and pulled on some simple clothes, before joining the women at the table they were sitting at. There were several plates in the middle, scattered with scrambled eggs, cooked bacon and ham slices and fresh fruit, as well as a pot of stew in the middle. He began grabbing and eating, as well as taking a bottle of blueberry juice from a chest that was sitting on the floor. The chest had been treated with cold magic, and there was a decent stash of juice, as several such bottles were also chilled.

As he ate, the other women slowly came awake and joined them. Within an hour, all of them were up and sitting around the main table, eating and talking. As the conversation came to a slow halt, Carrie cleared her throat and spoke up.

“So...does anyone want to tell me what in the actual fuck we killed down there yesterday?”

They all looked at her, then at each other. John realized that they’d never had a chance to actually talk about anything that had happened the previous day.

“I think I know,” Shay said. They all looked at her. She sighed and shook her head. “Gods, I thought you might’ve had an undead necromancer down there, a bad haunting maybe, maybe a demon lord at worst.” She glanced at Yelena. “No offense.”

“None taken. I hate most demons at this point anyway,” she replied easily.

“But...and I’m not sure, but I feel fairly certain...I think that might have been a member of the Order of Black Death.”

“What in the fuck is that?!” Carrie replied.

“I’ve never heard of them,” Elora murmured softly, then yawned. She was awake and aware, but still exhausted.

“Few have. They’re a very old order. About fifteen hundred years or so, I think, and it’s possible that they’re far older than that. I don’t know for sure. They were a cult of extraordinarily powerful necromancers who got their hands onto some kind of ancient, mythical artifact. Unfortunately, a lot about this cult has been lost to time, but, well...whenever you hear about some cult or group of assholes trying to attain ‘ultimate power’ or whatever version they’re using of that, the Order of Black Death is what they’re aspiring to be. They were the real deal. They toppled nations. There were a dozen of them, and they had an army of the undead.”

“So what happened to them?” Yelena asked.

“No one knows. They disappeared after a tremendous battle. Some of them were killed, the history books know that much at least.”

“Which history books?” Ara asked uncertainly.

“The far elves,” Shay replied. “They might be stuck up their own asses, but they do know history. They have a tremendous respect for history. I’ve been there, read up on a few things. The Order was one of them. Surprisingly, they don’t have much. When I asked, they didn’t offer much more. I think they were embarrassed. We know for a fact that four of them died in that last battle. Well...I mean, inasmuch as we can know anything from that long ago, but the records seemed pretty clear about that. The others just disappeared. Everyone kept expecting them to come back, but they didn’t. Gods, who knew that one of them ended up in some cave out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“You know, that battle was tough, really tough, and we’d have been fucked if it wasn’t for you, but that thing didn’t seem like the demigod you’re describing...” Piper said.

“I think there were several factors working with us. The first being that it was ancient and no doubt weakened by time. The second being that I was lucky enough to know the right kind of magic to hit it with. The third...if I had to guess, I think that might have been one of the weakest members of the order, if not the weakest. As you can see, even a weak member having been diminished by centuries upon centuries of rest still was that difficult to kill. Plus, I think if it had had more time, it would have been able to summon up much more power. We got very lucky.”

“That we did,” John murmured, and the others agreed quietly. He frowned as something occurred to him. “Something’s been bugging me. Every attack I saw, besides yours, hardly had any result. But for some reason, my sword did damage.”

“I noticed that too, when I used it,” Carrie said.

Shay frowned. “Can I see it?”

“Yeah.” John got up and retrieved his dark blade, then set it on the table in front of her. She picked it up and studied it.

“Where did you get it?” she asked.

“It was in the hand of a dead adventurer in a fortress north of here. I have no other context for it at all,” he replied.

“I don’t suppose you could go back, see if there’s anything more relevant on the body…?” Shay asked.

In his mind, he saw the fortress crumbling into pieces, the whole thing sliding off a hundred-foot drop and into the ocean.

“No,” he replied.

“Hmm...” She closed her eyes and laid her hand flat against the side of the blade for several seconds. Then sighed. “I’m not sure. There’s something about it, but whatever it is, it’s extremely faint. I can’t even tell what it’s made out of. It’s not magic. It’s certainly a curiosity. You should consider having someone more knowledgeable look at it.”

“I will. Thanks,” he replied, accepting it back. He replaced it, then took his seat again.

“So, is it still dangerous in the mine?” Fiona asked.

Shay sighed. “I don’t know. I need to go back and check it out. I’m fairly confident I should be able to do a powerful cleansing, but I honestly think it will take several to fully cleanse the evil from that place.”

“Okay,” Fiona replied. She frowned, staring at the table, considering something. Abruptly, she smiled and raised her head. “Given everything that has happened, and all we’ve gone through, I think it would be best if we all had a party tonight to celebrate how far we’ve come and, mainly, the fact that we’re still fucking alive after that.”

“Oh, yes please,” Piper said immediately. “I would love a party.”

“I wouldn’t mind getting shitfaced,” Carrie said.

“It would be a welcome change of pace,” Yelena agreed.

“Then it’s settled. Let’s set up, hunt some food, break out the booze, and then we’ll have a nice, happy party and not worry about anything tonight,” Fiona said firmly.

They all immediately agreed.

John was looking forward to it.

…

John took a deep breath, letting the cold night air fill his lungs, and then exhaled slowly.

It had been a long day, but it had been a great one.

He’d gone out hunting with Yelena and Piper, taking down a number of deer, rabbits, and a few different kinds of birds to prepare for the feast they were going to make for the party. He’d caught up with Piper, listening to what she’d been doing for the past half year. Mostly, she’d gone south and hunted bounties and slept around. Which sounded like a lot of fun. After they killed what felt like a sufficient number of wildlife, they brought the bodies back, skinned and cleaned them, before cutting up the meat and beginning the process of frying it all up.

That’s honestly what had taken up most of the rest of the day: making the food.

Ara and Elora had gone with Shay back into the mine to help her perform the first big cleansing ritual, and mainly to watch her back in case anything else had shown up. And Piper declared that she was shit at cooking, she instead decided to do a sweep of the area, make sure the place was really secure, and to lay a few basic alarm spells around the village. After yesterday, John figured everyone was feeling a little paranoid.

And so he, Yelena, Fiona, Carrie, and Ruby had spent the rest of the time cooking up a storm and setting up for the party.

When sunset had come, it had gone off, and Fiona had popped the cork on a bottle of old wine they’d gotten during their travels and declared it begun. For awhile, John had enjoyed himself. He’d had a good meal, had several great conversations with his friends, and generally had just relaxed, listening to the women tell stories of their adventures. After about two hours though, he’d started to get restless, and had finally excused himself and gone for a little walk outside. He was doing what Piper had done earlier: checking the perimeter.

There was nothing out there, as far as he could tell so far, just darkness and ice and trees. Maybe some wildlife, and he supposed it was definitely possible something else was lurking out there, but Shay and Yelena had added their own magical defenses and alarms, so they had a pretty decent security net going. Really, he just needed a little bit of alone time. He’d been talking with Shay and Piper, and he’d happened to glance over at Yelena, who was laughing and talking happily with Fiona and Ruby and Ara, a bottle of half-finished wine in her hand, and this intense bolt of deeply impassioned emotions had struck him like a hammer.

John knew, academically, that he loved Yelena more than he had ever loved anyone in the entirety of his life. Before he met her, he didn’t actually know what love truly was. But knowing a thing and being blindsided by the emotional reality of it were two different things. He’d been smashed to pieces by simply how much, how intensely he loved her. He knew he would do anything for her, go anywhere for her, love her for the rest of his entire life. He would die for her. He knew people who said that and it always showed up in those lame romance novels that he read every now and then. But it was true. He knew it as simple fact.

And he’d felt kind of guilty.

Because Yelena was this amazing woman, she had so many qualities about her, there was so much about her to love, and he didn’t honestly feel worthy of her. He knew this was somewhat tied to the problems he’d been having earlier, and knew that he needed a moment to sort it out alone. So he’d excused himself and left, gone for a little walk up and down the main road of their nameless little village. John didn’t know if he deserved to be with Yelena, if he deserved to be as happy as he was. He’d like to think so. He thought that he’d done some pretty damned spectacular things in his life. Not just marvels or achievements, he didn’t care so much about fame or fortune, but huge accomplishments of helping people.

He’d helped put down a cult of necromancers, stopped an undead demon lord, helped build up this village with the intent of stabilizing an entire region that would benefit hundreds if not thousands of people, and dozens of other little things. And he didn’t do any of this necessarily for recognition or for coin, and honestly would have gladly done all of it for free, because it was worth doing. But did that make him a good person? A good enough person? What was a good person? He thought that he knew some good, some great people, but he felt like he was just too close to the matter to determine whether or not he was a good person.

And Carrie had had a point, about talking shit on himself, even in his own head. He wasn’t an island in this, he did not stand alone.

So it was either think he did deserve this and risk sounding like a narcissist, or think he didn’t deserve it, and go down the rabbit hole of trying to not be worthless. It didn’t seem like either situation was a good answer.

Maybe…

Maybe he should just forget about it.

Don’t bother with the question. He supposed it mattered whether or not he was a good person, a ‘worthy’ person, but realistically, he doubted he would ever be able to truly know that. He couldn’t accurately judge himself. So logically the only thing to do would be to keep trying to be a good person, keep doing good things, helping people, and enjoy his life with Yelena as much as he could. And try to ignore these bad feelings when they came up.

“There you fucking are.”

John turned around, startled. He hadn’t heard Piper approach him at all. “Hi,” he replied.

She smirked. “Startle you?”

“A little.”

“I wondered where you went. We all did, really.”

“Just...needed some air,” he replied.

“Bad thoughts?” He hesitated, then nodded. “I understand. We all get them. But come back inside! I’m horny and your girlfriend is asking when she gets to watch us fuck!”

“I have to admit, I’ve been looking forward to that,” John replied.

“Then let’s go! I’m ready to transform and we’ve got a bed set up just for the occasion.”

“All right, I’m coming,” he said, walking back towards the inn with her.

“Oh, you will be,” Piper replied.

John felt lust begin to rise quickly within him. As they came back into the inn, he saw that she was right: there was a large bed now in the center of the room. Everything else had been pushed aside or pulled back, and now all the women had gathered in a loose circle around it. They all looked at the pair as they entered.

John hesitated. It was more than a little intimidating.

“Don’t get stage fright, my love. You have every reason to be confident,” Yelena said.

“So you told them all what’s up?” John replied.

“Obviously.”

“Come on! I’ve waited long enough for this,” Fiona complained.

“So you all want to see this?” John asked. He and Piper came to stand beside the bed.

“Duh! It’s a hot human guy getting fucked by an insanely hot werewolf chick!” Carrie replied. “I’ve never seen that before!”

“I must admit,” Ara said, she sat on a table with her arms across her chest, “I too have never seen this before. And I’m interested. I’ve seen a lot, but not a werewolf mating.”

“This is less mating, more rutting,” Piper said as she started taking off her clothes.

“A fair point,” Ara replied. “Rutting’s more fun, anyway.”

“Gods, yes it is,” Ruby agreed.

John figured it was high time to get started and began to take off his clothes. Piper got nude very quickly, and as soon as she was, she raised her hands. “Just so we’re all completely, totally clear, I am going to transform into my werewolf state and fuck him.”

“Yeah, yeah, get on with it!” Fiona replied impatiently.

Piper laughed, then focused, and began her transformation. John somehow managed to keep stripping as he watched her body ripple and change. Watched as she grew blonde fur, as she became taller, bigger, her face becoming more wolfen. He had a bad habit of stopping everything he was doing whenever a woman was doing something incredible like that, or taking off her clothes. By the time he was naked, she was transformed. And, oh fuck, she looked just as fantastic as he imagined she would nude and as a werewolf.

If anything, she looked more impressive.

She turned to look at him in a very quick, very sudden move, and it startled him. He’d already forgotten how fucking fast she was in this form. Her eyes were wide and full of lust and hunger. “On the bed, now,” she said, her voice deeper, almost growling.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, and climbed onto the bed.

“Yelena, I am about to piss you off so much,” Piper said as he laid down and she swiftly leaped up onto the bed with him.

“Oh?” Yelena replied.

“Because he is about to fall in love with my werewolf pussy.”

Yelena laughed. “I am sure werewolf pussy is fantastic, but demoness pussy is better.”

“I guess we’ll have to find out,” Piper said.

She mounted him quickly. “Unfortunately, I am too impatient for extended foreplay. So just...try to last as long as you can.”

“I can do that,” he replied.

She smirked. “We’ll see.”

She gripped his cock in her firm grasp and lined it up with her pussy. Like Yelena, he could feel heat radiating off of her like an open furnace. He looked up at her as she began to slide him inside of her, the pleasure hitting him like a drug. She was a bit more filled out as a werewolf, her thighs thicker, breasts bigger, hips a bit broader. She had to be a good foot taller, and she was already fairly tall before. And then there were no more thoughts as Piper finished getting him comfortably inside of her pussy and she really began to ride him.

As she fucked him, John learned one thing.

Werewolves probably had the slipperiest, wettest vaginas of any of the races.

He began to really worry that maybe she had a point. This felt simply fucking amazing. He’d dreamed of fucking a hot werewolf woman for years now, and it was finally happening, and it was somehow even better than he imagined it would be. A groan escaped him as his cock was lit up with absolute pleasure. His hands sought her hips and he gripped them firmly as she rode him, sliding rapidly up and down his cock.

Her body was powerful. There was so much raw strength he could feel coming from her. And her furry breasts bounced spectacularly as she rode him. A look of satisfaction and bliss was on her face as she stared down at him. Whatever was happening, whatever they might have to face in the future, or what had happened before, John felt it all disappearing, dissolving in the face of this sexual encounter, and in the company of his friends.

This was now their own world, all that mattered was what was happening right now.

It was a deeply comforting feeling.

And so was getting fucked by Piper. She was really getting into it, and he was really having a seriously hard time trying to not bust his load inside of her sweet, sweet pussy. He grit his teeth and focused on not coming.

“You doing okay?” she asked, grinning down at him.

“Oh yeah,” he replied. “I’m really okay.”

“You sure look like it.”

John knew that he wasn’t going to last a whole lot longer, so he reached down between them, found her clit, and began stimulating it. Piper cried out and started panting faster, moaning intensely as he pleasured her. He had to get her off before he blew his load or he was going to feel bad. He kept going, pleasuring her, staring up at her beautiful furred body that rippled with raw power and sexual energy. She towered over him, bliss written across her face. And he thought she seemed to be close to her own climax.

Evidently, she was as sensitive as she was aroused.

He had her squirting within about half a minute. And what a fucking experience it was to have a werewolf riding your cock and orgasming at the same time. She let out a long, loud cry of ecstatic, rapturous sexual gratification. And his own pleasure magnified as he felt her pussy clench and shudder around his cock, felt a hot release of sex juices, and she began riding him even harder and faster. Within seconds his own orgasm burst into being, and he let out his own rapturous cry of release as he started coming inside of her.

It was an explosion of pleasure and tremendous sexual satisfaction.

That orgasm seemed to last a long time. Bliss coursed through his body like waves as the pair of them writhed together in unified sexual gratification. At some point during the orgasm, he’d closed his eyes, and as he opened them back up, he saw Piper looking down at him. She looked a lot calmer, and quite satisfied.

“I have been waiting six fucking months to do that,” she murmured.

“Me too,” he replied, reaching up and cupping her big, furred breasts in his hands. “I thought about you a lot over winter.”

“Same,” she said, then slowly got up off of him. Standing up, she stretched and popped her back and neck, then moved over to the washbasin.

He laid there and watched her go. Yelena approached him. “You look deeply satisfied.”

“I just got fucked by a werewolf,” he replied, grinning and reaching out to her.

She took his hand. “Which must be a deeply satisfying experience. I hope to enjoy it myself.”

“Give me a minute and you can,” Piper said.

“I have a special toy I want you to use on me. You’ll really like it.”

“I love toys.”

“Now...” Yelena looked down at John, then up and around at the others, who were still gathered, still watching. “I get the feeling my love has one, maybe two more good fuck sessions in him. And then I get him after that. So I think, personally, it would be fair to let those who have not fucked the love of my life get first pick.”

“I agree with this,” Shay said, stepping up on the other side of the bed and looking down at him. Gods, she was beautiful. Of course, he hadn’t actually met a Tomontican woman who wasn’t extremely attractive. Not that that diminished or devalued her beauty in any way.

“So who hasn’t fucked him?” Carrie asked.

“I obviously have,” Fiona said.

“Same,” Elora said.

“We had sex,” Ruby said, offering him a surprisingly shy smile.

“I sure fucked him,” Carrie said.

“Okay, so that is one,” Yelena replied. She looked around, then her eyes settled on Ara. “Obviously you have not.”

“I haven’t,” she agreed.

“Are you interested?”

“Is he?” Ara asked.

Yelena looked back at John. She raised her eyebrows. “I’m definitely interested,” he replied, looking from Yelena to Ara.

“Seriously?” she asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Yes. Why is that a surprise?’

“I’m a Minotaur,” she replied.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes, but had a small smile on now. “I’ve never had sex with someone outside of my own race.”

“If you aren’t interested, it’s fine,” John said.

“No, I’m...” she paused and looked around at the others. She actually seemed a little nervous. “I’m interested,” she said finally. “I just didn’t think you were. But I guess it’s not too surprising, given the fact that you’ve fucked a demon, a werewolf, and an undead.”

“I’ve fucked more than that,” John replied.

“Evidently. Yeah, okay. I’d like to try it.”

“Do you want privacy? I can understand if you would,” he asked.

“I’ve fucked in front of an audience many times,” Ara replied. “Besides, I actually like all of you so far. But you should go first, Shay. I want to watch more.”

“Don’t we all?” Yelena asked.

“Fine by me,” Shay said, and started taking off her clothes. “Go wash up. I want foreplay.”

“Yes ma’am,” John replied, and got up.

He passed Piper on the way to the washbasin. “Now,” she said, approaching Yelena, “where’s this toy you’re on about?”

“I’ll show you.”

John washed himself off thoroughly and quickly, and as he was doing this, Shay appeared at his side, nude and glorious. He looked at her as she joined him in washing up. She had roughly the same build as almost all the other Tomontican women he’d encountered: curvy. She had pleasantly padded thighs and big, pleasant breasts, and beautifully broad hips. Her mocha skin was mostly smooth and flawless, marred occasionally by a sexy scar.

“Good Gods, you are beautiful,” he said as he studied her.

“You’re pretty damned hot yourself. You’re in amazing shape,” Shay replied. “I’ve been enjoying too many good meals lately.”

“That’s not really a bad thing,” he said, still staring at her.

“Oh, you like the curves?”

“Oh Gods yes. I love them. Your thighs are to fucking die for,” he replied.

“Well thank you,” she said with a small smile. “And you...you look like you’ve been working out night and day. You’re very cut.”

“I basically was for six months,” he replied.

“Really? Why’s that?”

“Yelena and I shacked up with a dragon so she could learn shape-shifting.”

Shay raised an eyebrow. “‘Shacked up’? As in...”

“Just once.”

“With a dragon?”

“Oh yes. She was amazing.”

“Well I bet, she’s a dragon. Just once?”

“Poor timing. She had a dry spell in terms of lust that just began to raise right as we were leaving. Actually...if we went back, she’d probably be down for some more sex.”

“I may have to pay a visit. I’ve heard a lot of rumors about a dragoness living in this region, but nothing definitive.”

“Well, I feel pretty confident that she’d be interested in fucking you if you showed up bearing a voucher from us...”

“I will really have to consider that...now let’s go fuck. I’m horny.”

“You got it,” he replied.

They finished, dried, and hurried back over to the bed. As they did, he saw Yelena laying down on her back, and Piper, still in her werewolf form, pulling on the magical strap-on. “Uh-uh,” Piper said, “hands and knees, you little whore.”

“Yes ma’am,” Yelena replied, and Piper grinned.

“I have also been dreaming about this for six months,” she said as she finished pulling the sex toy up over her hips. Then she dropped to her knees behind Yelena, slipped it into her pussy, grabbed her hips, and started pounding her from behind. Both women let out loud, long moans of sexual bliss. “Holy fuck! You were not overselling this!” Piper moaned.

“Uh-huh! Ah! Fuck!” Yelena cried.

“Wow,” Shay murmured as she sat on the bed with him. “A werewolf fucking a demon with a magical strap-on. I’ve seen a lot, but...damn.”

“Yep,” John replied softly, still staring. Everyone was staring now. Both women didn’t seem to notice, wholly immersed in their intense rutting session.

John felt his lust and desire not just coming back but spiking as he watched the display, then he moved up against Shay and kissed her on the mouth. She responded quickly, grabbing him and kissing him back, slipping her tongue smoothly into his mouth. He ran his hands over her body, immediately becoming lost in all her smooth, soft, warm skin, all her wondrous, voluptuous curves. She moved against him in such a way that although this was their first time, it already felt like they had been lovers in the past.

There was a sure, steady confidence to her.

He ran his hands over her large, soft breasts, reveling in how fantastically wonderful they felt to grope and caress and simply touch. They went on like this for several moments, hands exploring each other, moving against each other on the bed he had just fucked Piper on. And before long, Shay pulled back slightly.

“How about I ride your face and suck your dick?” she suggested.

“That sounds great,” he replied.

“I thought so too.”

She got up and they both shifted. John rested his head on a pillow and she swung a leg over him, straddling his face. As Shay settled into place and he began to get lost in her thick, well-padded, mocha thighs, they both got to work pleasuring each other. His tongue sought and quickly found her clit and began to lick at it, stimulating it, and he heard her moan as he felt her shudder at the same time, her body responding to the pleasure. And within seconds, her hot, wet mouth found his cock and he felt her tongue dragging across his head, and his own body responded to her touch in kind. He felt her cradle his balls in her hot grasp and begin to massage them as she licked. And then they were both licking, unified in pleasuring each other.

The experience was pure bliss.

He lost himself in it, especially when his cock fully disappeared into her mouth and she really got to work sucking him off. He pleasured her, tried to make her feel as good as she was making him feel, licking her clit over and over, using more of his tongue, and then slipping a finger into her to stimulate her even further.

At some point, one of them began to get impatient for sex, though he wasn’t quite sure which. Either he had and she’d picked up on it, or she had, or they both had at the same time. Whatever the case, Shay was suddenly getting up off him.

“Fuck me,” she said simply.

John responded by getting up and making room for her. She decided she wanted to get fucked from behind and got onto her hands and knees, showing him her thick, amazing ass. Eager for sex, he quickly got up against her and slipped his saliva-covered cock into the perfect wet slit of her pussy. She moaned loudly as she accepted his length into her.

“Have you ever had Tomontican pussy before?” she asked as his hands found her smooth, broad hips, gripped them firmly, and he began to slide in and out of her.

“Yes,” he replied. “Several times.”

“It’s great, isn’t it?”

“Extremely,” he replied.

She laughed, then moaned and then cried out as he hit a sensitive spot. John settled in for a session of smooth, intensely pleasurable sex as the pair of them found a good rhythm. He heard Yelena screaming in bliss and glanced over. She was having a deeply satisfying orgasm as Piper continued to pound her from behind. As he watched and kept screwing Shay, Yelena finished her orgasm, then made Piper relinquish the strap-on. Yelena pulled it on after a short break, then pushed Piper down onto her back, settled in between her spread open legs, and started fucking her werewolf pussy. When he heard another moan, he glanced over and saw a new development: Cassie and Fiona were going at it. Cassie was sitting down on one of the cots with her legs spread, and Fiona was knelt on the floor, face buried in Cassie’s crotch, both women completely naked.

Elora, Ara, and Ruby were talking quietly with each other, their gazes drifting quickly back and forth between the three different fuck sessions. It was turning out to be quite the night, and a celebration truly worthy of all they had accomplished so far.

“Keep going...oh fuck...” Shay moaned.

She was close. He kept going, giving her thick ass a hard smack, making her moan louder. John reached down and under her, and cupped her big breasts in his grasp, and fucked her until she had a screaming orgasm. John groaned, feeling her grinding her big ass against his crotch as she came, her pussy clenching and spasming, getting hotter and wetter. And then he was coming too, joining her in her ecstatic climax, pleasure coursing through their bodies together. He emptied himself into her, coming hard for a second time that night.

And when they were finished, the pair of them laid together on the bed, embracing, kissing occasionally and basking in the post-orgasm glow. He ran his hands across her body and she did the same to his, their touches soft and gentle.

“That was very, very nice,” Shay murmured.

He nodded tiredly in agreement. “You are an excellent lover...and a really fucking hot woman.”

She smirked sedately. “Thank you. You’re pretty great, too. Yelena is a very lucky woman. And you’re a lucky man. I’m sure almost everyone here has told you this, but you have a fascinating and beautiful relationship.”

“They have, and thank you. It’s still great to hear. I feel that way all the time, but it is nice to have a bit of reinforcement from external sources.”

“It is,” she replied. After a moment, she stretched. “Well, I’m going to go wash up and then maybe grab a smoke and some wine in a bathtub. I’m freshly fucked and I want to drift even deeper into this relaxation, because I have several days of taxing magical cleansing ahead of me if we want that mine cleaned of the evil energy.”

He nodded, shuddering slightly at the memory of facing down that dark entity. He was probably going to have nightmares about it. Shay kissed him once more, then got out of the bed. He rolled over and caught eyes with Ara, then waved her over. She wrapped up her conversation with Ruby and Elora, then crossed the room and sat beside the bed.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“I will be in a moment. I thought maybe we could talk first, get to know each other a bit better. You seem...apprehensive.”

“I’m not apprehensive,” she replied immediately. He stared at her, a little surprised. She sighed and glanced away briefly. “I apologize,” she said, her eyes finding his again. “I...weakness in its many forms is not well-received among my people, traditionally. And with the way my life with my clan went over the past several months, I had to prove myself strong again and again and again. Every perceived weakness was attacked as they all became obsessed with strength, with proving themselves, with pride.”

“We’re basically the opposite here. We support each other. If we see anything that might be a weakness, our first instinct tends to be to help,” John replied.

“I can tell. It is...a great atmosphere. But I’m still going to need time to get used to it.”

“I completely understand. Yelena’s the same way.”

Ara glanced over at Yelena. She had since finished fucking Piper’s brains out, and now both women were laying together, holding each other, Piper having returned to her human form. “Hmm...I suppose that would be true. From what little I know about demons, I imagine that weakness is even less tolerated among her kind. Every day, every hour, perhaps every minute would be a constant test of strength and prowess.” She sighed and shook her head. “It is a very trying and taxing existence. I am very strong because of it, very brave, and I learned many skills as a result of trying to keep up with and surpass my brethren, but...it certainly had its drawbacks.”

“I get that,” John murmured. “I definitely had it easy by comparison, but I do know about that. The competition. It’s not even that competition is bad. It’s good, really. It can make us better. But all too often it seems to be unhealthy.”

Ara stared at him as he felt silent, her gaze contemplative. “I had forgotten people like you exist,” she said finally. “People who are understanding, reasonable, kind...compassionate. I’ve met people like you before in my life, but it’s been so long...I had forgotten. Or I suppose I’d begun to wonder if I was imagining that people like you still exist. It’s a good feeling.”

“Well, I’m glad I can make you feel good. You do seem like a good person, Ara. You certainly stepped up every time it’s been required since we met.”

“It would have been wrong to walk away,” she replied simply. Then her expression changed. “So, about our, uh, impending sex. I just want to make sure that you’re really, genuinely attracted to me, and you aren’t just having sex with me to make sure I don’t feel left out. I really will be okay with it if you aren’t interested in me.”

“I’m actually, really, genuinely attracted to you, Ara,” he replied.

“Okay. I believe you. It’s just that...I’ve had sex when I didn’t want to, and I’ve also had sex when the other person didn’t want to. And now that I’m free of my clan and, I suppose, my species, I don’t want to repeat that.”

“Why did you have sex with someone who didn’t want to have sex with you?...I mean, if you’re okay with answering.”

“I am okay with it. Politics, essentially, is the answer to every instance of not wanting sex but doing it anyway. Lots of mating among clans. Clan leaders sometimes give us away temporarily as ‘gifts’ to gain favor or to smooth over incidents with other clans. And it’s more complicated than that. A few times I had to be the favor and receive the favor.”

“Wait, why did you have to receive the favor?” he replied.

“I had the favor of a clan leader in my youth. He was kind but...stupid. He thought he was doing me a favor by getting some stud from another clan to have sex with me. Sometimes it was nice, but sometimes I either knew and hated the idiot who’d been sent over to ‘do the favor’, or I got to know and hate him. But it was easier to fuck some idiot for ten minutes than it was to let my clan leader know his ‘favors’ weren’t appreciated.”

“It was easier?”

“Minotaur clan politics are...complicated.” She rolled her eyes. “And by that, I mean stupid. Very stupid. I’m glad to be free of it.”

“Well...I’m sorry you had to put up with it.”

She shrugged. “It was what it was. And now it’s over. I never intend to return.”

“What will you do?”

She fell silent for a moment. “I actually don’t know. For now, help out here. This seems like a great place to work and a worthy goal. And I imagine this could take months or even years. And based on my interactions with Fiona and the others who seem to be in positions of power around here, I feel that my presence would be welcomed, not merely tolerated. And mere tolerance is the most I could hope for with, I imagine, most settlements around here.”

“You would be welcomed,” John said.

“What about you? How long are you and Yelena going to stick around?”

Now it was his turn to consider. “I genuinely don’t know. I doubt for more than a few more weeks. A few months at most. I don’t think we’ll fall in love with this place, but I can’t really rule it out. After falling in love with Yelena, I don’t feel I can safely rule anything out of my life any longer,” he replied.

“I can understand that.”

“So, um, I have a question. Given our size difference, will I, uh...will it work?”

She laughed. “Yes. Minotaur vaginas are...quite malleable. I’m considered small for my race. We need to be able to handle many different sizes, given some of our men can be my height, and some can be taller than Jarx was. So don’t worry. We’ll be able to fuck. I mean...I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to. As I said, I’ve never had sex with someone noticeably smaller than me.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out. How do you want to do it?”

“I figured the easiest way will be for me to lay on my back on this bed you’re laying on, and you can fuck me standing at its edge. Sound good?”

“Yeah, sounds great,” he replied.

“Okay. Good. I’m going to strip now.”

John took the opportunity to get up and quickly wash himself off again. As he came back, he saw that Ara was almost done getting naked. Despite everything he had seen so far, there was something kind of unreal about her. She was so tall, the tallest woman he would be sleeping with next to Morgan. Okay, well, and Kesley. He kept sort of forgetting that he’d had sex with a dragoness, not because the encounter wasn’t memorable, (it so was), more because it was just so far-fetched. He’d fucked a godsdamned dragoness!

Although...no, they were about the same height. He supposed it was because Kesley could be so much bigger if she wanted to be.

And now he was going to have sex with a Minotaur.

Ara was definitely attractive. He wouldn’t quite call her beautiful, because the word didn’t really fit. She was more...savagely sexy. She was beautiful, it was just that there were better phrases to adequately describe her appeal. There was a kind of brutality to her, a blunt bestial nature that spoke of primal savagery. And yet...there was certainly an intelligence there. He could never confuse Ara for an animal or a monster.

Physically, she was very appealing.

She was shapely, with thick thighs and broad hips and, he knew from checking her out, a big ass. And quite a rack. Good Gods, she had big tits. He could appreciate her large, brown-furred breasts now that they were free of her clothing. Her whole body was covered in a layer of very short brown fur. Her face was interesting, such a strange combination of bull and human, and her horns...he felt the urge to grab them while having her suck him off. There was something tremendously satisfying about doing that with Yelena.

What was it about women with horns and fur and tails and ears, cat or elf, that turned him on so much? Maybe it was because they were just different enough to be exotic. Whatever the case, all John really knew right then was that he was exceptionally turned on, and despite having already had sex with Piper and Shay, he was more than ready to go for another round. He wanted to fuck Ara very badly. As she finished getting out of her clothes, she stood up to her full eight foot height and stretched, looking like some kind of dark nature deity, like a disciple of Vivian, or maybe of some other, older, bloodier god or goddess of war.

“I am ready,” she said, and then she sat down on the edge of the bed, laid on her back, and spread her legs.

“Hey everyone, John and Ara are going to fuck!” Yelena called suddenly.

John was halfway across the room, closing the gap between him and Ara, when she shouted this, and hesitated, looking around suddenly as he realized he had everyone’s attention again. “Uh...everyone wants to watch this?” he asked finally.

“Duh,” Fiona replied. “Who the fuck wouldn’t!?”

“It is truly that interesting?” Ara asked, sitting up briefly, resting on her elbows.

“I have seen a lot,” Shay replied, coming closer. “A lot. I’ve had threesomes and orgies with pretty much any combination you can imagine of men and women, of elves, beryl, felis, humans, kit. I’ve even fucked a manix once and had a four-way with three cyprians. I’ve had sex with a male serpentine, and I made amazing, passionate love with a male ocean elemental off and on for almost a month. I’ve had a mermaid go down on me, and more than once, far more than once, I’ve had truly stunning sex with succubi and incubi. I once had a drunk, insanely intense threesome with two other guys, a vampire and a werewolf, that lasted most of a day. But I have never, once, seen, or even heard of, a human man fucking a female Minotaur.”

“You have got to take me adventuring sometime,” Fiona said with lusty fire in her eyes. “I need to meet your friends.”

“That could be arranged,” Shay replied with a small grin. “So yes,” she said, returning her attention to John and Ara, “this is that interesting. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that no one here has seen sex between anyone and a Minotaur.”

“I’ve heard stories and seen some pictures of chicks, mostly human chicks, getting fucked by Minotaur dudes,” Fiona said, and Elora and Piper agreed with her. “But...I’ll be totally honest. I mean, I can take a dick, I can take a big dick, but anything that a Minotaur would be packing? Just...no. That just looks like it would fucking hurt. And not the good kind of hurt, but the kind of hurt that just has me wincing just thinking about it.”

Now all the women agreed with her.

“I like this discourse, but can we have sex? I’m extremely aroused,” Ara said.

“Yes,” John replied immediately, and finished crossing the room to join her. As he stepped up to her, getting in between her thick, powerful thighs, something struck him: how comfortable he was right now. He was naked, getting ready to have sex with not only a completely brand new woman, not only a badass inhuman woman, but a fucking Minotaur who was eight feet tall, and he was surrounded by other extremely attractive women, who were all going to watch him have sex. And yet...he wasn’t worried.

Okay, he was a little anxious, but nowhere near as much as he might have been even a year ago. John knew he was pretty sexually open, but he still had concerns and anxieties about how he’d perform in front of an audience, especially considering it was basically the most intimate thing he could do. He knew that some of it was the simple fact that he was in the best shape of his life. When he saw himself in a mirror, he finally thought that, at least in terms of his physique, he looked good. But more of it had to do with the fact that he had a lot of practice at this, and most of it had to do with the fact that he trusted these women.

They were his friends.

And on top of that, they were all people who cultivated an atmosphere of friendliness, of openness, of compassion. No one here wanted him to fail, no one was looking for an excuse to ridicule or humiliate him. They wanted him to have good sex, they wanted Ara to have good sex. They wanted everyone involved to simply have a good time.

And that was one of the best atmospheres to be in, he had learned.

John finished getting into place in front of Ara, between her tremendous thighs. He laid his hands on them and ran them up and down, feeling her fur.

“So, you just want me to, uh...”

“Just put it in and leave it there for a few seconds, I’ll adjust to your size, then fuck away until we both come,” Ara replied.

“Okay. I can do that.”

He gripped his cock and stepped closer. He was extremely turned on and could practically feel his rock hard cock throbbing in his grasp, particularly desperate for sex. John slipped his dick into her pussy, and already he could feel a tremendous wetness there, a great heat inside of her. Once he was all the way inside of her, John lingered, motionless, waiting. Within seconds he could feel her pussy moving, tightening. He settled his hands on her huge hips as this happened. Ara was breathing more heavily now, her breasts swaying nicely.

“There,” she whispered, “it’s done. Fuck me. Hard.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, and pulled back.

Oh fuck. The drag of her now tightened Minotaur pussy was just...this was going to be quite the experience. He pushed back into her, burying his cock deep within Ara’s fantastic vagina, and then began driving into her in rhythmic splendor. She let out a loud moan and he was deeply grateful and satisfied that he could elicit such a sound from such a large, badass woman. John lost himself in the blissful, sexual gratification of her body. His eyes roamed over her large form as she laid there on her back before him, her legs spread, getting fucked. She looked amazing. Her big breasts were bouncing now, her thigh muscles clenching and unclenching as she took his cock, her face twisting into expressions of focus and pleasure.

And the pleasure.

It rolled through him, hit him like waves upon a shore, bringing him ever closer to an intense climax, pushing him up to the edge. Ara was moaning now, her voice getting louder as he fucked her harder and faster, and he realized that he couldn’t hear anything else save for the sounds they were making: her moaning, his panting and occasional grunt, the sound of their crotches meeting over and over again. Everyone around them was dead silent. Hopefully they were enraptured by the sight of this. Because he sure felt that way.

“Keep going...” Ara moaned. “This is...wonderful.”

“Yes, it really is,” he gasped. “Oh my Gods, Ara, you feel fucking amazing. Your pussy is so fucking hot, and so wet!”

“I am intensely aroused right now,” she murmured, her eyes now closed. She reached up and began to run her fingers across her nipples. She chewed on her lower lip. “It has been...some time since I’ve been fucked. And some time longer since I’ve been fucked by someone I liked.”

“I’m sorry,” he replied.

“Right now, I’m not. This was worth it.”

“That is really good to know,” he said, and kept going, fucking her, pounding her, slamming into her, because she seemed to react very well to that, to demand it with her body. The blissful rapture continued to build within him, filling him. John laid a hand flat against her and found her clit with his thumb, then began to stimulate it.

“Oh fuck!” she cried in surprise. “Oh that’s...oh holy fucking shit! Yes!” she moaned loudly, spreading her legs out wider, writhing in bliss.

“Wow, you really like that,” he replied, and began to go a bit harder and faster.

“Oh! Yes! I love it!” she moaned. “It’s...ah!...fucking fuck!...Minotaur men are not mindful of foreplay very often. And this is just...I’m going to orgasm!” she moaned.

“Can I come inside of you?” he asked quickly, because he knew that it was almost certain that her climax would trigger his.

“Yes!” she screamed, and then she began to come.

She came a lot. He felt a hot release of her sex juices get onto his hips and thighs and balls and lower stomach, and her vaginal muscles clenched harder, spasming and fluttering as she came, and that was it. It was just way too much pleasure. John cried out and began fucking her harder and faster, screwing her orgasming pussy as his own climax burst into being. He cried out, incoherent with sexual release and gratification, as his orgasm tore through him, blowing him away with its strength. He came into her pussy, releasing his seed inside of her in hard contractions. He pumped her full of it, his cock jerking violently, a fresh spray of his seed released with each jerk. And they came together, lost in their own little worlds of bliss.

And it seemed to go on for a long time.

Then, at some point, it was over, and he was deposited back into his own body. His shaky, sweating body that had been weakened by the intensity of the orgasm. Carefully, as his dick was very sensitive now, he extracted himself from inside of her and then staggered over to a nearby cot, sat down heavily on it, then laid out flat, staring at the ceiling.

“That was amazing,” Ara said.

“Yes it was,” Yelena agreed. He heard her coming closer.

“Uh-huh,” he managed weakly. He held up his hand. “Water?”

There was a pause, then Yelena was at his side with a bottle of cool water. He drank deeply from it and ended up draining the whole thing. Passing the bottle back to Yelena, he took a very deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Fuck, I think I’m done for the night,” he said, blinking a few more times. That had really taken it out of him, especially after all that had been going on recently. “I think I’m going to need a good, long, uninterrupted sleep.”

“As will I, actually. Nearly dying really takes it out of me,” she said.

“Are you doing okay? I mean, really okay?” he replied, rolling over and looking at her as his mind showed him a quick replay of that awful memory of her being assaulted in the mine by the dark entity. That had really scared the shit out of him.

“I am okay,” she replied. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“No, it’s okay, I just-”

“You’re just worried. I know. I’m really okay. I’ve got a little bit of a headache, but I’m okay. The sex with Piper helped. I’m probably going to make love with Ruby and then join you for sleep afterward. Okay?”

“Okay,” he replied, reaching out and gently running his hand across her cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too, John. Are you going to sleep here?”

“No, I’ll move downstairs probably. I just...want to lay here for a bit.”

She smiled and laid her hand over his. “Okay, love.” Yelena leaned in and kissed him, then stood up. He stared up at her. When she stood over him like this, nude and statuesque, she really did look like a sex deity, or a really hot warrior goddess.

He watched her go, staring at her well-toned ass and her tail, as she went off towards Ruby, and he was thinking about fucking her doggystyle when he drifted off.

CHAPTER XII

“So what do we know about this woman?” John asked.

It had been just over a day since he’d fucked Piper, Shay, and Ara. Despite his intent to sleep elsewhere, he’d fallen asleep right there on that cot. He’d woken briefly at some point in the night when Yelena had settled down alongside him. There was just barely enough room on the cot for them both but he didn’t care, he just threw an arm over her, held her tightly against him, and had fallen back asleep.

The next morning, they’d all gotten up and made plans.

Fiona wanted to go after the last major recruit on their list, a woman named Nora who led a group of mercenaries called the Defenders. Their last known location was a small fishing village on the east coast of the land, about a day’s walk from their current location. Given the sheer amount of work that needed to be done, Fiona had opted to take only John and Yelena with her. Shay had to stay behind to keep up the cleansing rituals. Carrie needed to begin mapping out the mine and making a list of what needed to be done to get it back into shape, and coordinate her group of miners, who would be arriving shortly.

Elora was still in the process of coordinating all manner of things that would very soon be coming into the village. Piper was concerned about security and wanted to help them come up with a few ways to defend the village, so she’d opted to start out by creating a more detailed map of the immediate surrounding area to see what they had to work with and what they might be up against. Ruby and Ara both offered their services and the last he’d seen before he had left the village early yesterday morning, the pair had set themselves to the task of gathering fallen trees to be processed into lumber and firewood.

After leaving, he, Yelena, and Fiona had settled into a good pace, marching across the land. They’d taken one break for lunch and spent the whole time chatting happily. Fiona had a lot of stories to tell, most of them funny. When night fell and the cold really began to settle in, they made camp in an abandoned cabin they found, having a phenomenal threesome and sleeping through the night, huddled up together, naked and satisfied, beneath the blankets. And now it was the following morning. After a wash and breakfast, they’d resumed their walk.

All in all, it had been a good walk.

And now they were almost there.

“So what do we know about these people?” Yelena asked.

She had transformed into a more attractive woman than she normally did. She was tall, well-built, and redheaded this time around. She reminded him a little bit of Lydia. It was hard not to get distracted by her.

“They’re supposed to be good people. A few dozen, somewhere between twenty and thirty mercs from what I’ve heard. They are united by their cause of wanting to help people, evidently. I’ve heard several stories about them. If they had been around, they would have dealt with the Minotaur problem,” Fiona replied.

“Good thing they didn’t or Ara might not be alive,” John murmured.

“Hmm. Good point,” Fiona replied. “But anyway. Last year they put down an undead uprising, they took out a cult of vampires preying on the innocent, and they’ve helped defend almost every single village, town, settlement, and outpost across this land over the past half-decade. They’ve got a good reputation and people love them.”

“So you think they’ll want to work for us? Or for you?” John asked.

“I should hope so. I mean, what we’re doing goes hand in hand with that. They want to better the land by defending it, I want to better the land by boosting economy and infrastructure. They dovetail rather nicely. I at least want them to come consult with us, as I’m sure they’ve got some unique insight into improving this whole region,” Fiona replied.

“Fair point. I wonder what they’re doing up here,” John murmured.

“Let’s find out,” Fiona said, and began walking faster.

They picked up the pace along with her, heading into the small seaside village. It was spread out along the base of some foothills, with big wooden docks extending into the ocean. There weren’t many boats around, he saw as they descended among the buildings. Well, if the Defenders were here, then there must be some kind of problem.

They began asking around, checking among the shops and stalls of the local marketplace, and quickly learned what the problem was: a sea monster was somewhere off the coast and was sinking ships, making it so that no one wanted to dock in their port. John felt cold fear slither through him at the thought of that. Oceans...freaked him out. Sea monsters freaked him out even more. And he very quickly realized that there was a decent chance that they were going to have to deal with this sea monster, or help deal with it, at least.

Shit. He had not signed up for this.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Hopefully. He tried to relax as they figured out that the Defenders were at the docks, preparing to deal with the sea beast, and began making their way there in a hurry, hoping to catch them before they left.

“You look...better than usual today,” John said to Yelena, as he kept glancing at her.

“Oh?” Yelena replied.

“Yeah. You normally don’t bother with trying to look good when we uh...go out, if you know what I mean,” he said.

“I know what you mean,” she replied with a little smirk. “When I was in my previous life, I got used to being attractive.”

“You still are,” he said.

“I know, but the general population doesn’t think so. I got used to turning heads. I was used to being the desire of almost everyone who saw me. Coming here to a land where I am...shall we say, less than desirable to the general population, has required some adjustment. I don’t think of myself as a vain person, and I receive more than enough affection and attention from you and our mutual acquaintances, but I thought I would indulge today.”

“Huh,” he replied.

“You sound as though you have a little bit of difficulty with that?”

“I guess I just thought if you were going for that, you’d go for a somewhat more, uh...typical attractive appearance. Redhead is great, but big and built and badass isn’t as universally accepted,” he explained.

“Maybe not below the mountains, but here? Look how many looks I am getting,” Yelena murmured.

John looked around and realized that several people they were passing by were glancing appreciatively at Yelena.

“That’s a good point,” Fiona said. “Carrie was talking about this. She said she gets way more action up here than down in the southern portion of the continent.”

“I bet Lydia would do pretty good up here. And Ellie probably saw a lot of action,” John said.

“Lydia yes, Ellie...I imagine she sees action everywhere she goes. She is unusually attractive, even being six and a half feet tall,” Yelena replied.

“Is that the princess you were telling me about?” Fiona asked.

“Former princess, and yes. Gods she was so hot,” John replied.

“I wish I could’ve met her. I bet she had fucking huge tits,” Fiona murmured.

“She did. And an enormous, extremely shapely ass. And thighs to fucking die for,” Yelena said.

“There’s the dock, and I believe those are the Defenders,” John said.

“Let’s go,” Fiona replied, hurrying ahead.

One broad dock was currently housing two medium-sized ships being loaded and prepared by a group of adventurer-looking types, men and women who were built, armed, and armored. The trio walked onto that dock.

“I’m looking for Nora, leader of the Defenders!” Fiona called.

Several of them paused, looking at her, and then one of the women, admittedly not who John was expecting, who had been loading the crates on, straightened up and walked over to them. Although she wasn’t a very physically impressive woman, maybe five and a half feet tall, more trim and athletic than bulky and built, there was an air of calm authority about her.

“I’m Nora, and we’re a little busy,” she replied.

“I’ll keep this short,” Fiona replied. “I’m fixing up an abandoned mining village in the center of this part of the continent with the intent of bringing long-term stability and improvement to the entire region. I’ve been recruiting help for a variety of purposes and we’re making good progress. You’re the last one I need to really get this whole thing going.”

Nora stared at her with dark gray eyes. She crossed her arms, pursing her lips, considering it. “What specifically do you want?” she replied finally.

“Help. The place isn’t exactly known for its safety, but more than that, the bigger we get, the more attention we’re going to draw. Opportunistic assholes, town leaders who don’t want to see their establishment upset, cultists, monsters, the usual run. I want either your defense, or your in-depth advice. I’m obviously willing to compensate you, but I’ve been led to believe that you and your Defenders care about doing good in this world.”

“We do,” Nora replied. “That’s our code and creed.” She silently contemplated this a little longer, then seemed to come to a decision. “Tell you what. How’s about you three join us on our mission? I’m willing to wager you’ve heard what we’re doing.”

“Killing a sea monster,” Fiona replied.

“Yep. It’s a big one. A kraken. Help us kill it, I’ll travel with you to your village and give you a ruling on whether or not this is something we’re interested in investing in. At the very least, you have my attention.”

Fiona looked back at them. “John? Yelena?”

“I am ready,” Yelena replied immediately.

“I’m going to regret this, but yeah, I’ll go,” he replied.

“Then we’re in,” Fiona said, returning her attention to Nora.

“Fine then. Pitch in and help us finish loading our supplies and weapons, and then we’ll head out and get this done,” Nora said, then turned around and got back to work.

John tried not to let worry consume him as he began helping out.

…

“You doing okay there, John?” Fiona asked.

“Just fine,” he replied unhappily from where he was wedged between a pair of battened-downed crates. The boat rocked and swayed around him as they headed through the choppy seawater towards their monster.

He couldn’t believe he’d actually agreed to this.

“I didn’t know you had difficulty with boats,” Yelena said.

“It never came up,” he replied.

“You’ve never been on a boat?” Fiona asked.

“I’ve been on a boat. I just don’t like them. Especially not when they’re taking me to my doom,” he replied.

“We’ll be fine,” Yelena said.

“Do you have any idea how big a kraken is? Or what it’s capable of? Or what it even looks like, love?” he replied.

“These people seem confident and capable,” Yelena answered.

John just sighed, then finally made himself get up. The worst of his nausea had passed and now it was mostly just nerves. Big bodies of water just freaked him out, and the ocean was the biggest body of water there was. Probably because the ocean was unthinkably vast and deep, and hid any number of mind-numbing horrors that would never be possible on land. But he could only cower for so long before either his need to not appear weak or his need to appear professional overtook him. Or were those the same thing?

He joined Yelena and Fiona on the main deck, watching the crew scurry about. When he’d asked Nora about the best way he could meaningfully contribute to the fight, she’d told him two things: don’t die and chop tentacles. So that had been helpful. As he watched them, though, he did begin to feel better, because Yelena was right. Everyone around him had an air of detached confidence that came from having been in situations like this a hundred times before and emerging victorious. They didn’t seem so much braggarts as professionals. Which was a great group of people to be among in particularly dangerous situations.

Like the one he found himself in now.

He’d done more dangerous things than this. Or at least that’s what John kept telling himself, because he actually couldn’t think of one. He looked again at Nora, who stood near the front of the ship, staring straight ahead into the mist. She seemed very interesting, and she must be extraordinarily tough in a number of ways. It was hard leading a band of competent professionals, and despite how he might feel about the situation, he knew it was harder for women than it was for men simply because so many big, tough men just didn’t take women seriously. And it had to be even harder being a not physically intimidating woman on top of that.

Lydia or Ellie, he could see leading a group like this without much trouble. Carrie already basically did. It translated more easily in most people’s minds when you were big and built that you also deserved their attention and respect. Which was a stupid notion, because it meant a lot of big, dumb assholes garnered far more respect than they deserved.

As if she could sense his eyes upon her, Nora suddenly looked back over her shoulder right at him. She tilted her head and then resumed looking forward.

“Looks like I’m up,” John said.

“Good luck, love,” Yelena replied.

“Uh-huh.”

He walked forward, wondering what she wanted with him. He headed up to the front of the ship and stood beside her. His stomach rolled a bit as he caught full sight of the rolling waves and churning water.

“You seem anxious,” she said.

“Well, I don’t like boats and kraken scare the shit out of me,” he replied.

“You’re honest about it, at least. And that’s an understandable position. Why’d you come?”

“I believe in what we’re doing.”

“If I’ve got everything worked out, the kit is the leader, and you and your girlfriend are along for the ride.”

“Yeah, basically. She recruited us first.”

“Okay. So tell me about this operation since we’ve got some time. I’d like to hear about it from someone who isn’t in charge of it, and you seem like an honest enough guy to give me a blunt truth about what I’m stepping into.”

“Fiona is highly motivated and dedicated to this project, and I’ll admit, I had my doubts in the beginning. She basically showed up out of the blue and pitched this project to us and we didn’t have anything better to do, so we said yes.”

“I’m also guessing the fact that she was willing to have sex with you helped.” He hesitated. Now Nora had a small smile. “I can tell when two people have had sex. And you’ve had sex with both of those women, and you all really like each other.”

“That is all true,” he replied.

“And talking about it makes you uncomfortable. Interesting.”

“Just...a little. It’s...a little complicated. But that’s not where I was going with this.”

“I didn’t think so. Continue.”

“I believe that Fiona believes in what she’s doing. And I think that she’s smart enough to go out and find help to cover the things she knows she can’t do. Which she’s done so far. We’ve got a competent company of miners and an economic genius and an ex-paladin healer, as well as a handful of warriors helping out.”

“That wouldn’t happen to be Carrie and her mad crew would it?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. Figured. Economic genius...it’s Elora, isn’t it?”

“Yes. She’s agreed to help us. You know her, as well?”

“We’ve been all over the region, and I’ve been traveling this land all my life. I know everyone at this point. And ex-paladin, obviously that has to be Shay. Well, color me impressed. Those are very competent, hardworking people who know their shit. If they’re invested...well, let’s just say that if all is as it appears, I’m in.” She glanced back at Fiona, then returned her gaze to him. “So tell me, do you think she’s in this for the long haul? Because this won’t take weeks, nor months, this will take years. Possibly decades. It could take the rest of her life to complete this goal of hers. At the very least, to do the broad basics of what she wants to do, if she’s very lucky and works very hard, it might take two years, maybe three. And that’s just to get started.”

“I know. I don’t know how long Yelena and I or some of the others are going to stick around, but I believe that Fiona’s in this for the long haul,” John replied.

Nora stared at him intensely, judging him, scrutinizing him and his words. He looked back at her. She was an intense woman, she had a lot of strong, forceful personality packed into that small frame of hers.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s get this kraken killed and get back, then I’ll go with you while my crew celebrates the victory.”

“You don’t want to celebrate?” John asked.

Nora had another small smile. “I do, and I intend to, in my own way.”

“What way might that be?”

“You’ll see,” she replied. “Thank you for your time.”

“Uh, yeah, you as well.”

He left her standing up there and returned to the others. “So what was that all about?” Fiona asked.

“Well, she knows we’re all sleeping together, but more significantly, she seems like she’s actually ready to commit to this if, basically, we’re up to snuff,” John replied.

“You think we will be?”

“Yeah, she recognized Carrie, Elora, and Shay, and seemed impressed. So, provided we survive this, I think we’ll do okay,” John replied.

That was when a tentacle came punching right up through the main deck and swept three people overboard.

“Holy fucking shit!” Fiona screamed.

“Okay, now I see what you were talking about,” Yelena said, then she drew her sword and ran forward.

John did the same and joined her.

Absolute chaos broke out as more tentacles began to rise out of the water. John fought down the terror singing through his body as he raced forward across the lurching deck and drove his black blade into the gray tentacle. He ripped it out and began hacking at it along with Yelena and two of the Defenders. Oily gray blood sprayed them and the tentacle whipped around suddenly, knocking them all over and sending them sprawling to the deck. John grunted as he hit the wet wood and surged back to his feet and resumed hacking at the tentacle, trying to do as much damage as possible. More blood was coming out, a lot of it.

And then a shadow fell over him.

He looked up.

“Yelena jump!” he screamed and grabbed her, then jumped backwards as hard as he possibly could. Another tentacle, easily as thick around as a tree trunk, came smashing down from the side into the deck, crushing where they had just been. The pair quickly leaped up and began slicing and cutting this new tentacle as it wrapped around the ship and began crushing it. Wood splintered and cracked. This ship was definitely going down.

“Keep hitting it!” he heard Nora scream from somewhere nearby. “We need its fucking head out of the water!”

Well, at least they had an objective.

As he and Yelena and Fiona continued both trying not to die and attempting to do as much damage to the creature as possible, absolute raw madness broke out around him. The Defenders attacked with everything at their disposal. Some wielded swords and axes, others fired amazingly accurate shots from a distance with bows and crossbows, and a few launched magical attacks from staffs or their hands. Most of these ranged attacks came from the other ship, which had remained unscathed so far.

It seemed the kraken wanted, or was only capable of, taking this vessel.

John fought as hard as he could, but the thing was just so damned big. He was soon soaked in blood and seawater, and his whole body ached from falling down over and over again, or being thwacked by a rogue tentacle. The boat was steadily sinking into the water now, although at a slower pace than he would have imagined. If such a thing were possible, he thought that maybe someone had invested heavily in a spell that might toughen the boat up or somehow make it more difficult to sink. But it was only delaying the inevitable.

And despite everything, despite his raw terror and overwhelming sense of panic...he was actually kind of enjoying this battle. There was something pretty epic about fighting a fucking kraken. And if they managed to succeed, then this was going to be one awesome story to tell later. John grunted as one of the bleeding tentacles knocked him off his feet yet again. Well, it’d be a great story to tell if he actually survived this mess.

Minutes went by, feeling like hours.

Men and women screamed. Swords and axes cut and chopped. Arrows and magic flew through the air, missing as often as connecting. More and more oily gray blood splashed across them, across the deck of the sinking ship, seeping into the ocean around them. After what felt like too long, a huge piece of tentacle came off in a tremendous spray of blood. Not long after that, a second one did, and that finally seemed to do the trick.

With a huge splash and a maddened shriek that cut across the skies and temporarily froze everyone in their tracks, the main body of the kraken appeared next to the dying vessel. Nora laughed wildly.

“This is it! Kill it!” she roared.

The Defenders resumed the assault with a renewed vigor. John, Yelena, and Fiona, soaked and in pain, joined them again. The battle intensified as an all-out barrage of arrows and magical bolts of lightning, ice, and fire hit the bulbous head of the beast. It stared balefully at them with an enormous yellow eye that almost glowed. The ship cracked violently and John knew that it was on its very last legs now. He looked around, realizing that they weren’t doing enough damage, and that they were going to have to end this very, very soon.

He looked at the creature, at where it was, then down at the sword in his hand.

Well, this was going to be dangerous and difficult, but it would more than likely put an end to this creature and this fight.

“Yelena, make sure I don’t fucking drown!” John screamed.

She twisted around to face him. “What?! What are you doing!?” she yelled back.

He took off, sprinting across the wrecked deck, leaping over debris and bodies. He heard her scream his name as he ran. He didn’t answer, instead putting the entirety of his focus, of himself, into this one sequence of actions. Running along, he dodged a tentacle, leaped over a barrel, then hit the edge of the ship and stepped up onto the wooden railing. Raising his sword over his head, he screamed at the top of his lungs as he launched himself off the ship, directly towards the creature. And he plunged his midnight blade into its huge yellow eye.

The creature shrieked so loudly that he thought he would go deaf.

What happened next was confusing. The world tipped and spun as he struggled to stay on, riding the creature with his sword stuck into its huge yellow eye as it twisted around, thrashing violently. And then he came loose, sword still in hand, now covered in blood and gore, and he was sailing through the air, and then he was hitting the water.

And he remembered struggling, violently, to stay afloat.

And then something hit his head, and there was nothing but darkness.

…

John opened his eyes.

Cloudy gray skies came into focus. The world was swaying gently. He heard voices, loud and jovial, and a lot of laughter. He was laying on something vaguely soft, more than likely a simple bedroll.

Everything hurt.

He groaned, then coughed violently. Sitting up in a rush, he turned on his side and kept coughing. A spew of horrible tasting, salty seawater came out of his throat, expelled from his body, and he coughed raggedly for several more moments. When he was finished, John laid back down, groaning, and then saw Yelena step into view over him.

She frowned, looking down at him. “You told me you were okay now,” she said.

“What?” he replied, confused and pained. “Is it dead? Did we win?”

She sighed and crouched, staring down at him. “It is dead. We won. We lost the ship we were on, but almost everyone made it to the second ship.”

“Is Fiona okay?” he asked.

“She is fine. You said you were okay,” Yelena replied firmly.

“What do you mean?”

“You said you wouldn’t be unnecessarily risking your life anymore.”

It took him a second, then he got it. “Oh. No, honey, I’m fine. I really am. That wasn’t...okay, that was a stupid risk. But it wasn’t because I was trying to prove myself. I was trying to save us. I saw an opportunity to end the obviously extremely dangerous fight. That was just a normal risking my life thing, not a stupid one. Okay, maybe a stupid one. I didn’t do it because I’m upset. I did it because I wanted to protect you and Fiona.”

She studied him a moment longer, then nodded. Smiling, she reached down and ran her fingers through his wet hair. Her touch felt wonderful. “I believe you,” she said. “I was concerned...but you are right. It was a risk, but we often take risks. It was extremely brave. And just in case it never got through to you, acts of tremendous bravery turn me on a lot. I’m fucking you a lot tonight,” she said.

He laughed. “It was totally worth it then.”

She snorted. “Of course.”

“Hey! You’re not dead!”

They both looked over. John slowly sat up as Nora approached. She looked very different. Her calm composure was gone now, both how she conducted herself and how she looked. Her face was flushed and her hair was a wild, wet mess, her eyes wide and excited. She was grinning fiercely, high off the battle, the survival.

She looked crazy hot right then.

“I’m not dead, Nora,” he agreed.

“Oh my Gods that was amazing!” she said, a mug of something in her hand that was so strong and alcoholic he could smell it even as she approached. “I’ve seen a lot in my time, John, but that was truly amazing. That was so brave and reckless...godsdamn! That was so amazing. If you’re looking for work, I’ll hire you and you girlfriend on right now based off of that alone.”

“I, uh, really appreciate it, but we’re with Fiona for now. Although I’m guessing we’ll be working together.”

“I’m pretty sure we will be,” she replied.

“So what’s the plan for now?”

“We’re hauling the big kraken body back to shore to prove we did it. We pulled it, you, and a few others out of the ocean. Once we confirm and cash in the bounty, we’ll have a bit of a celebration at the local inns, and then I’ll go back with you in the morning,” Nora explained.

“Did you lose anyone?” he asked.

She sighed. “Yeah. Two people. We’re going to have a funeral for them tonight before the celebration. Then we’ll raise a mug or seven in their honor. Don’t mourn for them too much, they knew what this was and they went out the way they wanted to.”

Someone called her name. She glanced back over her shoulder, then returned her attention to him. “Get some rest. You earned it.”

“Thanks,” he murmured, and he laid back down.

Yelena laid down beside him and they watched her go. “You want to sleep with her, don’t you?” she asked.

“Gods yes,” he replied. “She is insanely attractive. I fucking love tough badass women so much.”

“Me too,” Yelena murmured. “Let’s see what we can do.”

“Hey!” They both looked over. Fiona was approaching them. She had a big grin and a big mug of booze, her fur wet and matted. “You’re up!”

“Barely,” he replied.

“You want a drink? You fucking earned it,” she asked.

“No, I’m good. I want to rest,” he replied.

“Probably a good idea. You damn near died. Yelena saved your ass. Dove right in after you,” she said.

“Well, I couldn’t just let him die. I still have use for him,” Yelena replied.

John laughed. “Oh, I’m so glad you still have use for me.”

“Shut up,” she said.

“You two are really cute. Okay, I’ll let you be, I’m getting hit on by a lot of guys and girls so I think I’m going to be really busy tonight.”

“Have fun,” John replied.

“I fully intend to.”

She left them to lay there. John held Yelena to him and stared up at the cloudy skies, the boat rocking beneath them.

Before long, he’d drifted off into a tenuous sleep.

CHAPTER XIII

John woke up when they were pulling into port.

The next three hours passed by pleasantly enough. At least after they had the funeral. A lot of people wanted his attention. Apparently, his stunt delivering the final blow to the kraken had impressed most of the Defenders. He had to admit, it was pretty nice to be the center of attention for once. Although as he thought about that, he realized that while he hadn’t quite been the center of attention a great deal recently, (except for when he was fucking Piper...and Ara), he had been receiving a lot of attention from his new friends, and from his lover, obviously.

He wondered what it was like for Yelena, what it was really like for her, to have friends that she could talk to, have sex with, and, most importantly, trust. Because it seemed like trust was basically a joke in her realm. He hoped it was so good for her, that she enjoyed every second of it. He knew that he was. He’d lived, worked, and just generally operated alone for most of his life. There were friends sometimes and lovers occasionally, but really, the closest he’d ever had to a girlfriend that he really liked and trusted was Lily, and obviously that wasn’t exactly the most ideal relationship. It was great, but they were hardly ever together.

What he was experiencing tonight though was a little different. He rarely ever got to be the life of the party and people almost never made toasts to him. But the Defenders seemed to genuinely like him, so overall, it was an interesting experience. And fun, too. He drank, though not much. He had a sneaking suspicion that he might be having sex with Nora tonight, but at the very least Yelena was going to fuck him senseless, and he didn’t want to take any chances with it not working. Before hitting the inn, he downed a healing potion to take care of all the aches and pains, and then spent awhile talking with everyone who wanted to talk with him.

