by Simon Archer
“Buddy, you earned every last one piece.” My scratches moved up to his neck. “You saved my ass back there, even though I didn’t ask for it. It worked out great for everyone anyway. How the hell were you able to jump so high and run on water?”
I started hearing quiet footsteps behind me, smirking to myself. I didn’t know what my girls were planning behind my back, but I wasn’t going to spoil their fun, so I kept talking with the strider. The big guy pressed his head up against me in the strider-equivalent of a hug.
“You’re very welcome.” A few more scratches and I moved away before the pain killed me. It seemed he enjoyed his time in the stables as much as I enjoyed my day after the battle.
Every time I wanted to thank people, it never felt adequate. Or mounts, in this case. But even with my people. My Wolves were working hard with the heavyweight tasks and risking their lives, my hares were running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to do everything I wanted, and my girls were doing everything in their power to make this vision real. I was certain my idea for a brighter future was going to happen, and I could have only hoped that it was the right way to do things.
“That does seem especially odd, m’lord,” Peter pointed out, “Maybe he’s similar to that Wildheart cretin. That kind of dark power doesn’t come naturally to anyone, I don’t think, especially a Wolf. Do you think there are more monsters like that hidden inside of more of the higher nobles? Inside their mounts? Do you think they’d try to shove them inside of a Rabbit?”
“If they could, honestly, I’d believe it.” I turned the gears in my head. “Though I don’t know if that’s the case with this guy.” I petted the strider. “You don’t seem like you’ve been experimented on, big guy. Abused, yes, but I see no strange monsters, powers, or disregard for decency like they had. Do you know if those nobles up there can mutate any living thing, not just Wolves?”
The strider simply looked at me with a blank stare.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
“When we looked him over, we didn’t notice anything particularly weird.” Peter looked over the strider once more to be sure. “His armor and all of his straps were on pretty tight, but besides that, he was fine.”
“No strange brass-colored pieces?” I checked, “No burn marks or anything?”
“Oh, there were plenty of burns.” Peter’s bouncing stopped entirely as his tone grew dourer. “Soon as we took off the armor and saddle, there were eight or so burn marks in the shape of that pawprint symbol that used to be on the carriage door. I mean, how can you think you need to brand anything more than once? That’s just torture.”
“Pretty sure that was the point,” I reasoned, “Wildheart didn’t strike me as the type to be so patient with animals. Big guy like this was probably hard to control otherwise. No brass pieces, though? No bright coppery metals?”
“Nothing that we could find.” Peter’s bouncing continued as the subject matter of conversation moved away from the burn marks.
The strider lowered its tyrannosaurus horse head a bit as if it was thinking about those times it’d been burned, like it could understand what I was saying. That was probably a harrowing experience for him. It was strange to think that even animals like this were subject to the cruelty I’d come to expect from the nobility. And it was stranger still to think that this strider was still so willing to help me, even though I wasn’t his master at the time. Did he want me to win? Did he believe that I could have helped him out? I couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of connection with this strider who had come to my aide out of his own free will.
Or maybe it was just an animal who obeyed anyone who was on his back, and I was vastly overestimating his intelligence. Either way, I was happy he was there. The water galloping was still weird. I’d have to talk to a strider expert on that one.
“You need a name, buddy.” I thought it over, juggling some ideas around in my head. “Something classic. Something that represents how reliable you are. How about Beau?”
Beau gave the strider-equivalent of a whinny of approval, like a low clicking noise mixed with a voice through a didgeridoo.
“Beau, it is.” I gave him two pats on the neck. “Wish I’d started this journey with a baby- naming book or something. I’m running out of creative ones.”
Glad I had him around. I would have needed everyone around me to be as reliable in a pinch if we were going to have a chance at taking the Regent down. Speaking of thinking about who was going to be around me, I had a lot of lovely ladies to show how much I loved them, even though I had to leave them for a while.
