by Simon Archer
There were also mugs similar to Kanil’s canister but without the lids. I had noticed that the long, low tables where we would eat already had mugs set out, so I figured those were for drinks, and the ones in front of me were for something soup-like. The only utensils were basically sticks with a bit of a paddle at the end, but a lack of “silverware” wasn’t unusual in the game-worlds I’d visited when I was playing Terra Forma, so it wasn’t surprising here.
I took a plate, a mug, and a stirrer, and followed Suli as she snaked her way through the various cooking stations. In addition to the meat, which was obviously, well, meat, there are a dozen plant-based foods, and since I didn’t have any idea what any of them were, I took one of everything. I couldn’t just snub any of the cooks, could I? That wouldn’t be polite. Fortunately, most of the non-meat stuff was fairly small, so I had room on my plate for a Troodon wing and three different small cuts of Hadrosaur, including a sliver of the tongue, because burned or not, I have a thing for organ meats.
Of course, one of the other Hadrosaur pieces had to be from Queenie’s station. Frankly, I was nervous, mainly because if it was awful, she would be so disappointed in herself, and I didn’t want to do that to her.
After I’d gotten my food, Denno waved me over to sit next to him, but for once, he wasn’t very talkative since his mouth was busy with his plate of vittles. So I dug into my own heaping plate. Even though I could see Queenie at her cooking station, and she was about ready to burst with impatience, I started with the Troodon. I wasn’t surprised that it tasted like alligator, since they are both carnivorous, cantankerous reptiles.
Next, I sampled a square of greenish-brown paste that had been served on a small vine leaf. I expected something like avocado just because it looked like that. I should have been thinking of fucking wasabi, though, and even though I’d barely nibbled it, my eyes started watering.
Denno chuckled around a mouthful of food and motioned with his mug of magenta-colored stew and stirring stick, and I realized I was supposed to add it to other stuff. Since I had a decent amount of it already burning my entire tongue, I took a mouthful of stew and swished it around. I didn’t taste much of anything at first except jungle-wasabi, but slowly I could detect the flavors in the stew. It was more like a strawberry-banana smoothie than anything else I could think of. I made a note that, if I ever completed my save-the-universe mission and got back to Earth, to order my smoothies with wasabi, because somehow it worked for me.
The non-Queenie Hadrosaur was… well, I almost said, “Tastes like chicken!” out loud, except then I would’ve had to explain what a chicken was to my new feather-covered friends. Denno would’ve thought it was hilarious, but I wasn’t ready to go there with the rest of the village. Then again, the Troodons had feathers. Maybe tomorrow I’d try my comedy stylings.
The tongue was a little more bitter than other organ meats I’d had, but not in a bad way.
Now, I knew that it was time to try Queenie’s Hadrosaur. Against my better judgment, I bit off a big, hearty chunk, because I didn’t want her to see me hesitate, and I figured I could fake a smile better around a whole mouthful of food.
Wow.
It was seared perfectly, not burned. It must have been marinated in a vinegary sauce. A little hot kick, not the green paste but something mellower. This was where the cumin-like aroma had been coming from. And maybe a hint of Pixie Stix. Just enough of the various flavors. Yeah, I didn’t have to force a smile. I polished off the other two bites and got up for seconds before everyone else beat me to it.
Queenie was already blushing with joy before I said, “My compliments to the chef.”
“I just did what Lini told me to do.” She gestured toward the woman behind her.
“Well, Lini’s an excellent teacher,” I declared. The woman didn’t fully turn around from her shallow cauldron, but she flashed me a smile. “Have you tried it yourself, Queenie?”
“I have. I might have added extra steen-sugar to mine.” She blushed. “But I knew you are not as fond of sweet things as I am, so I didn’t add it to the rest of the pieces.”
I laughed. “No one is as fond of sweet things as you, Queenie.” I didn’t object when she gave me a double helping, and I went back to my seat to stuff my face some more.