Then he’d settled in for a good meal of a big steak and a lot of eggs and potatoes, enjoying every last bite of it. He noticed that Fiona was messing around with several of the Defenders. He saw her making out with about half a dozen men and women, most of them human, one felis, and one beryl, and there were probably more she was fooling around with when he wasn’t paying attention. Eventually, he saw her heading off deeper into the inn with two human men and a hot redheaded elf woman.

A lot of them were hitting on Yelena, but she seemed very focused on Nora. He had an idea that she was attracted to the woman in much the same way he was. He saw them talking for awhile, and at one point Nora had looked over at him for almost half a minute, then the pair of them had stepped outside for a bit.

Eventually, the night wore down.

Fiona never reemerged from wherever she’d gone, and several of the Defenders either passed out or went to bed with each other, or whoever they managed to pick up from the bar, and finally, John found himself sitting in a corner booth with Nora and Yelena. Everyone else in the area was either drunk and quiet, or passed out.

“What a night,” Nora said.

“A great night,” John agreed.

“So...” Nora said, and leaned forward a little, “I’ve been talking with your lady.”

“Oh?”

“Yep. I’ve gotten a bit more insight into your relationship. And I learned a few things.”

“Oh?” he repeated.

“I know what Yelena really is. I’m okay with it. I also know that you really want to have sex with me, and so does she. And I wanted to inform you that I really want to have sex with both of you. At the same time. And I want to do that right now. And I rented out the biggest basement room to facilitate this threesome,” she said.

“I...okay. Yes. Let’s do that. Right now,” he said, standing up.

“Well damn, she wasn’t exaggerating. You really want this pussy,” Nora said, grinning as she stood up as well.

“Of course I do. Who wouldn’t?” John replied.

“I intimate a lot of men. Even those who aren’t normally intimidated by tough women,” Nora answered.

“John has sex with me regularly,” Yelena said as she got up as well.

“That is a good point. Come on. I want to see you.”

They headed across the inn, moved down a narrow stairwell, and moved down a hallway towards the door at the end. Behind one of the doors, he heard Fiona moaning loudly. Well, she was definitely having a good time. Good. She deserved it. They finished moving down the hall and soon were behind a closed, locked door, and Nora was looking intently into his eyes.

“Just so you know, I’ve got scars. Although I doubt that’ll stop you,” she said.

“I love scars,” John replied.

“Me too. Now, Yelena...show me. I’ve never seen a female demon before, and I’ve always wondered what one would look like.”

“Very well,” Yelena replied.

She began the process of stripping down naked, and soon stood completely nude before them, then she concentrated, her face relaxed, and suddenly she was changing. The process took just a few seconds, and then she was back to her normal self. Her six foot two, reddish-brown skinned, horns and a tail, insanely sexy dark-haired self.

“Good Gods,” Nora whispered, staring at her intently. “Turn around.”

Yelena turned around. “Oh my...her fucking ass...and that tail! I’ve seen a lot of men, and a lot of women, and I’ve had a lot of weird sex. I once had a threesome with a mermaid couple. I once got fucking wrecked by a pair of werewolf guys in their wolf forms. I’ve seen a succubus in her natural state and had amazing sex with her. But this...just wow.”

“What was her name?” John asked.

“What? Who?” Nora replied, distracted.

“The succubus. What was her name?”

“Oh...um...Lexi.”

His eyes widened. “You slept with Lexi?”

“You knew her?” Nora asked, now looking at him.

“Yes! I had sex with her and traveled with her for a bit about two or so years ago. She was wonderful,” he replied.

“She was! Holy shit, that’s awesome.” It didn’t take long for her gaze to be drawn back to Yelena, who had since turned back around. “I just can’t get over how hot you are! There’s something...I don’t know. Your face, and your body. You’ve got this fantastic, exotic beauty to you. You’re just different enough to highlight almost everything about you. And you’re not a succubus. They have pink skin,” she murmured.

“No, I’m not,” Yelena agreed. “I am a warrior.”

“Yes you are. No wonder he wouldn’t quit looking your way ever since you two showed up. And you’re clearly so very in love. Okay, okay, enough marveling. For now. I guess it’s my turn to get naked,” Nora said.

“It would be nice,” Yelena replied.

Nora began taking her clothes off. She revealed her trim body. He’d been right, she was in very fantastic shape, her muscles lean but obvious. She had a tight, athletic body, with a nice amount of padding below the waist and above the knee, and pleasantly full breasts. Her skin was very pale, and she indeed had several scars. There was one across her stomach that looked like a stab mark, a long one down the right side of her ribs, and several notches that indicated getting shot with an arrow. There was a patch of burned skin on her lower leg.

She was an incredibly sexy woman.

“Wow,” John said when she finished.

“You like?” she asked, turning around. Damn she had a hot ass. There was a nice thickness to it, a wonderful firmness.

“I love,” he replied.

“Me too,” Yelena said, staring at her intently. “You are a very attractive woman, Nora.”

“Thank you! Shall we get in the tub and fool around?” she asked.

“Yes,” John replied immediately.

While the two women headed for the tub, which was a big square of stone filled with crystal clear, steaming hot water, sunk into the corner of the room, he stripped down as fast as he could manage. Within a moment, all three of them were in the water, and they all let out long sighs of deep comfort and relief.

“This is the best thing in the world,” Nora whispered as she rested her head against the side. “After a day like today, just the best.”

“It is one of the best comforts that I have discovered in this realm,” Yelena said. Then she grinned, staring at John with her flaming red eyes. “But truly nothing beats lying in bed with you after a passionate lovemaking session, holding you, being held by you. I would not give that up for anything in all of creation.”

“Neither would I,” he agreed.

“I envy your relationship,” Nora murmured, looking at them.

“Apparently everyone we encounter does,” Yelena replied.

“Well, I don’t blame them. I’m hoping to have something like that someday.” Her expression changed suddenly. “But enough about that. Now is the time for lust. And I am feeling extremely lusty right now.”

She shifted over and mounted John with a dexterous ease, sitting in his lap, facing him, grinning into his face, her eyes inches from his.

“So, one more time, because I like to know for sure, we’re all totally okay with going forward with this? Because I’m not going to want to stop once I start,” she said, looking at him, then over at Yelena.

“I am completely okay with all the sex all three of us are about to have with each other,” Yelena replied firmly.

“Same,” John said.

“Good!” She looked back around at John and then kissed him.

And that rush came to him, that thrilling, almost shocking rush of kissing a brand new woman, an extremely attractive brand new women. It was augmented and enhanced by the fact that she was not just extremely attractive, but also seriously fucking tough. Badass women really did get him off very hard, and Nora was more badass than most in a group of women who already set the bar pretty damned high for toughness.

Nora slipped her tongue slowly into his mouth, and he slid his hands down her back until they found her ass, and he groped it, squeezed it, enjoyed it. As they kissed, she settled more and got his steel hard cock between the lips of her pussy, then began to grind slowly back and forth, rubbing herself along his shaft.

He groaned and she grinned into their kiss. “You like that, huh?”

“Yeah,” he managed. He could feel her firm, bare, wet breasts against his chest, and all the heat coming off of her.

“Here,” she said, and she raised herself up, reached down between them, then adjusted his cock so that it was lined up with her.

And then she lowered herself, taking him into her.

“Ohhhhh fuck...” he whispered.

“That is exactly what I needed,” she groaned as she kept lowering herself, taking him within her. “Oh my Gods, this is great.”

“Yeah,” he moaned, readjusting and then gripping her hips. She hooked her hands together behind his neck, leaning back a bit, exposing her breasts more, and began to ride him. The pleasure hit him slowly but powerfully, coming into him as she slid herself up and down his rigid length. She felt like a dream inside, incredibly tight and so very, very wet. And her natural heat was only amplified by the hot water around them.

Nora kept kissing him as they made love, making liberal use of her tongue, and he held her pale body against him. The pleasure kept building and building and building.

“Mmm...that’s it, this is just a little preliminary work,” she whispered as she kept riding him, bouncing on his cock with her wonderful pussy, “just to let a little pressure off before we settle into the full session.” She looked at Yelena. “And don’t worry, as soon as I’m done getting him off, I’ll get you off too.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Yelena said.

She was relaxing across from them, watching them closely with a small smile.

“We’ll come together,” she whispered, resting her forehead against his own.

He nodded and locked eyes with her. She began to ride him faster, the water sloshing around them, and the pleasure of their sex spiked. Nora moaned loudly, then began grinding back and forth instead of going up and down, stirring his cock around inside of her, and she started panting and moaning faster, the pitch of her voice rising, and he knew she was pushing herself to orgasm. He stopped holding back.

They timed it perfectly.

She started coming almost the same instant he did.

He cried out as she did, feeling her vaginal muscles clench around him, feeling that perfect increase of heat and wetness as she orgasmed, and his cock jolted violently inside of her. And then they were both lost together in the same world of unified sexual release and gratification. John came inside of her, the rapturous bliss washing through him as he emptied himself into her, pumping her full of his seed, coming hard and fast.

And then the orgasm was over, and they were both getting their breaths back, her leaning heavily against him as he held her.

Something occurred to him. “Oh,” he said suddenly.

“What? Something wrong?” she asked.

“You’re um...you can’t get pregnant, right?” he asked.

She laughed. “Oh. That. No. I’ve got a long-term infertility spell in effect. I have to get it renewed once every year, and the last renewal was two months ago. Don’t worry. You cannot possibly get me pregnant,” she replied.

“Thank the Gods,” he whispered. “I so rarely have sex with human women that it doesn’t even occur to me to ask anymore.”

“Wow, really? Who else have you been fucking?” she asked.

“Well, Fiona, obviously. And Yelena, also obviously. Elora, I believe we talked about her. And, just so you know, you’re going to be working with a Minotaur. Her name is Ara. She checks out,” he answered.

“A Minotaur...and you fucked her?!” she asked, sitting up and looking at him with surprise.

“Yes. I did. It was wonderful,” he replied.

“Right after he got done fucking a werewolf,” Yelena said.

“You fucked a Minotaur and a werewolf in the same night?” Nora asked, her eyes wide.

“In the same hour,” John replied.

“Holy fucking...you are something fucking wild, man. Damn, I wished I could’ve seen that,” Nora muttered.

“I’m positive you’ll be able to. Our werewolf friend is still there, and is a bit of an exhibitionist, so she’ll be thrilled to fuck in front of an audience again. And she’ll probably be interested in fucking you, if you’re into her.”

“I’m sure I will be,” Nora replied. “You’re crazy, you know that? But in a good way. A really good way. Most of the guys I hang around...well, they usually draw the line at elves and felis and beryl. I know a few of them have fucked a dryad or a mermaid here or there, but that’s not that out there, compared to a godsdamned Minotaur. Or an actual demoness. That’s just impressive. I am really glad I met you.”

“I’m glad I met you too,” he replied, and kissed her.

She kissed him back, and then kissed him some more. “Okay, I’m still horny. Let’s move this to the bed.”

“Yes,” Yelena agreed.

All three of them took the time to wash up in the hot, clear water, using soap and rags, and finally drew themselves from the bath. After drying off as fast as they could, the three naked, horny people quickly crossed the room and clambered up onto the huge bed. Even though he’d already orgasmed, John was still desperately aroused, intensely eager for more attention from Nora, or to become engaged in sex with Yelena.

Nora all but leaped onto Yelena, kissing her firmly on the lips, and Yelena held her, kissing her back passionately, then grasped her and flipped her over onto her back, laying partially on top of her. Nora let out a small shout of surprise.

“Goodness, you’re strong!”

“Very,” Yelena agreed, and then shifted her head, stuck out her long, forked tongue and began to drag it across one of Nora’s firm, pale breasts and perfect pink nipples. She let out a cry of pleasure, and then another as Yelena’s hand shifted lower, going in between her well-padded thighs, finding her clit and beginning to massage it.

John moved closer, getting on Nora’s other side, and began kissing her and playing with her other nipple. She groaned and cried out in impassioned ecstasy as they both stimulated and pleasured her. Kissing her was wonderful, she was a very passionate lover. She kissed him back, making good use of her tongue, and touching them both as often as she could. And then she made them stop, gently but firmly. “Okay,” she said, breathing heavily, “okay, it’s my turn to pleasure Yelena. Get on your back and spread your legs.”

“You got it,” Yelena replied.

She did just that, and Nora got in between her beautiful, firm thighs, getting onto her hands and knees, putting her hot, thick ass in the air, and buried her head in Yelena’s crotch. His demoness lover moaned loudly as Nora began to eat her out.

“Can I fuck you from behind?” John asked.

“Mmm-hmm,” Nora replied with particular emphasis.

He immediately got up onto his knees behind her and began sliding back into the perfect pink slit of her pussy. She moaned louder as he penetrated her once again. Getting back inside of her was a return to paradise. He groaned and grabbed her hips, then started fucking her from behind. Doing it like this with Nora was something he’d been thinking about ever since he’d caught sight of her clothes pulled a bit tighter over her ass and got a decent idea of its shape and size. She had a fucking seriously hot ass.

All three of them voiced their pleasure as they fucked. He pounded her from behind, burying himself in her pussy, and she tongued Yelena’s clit, licking her over and over again, and he thought he could see her arm moving, no doubt fucking Yelena’s sweet demon pussy with her fingers. They kept going like this for several moments until Nora brought Yelena to climax, and he had the spectacular view of Nora before him, on her hands and knees, pushing her big pale ass into his crotch as he fucked her hard from behind, her head buried in Yelena’s crotch, Yelena with her knees raised, legs spread wide, both hands on the back of Nora’s head as she screamed and writhed in perfect bliss, orgasming intensely.

And then she was finished, and released Nora. “Nora,” she said, “ride my tongue. John, fuck me.”

“Thank you,” Nora said, and got up after John pulled out of her.

She shifted to the side and John scooted up, hooked his hands under Yelena’s raised knees and tugged her towards him so that her head was lower, lying flat on the bed. As he got onto his own knees in between her legs, Nora straddled Yelena’s face, and quickly started moaning again as Yelena put her magical tongue to use.

“Holy fucking...John, this tongue of hers...she must make you really happy...” Nora said as she panted and groaned in pleasure.

“She does,” he agreed as he slid into her extremely hot and wet demoness pussy, “she really does. That tongue is amazing.”

“Yes-ah! Fuck!-it is. It so is.”

The bliss resumed burning through him as he started fucking Yelena, sliding in and out of her, the drag of her taut, perfectly tight vagina was just amazing. He knew he wanted to come inside of her, but only after making her come again. He laid his hand flat against her lower belly and his thumb found her clit, then began to massage it, making her let out a loud, muffled moan from between Nora’s powerful thighs. He fucked her harder and faster, rubbing her clit vigorously, and within about half a minute had brought her to screaming climax.

Nora wasn’t far behind, and neither was he. Hardly a few seconds after her pussy began to clench and spasm around him, gripping his rigid length, he started to come too, filling her up with his seed. He groaned loudly as the rapturous bliss tore through him, filling him with perfect pleasure. He emptied himself into Yelena as Nora began to come as well. She gripped the headboard and let out her own loud sounds of sexual release.

They came together and it was wonderful.

And then they were finished, and all three of them laid together on the bed, nude and sweaty and deeply satisfied.

All things considered, John thought as he laid there with the two women, for a day that had seen him facing a kraken and nearly dying, it had ended pretty well.

…

“Wow, so this is it, huh?” Nora asked, sounding impressed.

“This is it, but there’s definitely been progress,” Fiona replied, sounding just as impressed.

There had been progress in the days since they’d gone to fetch Nora. The four of them surveyed it slowly as they walked into the village. Obvious work had been done on the inn, as well as the two buildings around it. Some of the wood had been replaced, holes patched up, and more of it had been sanded down, in preparation for repainting. Windows had been replaced, doors too. There were huge piles of lumber, and several more big tents were set up on poles down the main road, where the lumber, and several crates, and piles of quarried stone rested. As they walked towards the inn, Ara emerged from around the side, holding a huge log on one shoulder.

“John! Yelena! Fiona! You’re back!” she said, sounding genuinely happy to see them.

“Hello, Ara. This is our new acquaintance, Nora,” John replied.

Ara moved over to the nearest structure and leaned the log against it, then moved to stand closer to them. “Hello,” she said.

“Hi...” Nora replied, clearly a little uncertain of how to proceed.

“Never seen a Minotaur up close?” Ara asked with a grin.

“Not one that wasn’t trying to kill me,” Nora replied.

“Fair enough. We haven’t done well for ourselves in this land. If you’re okay working alongside me, I’m happy to work alongside you.”

“I’m definitely happy to work alongside you,” Nora replied, relaxing. “Sorry. This is just going to take a little bit of getting used to, but our creed and code in the Defenders is largely about what you do, not what you are.”

“Good! I like that. Did it go well?” Ara asked, looking at John and the others.

“I nearly died,” John replied.

“But you didn’t, and you’ve still got all your parts attached, so it must’ve gone well.”

“It went well,” Yelena said.

“Great. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get this to where it’s got to go and start chopping it up. We’ve got lumber coming in, but judging by the estimates Elora and Carrie are talking about, we could use more.”

“Thank you for your help, Ara,” Fiona said.

“Happy to,” Ara replied, and she really sounded like it. She picked back up the log and marched on. They watched her go.

“And you fucked her,” Nora marveled quietly.

“Yes,” John replied. “I did.”

“So hot. Let’s meet the others.”

They walked on. As they reached the intersection, they heard Carrie shouting somewhere nearby. John looked down the road that led to the mine where he saw a cluster of activity. Men and women in dirty uniforms were moving in and out of the mine’s opening, adding to a growing pile of old wood, twisted metal, big rocks, and bent and wrecked pieces of mining equipment. Carrie was being taskmaster, guiding them along. Someone came out of the mine and wasn’t carrying anything, instead, they began walking towards the group. John quickly identified the figure as Shay. She saw them, then picked up the pace and came to stand before them.

“Hello,” she said. “Glad to see you made it back in one piece. You must be Nora. I’ve heard a lot about you. You’ve done good work.” She offered the woman her hand.

Nora took it and shook it. “Shay, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve heard of you, too. I was actually tossing around the idea of recruiting you, based on the stories I’d heard,” Nora replied.

“I’d say I work better alone, but...I don’t know. Since coming here, I like being part of a group.” She looked at Fiona. “The mine is cleansed enough for work to begin,” she reported, “but it will take time, maybe a few more months of weekly cleansing rituals before it’s truly purified. I’m willing to stick around and do that.”

“Thank you so much, Shay,” Fiona replied.

“You’re welcome. Piper and Ruby are in the mine too, helping them haul all the extra junk out so they can get to work on repairing and rebuilding.”

“Okay, good to know. Where’s Elora?” Fiona asked.

“In the inn, going over the finances and coordinating like she always is,” Shay replied. “I was headed there for a break myself. Just got done with the last big cleansing, so I’m a bit drained from the experience.”

“Let’s head there then,” Fiona said.

She joined their group and they walked into the inn, where they did indeed find Elora sat at her work area, studiously going over several different pieces of parchment. As they walked in, she set what she was holding aside and looked up. “Fiona. Perfect. I wanted to talk with you.”

“What about?” Fiona replied.

“The state of the village. Come, sit,” she replied.

“Okay...good news or bad news?”

Elora smiled. “It’s good news.” She shifted her gaze to Nora. “You must be the leader of the Defenders.”

“I am. You’re Elora. I’ve heard of your mercantile exploits,” Nora replied.

Elora’s smile broadened. “Good to know. I’ve definitely heard of your exploits. Will you be joining our merry band here?”

“That depends, I guess. Probably. Can I sit in on this meeting?” Nora asked.

“Yes, please do,” Fiona replied.

Shay walked over to the food area and began making herself a meal. The others pulled up chairs and sat around Elora’s desks.

“So, where are we at?” Fiona asked, sounding both eager and anxious.

“A good place,” Elora replied. “Carrie’s people are here and the mine is being tended to. Some of the basic supplies for getting it up and running is already here. Carrie says that they can have the mine cleaned out in three days, and, provided the supplies get here when they’re supposed to, she can have it reactivated and producing in two weeks at most. We’re going to put the stuff they’re pulling out to use, using the scrap metal to make weapons in our blacksmith and chopping up the wood for firewood. I’m in the process of hiring a blacksmith, by the way. I know a guy, he’s great and I’m almost positive he’d be willing to come work here.”

“Okay, great,” Fiona replied.

“Now, with regards to that, I’m in the process of vetting a number of people to come help actually run this town once we get it rebuilt. People to clean up, people to run the buildings, merchants to help me, auxiliary personnel to help them, another healer to help Shay. I’ve got a list. I’ve also opened negotiations with two local lords, which is the most I think we should consider taking on as ‘benefactors’. They’re both reasonable, and one of them I can manipulate fairly well, as he has a particular taste for felis pussy. One has access to some of the best farmland in the area, which we’ll need until we can make our own. The other has access to a decent logging site, which we will also need for the near future. I’m preparing to offer them a flat, fixed monthly rate of gold for their resources. I think we can get away with five hundred for the lumber, a thousand for the food, with expenses growing as the village does.”

“Okay, that all sounds good. How long before the buildings are rebuilt?”

Elora consulted another parchment. “If all goes as scheduled, a month. I found a third work crew willing to work for cheap. Probably because I mentioned there’s a lot of hot people in town very down to fuck. And we’re also going to start laying down cobblestone for the roads. I’m assuming you want actual roads right?”

“Yes,” Fiona replied.

“Good. The workers coming to get started on the rebuilding will come in five days. In the meantime, I’ve had a shipment of food and clean water put in for, so we can feed them, and we’re going to want to start building simple beds for them. I think that between our little group and with a little bit of help from Carrie’s team we could probably get it done in time...”

“Okay. Um...Elora...” Fiona said, hesitating.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Is it...I mean, is it working? Did we do it? Is this going to actually work?”

Elora smiled. “I feel I can say with confidence that the foundation is being laid smoothly, and if we all continue to put in this level of work, then it will work. So yes, for now, we’ve done it. You did good, Fiona.”

She let out a long, heavy sigh of relief. “That’s so fucking good to hear.” She looked over at Nora. “So...are you interested in helping?”

“Yes,” Nora said. “You clearly all know what you’re doing here, and you’re committed. This seems like a good project that will help a lot of people. In a few days, I’ll walk back and then return with my Defenders, and we will defend you, and help you.”

“Thank you so much,” Fiona said, and then suddenly leaned over and hugged her. “This means a lot.”

Nora hugged her back. “You’re welcome. You’re doing a good thing here, Fiona.”

“I hope so,” she murmured.

“You’re doing a good thing, Fiona,” John said firmly.

She nodded and then let go of Nora, then turned back to Elora. “Anything else?”

“Yes. A lot, actually. I need to go over about thirty different things with you. I need a yes or a no on them, and to explain them,” Elora replied.

Fiona groaned and fell back into her chair. “Fine...”

John stood. “Have fun with that. I’m going to get something to eat, then I’ll try and find something to do to help out.”

“I will join you, love,” Yelena said, standing as well.

They headed off.

…

John felt good.

Really, really good. Like everything was going to be okay.

Not forever, but for now, and for the near future. Maybe it was relaxing after a day of hard work, or maybe it was having survived the sheer fucking insanity that had been the kraken after surviving the sheer godsdamned madness that had been taking on a fucking ancient entity of death after taking on an entire group of bloodthirsty Minotaurs. Or maybe it was just being surrounded by his friends. Probably it was all those things.

But he felt good right now, leaning against a wall, nursing a mug of mead and watching the others talk. It had been about a day since he’d gotten back with Nora and the others to the village. They’d been working hard all through yesterday and pretty much all of today. It was hard work, but it was satisfying work. He was sore, but it felt good. Now the sun was gone, the chill was coming on strong, and they had all gathered in the inn, drinking and eating and talking happily. John looked around slowly, and his eyes came to rest on Ara. She was sitting nearby in a chair big enough to contain her large body, with a huge mug of strong alcohol, watching everyone with a look of sedate comfort, though there was a bit of anxiety there, too.

He walked over to her and sat down beside her.

“Hello, Ara.”

“Hello, John. How are you doing?”

“I’m okay,” he said. “I’m...relaxed. How about you? You look a little tense.”

“Do I?”

“Yeah. Just a little though, I’m not sure anyone else notices it.”

She smiled. “Well...we have made love, and no one else has with me. So it makes a bit of sense that you’d be a little more in tune with me. Although I guess that’s true of every woman here by now, huh?”

“I...” John looked around. The only one missing was Carrie, who was having a meeting with her crew down in the mining living quarters. Although by ‘meeting’ she probably meant ‘drinking competition’. “Yes, I guess so,” he murmured.

“You do get around.”

“I do,” he agreed. “How do you feel about that?”

“Do you care?”

“What do you mean? I asked, didn’t I?”

“That’s a fair point. I don’t judge you, if that’s what you’re asking. I think it’s good. Humans have curious views of sex, I’ve noticed, but then again, I don’t like my own people’s views of sex either. I prefer this group’s view of sex. It’s a thing to be enjoyed however two people wish to enjoy it, or three, or four, or more. Honestly, I’m surprised. This is rare. To see people so freely having sex with each other, and it doesn’t cause problems. I think it’s because you all...you know what you are and who you are.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Everyone has...insecurities. Everyone has something to prove, it seems. The fewer of these you have, the happier you can be, I think. I think a lot of people aren’t sure who they are, or, I guess, they don’t like who they are. They feel trapped. And a lot are, I suppose. But everyone here...they have found what they want, for the most part. Carrie loves being in charge of a mining outfit where she drinks and fucks in between working a mine, so that’s what she made happen. Piper loves hunting people, so she is a bounty hunter. Elora loves the art of mercantile. Shay loves healing, and travel. I can tell this about them. And they made it work for them.”

“What do you love?” John asked.

Ara was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know,” she admitted finally. “When you live in a clan, you don’t think about you so much as the group. I used to think that was the right way to live, but now I’m really doubting that. I don’t think the opposite is true, but...everyone here, you all work for the betterment of the group, and yet you don’t lose your identities. You don’t compromise yourself more than doing some hard labor or risking your life to fight a monster, things you are already okay with. Whenever you sacrifice for the group, you do it willingly, not because you must. I think that may be the best way to live. And as for what I care about? I don’t know yet. I do know that I care about this. I care about these people. I care about this shared goal of ours.”

“So what are you going to do?” John asked.

“I’m going to stay here for the immediate future,” Ara replied. “I think...that will be enough for me, for right now. Things were complicated before, and they’re simpler now. There’s work that needs doing here, a lot of work, and there are people here who would not only tolerate working alongside me, but could even call me a friend. That’s enough for me. I like you. I like Fiona. I like Yelena and Carrie and the others. How long will you stay?”

John was silent for a few seconds. “I’m still considering that.”

“Fair enough. I hope it will be for a little while longer. I want more sex.”

“So do I,” he replied immediately. “I really, really do.”

“Good. I imagine most men won’t be as easy as you to talk into my bed.”

“You might be surprised, if they’re men who hang around here,” John replied.

“I hope so.”

He bid her farewell for now, then stood and wandered deeper into the room. He saw Ruby and Yelena deep in conversation in one corner. They both looked very serious, no longer smiling. He wondered what it was they were talking about. Well, whatever it was, it looked important, so instead he sought out Piper, who was grinning, drinking from a bottle of wine, and chatting with Shay and Nora. Nora had been spending a lot of time around Piper. He thought she might’ve had a real thing for werewolves.

Or maybe just a real thing for Piper.

Then again, who wouldn’t? The woman was amazingly sexy.

“Hello, John. We were just talking about you,” Piper said.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. We’re trying to figure out your favorite position and we were comparing notes.”

“Well...all three of you only have one sampling so far,” John replied after a moment’s consideration.

“We should fix that,” Shay said demurely.

“I’m sure we will,” Nora said.

“I’m very much looking forward to that. I was hoping to, for now however, chat about the future. I’ve been thinking about it...what are your plans, Piper?”

She sighed and stared into her bottle of wine, considering it. “I don’t know,” she said finally, “I guess I’ll hang around for awhile. This is a lot of fun, and there’s a lot of cool people around, a lot of work to do, a lot of sex to be had. I like it up here. I’ll hang out for another month at least, maybe even longer. And I get the feeling this is a place I’ll make a pilgrimage to at least once a year, maybe more often. I like it here.”

“Me too,” Nora said. “I’m pretty confident my Defenders and I will be here for awhile. I’m negotiating with Fiona right now about using this as a kind of headquarters. We’ve been discussing having one for a long time. If she says yes, we’re going to build kind of a lodge at the edge of town, a big building with a food hall and lots of places to sleep and train and fight and fuck. That will put your little village on the fucking map.”

“It sure would,” John agreed. “Shay?”

“I’m here for awhile. I’ve got a verbal agreement with Fiona to stay for six months. Mainly to finish cleansing the mine, but also to help heal people. I’ll probably leave every now and then to visit the villages. I’m going to find some more permanent replacement staff for me. I’ve got a few people in mind who would probably like it here.”

“Nice,” John said. “We really appreciate the help. Any ideas what Carrie’s up to?”

“Oh, her and her crew are settling in for the long haul,” Shay replied. “I think they’ve found their paradise here. Apparently the mine is a great one, very untapped due to the damned death entity that was residing in it. But they’re thrilled and I think they’re going to be here for years to come.”

“Nice,” John said.

“What about you?” Piper asked. “What’s on your’s and Yelena’s minds?”

“We’re still figuring it out,” he replied. “But we’ll be here for awhile longer at least.”

“Good. I’m not finished with you yet,” Piper said.

“Neither am I,” Nora said.

“I don’t think any of us are,” Shay murmured.

“Well...that’s good to know. Uh...I’m going to go talk with Fiona,” he replied.

“Have fun,” Piper said.

He tried not to get overwhelmed by thoughts of the three women nude and fucking him, because he really wanted that to keep happening, because they were amazing in bed. But he wanted to get an idea of where everyone was at, and also where he and Yelena were. They seemed to be done roaming the frozen wastelands north of the mountains, and the work that was ahead of them was more of the day-to-day variety. He knew he wanted to stick around for awhile longer, at least a few weeks, but he wasn’t sure precisely how Yelena felt.

“Hey you,” Fiona said as he approached. Before he could respond, she gave him a long, lingering, very pleasant kiss.

“Uh...hey,” he replied, unable to keep from grinning foolishly.

She giggled. “You’re very cute.”

“Thanks...you’re feeling affectionate,” he replied.

“Yes. Especially towards you. And Yelena. But she’s busy right now. I just...” she grew more serious abruptly. “I wanted to thank you. I mean really thank you for doing this. All this. I honestly don’t think I could have got this off the ground if you and Yelena hadn’t said yes in the beginning.” He began to respond but she cut him off. “No, don’t...don’t be humble, don’t tell me I’m being ridiculous or tell me how strong I am. There were times where...I almost gave up. I came close. But you and Yelena were there, and that means a lot to me. You two have become some of my closest friends in my life over the past few weeks. The two of you have done more for me than most people in my life, and basically as a total stranger in the beginning. So I’m saying this now: really, genuinely, fucking thank you, John. I’ve already said this to Yelena.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied, because it seemed the most appropriate response.

She smiled. “Good. Now, you looked like you needed something. What’s up?”

“Well, I was going to ask where it’s all going, what our plans look like for the next few weeks,” he replied.

“Like today, mostly. Receive shipments. Make repairs to the buildings. Lay cobblestone. Get rid of trash. Protect the village from monsters. And assholes. Why? You thinking about leaving me already?” she asked with a grin.

“Just...trying to figure out my future,” he replied.

“Go to Kindress,” Fiona said.

“What?”

“You heard me. Go to Kindress. Go to my homeland. You and Yelena will have an absolutely fantastic time. I promise. And Yelena won’t have to pretend to be anything she isn’t. Demons walk around openly there. Mostly succubi, but I saw a few demons like Yelena in my time. Everyone’s welcome in Kindress. Take a boat there, have fun for a year or two. Fuck your way up and down the land. You think sex with a werewolf or a Minotaur is great, try sex with a manix. They. Can. Fuck. I mean, they really can. Plus, I can point you towards my horny aunt.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah. I bet she’s still hot. And I more than bet she’ll take you to bed.”

“That doesn’t weird you out? Even a little?” he asked.

“No. Why should it? I love my aunt. I know that sex makes her happy, and it obviously makes you happy, so you’ll be happy together. Now, all that being said, I would really, really appreciate it if you stuck around for at least a few more weeks. And I promise to...” she reached down and rested a hand on his crotch, “...make it worth your while.”

“Oh, you don’t have to tempt me. I’m happy to stay for awhile yet,” he replied.

She laughed. “I figured. Plus, I figured that every other woman here isn’t done with you.”

“Apparently not. Speaking of which, how’s Elora? What’s her plans?”

“She’s balancing the books right now. Gods know how she keeps focus. She’s agreed to stick around for awhile. She believes in what we’re doing.”

“We all do,” John replied.

Fiona smiled, though a little anxiously. “I know. I just...hope I’m not bullshitting you all, you know?”

“You aren’t,” John said firmly. “So many things fail just because people lose faith, not because they were destined to. You can do this. You are doing this. Okay?”

“Okay,” she replied after a moment, then hugged him. He hugged her back. “Thanks again,” she said into his chest. “Also, I do plan on really thanking you with my mouth later on tonight.”

“I am very much looking forward to that,” he replied.

She pulled back and grinned at him. “I could do it right now, if you wanted. I don’t mind dropping to my knees and sucking you off like a whore right here, right now.”

“I...” John glanced over at Yelena and Ruby. “I...will be back later, as tempting as it is.”

She laughed. “Okay. I’ll be here...oh wait! There was one more thing I wanted to run by you.”

He looked back at her. “Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking about a name for this place for a long time, and I think I’ve finally come up with one. And I wanted to know if it sounded stupid or not.”

“Tell me.”

“Beacon.”

He considered it. “It doesn’t sound stupid. It’s a great name.”

“You aren’t lying, are you?” she asked.

“No, I’m not. It’s a great name, Fiona. It’s easy to remember, and it lets people know what it is. And this village is a beacon. You chose well.”

“Okay. Thank you.” She gave him a kiss that became a longer kiss with tongue and then stepped back, staring at him and smiling intently.

It was hard to walk away from her, but he did, finally heading over to Yelena and Ruby. They were still sitting together in the corner. He approached slowly and obviously, as Ruby was facing away from him now, whereas Yelena could see him, to give her time to indicate to him whether or not it was a good time to come over.

She saw him and smiled, so he came over and sat down.

“Hello, ladies. How’s it going?” he asked.

“It’s...going,” Ruby murmured.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I am. I’m potentially really, really okay, actually. I...” she hesitated, then looked up at Yelena. She looked...relieved, but also...guilty?

“Do you want me to explain it?” Yelena asked.

“No, I can do it. I should do it. I’ve already asked a lot of you.” Ruby turned to face him. “John, there’s a way I can cure my undead state. It’s surefire. Or as close to surefire as I’ve discovered so far. But there’s a catch.”

“Isn’t there always?” he murmured. “What is it?”

“Basically, it’s a magical well in a cave. The water drawn from it will cure me of my undead curse. But the catch is, I can’t draw it myself. It must be drawn for me. And the act of drawing that water will cause incredible suffering and physical pain. So...obviously I need someone to do this for me, and suffer on my behalf...”

“And you agreed to do it, didn’t you?” John asked, looking at Yelena.

“Of course,” Yelena replied.

He frowned, considering it. “Is there...any risk of permanent damage?”

“No. From all the reports I’ve read, the people I’ve talked to, the suffering lasts only as long as you are actively going to draw the water. Once I drink it, that’s it. I’m cured, the suffering stops, the person who did it is fine.” Her face twisted briefly in a torrent of emotion. “I’m so sorry. I know I’m asking a lot. Not just of Yelena, but of you, too, John. I’m asking you to allow the one you love so much to suffer great physical pain on my behalf. But...I just...I need this. It doesn’t have to be right away, but I truly need this, and you are the only people I’ve found who I think might be willing to do this for me.”

John looked at Ruby, then at Yelena. He hated the idea of Yelena suffering, but he hated the idea of even attempting to stop this far more. If Yelena was willing to suffer on Ruby’s behalf, and if there was even a chance it could actually cure her of her undead curse, then it was worth it. She absolutely should not have to live like this. She deserved better.

“Okay,” he said finally.

“You won’t argue with me about it?” Yelena asked.

“No. I mean, this is your choice to make. I’m not going to try and control you.”

Yelena sighed. “That isn’t the point I was making. Yes, it is my choice, but we are in this relationship together. This is our life now, John. My life is no longer fully my life, your life is no longer fully your life. It is our life. We make decisions together, as a team. Which was why I wanted to run this past you.”

“I’m sorry,” he replied. “I didn’t mean to imply that. I want to say, I’m okay with this. I don’t like the idea of you suffering, but...if you’re willing to do this, then you should. Ruby, you deserve a cure. I’ll support both of you however I can.”

“Thank you,” Ruby whispered. “So much.”

“Yes. Thank you, John. I appreciate the support,” Yelena said.

“So you know where this well is?” he asked.

“Yes. I do. I’ve been there, actually. But...we don’t have to go right away. As much as I want to get out of this state, I also feel like what we’re doing here is important. I want to stay here for a little bit longer, helping out. It’s back down south,” Ruby replied.

“Okay. Just tell us when the time is right. We’ll go to it,” John said.

“Thank you again. I really do appreciate it. This is...kind of a big deal,” she replied.

“All right, then. So, Yelena, my love, I’ve been trying to figure out how long we want to stick around here. And now that this has come up, it seems prudent to include Ruby in this decision. I was thinking...two weeks? A month? We don’t have to put a hard timeline on it, but a nice rough estimate might be a prudent idea.”

“I am okay with that time frame. Ruby?” Yelena asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, that sounds fine.”

“Perfect! So...now that we’ve got that out of the way, what next?” John asked.

“Let’s just enjoy ourselves,” Yelena replied.

John nodded. That sounded like an excellent idea.

EPILOGUE

“So this is it?” John asked.

He, Yelena, and Ruby stood before a simple, unassuming cave that was nothing more than a dark hole cut into the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around but trees and grass and a bit of wildlife.

“This is it,” Ruby confirmed. “I’m positive.”

“I can feel magic,” Yelena murmured quietly. “Odd magic.”

“That’s so weird, it looks so...” John murmured, trialing off.

“Unassuming,” Yelena said. “Which is the perfect place to hide something you want hidden. It is not difficult to reach, not visually striking, not near civilization, not near a main road but not too far off the beaten path. It looks like a thousand other caves I have seen during my travels in this land. It is the perfect place.”

“That was my thought,” Ruby said.

“Huh,” John murmured.

Ruby struck off towards it. “Come on.”

They followed after her. John’s mind wandered just like they had been for the past week or so as they entered the cave and began to move down a simple, sloping tunnel. They had spent a month at Beacon with Fiona and the others. It had played out about as he’d expected, which was nice. Although he’d spent six months living a really predictable life with Kesley, those few weeks getting Beacon set up had been crazy and unpredictable and it had made him miss a simpler life. And he’d gotten it during that month.

He’d chopped down some nearby trees to both help create a more sure border around the village, and to get wood for burning and building. He’d also helped lay cobblestone for the main road through town. Mostly he’d just done manual labor wherever they needed it, since it was simple and he enjoyed simple. He’d also slept with the women he’d gotten to know. A lot. Sex with Ara and Piper was particularly satisfying and invigorating. Occasionally, they fought whenever something dangerous wandered into town, and twice a band of thieves were caught trying to rob them. All in all, it had been a really great time.

But as that month had come to a close, he could tell that Ruby was getting antsy, and he thought that Yelena was too. She wanted to get back onto the road. So, when he’d woken up about ten days ago, he’d taken a walk around Beacon, (Fiona had since created and planted signs marking it as such at either end of the village), and had really gotten a sense of how far it had come. The inn, by far the most used structure, was basically ready. They’d made all the repairs to the exterior and interior, patching holes in the roof, and then had replaced the windows and doors, and had furnished all the rooms. The other structures had come a long way as well, mostly having their exteriors fixed up to keep the cold and the weather out so that work on the interiors could go smoother.

The main cobblestone road was laid down. It extended from one end of the village to the next, and also went up to the mine. They’d also hired a blacksmith, who had come and examined Beacon, listened to Fiona’s pitch, and had accepted the job and gotten to work setting up his workshop. More people were coming, he knew. He’d taken a walk to the mine then, chatting with Carrie, who was already up with most of her crew. All the old crap had been pulled out of the mine, and they’d gotten iron bracers set up and new tracks laid for the mine carts, new tools in, and were well into expanding the mine and producing platinum.

After that, he’d walked back to the center of town, took another good look around, then had gone for breakfast. And there he thought, and thought some more, and by the time he was done, he realized that he did really miss being on the road as well. He missed adventure, he missed being tied to nothing more than Yelena and their shared desire for wanderlust and fun and exploration, and he knew that it was time to move on.

So he’d spent the day saying goodbye. They all had, really. He’d ended up having goodbye sex with every woman there, including a few of the miners he’d gotten to know on a more personal level. Then they’d had a big meal and a bit of a party at the end of the day. And finally, he, Yelena, and Ruby had hit the road. They’d spent a little while first walking to Kesley’s place, where they visited her, spent the night, and had some sex. Sex with a dragoness was still amazing. After that, they’d started walking south.

They traveled through the frozen north, then over the mountains, and finally down along a path near the middle of the land, getting ever closer to the cave that contained Ruby’s cure. Every night, they made camp, ate dinner, made love in a beautiful threesome, and slept. Then they pretty much reversed the process in the morning and hit the road again. It was a good time, but he could feel the tension mounting in Ruby.

He didn’t blame her.

“Here it is,” Ruby said.

The light from a light spell Yelena had cast as they’d begun their descent revealed a cavern at the end of the tunnel. They stood at the threshold, staring into the area ahead of them. It was a very simple, big cavern. A basic well rested at its center, and there was a line carved into the rock floor, forming a circle about forty feet across around the well.

“So...what do we do, precisely?” Yelena asked.

“Okay, I’ll lay it all out. John, first of all, stay here and don’t do anything,” she said, looking firmly at him. “I really need to impress upon both of you how closely you need to follow these rules. So, John, do you understand?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I stay here. I don’t move. I don’t do anything.”

“Good. Now, you’re going to want to do something, but you can’t. Yelena. You will walk in a straight line to the well essentially as quickly as you can. That line there, once you cross it, that is when the pain begins. The closer you get to the well, the more it hurts. I don’t know how it will hurt, only that it will be a lot.”

“I can handle pain,” Yelena replied.

“Okay. Now, once you get to the well, you draw the bucket of water up and set it down on the ground. The whole point of this is that you have to do it willingly, and without help. I’m not completely clear on what that means, but one thing I did take away is that no one can touch you. At all. Not me, not John, no one. Once you draw the water and set the bucket down, I drink from it. The pain should cease, I should be cured, and we’ll be done.”

“I understand,” Yelena said.

“John?” Ruby asked, looking at him.

“I understand,” he said.

“Good. Sorry, I’m not trying to be patronizing, it’s just...this is so important. I don’t know if we’ll get another chance if we fuck it up or not.”

“It’s okay,” John said. “We’ll do everything we can to make this happen, Ruby.”

“Thank you. Like, really thank you, so much. This is more than pretty much anyone has done for me in my life. I can’t describe how much I appreciate this,” Ruby said, briefly losing her serious, focused demeanor.

“You are welcome, Ruby. You are a friend,” Yelena replied. “Now, let us begin.”

“Okay.”

John remained rooted to his spot as he watched the two women approach the well. They stopped at the edge of the line that had been carved into the ground. He watched, feeling anticipation swelling within his tense muscles, as they stepped apart from each other, putting about five feet of space in between them.

And then they began.

Yelena crossed the line. She began walking, taking brisk steps. There were about twenty steps between the line and the well. She made it eight steps before slowing down. John tensed harder, his muscles turning to tempered steel. Yelena kept going, though she shuddered visibly. Another step was taken. Then two more. Then she stopped and shuddered violently. A low groan escaped her throat. Trembling, she kept going.

She was over halfway there now.

Ruby was keeping pace with her at a careful distance, watching her intently. She made it to fifteen steps before stopping again, and she let out a low growl, then a sharp cry of pain. It was physical pain for him to stay rooted to his position, but somehow he forced himself to. Yelena took another step. And then one more. Then she screamed, leaned forward, and vomited. He almost went after her, but forced himself to stay still.

Finishing up, she suddenly took the last few steps rapidly and began to draw the water. Ruby was right there, waiting, no doubt hoping to end this as fast as possible. Torturous seconds passed as she finished drawing the bucket of water up, and as soon as it was clear of the well, she tied the rope off, untied the bucket from the other end, and set it quickly down on the ground, then stepped clear of it. The second she could, Ruby stepped forward, dropped to her knees, grabbed the bucket, lifted it to her mouth and drank deeply from it.

John kept frozen, watching intently, until suddenly Yelena let out a shout of surprise and collapsed. It was next to impossible not to run forward. A few seconds after that, Ruby dropped the bucket and crouched by Yelena’s side.

“Yelena?! Yelena?!” she cried.

“I am okay,” Yelena replied weakly. “I am okay...did it work?”

“I don’t know. John! She’s okay!” Ruby called.

He almost collapsed himself from relief. “Can I come over?!”

“I don’t know...Yelena, is it working? Can you see? I feel different but...”

He saw Yelena roll over. She propped herself up tiredly on one elbow and looked up. Her smile was huge. “Yes. You are no longer undead, Ruby.”

“Oh thank the Gods!” she cried, and fell into a sitting position.

John bolted from his position and ran up to the two women. He looked at Ruby as he crouched by Yelena. She looked like a completely different person. Her skin was smooth and tight and flawless. Her eyes were clear and beautiful. Everything about her screamed alive! She was clearly no longer undead. He turned his attention to Yelena as he rested his hands on her.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

“Yes, my love. I collapsed because whatever pain magic held me abruptly released me. It was really a collapse of relief. There is no more pain, but that took a lot out of me. I am deeply exhausted,” she replied.

“I’m so sorry, Yelena,” Ruby said. “But thank you so much.”

“It’s okay, Ruby,” Yelena replied. She sat up, then opened her arms. “It was worth it.”

Ruby threw herself against Yelena, hugging her tightly. John realized she was crying. He moved forward and hugged both women. Ruby released Yelena with one arm, shifted and brought it around so that she was hugging him as well.

They stayed like that for what felt like a long time.

Eventually, Ruby released them and stood up. She picked up the bucket, retied it to the rope, then lowered it back down into the well, for whoever needed it next. And then, after helping Yelena up, the trio walked slowly back out into the sunlight.

…

“So what are you two going to do now?” Ruby asked.

Although there were still several hours of light left in the day, they had made camp by a hot spring not far from the cave. Each for their own reasons, they were tired enough to warrant just relaxing for the rest of the day and night.

“Well, Yelena...have you had time to think about my proposal?” John asked.

He looked over from the stew pot he was tending to. She was seated in a chair, wearing the illusion amulet that she had given over to Ruby, given that they were too exposed for safety’s sake and that Yelena was too exhausted to shape-shift. Plus, Ruby didn’t need it anymore. She was laying on a blanket in the sunshine, completely naked. They were all naked, except for John, who had pulled on some boxers. They’d washed, made passionate love, and then soaked in the hot spring after setting up camp, and now he was making them all a meal. He was working hard on it, because it would be Ruby’s first meal since getting cured.

“I have,” Yelena replied. She yawned. “Oh wow, I will sleep for a long time tonight. I want to do it. I want to leave this land and go to Kindress.”

“Oh, wow! That’d be a great idea,” Ruby said. He glanced over at her. Damn, did she look fucking good! She’d been seriously hot as an undead, but now that she was back to being alive...well, he was going to be fucking her as often as she would let him while they were still together. “I think you’d love it over there.”

“That is my hope,” Yelena replied. “What will you do?”

“Oh...I have a lot to do. People to see. My family, my friends, old lovers...new lovers. I’ve been making a little list of people you two have had sex with that I want to track down and meet. But for now, I want to walk back to Brynne.”

“Would you mind if we joined you?” John asked.

“Got someone you want to fuck?” Ruby asked with a grin. “Besides me?”

He glanced at Yelena, who smiled tiredly at him and raised her eyebrows, silently asking the same question. He sighed. “Yes, there is someone I want to fuck. Maybe a few someones. Redwood is on the way, and if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to stop there and see if I can track someone down. Also, someone we know may be in Brynne.”

“Tanis?” Yelena hazarded.

“Yes. Plus, Indigo will probably be there,” John replied.

“Okay. So who is the other one, in Redwood?”

“We met, very briefly, just before you and I met. I believe I mentioned the felis merchant I helped the night before I helped you. She made a very suggestive offer to see me again if I was ever in Redwood, so, you know...”

“Ah. Okay. I am okay with this.”

“I’ll be thrilled to have your company. Honestly, I’ll do anything you two ask,” Ruby said.

Yelena shifted, looking uncomfortable. “I...won’t take advantage of that.”

“You’re a friend. You needed help. We helped you. We’ll be grateful for potential future help from you, but don’t feel like you must do anything we ask, and let’s leave it at that,” John replied. He didn’t want to get into some weird power dynamic with Ruby feeling like she had to do anything they asked, no matter what it was.

“I...okay. I really appreciate that. And everything. Again, thank you. So much.”

“You’re welcome,” Yelena replied. She relaxed, then a thoughtful expression passed across her face. “You know, we will have to say goodbye to several of our friends. Or, at least, farewell for now. They will be angry with us if we don’t.”

“That’s true,” John replied. “I guess, after Redwood and Brynne, we can travel around, see people.” He grinned. “Have some farewell for now sex...”

“Yes,” Yelena said, and she settled back into her seat. “We shall.”

John turned back to the meal he was preparing, and felt content.

The future was looking very bright.

FAREWELL FOR NOW

INDIGO & TANIS

“I never thought I’d come back here again.”

John looked over at Ruby. She’d been unusually quiet for the past fifteen minutes or so, as they began their final approach on the outskirts of Brynne. He’d been waiting for her to say something ever since she’d fallen silent, because in the two days since she’d become fully elf again, she’d hardly stopped talking.

Or fucking.

She had been fucking him and Yelena like crazy. John had honestly lost count, but he thought he’d orgasmed inside of or on Ruby about fifteen times over the past forty-eight hours. Although, some of those orgasms had been dry, as she hadn’t given him enough time to get his seed back. Not that he exactly minded...although he was kind of sore now. After the last time they’d had sex, (they’d stopped for a quickie about two hours ago when Ruby couldn’t contain herself any longer,) he’d had Yelena hit him with a healing spell. His dick had stopped being sore and raw, but he was still wondering if he’d be able to get it up, given he was sexually exhausted after spending so much time with her.

“How do you feel?” Yelena asked.

He looked over at her. His demoness lover was in what he was coming to think of as her ‘default’ human form. It was the one she took the most often when they were among the public, or basically anywhere exposed. She was tall, thin, plain, her brunette hair a little limp, her only distinguishing feature a scar across one cheek. It was a good disguise, nobody paid too much attention to her. Although Ruby had given her back the illusion amulet after being cured of her undead curse, which she seemed to have modeled her human self after. She wore it sometimes when the strain of holding her shape-shifted self became too much.

She said that someday she hoped to be able to hold it for days or even weeks at a time.

“I’m not sure,” Ruby murmured. “I’ve been so excited during our walk here.”

“Yes,” John said, “you have.”

She laughed. “Well, in more ways than one. But now I’m just nervous. Almost no one knew what happened to me...I guess I’m afraid of what I’ll tell people who ask where I’ve been for a year. Can I just realistically make something up? I guess I could. But what if those very few people I told spread the word and everyone knows? I mean, elves are better about undead than most species, but still...” she heaved a sigh.

“Do you want us to come with you?” Yelena asked.

They had agreed to part ways when they passed by Indigo’s place. This was to be the first stop on their farewell tour, and he genuinely hoped that Indigo was around. There was a decent chance that she was out adventuring though.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Ruby replied. “I’m a grown up and I’m actually remembering that now. I honestly hadn’t realized how much being undead had...diminished me. It became hard to work up the nerve to do anything. That’s going to take some time to go away. I mean, I fucking hope it goes away. I used to be so outgoing and adventurous. Although fuck, that’s what got me into that in the first place. Maybe I could use a bit more caution. Well, either way, I’ll figure it out. I have places I need to go, people I need to see, and they’re best done alone. Plus, you two really need to hook up with your friend. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“All right, if you’re sure,” Yelena said.

“I’m sure. I do appreciate the offer though.”

They passed by the outer farms quickly, and soon found their way into the town proper. John still found elven settlements curious. The plant life was so much a part of the design. It wasn’t cleared out so much as worked around. Humans would come in and chop everything down for a square mile, and keep it that way.

In a way, he liked this setup and design more. Which was a little ironic, (and hypocritical), given what he’d just spent almost two months doing in the north. He put it out of his mind as he realized they were nearing Indigo’s house.

“I guess this is where we part ways,” John said as they slowed to a halt.

“Okay...how long do you think you’ll be in town?” Ruby asked.

“At least a day, maybe two,” Yelena replied.

“All right. I do want to see you again. I want goodbye sex before you leave. Can I find you here?” she asked.

“Yes. Visit tomorrow before noon and we’ll give you an update. Plus, you get to, hopefully, meet Indigo. If she isn’t here, then we’ll be staying at that inn,” John said, pointing to an inn across and farther up the street.

“Okay. Perfect.” She smiled and kissed both of them. “Good luck.”

“You too, Ruby,” Yelena replied.

They watched her go, moving into the flow of elves walking down the road. Then they moved up to Indigo’s front door and knocked on it. He listened, thinking he heard voices, and someone moving from within. Well, someone was home. A moment later, the door unlocked and opened up a few inches. Indigo’s beautiful, pale face stared out at them. She was breathing heavily and her red hair was a complete mess.

“John! Yelena!” she cried, grinning fiercely and opening the door all the way.

She was completely naked.

“Hello, Indigo,” John replied, unable to keep from staring at her body. She was fantastically fit and every bit as sexy as he remembered.

“Come in! I was just...entertaining company,” she said.

“You must have been doing so very effectively,” Yelena replied.

“Well, almost. We hadn’t quite gotten to the sex yet,” Indigo said. She closed the door behind them as they came in.

“Oh...should we...wait?” John asked.

“No, I honestly think this would be better as a foursome. You two are so good at sex.”

“So the first thing you do after we show up out of the blue after like eight months is to try and get us into a foursome?” John replied.

“Hey, I told you back then, I am a good friend,” Indigo answered firmly. “Trust me, you’ll love her. Tanis! You wanna meet some hot people to fuck?!”

“Yes!” came the reply.

“Wait...Tanis?” Yelena asked.

“Do you know her?” Indigo replied.

“We know a Tanis. We met last year. Hot, tight little redheaded elf with big boobs.”

“That’s definitely who I’ve got,” Indigo said.

Approaching footsteps announced the arrival of Tanis, and sure enough, the woman he remembered stepped into the room. Her eyes widened. “John!” she cried, then looked at Yelena. “Um...”

“Yelena,” he said.

“Hello, Tanis,” Yelena said, grinning.

“Oh! So you found that amulet! That’s so cool!”

“Actually she’s shape-shifting right now. But yes, we did find, and have, the amulet,” John replied.

“Holy shit! You’re good at shape-shifting,” Indigo murmured.

John couldn’t help but study Tanis’s nude body now. She also looked just as fantastic as he remembered. And fuck did she have some big tits.

“Thank you. I’ve put a lot of work into it,” Yelena replied. “And you look even better than I remember. And I have a very good memory.”

“Me or Indigo?” Tanis asked.

“Both of you.”

“Well thank you,” she replied.

“So, not that I’m complaining, but why are you here? Just passing through or...”

“In a manner of speaking,” John replied. “A, uh, a lot happened since last we met, and even more happened since the last time we met,” he said, looking at Tanis, “but the short of it is we’ve finally decided to go explore another land and we want to say farewell for now to the friends we’ve made.”

“And by that, we mean have outstanding, vigorous, farewell for now sex with you,” Yelena added.

“Okay. How about we have a foursome, and then catch up after? Because we were just in the middle of hooking up and hadn’t actually gotten past foreplay yet...” Indigo asked. She was a bit fidgety and kept looking over at Tanis.

He didn’t blame her, Tanis looked just stellar nude. Of course, so did Indigo. And oh fucking Gods, he was going to have Yelena and two hot, pale, redheaded elf ladies. “I am very okay with this request,” he said.

“Me too,” Yelena replied. “I will get my toy.”

“Is it a nice toy?” Tanis asked.

“Yes. You will love it.”

Indigo hurried over and took John’s hand. “Come on! I’m fucking horny.”

He let her lead him through her house and into her bedroom. Tanis did much the same with Yelena, and soon all four of them were back in her room. Indigo immediately began kissing John, and her kiss was like magic, lighting him up with intense desire and desperate longing. Already, he had a hard-on, so apparently all that sex with Ruby hadn’t robbed him of that ability for now. He managed to get his shirt off before Indigo actually jumped on him and made him fall back onto the bed. She laughed while he cried out in surprise.

“I missed you,” she said between kisses.

“I missed you too,” he replied, gripping her fit ass as she settled on top of him.

“I don’t want to wait any longer,” she growled, reaching down and fumbling with his pants. He’d forgotten how dexterous her fingers were. Within ten seconds, she had his cock out and lined up with her beautiful elf pussy, and without waiting, she lowered herself onto it.

“Oh, fuck...” he groaned loudly as she maneuvered his cock inside of her.

Elf vagina was its own special piece of paradise.

“That’s it,” she whispered, almost panting now as she worked his dick into her. “I have fucking missed this dick.”

“I really fucking missed you, and your amazing body,” John replied, looking up at her beautiful, trim, pale physique. And her wonderfully beautiful high, firm breasts. She mounted him properly and started riding him, sliding up and down his rigid length. He heard both Yelena and Tanis moan loudly at the same time, and glanced over. Yelena was nude and back in her natural form, and wearing the magical sex toy. She was fucking Tanis from a standing position. Their elf friend was lying on her back at the edge of the bed, with her legs spread wide and stuck up in the air. Yelena gripped her thighs firmly and drove into her, making Tanis scream in bliss.

It was such a beautifully erotic sight that it could have been a painting.

He gripped Indigo’s hips tightly and started thrusting wildly up into her, and she began shouting along with Tanis. Fuck, hearing those two elf beauties screaming in sexual rapture was just amazing. He stared up at her firm tits bouncing in sync with his thrusting, and up at her face twisting in ecstatic bliss and sexual gratification. He kept going like that for another minute or so before deciding that he simply had to pound her sweet elf pussy from behind.

“Gonna switch positions,” he said.

“I’m ready,” she replied.

He sat up, holding her against him, and then stood up. That surprised him. The last time they’d been together, he would have had a bit of difficulty getting up while a naked elf girl clung to him without stumbling awkwardly. But he had more control now, more strength. It was a very nice thing to have, especially during sex.

He whipped around and laid her down on the bed, then brought her legs together and rolled her slowly onto her side, then onto her stomach. His cock stayed inside of her the whole time, her tight, wet, amazingly hot pussy twisting around it with each maneuver. Finally, she was onto her stomach, and he gripped her midriff and pulled her up onto her hands and knees.

“Wow, you are good at that,” she said.

“It helps that you’re little,” he replied.

She giggled. “It does. One of the reasons I love fucking human guys: they tend to be so much bigger than me. It’s easier to just...throw me around.”

He gripped her hips once more, staring down at her tight ass, and started pounding her pussy. She immediately let out a loud, long, sustained moan of absolute bliss. He gritted his teeth and slammed into her, really hammering her, driving his cock deep and hard inside of her. The pleasure of their sex was incredible, smashing into him like a storm. There was something deeply satisfying about fucking a woman from behind, something almost animalistic and primal about it. And Indigo was apparently loving it, screaming at the top of her lungs.

He fucked her until he heard Yelena have an intense orgasm as she furiously screwed Tanis, who had already had two of them. When she was done, he got her attention.

“Yes, love?” she asked, panting.

“Switch?” he suggested.

“Yes, love.”

“It’s been fun,” he said, and smacked Indigo’s ass.

“I’m not done with you yet,” she replied as he pulled out.

“I’m definitely not done with you,” he agreed, and moved over to Tanis.

“Hi,” she said, smiling at him, her face flushed and sweaty, her hair a mess.

“Hello, beautiful. I missed you a lot,” he replied.

“I missed you too, John.”

He took a moment to finish getting naked, then slipped his cock into her. She cried out, especially when he grabbed her ankles and pushed her legs up, and then back, almost folding her in half. He put one foot up on the bed to get himself a better angle and really started pounding her pussy, making her scream louder.

“Fuck! It’s so good! You’re so fucking big!” she shrieked.

He couldn’t even respond, as he was really lost in lust with her, the pleasure eating him alive, radiating out from his core and filling his body. He knew he was going to come hard inside of her soon, filling her pussy with his seed. But he really wanted to make her come, and to feel her coming, squirting her sex juices as she shrieked and writhed uncontrollably. He kept fucking her, screwing her wonderful pussy, and then his thumb found her clit and began to massage it with fast, rough circles. She somehow began to scream louder.

“Oh fuck! Oh! Fucking...John-I-fuck...OH MY FUCKING GODS YES!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as she started to come.

John groaned loudly as her pussy convulsed tightly around his cock, and that wonderfully hot spray of sex juices escaped her, just like he wanted. Her vagina clenched and spasmed, massaging his cock, and that didn’t push him over the edge into orgasm, but catapulted him. He cried out, his own voice joining hers, as he orgasmed into her quivering pussy. He started pumping her full of his seed, the climax exploding into his body, a thing of pure, perfect pleasure.

He was gripping her hips tightly again, thrusting madly into her as they came together.

It felt like a perfect moment.

When they were done coming, the pair of them were left gasping and sweaty, staring at each other in gradually relaxing satisfaction.

“Wow,” Tanis whispered, grinning at him. “I’d forgotten how good sex with you was.”

He nodded and slowly pulled out of her, then sat down beside her. Not much later, Yelena and Indigo had both enjoyed their own orgasms, and the four of them were now adrift in the sea of post-orgasmic bliss.

It was one of his favorite states of being.

“Bath?” Indigo asked.

“Yes, please,” he replied, and Yelena and Tanis murmured in agreement.

They all stood up and moved over to her tub, which was already pre-made with steaming, crystal clear water. It felt tremendously good and deeply satisfying to sink down into that water after not just the strenuous sex session, but the very eventful past few days.

“So...what have you been up to?” he asked, looking at the two elf women. “How’d you meet?”

“Well, uh...I guess we should explain how we met to each other,” Tanis said, looking at Indigo, who nodded in agreement. “I met John and Yelena last year in the Emerald Wild, shortly after they had begun their search for the illusion amulet that would help Yelena hide her true nature. They rescued me from an evil spirit, and helped me find a deed I was hunting for an old mercenary fort that belonged to a far elf on another continent. We worked together, we had sex, we parted ways. As for what I did after that? Well, I returned to the far elf homeland and delivered the deed. I don’t know if anything came of it. I had some fun in the area, but returned here before too long, because that place isn’t actually all that fun.”

“That’s what I’ve heard,” Yelena said.

“You just have to know where to look,” Indigo said with a sly grin.

“I suppose that’s true, and I wasn’t in any mood to have enough patience to go looking for proper fun. So I got right back on that boat and went back home, although I stopped off at Tomontica for the winter because fuck this place during the winter.”

“Yeah,” John murmured.

“Honestly, I didn’t do much of note since then. I mean, it’s all pretty run-of-the-mill for me. I hunted a few minor lost artifacts, I had a lot of sex...hmm...I did meet a werewolf couple down in Tomontica and they fucked my brains out for about a week. That was noteworthy. Also, I managed to find and hook up with the most beautiful ocean nymph named Erana. She was very fun and a little shy, but we had some great sex. I set up a campsite in this little cave right next to an isolated beach beside the ocean and I simply...swam in the sea, had sex with Erana, and relaxed. Finally, I worked my way back up here when winter thawed out and I’ve just been traveling around, seeing old friends, making a few new ones.”

“How’d you wind up in Brynne?” John asked.

“I was really just passing through. My most recent adventure is going to look for a lost family heirloom that is, supposedly, on an island off the west coast. I was buying up supplies and I saw this very attractive lady just staring at me with naked lust in her eyes, her mouth hanging open-”

“It was not!” Indigo cried.

“I could tell she just had to have me...how could I refuse her?”

“Like you weren’t eye-fucking me from the second you saw me,” Indigo replied.

