“Careful, careful,” the voice of the elven woman cooed softly to Jace as he jolted upright. His lung’s heaving, heavy panting breath’s.

“Where … where was that place?” Jace gasped out. His hands clutching to the elven woman’s slender arms.

“You’re okay. You are back on Aederon. And everything is alright.” She rans her long finger’s over his prickling scalp.

“You. You put me there,” Jace snarled and broke free of her grasp and springing to his feet, he trip over the fur blankets and stumbled into a book shelf. “Stay the fuck away from me.”

“She did it with my blessing, boy,” a voice said and Jace shot a glance to his right to see Maypor entering the room.

“Your blessing? I’m not your property,” Jace retorted.

“No your not,” the old woman agreed. “But I did save your life. Now calm your tits down and explain yourself.”

“Me explain myself?” Jace shot back and flashed his snarl on the elven woman. “Explain why the fuck you put me in that place. And whatever the fuck that- that- thing was, in the sky.”

Both women blinked at his words. “Jace. Please. Sit down,” the elven beauty gestured to a seat by the crackling hearth. Marit strode past Maypor and came over to rub his flank against Jace’s leg.

“Who are you, first?” Jace asked, hesitantly taking a seat. He was still bare-ass-naked, but that nightmarish dream—or was it real—had scared the decency out of him.

He was wired with fear. Whatever the hell that means, he thought.

The elf rearranged her dress and sat primly on the bed. Maypor moved further in to the room and leaned against the wall behind Jace. “Firstly introductions. I am Joanna Vilgananis. I’m a mender Magi. And I work in Trager village as the local mender,” Joanna introduced herself.

“Riiight,” Jace drawled, and noticed the faint blush creeping up the elf’s long pointed ears as her blue eyes tried to avoid looking at his opening displayed junk. “What the hell is a mender magi?” He asked. He knew he should be more cautious with what he asked and revealed. But that place she had sent him too, had really fucked with him.

Joanna blinked her slanted eyes and they narrowed on him. “A mender Magi, is someone who mends wounds,” she started off hesitantly, and blinked as Jace continued to stare at her.

Does she mean a doctor? he thought, and thought about asking her but ultimately decided not to.

“Okay…? Now can you explain where the fuck you sent me,” Jace sighed tiredly. He was pretty sure he’d been sleeping a good full day. Considering the last time he’d woken up, was at Maypor’ and it had been dark out.

Joanna sighed heavily and nodded her head. “I’m actually very surprised that work. That place I sent you to is called the Wakeful Plane by the faeries. I believe that was the original interpretation on it, at least. Now its simply goes by the Mind’s Eye.

It’s a plane us Magi go to when we either wish to commune deeply with our surroundings, in areas of great elemental essence. Or to train our advancement in runic script. What happens there, does not affect our world, so we are free to experiment. Some even hold meetings-”

“Explain what the fuck, that thing in the sky was,” he hissed, interrupting her. He didn’t care about dream meetings or whatever it was they did there.

“Jace,” Maypor warned him.

He shook his head, “that thing, May. It … it noticed me. Talk to me, like it recognised me.” Jace shuddered involuntarily and hung his head. It had rattled him more fiercely than his mental battle with the Dweller.

A sun-kissed hand with long slender fingers held to his knee, comfortingly. “Jace?” he looked up into the brilliant blue pools of Joanna’ eyes and blinked. “Can you describe what you saw?”

“It- I,” he blinked again as he racked his memories. He … He couldn’t remember it. There was nothing at all from his time in the Wakeful Plane. He remembered, remembering that he had experienced it. But other than that? There was simply nothing there. Just the fear and terror.

Just another hollow space in his mind.

“I can’t remember. Nothing at all. It’s just like when…” Dread filled him then. “Just like when I woke up here.”

“Here?” Maypor and he detected a note of concern in the rackety old woman’s voice.

“Not here, here. No. I mean in Parkers Hold. What the hell is going on?” Jace asked more to himself than anyone, and rubbed both hands over his face.

“Jace,” Joanna tried to bring him back, “do remember what this is?” she asked him, and held out the familiar gold cigar case. Still have no idea what a cigar even is.

“Sure, I remember it,” he replied dryly, and took the case from her outstretched hand. It felt warm to the touch. It’s presence comforting somehow. “What about it, doc?”

“Doc…? What does that- never mind. What I’m trying to ask you, no tell you-”

“By Shre’s light, Jo. What’s she means, boy. Is do you know the significance of that case?”

Jace shrugged his shoulder, and shivered slightly. He realised the elven beauty still hadn’t taken her hand off his leg. In fact, it seemed as if she’d forgotten it was still there. Moving his thoughts beyond ploughing the elf. He was still annoyed she’d send him there. Yet his missing memory of it, had tempered down his anger.