As soon as I turned around to head to the front gate and give my girls a real farewell, I was spun on my heels like a ballerina. My lips met up with the lips of dozens of my women, lined up in a chain to give me a quick and fond farewell. All of my girls had set themselves up like a fireman’s carry, but instead of buckets of water, it was me. And after every pass, I got a kiss from one of the girls. Very elaborate, and very sweet, if not just a little dizzying.
Hopper, being one of the co-conspirators of this whole operation, even managed to cut the line by putting two portals at the end of one line and the start of another. Once I had gotten to the end of the line, I didn’t know which way was up or down, left or right. But I knew I was loved, and that was what counted.
The end of the line and the end of the kisses came, but the world kept turning on me, and I had to resist turning with it as I kept my balance. Before I knew it, I was looking at the sky and gathered from the evidence that I was falling. However, I didn’t quite feel the confirming smack to the back of my head that usually came with that. Instead, I felt the pressing of a couple dozen or so women against me, holding me up as they were hugging and apologizing.
“Girls, girls, I’m more than fine!” I said, unable to move my arms from all of the love. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“We’re sorry!” Anais, a tall, very dark-furred bunny with curly, black hair, clung tighter as her voice cut through the noise. “We were trying to do something cute!”
“Yes! Thank you!” I assured them. “That’s what I’m thanking you for!”
“Really?” Zinia, a short, very lightly-furred bunny with pale hair, asked me.
“And thank you for catching me,” I told them, “I really do appreciate it.”
“We thought you’d be able to stand up, still!” the red-headed Blossom reasoned. “We didn’t think that this would have been a big deal!”
“Yeah, you were totally fine all day yesterday!” The brunette Daffodil added. “You didn’t stop for a break once! This was supposed to be just a last ‘hurrah!’ before you left.”
“It was a good ‘hurrah!’ Really!” I still couldn’t move my arms. “This was very sweet of all of you. I was afraid, with me being passed out all day, that I wasn’t going to say anything. But you all were thinking about me, too.”
“Well, it’s hard not to think about you when you’re putting yourself in danger all the time!” Donna, with the light grey fur, said, “We don’t know when we’ll be able to see you again!”
“You make it so hard to love you, sometimes!” Berry, a very aggressive and tan-furred bunny took a charge to the innermost circle of the hug as she complained adorably.
“I’m sorry!” I asked for their forgiveness. “I don’t mean to be so difficult. I’m very new to almost everything about all of this. Lordship, property management, relationships like this. It’s mostly improvisation, honestly.”
“Do you mean that the thing you do with your hands was made up on the spot?” Daffodil asked. “How did you come up with that?”
“Well, I can’t take credit for that,” I admitted, “I’ve adapted some things from previous experiences, but it’s different for everyone. Some of you, you especially, Daffodil, seemed to respond well when I tried. It was experimental but obviously worth it. I just want all of you to be happy, that’s all.”
That is a lot of girls squealing at the same tim
e. The girls constricted me like a boa, fitting to pop my eyes out of my skull. Out of all of the things I’d had to face so far, this was by far the most deadly. I mean, what was I supposed to do to defend myself? Love has a way of smothering you.
“We have to let him leave!” Anais shouted above the screaming, “The sooner he leaves, the sooner he can come back to us!”
“You are coming back, right?” Blossom pleaded with me.
“Of course, I will!” You bet your ass I was planning on it. As long as I wasn’t dead, I’d be back here to make good on my promises.
“Get him in the carriage!” Zinia started to shove me on my lower back as the rest of them followed suit. “He has a country to save as quickly as he can!”
“Do everything you have to do as fast as you can!” Daffodil dug her palms into my upper back. “No dawdling, and nothing extra!”
Like a living mass of affection, they carried me over in all of their little hands, pushing me inside the carriage like I was shot in from a cannon. I almost forgot how much pain I was in right before this. Eh, but it was worth it. Not long after, Hopper and Tinker were thrown into the carriage as well by the mob of girls, who had become very angry about their love. Mob mentality worked here just as well as it did in my world.
