Edited by: tommyjl7, Flubbykin
Lanele loved ritual nights. In her country elves also celebrated such sacred days, yet in bit different manner. In the end, their altars weren’t as blessed as naturally formed ancient groves. Because of that the “power of miracle” was also greatly reduced – not that they required any assistance in growing their crops.
This is why their blessed day had bit more spiritual form – in these days elves would thank the Mother for blessing of life she bestowed upon them. Lanele, considered these days to be wonderful moments in which they could stop for a moment and wonder over the mysterious blessing that She has bestowed upon the world.
And now she could see how the original ritual was supposed to look like, in the heart of the grove on Bald Mountain, led by the ancient in company of hierophants of all major circles. It was as wonderful as she imagined, the presence of Mother was almost touchable. There was only one, tiny, yet kinda vital detail of differences between the rituals.
WHY WERE THEY HAVING SEX IN EVERY CORNER OF THE MOUNTAIN LIKE RABBITS?!
She had the whole picture in her head, yes, the celebration of life in lover’s night indeed should have a bit of sexual coloration. A BIT OF IT! Yet again, she wouldn’t be that crazy about it, if it was just between real lovers, but guessing by the conversation she overheard, few of hierophants had met for the first time… YET EXACTLY THESE PEOPLE WENT TOGETHER INTO THE BUSHES!
HOW!? How could you do something like that!? S-sex is supposed to be the last act of love! THE LAST! It’s sealing the contract of marriage, in elf culture it’s not strange for two elves not sharing the bed for years after being declared a married couple! It’s THAT intimate!
Gross! GROSS-GROSS-GROSS-GROSS-GROOOOSS! It’s dirty! Un-clean! Outrageous! Corrupted!...
…
…
… Lanele could not stop herself from trying to learn just a liiii-tlle bit more of it. Don’t get her wrong! She is not dirty! Not at all! She definitely is not some kind of pervert which gains sexual pleasure from watching the act of different people! She does it… Ummm… Emmm… Duuh… FOR SCIENCE! Yes! Clean and pure educational purposes! Ha-ha! Remember kids: It’s not dirty if it’s for science!
With a resolution of scarifying this night for enlarging her knowledge, she moved one of her fingers (which were covering her face) off her eye.
Right in time to see sister Gisele and brother Zari looking at each other.
This…. this is how love is supposed to look like. They saw each other thousands of times before, yet this time, being influenced by the breath of life, the way they look at their faces…
As if they were discovering their loves anew, falling for each other on spot.
Still, it was quite uncomfortable to use your friends as experiment materials. On the other hand, if she would just re-interpret what she saw as some kind of story… yes, let’s do this like that!
Sis Gisele, always so dominant, so possessive and full of herself – right now she looked like a shy village girl that has seen her prince charming driving on his fiery steed next to her house.
YES! THAT’S IT!
It was so…so…sooooo … HOOOOOT!
Lanele felt as blood rushed from below of her body, hitting her chin, spreading quickly through her cheeks exploding on tips of her long, pointed ears. She could have sworn that smoke was escaping through her ears.
The prince was also taken aback, yet he was also the first to regain his composure. He leaped at poor village-girl, grabbing her in his strong as steel embrace, pulling her closer in a possessive hug and claiming her lips for himself.
Lanele’s long ears started rapidly going up and down, trying to ventilate poor priestess brain which was overheating.
B-b-but what was he doing with his lips!? With his t-t-tongue?! THAT’S DIRTY! Prince! You have just saw her for the first time! How could you take such advantage over poor, shy village girl!? So what that she is head taller than you!? KNOW SOME SHAME, DAMN IT!... Let’s get bit closer and take some notes, shall we?
In the embrace of their arms and lips they started walking deeper into the woods.
Dirty prince, carrying poor girl to isolated place where no one could see his crimes!... Lanele had moral duty to witness this h-h-horrible act! Yes! If it was not for it, there is no way she would enjoy herself seein… I mean, letting her eyes see this unholy act!
She waited for minutes, just so sly prince wouldn’t notice that he was being followed, then, she got up from under oak tree and moved into the forest.
She found them pretty quickly, in the end elves had enchanted hearing sense, and euphoric moans of Gise… I mean, muffled cries of village-girl which was begging for help seeing that her prince was actually a savage barbarian, echoed across the forest.
