So he quickly pulled the mule into the water and started to swim the animal across.
Willow, on the other hand seemed no more concerned about her nudity than did the Elves. She was even enjoying the experience, but she only casually looked at Myst so as not to embarrass herself in front of the Star Elf witch.
Myst, she noticed was looking at her as if seeing her for the first time. She then became slightly embarrassed; the heat of the embarrassment flowed through her body, so that her breast hardened and her nipples stood up, which caused her to redden even more.
Myst walked over to her so that the other two Elf girls could not overhear him. “Don’t be embarrassed little one. We Elves enjoy looking at beauty. It is not rude in our society to look, and to be frank I had not really noticed that you are indeed an adult until you had taken off your clothing. Obviously you are, and a very pretty lady Gnome at that.”
Myst had both made her feel better and even more self conscious at the same time. “And did he have to stand so close? I can’t help but looking at him now, and that is about to make me faint.”
“Oh that’s ok Myst. I figured it was something like that, and I have lived almost as long with Elves as my own people, so I don’t embarrass all that easy.” She hoped that he could not tell that she was lying, but by the Creator she was feeling light headed.
Zara had started to swim the river, and Kayla wandered over to Willow and Myst.
“Why you are lovely Willow. Are you sure Gnomes are not kin to Elves?”
Now this was starting to stress out Willow. The sight of Kayla and Myst standing right in front of her, and all of them NAKED, and she being about half their height gave her a unique view of things.
“No Kayla, I don’t think we are but then we are both children of the Creator and so it’s not surprising that we look similar.” That was good she thought her voice still worked and she did not sound like an idiot.
“But don’t you think we should swim across, see ya on the other side.” With that she hurried to the water and swam the river.
“I hope I didn’t scare her too badly,” Myst asked Kayla?
“Somewhat, but it’s good for her. I hadn’t really noticed that she was fully grown either. But I hid it better than you did, that’s for sure,” Kayla teased.
“Shall we cross Kayla, my sweet?”
She looked up at him coyly. “If there’s nothing else you would rather do, while we are here alone?”
A half hour later they made it over to the other side and joined the others who had gotten dressed, all that is except Zara who was sun bathing on a rock.
Kayla went over and joined her, as Myst retrieved his clothes and dressed. Thomas and Willow where cooking dinner out of sight of the two sun bathing Elf lasses.
“Did you have fun, Kayla,” Zara asked as she rolled over onto her front?
“Why yes I did Zara... Getting a little jealous are you?”
“Well, you could share him you know, its been a couple of weeks, and you know the Earth Magic makes us irritable without proper release. Unless you life bonded him of course, and I don’t see any priest around here to do that.”
“No, not yet but…,” Kayla replied.
Zara twisted around and sat up. “Really? That’s great, Kayla.”
Kayla quietly laughed nervously, “Yes it is, very surprising!”
“Well you would be his first wife. That will let you pick the rest of his wives for him, won’t it.”
“Yes it will indeed,” replied Kayla. “Are you applying for a spot on the team?”
“Heavens no, I don’t want to marry him or anyone else. I just want to sleep with him, that’s all,” Zara replied.
“Well, since we are not bonded yet, you don’t have to ask my permission to do that. But, if you would like we could all go for a swim tonight. I think we can get him to uphold his end of things, don’t you?”
“Good, thank the Creator. I didn’t think I could go on like this much longer.” Zara lay back down in the warm sun light.
Kayla laid down with her and held her hand while they soaked up the last of the days sunshine.
Myst, who was ignorant of the plans that were being made for him, had settled down with Thomas, and they were discussing the trail ahead.
“I think that the road should be safe for us to use. They won't have expected us to come this way.”
“Maybe Thomas, but we can't count on that. I won’t risk the Ambassadors life on an assumption like that.”
“You like her don’t you?”
“That’s beside the point. The mission is more important than my likes or dislikes. The Shadow Elves and their minions have something big planned, and this is somehow a part of it.”
