“And you were worried that your sisters might not have made it out alive,” I said.
Tears brimmed in her eyes. She looked away from me, as if embarrassed. “That is the truth of it, Earthman,” she said.
I brushed away a tear that had trickled down her cheek. “Well, at least now you know that you have sisters that are alive and well.”
Her eyes returned to mine, those amber-golden jewels that I just couldn’t look away from.
“Yes, because of you, Champion,” she said, and now she tightened her fingers around my right hand. “Will you honor me with a gift?”
I smiled softly. “I’ll do anything you need me to do,” I answered.
She stepped closer to me, and rested her other hand on my chest. The wind blew through the trees, making her hair dance and shift over her shoulder. “Would you give me the honor of allowing me to fight beside you in your many quests?” she asked.
“You’ve got it wrong,” I said, now caressing her cheek once more. “You give me the honor by asking to join.” I stepped closer to her, with hardly any space between us, and as she looked up at me with her amber-golden eyes, her lips looked so inviting. “Of course, I’d love for you to be by my side, Layla.”
Then, I just couldn’t hold back any longer. I pulled her lips to mine and she let out a little sweet moan as our lips came together. Her arms suddenly locked around my neck and she held me tight.
I pushed her against the nearest tree as my hands slid down to her waist. She whimpered in delight as I brushed her hair back to expose her neck, then gently kissed her soft skin.
Slowly, she began undoing my mage’s robe. When she finally let it drop to my feet, she looked down tentatively at the erection sprouting in my pants.
I kissed her neck again. “We don’t have to go all the way yet, not if you don’t want,” I whispered.
At that, she ran her trembling fingers down my abdomen then, finally, wrapped her fingers around me.
I gasped as she tightened her grip, as she slowly but firmly began stroking me through the fabric of my pants. Gently, I tugged off the sensual outfit of leaves and vines then tossed it aside.
My jaw dropped when I saw the slender perfection of her bare form. As she stood naked in front of me, I grabbed her by the hips, got down on one knee, then spread her thighs apart.
“What is this that you’re doing, Earth—OH!”
She cried out and dug her fingers into my hair as I ran my tongue across her sweetness. She threw one thigh over my shoulder and trembled, even as she pulled my mouth tighter to her virgin flower.
Her lower lips tasted faintly of morning dew and raw sugarcane as I devoured her, as I rubbed my nose against her nub and gently pushed my tongue inside of her.
Her leg tightened around my neck and she suddenly exploded, crying out with her eyes flaring with magic and flowers began to sprout up from the soil all around us.
The force of her orgasm weakened her legs. She would have fallen down into the grass if I hadn’t caught her when I did. I pushed her firmly against the tree once more and her lips flew against mine.
I pushed my tongue against hers as I grabbed her by the hips again. As our lips parted, her amber-golden eyes sparkled in the fading daylight.
“Bind with me, Earthman,” she said. “Bind with me and I’ll become yours forever.”
My arms around her tight, I lifted her and she threw her legs around my waist. She frantically untied my pants and I let them drop, then pressed my tip against her opening.
She was warm, wet, and utterly inviting. I stared into her golden eyes and winced in uncontrollable delight as I slid myself into her.
She dug her fingernails into my back, tearing at my shirt to pull it off as I drove my entire length inside of her.
Slowly but forcefully, I began thrusting myself into her, getting deeper with every swing of my hips.
She locked her wrists around the back of my neck. She pressed her forehead against mine and her eyes never wavered from my own as I pushed into her, again and again.
She shivered, trembled, then bucked in my tight grip. As she came again, I felt pressure building in my lower abdomen.
When I felt the trickling beads of her dew falling down my shaft, I drove into her harder, overcome with primal desire.
Now, those flowers were blooming around us brighter and far more numerous as she cried out during her second orgasm.
“Inside me Earthman,” she panted. “I want your seed inside of me…”
As the sun began to set, the fading daylight fell over our naked bodies and I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“Layla, my god!” I shouted as her walls constricted around me, which was far more than enough to speed my release.
