Aralen wasn’t sure why he had thought there would be a problem with how many horses they had to return to Alvode with. Of course, his mind automatically expected all four of them to need a horse, and with only three, he had believed there would be an issue, all the way up to the point where Jyce crushed another orb in his hands and the magical stable reappeared. For some reason, he hadn’t considered that of course Penora would want to ride with him. How stupid he was for thinking otherwise.
And so he found himself riding on the bumpy trail with the dryad comfortably sitting behind him, her breasts pressed into his back and her arms wrapped happily around his waist. He had needed to give his spear to Rylei to allow for this arrangement, leaving him feeling vulnerable as he rode through the forest, though the presence of the two adventurers helped with that.
The ride was long enough for Penora to start to get touchy, and while Aralen was okay with her hands roaming his chest and stomach, he couldn’t help but suspect she was building up to something more. Those suspicions were confirmed as her hands started drifting lower and lower, teasing at the waistband of his pants. A quick slap to her wrists stopped her momentarily, but she soon was making another attempt.
“Can you please stop?” Aralen said after her third attempt, finally getting fed up with her distracting touches. She only giggled, her hands moving barely an inch upward in response, and he could tell she wasn’t deterred.
“Penora, I agreed to bring you with me but not to anything more than that. Despite the first night we had together, I’m not ready for that sort of thing yet, and I’d rather get to know you better before doing anything,” he said firmly but quietly, making sure the other two riders didn’t hear him. He didn’t think they’d care, but his embarrassment about the topic was enough to restrain him anyway.
“Darling, you don’t have to act so nervous. I can tell you’re enjoying it, just let me play with you a little bit~,” As she said this, her hand yet again teased around his crotch, where he awkwardly did have an erection, but he swatted her hand away yet again.
“Okay, Penora. We clearly need to talk about this right now. I’m bringing you with me with the hope and belief that you can restrain yourself, and I need you to understand that I’m not entirely comfortable with sexual stuff. Maybe, once I get to know you and you prove that you can rein in your impulses, I might indulge you. Got it?”
Even with her sitting behind him, he could tell that she was pouting, but it wasn’t long until she was leaning forward to whisper in his ear, her warm breath a stark contrast to the chilly wind.
“Alright, Darling, but I will show you how amazing it can feel, eventually,” she said, her voice taking on a sultry tone that made Aralen thankful that the other two riders couldn’t see the fierce blush on his face.
The rest of the journey passed by mostly peacefully, with Penora limiting her touches to above the waistline, and as the sun neared the horizon, the city of Alvode came into view. To Aralen’s surprise, waiting on the side of the road in an oddly comfortable-looking armchair, was Lady Selene, her thick layers of clothing blowing gently in the breeze. To his recollection, he didn’t think he had ever seen the Auralin outside her study and had for some reason believed that she never left it at all. Thinking twice, he realized his stupidity, but seeing her waiting for them was shocking nonetheless. His two adventurer escorts were much less surprised, and slowly guided their horses over to the woman, whose gaze immediately locked onto the dryad sitting behind Aralen.
“Ah, you must be Penora. A pleasure to meet you,” she said with a warm smile.
Penora returned a much bigger smile, though some confusion leaked through into her voice. “A pleasure to meet you too, Miss.”
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to be running a few tests on you and your husband here. They should only take a moment.” With a wave of her hand, the Auralin conjured up some vials and a strange instrument that looked like a miniature spear with the handle colored bright green, only barely longer than her index finger.
Penora looked up at Aralen for permission, though he barely noticed, his mind still recovering from Selene referring to him as the dryad’s husband. When he did, though he nodded, and the pair dismounted the black steed, Penora with immeasurable grace and Aralen with less than that.
“Um, Lady Selene, if you don’t mind. Why are you out here instead of in your tower?” Aralen asked as she performed some trick on the dryad to extract some of her sap-like blood.
