by Simon Archer
“I’m glad you came with us,” I said to Freyja after I fed Bill and walked over to settle down next to her. The kingdom elves were congregated on the other side of the horses, eating and joking around with one another.
“As am I,” Freyja said. Then, watching the kingdom elves, “They spoke of how I’ve surprised them, but they’re not what I expected either.”
“What did you expect?” I asked, taking a bite out of a fish fillet and pulling a thin bone out from between my teeth.
“I grew up hearing stories about the kingdom elves,” Freyja said thoughtfully, sifting through the food pack and pulling out an apple. “I was always told they were these horrible creatures, wielding their magic and destroying everything in their path. They wanted to take our forest for themselves, regardless of what that meant for us and our way of life. But they’re not like that at all. They’re normal people just like me. And they’re really nice and funny and seem to care about each other a lot.”
“Sounds like both of your races have a lot of misconceptions about each other,” I said, finishing up the fillet. Somehow, I wasn’t bored with fish yet. All the food in the forest, just like in the kingdom, was very fresh and flavorful, not like the packaged stuff I was used to back on Earth.
“That’s true,” Freyja said, nodding. “Maybe we’ll get along better after all this.”
“I hope so,” I said. Then, nodding in the direction of the kingdom elves, “You’ve certainly represented your people well. They seem to like you now.”
“Thanks,” Freyja said, looking down at her apple. “I’ve come to like them, too, I think.”
“What about me?” I asked, elbowing her playfully.
“Oh, I know I like you,” she said, shooting me a grin.
Before I knew it, the kingdom elves had fallen asleep, and Bernsten was snoozing loudly, his snores blending in with the sound of cicadas off in the distance. I had the first watch, followed by Freyja, since Nadeine seemed to trust her enough to allow her a watch of her own now.
“I don’t know how well I’ll be able to sleep up here,” I said, pressing my hands against the hard, bumpy surface of the intertwined branches.
“If you spend enough time in the forest, you’ll learn to sleep anywhere,” Freyja said, tossing the food pack aside and curling up beside me. She looked comfortable enough. I could feel the heat of her against my arm.
“Fair enough,” I said, leaning back on my hands and looking up at the ceiling of leaves above me. I could tell they were beautiful once, and a hint of vibrant green still there. And I supposed they could be again. “Why do you think the forest is so dead over here? Is it because of Viktor?”
“Yes,” Freyja sighed, opening her eyes. “It’s been like this my whole life. My father told me it was better when he was little.”
“You don’t talk about them a lot,” I said, turning my head to face her. “What happened to them?”
“They starved, just like most of us,” Freyja said. “They gave what little food they had to Ishida and me so we would make it to the center of the forest. They wanted us to stay there and be safe. That’s how Ishida ended up there.”
“But you didn’t stay,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
“No,” Freyja said, answering anyway and shaking her head. “I stayed for a while, but I don’t like being in one place. It’s boring in the center of the forest. Out here, I can hunt and climb trees and run through the underbrush….”
“You can do those things in the center, though, right?” I asked, thinking back to what I had seen there. “They have all those things.”
“But it’s always the same,” Freyja sighed. “It’s always the same hunt, the same trees, the same underbrush. I don’t want to just do the same things over and over again until I die. I’d rather die out here, almost.”
“Alone?” I asked. The word hung in the air between us.
“That’s the problem,” Freyja sighed. “It’s like I have to choose between enjoying my life and having friends. That’s why I like hanging with you guys. You’re traveling through the forest together.”
“What about when we leave?” I asked. Our faces were growing closer together. “What will you do then?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Maybe I could come with you?”
“I’d be down with that,” I said, feeling her breath against my cheek. “But would you really want to leave the forest?”
“I don’t know,” she said again. “We’ll see.”
“Well, it’s a long life,” I said. “You can do more than one thing.” She nodded and closed the gap between us, brushing her lips against mine. Though her features were fox-like, her lips were as human as Marinka’s, though they were firmer.
I leaned into the kiss and pressed my forehead to hers. She climbed over on top of me and straddled me, pulling my robes up over my waist. I pressed myself closer to her and fumbled with her leather belt, undoing it and pulling her cargo-like pants down. I was pleased to find that while her face had some fox-like features, the rest of her body was as human as the kingdom elves’ aside from her tail.
She pushed me back against the branches, and I felt them pressing into my spine. But Freyja herself was soft and firm, and that was all I needed. Once my robes were cast aside, Freyja leaned down and, wasting no time, pulled my cock into her mouth. While Marinka’s lips and hands and approach were soft and slow, Freyja’s was firm and quick, which I had to say was a nice contrast. I was getting the best of both worlds here in Eviorah, in more ways than one.
Freyja brought her teeth down on the tip of my cock in a gentle but teasing gesture, and I felt myself grow hard and throbbing at her touch. She rushed to place my whole member in her mouth then, moving up and down my shaft with both her lips and her long fingers, calloused from years fending for herself in the forest.