“EARTHMAN!” she screamed, then I erupted.
The force of my release brought me to my knees. As we fell into the grass, entwined with one another, I grit my teeth at the overwhelming bliss of my seed finally exploding into her welcoming depths.
We tumbled down, with her on top of me, and she let out a gasp of relief, then shut her eyes tight, focused intensely on the sensation of my seed firing into her.
SKILL UNLOCKED: GREEN MAGIC
When it was over, she finally drew breath, finally opened her eyes, and she lay her head gently on my chest.
She ran her fingers down my abdomen with one hand, tickled my cheek with the other. As the sunlight bled away behind us, Layla and I fell asleep wrapped tight in each other’s arms, with the night-sounds of the woods coming to life all around us.
Chapter Ten
When I woke up, the warm morning sunlight was washing over us and Layla was still sleeping on top of me.
As I opened my eyes, I saw the ancient green magic runes still glimmering in my vision.
I smiled. Not only had I added another Mananymph to my party, but I’d learned the ways of her mysterious green magic, as well.
I pulled up my Second Sight to see the spells that I’d unlocked.
SUMMON TREE ROOT
EFFECT: SINGLE TREE ROOT SPROUTS FROM SOIL TO AID IN COMBAT FOR 30 SECONDS
An interesting spell, that one. I’d seen what Layla could accomplish by employing the roots in combat. Of course, with my green magic skill rather low, I’d only be able to summon one at a time. While not as offensively powerful as my destruction spells, it could definitely be an advantage in forest combat.
But the next spell made me even more curious.
ALLY BEAST
EFFECT: MID-LEVEL BEASTS ALLY WITH USER FOR 30 MINUTES
Now that was pretty damn cool. I recalled how Layla had been able to get those wolves and that bear to aid her against the Imperial Legion…and almost sent them to take a chunk out of me. It would be interesting to see how the spell played out in the field. I supposed that if I were taking on a number of Legion troops, I could distract them by summoning a few natural predators to nip at their numbers.
However, the third new spell that I’d learned seemed as though it just might be the most useful in the long-term.
At first glance, it didn’t seem like much. However, once I had a moment to think it over, I realized the spell could truly be a clutch one.
SUMMON HERBS
EFFECT: HERBS HEAL POISON AND INFECTIONS
Yeah, at first I thought the spell would be redundant. Why would I need to summon some forest herbs when I already had several powerful healing spells?
But then I realized that a normal healing spell, even a rather powerful one, might not be all that effective when dealing with poison or badly infected wounds. In a strange way, this particular green magic spell would also compliment my restoration skills.
This school of magic didn’t have the obvious benefits of the others, but once I took a step back and thought about it, I realized that this school could be really powerful if employed in the right way.
Just as I was finishing up looking at my Second Sight, Layla stirred on my chest. I glanced down at her and saw that she was alr
eady awake and grinning at me.
“Good morning, Earthman,” she said sleepily.
“How’d you sleep?” I asked.
She giggled and kissed my neck. “Better than I have in years,” she said.
As much as it pained me to get up, we had to get back to Woodhaven. This had been a long and difficult quest, but the biggest obstacle was still waiting back in the council chamber.
When we walked back to our camp, I saw that Pandora was already awake. She shot us a knowing grin, sensing at once that we’d gone through the binding process. Layla looked at her with a bashful red hue on her cheeks. Pandora just giggled.
It was still difficult for me to comprehend how the Mananymphs didn’t get romantically jealous of each other, but then again, it all seemed to work out in my favor, so I wasn’t about to complain.
“Pandora, are you strong enough to teleport us back?” I asked.
She nodded, but then shot me a sudden, worried look. “What about you?” she asked. “Do you think you’ll be able to wield the Spirit Stone for Kehlya?”
I took a long, deep breath. “I think I’ve got a good chance, yeah,” I said. “I mean, I was able to wield the Storm Gem for a few minutes back in the Imperial City and made it out alive.”
