by Iliev, Neven
“Because I already… I don’t want anyone else to suffer at the hands of people who think that might makes right.”
The elf fell silent as the redhead stared off into distance, peering beyond the walls of the cozy little hovel.
“My parents… They were hunters. Good ones, you know. They often brought back more meat and fur than they could use, so they usually traded it for other goods at the village market. They always made sure to get fresh salmon whenever possible.”
Keira’s face softened into a nostalgic smile, the first genuine sign of joy she’d shown all evening.
“My mom, she’d steam it especially for me, since I didn’t like it grilled or in a stew like she and dad did. We didn’t have much, but they spoiled me every chance they got.”
The catgirl turned to face Rowana, who listened intently.
“They hunted a lot at night. Said the best game came out after sunset. They weren’t adventurers or anything like that, but they still handled themselves okay. Those two would be fine even in that pitch blackness… It’s something I believed with all my might.”
Keira’s face turned scornful.
“What… what happened?” Rowana asked warily.
“Imperial patrol killed my parents, that’s what happened!” she yelled. “Said they mistook them for bandits out in the woods! Claimed the two of them came at them in the middle of the night and tried to ambush them, so they fought back and killed them in self-defense! Fucking lying bastards! My parents would never do something like that!”
She shook with rage the likes of which Rowana had never seen from the redhead before, and that scared the elf something fierce.
“Those monsters attacked them on purpose! I don’t know why, but I’m certain of it! I saw the bastards’ faces! They didn’t show even the tiniest bit of remorse! Then I saw, I saw what they’d done to my mom! They- they- they- they-”
Rowana left her seat and went to hug the hyperventilating Keira. She held her tight against her chest, stroked her hair and tried to soothe her as best she could. The beastkin broke out into full-blown sobbing, as her bottled-up sorrows overflowed like water from a burst dam. The elf accepted it all, waiting patiently for the troubled girl to let it all flow out. She didn’t know what to think, other than she had to be here for her.
It took several minutes for Keira to calm down before resuming her tale.
“I couldn’t- *Sniffle* I couldn’t do anything about it. None of the other villagers cared and those soldiers denied everything. They just did whatever they pleased, simply because they had the uniform and the victims weren’t ‘one of them.’ They’re the absolute fucking worst kind of scum.”
She rubbed the tears from her face.
“I’ve… Those people, they’ll do unspeakable things if we don’t stop them, Rowie. I know I haven’t been here long, but this place is my home. Our home. I couldn’t do anything when my family was taken from me, but I have the power to protect people now, Rowie! I don’t want anyone else suffer like I have. I don’t want... I don’t want to run anymore.”
The elf realized how selfish she had been, as she gently rubbed the upset Keira’s back. The upset beastkin was right. This unjust war was something bigger than them, yet all she could think about was how she didn’t want her girlfriend to disappear. It was a perfectly natural reaction and an entirely justified concern, but her lover’s survival was far from Rowana’s only worry.
“You’ll… have to kill people, Keira.”
“I know.”
“That could change you forever, even if you live through that.”
“… I know.”
A few more silent minutes passed while the couple held onto each other, as if bracing for a storm.
“I won’t stop you, but… You have to promise me something. You come back to me, you hear? I don’t care if we win or lose this, but you come back to me safe and sound.”
“That- That’s obviously a given!” the redhead forcefully perked up. “Just you watch, those Imperial shitheads won’t know what hit ‘em!” the redhead declared confidently.
“Hehe, my shy little Keira has become quite reliable lately, hasn’t she?”
“Hey! I’m always reliable! I’m a full-fledged professional adventurer now!”
“Then care to explain why I got a bill from a certain innkeeper for roof repairs a few days ago, Miss Full-Fledged-Professional-Adventurer?”
“… This and that are unrelated.”
The two shared another light chuckle, as the heavy atmosphere from a while ago steadily dispersed.
“You know, sweetie… I have a bit of a selfish request.”