“I suppose I could admit to that...now how did you all hook up?” Tanis asked.

“Oh, what a story,” John murmured.

“Last year, a friend and I were helping put down an outbreak of undead. And in the middle of, literally in the middle of combat, these two show up out of the blue, I’ve never seen them before in my life, asking for my help. I told them to help me and Lydia, my friend who is a paladin, take care of the zombies first. And they did, to their credit. John and Yelena jumped right in and performed admirably. You two are very skilled at combat and very brave. Although Yelena, you are on a whole other level than all of us.”

“Yes, she is,” Tanis agreed.

“Yep,” John said.

“Well...I am older than all of you, I think, and I spent a lot of my existence fighting,” Yelena replied with a shrug.

“That is true. So, anyway, we do the deed and John and Yelena drop it all in my lap: they’re being hunted by demon assassins, and need my help locating an artifact that might help them.”

“Holy shit!” Tanis said, her eyes widened. “Seriously? That happened after I left?”

“Yeah. It was a whole...thing,” John replied.

“I’m deeply interested in hearing about that,” Tanis murmured. “So then what?”

“Well, we all fucked, and then I agreed to go with them.”

“I believe,” Yelena said with a smirk, “that your price was sex with both of us.”

“Really?” Tanis asked, grinning widely at Indigo. “That was what you negotiated?”

“I mean, I would’ve helped them if they’d said no!” Indigo replied, rolling her eyes. “But how could I not want to fuck both of them so hard?!”

“Fair enough,” Tanis said.

“Anyway, we go on our journey, run into some demon assassins and other threats, and then I get poisoned and nearly fucking die-”

“Okay, that was scary, and I’m still sorry for that,” John said.

“I know, it’s fine. But yes, in due course of events, I was poisoned and was knocked on my ass for about a week. Although they left me with this very, very sex-hungry middle-aged felis adventuress who had her own little network of boytoys from the surrounding area. That was...interesting. I mean, there wasn’t much more I could do sexually than lay there and get my pussy fucked, because I was so godsdamned weak, but that’s still a lot of fun, honestly, and it feels really good. Or licked. She was very good with her tongue, and very willing. After that, I eventually got better and made my way back down here. And that is where the story stops being interesting.”

“Really?” Yelena asked.

Indigo shrugged. “Yeah. That whole thing kind of knocked the adventuring bug out of me for now. And don’t get me wrong! I’m not...I’m not saying you scared me out of adventuring or anything. I don’t regret helping you, I’m still very glad I could, I feel good about that. This just happens every now and then, every five years or so. I just get tired of adventuring. So once I got home, I just settled in. I cleaned my house, made a few repairs and improvements, started catching up with all my friends. I do odd-jobs around town, and of course I help with any real threat that shows up. But it’s been quiet ever since that undead thing.”

“Are you enjoying yourself?” Yelena asked.

“Yes, I am actually. It’s very...relaxing. I’m actually kind of close to hunting for a boyfriend...or a girlfriend. I don’t know, whoever strikes my fancy. I’ve found myself fantasizing and daydreaming about a more stable relationship. But I don’t know, at some point I’m going to want to pick up and go again, and that’s not really fair. So for now, I just have sex with people like you two, and Tanis, people who are passing through town, and some of my friends who I have an understanding with. They’re cool with hanging out and great fucks, but know that I could up and leave at any moment. Now, you two, tell me what happened after we parted ways.”

“Actually, if you could start with after we parted ways, I’d really appreciate that,” Tanis said.

“Okay,” John replied, “this is what happened.”

He started with their big fight in the Emerald Wild from last year, telling them about meeting Elise and Bianca, (what was Bianca doing nowadays?), their sexual encounter with Brynne the serpentine and all the dryads, their near-death assault on the undead demon lord on the nameless island. Then their run-in with Yelena’s former ‘friends’, such as they were, and their trek across the land, their desperate battles, how they ultimately resolved the problem by sacrificing one of the demon assassins to summon Yelena’s former lover and murder him, and then meeting Kesley. And then he finished up by explaining about helping Fiona with Beacon, all the fun and interesting people they’d met...and fucked, and finally their little excursion to help Ruby.

Omitting the undead part as much as they could.

“You should actually track her down,” Yelena said when he was done. “I bet she would love to have sex with you.”

“She sounds like a little fuck demon,” Indigo replied.

“She is. She really is. Good Gods,” John said.

“That is so crazy. You two have completely crazy lives,” Tanis marveled. “I mean...wow. Demon assassins and learning shape-shifting from a fucking dragon and helping build an entire town! And fighting that fucking giant sea monster!”

“You do lead very interesting lives,” Indigo agreed.

“It is nice,” Yelena said, settling closer against John.

Indigo grinned fiercely at them. “I still love how fantastic of a couple you two make. Someday, I may write a book about you.”

“Oh really?” John asked.

“Yes! Oh, it would be perfect! The whole ‘two lovers from vastly different worlds’ thing is so popular in romance literature.”

“I would be interested to read that,” Yelena said.

“I guess I would be too,” John murmured.

He felt something brush his foot and looked down. Tanis was touching her foot to his. He looked up at her.

She shot him a sultry grin. “So...I’m getting horny again.”

“I never actually stopped,” Indigo said.

“Then round two?” Yelena suggested.

“Round two,” John agreed, and moved towards Tanis.

MORGAN

“What if she isn’t home?” John asked suddenly.

“Then we place the medallion somewhere she can find it, and go on our way,” Yelena replied.

He considered it, then figured she had a point. Although that would be quite disappointing. He really wanted to have amazing, unprotected, crazy sex with Morgan again. He always knew that he was attracted to tall women, (one of the many so hot qualities about Yelena), but he hadn’t ever really thought that a nine-foot woman would do it for him so well.

Fucking a half-giantess had been one fantastically gratifying experience.

But really, more than that, he actually missed her. Their time together had been short, first during the Minotaur hunt, then during their demon assassin business, but he felt like they’d really connected. She was a kindred spirit, and although he’d been running into more of those recently, it didn’t devalue the experience at all. He loved finding people he could just connect with, talk with late into the night, be relaxed around. Morgan had definitely been that. As they made their final approach to her house, he thought back over the past few days.

They had been very good days.

He and Yelena hadn’t left Indigo’s house that first day, instead opting to stay in with Tanis and have a lot of catch-up sex, and conversation. They’d fucked and bathed and eaten and then fucked and bathed some more. It had been a deeply satisfying experience. The next day, they’d met Ruby, and had introduced her to Indigo and Tanis, and then they’d had more or less an orgy that had lasted all of that next day, with Ruby fucking all of them like crazy. On dawn of the third day, Tanis had regretfully said she had a schedule to keep, had fucked them all goodbye, and been on her way. Ruby had similarly had to go, saying that she had several more people to track down and catch up with, (although she promised to come back and have dinner and sex with Indigo at some point, they’d gotten on very well, as John had suspected they would).

So they’d had the last of their farewell for now sex, and he and Yelena had stocked up on supplies and hit the road. They’d been walking the entire day, making their way slowly east and south, towards the middle of the country. They had talked and walked and held hands. It had just generally been a very peaceful and relaxing experience.

And now that day was winding to a close. Twilight was on the horizon, night not far behind, and they had finally tracked down Morgan’s old place. In fact...they pushed through the treeline, which was dense with foliage and plant life, (something really nice to be becoming familiar with again after the bleak desolation of the far north for half a year), and there was her house. He and Yelena stood at the edge of her lot of space in the large clearing. It felt impossible that he and Yelena and Morgan had fought demons here last year, on this very spot.

But it had happened.

Gods, so much had happened since he’d met Yelena.

“Her windows are unlit,” Yelena murmured.

“Maybe she’s around back?” John suggested.

Yelena nodded and they started walking again. They followed her cobblestone path. Her gardens looked well-tended and purposeful, which was a good sign. That would mean she had set this garden herself. Although she still could have left since planting it. They moved around her house and the gardens, and before long, heard water sloshing.

He saw her bathing in her converted natural hot spring out back.

“Who’s that spying on me?” she asked, her voice playful.

“How could you tell?” John replied.

“I have my ways. Hello John, Yelena,” Morgan said, turning around and looking at them. She rested her forearms on the side of the natural bath, and placed her chin on top of them, smiling at the two of them. “I was hoping I would get to see you again.”

“I was hoping something very similar,” John replied as they walked up. “How are you?”

“I’m great. I just got back from a long adventure, actually. Well, not just precisely, about a week ago. I left right after winter wrapped up and I’d gotten my seeds planted. So where have the two of you been all this time?” she asked. “I was actually a little worried you’d died.”

“We almost did, more than once,” Yelena replied. “May we join you?”

“Please do,” she replied, moving back.

As he undressed, John studied Morgan. She still looked unreal to him. Everything about her, even submerged in water, was oddly big. Her head, her neck, her shoulders. The vague shape of her body beneath the waterline. And she still had a very beautiful face, her hair wet and dark, looking especially sexy. He still didn’t know why women with wet hair looked extremely attractive, not that he particularly cared about the why.

They both stripped down naked, piling their clothes next to their packs up against one of the large rocks that served as a rough perimeter for the hot spring, and then the pair of them slipped gratefully into the water. The sunlight was draining from the skies now, and it would be full dark within half an hour, he thought.

“Catch me up,” she said, “tell me what happened. I can see a story in your faces.”

“You want to tell it this time, love?” John asked.

“I generally prefer you to do the storytelling, but I do kind of want to, yes,” Yelena replied.

They all settled in, and Morgan listened, enraptured, as Yelena relayed to her all that had happened since last they’d parted company. She had been very concerned about Indigo, although very happy that she was okay and they’d actually seen her very recently. When Yelena was done speaking, she let out a long whistle.

“That is some godsdamned adventure,” she said. “I’ve been hearing rumors about some new town up north, but I had no idea you two had a very big hand in building it. I have got to see this place for myself.”

“It’s a fantastic town, and there are such wonderful people there,” Yelena said. “Plus, I am sure Fiona would be more than thrilled to throw work your way.”

“That would be fun, I imagine. Plus, I’m actually friends with both Carrie and Nora...wow, that’s just so crazy! I go on some pretty wild adventures, but that is wild and nuts even to me! I’m glad you hooked up with Kesley...in more ways than one. I think I’ll go up there during the latter part of the year, and explore this place Beacon.”

“You should. What have you been up to?” John replied. “What’s this adventure?”

“It was just this expedition to an island in between here and Tomontica. Someone was convinced they’d found the lost treasure of such and such, and they wanted help getting there. So I was hired for muscle. Spent godsdamned near three months on this expedition. Seeing as I was one of the first people this guy came to, I had to help him track down other people for his expedition, and supplies, and a boat there. And then actually find the damned island. And then get ashore, establish a basecamp, search all over for the location this artifact or whatever is supposed to be...”

“Did you seduce him?” Yelena asked.

“Actually no. We just didn’t really click ever. I more went along because I was feeling that lust for adventure and I’d ended up staying here all winter, tending to my house, fucking my friends. But I did manage to seduce a few of the boys and girls on the expedition, so that was nice.”

“Did you find the artifact, or treasure, or whatever it was?” John asked.

She laughed. “Yes and no. Yes, we found the item that the legend or myth or whatever it was, was based on, and it turned out to be horseshit. It was supposed to be this all-powerful sword that could cut through anything. If it had ever been that, it definitely wasn’t anymore. But it was an old sword that belonged to a powerful warrior once, so we took it, and whatever we found from other people who’d come to the island and died, as well as a stash of goodies we cleared out from an abandoned outpost, and headed back up here after deciding to cut our losses and part ways. I came out barely a few hundred coin ahead of when I’d gone in, but all in all it was fun, if pointless. Or, well, pointless for me, anyway...so, I’m curious, your story ended with you arriving here. Is this just a social visit, or...”

“Oh! Yes, I forgot,” Yelena murmured, smiling sheepishly. “We are leaving the country.”

“Oh, wow! Where are you going?”

“Kindress.”

“I’ve visited there once. It’s a beautiful place. And a fun place, there are so many sexy kits around so willing to eat and fuck pussy. They are more sexual than elves.”

“After the last week, I have a harder time believing that,” John murmured.

“Oh yes, your friend Ruby.” Morgan giggled. “She sounds fun.”

“She was. So, um, yeah, basically we’re here to check in, hang out, and if you’ll have us, have sex,” John replied.

“I will definitely have you.”

“Great! Because I’ve been thinking about having sex with you since we last parted company. You are one of the most...interesting women I’ve ever made love with,” he said.

“I do get that a lot. More guys have a tall girl fetish than they’d like to admit. Well, in that case, wash up and we can go have sex, then we can eat dinner and share some more stories,” she said.

John and Yelena tracked down some soap and washcloths and proceeded to quickly clean themselves up. As soon as they were done, they hauled themselves up and out of the water, and dried off. And John got a really good look at Morgan’s naked body for the first time in months and months. She looked so spectacular. She had a really nice body, this perfect blend of fit yet shapely. She obviously got a lot of exercise, but she also seemed to enjoy a lot of hearty meals. And her breasts. Good Gods.

He’d forgotten just how awe-inspiringly fucking massive they were.

She was obviously very busty, but when you had a nine-foot woman who was very busty, it took it to a whole other level. Then there was her ass. It was so amazingly thick and broad and huge. She was definitely one of the shapeliest women he’d ever met, and been inside of. They walked into her house and she closed the door behind them, then fixed John with a stare.

“So,” she said.

“So…?” he replied.

“I have a request of you. You can say no, I won’t be upset, but you seem brave.” She paused. “Sorry, that’s kind of a loaded statement. Saying no won’t mean you aren’t brave, it’s just...can I ride you?” she asked.

“Oh.” He considered it. He loved having women ride him. Ellie had ridden him, and she was definitely taller than he was. He was admittedly a little cautious, given she was the biggest woman he’d ever had sex with, but…

Oh, what was he worried about? Ara had ridden him twice, and it had been fine. She still wasn’t as big as Morgan was, but Morgan wouldn’t do anything if she thought there was any serious risk of him getting hurt.

Even if he did get hurt, well...hey, that might be worth it. Getting fucking ridden by a nine-foot half-giantess beauty like Morgan was an experience worth taking some risk for.

“Yes,” he said. “You can. I want that.”

“Good! It’s rare I get to ride, but it’s my favorite position. Thank you so much,” she said.

“Not a problem. I trust you, Morgan. Oh! Before I forget...hold on.” He hurried back outside and began digging around in his pack, eventually tracking down the medallion she had given him way back when they had first met, (well, the second time they’d met technically), and then came back inside. He presented it to her.

“Oh wow...thank you so much, John. I was wondering if you’d remember it. These are a bit precious to me. Just for remembering, I’m going to fucking suck you dry, first. Come on, let’s get in bed and we can make out,” she said.

“Gladly,” he replied.

They both climbed into her enormous bed and laid beside each other. It felt weird to be maneuvering around a nine-foot-tall woman, but any oddness that came from the situation was quickly destroyed as he began kissing her and laid a hand on one of her tits that was bigger than his head. Morgan kissed him with an immediate and intense passion, slipping her tongue into his mouth eagerly. He happily moved his own tongue to meet hers, dancing the dance of lust and desire and raw, hungry, sexual need.

They continued making out for another minute or so before she pulled back. “Okay, sit on the edge of the bed,” she said, getting up.

John complied, sitting on the edge of the bed, feeling weird that his feet dangled over a foot above the floor. Everything about her house was big. Well, almost everything. She did have some more normal-sized chairs. He refocused as she got down onto her knees, crouching before him, staring up at him. He found himself studying her again in all her tanned, curvy beauty. Her dirty blonde hair was tied into a loose ponytail, and he thought she had a new scar on her right cheek. He reached down and gently touched it.

“Is this new?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied, smiling and laying a finger over the back of his own probing fingers. “Got it over winter. Some jackasses tried to rob my house, one of them got a lucky swipe with an enchanted dagger, so it didn’t heal properly with magic. What do you think?”

“Well, I always think scars are hot,” he replied.

“Me too.”

He settled back and opened his legs for her, and she leaned in, then stuck her tongue out and began licking at his cock. She had a big tongue. The pleasure hit him like a pulse, like lightning, a hot, wet blast of pure bliss that sizzled into his cock and made him tremble. She moaned softly and continued licking, then she took his whole cock into her big mouth and started sucking him off.

“Holy fuck, Morgan,” he whispered. “Your mouth is...fucking good.”

She giggled and mumbled, “Mmm-hmm.”

There was something spectacularly satisfying about getting sucked off by a woman so much bigger and taller than you were. Having a big mouth was some of it, but her larger-than-life proportions really helped too. He supposed it was a big part of the reason he was so attracted to tough, badass, fighter type women. Something about them was so powerful, and yet they were willing to do sexual things with him.

“I am really going to come hard soon,” he panted after another minute or so.

Morgan closed her eyes and started bobbing her head a bit faster. He groaned loudly and stared at Yelena, who was watching the pair of them intently, lounging nude in one of Morgan’s huge chairs, her red flaming eyes locked onto his. She grinned.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you, too-oh fuck!” he cried as he started coming in Morgan’s mouth. Morgan moaned loudly as his cock began to twitch and spurt his seed, and she kept sucking, and the pleasure magnified ten times. His dick ejected his seed as hard and fast as it could, and his half-giantess lover sucked out every last drop and swallowed his entire load. When he was finished, she slowly pulled his cock from her mouth and grinned up at him.

“That sounded like a good one.”

“Uh-huh,” he managed.

She reached out and ran a finger up the length of his saliva-soaked cock, making him twitch. “You’re still hard, John.”

“Still horny,” he replied.

“Well then, move back into position, and I will proceed to fuck your brains out.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, and began moving.

Soon, he was lying on his back with his head on her large pillow in the center of the big bed, and she was moving carefully up onto it.

“Try not to worry,” she said as she slowly straddled him.

“I’m too turned on to be worried,” he replied, looking up at her huge tits as she shifted around. Morgan laughed and got into place, resting on her knees.

“Guide yourself in,” she said, “it’s easiest that way.”

He nodded, gripping his cock and lining it up with her pussy.

Morgan carefully lowered herself and then they both let out sounds of satisfaction as contact was made and he slipped into her pussy. She moaned as he penetrated her half-giantess vagina, shrunk down with her shape-shifting magic to fit the shape of his cock.

“There we go,” she whispered, lowering herself until he was all the way inside of her. He felt her vagina twitch and tighten, and she was incredibly hot and wet, it was so fucking slippery inside of her. The pleasure restarted immediately as she began to ride him.

“Oh wow, Morgan, that feels amazing,” he groaned, reaching out and running his hands up and down her tremendous thighs.

“Yes it does,” she panted as she kept riding him, sliding her perfect, shape-shifting pussy up and down his rigid length. It throbbed in response to the attention and intense sexual gratification. The fact that he’d already done this once before seemed to have no impact on his awe and wonder. He was fucking a half-giantess. He was actually having sex with a nine-foot-tall woman. Morgan moaned loudly, her voice carrying well in her house, and her huge breasts swayed. John reached up for them, and she grinned and leaned forward until he could touch them. He cupped them in his hands and again was struck by the sheer eroticism of the fact that he couldn’t even begin to get them comfortably into his grasp.

“You like my pussy, don’t you?” she panted, then moaned.

“Yes, fuck yes,” he groaned, thrusting up into her, making her cry out.

Morgan started to go faster, making her bed rock, pressing him harder into the mattress. She gritted her teeth and placed her hands against the wall, fucking his dick more quickly. The pleasure was building fast and hard inside of him, and he was going to come.

“Morgan-” he began.

“I know, just hold on. I know my pussy’s good, just gotta...a little bit longer...” she whispered, then began chewing on her lower lip, her eyes closed, fucking him smooth and fast. The pleasure was insane and he gritted his teeth, holding back his orgasm.

“Almost...yes...fuck!” she screamed and then started coming.

He groaned loudly at the wave of ecstasy that rode in on her orgasm, her already tight pussy convulsing around his dick as she got somehow even hotter and wetter, and then there was no holding back his own orgasm. John cried out and thrust up, making Morgan scream, as he began coming a second time. They came together, locked and unified in their mutual climax. The pleasure pulsed through him in hot waves as he came into her pussy, pumping her full of his seed again, emptying himself into her.

He could feel the bed shudder with the weight of her pleasured spasms and the sound of her crying out and yelling in blissful rapture was music to his ears. They came together, and then they were left panting and nude and sweaty, the pleasure gradually receding from their bodies like the tide going out, and she stared down at him with a sedate smile.

“That was worth the wait,” she said.

He nodded. “Yes. Definitely. Holy fuck.”

She got off of him a moment later and got up, then moved over to her kitchen area where she retrieved a large bottle of wine.

“Your turn?” she asked Yelena.

“My turn,” Yelena confirmed. He realized she was holding something, and saw that she’d managed to stealthily snag her toy from her pack when they’d first come in from the bath. She held it up for Morgan to see.

“Oh my,” Morgan said, “I know what that is.” She grinned. “It’s going to be a long night.”

LILY

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Yelena asked.

“Yes,” John replied. “It’s something that I should do.”

“Okay,” she murmured, and took his hand.

He smiled and laced their fingers together, squeezing gently. Yelena squeezed back. They began to walk slowly into the graveyard.

It had indeed been a long night at Morgan’s, followed by a long day, and a second long night. The sex had been great, the conversation and meals fantastic and fun, and he walked away from her house liking Morgan even more than he had walking in, which was already quite a lot. In a way, it was almost sad. He could tell they’d be great friends, and here he was basically saying goodbye, at least for awhile. He wished he’d known her sooner, he would have loved to travel with her. Not just for the sex, but for the company, too.

She was genuinely a fun, kind, companionable person, and he loved being around her. She made him and Yelena feel very welcome. She’d also told them both that they were welcome in her home anytime they wanted. And hey, he doubted they were going to be overseas forever. Someday, they’d return, and hopefully she’d be around, and they could reconnect again.

After that stopover, they’d resumed their path, making their slow, meandering way across the landscape, headed back to the place where they had first met. His hometown of Falling Rock. They were close now, though there was a place that he fully intended to visit at least once. It felt necessary, somehow, as he hadn’t done it in almost three years now.

The graveyard where his parents were buried was a little plot of land outside of the village proper, and there was rarely anyone around. This was the case now, he saw as they walked down the simple dirt path in between the rows of gravestones. There were about a dozen of them, spaced with not-quite precision. Yelena was shape-shifting right now, intent on practicing more. He was a little anxious about that, as they had to go into town, and although they hadn’t had any kind of incident yet…

Well, it could get really dangerous really fast if, for any reason, she switched back.

But he didn’t say anything, because it was her choice ultimately, and he’d support her.

“There,” he said, coming to a stop and then moving slowly down one of the rows to the left until they stood together at the end. All he could see of his parents now were a pair of gray stone blocks, the carving a bit obscured by weather and time.

“I don’t know if you ever told me exactly what happened,” Yelena murmured.

“Wolves,” he said. “They were traveling to the next town over, and bad luck caught them. They were killed by a pack of wolves. Over a decade ago now.”

“I am sorry,” she said quietly.

“Me too, but...I’ve had a long time to mourn and grieve. I miss them, I think I always will. I guess all I can hope is that they’d be proud of me now.” He let out a small laugh. “My dad wouldn’t have any idea what to make of this relationship, but I think my mom would be fond of you, and our love.”

“They would be proud,” Yelena said.

He looked at their graves for a moment longer in contemplative silence, thinking that maybe he should say something, but what was there to say? He’d already said it in the dozens of time he’d visited over the past decade. It used to be every month, then it became every few months, then every year. He did miss them, but he also felt a kind of grim acknowledgment that they would largely be out of his life by now, especially considering the lifestyle he was living at this point. And there was a sort of comfort in his guess that they wouldn’t mind. They would miss him, but they would be happy, he thought, knowing he was living his life happily.

Then again, how different would his life look right now if they hadn’t died?

“Come on,” he said, “this part is done. Let’s go into town and buy our supplies. Then we can go back to our cabin.”

“And find Lily,” Yelena murmured.

“Yes. Although I’m sure she will find us,” he replied.

…

It felt strange, and not in a good way, to come back to Falling Rock.

As he moved through it, John immediately began to get that feeling of unease and subtle anxiety that he got when walking through small, backwoods villages. In a way, he knew it was being amplified by his concern for Yelena’s safety, but in another way, he knew something was off. Because although he’d always been uncomfortable with his village, he’d been under the impression that it wasn’t that bad compared to several other places.

Maybe now he was realizing a harsh truth: it was that bad, he’d just been blinded to it because he’d grown up here. One thing he noticed was that no one seemed to recognize him at all. Although it wasn’t as if he was super popular or well-known, it was kind of hard to escape familiar faces in a small town. He recognized several people. On the one hand, it was nice to be just another face in the crowd, just another adventurer passing through, on the other hand...did he really look that different? In a way, that felt kind of good, too.

John had never particularly liked who he had been before Yelena. He didn’t quite hate himself, but really it just felt like there wasn’t much there. His life had been so uncertain, and every time he returned back to Falling Rock it had felt like a failure. Like he couldn’t hack it out there on his own, being an adventurer. Only not in a way that was obvious. It wasn’t that he wasn’t strong enough, or brave enough, or savvy enough (it might be that last one at least somewhat), it was that...he just hadn’t been motivated enough.

Apparently, what he needed was Yelena.

It scared him a little that he apparently needed another person in his life to properly motivate him, but, in a way, there was some comfort in the knowledge that there was nothing he could do about it. He was the way he was.

Coming home this time sure didn’t feel like a failure.

He wasn’t staying. He was just visiting.

And it was going to be a short visit.

They moved through the marketplace, picking up some food and drink, selling off a handful of magical trinkets and other random stuff they’d found on their journey so far (they’d been jumped three times by bandits who were terrible at being bandits and had explored an abandoned cabin at one point), and really just seeing if anyone recognized him. But no one did. Once or twice someone stared at him for a bit, although he couldn’t tell if they were leering at the out-of-towners, or checking out Yelena. Either way, it didn’t take them long to decide they wanted out of there and they didn’t stick around, instead hitting the road.

“Why is it called Falling Rock?” Yelena asked after they were past the village limits.

“Because...” he hesitated. “You know, I don’t know,” he replied. It was a question he’d asked himself, and had never received an answer. “Probably has something to do with its formation. Maybe a rock fell on someone important or something.”

Yelena laughed. “What an odd reason to name your village that.”

“My people are...strange. Often not in good ways,” he replied.

“That is true. You are one in a million, my love,” she said, and kissed him.

He kissed her back. They held hands and walked on.

…

“Well...I guess it was too much to hope that it wouldn’t get broken into.”

He and Yelena stood in front of his old cabin and stared at the kicked in front door and broken windows.

“Are you angry?” Yelena asked.

“Not really, no. I mean, I was gone for over a year. This is the longest I’ve ever gone away from this place, I think. Plus, this has happened before. Oh well, let’s go inside, see what’s left,” he replied, and they headed inside.

If returning to the village felt strange, then coming back to this cabin just felt surreal.

They walked inside and stood in front of the open door, slowly looking around. The bed had been stripped, and his trunk was open and bare. The kitchen had obviously been raided. But he didn’t see that, not really. He saw himself and Yelena here, in this cabin. He saw them embracing, kissing, talking, being around each other.

Falling in love.

He remembered finding her that hungover morning, carrying her back through the woods, desperate to save her even though he had no idea why. Was he being compelled by something? Some precognition of who she would become to him? By Bliss? Or just by his own need to help? Did it matter, given the results?

“The trapdoor is closed,” Yelena murmured.

He looked over at it, then walked over and crouched. Raising his hand, he created a light spell. He’d been practicing over the past two months here and there, and had gotten better at it. Gripping the handle, he pulled the trapdoor open. He looked down through the opening. It appeared untouched. He climbed down into it and checked out all the little niches and nooks and under the bed.

“Huh,” he said as he got back to his feet, “I guess no one got in here.”

He heard the trapdoor shut and lock and looked up. Yelena was coming down the ladder. As soon as she was on the floor she turned around and fixed him with a hard stare. “This is the room where we first met,” she said.

“Yeah. If by that you mean, you punched me in the face and held a knife to my throat.”

She grinned. “Yes, that...it is also the room where we first made love.”

“Yes...it is.” He felt a twitch of excited lust pass through him.

“We should...commemorate the occasion, given that I imagine it will be a very long time before we come back here again.” She was already slipping out of her shape-shifted state, getting taller, her skin darkening, horns growing.

“Yes,” he said, feeling his dick stiffening up, straining against his pants.

They both began undressing at the same time. The very second they were nude, they leaped at each other. Meeting at the foot of the bed, they embraced and began to kiss passionately. He grabbed her ass, even now still amazed at how firm and shapely it was, and then gripped her tail and pulled on it gently.

She broke the kiss, letting out a little surprised cry of pleasure, and then he grabbed her, pulled her around and bent her over the bed.

“Fuck me!” she screamed.

He responded by immediately stepping up to her and slipping his steel-hard erection into her. Yelena let out a long, satisfied moan as he grabbed her hips and started pounding her from behind. John felt lit up with lust as he stared down at her, getting a good look at her wonderfully toned ass and her sexy tail and his dick disappearing into her over and over again. He curled his fingers around her tail and pulled on it again.

“Oh fuck, John!” she screamed, and started to climax.

“Oh yes...” he groaned, feeling her demoness pussy convulse around him.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! YES!” Yelena shrieked madly as she pressed against him, orgasming like crazy and squirting everywhere. John couldn’t hold onto his own climax anymore and he popped off right away, his cock kicking furiously as he started pumping her pussy full of his seed. Both of them were locked together in blissful ecstasy, united as intimately as they could be, tossed about in a frenzied storm of sexual gratification and deep love and unbridled lust.

And when they were finished, they climbed into the bed and lay panting together, entwined.

After a little bit, John let out a small laugh.

“What?” Yelena asked.

“I was just thinking...we have a very weird saying in my culture. I used to understand it, but I don’t anymore. It doesn’t make sense.”

“What is it?”

“It is what couples who have been together for a long time say about each other: ‘I love them now as much as the day we first met.’ Two things about it fuck with me now. I mean, the first one is that it’s meant to feed into this idea of love at first sight and soul mates and...the weird thing is, is that I didn’t believe in that. I’m not sure if I still do exactly, even though I would say without a doubt that what we have is a very, very strong case for it.”

“Did you love me the instant you saw me?” Yelena asked.

He sighed. “Admittedly, no. I mean, there was a kind of instant attraction there. I sure was lusting after you rather quickly. But I don’t really see how love can work like that. I mean, the idea is that if you are seeing your soul mate, then the love is like preordained or something, like you’re meant for each other, and you connect instantly as a result. But I don’t think that’s true at all. I mean, on a practical level, how are you supposed to love someone you know literally nothing about except for how they look? And how many people have felt that overwhelming desire to be with someone they see, only to realize that it’s just lust masquerading as love and a few years down the road realize they’re with someone they can’t stand and really all they wanted was a fuck friend? I mean, that’s the second thing that bugs me about it. How can you know?”

“You can’t,” Yelena said. “From what I understand, that is why you have relationships. To find out. I have read so many of your romance novels now and I do find there is a very curious fascination with this concept. I also have noticed an odd fixation on...how do I put it? I guess, getting it right the first time?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, people obsessed with finding their ‘true love’ immediately, before they try anything with anyone else. That is a theme that comes up again and again. And yet, in my real-life experience, admittedly limited though it may be, I’ve found that the opposite is true. People would rather fuck and fuck and fuck. I mean, people want love, but you cannot have it both ways. Either you believe in true love and that you should only ever be with a single person, or...you don’t. There is no in between. That’s very either or. Or am I missing something?”

“No, you’re pretty spot on,” he replied. “It’s stupid. I’m just glad that we’re together and...well, everything that goes with that.”

She laughed. “As am I. So you’re saying you don’t love me as much as the first day you saw me?”

“No. Because I didn’t love you when I first saw you, but, more importantly, I love you more than I ever have before. And I imagine I’ll love you more and more as time goes on.”

She ran a hand across his chest and kissed him. “I know how you feel.”

He hugged her to him and they continued laying there in companionable silence.

…

After about an hour, they washed up, dressed, and left the cabin.

And then they began hunting for Lily. Or rather, more accurately, they started walking through the forest, knowing that she would find them before they’d find her. He still had his crystal that would help lead him to her, and it was glowing gently already. As he walked through the forest with Yelena, it became obvious to him how much he loved being outdoors. How often had he walked these woods outside his village? How many times had he come out here to escape from his fellow humans, who he now hardly even saw as ‘fellow’ any longer?

Walking out into these woods...this felt like a homecoming, not walking back into Falling Rock.

And that got him thinking about Lily. In many ways, she felt like his first real, genuine relationship. Which he felt was extremely telling about him as a person, and was very predictive of why he and Yelena were working out so well. He wondered if maybe he couldn’t have tried harder with Lily, or she with him. He knew they couldn’t have a life together in the same way Yelena and he had, but certainly they could have had more. They could have both set aside time to meet on even a weekly basis. Or maybe she really was that busy. Then again, how much of it was fear? Because even then, Gods, even during the beginning of his relationship with Yelena, there had been that inborn fear around having sex with a non-human.

He’d always known it was stupid, but it was hard to shake that inherent fear and anxiety, that feeling that you were doing something very bad, and it would be the end of your world if anyone ever found out about it. But that had diminished so much ever since he’d fallen in love with Yelena. Their frequent lovemaking liaisons with other women, most of whom were inhuman, had helped that process. Did he feel anything now, whenever he had sex with an inhuman woman? He didn’t think so. Obviously not with Yelena.

No, he didn’t think he felt anything bad anymore.

That...was a good feeling. A liberating one.

It took Lily about fifteen minutes to appear silently and abruptly, almost materializing from out of a dense patch of vegetation between two trees. Yelena didn’t react with surprise, but he couldn’t tell if she’d actually sensed Lily on approach or she was just hiding her reaction.

“You took way too long to come see me again,” Lily said, her arms crossed beneath her large, bare breasts.

“Sorry about that,” Yelena said.

“Are you?” Lily asked. She smirked. “I know John’s sorry he spent so much time away from me. But what about you, Yelena?”

“I think you’re the one who’s sorry,” Yelena replied. She stuck out her tongue, extended it and waggled it at her.

Lily frowned, then shifted. “Maybe,” she admitted.

Yelena laughed. “I knew it.”

“As much as this is turning me on...I did miss you, Lily.”

She smiled and walked forward, then hugged him. “I know, John. I missed you, too. Both of you, a lot.” She hugged Yelena, then stepped back and fixed them both again with her vibrant, beautiful green eyes. “Now, let’s take a walk to a nice, quiet place we can have reunion sex in, and you can catch me up on what you’ve been doing on the way there, okay?”

“That sounds excellent,” John replied, and Yelena nodded.

“Good. Come on.”

…

“That is quite the story. If it was anyone else, I would be suspicious that you were lying to me,” Lily said.

They were now standing in a clearing next to a bubbling hot spring, surrounded by trees and lush vegetation and flowers. John wasn’t sure if it was one of the places they had been to before or a new one. He and Yelena were stripping, preparing to wash before the sex that was to come. He had to admit, he was really looking forward to this. It had been too long since he’d had sex with a dryad. They were simply phenomenal at it.

“I’m glad you find us credible,” Yelena said as she took off her shirt.

“Among other things,” Lily murmured, staring intensely at Yelena.

John found himself looking similarly at Lily. Dryads were so seductive and sexy, everything from their tendency to never where anything resembling clothes to their curvaceous body types to their exotic allure. And their broad hips and fertile beauty, heavily representative of the fact that they were nymphs of nature, responsible for tending to the forests, called to something primal and apparently very powerful deep within him.

He finished getting naked. “What about you?”

“My life has largely been the same,” Lily replied. “Tending to the forest, fixing problems, dealing with idiots. Speaking of which, it took me a little while to clean up that mess you helped with. Some of the necromancers made it out into the forest, and we had to hunt them down, as well as their...‘experiments’. And then another group of the idiots showed up looking for the first and we dealt with them very swiftly. We also called in a friendly mage to perform a controlled burn of that awful building that was the capstone to all of their shady doings.”

They slipped into the hot spring together and began to clean up.

“Other than that, nothing abnormal really. I met someone new.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. This beautiful young huntress, she reminds me a little of you. She’s very brave and very adventurous. I started following her two months ago, partially because she caught my fancy, partially to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid. I ended up saving her from a bear.”

“How did she react to seeing you?” Yelena asked.

“Surprisingly calmly. I think she was afraid of offending me, but we struck up a conversation, and it was obvious she was turned on by me. After three more, uh, ‘chance meetings’, we ended up making love.”

“You seduced her,” John said.

Lily smiled coyly. “I suppose I did.”

“How old is she?”

“Nineteen. She’s the most beautiful redhead I’ve ever seen and she’s learning a lot about pleasuring women, and being pleasured by a woman, with me. It was something I think she was afraid to admit to herself. Well, that and the fact that she has a thing for inhumans. I think that was a bit of a surprise to her,” Lily replied.

“Considering where she comes from, I’m not surprised,” John replied. An idea suddenly came to him. “I know how I want to have this threesome.”

“How’s that?” Lily asked. From the way she locked eyes on him, it was clear he’d gotten her attention. He was glad that she was as horny as he was.

“I want to have sex in here, in the water. We’d all be standing. I fuck you from the front, Yelena fucks you from the back with her magical sex toy. Can we do that?”

“I would very much like to do this,” Yelena said.

“This sounds so fucking hot,” Lily replied. “Go get your toy.”

Yelena was already getting up out of the water. Lily moved closer to John and hugged him to her, bringing his face very close to hers. “I truly have missed you,” she said quietly, staring deep into his eyes. “A lot. You are my favorite human.”

“You’re my favorite dryad, Lily. I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner.”

“It’s okay. I understand.” She kissed him, and he groaned at the power of her kiss, the passion and desire, the taste of her that flooded his mouth, the feel of her buxom body against his. He gripped her thick, fat, dryad ass as they began to passionately make out, twining their tongues together in a fiery display of desperate need and longing. He made out with her and groped her and felt her run her hands over his body until Yelena returned and got up behind her.

“Oh my, hello,” Lily murmured as Yelena began to kiss her neck.

“Hello, beautiful,” Yelena replied, reaching around and getting two handfuls of her huge tits. “So far, I think dryads have the best breasts.”

“You are correct,” Lily said.

“You’re biased,” Yelena murmured.

“I suppose that’s true...will you two start fucking my holes now? It’s actually been a very long day, and I’m supremely aroused,” Lily complained.

Yelena apparently answered by starting to work the fake cock up her thick ass, because Lily let out a cry of pleasure and her face twisted up. John grinned and shifted her around a bit. She helped him, wrapping one leg partially around his own, giving him access to her pussy, and she reached between them and helped him get inside of her. The next few moments were spent with he and Yelena penetrating Lily and finding the best position, then settling into a good rhythm. The only sounds were that of panting and Lily crying out every now and then.

“Oh my Gods,” John whispered as he slid smoothly in and out of Lily’s inhuman vagina. “It has been far too long since I’ve fucked a dryad.”

“Mmm, yes, it’s-ah!-it’s been too long-oh, fuck yes!-since I’ve been fucked by you two,” Lily panted, gasping.

“Your ass feels amazing,” Yelena moaned as she fucked Lily from her backside.

Yelena gripped Lily’s big tits, playing with her nipples, and John hugged her to him, reaching down and groping Lily’s fat ass. He kissed her and Lily quickly seemed to become overwhelmed by both of her holes getting filled and fucked at once. He and Yelena began fucking her harder and faster, sliding smoothly in and out of her, making her pant and moan and then yell. All three of them were locked together in a dance of naked lust and sheer pleasure, an ancient dance of primal bliss and pure sexual gratification.

Lily came first, after another two minutes of straight, raw fucking. Yelena began to orgasm right after Lily had finished her own climax. John somehow managed to hold onto his own. He knew where he wanted to come, and it was in Lily’s fat, perfect, incredibly tight ass. When Yelena was finished, he asked them to switch.

“I can do that,” Yelena said, and Lily nodded.

He kissed her once more, and they both pulled out, and gently brought Lily around in the other direction. John had to admit, fucking in water was one of his favorite ways to fuck. There was something really satisfying about it. Although it came with its own risks. He got lightheaded and close to passing out every time he did it, and this was no different. He was going to have to finish soon. So he set to it, working his cock up Lily’s thick ass. That was one thing that was really good about dryad anal sex: they didn’t need lube usually.

“Oh fucking yes,” he groaned as he pushed his way into her ass. John also found himself reaching around between the two women and groping Lily’s huge tits. He could see why Yelena had been doing this nonstop during their lovemaking session, gripping them like this from behind was so satisfying.

“Yes, fuck me up the ass,” Lily moaned as he started doing exactly that.

The drag on his cock was beyond incredible, the pleasure spiking almost immediately. He gritted his teeth, groped her big breasts, and fucked Lily in her thick ass hard and fast and deep. Yelena seemed to be giving her pussy a similar treatment. Lily yelled in rapturous bliss.

“Yes, Lily! Yes! Yes! Fuck! Yes!” he grunted as he fucked her furiously, pounding her as hard as he could from this position.

And then he was coming. He was coming so fucking hard in her ass, his seed exploding out of him and filling her up, his hips jerking forward, forcing his cock up her ass even deeper. He felt her twitching against him and knew she must be coming too. The pleasure was fierce and intense and blasted through him like magic.

When he was finished, he was actually pretty close to passing out.

“Oh shit, oh fuck,” he whispered as he pulled out of her ass and began to make his way out of the hot spring.

“Are you okay?” Lily asked.

“Gonna pass out, if I don’t get out,” he managed.

He climbed out and then crawled a few feet until he was on a natural bed of soft grass, then he rolled over onto his back and lay there breathing heavily, the sky above him spinning, and he felt a sense of almost divine peace. There was a tremendous, almost blinding pleasure that came from being insanely overheated and rapidly cooling off. He was nude and wet and a lightly cool breeze was whispering across his body now, and that was just sublime.

“Are you okay, my love?” Yelena asked.

“Perfect,” he replied.

A moment later, both women were out there with him. Lily sat beside him, and Yelena laid next to him.

“So you two are really leaving the continent?” Lily asked after a bit.

“Yes,” John replied.

“Are you coming back, someday?” she asked.

“Yes, definitely,” Yelena replied. “This isn’t goodbye.”

“Okay. I’m glad. I want to see you again...speaking of which, do you have to leave right away? It’s actually been quiet recently and I wouldn’t mind spending some more time with the two of you. You’re both so wonderful, and such great fucks.”

John laughed. “I think we can stick around for a day or two. Love?”

“Of course,” Yelena said.

“Then it’s settled,” Lily said, and she suddenly mounted him. “I want more.”

“I’ll, uh, need a minute,” he replied, staring up at her, a little surprised.

“Yelena?” Lily asked.

“I can reduce that minute,” Yelena said, and then ducked down behind Lily. He moaned as she started sucking his cock.

Yes, he realized at once, John could definitely spare two days to be with Lily.

ELISE

“Wait, Elise is nearby.”

John stopped and looked around. He listened when he didn’t see anything beyond the expanse of wilderness to either side of the path he and Yelena were taking. All he could hear were the sounds of the Emerald Wild.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Do you need to ask?” Yelena replied.

“I guess not. How can you tell?”

“I can smell her. She is near. Come on.”

She stepped off the path, heading into the dense vegetation, and John followed after her. Yelena did know this stuff, and she was much better suited to tracking than he was, given her decades of experience and heightened senses.

Their time with Lily had been very pleasant. They’d spent the rest of the day with her, the night, and all of the second day. There had been a lot of sex, and also a lot of conversation and leisurely walks through the forest. Near the end of that second day, Lily had been called away, as something new was happening in the forest, and as one of the few dryads tending to it, it was her responsibility. So they’d said their goodbyes and he and Yelena had decided to make a bit of headway towards their next goal, walking until they reached what he realized was actually the same clearing he and Yelena had stayed in under very similar circumstances last year, when they had first set out on their journey to live a life together, and Lily and her friend had tracked them down.

They’d then made camp and, after a vigorous fuck session early the next morning, they had set out. The walk across the land had taken pretty much all of the day. Both of them had stuck to a brisk pace as they were eager to see Elise. John didn’t know if Yelena had the same motivations he did: he felt kind of guilty for not seeing her for so long. He hoped she understood. When you were friends with adventurers, they might disappear for huge segments of time. That was just the reality of his and Yelena’s life right now.

But he supposed he could have figured out some way to get a message to her.

Well, again, hopefully she wasn’t pissed.

He began to hear someone moving somewhere nearby, and as they drew closer, he frowned, realizing that the sound was coming from…

Up?

Right as he decided to look up, two things happened: he heard a sharp snap and a yell, and Yelena dashed forward suddenly. She managed to catch the person falling out of the tree just barely in time, and John was shocked to see that it was Elise.

“Oh my, thank you,” Elise said, staring up at her. “Oh my Gods...Yelena?!” She looked around and saw him. “John!? Holy shit, where have you been!?”

“You are welcome, Elise,” Yelena replied, and set her down.

“Uh, we’ve been busy,” John replied.

“Oh, right, with the learning how to shape-shift, obviously.”

“That was most of it. Um, how are you doing?” John asked.

“Good now,” Elise said, and held up a distinct reddish-brown leaf with silver veins running through it.

“What is that?” Yelena asked softly, staring at it. “It is beautiful.”

“The rare silverleaf, which is a very misleading name, given that it’s hardly silver at all. It only grows at the tops of certain trees, during certain times of the year, and is only viable for about one day after a full moon on a cloudless night. And I finally have enough of them.”

“Enough for what?” John asked.

“A potion I am making. I’ve gotten into alchemy a lot more since you two left. A cute young mage from Stafford showed up at my place, half-dead from a wolf attack. I saved her life and she told me she’s researching rare potions. Come on, let’s get back to my place. I’m starving. Also horny, and if I remember anything about the two of you, you’re both horny sluts who can’t get enough sex for the lives of them.”

“That is accurate,” John said, and Yelena laughed.

“Good, I’m glad that hasn’t changed. Tell me what happened to you, I’ve been deeply curious,” she said as she led them off into the forest, back towards her house.

John began to tell their tale.

…

Elise’s house was a welcome sight.

Elise herself was a far more welcome sight. She seemed better, happier, since they had last seen her. Whatever confidence she’d lost during their assault on the undead demon lord, she had clearly regained. She seemed at ease walking through the Emerald Wild, a natural self-possession and assurance that he knew from when they’d first met. It made him deeply happy to see. Elise was a great person and she deserved to feel confident and happy, to be doing the things that she loved. It felt good to be back around her.

“That is amazing,” she said as she led them in through her front door.

“Whoa, you changed things around,” John said as he looked around her living room.

“Oh yes. It was kind of a whole thing,” she replied. “Can that wait, though? I really need to get this stored, and then I really need to get fucked by both of you.”

“Sure,” John said.

“Good! Go upstairs and wash off and be waiting for me naked.”

“Okay,” Yelena said.

Elise grinned and disappeared into her basement. John glanced at Yelena, who just smiled, turned, and headed upstairs. He followed after her. They moved into Elise’s bedroom. It, too, was different. Mostly it was rearranged, but the bed was new, and bigger.

“Wow, nice,” Yelena murmured.

“Yeah. She seems better,” he replied as he started taking his clothes off.

“Her confidence has returned. It is good,” Yelena said, doing the same.

They had time to strip down, wash up in her tub, (which was deeply welcoming after an entire day of walking across the wilderness), dry off, and climb into her bed. They had just finished settling when she walked into the room.

“Oh, perfect,” she said. “Well, let me wash up really fast, then we can fuck.”

John watched her strip down. She seemed to be in better shape than he’d ever seen her in, and she’d already been in pretty good shape when they’d parted ways. Her slim build looked more toned and tight and fit, and he imagined she’d been spending a lot of time outdoors, maybe even working out like himself. She looked marvelously sexy and alluring. Elise washed up quickly in the tub, then dried off and hurried over to the bed.

“Can I take turns with you?” she asked.

“I’m okay with this,” Yelena said, and John nodded.

“Good. Let me get on top. Yelena, will you hand me the lube?”

“Uh-huh.”

Yelena tracked down a glass bottle of lube among the compartments of her new headboard, and Elise mounted him, pushing him fully onto his back.

“I have really missed you,” she said, staring at him with wide eyes full of lust.

“I missed you too, Elise,” he replied, grinning up at her.

“Got it,” Yelena said, and passed her the lube.

“Thank you,” she whispered, hastily squeezing some out into her hand and massaging it onto his cock. “I am going to fuck your brains out.”

About two seconds after she said that, she slipped his rigid dick into her wonderfully tight beryl pussy and began to make good on the statement. Elise cried out, moaning intensely as she began to ride his cock, immediately going hard and fast. Her fit, taut, smooth green body looked marvelously erotic as she furiously fucked him. She got up so that she was resting on her feet, balancing expertly, and for awhile fucked him in such a way that only her pussy was touching him. It was an extremely sexual sight and was fantastically hot to look at.

She looked amazing.

“I fucking missed this dick,” she panted.

“I can tell. Holy fuck, you are really good at that,” he groaned as the pleasure burned slowly into his body, radiating out from his core, lapping his whole being like increasingly powerful waves on a shoreline. After a bit, she switched it up, turning around. She went back to resting on her knees and began to ride him in reverse, showing him her amazingly taut, toned ass and her sexy tail as she fucked herself with his rock-hard dick, pushing it deep and hard into herself. He reached out and ran his hands across her ass, out to her hips.

“You are in amazing shape, Elise,” he said.

“So are you, I noticed. You look like you’ve been working out night and day since we last had sex,” she panted.

“He pretty much was for awhile there,” Yelena said.

“Can we switch?” he asked after a moment.

“Yeah. How do you want me?” Elise replied.

“From behind.”

“I think that’s my favorite position right now. Let’s do it.”

She got up off of him and they both quickly rearranged themselves. As soon as he slipped back into her pussy, resting on his knees now, he gripped her trim hips and really started driving into her, pounding the living fuck out of that sweet beryl vagina.

“Oh yes! OH MY FUCKING YES! FUCKING GO! FUCK IT! FUCK MY PUSSY!” Elise shrieked wildly as he screwed her into incoherent, feverish bliss. He was halfway there himself. Her pussy was so fucking tight. After a little while, he reached up and laid his hand on her tail. Almost the instant he did she jerked violently and let out a guttural moan and began to orgasm. He kept pounding her, fucking her hard, rubbing his hand up and down her tail, caressing it, and she shrieked wildly, screaming with complete abandon.

John almost managed not to come inside of her while she was climaxing, as he had other things he wanted to do, but it wasn’t in the cards.

About halfway through her orgasm, he triggered and started coming into her pussy, and his voice joined hers. He grabbed her hips and buried himself as deep into her as he could as he came so hard, what felt like his whole midsection contracting along with his cock. It felt like a direct hit from a particularly powerful blast of magic, something that swept him up and sent him flying over the sexual horizon. He was yelling in impassioned release and deep sexual gratification as he came with her, filling her pussy up with his seed.

At some point, he was finished, and when he was, he carefully pulled his painfully sensitive cock from her pussy, and flopped over onto the bed.

“Wow, John. I felt that one,” Yelena said.

“Me...too...” Elise panted, and fell forward. “Oh my...holy fuck...that was one for the books.”

“Uh-huh,” he managed.

They both laid there for awhile, and then finally Elise began to push herself up off the bed. “Oh man, you made a huge mess. We both did. Hold on...” She raised her hands, laying them flat, palms down, about two feet above the spot where they had fucked, which was definitely messy. A wave of soft white light came out and the mess disappeared rapidly, until it was completely gone. “There we go,” she said. “Now I need to be clean.”

“Same,” John murmured.

“Can I fuck you with that magic sex toy, Yelena?” Elise asked as she headed for her washbasin.

“Of course,” Yelena replied. “I would welcome it.”

John got up and staggered over to the tub. That orgasm had really taken it out of him, especially after all the walking and fucking he’d been doing over the past week. He sank gratefully back into the water, and then positioned himself so that he had a great view of Elise and Yelena, who were just beginning to make out now.

…

“So...what’s been happening with you, Elise?” John asked.

It was about an hour and a half later, and all three of them were freshly fucked, scrubbed, and dressed, and had finally finished making a large dinner.

“Well, you remember the state I was in when you left, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” Yelena said. “You were losing your confidence.”

“Lost it, more like,” Elise replied. “But you helped me, both of you. I started building it back up, slowly but surely. Mostly I started going back outside again, revisiting places I was familiar with. I reconnected with some of my dryad friends, on a few different levels. That helped a lot, I think. And then winter came and I spent more time indoors. And, I don’t know, I felt like something needed to change. Something big. So I spent like two weeks deep cleaning and rearranging my house, and making some repairs that I’d been needing to make for awhile now, and getting a few new pieces of furniture delivered from Stafford. And I upgraded my basement work area. And I’ve wanted to get more heavily into alchemy and herbalism for awhile now, so I finally decided to do it. I spent the rest of the winter working out and reading up. I also managed to snag a cute adventurer who got lost and hurt. I saved him and had him in my home for most of the winter, so that really helped. Both with the confidence and the exercise.”

“He enjoyed your company, I take it?” Yelena asked.

“He was in lust with me. The man could not get enough of me. I was sad to see him go, but he had his life and I have mine. When spring came, I felt ready to face the world again. More than that, I felt ready to take it all on hardcore. And that’s what I’ve been doing. Like I said, I eventually met a cute mage from Stafford. She’s an elf with big tits and a tongue that can do the most amazing things. We’re carrying on a lengthy affair right now. It’s wonderful. That’s what those plants were all about.”

“Where is she now?” John asked.

Elise grinned. “Looking to fuck her?”

“I mean...I wouldn’t say no. I was more curious than anything else.”

Elise laughed. “She’s up in Stafford right now, getting some supplies. She should be back in a few days.” She paused, frowned suddenly. “So you two are really going to leave?”

“Yes. Not forever though,” Yelena replied.

“And that’s why you came back to see me?”

“Well, it was one of the reasons,” John said. He hesitated, seeing the sadness on her face. “I’m sorry, Elise. We will miss you terribly.”

“It’s okay. You two are some of my best friends now, it feels like we’ve known each other for a long time, and yet it hasn’t been all that long. And you’ve been gone for most of it. I am very glad at least that everything worked out for you.” She smiled suddenly. “And you’re going to Kindress. I’ve never been there but I’ve read books on it. I hear it’s wonderful. I think the two of you will have a very good time there.”

“I sure hope so,” John said.

“Can you stay? For a little while? At least until my current girlfriend comes back? She will be over the moons to meet the two of you, and to fuck you.”

“I think we can manage that,” Yelena said, looking at John.

“Definitely,” he agreed.

CYPRESS & BRYNNE

“Wait,” Yelena said, although John heard it too.

They both stood as still as statues in the midst of the Emerald Wild. It could be pretty much anything, considering the wide multitude of threats that occupied the Wild. Something let out a roar, which narrowed it down at least a little bit, and then he could hear fighting. No one was shouting though, so what did that mean?

“Should we check it out?” he asked.

“We should,” Yelena said, and set off, drawing her blade.

“Any particular reason?” he asked, doing the same.

“I just have a feeling, is all.”

Well, typically her feelings and instincts were dead-on. Which he always found very impressive, given that she literally came from a different plane of existence, and one that was hardly like the one she now occupied. Yelena had phenomenally adaptive abilities. They hurried through the foliage and trees, wary of anything that might be lying in wait for them, and the sounds of conflict grew closer and closer. Within twenty seconds, he and Yelena burst through a treeline and came into a clearing where he saw a group of feral werewolves locked in combat with a group of dryads. And he recognized some of them, including Cypress!

Yelena snarled and darted forward, stabbing one of the werewolves in the back with her blade. As they sensed the shift in combat, a trio of the huge, dangerous creatures broke off and came for them. John prepared himself. Werewolves were damned hard to kill, even the ones who had gone feral and didn’t really fight tactically. He threw himself into combat, trying to draw at least one of them off, and it worked, unfortunately. A little too well. The thing came right at him, all claws and teeth and roaring madness.

John waited for the perfect moment to strike, knowing that if he got really lucky and did it just right, he could kill this thing immediately. He waited, waited, waited...and struck! John brought his dark blade around as fast and as hard as he could, aiming right for the beast’s neck. And it worked! The razor-sharp blade cleaved cleanly through the thing’s neck and decapitated it perfectly. He neatly sidestepped so that it’s body, which still had a lot of forward motion, didn’t crash into him, and had approximately one and a half seconds to feel like a badass.

That was when another werewolf smashed bodily into him and he found himself suddenly on the ground, his wrists being held down by overwhelmingly strong hands and a furious, enraged, maddened werewolf face staring into his. He began to scream as it opened wide its mouth and began to come in for the kill, no doubt preparing to rip his neck out. Instead, something completely different happened. It froze as a blade burst through the back of its throat, spraying his own face with blood.

The body was then shoved away, and he came to see Yelena standing over him, blood on her face and outfit, sword held firmly in hand. She was breathing heavily and looked like a fearsome warrior deity. “Are you okay?” she asked, thrusting a hand at him.

“Yes,” he replied, taking it and being hauled to his feet.

“I saw that decapitation. That was very skillful.”

“Thanks, did you take care of the other one?” he asked, looking around, seeing that there were no more werewolves left standing. Either the dryads had killed them all, or the survivors had finally been overwhelmed by their survival instincts and fled.

“Yes. Stabbed it through the heart.”

“John! Yelena! You have returned!”

They both turned to see Cypress striding towards them, a broad smile on her beautiful face. “Hello, Cypress. Are you okay? Is everyone okay?” Yelena replied.

“For the most part,” she answered, glancing back at some of the other dryads. Two, it seemed, were injured. But they were already being tended to by their companions. John felt relief flow through him at that, and comfort as Cypress embraced him, hugging him tightly to her and kissing him on the mouth. He kissed her back, and was glad to feel her slip her tongue into his mouth briefly. She then did the same with Yelena.

“Where have you two been?” she asked.

“It’s a long story,” John replied.

“I imagine it would be, it has been nearly three seasons since last I saw you. Your place is fine, by the way. We made sure nothing happened to it.”

“Thank you so much, Cypress,” Yelena said. “We really appreciate that.”

“Would you like to catch up? We were just wrapping up a long, difficulty duty.”

“That would be great,” John replied.

“Good. Walk with me. Tell me where you have been.” She turned to her allies. “Follow us once you have completed your tasks here.”

“Understood, Cypress,” one of them said.

She then began walking away, and John and Yelena followed after her.

…

“...and so we’re planning on leaving the country, going to the homeland of the kit,” Yelena finished up.

“Well, I am largely glad that you both managed to escape your situation unscathed. And that you made new friends, and accomplished so much,” Cypress replied.

They were still walking through the Emerald Wild, taking a leisurely pace.

“I’m glad we could see you again. How has everything been going? How’s Brynne, and Fauna, and the others?”

“Brynne is good, in high spirits recently. She’s around and I can actually summon her, if you’d like to see her. And given your...history...I imagine you will.”

“I would actually love to see her again, especially considering we’re leaving soon,” John replied.

“Then I will make it happen. She helped lead a campaign in coordination with a paladin woman to tackle a trouble spot that we’ve been having some difficulty with for some years now. A shipwreck near the coast was tainted with evil and dark spirits, and it has become a dead zone, a blight on our forest. It worked.”

“Very nice. What was the paladin’s name, by chance?” John asked.

“Lady Lydia. We have worked with her before.”

“Oh really?” Yelena asked.

“Is she tall, with short, dark hair, real badass?”

“Yes. Do you know her?”

“I do. Very intimately.”

Cypress laughed. “I suppose I should not be surprised. She really does seem your type.”

“She was. So, uh, what about you, what have you been doing? What was all that about, with the werewolves?”

“Rogue mages,” Cypress replied, her voice sour. “They had set up in our home to do experiments on werewolves. I do not know what they were trying to accomplish, only that it blew up in their faces, and they were murdered by their test subjects. Those you helped us dispatch were the last of them. A very unhappy business. Not all werewolves are feral, but so many of them are. I hate having to put them down, but they are far too dangerous. But beyond that, I suppose it has been business as usual. Winter always means low activity for us. We’ve dealt with threats, and tended to the forest, and helped the occasional adventurer in need.”

They came at last to a clearing, a large one with a beautiful pond. Not quite a hot spring, but it would be warm enough in the direct sunlight beaming down on it. The place was a wonderful sight to behold, not unlike the clearing he had made love with Lily in, just a bit bigger, a bit more lush with healthy greenery. Cypress turned to look at them.

“Can I safely assume that part of this farewell involves sex?” she asked.

“Yes,” Yelena replied. “You can very safely assume that.”

“Good. Soon my fellow dryads, and Brynne, will be here, and we can have an orgy of wonderful pleasure.”

“That sounds fantastic,” John said, setting his backpack aside and then getting out of his boots.

“Ever eager for sex, hmm?” Cypress asked with a smirk.

“We both are,” Yelena said, also undressing.

Soon the pair were nude, and they slipped into the pond. By the time they were washed up, the others had arrived. John looked around slowly at everyone who had joined them. There were about a dozen dryads in the clearing now, and although he wasn’t all that great at distinguishing them from one another, he had been learning. He recognized Amber, and Fauna, and Daisy. Of course he recognized Cypress, given she was half a foot taller than all the others. And obviously Brynne, as she was the only serpentine there.

And she was already slithering across the clearing right towards him, a look of joy on her face. It was so strange to think that Brynne could easily embody both this plainly happy woman before him and a terrifying force of death and destruction. She came to him and wrapped him in a hug, picking him up off the ground.

“I have missed you, John!” she declared.

“I missed you too, Brynne,” John replied, hugging her back. “How have you been?”

“Very, very good. I imagine Cypress told you about my recent adventure.”

“She did. Congratulations, it sounds like you did an excellent job.”

She put him down and kissed him. “Well, you know, I had help, and mostly just got lucky. It was very dangerous, a very taxing experience. But it was worth it. One less mar on the land, and now that spot can finally begin to recover. Hello, Yelena. It’s so good to see you,” she said as she hugged and kissed Yelena as well.

“And you, Brynne,” Yelena replied.

“So, if I recall, our meetings typically begin with sex,” Brynne said. “Could we continue that tradition?”

Yelena laughed. “Yes, I would be thrilled to.”

“As would I,” John said.

“How about I take her first? I wish to use my toy on her,” Yelena suggested.

“That sounds very nice,” Brynne replied.

“Fine by me. I’ll come by after Cypress has had her way with me,” John said. As Yelena went hunting for her sex toy, John moved back over to Brynne, who was standing with Fauna and Amber. Fauna was the dryad who had initially joined them back when they’d gone ahead to the island holding the undead demon lord being resurrected. She was a fiercely capable warrior, about as tall as he was, and now a good friend. Although she was somewhat distant, more focused on her duties as a defender of the forest, they had made love several times, and he was happy to see that she was as enthusiastic a lover as she was a fighter.

Amber was short for a dryad, maybe five and a half feet tall, and a bit shy. Whereas Fauna largely seemed indifferent to being around humans, (unless she was horny), Amber seemed a little nervous around them. Despite that, she’d taken a strong liking to him, or at least he thought so. She’d actually come to visit him and Yelena in their cabin a few times while they’d been building it up to spend time together, and to have sex.

Dryads, he had discovered, even those who were naturally awkward or cared for little more than their work, were intensely sexual beings. And, very luckily for him, this particular clan at least seemed to have no problem having sex with other species.

“Someone is aroused,” Cypress said as he approached.

“Uh well yeah. There’s a bunch of extremely attractive, naked women around,” he replied, knowing that he already had an erection that everyone could see, given his nude state.

“Naked and aroused women,” Fauna said, staring at him. There was something mildly unsettling but deeply arousing about the way she looked at him. He’d seen her wear that exact expression in combat before.

“Then, uh, shall we? Who goes first?” he asked.

“Let’s not take turns,” Cypress replied. She closed the gap between them quickly and stared down at him. “Let’s all four of us go at once.”

“That would be very good,” John replied, and then she kissed him.

He loved kissing dryads. They always tasted so amazingly fresh and sweet, and they smelled of nature, of the scent of flowers carried on a cool breeze. John kissed her back passionately, slipping his tongue into her mouth and twisting them together. He began groping one of her huge breasts. Cypress seriously had really big tits. Besides being six and a half feet tall, she, like all dryads he’d seen so far, was naturally curvy and buxom. Especially their hips and thighs. Good Gods, dryads had the best hips, thighs, and asses.