Jace turned his thoughts to the case.

It had certainly drawn him in. The arcane symbols inside on the velvet cloth. The different sets of brushes. He hadn’t touched nor removed any of them. Not wanting any of them breaking by accident. But other than that. He’d forgotten about them. “Not really,” he shrugged again. “All I managed to escape Parkers Hold with, was this and the journal.”

“The journal,” Joanna agreed and leaning backward, she pried her fingers off his leg. To Jace, the removal of her touch was hesitant and forceful. She rummaged about on the bed for a second, then pulled out the journal. “Do you know who wrote this. Or who the journal belonged to?”

“Tormund Yasgases?” He tried recollecting; it was something along those lines.

“Tormund Yasgaes,” Joanna corrected him lightly. “Tormund Yasgaes was once one of the kingdoms greatest High Magi. That was until he went rogue. He and several other High Magi left their posts and appointments, even a trail of dead bodies behind them. Them, along with their apprentices, retainers and a few hundred trainees fled the kingdom and the four duchies.”

“Okay, so he went rogue,” Jace frowned. “What does that have to do with me. Other than the fact that I have his journal. And that he’s likely dead.”

“It means,” Joanna sighed briefly. “That the place, he and the other High Magi fled too, was in fact Parkers Hold. He even claimed they went there to learn the devices of creation. That’s an illegal subject matter. Borderline dark magic. Now. Now all of them are either dead. Or-”

“Shit,” Jace hissed, finally understanding what she’d been getting at. He didn’t really understand the whole hocus-pocus of magic. But the implications were there. “The Dweller I saw,” his mind flashed back to his confrontation before his escape. He explained his confrontation to them. “It wore a black robe, with a faded purple tear drop. Does that mean anything-”

He didn’t even need to finish, because Joanna sun-kissed face was now ashen pale. “No.” She whispered. Not a denial of his question. But disbelief at the turn of events. “The purple tear drop is Tormund Yasgaes insignia.”

“Then he’s a Dweller,” Maypor supplied matter-of-factly. “Why did he want you, boy?”

Jace shot the older woman a look and answered, “because I’m one of the summoned.”

“You mentioned that,” Joanna nodded. “But you also said there’re fifty-two of you.”

Jace nodded, “yes. There was fifty-two of us,” he shook his head. “Maybe some are still alive, and managed to escape somehow. But that place is a maze. And I only managed it by accident.”

“There has never in recorded history been more than Fifty-One summoned,” Joanna noted.

“I heard about that,” Jace agreed, “the Dwellers- they called me an anomaly. They wanted me to join them.”

“Well, if you’re the anomaly of the summoned, then I guess you hold no piece in their sin.”

“The whole betrayal thing?” Jace nodded. He partially agreed with Douglas on that front. But he also didn’t have all the facts. Maybe they did in fact betray everyone. Maybe they just bit off more, than they could chew, he thought.

“So you’re a summoned,” Joanna said and Jace nodded firmly. If she started running, despite her beauty, he would kill her. Kill Maypor. Kill- maybe knock Marit out somehow. “You’re also an anomaly amongst them?”

“Yes, the others couldn’t remember anything of themselves. I remembered my name.”

“Just your name?” Maypor asked him.

“Yes,” Jace replied defensively, shooting the old woman a cocked eyebrow. You try losing everything that you were, he thought, but didn’t say it. He thought about the strange couple he had encountered. Their supposed gifts to him. But decided it was for the best that he kept that encounter to himself. “You know,” Jace started, “you never did answer my question.”

“Question? Which one?” Joanna blinked in surprise.

“Why did you send me to that plane?”

Oooh,” Joanna sighed and fiddled with her dress. It really did hug her slender figure nicely. The elf was the polar opposite of Athena. The fox-kin was all curves, bust and ass. Joanna was slender, lean, and willowy. “Technically I didn’t send you anywhere, only your consciousness. And I did it because, well… I didn’t have the necessary instruments to measure how much Mana you had.”

“You just send my mind to the shadow realm instead,” Jace retorted sarcastically.

“Well it worked. For one, only a Magi can travel there. Two, you were conscious almost immediately on arrival. That speaks volumes to your potential.”

“Okay- fine,” Jace rubbed at his forehead. When was the last time he’d eaten. “Do you have any food, I’m really bloody hungry.”

“Of course,” Joanna smiled prettily. And Jace ignored her small needle-like teeth. Let’s just avoid putting anything in her mouth, he thought and stood dick swinging and all.

“Then let’s go eat.”

~*~*~*~

Athena cried out as she fended off the wretch trying to snap its jaws at her face and neck. Its hands fumbling, trying to trap her own against the floor. She kicked her legs trying to untangled her skirts and actually hit it. She vowed then to never wear dresses again if she could help it.