Yet, even as I said, this, I was harboring doubts. The Storm Gem had been a powerful artifact, but I got the sense that the Spirit Stone was far more unpredictable. While the Storm Gem had been an object of pure destructive force, the Spirit Stone’s effects were more mysterious.
Physically, I’d been sturdy enough to handle the Storm Gem while still keeping myself together, but the Spirit Stone’s powers seemed far less direct. It made me wonder how long the Fairy Mother had been keeping close to the Spirit Stone before its magic drove her insane. Had it done so almost right away? Or had it happened over the course of years and years?
I grit my teeth. So far, the Soulguard had protected me from the raw destructive abilities of one Gaia Gem. I could only hope that it would serve to protect my mind from a more mysterious Gaia Stone.
“We might as well just get this over with,” I thought.
Now, Layla seemed to share Pandora’s concerns. “You don’t seem so confident at the moment, Earthman,” she said.
I smiled. “No, I suppose I don’t,” I answered. “But I’m still going to march right up to Kehlya and wield this stone. A lot of people died these last few days and this is the way I’m going to honor them.”
*****
Back in Woodhaven, I stood defiantly before Councilwoman Kehlya, even as she scowled at me. Councilors Ingra and Dragil watched from their seats, both of them looking worried.
“So the first request I had for you was to cut off the Fairy Mother’s head and return it to me,” Kehlya said. “But it appears as though you’ve returned empty-handed.”
I nodded at that. “Yes, because I didn’t cut her head off.”
Kehlya’s scowl grew sharper. “And why not?”
“Because I didn’t try to,” I answered. “I managed to defeat the Fairy Mother by reflecting back the energy from the Spirit Stone.”
Dragil and Indra both gasped.
“You reflected the energy from a Gaia Stone?” Indra asked. “And you live to speak about it?”
“I have,” I said. “And it isn’t the first time. Not that it was easy. But yes, I used the energy from the Spirit Stone to destroy the monstrous appearance that she’d taken.”
Kehlya waved me off as if she didn’t care about my feat. “So you destroyed her monstrous form, then what?”
“Then,” I continued, “I saw that, deep down, she was only just a fairy. A powerful one, yes, but she’d been corrupted by the naked energy of a Gaia Stone. The Fairy Mother wasn’t evil, or at least she didn’t start out that way.”
Kehlya’s angry eyes could have driven holes through titanium. “So you didn’t even slay her, then! Is that what you’re trying to say?”
“That’s indeed what I’m saying,” I said, then took several steps toward the councilwoman because, quite frankly, I was growing tired of her bullshit. “It’s easy for you to sit here and say, ‘Go kill this one or go kill that one,’ but it’s different when you’re the one who has to do it.”
Kehlya’s eyes bored into me, but she remained silent for the moment.
“Anyway, once her ugliness was burned away, I saw the vulnerable fairy that had been at the core of her,” I went on, softer now. “She was confused, scared…and her mind was too far gone. Though I tried to stop her, tried to spare her from herself, she attempted to grab the Spirit Stone with her bare hands.” I snapped my fingers. “In an instant, she was vaporized.”
Kehlya got up from her seat and pounded her fist on the table, then turned to her colleagues. “So this is the one who would lead our army?” she asked, incredulously. “This one who lacks the guile and willpower to slay his enemies? This one who would show mercy to a creature who’d never shown us even the slightest bit of her own?” Kehlya spat toward the floor, and it landed mere inches away from my feet. “Sure, we give him our army, and he’ll lead them to slaughter!”
Alright, I’d had enough.
“You said I came back empty-handed,” I shouted. “But that’s not the case at all!”
I ripped my pack open and yanked out the box containing the Spirit Stone. Kehlya turned back to me, the color draining from her face when she realized what I was holding.
I opened the box and she shielded her eyes from the bright, crackling golden energy of the Spirit Stone.
“You say I’m not ruthless enough,” I said, smiling. “But here’s where you’re wrong.”