Fauna and Amber came to stand on either side of him, and soon Cypress gave him up. She passed him to Fauna, who immediately picked up where Cypress had left off, and started kissing him passionately. That really described Fauna: passion. The two things he’d seen her do most, fighting and fucking, she did with passion. She fucked and fought like crazy. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cypress begin to kiss Amber, which was difficult, but possible, given their height difference. He ran his hands over Fauna’s wonderful body, settling them eventually on the swell of her thick ass, gripping it, holding it.

After a bit, he broke the kiss. “Lay on your back and spread your legs.”

“Oh, yes sir,” Fauna replied with a fierce grin.

She gracefully sank to her knees, then laid down on her back and spread her long legs. John laid down on his stomach in between her thick, powerful thighs, finding himself staring at her smooth, inhuman vagina. He slowly parted the lips of her pussy and began to lick all he found there with slow, sure movements. Fauna moaned loudly and a shiver ran through her body. There was still a tremendous satisfaction in bringing her, and those like her, pleasure. He continued stimulating her, massaging her clit with his tongue, listening to her moan in intense sexual gratification, feeling her as she moved against him in response to his touch.

Then he slipped a finger inside of her.

“Oh, John, yes...” she moaned loudly, then cried out as he began fucking her with his finger, pressing hard up into her most sensitive spot. “Keep going!” she yelled. He kept going, pleasuring and stimulating her harder, licking faster and faster, and within half a minute had her orgasming hard. She let out a prolonged cry of bliss as he kept pleasuring her, fingering her hard, feeling her vaginal muscles constricting tightly around it. And her green sex sap oozed out of her as her thigh muscles bunched and released, her whole body convulsing spasmodically as she came hard. It was spectacular to watch, amazingly erotic.

“Inside me. Now,” she said as soon as she was finished.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, pushing himself up and then crawling onto her. As he did this, he really started to hear the moaning going on around him. He looked around. The dryads were beginning their orgy. Cypress was on her back, getting eaten out by Amber. He could see the other dryads around the clearing, going down on each other, or lying on their backs, rubbing their pussies together. Yelena was furiously pounding Brynne’s pussy with her sex toy, making the large snake woman scream and twist in pleasure, her tail slapping against the ground.

This was a truly wonderful place to be, and right now, he didn’t want to be anywhere else on the planet.

John returned his attention to Fauna when she grabbed his cock and tugged on it. “Get in!” she snapped.

Smiling at her command, he got into her, shoving his cock into her dryad pussy. She cried out, spreading her legs out wider. “Yes! Fuck me! Fuck me!”

He fucked her, all right. John began driving his cock into her vagina furiously, pounding that sweet dryad pussy and burying his entire rigid length into her. Fauna stuck her legs up into the air and grabbed his back as he rutted with her, screaming and staring up at him with wide green eyes. He leaned down and kissed her, and she kissed him back, panting, breaking the kiss occasionally as he hit a sensitive spot and made her cry out uncontrollably. He grunted as he screwed her, feeling her hot, voluptuous body move against his with every motion.

Suddenly she wrapped her legs around him and arched her back invitingly. “Give it to me,” she moaned. “Give me your seed. I want it, John.”

“Oh fuck...” he groaned.

Somehow every woman he had even a slightly consistent sexual relationship with seemed to learn his orgasm trigger. Well, he had a few, but that was the most powerful, asking him to fucking come in them. And they all seemed to take a perverse pleasure in pulling that trigger at one point or another.

“That’s it, do it, come inside of me,” she moaned loudly.

“Fauna, fuck!” he yelled, and then he popped, coming hard inside of her pussy. His dick jerked violently within her and she moaned loudly. John heard himself almost shouting as he thrust deep and hard into her, emptying himself into her inhuman, perfect pussy. He could feel her thighs compressing him and her huge, bare tits pressing against his chest. The pleasure washed through his body, an intensely powerful surge of absolute rapturous release, a physical manifestation of pure ecstasy. He came for what felt like awhile.

And then he was finished, and it was like all the energy had been sucked out of his body. He collapsed against Fauna, and she laughed, holding him as he gasped for breath.

“Wow. I forgot how good of a fuck you were,” he whispered.

“No you didn’t,” she replied, grinning at him, their foreheads resting together. “You could never forget that.”

“Don’t tell me you’re done, John,” he heard Cypress say.

Slowly, he pushed himself up, then twisted around to look at her. She was still getting eaten out by Amber, who seemed really into it.

“No, not yet,” he replied.

“Then come over here and fuck Amber and I,” she said.

“Okay.” He could already feel his energy returning, and honestly, he was still horny, still mostly hard. He kissed Fauna and pulled out of her. “Good to see you.”

“I’m not done with you yet, John,” she replied.

“Good.” He stood up and made his way over to the other two. Yelena was yelling now, screaming in bliss as she orgasmed. He watched as she twitched and spasmed, the pleasure no doubt rolling through her body, but apparently it wasn’t enough, because as soon as she regained control of herself, she immediately resumed fucking Brynne’s pussy.

Well, serpentine vagina did feel amazing.

“Hello, Amber,” he said. “I’m coming in, okay?”

“It’s about time,” she said, briefly raising her head from Cypress’s crotch. He laughed, glad to see that sex still drew her out of her shell. He laid down against her fat ass. Amber had a particularly thick ass, even for a dryad, and he almost always found himself slamming her from behind, either she was on her hands and knees or lying flat. He loved looking at her ass, and fucking it. He slipped easily into her vagina and she moaned loudly.

“There’s a good girl,” he whispered, and then, resting on his knees and palms, started driving into her, burying his rigid cock into her sweet, yielding, sap-slicked dryad pussy over and over again, eliciting more cries of pleasure from her.

Fuck, dryad pussy felt so godsdamned good.

John looked down in between them as he fucked her, starting at her huge, shapely ass and his cock disappearing into her repeatedly. Then he looked up at her branch antlers, the way they moved and swayed with the motion of her oral sex as she ate Cypress out. And then there was Cypress herself, her in all her six foot six, nude, inhuman glory. She reminded him the most of a deity, a goddess of nature and sex and fertility.

“Amber, your pussy is so good,” he groaned as he fucked it. She moaned and said something muffled. Cypress reached down and gripped her antlers.

“I’m almost there, don’t stop, Amber,” she begged.

Amber kept going, putting her skillful tongue to use, and John kept pounding her. They all kept going and going until suddenly Cypress let out a cry of intense pleasure and her hips bucked and she began to orgasm. Amber kept eating her out throughout the climax and John kept pounding Amber’s pussy at the same time. He pounded and screwed and fucked her until Cypress was finished and then demanded her own turn.

“You may ride my tongue, Amber,” Cypress said.

“Thank you,” Amber replied, panting.

John pulled out of Amber and she got up. As she squatted over Cypress’s face, John rested on his knees in front of her, in between her spread open legs, and slipped his cock into her. Cypress and Amber began to moan at roughly the same time.

“Oh, Cypress, fuck that’s good,” he groaned, reaching forward and grabbing her huge tits as he began fucking her.

“Yes, it is...” Amber moaned loudly as Cypress began to orally pleasure her.

After about a minute or so, John sensed someone approaching. He glanced over and saw Brynne coming his way. He spotted Yelena getting fucked doggystyle by another dryad wearing her special toy. She looked like she was enjoying herself a lot.

“Hi, Brynne. You’re looking fantastically beautiful,” he said, panting as he continued thrusting into Cypress.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling demurely at him. It was an odd look on an eleven-foot-long snake woman. Her brunette hair was a wild mess and she had a look of sedate, mellow satisfaction on her face. Though there was still a lusty hunger there, below the surface. “You’re looking quite amazing yourself. May I kiss you?”

“Yes, please,” he replied.

She leaned in and they began to make out as he kept fucking Cypress. He cupped one of her enormous snakeskin breasts in his hand, loving the weight of it, the feel of it. Brynne was a good friend, and the only serpentine he had ever made love with. Brynne began to get more passionate as they made out, pressing herself against him, gripping him tightly, until finally she broke the kiss and looked at Cypress.

“Cypress, can I take him from you? I need him. I need him right now,” she said, panting.

“Mmm-hmm,” Cypress managed from beneath Amber.

“Thank you so much.”

“I’ll be back, Cypress,” John said, and pulled out of her. He grinned as he got up and moved a little ways away with Brynne. “Just had to have me, huh?”

“Yes, now get inside me. Please,” she begged. “I am so very turned on right now.”

“All right, all right, lay down.”

She quickly lay herself out, and John got on top of her. He had to admit, he was probably just as eager. He really had missed Brynne, and...well, to be honest, serpentine vagina felt so good. And he was immediately reminded of the full reality of this particular fact of life as he straddled her, aimed his cock down, and slipped it inside of her. They both moaned loudly in mutual bliss as he penetrated her, sliding his cock smoothly into her snake pussy.

“Oh Brynne yes...” he groaned.

“Go hard,” she begged.

He happily obliged her. He was enjoying himself a great deal, although he knew he was going to need at least a short break after this. Another dip in the pond sounded extremely good. John looked up at Brynne as he made love with her, at all her beautiful, smooth, green snakeskin. At her huge breasts bouncing in sync with their lovemaking. Her gorgeous, exotically alluring face that twisted in pleasure. He listened to the others all pleasuring and being pleasured around him as the deeply gratifying ecstasy of wild, bareback sex with Brynne burned into him, filling him. He was being pushed towards another orgasm and he wanted it, wanted to pump her sweet pussy full of his seed. He felt that same, seemingly unending desire to fill the women he made love with with his seed, both for the raw physical pleasure it granted him, and the intense emotional, primal satisfaction it gave him. John reached down and found her clit.

“Oh yes...” she moaned as he made contact with it.

Then he began to rub it. Brynne let out a loud cry of bliss and he felt as much as heard her tail slapping the ground repeatedly.

“Yes, John, yes! Don’t stop!” she begged.

He kept fucking her pussy and fingering her clit, stimulating her as much as he could, loving to bring her pleasure, to bring her to climax. And, within another half minute, he had. She let out a loud shriek of rapturous release as she began to orgasm, and he groaned as he felt her pussy clench hard and rapidly around his cock, massaging it. And he didn’t want to hold onto his own orgasm any longer. He had time to make love with her again, in the moment he wanted to just give in and come inside of her. So he did.

He joined her in moaning in blissful, rapturous release, becoming completely lost in that alternate plane of existence that seemed to exist during orgasms. A place with no sights, no sounds, only physical pleasure. Like his body had been tossed into a sea of pure ecstasy. He emptied himself into her, feeling like all of his seed was leaving his body as rapidly as possible, his dick contracting hard in fresh spasms of pure ecstasy.

And it was made so much better because she was orgasming along with him, both of them locked together in pure enjoyment, connected as intimately as they could be. When he came back to himself, he found himself laying on her, panting.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes, simply laying there together.

“I need to get into the water, Brynne,” John said finally.

“I will join you,” she replied.

He pulled carefully out of her and got to his feet, and the pair of them moved over to the pond. A few of the dryads were already sitting in the water, relaxing and lounging. As he and Brynne settled in, Yelena joined him, sitting next to him and holding his hand.

“How long do you think you’ll be gone?” Cypress asked as she came up to join them.

“You’re leaving?” Brynne asked.

“Oh right. We still need to catch up,” John murmured, feeling a little bad. Goodbyes, or even farewells for now, were always bittersweet. “We’re leaving the country for awhile. As for how long, I honestly don’t know. At a stab in the dark, at least a year? Maybe longer. We’re honestly not sure. Planning anything more than a rough destination, or a plan of attack, isn’t my strong suit.”

“We will come back,” Yelena said. “We shall come back and visit, but I yearn to see this world, and to experience what it might be like to walk around freely in my natural form.”

“Where can you go for that?” Brynne asked.

“The kit homeland, Kindress. It is said they allow demons to walk freely there. Provided they aren’t evil, I imagine,” Yelena replied.

“Wow. Well, I can’t begrudge you that. I will miss both of you very much, though.”

“We’ll miss you too, Brynne. All of you. You’re all such good friends,” Yelena said.

“How long until you leave?” Brynne asked.

Yelena looked at John. He shrugged. “We haven’t really put a date on it, but within the next week I’d say. We’re going to travel to a port on the west coast and book passage. But until then, we would love to spend time with you all.”

“We would enjoy that, too,” Cypress said with a warm smile.

John settled into the water a bit more comfortably with the love of his life, surrounded by his friends, and was happy.

…

“So is that it? Do we have everything?” John asked.

“I am fairly sure we do,” Yelena replied.

“Clothes? We packed enough clothes. And all your books?”

“Yes, love. My books are safely in the camp-in-a-bag, and some are in my pack, and some are in yours.”

“And we’ve got our swords. And our coin. And emergency healing potions.”

“Yes to all three of those,” Yelena said, smiling at him.

He sighed and thought for a moment longer, then slowly looked around the interior of their cabin. Was he missing anything? “We’ve got your amulet, right?”

“Of course love, I am wearing it,” she replied.

“Oh, okay. Good.”

Yelena laughed and came over to him. She gave him a kiss. “My love, try to relax. Is there anything we own that is truly irreplaceable? Is there anything we own that, if we lost it, we could not simply buy another after running down a few jobs?”

“No, I...guess not,” he replied, and relaxed. She was right. “I guess I’m just nervous. I’ve never, you know, done something like this. I’ve never gone this far from home.”

“It’s easier than you think,” Yelena said.

“I suppose you would know...let me take one more look around.”

“If it will settle your mind, then do so love. But please, I am beginning to lose patience. I want to be on my way.”

“Okay, honey.”

He began to move about the cabin. In the end, they had spent about four days with the dryads and Brynne. Well, not the entire time with them specifically, but they were about. They’d gone back to their cabin and Cypress and Brynne and several of the others had come by to visit them and talk and have sex and relax, and it was an all-around good time. And he was glad to see that the pair of cabins were exactly as they’d left them.

Eventually, though, they’d both started getting anxious, and the drive to move on, to explore, to give into their wanderlust, became too much.

And so they’d had another orgy party the previous night, said farewell for now, and had gone to sleep. Now it was the morning, and the time was upon them. It was probably going to take about two days to walk all the way to the other side of the land and track down a ship in a port town on the Redwood Forest side, but that was fine. Even just knowing they were making progress would no doubt soothe them.

If there was one thing he and Yelena had managed to put into practice, it was the philosophy of the journey, not the destination. They would get to where they were going eventually, so they should enjoy the walk there.

“Okay,” he said after poking through everything, “I’m satisfied.”

“Good. May we go?” Yelena asked, her tail twitching impatiently behind her.

“Yes, my love, we may go.”

He joined her and they headed out of the cabin.

Into the sunshine, and onward to the next chapter in their life.

DEMONESS V

CHAPTER I

John Greenfield lay soaking wet and half-dead on a rocky shore.

He came to coughing violently, a thousand pains wracking his battered, abused body, and he turned on his side and vomited. A stream of foul-tasting seawater was jetted from his mouth onto the rocky beach he lay upon and mixed with the rain and swell of water from the waves lashing at him, as though the sea itself held a grudge against him. He coughed, terror and panic surging through his body, filling every fiber of his being as he desperately sought to figure out what was happening. Then he coughed raggedly and vomited again.

When the last of the seawater had escaped him, he groaned thickly and sat up. Shivering violently, he hugged himself and looked around, his head swinging in a slow arc from left to right. Ahead, all he could see was the dark eternity of the ocean, and the waves pounding the shore. To either direction, more beach, shrouded in a rainy darkness. A heavy wave came up and washed over him, nearly dragging him back into the ocean. John cried out and lurched to his feet in a surge of panic, then stumbled away from the water, from the most immediate threat. He still had his boots, he realized, looking down.

His clothes too, although they were ragged and wet and torn in many places.

Where was he?!

What had happened?!

Shivering even more harshly, he rubbed his arms furiously, trying to bring some warmth back to his slowly numbing body. Think, dammit! He could see no lights around, no fires, not even any structures. Opposite the ocean, he saw a dark treeline. Overhead, lightning forked the sky and thunder cracked, rumbling so powerfully it rattled his bones. He cried out in a pure, primal reflex of fear. Boat. He had been on a boat.

He’d been going somewhere, and the last thing he remembered was-

Lightning struck again, and this time it was as if it had struck his skull, his mind itself, which lit up like a beacon in the night as a realization hit him.

John sucked in a deep breath and screamed as loud as he could, “YELENA!!!”

Only the thunder and the pounding of the waves answered him. He looked around frantically, taking a few steps left, hesitating, then a few steps right. He stumbled as some rocks went out from beneath him and went painfully to his knees. He cried out, then moaned in sick fear. He felt shaky and raw with panic.

Whatever he’d been doing, wherever he was now, none of it mattered, because he was alone. Because he didn’t know where she was.

He shot to his feet and again screamed at the top of his lungs. “YELENA!!!”

Still nothing. John spent another few minutes looking around frantically, his mind half-fried, running on instinct and emotion as he desperately sought the woman he loved, the person who mattered the most to him in this world or any other, the demoness he would die for, he would do anything for. But he couldn’t see her.

He was alone.

“Please,” he moaned, hugging himself tightly. “Oh please don’t be gone. Please...”

He looked up as the lightning flared again and through the curtain of rain that fell, spied a simple structure not too far away. Like a ship dropping anchor in treacherous waters, that gave him something to hold onto. Seeing that structure awoke in him a very basic, very primal urge: to be inside, out of the cold and the dark and the rain. And that simple urge anchored him, brought him back down a few levels, and some of his panic bled off. He had to find Yelena, but first he had to get his bearings, check himself over.

Surely, he was wounded. He couldn’t tell because what parts of him weren’t numb from the cold all hurt in overlapping waves of miserable suffering. Groaning and shuddering, teeth chattering, he set off, marching towards the simple structure. It looked like little more than a shack. Probably a fisherman’s shack, he thought, given how close he was to the ocean. Although it was maybe a hundred feet away, it seemed to take ages to get there. He kept looking around, hoping to see that familiar form, praying to see Yelena coming towards him. He would give anything to see her just then. But he saw nothing.

John reached the shack. It had a door and it was partially open. He pushed his way in through it. The single-room building looked long abandoned. Already, as he stepped inside, his mind was telling him to do things. Light a fire. Find some dry clothes. Find a weapon. Make sure the building was secure-

He hadn’t made sure it was secure.

Right as he thought that, something leaped at him with a growl and crashed into him. He screamed, new primal urges taking over as a wiry figure covered in wet fur got atop him. He struggled, fought, bucked hard enough to throw the figure off of him. What was attacking him!? He got atop the figure. A hand came up and he screamed as claws raked his cheek. He grabbed the hand by the wrist and forced it back down, then did the same with the second hand. He was stronger than whoever it was, at least.

Lightning flashed again, and in that instant he saw a felis woman staring up at him, her eyes wide and wild with fury and fear. He hesitated. She looked...familiar.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Get off me!” she snapped.

“Are you going to stop fucking attacking me?!” John snapped back. “Because you struck first!”

She hesitated, a few seconds played out, and then he felt her relax slightly. “Yes. I’m sorry,” she replied.

Carefully, he released her wrists and then slowly got up off of her. John got to his feet and then offered her a hand when it seemed obvious that she wasn’t going to continue the fight. She looked at his hand for a moment, then took it and let him help her up. He shivered and looked around as he remembered how cold he was.

“We need to start a fire,” the felis murmured.

“I...” he hesitated, looked out through the door he’d come in through. “I need to go. There’s someone I have to find.” He took a step towards the exit.

“Wait,” the felis said, and he hesitated, looking back at her. “It’s too dangerous out there right now. It’s pouring rain in the middle of the night and we have no idea where we are or what could be out there. We’re injured and weak. We’re easy pickings for even a few wolves. We need to stay here, make a fire, get some rest.”

She sounded reasonable, and her voice, surprisingly calm as it was, instilled a sense of logic in him that began to calm his fractured and terrified mind. A part of him, a strong part of him, wanted to march out there in the rain and scream for Yelena for as long as it took. But another part of him reluctantly admitted that this woman was right, and he wouldn’t do any good to Yelena if he got himself killed out there.

And fuck, at this point, he realized, if he had managed to survive, then certainly she had, because she was far more capable than he was.

“Yeah,” he said finally, “you’re right.”

He looked around the little shack. It was a miserable place to spend the night, but it at least had a bed and the roof wasn’t leaking too bad. It still had its windows, too, and they were mostly intact. He looked down at a little brazier in the middle of the room. It was full of ashes.

“We’ll need wood,” he said. “And it’ll be hard to find dry wood around here...”

“I know some magic,” the woman said, “if we can find wood, I can dry it and burn it.” She looked out through the front door and sighed. He knew how she felt, he sure wasn’t relishing the thought of going back out there. “We should get this over with. And stick together.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, then hesitated. “I’m John.”

“Layla,” she said.

“Were you on the ship?” he asked as they headed back outside. The rain seemed to have slackened, though only a little. Maybe it was his imagination.

“Yes. I saw you around with a woman...a redhead elf...is that who you’re looking for?”

“Yelena. Yeah,” he replied.

She began to say something else, but a flash of lightning and boom of thunder cut her off. He waited to see if she’d keep talking, but instead she just pointed. He followed her finger and saw some driftwood not too far away. He went for it, shivering worse than ever now. Now that he had the goal of building a fire, he found himself desperate for one and colder than ever. He reached down and grabbed the piece of driftwood, then looked around and spied another one a few feet away. He stumbled over and grabbed it.

The act of gathering wood to burn helped bring his body and his mind back to him. Everything was feeling distant and numb, but it was slowly coming back. Still though, a confusion seemed to lay over him, almost like he was waking up in the middle of the night while drunk, trying to figure out where he was and what was going on. He glanced over his shoulder at Layla, who was gathering up wood as well. At least he wasn’t alone. But...he looked all around himself once again. Where was Yelena?

He couldn’t shake the terrifying thought that something had happened to her, that she was injured or...dead. It was possible. No, he thought angrily, vehemently. No, she’s fine. Maybe not fine, apparently there’d been a shipwreck, but she was a survivor more than anything. She would survive, and he’d find her tomorrow, as soon as he woke up. He still wanted to go looking for her, but knew that it was a bad idea. Everything hurt or was numb, and he was dizzy and confused. John saw another piece of wood and grabbed it, making eight. His arms were getting full and, after a few seconds, he decided he’d found enough.

Turning around, he hurried back to the shack, where Layla was waiting in the doorway, watching out for him. He tried to remember what he’d observed about her, because he had seen her on the ship, but he couldn’t remember a thing. He rejoined her and they both headed inside. John dumped his wood in the brazier, then moved back over to the door and closed it, then locked it as firmly as he could. Then he moved over to the nearest window and saw about securing it some more. As he pulled the tattered curtains into place a bit more firmly, he felt a wave of wonderfully comforting warmth at his back. He turned around.

Layla was releasing renewing waves of white magic over the collection of wood he’d dumped in the brazier. Well, at least she seemed pretty competent. Just based on the little he’d encountered while fighting her, he thought that if they were to fight again, she’d give him a real run for his coin. He was definitely stronger than her, but strength wasn’t everything. She was quick. She glanced up as she finished drying the wood.

“Are you injured?” she asked.

“I don’t think so, not seriously,” he murmured, looking down at himself. His clothing was ripped and soaked.

“Why didn’t you use your weapon, during our skirmish?” she asked.

He looked down again and blinked in surprise. His sword, his midnight black blade, was still in its scabbard on his hip. “I didn’t even realize I still had it with me.”

“Lucky for me,” she replied. “You’re...very strong,” she murmured. He looked back up at her. She was staring at the wood before her, focusing on it really. It sounded like it pained her to admit that. Well, that made sense. She was clearly pretty fierce, no doubt an adventurer like him. Everything about her was a testament to the notion. In some ways, she reminded him of Bianca. He wondered, suddenly, what the demon-hunting felis was up to nowadays.

“It almost didn’t save me. You’re extremely fast,” he replied, continuing his job of securing the windows as much as he could.

His cheek still hurt, and bled slightly.

“I’ve spent a long time honing myself,” Layla murmured.

“I know the feeling,” John replied.

As he finished securing another window, there was an orange-yellow burst of light. He looked back at her. She stood before the brazier now, warming her hands. He studied her. She was in incredible shape, her form thin and lithe and athletic. She wore very little, really just a small shirt to cover her breasts, (which, he saw as he walked over to the final window and got a view of her front side, were very, very obvious in the soaking wet fabric), and a loose skirt that did little more than cover her ass and crotch. He imagined she wore it for a maximum range of motion, relying on speed rather than armor.

He felt an unexpectedly powerful burst of lust slam into him as he stared at her lithe form. Gods, she was in great shape, and she was so attractive. Her fur was a beautifully patterned orange and yellow.

His heart leaped as she looked at him suddenly. Her slit-pupil yellow eyes caught the fire, reflecting it. “Are we secure?” she asked.

“As secure as we’re going to get,” he replied, finishing with the final window and then moving over to the fire.

“I know a few basic alarm spells. I’ll set them by the windows and the door. If anything tries to get in, we’ll at least know about it,” she replied, and moved away from the fire. While she worked her magic and he warmed himself, (which he was partially regretting, as all of his body parts which had grown numb were now becoming warm again, and bringing with them new waves of pain), he looked around the cabin. There was hardly anything to work with. A broken desk, a dresser missing several drawers, a smashed table, a chair that looked so old and weathered that it likely wouldn’t support even an elf, and, interestingly, a bed that was pretty much intact. He’d slept in worse, he figured, studying it. Though if they intended to share it, it would be a tight fit…

He looked at her again.

Layla was facing away from him, and he could see the swell of her well-maintained, firm ass pushing against the skirt she wore, which was also soaking wet and clung to her body. Again, he felt a shockingly powerful bolt of lust slam into him, and he found himself desiring her more than he had desired most for a long time. He fought to control himself. Now was hardly the time to fuck. And, Gods, Yelena was still out there, and he wanted to get to her so badly. But he couldn’t. He was stuck in this shack, aching all over, his head hurting worse than a hangover, with no supplies but his soaking wet clothes and his blade.

At least Layla knew magic.

Hopefully she knew healing magic. He was still working on learning more magic. This was one of those times where knowing more magic would be really fucking useful. John groaned quietly as it felt like his entire body throbbed, but even that couldn’t keep the intense lust from his mind. Maybe it was just a reaction to the sheer insanity of the situation, now that he was somewhere theoretically safe, and the worst of it had passed.

What had even fucking happened? He still couldn’t remember. Everything was a confused mess and he just wanted to sleep. Well, he just wanted to go find Yelena, but he couldn’t, so next on the list was just pass the fuck out and not have to be awake and deal with this shit for awhile.

“I can heal you,” Layla said. “Probably not everything, but I can do a decent job.”

“I’d appreciate it,” he murmured.

She went about the room laying her magical traps, and as she did, he felt a painful jab of fear and misery as he was reminded of Yelena doing the same whenever they slept in a dangerous place. Gods, what he wouldn’t give just to know she was okay!

As she finished up, Layla came over to stand by him before the fire.

“Think the smoke will be a problem?” he murmured.

“No, there’s enough holes in the roof that we’ll be fine,” she replied. “Here, hold still. I’m going to put my hands on you, okay?”

“Okay,” he replied.

She reached out and laid her hands on his chest. The contact made his heart flutter and his stomach churn with desire.

Technically, he could have sex with her, if she was open to it. He was in an open relationship…

Was it right? Would that piss Yelena off? He didn’t think so, he was really fucking stressed out, and sex was pretty much the number one thing that helped him relax.

All of his thoughts ceased as Layla released a wave of magic over him, and he was filled with a deeply comforting warmth. He felt the pain all over his body lessen, though not disappear, not completely. But it was a damn sight better than what it had been.

“There,” she said.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” he replied.

“We should work together,” she said, and then she took off her shirt, freeing her high, firm breasts. They bounced as they came out of her small shirt and this time the lust hit him so hard that he nearly lost his breath. “And we should dry our clothes by the fire,” she said, nodding to an old but serviceable laundry line that hung from the ceiling.

“Uh...y-yeah,” he replied, and took off his shirt. She hung her shirt up, then did the same with her skirt. Oh Gods, he could see her vagina and it looked so good. He wrung his shirt out on the floor and hung it up, then repeated the process with his pants, his undershorts, and his socks. He had to dump seawater from his boots. He hung up all his clothes and set his boots before the fire, and, after a moment’s consideration, set his blade on the floor, beside the bed. “I’m not, uh, sure what you want to do about sleeping arrangements...” he murmured, turning around to face her.

Layla stood in front of the fire, facing him, the fire back-lighting her and only adding to the fierce appearance she was presenting. She stared at him with wide, wild eyes, her tail lashing furiously behind her, and he felt caught in her gaze. There was no mistaking the lust in her eyes. He began to say something, but she practically leaped across the shack and shoved him back onto the bed. As her body touched his and they fell into the bed together, he reacted almost on instinct. His lust overtook him, overwhelmed his mind now that she had shown her utter willingness to fuck him. She got atop him and kissed him hard on the mouth, pushing her rough felis tongue in and desperately, almost furiously seeking his own.

He moved it forward and as soon as they touched, they twined and twisted together, and her taste flooded his mouth. He tasted her natural taste, mixed with smoke and seawater, and felt her damp, furry body pushing against his own. They both ran their hands over each other as they made out passionately. His hands found the swell of her firm, fit ass and he groped and squeezed it. Without thinking, one hand went up to the base of her tail, wrapped around it, and gave it a small squeeze. She let out a loud moan and went temporarily rigid, and he wondered if that had been a bad move. A woman’s tail, had she one, was usually a very intimate thing to touch.

But it seemed to only invigorate her more.

Layla reached down between them and gripped his steel-hard cock. She ran her hand up and down it for a moment, as though enjoying the simple act of touching it, and then she raised herself up, aimed it at her pussy, and lowered herself.

Both of them let out loud, low moans of primal pleasure as they began fornicating and the first burst of rapture from initial penetration hit them both. She took his entire length into herself, and oh was she wet. Good fucking Gods was she wet. And tight! Layla grabbed his shoulders as she finished settling into place atop him, then growled and began to ride him. He groaned loudly, the pleasure hitting him in waves. Parts of him hurt, ached with suffering from his time in the ocean, but he didn’t give one fuck about that.

Layla consumed his attention.

She seemed to tower above him in the flickering firelight and the close atmosphere of the tiny shack. Nude and furry and raw, she looked like a being of lust or a warrior felis deity come down for a night of wild sex with a mortal. Her firm, high breasts bounced beautifully in unison with the rest of her as she furiously rode his cock, fucking herself with it, shoving it into her pussy again and again. She growled and groaned, and no words were passed between them as they screwed like rutting animals, almost mindless in their ferocious, savage fuck session. All the thoughts were pushed soundly out of John’s head as Layla screwed him, putting her powerful hips and thighs to use. His pain seemed to fade away as she moved against him.

He reached up and groped her breasts for several moments, loving the feel of them in his grasp, loving the firm fitness of her body. Then he ran his hands down her sides to her hips. He grabbed them, digging his fingertips in, and began thrusting madly up into her. Layla let out a loud cry of rapture as he did this, shoving his cock even deeper into her, and she began going harder and faster. Beneath them, the bed creaked and groaned, and he wondered briefly if it would break. And didn’t care if it did. After another moment, his hands found her ass once more, and then her tail. This time when he wrapped his fingers around its base and squeezed, she let out a groan somewhere deep in her throat and began to orgasm almost immediately.

He cried out, this time in pain, as her claws came out and dug into his shoulders, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was lost in her orgasm, and soon, so was he. Her orgasm triggered his own and in an instant they were both coming hard, coming together, and he was shooting his seed into her, pumping her sweet felis vagina full of it. The stuff left him in hard spurts as he felt her own hot sex juices escaping her pussy, getting all over him. They both moaned and cried out and panted and grunted and shouted as they came together.

And then it was over, suddenly, and she collapsed against him.

He remembered them both panting furiously, getting their breaths back, and then he remembered a powerful wave of sleepiness washing over him. He shifted, and so did she, so that they were laying beside each other, and then the lethargy pulled him down into the dark waters of sleep, like a powerful undertow, and he knew no more.

CHAPTER II

He was stumbling back down mining tunnel, carefully cradling the health potions that he had so foolishly forgotten to bring. They had all forgotten, thinking they had enough magical healing abilities between their new ally Shay and Yelena, but he felt somehow personally responsible. But how could they have known the thing in the mines was so dangerous?! But it was over. They had made it out alive, all of them, he thought, he prayed, and they had killed the thing in the mines, and they could continue helping Fiona build her town in the north.

As he drew near the chamber they had just had a huge battle in, he heard raised voices, and felt a stab of fear. Had something else happened? He limped forward into the cavern and saw Carrie and Fiona standing over Yelena, who had collapsed back onto the floor.

“Yelena!” he cried, hurrying over, ignoring the pain in his body.

“John...I-I don’t know what happened, she just collapsed,” Fiona said, sounding panicky.

“I think that blow to the head was too much,” Carrie said quietly.

“What do you mean!? What’s wrong!?” he demanded, coming to stand with them. He stared down at Yelena, fear, dark and huge, beginning to rush over him. She wasn’t moving. Yelena lay on the rocky ground and she wasn’t moving.

She wasn’t breathing.

“Yelena!” he screamed, dropping to his knees, the bottles falling out of his hands. One shattered but he ignored it. He grabbed her. “Yelena! Wake up!” He looked up at Carrie. “Do something! You have to heal her!”

“I...I can’t,” she whispered.

“No! Yelena! YELENA!”

…

“Yelena!”

John jerked awake, sitting straight up, and felt someone move in the bed beside him. Relief flooded through him as he looked over. “Oh, Yelena, I-” He froze as he spied a furry body and an unfamiliar face looking over at him. For several seconds, he had no fucking idea who was sharing his bed or, for that matter, where he was.

“A-are you okay?” the woman asked, sounding scared and tense.

He looked around the small shack he was in, and then the previous night came back to him with a sick intensity, and the fear returned to him. But it was tempered this time. Partially because his whole body ached and he had just been jerked out of a deep sleep, but partially because his mind was much less frazzled and chaotic.

“Yeah,” he murmured, slowly rubbing one eye. “I’m sorry. Uh...nightmares.”

“I figured,” the woman, Layla, her name was Layla, said.

For a few moments, neither of them spoke. John just sat there, putting his feet over the edge of the bed and down on the rotted wooden floor of the shack, listening to the sound of the ocean outside and the gentle mist of rain that fell. Before long though, he was driven to his feet. He had to find Yelena. It was daylight out, though the light was gray and dim, and he needed to find her. His head ached and his body was sore, but a quick check of himself revealed that he was basically functional. Nothing broken, no serious injuries.

“What are you doing?” Layla murmured.

“Getting dressed. I have to find Yelena,” he replied.

“Okay...do you mind if I come along?” she asked.

“I would appreciate the help,” he answered.

She silently rose to her feet and joined him in pulling their clothes from the lines where they hung. The fire had lasted through most of the night. There was nothing in the brazier but embers now. He remembered getting up once and putting a few more pieces of driftwood in. He glanced at Layla. He also remembered fucking her. That had been nice at least, but all the sex in the world couldn’t drive his intense need to find Yelena from his mind right now. Nothing was going to stop him. In this moment, the entirety of his existence could be summed up in his need to find her. He finished dressing, tied his boots, and attached his black blade and sheath to his hip.

“We should search the shack once more, in case there’s anything we missed,” Layla said.

“Okay. You can get started, I have to piss really bad,” John replied. She nodded and dropped to her hands and knees, looking under the bed. He glanced briefly at her ass and thighs, at her tail, waving back and forth, then he stepped outside. Looking around, he took a moment to make sure they were alone, and as he surveyed the land, saw a few things of importance. The first was a string of similar shacks lining the beach, maybe half a dozen of them, in various states of disrepair. Most looked ready to fall over.

There might be more supplies in them, a weapon for Layla or some food or armor for him. He realized he was starving. But the most important thing was, farther along the beach, up a steep incline in the land, an old lighthouse sat. It was the most obvious thing in sight from the beach, and he reasoned that meant it was the most obvious place to go, and that Yelena would think the same thing. Okay, that made him feel better, at least. So did taking a long piss onto the rocky beach. With that done, he rejoined Layla.

They searched the shack in silence for a few moments.

Then she said, “What were you dreaming about?”

“A fight Yelena and I were involved in. It was...bad. It was really bad. We were helping a friend establish a town in the northern part of Veridis. There was a mine and something evil was in the mine. We didn’t know what though, but we knew it had to go. So we got some adventurers together and went in to take it on.”

“What was it?” Layla asked quietly.

“We’re still not sure, but one of them thought it might be a necromancer from this ancient order of...I can’t fucking remember what. They were ancient, and evil, and mega powerful. We were lucky to walk away from that. Yelena was very badly injured and I was just...having a nightmare about that,” he replied.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment.

“Me too.”

They finished their search and found nothing at all tucked away among the furniture that remained.

“I’ve got a plan,” John said as they stepped outside, into the light rain. At this point, it was more mist than anything else. Nearby, the ocean lapped the shore.

“The lighthouse?” Layla asked, staring at it.

“Yep. And we should check these shacks along the way for supplies,” he replied.

“Good idea.”

They struck out. John stretched while he walked, groaning softly at the aches and pains that assaulted him. Everything was still stiff and sore. If he had to fight, it was going to be brutally unpleasant. Neither of them spoke as they reached the next fishing shack and conducted a search of it. It was even emptier than the last one, and they managed to finish their search in five minutes. As they made their way towards the next pathetic, weather-eaten structure, he began to sense that Layla wanted to ask him something.

Finally, she said, “Is this going to be a problem?”

“What?” he replied.

“What we did last night...is it going to be a problem, um...with your Yelena?”

“Oh.” He laughed with relief. “No. Not at all. We’re lovers but we’re in an open relationship. There won’t be a problem.”

“Okay, good.” She paused. “Thank you for that. I kind of...jumped you. I just...saw you naked and just wanted to fuck you so intensely and I was so, you know, fucked up from the shipwreck, my emotions were going crazy, I just...” she shrugged.

“It’s okay, I understand. And don’t worry, I’m not upset. It was great. Sorry I, uh, came in you without asking.”

“It’s fine,” she replied. “I kinda liked it, honestly.”

“Oh. Awesome.”

They reached the next shack and hardly bothered to search it, as it had largely collapsed in on itself. After poking through the remains for a bit, they began making their way towards the next one, making slow progress up the miserable, gray breach.

Something occurred to John, and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. “So, um...you don’t have a problem with, uh...unusual races, um, do you?” he asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean? ‘Unusual races’?”

“Yelena isn’t...human. Nor elf, or felis, or beryl,” he replied uncertainly.

She looked at him with a mixture of uncertainty and curiosity. “What race is she?”

“...a race that makes the average person freak the fuck out.”

Layla was quiet for a moment. He had no idea if Yelena would be shape-shifted or not, but he didn’t want to rely on it. Showing a demoness to someone was something you didn’t really spring on them. Best they heard it beforehand in a more controlled environment.

“Well,” Layla said finally, “I don’t really care. As long as she’s polite, I’ll be polite. I’m pretty open-minded. I’ve fucked a half-giantess.”

John stopped, and she did too, after a few paces, looking back at him. “I know,” she said, “sounds crazy but-”

“You know Morgan?” he asked.

Her eyes widened a bit. “Yes! You know her? She’s one of my best friends.”

“I do. Not super well, but she helped Yelena and I in a time of, uh, desperate need. And we became what you might call close friends,” he replied.

She smirked. “I know what that translates to: she fucked you, didn’t she? She fucked both of you, I’ll bet.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, she did.”

“Okay, that’s cool.” They started walking again. “So what is she? I’m genuinely curious now.”

He considered it for a moment longer, then figured, well, why not tell her? “She’s a demoness,” he replied.

Layla looked over at him again sharply. “Seriously? You’re in love with a demoness? Wait, wait...I don’t remember seeing a fucking demon on the boat, and I’m pretty sure I’d notice. No, I saw you with a woman, a redhead...”

“Yeah, that was Yelena. She can shape-shift,” John replied.

“Holy shit, that’s impressive. Okay, like I said, I’ll be cool. You seem cool, and if Morgan fucked you, you must be. She doesn’t fuck idiots or assholes.”

“Yeah, I think-” He winced and sucked in air through his teeth as a sharp jab of pain hit him on his right shoulder. He glanced over and saw blood leaking through the cloth. “What the fuck?” he whispered, and carefully lifted it.

There were cuts in his shoulder, four of them in a row...no, five, the final one a little ways off from the rest. He glanced over as he realized his other shoulder hurt similarly, lifted the cloth, and saw a copy of the wounds.

“What the fuck is this?” he muttered, for a few seconds utterly lost.

“Oh...shit, uh...my bad,” Layla admitted sheepishly. He looked at her. She was looking at the ground, clearly embarrassed. For a few seconds, he wondered if she had done something to him in his sleep, or even hers, but then, abruptly, he remembered.

“Ohhhh...” he murmured. “You did that when you...”

“Came. Yeah. During the sex. Sorry. I didn’t mean to, I just...it was really intense,” Layla replied. “I can make it better, at least stop the bleeding and deal with some of the pain. Also, there’s scratches on your face, too. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” John replied. He let her place her palms carefully over his shoulders and she released a small wave of healing magic. It felt better, though still there was pain. Yelena would be able to fix him properly. Gods, he needed to find her. Again, his eyes sought the lighthouse. He prayed that she was there.

He would give just about anything to see her right now.

“Come on,” he said, striking off. “We need to continue searching.”

Layla followed in his wake.

They spent the next fifteen minutes making their way across the rocky beach. John kept a sharp eye out, studying his environment, trying to figure out where they were and what they might be up against. Because, after all the shit that had happened to him ever since he found Yelena in the woods that fateful day…

He had learned to expect the worst out of the world around him.

Granted, he usually put himself in that situation, risking his life to help people, or find something cool, or just to have a good time. Although lately it had mainly just been helping people. To his right was the ocean, the immense gray ocean that seemed to stretch off into forever. There was nothing out there. Just water and more water, and clouds overhead. To his left, a dense treeline, lush with greenery. Beyond that, he could see a mountain towards, presumably, the center of the island, also covered in trees. Anything could be in those trees.

Ahead of them, a few more ramshackle fishing shacks and the lighthouse atop the rise of land. Nothing living, as far as he could tell. There was some driftwood, though, more than you’d expect on the average beach, and he realized it was likely from the ship. What had happened? As they reached the next shack and began investigating, he found himself thinking back, trying to piece together some memories leading up to the here and now.

After he and Yelena had enjoyed their fuck tour across the land, saying farewell for now to their friends, both verbally and physically, they had made their way across the land to the Redwood Forest, to a small elven port town that would take them to where they wanted to go. Kindress was about a week’s journey to the south and west of Veridis. The night they had spent in that port town was a very nice one, as they’d run into a pair of beautiful elf women, a couple, who were very interested in him and Yelena, (especially after they learned of Yelena’s true nature), and what a fantastic foursome that had been…

And then they got on the boat, and began making their journey southwest.

They had made it five of the seven days, from what he could remember. He had definitely seen Layla around, now that he was thinking about it. She’d caught his eye more than once, and he’d been considering asking her to bed. But there was something about her, a tense melancholy that had ultimately kept him away. Although judging by their interaction last night, maybe he should’ve approached her.

Gods, what a threesome with her and Yelena would be like…

Then again, maybe she wouldn’t have been interested if not for the extreme circumstances.

John refocused. He remembered going to sleep the fifth night after making love with Yelena, though his sleep had been fretful. Besides the fact that he hated being on boats now more than ever given what had happened the last time he was on one with that fucking giant sea monster, it was storming badly. Apparently, his anxieties had been warranted. He remembered...waking, in the night, because the ship was being tossed about like a toy in the tempest sea. And he remembered waiting with Yelena at first in their cabin.

And then there had been a great cracking sound, and the ship had shaken violently. They’d gone out when they had heard shouting, to help, and then he remembered seawater washing over him, and falling, and...hitting his head…

And then waking up on the shore in the middle of the night.

Gods, it was a miracle he had survived.

They finished their search of the shack and moved onto the next one. Just two left now, he saw. They were much closer to the lighthouse, but it was still several hundred feet away, and up a sharp, wet incline. What fun it was going to be to climb. But it didn’t matter. He was going to go there, because it was the likeliest place to find Yelena, or, barring that, to help him find Yelena. And that was going to be his life for however long it took.

He couldn’t help but feel at least a little bitter. They’d gotten on that damned boat to head for good times in the faraway land of Kindress, where Yelena could walk freely as a demoness and not be attacked by assholes.

“Hey, Layla,” he said as they got to the second-to-last shack and opened it up. Then he sighed. This one was actually completely barren, totally bereft of any furniture or supplies. They took a bit to check out the floorboards, just in case there was a hidden compartment.

“Yeah?” she replied.

“What were you heading to Kindress for?” he asked.

She didn’t reply for a few moments as they finished their search, then left the shack and began to head for the final shack before the incline.

“I was...” she said, then fell silent again.

“I saw you on the boat several times,” he murmured.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You looked...really unhappy.”

“I am.”

“I’m sorry.”

She sighed heavily. “So am I. I’m not sure what I was doing. Kindress...I’ve heard so many good things about it. I guess...I wanted to feel good.”

“Maybe you should’ve gone to Tomontica, it’s pretty good down there,” John said, and she froze. She actually stopped in her tracks and grimaced. “Shit...sorry.”

“That’s where I was when...I became unhappy,” she said, and then started walking again.

“I’m sorry...do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” she replied, and didn’t say anything else. He sighed very softly. Well, great, now he kind of felt like an asshole. Then again, how could he have known? John looked up at the lighthouse again, reminding himself of his goal.

Find Yelena.

Right now, nothing else mattered.

They arrived at the final fishing shack, and this one looked more promising. It was the most intact one they had come across, including the one they’d spent the night in. As they approached the front door, John hesitated, and realized Layla had as well. He felt eyes on him, somehow. Frowning, he scanned the treeline, saw nothing, and began a quick but fervent search of the beach in either direction and the lighthouse atop the hill.

Nothing and no one.

“You sense it, too?” Layla murmured softly.

“Yeah,” he whispered.

Another moment passed, and she sighed. “Who or whatever is watching seems content enough to wait for now. Let’s do this fast.”

“Yep.”

They finished their approach on the shack and John pushed the door open carefully with the tip of his dark blade. He peered inside. Still nothing. Carefully, he stepped within and swept the room with his gaze. It was clear. There was furniture, as well, though it was just as old and weathered as everything else they’d encountered so far. Where the fuck were they that this place was so...abandoned? It looked like people hadn’t been here in months or even years. He didn’t remember seeing any islands on the map when studying their route, at least not obvious ones, but that didn’t really mean much. Maps could be unreliable things.

“It’s clear,” he said, and Layla came in after him, closing the door behind her.

They spent several minutes quickly and efficiently hunting through the hut. He found a backpack shoved up under the bed. Though it was empty, he was grateful for it. Layla found a dagger with a sheath that was of a good size and make, a solid steel thing that would stab quite efficiently in the right hands. Of which he had no doubt hers were. She tied it to her belt and kept hunting. All they managed to locate after that was dust and debris and nothing else. But it was a decent find, at least. As they headed back outside, John’s stomach complained, and he knew they would have to eat soon. Well, at least they were around several food sources.

Though it might be difficult to catch fish or rabbits with his bare hands. Then again, he looked at Layla, maybe not. She seemed like she would be quite a proficient huntress. He turned his gaze once more to the lighthouse perched high on the hill and felt his hopes swell just a bit. Now, there was nothing between the two of them but open space and a little bit of a walk. He set off at a quick pace, and Layla kept up easily as the rocky coastline finally gave way to wet grass and dirt. They drew closer to the treeline as they walked on.

John kept thinking of Yelena, worries and concerns about her filling his mind. Was she okay? Was she hurt? Was she alone or had she found other people? Were they friend or foe? Was she safe, wherever she was? He was so wound up thinking about her that he didn’t realize dark things were creeping out of the woods until Layla snapped out a warning at him. John twisted to face the treeline, drawing his blade, the sound loud in the relative quiet, and felt fear blossom within him as he spied half a dozen wolves.

Only they weren’t wolves, not normal ones, anyway.

Something was wrong with them.

Their gray fur had darkened in seemingly random patches with no discernible pattern to it, edging and shading towards black in several places. Their eyes were full of darkness and the saliva that dripped from their sneering, snarling muzzles was just as dark. They issued low, deep growls that raised all manner of alarm deep in him. He fought the urge to run for his life. Instead, he steadied himself, holding his blade with as sure a grasp as he could manage. Layla had drawn her new dagger and stood confidently beside him, dropping into a combat pose. Something was wrong with these wolves, that much was obvious, but he had never seen this form of…

Corruption.

They emanated evil. They reeked of it.

At once, the wolves began barking and snarling and sprinting towards them.

“Split up!” Layla snapped, and broke left.

John went right, knowing he was going to have to not only be really fucking careful, but extremely fast, resourceful, and decisive. There was one trick he’d picked up since leaving the north, something he’d been practicing, given how useful it was, and he used it. Motioning sharply at the wolf nearest to him with his palm flattened, he released a ball of flame. It was not as powerful, fast-moving, or large as he had hoped, but it had the desired effect, for the most part. It smacked the lead wolf right in the face and although it didn’t kill the thing, it at least distracted it. He listened to it whine and bark as it skidded to a halt, violently shaking its head and stumbling around.

The other two wolves that had come his way sprinted around it, their large paws beating the ground as they rushed forward. He drew back his blade, waiting for the perfect moment, and struck when it presented itself. The tip of the blade went into one of the corrupted wolf’s open mouth and punched out the back of its head in a spray of dark gore. It died instantly and went slack. John let it slip off the blade as he sidestepped, barely managing to avoid the third wolf’s attack as it lunged for him. It went past him and he used the opportunity to bring the blade up and around, twisting, whirling, and then chopping sharply downward as the wolf regained its feet behind him and made another lunge attack. It was a perfect moment, as far as combat moments went.

He chopped right through its neck and severed its head completely in one, smooth motion.

Before he could even appreciate that, he heard rapidly approaching feet over the sounds of Layla fighting her own battle and twisted back around while taking several steps back. The initial wolf he had hit in the face with the fireball had already recovered and was coming for him! He tried to slice at it as it leaped at him, but missed as he was forced to instead throw himself out of the way, narrowly dodging the dark, corrupted beast. He nearly lost his footing, and as he regained it, the creature made another lunge for him, insistent on his death.

John realized he didn’t have time to react and in that same instant, a dagger sailed from his right and plunged into the wolf’s ear, piercing its brain and killing it. It still smashed into him, but he managed to at least roll with the dead weight a little bit, falling on his ass but shifting it aside and sending it crashing to the ground. He managed to avoid getting bitten or scratched, at least. John grunted as a fresh wave of pain hit him as he landed on the ground. It was better than landing on the rocky shoreline, though.

He didn’t hear any further fighting.

Looking over as he quickly regained his feet yet again, he saw Layla walking towards him, three unmoving corpses behind her.

“Fuck, you’re good,” he said as he straightened up and popped his back.

“I’m fast,” she replied. “You’re quite good yourself. I saw that stab and decapitation. Very smooth. You’re a very capable fighter.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” he replied.

“I see.” She knelt and retrieved her dagger, wiping it off on the grass. John did the same with his sword. It was never a good idea to put a sword away bloody. Though he was curious as to just how resilient his own mysterious blade was.

“Where did you get that blade? What’s it made of?” Layla asked as he sheathed it.

“I found it clutched in the hand of a dead adventurer, sticking out from beneath a pile of caved-in rubble in the basement of an old fortress overlooking the ocean on the far, far northern end of the frozen regions in Veridis, during that town-building fiasco I mentioned earlier. As for what it’s made out of, I have no fucking idea. How it stayed with me through the shipwreck, I also don’t know. Honestly, I’m very curious myself. It has to be something special. That undead thing I told you about, in the mines? At first, before our mage managed to peel enough of its magical energy away, no weapons could harm it...save for this blade.”

“That’s so curious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blade so black before. It’s like...a starless, moonless night, or somewhere deep in the ocean trenches...it’s beautiful.”

“I do like it,” he agreed. “Come on, we should hurry up, before more of them come.”

Layla frowned and studied the corpses, then nodded slowly. “Yes. Let’s.”

They set off once more, hurrying a bit now as they reached the incline and began to go up, neither speaking for a few moments, lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, Layla said, “Have you ever seen anything like them before?”

“No. I haven’t,” he murmured.

“I haven’t, either. At first, I thought they might be undead, but they aren’t undead. That’s no regular illness, either. Those wolves weren’t diseased, at least not in the normal way. They were...”

“Corrupted.”

“Yes. But by what?”

“I have no idea. It doesn’t bode well for our stay here,” John murmured, and she grunted in response, falling back into silence.

They reached the top of the incline without incident and as they did, he was momentarily distracted by the view he had. It was much improved from everything else he had seen, so far, though he didn’t linger. There was another stretch of coastline ahead of him, more of the ocean to his right, and a vast forest to his left, taking up most of what he could see of the island. Not seeing anything immediately obvious, he moved over the lighthouse, spying a door near the back, at the base of the huge, towering monolith.

It was a good seventy feet tall, in decent condition, from what he saw on the outside.

“I’ll take the lead,” John said as he got to the door and pulled it open. Please, he thought desperately as he stepped inside and looked around the entryway, please let her be here…

The first floor was simple and empty, just a room the size of the lighthouse, its walls simple stone brick, chipped and worn with age but basically intact. A circular set of stairs curved upwards along the right wall, leading into the ceiling. John moved up them quickly, blade in hand. As he came to the second story, finding himself in what might once have been a bedroom, he thought he heard something overhead. He froze, as did Layla behind him, on the stairs, and waited, and listened. As he did, he studied the room.

Here was a bed, a squat dresser, a small chest, a table and a pair of chairs beside a window overlooking the vast ocean.

Finally, he could stand it no more.

“Yelena!?” he called.

A pause, and then, incredulous, “John!?”

CHAPTER III

A second later, footfalls, light and precise, could be heard from overhead. They came to the next set of curved stairs and John hurried to cross the room. Yelena appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing ripped and stained clothing, in her natural form, eyes wide and blazing, and then she raced down the stairs faster than he thought possible. Letting out a shriek of pure joy, she leaped at him. John dropped his blade and caught her, though her weight sent him crashing to the floor.

“John! Oh I thought I had lost you!” she cried and kissed him fiercely on the mouth. He kissed her back, holding her, crushing her against him, pulling her as close to him as he possibly could as emotions more powerful and overwhelming than any orgasm he had ever experienced flooded his body. When finally she pulled back and looked down at him, he saw tears in her eyes, and realized that he had them in his own as well.

“You’re okay,” he whispered. “You’re okay, Yelena. Oh my Gods, you’re okay.”

“Yes,” she said, smiling, beaming at him, a radiant beauty. “I am okay. As are you. Oh, John,” she whispered, and resumed hugging him.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, laying on the floor, merely holding each other, relief flooding their bodies. John had never been so relieved in his entire life. “I love you, Yelena. I love you. I love you,” he murmured again and again.

“I love you too, John. My sweet. I love you so much.”

Finally, he began to get ahold of himself once more, and so did Yelena, and he remembered that there was another person there with them, and that this might be uncomfortable. Although he had grown far from caring what most other people thought, Layla had been good to him so far, and she was at least a respected ally.

He looked over at her, finding that she’d retreated across the room and was sitting in a chair. “Hey, uh...sorry,” he said, chuckling awkwardly. “Yelena...this is Layla.”

“Hello, Layla,” Yelena said, slowly getting up. She helped pull John to his feet. “I believe I remember seeing you on the ship.”

“Yes. I was. Um, hi.” She stood up and looked actually quite nervous. “It’s...good to meet you.”

“Are you okay?” Yelena asked.

“I’m just-I’m great,” Layla replied.

“Oh! I apologize...my demon form...” she murmured, looking down at herself.

“Oh no, it’s not that. I mean, it’s not exactly that,” Layla replied. “John already told me what you were and I, you know, I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me.”

“Normally I wouldn’t just spill that secret, love, but under the circumstances, I wasn’t sure if we’d be walking into you in this form or not, and I didn’t want her to freak out,” John said.

“It is okay, my love,” Yelena replied. She returned her attention to Layla for a moment. “If it is not my form, then what-” She paused, sniffed the air lightly, then turned to look at John. She leaned in and sniffed again. “Oh,” she said, and smirked. “I smell her on you, love.” She looked back at Layla. “You have helped yourself to my lover.”

“I...yes,” Layla said. “I-he said it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Yelena laughed. “It isn’t. Not at all. I find it amusing that even in the direst times of our lives...you somehow managed to still get laid. Shipwrecked and half-drowned in the middle of the night during a rainstorm. Unless it happened this morning.”

“No, it was last night,” John replied, frustrated at how easily he apparently blushed even now, after all that had happened, but also still overwhelmingly happy that Yelena was around to tease him, “it just...happened. You know? We had to dry our clothes by the fire and...”

“I jumped him. He’s...very attractive,” Layla murmured.

“Oh yes, I know. I don’t blame you at all. I am pleased, actually. I imagine a lovemaking session under those stressful circumstances would have been exceptionally satisfying.”

“Oh it was,” Layla said. “It really was.”

“Yeah,” John agreed.

“Well, then I hope you will not begrudge me time for a similar pleasure...” Yelena said, looking intently, almost fiercely, at John.

“Oh no, go right ahead. Only...can I watch?” Layla asked. “It’s totally okay if the answer’s no, I’ll go elsewhere, I’ve just...never seen a demoness fuck before...”

“You may watch,” Yelena said with a smile, never taking her eyes from John, who found himself staring back at her, unable to look away. Now that he was back with her, and the love and relief had flowed through him, exploded, calmed…

Lust was taking its place, and he was never horny for a woman like he was horny for Yelena.

There was no one else in the whole of the world that could entice and invigorate him like Yelena could. She wasn’t just the love of his life, but the lust of his life, too. They stepped towards each other at the same time, held each other, and kissed. John kissed her long and deep, each tilting their head slightly in opposite directions to deepen the kiss, and he felt her wonderfully dexterous, amorphous, forked tongue slip into his mouth and tease and caress his own tongue. They both moaned in intense passion as they made out and touched each other, and soon their hands were wandering further, undressing each other.

They drifted closer to the bed as articles of clothing came off. Yelena was wearing the tattered remains of the brown traveling clothes she’d adopted. By the time they reached the bed, they were both nude, and Yelena pushed him down onto the old bed and mounted him easily. She straightened up and looked down at him.

“Oh my, what’s this?” she murmured, studying his shoulders. “Did you try to claim my mate, Layla?”

“No!” Layla replied quickly. “I just...it was really in the moment. I didn’t mean to.”

Yelena laughed again. “Layla, you must relax! I am only teasing.”

“She enjoys teasing,” John murmured, reaching up and cupping her firm breasts in his hands.

“Yes...I apologize, Layla.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, relaxing.

Yelena resumed kissing him as she finished settling atop him, and as they made out, she reached down between them and wrapped her fingers around his cock. Raising herself, she lined it up with her perfect demoness pussy, and then lowered herself. Slowly, she took him into her, and they both groaned in sexual unity.

Inside. He was inside of her again.

It had been less than a day since they’d last made love and yet, somehow, it felt like it had been a week, a month, some incalculable, intolerable amount of time. She felt perfect. Not just her pussy, her phenomenal demoness vagina, but everything about her. The way she articulated herself against him, the way she moved her body against his, her lips against his, her tongue against his. The feel of her skin, hot and soft. The look in her fiery eyes. The passion he felt in every breath, every movement, every second of their interaction. The love. The undying love he felt for her and from her. John felt like he knew the love the famous poets and writers had written of across time as he reconnected with Yelena on that bed in a forgotten lighthouse on a rainy island.

At some point, he gripped her and then flipped her over. She let out a happy cry and then put her hooves in the air, spreading her legs and screaming as he began to drive into her, pounding her brains out as he fucked her.

“Yes, my love! Yes! GIVE IT TO ME!” she screamed.

“I love you, Yelena,” he moaned, kissing her as he screwed her, forcing himself deep and hard into her insanely hot, wet pussy again and again. “I love you!”

“John, I love you so much!” she shrieked. She opened her mouth to say something else but it was lost to the orgasm that suddenly blossomed within her. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to orgasm along with her, so that’s exactly what he did. He began thrusting furiously into Yelena, fucking her brains out and making her scream and make quite the mess as she squirted, and then he was shooting his load into her, his own orgasm exploding inside of him. They were linked together in a perfect, loving harmony of mutual, shared orgasmic bliss, each giving the other intense pleasure, magnified by their emotional reunion.

He kissed her hard and passionately on the mouth, holding her to him, hugging her tightly against him as he came inside of her, spilling his seed within her wonderful demoness pussy, and she screamed into the kiss, hugging him back just as fiercely, legs wrapped around him as they orgasmed together. And it was possibly the best sex he’d ever had.

Or at least, in that moment, it felt that way.

When they were finished, they were left gasping and sweat-soaked, still holding each other, staring into each other’s eyes.

For several seconds, the only sound was their panting and the rain and the ocean nearby. Then Layla said, “Holy fucking shit, that’s the hottest sex I’ve ever seen in my life.”

They both looked over at her. She was sitting on a chair, staring at them with wide eyes, her tail swishing back and forth furiously behind her. “I mean, I’ve seen a lot of sex, and had a lot of sex, but that was just...I’ve even seen a succubus fuck, and this was hotter. Like...holy shit, Yelena, you are just...amazing!”

“Thank you,” Yelena replied. He looked down at her. She was practically glowing with happiness and radiant sexual energy.

Layla was panting now. “Would it be...too much to ask...” she murmured, hesitating.

“It would be cruel of me to say no, after that display. John?” she asked.

“You want to fuck again?” he replied, looking over at Layla.

She shot to her feet. “Yes. Please. I want to fuck so badly right now.”

“Okay, can we do it doggystyle? Because I really want to fuck you from behind.”

“Yes,” she replied immediately, and began shedding what little clothing she wore.

“This will work for me, as I do not wish to move. You can be on your hands and knees above me, and, if you wish, you may kiss me, or lick my breasts.”

“I would love that,” Layla replied. She finished undressing. John pulled out, still rock-hard and horny as fuck, and got onto his knees by Yelena’s feet. Layla hastily climbed atop her and got into position, bent over on her hands and knees, showing him her fantastically fit ass and beautiful pussy. He quickly got up against her, eager to be back inside of another woman, and slid his cock slowly into her slick vagina.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered, grabbing her hips and starting to fuck her slowly and smoothly, working his way nice and easy into her.

“Oh! Yes!” she cried with intense passion. “Oh, that’s what I needed! Don’t fucking hold back!” she begged.

“You got it,” he replied, and smacked her ass, then gripped her hips more tightly and started hammering away at that sweet, wet pussy of hers.

She let out another shriek of absolute pleasure and dipped her head towards Yelena. He just barely could lean to the side and catch sight of the two women locking lips. Fuck, Yelena knew how to kiss. She looked so absurdly erotic and sexy whenever she was making out with another woman. Layla moaned with intense passion as she kissed his lover and took his cock. He looked down at her ass, at his cock disappearing into her again and again, at her tail and all her soft fur. He reached up and gripped the base of her tail.

“OH!” she shrieked, breaking the kiss.

“Oh my, what did you do?” Yelena murmured.

“I grabbed her tail,” John replied.

“Oh yes, that would do it. Oh, and, for future reference, only John touches my tail...are we clear, Layla?” Yelena asked, looking up at her with her mellow, postsex gaze.

“Yes! Crystal clear! OH MY FUCKING GOD, JOHN! I’M GOING TO COME!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

He only had to pound her for another thirty seconds or so before she made good on that statement and started orgasming all over his cock. He groaned, feeling another sweet, hot release of feminine sex juices getting all over his stomach, inner thighs, dick, and balls. It was too much for him. He thought he could hold on, but honestly, he didn’t even want to. He wanted to come again, wanted that sweet, perfect release of a unified orgasm, and so he began to come inside of her, climaxing along with her, their voices crying out and moaning, joining to make a duet of stunning, blinding pleasure. He came into Layla for a second time and felt her thrashing and twitching against him, all her wonderfully warm, soft fur, listening to her voice as she called out.

And then he was done, and he slowly came back to himself.

When he opened his eyes and propped himself up, John felt a lot clearer. Though this had the unfortunate side effect of becoming more aware of his pain from his various cuts, scrapes, and bruises. He looked at Yelena. “Would you mind healing us, babe?”

“I can do that,” she replied, smiling up at him. “For both of you. Hold still.”

He looked down and saw Yelena’s hands come up from beneath Layla’s body. They settled on her ass and she squeezed. As she did, there was a bright white flash that briefly engulfed Layla’s entire body. As it faded, she let out a loud groan. “Oh my Gods that’s almost better than the fucking orgasm. Thank you,” she said.