Shortly, I could feel myself getting close to cumming, and unlike Marinka, Freyja didn’t hold up to tease me or build up more tension. Instead, she kept going, moving even faster to bring on my release. It came not long after, and I let out a long stream of cum inside her mouth. She swallowed it in two gulps and wiped her lips off on her hand.
“You like the taste of me?” I chided her, my hands still on her waist.
“You’ll do,” she grinned slyly, rubbing her fingers up and down my shaft once more. I reached out to return the favor, running my own fingers over her clit. She let out a sharp gasp, seemingly unconcerned with waking our companions on the other trees’ branches.
“Oh, I will, won’t I?” I grinned back, continuing to work my way inside her. I leaned down and pressed my lips against her, adding my mouth and tongue to my toolbox. She gasped again, and I pressed deeper inside her. I could feel her hands running through my hair and gripping into my scalp, digging in deeper as her back bristled at my touch. I was silently glad there was a large tarp between the rest of our team and us.
I was still beneath Freyja on the branches, though I was more in a sitting position now, with the forest elf’s knees digging into either side of my thighs as I held her in the air and my lap as I worked. She tasted different from Marinka, but not in a bad way. Freyja was less sweet and more smoky, rustic like the forest itself. Her touch was also rougher than Marinka’s, but her calluses made her hands more stimulating, and my cock bristled once more at the recent memory of her touch.
She came a few moments later, and I could feel her back bristling as I ran my hands up and down her body. She arched her back when she came and held back her head, arching her neck as well and revealing a stretch of tender flesh. I reached up to kiss it, running my lips up and down her neck as she let out a sound of pleasure that was almost akin to a howl. It echoed throughout the trees, blending into the other sounds of the forest, the cicadas humming, and the leaves blowing. She shuddered when she finished, shaking slightly in my arms. She grinned at me.
“You’re better than I expected,” she said, arching her eyebrows at me.
“What exactly did y
ou expect?” I asked, returning the gesture and hugging her tighter to me.
“I’m not sure, but not this,” she grinned.
“Well, I’m glad to be of service,” I said, echoing something I’d said to Marinka the last time we’d had sex.
“Oh, you’re not finished yet,” she assured me.
“Oh?” I asked, raising my eyebrows again.
“Not even close,” she said, pressing her hands against my chest and pushing me back against the branches. I could feel them pressing into my back every which way, but once again, I didn’t mind. Freyja made up for it. She straddled me and made quick work of pressing my cock inside her. I helped, of course, but Freyja, true to her strong personality, took the lead. I had to say I was enjoying it. I’d never been with a woman so forceful before. It was a nice change of pace.
Freyja, just like Marinka, was extremely, pleasantly tight. The elves put human women to shame, and I wasn’t sure I could ever go back at this point. I smiled, remembering that the kingdom elves had assured me that I would never have to. I would live a life full of music, magic, great food, adventuring, and amazing women. What more could a kid from Queens ask for?
I thrust myself in and out of Freyja quickly, as quickly as I could, but she still wanted more. “Faster,” she moaned over and over again. “Faster.”
I obliged, and she helped me until I was pushing myself into her with such force that the branches beneath us began to quake. Not so much so that I feared they would break, but enough to know that this was quickly approaching the best sex of my life. Freyja seemed content with this speed and replaced her moans to go faster with just moans. I felt like the whole forest could probably hear us by now, but by that point, I didn’t really care. My cock felt like it was about ready to blow again, throbbing to the point where I felt like the whole thing would burst inside Freyja’s tightness.
Eventually, it just about did, filling Freyja with my cum once more and releasing all of my built-up tension. Freyja came at the same time, her whole body bristling and quaking in my arms. I held her tightly once more, and she buried her face in my chest. We were both breathing heavily from the exertion and the pleasure.
“Still surpassed expectations?” I asked her when we were both breathing more normally again.
“By far,” she murmured back, her face still pressed into my neck. She raised it and kissed me once more. “We’ll have to do it again sometime.”
“Anytime,” I assured her.
27
When we arrived at Viktor’s fortress several days later, our food and water supplies nearly drained. Should we survive our encounter with the mad kingdom elf, as the forest elves referred to him, we would need to help ourselves to whatever consumables he was storing in his adopted home.
The fortress itself was propped at the very edge of the forest, where the beaten path came to an end. We dared not travel on the beaten path ourselves for fear of being accosted, so when Freyja seemed certain we were near our goal, we left our horses behind in a clearing the fox-elf deemed secure enough tied to a nearby tree.
“I’ll be back soon, Bill,” I told him before I left, stroking his nose one last time. “We won’t be long.” Of course, I had no idea if that was true, but it sounded nice.
We made our way to the edge of the underbrush and looked through some gaps in the leaves at the beaten path alongside it. Marinka gasped audibly at the sight of Viktor’s fortress, and Nadeine grabbed her arm to shush her. The fortress itself was a long building made out of wood. There were no windows aside from one large one off the left side. There only appeared to be one floor, sort of like an enormous ranch house, and the wooden logs out of which the fortress was made were grimy and chipped away as if the building had never been properly cared for in its decades upon decades of existence. Peeking out from behind the trees on the other side of the building was the outline of a giant light gray mountain.