Myst got up from the grass, and poured himself a cup of wine. He held up the wine skin, to ask if Thomas wanted some. Thomas held up his cup, and Myst poured
“To answer your question, yes I like her, quite a lot.”
“Good, I think your father will be very happy. He needs grandchildren at his age,” Thomas laughed.
“Creator, he thinks he’s still my age. Grandchildren would be a hard shock to his reality,” Myst laughed.
“That’s what I mean; do him some good it will. Dinner is nearly ready, would you go get the others? The sight of any more naked elves today, is more than I can handle.”
Myst went over the little rise that separated the camp from the river bank. He stopped to admire the two lasses lying there. Both as perfect as one could hope to see; one blonde, the other brunette.
“Dinners ready, here are your clothes.”
Myst tossed the girls their outfits, as they sat up.
“Well if you insist, we’ll get dressed,” responded Zara suggestively.
“I do not mind at all, but our Gnome friends are shocked enough for one day I think.”
“Well, just wait till later,” Zara responded mysteriously.
Kayla started to laugh as she was tying up her sandal, and nearly fell over into the river.
Myst being rather intelligent, decided not to ask any questions, but to leave them to their little game. “Strange things women, but then I’ve known that for some time, haven't I,” Myst thought to himself as he went back to the camp for dinner and hopefully a good night sleep.
Halfway through his watch, the large full moon drifted slowly above the tree tops, and lit the river in its bright glow. In the autumn, the moons seemed to glow with a soft harvest hue. Myst was not sure why, but he liked the display very much. Myst pulled out his map; the light was more than adequate to read by, and studied the journey for tomorrow.
A quiet sound from back at the camp, made him stop and look up. Quickly, he sent a wave of Earth Magic to test the perimeter. The return wave told him, that the only people nearby where his party, but both of the Elf lasses were up and coming his way toward the river.
Kayla and Zara came walking out of the shadows on the path. Myst immediately noticed that neither was clothed, and the sight was immediately intoxicating to the male Elf.
“Do you know what tonight is, Myst,” Kayla asked quietly.
Myst thought, “Must be about Novembra, possibly the second or third week, and,” Nothing came to him.
Zara pointed up to the full moon.
Myst saw that she pointed up at the moon, but most of his vision and thoughts were on how her full breast pulled up as she lifted her arm, and how they were wondrous to watch. And how the light shone of the curves of both girls erotic forms...
Again, Myst thought hard about what was obviously an important question, “Full moon, Novembra of the Elf calendar,...”
Again his thoughts were pulled from their question, as he gazed at them with hunger. He noticed that while Zara and Kayla’s bodies were nearly hairless and how Kayla's was so much lighter in color than Zara’s.
What had they asked him; just then it hit him, “Harvest Feast!” It was one of the five most important celebrations of the year. Like most of the high Elf holidays,
Elves feasted and sang songs and..., “Oh my, do they really mean what I think they mean?” The wildest celebration came during Spring Carnival, where the most hedonistic pursuits were enjoyed, but the Harvest Feast and Mid Summer also tended to also be a bit wicked.
Reading his mind Kayla told him, “Yes, that is really what we are telling you. Now, catch us.”
Kayla and Zara turned, and ran into the river up to their knees, and turned to see if he had taken up the challenge. And he had indeed, as he sprinted down to the water already shone of his clothing, he caught them in his arms and together they fell into the shallow water. Myst came up and found that Kayla was nibbling on his ear, while Zara had his face pulled to her full breast. Their wet naked bodies glided over him and Myst felt sure that he would die from the pleasure of it all.
Quickly Myst found himself pressed back into the soft clay of the river bank. And then the two Elf lasses continued to have their lustful way with him. And he loved every minute of it.
~
The next day the Elf girls laughed and skipped ahead of the party as they neared the road north to Cozon. Myst seemed to be dragging in at the rear of the group, so Thomas slowed down so he caught up to him.