The beastkin and her fellow freshly graduated trainees were being deployed to the front lines tomorrow morning. The elf was fully aware of the grim reality that, even though they had barely just met, this was likely to be the last night the couple spent together. Her sweetheart was going off to fulfil her duty, putting her life on the line for her beliefs. Rowana had neither the right nor the authority to stop her. However, as Keira’s girlfriend, she had a duty of her own—to make this evening as special as possible and send the brave beastkin off with a smile.
“Would you go on a little late-night stroll with me?”
“Of course, Rowie. Anything for you.”
The two of them got dressed and exited the small house. The elf led the catgirl up the walkway to the overhead street-sized branch, which was more or less deserted at this time of night. Rather than stopping there, she continued climbing upwards, much to Keira’s surprise. There were a few sparse, cheap houses like Rowana’s further up. There were no heavily populated areas beyond that point, or at least not ones that were accessible on foot. In essence, this area was the de-facto outskirts of Azurvale, yet the pair kept steadily climbing until they reached the absolute highest point of that long and winding staircase.
They arrived at an old, wooden platform built into the side of the trunk. It was likely intended to hold a large treehouse, but had been abandoned for one reason or another. Rowana reached into her large bag and took out a few blankets. She draped them onto the wooden planks and lied down on her back, motioning for Keira to join her.
“I used to come up here whenever I was feeling down,” the elf mused, gazing skyward. “This view was one of the few things that could really soothe my soul. Heh, I haven’t really needed to visit here ever since I met you, though!”
Above them was a peculiar gap in the hylt tree’s canopy that allowed a clear, unobstructed view of the heavens. It was a curious sight, almost as if someone had opened a small window into the cosmos. The distant stars twinkled as they always did, their weak light contrasted by the surrounding wall of blackness. It was like they were glittering gems at the bottom of a treasure chest.
“So shiny…” Keira muttered.
“Yes… it is…”
Rowana wasn’t looking at the sky, but at the sparkly-eyed redhead. The elf was enraptured at the sight of the faint streaks of moonlight that punched through the dense foliage to illuminate the catgirl’s face. Her yellow eyes shone like jewels, her crimson hair shone like the embers of a dying flame, and that smooth, tanned skin glistened like polished bronze. She gently caressed Keira’s cheek with the back of her hand, prompting the beastkin to lock eyes with her. Their faces naturally drew closer, as Rowana focused solely on Keira’s thin, moist lips. A soft, quick kiss rapidly developed into a passionate frenzy. They embraced, feeling each other’s warmth and quickly, almost unthinkingly disposed of their bothersome clothes. They brazenly and unabashedly began making love in the open, lonely space where anyone could see them.
The thing was, there was actually someone watching the two women. Someone that had been actively following them the entire evening. This individual had spied on the couple’s emotionally-charged dinner by peeking through one of Rowana’s windows, and had then followed them silently up those stairs. The peeper was presently breathing heavily while watching the couple make love under the stars. This
voyeur had, as one might imagine, done all this without either of the couple’s knowledge or consent. Well, at least not officially.
Drea might have been a stalker in every sense of the word, but this had actually been part of her assignment. She was merely complying with her orders to keep an eye on her master and protect its cover from the shadows. It wasn’t that she wanted to see the two lovebirds’ affection… but she certainly didn’t complain about it either.
Mostly because Drea had completely immersed herself in the illusion her shapeshifting master projected. Though she was technically fulfilling her orders to watch over the doppelganger, she was approaching it not as a vigilant sentry, but as a kid watching an elaborate stage play. Okay, perhaps not exactly like that. The things currently taking place on that platform beneath her were most definitely not suitable for children. One could argue that Keira had absolutely no place in such a ‘production,’ but her Status stated she was over fifteen years old, which classified her as an adult in the eyes of the law.
