Sleeping in a tent is considered to be one of the more uncomfortable methods of resting known to man. Especially given how used to comfortable beds most people are. There is a massive market for methods to make camping more comfortable and an equally large consumer base of people that either entirely subscribe to the idea of camping in comfort, or avoiding the whole process and just making do with the ground. It wasn’t quite as divisive as ‘hot vs iced coffee’, but it was still a point I remembered people complaining about back in high school. Considering the various contraptions that had been designed over the years to improve the experience, it was definitely a profitable market too.

I honestly hadn’t hoped for too much comfort when the girls had told me that we would be camping overnight. I had even less hope when I saw the thin bedrolls that they’d brought for us. That was why I’d pitched the tent somewhere that had lots of soft grass to act as a mattress. Apparently, it had been a good call. By the time I made it back to the tent after securing the food bag up in a tree to protect it from scavengers and rinsing the cook-pot out, Rieka was already asleep in a bundle of blankets at the back of the tent. Her clothes were folded neatly next to her head with her spell rod on top within easy reach.

Kassandra was waiting for me on the other side of the small tent, smiling gently and having already changed into her sleeping outfit. Her sleeping outfit was a long sort of tunic/dress that fell below her hips in a pale green color, and that was it. She’d removed her glasses already and her inquisitive brown eyes watched me enter by the steady light of the glow-stone that Rieka had used earlier. Kassandra silently helped me strip off my armor before urging me to get comfortable while she laced the door closed and re-wrapped the stone that was providing light. With that done, the interior of the tent was plunged into a cool darkness that was slowly beginning to warm up. The material of the tent was an oiled canvas that acted as a decent insulation, for all it had been heavy as all get out when I was setting the tent up.

I didn’t have any sleepwear, given that I only got to bring what I was wearing with me, I had to make do with what I had. With some thought, I decided to just strip to my boxers and use my dad’s old trick of rolling my pants up and stuffing them into my shirt to serve as a pillow. I was kneeling on the small pile of blankets that was my bedroll, making sure that my sword was within reach, when I heard the quiet rustling of Kassandra’s scales against the ground-cloth.

“Get comfortable and then I’ll join you, Liam. Just to sleep. I did promise Rieka after all.” Kassandra teased in the near-complete darkness. The promise and temptation in her voice was thick enough that I could almost taste it in the air. I didn’t resist her urging, I may be an idiot around women but I wasn’t entirely braindead…

Lying flat on my back, I used the bundle as a pillow for my head and tugged the blanket over top of myself. The padding underneath me was lumpy, given the grass wasn’t meant to be a mattress but was doing the job anyway. It was more comfortable than the hard ground at least. Once I stopped moving, I heard a rustle of movement before the blanket shifted and Kassandra burrowed into my side. Her scaled tail slid down along my legs, under my feet and then back up the other side before twineing around my arm to maximize contact. She tugged her blankets over top of us before wrapping an arm over my chest and snuggling into my side.

“Mmm…warm.” She purred, rubbing her head back and forth. This caused her soft mane of hair to tickle my side and filled my senses with the cinnamon and musk scent of her.

Any concerns that I’d had before about Kassandra not actually being comfortable around me and just leading me on promptly vanished as she dropped off to sleep almost immediately. I was gratified that both the girls felt safe enough around me to drift off that quickly. Though now that I was the only one awake, my brain continued to run away from me while thinking about what Kassandra had said earlier and the feeling of her soft body against mine. It was hard not to, given how affectionate that she was…

It took several more hours before I could finally get myself to drift off to sleep, and I spent most of it wondering what in the world it was about me that had this firecracker of a girl so interested. The scent of her didn’t help me relax either.

<><><>

Sleeping on the ground was difficult, something that was expected. What was more difficult and entirely unexpected though was getting Kassandra to let me go when the morning finally arrived. Honestly, I should have expected it, but I had other things on my mind.

The tent had worked wonders at keeping the heat in the previous night. Add in the extra blanket and I would have been rather toasty if it wasn't for the fact that I was being required to produce enough body heat for three people that night.