After everyone had eaten their fill, the entire tribe pitched in to wrap the leftovers in leaves and bring them to the one hut in the village made of stone instead of wood and thatch. This was their smokehouse. Several young men gathered the hot coals from the cooking stations that had been used for the feast, and added them to the pit in the center, along with some new wood.
Then it was time for the singing Thera had promised. War songs about fighting the Saurians, with emphasis on their foul odor. War songs about fighting the Orange clan, with emphasis on the small size of the men’s penises and the women’s boobs. A love song, sung beautifully and wistfully by Denno of all people, about a goddess who I think was also a tree and maybe the moon, too. Or maybe she was a tree and died and became the moon. I might have been able to follow it better, but I’d had a few mugs of ale that I was pretty sure was made from the Pixie Stix sugar I’d tasted in Queenie’s Hadrosaur.
As contented, sleepy villagers made their way back to their huts after the last song, and I was wondering where exactly I was supposed to sleep, Thera approached. I thought about what Queenie had said about pheromones and shit, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
Thera stood wordlessly in front of me, gazing at my face without quite looking me in the eye. She reached a downy hand out toward mine and just said, “Yes?”
I took her hand. Her fingers felt surprisingly delicate intertwined with my own.
“Yes,” I replied, “very much, yes.”
22
Sex would have to wait. That’s not something I said very often, but the minute she pulled the door to her hut closed, that feeling I’d had all fucking day pretty much exploded in my head.
It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, not painful or even painful or even threatening, just incredibly intense. It was like surround-sound silence if that makes sense, and like being wrapped in a warm blanket when you are cold and at the same time like submerging yourself in the cool ocean on a hot day. I could see strands of Aura in the air like lines of blue and green lightning, even though I didn’t remember calling on my Auric Sense. For the first time all day, that logical part of my brain nagging me that the mysterious presence could be dangerous and a trap, that part of my brain shut the fuck up.
“Garrett?” Thera paused with her hands on my bare chest. When had I taken off my shirt? Or had she taken it off? I couldn’t bring myself to worry about it. Translucent waves of pale violet Aura undulated from her fingers like a second set of feathers was being stirred by a gentle breeze. “Do you not want me?”
I gazed into her golden eyes. “Oh, I do want you. But there is something — you can’t feel it?”
She shook her head in confusion. She parted her lips to reply but then paused for a moment, her eyes widening.
“It knows you,” she whispered.
Thera stepped back, and past her, I could see that the lightning strands were coming from the other side of her bed, which consisted more of a pile of furs than anything else. There, on a thick wooden pillar, sat a short column of blue-green stone.
I stepped around the bed to get closer. The stone was polished, but not smooth and shiny. Thin bands of different colors ran across it, like different layers of sediment that had hardened. A few were silvery, but most were green or blue with a few streaks of yellow and purple. It didn’t look much different from ordinary rocks I might have picked up at the beach or the walls of a cliff face.
I realized I was holding my breath. When I exhaled, the moisture in my breath and in the air in front of me turned to frosty fog and fell like snow. That’s when I realized why the presence felt so familiar. I drew the Sword of the Destroyer King. Blue-green lightning immediately arced off it toward the stone and back again, creating a feedb
ack loop that turned the stone as bright as a young sun with the sword as its glowing moon. Acting on instinct, I pressed the tip of my blade against the side of Thera’s stone.
It went in as easily as if I was returning it to a sheath of oiled leather. Instead of everything exploding, the stone's light faded to a calm, contented glow.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself. “I really hope I can get my sword back out again.” I pulled gently, and while I felt it give, I got the weird impression that it didn't want to come out. At least not right now. I let go of the hilt and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Garrett Andrews," Thera came to stand beside me, and then she knelt by my knee, looking up searchingly into my eyes. "Who are you?"
"I'm just a guy. A guy who was good at a game.” I stroked her cheek gently, trying to allay the fear I saw. “And now, somehow, I'm a guy trying to save the universe. But I need help, as much help as I can get. I hope I can win your trust. I hope your people will join me. I hope you will join me."