On the carpet of moss, the prince was tearing violently pieces of her suit. In same time Gisele was also helping Zari to get rid of his clo…. I-I-I mean, poor girl was trying to fight back, yet managed only to tear a little prince’s cloths… from waist down. Yeah, she was quite a clumsy fighter. And theeeeAHHDKA!!!
KYAAAA!
WHAT WAS THAT?! B-b-b-between h-h-h-his…
THAT’S NOT LEGAL! THERE IS NO WAY THIS IS LEGAL! Though it was common that nobility was carrying swords by their belt….
… WHAT KIND OF SICK MAN CARRIES A CLAYMORE!? THIS WAS DEFINITELY A TWO HANDED-WEAPON! HE IS GOING TO MURDER HER! Prince! Have some mercy! Put aside this cursed Excalibur of yours! May your Durendal of Destruction not taste the innocent blood! I beg you! In name of every fragile and poor creature that women are…
In that moment Gisele raised her hands toward her lover whispering
- “Za-Zari… stop teasing me…”
- “Gisele…”
- “W-What?”
- “I love you.”
- “I-Idiot!” girl covered her eyes with her arm
That was too much for Lanele, she could no longer justify what she saw with fiction. One last time blood hit her head. Blood erupted from her nose like a crimson fountain. Lanele fell unconscious there, none could tell if the reason was shock, blood loss, or simply the momentum of the blood escaping through her nostrils.
I was laying atop of Gisele. My body stopped responding. Just like that. Because of stupid Endurance and Vitality boost I was fully awake, bah, my body itself felt fine, but my brain was not ready for such damage. The excess of stimuli exhausted my mind which literally went into half-sleep mode.
Because of that I was lying with completely numb body, yet fully awake.
How long were we doing that? It was our new record for sure. Yes, we happened to stay for the entire night, yes. Four, five, sometimes even six of seven hours, though at the end we would barely move.
The Blessing ended an hour or so ago, yet we kept going for at least half hour longer. I could hear Gisele wheezing for air.
- “I have told you I love you.” I said as soon as I could move my jaw
- “Shut up. I hate you.” She panted.
Despite her words her tail squeezed me bit tighter
- “Wanna go one more time?” I decided to tease her
- “Try laying a finger on me, and I swear, I will crack your head open.”
- “Then say you love me.”
- “Pfff. No.”
- “Gisele…” I threatened her. Using inhuman willpower I forced myself to raise on my hands.
- “What are you doing!? No! STOP IT! YOU MADMAN! MONSTER, BEAST!”
My arms gave up collapsing me back on the ground.
- “You want to die!? Idiot?! Moron! Fool!”
- “For you? F’cours.”
- “… idiot…” she said embracing me again, burying her nose in my hair “… my idiot.”
Th. That will do. For now.
We kept lying there for god only know how long, trying to recover our strengths.
- “Zaa-rii… Don’t you know some spell that would…”
- “NO!... no more magic. Just… no more magic, please… the power of life that affected us was magic in purest form – a miracle, I don’t even want to know how our bodies would react if we would treat them with a spell.”
She groaned
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
- “It’s worse than hangover.”
- “Gisele, you never had hangover. Stupid dragon’s blood”
- “But I am still sure that this is worse!”
- “I can ease your pain.”
- “How, you said you won’t use magic…”
- “I won’t.”
- “Then please, do.”
- “The whole pain would go away if I would kiss the place that hurts, tell me my love, what hurts y… OUCH!”
Nice elbow-hit, Gis, and even from this position? How did you twist your body like that? You never cease to amaze me.
She grunted, pushed me aside like a dirty blanked and started getting up. All the strengths she mustered allowed her to barely sit under the tree, and even that only because she rested her back on the tree-trunk.
- “Come’ ere.” She grabbed me by the neck and pulled toward herself
- “The hell are you doing?! You will rip my head off! Ouch! Hey! Ey! ..Awww…”
Crescendo of peace fell upon my mind as she put my head on her thighs, brushing my hair with affection.
- “Shut up. Marika once told me that you like being treated this way.”
Damn you, Marika, I owe you.
We started slowly returning toward the clearing. Each movement made our bodies scream in agony. I am quite sure I have pulled my muscle.