Sometime in the night, Rieka had shifted from her spot on the other side of the tent pole over to the half of the tent that Kassandra and I were sleeping in. She’d snuggled into Kassandra’s back and it wasn’t until she stirred that I woke and realized she was there. Kassandra’s position didn’t shift in the slightest all night, other than to occasionally press herself into my side a bit more. At least not that I noticed.

“Morning.” Rieka rasped, clearing her throat a bit while rubbing at her eyes.

“Sleep okay?” I asked over top of Kassandra’s head. I could see a dull light coming through the laced opening of the tent and it was just barely enough to silhouette Rieka.

“Yea, got a little cold for a bit, but Kass had the right idea. You put out enough heat for all of us.” Rieka teased lightly, stretching her arms over her head with a quiet groan. “Okay, I’m going to get changed and go start making breakfast. You get to start waking the snooze-string here. Give it about five minutes and I’ll have the fire going again and that should help get her moving.” I had to smother the laugh at her nickname for the still-sleeping Kassandra, but nodded in agreement.

“Got it.” I shifted the arm that had ended up draped over Kassandra’s shoulders and down her back so that I could instead stroke her hair gently. “Kass. Time to wake up.” The aforementioned ‘snooze-string’ grumbled quietly and pressed her face harder into my side while Rieka snickered nearby.

I glanced up to make a comment to the laughing wolf-kin and froze, my mouth going dry at the sight. Rieka had moved to the other side of the tent and was getting dressed, but the watery light leaking into the tent was just enough to halo her and highlight the slim curves of her body. Kassandra wiggled again and that broke me out of my staring just as Rieka turned and I saw the soft bounce of her bare chest while she was changing.

Focusing instead on the clinging dwarf lamia, I continued to try and wake Kassandra up. She just grumbled more, waved the hand away, or turned so that she could hide her face in my chest as I poked her cheek, teased her ear, or patted her lightly on the shoulder.

A rustle of cloth told me that Rieka had left the tent, though it wasn’t hard to miss as she’d been chuckling quietly while I tried to wake the sleeping snake woman.

“Seriously, Kass. Time to wake up. We need to get dressed and ready so we can get the work done.” I sighed, trying to sit up and failing as Kassandra’s grip on my chest tightened with a quiet growl. Looking down, I spotted a lone slitted eye glaring up at me from her position with her face half-buried in my chest. “Ah, so you’ve been awake this whole time, have you?” Kassandra grunted and continued to glare blearily up at me. “Any chance you will let me up?”

“No.” She growled, squeezing with her arms. Her tail shifted as well finally. It slipped around my legs again and squeezed tightly while she closed her eyes again. “Warm.”

A brief inspiration struck me and I figured I might as well try it. Kassandra had always been one who seemed to enjoy indulging herself. I just needed to give her something else that she might want to indulge in more than just snuggling for warmth.

“Well, I guess if that is what you want. I can’t really reach you for good morning kisses if you keep pinning me down.”

The glaring eye was back, but it didn’t last long this time. After a moment, it softened and she sighed gustily.

“Fine…want kisses.” She grumbled and released me.

I knew that the smart thing would have been to scramble away before she snatched me up again, but being cuddled by a cute girl wasn’t exactly a hardship. It was mostly my sense of duty that was forcing me to hurry us along and get up already. The ground wasn’t really a good bed for us to use for cuddling, but it had done well enough. With a beautiful woman beside me, I could forgive a lot of shortcomings from the environment.

Instead of escaping, I shifted down to give Kassandra her ‘good morning’ kiss as I had promised. The redheaded dwarf lamia purred happily into the kiss, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me down on top of her for a bit while we traded several light pecks. After a few minutes, I pulled back and reminded her gently of her words the previous night.

“You did promise no mischief in the tent to Rieka.” I had thought it rather clever to mention that previous promise, but the wicked grin on Kassandra’s face told me I’d missed something important. Something she did not hesitate to point out a moment later.

“I promised not to make a mess in the tent with her there. And Rieka isn't here.” Kassandra said with a still-sleepy grin. She let the innuendo build for several seconds before she broke it and continued. “You are right though, Liam. We need to be responsible. This isn’t a trip for fun. We are here to get work done. So we should get up. Besides, Rieka did say she was going to make breakfast and I do need to get her back for that ‘snooze-string’ joke. Though I could do that just with a bit of mischief in here, given that her sense of smell is stronger than both of ours.” The wicked grin was back.