“Are you alright Myst, are you feeling well?” Thomas asked, concernedly.
“Yes, Thomas I am fine, just did not get much sleep that’s all.”
“You should not have taken the whole watch. Why did you not wake me for my shift, hum?”
“I was,… up with Kayla and Zara, Harvest Feast you know,” he responded in a dead pan voice.
“Oh,… oh my, I see, well that’s, well then… Hum.”
They continued to walk together quietly.
Thomas thought, “I really need to get Willow back to our own people, these Elves are strange. I love many of them, but this is just not the thing for a young Gnome to be exposed to!”
From up ahead Willow called back to them. “The road! We found the road!”
Quickly the group traveled now on the hard packed road. As they angled closer to the Waste, the vegetation seemed to shrink, and then to disappear almost entirely. Hard baked rock out cropping and sun scorched earth dominated the landscape, as they trudged mile after long mile, sparse tuffs of desert grass the only signs of life.
Nearly sunset found them some ten miles south of the city; too far to make before midnight, and not the sort of place that was safe to walk at night.
“Lets leave the road, and find a place to camp for the night, and we can get to the city tomorrow,” suggested Zara. “There are things that hunt travelers so near the Waste. It would be safer to hide until morning.”
“Good idea, Zara,” piped up Thomas.
Zara led them a couple hundred yards off the road into a spur of a dry riverbed. While dry there must have been enough moisture to allow a scattering of scrub brush to survive.
“If you dig down far enough in the center of the riverbed, you can usually find water, that’s how these trees survive,” Zara told them as she unrolled her sleeping mat, and noticeably left her clothing on for sleep, danger of attack a real possibility.
They bedded down in as hidden of a spot as they could find, huddled close together, to wait out the long hours in hopeful safety on a very dark and quiet night.
CHAPTER 16
Sub-Commandant Graz Fang, sat in the dark and smoke filled alcove of the best flop house tavern in the city of Cozon. The best was not saying much in this case. The whole town of thirty thousand scum was a derelict eyesore. Low, baked mud buildings built haphazardly on dusty dirt streets. The narrow twisting streets were filled with garbage, and a dangerous populous, made it possibly the worst city ever built by Elves.
The main room of the tavern was old and dingy; blotches of stains covered the wall, some of which looked like dried blood. It was called El Mikador, which Fang thought meant something like ‘the mighty’ in Old Star Elven, but the only thing mighty about this place was that it reeked of poppy and hemp smoke, that seemed to be layered into the very walls of this shit hole.
Fang had his hood pulled up, so that the scum couldn't see that he was an Orc. His kind were not the best liked by the locals. It galled him to have to hide from these vermin, but it had to be, at least until his people had conquered Cozon, as they would the whole continent before they were through.
At age forty, Fang was in his prime; 6’2”, 235 pds, short sable black hair, rusty gray color hide, red eyes, porcine nose, and a thick muscular build. Orcs seemed to many, to be a cross between Ogres and Elves, with the worst of both combining to make the Orcs, with maybe a bit of goblin thrown into the mix for flavor. Whatever the Gods inspiration, it made him an imposing sight. Under his cloak, he wore his orangeish-tan leather hide armor, with the red skull emblem of the Orcland army blazoned on the center of the breast plate. On both right and left front shoulder pads, were an additional four red skulls of his rank of Sub-Commandant, the Elven equivalent to a full colonel.
But Fang was much more powerful than even his rank would indicate. He was also a Black Skull, the dreaded secret police that worked directly for the Grand Marshal, the supreme ruler of the Orc Lands. He had the power of life and death, even over the very senior army officers, if they opposed the will of the Orc dictator.
Fang looked around the dark room. It’s walls were made from thick mud bricks to keep out the heat, and there were no windows to the outside. Small oil lamps flickered, but gave scant illumination to the room. Across the room, was a long bar made of unfinished planked wood. Behind it there was a slave Dwarf female tending bar, “By the Sword, that’s ugly,” Fang thought to himself. At four foot ten inches tall, pale skinned, one hundred and sixty pounds of hard corded muscle, and short red hair, the Dwarf bar tender was not his type at all.