If she didn’t fight back, it would surely find her baby girl.

Snarling and crying out, Athena managed to chopped down hard with both of her hands on the fold of the wretches elbow. It arms reflexively bent from the blow, and it lurched down, chopping its foul teeth, trying to bite her face off. She grabbed its neck then, and squeezed as she pushed and threw her body weight to the side and rolled atop the wretch.

Her tail wavered through the air behind her, as she kept her hold on its neck squeezing all the while. She wasn’t sure how she could kill it. The wretches hands scraped at her clothing, tearing and shredding her dress. It jagged nails cut and scratched against her face as it flailed. She squeezed tighter, uncertain of how long she could keep at it.

More could be coming for all she knew. They’d made quite a bit of sound after all. Suddenly it stopped thrashing and yawned up at her. Athena stared down into the wide-open pit that was the wretches mouth. Then the skin on either cheek tore in half, stretching and tearing. She gagged at the sight and vomited all over herself and the wretches gaping mouth.

Something wriggled at the back of its mouth. A bulge throbbed up from beneath her hands where she was still squeezing its throat. Athena gasped, spittle flinging from her lips as she staggered off the wretch. Long sinuous appendages flicked out from within and took purchase with a wet slap on the bloody muscles and bone of the wretches jaws.

Then more came, and more. Each slapping wetly against the wretches face, and popping as they dislodged and caught again. Then like a hideously blooming flower, the thing inside the wretches mouth spread wide, as its beak trilled a screeching cry. Then it slipped off the wretch and tumbled down its body to land with a wet squish on the bedroom floor.

A long hissing wheeze evacuated the small squid. Athena simply stood there trembling, her body racking with silent horrified sobs.

Save me. The voice broke through her mind and Athena jumped. Mother, save me. It was a girls voice. A baby girl. Her baby girl. Gabrielle lay on the floor before her, covered in a thin coat of slime and trembling. “Oh, baby. What have they done to you,” Athena sobbed and going over she crouched before her daughter.

“Don’t worry, mama’s got you now.” And picking her baby girl up, she gently laid her head on her shoulder, cooing Athena patted her daughters back. Thank you.

She screamed as tentacles latched onto her face, neck and hair, and pried her mouth open. What was going on? where was her baby girl. She thought frantically, trying to bite down on the tentacles but the force of which they kept her mouth open was too strong.

Its beak bit savagely into the palm of her hand as she managed to slip it up underneath and wedge it between the thing and her mouth.

Where was Gabrielle? Where was her baby? She screamed raggedly as the beak tore through the flesh of her palm. Its suckers scarring thin hooked slices into her face and neck. Those tentacles in her hair, coiled tightly and pulled tugging harshly. This was all a nightmare.

Then she heard a feral roar, as feet pounded into the room. “GET. OFF. OF. HER!” Marcia howled and rushing in, she grabbed the squid around it mantle and tore the thing free of Athena’s face. Bloody gouges and clomps of hair tore free. Athena cried out, her hand trembling and roaming her bloody visage as she collapsed to her knees.

Marcia twisted and slammed the squid, into the wall eliciting a squeal from the thing. Nine more times did Marcia swing the small squids body. Bashing and battering it. Digging her claws through its slippery, slimy, and rubbery flesh.

“Where’s Gabrielle?” Marcia hissed with a growl at Athena. Athena blinked, swaying unsteadily onto her feet she looked about. Her mind was dull, fuzzy and drained.

She shuffled over to the closet and slumped onto her knees. She was mentally spent. Whatever that thing had done to her, had not only scarred her face and neck, but scarred her mind also.

She half expected to find another one of those squids inside, but her daughter’s beautiful face peered out at her. Bright eyed and full of life.

Picking up her baby, Athena felt her strength renew. She was a mother. She would do anything for her child. She would carry these scars on her face as a reminder of this day.

~*~*~*~

Jace sighed gratefully as his spoon plopped through the thick mush of porridge. Joanna had brought him a mix bowl of nuts and berries. He shied away from the blue berries, apparently those—he found—were disgusting to him. Strawberries and walnuts however were definitely delicious, and he added those greedily to his porridge.

Glancing around, he found that he was alone inside the house and still without clothing. With the fur blanket draped around himself, Jace ate his porridge. Savouring each bite of warm, fruity and nutty goodness. The slop slid easily down his gullet and before he knew it his bowl was empty.

Joanna had claimed something about tending to patients at her shop. While Maypor had claimed about finding somewhere to settle inside the village for the time being.

Jace wanted to tell both women to simply pack their shit, and high-tail it to Oedrin. The wretches would soon come in a greater number to drive them off. As well as to claim him.

Jace suspected that Maypor knew that anyway. That would’ve been why she had been staying in that small shack and not her manor.