Hoping to defuse the potential chaos that was brewing in my companion’s mind, I leaned in for another quick kiss before pulling away. This time, Kassandra let me up, though she pouted at me cutely while watching me get dressed. Using my clothes as a pillow meant that they weren’t stone cold, but it still took a bit of hopping about to get my jeans on without stepping on her tail amongst the blankets. Kassandra didn’t stir, instead just watching me with a sleepy smile.

“I’ll make sure the fire is going nice and hot for you. Come on out when you are ready, okay?” I grabbed my armored leather jerkin and sword belt, planning to put them on once I got outside.

“Okay, Liam. Thank you for helping me stay warm last night. I really did appreciate it.” Kassandra said sweetly. The innocence in her statement made me suspicious so I glanced back to check and make sure she wasn’t up to something.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The red-headed dwarf lamia was still laying sprawled in the nest of blankets. Her pale, underbelly scales shone amongst the shadows as she lounged there in the loose sleeping tunic that was partially unbuttoned at the top, exposing far more of the milky skin of her cleavage than I’d ever seen before. I wasn’t sure if it was the shadows of the tent, the folds of her clothes, or reality…but I swore I could see the shadows of two hard peaks on top of those curved mounds, only barely hidden by the light material of her sleepwear. Her auburn hair lay around her like a messy halo that only accented the casual sexiness of the half-serpent woman. The coils of her scaled tail didn’t detract from it at all, just adding a layer of exotic allure to the whole image.

“Anytime.” I coughed before ducking out of the tent. The erection I’d been sporting from sleeping with a beautiful woman snuggled up against me hadn’t faded at all. Instead, it made getting dressed a right pain. After seeing that sight though, it required some care to be able to walk without trouble and I tried to be subtle making those necessary adjustments.

“I’m surprised you got her to let you go that quickly.” Rieka’s voice nearly made me leap right out of those suddenly-tight jeans.

“Ah, yea! Was a bit difficult but I managed.” I said with a laugh, turning towards where Rieka sat by the fire, using one of the logs we’d dragged over the night before as a seat. The fire was going good and strong while the pot hung on its tripod and Kassandra’s little kettle sat heating on the rocks.

“I thought I’d have a bit more time to get breakfast and her morning tea ready, was she dressing?” Rieka's smile was innocent as she patted the log next to her.

“Yea, you could say that. Let me get my armor on first.”

<><><>

I was glad that the girls were there to do most of the collecting for the herbs that they were after. I didn’t know the first thing about how to collect or properly store medicinal herbs after all, or even what to look for. Instead, I stood watch and guarded them while they handled harvesting. Kassandra had a field guide that she’d brought with her to help make sure they were getting the right items. She would refer to it with each item to ensure it was properly cared for.

We’d had a quick breakfast as soon as Kassandra had emerged from the tent, dressed for the day and wearing a jacket against a chill I didn’t even notice. She made sure to stay close to the fire as the early morning sun warmed the land. It made me wonder just how sensitive to the cold she actually was and how much was just a general dislike of the cold. As soon as Kassandra was warm enough to brave the day, we headed out in a long lap around the little valley that cupped the lake and waterfall. We took our time and spent several hours combing the woods for useful herbs and other plants that would fulfill the orders Rieka had collected.

The valley itself was small, with the lake taking up around a third of its total area. A sharp ridge on the same side that the waterfall came tumbling down and a more gentle one on the side of our camp were what we used to define its borders. The river curved along one side and then dropped down into the lake as the waterfall. It then wound out the far side of the valley and down into the hills before flowing off towards the sea. The pond where the river emerged from the mountain was a bubbling natural wellspring, the water rising up from deep below in a pebbled pool that was roughly circular in shape.