“You’re very welcome. Now...” John shifted, pulling out of Layla, but before he could move any further, Yelena reached out and grabbed his cock. She hit him with a healing spell and he groaned as a wave of hot bliss, emanating from his crotch, filled his whole body. He had to admit, he’d never had a healing spell administered through his dick before, but he knew immediately what Layla meant about how good it felt. All of his hurts disappeared, the pain in his head, on his cheek, his shoulders, his limbs, all across his aching body.

He felt revitalized by the time she was finished.

“You had a nasty cut on your face,” she said after she let go of him.

“Oh, yeah...that’s my fault, too,” Layla murmured.

“She attacked me when we first met,” John said as he slowly got to his feet and stretched.

Yelena laughed loudly. “With a knife?”

“With my claws,” Layla admitted sheepishly.

“Oh dear...that is exactly what happened the first time I met him! Though with a knife. I put it to his throat,” she said.

“I’m glad you find that so amusing, love,” John said. He popped his neck and groaned at how good it felt. Then he slowly began pulling his clothes back on.

“How did you two meet? I’m deeply curious. I’ve never met a...a demon before. I mean, besides a succubus.”

“Most people haven’t,” Yelena said. “Well, it’s a very long story, but here is the short version. I had a taste for those of this realm, you could say, so I would pop over here every now and then for some fun. This time, however, when I popped over, I was attacked and left wounded. I would likely have died had John not found me in the forest outside of his cabin. He saved me, carried me back to his cabin while I was unconscious. I was wary, but he was very kind, and patient, and communicative, and trusting. He allowed me shelter while I regained enough magical energy to return home. I felt...indebted to him, and deeply aroused by his presence, so I jumped him and we had some of the best sex of my life. And then we did it again, and again, and several more times, and eventually...I did not want to go home. I did not want to leave this world, nor John’s side. I realized that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life.”

“You fell in love,” Layla murmured.

Yelena smiled broadly. “Yes. I had never been in love before. It was the most wonderful feeling I have ever felt. And so we began working on ways to hide my presence from the general population. First, we sought isolation in the Emerald Wild, and a magical amulet that would alter my appearance. That worked for a time, but ultimately my former demon compatriots came after me, certain that I was...mentally ill, for falling in love with a human. First they wanted to take me back and ‘fix’ me, then they just wanted to kill me. We fled, ultimately dealt with the problem, and I decided to learn how to shape-shift.”

“Which is how we ended up in the north,” John said. “We lived with a dragoness for six months.”

“A dragoness...Kesley?” Layla asked.

“Yes! You know her?” Yelena replied.

“No. I know of her, through Morgan. John told me that you two met Morgan. She’s one of my best friends,” Layla answered.

“That’s so interesting! I wonder who else we have in common,” she murmured.

“I’d love to continue this conversation, but...we really should talk about what we’re actually going to do to get off this island,” John said. “Because we need to leave as quickly as possible.”

“Why? I mean, besides the obvious reason that we are shipwrecked here,” Yelena asked.

“You didn’t encounter anything on the way here?” John replied. She shook her head. “We had to fight off a pack of wolves that had been corrupted by...something. I don’t know what. It wasn’t necromancy, from what I could see, and it resembled no illness that I’ve ever heard of or encountered before.”

Yelena was frowning deeply. “I know much magic, and much about corruption...take me to these wolves,” she replied after a moment.

“All right,” John said.

The two women got up off the bed and began getting dressed.

…

Although they didn’t speak as they headed back outside, John took Yelena’s hand, and neither seemed willing to let go of the other. They made their way down the hill, back to the site of the battle, wary of anything else that might come and attack them. There didn’t seem to be anything. John studied Yelena as they walked to the bodies. She had on some simple traveling clothes that were clearly in poor condition, and she carried a basic short sword. None of it was hers, and he wondered where she’d managed to find it.

Yelena made an unhappy noise as they got to the nearest wolf corpse. She drew her blade and crouched. Carefully, she prodded the body, studying it closely, then leaned in a bit and sniffed a few times. Her tail twitched.

“Evil,” she murmured. “It is definitely of evil. It is no sickness, though. Or none that I have ever seen. This strikes me more as a corruption as a result of magical exposure than an illness, though perhaps there is little to differentiate the two.”

“Are you saying this could happen to us?” Layla asked.

“It’s very possible. We have no idea what caused this, and although I do not think we are in any immediate danger, I do sense a very low-level presence of evil, and have ever since I came onto the island,” Yelena replied.

“Great,” John muttered. “Now we’ve got this shit to deal with.” He heaved a weary sigh, though it still didn’t break his good cheer at being reunited with Yelena. “What now?”

“I was just going to get a better view of the area. We should do that, go to the top of that tower, and see what there is to be seen, then decide what to do from there. Our primary goal must be to secure transport off this island, and find other survivors if at all possible. Though...” she frowned, looking back out at the ocean, “I find that unlikely.”

“Why?” Layla asked.

“From what I saw, the wreck was very bad, and most people were still within the ship’s hold when it went down. I have been keeping a lookout for other survivors, but so far, I have seen none,” she explained.

“That’s awful,” John murmured.

“Yes. It is.”

They reached the lighthouse again, entered it, and began to ascend. “So what happened to you?” he asked.

“I was thrown free of the boat during all the commotion and I was injured badly. I was cut across the stomach and my leg was fractured. I used up most of my magic and my energy repairing myself, and then looking for you, but when I saw the island, after a little while, I knew that if I did not swim to shore, I would drown. So I did, praying to whomever might listen that you would make it there as well. There was a small structure not far from where I made landfall. I was confused, exhausted, and demoralized, and I knew that I needed to sleep, or I risked passing out where I stood. So I slept. When morning came, I searched the shack and up and down the beach for supplies and survivors. Finally, I made my way to this structure. I thought it might serve as a good visual marker, given its size and height, and that you might think the same thing.”

“I did,” he said, and she smiled.

“I’m very glad. I came here and searched it. This is is where I found newer clothes and a blade. Though I see you retained your own,” she replied, glancing at his sword.

“Yeah. I don’t know how. Damned miracle,” he said.

“It is most fortunate. When I was initially scouting in the morning, the only thing of note that I saw was a trail in the woods farther down the beach. It looked overgrown, but deliberate,” Yelena replied as they marched up the stairs.

“Have you searched this structure?” Layla asked.

“Thoroughly. Unfortunately, this was all I could find.”

“Hmm.”

They reached the top a moment later and crawled onto the roof of the lighthouse. The view was even more awe-inspiring than before. He took it all in as he studied their surroundings, now given a much better view of the island. A few things stuck out among all the greenery. The first, off to the left, further inland, was the mountain, and perched on it was a building. It looked like a mansion, and he was reminded, uncomfortably, of the mansion he and Yelena had tracked the necromancers not long after they had met. Directly ahead of them, he did indeed see the path Yelena had mentioned, as well as another string of rickety fishing shacks. Maybe a mile or so into the thick forest the path cut into, he saw a clearing with a few structures. Even further beyond that, maybe another two or three miles off, out of the woods and up the coast, he saw what looked like a village, though it was impossible to tell if there were any people in it from this distance.

Behind them, past the shack he’d spent the night in, was a bay, the ocean cutting into the island and then giving way to ground again farther on. Mostly, he just saw trees and more trees, and perhaps a few other clearings, but the poor weather made it hard to tell.

“I say we make for that village,” Yelena said. “And we should investigate those structures on the path there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Layla said.

“Yeah,” John agreed.

“Hey...” Layla said as they began heading back downstairs.

“Yes?” Yelena asked, turning back.

“So, John mentioned you can shape-shift. Can you like...turn into a giant bird or a dragon or something and just fly us there?”

Yelena smiled. “I am afraid not. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps someday. As it is, I am still gaining my strength back. I don’t think I could shape-shift right now, at least not for very long.”

“Shit, I hope we don’t run into anyone,” he muttered.

Yelena sighed. “Yes, I had considered that. We may do well to find a hooded cloak. I wish I had not lost my amulet.”

“I’m sorry, babe,” John said.

“It is okay. In honesty, I did not like it. I feel it had come to represent the negative aspects of life here in your world. I was planning to destroy it once we reached Kindress.”

“I’m sorry you missed the chance.”

“As am I.”

They continued walking back down through the lighthouse.

CHAPTER IV

Now that he actually had Yelena back with him and he knew that she was safe, and his wounds had been healed, John realized that Yelena had a point: there was something evil about the island. Almost as though it permeated on the air itself. He realized that at first it must have been lost in the sea of anxiety, terror, and frustration that had plagued him ever since waking up on the shore. Now that the worst of those emotions had faded away in the face of Yelena’s radiant love, he could feel it. And he couldn’t even confuse it with anxiety over the fact that he was shipwrecked. Honestly, John knew that he was pretty damned self-sufficient, at least in terms of sheer survival. So long as he had Yelena, he felt confident he could take on just about anything.

Plus, well…

He glanced at the two women walking down the other side of the hill with him, heading towards the path into the forest.

There were way worse people to be shipwrecked on an island with than the love of your life and a smoking hot, highly sexual felis adventuress.

So honestly, he wasn’t that worried about being shipwrecked. They’d find a way off the island, almost certainly, even if they had to build a boat. Between the three of them, he felt confident they could figure something out. So it wasn’t that. No, the bad feeling was definitely closer to ugly vibes he sometimes got when passing by a haunted or cursed location, like the very air itself was trying to warn him off.

Only there was nowhere else to go.

“So, I don’t suppose either of you, for some reason, any reason, might have some kind of knowledge about this island or this region of the ocean, or anything?” he asked as they finished coming down the hill and began passing by the shacks Yelena had already searched.

“I know nothing of this region,” Yelena said.

“Yeah, pretty much same,” Layla said.

“I figured. I got nothing. I didn’t even know we were passing by any islands. Good luck, I guess, given what happened.”

For a few more minutes, nobody spoke. Then Yelena decided to try and get to know Layla better. It was interesting, seeing Layla interacting with Yelena. Before she’d entered the picture, Layla had been the picture of a brash, bold adventuress, and yet she seemed fairly intimidated by Yelena. He didn’t blame her, Yelena was quite intimidating, even when she didn’t want to be, and not just because she was a demoness, but he thought was interesting. Okay, and a little amusing. They were an interesting pair.

“So...tell me about yourself, Layla. I imagine John told you the story of how we met.”

“Oh yes, he did. It was very interesting. As for me? There isn’t all that much to tell, based on all the people I imagine you two have been hanging around. Grew up in a little village back in Veridis. Eventually got tired of that after some shitty relationships, decided to hit the road and see what the world had to offer. Went a lot of cool places, made a lot of cool friends, and fucked them, and did a lot of crazy shit. Basic adventurer stuff.”

“Surely there’s more to it than that,” Yelena said.

“I mean, yeah. There’s great fights and amazing sex and funny stories and...heartbreak in there,” she murmured.

“If you don’t want to talk about yourself, I will accept that,” Yelena said.

“Right now, I think I don’t want to,” she replied.

“Okay then. I am sorry I asked, I did not mean any disrespect.”

“No, it’s fine. You and John are really nice, actually. Really respectful. It’s very appreciated. I just...have gone through some shit, and I’ve got trust issues. And being in a shipwreck really rattled me. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to work together with you two. You both seem pretty competent based off the little I’ve seen so far. You get so that you can size someone up pretty quickly, though I imagine both of you are like that by now.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” John replied, and Yelena nodded.

“I am learning,” she said.

“Learning...yeah, I guess you’d have to learn a lot. John said you just...up and left your life, like a year ago. I mean...what was that like?”

“Very jarring, at first. I was very frightened at the start, when I initially made the decision. But John...helped more than I will ever be able to tell him, or anyone. His patience and loving kindness, his willingness to explain every little thing I wanted or needed to know to me until I understood it, his...endurance, you could say, for my difficulties, was beyond a blessing. And continues to be,” she said, smiling at him.

“That’s amazing...what was the hardest thing to get used to?” Layla asked.

“Honestly? Trust. In my world, trust...it does not truly exist. Everyone you meet, in my experience, at least, will sell you out if it suits them. They will turn on you, given enough time. Perhaps it will be a month, perhaps a century. Before I came to this world, I had never had an act of real kindness bestowed upon me, and before I met John, I did not even believe it was possible that someone would do something for me...just to see me smile. Just to make me happy. And now that is my everyday reality. Because of John, but also, through him, I have met so many wonderful people. Friendly, liberated, fun, respectful people who wanted to be my friend with no ulterior motives. And that...that is just far more amazing than I could have truly conceived of before now,” Yelena explained.

“It is,” Layla murmured. “Trust is...difficult. But when you share it with someone, that’s one of the best and truest feelings in the world.”

John looked at her. An awful melancholy, almost a mourning tone, entered her voice as she said it. Again, he found himself wondering what pain she had gone through. That was one of the drawbacks of being an adventurer. When you chose to live this life, everything tended to be bigger. The highs were higher, but the lows...could be so low. Devastating blows, heartbreaking separation, and gutwrenching tragedies were far more common.

You didn’t just collect physical scars.

And it was tough, because not all adventurers were like Fiona or Lydia or Morgan. Some were selfish, deceitful, cruel. Some were opportunistic liars who would fuck you over the moment it served them, and some seemed to thrive on cruelty.

So what had happened to Layla? Obviously it was painful, and perhaps recent. She seemed to indicate that she was fleeing it, perhaps not the incident itself, but the emotional toll it extracted from her. Maybe they could help her. He thought that he and Yelena had helped Fiona greatly, and certainly they’d helped Ruby and Ara. Or maybe she didn’t want to be helped, or they couldn’t help her. He supposed that it wouldn’t matter all that much if they didn’t find a way off the island. John tensed up slightly as they entered the forest.

The rocky coastline quickly disappeared from sight, and the trees pushed in all around them as the path narrowed significantly. As the minutes began to pass in muted tension, John started to truly feel his lack of armor and equipment. He didn’t draw his blade from its sheath, but he kept wanting to. There was something ominous about the forest, about the whole island itself, perhaps. Even the sky overhead seemed somehow vaguely threatening. From the way Yelena and Layla held themselves and moved, he could tell they were picking up on it as well. Probably more than he was, given they both had better senses.

If it hadn’t been for those corrupted wolves, John would have passed the feeling off as paranoia in the wake of a traumatizing shipwreck. But there was definitely something wrong with this island. He found himself scanning to the left and right again and again, looking into the trees and underbrush, checking to see if anything lurked. Something that occurred to him was that there didn’t seem to be any animals around. No birds chattering in the trees, no field mice or squirrels or rabbits scurrying through the underbrush, no deer or goats grazing. It was unnaturally still and quiet, and that sent a fright through him. He remembered learning that just before a terrible storm, or a tornado, everything grew completely silent, as if nature itself was holding its breath in anticipation of the horrific blow that was to be delivered.

What awaited them?

The feeling of being watched that he and Layla had first noticed on the shore had, at some point since leaving the lighthouse, returned. And now it was stronger than ever. John tried to keep track of time but found it difficult as they walked the path. Finally, after what might have been a quarter hour, something happened to break the awful tension that haunted them in the gentle rain. A smaller path led off the main one, into a little clearing not far away, and there resided a cabin. The trio stopped at where the smaller path broke away.

“Should we investigate?” Yelena murmured softly.

“Yes,” John replied, and set off towards it. He wanted something to distract him.

The cabin was obviously long abandoned, its windows broken, front wall covered in creeping vines, yard overgrown with months or even years of unchecked foliage. The trio crept through it, moving among the chest-high plants that had sprouted up in some areas, and kept an eye out for anything that might be lurking. He trusted Yelena’s and Layla’s sharpened senses to let them know if anything was laying in wait. He didn’t sense anything specifically, but there were still a shitload of things in the world that could effectively hide from him. As he approached the front door, John drew his blade.

It was loud in the rain-dampened silence.

He pushed the door open. It creaked ominously, even louder in the silence, making him wince. But nothing happened. John cautiously stepped beyond the threshold after spying nothing threatening inside. The place looked like it hadn’t been touched in a very long time, after being abandoned at some point, possibly years ago. All the furniture was corroded by time and weather. John quickly and quietly checked any potential hiding places, but the cabin was as abandoned as it appeared. “It’s clear,” he called, and the others joined him.

Layla ended up keeping watch at the front door while he and Yelena performed a more thorough search. Despite the tension and foreboding of the situation, John found it difficult to keep his hands and eyes off of Yelena. He touched her in passing several times, and she did the same to him, often with the tip of her tail. She loved to tease him with it, even now. It was good that she was around, because the cabin yielded little. They found a few glass bottles and clothes, an old bar of soap, an old bedroll and blanket, and a backpack that Yelena took.

“Well, that was disappointing,” John murmured as they all headed back out into the rain.

“Could have been worse,” Layla replied.

“At least we found something,” Yelena agreed. She sighed and looked into the sky as they got back onto the main path. “I like the rain, but honestly I wouldn’t mind clear skies right now.”

“Same,” John muttered.

They kept walking for another ten minutes before Yelena and Layla froze at almost the same time. A second or two later, John felt it, too: the sense of being stalked was nearly overwhelming. He settled his hand on the hilt of his blade, wanting badly to draw his sword again, but settled for fervently searching the trees.

“We are being hunted,” Yelena said, her voice so soft he almost couldn’t hear her.

“Where?” Layla whispered.

“I do not know. Nearby, I think. But...” she hesitated, then sighed softly, her tail twitching. “Who or whatever it is, they are good. The last time I encountered someone sneaking up on me anywhere close to this effectively, it was a dryad.”

John felt a brief shot of hope hit him. A dryad? So far they’d had nothing but positive interactions with dryads. So running into one right now would be a good thing…

Right?

Ultimately, they kept moving, because standing there in the rain wasn’t helping the situation in any capacity. The feeling of being hunted didn’t abate. If anything, it grew stronger. Before long, John began to see something through the trees, and then the path turned and let into a clearing with a handful of structures that he couldn’t immediately identify from a distance. They slowly drew closer, the tension only getting worse and worse, like an invisible poison gas in the air or the buildup of pressure before a horrific sea storm.

Finally, they reached the perimeter of the overgrown clearing.

“What is this place?” Yelena whispered.

“A logging camp,” John replied.

“What purpose does it serve?” she murmured, scrutinizing the derelict buildings that sat ahead of them, on either side of the path that cut through the camp proper.

“They chop down trees and convert them to building materials for structures,” John replied.

“Oh. I see. That makes sense.”

“It looks abandoned,” Layla said softly.

“Like everything else so far.”

“We should investigate...carefully,” Yelena said.

John nodded, and they set off again. Each of them drew their weapons. Layla sighed softly at her dagger. “I need something more effective.”

“We will find you a weapon as soon as we can,” Yelena replied.

He took in the logging camp as they slowly walked into it, moving down the central path, checking for traps or creatures or any signs of life, really. The main structure, what must have served as an office, and a long, low bunkhouse sat to the right, whereas the chopping and wood-storage areas all sat to the left. The stores, little more than poles supporting thin roofs, were all empty, no doubt tapped by whoever might have been trying to survive on this island before them. All the equipment they saw, the saws and axes and other things, were covered in rust. It looked like the place hadn’t seen any real activity for years.

The bunkhouse and main office had suffered mightily beneath the harsh reign of the elements. Most of the windows were broken out and the doors were long since kicked in. It looked like one section of the bunkhouse roof had caved in. As they came to stand near the center of the small logging camp, John began thinking about the best way to perform a search of the area. And that was when it happened.

“Movement!” Yelena snapped as she jerked to the left, towards the empty stores.

John and Layla were only a split second behind her in reacting, and what he saw stole the breath from his lungs and the heat from his body.

It was a dryad.

A corrupted dryad.

The nearly seven-foot creature had become a twisted caricature of the beautiful, elegant attendants of nature that he had gotten to know over the past year or so. This thing was gnarled and twisted and had patches of darkness at random intervals across its flesh. It opened its mouth and issued a gutwrenching shriek as it began sprinting for them with a terrifying speed, bursting out of the trees and dense foliage like a force of nature.

“What the fuck!?” Layla screamed in pure shocked horror as it rushed at them.

And then it was among them, and there was no time to talk.

John got knocked off his feet right away as he took a swing at it and the thing backhanded him with a cruel ease. His feet left the ground and he landed on his back several feet away, pain blasting through his body as the breath burst from his lungs. He heard Yelena snarl and felt a wave of heat, followed immediately by a piercing shriek of maddened rage. Struggling to his feet, gasping for breath, he saw that she’d managed to hit it with a fireball. Apparently it was either a very powerful one or a very well-placed one, or, knowing Yelena, both, because it had taken the thing’s left arm cleanly off. Maybe they’d have a chance at this.

Then it punched Yelena in the gut hard enough that she was picked up and thrown just as John was.

“Yelena!” he roared, and charged at the creature.

It twisted to face him and he saw Layla putting herself behind it. He rushed at it and ducked its remaining arm as it took another swing at him. It was off-balance, but this thing was clearly fucking powerful. He sliced at its arm as he leaped back, just barely managing to avoid it while also slashing at its skin and cutting it. He managed to cut it a second time, drawing green-black blood, and then it got in a glancing blow that sent him stumbling. That was when Layla made her move, leaping onto its back with an adept dexterity. She quickly began stabbing it in the chest, plunging the blade into the horrible thing as many times as she could.

The dryad shrieked madly once more, then grabbed Layla’s arm around its neck, broke her hold, and then threw her bodily up over its head, towards John. He did his best to catch her, but all he could really do was put himself in front of her, which was probably a stupid idea. Both of them went down in shouts of pain, and then he heard Yelena shouting again, giving another warcry as she charged the corrupted dryad. He and Layla untangled themselves, grabbed their weapons, and managed to get up again in time to see the creature raise its hand and launch what, for the life of him, appeared to be a sharpened piece of wood.

It clipped Yelena’s cheek, drawing blood, and then it launched another. This one caught her in the gut and she was briefly stopped dead in her tracks.

“Fuck!” John snapped, surging forward again. The creature snapped towards him and Layla and began launching more of the awful tiny wooden spears out of its hand. So this fucker had access to magic, just like regular dryads! This was definitely going to be a challenge. He managed to deflect two of them with his blade, and then another cut through the fabric of his shirt and sliced open his right bicep. He yelled, using the pain as a boost of furious energy, and took the last two steps between them, then drove his blade into its belly.

The dryad let out a furious scream that nearly blew out his eardrums, then kicked him. Yet again he went sailing through the air, this time without his blade. John landed with a grunt, rolled a few times, and shot to his feet, high on battle lust by now. He saw that Layla had engaged it and Yelena had regained her feet. She brought her blade around in a tight arc right as the thing kicked Layla’s feet out from under her and sent her sprawling, then it snapped around and raised its arms. Yelena’s blade bounced right off of it, as apparently it had hardened its flesh.

Fuck, what else could it do!?

They had to kill it, because it seemed like the longer they fought it, the more it adapted to them. Yelena shoved her palm forward and released another fireball, this one not nearly as powerful, but it still punched the thing in its chest and sent it stumbling back a few feet. Unfortunately, with all the rain, the fire just wouldn’t catch. But as he saw Yelena rush it again, John realized that it was slowing down. They were finally starting to do some real damage. Although now he had no weapon. He could see his sword sticking out of its gut.

Layla and Yelena rushed forward at the same time suddenly, and he hurried to join them.

Yelena chopped at the creature with her sword. It raised its arm and her blade bounced off. At almost the same moment, Layla leaped forward and stabbed it through the eye. Everything went silent the instant she did that. The dryad went rigid, becoming as still as a statue, and the three of them prepared themselves for another assault.

Then it slumped to the ground.

“Okay,” John said as he walked forward and grabbed his sword, which was sticking hilt-up out of its gut, “fuck ever doing that again.” He ripped the blade out in a spray of corrupted gore.

“Yes,” Yelena whispered. “Good move, Layla.”

“Uh-huh,” Layla managed, breathing heavily as she stared at the corpse. Finally, after several seconds, she seemed to come back to herself and moved forward, then retrieved the dagger from the thing’s eye.

“By the Gods that was terrifying,” John muttered. “I remember...remember thinking, you know, so many times, I never, ever, ever wanted to fight a dryad.”

Yelena looked around suddenly. “We must hurry, these woods are not safe.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” John growled, looking around. “Fuck!” he hissed.

Yelena placed her hands over her stomach and released a wave of healing magic. That seemed to get Layla’s attention and break her out of the shock that had settled over her. She and John moved over towards Yelena as she finished healing herself. They kept a sharp watch out as she gathered up more magic and took the bare minimum time to heal both of them of their more immediate wounds. John sighed softly in relief as the worst of the pain drained away. From there, they hurried over to the main office and entered the structure.

The next several minutes were spent in furtive, though almost frantic searching. Dark thoughts began to infest John’s mind as he hunted beneath furniture and in the drawers of abandoned desks and looked for hidden compartments. What had happened on this miserable little island? It was clearly terrible and lethal, whatever the fuck it was. Could it be some kind of curse? It was possible, he supposed, but he’d never seen a curse like this. Then again, he’d spent his entire life in one land, and although he had heard of the stranger things in other lands, he knew that he probably didn’t even know a tenth of a tenth of a tenth of what was out there. The world was a massive place, and all sorts of insane things could be hidden, locked away in the more remote, isolated regions. Or on islands, just like this one.

Maybe it was some kind of sickness. It sure seemed like one. Could they catch it? Could they be infected by it? Now all three of them had been physically attacked by corrupted beings. He supposed that if they could, they would now. He tried to push the thoughts away and focus on the task at hand. Whatever it was, what mattered was escaping this island. If this thing could infect dryads, the Gods alone probably knew what else was lurking among the trees. He suddenly had a vision of a corrupted serpentine, and that made him search faster and harder. He wanted to fight a serpentine even less than he’d wanted to fight a dryad.

Unfortunately, their furtive hunt garnered nothing. It seemed as if this place had been thoroughly cleared out as well. Frustrated, though relieved to be finished of their search, the trio hustled back outside and, after confirming nothing else was lurking in the immediate area, (at least as much as they could confirm such a thing), they moved on.

…

“Stop,” Yelena said softly, and John and Layla froze instantly.

They had walked for another twenty minutes before finally getting to see the edge of the forest. He could see the village now, as the forest let out on its outskirts. There was maybe a hundred feet between the forest’s edge and the village proper. It didn’t seem too large. He waited, straining his ears to hear whatever it was that Yelena had heard.

“What?” Layla whispered finally.

“I thought I heard someone shout...”

They waited a bit longer, and then he heard it: it was indeed a shout. What sounded like a man, yelling in pain, followed by a woman’s yell.

“It could be survivors!” Yelena said as she took off running.

John and Layla hurried after her. If they could find more survivors from the shipwreck, it could be helpful. But, he glanced uncertainly at Yelena, it could be deadly.

“Yelena, maybe you should hang back,” John said, catching up to her.

“No, if this island is as dangerous as it appears to be, you will need me. But...” she hesitated, “I will keep out of sight, at first.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It is not your fault, my love.”

They ran on, heading down an overgrown path that led into the village. It seemed to be a relatively straightforward setup, just two rows of structures built to either side of the path that cut through the town, parallel to the ocean. There was definitely shouting, and he heard the distinct sound of fireballs being thrown around. Whatever it was, the battle must be fierce. Or confused. He tried to figure at least some of it out as he and the others headed into the village. He heard several phrases in his own language, several different voices, mostly male, and the battle seemed to be getting closer. It was beyond the other side of the village.

As they were heading down the main street, a figure suddenly appeared, running from around one of the buildings. A pair of fireballs chased them, narrowly missing. The figure wore a dark cloak of black and red with the hood up, and within the hood, John spotted a pale face that might have been a female elf. Two more figures suddenly appeared behind her as she absolutely booked it down the road. They also wore dark cloaks, similar to her own.

What the fuck was happening here?

Yelena slipped off in between two of the buildings as the figures appeared.

“What are we doing?” Layla asked, skidding to a halt uncertainly.

“I think-” More figures appeared, some brandishing swords, some crossbows. They were all coming after her. Fuck, wasn’t that kind of overkill?! One hurled a fireball at her. It hit the ground at her feet with enough power that it picked her up and threw her into the side of a nearby building. She cried out, then hit the ground and didn’t move.

Shit.

John was still trying to figure out what the fuck to do when one of them spotted him and Layla, shouted a warning, and then they all immediately opened up with fireballs and crossbow bolts. John cried out and narrowly dodged a fireball.

“That answers that question!” Layla screamed, and took off, sprinting towards them.

“Yelena!” John called, and he ran forward with his midnight blade.

It looked like they had another fight on their hands.

CHAPTER V

It was chaos.

John dodged several fireballs as he sprinted down the street, moving as fast as he possibly could. They had to end this battle quickly, because none of them had any kind of armor. Even as he thought that, he was winged by one of the metal crossbow bolts. Hissing in pain, he suddenly saw a pair of small but high-speed fireballs zip through the air from behind him. They nailed the two densest clusters of enemies, there were close to a dozen of them, so hard that several of them were knocked to their feet, and several more were briefly lit aflame.

Though the rain helped put them out, unfortunately.

It did at least give John and Layla time enough to cross the distance between them. They put themselves between the attackers and the woman who was fleeing, who was not getting up. Fuck, he hoped she wasn’t dead. Some answers of what in the fuck was going on would be great. He took a few quick steps forward and plunged his blade into the belly of the nearest assailant. The man screamed and staggered backwards as John ripped the blade back out in a spray of blood. He ducked as another enemy tried to take his head off, then drove his elbow up into the man’s nose. A sharp crack sounded and the man staggered away, screaming furiously.

He saw Layla narrowly dodge someone’s blade, grip the man’s wrist, then bring her elbow down on the man’s forearm. It snapped and he released the blade with a wild shriek of agony. She snatched it out of the air, twisted and slit his throat, then kicked him in the chest and sent him flying back into several others, knocking them over. One of the crossbow wielders managed to shoot John in the thigh and he let out a bark of pain as he got his sword up just in time to deflect a fireball coming his way. He began moving among the men, dodging as well as he could. All that training and working out over the very, very long winter at Kesley’s was really paying off.

He dodged another bolt, ducked under another fireball, and then brought his midnight blade down in a sharp motion, chopping a man’s arm off at the elbow in a spray of blood. He heard Yelena growling somewhere nearby and knew she had entered the fray. Man, these guys were fucking screwed. He was good, Layla was clearly great, but Yelena?

She was a fucking force of nature.

Someone managed to slice his arm open at the bicep and he gritted his teeth and pushed past the pain, driving his blade through his latest opponent’s throat. As he ripped it out, someone ran for him, blade raised high, and John suddenly thrust his palm at the man’s face. A fireball flew from his hand and took the man’s head clean off, and John blinked in surprise. He didn’t know he could actually throw a fireball that powerful.

He cried out as another bolt hit him in the back. Spinning around, he saw another one of the...cultists? Necromancers? Who were these assholes? He was reloading, going for another shot, backing up. And then Yelena raced up to him and chopped his head off in one swift motion. As he looked for another target, he saw Layla finishing off the last man standing, and as he fell, all became silent, save for the rain and the heavy breathing.

“What the fuck was that about?!” Layla snarled.

“I don’t know but...ah, fuck! I’ve got bolts in me, can I get some help? One’s in my back,” John replied.

“Yes, love. Here, don’t move,” Yelena replied, jogging over. She had him turn around. “Okay, hold still, this is going to hurt.”

She had hardly finished the word ‘hurt’ before tearing it out, and he began to curse angrily as the pain ripped through him, but then he felt the immense, warming relief of a healing spell as she laid her hand against the wound. The pain in his arm and the other parts of him that had been injured during battle quickly faded away.

Then she tore the other bolt out of his thigh and repeated the process.

“Thanks,” he murmured, looking at the fallen elf woman.

“Tend to her, I will heal Layla,” Yelena replied.

“Yeah.” He moved over to her, warily checking any of the bodies he passed on the way, in case someone was out or just faking, but they all seemed to be dead. The elf woman still hadn’t moved, but as he drew closer to her, he saw that she was at least still breathing. Carefully, he crouched by her and gently put a hand on her shoulder.

“Can you hear me?” he asked.

Nothing. No response. He shook her a little and she slumped onto her back, her mouth hanging open, rainwater getting in. He sighed and closed her mouth, then began checking her over for serious wounds. By the time he was finished and determined that nothing had been broken and she had no serious injuries, Yelena approached him.

“They’re all dead, and I didn’t see any else around,” she reported. “What of her?”

“She’s fine, from what I can tell. Though you should probably hit her with a healing spell so she doesn’t wake up in a world of pain,” John replied.

“Indeed.” She crouched and laid a hand on her shoulder, then released a wave of magic. “What should we do?” she asked. He heard Layla approaching and glanced back. She had a bow and a sword on her hip now, and a quiver. She looked pleased.

“Let’s get her into one of these buildings. Then one of us stays with her while the others search this settlement for supplies and answers,” John suggested.

“And if more of them show up?” Layla asked, kicking one of the corpses.

“Then we will deal with them,” John replied.

She shrugged. “Sounds good to me. Who watches her?”

“Will you do it?” he asked. “I could, though I wouldn’t recommend Yelena.”

“I’ll do it if you agree to do it in shifts. Half hour shifts,” Layla replied.

“Deal.”

“Okay, I’ll take first watch, I guess,” she murmured.

John looked around. The nearest structure appeared to be a house, a simple, single-story house with not a lot of rooms. He scooped her up in his arms, finding the slim elf very light, and carried her forward. “Yelena, check it, would you?” he asked.

Yelena nodded and slipped in through the front door. Layla stood with him in the rain as a few moments passed, waiting. They both kept an eye out. This island was getting more and more dangerous, it seemed.

Yelena stepped back out. “It is secure. I will begin my search of the next building,” she said.

“I’ll start checking over the bodies for supplies,” John replied. She nodded and left, heading to the next structure, which looked to be an inn.

John walked in and looked around. The house was indeed small and simple. Everything, from the eating and food prep area to the fireplace to the bed, was in a single room. It was more like a cabin than a house. John ended up laying the woman out on the bed, arranging her to be as comfortable as possible. Layla stood by him.

“She’s very pretty,” she murmured.

“Yeah, but we have no idea who she is, so be careful if she wakes up. For all we know she could be a serial killer or something,” John replied.

“I’ll keep an eye on her. You can count on that,” Layla said.

John nodded and headed out. He looked over the bodies, sighed, and got to work.

…

The mysterious assailants were surprisingly under-equipped.

Besides their black-and-red armor, which was closer to leather as opposed to metal in most cases, and their weapons, there wasn’t much. Given their general look and how many of them were throwing fireballs around during battle, he figured that maybe they relied more heavily on magic for things. Or maybe it had been a desperate situation, maybe the elf had something they really, really needed and she’d just up and run. Because it looked like she was wearing the exact same shit they were. That could mean they were working together, or she’d infiltrated them.

Either way, he ended up with a cool crossbow cast in steel and a bunch of bolts. He’d used a crossbow before, but not often, so he at least knew how it worked. And this model took clips, meaning you didn’t have to reload the crossbow each and every time you fired. You could fire up to five in a row, he discovered, and so he took a collection of a half-dozen of these metallic rectangles and pocketed them happily, then, with some reluctance, began searching for armor that fit among the bodies, because he was going to need it.

John spent that first half hour searching the bodies and gathering the gear. By the time he finally found enough armor that fit to cover most of him, the half-hour was up, and Layla let him know it. He relieved her of duty, sitting down in the small house and considering putting on the armor. Then he thought better of it. What if she woke up and attacked him because he was wearing the armor of the people who’d been trying to kill her? So, instead, he stacked it in the corner and then checked on her, to make sure she was okay.

She was still breathing regularly, and her color was coming back, though she was still pale. But that was natural for elves. He waited impatiently, pacing back and forth, tapping his foot, searching the interior of the house several times, looking out the windows, listening to the rain. Finally, Layla returned and informed him that she’d searched two other small houses, pointing them out for him. John got to work on the next building to be searched, which seemed to be a blacksmith, after checking in briefly with Yelena.

And this was how the next two hours went by.

They searched the buildings as the rain not only continued to fall, but worsened in severity. The searches went by fairly quickly simply because there was so little left in most of the structures. Like everywhere else they’d found, the place was not just abandoned, but long-abandoned, and picked over. They ended up hunting and killing a few rabbits that wandered too close to the village, and after the search was over they gathered in the small house where Layla had started a fire and began the process of skinning and cleaning them.

“So what’d we find?” Layla asked.

“Hardly anything,” Yelena muttered unhappily. “A dagger, some gold, another bar of soap. Not much else.”

“At least we have weapons and armor now,” John said.

“Yes,” Yelena conceded, “there is that.” She looked at the elf. “And her. She is still not awake?”

“No. Unless she’s faking,” Layla replied.

“What is our next move?” Yelena asked, going back to preparing the rabbit. They were going to make stew, they had decided. Between the rabbit and some persevered vegetables they’d found, there would be enough for a meal.

“We should stay here and wait out the storm. We still have a fair amount of the day left. Ideally, we can bring her around and ask her what’s up, then try and figure out what to do from there. Godsdamnit, I was really hoping that dock would’ve had a boat,” John muttered, thinking back to the dock they’d searched.

There wasn’t a boat to be seen.

They descended into silence once more, the only sounds that of the rain and the ocean as the storm worsened. And the steady drip of several leaks in the roof. He and Yelena finished preparing their rabbits, and they chopped up the meat and the vegetables into a pot they’d found and cleaned, and let it hang over the fire in the fireplace. More time passed. As it did, John found his eye catching with Layla’s repeatedly. Her tail was twitching and she was agitated. At first he thought it was simple impatience, but before long it became clear that she was horny. She was lusting after him, he could see it in the way she was staring at him.

About the fourth time they caught eyes, he heard Yelena say, “You might as well.”

They both turned to look at her. “What?” Layla asked finally.

“I can smell your lust. Both of you. Fuck, I would like to watch. When you fornicate, you two made excellent viewing pleasure,” Yelena said, her own tail drifting a bit more quickly now. He looked back at Layla, who, he was happy to see, was breathing more heavily.

“Well?” he asked.

“What about her?” she murmured, looking at the elf.

She was still out cold. John shrugged. “Even if she wakes up, elves are pretty relaxed about sex, right? She probably wouldn’t be too upset to wake up to that...”

“Fine, I don’t care then,” Layla replied, and hastily began tearing off the scraps of clothing that she was wearing.

“Okay then,” John said, and hastily began to undress. He glanced at Yelena. “Don’t let the stew boil over.”

“Do not worry, I will maintain watch on it,” she replied with a sly smile.

“Well all right then, Layla-ooh!” he grunted as she actually leaped onto him. He ended up crashing to the floor with her on top of him, staring down at him with wide cat eyes, her tail lashing wildly behind her. She leaned down and pressed her lips forcefully, passionately against his own. He kissed her back, reaching up and groping her furry breasts. It was obvious what kind of fuck session this was going to be.

Layla got out of her clothes, what little she wore, in the time it took him to get his shirt off. As he was getting his pants undone, she growled. “Just pull it out and fuck me!” she demanded, and got onto her hands and knees, facing away from him.

Her ass and her glistening vagina looked marvelously inviting.

“Okay,” he replied, panting, and pulled his cock out. He was rock hard and ready to go anyway. He got up against her backside and laid his head at the entrance of her pussy. He began to rub it, feeling the wet heat coming off of her. “Fuck,” he whispered.

“Put it in...” she moaned.

“You want me to put it in?” he asked, unable to keep from teasing her.

“Yes!” she snarled.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Her tail was thrashing now. “I wouldn’t, John, if I were you,” Yelena said, but she giggled.

“Put it in or I’m going to rip it off,” she growled, and he couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. She sounded serious enough.

“You asked for it,” he replied, and he pushed it inside of her.

She let out a long, satisfied groan as he pushed his rigid length into her, and he did the same. Fuck, sliding into that incredibly tight, wet felis vagina felt so godsdamned good. He grabbed her firm hips and began fucking her, just pounding her, driving into her again and again. The pleasure came on hard and heavy, like a wave rolling over both of them, smashing into them and drowning them in ecstasy and hot bliss.

For several minutes there was only the sound of their grunting and moaning and Layla growling occasionally. John could only feel the pleasure of her pussy. It felt like his whole world was that amazingly tight, sweet, sweet felis pussy. He was gritting his teeth, digging in his fingertips, fucking her like a cheap whore and he knew she was loving it, the way she was pressing her ass against him, forcing him deeper, and the sounds she was making.

It was a short but passionate sexual encounter, and he bathed in the bliss of every single second of it. When they came, they came together, both of them experiencing their orgasms at almost the same time. He emptied his cock into her as he felt her pussy clench and tremble and they were locked in a pleasured union of shared, rapturous sexual gratification. And then they were coming down from that sweet high, her on her hands and knees, tail drifting lazily back and forth now, and him behind her, on his knees, hunched over her slightly, panting.

As his breath slowed and his pulse began returning to normal, John became aware of another sound: someone else was breathing rapidly. But it was not Yelena.

He looked over at the bed.

“Oh,” he said.

“What?” Layla asked.

The elf woman was laying on her side still, staring intently at him and Layla, her eyes very wide. He couldn’t tell if she was terrified, confused, or aroused.

“Our guest is awake,” Yelena murmured.

“Oh damn,” Layla muttered.

John pulled out of her and hastily began putting his cock away. “Uh...sorry about that,” he said as Layla began looking for something to clean herself up with.

“Am I hallucinating?” the elf whispered.

“What do you think you see?” Yelena asked, sounding amused.

“I think I just watched a really hot human guy bang a really hot felis woman on the floor, while a crazy hot demon chick watched,” the elf replied quietly.

“That is exactly what happened,” Yelena said.

“I’m John,” John said as he pulled his shirt back on. “This is Layla, and this is Yelena. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“...where are the ones who were chasing me?” she asked cautiously, slowly sitting up.

“They’re dead in the street outside,” John replied.

“Oh...you killed them?”

“Yes,” he said.

“All of them?”

“Yes,” Layla said as she finished cleaning herself up and then pulled on what little clothing she kept.

“Oh...thank you.”

“Mind telling us what that was about?” John asked.

The elf woman hesitated, looking from him, to Layla, to Yelena.

“I will know if you are lying,” Yelena said, her voice neutral. John kept his gaze on the redheaded elf. Yelena was good at reading people, but it wasn’t like she was a mind-reader. But maybe it might be best to let the elf think that.

“What else have I got to lose?” she muttered to herself finally. “My name is Janessa Sage. I’m a magical scholar. I’m part of...” she hesitated, then sighed. “Well, I guess I can admit it to myself now: I’m part of, no, that’s not right, I was part of a cult. A magical cult. I’m on the run from them now. But, um, before I go any further, who are you? Why are you here? We’ve been on the island for a week and they seemed pretty sure there was no one else here, and I was inclined to believe them.”

“We’re shipwreck survivors,” John replied. “We three washed up on shore last night.”

“Oh, wow. So you have, like, no idea what’s up with this island, do you?”

“No. We were hoping you could enlighten us,” Yelena said. She stirred the soup. “Obviously something evil lurks here, among the shadows.”

“Yes. I can tell you what’s going on. But...can I please have some of that soup? I am fucking starving,” she replied.

“Yes, you may,” Yelena replied. “Though it will take a little bit longer to finish. So...”

“Right. As I said, I’m a scholar of magic. I study it. Although most of my studying has gone on inside of an academy at Stafford. Are you familiar?” she asked.

“Yes,” John replied. “The City of Lights. We’re from around there.”

“Okay, good. I was part of a group that was studying, well, for all intents and purposes, evil. Dark magic, evil magic, demonic magic...” she hesitated, glancing at Yelena. “No offense.”

“None taken. Most of my kind are quite evil,” she replied.

“Yes. Well. I’m very good at figuring things out. I’ve got a bit of a magical skill for...what’s the best way to put it? I suppose you could say I divine answers. So if you give me an artifact, with enough time and the right resources, I can tell you what it is, what it does, how to destroy it, how to wield it.” She laughed suddenly. “I was...very naive until recently. I’m thirty five, still very young for my kind, and although I’ve been studying at that academy for twenty years now, I’ve seen very little of the world. I’ve had an urge to get out and see the world at large for years now, and that urge has only grown. But those at the academy didn’t want me to leave. They said I wasn’t ready, I was too trusting, not really aware of how dangerous the world could be. And I thought they were just a bunch of timid, scared old men and women…

“I see now that they were right, and I’ve only recently realized that I was, I still am, woefully unprepared for being out here. My parents helped found the academy. They had me later in life, and they were very...protective. I know they had been through a great many painful ordeals in their lives, and they wanted to spare me that as much as they could. Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was to give me an unrealistic view of how safe the world was.”

“You seem remarkably self-aware for one so sheltered,” Yelena murmured as she slowly stirred the soup.

“I was sheltered, but I wasn’t stupid. I’ve always been very sharp. Although...” she looked down, her face reddening in embarrassment. “It did take me a little while to catch on to what was happening. And I don’t always see things that are obvious. I have smarts, yes, but, as I’m learning, nothing really beats experience.”

“It does help,” Layla murmured.

“So anyway, as to how I got here. A man came around the academy, seeking me out. He’d heard of me. I don’t know how. But he was...very handsome, and charismatic. So I was inclined to listen to him. He said he was part of a group of magical adventurers who sought dangerous artifacts and destroyed them. And he needed the help of a magical scholar trained in the arts of diving evil artifacts. He said he could properly compensate me and provide protection, and that I’d be back at the academy within a month. At the time, it seemed perfect. I’d get to have an adventure, a real one, out in the wild, and I’d get to spend time with real adventurers, and I’d be helping people, and be back within a month. I mean, how could I not?”

“How did your parents react?” John asked.

“About how you’d expect. They told me not to go, said they didn’t trust the man or his group, this and that. Ultimately, they couldn’t forbid me from going, they couldn’t stop me, so I went. I just thought they didn’t trust him because he was human, or because they didn’t know him. But anyway, I went with him and with the group, the traveling band of ‘adventurers’. The fact that they all dressed in black and red should have given me pause, but I didn’t really think anything of it. I mean, who would be stupid enough to wear colors that made you look evil if you were actually evil?”

“Apparently your former friends,” John said.

She laughed softly. “Yes. We got on a few boats and traveled here, to this island. We made camp and for about a week they sent out their expeditionary forces and I divined the location of a collection of artifacts.”

“How?” Yelena asked.

“Normally it would be a very complicated process. Even now it still was, but they were remarkably well-equipped. It takes a lot of magic, some rare plants, several unique magical trinkets, and time, and effort. But this island is saturated in the malignant magic of the artifacts. The corruption of them. So it was a lot easier to figure things out. Even then, all they wanted were locations. They said the rest would come later. It took me most of the last week to divine all the locations of the shards. During that week, well, things started getting weird. I started getting suspicious. Something about them, the way they talked and went about things, I don’t know, it just didn’t seem like they were magical scholars and adventurers. They seemed like, most of them anyway, hired thugs. I started overhearing them talking about a big score and what they were going to do when they got paid and at first I just assumed they were in fact hired mercenaries meant for extra protection and the man in charge was paying them a lot.”

“So what sent you running?” Yelena asked.

“I couldn’t reconcile everything and I was getting very concerned. The sheer magnitude of the power of these artifacts was concerning me, and I had at least figured out that there was a corrosive side effect to them. Being around them would begin to corrupt you. I tried warning them, but they just brushed it off, saying they knew what they were doing. I finally decided to confront the man in charge, I thought he was being reckless. He wasn’t in his tent and it was night when I went. Stupidly, he’d kept a journal, and even more stupidly, he’d left it under his pillow. It was peeking out from beneath it. I noticed it, couldn’t help myself, grabbed it, started reading it. And I very quickly discovered that everything I’d been told was straight-up bullshit.

“They’re a cult. They are seeking power. The artifact in question, I don’t know what it originally was, but they seem to know that what we were seeking were in fact pieces of one whole artifact that, once reassembled, would be absurdly powerful, and they were intending to use that power to topple a nation and gain control of it.”

“Which nation?” John asked, liking this less and less as he went on.

“They hadn’t decided yet, but were considering Veridis or the Stoneland Islands. They wanted a low-magic nation to start as a staging area for, ultimately, conquest.”

“How powerful is this artifact?” Yelena asked unhappily.

“I don’t know for sure. They seem to think it is very powerful. Powerful enough to potentially dominate the planet.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” John groaned.

“What?” Layla asked.

“This is like the third time we’ve dealt with some huge, massive threat!” he groaned.

“Seriously?” Janessa asked.

“Yes! First it was those fucking necromancers in the forest experimenting with dead people and dead animals, sewing them together. Then it was that godsdamned resurrected undead demon lord! Now this bullshit!”

“Wow, you are very unlucky,” Janessa said, her eyes wide.

“I think you’re incredibly lucky if you’re still alive after all the shit you’ve been through,” Layla replied.

“Speaking of which...uh, what exactly is the nature of your three’s relationship? Because obviously you two are together...” Janessa murmured, looking at John and Layla.

“Oh no, we’re not together,” John said.

“Could’ve fooled me,” she muttered.

Layla snorted. “We were just horny.”

“John is my man,” Yelena said as she began ladling out soup in some bowls they’d managed to find.

“I...um...oh,” Janessa said, blinking a few times. “You two...oh.”

Yelena laughed and handed her a bowl of soup. She accepted it gingerly from where she still sat in the bed, staring at Yelena, then slowly switching her gaze to John. “So. Uh. What?” she asked finally, in a bit of a daze apparently.

“I have to admit, this is a fairly pleasant reaction to our relationship,” Yelena said.

“I’m sorry, I’m not, uh, indicting your relationship. I’m just surprised.”

“It is understandable. John?”

“Yeah,” he said, accepting another bowl of soup from her. As they all began to eat, he took the time to give her a truncated tale of how he and Yelena had met. He still wasn’t completely sure he trusted her. On the one hand, she seemed a little too innocent. On the other hand...that wasn’t impossible. And he took the time as he went over that tale to mull over everything he’d been told. Sometimes he wondered if the Gods were nudging him and Yelena around. If they saw something coming that was going to cause untold death and destruction, but they couldn’t directly intervene, what better way to deal with it than to nudge some capable warriors right into the hornet’s nest to deal with the problem? He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Even if it was true, he knew he shouldn’t think himself immune to harm. He may have a God’s or Goddess’s backing, but they couldn’t do much more than what they’d already done. Really, if this truly was what had happened, he imagined that they had done little more than put him and Yelena on this island knowing they would do everything they could to solve the problem, and just hope it worked. Great. Only dozens and dozens of people had to die as a result of that fucking shipwreck. But he imagined that dozens of death were nothing in the face of potentially hundreds of thousands, or even millions.

The rain continued to pour outside as they ate and talked, and eventually the conversation died off, and they were just eating. Eventually, the stew was gone and then there were just four people sitting in a tiny home in the rain on an island corrupted by evil in the middle of the ocean. For what felt like a long time, nobody spoke.

Finally, Layla broke the silence. “So, what’s the plan here, exactly?”

“The first thing I want to know,” Yelena said, looking at Janessa intently now, “is: do they need all of the pieces of the artifact for it to work? Can we find one and destroy it, and that would stop them?”

“No,” Janessa replied. “I thought of that, actually. But even a single one of these artifacts is very powerful. I don’t know if just one would cause the same level of devastation they are looking to cause, but even one would make them quite powerful, once they discerned how to properly unlock and wield it.”

“Great,” John muttered.

“So we find these pieces,” Yelena said. “We find them and we destroy them. And we eliminate this cult. Then, we take one of their boats and continue our journey.”

“...just like that? It’s that easy?” Janessa asked uncertainly.

“Oh no. I am positive it will be exceptionally difficult. But we have a path laid out for us. You know this island. You know where the pieces are. You can be our guide. Between you and I, we can divine a method of destruction. Between myself, John, and Layla, we can combat and overcome any hostile forces in our way, be they your cult, or the corrupted inhabitants of this island. We cannot allow this event to come to pass, not at all.”

“I don’t suppose you still have that journal?” John asked.

“I do, actually. I was in the middle of reading it when he came back into the tent and pretty quickly realized I knew enough to be dangerous. He tried to kill me. I ran. I have some magical defenses. I ran and ran and...fuck, I ran all the way across the island. I caught some sleep in a cabin when night fell and I thought I’d lost them,” she explained as she grabbed her pack and began digging around in it. “I was coming here to try and find a boat, because I knew there was another village over here. But then they found me again...”

She passed him a leatherbound journal. He took it, opened it up, and immediately began reading over it.

“I also have a map of the island. I can tell you where the rest of the shards are,” she said, and pulled it out of her pack as well.

Yelena accepted it and studied it. While she did that and John read over the journal, Layla took watch at the window and Janessa laid back down in the bed, resting. She must have been exhausted. Which sucked because once the rain let up even a bit, they were going to start marching their way towards the nearest shard.

It didn’t take long to thumb through the journal, and unfortunately it wasn’t a particularly enlightening read. It was clear that he had begun writing it only recently, a few weeks ago it seemed. Mostly it just confirmed what Janessa had said. He was ranting and raving about power, about getting back at people who had snubbed him, about making the world bend knee to a real man of power. Not much about the specifics. He wondered if this guy even had a plan. When he finished reading up, he put the journal in his pack and joined Yelena. She was scrutinizing a map made of fairly sturdy material, probably reinforced with magic to keep it from corroding if it was handled roughly or got wet or something.

It was decently detailed. “It looks like the closest one is here,” she said quietly, pointing north of their current position, near the coastline up there. “If I am understanding this map correctly, it looks like we could be there in an hour, perhaps two, depending on whether or not we run into anything dangerous on the way.”

“There’s something else,” Janessa said. They looked at her. “From what I’d gathered, each location is going to have severe corruption to it. Not just to the environment, but to anything living that might be around, or even dead. It won’t simply be a matter of going in and finding the shard. And I’m not sure what, exactly, we’ll find at each location. Plus, we’ll have the cult looking for us,” she added, frowning.

“How many are they?” Layla asked.

“About a hundred,” Janessa replied. “I’m not sure on numbers, but if I had to guess, that’s what I’d say.”

“How many of them are capable warriors?”

“All of them, I think. I was really the odd one out. They all had weapons and armor of some kind, and I went with them on a few expeditions, and they all seemed pretty good. A lot of them know magic.”

“Great,” John muttered.

“Okay, so what are these locations here? Do you know?” Yelena asked, setting the map down on a table.

Janessa got to her feet, groaned softly, then moved over and joined them. “The place you want to go first is an old military fort. I’m not sure who’s military, I think it belonged to humans. Here, on the mountain in the middle of the island, is a mansion. One of them is there. Farther up the mountain, on another side, are some caves. There’s a third one. The fourth one is...” she slid her finger from the mountain to a mark more towards the southwestern portion of the map. “Here. It’s an old far elf research outpost. And the final one is here,” she pointed lower, to the southwestern corner, near the shoreline, “in what I’ve heard is some kind of graveyard.”

“Great places,” John muttered.

“What is this place?” Yelena asked, pointing to a structure on the far northwestern corner.

“Somewhere we might want to go. It’s an old magical research outpost. They intended to go there and see if there were any notes that might help them deal with the artifacts. Which is, unfortunately, another thing we must consider: transporting them. They are, by their very nature, corrosive. Just being around them for long enough can be dangerous to our health.”

“Do you have any ideas?” John asked.

“Yes, some. If we can get our hands on a sturdy metal case, I can enchant it to give us some time. But we’re going to need to take time to do more research if we want to learn how to destroy them,” she replied.

“I do not think we have the luxury of time,” Yelena murmured.

John sighed. “You’re probably right. So, there’s five of these things-”

“No, there’s six. They already have one,” Janessa said.

“Great. So there’s six of these things. We know where they are, if this map is to be trusted. We have a plan. But...” John looked uncertainly at Layla and Janessa. “Yelena and I, we’ve already come to an agreement about situations like these. When faced with great threats, we cannot turn away. We will deal with them, because it’s the right thing to do. But I know not everyone feels that way. How do you two feel?” he asked.

“I, too, faced a tremendous danger that threatened thousands, once,” Layla said sadly. “I could not turn away. I will not here, either. You have my support.”

“Janessa?” he asked.

She sighed softly. “I feel at least partially responsible for some of this, and I can’t just sit by and watch something like this happen and hope it goes away. I mean, I’ll help, and I can help. I’m positive that with time and resources, I can determine how to completely destroy these things. Which is what needs to happen. And I will. But...I am no warrior. To be completely honest, I will be a liability,” she admitted.

“We can protect you,” John said.

“Can you, now?” she asked, looking at him, though it sounded less like an uncertain question and more like...a little bit of a come-on? Was she hitting on him?

Well, she had woken to him naked and screwing like a rabbit, and elves were generally more open to sexual encounters than most of the other races.

“Yes,” he said.

“Elf,” Layla said, and they all looked over at her. A cold steel had crept into her voice, and her expression. “If you are lying, if you betray us, I will tear your head off with my bare hands.”

A look of real fear came over her face. “I-I’m not lying!” she said, shrinking back. “I want to help you! I was running from them! They were trying to kill me!”

“For all we know, you could have decided you wanted the artifact for yourself and betrayed them,” Layla snapped.

“Layla,” John said. She jerked towards him. Her tail was lashing angrily behind her, and he could tell this wasn’t just someone covering their bases. This felt personal. “You’re being rude.”

“I’ve been betrayed before,” she growled. “It won’t happen again.”

She turned away and stalked back to the window, her tail continuing to thrash.

“I’m not lying!” Janessa demanded, looking a little indignant now. “She said she could tell!”

“She is not lying,” Yelena said. Again, John wondered how much of that was a bluff. Personally, he believed her. He’d been suspicious at first, but he had picked up on some of the telltales of lying, of good lying, and Janessa wasn’t raising any red flags.

Then again, it could just be because he wanted to fuck her that he thought that.

She was very beautiful.

Layla just grunted and crossed her arms, still refusing to face them. “The rain is beginning to slacken,” she said. “We should go.”

“We should,” Yelena agreed. She looked at Janessa. “Are you ready for a journey?”

Janessa sighed. “I’m tired and my head hurts, but...yes. We have a whole cult working against us. We don’t really have the luxury of time.”

They began gathering their things.

CHAPTER VI

Despite everything, John felt pretty good now.

He and Yelena were now decked out in the black and red armor, which seemed to be made of leather, but reinforced in some areas with chainmail and some magic, and was good at keeping the rain off most of their bodies. He was also carrying a crossbow and a lot of bolts, which came in five-bolt metal clips, in addition to his dagger and blade. Yelena also had adopted a crossbow, very interested in the mechanical device, as well as a sturdy silver longsword and sharp silver dagger. Layla kept her scraps of clothing, saying she preferred the freedom of movement and dexterity such minimal clothing provided, and had contented herself with silver blades and a bow and a quiver thick with arrows. Janessa had her cloak and had reluctantly pulled on some of the armor. She’d said her magic would be her main defense, but had relented and accepted one of the silver daggers they’d managed to find among the dead cultists.

The rain had indeed slackened quite a bit, now no more than an annoying drizzle, and they were taking advantage of it. They had left the village quickly, striking off northbound along a path that ran in between the rocky coastline and the dense forest that seemed to cover most of the island. For the first hour, nobody said anything. John was worried about Layla. She still looked really pissed. She had been betrayed before. That would explain some of her behavior. But it was clear that whatever had happened had deeply affected her. He wanted to ask her about it, but it was clear from her demeanor that she would flat out refuse to talk about it.

So he left her alone.

Eventually, Janessa quietly broke the silence, coming up to him. She’d been shooting him and Yelena looks the whole time.

“John...” she said, sounding hesitant.

“Yes?” he asked.

“I was...curious. About your, uh, relationship,” she said softly.

He snorted. “Isn’t everyone?”

“I’m sorry. If it’s a bother-”

“No, not at all. I love my relationship. I love talking about it. Well, with people who are open-minded. I’m surprised you didn’t react more poorly, admittedly. Of course, I’m surprised every time that happens.”

“I can understand that,” she said quietly.

“What did you want to know?”

“I guess...the first thing that came to mind, when I learned about the nature of your relationship, was...I thought demons were jealous. Or fiercely territorial, at least,” she said.

“Oh, she was jealous at first, at least a little,” John replied.

He saw Yelena’s tail twitch. Although she was a good twenty feet ahead of them, and they were speaking softly, he had no doubt she could hear them.

“Really?”

“Yes. But once it became obvious to her that she was the love of my life, and her beauty is legendary, her natural confidence returned. She knew she had me, and I would never leave her. No matter how many beautiful women she watched me fuck,” he replied.

He heard Yelena laugh softly and imagined she was rolling her eyes.

“That’s...interesting,” Janessa murmured. “I had heard that adventurers treated sex much more casually than most people. I’ve always been at a bit of a...uh, disadvantage there, myself.”

“Really? Why? You’re obviously extremely attractive,” John replied.

“Oh...thank you,” she murmured. He glanced over at her. She was blushing fiercely again. She cleared her throat. “I spent pretty much my whole life in the academy. My fellow students...well, a lot of them are too obsessed with their research for sex. And a lot more were intimidated by my parents. They did, after all, help found the academy, and they were on the council of mages that ran it. They are both powerful elven mages, after all. And no one wants to get caught banging a councilor’s daughter. Even if she is all grown up and that’s none of her parent’s business.”

“That would be irritating. Though I imagine by now you’ve, uh...”

“Oh yes! I’m not a virgin. I lost my virginity when I was twenty, actually. I finally managed to coax a friend of mine into bed. We carried on our affair for almost two years before we drifted apart. We just weren’t right for each other and the sex was...” she winced. “I feel bad, but the sex was rather sub-par. For awhile I thought maybe sex was just way overblown. I thought that maybe there was a reason my wiser colleagues weren’t as interested in it. I mean, after the thrill of doing it for the first few times wore off...” she sighed.

“What made you realize?” he asked.

She blushed again, harder, and looked away with a small smile on her face. “I met a couple. Two adventurers. The man was human, the woman was elven. He was handsome in a rough, rugged kind of way, she was drop-dead gorgeous. They were both older. Experienced. I was out of the academy, in the city, buying things. They caught my eye, we got to chatting, and they...seduced me. Very effectively. They invited me to stay at their room at the local inn and pretty much flat-out told me they wanted to have a long, wonderful threesome with me. I was a little reluctant, because I thought sex wasn’t worth probably getting into trouble for, which was what would happen if I stayed out all night, but...I wanted to try again, and they were so hot, and it felt so wildly adventurous, so...sinful. But in a good way. And, well, if no one told you, elves are horny.”

“I’ve, uh, learned that myself,” John said.

She looked at him. “Have you slept with a lot of women?” she asked, suddenly sounding very interested.

He cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“A dozen?”

“Uh...well...”

“More than a dozen? Two dozen?” He hesitated again. “More than two dozen?!”

“Somewhere north of four dozen,” he admitted.

“Wow! That is...impressive. And Yelena, too, I imagine?”

“I don’t know much about her life before we met, and she’s a hundred years old now. I mean, I know she was rather...promiscuous in her old life. But since we’ve hooked up? She’s seemed only interested in women so far, and she’s fucked basically every woman I’ve fucked.”

“That’s incredible.”

“I sure think so. So, uh...what happened?”

“With what? Oh! Yes, the threesome. It was...absolutely fucking mind-blowing. It altered the course of my life. I had like...fifteen orgasms that night. And they were all stronger than any I’d had so far. Those two knew how to fuck like sex demons. They made me come so hard, so many times, they...” she shivered violently. “They used me like a sex toy and I loved every last second of it. I wanted more. I became a little addicted after that. I spent two more nights with them before they had to go. After that, I sought adventurers who were passing through the city.”

“Did you have any luck?” he asked.

“Some, yes. Not as much as you’d think. The thing is, I know that I’m attractive, but Stafford has some absolutely beautiful prostitutes. I mean, very, very beautiful and skilled prostitutes. Most people go for them. I got lucky that first time. But a few times a year I’ll find some adventurer to seduce, and I got better at it. Usually the sex was good, sometimes it was great. I began to gravitate towards women, though, the more time went on.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. I’ve known I was bisexual for as long as I’ve known what sex even was, and what sexual attraction was, but I began finding my eyes drawn more to women than men, and that’s only increased since then. Though...”

“Though what?” he asked.

“You are...very handsome,” she replied, then chuckled nervously. “If you don’t mind my saying so.”

“Not at all. I appreciate it,” he said.

She paused for a moment. “Do you think, um...”

“I see it!” Layla called.

“We’ll discuss this later,” John said. “If you were about to ask what I think you were about to ask, then: enthusiastically yes.”

