Chapter 31 The waiting game...

I walked down the hallway, feeling the flush of victory, even if that victory was a little hollow. As it was I had done little to actually hurt her aside from her pride. As it was she was still free to pull this against any and every adventurer new in town, and it was more than likely she was going to do so. And now I had the problem of not knowing how to proceed, I felt some sort of moral obligation to actually fully deal with that witch but I had no real way I could think of taking her down. For the next few weeks, I would be watched, literally followed around by this Earla, and we were required to stay in town. I had no doubt that Lady Brandmount’s words were true, and that she would find a way to make sure I had nothing to my name, I glanced over at Sarena. She had that distant look in her eyes, like she was contemplating something, reading her was hard sometimes, she often had this faraway look in her eyes, like she was not actually there, not actually standing next to me. As we entered the foyer I turned and looked at Earla, she was still scarlet red but she had gained some sense of her original demeanor again. “She wonders,” I paused as I looked over at her, “how long is this investigation? Hmmm?“

“Should be anywhere from a week to two,” she said with a slight shrug as she followed us out of the door and into the sunlight. It was a warm day, well warm for the middle of winter this deep in the mountains that was. The snow was still laying on the ground, at least a foot thick most places with drifts of two or three feet in some of the more aggressive hills of snow. Some of the drafts had fully covered and practically buried the low sitting houses, leaving the city looking like a series of small rolling snowy hills. But the sun was shining, and the wind had decided not to blow.

“And she is not allowed to leave the city correct?” I asked, breathing in the air.

“That is correct,” Earla nodded, “aside from that I will need to read any correspondence you write and-”

“Wait,” I looked at her “you need to read her letters?” I asked looking up at the guardswoman.

“Yes,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

“She wonders if you can read Khatan?”

“No...” she looked suspiciously at me “why would you need to write a letter in whatever language that is?” she folded her arms across her chest, but before I could answer Sarena did for me.

“She exchanges letters with her sister, a fellow Khatan, they are pretty regular about it,” she shrugged, the cold weather still not affecting her choice of clothing as she was wrapped in a protective shell of magic. “She doesn't even tell me what is in those letters, good luck getting her to tell you.” she smiled but Earla looked annoyed and a little peeved.

“We do have a scholar in languages, if he can read it then we can allow the letters to go through, but only if he can read it, what language did you call it?” she asked pulling out a small pad of paper and producing a metal quill. She turned something on the quill and quickly began writing before turning the back half of the quill the opposite way and looking back up at me. She saw my eyes on the object in her hand and she held it up for me to see. “Its called a pen, some inventor by the name of Penbroke made it, its a mobile quill, you store the ink in the back half of it and when you turn it allows two holes to match up and the ink inside to drip out down to the point, allowing you to write with it, it has made our jobs much easier.”

“She is sure,” I said looking at it, such a simple design, but effective. “Rinmua’s language is named the same as her people, Khatan, it is very different from what she is speaking now.”

“Kaaahhhhaaaattttaaaaannn,” she spelled it out as she wrote, “Ok, well I will send this along before us, also out of curiosity how is it different? Also, why do you speak like that, not using I or my or anything?”

“She thinks that is due to the fact that many of her people’s words are not vocal, but actual physical gestures, when referring to one’s self her people just assume that a person is talking of themselves unless said otherwise, we do not have those words,” I shrugged. “As for language differences there is a lot more sounds and gestures in her people’s, it is difficult...” I shrugged.

“Can you read?” she asked showing me the pad of paper, I didn't even look at it just shook my head.

“Rimua cannot read this language or any language besides her own.” I shrugged, but that had Sarena looking at me oddly.

“You cannot read?” she asked looking at me strangely.

“Not in Sarena’s language no,” I said plainly with a shrug, “besides she has you, and she knows you can read the language.”

“Yes but that is something you need to learn, what if I am not around?” she asked. Those words felt like a hand had gripped my heart and squeezed with all its might. My eyes went wide and I pressed myself up against her side.

“Where would Seri go?” I asked looking up at her with the biggest saddest eyes I could muster. “Rinmua wishes you to stay with her!” I rubbed my head against her side purring slightly.

“Oh don't even try that,” she said, her eyes narrowing, she put a hand on my forehead and bodily pushed me back. Almost instantly I felt as though I had stepped out into the cold after being in my warm Cham, the heat of her body gone much much too quickly. “Those sad eyes only work when I allow it,” she said with a smile curling up one side of her mouth. “That is what we are doing these two weeks, we are going to be teaching you how to read.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I groaned out loud, my eyes turning skyward as the ears on my head laid flat against my skull in agitation. “Oh come on little kitten,” she cooed, her hand stroking the patch of fur under my neck, rubbing lightly under my chin. “It will be fun,” she said as I attempted to fight the betraying purr that was attempting to rumble in my chest…

***

“No, that is I as in first person, when referring to oneself,” she sighed and sat back, “you really do have trouble with self-reference don't you?” she asked as she massaged the bridge of her nose no doubt in order to lessen the headache I was causing. I glanced over at Earla, who was playing some sort of card game in the corner of the room by herself, moving and stacking the cards in rows and columns, using her pen to mark down a score. “Kitten focus...” my eyes drifted back down to the book in front of me. It was a rather large and boring book about how to be financially successful and learning about accounts, or so it would seem from what I was able to puzzle out. I was on page four, and it had taken me the past hour or so to get here.