Tapping into the Soulguard, I made the Spirit Stone levitate out of the box, then it began drifting toward the groove below the knuckles of the Soulguard.
“I can be plenty ruthless when I want to be,” I said, then attached the Spirit Stone to the Soulguard.
An intense, violent rush of psychic energy shot through me. The Soulguard took on the golden glow of the stone as the rippling energy surged up my arm. Even my eyes were burning white-hot, like staring directly into the sun.
All the councilors backed away…save for Kehlya. She stood there, hands on her hips, as angry as ever.
I held up the crackling gauntlet. “All I’d have to do is wish for it and I could bend you to my will, councilwoman,” I growled. Up and down my left arm, the Spirit Stone’s wild energy was searing my flesh, charring it black, but still I held firm.
I held firm even as I came to discover that this stone was far more powerful than even the Storm Gem had been.
“I could have done it from afar, you know,” I said, as my voice boomed with a magical pitch. “I could have done it from miles away. I could have reached out, taken control of your mind, and made you my puppet, Councilwoman Kehlya. But I choose not to.”
At that, I removed the Spirit Stone from the Soulguard. It floated back into the protective container box in my right hand. I closed the box and locked it.
I stood there, staring into Kehyla’s wicked gaze, and I didn’t so much as blink.
To her credit, neither did she.
Then, she nodded toward my arm. “You must be in a great deal of pain,” she said.
“I’ll endure it,” I growled back at her through gritted teeth. “Just as I endured all the pain I went through before I got here, and the pain that’s waiting for me once I leave.”
Finally, Kehlya turned away from me, back to her colleagues. She frowned at them. “Well, I’ve seen all I need to see,” she said, then stomped toward the exit. She paused at the door, turned back, and I saw that she was smirking now. “Earthman, our army is yours when you need it. I’d be honored to send our warriors along with you to smash that vile Emperor. Indeed, you’ll make a fine general for our forces.”
*****
“So now what?” Layla asked me.
We were in her quarters, where I was finishing healing my arm. The Spirit Stone’s energy had nearly burned it right
off.
Pandora was leaning against the wall, idly sipping on a glass of wine. Hingar was there, as well. While the council had offered me the generalship of their army, I was no officer. I decided to give that duty to Hingar.
He knew the ins and outs of their armed forces. He’d explained to me their different divisions, their siege equipment, and their squads of various battle mages. It was all going to be crucial going forward.
“Get your forces ready immediately,” I said. “Layla, I want you to remain here with Hingar. When the time’s right, I’ll have Pandora contact you telepathically. I’m thinking that the Woodhaven army should drive toward the southern pass in the Gray Wolf Mountains. From there, it’s a fairly short march to Homehold.”
Hingar nodded. “We’ll start out for Homehold the moment you give the word,” Hingar said. “With the Fairy Mother’s hold over the forest gone, the trek will be far easier than it’s been in the past. With the old forest paths clear again, we won’t even have trouble transporting our siege equipment.”
“Good,” I said. I plucked the amber leaf amulet out from under my shirt. “Then we still have Greenbeard’s forces that are pledged to us. I think I’ll send them north, to the Silverhome Woods. They can split their number, with half remaining in the woods to ensure no Imperial reinforcements can come down from Silverton, while the other half help us retake Homehold.”
“Why not move now?” Layla asked. “Between the wood elves and the spriggans, we’ll surely outnumber whatever Imperials have come south.”
I shook my head. “There’s no telling if they’ve sent more divisions to Homehold and Silverton,” I countered. “Plus, Homehold is practically a fortress. Even outnumbered, they’ll be at an advantage.”
“Not an insurmountable one,” Pandora added. “I’d venture so far as to say that we’d take them within a night or two, Earthman.”
“Oh, I have no doubt about that,” I answered, and she was right. Even with their defensive advantages, I was confident that we could take not only Homehold, but Silverton as well. Both promised to be tough fights, but fights that I thought we could win.
Monstergirl Quest Book Three Page 8