Maybe there was something inside of Trager forest. Something that the Dwellers didn’t want anyone finding out about. But what could they possibly want? I would’ve expected their goal to be the complete decimation of humanity and the other races, Jace frowned thoughtfully. Driving all of those on the outer fringes of the duchy to seek shelter in already overpopulated towns, fences in any sort of outside confrontation. People will befoul other people.

They’ll cut deals and screw one another over. All for the possibility of coin and higher positioning.

So what could be inside the forest, other than their stronghold? And why picked Trager forest? Was it because of the High Magi and their fortress of solitude? I didn’t see any crystals, and I doubt anyone named Kal-El was there. Jace shook away his tumbling thoughts and decided to spend his time in front of the hearth. Warming his hands, feet and balls.

It was another hour later, when the door banged open, and a blast of cold air breezed in and woke Jace up with a shiver. His cheek and chin were wet with drool. And he grumbled wrapping himself in the blanket even tighter. “Oh, good. You’re awake,” Joanna smiled at him as she removed her thick furred boots and tiptoed through the room lightly. The hem of her dress was wet and soggy, and stained with mud. She came over beside him and outstretched her hands to the smouldering flames.

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Jace couldn’t help but roam his eyes over her willowy body. Her chest was small but tightly packed. Her hips and ass round yet firm and pert.

Her silken blonde hair, was trust-up in a high pony tail and hung down to sway like an entrancing pendulum above the curve of her ass. Her dress, yet plain, clung to her body like a second skin, and Jace found himself growing hard. His knuckles popped as he tried reined himself in and shift his gaze back to the fire.

For a time all they heard was the occasional soft crack of wood splintering in the hearth. Or someone shouting outside.

Eventually Jace started to get uncomfortable with the silence. He wouldn’t consider himself that much of speaker, but the silence and tension between them was omnipresent. “So you reckon I could be a Magi then?” he asked after scanning his head for any subject he could bring up.

The question seemed to catch her off guard and Joanna fumbled for a few seconds. “Could be a what. Eh-uh, yes? you could be a Magi,” she paused to collect herself. “In fact, its highly possible you could be a very powerful Magi.”

“How do you know?” this intrigued him. Before, he hadn’t really given a shit about the why or how of it. He’d simply been pissed off at having his head fucked with.

“Well from your initial awakening in the Mind Eyes of course. Junior or apprentice Magi tend to have great difficulty simply travelling to the Wakeful Plane. You didn’t just travel there as easily as breathing, but was fully aware of your surroundings. It’s actually quite remarkable. If what you said was true, and you are indeed one the summoned-”

“Which I am,” Jace cut in.

“Then the text in Dimere’s capitol could be proven true,” Joanna finished and sat down on the warm floor of her house by his chair.

“What text?”

“Oh, an account of Aederon’ history. The last eclipse cycle happened three hundred years ago. The consequence of that cycle, and its final major events are detailed. But nothing of what led to it. Yes the wretches came out of the haunted lands to the south. But they also do that—even in greater numbers—every other year or so. So why now. Why then. Is the summoning of the Fifty-One betrayers—sorry—the prelude to the eclipse, or simply an effect of it. Then there is the description that all summoned beings had a great capacity for magic. We’re speaking magnitudes greater than the highest High Magus’s.”

“Well, I have no idea,” Jace said and grinned at the elven woman. She starred at his lips, her own lips spreading into a matching grin. She seemed to do this unconsciously and then caught herself.

“I-uh, oh! I brought you some clothes,” she said as her neck, ears and face flushed a bright red on her sun-kissed skin. Standing, she swept her hands over her dress and hurriedly rushed out of the room. Jace sat there, as she came back in an instance later carrying a large bundle.

“I asked around the village for you, and everyone who could chipped in an item or two did.” She plopped the bundle down on her bed. “There should be enough here for two sets of clothing.

Jace stood up and walked the short distance over to stand beside her. He still had the blanket on, draped around his shoulders. But as he stood beside her the fur blanket parted revealing his toned abdomen and wiry frame. His massive erection jutted through the parting blanket.

Joanna eyes roamed down from his face and settled on his saluting cock. She gulped audibly, her face going a bright red. Jace’ mind tunnelled as he focused on her blue eyes. His raw desire for her quite powerful. He wasn’t sure why he felt so attracted to her. But something inside of him, willed him on.

Filled his flesh with a need to take her, to make her his. A compulsion Jace had no desire of fighting. He could see that same desire take flight, like a blazing trail in her eyes.

Joanna ears burned hot and her high angular cheek bones flushed as she smiled shyly down at Jace’ erection. “I’ll admit, there definitely is something about you,” she murmured. Her eyes partially lidding as her breathing heaved. Making her small chest rise, up and down, pronounced with every breath.