The slight Nymph waitresses were another matter entirely. Fang had developed a taste for these trollops over the years, and he much preferred them to females of his own kind. But the two that were working this place looked too well used for his taste. Oh well, business before pleasure.
Another cloaked figure came through the doorway, looked around the tavern, saw Fang and headed his way. By his build he was obviously an Elf, and not one of his own people, so Fang prepared for trouble. He slid his war knife out of his boot, and braced to stab the hooded Elf.
His hand curled around his most favorite weapon. It was hard cold steel, with a foot long triangle tipped - triple edged blade, with spiked full hand guard, and hilt spike. He no longer had any idea how many he had killed with the thing, but he was sure that he had enjoyed killing them all. Not that he liked killing per se, but the joy of combat, the blood sport of battle, truly that was the greatest of Orc pleasures.
A pale olive skinned hand reach out and drew aside the maroon curtain that sheltered the alcove. “Good, you're here early.”
Fang relaxed somewhat. “Yes, you must be Major Navdis.”
“Yes, of course I am. Are there any other of my kind in this stinking city?” he answered rudely.
“I’m sure there are,” growled the orc.
Navdis sat down rather primly, on the wooden chair across from Fang, after he had wiped the chair seat with his handkerchief. He sniffed at the air and made a disgusted sound, whether it was at the smell of the tavern or Fang, it was not clear.
One of the bored Nymphs came over to see if the new customer wanted a drink. As she came up to the table, Navdis looked contemptuously at her and demanded, “Get the hell away from me trash, or I’ll cut your heart out!”
The Nymph scurried away quickly from their table and back to the bar. This slight disturbance caused the bartender and the few other customers in the place to stare questionably at them for a few minutes.
Fang had been warned by Colonel Zen and the Ogre Krug, that this Shadow Elf was much like most of his kind, an arrogant ass kissing sociopath. It seemed that they were both right.
“Krug has already advised me of what you require. It will not be a problem. Just a few Elves and Gnomes, an
d most of them females.”
“It had better not be. This has taken too long as it is. And Krug has already failed to kill them once. They seem to be charmed. See that their charm runs out.”
Fang nodded his head in agreement. “I have agents throughout the town. I know where they will stay here, and I know where they are heading. These Star Elves will sell their mothers if the price is right. Hell, they would sell them even if it wasn't."
"My people are set to blockade the bridge over Gold Canyon, the only way to go north. If for some reason they slip by us here, Krug has his force coming up from the south, and your Star Elf friends have at least two companies of House Haddar’s troops coming from the east. It only leaves them the Waste, and I have a surprise for them if they try that route.”
“Yes, yes, it should work," replied Navdis, "but just to be on the safe side, I had Marif Haddar convince General Alkir, with a small bribe, to send a full Division of Imperial Lancers to aid his troops in finding a ‘wanted Sun Elf bandit’ loose in the area.” Major Navdis looked rather smugly at the Orc. “Haddar’s men are with the Lancers and will insure if they find the Ambassador they will see that she is killed, by Imperial Star Elf troops.”
Fangs eyes went cold as he forced his temper down. It was a losing battle to keep it under control.
“You idiot,--- you moronic fool. Why in the frozen hells would you do something so stupid? Don’t you realize that this operation of yours is just a sideshow? And now, you threaten things with over twelve thousand elite troops not under our control, right in the area of the biggest operation in a hundred years. As soon as we invade those 12,000 Lancers will stop what they are doing and go after us.”
Navdis was stunned and began to stutter, “I, how dare you speak to me in that way,” gasp out a stunned Navdis.
“Call them off!”
“I--can’t, it’s too late.”
“Then, there’s no reason for me not to kill you then, is there Navdis?”
Elf World Shadows Rising Page 18