She took my hand in her own and rose to sit beside me. "You had my trust the moment you came through our gate."
Her lips parted as she leaned toward me, and as they touched my own, I felt a very different kind of lightning course through my body. Admittedly, my fingers trembled slightly as I brushed Thera’s cheeks. Her skin was deceivingly soft under my touch, and it warmed with a light, rosy blush as I traced my thumbs along her cheekbones.
When we parted, though it was only briefly, Thera whispered, “You are an incredibly strong man, Garrett. How is it that your touch is so tender?”
I bit back a chuckle. Instead of verbally answering Thera’s inquiry, I simply kissed her again, this time with a little more fervor, but still gentle enough not to ruin her sweet compliments. As I lay back onto the mattress, she stayed astride me, her solid body holding me down, determined to keep me beneath her.
“I’ve not had my fill of you,” Thera sang quietly before she pressed her tongue against my own. They danced together feverishly, our lips crashing together in one bruising kiss after another. Her fingers curled into the bare skin of my chest as her eagerness became more and more apparent.
"I love the taste of you. I wonder," she mused with a coy lilt in her tone, "does the rest of you taste the same?"
With a long, shuddering breath, I managed a chuckle. “You are more than welcome to find out for yourself.”
“I intend to,” Thera confirmed with a slight nip of her teeth against the pout of my bottom lip. Then, at an agonizingly slow pace, she slithered down my body, kissing me and darting her tongue along each curve and crevasse of defined muscle that was there. She sampled every inch of my skin, humming in pure delight as the salty-sweet flavor hit her taste buds. As if my skin weren’t already flush from the close contact, I was definitely overheating now despite the goosebumps that raised on my arms and raced down my spine.
She arched her back just a little and moved her hips, so her clit glided smoothly along the rigid line of my cock, leaving her delicious juices behind with an equally scrumptious moan that trilled from her throat like a forbidden, beautiful melody. I could have come right then and there if not for the anticipation of what was to follow. As Thera’s lips hovered over my cock, she smirked, then like the minx she was, she parted them over the tip of my cock, tasting herself on my heated flesh.
I bit my lip to keep from swearing too loudly, but fuck, she was a fucking horrible tease. So much so that my body ached in the most pleasurable of ways, though that was perhaps from our earlier activities. Regardless, Thera’s mouth teased its way down my shaft until her lips were pressed to my groin. At first, her tongue pressed gently to the underside of my cock, and then more firmly, adding a pulse of pressure to what was the starting rhythm of her lips moving up and down. She was slow to start, savoring the taste on her tongue with approving little hums. I swore that I felt the vibrations of the sound run from stem to stern.
Before long, however, she was bobbing her head faster and faster. Each pass of her lips over the head of my cock caused my balls to tighten, and my fingers tangled in the mess of her hair, holding it firmly in my grasp so that I could watch myself disappear and then appear again from the restricting hot confines of her glorious mouth.
With only a little more coaxing, I fell over the brink of ecstasy and spilled myself down her throat with little warning. My semen coated her tongue and pooled at the corners of her lips, and I observed with hazy eyes as Thera swiped her thumb across the mess and licked it thoroughly clean.
“That was delightful,” she purred with a slight hoarseness in her voice now. “I can’t wait to have more.”
I laughed breathlessly as Thera slinked her way back up my body and pressed her weight atop me. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything left to give.”
“For now,” Thera winked, and the implication caused me to shiver beneath her. “I want to take all of you into me. I want to taste your strength… and your sweetness.”
I laughed in surprise. "Uhm, are we talking literal taste, or are you getting all poetical?"
"Can it not be both?" She smiled enigmatically and stretched her body out next to mine, one arm on my chest, caressing my skin.
"I can't remember the last time someone described me as sweet." I smirked.
"Strength without kindness is bitter, in my heart, and on my tongue, but you?" She took my hand and kissed each fingertip, sucking just slightly before moving on to the next. "I could drink you all night. Literal and poetical."
