by J. J. Pavlov
"W-what? Quit your jesting..." Her cheeks redden at my flattery, but she doesn't decline the burgundy dress I'm holding up in front of her. So easy.
While the design isn't great, the material is quite soft and completely different from what I got for myself. She continues to say that it would suit me much better since I'm a noble and all. I rebut by saying that I've given up that life and chosen to live a traveler's lifestyle. She could have responded by saying that the same is true for her, but for some reason, she seems to forget about it.
Eventually, she gives in and tries it on. She has a charm different from Kamii's and Daica's, more like something between the two dark elves. Her beautiful white skin stands in nice contrast to the color of the dress, too. But it still doesn't grant me much insight into her breast size, as the chest and shoulder areas are slightly puffed up by some material on the inside.
"It looks great. Rolan is lucky to have you." I state with a grin, and she blushes.
"W-what, we are not-" She still tries to hide it, but I ignore her.
"Yeah yeah, let's go buy it." I pull her to the counter to finalize the purchase.
Toward the evening, Daica's outfit is finished, and I have her try it on right away. This time, I choose to wait outside the changing room, to let my anticipation build up. I really hope that the design I had in mind matches with how it looks in reality. Otherwise, the whole thing would end in disappointment.
"I-is this really how it's worn?" Opening the curtain a bit and peeking outside, the big dark elf asks shyly. "The skirt is so short!"
"That sounds about right." With these words, I pull the curtain aside in one swift motion and behold the dark elf in the full glory of her new clothes.
The view hits me like a truck, and I take a step back in awe. The fluffy, pink wool lining of the collar and hood framing her face emphasizes her smooth, mauve purple skin. I purposefully picked a robe that was just the right size for her, so that the added wool made it tighter. It accentuates her voluptuous chest and shapely figure even more now. The front part of the skirt that was removed is like a window to her incredible legs, which are covered in a short skirt from the top, and thigh highs from the bottom. Rounding off that outfit are ankle-high, black leather boots.
Absolute territory achieved!
My mouth waters at the sight, and I can't help but imagine what it would be like to lose myself between those thighs. But we can't really try that during the journey, so I need to keep my desires low for the time being. When we reach our destination, we'll do a lot of practicing.
"You look stunning." I state with my arms crossed and nod like a connoisseur.
"R-really?" Stepping out of the changing room while holding her miniskirt down with both hands, to try and cover the absolute territory gap, Daica's eyes light up with a rare moment of self-confidence. She walks in front of the mirror in the corner of the room and looks at her reflection. "H-huh? You can almost see up my skirt!"
With these words, she squats down in shame and gives me an even nicer view up her skirt in the mirror before her. Nice job!
But it's only the usual old lady bloomers from this world!
My tension drops and I feel my shoulders slump. Should I have the tailor make some panties?
Suddenly, Senka stirs on the chair in the changing room, snaps her head around and starts laughing mechanically. Luna jumps into my arms with a shriek and Kamii runs to take cover behind my back, since she never witnessed the doll girl doing this before.
It's Senka's way to remind me of the fact that I don't have time for that.
"Stop iiit!" Luna is close to tears as she holds onto my arm while pointing her staff and shouting at the doll. "It hasn't done this for so long; I thought it would never do it again!"
I can feel her chest pressing against my arm through the robes and get a good idea of her size now.
Good job, Senka!
In the end, I spend a pretty hefty sum, even with the help of Luna's haggling; my wallet is a lot lighter now. It doesn't feel like a loss, though; I have two beautiful and cute dark elves by my sides, who received an alternate outfit and are pretty happy about it - or at least Kamii is, while Daica is fidgeting because of her short skirt.
When we return to the tavern, the sun has already disappeared behind the mountains. We meet up with the other party members for a traditional Aekrestad dinner, consisting of steamed beef in a mushroom sauce and a pumpkin cream soup. The meadows around the town are the feeding grounds for the cows, which grow to have very tender meat.
This is one of the best meals I've had since coming to the Kingdom of Lares, and I savor every moment.
After dinner, everybody retreats into their own rooms. It's been seven nights since I last slept in a proper bed. The tiny villages we stayed in had no taverns, so we had to spend the night in the barns of some farmers, and sleep on straw.
There's no such thing as cold foam or metal springs in this world, so cheaper taverns with older beds tend to have indented mattresses, where the wool stuffing has been depressed by all the people who laid on them. But it's still preferable to sleeping with the livestock, or somewhere with stones under your blanket - and the occasional insect that crawls over your body.
This tavern doesn't have any running water. The bathroom doesn't even have a sink, let alone a bathtub. There's only a large wooden tub for which one can order hot water to be brought upstairs so that one can sit in it to wash up. It's far less developed than Hovsgaerden, but it's better than having to bathe in a cold stream.
My body doesn't secrete any sweat, but I can still get dirty from dust and splashing mud. The same is true for Senka, who doesn't have any bodily functions and doesn't even need to eat.
Kamii is sitting in the tub with her crab arm stretched out to the side. I'm wiping her down with a wet towel and have to actively suppress my stirring desires.