That said, the couple were still at risk of being arrested for indecent exposure. Emphasis on ‘indecent.’ The elf was clearly an experienced lover of women, and she seemed to be going all out tonight. Drea had, of course, seen this sort of stuff before multiple times on the Boxxy Show, but never as intense and certainly not in person. The way the couple’s moans echoed slightly around her while their sweaty bodies glistened in the sparse moonlight was a whole new experience. There was also the smell, as a light evening breeze wafted over a faint scent of sex mixed with a certain shapeshifter’s aphrodisiac-laced pheromones.
Drea felt her body flush with an unfamiliar sensation. Her breathing was hot and heavy, and her brow dampened with sweat. The stalker couldn’t stop squirming atop the sizable branch she’d been perched on. It took her a short while, but she eventually deduced that, for the first time in her eight hundred years of living, she was aroused. This revelation surprised her greatly, as Drea’s kind had never engaged in promiscuous activity. The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. However, these were rather unique circumstances, and the spider-girl had more important things to worry about than the overwhelming unlikelihood of a stalker discovering their libido.
Indeed, the thing at the front of Drea’s mind was how to make the most of this situation. Pleasuring herself while spying on the lascivious couple seemed like a good way to go about it. She knew how to do it, too. Drea might not have been interested in such things until just now, but she had still seen women pleasure themselves in various ways over the centuries. There were, however, certain… ‘logistical problems’ with that course of action. The sensitive spot that would normally be found between the legs of a female enlightened was absent from the physical form of a stalker demon.
Thankfully there was more than one way to skin a stalker, so to speak. Though Drea lacked that particular womanly feature, she still had two telltale lumps of flesh on her chest. So, she webbed up her own claws to prevent cutting herself and started fondling her own breasts by mimicking what Rowana did to Keira’s. That seemed to elicit the sort of affirmative response she expected, which prompted her to take it a step further. On a hunch, she slowly peeled off the hard carapace keeping her bust from bouncing all over the place, ignoring the stinging pain involved.
This seemed to do the trick, as once the discomfort subsided, she had a hard time stopping herself from massaging her breasts. It was a wholly unfamiliar sensation, which made it akin to a delicacy to a being as ancient as Drea. She clumsily and thirstily edged herself closer until, with an especially loud hiss, the stalker achieved her first climax. Her body spasmed and contorted as she rode it out until the end, caring little for the way her hands were involuntarily discharging webbing all over her upper body.
As she calmed down, however, Drea suddenly remembered her position. Though she never stopped watching Boxxy while experimenting with herself, she was now aware of just how stupid she had behaved. Just because her standing orders for the evening were a bit lax didn’t mean she could shirk her duties. Thankfully the couple below her carried on, seemingly blind and deaf to the world around them.
With post-climax clarity setting in, Drea grew increasingly embarrassed at her own actions. How could she have acted in such a shameful way? And in a place where anyone could have seen her? What would’ve happened if her master witnessed her playing with herself? The shapeshifter had previously praised her for the professional and efficient manner in which she carried out her duties. There was no doubt in her mind her master would’ve been disappointed in her if it ever found out.
“Claws.”
She was therefore rather glad she didn’t actually have a heart, as she was certain it would’ve leapt out of her mouth when her master contacted telepathically her mere moments later.
It’s okay, calm down, she reassured herself. Maybe Boxxy just wants to talk about something else. Yeah, that’s probably it.
“Yes, Master?” she responded through the link.
“Do you see something out of the usual up there?”
Drea quickly scanned her surroundings, her compound eyes easily piercing the darkness.
“I don’t think so, Master. As far as I can tell, there’s nobody around but me, you, and the elf. Should I be looking for something specific?”
“I see.”
“Why do you ask?” she inquired. “Do you suspect you might be attacked?”
“No, not quite. You know what my Agent of Chaos Skill does, right?”
“Only what you’ve told me.”
Namely that it activated randomly and made weird stuff happen. This wasn’t the most exhaustive of explanations, but it was the best Boxxy could manage considering it had only seen the ability in action a few times.