“Then,” I started as I trailed soft kisses along her neck, “allow me the indulgence of tasting what you have to offer me as well.”
“Yes, please,” Thera crooned, and it was all the encouragement I needed. My fingers glided along her sides and came to a stop only when I was able to cup the cheeks of her ass firmly in my grasp. I brought my hand back just a few inches, then smacked it down on the taut flesh, relishing in the sound that reverberated against the walls.
Thera moaned, but it was nothing compared to the exquisite sound that came from her when I slipped two of my fingers easily inside of her. There was no need to prep her. She was more than wet enough, but I needed to tempt her, to draw out those shivers and gasps that kept me forever riled up.
I moved the digits carefully at first, but within seconds had increased my tempo dramatically. Her pussy was so slick, so ready for me that I could feel her juices already slipping down the palm of my hand. If she wasn’t blushing already, she definitely was once I brushed that sweet spot inside of her. Thera started to go rigid as I drove my fingers in and out of her with reckless abandon, and she pushed back against them, fucking herself and meeting each hard, deliberate thrust. The song she sang as she began to tighten was divine, and nothing less than lewd.
I smirked then, and before she could come, though, I quickly took my fingers out, causing her to cry out with the sudden loss of being filled and friction. Without hesitation or a second thought, I brought my hand to my lips and sucked her small offering from my fingers. My tongue pressed flat to my palm as I made a show of drinking her.
“Garrett,” Thera trilled, and she licked her lips as she watched my lewd display, “I have more for you.”
“Let me have it,” I replied with a dark, husky undertone.
Thera shifted ever so slightly. When she did, the tip of my hard again cock brushed over her clit before effortlessly slipping inside of her. A content sigh fell from her lips as I filled her with my cock, the slick warmth engulfing me in its impossibly taut embrace. Her head fell to my shoulder, and I hugged her body close to mine as I started moving. I pushed myself in until I was flush with her spread legs, then pulled back just enough to tease her with my tip before slamming myself back inside with a quick, hard thrust.
“Garrett!” Thera nearly screamed into my shoulder, and her nails scrambled for some sort of purchase. She started on my shoulders, marring my flesh, then settled for grasping the furs under us with all of her might, balling her fists as tightly as she
could as I plowed into her. I could feel her lashes flutter as she tried desperately to control herself, but all I could do was smirk. I took pride that I was able to drive the chieftainess so insane with lust and desire. She looked a right mess, but fuck, if it wasn’t absolutely breathtaking to see.
Each time our bodies connected and reconnected sent her reeling. Sweat beaded on her brow and stuck to our already sex-stained bodies. Her breath was hot on my neck, and I could feel how close she was getting to tipping over the edge entirely.
And there it was, a silent wail that was strangled and caught in Thera’s throat. Like a hot gift, her come poured out of her, completely saturating me, the furs beneath us. When her voice did return, it was pitched and raspy, gasping for air, and she trembled as she spilled everything that was left of her to offer.
Greedily, I dragged my hands over her and the mess she made and brought one to my lips, one to hers. Together we drank a drink so lovely that the village whore would blush if she knew how erotic our lovemaking was.
The taste, the scent, and her impossibly hot confines squeezing my cock in tandem sent my senses on overload. My breath lodged in my throat as a harsh, stuttered moan ripped through the room as I slammed into Thera one final time. I emptied myself into her deeply, my own legs shaking beneath her weight from the sheer ferocity of my orgasm.
Covered in ourselves with no real motivation to move, Thera and I laid quietly for a long while, basking in the glow that followed after such an intense moment. I combed my fingers through her feathery hair, and if she had a complaint about the scent of her love sticking to her, she made no mention of it. Instead, she seemed to welcome it.
A few beats later, I found myself chuckling quietly.
“What is it that you find so humorous?” Thera cooed as she traced the line of my jaw with her lips.
“I actually thought you hated me when you met me. Pretty much up until you asked me back here,” I admitted a little self-consciously.