"Mahkotoh?" She looks up at me with her mesmerizing amethyst eyes and tilts her head questioningly. My hands seem to have stopped at one point, and my face got really close to hers.
"I-it's nothing." I pet her head with a smile and continue.
Daica used the bath first, so when we exit the bathroom, she's already asleep on her bed. It was a pretty tiring day, even if we just stood around for most of the second half of it, waiting for the tailor to finish the clothes. I'm all for going to sleep right away, but Kamii lies down before me and beckons me over.
"You want to... do it, right?" She asks with a warm expression that threatens to melt my brain. But I still have enough self-control to remember how it went last time. Neither of us could move the next day and just stayed in bed until the afternoon.
"No, we can't. We have to walk all day again tomorrow." With a bitter undertone, I force myself to say these words while I lay down beside her. I can cuddle her, but nothing beyond that until we reach a place where we can take the next day off completely. "Let's go to sleep."
After I plant a kiss on Kamii's forehead, I cover the two of us with the thick blanket. The tiredness of the day catches up with us, and we soon slip away into slumber.
My last thought is that we could have just practiced a little moderation and gone for one round or something...
Chapter 22 - The Storm And The Whisper
The next morning, we're on the move again. We leave the village of Aekrestad, and the bard leads us up the dirt path disappearing into the forest that heads for the mountains of the Kongensgrad, towards the Himmelenveien route.
Before noon, the gray clouds spill their load and snow floats down, causing the dirt road disappears under a blanket of pure white. Every step feels ever so slightly heavier than the last, as our surroundings become more and more coated in the color of winter.
The Tokaido is doable on foot in about a week's time. That's only when traveling under perfect conditions and at a reasonable pace. But that was - and still is - a well-maintained and paved road with negligible elevation. That's not the case with the mountain pass ahead of us.
&nbs
p; Gram is walking at the very front, clearing the snow with his boat-sized boots, while the bard follows closely behind him and makes sure we're on track. Rolan is third and Luna fourth in line, with Kamii walking right beside me, and Daica dead last as she has been every day since the start of our journey.
"The Himmelenveien is quite treacherous and takes us near the tallest mountain in the Kongensgrad, the Solspyd." The bard explains while huffing and puffing from the exertion of climbing a steep incline while talking. His breaths create large clouds of visible vapors.
It has been quite cold for a while now, even before we reached Aekrestad, but due to the weather chance within the last several hours and the increasing elevation, the temperature has dropped significantly. The freezing winds feel like blades cutting into one's skin.
That is, according to the others. I don't feel it the same way. Of course, I'm wearing a thick coat, and even through it, I can tell that it's frigid. But it doesn't give me the same kind of unpleasant feeling I used to have when I practiced running outdoors during winter. It's all thanks to the body of a Crawling Chaos.
"Are you alright, Kamii?" I turn to ask the little dark elf by my side.
"Elves... don't freeze." She states with a stoic expression and sets one foot before the other like she has been doing all these days. There's no change in her pace, even though we're ascending a snowy and steep incline. Even so, I doubt she's as unaffected by the cold as she says.
Daica isn't fairing as well as her older sister is, though. She's beginning to lag behind more and more, so I decide to help her with most of her luggage. Everything short of carrying her should still be okay to keep up my appearances before the humans, even if they have expressed surprise at my constitution time and again.
"How long is it going to take us up the mountain?" I ask Rolan, who relays the question to the bard up front.
"At our pace, we can expect to reach the highest point of our journey in five days. After that, we will be descending the Kongensgrad again and reach the capital in four days." He responds. "I am calculating with the assumption that the snowfall will only become heavier, and that our progress will slow down more and more from here on out."
He wasn't kidding.
Shortly after our lunch break at noon, on the second day since leaving Aekrestad, the weather takes a turn for the worse. The snow, previously coming down like feathers on the breeze, are increasingly turning into icicles because of the storm that started sometime during the night and picked up in intensity over the course of the morning.
At this point, Gram is using his shield to push a path into the snow for us to follow in like a snowplow. The white powder has become more than knee-deep for the shorter people, including Luna, Daica and especially Kamii.
"We'll die out here!" Rolan yells over the roaring of the wind, as he argues with the bard.
"Do you want to turn back?" The normally composed bard seems to be quite irritated by the cold as well.
"No, but..." Glancing back at the girls of the party, the leader doesn't continue what he wanted to say.
"We should find some shelter and wait out the storm!" Gram has come to a stop as well, looking visibly tired.
"Storms in the Kongenssoevn can last many days. That is why the Himmelenveien is not used during winter. If we wait it out, we may be delayed for a long time." It seems the bard knows a lot more than anybody else here. Did he already make this journey before? Well, considering he's been the guide all this time, I assume he has.
"Then what do you suggest?" Rolan remarks snidely, and I decide to step in.
"Stop it, you two." Luna is faster. She raises her voice and speaks in a reprimanding tone, upon which the two men break it up and look away in embarrassment. "We will not make any better progress if you two argue with each other."
It seems she's also somewhat irritable right now. Nobody can do anything about this situation, so there's no point in feeling bad about it. I can understand that the cold weather and tiredness can do that to the human psyche.