“Oh? Do you want to find out?” Jace asked, he felt emboldened by his words. He reached and ran the tips of his fingers up and down her delicate neck. Boom! I’m in a fantasy world and my dick hasn’t been sucked yet. And just where the hell is my harem? He internally shook those thoughts away, his attention focused solely on her throat. Her huge gulping breaths and the pronounced veins in her neck making his dick grow even harder.

“I think,” Joanna said softly, staring like she was in a trance at the purple head of his cock. Then she knelt on the floor before him like a supplicant. Her eyes riveted with his bobbing erection. Her breathing heavy and ragged with lust. “I think… I think it’ll be an interesting study to explore.” And leaning over on her knees, she flicked out her long-wet tongue and licked the purple head. “With my tongue.”

Jace reflexively flexed his dick up, making it jerk out of reach of the elf. Joanna swallowed heavily and tried to reach out with her hands to encircled his penis, but Jace gently batted them aside, “no hands. Mouth only,” he ordered and watched as Joanna slanted gaze widened and then lidded as she followed his commands.

He moaned and her small mouth engulfed the head of cock, stretching it obscenely. His was so overwhelmed by his desire that he’d even forgotten about her small sharp teeth. And gentled pushed his hips forwards as he thrust a short extra inch or so into the elven woman’s warm inviting mouth.

Reaching down, he gently laid both of his hands on either side of her face and as he continued thrusting into her mouth minutely. Her wet tongue hot against his head, licking and lapping at the sensitive skin.

He fought against simply thrusting the entirety of his cock down her throat. He wanted to enjoy her, not injured or hurt her. He wasn’t one for taking pleasure from inflicting pain on others.

After about two solid minutes Jace, couldn’t take it anymore and pried Joanna small mouth off the first few wide inches of his cock. He popped free and gently helped raise the elf to her feet. She breathlessly leaned against him as he hugged her to him.

Her mouth was red from straining from trying to engulfed his shaft. His erection pressed upwards between them, and he felt Joanna’ hands snaked down. One hand gripped lightly to his balls and massaged them tenderly in a roll. As the other slid down the length of his shaft. She stared up at him, her red raw mouth parted thinly as she breathed up against his lips.

They kissed and Jace ran his tongue through her lips and along her needle-like teeth, uncaring if he accidentally cut himself doing so.

He didn’t.

“I- I want to fuck you,” he panted as they broke their frantic kissing and slobbering.

“Then you better get to it,” Joanna retorted, and began to jerk her hands up and down his shaft quicker and quicker. As she reached the fat head of his cock, she rolled her palm over it, making him jerk and grimace with pleasure.

Growling, Jace gripped the back her neck and leaning down he bit into the exposed skin there. Marking her and eliciting a squeak and a shivering moan.

Spinning her around, he pressed his hands against her back and bent her over her bed. She shivered and gasped as Jace reached up under her dress and ran his hands up her slender firm legs and over the curve of her small pert ass. Kneading her the firm globes of her ass, Jace hiked her dress up and rolled it over, to gathered on her lower back.

She was bare and shaven, and surprisingly Jace found her red swollen lips already dripping wetly, stringing her juices between her parted thighs. “You going to return the favour, handsome?” Joanna husked at him.

For a few solid seconds Jace wander distantly in his mind, what changed between us? We barely even know each other. Yet, there’s this raw desire compelling me to have my way with her. That was as far as his mind allowed him to wonder. And bending over Jace hand his fingers, flittering across her lips and down towards her clitoral hood. He pressed and rubbed his thumb in slow smooth circles as Joanna gasped and moaned loudly.

He pressed his face in and bit into either cheek of her pert ass. Feeling the firm flesh flinch beneath him as he slid two fingers into her pulsing sex. She was so wet, warm and tight around his fingers, that he distantly worried about how she could possibly take him.

He wasn’t sure how he knew to pleasure a woman, nor that he had any experience. His body was simply moving through instinct. As his fingers worked his clit and thrust inside her, Jace ran his tongue along the length of each of her lips.

Savouring her taste.

Like a spark of electricity jumping between them both, they gasped as desire flooded the room like a palpable scent. Joanna pressed her rear into his face, and retreating his fingers, Jace drove his tongue in their place. For a several minutes he sucked and lapped and thrusted his tongue inside her. His finger rolled and teasing her bundle of nerves.

“Enough… enough- handsome,” Joanna panted and reaching under herself she cupped her sex and pushed his head away slightly. “Keep that up, and our study will be over.”

“Anything for science,” Jace chuckled and standing up he shucked his shoulder and rubbed his still rock-hard dick against the cheeks of her ass.

Joanna shuddered with pleasure and need. “Main- main course?” she asked him breathlessly, and looked back over her shoulder at him. Jace grinned and slapped his shaft against her firm butt.