“Until I verify that you haven’t just brought me a completely wild monster girl, I don’t think it would be wise to allow her into a city. So I will confirm everything is safe here and ensure every precaution is in place immediately.” Penora didn’t seem to mind either her blood being extracted or the insinuations from Selene, as she stood patiently beside the healer as the tests were run. Her blood filled one of the tiny vials before glowing brightly, and Selene nodded. Then, she thrust the mini-spear into Penora’s upper arm, a bit more harshly than Aralen liked, though the monster girl didn’t even flinch. The green handle immediately changed color, first to a dark blue, then a bright pink before finally settling on a slightly darker magenta color.
“Mr Wilaen, your arm, if you will?” she said, her own arm outstretched towards the elf. He warily presented his arm to her, and she much more gently pricked his arm with a second mini-spear. This time, the color didn’t change for a moment, before it transformed into a darker forest green then finally settling on the same darker magenta color. Selene took a moment to compare the final colors of the two devices before speaking.
“Well, you’ve done well enough, Mr. Wilaen. While she doesn’t appear to be as harmless as other monster girls I’ve met living in cities, she’s much less dangerous than wild monster girls, so I must commend you for that. Unfortunately, she’s still too dangerous to let her loose in the city, so I’ll be placing some wards on her, and you will have to stay with her from now on until I determine she’s safe.”
Aralen nodded at the news, watching Selene as she beckoned Penora closer before placing a single index finger on her forehead. A quick flash placed a small, blue, nebulous emblem on her skin, which glowed brightly momentarily then disappeared. She repeated this process twice more with a green crest on her chest just under her neck and a purple symbol on the back of her neck. She finished with a wave of light that caused the vines and flowers adorning Penora’s body to glow brightly then slowly vanish, her appearance becoming more like that of an exceedingly beautiful elf or human. Seeing that the magic was finished, Aralen decided that then was a good time to clarify something.
“When you say she’s ‘too dangerous’ what does that mean? Am I going to be affected by staying around her so much?”
“According to my tests, Penora’s corruptive abilities have diminished a significant amount, especially with my wards in place, so unless you two go on a sex marathon, you should be fine.” Selene’s slight grin grew as she watched Aralen’s face grow redder, and Penora’s lecherous smile grow wider.
“Yeah… thankfully that’s not on the itinerary,” he said, trying to ignore both Penora’s downcast face and his own embarrassment.
“Yes, thankfully. Also, I will need to do some regular checkups on both of you, just to see if there are any slow-acting side effects to your new situation, and to renew the wards on Penora should that be needed,” she finished as she started to stand up from her armchair, and Aralen watched as it vanished alongside the strange instruments she was using. “You will be staying with me before your trip to Kurolen’s Keep, of course? In that case, I think it would be a shame to walk all the way there. Here, this should be much quicker.” A swirling portal similar to the one in her study appeared before them, and Aralen endured the uncomfortable stretching sensation as he stepped from the city outskirts into his room, Penora following close behind.
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Spending the night in the same room as Penora was a tiring experience, and not in the way most nights with a monster girl are. In fact, it was much of the opposite, as Aralen tried desperately to keep the dryad in her own bed, of which the room Selene provided had two, and from making advances on him. Despite her promise in the forest, she seemed to take great joy in teasing and flirting with him relentlessly, and Aralen found himself incredibly grateful for the wards Selene placed on her. Without them, he had no doubt she would have charmed him and taken him by force, especially with the difficulty he was already having resisting her alluring body and seductive words.
He wasn’t quite sure why he was even trying so hard to resist her, especially since he had essentially signed up for a long life with her at his side. Perhaps it was the reverence his elven culture placed on sex as the final act between two lovers long married, or maybe it was his fear of being changed any more by the monster girl. As he lay on his bed, staring at the wooden ceiling above him, he wondered why exactly he had agreed to bring the plant girl with him, even agreeing to live with her for the foreseeable future.