“Oh...um...okay,” she said, smiling and blushing again.

Up ahead, the trees were falling away, revealing a wide, open space. And in that wide open space was a genuine anomaly.

There were trees, sparse collections of them dotting the area, and a little creek running from out of the left side of the clearing, towards the coastline beyond it, and the ocean was the backdrop, behind the large open space.

What was so anomalous was the structure that dominated the center of the building.

It was frozen.

It looked like a blizzard had opened up only over the structure and for about a thirty foot radius beyond it at some point. Snow capped the trees nearest to it, and covered the dead ground around it, and rested atop its roofs and the wall that surrounded it. Even a portion of the creek was frozen solid where it ran nearest to the building.

“So...what are we looking at, exactly?” Yelena asked uncertainly.

“The shard’s corruption,” Janessa replied quietly. “I don’t know for sure, but from what I overheard, each location was corrupted by the shard, and almost certainly in a different way. This place was frozen.”

“So they won’t all be frozen?” Yelena asked.

“Probably not.”

She sighed in relief. “Good. I hate the cold, and after last winter, I am done with it.”

John chuckled. “I’m sorry, love.”

Her tail lashed and she grumbled irritably. He knew how she felt. He fucking hated it, too, but being a hot-blooded demon from a realm where it never snowed would certainly make it worse. To make matters even worse, they were all wet and it was raining and they didn’t have proper clothes for this. At least they had the armor.

“Let’s get this over with,” Layla muttered, and set off.

They followed after her. As they drew closer to the fort, John realized that it was actually snowing over it. Very lightly, just like it was raining where they were. In fact, he could actually see a clear line where the rain ended and the snow began. It was utterly surreal. He’d never seen anything like it before.

“That’s definitely a human fort,” he said. “Likely a group from Veridis set out and established it decades ago in an attempt to hold the island and expand their territory. Although I’m sure it’s terrible, I do wonder what happened to them.”

When they crossed over the line into the snow, the cold hit them like a blacksmith’s hammer. Yelena told them all to wait as they immediately began shivering, even Layla, and began conjuring magic. After a few seconds, she released a wave of white magic, tinged with red, and John felt a powerful warmth pass over him. It dried the rain instantly and warmed him, as though he had stepped next to a fire, and it lingered, though it did diminish somewhat.

“Where’d you learn that?” he asked.

“I began practicing and perfecting it over the course of our final month at Beacon,” Yelena replied as they began walking towards the fort, drawing their weapons.

“And you didn’t mention it? Or use it?” he asked.

“I had not gotten it to a safe level of casting until after we returned to the southern lands,” she replied. “By then there was no need for it.”

“Well...thanks,” he said, and she laughed softly.

“You are very skilled with magic, aren’t you?” Layla asked.

“Oh yes. Having decades of hard practice does that,” she replied.

“Good. I imagine we’re going to need it in there.”

They fell silent as they crossed the snowy field, their feet crunching in the stuff as they walked, making a slow approach to the dilapidated entrance. The huge wooden doors set into the twenty foot stone walls were partially open. John got to the entrance first and looked through. They let onto a snowbound courtyard filled with unmoving lumps. Broken training equipment, he assumed, in at least some of the cases. There didn’t appear to be anyone or anything lurking in the immediate area, so he gave the all clear and stepped inside.

Ahead of them, the fort loomed. It was a tall, imposing structure, a gloomy place of gray stone masonry and windows so filthy they no longer served their original purpose. Slowly, they walked into the courtyard. Already, John could feel a surge in the corrosive, corruptive feeling that had haunted him ever since waking up on this miserable, rainy rock. It was much more potent and pervasive here, almost like standing in a closed-off room full of rotting corpses. Everything in him told him to turn around and flee, but he couldn’t.

He couldn’t walk away from this responsibility, it was no longer in him.

Although once he might have decided it was too risky, too dangerous, and tried to leave it to someone else, someone more qualified, now he just couldn’t do that. Not since his life had irrevocably changed, not with Yelena at his side. He wondered how much strength he drew from her indomitable will, how much she had changed him for the better. He wondered how many people would call him mad for thinking that loving a demon had made him a better person, but anyone who could truly know of their history and think otherwise would be fooling themselves. He knew he was stronger, more resilient, more responsible than ever since meeting Yelena. He loved her for many reasons, but that she made him a better person was one of the more powerful reasons.

The four of them stuck together in a loose collection as they traversed the distance between the gate and the ingress to the fort.

They made it about a dozen steps before a surge of invisible corrupted power swept the landscape and made them stagger.

John felt his stomach twist and a sharp pain in his head, but that became the least of his worries as, all around them, the snow began to stir.

“What is happening?” Janessa whispered fearfully.

“I don’t-” John began, then suddenly a bony fist clutching a rusted old blade punched up out of the snow not five feet away. “Undead!” he screamed.

Those weren’t the unmoving lumps of broken training equipment, they were godsdamned fucking corpses!

There were dozens of them. They all burst up out of the icy snowdrifts at roughly the same time, awash in dark magical auras, almost all of them skeletons, but some closer to zombies, still partially covered in decayed meat and flesh.

The quartet of survivors leaped into action. Yelena released an arc of pure lightning, another new spell that she’d been perfecting over the past few months, that struck one of the skeletons dead on, arced into several others, and blew them all into pieces. Layla took aim with an arrow and let it fly, knocking the head off one of the skeletons. Unfortunately, that didn’t put it down. John saw that and felt his confidence slip a bit.

He raced forward and brought the pommel of his blade down on the nearest skeleton’s shiny head, cracking it into pieces and effectively beheading it. The rest of the body still stood and tried to stab him. Shit, these were not normal undead. He dodged the blade, barely, and brought his own blade down in a tight arc, chopping off the skeleton’s sword-wielding arm. It fell into the snow and there it rested. Well, at least the parts you cut off didn’t keep moving. With a shout of effort, he bashed the skeleton in its midsection with his shoulder.

That made it fall apart, and that put it down.

Twisting, he ducked another blade and thrust his palm out, releasing a fireball into the chest of another undead creature. Its limbs and head flew off as its ribcage came apart, effectively killing it. Well, this wouldn’t be so bad.

A line of burning pain appeared as another skeleton sliced across his right bicep. He cried out in anger and pain, turned and brought his foot up. He kicked the skeleton hard enough that it was sent backwards, stumbling into two of its brethren. They all went to the ground, though they remained intact, and he raced forward, chopping them up as fast and as hard as he could before they could regain their feet. Behind him, he could hear the others fighting. Yelena and Layla were shouting and growling, and Janessa was making frightened sounds. He finished hacking up the trio of skeletons and shot a look at her.

She was firing off bolts of fire, but it looked like it was costing her an effort. One of the skeletons was coming up behind her. Cursing, John ran off. He sprinted as fast as he could and then leaped and launched himself boots-first right at it. Hearing it, Janessa turned around and shouted in surprise as his boots made contact with the thing’s midsection and demolished it, sending bones flying everywhere. He landed in the snow with a grunt and scrambled to his feet, turned and hurled a second fireball into the chest of another approaching skeleton.

He started fighting off another pair of them that rapidly approached. They were surprisingly agile for undead. They both wielded swords and cut and chopped and sliced at him mercilessly, their grinning skull faces seeming to mock him. He deflected their blades as best he could, but they were two and he was one, and ultimately one of their blades got past his defenses right as he made a killing blow, or what served as a killing blow to one of these things. He slashed down viciously, cleaving into one skeleton’s shoulder and smashing all the way through its bony spine and ribcage. It fell to pieces, but the other one drove its blade at his midsection.

He tried to dodge, and only barely managed to succeed avoiding getting run through. As it was, half of the blade bit cruelly through his armor and clothes and into the flesh of his stomach. Growling in furious pain, he released a third fireball, knowing he shouldn’t, because he didn’t have much magical charge to begin within and although the fireball demolished the skeleton, it left him temporarily exhausted. Blood pumped down his side as its sword was ripped free and he cried out. Clapping a hand over his wound, he staggered briefly.

Another skeleton was coming at him, blade raised…

A bolt of lightning struck it square in the middle and detonated it. John took a quick look around for the next enemy, but saw none. He only saw his allies, standing amidst a field of broken bones and snow. Yelena was jogging over to him.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, grimacing.

“No, love,” Yelena replied quickly. “Here.”

She laid a hand on him and released a healing spell. The comforting warmth passed through him, and the pain in his arm and stomach lessened, then vanished. He let out a sigh of relief and looked at the others. Layla looked fine. Janessa looked shaken.

“You okay?” he asked, catching her eye.

“Um...yeah. I-I’m not hurt,” she replied.

“You gonna freak out?” he asked.

She looked around them at the skeletons, then slowly looked over at the imposing structure they had to walk into. Finally, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and looked back at him and Yelena. “No. I’m okay.”

“All right. Let me know if you can’t handle it. I’d rather have you waiting out here, somewhere a bit safer, than be in there and freak out,” he said.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay,” she said, a little more firmly.

He studied her. She was trembling occasionally, but she looked pretty steady for having just been assaulted by a bunch of skeletons. “Okay, let’s take a minute to catch our breath before we go inside,” John said.

She nodded and walked over to a snowbound bench nearby, then sat down slowly on it. Layla was studying her blade, a little off to the side. She still seemed angry. He wondered if he should talk to her, but now probably wasn’t the right time.

“You fancy her,” Yelena murmured with a small grin.

“Of course I do,” he replied.

“So do I. She reminds me a bit of Tanis. And there is something...darkly alluring about her innocence. I understand the desire to introduce someone like her to the wilder side of sex and lust and wild lovemaking.”

“She isn’t that innocent,” he said.

She snorted. “I suppose so. I heard you talking.”

“I thought you did.”

“You wish to make love to her, then.”

“Yes. If she’s interested, I’m going to fuck the shit out of her.”

“I will join you. I can tell she lusts after me.”

“Who doesn’t?” he said, grinning, then he kissed her. She kissed him back, and he loved how he could still apparently catch her off guard, pleasantly so, with a kiss like that. Even after all the months they had been together, all they had done, all the furious, filthy fucking they had engaged in with each other and dozens of lovers, something as simple as a kiss on the mouth could still elicit such a potent response from her.

“I love you,” she said, her eyes closed, as their lips parted.

“I love you too, with all of myself, I love you, Yelena,” he replied.

She smiled and opened her eyes, but then she looked over at the fort and her smile faded. “Come, we must deal with this.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

They began making their way to the main entrance, and the others silently followed suit. They made their way slowly across the courtyard, and up to the entryway. John was first and he waited by the open doors. They showed a huge food hall beyond, the placed wrecked, from what he could see from his position. There didn’t seem to be anything moving among the frosted-over furniture. Slowly, John went inside, blade at ready. Nothing happened as he stepped in. Still nothing happened as the others joined him.

The place was indeed as wrecked as it had appeared from outside, though it was rather dim in there. As his eyes adjusted properly, he saw smashed tables and benches, most of it reduced to little more than kindling. Like other forts he had been in, he saw twin staircases, one to each side of the huge hall, leading up to a second story. Although this fort topped off at two stories. Which was nice, meaning that there was less searching they would have to do.

“Now what?” Janessa asked softly.

“Now we hunt,” Yelena replied.

“Should we split up?” John asked.

“For now,” Yelena said. “Come with me, Layla.”

“Okay,” Layla replied, and they split off, heading towards one of the stairways.

“I guess it’s just you and me then, huh?” Janessa asked nervously as she came to stand by John.

“Yep. Stick close,” John replied.

“I definitely will,” she said, and he noticed what seemed to be some sultry suggestiveness showing through her fear.

They headed deeper into the fort, their movements slow and cautious. John was at least glad to see that Janessa seemed to have a basic grasp of how to quietly search a hostile-infested ruin. He’d had so much practice at it that at this point it was second nature, and it was easy to forget what it was like to be new to all this crazy shit. He had to remind himself that she was actually older than he was, although she could be lying about that, he didn’t think she was. She didn’t seem to have reason to lie about it, and elves did age about a third slower than humans. He had to admit that it was giving him at least a little pause, sexually speaking.

He normally went for women around his age or older than him. But he examined the situation carefully as they found some storage rooms and barracks, and began a slow, methodical search of them. She was more than old enough to reasonably consent to sex, and although she was a bit naive and perhaps careless, she didn’t seem stupid. She seemed to fundamentally understand the concept of sex in the way that adults did. It wasn’t like he or Yelena were going to try and tempt her or push her into anything.

No, if she wanted it, and he had the idea that she really wanted it, then he was going to give it to her.

John shook his head as he finished searching what appeared to be the commanding officer’s quarters and found nothing beyond a stash of gold and gems, which he snagged and stuffed into his pack. This place made it hard to think. It absolutely reeked of evil. The corrosive effect, the dark aura of the shard they were seeking, seemed to saturate everything. It lingered on every surface, it made the air thick, it was a pervasive, intrusive thing that seemed to permeate on the atmosphere itself. He kept expecting to come into a room covered in some sick, goopy substance. But everything was covered in frost, instead.

“Does Layla hate me?” Janessa asked quietly after they had finished their search for hostiles and began a more thorough search for resources or the shard.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t really know her, to be honest. We met, like, yesterday. We happened to wash up on shore together.”

“Wait, you’re already fucking, after you met yesterday?” she asked.

“Yeah. It’s...sex happens a lot faster when you’re into adventuring, I’ve found.”

“Oh, wow. I had heard that, and it seemed to be true, I just...it still surprises me.” She frowned. “So you don’t know why?”

“She said she was betrayed...I couldn’t tell you. All I can discern is that something really bad happened to her, and maybe not all that long ago. At the very least, not in the distant past. When you adventure, really, really bad things can happen.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ve heard some stories...” She trailed off and for the next twenty minutes or so they searched in silence. Ultimately, they ended up back in the main hall with nothing more than a stash of gold and gems and jewelry that all isolated, derelict buildings seem to have in some measure. And they were always useful, at least. They didn’t have to wait very long for Yelena and Layla to return from the second floor.

“We found a key,” Yelena said, her breath foaming on the air.

“I think I know where it goes,” John replied.

They had found a single door built into the masonry beneath one of the stairways. It was locked firmly. He accepted the key from her and slipped it into the lock. It fit perfectly. “Get ready,” he said, and they did so, taking up defensive positions.

He unlocked the door and pulled it open, stepping out of the way in case they needed a clear line of sight to attack whatever lay beyond.

Only cold darkness lay beyond, evidently.

“It’s colder,” he whispered as he stepped back out. There was a frigid breeze wafting up from the basement area.

“The shard must be down there,” Layla muttered unhappily.

“Why is it always basements?” Yelena growled.

“Basements aren’t all bad,” John murmured.

“Why is that?”

“We first fucked in a basement,” he replied.

She laughed softly. “Yes, that is true. Those first few sessions we had in your basement were magical and impassioned and desperate...”

“We should stay focused,” Layla said.

Yelena sighed. “Yes, we should. Come.”

She took point this time, creating a ball of light that floated a few feet ahead of her in the narrow stone stairwell they found themselves in. It lit the way, though not as much as John would have liked. He couldn’t even see the bottom of the stairwell at first. The four of them walked slowly down it. The silence and the cold became oppressive as they descended. Although the flight of stairs ended maybe twenty feet down, it felt like they had gone much farther under the earth. Yelena shifted into a fighting stance as she prepared to open the door they found at the bottom.

She opened it.

Slowly, she untensed, though didn’t really relax.

“It is clear,” she murmured, and slipped in.

John was right behind her, and they came into a large room that was mostly empty. Or, it seemed that way, because he couldn’t see that far. He couldn’t even see the walls.

“More light,” he whispered.

Yelena increased the power of her light spell once, then twice, and the light intensified greatly, pushing back the darkness until the dimensions and contents of the room became clear. And still John saw nothing of any immediate danger. It looked like a storage area. There was old furniture, dressers and desks, some bed frames, a lot of crates stacked up in one corner. There were only two doorways, both of them absent of doors. Through the nearest one he could see a wine cellar. The other was obscured to darkness.

The ominous presence was worse than ever down here. It was almost choking.

“It is here,” Janessa whispered fearfully.

“Then let’s find it and get the fuck out of this place,” Layla muttered.

“We still need a method of containment.”

“Already got you covered,” Layla said. “We found a jewelry lockbox upstairs.”

“Give it to me, I need to reinforce it with magic now,” she said.

Layla stared at her for a moment, then turned to Yelena and pulled something out of her backpack. She slowly passed Janessa a small black box. Janessa took it and opened it. The interior was lined with red velvet.

“This will be perfect. You can look for it while I cast the spell,” she said, crouching down on the floor and setting the box down before her.

Her hands began to glow.

Almost the instant that happened, a wild, enraged roar cut through the air, and it very nearly gave John a fucking heart attack. It shook the whole building and he heard the bottles of wine rattle with the sheer power of it. One actually fell and shattered.

“What is it?!” Janessa cried.

“Go back upstairs!” John screamed as he turned to face the dark doorway.

Wordlessly, she snatched up the box and slipped through the door.

They began to hear heavy footfalls. Whatever it was, it was big. Big and solid and heavy. John found himself flashing back to that weird rock golem thing he’d faced in the underground portion of that abandoned fort in northern Veridis. This place was much, much smaller. This was going to be bad. Really bad. He tightened his grip on his dark blade as he waited, and Yelena’s hands began to glow red as she sheathed her sword. Layla had notched an arrow. They all parted from each other, to make more targets.

The footfalls drew closer, and then something stepped into the light.

It was nine feet tall, and made of solid black-and-blue ice.

“Oh my dear sweet fucking Gods,” Layla whispered in horror.

“What is that!?” Yelena demanded.

“It’s a corrupted ice elemental!” John snapped.

“Buy me time!” Yelena yelled suddenly, and began backing away.

“Shit,” John muttered. He jerked his palm forward suddenly, flattening it, and launched a fireball at the elemental. It was ice, after all. He thought it would move or smack it out of the way or something, but it just stood there and let the fireball hit it right in the chest. To no real apparent effect. “Oh, fuck me,” John whispered.

“Later,” Layla said, and fired off an arrow, then immediately launched a second one.

John began moving away as it started to lumber for them, Layla’s arrows bouncing off of it. This was way worse than what he thought was down here, and he hadn’t even really known what might be down here. But they could handle this. Probably. Yelena obviously had something in mind, she just needed a few moments to gather enough magic to do it. John thought about how to handle this. His best bet was probably to just play keep-away. Distract it that way. He hit it with another fireball as it started going for Layla.

It paused, then turned suddenly and began to cross the room with shockingly swift footfalls.

“Oh fuck!” John snapped, and barely rolled out of the way as it brought one huge ice-block of a fist down. It crashed into the stonework floor so hard that it felt like the entire building shook. It roared again as he rolled away and barely managed to regain his feet without falling over. John staggered away, then leaped forward as Layla shouted a warning and the thing tried to backhand him. He felt the cold wind of its massive ice hand passing. If that thing had hit him, he likely would have broken half the bones in his body.

Yelena could probably fix him, maybe.

He didn’t want to find out.

“Yelena, hurry!” he cried, although he didn’t mean to. Panic was starting to get to him as he found his feet once more, now at the entrance to the room the ice elemental had initially come out of. The thing had apparently started focusing on him, and its maddened, glowing blue eyes were locked onto his own. It was coming for him. It stomped across the underground room as he backed up, Layla’s arrows bouncing uselessly off of its impenetrable ice skin. Even under the best of circumstances, ice elementals, male ones, at least, weren’t very amicable. He’d actually heard of female ice elementals having conversations with adventurers, and even some rumors of having sex with them. Of course, magic needed to be involved.

But this thing was just a mindless juggernaut of raw strength.

John kept backing up into the darkened room. He held up his blade as it bore down on him, advancing slowly, implacably, but it felt like holding up a stick before a tornado. How in the fuck was he going to get out of this one?

Suddenly, as the ice elemental raised its fists, intending to crush him into paste, he heard a grunt of effort, and then a massive light appeared. It smashed directly into the back of the ice elemental and John barely managed to throw himself out of the way as the immensely powerful fireball hit it, destroyed it, and kept going. He felt his skin blister as it scorched past him and screamed in pain as he hit the floor and rolled several times.

And then everything became silent, save for the crackling of several fires.

“John!” Yelena cried. “I am sorry!”

He tried to respond, but the pain was blistering, almost crippling. How close had that fire gotten?! He tried to get up and collapsed, then screamed hoarsely as that assaulted his body with a fresh wave of agonizing suffering.

“Here, hold still,” Yelena said, and a moment later he felt a wave of healing magical energy pass over him. He wanted to tell her to stop, that she had already expended too much magic from that fireball, that she was surely exhausting herself, but the pain was overwhelming. It quickly began to diminish, then fade, and finally it was gone. As he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, Yelena collapsed into a sitting position.

“Yelena!” he cried, surging up and facing her.

“I am okay,” she murmured. “Just need...a moment.”

“That was insane,” Layla muttered as she approached.

“It is dead, yes?” Yelena asked.

“Yeah. It’s dead. There’s nothing left but some ice shards here and there, and they’re melting. Janessa, get in here!” she called.

John settled his hands on Yelena’s shoulders, studying her, then glanced over as the redheaded elf poked her head in through the door they’d initially come in through. “Is it safe?” she asked.

“Yes, come here,” Layla replied.

“Is Yelena okay?” she asked as she began scurrying over.

“I am fine,” Yelena replied. “I just need a moment.”

“Where’s that shard?” Layla asked.

“Hold on...” Janessa said, and suddenly a brilliant white light reappeared. He realized Yelena’s own magical light had extinguished and for a little bit they’d only had the flickering light of the few fires that still remained, though those were guttering out now. Now that there was more light, John quickly looked around the room the ice elemental had come from. It looked like it had been a training area at one point, and at the back was another door, a heavy, metal door that stood open. Beyond it, the light revealed a vault.

“I think it’s in there,” Janessa murmured.

“Did you finish preparing the lockbox?” Yelena asked.

“Almost.”

“Finish it,” Layla said, and strode off towards the vault.

“Are you going to be okay?” John asked, staring into Yelena’s flickering eyes.

She smiled. “Yes, my love. I do not say that I will be okay idly.”

“You do say it even when you aren’t okay, sometimes,” he replied.

She sighed. “Perhaps. But I really do just need a moment of rest. Go with Layla.”

He nodded, then reluctantly rose to his feet and jogged off to join her. They entered the vault together. It was a small room made of some dull gray metal. He expected it to be full of gems and gold, or at least rare or powerful armor, weapons, or even magical artifacts. But the shelves were bare. Only a single thing resided in the center: a metal pedestal about waist-height. On it rested a metal shard that vaguely resembled a pointy apple slice. In his mind, he saw five others being assembled into a central shape, glowing darkly.

“That’s it, huh?” Layla asked softly.

John groaned. Just looking at it, being near it, was making his head hurt, his throat close up, like he’d been exposed to something poisonous.

“Do not touch it,” Janessa said, approaching.

“I don’t think I could if I wanted to,” Layla muttered, and stepped back. John joined her. They waited at the entrance to the vault as Janessa stepped in. She was holding the lockbox in one hand and on the other she had a leather glove that shone with a white-blue aura. As she came to the pedestal, she tentatively reached out, grabbed the shard, and then quickly dropped it into the box. It clinked and from the sound of it, must be incredibly dense, as the box dipped her hand down from the impact. She quickly snapped it closed, locked it, and then released another wave of magic over it. With a soft sigh, she began to leave the vault.

Immediately, the awful presence began to dissipate, like a fire being doused.

“Can we leave this place now?” Janessa asked anxiously. “I hate it here.”

“So do I,” John muttered.

“We can go,” Yelena said. Slowly, she stood, and John moved over to her. It had been awhile since he’d seen her exhausted by magical effort. That fireball must have taken damn near everything she had. Well, it had worked at least.

As a group, the four of them began to leave the oppressive, ruined military fort.

CHAPTER VII

“Where will we go?” Layla asked.

They were back outside, in the rain, which remained misty and irritating. They stood a good distance from the fort, near the edge of the clearing.

“I know a place. It’s maybe another hour’s walk from here,” Janessa replied.

“Should we trust her?” Layla asked, looking at John and Yelena.

“Oh I’m sorry, do you know this island? Do you know a fucking place where we can go?” Janessa snapped, staring angrily at Layla.

“Don’t test me,” Layla growled, brandishing her claws.

“Layla!” John snapped. She looked at him, then let out a huff of irritation and crossed her arms. He looked at Janessa. “Where?”

“I passed a house in the forest on my way to that town. I believe I can get us back there. It is fairly remote, and also in the direction of the mansion, which is where I think we should go next. It will give us time to recover, and myself and Yelena time to figure out the shard a bit. I don’t know what the fuck it will give Layla time to do,” she muttered.

Layla let out another growl and took a step closer to her.

“Janessa, please...don’t be petulant. Layla, please try to relax,” John said.

“This is not helping,” Yelena agreed.

Janessa frowned and sighed. “Sorry,” she muttered.

“Fine, let’s go,” Layla replied.

Janessa turned away and began to lead them into the forest again. With a worried glance at Layla, who stomped off after her, John followed with Yelena at his side.

This wasn’t turning out as he’d hoped it would.

…

They managed to find the house about an hour later.

There was almost no conversation the entire way there, and the only good thing that happened was that the rain let up. John thought that it was sometime past noon now, and wondered how long they could afford to rest here before heading on again. Maybe an hour or two. If they were hitting up the mansion next, and he understood the map correctly, and their current position on it, they could ideally get to the mansion in another hour or so. He remembered seeing it when they had surveyed the land from atop the lighthouse.

He didn’t relish the thought of going there.

The house was very basic, just a single story structure in a clearing in the woods. They checked out the exterior, found nothing, and then moved slowly through the interior. But all there was to find was a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a reading room. It was, like everywhere else they had discovered on this wretched island so far, abandoned. While Layla stood by the front window, staring out into the forest, Yelena and Janessa brought out the shard and cautiously began to examine it in the reading room.

John got a fire going in a fireplace in the living room, then drew water from a well in the back and transferred it to a cast iron pot and set it to boil by the fire. Then repeated the process with a second pot.

“I will hunt,” Layla declared abruptly.

“Wait, I’ll come with you,” John said.

“Be quick,” she replied, and slipped out through the door.

John sighed and poked his head into the reading room. “Layla and I are hunting for food. We will be back soon. There’s water boiling by the fireplace. Please keep watch on it,” he said.

“We will, my dearest. I love you. Please be careful,” Yelena replied.

“I will. I love you, too.”

He gave her a hug and a kiss, and then went outside to join Layla, who was waiting for him impatiently by the treeline. As soon as she saw him, she set off. Her tail was twitching and she was clearly still angry. John followed after her, and as they went hunting, he found himself trying to formulate the correct words to approach the subject of why she was so pissed off. She seemed in a foul enough mood that she would be unwilling to talk about it, and he had to admit, he was reminded strongly of Bianca, the demon hunter they met during their first adventure after leaving his village. And they’d gotten through to her, so…

Maybe he could get lucky here, too.

They hunted for half an hour, and managed to find three more rabbits. Layla killed them all with an expert skill, putting her bow to terrifyingly good use. After they began heading back to the house, John finally decided to broach the subject.

“Layla...”

“What?” she asked.

“You have to calm down.”

“No, I don’t,” she replied immediately.

He sighed and stopped suddenly. She walked forward a few more paces, then stopped, though she refused to turn and face him. He waited. Still, she wouldn’t face him. “Layla, this is going to become a liability. What we’re doing here is too important for your anger to get in the way of it. I don’t mean to sound callous, but I thought you would appreciate that.”

“I do appreciate that,” she snarled suddenly, and began stomping off.

This wasn’t going how he had hoped it would. “Layla!” he said, hurrying after her and grabbing her arm.

“What!?” she snapped, turning around to face him so violently that he fell back a step, letting go of her.

“Will you please have a conversation with me? You’re obviously pissed, and this can’t be over Janessa. She hasn’t done anything to warrant this level of anger.”

“We have no idea who she is. She could be using us to assemble the artifact for herself. She could have us get it, then murder us and take it.”

“If it truly comes to that, then we will kill her,” John replied. “But I really don’t think it will.”

“Perhaps you are too trusting.”

“Perhaps you are too quick to see betrayal,” he countered.

“Would you sacrifice Yelena if it meant stopping this artifact from falling into the wrong hands?” she asked suddenly.

He hesitated. Would he? “I...don’t know,” he admitted.

“I thought so,” she muttered. The fight seemed to go out of her suddenly. Instead of angry, she just looked sad.

“Is that what you had to do?” he asked quietly.

She sighed. “No. Thank the Gods, I didn’t. But it was a very near thing.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she replied after a moment. Now she just sounded...tired.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

She looked at him. “Why?”

“I guess I just want to know how far this paranoia extends.” She opened her mouth immediately. “I’m not judging you,” he added quickly. “It sounds like your paranoia is well-earned. I don’t even fully blame you.”

“I like you, and Yelena,” she said after a moment. “And I trust you more than I trust Janessa.”

“That’s not really an answer.”

“I know. It’s...what I’m comfortable with right now.”

“All right. I’m not going to push. All I’m asking is that...you stop being cruel to Janessa. You don’t have to trust her, but please stop antagonizing her. If she is what she appears, then you’re just making a woman miserable for no reason, and...isn’t there enough misery in the world?” Her expression seemed to soften at that. “Besides, do you know what makes more sense than letting someone know you don’t trust them?”

“What?” she asked.

“Making them think they’ve earned your trust. They’re way more likely to let something slip if they feel comfortable around you,” he replied.

She laughed suddenly. “I like the way you think. Is that what you’re doing with me?”

“No. I’m easy. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I prefer to be up front and straightforward with everyone I meet. Lying is too hard to keep track of, and I’m bad at it,” he replied.

“Or you’re an expert at it...but I think you’re telling the truth,” she said. Finally, she let out a long, weary sigh. “Fine. I will be kinder to Janessa.” She paused, then a sly grin split her face. “You’re going to fuck her, aren’t you?”

“I mean, if she lets me, yeah. Fuck yeah, I am. She’s wicked hot.”

“Hotter than me?”

“Oh no, I don’t play that game,” he replied immediately. “You’re both crazy hot, and Yelena’s the hottest woman in existence, and let’s leave it at that.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “Come on, let’s get back. I’m hungry.”

Feeling a lot better, they began heading back.

As they got back to the house and checked in with Yelena and Janessa, who were still hard at work, he and Layla settled into the almost meditative routine of preparing a meal. They skinned and cleaned the rabbits, then set the meat to cook. While that was happening, they took the water off, waited for it to cool a bit, and then John quickly stripped of his armor and took the opportunity to wash up. One thing he had learned since taking to his life on the road: if at all possible, wash up, grab a bite to eat or a nap, and take a piss during the downtime. Because you never knew when you might suddenly be thrust into a situation that would demand you be awake and mobile for the next fifteen hours, or maybe you’ll be without food for a few days.

That shit could get brutal.

“You’re in remarkable shape,” Layla said, studying him intently as she tended to the rabbit.

“I had about five straight months to work out all the time,” he replied. “And I was already starting from a decent position. Plus...well, Yelena is fucking insatiable. Seriously, we fuck like all the time and she can just go and go and go.”

“She is a demon,” Layla murmured, smirking a little.

“Yeah.”

“So be honest, is her pussy the best pussy you’ve ever fucked?”

“Yes,” he replied immediately. “And I have had sex with a succubus.”

“Oh, wow...you know, I’m curious. How do the species rank? I mean, you’ve had a decent sample of most of them, it seems.”

He chuckled as he ran his rag and soap over his body. “Well...it’s like I told you about beauty. They’re all amazing, and Yelena’s is the best. But that admittedly comes more from just...I genuinely don’t know! I mean, elf pussy is so good. But dryad pussy is so fucking great! And then there’s serpentine vagina, my Gods...”

“I still can’t believe you’ve fucked a serpentine. That’s just...man, that’s wild.”

“And then, wow, Minotaur pussy...”

“Wait, you fucked a Minotaur?” she asked, straightening up.

“Yes. This beautiful Minotaur we met a few months ago agreed to have sex with me, and it was absolutely fucking amazing.”

“Did I just hear you say what I think I heard?” Janessa called. “You had sex with a Minotaur woman?”

“Yep!” he called back.

“Holy shit...”

“It was quite invigorating to watch,” Yelena said. “And several times I fucked her with-AH!” she cried in outrage.

“What?!” John asked, rushing over.

“My toy!” she moaned. He came to the doorway and saw her hands on her head. “My toy! It is gone! Oh, I just realized, it is gone!”

“Your...toy?” Janessa asked uncertainly.

“She means sex toy,” John said, relaxing. He thought she’d hurt herself or something, she’d shouted with such genuine anger and frustration.

“What kind of sex toy? You can probably find another one...” Layla said as she joined him by the doorway.

“No! It was a magical sex toy! Incredibly rare! A fake cock that allowed me to feel sex whenever I fucked other women with it! It was a gift from dryads!” she moaned, covering her face.

“I’m so sorry, honey,” John said.

“Oh wow, I didn’t even know you could do that...” Janessa whispered.

“That’s some toy,” Layla murmured. “Gods, that’s awful.”

“Ugh!” she cried.

“We’ll find another one honey, I promise,” John said.

“Truly?” she asked after a few seconds, lowering her hands and staring at him.

“Yes. I promise. And we’re going to Kindress. If anyone is going to have that toy...”

“Yes, I suppose Fiona’s people know and care enough about sex to be able to produce another,” she murmured.

“Yeah, them or the cyprians,” Layla said.

Yelena let out a long, weary sigh, then turned back to the table. “We should continue.”

“Yeah,” Janessa muttered glumly, staring angrily at the shard in its box.

John left them to it and he got back to washing up while Layla tended to the meal.

He checked on Yelena and Janessa from time to time, but they were intently focused. He didn’t like it, to be honest. Even here he could feel the pervasive power of the shard, now that they had the lid of the lockbox open and they were studying it. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was they were doing, but he knew he hated being around the thing, and he hated Yelena being around it more. After close to half an hour, the pair of them finally emerged from the room, holding the lockbox, again sealed firmly, and looking irritated.

“So?” Layla asked.

“It will take a great deal more effort and time to determine a way to destroy these shards,” Layla replied unhappily.

“So it would be in our best interest to gather them up and kill the cult first, huh?” John asked.

“Yes,” Yelena agreed.

“We’ve reinforced the magical barrier around the box, and we should recharge it every so often. Yelena and I are both very gifted in magical ability, Yelena especially, but...”

“But?” Layla pressed.

“The more shards we collect, the more dangerous that lockbox will become to carry around.”

“I will carry it in my pack,” Yelena said. John began to respond but she held up a hand. “I know, love. You wish to take it for yourself, or you wish to suggest we split the responsibility. Normally I would agree with that second suggestion, but I am, by far, more suited to handle the responsibility. Although we cannot tell the origin of the artifact, it either is demonic, or is less corrosive to demons.” She looked uncomfortable. “I do not like the implications of the second one.”

“Just because you’re a demon doesn’t mean you’re evil, Yelena,” Janessa said quietly.

“That’s definitely true,” John agreed immediately.

Yelena sighed but said nothing, still looking uncomfortable. After a few seconds, she just shook her head, as if rousing herself. “What matters is that I will handle it. And for the moment, we must eat and recoup our strength, because that mansion is next. And from there the caves. I want to get this done as fast as possible.”

“We should be careful,” Janessa replied uncomfortably. “Each of these is going to be an ordeal, and not just because of the immediately obvious physically taxing battles, but because of the nature of the shards themselves. I know you three are really tough and surely have a lot of endurance but...I am worried.”

“We’ll be careful,” John promised. “And we will assess our condition after each shard.”

That seemed to mollify her enough and she just nodded. He wondered how she was holding up after the fort. As they finished preparing the meal and passed it out and began to eat, he found himself worrying about Janessa. He pretty much believed her, that her story was as she said. If anything, he might normally be inclined to suspect Layla of something, because this level of anger and suspicion almost felt like she was hiding something, overcompensating. Like a wife demanding to know where her husband was every minute of every day, accusing him of cheating multiple times, flying into fits of jealous rage when, in fact, she was the one cheating. But his instincts told him that Layla wasn’t hiding anything, she was traumatized.

Whatever had happened to her had affected her deeply, and he felt for her.

He knew what it was like to feel like your entire life was collapsing before your very eyes. When his parents had died, it had felt like the end of the world.

They ate their rabbit, drank their water, and mostly stayed silent, simply resting in the abandoned house, listening to the gentle patter of rain outside.

After nearly an hour, they finally began gathering their things, as it was decided that they should get a move on.

And then they were out the door, back into the soft rainfall, heading towards the mountain in the middle of the island.

…

“Janessa,” Layla said.

“What?” she replied, sounding startled.

John glanced back at the two of them. He and Yelena were leading the way. They had walked towards the mountain until finally emerging from the dense, wet forest half an hour later at the base of the mountain. A dark, ominous entrance into the mountain, littered with old, rusty mining tools, stood near the beginning of a path that wound along the mountainside and would ultimately take them up to the mansion.

He’d been very glad to pass by that mine entrance, grateful that they wouldn’t have to go inside of it.

“I’m sorry for being rude,” Layla said, her voice a little flat.

“Oh...okay,” Janessa murmured. She paused. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

Another pause, then, “Why don’t you trust me?”

Layla sighed. “I told you, I was betrayed.”

“By who?”

“By someone I thought was a friend. She betrayed us so thoroughly and utterly...” she trailed off, looking to the left, out over the forest, towards the lighthouse that was now clearly visible as they continued up the path.

“I’m sorry,” Janessa said after a moment.

Layla didn’t say anything. John returned his attention to the front. He wondered if this apology was genuine, or if Layla was just heeding his advice. He didn’t like to be deceptive, but he wasn’t entirely against it. It had its uses. Sometimes. In all honestly, he hoped everything turned out like it should: Janessa was telling the truth, Layla was cooling off, they would complete their goals. Because this shit was fucked up enough as it was. Even though the shard was wrapped up in a magical cocoon, he could still feel its corrosive, evil presence digging into his awareness, and he absolutely hated the thought of Yelena carrying it around, let alone more than one of them. It didn’t seem to be bothering her, and although she was shockingly resilient, he knew that she would rather not show any form of weakness at all.

Even to her own detriment.

Before long, John began to see the mansion. Even in the distance, it had appeared as a dark, forbidding structure, and now that they were closer it only seemed worse. From what he could see as they approached it from the side, it looked as if it had been built by someone who had an unhealthy obsession with horror stories.

“Why would anyone wish to live here?” Yelena murmured as they approached.

“Some people are really weird,” Layla replied. “Although I have to admit, there are times where I’m tempted to live in a fucking mansion on an island in the middle of godsdamned nowhere, with no other people around.”

“It is not necessarily the isolation that confuses me so much as the building itself. I understand the desire to be alone...” She hesitated and glanced at John. “Well, almost alone.”

“Come on,” Layla said, and set off. “We haven’t even gone inside and I already hate this place.”

John had to agree. As they came to stand on the plateau the path ended in, he couldn’t shake the feeling of ominous, oppressive danger the mansion gave off. It was constructed largely of dark gray stone, the windows blackened, either with dust or intentionally. A privacy wall topped with now rusty metal spikes surrounded the mansion completely, running up against the mountainside that it was built on to either side. The only way in was through a pair of large doors that were slightly ajar, almost as if inviting them in.

John went first, his blade drawn, and he slipped carefully through. Beyond lay a huge, overgrown courtyard. He saw a large, broken stone table, several benches, what might have been a hedge maze, an old fountain with an elaborately carved statue presiding over it, and a large garden area. All of it was totally overrun with vegetation. A cobblestone pathway led from the gate to a large set of stairs that led up to a huge wraparound porch.

“Looks clear,” he said, and began moving down the pathway.

As he approached the mansion, which loomed a good four stories above them all, he did wonder about who had built this place and why. Chances were it was some rich noble or landowner or lumber baron, or maybe even an old adventurer looking to retire. The story was common enough: rich, powerful person gets old and enters their twilight years, and grows weary of civilization, and just wants to take their riches and retreat to a luxurious, isolated island mansion. Though mostly they chose much nicer islands.

Maybe awhile ago this was a nicer island.

They managed to reach and ascend the stone stairs without a problem, but with each step closer to the mansion, the malignant presence of the shard that rested here grew. At least it wasn’t cold here. It helped, but not as much as he thought it might. John reached the door first and carefully opened it up. It swung slowly inwards, creaking with a painful loudness and shining light on a dusty entry hall. As he scrutinized it, he hesitated, looking down. There were footprints in the dust. Although one of them seemed like it was dragging.

“Someone else is here,” he whispered.

“Wonderful,” Yelena murmured.

“What now?” Layla asked.

“We should search the ground floor, and then the basement. I want to get it out of the way first this time,” Yelena replied.

“Fair point. Let’s stick together,” John replied, and they all murmured in agreement.

After the military fort, and the ominous air of this place, no one seemed eager to be apart from the group. At first, their progress was slow. They moved as quietly as they could manage, following the footsteps in the dust. The right doorway off the entrance hall led into a vast dining room with a huge table that could seat two dozen. It looked largely undisturbed, although some of the chairs had been knocked over. It quickly became difficult to see as the windows were so covered in soot and dust, so Yelena threw up another light spell.

They moved from the dining hall into the kitchens, and John could easily imagine a dozen servants moving to and fro, bustling about, preparing a lavish, five-course meal for the family that called this place home. The place stank faintly of rotting food, and they didn’t bother checking any of the cabinets, knowing that surely that’s where the smell was coming from, and opening them would only make it worse. They checked out the kitchen and a pair of huge pantries, and then follow the dragging footsteps in the dust through a servant’s entrance at the back and into a hallway, this one packed with doors.

“This must be where the servants once lived,” Layla muttered.

“Check the rooms,” John replied.

They spread out. There were a dozen doors, most of them in the walls to either side. The footprints became confused here, as though they had crossed back on themselves several times. Who, or what, ever it had been must have wandered into several of these rooms. He kept wondering what it may be. A survivor, injured, confused? A cult member? The family that once lived here? Although it seemed obvious that no one had been here in a long time, he supposed it was possible, somehow, that some of the original inhabitants were still around. Although the more he saw of the place, the less likely that became.

The servant’s quarters were each tiny rooms, and they were meant to live two to a room, with bunk beds in the corner, a desk, a dresser, and nothing else. It didn’t exactly seem like the most pleasant place to live.

All the quarters turned out empty. Nothing of any real value, no survivors, and the door at the end of the hallway led them out into another, much larger hall that they would have come to had they struck off forward from the entrance. A pair of grand staircases led upwards to either side, to the rest of the house, and there were a few more doors to check out. As they figured out where to go next, John suddenly became aware of a sound.

Footsteps. One was dragging, though.

It was coming from a door that led to the left side of the house. The four of them quickly spread out, Yelena and Layla moving to either side of him, Janessa backing up. John wielded his blade, holding it in a ready stance as the dragging footsteps drew closer and closer. Finally, something emerged from the doorway.

And John immediately recognized it for what it was.

“Zombie,” Layla hissed.

John stepped forward and neatly decapitated it, severing its head with one, clean swipe from his midnight blade. That killed it in an instant, and it dropped as though it were a puppet with its strings cut. John stepped back, blade still held at ready, in case more took the opportunity to attack. Elsewhere in the building, he did hear other sounds, what might have been moans, as probably other undead were made aware of their presence.

“Well, at least we know what happened to the people,” Janessa muttered quietly.

“Quite,” John murmured, and prodded the corpse with his blade when it became obvious there was nothing else threatening in the immediate area. It was an elf woman who wore a serving outfit. She was long dead, very skeletal.

“Hopefully that is all we have to face here,” Yelena murmured.

“Doubt it,” Layla growled.

They got back to work, making slightly more brisk progress through the ground floor of the dark, dreary mansion. They made their way through what might have been a sun-bathing room, a guest bedroom, what seemed to be a second dining hall but Janessa pointed out was actually a wine-drinking room, and finally circled back around to the main entrance. They found and put down another two zombies that were in equally dismal condition, one of them seeming to belong to the family who had probably owned the place.

“Still want to get the basement out of the way?” John asked as they gathered at the door that led down into the darkness.

“Yes,” Yelena replied, though she sounded uncertain.

“Problem?” Layla asked.

“Perhaps. I am not sensing any more evil than elsewhere in the mansion so far. I thought I would feel more as we approached this door,” she murmured.

“Maybe it’s farther down than a normal basement,” Janessa suggested.

“Perhaps. Let us go.”

She led the way, lighting the stairwell with a powerful light spell. They followed after her and their footsteps echoed in the stonework stairway as they descended. John kept expecting to feel a wave of icy evil, a creeping darkness that began to consume him, but nothing happened. If anything, the pervasive feeling of grimy corruption lessened as they got down into the basement. So, evidently, it wasn’t in the basement. Well, they still had to check it anyway. Or maybe it was in the basement. Maybe it was just secured.

As they began investigating a few rooms that were packed with old crap that looked like it hadn’t been touched in decades and a pair of wine cellars, John was almost tempted to ask Janessa if she was sure about the locations. But she had been sure about the fort, and despite the fact that it didn’t seem all that much worse here compared to the rest of the island, he felt almost certain it had to be here. It was worse, he could feel that walking in through the front door, and more than that, despite how often he’d run into undead, they weren’t that common. It took some specific conditions or circumstances to make them happen.

“Well, that was a waste,” Yelena muttered after they had completed their sweep.

“Speak for yourself,” Layla replied as she slipped a few bottles of wine into her pack, wrapping each in a cloth.

Yelena laughed. “I suppose not entirely a waste, although I am not sure if I would feel comfortable drinking at all on the island.”

Layla let out a heavy sigh. “I suppose so. But eventually we’ll be off this island, and then we can get shitfaced and fuck like rabbits.”

“Yes,” Yelena replied with enthusiasm, and John found himself chuckling.

He didn’t drink anymore, but he found that Yelena got even sluttier when she was drunk, and that made for some good fucking. It seemed that a lot of adventuresses were that way, in his experience. He couldn’t hold onto those thoughts for long, though, as they ascended the stairs, first heading back up to the ground floor and then getting up to the second story. As they got up higher, the feeling of corruption and misery suddenly intensified.

“It is up,” Yelena said unhappily.

“Probably in the attic. If it isn’t the basement, it’s the fucking attic,” Layla growled.

They pressed on, intent on clearing all the rooms before heading up so that nothing decided to sneak up from behind them. They couldn’t entirely prevent that, but they could at least do their due diligence.

Half of the entire second floor was a massive library that had a shitload of books, and John’s heart broke a little at seeing them all. He wouldn’t be able to salvage even a tenth of a tenth of them for Yelena, and he could tell from the wistful look in her eyes that she was thinking something similar. Maybe, when this was all over, they could come back and sort through the books, see if they could find anything truly interesting. But that was later. The second half was made up largely of guest chambers it seemed, and here they found about half a dozen more undead, all of them servants, all of them in a similarly desiccated state as the others.

They put them down with relative ease once again, and John began to grow suspicious as he chopped down the zombies. This felt too easy. Surely, though, worse and harder to kill things were waiting for them somewhere overhead.

With that unpleasant thought, he led the way up to the third story.

Here, the presence was stronger than ever, and it made him hesitate as he reached the landing. They gathered around him.

“What waits for us?” Janessa whispered softly.

“Hopefully just more zombies,” Yelena replied. “But...”

“But?” John asked.

“I am not sure. I sense something. Something familiar. Evil, to be sure. Dangerous. Something more than merely the undead.”

“Great,” Layla muttered.

“Well, the sooner we face it, the sooner we’ll know what it is,” John said finally, and began marching up the stairs.

The others followed him.

CHAPTER VIII

It was definitely colder on the second story.

It seemed darker, too. The shadows a bit thicker, as though they gathered in the corners like cobwebs. They decided to stick together once again, and Yelena lit the way with her light spell. There was another stairway immediately ahead of them, leading up to the next story, where the darkness seemed even worse. They ignored it for now, instead opting to break off to the left and begin their search there.

The first room they came to was a huge bedroom with an extravagant four-post bed, three full-body mirrors arranged together in between a pair of huge wardrobes. The four of them combed over the room, pocketing anything of value they found out of habit more than anything else. John did believe they were getting off this island, and he’d lost everything, so valuables would be, well, valuable to him and Yelena if they were going to re-outfit themselves. The bedroom was empty, as were the next two they found, which were smaller, though no less extravagant. Another room housed what might have been a place to smoke pipes and perhaps play card games. There were another pair of zombies in there, and these seemed a bit more alert.

They stumbled quickly towards the group as they stepped into the room, groaning and reaching for them, and John and Yelena each stepped forward and decapitated them with a single swipe. Their heads fell to the floor as their bodies collapsed. They waited for more to arrive, but none came. Still, John waited for the other shoe to drop. What else was in there with them? He kept checking the corners, checking the shadows for anything that might be lurking, but they finished their sweep of the second story while running into only another pair of zombies that were put down just as easily as the first they’d encountered.

They returned to the stairway and ascended again, tenser than before.

It was even colder up here. Their breaths began to foam on the air as the quartet ascended to the third floor. The whole right side of this story was taken up entirely by a single room, what looked to be a grand dance hall where balls and galas would have been held. Although, as he looked around the huge room, John found it hard to imagine enough people coming to this forsaken island to fill it. He found himself asking, yet again, why the fuck would someone build this here? However, before he could think any further, he saw something.

“What is that?” Janessa whispered fearfully.

There was a faintly glowing light across the huge room. It seemed to be bobbing gently. It was a white light in an uncertain shape.

“Another glow spell?” Layla muttered.

“No...” Yelena murmured. She raised her hands and they began to glow, then took a few steps closer. “I think-”

A shriek cut through the air and suddenly the light darkened considerably. Only it wasn’t dimming or going out, it was changing to black light.

“Oh fuck!” John snapped, raising his sword.

Yelena grunted and shoved her hands forward. A piercing red beam of light cut through the air and connected with the darkness as it rapidly began advancing on them. The shrieking cut off abruptly, echoing as the red light and the dark light mixed, and then began to fade away, dissipating into the air like blood in the water.

“A spirit,” Yelena muttered.

“Like a ghost?” Layla asked.

“Yes. I recognize it now. It is an entity drawn from another realm here by the evil presence. I have encountered them before. I can handle them, though...”

“What?” Janessa asked.

“If they are powerful enough, I may not be able to handle them. I am very strong, but even I have my limits.”

“I am a fairly powerful magic user,” Janessa said.

“But how much combat experience do you have?” John asked.

She sighed. “Almost none.”

“If I need help, I will let you know,” Yelena replied. “Let us continue our search.”

They checked out the ballroom, moving along its edges and confirming that nothing else lurked in the darkness. After they had finished searching it, they returned to the stairwell and then made their way to the other side of the house. Here, they found a hallway that stretched away to their left. Four doors awaited them, each closed.

John walked slowly up to the first one nearest to them. He reached out and gripped the knob. The handle was cold to the touch. He listened intently, but heard nothing. Trying not to shiver, he opened the door. The ball of light provided enough illumination to see by that he caught sight of what seemed to be an office. There were bookshelves on the walls, covered in books and stacks of paper in a messy disarray, and an immense oaken desk sat up against the wall directly across from the door. John took a few steps in and looked around, but the place was clearly void of life, or the undead, or whatever spirits fell under.

He left it and moved on to the second door, the others backing him up.

John opened it up and then shouted in surprise as another shriek cut through the air. Before he could react, a chair was suddenly raised up and hurled right at him. He didn’t even have time to get out of the way. It crashed into him and shattered into kindling, sending him flying backwards into the wall behind him. He landed with a grunt. The shrieking got louder as the ghost drew closer. The second it crossed the threshold into the hall, Yelena hit it with another beam of red light. It made contact and began to disappear, though this time he noticed that it took longer for the shrieking to stop and the spirit to die off.

They were getting stronger already.

“Are you okay?” Yelena asked, offering him her hand.

“Fine,” he grunted as she pulled him to his feet. “Hate getting shit thrown at me.”

“It does seem to happen often, but I suppose that is the life we have chosen to live,” Yelena replied.

“Yeah.”

They searched the office beyond and found it empty of anything useful. No shard, no weapons, and they didn’t want to take the time to perform a more thorough search unless they had to. John felt almost positive now that the shard was above them. The wait was starting to kill him, because he just wanted to get this damned place over with, he hated being in here, but they had to finish the search. Whatever was up there was likely going to be brutal, and they didn’t need anything else coming up from behind, providing backup.

They found another three zombies among the next two rooms and put them down quickly, then regrouped at the stairwell.

Yelena shivered. “I was hoping it would not be cold again,” she growled.

“It’s the haunting,” Janessa murmured. “Ghosts always bring cold with them. And phantasms and spirits and phantoms and all the other things drawn in by hauntings, or curses.”

“How much do you know of them?” Yelena asked.

Janessa sighed. “I mean, I’ve studied ghosts and spirits, but I’ve never actually fought any before. I mean, I can if I have to, I think, anyway.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe,” Layla muttered. He couldn’t tell if she was being genuine or sarcastic, and from the look Janessa gave her, neither could she.

“Let us face this,” Yelena said, and set off up the stairs.

John quickly followed after her, as did the others. The only sound he heard was their footsteps, striking the stone as they ascended. He held his black blade in hand, ready to go, body still aching from being thrown back by that damned chair. And soon, every step became difficult. The presence was at its apex now, the corrosive, toxic atmosphere almost choking as they reached the top of the stairs and found only a single door waiting for them.

Of course, if it wasn’t the basement, it was the attic.

It was downright freezing now and John had to fight not to shiver. Yelena opened the door and he tensed, preparing himself. He stepped in right behind Yelena, then sidestepped to make room, and immediately checked out the area. He half-expected it to be packed full of crap, and was having flashbacks to that place they’d raided back in the northern area when looking for funding for their town, the one that had by coincidence belonged to that ex-princess’s lineage. Ellie. There’d been something bad up there, too.

But this place seemed almost totally empty. In the cold light he saw a handful of pieces of furniture: a battered old desk, a huge wardrobe, an end table, a fancy chair with a large back, an expensive coat rack. They all stood alone and apart, almost looking lonely. The shadows and darkness here were thicker than ever, and it didn’t seem as though the ball of light pushed it back very much. Yelena let out a frustrated growl and increased the power once, twice, three times. John could sense something lurking out there in the dark, but he didn’t know what. Except that it was evil. And malevolent.

He continually searched the darkness as Yelena’s light spell pushed it back, waiting for the moment that the creature, or creatures, would be revealed. But the seconds drew out, the tension built, and still he saw nothing.

“What was that?” Layla whispered, sounding very strained and tense.

“Where?” Yelena snapped.

“To the right.”

John looked right. At first, he saw nothing, but as he stared intently, suddenly, he caught the barest hint of movement. As he was preparing to say something, to do something, Yelena suddenly let out a shout of fury and thrust her hands forward. Another beam of red light shot out of her hands and punched into the movement, and something let out an otherworldly scream. John felt his hopes swell, maybe they could get out of this without a serious fight. He caught sight of its basic shape, it almost looked like a malformed skeleton with a big head covered in dark tatters of clothing. It continued screaming and Yelena kept hitting it.

Eventually, the beam cut off, the red light disappeared, and the gloom returned.

“So...is that it?” Layla asked after several seconds.

“I think-” Yelena began, and suddenly a ball of dark energy burst forth and headed straight towards them.

“Move!” John screamed.

The ball of dark energy slammed into the wall behind him, by the door, and the force of the blast threw them all away, into the attic. John felt an icy, painful wave of cold needles slam into him as the energy shockwave hit and he briefly lost control of his body. He went slack, collapsing to the floor, and groaned as he quickly tried to force sensation back into his muscles. The screaming returned and it sounded enraged.

“I can get rid of it!” Janessa shouted suddenly, though her voice sounded strained and weary. “Just keep it off me!”

“Fine!” Yelena shouted back and another beam of light, this one less powerful than before, hit the creature again.

It roared and began coming at them. John staggered to his feet. He had no idea if his blade would do any damage. It had done damage to some pretty random things, spirit-type entities among them, so why not give it a shot?

He lumbered forward, blade held out.

Layla was keeping her distance, firing arrows at it. He imagined it was difficult for her not to rush forward, but she had to know her up-close-and-personal weapons would almost certainly not be effective. Fuck, the only reason John was doing it was because he had no idea if his black blade would kill it or do nothing. The skeletal wraith-like entity was coming for Layla, as her arrows at least seemed to be irritating it. He threw himself at it, taking the opportunity, and brought his blade around in a swinging arc into its chest.

The blade hit it and bounced off.

The creature staggered, then turned and punched him in the chest.

He cried out as the sheer force of the hit sent him flying backwards and an icy chill, like he’d been thrown into a lake in winter, washed over him.

Okay, so, apparently his mystery blade didn’t count for shit against this thing. Good to know. He saw a bright red flash at the same time he heard Yelena let out a yell of effort. Sitting up again, trying to ignore the overwhelming pain of the icy sensation covering his body, he saw the creature lit up by a red radiance, and it made for one terrifying sight. A dark-red skeleton with a screaming face wreathed in rags that almost looked like flames now that they were reddened by Yelena’s magic. The strange monster staggered backwards and began to sluggishly recover. Yelena was at least doing some damage to it.

As she prepared another assault and Layla kept firing her arrows at it, which rebounded almost uselessly off of it, the creature lashed out suddenly and sent a tendril of dark energy at Yelena. She narrowly dodged it, but he saw that it affected her in passing. What the fuck was this thing? He’d never quite encountered something like it before. He got back to his feet and tried to figure out what he could actually do to assault it, because a direct attack was out. Finally, he shrugged and hurled a fireball at it. The ball of fire smacked the thing right in its grinning, skeleton face, and appeared to do nothing more than get its attention.

The thing made a backhand gesture at him and a wave of freezing black magic was released. John staggered to the side, trying to get out of the way, but still felt it wash over him. He cried out and seized up as his body went rigid, and he collapsed to the floor. He heard Yelena shout his name, but there was no time for her to help him. For what felt like ages, he was basically frozen there on the floor. It was honestly embarrassing that this shit kept happening to him, but when you hung out with magic users, you tended to be outclassed, especially when you were fighting unknown horrors from beyond your own realm.

Finally, John got some feeling back in his limbs and he rolled over and began trying to get up. He saw Layla was still keeping her distance, but frost had formed on half her body and she was grimacing severely. Yelena was panting, an expression of cold concentration on her face as she kept the skeletal thing away from Janessa, who was...glowing. She had a blue-white aura now, and it was shining more brightly than ever.

As he looked at her, she suddenly let out a scream of exertion and threw her hands towards the sky and that blue-white energy exploded. It expanded rapidly and whited out his vision. It covered him with a warmth that drove away the cold and pushed back against the suffocating corrupting presence of the creature and the shard.

When his vision came back to him, John saw that the room was much less dark, and that the creature was gone.

For several seconds, no one spoke.

Then, Layla said, “So what the fuck was that?”

“They have several names, but I think most commonly they’re called specters,” Janessa said. She sounded very tired. “They come from another realm, a dead realm, I think. They are anchored here, drawn in by certain unique conditions, among them hauntings with a bit of a twist. I’m guessing that shard provided the twist.”

“So what did you do?” John asked.

“I removed the haunting, and thus the anchor,” she replied. “And it lost its grip.”

“Will it come back?” Yelena asked. She was approaching John.

“I don’t think so. And if it does, it’ll be a long time.”

“Good.” She crouched beside him. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he managed. “Just a little cold.”

She laughed grimly. “It seems we cannot avoid that recently.”

“Apparently not.”

He let her help him up and looked around. Layla and Janessa didn’t look great. He was sure he looked like crap, too.

“Let’s grab the shard and get out,” he said.

They all murmured in agreement.

…

They took half an hour to first track down the shard, then secure it in the lockbox and lay an extra layer of magical protection around it, as already John could feel the dark presence being magnified by having now two of the damned things in there. They found it in a glass case at the back of the attic, and again he wondered what had compelled whoever had put it there to do so. He supposed it didn’t matter now. After securing it, they had left the mansion and then given themselves a chance to take a short break outside, on the plateau.

“Can we get to the caves from here?” John asked after another half an hour or so had passed. They hadn’t said anything, just sat there in the rain, getting their breath back.

“No,” Janessa replied. “Unfortunately, we will have to walk all the way back down and make our way around the mountain to another path.”

“Great,” Yelena muttered.

They sat around a bit longer, getting their strength back and honestly just catching their breath after finally escaping that wretched mansion, and finally Yelena got back to her feet. Well, to her hooves.

“We should keep moving,” she said, sounding unhappy but determined about it.

“Yeah,” John agreed, slowly getting to his feet. He popped his neck and then helped the other two to their feet.

The four of them made their way back down the path. At least that was easier. Indeed, the trip down felt much shorter and almost pleasant compared to the long march up. As they reached the base of the mountain path, he again took a look at the dark, ominous opening of the mine to their left. He again was struck by the notion that he was so glad they didn’t have to go in there, when Yelena let out a shouted warning.

“Enemies!”

John drew his blade even before he’d finished turning and suddenly found himself facing a dozen dark-clad men and women. One of them stood at the center, a bit taller than everyone else, the only one who didn’t have his hood up.

“Landon,” Janessa growled as she saw him, and John realized this must be the leader.

“You turned out to be a better investment than I realized,” the man, Landon, replied. He looked amused. “And you found new...” he looked uncertainly at Yelena, “...friends. Who are you? I must ask this of you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Yelena growled.

He sighed. “I suppose not. Such a curiosity, though. But you have done my work for me quite well. I’ll tell you what: give me the shards you have, and I’ll let you go.”

“He’s lying,” Janessa muttered.

“Oh come on now, Janessa. Don’t you trust me?”

“No. Why the fuck would I? You lied to my face,” she replied.

“I would have gotten around to telling you eventually.” He straightened up a little and his expression grew serious. “But I’m afraid I must insist. The shards.”

Yelena was nearest to him, and he probably assumed she was the leader of the group. Was she? John wasn’t even sure right now, but he was willing to wait for her to act. There were a lot of them, and the ones who weren’t armed were certainly powerful magic users. How exactly were they going to get out of this one?

The man took a step forward. “If you don’t-” he began.

Yelena screamed and thrust her hands forward, releasing a massive wave of fire. Landon seemed surprised, but he raised his own hands and John saw the fire take the shape of a bubble, dispersing around most of the group.

“Go for the mine!” he yelled, knowing this was their one chance.

They ran. He sprinted as fast as he could to make it to the mine entrance and saw that the others were doing the exact same. They made it through right as a rain of fireballs began coming their way, followed by several crossbow bolts. John and Yelena stopped at the entrance and spun around to return the favor as Layla and Janessa got inside.

“Demon bitch!” Landon screamed, and released his own fireball.

It was massive and coming right towards them.

“Yelena!” John screamed. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back as far and as hard as he could. The fireball slammed into the wall of the mine entrance beside them, picked them up, and sent them flying down the tunnel. Apparently right into Layla and Janessa. They all slammed into each other and became a tangled mess of pain, confusion, and limbs. John heard the cave-in begin before he had a chance to see it.

“Move!” he shouted, coughing.

They staggered to their feet and made it a little ways down the passage as the daylight rapidly began to disappear. The next several minutes were spent running as the tunnel collapsed behind them. Several rocks smacked painfully against John’s back and the back of his head, pelting him, and finally they stopped running as they realized the noise had ceased. John looked around, but they were completely enshrouded in darkness.

A light suddenly appeared and he winced. Looking around, he saw the others, their faces streaked with dirt and sweat. They were panting and looked fairly shaken. Except for Yelena. She had cast the light spell and she was looking back the way they had come. “I would guess that there are several dozen feet of rock and dirt between us and them now,” she murmured.

“I don’t suppose you have any idea about this mine?” Layla asked, looking at Janessa.

“No,” she replied regretfully.

“Then I guess we have to press on and hope to break through the other side. Shit, if we’re lucky, we’ll come out close to the cave,” Layla said.

“We’ll be lucky to come out at all,” John muttered.

“Yes,” Yelena said. “Draw your weapons, I heavily doubt that we will be alone in here, given our experiences so far on this island.”

They each drew their weapons, and in the light, John studied the environment that they were now forced to be in. The tunnel was perhaps twelve feet tall and almost as wide, the walls mostly rock and earth. There were more signs of the original miners here and there. An old, rusted track that they no doubt shoved simple carts along to haul the raw material out of the mine, and the occasional rusty pick-ax or shovel. Farther on down the way, he even spotted a skeleton with a simple metal helmet. What a lovely place to be.

“Come,” Yelena said, and set off, leading the way.

They followed after her.

…

John began to lose track of time.

