A Daemon-Horn Blade Ch. 05

"You've mentioned the last-born before, who else, other than the race of men was created?" Boyle asked.

"It was only when the Gods feared that the Dragons would at last win and defeat the exhausted, devastated, demoralized and nearly annihilated races of the second-born, that the last races were created. First, in near desperation, Ámyrðria, the Goddess of Lies & Weal either created or summoned the infernal race of Daemons to assist them, but many believe that these wicked folk played both sides for advantages and their own benefit instead. They were certainly not good, valued or even useful allies, and many terrible and wicked things were done once they were loose on this world. Then, in dismay at the treachery of the Infernals, Aðbaernesa, the Goddess of Decay, Death & Rebirth, in her utter despair, created the Eorfleode, the brutal race of Boar-Men. I think I can now understand the misery and anguish that she must have felt then, and her feeling of utter desperation; she sought in haste to create a strong and powerful race that was yet dim-witted enough to be controlled so that the second-born could be saved. Alas, they too were only reluctant warriors for the Gods and soon they sought their own best advantage and in the end they openly joined with the dragons, causing a near total collapse of the remaining forces for good. It is said that the Goddess later renounced her protection of that race, but they still worship a dreadful male aspect of her, Ingui "The Boar that Destroys".

"But what about the race of men?" Boyle impatiently interrupted.

"I was just getting to that part!" The Lore-Master muttered, not entirely disgruntled at the disturbance. "Last of all, when final defeat seemed certain and defeat was all but inevitable, it was Yweorfan, the quiet and peaceable God of Cultivation, who created the human race of mankind... with some slight help from the other remaining Gods. This newly created race of men bred quickly and they understood the duties of honor and loyalty, some say too well, and most were quick to take up arms to avenge and defend their older brethren races. They dutifully and steadfastly fought the dragons and their servants, their kin the night-goers, the Infernals, the Boar-Men, and even some renegade tribes of humans as well, always against impossible odds... they didn't always win, but they never lost any final or decisive battle. They didn't quite win the war all alone, but they certainly changed the tide and restored some balance until the creation of the original seven great Wizards tipped the balance for good. When final victory was won several hundred years later, the second-born all retreated into hidden strongholds to lick their wounds and lament their irreplaceable losses of their kin -- but the race of men thrived, and now it is they that are the focus of the Weaver's and their will. Also after the war, Yfelde Soð began to take increasing credit for the success of the human race and he increasingly claimed them as his own chosen race. I am certain that this new affinity contributed to his Banishment of the other twelve remaining Gods, twenty-two years ago."

"An unfortunate and sad story. But will the Gods ever return?" Boyle remarked.

"It's not an entirely unfortunate sequence of events for us, the race of men!" Rowan suggested. "If the first ones attempted to enslave the later races, perhaps that would have been our fate as well, to either them, or perhaps to the races of the second ones, that still regard us with little but indifference."

"Indeed, quite so. Men are now the undisputed rulers of this world, or at least of all of the parts that they now settle. There are rumors of new prophecies about the return of the Gods, and-or the downfall and punishment of the intemperate Justice God, but they are just that... rumors. I have never heard or read such a prophecy myself." The Foole mused, with a sad look upon his face.

"Why then are Wizards considered a separate race, like the Infernals or the Boar-Men? Were they not then, as they are now, but mortal men? Albeit exceptionally gifted ones?" Rowan asked, with curious frown.

"Well, they are but they aren't." Oddtus muttered, scratching his chin in thought. "Gældra, the Goddess of Spirit & Magic was one of the first to recognize the spirit and potential greatness of this last-born race of men, and she at first selected seven of the greatest humans to be her first disciples, to learn the gift of high magic directly from her feet. She soon learned that she could divide up her own power and channel it, and her will, directly through these first Wizards to evade the proscription against direct divine intervention in the war. It was largely by her power, conducted by the hands of those seven mortals that the Dragons, or the vast majority of them, were slain and their servants and allies subdued. Once the war was over, her seven disciples trained in turn new Wizards, and a magical bloodline of descendants with the ability to channel high magic was established. In penance perhaps, or under the direct will of the Weavers, the Goddess and her Wizards pledged to be the guardians of the balance between the Gods and their children, so that no future war between them could ever again occur."

"But the Goddess of Magic is now dead, foully slain it is said." Boyle remarked.

"Well, she is but she isn't. Nothing is ever absolute when you are dealing with the Gods, and some say that the Gods themselves are just an idea, and as long as that idea exists they can never be entirely destroyed. As she had learned to partition and separate parts of her essence and will, via the seven great magical artifacts given to her original disciples, in fact the seven bright stones of her necklace, parts of herself remain in the world still today. Upon her apparent death, her necklace scattered and the seven stones were strewn across the furthest places of the world. Exactly how and why she was killed remains a mystery. The original seven Wizards were now long gone, and their own disciples in turn lost much of their power accordingly. For the last hundred years since then, most of these petty wizards fell under the sway of either local rulers, such as the great academy of magic in Caestor, where they are now effectively slaves of the Empire, or else they made their own path in the world. There are several great prophecies that she will return and the balance again set aright, but whether they will happen in the late days of this age or in the next is uncertain."