Of course, Selene’s arguments had been good. Having a live specimen to study was doubtlessly good for her research, and she was definitely the easiest source of information about Lithael and Nylia’s whereabouts. But even so, Aralen felt like he should have put up more of a fight. This was a monster girl he was now sleeping beside, a species created by the Demon Goddess to corrupt people like him. Maybe it’s the Demonic Aura inside me influencing me. Before all this happened, I would never consider something like this…
He felt a rustle in his bed and looked over, brought out of his thoughts. Of course, it was Penora trying to sneakily worm her way into his bed for the third time that night. However, something was different about this attempt, as it wasn’t accompanied by any sultry looks, seductive words, or alluring poses. Instead, she simply shimmied close to him, though not close enough to touch him, and laid on her side, her brown eyes staring directly into his blue ones.
“What’s the matter, Darling? You’ve been awfully restless, is there something on your mind?” Something about the sincerity with which she asked him caught him off guard, making him halt his attempt to push her gently to her own bed yet again. The lack of her usual flirtatious demeanor and the gentleness of her soft voice was very unexpected for the elf, and he didn’t know how to respond.
“No, I’m just… coming to terms, I suppose. Thinking about what’s going on with you being here, what I’m doing in this situation…”
She nodded slowly. “I understand, Darling. I’m still trying to take it all in too, you know. I’ve lived in the forest my whole life, and now I’m here, in this strange city. But I’m with you, so it’s all okay.” Her gentle words gave him pause. He had never really considered how much of a change this would be for her as well, having assumed that her monstrous tendencies would be all she was focused on. Suddenly, he started to feel a little bad for forcing her out of her home and forcing her to come with him, but then he remembered that leaving her alone was a significantly worse option.
Penora must have noticed his conflicted expression, as she moved a little closer and put one hand on his.
“Darling, I’m still ecstatic to have this chance to live with you, no matter where we are. Even if I would have rather we lived in the forest, it’s still preferable to be here with you than in the forest without you.”
Aralen looked over to her, once again reveling in how beautiful the dryad was. Even though he could tell that the charm around her had diminished somewhat like Selene had said it would, her natural appeal was still there. Her human disguise combined with that made it so much harder for the elf to believe she was a danger to him as she cutely looked at him.
“I’m glad to hear that, I guess. Though I still don’t understand why you love me so much. You barely even know me. We haven’t even had more than a few proper conversations.”
She only looked confused at his words. “Why wouldn’t I love you? You’re my husband.”
He just sighed in response, supposing that she was still a monster girl at the end of the day. Once they found a man, they would latch on and never let go, or so the stories said, and Penora was good evidence that they were true. He only hoped she would learn to curb those instincts in time. With a quiet ‘good night’ whispered to her, he slowly allowed himself to sleep, not bothering or not remembering to push Penora to her bed.
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He was a little surprised when he awoke to not find the dryad molesting him, with her instead simply cuddling him closely, her arms wrapped around him as she slept. After a few moments of checking to ensure everything was in place, he concluded that she had behaved herself while he was asleep, and her more innocent presence was actually somewhat comforting as he lay in his bed.
After a few moments of enjoying her warmth, he slowly extracted himself from her arms, causing her to awake with a cute yawn, her arms stretching out into the air.
“Good morning, Darling,” she said groggily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before moving to hug him. He allowed her a few moments, even awkwardly returning the hug for a moment before he gently pushed her away so he could prepare for the day. As soon as the elf was dressed and ready, the pair left their room and walked through the twisting corridors of Selene’s tower until they reached the dining room, where Rylei, Jyce, and Selene sat, eating various meals prepared by Sam, who stood off to the side humming a tune. Aralen and Penora sat down and were promptly handed a plate of eggs, toast, and some fruit each by the elemental, who smiled at them before leaving the room.
“So, how’d you sleep, lovebirds?” Rylei teased, a wide grin on her face as she devoured a plate of food probably three times as large as Aralens’. He tried to stutter out a response, but apparently it was ‘Make Aralen Uncomfortable Day’ because Selene decided to speak up as well.