At first, the minutes passed by in relative peace in the gloom as they made their way down the tunnel. Their progress was slow, but gradually picked up speed as they failed to run into anything dangerous. Yelena maintained her light spell, the sphere of luminosity hovering near the ceiling about ten feet ahead of them, casting a healthy glow for several dozen feet beyond itself. John and Yelena led the way, with Layla taking up the rear and Janessa walking between them. The tunnel seemed pretty straightforward, literally, like someone had carved a path straight through the mountain. He kept hope that it was really that simple.

Five minutes passed, then ten slipped by in the gloomy tunnel.

No one spoke at first. They all listened, trying to determine if they were truly alone down here. John didn’t hear anything. Nothing from the back to indicate that the cultists were coming after them, and nothing around them to indicate anything was lurking in the shadowy tunnels that sometimes branched away from the main passageway.

“Janessa,” he said after awhile.

“Yeah?” she replied, startled.

“What can you tell me about the guy in charge?” he asked.

“Landon?” She sighed. “Not a lot more than I’ve already told you. I mean, he’s a great liar and con artist. Or...” she blushed and frowned, “I’m just that fucking gullible. It’s probably that. But besides that? He’s determined, I can see that much. He’s vain. He’s smart, though. He knows how to organize. I know sometimes you have two different people running things: the face and the brains. In this case, I think he’s both.”

“That’ll make it easier to break their leadership when we kill him,” Yelena murmured.

“It’s still hard to believe they wanted to kill me...and that we have to kill them...” she hesitated. “I’m sorry, I know this all must be old hat for you three. I just...I’ve never really had to put up with anything like this.”

“I understand,” John said. “It’s not that we take killing lightly, but...well, we’ve had to deal with it enough that it’s easier to do it when it’s called for. Unfortunately hesitation can get you killed. And as much as I’d like to believe otherwise...some people are just too dangerous to let live. Power-hungry cultists are almost always on that list.”

“It’s at least easier when it’s a ‘you kill them or they kill you’ kind of situation,” Layla said. “Fuck knows I’ve endured enough of those.”

“Fuck,” Yelena hissed. John began to ask what the problem was but he saw a second later as his own vision caught up to hers.

The way was blocked.

Another cave-in had occurred a few hundred meters into the tunnel, effectively blocking the route. “Fuck indeed,” Layla muttered.

“It looks like we’ll have to try and find a way around,” John said.

“Could we dig through? Use magic?” Janessa asked.

“It is too risky,” Yelena said. “We could cause another cave-in. But if it comes to that, we will have to risk it.”

“Then alternate route it is,” Layla said. She looked to the right where another one of the offshoot tunnels awaited them.

With a quiet sigh of frustration, Yelena led the way. She drew her blade, which she had since sheathed, and John did the same. He’d just begun to get used to being in the main tunnel, which had a tall roof and was pretty broad. This tunnel was barely a quarter of its size. Not nearly as much room to fight if something went wrong. Which, at this point in his life, he was willing to bet that something was definitely going to go wrong.

They made their way through the smaller tunnel, keeping their pace brisk but cautious, studying the way ahead, the way behind them, the walls and roof and ground, checking for anything. Signs of life, signs of death, anything that could tip them off to something down there with them. Gods, what a nightmare this island was turning out to be. And to make matters worse, he could definitely feel the uncomfortable presence of the shards, even inside of a backpack and a magically-treated, sealed lockbox. He hated the idea of Yelena carrying them, and he noticed she was beginning to show signs of agitation.

The tunnel eventually curved in the direction they wanted to go, although at this point John would take any direction that led them out. Even facing down more of the cultists would be better than being stuck down here. But the situation quickly deteriorated as Yelena sniffed suddenly and then stopped in her tracks.

“What?” he asked softly.

“Spiders,” she replied.

“What? Spiders?” Janessa asked, fear stealing into her voice.

“Oh great,” Layla muttered miserably.

John sighed. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. We’ve faced enough, I know their scent. I smell them. Giant spiders, somewhere up ahead of us.”

“Get ready then.”

He’d been tempted to put away his blade again but that temptation left him in an instant. He started gathering magic to him, something he realized he should’ve been doing since they got trapped down here. A well-placed fireball could be the difference between life and death. He honed his focus even tighter as they walked on. He listened to the sounds they made, trying to filter them out and ignore them. Their breathing, the sounds of their feet on the earthen tunnel floor, somewhere distant a steady dripping of water, and…

The whispering, chittering sound of a giant spider.

No, multiple giant spiders. Somewhere ahead.

Fantastic. John rolled his shoulders and popped his neck. He was about as ready to face them as he was going to be. He ached from the battles they’d endured so far, and was sore in more than a few spots from the shipwreck and other activities, but he could do this. It wasn’t like he had a choice. As they walked on, the tunnel finally gave way to a cavern. Not a very large one, but big enough. The light pushed back against the darkness, revealing a nest of webbing. It covered the ceiling and came down over the walls all around them.

“Shit,” Layla muttered.

“Where are the spiders?” Janessa whispered after a moment.

“Perhaps out feeding,” Yelena murmured. “Either way, we should hurry. If we are very lucky, we may get through without a fight.”

John had zero confidence in that, but he knew it was technically possible. He saw some uncertain shapes among the webbing, but those could just be bodies. Anything could be hidden among the webs, unfortunately. They set off, making their way quickly across the cavern, towards the exit to another tunnel on the far side. Their footsteps were quick and quiet as they moved in a row, making as much progress as they could in the shortest amount of time possible without outright sprinting. Much as they all might want to.

They made it just past the middle of the cavern when John realized it was a trap.

All around them, from seemingly every side, the cavern abruptly sprang to life. The webbing all around them began to shift and shake, trembling with life, and like monsters being birthed from some godsforsaken nightmare realm, a dozen giant spiders came out of the webbing. They were each a good three feet across, with long, thin legs that ended in razor sharp points, and were dark red streaked with shades of black.

They issued shrieks and began coming for the group.

John got the battle started by releasing the magical energy he’d been storing up, thrusting his palm out at one of the hideous monstrosities and demolishing it, burning a path through its head and abdomen and basically blowing it up. Another nearby spider caught aflame as a result and began shrieking and flailing wildly. Knowing that this battle needed to end, and very quickly, he didn’t wait for them to come to him. As the others began fighting in their own ways, John sprinted forward, leaped into the air and brought down his blade on the back of another giant beast. It shrieked as it was pinned to the ground and began flailing.

Its movements were cut off as he ripped the blade back towards himself, then yanked it out and ducked while sidestepping, narrowly avoiding another giant spider as it swiped at him with some of its legs. He chopped out, cutting through two of the legs cleanly and getting sprayed with spider gore as the thing leaped back in response to the pain. He didn’t let it go far, slashing down and cutting through what served as its head, popping several of its huge eyes from the cluster that sat atop the misshapen skull.

The thing went down in a heap of limbs.

“John! Heads up!” Yelena shouted.

He immediately tucked and rolled, barely avoiding having a giant spider land on him from above. He twisted back around as he got to his feet and released another fireball. This one wasn’t nearly as powerful, but it was enough to blind the thing and keep it off balance long enough for him to leap forward, cross the distance between them, and stab it twice. That put it down, its awful dark blood leaking out of it. John turned to look at the others as he saw no more coming to him, and saw that they were almost through putting down the spiders that had arrived. As Yelena yanked her blade from one and Layla finished chopping through another, they all looked around suddenly as they heard a fresh wave of that awful chittering sound.

“Run!” Yelena snapped.

They sprinted for the far exit, going as fast as they could, as the webbing began to almost vibrate around them. More were coming, many more. They hit the other tunnel and John was extremely grateful to see that the webbing didn’t extend that far down it, and he couldn’t see anything ahead of them, either, although the light wasn’t as good now, as Yelena was hanging in the back and he was leading this time around. They spent close to thirty seconds just running, listening to the sounds of the spiders as they came for them down the tunnel.

“Hold!” Yelena called, and John skidded to a halt.

He looked back and felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. The entire tunnel seemed alive with the corrupted giant spiders as they came at them, scrambling over each other as they moved along the walls, ground, and roof of the cave tunnel. There had to be dozens upon dozens of them.

“Why are we stopping!?” Janessa cried. She sounded on the verge of tears.

Yelena answered by shouting, as though in effort, like lifting something tremendously heavy. She thrust her hands forward and a solid wall of fire was released. John felt a blast of heat as the wall traveled back the way they had come, incinerating all the spiders it touched.

“Go!” she yelled, turning and resuming her run.

They ran as well.

The next several minutes were a blur as they kept running, slowing to a more reasonable pace after the first minute or so. It had become clear that not all the spiders had been killed and were still coming after them, though at a much slower pace thanks to Yelena’s attack. John saw nothing but dark rock and earth as they ran, and the occasional corpse or bit of mining equipment or sign that some poor adventurer had once decided to stop and make camp in these tunnels. But finally, after what felt like far too long, the light began to brighten.

At first he thought it was Yelena, strengthening her spell, but he realized that the quality of the light was changing.

It was, he realized, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Daylight.

Not exactly bright and happy, more gray and overcast, but daylight was daylight and he would fucking take it at this point.

“We’re almost there!” he called.

They picked up their speed in a burst of excitement and kept on running until finally they were clear of the mines. They emerged back out in the light and John immediately took a look around to see if there were any monsters or cultists around, but he saw only trees and wet vegetation. He breathed a sigh of relief, which was interrupted by another yell from Yelena and a blast of fire. He turned around, raising his blade again, terrified that something else had come after them, and he saw that the cave opening was collapsing.

“There,” she said, panting as the rocks finished falling into place, effectively blocking off the entrance, “now they cannot follow us.”

“Good,” John muttered. He looked around again and through the trees, he could see what seemed to be an abandoned house. “We should take a break, get our bearings.”

“Yes,” Janessa agreed immediately.

“Yeah,” Layla said. “I could use a sit down.”

“Very well,” Yelena said. “Let us go.”

CHAPTER IX

The place they found turned out to be a small house, just as abandoned as everything else they’d come across so far. After making sure there were no monsters or cultists hanging around, the four of them went inside and almost immediately collapsed into whatever seats they could find. John got a fire going and he and Yelena put together a meat and vegetable stew to boil. For about half an hour, nobody spoke, they just lounged in the two chairs and on the couch in the main room around the fire. John felt exhausted, a bone-deep weariness that made him question whether or not he was going to be able to stand back up, let alone walk anywhere.

It had been awhile since he’d been this fucking tired.

He knew that some of his strength would come back after sitting there for awhile, and he’d get a bit more back after a short nap, but…

He was also very aware of his tolerances. You had to be, when whether or not you succeeded at your job was often the difference between life and death. And this was very much a life or death situation they were facing out there. As he sat there on the couch with Yelena, who was reclining, her head in his lap, her hooves up on the armrest, with him gently running his fingertips over her horns, he looked at the others.

He knew his lover could keep going. She had legendary endurance. She was a demon, after all, and not just a demon but a demon that had been fighting, training, and surviving for almost a century. Demons didn’t get weaker with age. Quite the opposite. At least, not on the same timeline that everyone else did.

Layla was holding up well, but he could tell that she was absolutely exhausted, just like him. He thought she might be in better shape than he was, but only because of the natural athleticism gifted to her by her race. They could both follow the exact same training regiment for the exact same length of time and she would come out ahead in some regards simply because she was a felis. But she looked like, even though she would keep going if they suggested it, she needed a break as much as he did. And Janessa…

Their poor elf friend had already dozed off. She looked dead on her feet and she wasn’t even standing.

For those thirty minutes, no one spoke. They all sat there and listened to the rain. Although at one point Layla got up and walked over. She nodded tiredly to the spot beside him, between himself and the other armrest, and he nodded back. She sat down, fitting herself in the space available, and he put an arm around her. She leaned against him, and before long reached out and hugged him, pulling him to her. He hugged her back, and Yelena reached up and ran her hand gently up and down one of her arms. He knew how she felt.

This shit was hard.

Fighting monsters, walking for hours, days on end sometimes, dealing with treachery and facing down people who actively wanted to murder you, fighting through a dark, miserable tomb and nearly dying seven times in a row just to discover the thing you were looking for wasn’t even there, stomping through the mud and the rain and the snow, seeing shit that was probably going to give you nightmares for, at best, days, if not weeks…

It wore you down. It grinded away your spirit.

He thought it might be another part, perhaps a big part, of the reason that adventurers were so prone to hooking up. Because adventures didn’t just hook up in the sense that most people thought of it. It wasn’t really like sleeping with a prostitute, where there was a sense of disconnection. Usually, and it varied, in his experiences, prostitutes treated sex like, well, what it was to them: a job. You did some foreplay, you fucked, you got your client off and then sent them on their way. And there was nothing wrong with that, per se, but it was different when hooking up with adventurers. There was kissing, there was cuddling, there were long conversations.

There was intimacy.

Not always, but often. Especially in his experience. Because they knew. Other adventurers knew that yeah, this life was great. But it was also miserable sometimes. It was gutwrenching and soul-crushing and could lead to some of the darkest moments of your life. And in the same day it could lead to the highest highs, the more glorious experiences, the most fantastical fun. Being with someone who knew what that life brought was just…

There was a connection there, even if you hardly knew them.

And he could tell Layla felt the same way. It was in the way she acted around him and Yelena, the way she looked at them and talked to them, the way she clung to him right now, almost desperately. It was so hard to show weakness when your whole life was built on being tough, and it got so that when you did find someone you could trust, well...you tended to cling to them in desperate moments. And ever since the shipwreck, this whole thing had been one desperate moment after another, it seemed. So he held her, and Yelena, and they held each other, and just…

Relaxed. And healed.

It was about then that John thought that perhaps it was time to try asking Layla again about her past. Not because he was nosy or because he wanted to use anything against her, he never would, but because he thought she wanted, maybe even needed, to talk about it. But it was the sort of situation where another person had to help. Sometimes you knew you had to do something, but just couldn’t do it alone.

“Layla,” he murmured softly.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Would you tell me what happened to you? Would you tell me about your past?” he replied gently, slowly.

She was silent, and he waited to see how she would react. She might be angry, she might clam up, she might just not be ready.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you,” she said finally, her voice soft. She settled in a bit more comfortably against him, and reached out and took his hand. She held it with both her hands, squeezing it gently. “Last year I met someone. A cute young guy who had never really gone adventuring before, but he wanted to. It kind of felt like fate. I was on an adventure with two of my best friends. One was a necromancer, the other, I mentioned earlier, Morgan. We were helping my necromancer friend track something down. It was very dangerous, and we insisted on hiring a healer. Next time we dropped into a town, I found a want ad, some healer offering their services. I went to check him out and found a cute human guy, total adventuring virgin.

“After I figured out he could handle his shit and that I liked him, I jumped him immediately. We had sex, all four of us, during that adventure. It was great. We wrapped it up and parted ways, only I decided I wasn’t done with him, and he was obviously falling in love with me and my pussy,” she muttered, and laughed softly.

“Isn’t that how it always goes with cute young human men?” Yelena murmured.

“I am not young,” John said.

“You are to me, love.”

“So we decided to keep spending time together. We ran into an elf friend of mine, and one thing led to another and we wound up dealing with a cult looking to resurrect a demon.”

“Fuck, that sounds familiar,” John muttered.

“Yeah. It seems to happen a lot. We dealt with it, though it was a near thing. Let’s just say that if we didn’t have friends, we would’ve died. And something...changed, after that. Winter was coming on and we decided to spend it in Tomontica. But, if I’m being honest with myself now, what changed was that I realized how much I had come to care for the guy. His name was Alan. He was kind and caring and funny and quite good in bed, despite what he believed. We had something really good growing and, well, let’s just say that I haven’t had the best history with romance, even before him. Not that he was throwing up any warning flags, but I was just scared of being hurt again. We went down to Tomontica and I was wrestling with that and he could tell and kept asking but I kept lying, saying nothing was wrong...” She heaved a sigh.

“What happened next?” John asked softly after she fell silent.

“We met someone. A local. A drop-dead gorgeous woman. A treasure seeker, an adventuress, like me. She had a place she wanted to go, a treasure she wanted to recover. We agreed, hooked up, had amazing threesomes, and then on the way there ran into an ocean nymph. Come to find out the treasure we were seeking had been stolen from her kind years ago, and it had cursed Tomontica. The longer it stayed where it was, the worse the curse got. So, naturally, we decided we were going to retrieve and return it. Only it didn’t work out when we got there. The Tomontican...the bitch, betrayed us. She didn’t give a shit about anything but gold. She snatched it and ran. We chased her. I got the treasure from her, but she took Alan hostage.

“And I...almost gave it to her. If I had, she would have run, and taken the thing with her, and the curse would have gotten worse and worse and worse. Who knows how many could have died. I almost did it. I almost traded it for Alan. Luckily, our nymph friend took the decision out of my hands. She killed the traitor. But after that I...I knew. I couldn’t be with Alan. Because if it happened again, and it very well could, given the life we live...I wasn’t sure I could live with either consequence. I couldn’t live with him dying because I wouldn’t sacrifice thousands or millions for him, or the other way around. And so I broke up with him, and left, and wandered around Veridis for awhile. I intended to leave right away, but...I ended up going to familiar places, trying to cheer myself up. Until finally I got on that boat...and I left him.”

She sniffed and he realized she was crying. He hugged her to him and she hugged him tightly back. Yelena got up and hugged them both.

“I’m so sorry that happened,” Janessa said, making her jump. She disengaged herself from them and looked at her, glared at the elf, really, then sighed softly and went back to hugging him. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop...”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Layla said. “That’s what happened to me.”

“I’m sorry, Layla,” John said, gently rubbing her back as he held her.

He wanted to tell her things, like maybe she might have made the wrong choice, not just because it wasn’t what he would have done, but because he had the idea that she was simply overreacting to, granted, a pretty bad situation. That she was acting out of fear rather than logic, like she might assume. But it certainly wasn’t the right time for them, which became especially obvious when she disengaged herself from him, wiped her eyes, and then stood up and said, “We should eat.”

“I suppose we should,” Yelena replied after a moment, taking the hint.

For a few minutes, they simply went about the process of preparing their meal, but as they started eating it, the mood picked up. As much as John wanted to keep talking about the problem, he also had to admit that he just as much wanted to just fucking laugh about something and have a good time. So they started telling stories, happier stories, funny ones or sexy ones. Layla wanted a lot of details about their sex encounter with Morgan, and then with Kesley. And the more they talked, especially when it got into sexier territory, the more he noticed Janessa looking at him. He also noticed Layla leaned kind of heavily into Yelena.

And he thought that maybe something could be arranged.

After they’d eaten and their food had settled and the conversation had died down, he got everyone’s attention. “I think we should stay in for the night,” he said, trying to gauge everyone’s reaction. Janessa looked relieved, Layla looked grateful, and Yelena looked uncomfortable, but ultimately relented.

“Yes,” she agreed. “It is beginning to get late and we have no idea what might be waiting for us in the cave we intend to seek.”

“Awesome. And I was thinking that maybe we could each indulge in separate rooms tonight,” John said, looking at her. “Layla’s obviously gagging for you.”

“I am not!” Layla replied immediately.

“Come on, Layla, anyone can see that you are desperate for me, and there is no shame in that,” Yelena said with a smug grin.

“She’s right,” John said.

Layla sighed and crossed her arms. “I desire you, I am not desperate for you.”

“Oh? Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind sleeping alone tonight?”

“I would certainly mind that,” Layla snapped, sitting up. Yelena simply smirked at her. “I’m not saying that I’m desperate for you, Yelena.”

“Fair enough. I guess I’ll see how desperate you are in your actions.” Yelena stood and looked at Janessa. “I am assuming you are going to take the opportunity afforded to you and give in to your cravings for my lover?”

“I, uh...” Janessa was already blushing fiercely, looking between John and Yelena. “I mean, if that isn’t going to cause any problems...”

“No, it will not cause problems.” She gave John a hug and a kiss. “Enjoy yourself, love. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, love,” he replied.

“Yeah, yeah, goodnight,” Layla said, tugging on Yelena’s arm.

They disappeared behind the door that led to the master bedroom and it became quiet save for the crackling of the fire and the rainfall outside. He looked at Janessa. “So, are you comfortable with having sex with me?” he asked.

She laughed nervously and rubbed one arm. “I mean, yeah. I am. I want to, to be sure. I’m just...a little nervous. Like I said, I haven’t had like a lot of experience, I mean, not compared to you, and you’re really attractive and you’re hooked up with someone like Yelena, I-I’m just not sure I can compete with that...”

“Janessa,” he said, stepping closer to her and settling his hands on her hips. “You don’t have to worry. You aren’t competing. If we’re going to have sex tonight, then it’s just going to be me and you, and no one else. I’m not going into this looking for anything more than a good time for both of us. Don’t worry about other people we’ve slept with, okay?”

“I...okay,” she replied after a moment.

She leaned in and kissed him suddenly, as if she wanted to do it before she lost her nerve, and he kissed her back, tasting her sweet, natural taste, feeling her hot, luscious lips against his own. She moaned softly and hugged him to her.

They both jumped as the bedroom door opened up again.

“Oh come on!” Layla complained.

“Be patient, you furred slut,” Yelena replied with a smile as she came out. She looked at John and Janessa. “Don’t let me distract you. I just need to lay some protection spells since we are going to be in for the night.”

“That’s an excellent idea. I can help,” Janessa said.

“Good, we can get it done twice as fast and get back to our frantic fucking,” Yelena replied, her smirk broadening when Janessa began to blush more fiercely.

The two women went outside and he heard them begin to talk, but the conversation was cut off as the door closed. He glanced over as he heard a huff of irritation and found Layla, already completely naked, standing in the doorway. “Your...lover,” she growled, sounding like she wanted to say something far more unbecoming, “is such a fucking tease!” she snapped.

“Oh yes, she really can be. She’s one of the sexiest beings in this realm and she knows it.”

“You’re a lucky prick, you know that?”

“Yes. Definitely,” he replied, trying not to laugh. Layla got so...agitated when she was sexually frustrated.

While they laid the magical defenses, John checked out the side bedroom again. The bed was smaller, but it would do the job. He began getting out of his armor and by the time Janessa had returned, he had a bottle of water, a bar of soap, and two washcloths ready, and he was most of the way through cleaning himself up.

“Finally!” Layla shouted, and a moment later the door slammed. Janessa appeared in the doorway leading to what would be their bedroom for the night.

“Hi,” she said, staring at him as he washed up.

“Hello, pretty woman,” he replied, and she laughed nervously and closed the door behind her as she came in. “Are we safe?”

“Yes. We’re secure,” she replied.

“What were you and Yelena talking about?”

“Oh...she was just reassuring me that tonight was going to be very pleasant. That you’re a very skilled and kind and patient lover, and that I can trust you,” she replied.

“Oh. Well, that’s good,” he said.

“Can I?” she asked.

“Trust me? I mean, I sure think so, but why would I tell you any different? Put it this way: speak and you will be heard. If you feel uncomfortable, tell me. If you want to stop, we can stop, no questions, no hesitations. You want me to do something, I’ll probably do it. I’m just as interested in your safety and pleasure as my own.”

“Well, I do believe you,” she said with a genuine smile. “Either you’re a great liar or...well, I guess, if you wanted to hurt me or force me to do anything, you would have by now. And either that holds true if I can’t trust Yelena either, or, if I can trust Yelena, which I do, then I feel that she would stop you if you tried to hurt me.”

“She would,” he agreed. “That’s one of the things I love about her: she won’t compromise her morals, not even for me. And she shouldn’t. And I wouldn’t for her.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I trust you and I trust Yelena, and I...don’t know how to feel about Layla,” she murmured, losing her smile.

“I understand. She’s been through a lot, and recently, too. That tends to make you...prickly, to say the least.”

She laughed softly, despite herself. “Prickly. I’ve never heard it put like that, but yes. I like her, actually. I wish she liked me. But...she will or she won’t, I can’t force it. What I can do, however, is enjoy what I’m sure is going to be fucking awesome sex. Which I really need right now.”

“Same,” he said as he finished washing and began drying.

While he did, Janessa hesitated for a few seconds, then started taking her clothes and armor off. “I’m a little nervous,” she admitted as she undressed. She laughed softly. “I woke up to seeing you all naked. Well, most of you, and you’re all so...fit! You’re in such amazing shape, and I...have enjoyed a lot of meals.”

“Don’t worry about that, Janessa,” John replied. “I mean, not to dismiss how you feel about yourself, exactly, but if you’re worried about how attractive I think you are, you have nothing to be concerned about. Trust me, extremely fit and trim and cut is not the only thing that turns me on. I have taken more than my fair share of curvier women to bed and I was fucking thrilled each and every time. Believe me, the fact that you look like you do and you’ve kept up with us means you can’t be that out of shape.”

“I know, and it’s probably not fair to compare myself to the likes of you three...”

“It absolutely isn’t fair. You’re a mage who grew up in a place that I’m guessing didn’t put a lot of emphasis on physical fitness. Yelena is a fucking demoness who spent a hundred years keeping in the best shape and fighting constantly, Layla’s a felis adventuress and it’s easier for them to get into shape, and I, on top of having an active and mobile lifestyle, had the opportunity to hunker my ass down for six goddamned months and work out nonstop.”

“Yeah, I’ve just...” She sighed and she stripped down to her undergarments and looked down at herself, “...got some chub, I guess.”

He laughed. “Janessa, you’ve got a great body. I hooked up with an elf while we were in that dragon’s cave. She was over five times your age and ‘chubbier’ than you are now and she fucking owned me in the bedroom. She was a sexual goddess. You are every bit as sexy as she is, I can tell you that right now.”

“How about Yelena? Am I every bit as sexy as her?” she asked.

“I don’t answer that question,” he replied. “There’s three different kind of women in the world with regards to how I feel about their beauty. Either I’m not attracted to them, I am attracted to them, and then there’s Yelena. She’s above everyone else, to me.”

“I noticed ugly wasn’t in there,” she murmured.

He sighed. “Even if I think someone’s ugly, I’m not interested in telling them. At most I would tell them I’m not attracted to them, and only if they explicitly asked. And just because I think someone’s ugly doesn’t mean they are. It just means that that’s my perception, and I don’t mind keeping it to myself.” He could tell she was still kind of hung up on this. He stepped up to her and settled his hands on her big hips again, looking down at her, into her amazingly blue eyes. “Janessa, I know this might sound like bullshit coming from me, but I’m quite familiar with insecurity.”

“What do you have to be insecure about?” she replied.

“I told you we helped build a township not too long ago. The woman who got the ball rolling on that, she was an absolutely gorgeous kit who had been all over the world, and Yelena was clearly enamored with her. I mean, we both were, but I was...well, jealous,” he admitted.

“Why? You’re crazy fucking hot and Yelena obviously loves you.”

“I mean...Fiona, the kit, she had been all over the world. Before now, I’ve never really left Veridis. Sure, I’ve done a lot of stuff, but well-traveled, brave adventurers are a coin a dozen, you know? Yelena has an adventurous heart. That’s why we’re here. Okay, well, we’re here because of a shipwreck, but it’s why we were on the ship in the first place. And that was, you know, intimidating. And ultimately I was being ridiculous. And this was after I spent six months working my ass off to look like this,” he said. “So...I know.”

“I appreciate that,” she murmured, and she hugged him. “All right, I’m ready to have sex. All of this is definitely making me feel better, and it is appreciated, but I have to be honest, I think nothing quite makes me feel better in the same way that an orgasm delivered by a really hot person does...if you don’t mind my saying so.”

“I don’t mind at all,” he replied, and he kissed her.

She moaned and leaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him to her. He felt a sense of happiness and desire and freedom wash over him as they started to make out. There was nothing quite like kissing an exceptionally attractive woman who was really into you. She felt good against him, her body warm and soft and pleasant. Her hands on his skin, and his on her own. He reached behind her and gently unhooked her bra. She shrugged easily out of it, letting it fall down her pale arms, freeing her breasts. She was quite well-endowed. As he began to feel her up, groping her big, wonderful, supple breasts, he couldn’t help but think that while he loved exceptionally fit women, like those who were currently having frantic, probably borderline violent sex in the other room, there was a particularly amazing pleasure to being with a woman like Janessa. A curvaceous woman with big breasts and broad hips and thick thighs.

Between making out, John wet the second rag, found the bar of soap, and lathered it up, then began to run it across her body.

“I can do it myself,” Janessa murmured softly, clearly distracted.

“Yes, but it’s so much more fun when someone else does it for you,” he replied. “Right?”

“I...” she shivered violently as he ran the soap and washcloth down her back. “Yes.”

“Good, then turn around.”

She turned around and he began to wash across her arms while kissing the side of her neck. He quickly had her breathing heavily, shuddering with each touch, and shifting around, like she was fighting to not turn around and resume making out with him. He ran the cloth across her arms, down her back, over her wonderful breasts, down her stomach and her sides, all the while kissing her neck, first one side, then the other. Then he licked up one of her elongated ears and she let out a loud moan of pleasure.

“Like that, huh?” he murmured, breathing heavily on her ear.

“Ah! Yes...elf ears are...very sensitive,” she panted.

“I’ve learned that,” he murmured, and did it again.

She moaned, and then she moaned even louder as he teased the cloth around her hips and thighs, then her inner thighs, and she spread her legs open for him. Before long, he abandoned the pretense of washing completely and instead began to pleasure her. She let out a long moan of pure bliss as he started to rub her clit.

“Oh my Gods,” she moaned. “That’s...really what I needed.”

He kept going, holding her up with his other arm tightly and licking up and down first one ear, then another, massaging her clit with his fingertip.

He made her come in less than sixty seconds.

She screamed and thrashed through the whole ordeal, the pleasure racing through her body as he held her up, and he kept fingering her throughout it. When she was finished, she was left panting, leaning on him.

“Let me show you my dick-sucking skills,” she said finally.

“Okay,” he replied.

She disengaged herself from him, turned around, and got down on her knees. There, she gripped his cock and stared at it for a moment. “This is definitely one of the bigger ones I’ve handled,” she murmured.

“I think it’s a matter of perspective. I’ve had several elven women tell me that, but I’ve also been with a Minotaur and a half-giantess. I have no idea if I’m actually big or not,” he replied.

“Isn’t everything a matter of perspective then? If you’re big to me, then aren’t you big right now?” she asked.

“I guess so.”

“And ultimately, does it matter beyond that? It’s less about the size of the sword and more about the skill with which it’s wielded...that’s what that hot adventuress told me during one of our long sex talks. So far, she’s been right, and you must know how to wield your sword with amazing skill taking on a lover like Yelena for as long as you have,” she said.

“That’s true,” he agreed.

She grinned, then she took his cock into her hot, wet mouth and started to give him head. He groaned as he felt that familiar rush of hot bliss hit him, that wonderful blast of pleasure that started in his core and immediately began to radiate outward. The thing that signaled great, great times had begun and tremendous pleasure was in the immediate future. He looked at her beautiful features, her pale face and bright blue eyes and sexy red hair and could tell almost right away that, like a lot of the women he hooked up with, despite her somewhat anxious beginning, Janessa was a lady who kind of dove in headfirst to sex when she realized that she trusted him.

And he could tell she trusted him.

It was a lot of little things. The way she looked at him, the sounds she made, the way her voice changed when they were talking, her body language most of all. But of all those, he really did think it was in the eyes. A lot could be pulled from the way someone looked at you, if you had enough practice interpreting that. Janessa struck him as someone who wanted to be extremely sexually confident and promiscuous, but hadn’t quite reached that headspace yet. He hoped he could help her. She really didn’t have anything holding her back.

Although she wasn’t as experienced as Yelena or Layla at sucking dick, she clearly knew what she was doing, and she definitely had enough enthusiasm. Her lips looking amazing as they slid up and down his shaft, sending a pulse of exquisite ecstasy into him each time they passed over his head. “You should know,” he panted, a hand cupped over the back of her head now, “I fucking really have a thing for redheaded elves.”

“Oh,” she murmured, taking his dick briefly out of her mouth and licking the head a few times, “is that a fact?”

“Yes,” he groaned loudly. “That’s definitely a fact. I’m going to blow the biggest load in your mouth, down your fucking throat, Janessa.”

“Bring it on,” she replied and went back to giving him head.

It didn’t take all that much longer for the pleasure to well up inside of him, a hot, pure perfection of sexual rapture, and then he let out a shout of absolute release as he started coming into her mouth. She moaned as she took his load, his cock kicking furiously in her mouth, and he cried out as the pure pleasure overtook him, enveloped him in a hot, primal passion. She was sucking, oh fucking Gods she was still sucking as he blew off in her mouth, shooting his seed practically down her throat. She sucked until there was nothing left.

“Fuck that was good,” he whispered as he let go of her head and she pulled his dick out of her mouth.

“I could tell,” she murmured, smiling up at him. She stood and moved over to her backpack, knelt, (and he got a good look at her well-rounded backside), and came back with a bottle of wine. “Don’t worry,” she said as she uncorked it and sniffed at it, then took a drink, “I won’t have too much. But I could use some to unwind. You want any?”

“I’m good,” he replied, going and sitting down on the bed.

She gave him a thumbs up and took several deep drinks from the bottle, then set it aside on the bedside table and climbed onto the bed with him.

“So, what’s your favorite position?” he asked as she laid up against him.

“Being on top, actually,” she replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I know. People normally think I like it on my back or on my hands and knees but I don’t know, I just love riding, you know?”

“I mean, whatever works for you. I’m more than happy to be ridden,” he replied.

“Good, because I really want to fucking ride you...” she reached down and teased his cock, “and apparently I won’t have to wait long, you’re getting hard again already.”

“You make me really horny,” he replied.

“Apparently.”

They resumed making out and she started massaging his cock, which grew hard very quickly. As she mounted him, they heard Layla screaming in pleasure.

“Wow,” Janessa whispered, looking over, eyes wide. “That is...very arousing.”

“Yes, it is,” John replied, grabbing her hips.

She looked back down at him, then slipped his cock inside of her extremely wet elf pussy and they both moaned in sexual unity.

“Do you ever overhear sex at your academy?” he asked.

“Sometimes,” she said, beginning to pant as she worked him inside of her and then began to ride him. Oh the hot, burning pleasure of raw elf pussy. It had been too long since he’d fucked an elf. He grabbed her wonderful hips more tightly and thrust up into her, making her scream.

“You ever go looking? You ever eavesdrop on people fucking?” he asked.

“Yes,” she admitted after a moment.

“You pervert.”

“Like you haven’t!” she snapped, planting her hands on his chest and fucking him more furiously, grunting and gritting her teeth.

“Guess you got me there,” he replied. He laughed. “More than once Yelena and I caught someone watching. We do it outdoors sometimes.”

“That seems-oh!-incredibly risky...what’d you do to them?”

“We fucked them,” he replied.

She cried out and he reached up and grabbed her big, bouncing breasts. “You did? Weren’t you mad? Weren’t they scared?” she gasped.

“They were scared, but horny, and it was...it was...ah fuck that’s good pussy, Janessa...it was easy to seduce them after making them so horny.”

“That makes sense.”

She let out a loud moan as he slid his hands back down to her hips, grabbed and held her firmly, and began fucking her brains out. That moan became a cry of impassioned bliss as he kept it up, unrelenting, screwing the absolute fuck out of her and making her huge tits bounce and jiggle and sway wonderfully until she had another screaming orgasm. She came all over his dick, writhing and twisting and shouting in blissful ecstasy. He groaned as the pleasure washed over him and enjoyed fucking her all the way through it.

When she was finished, she went slack onto him for a moment, panting.

“You want to switch?” he asked.

“Yeah, but let me stay on top. You’ve worked really, really hard today and deserve to get ridden to orgasm,” she murmured.

“Well...not gonna disagree,” he replied.

She laughed and kissed him, then straightened back up and turned around, showing him her fat, pale ass. She started to ride him in reverse, steadying herself on his shins and putting her thighs to good use. He groaned in pure ecstasy as he reclined on the bed, letting her fuck him, watching her work, watching his cock disappear into her fantastically wet, pink pussy again and again. Her ass looked absolutely amazing and he knew he’d have to pound her doggystyle at some point before this whole thing was over.

She fucked him until he orgasmed a second time, and he cried out, grabbing her ass and holding her tight against his lap, shoving himself deep and hard inside of her as he began to fill her up with his seed. “Oh yeah!” she cried. “Fucking fill me up!”

He moaned incoherently in pure bliss as he came, and when he was finished, the last of his energy fleeing his body as the last of his seed left him, he flopped back onto the bed, panting, sweaty and naked and totally spent.

It had been a long, long fucking day.

“Go to sleep,” Janessa murmured as she got off of him and began pulling the blankets over them both.

“You too. We’ve got another really long day ahead of us tomorrow,” he replied with a yawn.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, sounding a little glum.

“It’ll be okay,” he replied, and he wrapped his arms around her.

She let him hold her, and he was asleep almost immediately.

CHAPTER X

When the next morning came, John didn’t feel refreshed, exactly, but he did feel better.

He had a rousing round of sex with Janessa, getting atop her and hammering away at her sweet pussy in between those wonderfully smooth, hot thighs of hers, fucking her until both had come and listening to Yelena and Layla do the same at the other end of the house. By the time they were washed and dressed and emerging from their rooms to eat a quick breakfast, it was about an hour past sunrise. It was still gray out, and although a wicked thunderstorm had blown through last night, it was calm again now.

“I think we lucked out,” John said after he and Yelena had walked around the exterior of the house and determined that no one had found them, no one was lurking, and none of the magical wards had been broken.

“Good. We can hit that cave and be on our way,” Layla said as she fried up what was left of the meat they’d gotten from the rabbits yesterday.

“What’s after the cave?” Janessa asked.

John noticed she seemed calmer now. Well, getting laid tended to do that for you, especially if it had been awhile and the sex was good, which it had been. He pulled out the map and studied it for a moment. “First thing is to figure out where we are.”

“I could see the cave in question when we walked the perimeter,” Yelena said. “I believe we are here in relation to it.”

She pointed on the map, indicating a spot on the opposite side of the mountain than they had come in through. Her finger shifted up, to the northwestern corner of the island. “I believe our next objective should be the magical research outpost.”

John glanced at her. Yelena’s tone had become heavy. “Is there a particular reason for that?”

“Yes. I had to apply a new magical layer to the lockbox three times overnight. If there is some way to more appropriately contain these shards, we need it now more than ever, especially if we are to get our hands on a third.”

He nodded. He could feel the evil presence of the malignant things even now. He’d known that he’d had nightmares last night, but thankfully they were forgotten by now. “Are we in agreement then?” he asked, looking at the others.

“Makes sense to me,” Layla said, and Janessa nodded.

“Okay then. Let’s eat up and get back to work.”

…

The walk up the mountainside was less pleasant this time around, and not only because the trail was more treacherous, but also because almost immediately as they began heading up the path they started to find evidence that people had been through, and recently. They all prepared themselves, drawing weapons and gathering magic as they made their way up the muddy, rocky trail. As the minutes wore on however, passing by grimly, they failed to run into anyone. The rain was still falling, though it was back to a mist more than anything else. The sky overhead seemed to reflect the dim, melancholic atmosphere that began to envelope them as they worked their way higher and higher up the trail, expecting trouble.

Half an hour passed, and they saw no one.

As they were approaching three quarters of an hour, John finally began to accept the possibility that they had beaten them there, as the few hiding places along the narrow trail they found were all empty. It was possible that the cultists had come this close to them last night and had no idea they were in that house. While unlikely, it wasn’t impossible, and it seemed to have been what had transpired. That just meant they could get the jump on them in the cave...hopefully. He didn’t let his guard down, however, and was preparing himself for a brutal fight right up until the point that they got to the cave and found two dead cultists by its entrance.

“Check the area,” Yelena whispered.

They spread out, but there honestly wasn’t a lot to check out.

The cave was a bleak place, with just the trail leading up to it and a tiny outcropping to either side of its entrance. The only thing they found was an even narrower trailer that led up from the left side, and although it would be a bitch of a climb to actually get up there, let alone quietly enough to get the jump on two sentries, that seemed to have been what happened.

“What do you think?” John asked when he pointed out the footprints in the mud they’d found. She was crouched by them, studying them closely.

“Webbed feet,” she said quietly. “Smaller, and lighter, possibly a woman.”

“Webbed feet?” Janessa murmured, eyeing the dead cultists uncertainly.

Layla stood by the cave’s entrance, bow drawn, keeping watch.

“I am not as familiar with feet in this realm,” Yelena said. She looked up at John inquisitively and he thought about it.

“I’m not sure, could be a few things,” he said. “I think-”

“Get over here,” Layla snapped.

They were by her side in an instant, weapons drawn. “What?” Yelena asked.

“I heard something. Sounded like-” A scream came echoing down to them. “-like that.”

“So someone’s muscling in on our racket of killing cultists,” John muttered.

“Could it be another rogue cultist?” Yelena asked.

“Could be. Or maybe some far more knowledgeable adventurer, come looking for the shards for themselves. Either way, we need to get in there. Layla, stay here,” John said.

“What-” she began, clearly frustrated.

“So that no one slips out behind us and no backup arrives to surprise us,” John said.

“And if there’s multiple entrances?” she asked.

“Then at least we’ll have one covered...please?” he replied.

She sighed and nodded tightly.

“Let’s go,” he said, and set off, dark blade in hand.

The three of them made their way slowly down the cave, which was a rock tunnel not all that dissimilar from the mine they’d been forced into last night. Janessa stuck behind them, her hands glowing with magic, ready for combat. He held his blade and Yelena had an arrow drawn and ready. As they pressed on, they found more signs of conflict. They found two corpses with their necks broken, like one of the men they’d found outside. The other had had his face frozen solid. They found three men and a woman with icicles, already in the process of melting, shoved through their heads, piercing their brains and killing them.

So, someone with frost magic. Powerful frost magic, as that icicle trick was no simple feat.

Great.

Who the fuck was this mystery player? It could be a rogue cultist. Someone who’d found a conscience, someone who’d been tricked, or maybe someone who had decided to just gather the shards for themselves. Maybe a stowaway who’d found out about their plan and either wanted to stop them or, again, take the shards for themselves. It could be another shipwreck survivor. Or maybe something totally different.

He supposed they’d find out soon enough.

The tunnel curved to the right suddenly and as they approached the bend, they heard someone shout, the distinct sound of magic being discharged, then an awful gurgling sound. They slowed their progress until they were just short of the turn in the tunnel. For several seconds they waited, the last of the sounds dying away.

While they were trying to figure out how to handle this latest development, a voice suddenly called out. “Who is there? You do not smell of these ones.”

He tried to place her voice and her accent, which was slight, but he couldn’t. He looked at Yelena, who inclined her head slightly.

Be my guest.

He sighed softly. “My name is John and I am a human. I have a demoness named Yelena and an elf mage named Janessa with me. If you mean us no harm, then we mean you no harm,” he said, and then waited through the silence that fell.

“You are not with these hooded men?” the voice called back finally.

“No. We oppose them. Violently,” John replied.

“Then I believe we have something in common. You may come around. Slowly. No sudden movements.”

“We’re coming around, all three of us,” John said. “Careful,” he murmured to the others. “Do not be threatening. Whoever this is, she’s dangerous.”

Both women nodded and they came carefully around the bend. What awaited them was a scene of carnage. Five cultists lay dead at the end of the tunnel. A trim, petite figure stood among the dead, holding a wickedly thin blade of blue metal. In fact, everything about her was blue: her skin, her hair, her eyes, all of it shades of blue. She was naked, though splashed with blood.

“You’re an ocean nymph,” Janessa said suddenly.

John realized she was right, she had to be. She certainly had the nymph-like qualities, with the somewhat alien bone structure, and her eyes were big and dark, though that was more common of those who lived in the water. He had only heard of ocean nymphs, but he’d seen a few sketches. She was remarkably beautiful, in a deadly kind of way.

“Yes. My name is Valeska...and you are carrying at least one of the artifacts with you. Why?” she asked, not lowering the blade. She was tense, and although he doubted she weighed more than a hundred pounds, he had zero doubt that she could make a serious go at taking them out. Yelena could probably best her...probably, but it would be a tough battle, even with himself and Janessa on his side, and Layla waiting for them at the tunnel’s entrance.

“Yelena and I were shipwrecked here by coincidence, Janessa was...” he hesitated, “...part of the cult hunting the artifacts. She left them and is helping us find them now.”

“Why?” she pressed.

“We seek to destroy them. We have two already,” Yelena said.

The mysterious ocean nymph stared at them for several more seconds, then finally lowered her blade. It disappeared suddenly and he blinked in surprise. “I believe you,” she said. “You are not like them, although you dress like them...”

“We had to steal some of their armor,” John said. “We lost everything in the shipwreck.”

“That makes sense. I can sense from here that whatever magical protection you have sheathed the artifacts in is already weakening. If you allow me, I will help provide some more adequate protection and add the third artifact to the collection,” Valeska said.

John and Yelena exchanged glances. He nodded and she shrugged out of her pack, looking relieved. “I would most appreciate assistance with these accursed things.”

“What are they?” Valeska asked suddenly.

“You don’t know?” John asked.

“No. I only know that they are evil, and they have tainted the whole of this island, and that this taint now seeps into the ocean.”

“Is that why you’ve come?” John asked.

“Yes. It is my duty to protect the ocean,” she replied succinctly. Yelena brought her the lockbox. John looked past her and saw the third shard resting on a pedestal at the back of the cave. What the fuck was it even doing here? He stopped wondering that quickly, as he was asking that question too often and knowing that he’d never get an answer. As he watched, Yelena opened up the lockbox and Valeska’s hands began to glow with a light blue energy. She cautiously picked up the shard that rested on the pedestal and placed it in the lockbox with the others. Valeska studied the three shards closely for several moments before carefully closing the box and securing it.

“Loathsome things,” she muttered, then she looked at Yelena. “Use your magic, then I will use mine.”

“Very well,” she replied, and took a few minutes to gather up enough magic to cast the sealant spell. Once it was settled over the lockbox, Valeska worked her own magic, and a light blue glow enveloped the storage container a moment later. John relaxed as he felt the evil presence diminish considerably.

“How long will that hold?” Yelena asked.

“I am not sure,” she admitted. “I only know the strength of the spell in relation to things I am already familiar with. These shards are a bit outside my wheelhouse. At a guess, I would say the rest of the day, but that’s only if we don’t add more, which I imagine we intend to do.”

“Yes, we do,” John said. “So...you’re comfortable working with us? Becoming part of our team?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied after a moment’s consideration. “You seem trustworthy and honorable, and we share the same goal.”

“Perfect! Although I should say, so that you aren’t surprised, we’ve got one more member of our team watching the entrance to this place,” John said as they began searching the dead cultists for useful supplies. “She’s a felis.”

“I am not familiar with a ‘felis’”, Valeska replied, watching them.

“Oh. Well, she has fur, and big ears, and a tail. She’s friendly...well, sorta. She’s our ally, we can say that for sure.”

“Very well then.”

They finished their search, only finding a handful of useful items, mostly gold and gems that would be useful eventually, and some stored food. Once that was finished, they made their way back through the tunnel, performing quick searches on the other dead cultists.

“You’re very...lethal,” Janessa murmured as they stopped by one of the bodies.

“I am a...” she paused, as though considering something, “I’m not sure how it would translate in your tongue. Suffice to say, I am a warrior who specializes in many environments, with a magical talent. I have had much time to practice underwater and on land.”

“I think you and Yelena would get along quite well,” John said.

“I must admit to some curiosity. Your group seems like an...unusual bunch. Although I have encountered men and elves, and now that you have described her, I realize that I believe I have encountered felis, though I do understand that more than one of the land-dwelling species have fur, I have only heard of demons. And the things I have heard are...universally bad,” she said, sounding almost apologetic.

Yelena sighed. “My kind are not native to this realm,” she said. “And most of my kind view inhabitants of this realm as...lesser beings, unfortunately. In short, I met John during an excursion to this realm, fell deeply, desperately, and hopelessly in love with him, and we decided to build a life together. That was a little less than a year ago now.”

“Oh.” She paused. “Interesting.”

“That’s about the reaction we normally get,” John said.

“I did not mean offense,” Valeska said after a moment.

“None taken,” John replied.

They began walking again. “I must say now that I have become aware of the fact that I am...ignorant, of many of your societal etiquette rules. If I offend, I apologize now, and will again, as it seems to come up frequently during the times where I do interact with land-dwellers.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about us getting overly angry. Layla might, she’s...in a difficult place right now, emotionally, but I think we’ll get along fine,” John replied.

“That is good to know. Land-dwellers, especially humans, can be so...unpredictable.”

“Or depressingly predictable,” Janessa murmured.

They made their way back to the tunnel entrance and as they came into view of Layla, she glanced back at them, beginning to ask a question, and then her eyes widened and a look of sick fear passed across her face. John shot a glance behind them, terrified something had snuck up on them, but the way was clear, it was just the four of them. The only thing new was Valeska, and given how cool Layla was around Yelena, surely she wouldn’t freak out over a-

“Shit,” John muttered. An ocean nymph.

“This is Layla,” Yelena said.

“Y...you found an ocean nymph,” Layla replied slowly.

“Layla,” John said, but she shook her head.

“No, I’m fine,” she said.

Valeska seemed confused, uncertain. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” John said. “Layla, this is Valeska. She’s the one who killed the cultists. She’s a friend now. She’s going to help us...is that okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Layla replied quickly. John had to imagine this must be difficult. Even if the ocean nymph she’d met on Tomontica hadn’t been the one to betray her, he had to admit that from her perspective, this was shaping up to be an oddly similar experience, at least in some ways. With an effort, Layla controlled herself. “I haven’t seen anything out here. Did we get the shard?”

“Yes, it’s secure,” Yelena replied. “And Valeska knows some quality magic to help seal it in. We are ready to go for the magical research outpost.”

“Is that where the next shard resides?” Valeska asked as they returned to the outdoors and the rain, and began to descend the difficult path.

“No. But we believe it possible that research was done on the shards there, and we may find a way to more safely transport them. And to destroy them. Which, I suppose I should have asked right away: do you know how to destroy them?” John asked.

“I do not. I assumed the answer would be forthcoming in my examinations,” Valeska replied.

“Well...I guess we share that hope,” John murmured.

They continued their descent.

…

The longer they walked, the more he got to like Valeska.

And he liked to believe it wasn’t just because she was both naked and extremely attractive, and so clearly confident and skilled in combat.

Though she was a bit distant and oddly formal, she warmed up to them, in her own way, over the next two hours as they first navigated the path back down to the ground, and then struck off to the northwest, making for the research outpost. Well, the first research outpost, although now that he thought about it he wasn’t actually sure what the far elf outpost was. He was sure he would find out whether or not he wanted to, though.

He and Yelena shared their story with Valeska, and caught her up to speed on what had happened to them on the island so far, with Janessa and, less often, Layla. She still seemed to be adjusting to Valeska’s appearance. Inversely, Valeska seemed somewhat reluctant to share the details of her own life. She was vague, and although he was sure that would make Layla paranoid, he thought she had the tone of someone who was embarrassed by their personal life. So he tried not to pry. And despite the fact that they now had three shards, and were stopped twice by corrupted creatures, first by a pack of wolves, then by another group of giant spiders, and they were still going up against overwhelming odds, John felt better than he had since the shipwreck.

Valeska was a big morale booster, and last night had been really pleasant.

He noticed that Janessa was sticking a lot closer to him, touching him and holding his hand from time to time. Yelena noted it with a smirk his way every now and then. It still felt weird that the love of his life teased him whenever he caught the attention of another woman, (that he had fucked already). She was always so amused whenever he caught the attention of a woman who had more submissive tendencies, which was rare. For whatever reason, he was lucky to catch the attention of hardcore, badass babes more often than not.

His thoughts cut off as a sudden awareness hit him and made him freeze.

It made them all freeze up in their tracks.

It wasn’t the same thing as the corrosive malignancy of the shards, not at all, but it was powerful and evil all the same.

“What is that?” Layla whispered, her voice harsh.

“I am not sure,” Yelena muttered, her tail twitching violently. “But it is not good.”

“It’s magic of some kind,” Janessa whispered, her breath coming heavily. “It’s familiar but...I can’t place it.”

“Nothing you can tell us?” John asked. She considered for a moment, staring ahead of them in concentration, then slowly shook her head. “Well...we can’t stop now.”

“I suppose not,” Yelena murmured.

He glanced at Valeska. “Any insight?”

“No,” she replied quietly, her expression flat.

“Then let’s deal with this. Nice and easy.”

John and Yelena led the way, the others backing them up as they pressed on through the rainy forest. He could hear the crashing of the waves nearby. They kept pushing silently onward until they finally broke through the treeline and found themselves looking down at a massive clearing that butted up against the rocky shoreline. Built near the center of it was a stone structure that was still mostly intact. He stared at it intently, studying it closely, trying to find the source of the incredibly disturbing feeling, because the building itself was clearly the source.

And yet he didn’t see anything obvious. Just a stone structure, two stories tall, broken windows, holes in a few of the walls, and…

“Movement, inside the structure,” Yelena said softly.

“Cultists?” Janessa asked.

“I believe so,” she said. “Layla? Valeska?”

“I am not sure from this distance. My eyesight is not as good on land,” Valeska said.

“Mine is. It’s them,” Layla muttered. “But what is that? Is it something they’re doing?”

“Could be,” John said. “Or maybe it’s something leftover from whatever the fuck they were researching here...”

“Or something that developed as a consequence of being on the island and left unattended,” Yelena murmured. “Either way, we must mount our assault. Carefully.”

“How should we do this?” Janessa asked.

“I see two entrances on the ground,” Yelena said. “Love?”

“We should split up. Valeska, you take the side entrance, there. Yelena, Janessa, with me on the front entrance. Layla, you’ll climb up, find a way into the second story. We attack at roughly the same time, surprise them, overwhelm them. Kill them fast and find what we’re looking for. Sound good?” he asked.

They all responded that it did.

“All right...let’s do this.”

They relied almost entirely on luck and hope to get close to the building after that, first going around to the backside while staying in the trees, where the distance between the building itself and the forest’s edge was shortest, and then they broke away from the treeline and sprinted as fast as they could, hoping that no one happened to be in the back part of the outpost at that point, or, if they were, looking out any windows.

They made it, getting to the back wall without being seen.

Layla immediately began to climb the stone edifice with an easy and nimble grace. They left her to it and began making their way around the side of the building. The group crept along until they reached the side entrance. Valeska slipped in through there. Now it was up to them to get to the front and start causing chaos.

“Keep back, okay Janessa?” John whispered as they headed forward, ducking below the windows as they passed them. They started to hear conversations as they drew closer to the front. The voices sounded strained. Well, being in there probably sucked. And it was about to suck a whole lot worse for them.

“I will,” she responded.

As they came around the front, someone stepped out, their hood down, a cigarette in their hand. They lit it with a flame from their fingertip. They turned as Yelena aimed her crossbow and the second they laid eyes on them, she let fly the bolt. It nailed him in the right eye and killed him. She was already darting forward even as she fired, and she managed to get to him and catch his body before he fell.

Fucking damn she was fast.

She peered in through the front door and looked back as they joined her. “First room is clear,” she whispered.

“Let’s do this,” John replied.

They slipped into the first room and found it mostly empty. There was clear evidence the cultists had passed through here and torn the place apart looking for...something. Probably the same thing they were looking for. The pressure of the unseen presence was worse than ever, and something happened as they stepped inside. Somehow, it intensified, becoming crushing. John wanted to run, he actually had to stop himself from fleeing, to force himself to stay inside the building. And pushing onward was even harder than just standing still.

But they did push onward, all three of them, moving towards the only other door, directly across the way. It stood open, and they carefully approached the doorway. Janessa hung back while John and Yelena stood to either side of it, weapons at ready. John peered slowly around the corner and found himself looking into a large room that seemed to serve as the middle of the structure, not only taking up the entire width of it and a good fifty feet in length, but also both stories. A good dozen of the cultists wandered around that room, shuffling through desks, shelves, and trunks scattered across the floor, looking through hundreds of pages.

They seemed distracted, and not just because they were all looking for something. They all had strained expressions on their faces, their body language tense and miserable, bordering on anger. He wondered how long they had been there. A flicker of movement caught his attention and he glanced up. In an open window overlooking the room from the second story, he saw Layla’s dim outline among the shadows. Perfect.

“Janix!” someone called suddenly. One of the cultists looked up and around irritably. “Janix, where the fuck are you!?” John gripped his blade more tightly. That could have been the man they’d murdered who had stepped out for a smoke. “Where is he?!” the man demanded.

“Let’s do it,” John said.

Yelena stepped out and fired a bolt, taking one of the cultists in the back of the head and killing him in an instant. At the same time, Layla fired her own arrow from up above, killing a second cultist. At almost the same moment, Valeska burst from one of the doors at the back of the room in a blue blur and began attacking a pair of cultists back there.

“We’re under attack!” the leader screamed as John raced into the room, coming towards another clutch of the bastards. John stabbed one man through the chest as he tried to get a spell off, then ripped his blade out in a spray of blood with barely enough time to get it up and fend off a blow from another sword-wielding cultist.

“YOU BROUGHT THE SHARDS IN HERE!?” the team’s leader shrieked suddenly. The fear was so naked in his voice that it made both John and the man attacking him pause. He glanced over and saw that the leader had gone as white as snow. “Get them out of here! You’re going to let it loose! Get them the fuck out of here!” he screamed in actual, honest panic.

What in the fuck was he talking about? John wondered furiously as he took two steps back, suddenly wondering if their surprise attack wasn’t the best idea.

“John!” he heard Yelena yell.

He heard running footsteps coming from his left and glanced over. He just caught sight of a cultist coming for him and, behind the cultist, Yelena stepped into the room, another bolt drawn. She let it fly, taking the cultist in the back of the head, and then she took another step deeper into the room, drawing another bolt.

Something happened.

A roar so deep that it was more felt than heard suddenly cut through the whole area and froze every living being in its place.

What have we done? John thought in sheer terror as the entire building began to shake.

CHAPTER XI

Something appeared in the center of the room.

Something that was difficult to look at, like your eyes seemed to slide right off of it, and even attempting the act of looking immediately gave John a splitting headache. But he couldn’t look away, or wouldn’t let himself, he wasn’t sure at this point. Because this thing was dangerous. It might have been the most threatening thing he’d ever encountered in his entire life. It was tall and oddly...crystalline, cast in strange hues of pinkish golden and shot through with deep, deep red and other colors he couldn’t properly identify.

It had a big, misshapen head and, he thought, many limbs that extended from a central mass. Some wavered and thrashed like tentacles, others were rigid and gleaming, like living blades. What appeared to be heat waves were coming off of it in a strangely shimmering effect. Glowing pinpoints of deep, deep black light hung around its head, drifting to and fro, like bees buzzing around a hive. It might have been eight feet tall, it might have been twice that, he honestly was having a hard time trying to figure out its dimensions.

The beast issued some strange noise that was again more felt than heard, something deep that rattled John’s bones, and suddenly it shifted. It didn’t so much move as it was suddenly in another location, standing before the leader of the cultist team. It snatched him up in two of the tentacled appendages coming out of it and he screamed as he was lifted.

“Destroy them!” he screamed. “Break the crystals! Hurry!” he yelled in raw panic.

Then he came apart. John wasn’t sure what he was seeing, only that the man was suddenly no longer whole. Instead, blood rained down, spraying across the area and suddenly he was in a dozen pieces among the tentacled limbs of the crystalline horror. John staggered back, a throaty cry of terrified, disbelieving disgust escaping him, and felt true panic grip his mind. He didn’t even know how to begin to respond to this threat.

Yelena was suddenly at his side. All around them, the remaining cultists began running around in a frenzied panic.

“John! John!” she screamed, grabbing him and yanking his face to hers. “He is right! We must find crystals! And destroy them!”

“What the fuck are you talking about!?” he snapped, shaking violently in fear.

She slapped him suddenly and some of the panicked haze cleared from his mind. “Find crystals! They are black in color! Find them and bring them to me! I can break them! It is the only way to deal with this thing!”

“I...okay, I got it!” he stammered, and turned away.

The creature was picking up another two cultists in its many incongruous limbs, as well as several desks and chairs.

Holy sweet fucking Gods what had they gotten themselves into?

He saw Layla standing there, her jaw dropped, staring with wide, unseeing eyes at the impossible horror they now shared a space with. “Layla!” he screamed. “Layla!” He pointed his finger and shot a tiny fireball at her. It winged her and she shouted, then looked at him. “Find black crystals! Get them to Yelena!” he screamed.

“What?!” she snapped.

“Layla, godsdamnit, find black crystals, bring them to Yelena you crazy bitch!” he shrieked at the top of his lungs, his words hurtling out of him with such force that it hurt his throat.

She tossed a glance at the creature, then ran off. He looked again at the creature as well, and saw that some of the cultists, and Janessa, were now engaging with, magically. They were hurling fireballs, bolts of ice and lightning, and anything else they could possibly think of at it, and it seemed to be doing nothing.

Holy fuck. Holy fuck.

John tried not to panic as he began sprinting around, looking for black crystals. This was the craziest fucking thing he’d ever seen and he just had to trust Yelena. Apparently she knew what to do. He looked around briefly for Valeska but she was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully she had heard the message and was going looking for black crystals. How in the fuck was he even going to find them? Beyond an extremely basic description, he had nothing to go off of. He wasn’t magically inclined and it wasn’t like he even had any clues to go off. He began ripping open drawers, looking for the items in question, flinging parchment and writing supplies and a mishmash of other random items across the room as the crystalline entity murdered more cultists.

What felt like ages went by as he ripped out desk drawers and found nothing. Suddenly, Yelena appeared at his side.

“You have not found one?” she asked, as close to panic as he had ever seen her.

“No!” he snapped.

“I can sense one here! Right here!” she said, looking around frantically.

“What are they!?”

“They are what hold the beast here! We destroy them, it vanishes! Like in the attic of the mansion!” she replied.

“Fuck!” he growled, looking around more frantically. So he was in the right spot but...where the fuck was it!?

He was showered in blood suddenly as he heard a loud long shriek that was suddenly cut off. He looked back. The cultists were down by half. At least they were keeping the damned thing busy, but how long would that last? Even as he looked, the strange thing lashed out and began to raise another cultist up off of the floor. He looked around frantically for something, anything to help, and suddenly realized that he’d missed something.

A stairwell.

It was tucked away across the room, opposite the entity. “It must be down!” he snapped, pointing, and took off.

“Hurry!” Yelena shouted after him, for whatever reason choosing to remain above for the moment.

John ran for all he was worth. He leaped over a desk, bound over some chairs, got to the stairwell, and promptly tripped down the flight of stairs. He yelled in pain and terrified anger as he banged down the stairs, bruising what felt like every part of his body on the way down. He surged to his feet when he got to the bottom, fueled by adrenaline, and thought that at least it was faster than running down, saving him precious few seconds. He kicked the door open and threw up a light spell. Finding himself in a room packed with wooden crates and shelves about half the length of the room above, he began rushing through it.

The spot in question would be by the far wall, near the middle, as that’s where he and Yelena had been standing overhead. Of course, there was no guarantee that he could find the fucking thing. Overhead, he heard screaming and chaos and prayed that his own people were okay. As he drew closer to the spot he intended to reach, something flashed darkly. He adjusted his course and knocked over a few crates, racing towards it. That had to be it! As he shoved over a stack of four crates and sent a ton of books crashing to the floor, he finally came upon a glass case resting on an ivory pedestal. And inside rested a black crystal.

It was a strange shape and not very large, but it seemed oddly heavy. It made a healthy dent in the red pillow it rested on beneath the glass. John snatched the glass top off and tossed it aside, shattering it, then reached in and grabbed the crystal.

“Ow, fuck!” he snapped as a strange feeling not unlike being sliced with a razor came to his hand as it made contact. He snatched his hand back and studied it, expecting it to be bleeding intensely, but the skin was unbroken. Growling in frustration, he picked up the pillow and although he found it surprisingly heavy, suffered no further consequences. He began hastily navigating the room back to the stairs. The sounds intensified overhead and something shook the whole building, knocking over several more crates and items onto the floor.

As he approached the exit, a figure suddenly appeared in it and for a few seconds he felt terror briefly overwhelm him. He relaxed immediately as he saw it was Yelena. Behind her was Valeska. “You found it?!” she asked.

“Yes, here,” he replied, hurrying over. He saw her wincing, gritting her teeth, holding two more in her bare hands. “What the fuck is happening up there!?”

“Chaos,” Yelena murmured. “Set it on the floor.”

He did so, putting the pillow down at her hooves, and she quickly set the other two she held beside the third. “I don’t know if this is all of them,” she whispered.

“What’s the plan? What the fuck are we doing?” John asked, feeling his panic surging again.

