DEMONESS IV

by Misty Vixen

Catch up on the Demoness series!

DEMONESS

DEMONESS II

DEMONESS: FUN IN THE FOREST

DEMONESS III

DEMONESS: THE FORMER PRINCESS

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

EPILOGUE

OTHER TITLES

ABOUT ME

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 re-opening 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’ve 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, emphatic, 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.

Hello, Misty Vixen here!

If you’ve made it this far, then thank

you so very much for finishing my book!

I’m here to ask you if you wouldn’t mind

leaving a review for my story. I would

deeply appreciate it!

OTHER TITLES

Farewell For Now, a collection of shorts

set between Demoness IV & V will be out

in Mid 2019!

Demoness V will be out in 2019!

THE MISTY VIXEN STARTER PACK

Get ready to experience over 100,000 words of hot, filthy fucking. This starter pack features four original novellas, each from one of my primary erotica universes, and a whole lot of human-on-inhuman sex.

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SCI-FI EROTICA SHARED UNIVERSE

HELLCATS

Ryan is a socially awkward, young technician who takes a leap of faith and joins up with a mercenary crew called the Hellcats. What he finds is a squad of alien or otherwise inhuman women who are looking for a boytoy to live on their ship with them and fuck them hard. Ryan fits the bill perfectly.

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The Complete Trilogy

ALIEN HAREM

James is a failing author who is friends with Aria, a beautiful alien woman who is also a failing author. She happens to live with three other attractive alien women who are creative types of varying degrees of success. Everything changes when they invite James to live with them and help them shoot human-on-alien porn to help pay the rent.

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VALKYRIES

When Veronica, a badass, seven foot, mercenary babe, and Saf, a tough, unique, and beautiful alien happen to run into Jared, a down-and-out technician and former merc who decided to try the civilian life after almost getting killed, it feels a little like fate. They want to start their own merc squad, and Jared wants back into the mercenary lifestyle. As they team up and start building a crew of badass and hot alien beauties, Jared is happy to find that they’re all quite interested in sleeping with him.

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The Complete Trilogy

DESIRE

Derek is a technician fresh out of college. Unsure of what to do with his life, he feels adrift as he stares down the barrel of adulthood. But all that changes when he gets the opportunity of a lifetime: he is invited to come live and work on Desire, a city-sized space station that caters to every sexual fetish imaginable.

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The Complete Series

FANTASY EROTICA SHARED UNIVERSE

WOMEN OF THE WILD

Seth is a frustrated young man who lives in a magical world of beautiful landscapes, abandoned ruins, ferocious monsters, and untold adventures to be had. He’s been stuck in his boring, tiny village for his entire life. But that’s all about to change. When he finally works up the courage to tell his parents that he’s leaving and saves up enough to buy himself some survival gear, he strikes out on his own, into the wilderness. Although he expected to find many things on this adventure, he had no idea that he would be getting to know the inhuman monster women that populate the wild on such an intimate level.

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WANDERLUST

Owyn Fisher has just come of age and decides to leave his small village and start adventuring out into the world at large. But instead of danger or riches, he finds that his greatest adventure is all the beautiful monster women he encounters that wish to experience the taboo thrill of sex with a human.

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The Complete Series

LUST & ADVENTURE

When Alan Wilde, a magical healer living a quiet life in a small village, begins having a personal crisis, wondering if he’s missing out on leading such a life, he meets Layla, a beautiful, cat-woman felis adventuress. She and her friends are on a dangerous journey and need a healer. The chance meeting feels like fate, and so Alan begins his journey of adventuring and, he is happy to learn, sleeping with several attractive adventuresses…

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The Complete Trilogy

PARANORMAL EROTICA SHARED UNIVERSE

PARANORMAL PASSIONS

Jason is a regular, twenty-something human who feels adrift. After trying to radically alter his life, all that really changes is that he now lives next door to an incredibly hot redheaded vampire. When they hook up, she leads him into a world of hot sex with inhuman women.

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The Complete Trilogy

PARASEXUAL

Alex considers himself a failure. After losing his job, losing his roommate, and coming close to losing his mind all in the same day, he goes to hang out with his best friend, who happens to be a particularly attractive werewolf woman. In an attempt to help him out and also to alleviate her own growing wanderlust (and regular lust), she has sex with him and then decides to take him on a road trip to Thorne: a giant coastal city that is home to a huge concentration of paranormals. And on the way, she begins hooking back up with several of her old girlfriends, who are apparently interested in hopping in bed with her and Alex.

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POST APOCALYPTIC EROTICA SHARED UNIVERSE

SEX & SURVIVAL

Welcome to a post-apocalyptic world where a virus, once meant to be a scientific revolution, has ravaged the planet and turned most of the population into inhuman creatures. Some have become mindless zombies, others have morphed into new species. Some can fly. Some can breathe underwater. Some exhibit animal characteristics. Enter Mike Walker, a survivor and adventurer. In this brave new world, Mike often finds himself in the company (and beds) of beautiful, inhuman women.

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The Complete Trilogy

HAVEN

David is a young, terrified adventurer who is trying to survive in the wake of a new version of the virus that turns inhumans into extremely dangerous zombies. After the collapse of the colony he was staying in, he and his only friend, Evelyn, a beautiful, tough, eight-foot goliath, flee to an isolated location, and inadvertently become a beacon of hope by providing a safe haven for other survivors.

Coming 2019

ABOUT ME

Hello, I’m the author! There isn’t too much to me personally. I live somewhere in the United States and I like to write stories about people having sex and people having adventures!

So what makes me special? What sets me apart from most of the other thousands of erotica authors out there?

Well, a few things that I can think of.

I write about younger, often more innocent twenty-something guys. I’m honestly sick of all the billionaires and NAVY Seals and cowboys and firefighters. Most of all, I’m fucking sick and tired of all these BS ‘Alpha Male’ types. I don’t really want to bring down anyone who is writing or reading that, but I thought it was high time we started hearing about guys who are more realistic and down-to-earth.

Another big focus of mine is human guy on inhuman lady sex. There are certainly tons of stories about hot chicks getting laid by werewolves and dinosaurs and even Bigfoot! But there’s not enough out there, in my opinion, about regular guys fucking hot alien or monster or otherwise inhuman ladies. I love writing about human guys getting laid by mermaids and dryads and sexy aliens and genetically engineered female super soldiers and robots.

Finally, I like emphasizing sexual encounters, casual and longer engagements, that focus on consent, communication, trust, and respect. I like both parties involved getting what they want out of the sex. (Or I should say all parties, given how many people are fucking at once!)

If you want access to extra content, to get news about my progress on upcoming stories, or pictures of hot naked monster girls, then here’s some places you can check out.

This is my WEBSITE, (www.mistyvixen.com). Here, you can find free short stories that are related to my works or stand on their own, a monthly newsletter, alternate versions of my cover art where the ladies are naked, and more!

This is my TWITTER, (www.twitter.com/Misty_Vixen). I’ll post updates and pictures of hot naked alien, monster, or otherwise inhuman ladies I find on the internet. Also, I respond to pretty much everyone, so feel free to say something!

This is my PATREON, (www.patreon.com/MistyVixen). There, you can get early access to the first chapters of my in-progress works, and early access to alternate versions of my cover art where the ladies are naked! They will be released to my website after one month.

Finally, if you want to talk to me directly, you can send me an e-mail at my address:

mistyvixen@outlook.com

And that’s it! Once again, thank you very much for reading my work. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

-Misty

DEMONESS IV. Copyright © by Misty Vixen. 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.