Ch: 259 Twixt’ Pirates And Booty
Gary and Shai led the kids up to the orphanage just as mid morning was kissing mid day welcome home. Their jolly progress, accompanied by tinkling bells, something strung, something drummed and a flute spun up the quiet streets in a whirling, chaotic, tiny tempest all their own. A few brave souls dipped in to dance and spin along for a few blocks, but most let the local weirdos float on by. People smiled and waved, but largely kept clear of their silliness.
On the Adventure campus and orphanage grounds, things were even more active than the usual mild uproar of wheeled and busy children.
“The feast of Light is coming soon, is that why things are so…” Gary sang happily amid the bustle, as the kids launched themselves at their peers.
“I dinnae ken…” Shai giggled at him in a way he had difficulty resisting. “Tis all new, though the breeze hae a certain…” She reached out and pinched his bottom while the kids were busy, making him jump and grin.
“Is that how it is?” He cooed, stepping close and silencing some of her bells with his hands on those swaying, magical hips.
They turned and waved to the wee ones, as they scampered off with the other younglings for lessons, under the guidance of an older teen with laughing brown eyes.
“I’ll take good care of them!” Maria waved as she shooed her charges along for story time with Otho.
Shai turned on Gary with a sly wink. “I’d hae a private chat wi thee…” She purred, drawing him closer with a firm grip on his sash. “We hae matters tae discuss!”
“Mmm hmm…?” He moaned, as her blunt fingernails ran over his chest, inside the open collar of his shirt. He followed her into the roundhouse behind the baths and into the master bedroom…
And straight into Elli and Kelli. They were dressed in duke Belen’s livery, wearing an Adventure badge of apprentice rank. “Shai! Gary!” Kelli smiled effusively and hugged both without hesitation, while Elli coughed nervously.
“We’ve been staying here…” Elli mumbled awkwardly. “Kelli loves the baths and adores the children.”
“Liar!” Kelli giggled joyfully. “Elli loves it here too. Especially after the little moon turned extra warm last night!” She spun and twirled her colorful skirts to Shai’s music, smiling with childlike glee. “Stargazing and moonbathing never felt so good!” She gasped. “We’re off to work now! We have to report in, the duchy needs us!”
Kelli and Elli vanished in a swirl of Wheatford’s brown, green and gold, rather than the Oddsman’s pale blue.
As she left, a band of weary Adventurers came marching through the gates: Adam Belen and his Ascots, following journeyman Adam and Rolf’s team headed right for the baths. They looked dusty, weary and in need of rest.
The young lovers sighed and marched off to find someplace to canoodle in peace.
“Seahorse?” Gary asked hoarsely.
“Aye, seahorse!” Shai growled hungrily. “I’ll pirate that booty of thine, mark me well lad!”
#
Ellie and Kelli halted in surprise, when she entered duchess Belen’s parlor. Only the duchess and mistress Shenko were present, both looking grimly uncomfortable…
“D… Duchess? Did I mess up?” Kelli asked nervously, tugging at her skirts just inside the door.
“No Kelli… You are doing very well, very well indeed. A missive, a letter came from duke Wen, your former lord.” Celeste answered with a soft, golden smile, as she rubbed her slightly swollen tummy. “Come in, sit down please, join us for lunch, my dear.”
Once the woman was nibbling a cookie and had a little tea in her, mistress Shenko Spoke very gently.
“Duke Siong Wen seems to believe that you are under permanent indenture to his house… somehow. Are you aware of any such contract or criminal sentence hanging over your head?”
“No mistress Shenko. Duchess Celeste… am I in trouble? I’ve never been in trouble…” Her eyes welled with unshed tears and her breathing became a little ragged.
“Sweetie…” Celeste whispered gently, placing a hand on the woman’s knee. “There are only a few ways to be indentured for life… I don’t think you assassinated your liege or tried to start a violent rebellion.”
“No, duchess…” She whispered back.
“Your grace, If I may?” Elli spoke carefully, eying mistress Shenko from her position, hidden under the table laden with small sandwiches and dainty snacks.
“Be at ease Elli, dame Shenko is privy to all of house Belen’s secrets, she is aware of your nature.” Celeste murmured with a nod to the iron faced, gray haired, matronly woman sitting in a wing chair nearby.