“Natural springs are such curious things.” Kassandra had said, pausing at the edge of the pool. The water welled up quickly enough that the surface of the spring continued to ripple and churn constantly before it flowed away into the chuckling river. “We believe that they rise up from deep in the earth due to the differences in pressure, but it’s nearly impossible to tell exactly where that pressure comes from. Is it from the weight of the mountains pressing down on the water table? The churning pull of the tides?” The serpentine woman watched the water thoughtfully for several minutes before Rieka interrupted her thoughts. The wolf-kin had been gathering a collection of curious, blue mushrooms shaped like little plates from the side of a fallen tree that faced the water while Kassandra thought.

“Come on, Kass. Help me with this and stop with the navel gazing. Liam, can you check the waters edge? The chances of finding a mountain lynx out here are small, but not impossible and all animals need to drink. Finding tracks is going to be our best bet of getting one. Though the shore is pretty rocky…”

“You got it, Rieka.” I answered, trading smiles with Kassandra as the dwarf lamia slithered past me to help her friend.

I stood at the edge of the pool, continually scanning the tree line as well as the shallow pond’s edge for any useful tracks. The local wildlife apparently liked this spring as well, given the sheer number of tracks that I was seeing in the few sections of mud on the shoreline. Mostly they were the cloven-hoof marks of deer or other grazers, but I did see several odd marks that I made note of to show Rieka when they were done. The tracks layered over each other a lot too, with many of them having the soft-edged appearance of older tracks. It was while I studied one of the fan-shaped marks that something caught my eye.

The bottom of the pond was covered in a mixture of heavy gravel and larger stones. With the rate at which the water flowed, there was little to no dirt accumulating in the bottom of the spring and no moss on any of the rocks either. The larger stones had an oddly regular shape to some of them that got my brain tickling and, after double checking our surroundings to ensure that nothing was sneaking up on the girls, I stepped out onto one of the larger lumps of rock. Carefully balancing there, I squatted down to inspect the stones.

“Find something, Liam?” Rieka called from nearby and I glanced up to see her sealing the glass jar that they’d been putting the mushrooms into. Meanwhile, Kassandra wiped the small knife that they’d been using to cut the mushrooms free of the log.

“Yea, something about these rocks looks odd…hang on, I’ll bring one over.” My sword was still in its sheath, which meant both my hands were free. So it only took a moment to dip my hands into the icy water and pull one of the larger stones out that I’d been looking at. While squatting there, I noticed something else and filed it away to mention to the girls once I got back to the shore.

Just getting the stone out of the water told me something was odd about it. The stone was oddly regular in shape, roughly shaped like a loaf of bread and quite flat on three of the long sides. With my burden, I carefully stepped off my balancing rock and back onto the shore to meet the girls. Kassandra’s normally playful expression was replaced with one of intense focus and she adjusted her spectacles several times while peering closely at the stone in my hands.

“Is it just me, or does this look like a brick to you two?” I asked them, hefting the stone up in both hands. Kassandra’s eyes widened and Rieka’s narrowed at that statement, but both of them nodded in agreement.

“Looks like granite, so very resistant to weathering.” Mumbled Kassandra while Rieka bent closer to look at the one long side that wasn’t perfectly flat already. The edges of the stone were rounded off, but not heavily. It still had a very distinct ‘brick’ shape to it. “Are there others?” Kassandra didn’t wait for me to answer the question, instead slithering towards the pond herself to peer into it intently while Rieka traced the surface of the stone with her fingertips.

“I see carvings here, they are very faint and worn by the water, but they are here…” Rieka muttered quietly, her nose only an inch from the stone now while her ears twitched in focus. Blinking, I looked closer and started to pick out the patterns of some kind of decorative carvings that looked like leaves on the front of the stone. That led me into mentioning what I’d spotted earlier as well.

“The shape of several of them caught my attention as odd, but when I was fishing this out I noticed something. I need to wade into the middle of the spring to be sure, but I swear I saw marble in there. There is a pile of white stone just off the center in the deeper part of the spring.” Rieka’s gaze darted up from the rock in my hands to lock eyes with me, confusion lingering there for a moment. “Marble, just sitting amongst granite blocks and gravel. Not an outcropping. Broken pieces of marble.”

Realization dawned in Rieka’s eyes just as Kassandra returned, her forehead wrinkling with thought.