“So, did you two have sex last night?”
Aralen wasn’t even able to say anything, his mind reeling from the double attack from his mentor and his sponsor, but Penora had no such issue.
“No, but it was still nice,” she said, a combination of wistfulness and dreamyness in her voice.
“Unfortunate. I was hoping to see an immediate difference in your Aura composition. I do still need to take a few samples from the both of you as soon as you finish eating, however.”
“I thought you said not to have sex? Isn’t Penora still potentially dangerous?” Aralen asked, fighting through the embarrassment, but Selene only smiled.
“What I said was no excessive sex, but you are correct that engaging in that could have some repercussions. I simply didn’t expect you to be able to resist her, although I may have misjudged how much abstinence is baked into elven culture,” Selene said while she started to do her magic analysis. “Of course, the decision on whether or not you do partake in sex is all yours. Even if it would provide interesting data on monster girls, my research can wait.”
Something about the interest the Auralin was showing made Aralen think that perhaps there was a reason that Selene chose to become a monster girl researcher, a species where sex was a key part of their lives.
The rest of their short breakfast consisted of the two monster girl hunters explaining what they knew about Kurolen’s Keep. A former castle built by a wizard hundreds of years ago, now it was a ruin mostly populated by aquatic monsters and a peculiar type of elemental golem called brutes. This information was contested by Penora, however, who claimed it was very much not a ruin, and that there had been no monsters to be found. Rylei didn’t argue much, conceding that much of the knowledge about it was old and potentially outdated, but Jyce seemed much more skeptical. They didn’t speak much more about it and were soon saying goodbye to Selene.
Penora was again seated right behind him on their horse as they rode on a northern road through the city, Rylei leading the way to the wizard’s ruins. Aralen didn’t speak much as the group rode through the forest, his mind caught up in the task ahead.
The most prevalent thing was potentially finding Lithael. If the succubus was still holed up in the Keep, and she did have the captain locked up as he suspected, Aralen trusted the cyclops and drow pair to deal with her, and Lithael would finally be free. It still baffled him that the Trading Company was so willing to let a high-ranking guard slip from their roster, and it was eroding his trust in the company. If they were willing to lose a captain, why would they care that a fresh recruit was lost? He supposed that his apprenticeship to the hunters was his way out, though he worried a bit for the other guards, like Eirik. Maybe I could convince him to join me as an adventurer. Perhaps not monster girl hunting, but his skills seem sharp enough to do some average questing.
His thoughts also wandered to Nylia, the threatening succubus, who he very well could run into later that day if things went poorly. While he trusted the two hunters, he didn’t trust himself enough not to fall into some sort of trap or make a costly mistake. But the arms wrapped around his chest as he rode diminished those concerns. The dryad’s skills in combat seemed good enough to protect Aralen well enough should he mess up, and he did not doubt that she would do everything in her power to protect him in the dungeon.
Eventually, the surrounding forest gave way to grassland, and the smell of salt in the air and the low rumble of the waves slowly presented themselves to his senses. Rylei shouted out from the front of the group, breaking Aralen out of his thoughts.
“We’re almost there. Everyone, get ready just in case.” The keep was already in their view, still a decent distance away but easily dominating the landscape, its massive size only made more apparent the closer they got. The only part visible from the surface was the enormous dome, made of a dark gray stone, with dark blue ridges cutting it into eighths and a tall pointed spire capping it off. Certain parts of the ridges were broken off, and a huge section of the dome on the furthest side seemed to have collapsed in on itself.
“Damn,” Aralen whistled appreciatively despite the disrepair, “this was all made by one wizard?”
“Yeah, Kurolen was one scary guy. He’s still kicking around, allegedly, just not anywhere in Eteri. Seems to have moved on to other things, thank the divines. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where he was still a threat.”