“I have never interfered with Kelli’s dealings with humans, save to protect her… I understand little of your law and traditions.” The being spoke more boldly, emerging from beneath the luncheon table as a pool of deeper shadow, spreading from Kelli’s feet.
“This I can say, for certainty, we are under no contract or indenture, save her Contracts with Joy and now with some new cult… Knowledge has been sniffing around her soul.”
The being slid up into a humanoid shadow form, mimicking Kelli’s face and movements. “We were never properly indentured, simply handed over to a lord as a gift. Kelli seemed unbothered by this, so I followed her lead… You corporeals are very difficult to understand at times…”
“Never indentured?!” Celeste almost barked. “And how did you come to work for the oddsmen?”
“We were sold to them… I gather now that such things are not normal…?” Elli asked calmly. “That does explain why we lived in that compound and weren’t allowed out unaccompanied…”
“I hated it there… they were mean.” Kelli murmured around a tea cake. “They said I had to stay… but they gave me tons of work to keep busy!” She smiled happily, reflecting on her beloved reports and files.
“I like being busy!”
“The cult of Order will be deeply interested in these claims.” Shenko muttered in flinty, angry tones. “Tell me more… You were ‘gifted’ to a lord and then sold as a permanent indenture… without Contract?”
Her grace, Celeste Belen rose ponderously, clutching the enormous mass swelling her tummy. She smiled at the two… three women and sighed. “I have an important matter to attend. Mistress Shenko, remember that Kelli and Elli are my friends and are innocent in this matter. They are victims of a crime.” Her golden, radiant smile bathed the room, as she left she spoke softly.
“I’ll be inspecting the haybarns… if I can waddle all that way with this great oaf inside me!” The slight roundness of her belly was barely noticeable, even by her seamstress.
Even so, it was only because she constantly cupped her hands beneath the slight expansion, as if she needed to hold herself up. With an exaggerated, waddling stride, the slight, small woman vanished down the hallway at remarkable speed, for a supposedly ‘massively swollen’ lady.
“Yes, my duchess, you are truly a behemoth…” Shenko mumbled at the slender duchess’ back, once she had safely navigated the wide doorway.
“Those two…” Shenko muttered fondly, as she turned back to the odd, conjoined being she was seated across from.
#
Celeste strolled through the orderly barn, noting the well oiled and carefully stowed tack and blankets, the racks of polished saddles, ready to deploy and bales of hay, stacked in neat rows, labeled by cutting, farm and variety. These were only samples, of course. War’s barns and stables outside the uplands gate held the actual stores… and Herndon town with its vast barns, pastures and hayfeilds.
“We should take a journey, a visit to Herndon, once this enormous burden you’ve placed in me is crawling around.” Celeste muttered, as her husband stepped around a tall pile of loose hay, suspiciously soft, fine and aromatic hay.
A sample of the sweetest timothy grass had been unbound, kicked about and piled just so in the back corner of the storage barn, where hardly anyone would have cause to linger. Celeste examined the pile with a jaundiced eye and glared at her smiling, blonde husband.
“It would appear that one of your horsemasters has been napping on the job… shameful!” She muttered, slowly circling the haystack. “We should scold that sluggard for laziness!”
“Yes, my duchess…” Leopold answered in the same mockingly subservient tone he’d used the first day they’d met… and every day since that bloody, frightening day.
Celeste had only just become a full novice of lady Dana, the healer, following her instructor with his novice warband on simple local monster interdictions…
The team of fresh young indentured War squires and old Sir Willamette led the way, riding slowly. Pretty young acolyte Celeste struggled along, clinging to her saddle and trying to be brave near the back, guarded by a burly smiling blonde orphan with bright eyes.
No one was more surprised than the veteran priest of Healer, when the deathshead locust they were hunting couldn’t be found… Beyond a scattered leg or two and a small bit of carapace. They rode back for Wheatford’s gate as the sun began sinking.
“That’s the thing with locusts, they’re prey animals, so until it gets to a good size, any dog, bear or boar could snap them up.” The old priest lectured as they rode, calmly alert and attentive to his instruction.
“We’ll send a veteran hunt team to sweep the area, just in case, but most likely some local guard dog had a snack…
The soft rustle of leaves and a rush of wind was all the warning Celeste had, before a huge body dashed her from her saddle, crushing her to the earth.