“Indeed,” he replied and ran a hand up her back, and through the messy high pony tail of her silken blonde hair. “Would you like it rough or gentle?” he asked her and wrapping his hand in her hair, he tugged lightly.

“Can … we do both? You’re quite big,” she replied panting as Jace continued pulling on her hair.

“Of course. Anything for you,” and leaning down he sucked the tip of her long-pointed ear into his mouth and guided his swollen head between thighs and angled down to press to the opening of her slick sex.

Joanna barked a gasp and shivered as Jace slowly began to slide inside her and moaned as he nipped and sucked on the point of her ear. “FUCK! go … go slower,” she panted. And he did, slowly inching his way inside her wet vice of a tunnel.

“Tell me when you’re ready,” he whispered in her ear and tugged her hair arching her back off the bed. He didn’t move, and felt himself thrust deeper a few more inches as Joanna slowly glided down his length, taking more of him and swallowing his shift with her pussy an inch at a time.

“Oh, fuck. You’re soo fucking tight,” Jace breathed huskily beside her head and bit the stem of her long ear. He felt her wall clamped almost painfully around him, and he pulled her hair hard. Joanna moaned and shook as she finally impaled herself on his massive dick. Her labia stretched obscenely wide, yet she wasn’t in any pain.

“I’m ready,” she husked back and rolled her rear against the base of his shaft.

“So it seems,” he grinned and biting his lip, Jace leaned back—still keeping one hand on her hair and slowly pulling—he slid the wide girth of his dick back out. The entire time Joanna’ walled tried to strangle his shaft and roll along his length, as she bucked back into him trying to keep him inside her. He withdrew until only the head of his cock remained.

“Don’t you dare pull out,” she hissed over her shoulder at him. Cocking one eyebrow Jace watched as she wiggled her rear and started to engulf his cock once again. Apparently she had gotten used to him rather quickly. Slapping his hand against her left cheek harshly, he felt Joanna flinch and bucked back quickly. At the same time, Jace thrust his hips forward and slammed into her.

He pulled on her hair and arched her back until she bowed backward, reaching around he gripped her dress and tore the front of it off, exposing her small breasts and tiny pink nipples. She gasped and then moaned, her sex erupting and her juices flooded, and swarmed around his shaft as he pinched on of her nipples roughly.

“I make the fucking rule,” he whispered huskily in her ear and nipped it. Joanna surprisingly orgasmed again on him.

“You make the rules,” she moaned. And Jace began to wildly thrust back and forth into her. She bucked and cried out his name and Jace saw only her pleasure, her wants, desire, and words fell unbidden from his and hers lips. Words neither of them understood or knew.

“I’m gonna- cum. Oh- fuck!--” he growled out.

“Do it in me, handsome. Fucking cum inside me!” Joanna screamed out.

Slamming inside of the willowy mender, Jace cried out as he erupted deep inside the elven woman. Joanna’s own orgasm exploding through her in a gushing wave, and she bucked beneath him as he filled her, shooting deep inside her welcoming womb.

Panting and swaying Jace collapsed onto the elven woman’s back. His mind a fog, and filled with the hazy afterglow of incredible sex.

Rolling to his left onto the bed, his spent cock still deep inside Joanna. He clutched her back to him, his arms wrapping around her and holding her as she shivered mindlessly through the aftershocks of her orgasm.

“Fuck,” Jace breathed against her neck, causing her to cry out again. He felt her fluid gushing against his thigh. And slowly his dick started to harden inside her. Joanna rolled and rocked her ass back against him.

“Round two?” she asked him pleadingly, then cried out in pleasure as Jace thrust his hips and buried himself deep inside her once again.

~*~*~*~

Shouting awoke Jace sometime later, and he sat up in Joanna’s bed, his heart pounding. He was beginning to get used to his nightmares. But that one had made the cookie crumble. The elven beauty snored softly beside him. The naked slender curve of her lower back, enticing him for another round.

They’d fucked most of yesterday and well into the evening. Ate dinner. Then screwed their brains again, and again. Each time, Jace was left feeling woozy, his mind hazy. Yet each post sex break, he felt an easing of pressure and tension he hadn’t known he’d been carrying, slip away from him.

Joanna had been fierce in what she wanted, and apparently his complete disregard for her teeth—something that apparently all elves whether they were sun, moon, or woodland had—was something she had never known. And they spent one session simply biting each other as they fucked. Then sixty-nine(d) as she had swollen his cock completely.

His dick now growing hard again, from recollecting the past few hours. He felt a swell of protectiveness for this woman. She was his now. And he was hers. And that wasn’t just it, the bond between them went deeper. Jace felt an awareness of the sleeping elven woman. A portion of his mind filled with thoughts of only her.