"If Gældra was able to create divine artifacts to divide and partition her power in the hands of mortals, did any of the other Gods manage to do the same? Perhaps some of the divine, weakened but alive, also manage to walk the earth among us also, defying the will of Yfelde Soð?" Boyle wondered with a look of awe on his bright round face.

"That would indeed be a wondrous and a most dangerous thing!" The Histrio muttered, as much to himself as to the lads.

"But if only the Gods could create a new people, how could the dragons create the night-folk, like the goblins?" Boyle still wondered.

"Ah... well... despite their power, being the first and most beloved of the Gods and possessing of great magic gifts, occasionally some... help... was occasionally required, as the dragons did create many different servant and monster races to serve them. This was in the early days still, before the second-born, when the dragons and their kin did pay some slight obedience to the will of the Weaver's and the Gods... and several of them were willing, and even eager to assist their only worshipers."

"So, which God or Goddess... helped to create the Goblins? I'd like to give them a kick in the nads... if you can kick one of the Divine in a spot that would get their attention!" Boyle muttered.

"I can't say..." The Lore-Master replied with an unusually red blushing face and then he pointedly stuck his long-nosed face into a scroll to read in silence for a very while, gradually letting his horse fall back into the column of caravan wagons.

Rowan realized later that 'I can't say' isn't quite the same thing as, 'I don't know'. It was just as well that the history lesson ended when it did, as Boyle had been just about to ask the now disinclined Lore-Master if the Gods had ever bred children with human men and women. Rowan was very sure that he really didn't want to know that answer. He'd heard enough quite enough disturbing things for one day!

**************

Arriving at Roper's Ford in the mid-afternoon of an especially hot day, the lads were a bit disappointed that they just couldn't just take an immediate long break for a refreshing swim. They still had their duties and would soon have to split up so that each could guard both banks of the river as the caravan began to be shuttled across the ford on a pair of large flatboats tied by sturdy rope on both sides of the river. No menace or threat to the caravan was likely, but until the wagons were all safely across the river just before sunset, both Rowan and Boyle were still on watchful duty.

Once the caravan was settled down for the night on the western shore of the river in a large well-cleared camping area that had been used regularly for years, Rowan grabbed a quick bite to eat and walked up-river for a bit to find a quiet private place to swim and bathe himself in the growing gloom. Here the river remained fairly shallow, as Rowan could easily hold his breath and dive down to reach the bottom, and the current was also reasonably slow, not much faster than the Emerald River was as it flowed into the placid shallows of Lily Lake. Even here at the ford, the water was still deep enough most months for trade and merchant ships traveled up and down the river, from Crystal Lake to the towns south where the river met the Great Western Ocean at the port city of Evesham.

Testing the waters carefully, he found that he could easily swim and keep up with the current so that there was no risk of being swept away dangerously further downstream. With a deep sigh of pleasure at being able to exercise his tired and sore limbs and saddle sores, he began to swim briskly back across to the other side of the river, which was still fairly wide here. That took him about fifteen minutes and refreshed he started once again to swim back to the western shore where his clothes were.

Halfway across the river, Rowan discovered that he wasn't alone in the river and he was startled nearly beyond words when the smiling form of a young lady appeared in the water right in front of him.

"You're a pretty fair to strong swimmer." She said. "Care for a race back over to the other side? Loser owes the winner a slight boon?"

Her eyes twinkled with mischief and Rowan's first impulse was to back up a little away from her and make some sort of excuse. He wasn't sure at all what her game was, or even where she'd come from.

"Um... where did you come from?" He stammered, still a bit surprised and at a loss for words. His suspicion that she was also naked, like him, was confirmed when she playfully bumped up against him and he could feel her wet bare breasts for just a moment.

"I saw you earlier with the caravan that came in this evening, across the ford. Tall and strong in the saddle but never talking to anyone. I like strong and silent, and if you really care, my name is Arila. Now, head back to that eastern riverbank as fast as you can! I'll even let you start first! Just think, if you win... and you're ever so much stronger than I am, you'll have me then at your mercy and I'll have to obey. I'm sure there are one or two things you could think of to demand of me!"

With a wink from her pretty face, she turned Rowan around to face the far riverbank and gave his bare ass a pinch with her finger.

"Oooo, nice and tight and firm! I definitely know a thing or two I'd demand from you! Get your ass moving, or with a head-start or not I'll beat you to the other side!"

With a shrug, Rowan started a strong stroke back to the other bank and he figured that he'd have no difficulty at all in beating her, but to his astonishment she soon caught right up to him! She was lithe and swum through the water like a fish and although she was much smaller, she could seemingly take two strokes for every one of his own. He pushed himself to go even faster but she easily kept up and remained next to him in the water. Once he could see the riverbank about a minute away she suddenly burst into full speed and she glided nearly on top of the water and easily beat him to the shoreline.

Climbing mostly out of the water, Arila stood on the river's edge and regarded her prey. Rowan in turn could now well admire her trim but shapely nude form in the rising moonlight.