Screams of men and horses erupted all around as something attacked the small column, almost within sight of home!
The first sight she’d seen when the world started making sense again was that burly, happy blonde boy, wrestling an enormous, saw-bladed, nightmare insect, scant inches from her face.
In the bloody wreckage of her horse and his, a ten armed, saw toothed and jagged edged monster struggled with that nameless lad; shredding his flesh around and through his steel and leather armor.
He slowly tangled his own body with its multitude of grasping, bladed limbs, as the edges and thorns ripped at him. As big as a small bear and weighing as much, a mature scythemantis required a strike team from War, not a band of tyros and an aging healer knight…
Her unnamed orphan guard grappled and bashed at the armored horror, seizing its flashing weapons at a terrible cost to himself. Gathering one sharp, slashing appendage after another in his grasp, he refused to surrender a single inch.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
With a terrible, wrenching scream of fury and pain he pulled savagely against his foe.. and tore half the limbs from the raging scythemantis he was embracing so horribly.
Blood, ichor, carapace and armor pieces showered down around their hideous struggle, while the troupe was still trying to regain control of their terrified mounts. The stocky blonde orphan stumbled from the wreckage, shredded near onto death, but still smiling at the shocked, terrified young noblewoman, his priestess to be.
She’d fallen madly in love with the young warrior who smiled so kindly up at her, as she sewed his wounds closed, so smugly confident and such an insufferable… Man!
He embraced his wife from behind, as she reflected on days long gone, caressing the slight bulge of his son, growing within his beautiful courageous, infuriating wife.
From her belly, he roamed out, strong, broad hands caressing her down to her fingertips and nuzzling the nape of her neck hungrily. Her legs went weak again, as strong, steady fingers wandered over her secrets, gently petting and stroking her.
It shifted against her backside, moving against her unbidden, like a hungry animal that scents prey. It twitched, lifted, nudged and prodded at her bottom as though it had a mind of its own. She turned in his arms, catching his rigid member right in her slightly distended belly button, as she moved to embrace him.
With a gasp of surprise she backed away, rubbing her tummy. Celeste stepped back and looked him up and down, smiling nervously and rubbing her insulted navel. “Bad boy, it doesn’t fit there…” She sassed his golden haired manhood, standing at attention just for her.
“This is just like you, Leo…” She scolded him, while her hands wandered over her orphan duke’s scarred body.
#
The tired duo picked the kids up at sixth bell, holding their exhausted, happy babes close as they strolled. Rio clung to Shai’s neck, with Amy and Wilf tucked in Gary’s arms and fast asleep.
“T’was fine fishing…” Shai sighed softly once the kids were tucked away. “Though I’ve a mind tae have another go, an ye lend me yer rod.”
They were kissing and groping each other just a little on the way downstairs, where Becky waylaid them.
“Oh… hi Becks… we were just… uhh…”
“I know what you were just… ya big goof. You two are the least troubling relationship in the house tonight!” She grumbled. “Angie and Rolf still haven’t… and there’s some weirdness between Gabbie and her stabby boyfriend… I think all four need to have a group session with Thirp.”
“I dinnae think that be wise… Gabbie an Jocomo be nae in good graces wi me lad.” She complained sourly. “And he be nae in their good books, I dinnae ken the enmity there.”
“It’s ok Becks. Liam has a supply of stoned tablets, just put them to bed on the grounds and they’ll be fine.” Gary mumbled softly. “I’d like to meet them for real.”
“If you’re sure.” Becky said slowly, looking into his eyes. “Yeah, you’ll do.” She muttered. She looked up at her towering ginger sister and smiled.
“The private bath is empty, I threw everybody out and closed it… don’t ask. It’s all yours for the night.” She whispered. “Bring my fool brother home. It’s not time for the hanged man.”
“Aye, Becky. Aye.” Shai cooed happily, as she tugged on her hapless, smiling boy’s hand, leading him to the private bath.
#
The moon rose over Shai’s garden, illuminating Rolf, Gunnar and Angie, in light silken clothing of simple design. The very slightly older man smiled at Rolf and Angie with paternal good humor.
