But before Nina could call for another bout, Milly tapped the Amazon on the shoulder.
“Um, Tiana? Would you spar with me?” She asked with a shy blush.
The Amazon blinked several times as the heard the request.
Initially Milly’s training with the spear had come from Myrina and the other Saenga girls, but while they were attending the academy she learned much from the Brael girls, when Nina wasn’t trying to kill her anyways.
“But of course Milly! I intended to originally, but your pet giant distracted me.”
The tiny red girl in question was deep in conversation with Riya and the others, Volka soon joining them.
Shortly thereafter their conversation ended though when Milly and Tiana’s spears clattered together in a blur of motion as they ran through one of the many forms that the Minotaur sought to master.
Drawn by the sound, the others gathering in a rough circle around them and watching intently.
Even Erica had sat up, her green eyes narrowed as she followed the movements.
After a particularly furious exchange, Tiana leapt back with a flourish of her weapon, smiling wide.
“Good, Milly! Very good! But I can practically hear you counting!”
“What do you mean?” The Minotaur asked quizzically, her guard still up.
The Amazon chuckled and gave a nod indicating they should begin again.
“I will show you.”
She ran through the routine, this time counting aloud the series of motions.
“One two three, one two three, one two FIVE!”
She abruptly changed up the cadence, throwing her student off and immediately putting her on the defensive.
“You adapt quickly, I give you that!” Tiana grunted as she continued her lesson even amidst her assault; “But you let me set the pace! When you do, you cede me control! Instead you must be the one to change things up! Disrupt your opponent’s rhythm and guide them with your spear to where you need them to be to finish them!”
Milly nodded curtly even as she rapidly shifted into a counterattack, taking the Amazon off guard for the briefest of moments before she could react.
In the end it was Tiana’s win, but like Volka she was quick to praise Milly’s progress.
“For someone who has only been learning for a year and some, you have made great improvement!”
The pair of them plopped down in the dirt near the fountain and caught their breath while the others resumed their assault on Nina, gluttons for punishment and inspired by the Minotaur’s diligence.
By the time they caught the Gigas, this time without Tiana’s aid, Riya’s nose was bleeding rather splendidly.
Tiana took a drink of water before handing the cup to Milly to do the same.
“Thank you.” Milly said with warm gratitude before likewise quenching her thirst.
Her throat moved with each long draw as she gulped down the water, the Amazon watching her with a slight smirk until she was finished.
“Ah, how I have missed this!” She declared suddenly.
The Minotaur blinked in surprise as she set the cup down between their thighs.
“What do you mean?”
“This! Training with you! Our journey east on the first leg of your quest to find the Lightbringer was one of the most joyous times of my life!”
Milly giggled at her enthusiasm, once again blushing at the praise.
And from not far away, Volka smiled, lifting her head up from doodling on Erica’s face.
“Those with hope cannot help but inspire it in others.” She said to no one in particular.
After putting the finishing touches on her masterpiece, she snuck away, quietly leaping into the air to fly off.
Erica, now sporting an obscene and very large drawing on her forehead and cheek, dozed on.
Chapter 13:
Invitations
Kriss hissed between her teeth when she felt the ground shake again, the Chameleon’s scales mottling red as she stopped in her tracks.
She waited, but everything remained still, so with another annoyed hiss she resumed walking.
Sure enough, a few seconds later she felt the same rumbling beneath her clawed feet, and this time when she stopped she turned right around to glare down the road behind her.
The ten foot tall mass of blue flesh that was Tora the Ogre was hiding behind a much too narrow tree, her shapely breasts and ass sticking out on either side of it even as she held her breath to stay perfectly still.
It... was impressive stealth for one of her kind.
This had been going on for two days now; ever since she’d saved the Ogre outside of the city of Greyhaven the lost monster girl had been trailing the Trog like a giant blue puppy.
But Kriss was done.
“Alright enough!” She called out in irritation; “How much longer do you intend on following me?!”
Silence for a few seconds, then a sudden gasp of air as Tora couldn’t hold her breath anymore.
“Not following nobody.” She pouted sullenly; “Just happens we go both in same ways.”
Kriss ground her teeth together as her deadly green eyes narrowed.
“Aright then, where are you going?”
Tora stepped out of the trees, shaking the ground slightly, then pointed down the road behind Kriss.
The Troglodyte crooked a thumb over her shoulder for confirmation.
“So you’re going that way?”
Tora nodded mutely, her deep blue eyes showing nothing of her clumsy guile.
Kriss smirked and gestured behind Tora.
“Good, because I’m going that way.”
She walked around the hulking Ogre, who now looked a bit panicked, and headed back the way she came.
She didn’t get far though before she felt the ground shaking again.
Kriss bowed her head in hopeless exasperation before turning around to see her stalker, the Ogre’s eyes shifting all around as she tried to look natural.
“I thought you were going that way?” The Trog observed with a sharp gesture of one claw.
Tora’s brow furrowing as her simple mind scrambled for an explanation.