Aralen had heard of the realms and planes beyond Eteri, but he had never really given them much thought. The idea that some people simply ascended past the Material Planes was a terrifying one, and he found himself agreeing with Jyce’s words.
They finally reached the foot of the dome, the curvature barely noticeable from their position at the base, as Jyce dealt with their horses and the other three prepared their equipment. Penora had guided them to the entrance of the Keep, a rather unassuming wooden door that didn’t fit with the grandeur of the ruins. They finished their preparations and readied themselves to enter the dungeon, Aralen filled with nerves but also anticipation for his first dungeon crawl.
“Stick with us, stay behind us, and if we run into Nylia or any other monster girl for that matter, get ready to run,” Rylei reiterated to Aralen, who nodded in response before she turned to Jyce. “Ready?”
He nodded and pushed the door open, leading the group into the keep. The interior was dark and damp, the smell of mildew and decay filling the air. Penora scrunched her nose up at the stench, and a moment later the smell was replaced by a faint, sweet scent that was much more pleasant.
“Don’t worry, it’s completely non-magical. I just couldn't stand that awful smell,” she said quickly as she noticed the apprehension on the monster girl hunter’s faces. “But I don’t remember this place being like this. It was a lot cleaner when I was here, and it didn’t stink nearly as bad…”
Rylei and Jyce looked at each other, considering the dryad’s words.
“Well, there’s no way that this place could have decayed this much in just the last two weeks, and it’s even less probable that it hadn’t deteriorated at all before that.”
“I think it’s likely that Nylia was using some kind of illusionary spell to keep the place nice. Succubi aren’t known for settling for poor living conditions, so I’m sure she couldn’t help herself but spruce it up a bit,” Jyce responded before his face turned to one of concern. “But if her illusions are strong enough to renovate this entire dungeon, she could easily have prepared a trap for us. Be careful.”
They trekked further into the depths of the dungeon, the slimy walls and damp floor persisting with each step. Rylei took the lead, a brightly shining amulet around her neck illuminating the way and her war pick at the ready. Jyce followed closely behind, his two swords drawn, and Aralen and Penora took up the rear, a couple of paces behind the more experienced adventurers.
The entire ride to the dungeon, Penora had seemed very calm and unconcerned about the whole thing, but now that they were actually inside it, she was trembling and hiding behind Aralen as they explored the hallways and rooms. I should be the one hiding behind her, he thought with a twinge of annoyance, She’s so much stronger than I am, I wouldn’t be able to protect her at all.
It was clear that the ruins were ancient, as there was little to no furniture, and what Aralen suspected were once beautifully carved columns or intricate staircases were now little more than eroded rubble. Early in their expedition, they encountered old campfires and debris from what Jyce suspected were bandits using the keep as temporary shelter, but no actual brigands showed themselves as they delved deeper.
They did, however, encounter something after a bit of exploring. Turning a corner, the group found itself face-to-face with a group of three grunts. They were short, barely reaching the top of Aralen’s hips, and their bodies looked to be made entirely of mud, with melted, misshapen limbs and faces. The only part of them that wasn’t made of mud were the two gem-like eyes in their deformed face, as well as the stone clubs they were wielding.
“Hey, it’s the little mud guys! I love these things,” Penora cried when she spotted them, drawing their attention. They turned towards the group, raising their weapons as Penora’s face fell, the dryad realizing that they were no longer as ‘funny’ as she remembered them to be.
The fight was short, however, with the two experienced combatants making quick work of them. Rylei’s pure strength created a bit of a mess as her war pick splattered bits of clay and silt across the room, and their soft bodies yielded easily to Jyce’s swords as he cut them to pieces.
Penora pouted as they continued onwards, the grunt’s aggressiveness having upset her, until they reached a staircase that led downwards into the dungeon.
“Nylia’s room was at the very bottom if that’s where you want to go.”
“Sounds like our best bet for now. Let’s go,” Rylei responded as they slowly descended. They managed to find a second staircase without any more trouble, but they were halted in their progress soon afterward.