“There aren’t any natural marble deposits in this area that I know of. There shouldn’t be any marble here…how did it get here? Why is it here? Who would bring marble up into the mountains like that?” Rieka’s eyes started darting about, checking the mountainside above us and the trees as if they held the answers to her questions. The plain rock of the mountains soaring overhead, a dull red stone that did not match the granite in my hands, had no answers for the inquisitive wolf woman.

“Dunno, but maybe fishing a few pieces out will answer that. Here, I’m going to leave this with you two and go wading. Keep an eye out and shout if anything looks funny. This is making me nervous.” I set the stone on the ground and began to remove my armor, shoes and jeans.

The fact that Kassandra didn’t start teasing me when I took my pants off was clearly a sign that she was as curious and worried as the other two of us. Rieka stood watch while the dwarf lamia studied the carvings intently once Rieka pointed them out. Wearing just my underwear and shirt, I waded into the spring.

The water of the spring was absolutely freezing to my skin. I’d gotten a taste earlier while fishing the block out, but this was entirely different. I did my absolute best to not yell as it crept higher and higher on my legs, but it was a battle. Gritting my teeth, I waded deeper into the spring towards the odd bundle of white marble that I’d seen off center of the spring. I could feel the stirring of water rising up through the loose stones under my feet. The rising water pushed against the soles of my feet with enough pressure that it actually was affecting my balance too and I had to slow down.

Using a touch of my Shape-Shifting power, I focused on giving myself monkey-toes in order to grip onto the loose stones a bit better. Last thing I need is to fall in and get totally soaked. Gods that would suck. I thought while taking a moment to get used to the new gripping power of the appendages before moving forward. It made walking both awkward and easier as I had a better grip but moving the shifted feet through the water felt different.

The water was even more turbulent when I got to the broken pile of marble, rippling enough that I could only see the vague outlines of the white stone. The water was now mid thigh and bone chilling. Taking a deep breath, knowing I was going to regret it if I wasn’t careful, I began fishing in the water for a smaller piece of the white stone to try and bring back to the shore. While I could reach some of the larger pieces, I couldn’t get a good grip on the slick stone. Sighing, I stood up and quickly peeled my shirt off to toss onto the shore.

“Looking good, Liam.” Kassandra called from the shore and I spared them a glance. Both her and Rieka were watching me avidly now and I felt a brief surge of self-consciousness before shoving it away. This wasn’t the first time the girls had seen me shirtless and wouldn’t be the last if the way that Kassandra had been acting earlier was to be believed.

Taking another deep breath, I dunked my head under the water to get a better look at what I was doing.

It was hard to see through the turbulent fluid, the pressure of the rippling water hitting my eyes making me flinch and try to close them. I was able to locate a large piece of white stone and dunk down far enough to get my hands under it before standing up with a yell of protest.

“Augh, that is cold!” I immediately started hurrying toward the shore with my burden in my arms, much to the laughter of the girls.

“Well, at least you managed to keep your clothes dry. Might as well just go bare next time though, Liam.” Kassandra teased while I slopped onto the shore.

“Better him than you, right Kass? You’d probably freeze and pass out only feet out into the water. You should help him warm up.” Rieka added in with a grin.

“Maybe not feet out, but it wouldn’t take long for sure.” Kassandra agreed, slithering backwards as I shook like a dog to try and get as much of the water off me as possible. “And I would help him warm up, but I don’t think you’d be okay with the method I’d use, Rieka.” This made the wolf-kin girl’s cheeks pink.

“Okay you two, focus.” I said through chattering teeth. “I’m almost positive this is marble. Why it’s here though, I’m not sure.” I said while hefting up the roughly oval shaped hunk of stone.

“Uh…Liam.” Rieka’s icy blue eyes were wide as she stared at the piece of stone in my hands. Kassandra was also staring in surprise, her mouth open in a cute little ‘O’.

“What?”

“Look at what’s in your hands a bit closer.” Rieka said, nodding towards what I was holding.

Turning the stone over, I stared dumbly down at the face that looked back up at me from the carved stone head that I’d brought back.

The carved, stone, human head.