“Well, here’s the thing. It went off when I got up here.”
Oh no, a sense of dread washed over Drea.
“Then it suddenly said that it was done about a minute ago.”
Please, no!
“At first, I thought it had something to do with the elf, but she’s not showing any abnormal behavior.”
Anything but that!
“I guess all it did was help you discover masturbation.”
NOOOOO!
“Try and be more discrete in the future, by the way,” it added casually. “I could hear you going at it from down here.”
“… Yes, Master,” she sheepishly replied.
I just wanna die, Drea whimpered internally. How could this night get any worse?
The answer to that question would be revealed to her the next time she returned to the Beyond. It would be at that point that she would discover that the God of Happenstance had, in his infinite wisdom, made the female stalker’s exploration of her newfound sexuality the main feature of that evening’s episode of the Boxxy Show.
In fact, the recording of Drea passionately groping her exposed breasts while two beautiful women ravished each other in the background would be a popular highlight for centuries to come.
Chapter Four
First Blood
Part One
A small party of four made their way through the wilderness. They walked through a valley, surrounded on all sides by tall hills that needed just a little more height to graduate to being mini-mountains. Numerous thickets of pine trees were strewn about, although far too disconnected to be called an actual forest. Green grass wet with dew covered the entire region as far as the eye could see, and the morning sun began to light up the sky. Overall, the terrain had barely enough cover to allow the small team of four people to move without being noticed from afar. Well, strictly speaking two of them weren’t really ‘people,’ even though they looked the part.
Keira was far ahead of the group, wearing her standard-issue chainmail-and-leather armor, along with the dark-green tunic that marked her as a member of the Hidden Arrow guild. She was the group’s designated spotter and scout, so she walked about sixty to seventy meters ahead. Far enough to warn the others of danger using Whisper W
ind, but close enough to fall back should the need arise.
The other three moved in a tight formation, almost shoulder to shoulder. At the head stood the two-meter tall, woman-shaped battering ram known as Lola. She wore a brand-new set of dwarven-forged, half-plate armor of Superior quality—a ‘loan’ from her doting Warrior trainer. Blue-tinted metal plates protected her torso, shoulders, forearms and the front of her legs and thighs. A light-metal helmet perfectly concealed her short, black hair, but she had its visor up to leave her face wide open.
Although lacking the protection of full plate, this armor gave the wearer a bit more freedom of movement and made significantly less noise. It reduced the effects of any hostile magic aimed at its wearer purely because it was forged out of a steel-based alloy called azurite. Each piece of it was also enchanted to make it both lighter and tougher, making it the sort of equipment any first-rate adventurer would be proud to have.
A male elf called Jules trailed behind Lola. Although of average height for his race, sex, and age, the towering woman made him appear especially short by comparison. He also looked much older than he actually was because of the dull gray color of his short, scruffy beard and messy, unkempt hair. His face looked perpetually tired and somewhat pale, which made it even harder to believe he was barely out of his twenties.
A dark brown traveling cloak covered most of his body. It swished around him as he moved, revealing the pale-gray leather armor he wore underneath, as well as the small, shoulder-slung bag that rattled quietly with each step. Although not visible under the soft gloves he wore, he had four magic rings that provided various minor effects. He walked along while carrying an ash-colored wooden staff with an engraved mithril sphere as its head. His choice of weapon made it clear he was a type of magic user, although his actual Job was made obvious by the fourth member of the group.
Floating idly at the rear of the group with a thoroughly bored look on her gorgeous face was a succubus. She had white skin like alabaster and glowing yellow eyes. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was parted by a pair of pitch-black, ram-like horns sticking out of the sides of her forehead. As for her body, it was as outrageously proportioned and scandalously clothed as one might expect of her kind, but the wings on her back marked her as rather unique. For they were not leathery or bat-like in appearance, but covered in bright-yellow feathers that made them appear more angelic than demonic.