As we reached the place of meeting, we saw most of the druids already packing their things, preparing for departure.
- “Look what the cat dragged back from the grave…” one of druids teased “… you look quite terrible.”
I looked at dragoness. Her hair was in a mess, her damaged clothes were barely covering her body, black circles under her eyes and unsteady, exhausted walk. I guessed that I look similar.
If some villager were to see the two of us from afar he would be running toward the nearest adventure guild to report undead walking in daylight.
My gaze fell on Lanele which was sitting by the tree with empty, dead eyes. Her whole face was pale and deprived of any will to live.
- “Everything all right with her?” I asked “… hope you didn’t do anything to her, that would be quite problematic.”
- “I can assure you that young priestess is still untouched. She came few hours ago already looking like that. Said nothing, ate nothing.”
That’s a bit problematic, I bet that her friends wouldn’t be pleased if they would learn that she suffered some trauma while traveling with me.
- “Lana, are you there?” I waved my hand in front of her eyes.
Her gaze dully followed after my hand, then right in my eyes. And something snapped in her. The paleness vanished instantly as redness replaced it.
- “I-I-I-It’s you!”
- “Indeed, Lana, very clever of you, that’s indeed me.”
- “T-t-t-t-t…” Great, she is broken
But why would she act like that? Let’s see what is she looking at.
… A-ha.
My belt-area. I think I have more or less idea what happened to our romance-loving “young” elf.
- “Psh, I know…” I whispered right in her ear “… you little perv.”
- “HIII!?”
Yup, right reaction.
- “Next time you can just join in. Though I don’t know if you would get out alive.”
Only now Lanele appeared to notice the condition of me and Gis.
- “I-it’s scary!”
- “Of course, my pet, love-making is one rough battlefield, barely a few who can leave it with his or hers own strength.” I said with sad expression
- “Hey! What are you two whispering about?!” Gis called from the other part of clearing
- “About the danger of traveling with us!” I answered back
- “Ha! Indeed! Lana, prepare yourself for the worst! I am not going to go easy on you!”
- “NOOO!” priestess cried
- “YEEES!” Gisele replied being completely unaware of the impact that that her words has on little priestess. She probably thought that we were talking about training “… Tis but a beginning! Ha! Actually, we haven’t started yet! Just wait till we get serious!”
This is just getting better and better
- “I don’t want to! Leave me alone!”
- “Not happening! Starting from tomorrow, I will drain you completely! Your whole body will be covered in sweat, but that would be just a warm-up! Only when you would fall unconscious on the ground covered in tears I will allow you to rest. But fret not, it may hurt at first, you may be screaming in despair, but eventually you will learn to enjoy this! Bah! You will love it, just like me!”
Gisele, you are a natural.
In the meantime, Lanele’s eyes kept getting wider and wider till they reach the size of plates. Her whole body was trembling like a little animal in front of predator knowing is has no place to run.
- “NOOOOOOO!” she got up from the ground and start running toward the end of the clearing
- “HA! You may run, but you will not hide! I will find you and train you juuuust-right!” Gisele started chasing Lana with a laugh, making whole situation even more grotesque.
- “Looks like we are finally alone.” Ancient one said halting rest of the druids from leaving “… Zariel… No, the Oracle, if you would allow for a moment, we have last urgent matter to discuss.”
- “Of course, sage, how can I assist you?”
- “The conclave’s duty is not only to perform a ritual, but also to discuss the action that each circle of hierophants would, or would not, do. In most cases we do not interfere in politics of other countries. We are traveling from woods to woods, helping those who require our assistance and spreading Mother’s Love. You can say that we almost share the world into zones of influence in which the circle would remain and spread its teaching.”
- “Hah! It almost sounds as if you are fighting to get as much terrain as possible.”
- “Quite the opposite…” one of the other druids rolled his eyes with smile on his lips
- “Again this! Laziness of young ones is truly saddening this old man!” the oak sage grunted “… You see, helping villagers to once again return to their roots is quite a tricky task…”
- “… Because they are ungrateful little fucks that would grow too lazy if we would help them.” Yet another voice responded from the group
- “As much as I would like to rebuke you for your tongue… you are right. Mother wishes to make the Races as self-sufficient as possible. She rarely just GIVES something to others, for she wished for them to obtain it by themselves. On the other hand, Heira and Luxia are tempting people with miracles, power and protection.”