“I need to destroy them all but I don’t know if this is all of them. If I destroy these three and there is a fourth-”

“It’s going after Janessa!” Layla screamed from somewhere up above.

John wanted to ask questions, but from her tone and expression, he knew there wasn’t time. He slipped past her and he and Valeska, who looked as tense and scared as he had ever seen her in their short time together, hurried up the stairs, where Layla waited, staring with wide eyes out the door, into the room beyond. He stepped up behind her and stared with her. The last cultist was just in the process of being pulled to pieces.

Janessa was in the room now, apparently trying to make her way to them. There was nothing but terror on her face and he wondered if she’d completely started panicking. He wouldn’t blame her but that might get her killed.

“She needs to stop it now,” Layla whispered.

The crystalline creature was coming towards Janessa and right as he was watching, she suddenly tripped and fell.

“Fuck, Yelena!” he shouted. “Do it now!”

“But-” she began.

“NOW!” Layla screamed.

Yelena shouted something and then a few seconds later a pulse of red light shot up to them. John watched, for what felt like the first time in his life truly paralyzed by fear, because he wanted, more than anything, to sprint out there and grab Janessa and haul her to safety, but he physically couldn’t. He couldn’t force his body to move from the spot it currently occupied. And then, suddenly, the crystalline entity froze. A loud, reverberating roar cut through the air and abruptly it disappeared, snapping out of existence like a soap bubble popping.

As the last of its roar died away, silence fell.

“...it is gone?” Yelena asked finally, breaking the quiet.

“It’s gone,” John muttered, then cleared his throat. “Yes, it’s gone,” he said, louder.

Yelena slowly walked up the stairs to join them.

He realized that Janessa wasn’t getting up. The paralysis that ensnared him seemed to lift and he stumbled out of the stairwell, hurrying over to her amidst all the chaos of torn, scattered parchments, pools of blood, and pieces of bodies. Had it gotten to her somehow?

“Janessa,” he said urgently, crouching by her and carefully laying a hand on her shoulder. “Janessa, are you okay?”

Nothing. For a second he was terrified that she’d somehow been killed, but as he gently rolled her over, he saw that she was still breathing.

“What happened?” Yelena asked, hurrying over.

“I think...she fainted. Or maybe knocked herself out when she fell,” he said.

“I can heal her,” Yelena replied as she came to stand by him.

She took a moment to send a healing spell over Janessa, though it didn’t wake her up, then she slowly stood and looked around.

“Now what?” Layla asked as she and Valeska joined them. “Is it gone?”

“It’s gone,” Yelena replied.

“What the fuck was that? I’ve never even heard of something like that,” John asked as he carefully picked Janessa up, not wanting to leave her on the bloody floor.

“During my time as a magical warrior, I had to study many, many potential enemies,” Yelena said. “The more powerful magic users in my realm were known to pull monsters from other realms. I saw many strange and terrible creatures in my time. We had to learn how to defeat them or, barring that, send them back. That entity is from an extremely dangerous realm. I have only studied the realm and its inhabitants, I’ve never actually encountered any. They are called...I’m not sure what it would be called in your tongue, admittedly. I suppose it doesn’t matter. What I believe was happening was whoever was here before us summoned and trapped the entity with the black crystals. They are rare and powerful items of imprisonment.”

“So why did it just appear out of nowhere?” Layla asked.

“I believe what happened was that they had summoned it, trapped it, and then set it very slightly out of phase with our realm. So that it was not quite here nor in its original realm, but caught halfway between both. And then, for whatever reason, it was abandoned here. And I think that when I stepped into the room and brought the shards inside, it upset whatever spell was holding it just out of phase, releasing it, at least into this immediate area. The shards were both keeping it imprisoned in this building, but also the only thing anchoring it here. Destroying them was like...cutting a fishing line and dropping the fish back into the water. It could no longer exist in our realm, so it was forced back into its own,” she explained.

“Holy fucking shit,” John muttered finally. “That was...too much.”

“We yet survive,” Valeska said.

“Yeah, and who knows how long we have until more of those fucking cultists show up?” Layla said unhappily. She sighed. “I think we got them all, but one or two could’ve slipped out in all the chaos and gone to tattle on us. We really need to get out of here.”

“We should see if we can find any useful research first,” John said uncertainly, looking out over the chaos of the large room.

“Then we should start now,” Yelena said.

With a heavy sigh, John set to work with the others.

…

It took three hours to find what they were looking for.

The work was miserable and disgusting, given all the ripped apart corpses, and the terror of the crystalline entity didn’t fully leave John as he worked, and it was exacerbated by the fact that he knew more cultist assholes could show up at any time. They finally found what they were looking for in the form of a leatherbound work journal in one of the dormitories. Janessa stayed out until almost the end. She awoke in a panic but they calmed her and let her know it had turned out all right. Once they’d confirmed that they had what they needed and Janessa was good to move, they left the research outpost and struck off south.

Janessa, in a bit of a daze, warned them that they’d have to take a more eastbound path, to swing out away from the coast, as they’d have to pass by the small port town the cultists had set up in. They decided that their next step was the far elf outpost. They walked through the rainy forest for an hour before speaking.

“Janessa, you doing okay?” John asked quietly, getting closer to her.

Yelena and Layla took to the front, while John and Valeska had hung at the back of the group, watching the way they’d come from for enemies.

“I’m...making it,” she said finally, offering him a wan smile.

“I’m sorry. If you want, we can probably find someplace for you to hole up until we’re finished...” he said, but she was shaking her head.

“No. I know we have to keep going, and I’m willing to keep going. I just...didn’t think we’d face something like that. I’ve never passed out from fear before.” She laughed softly. “It was...intense.” She looked at him suddenly. “How do you do it? How do you...face that shit?”

He looked away. “I...” He swallowed, cleared his throat. “That was the first time you’ve ever passed out from fear, but it was the first time I’ve ever been paralyzed from it. I...froze, when I saw you fall. I was going to help, and I-”

“It’s okay, John,” she said, interrupting. She reached out and took his hand. “That thing...it was beyond any of us. Honestly, we got lucky. I’m not mad, I don’t blame you. It turned out okay. I...look, I don’t think you’re a coward for freezing up or anything, okay?”

“Fuck, I hope not, did you fucking see that thing?” he replied.

She laughed, and it was good to hear. “I have to admit, it’s interesting to see people like you and Yelena actually afraid.”

“I almost never see Yelena afraid, but...she still has her fear. We all do. I mean, the thing I’ve learned is that being brave isn’t the banishment of fear, it’s acting despite it. It’s doing what needs doing even being scared out of your fucking mind. That...isn’t always possible. But fuck I hope we don’t have to face something like that again.”

“I hope so...” She paused and looked at Yelena. “I was, um, curious...”

“Yeah?”

“Nevermind.”

“No, ask me. What do you wanna know?”

She sighed. “It’s stupid.” He waited and she sighed again. “I guess...please don’t take it the wrong way, but like, are there...difficulties? Like, with the relationship? I mean, I know every relationship has difficulties, I’m just curious because she’s...”

“A demon?” She nodded reluctantly. “It’s okay, I get it. I mean, there’s been a few, but not as much as you’d think. Given her history, I think she’s made a remarkable adjustment to this life. It’s almost like...she wanted this life for years, or decades, and she didn’t know it. So when the change came, it was easier to make. She wanted all of this stuff. Not just the love, not just the adventure. Yelena wants to learn, she wants to be patient, she wants to know new things. She wants to meet new people and have fun, pleasant conversations with them. She wants to build, she wants to explore, she wants to create. The difficulties you might face when coming to a new culture...they’re all much more easily managed if you want that. Plus she’s smart. So many people think demons are either stupidly cruel or, at best cruelly clever, but Yelena’s just fucking smart. She still intimidates the shit out of me. I love her so much.”

“I can see that,” Janessa said, smiling. “It’s so obvious in every way you interact. The way you two look at each other, the way you touch in passing, the little smiles, the way you speak to each other and about each other. It’s made me realize how rarely I get to see true love. Honestly, the fact that I get to be a part of it, even a small part in our...sexual adventure last night, I’m so grateful.”

“Honestly, I should be grateful. You’re pretty good in bed,” he replied.

“You’re just saying that,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“No, I’m not. I’m polite, but I’m not lying to you. Last night was fucking great. And I really look forward to doing it again, if you’re interested.”

“Obviously I’m interested. Your dick felt way too good not to fuck again,” she said.

“Excuse me,” Valeska said.

They glanced back at her, seeing that she’d drawn closer while they’d talked. “Yeah?” he asked.

“I...was curious. You said that you and Yelena are lovers?” she asked.

“Yes. We are.”

“Is it not customary for intimacy to remain exclusive between lovers?” she asked.

“Typically among humans, yes, it is. We both realized since the very beginning of the relationship that we’re both too...amorous, to maintain exclusivity. So we take lovers into our bed. Sometimes together, sometimes separately. But we’ve taken quite a lot of lovers since becoming lovers ourselves. Although I would say the love we share for each other is exclusive, if that makes sense,” John explained.

“I believe I understand. So...you believe in sex for pleasure then?” she asked.

He chuckled. “I...uh yeah, you could say that. It’s practically a way of life for us. We’ve both been intimate with Layla since meeting her. Yelena and I are very, uh, I guess you could say free, and casual, with our sex.”

“Okay. I have encountered this before.” She looked at him squarely as they walked. “Then I wish to proposition you.”

He blinked. “I, um...proposition me? Like, as in...like sex?”

She adopted a small smile. “For someone who professes to be so familiar with sex and to have taken on so many lovers, you are oddly awkward about this.”

“I-no, I mean...yes, I am,” he replied, getting his bearings. Janessa looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. “I apologize,” he said, composing himself. “I’m still...awkward, in some regards, around beautiful and sexually confident or direct women. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully get over it. So, you are propositioning me for sex? You want to have sex with me?” he asked.

“Yes,” Valeska replied. “I do. I have never fornicated with a human man before.”

“Really? Why?”

“Well, it isn’t for lack of trying. I don’t spend a lot of my time above the water, and when I do, I’m typically very busy. I have fornicated with some elves, but no other species. You are quite attractive, and very brave and skilled in combat, from what I’ve seen so far. Yelena more so. And you seem attracted to me.”

“You could tell, huh?” he asked, laughing nervously and running a hand over the back of his neck.

“Yes.”

“Then yes, I would be very happy to have sex with you, Valeska.”

“You seem...well-traveled, sexually speaking. Have you ever had sex with an ocean nymph?” she asked.

“No. Just dryads.”

“Oh! Interesting. And...arousing,” she admitted, looking away briefly.

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ve worked with dryads before. I suppose I should mention I’ve made love with them, too, but I didn’t think to count it because nymphs often fornicate for pleasure, mainly across our own species. I’ve heard that dryads take town-dwelling lovers sometimes, especially among the elves, and they are very...tenacious lovers.”

“Extremely tenacious,” he agreed, then he reached out and ran a finger down her arm. It was slick and surprisingly warm. “How about ocean nymphs? How tenacious of a lover are you?” he asked, lowering his voice a little.

She looked over at him with something like surprise, then a grin sprouted on her beautiful, interestingly-shaped face. “I suppose you shall learn soon enough.”

“That sounded almost like a challenge,” Janessa murmured.

“Consider it a promise,” Valeska replied.

“I shall consider it a good show.” They all looked forward and saw Yelena glancing back over her shoulder at them. “Provided Valeska is comfortable with an audience.”

“An audience does not scare me,” Valeska replied easily.

“I knew you two would get along,” John murmured.

“You know, I’d ask how you keep managing to draw these women into your bed, but having fucked you, I honestly am not surprised,” Layla said with a smirk.

“Well, we can all watch me and Valeska fuck after we get this shit out of the way,” John replied. “How far are we from the outpost?”

Janessa sighed. “I can’t be too sure but I think we’re close now. We should find a rise in the land or something, get a better view of the area maybe.”

“I can climb a tree,” Layla said. “Let’s find a tall one.”

They spent the next five minutes tracking down a sufficiently tall tree and then she scrambled up it with an amazing dexterity. John couldn’t help but look up her skirt, if those scraps of cloth she wore could be called a skirt, though he noticed Yelena and Janessa did as well. She climbed to the top and then came back down a moment later.

“We’re very close,” she said. “Just another few hundred feet ahead of us. I didn’t see any activity. No cultists or anything.”

“Hopefully it stays that way,” John replied. “Come on, let’s hurry.”

They quickened their pace, falling silent as they passed through the trees, getting back in the right headspace for another battle. Hopefully it was a more manageable one. John glanced at the sky. Although it was still gray and overcast (did the sun ever shine here?), he could tell that it was past noon now. It was hard to believe how much time had passed. It seemed like not all that long ago they were heading up to the cave. He tried to take stock of the situation. They had three shards, and the research necessary to destroy them, (they’d taken a few minutes to thumb through the diary and determined that unfortunately the process was too complex and involved to destroy the shards they already had right now,), the cultists had at the very least one of the shards, and two more of them were out there on the island.

One they were heading for right now.

One in a fucking catacomb, farther southwest from their current position.

So, three down, three to go.

John sighed and told himself that they could do this, that he could do this. It wasn’t like they exactly had a choice.

A few minutes later, they came to another clearing that held another building. This one was made of stone, but it had a strange blue hue to it. He was reminded immediately of the far elf structure that he, Yelena, and Ellie had investigated over winter back on Veridis. They stood at the edge of the clearing and waited, studying the building. Nothing moved. No sound came to them. Nothing in the windows or the single open doorway they could see. They waited for several moments, but no signs of life came to them.

“Think they’re in there?” Janessa murmured.

“I don’t know, the place seems dead,” Layla replied.

“Something’s wrong,” Yelena said softly.

“What?” Valeska asked.

“I am not sure. Nothing like what we have experienced so far, at least. Let us get closer,” Yelena replied, and she set off.

They followed after her. John kept expecting something to happen, an arrow or bolt or spell to attack them, but nothing came. He realized that he hadn’t gotten much use out of his crossbow yet and wondered if he would. Honestly, he’d grabbed it as a backup weapon, but he was more comfortable with his sword than anything else.

John took point as they got to the entrance. He slipped through, sword at ready, and came into a hallway. Far elf structuring wasn’t all that different than what he was used to, although the hall was oddly rounded, and that blue hue clung to everything. There was a faint buzz of magic, but Yelena was right, something was wrong. But what? He didn’t see anyone in the hallway and gave the all-clear. They filed in after him.

The group moved slowly through the structure at first, but began to pick up speed as it became clear that they were alone here. The far elf outpost seemed to be just that: an outpost. A place for an expeditionary force to rest, eat, and, if need, defend themselves from. Although it looked like no battle had ever reached this place. It was oddly empty. Though furniture remained, there wasn’t much in the way of personal effects. If he had to guess, John would say that they simply abandoned the fort at some point years ago.

“Oh shit,” Yelena said suddenly as they came into what seemed to be the dining hall.

“What?” Layla snapped, dropping into a defensive stance.

“I know what’s wrong: I don’t feel the shard’s corruptive presence. It isn’t here.”

“Shit,” John muttered.

“Wait...could it just be shielded?” Janessa suggested. “Like what we’ve done?”

“Possibly...” Yelena murmured. “We need to finish our search, at least, but I think they might have been here already.”

They picked up the pace, sorting through the storage areas, the dormitories, and any other rooms they came across, though it wasn’t a very large building. Even still, they pissed away another hour hunting through the building. In the end, they found another glass case covering a brick of metal with an indention in it that perfectly fit one of the shards.

It was empty.

“Yep, they got here before us,” Layla muttered.

“Fuck!” John snapped. “So now they have two.”

“At least two. They might already have the third one,” Yelena said.

“Should we just hit them now?” John asked.

“I don’t know...we’re much closer to the catacomb...” Janessa replied.

“It seems like there was no conflict here, so it stands to reason that they’d press on after collecting this shard,” John said. “If we move quickly, we might be able to catch them, either there or on the way back.”

“I agree,” Yelena said. She looked at the others.

“I’ll do whatever you think makes sense,” Janessa said.

“I’m down either way,” Layla said.

“It makes sense,” Valeska agreed. “But we should move now.”

“We should,” John said, nodding. “Let’s do this.”

They headed out of the far elf outpost and began making for the catacombs, immediately adopting a brisk pace.

CHAPTER XII

The catacomb was merely a single, simple stone structure in an overgrown field, but John couldn’t help but marvel over how such a small building could put out such an overwhelmingly ominous and terrifying feeling.

This feeling, at least, was one he was familiar with.

Well, two, at this point.

The first was the shard. He could feel it from here. So that was reassuring, at the very least. The second feeling was the evil aura places of corrupted darkness and death put off. This was definitely a cursed place, and the shard had only made it worse.

“They were here,” Yelena said softly.

John followed her gaze and caught sight of bootprints in some mud leading up to the catacomb’s entrance. At a glance, he counted a dozen people at least. Well, they could handle that, especially with Valeska on their side.

Unless something darker awoke in that catacomb.

Then they’d be in trouble. Although at least they’d have more unintended help. If those cultists hadn’t been around last time they might not have made it out alive. Well, here was hoping that this time around went a little better. Or even at least as good. They kept an eye out as they approached the catacomb. Yelena did a quick perimeter sweep as John and Layla entered the building itself. It was a simple structure, the walls lined with niches for coffins. They checked out all the shadowy areas, making sure no cultists were standing guard or laying in wait. Besides some muddy footprints, all heading down the stone stairwell that occupied the center of the building, there was nothing. Though the pervasive feeling of evil was stronger inside.

Yelena and the others came inside a moment later. “No one is outside.”

“No one in here, either,” John said. “You ready to go downstairs?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Janessa?” he asked, looking at her.

“I can do this,” she replied.

He studied her for a moment, then nodded and started heading down the stairs. She looked better than she had after leaving the far elf outpost, and better still than she had leaving the research outpost. She seemed stable enough, and he had to admit, the fact that she seemed stable at all after what happened at the research outpost meant that she had more grit than she probably realized. He hoped it was enough, but between himself, Yelena, Layla, and Valeska, they probably were going to be able to deal with the cultists and whatever else might be down in the catacombs. Hopefully. He supposed he’d find out.

They descended the stairwell, which was lit with flickering torchlight, as the cultists had apparently opted to light the way for themselves. He shifted his sword’s handle around in his grip and rolled his shoulders a few times. He was still tired and sore, but unless they were truly, desperately in need of a rest, they had to keep pushing. They didn’t have the luxury of time. The stairs finally ran out a bit later and they came to a hallway of stone and earth, the walls having more niches carved out of them for coffins to rest.

He wondered how many dead were buried here, and who had made this.

And why someone had hidden a fucking shard all the way down here.

Honestly he’d be curious to see a complete history of this miserable island, but he knew no one but the Gods and Goddesses themselves would ever be able to provide such a thing.

The group moved in a loose line, Yelena taking the lead after a moment of consideration, as she had probably the best reflexes and senses. John was right behind her, prepared to back her up. Layla was behind him with an arrow ready to go, while Janessa hung behind her, and Valeska watched their backs. They made their way cautiously down the earthen and stonework passageway, careful to make as little noise as possible. It quickly curved off to the left and before long it forked. They broke left, following the muddy bootprints, as none of them went down the right passageway. Minutes began to drag by as they passed coffin after coffin after coffin.

Who the fuck were all these dead people?!

John supposed that between the handful of settlements, outposts, and other random places scattered across the island, that if everyone who had ever died here was buried in a single place, it would make enough sense. John shook his head slightly and focused. He was getting too focused on these little details, but how was he not supposed to? This place was a mystery and it begged questions, and he wanted to think about practically anything else but the oppressive, nightmarish presence that haunted this catacomb.

Like Valeska, and what it might feel like inside of her…

He’d always wondered about sex with an ocean nymph.

The way ahead suddenly broadened out into a larger room and they slowed as they approached. He and Yelena scoped out the room from the edge, where it met the passageway. It looked like an area where they prepared the dead or the coffins, or both. There were the remains of some tables and chairs and wooden crates scattered around, and from here he could see evidence that the cultists had passed through, continuing on through one of the two tunnels that snaked away from the room, across from where they were now.

John began to step deeper into the room, but Yelena stilled him with a hand on his forearm. “Do you hear that?” she whispered.

He waited, listened, straining to hear something. But he heard nothing. It was as quiet as, well, a tomb. “No,” he murmured.

“Exactly. I have exceptional hearing, and I hear nothing. We should have heard something by now, some sign of our enemies. A voice, a footstep, anything. But I have heard nothing but us. Layla?” she asked.

“Same,” the felis muttered.

“Valeska? Janessa?”

“Nothing,” Janessa said.

“Agreed,” Valeska replied.

“So...are they gone already?” John muttered.

“It is possible, but I feel we would have seen some sign of their passing. There is plenty to indicate they have gone in, but...” Yelena frowned deeply, looking around the cavernous room, “no,” she said suddenly, shaking her head, “no, I still feel the presence of the shard. So either they left without it, which is still possible but very, very unlikely, or...they are still here, deeper in, and are, for some reason, being dead silent.”

“Or maybe just dead,” John muttered.

“That’d be lucky,” Janessa murmured.

“No, it wouldn’t, not unless they also killed whatever killed them. If they didn’t, that means that we’re gonna have to deal with it,” he replied.

“Oh...right. Fuck.”

He sighed. “Keep going?”

“Keep going,” Yelena said.

They struck off again, crossing the preparation room and heading off down the passageway with the faint bootprints on the old stonework flooring. As they walked deeper into the catacombs, deeper into the earth itself, it began to grow colder. John shivered and felt bad for Yelena. They couldn’t seem to escape the soul-sucking cold on this miserable island. So many evil things seemed to have a side effect of creating a chill on the air.

It grew worse the deeper in they walked.

They followed the bootprints down a curving passageway for several more minutes, and by the time they began to near its end, their breaths were fogging heavily upon the air. Yelena had Janessa cast a spell of warmth over the group before they came to the end of the passageway. It was here that the corruptive presence of the shard was most overwhelming, and the dark, malignant presence of something else hung. It wasn’t a haunting or a curse, John wasn’t sure what it was, but it was vaguely familiar, and hated it.

And it became obvious that the cultists had indeed met their fate in the way ahead, what appeared to be a room dedicated to a single tomb, a stone coffin that resided on a pedestal near the center of the room. There was a lot of blood scattered across the area, but no bodies. More torches burned in sconces near the entrance they all stood in, and a few guttered on the floor where they lay abandoned among the pools of blood, most of them out already. In the better light of her spell, John could see dark holes in the earthen walls of the room beyond. It was rounded, almost like an arena, and there were a dozen offshoots.

Many blood trails led into these dark openings.

“I see the shard,” Yelena whispered.

John followed her fiery gaze. The coffin was resting lengthwise, with the bottom, where the feet would be, aimed towards them. On the stonework pedestal, by the bottom of the coffin, was a small glass container, intricate in design, and within it was one of the shards. So, they hadn’t gotten to it before...whatever the fuck it was had murdered them all.

“So now what? Obviously it’s a trap of some kind,” John muttered.

“Maybe we can snatch it and go,” Layla said softly.

“I think they thought the same thing,” Yelena murmured.

“We can’t just stand here doing nothing,” John said. He looked around again, then popped his neck. “I’m going to go for it. You all watch out for me.”

“I’m going with you,” Yelena said firmly.

He glanced at her, saw the steely fire in her eyes, then nodded. It would feel good to have her alongside him anyway, because he did not want to go in there. They stood there for a few moments longer, studying the room for obvious traps, but John had to concede that whatever trap the room was going to spring, it came out of those openings along the sides, and he couldn’t see it, because the light wouldn’t push the shadows back far enough, even after Yelena boosted it three times. The room itself was fairly illuminated, but the shadows hung just a few feet past all the openings. And he couldn’t very well expect to go down any of those tunnels and face whatever it was, because that would just be fucking stupid.

And they couldn’t just leave, much as they might want to.

Even if they decided to say ‘fuck it’ and go take down the cultists, successfully murdered them all, got their hands on all five of the other shards and destroyed them, he knew that they couldn’t just leave this here. They couldn’t, it was too dangerous. So they would have to face it at some point. And given that fact, they were here now, so that point might as well be this moment. With this in mind, John steeled himself and began walking into the room.

Nothing happened, though the cold seemed to intensify as he and Yelena began making slow progress across the room.

He would just have to hope that whatever it was, whatever happened, he and the women he traveled with would be able to handle it.

They’d handled everything else thrown at them so far.

Technically speaking.

His boot squelched in the puddles of fresh blood that was already starting to freeze over and he winced every time it happened. They cut the distance between themselves and the shard in half, and still nothing happened. He continually hunted the shadowy recesses for signs of life, and unfortunately knew that anything could be lurking in those deep shadows and he wouldn’t know. Yelena might not even be able to tell until whatever it was came screaming out of the dark. Just get the shard, he told himself, just get the shard and get the fuck out.

They made it almost three quarters of the way there before they abruptly froze.

John immediately felt panic begin to take over his body as he tried to move, and found that he couldn’t. Not even a little bit. It was like he had become a statue.

“Yelena,” he whispered, barely able to form words.

“John...I cannot...move...” Yelena replied, straining.

“John...Yelena...we can’t move!” Layla yelled in that same halting, strained tone.

“Neither...can we!” John managed. “Yelena...”

“I am...dealing with it...” Yelena replied.

He waited, and he was prepared to leave it in her hands and wait patiently, but it wasn’t long before they began to hear sounds coming from all around them. Unfortunately familiar sounds. The sounds of the undead.

They emerged from the shadowed niches: skeletal things in tattered clothes or battered armor, often bloodied, with empty eyes, sometimes literally, with brutal wounds covering their emaciated bodies. Some of them were obviously the cultists, but most seemed to be older than that. Most looked like villagers that had been buried here, some might have been adventurers who had died on the island, in this very catacomb, perhaps.

There were dozens of them.

They lurched and limped and staggered into the central room, into the harsh light of Yelena’s luminosity spell.

John still couldn’t move.

“Yelena...”

She didn’t say anything. He felt his panic rising as he fought with everything he had to move. What was holding them!? Was it some kind of spell or some strange trap he couldn’t see!? He raged inside of his own mind but still couldn’t move a muscle. The pallid, undead things drew closer, coming for them, preparing to rip into them, to kill them, and then drag them back into the darkness to be turned into monsters like them and lay in wait for the next group that was unfortunate enough to stumble into this place.

“Yelena...” he growled.

His demoness lover suddenly shouted and a flash of blue light washed across his vision. John was straining so hard to move that when the ability to do so suddenly returned to him he nearly fell on his ass. As it was, he barely managed to draw his blade and decapitate the nearest undead ghoul. Sidestepping, he stabbed another through the face, tore his blade back out, and chopped through the arm of a reaching zombie.

“We don’t have much time!” Yelena shouted. “Whatever was causing us to freeze will return!” she warned them.

“Fuck!” John snapped, cutting off another head and throwing his shoulder into an undead cultist. He looked at the tomb resting in the center. “I’m going for it!”

He shoved another zombie into a group behind it, decapitated two more, and made a dash for the stone coffin. He chopped through another three undead, ducked one swinging arm, and stumbled to a halt before the tomb. He reached for the small glass case holding the shard, expecting something bad to happen, like maybe it was affixed to the platform, or the coffin directly ahead of him now would burst open, or some other total fucking nightmare thing to happen, but nothing did. He grabbed the container and turned around.

There were still a lot of undead fuckers to deal with, though.

“Let’s go!” he shouted, now forced to wield his blade one-handed.

Yelena had made it to him, and together, the pair of them began to chop, slice, and murder their way through the shifting crowd of clammy, pale, grabbing hands and empty, dead eyes. He could see Layla and Janessa firing off as many shots as they could from a crossbow and a bow, and Valeska had produced her blue blade and was trying to cut a path to them. Several minutes went by as they fought the undead horde. More and more of them came from the shadowy niches to try and take them down, and John thought that they may very well succeed from numbers alone. And all the time, that spell or whatever it was might reactivate and freeze them.

Zombies grabbed at him, hit hit, tore at his skin with dirty, broken fingernails. He caved one’s skull in by bashing it with the hilt of his blade, stabbed another through the head, ripped the blade out and punched another in the face, driving it back and hurting his hand in the process. He had no idea how long he fought alongside Yelena, holding onto the glass container with one arm, frustrated that he couldn’t just pocket the damn shard or take the time to put the container in his pack, but this was the situation and he had to deal with that.

Suddenly, Valeska was before them, decapitating one of the zombies in a spray of old blood. “Come on!” she shouted, gesturing at a trio of zombies next to John and freezing them in place with an ice spell that sent shivers through him.

She had cleared a path. They ran back through it as Layla and Janessa fired as fast as they could manage, putting bolts and arrows through anything that got close to them. The second they reached them and broke the threshold of the room, coming back into the corridor, they started preparing for a full-on retreat.

“Run!” Yelena snapped.

And then they were running, sprinting back along the path they’d taken for all they were worth. The sounds of the undead soon faded behind them and after several terrifying minutes, they finally found the stairs and pounded up them, coming back out into the gray light of day and the now pleasantly refreshing rain that saturated the island so constantly. For a few moments, after getting away from the building and back to the edge of the clearing, they simply got their breath back. John studied the glass case he held.

“Well...that’s four,” he muttered finally.

“Of six,” Yelena said. “And they have the other two.”

“Do we go after them?” Layla asked uncertainly.

“No,” John said, and Yelena and Valeska looked at him curiously. “Not yet. We need to take a break, get our breath back, and secure this artifact with the others. We’re going to be hitting them on their own turf this time, and I think we should do that at night, use the darkness to our advantage,” he explained.

“That makes sense,” Yelena said.

“I suppose so,” Valeska replied. She smirked suddenly. “And it will give us a chance to make good on my proposition.”

“There is that,” John said.

“We passed a small cabin on the way here,” Yelena said, “we can rest there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Layla said. “After that bullshit, I could use some sex.”

“I will be sure to give it to you,” Yelena replied with a smirk. She flicked Layla’s skirt with her tail, giving them all a brief but pleasant view of her toned ass.

“Is that a promise?” Layla asked.

“It is,” Yelena confirmed.

“Come on, let’s go,” John said, and set off.

They all quickly followed after him.

…

They found the cabin without running into anything trying to kill them, and John found himself both grateful and nervous.

Despite how difficult the catacombs had been, he couldn’t help but feel like they’d gotten off easy. That was how it worked sometimes, but some part of him couldn’t help but be paranoid that something worse was waiting for them further down the line. As he and Layla went about securing the area and then preparing a meal while Yelena, Janessa, and Valeska went about securing the fourth shard they’d collected, he tried to let the worry leave his mind. Instead, he began to think of Valeska, and how it would feel to be inside of her.

He’d never been inside of an ocean nymph, but if it was anything like sex with a dryad, then he was in for a phenomenal fuck session.

“How are you holding up?” John asked as he and Layla stepped outside after Janessa offered to take over the duties of tending to the fire they’d built in the cabin’s fireplace and dealing with the meal they’d begun preparing.

“I’m doing okay, I think,” Layla replied. She rubbed one of her eyes and then looked up at the sky for a moment. She shuddered. “Maybe not.” He waited. She looked like she was collecting her thoughts. Finally, she sighed. “You think I was wrong,” she said finally.

“What?” he asked, although he thought he knew what she was referring to.

“The choice I made with Alan. You think I was wrong. I could see it when I was telling you, feel it in your body language. Tell me why.”

He hesitated, looking at her uncertainly. She stared back at him, suddenly firm and resolute. “I, um...”

“Sometimes I think...that you’re right, I was wrong, but I haven’t been able to figure out how I was wrong. I can’t tell if I just want to be wrong. So tell me.”

“All right,” he said. “So this is my thought on it. I had to learn this lesson, albeit much less painfully, a few months ago. I told you about the kit woman, Fiona, and how we helped her.” Layla nodded, paying close attention to him now. “Fiona intimidated me. Yelena was obviously very taken by her. I mean, so was I. The first time I realized that I was jealous of her was after having a nightmare where Yelena was leaving me for Fiona. It took me awhile to...deal with it. And I was a fucking idiot. I...” he hesitated, looked away, laughed a little and shook his head, then looked back at her, “I did some dumb shit.”

“Like what? What the fuck could you have done? I’ve never seen a more secure, solid relationship in my life than you and Yelena’s,” Layla asked incredulously.

“I was intimidated by Fiona’s...experience, I guess. I had never left Veridis. I thought I was boring by comparison. She’d been all over the world, had tons of adventures. Met and fucked so many interesting people. And who was I? I was just...you know, some guy who Yelena happened to fall in love with, you know? Fiona was more attractive than me, more interesting than me, more well-traveled than me...ah,” he shook his head, “I’m still not totally over it, obviously.”

“You are so fucking weird,” Layla muttered.

“What?”

“Yelena is obviously head-over-heels, or, well, head-over-hooves in love with you, John. Even I can tell she’d fucking die for you. And I doubt it was a recent development. How could you have possibly felt this way?”

“Because maybe I have insecurities?” he asked, a little more sharply than he meant to. “Because maybe I feel hopelessly outclassed in my relationship sometimes? Yelena is, like, a demoness that’s three times my age and has seen so much in her life. And I’m just this guy who’s had a few adventures, you know? Does that make sense?”

She relented, a look of guilt flashing across her face. “Yeah. Sorry. I...sorry.”

He sighed and rubbed his temples for a moment. “It’s fine. But anyway, like I was saying...fuck, I haven’t even gotten to the stupid part yet. I thought I needed to be more interesting. That translated to me risking my life like a fucking moron in the battles we found ourselves in. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, Yelena is sharp. She picked up on the fact that I was risking my life stupidly after the second time I did it and pretty much yelled in my face until I confessed what the problem was. She was...kind, and we worked it out. But here’s my point, Layla: I let myself live in this ‘what if?’ world for a few days and it was totally fucking miserable.

“And that’s what you’re letting yourself do, Layla. Live in this ‘what if?’ world. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get it. I get your reasoning. But...you can’t just walk away from someone you love because of a maybe. Everything ends in tragedy, Layla. Either you die or they do. If you’re lucky, you die together. Maybe you’d have broken up in a year or in ten years, but tell me this honestly: would that pain honestly not be worth ten years of a great relationship? Is keeping yourself isolated and cut off honestly worth it? Is this a great way to live?” he asked.

She was staring at him more intently than ever, a look of horror on her face. “And if I was faced with something like that again? Let my lover die or let thousands die? What then?”

He sighed. “I don’t know, Layla. I can’t answer that. But I can tell you that I wouldn’t be willing to leave Yelena over something like that. I’d like to believe that I could sacrifice her to save the world, but I don’t know. No one wants to think about that. You could, realistically, never be forced into a decision like that again for as long as you live, Layla. But I still say: you shouldn’t live your life in fear of getting hurt...but that’s just what I say. I’m sure there are people out there who maintain casual relationships with everyone and they’re more comfortable being alone, relying on as few people as possible. But...are you one of those people, Layla?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered after a moment. She sighed and leaned back against the front wall of the cabin, then groaned. “Did I make the wrong choice?”

“I don’t know,” John admitted. “I honestly can’t say. But here’s what I do know: you can’t change the past. Regardless of whether or not the decision you made was the right one, the point is you made it and you can’t change that. All you can change is what you intend to do in the future. That’s what matters, the choices we make.”

“So what are you saying, exactly?” she asked.

“I guess...put a lot of thought into how you want to live your life, and don’t be afraid to reevaluate from time to time. At the end of the day, you know what’s best for you, because you’re the one who has to live your own life. But, well, you asked.” He paused. “Let me just ask you this, if you saw him again, what would you do?”

“Fuck, I don’t know,” she muttered. “Maybe ask him to come back to me. But I’m pretty sure he’s with my friend now.”

“Is she the sharing type?” he asked.

She laughed. “Yeah, you could say that. She’s an elf, and amorous even for an elf, and we’re lovers, too. I think...if they’d have me...” She shook her head. “Fuck, I don’t know. I guess I need to think about it some more, but...maybe you’re right. Fuck. Godsdamnit. This whole thing sucks. I don’t know if he was the love of my life but...he was a great guy.”

“Well, if you don’t find him, then at least take it into consideration for the next guy, because you’re an amazing woman, and you’re going to draw a lot of guys.”

“I’m not amazing,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“What, you don’t think I’d know an amazing woman when I saw one?”

She sighed. “I guess you have enough experience around them, between Yelena and Morgan and probably the other ladies you’ve bedded...whatever, I still don’t think I’m amazing.”

“You’re a skilled warrior, you’re kind, if a little...rough around the edges, you’re very brave, you’re fucking wicked hot and great in bed, what’s not to love?”

She laughed. “I’d accuse you of trying to get into my pants if you hadn’t already gotten into them.”

“What pants?” he asked, reaching out and flicking the skirt she wore.

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.” She pursed her lips, then brushed her tail across his crotch. “I can really see why Yelena loves you so much. You’re really kind and caring...come on, let’s go back inside. I’m starving and horny and I gotta admit, I really want to see you fucking pound the shit out of Valeska. She is so pretty.”

“I know, right? She’s fucking gorgeous.”

“All right, and John,” she hesitated, then suddenly gave him a tight hug. “Thank you.”

He hugged her back. “You’re welcome, Layla. If you want to talk more, let me know.”

“I will.”

They shared a kiss, then headed inside.

CHAPTER XIII

“Hurry up, I am aroused and impatient,” Valeska said.

“Okay, okay, give me a second,” John replied as he got his boots off.

The meal had been good, the conversation better, but there was no denying the atmosphere of sexual tension that had built during both. Valeska was kind of freaking him out in that she seemed completely confident. Most of the women he had sex with were at least a little uncertain of how the session was going to go. Even if they tried to hide it, like Layla, not that she had any real reason to be anything but confident, he could tell.

Not Valeska. She sat naked on the bed with an unshakable confidence.

Or maybe there was just a cultural barrier there. He’d had similar feelings from the dryad women he’d slept with.

On the other hand, it was entirely possible they were all just totally fucking confident in their sexual prowess, and so far, in terms of nymphs he’d slept with, they had every reason to be. Well, here was hoping he could measure up.

John quickly finished stripping and prepared to wash up, but Valeska stood suddenly. “No, we don’t have time for that,” she said. “Hold your breath.”

He looked at her, then he held his breath and nodded. She raised a hand to him and he suddenly found himself completely encased in water. He grunted and closed his eyes, waiting, as he felt the strange, warm sensation of water gliding over his body independent of any real source, and then suddenly it was gone. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, opening his eyes back up. “Holy shit,” he said.

“Yep,” she replied. “Hold still.”

She hit him with another spell, this one pleasantly warm that again coated his whole body and when it faded a few seconds later, he was dry.

“Teach me that fucking spell,” he said.

“Yes,” Yelena agreed.

“I might be able to teach you,” Valeska said, looking at Yelena. “It’s easier if you’re an ocean nymph. But for now, get over here. I am getting impatient.”

“I can tell,” he said as he approached her, studying her.

She was remarkably beautiful. Her hair, shaded a very deep blue, was cut short, just above chin-length, and hung down, framing her narrow face. Her eyes were large and blue and deep, curiously reflective, like a wolf’s at night. They accentuated her already strange face, which had a bone structure different than any of the town-dwelling races he was more familiar with. It gave her an ethereal, slightly ominous beauty. Her body was so smooth, her skin pale blue and mostly flawless, with the occasional imperfection or scar. She was very fit, her physique the type you would expect from someone who swam pretty much all the time: lithe, trim, firm. Her breasts were small, high, and beautiful, topped by darker blue nipples.

John got into bed with her and she immediately leaned in and kissed him. He slipped a hand over the back of her neck, finding her hot to the touch, like Yelena. She laid a hand against his bare chest and ran it up, across his collarbone to his shoulder, then down his bicep. He let his own hand wander and explore, first cupping one of her breasts, groping it gently, then slipping it across her smooth, slightly wet skin, lower and around to her back. He pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss, and she let out a low moan.

Her tongue entered his mouth and it was more slippery and smooth than the others he had explored. Her taste, a little like saltwater, but also faintly sweet and overall pleasant, flooded his mouth. He wondered how he tasted to her, and hoped it was a good taste. From the way she deepened the kiss, holding him against her, she seemed to be enjoying it at least.

Suddenly, she gently but firmly pushed him back. “Show me the skills you have learned, kneeling before a demoness,” she said.

He grinned and laughed softly. “You asked for it.”

Valeska situated herself on the edge of the bed, spreading her thin, fit legs open. He got down onto his knees, pausing to lick across her breasts, making her shudder, especially when he began sucking on one of her dark blue nipples. She ran her fingers through his hair, her touch hot and comforting and welcome.

“There’s a good boy,” she whispered, her other hand over the back of his neck.

He switched to her other breast, sucking gently on her nipple. As he did, he reached between her legs and began to tease her clit with his fingertip. She moaned and a shudder rippled through her. He kept that up for another minute before kneeling before her fully and burying his face in her crotch. He licked in between the taut, light blue lips of her nymph vagina and she let out another moan in response.

John showed her exactly what he had learned kneeling before Yelena.

She’d taught him a lot, but mostly he’d just practiced and perfected.

He ate Valeska out and had her writhing and twisting and first moaning, then crying out before too long. As he licked at her clit, dancing his tongue around, he slipped a finger inside of her and felt a pulse of absolute lusty need hit him. Her pussy felt so crazy fucking tight and insanely godsdamned hot and wet. She was a triple threat of feeling good and he also immediately began to worry that he wasn’t going to last very long in that pussy.

Well, worse case scenario, there were ways around that if he popped off too early.

“Ah, John! I’m going-yes!” Valeska screamed suddenly as he began fucking her faster and harder with his finger.

She began to come, and a hot burst of feminine sex juices gushed out of her as her whole body contracted, muscles going rigid as she gripped his head more tightly, screaming in pure bliss. That was something that amazed him each time he encountered a new species: the orgasm was universal. They all did it kind of differently, but they all came, and it wasn’t really all that different. Really, the only thing that changed was what came out of them. It was a wonderfully unifying element, and he loved it each time.

When she was finished, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If you want, you can fuck me now.”

“I want,” he replied, standing.

She fell onto her back and put her legs in the air. Her vagina glistened and a post-orgasm tremor ran through her slim body. “Don’t be gentle,” she said as he gripped one of her ankles while grabbing his cock with his other hand.

“I won’t,” he promised.

Then he introduced his cock to her hot, crazily wet, quivering pussy, and she let out a very loud moan, almost a scream, as he pushed his way into her.

“Holy fuck!” he cried in honest surprise.

It somehow felt better than he’d thought it would. He grabbed both ankles and held her legs up and spread open, nearly lifting her off the bed as he began driving into her. “Oh my fucking Gods, Valeska!” he moaned as he began pounding her fucking brains out.

“Yes! Harder!” she screamed.

He gave it to her harder, not holding back, driving his cock all the way into her. She was so godsdamned fucking tight he could barely fit inside of her, and the heat! It was something out of a fucking fantasy!

She truly was a fucking triple threat of pleasure. So hot, so motherfucking wet, so godsdamned tight beyond all reason…

“One of you, get over here!” he groaned after barely half a minute. “I need to go in someone’s mouth!”

Janessa appeared at his side, kneeling, the redheaded elf looking painfully beautiful as she looked up at him, her eyes wide and eager.

“Thank you,” he said, and fucked Valeska’s crazy tight nymph pussy for as long as he could stand it, then pulled out of her and shoved his dick into Janessa’s mouth. He let out a loud, long cry of pure bliss as he started coming and she began sucking. Panting and moaning, he emptied his nuts into the elf’s mouth. She encircled his shafted with her first two fingers and thumb, and began massaging his balls with her other hand, trying to maximize his pleasure, and he was nearly blinded by how good it felt in that moment.

He blew a massive load in her mouth, and when he was done, he thanked her again, panting, pulled out and pushed his dick back into Valeska’s pussy.

“Oh!” she cried, staring up at him with wide eyes and an almost feral grin. “Well, that’s one way to solve that problem.”

“Next one’s going right in your pussy,” he replied as he resumed fucking her brains out.

“Mmm...oh! I look forward to it,” she moaned. “I want to feel your hot seed pumping into my pussy...”

“Don’t fucking say that!” he groaned, gripping her ankles more tightly.

“Why not? Will you come?” she asked, grinning.

“Yes!”

“Maybe I want that.”

“Godsdamnit...I’m trying to last longer...” he groaned as he kept screwing her.

“Maybe I derive my pleasure from how quickly I can make my partner orgasm,” she said, panting more now. She was losing her concentration and he could tell.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes.”

He groaned, then grabbed her slim hips suddenly. “You fucking asked for it, you ocean slut,” he growled, and then he really started hammering away at her pussy.

He triggered her orgasm about five seconds before his own came on like a tidal wave. It was one of the best experiences he’d ever had fucking a woman. Her vaginal muscles constricted somehow even more tightly around his cock, nearly shoving him out of her, and he groaned as he felt already powerful heat and wetness intensify, showering him in blissful ecstasy. Grunting, feeling almost like an animal overwhelmed by primal lust, John sunk in his fingertips as he tightened his grip on her firm hips and began fucking her even harder as he started to orgasm as well.

Both of them screamed and moaned and grunted as they were lost to the feral forces of pure sexual gratification.

He did as she’d demanded of him and pumped that perfect nymph pussy full of his seed and the pleasure that washed through him made everything awful disappear for a few moments. All the pain and lethargy he was feeling, the anxiety and worry over how dangerous what they were doing was, all of it disappeared in a flash as he shot his load into Valeska and she orgasmed all over his dick. They came together in a glorious display.

When they were finished, he carefully pulled out of her and sat down on the bed beside her, panting, slicked with sweat.

He looked up as a shadow fell across him. Yelena smirked down at him. She was naked. “Lay back, it is my turn.”

“Yes, love,” he replied, and let her climb atop him.

…

Night was falling.

This was it, what was hopefully going to be their final assault on this wretched, rainy island.

After sex with Yelena, he’d taken a break, then Yelena and Janessa had made love, and Layla had coaxed another erection out of him, then ridden him until he had come. And it had been painful. Four orgasms in a row was when it tended to start hurting. But it was still a pretty fucking pleasant experience.

After that, they washed up and rested for a little while, getting their strength back.

Eventually, they’d decided enough was enough and had packed their shit and begun trekking for the small coastal village the cultists had set up in.

They had walked for a few hours at this point, making quick progress through the woods, watching the sun make its way towards the horizon.

“So let’s go over this one more time,” John said as they made their final approach to the small settlement. So far, they hadn’t run into even a single cultist. “Based on everything we’ve considered, the cultists should be down by over half strength, between all of our conflicts. Possibly more, if they’ve had their own problems on the island. They’re all versed in either swordplay, archery, or magic, or some combination of all three. Do they have any, like, aces up their sleeves or anything? Some kind of backup we might not know about?”

Janessa shrugged. “I mean, nothing that I saw, but I could have easily missed something. There were dozens of them and I didn’t see the whole camp. Plus, I’ve been gone for days now. Who knows what they could’ve gotten?”

John sighed. “Yeah, fair point. I guess we’ll just have to do this like we do pretty much everything else: run in and kick ass until we’re the last ones standing.”

“We should try to make something of a plan,” Yelena murmured.

“Yeah, yeah, we will. I didn’t mean that literally,” he replied.

“Should one of us stay back with the shards?” Janessa asked uncertainly. Layla glanced at her. Janessa sighed. “Yes, I was going to suggest myself, I’m clearly the weakest among us.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Layla replied, though John wondered if that was true.

“Is that a good idea?” Valeska asked uncertainly.

“If one of us does stay behind, maybe it should be someone else,” Layla replied.

“Why? Her logic makes sense,” Valeska said.

Layla hesitated, and Janessa sighed. “She wants to make sure I won’t run off with them.”

“Is there...some question about that happening?” Valeska asked uncertainly.

“She doesn’t trust me,” Janessa replied.

“I’ve been betrayed before and you were one of the cultists. I mean yeah, you’ve proven yourself loyal up until now but isn’t that how it works? I’ve never understood that logic, like, people can still betray you even if it’s later. I mean how do people not understand that someone who intends to betray you has every incentive to appear loyal up until the moment of betrayal? Things don’t happen until they do. Like, how am I the only one who gets this?”

John sighed. “You have a point, so ultimately what it comes down to is judgment calls. I trust Janessa. But I also think we should go all in. We all attack. The shards stay with Yelena, she probably has the best ability to defend herself and keep them safe among all of us. Okay? Does everyone agree with that?”

“I concur,” Valeska said, sounding uncomfortable.

“Yeah, I agree,” Janessa replied quietly.

Layla sighed. “Yeah, fine.”

John nodded. They walked on in silence for a few moments longer. Layla sighed again. “Janessa, I’m sorry. At this point...I guess it’s not you, it’s just...”

“No, I get it, actually,” Janessa said quietly. She hugged herself suddenly. “This is fucking terrifying, this world you all live in. The most I had to worry about was...someone spreading rumors about me or stealing my research, maybe. But fuck...I wish I had one of those truth stones. Gods, that would be useful.”

“Wait, what?” Layla asked. “Truth stone?”

“I’ve encountered one,” John said.

“Is it exactly what it sounds like? It lets you know if someone’s lying?” Layla asked.

“Yes, basically,” Yelena said.

“What the fuck!? Why aren’t they everywhere!? That’d be so useful!” Layla snapped.

“They’re very hard to make and maintain from what I remember. I agree with you, though. And I think there might be ways around them, though I can’t remember for sure.”

“There are a few, but they’re quite difficult,” Janessa said.

“Well, we don’t have any, so we’re going to have to trust each other,” John said.

“Yeah,” Layla murmured glumly.

They marched on.

…

By the time they reached the settlement, it was nightfall, and the situation was worse than they had feared.

The cultists were fleeing.

Based on what they could see, the surviving cultists, which numbered perhaps three dozen, were hastily packing a large boat with supplies.

“All right. I say we split up and attack from four sides,” John said. “Valeska, you and Layla seem to operate best on your own. Layla, I want you on that building there, the tallest one. Janessa, is that an inn?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s where they set up command,” Janessa replied.

“Okay. Layla, you’re probably best with a crossbow and bow, so you’ll be raining down death from above, got it?”

“Got it,” she replied.

“Good. Valeska, get on that boat. Get into the water and infiltrate it. Kill everyone onboard, okay?” he asked.

“Understood,” Valeska replied.

“Janessa, go with Yelena. Watch her back. Babe, you’ll enter from the south side and kill everything you see. I’ll come in from this side. Basically we just kill until we’re done, does that make sense?” he asked.

They all nodded.

“Good. One more thing: if that boat starts to take off, then Yelena, I want you to give the shards to Janessa and go after it. Because we cannot let them escape. If it takes off, I’m almost positive they’ll have the final two shards with them.”

“I understand,” Yelena replied.

“Okay. Let’s do this,” John said.

They stood on a rise in the land overlooking the village. They began to make their way down the rise, breaking apart from each other. Valeska went off to the left, swinging wide to get to the ocean as quickly as possible. Yelena and Janessa went to the left as well, though not quite as far out, making for the edge of the docking settlement. Layla stuck with him as he made a beeline for the inn, which was the nearest building, built in the middle of the village, though pushed back as far away from the ocean as the limits allowed.

He and Layla shared no words as they hurried through the trees towards the village. The time had come to act, swiftly and silently at first, then just swiftly and savagely. This was it. This was their final gambit. They’d kill the cultists, get the rest of the shards, and then destroy them, and eventually leave the island.

That’s what John told himself at least.

They reached the inn. Layla took a moment to grab him and give him a hard kiss, then she was climbing with amazing ease up the back of the inn. John left her to it and got up against the back of the structure, slipped along it and around the side, then crept forward until he was by its front. He took a moment to check the situation out. There were several cultists hurrying back and forth between the boat and the inn. It seemed as if they hadn’t expanded all that much into the rest of the village, or, more likely, they were only packing the things they considered important. They seemed to be in a hurry. He imagined they were going to take their two shards and run.

Too bad they didn’t start a few hours earlier.

They would’ve actually made it. As it was, they were fucked.

John checked over his crossbow one more time. It was time to get some use out of this thing. The clip held five bolts. It seemed like it was ready for action. He knelt and took aim, waiting for the right moment to attack. The cultists seemed frantic, almost panicked. Did they know that John and his crew were coming for them? Or was there something else that was bothering them? Maybe it was just the island finally getting to them. He could sympathize with that, at least. Well, they wouldn’t be around much longer to deal with it.

He caught sight of Yelena across the way, crouched between a pair of shops, her own crossbow in hand, and Janessa behind her, her hands glowing gently.

It was time to do this.

He fired, and Yelena did at the same time. Hardly before the two cultists who had been shot fell, Layla fired off her own shot. They managed to fire off another volley before the cultists realized they were under attack. They immediately began to scramble, shouting off warnings in angry surprise and pain as the bolts hit them, and immediately someone began shouting from the boat. Well, shit. John fired off the rest of the bolts in the clip and managed to kill another cultist and injured a second one, shooting him in the shoulder.

Then he dropped the crossbow and drew his sword as he began sprinting towards the thickest cluster of cultists as they scrambled to defend themselves. He dodged as a few fireballs came his way, and a ball of frost smacked him in the shoulder. He gritted his teeth against the freezing cold that hit him and tried to shake it off as he reached the first of the cultists. Bringing his blade up, he barely managed to deflect a sword coming for his throat, then he shoved his flattened palm out towards the sword-wielder, gesturing sharply and releasing a fireball into the man’s neck. He screamed, stumbling away as his hood caught fire.

He kicked the man away, letting him be on fire and out of the game while he dealt with the more able-bodied cultists around him. And then it was all he could do to stay alive as three of them came at him with blades. He dodged and parried and stomped back and forth, trying to find an opening to get at least one of them injured. The swords flashed and the steel rang and sparks flew as he barely managed to keep them off of him, though it didn’t take long for one of the blades to get past his defenses and cut his cheek.

He cursed, dropped down, and performed a leg-sweep. It knocked one of them flat down on the ground and sent another stumbling. He stabbed up at the one still standing and jabbed the blade up through the bottom of his throat, just below his chin, and shoved it up as hard as he could. The man screamed and tried to pull back but John managed to pierce his brain from the bottom and kill him. He ripped the blade out barely in time to deflect another blow from the second man who’d managed to regain his feet.

He launched a blistering attack, his blade flashing, while the third man staggered back upright. This was not going the way John had planned. The man suddenly beat his blade aside and headbutted him. An explosion of pain blossomed across his head and sent him flat on his ass. As he tried to keep himself alive and get back to his feet, the cultist raised his blade over his head, preparing to deliver the killing blow, when his face suddenly blew out as an arrow sailed through it. It barely avoided John in its passing, landing in the ground next to him, and the man fell forward on him in a spray of blood. The final of the three cultists turned to face the new attacker, and he caught sight of Layla still atop the inn. She fired another arrow and it lodged into his head, the arrowhead blasting out the back of the man’s head and sending him toppling onto the first corpse on John.

Groaning, he shoved both bodies off of him and staggered to his feet. He looked around, raising his blade and preparing for more battles. They’d killed probably half of the cultists so far. Layla was raining down death from above fairly effectively, and Yelena was locked in combat with more of the cultists, her blade dancing and spitting sparks. Janessa was behind her, throwing out spells at the farther off cultists who were doing the same, trying to take them down from a distance. A few of the cultists were heading towards one of the buildings, what looked like a small house, not much more than a shack honestly, and John headed after them.

“Let it out! Let it out and run!” someone was yelling.

Well fuck. Let what out?

He found out a few seconds later as one of them got the door to the shack open, threw a spell in through the open door, and then began sprinting away.

He didn’t make it far.

The door and the area around the door literally burst into flying splinters as a dark horror was birthed onto the world. John skidded to a halt and stared in open terror. This was the one thing he had been hoping to avoid on this wretched island.

It was a corrupted serpentine.

The massive beast was upon the cultist in a flash. It picked him up and tore him in half in a spray of guts and blood.

“John!” Yelena cried.

He tore his gaze from the serpentine as it went after more cultists, who were desperately fleeing it, and saw that Yelena had either finished off her attackers, or driven the survivors off. She was pointing. He followed her finger, initially thinking she was pointing to the serpentine, but he realized instead that she was pointing to the boat.

It was fleeing.

“Go!” he screamed.

She hesitated, torn, and then shrugged out of her pack and tossed it to Janessa, then began sprinting towards the ocean.

“Janessa! Layla! We have to take that monster down!” he yelled, staring at the serpentine.

“On it!” Layla called back down to him. She resumed raining down arrows on it as it got ahold of another cultist, ripped his leg off, and then cut his screaming off by tearing his head from his shoulders in a tremendous spray of blood.

Holy fucking Gods how were they going to kill this thing?

He spied a crossbow nearby and snatched it up. Had to keep a distance from it. He took aim and joined Layla in firing, and as they began punching bolts and arrows into its huge, corrupted, snakeskin body, Janessa finished securing the shards and started throwing fireballs at the creature. John marveled at its size. It had to be fifteen feet long, easily the biggest serpentine he’d ever seen. The darkness of corruption twisted along its body in random patches and patterns. He managed to get through the crossbow bolts, reloaded it once, and start going through a second clip before the creature exhausted its supply of cultists.

Then it turned to look directly at him, and he fell back, feeling a new wave of frozen terror crash over him.

Then it started coming for him, slithering at him with a terrifying speed.

“Janessa!” he screamed.

“Run to me!” she yelled back.

He fired the last bolt and nailed the serpentine in the throat, causing it to hesitate, and then he abandoned the weapon and started sprinting for all he was worth. He nearly tripped twice over bodies but as he came on a final approach to Janessa, she released a frost spell. He twisted around, snatching up another crossbow in passing, preparing to continue the assault. As he caught sight of the serpentine, he thought it would be frozen at least for a little bit.

Unfortunately, if anything, the frost spell just pissed it off.

Even as he watched, he saw one of Layla’s arrows land in its huge tail, and the serpentine whirled on her, grabbed a sizable piece of wooden debris from the shack it had half-destroyed coming out of initially, and hurled it at her with a shocking accuracy. Layla screamed as it struck her and then she fell back onto the roof out of sight.

“Layla!” he called, and then he ran out of time to worry about her as the serpentine began coming for him and Janessa again.

“Prepare a fire spell!” Janessa shouted, and she began releasing another frost spell, this one even more powerful than the last one.

John cursed and gathered up whatever magic he could. He strained, pulling magic from the air for all he was worth.

Seconds passed. The serpentine began to slow down as frost appeared over its snakeskin body, freezing it slowly into place until finally it was hardly moving at all.

“Okay, get ready!” she shouted, panting now.

Another few seconds went by and the serpentine began to move again, still coming towards them, and finally she screamed, “Now!”

They both released their fireballs at the same time. Janessa was definitely more powerful, and they both crashed into the mostly-frozen serpentine creature.

And it shattered.

It blew into a thousand frozen chunks of gore and rained down on them. “Holy shit, good call,” he said.

“I...don’t think...” Janessa groaned suddenly and he whirled around just in time to see her begin to pass out.

“Shit!” he snapped and caught her before she sprawled out.

It was then he realized that there was a bright, flickering light coming from the ocean. Turning, he saw that the boat Yelena had gone after was burning.

“Oh...well fuck me,” John whispered.

For a few seconds he stood there, frozen in indecision. He had Janessa in his arms, Layla somewhere above him, hopefully still on the roof of the inn, and possibly Yelena and Valeska in trouble now, and he had to do something.

He caught movement down near the docks and felt relief flood through him as he saw Valeska climbing up, then she turned and helped Yelena up.

They began to walk towards him.

Yelena held up a pack and her expression said it all.

They’d done it. They’d gotten all the shards.

They had won.

EPILOGUE

“Are you sure I’m not being a huge pain in the ass by asking this?” Janessa asked again as they finished getting everything secured firmly in place on the boat that would be their home for probably the next two weeks or so.

“Yes, Janessa,” Yelena replied, rolling her eyes.

“We will have to do more work on your confidence,” Valeska murmured.

John glanced over at her after finishing tying off the last bit of cargo. She looked almost statuesque, standing at the front of the ship, staring out at the seeming infinity of the ocean. It was a mild day, the skies above them still overcast, but no rain fell. Hopefully that would keep. He slowly walked over to her and joined her, staring out at the ocean.

For several moments, neither of them spoke, and he thought about the past four days.

That last fight had been lucky, he thought, even with Janessa passing out and Layla suffering a bad head injury that had, even after Yelena’s healing spells patched her back up, kept her knocked out cold for almost a solid day.

After making sure that there were no survivors, the five of them had holed up in the inn, in the top floor, and locked every door they could, on top of laying some magical traps and alarm spells. Then, they’d eaten a big meal, washed, had amazing sex, washed again, fucked again, and then had passed out for all that night and most of the next day. The rest of the day was spent recovering and studying the spells necessarily to destroy the shards. That was what the next two days had been spent doing: casting the spells. Janessa, Yelena, and Valeska were all required to spend hours preparing, gathering tremendous amounts of magical energy and then breaking the shards one by one. Each took about three solid hours apiece.

They broke four that first day, and then all three of them had basically passed out from exhaustion. John and Layla, who was back on her feet by then, had stood watch over them that night, and the next day they’d finished the miserable, wretched task. Each shard was destroyed, blasted into oblivion until nothing remained, and the corrosive, corrupted magical energy it held was safely discharged into the natural magical fields that surrounded them all, neutralizing it thanks to the spells that the three women had been performing.

When it was done, they rested for what remained of the third day.

That had been yesterday.

When they’d awoken today, they had searched the settlement, gathering up all the valuables, weapons, and other useful resources they could find among the dead and the structures. John had briefly toyed with the idea of sticking around and performing more searches, honestly they could spend months, probably weeks on the island, plundering the ruins, but although the corruptive presence was already fleeing this place, leaving it almost peaceful in its wake, he had to admit that he just wanted off of the island.

The others felt the same way.

The cultists had come in three boats, initially. One had been destroyed in the fighting, the second, the main one, had been burned to ash. Yelena explained that while she and Valeska had been battling the last of the cultists onboard, one of them had released a massive fire spell in a fit of desperation and doomed the vessel. They had made sure there were no survivors. The final ship was of medium size, meant to carry a crew of perhaps a dozen, and a bit of a luxury ship more than anything else. Normally it would be a pain to get it across the ocean with just the five of them, but between Janessa’s and Yelena’s magical talents, and Valeska’s many ocean-related abilities, they were going to have a smooth sail ahead of them.

Valeska said that she could use a break, and helping them get to where they were going was the least she could do to repay all the help they’d given her in destroying the shards. Plus, well, she was really amorous.

The plan right now was simple: they were just finishing securing the goods onto the boat and once that was done, they would set sail back to Veridis. It’d take a good five days, though maybe four given they had an ocean nymph on their side, to get back. They’d offered to let Janessa come with them to Kindress, but she just wanted to go home, and John didn’t blame her. And he didn’t mind making sure she got there safely.

And not just because she clearly wanted to have a lot of sex with him.

Once they’d got her safely back home, Valeska had agreed to get them to Kindress, and Layla had agreed to go with them. She liked them both a great deal, and he had to admit, he liked her. Obviously Yelena did, too.

Speaking of which…

He sensed his demoness lover coming up behind him, and she hugged him from the back. “Hello, love,” she murmured in his ear.

“Hello, love,” he replied back, settling his hands over the backs of hers. “Are we good to go now?” he asked.

“Yes. The last of the cargo is secure.”

“Where’s Layla?”

Yelena laughed softly. “Look,” she said, letting go of him. He turned around and followed her gaze, as did Valeska.

Layla was holding Janessa’s hand, an almost feral grin on her face as she led her belowdecks. Janessa was blushing fiercely as she let herself be led.

“So, I guess they decided they liked each other, hmm?” Valeska said.

“Apparently,” John said. “Maybe we should join them...”

“We should,” Yelena agreed.

“Then let us set sail,” Valeska said.

They began the process of leaving the island behind. As they did, John felt a powerful sense of freedom and joy wash over him.

They had done it.

And now it was really time to begin the next chapter of their life.

Though he wondered if something else might crop up unexpectedly. That seemed to have a way of happening to him and Yelena.

Hopefully, if it did, it wouldn’t involve a shipwreck this time around.

Once they’d set sail, he hurried to join Layla and Janessa with the other women.

I HAVE OPTED TO REBOOT THIS SERIES AT SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE!

DEMONESS. DEMONESS II. FUN IN THE FOREST. DEMONESS III. THE FORMER PRINCESS. A CHANCE VISIT. DEMONESS IV. FAREWELL FOR NOW. DEMONESS V. DEMONESS – THE ORIGINAL SERIES. Copyright © by Misty Vixen.

Kindle Edition. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entire coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.