“Rolf, you will be meditating and using this time to cultivate your qi and Mana channels, while serving as a training dummy for miss Angie here… this should be good fun!” He bustled about, placing small objects of a uniform bright color in a wide circle on the lawn, marking out a training space in orange cones.
“Angie, you will be beginning your own cultivation journey, while taking your first steps into the realms of physical contest. I’m so excited for you both!”
The handsome young man turned back to the house and called out softly. “Dannyl, if you would…?”
He bowed low to his pupils, as music began flowing from the patio nearby. “We begin at the beginning, at the start of all things… with dance!”
For two grueling hours, Gunnar called the dance, pushing them together, pulling them apart, they spun and twirled under the moon until Rolf could almost see a second, smaller body, sailing through the sky.
He fancied that tiny green moon shedding a warm, tingling light that soaked through his bones and uplifted his body and spirit, while he was lost in his mental and physical exertions.
Angie spun into his arms for the last time, as the music ended. She gasped and panted, flushed with giddy excitement, her body pressed close to his. Her breath tingled on his neck and her heartbeat thundered in his ears, as he whispered in quiet desperation.
“I plan to stay here tonight…”
“Not in the barracks, with the boys? You could measure yourself against so many more…” She teased and nibbled at his earlobe, in a way she knew he had trouble resisting. “I’d rather you measured it against me.”
“Angie.” He spoke softly and firmly, gazing into her eyes. “I will lay it at your feet tonight, my love. If you take it up, I’m yours.”
She flashed stark white under her natural olive complexion and missed a step, stumbling into his arms. “I… I…” Angie shifted through the spectrum to a deep, ruddy red and dashed away with a small desperate squeak.
A perfectly manicured hand landed on the young knight’s shoulder, as Gunnar leaned close. “She thought she had more time to prepare herself… you are not the only one frightened by the leap you are about to take, young Rolf.”
“Uncle Gunnar… Why does everyone in Wheatford seem to have a vested interest in when and with whom I engage in carnal acts?” He asked calmly.
“Because sex is fun, funny, silly and a little bit gross… if you do it right. It’s also exactly what you need for the next step in your cultivation journey…” The beautiful barber smiled with radiant joy. “Watching you two tie each other in knots has been delicious, but every story ends, that a new one can begin.” He clapped his young pupil on both shoulders and smiled.
“Now go to bed like a good boy, or find her and fuck yourselves silly, before either of you loses your courage or comes to your senses… In any case, you care for each other deeply and that is what matters. Not how, or when or who gets to use the… never mind that.”
Rolf nodded with martial precision, bowed to his instructor and stalked off in search of that girl…
#
Gabbie woke again, with another sobbing case of the heavies, gasping out her inner despair on Becky’s tired shoulder. “Breathe, love. If you can control your breathing you can control your emotions… It’s ok to have feelings sweetie.”
“I… Am… So… Ashamed!” She gasped between snotty burps.
“Master Otho says that humility is a sovereign cure for shame. If you embrace true humility, shame loses its power and instead, enriches your soul.” Becky spoke very softly, forcing her to listen carefully. “Humility is not the same as humiliation.”
Becky’s eyes once more found Jocomo, behind a filmy window drape that couldn’t hide Amy… Yet he was truly invisible to mortal sight. He was pretty impressive that way, only Gary’s vampire bat friend Xyll was harder to locate. His constant, nearly painful attention on Gabbie, told him out to her less natural senses with ease. Thirp’s ‘Spider Sense’ fairly thrummed with his intense, careful and very skilled regard.
He was also completely, madly, irrevocably in love with the poor girl and broadcasting it across her aura senses so loud she could barely feel Shai and Gary in the private bath, freaking each other as though their lives depended on it.
Becky sighed happily, as she tuned out her brother and sister’s antics with her latest trick. Learning how to filter out familiar and safe aura feedback was a game changer. Much the way a smell and taste ring had liberated Ivy from her doggie’s wandering nose and tongue; now Becky was able to disregard things she didn’t need or want to know.
She sighed happily, any sudden or dangerous stimuli would cut through, but for now, she lived in a bubble of blessed quiet. She sat down by the fire and started illuminating her latest manuscript.
Wilf had graduated to the Hardy Boys Mysteries, with Rio and Amy’s help. Illustrations always made him smile when they appeared, which always made Becky smile, so she added in a few extras.