“Remember, honey: Three whole days!” Berry put her head and an arm to cement some agreement they must have made about me like they always were. “Either you find a way to put a portal in the city that can go to wherever he is, or we get three whole days with him and without you when you get back. Do not forget! I don’t care if you’ve been too busy fighting the whole time to do anything fun.”
“There will be no exceptions!” Blossom joined Berry in the accusation. “If you so much as spend one extra minute than you absolutely need to, I will claw my way up to wherever you’re dozing off, probably on top of him, rip a hole in time and space myself, so I can steal him back. Get him here! Alive! All limbs and hands attached. No exceptions.”
“Okay!” Hopper cowered for her life in the corner of the seat, joined by Tinker as she felt the residual waves of terror that weren’t even aimed at her. I was a little scared for my own life, and I wasn’t even the one they were looking at.
“We'll be good,” Tinker peeped out in her fetal position.
“Good!”
They pulled out of the door, slamming it shut with a very definitive frustration as they ended the conversation on a very tense note. Wiping the fear sweat off my face, I tapped the side of the carriage twice.
“We’re ready to move out, Peter.” I fear-squeaked out the signal.
“One second, sir!” Peter halted my command. “We’re still waiting on the-- Oh, no, wait, the battle couriers just got back. Nevermind! Hyah!”
With a whip of the reins, Peter got Beau to move outside, and I could feel and hear the rumbling of our train of carts as we headed out for the generator, near the city of Jackalope. I took a breather, now that everything had finally calmed down for me a bit, and I could have rested for just a second and let my body feel hurt. Hopper and Tinker sat upright in their seats opposite me, with their hands on their laps and their feet crossed in a very polite and proper position, like mirror images of each other. There was a distinct, fairly quiet moment between all of us before I broke the silence.
I didn’t have a single muscle left that wasn’t too stiff to start what they wanted me to start. As much as I hated it, they'd have to come to me. Hopper’s eyes scared me just as much as the mob of bunnies. It made me doubt whether I was as ready as I thought, but I was definitely no less eager. Tinker’s gaze was even more intense than Hopper’s, and I wondered what I was in for.
“So,” I broke the ice, prompting them to speak about what was obviously on their mind, “now’s your chance to grab something before there’s no turning back. Anything you need to do? Anything you’re regretting?”
“Just the one, my lord.” Hopper’s hands clenched as they rested on her thick thighs. “I regret how many layers of clothes we put on you this morning.”
Like jaguars, they pounced on me for the kill, rocking the whole carriage as they went for all of the many buckles, straps, and layers on my clothes as I pulled them in closer. Let the record show that I wasn’t informed, involved, or consulted on any of my attire, and the complicated nature of my outfit at that time was not a direct result of any decision I had made that day. In fact, I started that day naked at a very early hour in the morning.
“I regret how many I have on, too,” Tinker added, struggling with some of the loops and buttons on the back of her thigh-high blouse and skirt.
“Speak for yourself.” Hopper touched one button on her legless, skintight black suit, and the whole thing somehow was off her, leaving her cream-colored skin full exposed in all places as she continued to strip layers off me. All of her focus was then on getting me out of my own clothes. I was doing everything in my power to help, but she was more than able to rip them off me without my intervention.
“No fair!” Tinker whined preciously, fiddling with her clothes still. “Making your own trick clothes is cheating! I can’t make rip-off armor! Sturdiness and rigidity are the whole points!”
“Should have had me make your outfit today.” Hopper had already gotten my overalls off and was sliding her hand down the buttons of my shirt and undoing them like they were just a zipper. “Oh, wait…”
With her other hand already behind Tinker, she undid a hidden button the furious furry fairy was completely missing, and all of her clothes had dropped like a bad habit, the same as Hopper’s own. The tricky seamstress and the anxious alchemist shared a foxy smile.
“You’re the best, Hopper.” Tinker, having missed out on helping strip me down to practically naked, went straight for the kiss as Hopper finished up.
“I know.” Hopper winked at Tinker.