“She doesn't even use them in speech, it might just be impossible for her to understand them,” Aldria said, I glanced over at her, seeing her curled up in the corner of the room, using an overstuffed chair and reading some other no doubt less boring book. This book was hers, as was this house, and it was a rather nicely appointed one at that. She had been kind enough to let us study here, where there were many books in this damnable language.

“No, she can get it, my little kitten is not stupid, just not very motivated right now, isn't that right Rin?” I looked over at Sarena and nearly fell out of my chair as she was right in my face, leaning over the table.

“She gets it, she can read it in her head but out loud...” I sighed, we had been at this for nearly two weeks now, two full weeks of doing nothing to stop that bitch that had caused the death of my party as well as almost enslaving me, not that we could even talk or plan anything when Earla was around, which she was constantly. This past two weeks she had been with us the entire time, even sleeping in our room. Apparently her husband was used to things like this as she often got the long patrol routes that were outside of town, but still, it was a rather long absence, and in all that time I had not been able to so much as kiss Sarena, knowing that I would not be able to stop myself. I felt frustrated, bottled up, I needed to be released, but there was nothing to it…

“Try again, read from the top of the page out loud,” she said sternly, Seri was a difficult taskmaster that much was for sure…

“Fine, fine she will read out loud...” I looked down at the book and as I did so it seemed like the words on the page swam and moved about for a second, jumbling and scrambling around before settling down in a different order than previously. “Can she have a book that does not suck?” I asked, looking up again.

“No, now read.” Sarena narrowed her eyes.

“Rin wants Aldria’s book, she seems to like it, always blushing and laughing, it seems like it would be much more fun to her than this boring book,” I said, pushing the thick volume away from me, sliding it across the desk.

“What?” Aldria looked up her eyes wide and her cheeks darkening, “no no no, you wouldn't want this book it is really bad and boring...” she tried to give a wan smile but sort of failed half way through. “Really really boring stuff!” she nodded a little too vigorously.

“Then why are you always giggling and laughing under your breath?” Earla asked looking up from her card game, staring a the woman.

“No reason, no reason at all!” she pressed the book against her chest protectively.

“Perhaps a different book would be good,” Sarena said, her eyes narrowed at Aldria. Without warning, all three of us pounced on the woman, who opened her eyes wide and attempted to scramble out of the way, but she was a banker and we were three women who worked more physical jobs. I wrapped my forepaw around her ankles taking her down as she attempted to run. The book slid across the floor and hit the wall on the far side of the room. Sarena and Earla both pounced seconds later pinning the woman down and holding her there, freeing me to scramble after the book.

“No!” Aldria wailed piteously from under the mound of other women as she reached out and attempted to grab the book reaching her arm across the floor for it. I dashed over and grabbed it, turning it over and looking at the page that it had fallen on.

“Well come on Rin read it already!” Earla called out. “We can't hold her forever, she is pretty slippery!”

I blinked a few times and began reading, only slightly stilted. “her hips rocking back to meet his thrusts,” Already I knew what type of book she had been reading… “her chest lowering closer to the ground so that she could get a different angle. He groaned and leaned forward, burying his face in her neck, breathing in the scent of her brown hair, breathing her deeper with each thrust.“ It was still stilted but everyone in the room had understood what I had read, Aldria had turned bright red and was resting her face against the floor, most of it shrouded in her hair as she groaned out in embarrassment. Smiling wickedly I continued reading...

“Her tail which had just been pinned by his chest worked its way free to the right side, and began walking him against the side.” Ahh, so this one had a beast race woman in it did it? So not even the normal type of raunchy book…” He lifted his head and looked at her, her cheek pressed against the cold tile surface of the building they were resting in, her ears were cocked forward, flat against her head, adorably submissive. He pulled back and moved her hips, adjusting the angle. Sliding into her this time caused her right leg to scrabble at the slick surface of the tiles, almost like a dog’s did when you pet them just right.”

“STOP PLEASE STOP!” Aldria screamed but her screams were soon cut off by Seri holding a hand over the struggling woman’s mouth.

“Keep reading kitten, you are doing quite well, getting much quicker and better,” she said, the smile wicked on her lips.

““Oh,” he smiled at her, stopping his movements, “Is that the spot?” he asked, sliding back into her and watching as she bit her lip and her leg once again scrabbled against the tiles. He amused himself by slowly sliding in and out, listening to the wet suction sounds they both made as he entered her and watching her reactions. She crushed her lower lip between her teeth stifled a moan that turned into a yell as her walls spasmodically tightened around him, releasing gushing liquid as she fell limply against the floor, only held up by his hands on her hips. “Yep,” he laughed softly to himself, his voice deep and rough, “I think we found the spot.””

”NOOOOOOOO!!!!” Somehow Aldria had wiggled her head and gotten away from Sarena’s hand. She had somehow bucked Earla off and was currently attempting to claw her way towards me with desperate strength dragging Seri along with her.

I smiled and turned the page and kept reading as Earla threw herself back on top of the struggling woman once again arresting her movement.