“I... I forgot something.” She licked her lips as she tried to expand on her very obvious lie; “Have to go back for to get.”
“You forgot something.” Kriss declared flatly.
The Ogre nodded earnestly, her matted hair dipping as she did.
“Yeah-huh.”
“Where did you forget it?”
The Trog knew the question was a mistake as soon as she saw Tora raise her arm, one thick finger pointing down the road in her new direction.
“And if I were to turn around and head that way again? Did you forget something over there too?”
Tora’s eyes lit up at someone else giving her the excuses she needed, plausible ones too!
“Yes, I forgets stuff everyplace.” She swore with believable innocence; “Momma tells me all the time to renember, buts always forgets.”
A regular human would quail at the glare Kriss leveled at her, but she was oblivious to it.
“‘Renember’?” She sighed.
As she observed the Ogre her tongue habitually darted out of her mouth and her face twisted in disgust at what she tasted in the air.
“When is the last time you bathed?”
Tora’s cobalt blue cheeks darkened in shame and she looked away.
“Normally have wash every day. But can’t now. No tub, no water, no soap, no momma.”
By the time she reached the end of her list her face seemed to be melting with tears.
Alarmed at the emotional display, Kriss reached out and took hold of her arm, the Trog not accustomed to giving comfort, but not so heartless as to withhold it.
Though when Tora scooped her up in her arms and squeezed her tight to her breasts, she was not ready for it.
Naturally the Chameleon tried to break free, and her scales went through a myriad of colours as they reflected her rising alarm
at being unable to.
Eventually she gave up and just let it happen, her skin changing to the same blue as Tora’s as the Ogre held her in her unyielding embrace while she cried herself out.
As her sobs turned to sniffles, she pulled away, settling the Trog back on her feet and looking embarrassed again.
“All better?” Kriss asked with as much patience as she could.
Tora opened her mouth to respond, but gasped when she saw the colour the Chameleon was sporting.
“Oh noes! Tora squeezed too muchly! Yous need to breathe! Stay breathing new friend!”
The Chameleon shook her head slowly and with a mental flex returned the minute scales all over her body to their natural burnt cinnamon colour.
“You really need a bath, and after you smooshed me into those big sweaty things-” She gestured at Tora’s impressive bust, barely contained in her dirty white tunic; “-so do I. There is a village a few miles that way. I was going to stop there for the night. They’ll have tubs, water, and soap.”
She left out the last thing on Tora’s list, her mother, knowing that it would just upset her.
“New blue friend want me to come with?” The giant asked with hope plain on her face.
Even the hardened Trog’s heart melted a bit under the weight of her puppy-dog eyes.
She cleared her throat to remind herself how tough she was and looked away.
“Yeah, I guess you are my problem for now.”
“Tora not problem!” The Ogre declared indignantly, her pleading expression falling away.
“Whatever, so long as you promise not to cry on me anymore, you can come with me. But only until I can find someone from the Aegis!”
The Ogre’s demeanour brightened considerably and she once again scooped up the Trog, ignoring her protests as she squished her tight to her sweaty cleavage again.
__________
As the afternoon waned, Nameless came down off the roof of their apartment, having been up there hoping to catch sight of Volka’s glowing form when she returned.
To his surprise though, she and the others were already inside, the sneaky Valkyrie having taken the stairs.
“Oh look, it’s the cheese guy. What was his name again?” Erica said with faux indifference.
Nina shrugged and gave him a flat look as he came down the stairs.
“Dunno. That the same guy who thinks he’s so special that he has to bond with every monster girl in the world? Guess we’ll just have to beat it out of him.”
He sighed at what was obviously happening, but could do nothing to stop it.
“I shall gladly help you.” Volka agreed with a smile in her eyes.
Nameless turned to Ophelia, currently hiding a smile of her own with one dainty hand.
“Nark.” He accused sourly.
Volka padded over to him on bare feet and booped his nose with her finger as punishment.
“Husband. Ophelia has indeed narked on you, a word that I have found greatly amusing ever since I first heard it.” The back of the angel’s fingers brushed the feather in his hair aside as she stroked his cheek; “And not just about the cheese.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. And fortunate for you all that I am here! Because that feeling that you have inside of you, that urge to do everything you can all the time always? That stems from us, as you have surmised. The divine essence of the Valkyrie flows through your veins.”
She shook her head at him then, almost apologetically.
“But you are not a Valkyrie, my husband. You are a man. The other Empaths had to cope with this as well, once upon a time. You must find the balance between your wants as a man and the beneficence that has been instilled in you. Just know this: there is no shame to be found in it, in any of it. Because the original Empaths volunteered to take on this burden... and you did not.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but she shook her head to stop him.
“Yes, you accepted it. Because you are so very good. But still, it is not the same. You and I discussed this not long ago, in Algrade, about this feeling you had that you were never doing enough. My love, you have already done more than any Empath before you, save perhaps the Lady Essig. But she is several lifetimes ahead of you so we aren’t counting her.”
Nina sniffed.