I swear, I did everything in my power to be productive in stripping, but those two had worked so fast that I was only barely registering that they’d finished one thing before they’d moved on to the next. These ladies hadn’t let me so much as touch one of the buckles or buttons on my clothes in a week, and they weren’t going to start now.
Grinding down my side, she placed one of my hands on her chest, guiding it with her own up her body and down while Tinker focused on rubbing her own body against mine like it was feeding her life. While I slid down in my carriage seat closer to the floor, Hopper put my index finger in her mouth while she moved all the way down to my pelvis, claiming the prize she’d put so much effort into. Tinker moved up to my face between her legs, taking advantage of the tiny amount of recuperation time a tongue needed as I fed life from her.
No rest for the wicked or the weary, I guess. Fine by me.
Hopper’s tongue flicked across my skin, sending shocks through my body as I wrapped my hands around Tinker’s thighs. I slid my hands up and down Tinker’s body, the feather-soft fur running through my fingers as I continued to taste her and trace patterns with my tongue. She writhed above me with pleasure, and I moved with her as best I could. Hopper wasn’t making it easy on me. She had one hand wrapped around my length, and she moved it in tandem with her mouth, which forced me to moan against Tinker’s skin. As the intensity built, Hopper’s movements became hungrier, until she suddenly broke free. The cold air hit my wet skin, but not for long. I felt a sudden warmth wrap around me, and I realized that Hopper had thrown one leg over me before sliding down onto me. I relished in the sensations as she rocked against me, and when Tinker realized what was happening, she giggled and sat back, breaking my connection to her. She slid down my chest, leaving a damp trail in her wake before leaning down to kiss me firmly on the mouth. I knew she had to have tasted herself on my lips, but the twinkle in her eyes told me she wasn’t bothered by it at all.
She sat up again, leaning her back against Hopper’s chest. Hopper didn’t slow her movements, but I watched as her hands danced across Tinker’s body, wrapping around her waist and gliding up to her breasts
. Tinker moaned quietly and closed her eyes as she tossed her head back against Hopper’s shoulder. I ran my hands up and down Tinker’s thighs as Hopper played with Tinker’s nipples and ran her tongue up Tinker’s neck. I slipped my hand between her thighs to continue the work my tongue had been doing, eliciting a sharp gasp from her when I hit the perfect spot. Tinker’s eyes locked onto mine, her eyes wide with anticipation and pleasure as both Hopper and I showered her with affection. I felt my fingers dampen further as Tinker’s moans became more and more intense. Suddenly, she grabbed onto her friend’s hands with a sudden fury. Hopper giggled and slid back off me, and I once again felt the cold air of the room against my skin. Tinker grinned mischievously at me as she slid back away from my fingers. I felt her skin rub up against mine, and I yearned for her as she found her place. Her warmth enveloped me and sent shocks through me as she slid back down, and I saw the flicker in her eyes as she felt it, too. She gyrated her hips slowly, taking great pleasure in the moment. Hopper crawled up to my face, pausing long enough to kiss me before straddling me, and I was once again inhaling a woman’s scent against my face. Hopper had turned to face Tinker, though, and I could only imagine why.
I let my tongue flick across Hopper’s skin, hitting all the right nerve endings and causing her to moan loudly overhead. When I broke free long enough to catch a glimpse at them both, I found their lips interlocked and their hands exploring each other’s bodies. Hopper had leaned forward, slipping a hand between Tinker’s legs, and I felt Hopper’s fingertips against me as she pleasured Tinker.
As Hopper worked her magic, Tinker’s moans grew louder and more intense, but Hopper didn’t slow down. I felt my own pressure building as Tinker continued to rock her hips against me, but I knew Tinker was a lot closer to the edge than I was. Suddenly, and without warning, Tinker let out a high-pitched yelp, and I felt her rhythm change as she hit her peak. Hopper didn’t let up as we both watched wave after wave of pleasure crash over Tinker’s body, and when she finally began to shiver and twitch with the aftershocks, Hopper locked eyes with her.