Worse, at least two dozen forest elves stood guard in front of the fortress. The small army looked beaten and half-starved, but they were carrying formidable weapons, nonetheless.
“They do not look so frightening,” Bernsten hissed as quietly as he could, though his voice still carried further than I would have liked. “They are weak and half-starved.” He nodded at me. “Leo Hayden can easily take them.”
“It is not that simple, brother,” Nadeine hissed back, her voice was much quieter. “We do not wish to alert Viktor so soon to our presence. We must find another way to infiltrate the fortress.”
“How?” I asked, but Nadeine pressed a finger to my lips before I could get anything else out. “How?” I mumbled through her hand, quieter now.
“I could join them,” Freyja offered, and we all turned to stare at her.
“Are you insane?” I asked, trying hard to keep my voice down despite my concern.
“It’s the only way,” Freyja whispered, then gestured at the scene before us. Maybe it was just the tenseness of the situation, but the assembled guards looked meaner than they had just a moment ago. “Look at them. It’s not like any of you can just walk up and go through the doors.”
“And you can?” I asked.
“Yes.” She flashed a cunning grin. “The mad kingdom elf is always trying to get more of my people on his side. I’ll just pretend I want to work for him, or at least that I need to so I don’t starve.”
“And then what?” I asked, glancing warily at the long knife the nearest forest elf guard was clutching in his boney hand.
“And then I work for him, just like I said.” Freyja shrugged. “Once I get put on guard duty, I’ll let you in.”
While the first part of her plan made sense, the rest seemed utterly crazy. “Even assuming none of that goes horribly wrong and assuming we somehow evade the guards for however long that takes, how will that work when you’re only one of thirty guards?”
“We’ll… have to figure that out later,” Freyja said, gritting her teeth.
“That doesn’t sound great,” I said.
“Do you have a better idea?” she asked.
“Fair enough,” I said with a sigh. “Just be careful, okay?”
“I will.” She smiled at me. “Wait in the clearing with the horses for my signal,” she whispered. “Keep one person near here at all times. I’ll wave to you when I’ve infiltrated the guards.” Then, before I could blink, she darted out of the underbrush and onto the beaten path above. Marinka gasped again, and Nadeine clutched both her and my hands as we waited to hear what would happen to our friend.
“Please… I come in peace… please help…” we heard Freyja’s voice call out weakly to the guards. She’d done well at making herself sound ill, and I caught a glimpse through the underbrush of her walking with an exaggerated limp.
“Who are you?” the nearest guard, the one I had been looking at, asked, his voice low and gravelly. “What do you want?”
“Food,” Freyja gasped. “Water. Please… my children will starve.”
“You don’t look hungry,” the guard said, presumably noticing that she had some meat on her bones that the other forest elves lacked.
“We were living near the center,” Freyja explained. “But the food stopped last week. I left my children there. Please, I must send them food. Please… I heard you have work here. Please…”
“I’ll see what I can do,” the guard said, and I watched him walk away towards the fortress entrance.
When he was far enough away that I was confident he wouldn’t hear, I turned toward my friends and whispered, “I suppose all we can do now is wait.”
“Shall we return to the campsite now?” Bernsten asked.
“No, let’s wait and make sure she gets inside.” I motioned for them to stay put. They nodded, and we turned back to watch Freyja through the underbrush. She had stayed on the ground, making a show of being tired and out of breath. The guard returned several moments later.
“Why did you come here instead of sending word to us through the grapevine?” he barke
d at her, not seeming to care that she was ill and injured.
“I… I don’t know what you mean,” Freyja groaned, sounding defeated. “I’m not a connected person, I admit. I just heard… heard many years ago that you offer food and water for work. I will do anything, I swear, anything…” She erupted into a fit of coughing now. I looked around at my companions, worrying she was overdoing it. But the guy bought it, anyway.
“Alright, come with me,” he said, motioning harshly for her to follow him. He pointed at the doors. “Inside.” The rest of the guards parted to let them through, and then he and Freyja disappeared behind the rough wooden doors. The other guards returned to their posts, and I turned to face my remaining companions.
“Oh, I hope she is alright,” Marinka said, voicing all of our concerns.
“She will be,” I said, and I meant it. Freyja was probably the most resourceful person I’d ever met.
“Indeed,” Bernsten agreed. “She is strong.” Nadeine nodded in agreement.
“How should we keep a watch schedule?” she asked.
“I guess just follow our regular watch schedule,” I said. “Keep the pocket watch, and every two hours, come and grab someone else.”
“I am first, then,” Nadeine said, reaching out and taking the pocket watch from Bernsten, who had had the last watch. “I will see you in two hours.”
“Should we stay in pairs?” Marinka asked, her eyes darting up to glance at the guards.
“No, that would be inefficient,” Nadeine said.
“Why?” I asked. She was right, of course, but I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the whole thing.
“Because we will need to be on a watch schedule,” she explained. “And to double up would mean higher turnover and far less rest.”
“Yeah, I get it,” I sighed. “We don’t want to walk into the fortress on two hours of sleep.”
“Exactly,” Nadeine said.