The lower floors had been getting more damp and smelly, to the point where even Penora’s perfume wasn’t enough to break through it, and they finally reached the point where the dungeon had dipped below the water table. A thin layer of water had been licking at their feet as they stepped through the layer, but their fears were confirmed when they finally found another flight of steps, the water having flooded it entirely.
“Penora, are you sure she was at the very bottom?”
“Yes, I’m certain. The walk down from the surface to our rooms was so long, we must have climbed down at least five levels to get there,” Penora responded confidently, eliciting a sigh from Jyce.
“Well, it’s flooded now, so it’s unlikely that she’s down there now. In fact, she probably left this entire place and we’re just on a wild goose chase,” he said, defeat creeping into his voice, but Rylei interrupted him with a shake of her head.
“We’ve come all the way out here, it would be a waste not to keep looking. And on the bright side, this narrows our search quite a bit. If there are any clues to that succubus’s whereabouts, they’ll have to be above the water, and if we don’t find anything, well, we’ll know that she’s not here.” Jyce didn’t seem sold, but they resumed anyway, leaving the flooded staircase behind.
The layer of water at their feet slowed down progress slightly, but it also gave them a heads up when they heard sloshing from up ahead around a corner. Alongside the sloshing, however, was a loud, repetitive clacking noise that sounded much weightier than the other wet footsteps. Jyce motioned for the rest of the group to stay still, then sneakily peeked around the corner. He almost immediately motioned for them to turn around, and they started making their way silently down the tunnel through which they came. Aralen desperately wanted to ask what Jyce spotted but was interrupted by a new, significantly larger group of mud men coming towards them.
Jyce swore under his breath, before breaking the silence. “Alright, there’s a monster crab in that room back there, probably Abyssal, and I didn’t want the newbies to have to deal with it, but it looks like that plan’s off the table. Rylei, take the back, I’ll deal with the grunts. Aralen, Penora, stay away from the crab if you can.”
The elf wasn’t sure what could make a crab that dangerous, but he heeded the advice anyway, stepping past the cyclops as she moved to protect the back, where watery footsteps were already moving towards them, alongside the intimidating clacks of the crab. He readied his spear as he stood beside the drow, facing off against the mob of grunts. While the previous group was only three, this one must have been at least 20, the brutes constantly merging and separating from each other in their rush to attack.
Jyce really makes this look easy, Aralen thought as he stabbed a mud man only for the spearhead to get stuck in the sticky mud, wasting precious seconds as he struggled to free it while avoiding the heavy but slow swings of its comrades. Meanwhile, Jyce was carving through them like butter, but their sheer number still gave him trouble as he tried to stay away from their clubs. To add to the difficulty, several of them had some hardened armor-like pads on them made of what looked like fired clay, causing Aralen’s attacks to bounce off harmlessly if he aimed poorly.
Even still, they were no match for the elf and drow, and soon their numbers were down to the single digits. Right as Aralen was about to strike down another brute, however, he heard Rylei scream “Move out of the way!” from behind him, and he turned just in time to see her and a massive, blood-red crab charging towards him.
His body was already moving before he registered what was going on, and he landed with a splash at Penora’s feet behind the main fight, barely avoiding a swing of the crustacean's huge, razor-sharp pincer. The crab, a massive thing as tall as the elf was, didn’t stop, and it barreled through the remaining brutes before ramming into the corridor wall. Rylei, who had been hanging on to one of the many giant spines lining its shell, got slammed into the wall as well, causing her to let go and fall, dazed, to the ground.
Jyce yelled out as he ran to help her up and Aralen stood to join the duo in the fight, but an ominous crack stopped him in his tracks. Almost in slow motion, he watched as a fissure formed in the ceiling of the corridor before it collapsed entirely, splitting the hallway in half with a wall of heavy stone rubble, and more importantly separating Aralen and Penora from their companions in the depths of the cold, damp dungeon.