- “Hear about it, goddesses all wish for races to evolve, yet have different approaches. Luxia creates whole community of church which is supposed to take care of the weaker one, thus blessing her knights and priests just a little, hoping that they would evolve as one body. Conception of Unity” I remembered myself what Aira once told me
- “Indeed. And Heira is looking for individuals which she would tempt to abuse one limits. If someone would see, that one person is extremely powerful, he or she would try to reach same level on its own in order to protect herself from the other one power. Conception of Envy.
- “And mother thinks, that being simply GIVEN anything for free is just spoiling others. Even when she bestows her powers on someone, these are meant only to improve what the individual is doing. Helping those who are helping themselves. Just a little, they often do not realize that they were gifted” sage continued
- “This is why villagers prefer to pray to the Sun or Greater Moon. They can literally see the influence.” The druids were clearly disappointed with such approach
- “They can’t understand that this is an illusion of power. If goddesses would decide to completely remove their influence from this world, they would be left with nothing.”
- “You will not become stronger when somebody else is chopping down wood for your fireplace, you will not become faster, if somebody else is chasing prey for you, you will not become smarter if somebody else if giving you an answer to the question you asked right away. You have to do your work by yourself, find your food by yourself, observe study and understand by yourself. Even if effect is the same, even if at the end you have warm place, food on your plate and answer to your question…”
- “… still, it is easy to guess why people choose the easier way. If the rain hasn’t fallen in days, and your crops are dying, it is easier to ask your priest to cause the rain than to walk to the nearest river or lake and carry dozens of buckets with water. Laziness leave them weak, unprepared for changes in flow of fate. Vulnerable. We try to make them understand that the Mother LEFT us because she LOVES us THAT much. Yet, they of frail minds are not ready for this kind of knowledge.”
- “… and getting back to subject…” I tried to remind them what caused this whole conversation in first place
- “Like I said, no one wished to help ungrateful little fucks that would thank you for healing their animals, just to forget about it after week or two. The smaller your territory, the better.”
- “We wished to ask if…”one of the druids started
- “You are now the Oracle. You are her Words upon this world. The influence that you alone can cause within a day may be greater than that of the whole circle.”
- “Really?”
- “Of course. Imagine that some priest would ask to see feudal lord. Or that he spread religion different that the lord in the villages? Not always people welcome us with kindness… And now, imagine that prophetess herself came to visit some town.”
- “The feudal lord would pave the road from one city to another with gold to show his gratitude for her to come in person.”
- “I think I see your point. But do you think that they would treat me the same? Even if our position in theory are same…”
I raised my concerns
- “To hear what goddess herself wants to tell them? You are underestimating human’s pride.”
- “What if Mother wouldn’t have a specific plan about spoken individual?”
- “As hierophant you learned art of clairvoyance.”
Indeed. When I became one I gained that skill, though I never really used it after that. It’s exhausting, hard to use and pretty much gives nothing back
- “Yet the visions are blurry and… Oh..” I understood
- “Exactly. You don’t need to tell them what vision means, merely speaking what you saw is more than enough. You see, people don’t want to know what will happen in the future, they just want to know that it exists, that it calls them.”
- “I see… very well. I am an adventurer, so if I would visit any village on my path which would require my assistance, I would do so.”
- “Thank you, that would greatly ease our burden.” One of the older hierophants nodded with gratitude
- “Fret not, my child…” I said in weirdly soft tone “… the EverGreen saw your deeds, it saw you working hard for my sake, your deeds were not in vain, even if just one person understood my teaching, your work was rewarded. Spread my love and make me proud of you, my beloved children.”
I snapped out of strange dullness that suddenly fell over me, just to notice that I was hugging tightly two young druids, male and female. When did I do that?
The fuck? AIRA!? What was that!?
Only then I heard a gentle laugh at the back of my head that sounded like hundreds of tiny bells
~ You were inside of me! It’s only fair for me to get inside of you!
So that’s the reason why Aira made me an Oracle. Not because she wants to spread any god-damn thing. She just wants to chat with me whenever she wants to.
What did I get myself into!?