She was carefully drawing a rocky coastline and lighthouse, with a sharp prowed boat skimming over the waves, sketched in black ink. Rolf went trotting past, searching for something… probably Angie. He stopped and confirmed her suspicions immediately.
“Have you seen Angie?” He asked abruptly.
“She’s…oh… darn!” Becky sighed unhappily as she put her work in progress away. “She just went into the private bath. Gary and Shai are in there…”
“Eeeeep!” Someone nearby tried to gasp, scream and apologize at the same time and made a mess of all three.
#
Startled and shaken, Angie fled. She slipped through the house and into the private bath, gasping desperate, panicked breaths in the steam. Lost in her own thoughts, she dashed over to a bower of climbing duskmoons and sat down on a bench, under the gently nodding blooms.
A few seconds later, as her heart rate slowed, she realized that she was not the only one lost in her own interests. Two large, muscular forms were grappling passionately under the waterfall.
She watched in grim fascination and some academic curiosity, as the wavy, watery outlines of her friends displayed surprising flexibility and creativity.
She may have released a small, startled sound when she noticed the two bodies entwined in the waterfall…
They hadn’t seemed to notice her entrance, but now they separated. As Shai’s form approached through the steam.
“Angie me love, tis private bathtime, dearest, dinnae ye see our sign?” She asked gently.
She shook her head mutely, mortified and in shock. “I’m sorry…” She finally squeaked out.
“Ye kinnae conceal yerself from us in the house…” Shai shook her enormous ginger head slowly and smiled. “Fie, I ken ye dinnae mean tae peep and snoop…” She hugged her little sister close to her soggy, naked breast. “Gary, he be nae upset, just… aye, a might upset. I’ll hae the making it up tae him.”
She stood and wrapped herself in a fine green robe that was so brief as to barely qualify as clothing.
“I’ve a working tae finish… A hot iron wants forging…” She said with a salty wink, then followed Gary out and no doubt upstairs to their chambers. Shaken and upset with herself and the world, Angie sat for a while and cried silently in the steam.
When she woke, some time later, stiff and gunky around her eyes and nose, Rolf was sitting cross legged at her feet, meditating patiently… and confidently nude. He opened his eyes when she stirred and smiled up at her.
“I told you I would place it at your feet… I didn’t think you would fall asleep in response.” He murmured softly, showing his secret, silly smile that was just for her.
“Rolf…” She stammered, wiping at her face with her palm.
“Take it up, or do not, as you wish I will await your pleasure, Angie.” He said gently, as his loins shifted under her gaze.
“I teased you so abominably…” She whispered.
“I seem to recall being present for the events in question.” He sighed warmly. “I have no complaints.”
Rolf sat there, warmly solid, patient as a golden stone, meeting her eyes with calm fondness and hope.
Angie nodded to herself, stood and held out her hand to him, trembling ever so slightly. Her special smile remained on his lips, as he languidly stretched himself and stood. Gently Rolf undressed her, his big calloused hands fumbling at the ties of her workout gi. The roughness of his fingertips on her skin, as he slipped her top away made her shiver with delight and anticipation, but drew his warm body into an instinctive, warming hug from behind her, his hands coming to a rest on her tummy, just below her navel.
“I’m not cold, Rolf.” She whispered, slowly pulling his hands to the ties of her trousers. His breath quickened and Angie thanked lady Thirp that she wore her cult regalia tonight.
He seated her gently back on her bench, knelt before her and tenderly removed her prosthetic… the magical bonds and bindings surrendering to his touch as though it were her own hands. She took a deep breath, as her disfigurement was exposed to his close inspection for the first time. Her calloused, red, ruddy, bruised stump had been transformed these last weeks, wearing her new leg… The battered nub of flesh no longer screamed pain into her lower body, her tender flesh had calmed, healed, become smooth normal skin, with a few lingering scars. He set her leg gently on a towel and his fingers caressed the wooden limb, sending shivers of sensation through her soul.
Rolf leaned down, so close to her deepest shame and her deepest secrets… when he kissed her nub tenderly; her heart ached to hold him close, closer, to embrace every part of him with all that she was.
His rough fingers trailed over her red silk panties, carefully peeling the delicate lace waistband down past her hips with delicious slowness. His fingertips traced her smooth bottom and gently freed the filmy garment from her most secret places.