Looking down at the curve of her lower back and leading to her pert ass, Jace reached out to run hand over her sun-kissed skin. A shout from outside stopped him, and frowning he slid off the bed.

It was dark out, and Jace guessed it was somewhere in the region of five o’clock in the morning. The sun would be rising soon—if he could see if that is.

Standing he got dressed in the clothes Joanna had gathered for him yesterday and stepped over to the door, sliding his socked feet into a new pair of boots.

The door jarred as someone pounded against it. “Joanna!” a voice recognised called out. Opening the door he greeted Gerard, the half breed elven-dwarf.

“What’s wrong? Is it the wretches?” he asked and flung the door wide.

Gerard’ eyes bugged at seeing him, “no. It’s not them. People have arrived at the village gate. They need medical attention.”

Jace nodded, about to turn around when a hand pressed against her lower back. Looking down, he saw the tired eyes of his elven lover. “I’m ready, Gerard,” Joanna said firmly. She looked up at Jace and smiled tired.

“I’ll come along,” he told her, and turning back to Gerard he asked, “is Maypor about?”

“Yes. She is already at the Menders shop,” the burly half-breed replied.

“Menders shop?” Jace asked curiously.

“My shop, handsome,” Joanna cooed and snatching up a satchel hanging from a peg by her door they marched out.

It was so dark that Jace had trouble seeing where he stepped. Narrowing his gaze partially he focused, like he done several times now with his hearing. The ground and nearby building, cleared and became more than just vague shadowy outlines.

Some residences had soft light glowing from within, and Jace imagined they had probably been woken up by all the shouting. “How many people live in this village?” he asked as they moved through the empty street.

“Eighty-seven,” Joanna supplied, “though most of them are families.”

“Huh,” Jace grunted, he was actually quite surprised that many people lived here. Yet, again all he had seen of the village was a few houses from the back of Maypors wagon.

They arrived at Mender’s shop shortly after. Maypor stood outside, her arms folded over her chest. Her face was a stricken mask of concern and anger.

“Ah, Jo, you’re finally here,” Maypor grunted as a way of greeting.

“What’ve we got, May?” Joanna asked and pushed passed her to the door of her shop.

“It’s the Shaw’s. Well the girls at least,” Maypor replied and entered in behind her.

Jace frowned as walked inside, and his eyes immediately locked onto the two forms sat down leaning against one another on a patient’s bed. “Athena?” he asked. The grief-stricken young fox-woman’s head snapped up at his voice.

“J-Jace?” she asked, her voice quivering. Hopping off the bed she lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his chest, burying her face and sobbing. Then another pair of arms encircled his right side, a second pair of fox ears twitching.

Marcia was hugging him. Something’s not right. Where…?

“Where’s Gabrielle, Douglas and Cain?” he asked them.

Athena sobs against his turned to heart wrenching whimpers. Jace’s soul crumbled as his mind raced through the all the possibilities.

“Dad. He’s… dead,” Athena cried.

Damn…

“But, where’re the kids?”

“They’re sleeping,” Marcia murmured softly, her arms moving off of Jace’ side to encircled her daughter from behind. Squeezing her between them both. Jace reached out and enveloped them and soon even Marcia buried her face in Athena’s hair. Tears spilling silently down her cheeks.

“Dah-Dah?” came a curious chirp, and looking ahead Jace saw that Joanna was knelt beside a cot.

“Let’s go see the kids, shall we?” Jace murmured to both fox-women. The instance Gabrielle saw Jace, her tiny face alighted with glee and she threw out her grasping hands. “Bah-bah!”

“Hey stinker,” he laughed and crouched to give Gabrielle a hug. The chubby fox-kin-baby squealed as Jace spun in the tight space between beds. “God I missed you,” he breathed and held tightly to her. And I’m never letting you go.

Sometime later after Joanna had given the all clear, she gave Jace a kiss and scurried across her shop to start preparing for the day ahead. Jace sat down, and between him, Athena, and Marcia they fed Gabrielle and Cain.

“So what happened?” he asked finally.

He was surprised yet again, as Marcia answered him. She hadn’t hissed, growled, snarled, nor accused him since this morning. Now she was down right softening towards him. Just took some karma, guilt, and the death of her husband to make her see sense. Being alone and isolated was a fine thing. But isolation can lead to dissociation and paranoia.

She hadn’t trusted him, either because he was human, or because he was a stranger. Now, she was depending on the kindness of strangers and at the same-time maybe trying to assuage some of her guilt.

Jace wouldn’t discount this blessing. Marcia was an attractive woman. She had a lean, feral maturity that Athena lacked. I suspect ‘lacked’ is the prime word there. Whatever happened, its sharpen her edges, he thought. And might’ve even dulled some of Marcia’.