"How are you doing, Kamii?" I turn to the two dark elves, who have remained silent for most of today. She hasn't said anything all day because the cold must be traveling up her coat, and into her cursed arm. Its surface area is quite big, but due to its shape, it can't be properly covered in cloth. Even though she has been saying that she's not freezing, she's shivering now.
"I'm fine." Sniffling, the little dark elf tries to act strong. I pet her head and check her temperature with my forehead. It seems to be about the same as mine, but I don't know elven physiology well enough to be able to judge whether that's good or not.
I look back and find that Daica has taken the opportunity presented by this short break to rest, and is sitting on a jutting rock. There's no need for me to ask her, to know how she's feeling.
"Is there an alternative route we can take from here? It can't go on like this." I separate from Kamii and turn to the bard.
"The only alternatives are the King's Pass and more dangerous mountain trails that only trained individuals can climb." He responds, forcing himself into a better attitude since it's me he's talking to.
"No, there's another." Rolan suddenly says. "The Whisper."
Well that doesn't sound ominous at all now, does it?
"No, it is far safer up here." The bard tries to shoot down the suggestion immediately, but it's too late now; my interest has been piqued.
"What's so dangerous about that route?" I ask the leader since I feel that the bard won't tell me.
"It's a natural cave that leads into Rathgolim, the old dwarven kingdom. The dwarves disappeared from these mountains a long time ago, and only their monuments remain." Gram is the one to reply. He seems to know his stuff, too.
"So they're just empty caverns now?" Pressing the matter, I address all three men. This way, I can probe for their opinion on this path.
"Some people travel through it from time to time, but you may encounter the undead." Rolan, the one who brought up the topic in the first place, responds to my question. "But with Chloe here, we don't need to be afraid of those, do we?"
"Then we should go there. Kamii and Daica won't be able to continue in this weather." I gesture at the two dark elves behind me; it's clear that they're both freezing, and Daica's stamina won't hold up for four more days of this strenuous ascension, coupled with this deadly weather.
"What can I say..." The bard buries his face in his palm and shakes his head.
"Dangerous?" Kamii suddenly asks and lifts her cursed arm out of the cloak, despite the fact that she must be feeling unwell. I doubt she's going to be of any help in a fight, but I appreciate the sentiment.
"Don't worry. I'll protect you." I pet her hair and look her in the eyes with a confident expression. In response, she gives me a warm smile that could melt me away on the spot. "Of course, that goes for you, too, Daica."
The big dark elf raises her hand barely above her shoulder and waves back weakly to signal that she heard me. It brings a smile to my face. She hasn't said much today, but at least she isn't completely zoned out from the exhaustion just yet.
"So, it's decided then?" I think my smile must be really radiant when I turn around to the others and await their answers.
"Yes, we'll go to The Whisper." The leader makes the final decision, albeit with a frown at my enthusiasm.
The storm seems to be only active above a certain altitude, so we leave its effects behind us towards noon the day after we decided to turn around. There's still snow as far as the eyes can see, but rather than a blinding blizzard, it's a winter wonderland.
It becomes much easier for us to travel, as we descend further and take a turn near the rock face we passed yesterday. Then, by the evening hours shortly after sunset, we finally reach The Whisper.
When we approach the place, I immediately understand where it got its name from. There's a small cave opening with jagged rocks surrounding it like a set of jaws. The wind blowing through those causes an unnerving sound that makes my
back crawl. It sounds like whispers in my ears. Sometimes, a larger breeze throws up the snow in front of the cave, making it look like a massive creature's hot breath creating a plume of mist in the cold winter air.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually a living being and we have to walk through its entire digestive system to... uh, I don't want to think about it like that after all.
"Welcome to The Whisper." The bard, despite his initial aversion to the idea of taking this path, seems inspired by its sight. He heats up his hands by breathing into them and rubbing them against each other before he brings his lute to bear.
"Thyra descends unto the netherworld,
To reclaim her lost lover's soul.
Returning the dead carries a toll,
The pure tears of a goddess impearled.
That blessing, unbeknownst to her, now gone,
Granted on a whim, since taken in spite.
He calls, she hears and runs to his side,
In the land of the living, she wakes, alone."
Kind of sounds like the story about Izanagi descending into hell to bring back Izanami. But it's also different, as it features mortals who are being toyed with by gods. As always, the bard's voice and musical timings are great.
"That was quite ominous, do you think not, Sigurd?" Luna comments. "That may not have been the best poem for the occasion."
Yes, I agree on that part. We're about to enter a cave into a place that might seem like the netherworld, and the story makes it sound like we're not going to come out with all members. I'll make sure not to lose sight of either Kamii or Daica. Senka's in my embrace, so she won't be going missing.
If there's ever a reason to believe that things are going south, I will stuff the three of them inside me and make a run for it. While I don't know what kind of effect I have on the cursed, I think everything is better than immediate death.
"We'll make camp out here and descend tomorrow." Rolan announces. It's already dark outside, and while it doesn't matter for an underground exploration, we marched all day, and everyone's tired. Well, I'm not, but everyone else is.