Rolf’s touch sent electric tingles through her, in ways touching him never had… whenever and wherever his blunt fingers gently brushed her. She shuddered with delight and collapsed against him, dangling in his arms and moaning as his hands wandered her body. She pulled away a little to regain her balance on her one leg, while clutching his big, strong, warm forearm and looking down at… something intimidatingly big, strong and warm.
“Gods, now I really see it… will it fit anywhere?”
Rolf smiled confidently and stepped closer, reaching his other arm out for an embrace. “Angie… I would never hurt you.” He whispered.
She took a small step closer, right into his warmth. “You might, just a little at first, so I’m told.”
He barely heard her soft voice, over the rushing, ringing in his ears.
They slipped into the bath together and slowly, gently, tenderly discovered that… with a little patience and effort, it would indeed fit.
#
Angie and Rolf were up early and making breakfast together, though they looked like they were up late instead.
“Are you two well?” Dannyl asked, peering at the sleepy, haggard duo.
“We’re fine. We were out late, riding in the moonlight.” Rolf answered quickly.
“Uhh huh… Hey, where’s Ester?” The artist asked, peering around for the everpresent, tiny, magical girl.
“She’s in the stable with Annie.” Angie replied, also very quickly. Rolf was cooking, while she leaned on the counter, watching him with dreamy eyes. The young officer of duchess Sheng’s personal guard sighed and slid onto a barstool, then she stood right back up with a small gasp of discomfort and a warm smile for the blonde knight in the kitchen.
At that moment, Thom, one of Shai’s enormous ginger cousins came dashing in, almost forgetting to stop before putting his boots on the floorboards.
“Guys!” He gasped. “There’s a huge white horse with a horn in your stable! Is that a… a freaking unicorn?”
Dannyl’s laughter shook the whole house, bringing the little ones down into the fray and out to play with Ester in the bright morning sunshine.
#
It was still foggy at dawn, in Port Trask, the furthest outpost of her majesty's imperial Navy of Light. When the first Whisper of her imperial majesty stepped aboard imperial corvette ‘Wind’s Fury’, Captain Han Quixan had been deeply honored, basking in the reflected glory of the empress’ personal guardian… Mere seconds later, one hundred and fifty tattooed and grim looking Whispers marched aboard in silence and escorted his crew off.
Now, standing on the dock, watching his ship sail away, crewed by her ineffable majesties’ own Whispers, he counted himself lucky to be ashore.
“Captain, did we just get pirated?” First mate Quin xi, of her majesty’s navy asked softly.
“I think we did…” The shorebound captain looked down at the writ in his hand. Drawn on simple parchment in some colorful waxy substance, several distinct colors of it… The first paragraph was in a childlike scrawl, while the body of the document was in fine ink, bearing her imperial majesty’s own signature and seal.
Shiver me timbers, ye plunder rich sea scallop! You are called to heave to and surrender the candy! Doubloons, jewels and pieces of eight are acceptable substitutes for candy!
The bearer is authorized, under letters of marque and reprisal, to commandeer any vessel of her imperial majesty’s navy or merchant fleet. Any vessel under the imperial flag must submit to the authority and command of Admiral Amy, pirate princess of the Shallow Sea.
By my hand:
Gabriella Rex, Empress of Light, Pontifex Obscura.
“How are we getting home?” Quin asked meekly.
#
Gary and Shai woke late, tangled together in a number of ways. Everyone else was already up and active, so they took their time untangling and re-tangling a few times, just for funzies. She grabbed that warm, slippery rascal out of her and held him in her fist, squeezing her twitching, throbbing handful with a wicked smile on her face.
“Now boy, that I hae yer undivided attention.” She cooed happily. “We hae some workings tae complete an some business wi nobles.” She gave him a few strokes and tugs, keeping him interested.
“Behave, dinnae murder anyone, an tis big spoon surely fer thee, tonight. Now where should sweet Shai put this?” She murmured softly. She stroked him gently for a timeless moment, pondering things. “Ohh, I do ken!”
After that, her mouth was busy and Gary was unable to speak, beyond guttural, animal noises.
#
Becky sighed and shook her head when a tambourine flew off the wall and spun like a top, jingling merrily for three solid minutes. “That’s a new one…” She murmured.
#