They were still ruffled, dirtied, and grey eyed. The long shallow scratches around Athena face and neck, looked sore and red, and in need of stitching. She kept unconsciously patting at the hair on the side of her head. He’d already seen the small bald patch there, and guessed that there was a story behind it.

Her clothing was now what passed for men’s baggy breeches, suspenders, and a thick woollen shirt pushed to bursting by her huge breasts. The boots she wore were too big for her feet, and clunked dully as she rocked her feet back and forth.

Her tail was wrapped around her leg down one of the pant sleeves.

Marcia wore a cotton dyed blue dress, that display her cleavage tightly in a deep V. Only partially covered by the jacket she wore, three sizes too big on her lean frame.

Her tail swayed idled out behind her, as her ears drooped. “They attacked us a few hours after you left,” her face felled towards the floor, her eyes closing. “We thought… we thought they had all chased after you. After all Douglas and I heard them say it was you they wanted. And we had hoped…”

She glanced briefly up at him, and Jace nodded for her carry on. He had been hurt by their hope at the time. But the last day or so—or however long it had been—had been such a blur that he had mostly forgotten about it by now.

He wasn’t in the business of forgiving everyone. But then again, the Shaw’s hadn’t betrayed him, nor pushed him to make the choice he’d made. Still, it had hurt. But he didn’t blame them.

Now Douglas is dead. I brought that on them. Maypor and I should see about visiting the Shaw’s lot and seeing the damage for ourselves. Might even find something worth saving.

“There were too many of them,” Athena said, and cleared her throat as it clogged with emotion.

“There were,” Marcia agreed, “Douglas told us to run and try and find safety. After hours of walking through the forest we found Maypors farm.” The older fox-woman shot a glanced at Maypor who was no listening intently.

“It was wrecked. The wretches were eating a Lurka carcass outside. So we managed to sneak inside the main house. We were both looking for supplies,” this she added and bowed her head apologetically to the old-woman.

Maypor waved her hand dismissively, “nothing to worry about. I had already decided to abandoned that place a month ago, when this whole shit started. Whatever you found was fair gain. The important stuff I still hold with me,” Maypor said and tapped her temple.

“Then we were attacked upstairs. Three came after Cain and I, while another entered the room Athena and Gabrielle were in.”

The two fox women looked at each other, and Jace could see the bond between them. The love and care they held, and how thankful they were the other was still alive.

“I was so frightened,” Athena breathed and hugged herself. Jace put an arm around her shoulders and comforted her, pressing a soft kiss against her twitching fox ear. The fur on the ear as soft as silk.

“You fought well,” Marcia cooed to her. And once again Jace was struck by the transformation of the older fox woman. Maybe she’s always been like this. Just guarded around strangers.

“Yeah, and then pissed myself doing so,” Athena retorted, and then sighed, “sorry aunty.” Aunty? Wait- what?

“Its fine. But you did fight well. That thing whatever it was that attacked you, wasn’t normal.”

“Thing?” Jace asked them, his mind drawing up the familiar image of the cephalopods. The small squid-like things he’d either killed or crushed on a half-dozen occasions.

They both described exactly that to him. What he did fine odd though, was the fact that the cephalopod tried to enter Athena’ mouth.

The thought made him shuddered to think of. He looked at Athena and Marcia for a long moment. Gabrielle dozing quietly against his chest. Could it be their ears? Or is it that they can’t survive for long outside of a wretch’s body? Or maybe… Athena suffocating it actually drove the squid out of the body. But she said, she felt it move up the throat. Jace shook his heads. He had soo many questions and nobody around had any solid answers to give him.

Looking Maypor, Jace titled his head. “May?”

“Hmm?” the old woman hummed questioningly.

“What say you and I, go check out the Shaw residence?”

“Wait- what? You can’t go out there,” Athena gasped and pleaded with him. He saw Marcia nodding her agreement.

“You’re an alchemist, correct?” Jace asked looking at Marcia. The fox-woman actually blushed at his questioned.

“Of some … renown,” she admitted in a mumble staring at him.

“And I guess your alchemy supplies are back at the house?” he inquired.

“Yes, they are,” she sighed. “Neither of us had enough time to grab them.”

“Great,” Jace clapped and jolted Gabrielle awake. The baby squirmed in his arms and quickly fell back asleep. “Then May and I will go collect it.”

“But, Jace-”

“We need those supplies,” he told her softly and rubbed her back. He noticed Joanna then, watching them all intently. I really need to talk to her, he thought with a mental groan. His day had started brilliantly. Now it simply sucked eggs.

Instead of a day spent pounding Joanna into the bed. Or comforting Athena and Marcy as they mourned. Or even playing with Gabrielle, or reading with Cain.

He was once again, going into danger. And wasn’t at all worried that a part of him was delighted at the notion.