“Pretty sure Xalanth would object.”
“Yes, but what the Flametongue doesn’t know won’t hurt me.” Volka quipped.
Nameless took a deep breath and for the first time in weeks he felt the anxiety sitting on his shoulders ease off of him a bit.
“I’ll admit this new assignment hasn’t helped me with the whole, ‘doing everything I can’ part.” He smiled at the angel, who naturally smiled back; “But thank you.”
Seeing an opening Erica, who had been mostly silent until then, sashayed up to him as only Erica could.
“Sooo, speaking of those manly wants of yours...” She purred suggestively as her hands settled on his shoulders.
But before she could coax him into mischief, Nameless gave her a funny look.
“Erica, you know you have an enormous penis on your face right?”
The cat was nuzzling against his neck, only halfway paying attention.
“Hmmm? Oh lover, you can put your penis wherever you like.” She readily promised.
Volka snickered while Milly and Nina both fought to look innocent, the pair of them already well aware of the angel’s artwork.
“Oh you three! This has gone on long enough.” Ophelia chastised them, shaking her head as she took hold of the frisky kitty’s arm; “Come with me, dearheart.”
The Flutterby pried the Katje off of their bond-mate and took her into the washroom to see herself in the big mirror on the wall.
She let out a yowling shriek of despair that made Nameless wince and broke the dam of Volka’s mirth, the Valkyrie rolling around on the couch in Milly’s lap, the Minotaur biting back a smile as she watched her bond-sister laugh herself silly.
It had been some time since she’d behaved like that.
Nina buffed her nails at the melodrama that Volka had created for her own amusement.
“What the hell happened to that ‘beneficence’ thing?” She remarked drily.
The angel simply laughed harder, to the point that Milly was beginning to question her sanity.
While Erica was cursing their angel out, with Ophelia helping her wash her face, there was a light knock on the door.
It sobered the room immediately, as no one had visited them at their new home before.
A moment later Milly and Nina both had their weapons in hand, while Volka took up her shield and put herself between Nameless and the door.
Such was the time that they lived in, where fear and dreadful violence could cut short a moment of mirth with nary any warning.
The knock was repeated, a bit louder this time.
“It’s probably one of the neighbors.” Nameless suggested, though he was frowning; “Maybe we’re being too loud?”
Volka didn’t relax, instead she gestured with her chin at Nina.
“Who is it?” The Gigas demanded as she approached the door, hammer ready.
“I have a letter for a Master William Armstrong.”
She jerked the door open to find a slight older man in a suit holding a letter with white-gloved hands, due to the height difference he was looking down his nose and past his spectacularly curled mustache at the Gigas.
They all took a moment to take in the completely unexpected sight, until he wiggled the little square of paper to remind them off his purpose, one narrow grey eyebrow raised as he made a little harrumph in his throat.
“Gimme.” Nina said rudely, her hand extended upwards.
The man sniffed and shook his head, holding the letter closer to his chest.
“My dear lady, my instructions were quite clear. I am to deliver this to Master Armstrong personally.”
Here’s the thing about Gigas, they don’t like to be told ‘no’.
&n
bsp; Without delay Nina slammed the door in his face hard enough to crack the wooden frame of it, drawing a yelp of surprise out of the poor fellow.
“Whatever. What’s for dinner?” She called to Ophelia, who had poked her head out of the washroom.
“What was that about dearheart?”
“Nothing important. Some prick that got lost on his way to his own funeral.”
By this point Volka and Milly determined that there was no danger and relaxed, so Ophelia walked past them to the door.
She tried the knob, but it didn’t budge.
“Oh you’ve broken it!” She sighed as she tried again; “Nina, could you-”
“Nope, that snooty old fart can fuck off back to wherever farts come from.”
She was sitting on her hammer next to the kitchen, looking very unmovable while waiting to be fed.
Milly cheekily ruffled her hair as she walked past.
“I’ll get it.”
She took hold of the handle and gave a jerk, but there was a sharp crack and it came off in her hand.
“Oopsies.”
“For heaven’s sake!” Ophelia wailed; “Nina! Open this door right this instant!”
“I don’t wanna.” The red-skinned girl replied with a slight whine.
“You have until the count of three!” The Flutterby declared firmly, her hands on her hips now.
It was a tactic that Nameless had experienced many times in his life. In that time he’d never once heard Ophelia get past ‘two’, and this time was no different; the dynamic of her relationship with Nina had evolved to the point that she could overcome the giant’s legendary stubbornness by sheer force of will.
The Gigas groaned and slumped her shoulders as Ophelia began her count, behaving like nothing so much as a put-upon teenager.
Her hammer dragged noisily against the floor, permanently marring the wood surface as she dragged it behind her all the way to the door with an awful shrieking sound.
“There goes the security deposit.” Nameless lamented.
Volka elbowed him in the ribs, greatly enjoying the show, her earlier alarm gone as quickly as it had come on.
“As if we were ever going to get it back!”
The Heartstone Saga Page 12