"For the next hour or two, unless you are an honor-less cad and a scalawag, I will have some not unpleasant duties for you to attend to, certainly starting with feeling your lips pressed against mine."

Confused at this rather forward young lady, Rowan did have to admit that he'd been bested quite handily. If a kiss or three would content her, then that was a price he was well able to pay. He smiled at her and climbed out of the water to meet her. Putting his strong arms around her, he let her kiss him, and it was a more than adequate kiss.

Nearly from the start, Arila's hands began to fondle him, her left hand caressing his tight firm ass and her right hand already stroking his flaccid but still substantial sized cock. Automatically, he in turn began to caress her small firm breasts but fearing that he was being too forward, too fast, he withdrew them. She in turn grabbed his hands and placed them back onto her breasts with a smile.

"Ok, we can add shy to strong and silent... and slower than an ox in the water as well! Well, I'll get some exercise from you yet... but your prick is staying strong but silent as well. Doesn't it like girls?"

"Sorry... yes it does like girls; usually very much indeed, but I recently lost my intended. We were to marry... and I still keenly feel her loss. I have been rude, for which I apologize. My name is Rowan. I used to be a blacksmith in a village called Swanford, just on the Emerald River up to the northeast."

"I accept your apology, Rowan de Swanford. I'm the eldest daughter of the ford-keepers' and I was watching you from the house windows. Mother usually keeps us away from the passing caravans but she lets me go out for a swim in the evening before bed as long as I promise to stay well away from the camp areas. Indeed, I did go the opposite way from it! You can however still kiss me some more until I find a more interesting a delicate place for you to place your mouth and tongue. I can't make you forget her, but with a little bit of effort I'm sure I can make you think of some other things instead for awhile."

And indeed she could!

Her kisses began to warm Rowan all over and the emotional cold that he had been feeling since Cedany's death began to most definitely thaw. Grasping his cock now with both hands, she began to stroke and pump it and when blood began to start to flow into it a few moments later, he began his first erection since her death and his cock began to swell in her hands to its fullest size.

"Ah, you do like girls! You have a very nice sized cock already and I'm not half done with you!" With that she pulled him down to the grass on the riverbank and took him nearly at once into her mouth. Arila apparently had a good deal of experience sucking cocks and Rowan had to admit that she was slightly more talented with her oral skills than his beloved Cedany was. Cedany loved to mostly just swirl her tongue around the top of his cockhead but Arila was a bit better at using her hands and the rest of her mouth in a unified and coordinated assault. Like Cedany, Arila couldn't manage to get his engorged cockhead past the opening to her throat, but she gave it a good try.

When Rowan warned her that he was about to cum, Arila pulled her mouth off of his cock and let it rest for a moment, teasing his shaft and balls with her fingertips.

"Can you cum again, more than once, and soon?" She enquired and Rowan nodded and smiled.

"Sure, if you have the time and patience." He thought that she was going to suck him off into mouth, as Cedany enjoyed doing, but Arila's preferences were different. She wanted to watch his ejaculate shoot... and the higher and further the better, so she was stroking his shaft hard with both hands and concentrating on licking just the underside of his sensitive cockhead. When his load blew, she lifted up her head to watch it sail up through the night air in a great arc and then land onto his belly and chest. Even Rowan had to admit that it was a pretty good cum spurt as they laughed while she gently massaged his cum load into his skin.

For her own pleasure, she liked to be licked much in the same way Cedany had, but Arila liked her pleasure just a little faster and firmer with his fingers also stroking inside of her while his tongue thrashed her clit hard. When she came it took a bit longer than Cedany would have, but it also seemed more intense and Arila was too sensitive afterwards to be licked for any further pleasure.

Looking at the moon, Arila muttered that she would soon have to leave, but first she wanted Rowan to penetrate her, right into her cunt. She had contraceptive herb tea, she whispered and wanted his cock deep inside of her, but she warned him not to cum there. She lay on her back for him to mount her and placed her ankles high up upon his shoulders so that he could take her as deeply as possible. She was no virgin and was well experienced at this sort of love as well, and knew how to move her ass to meet his pelvic thrusts. She was also less tight than Cedany and Rowan had a moment that caused him much remorse later when he thought that Arila was actually a better and nicer vaginal fit for his large sized cock. Still, as he began to thrust harder, his new lover gave him a sudden warning.

"I've got the medicine herb to prevent the growth of a child and I also think I'm safe right now at this moon-cycle, but just to be sure, I want you to pull out at the last minute and cum all over my stomach and tits, or my face if you can do it!"

Rowan was in fact very close to cumming, and after a few more thrusts he did pull out and after giving his cock a few swift strokes in his right hand he did quite cum all over Arila's pretty but slender hips and stomach. A few bold spurts did land further up on her breasts, nearly up to her neck. With delight she massaged the semen into her skin and after a brief kiss she got up to her feet.

"Fun's fun, but I've got to get on home. Race you back across the river and you can owe me some fun again later sometime when or if you come back this way again!" She laughed.

Rowan swam his hardest, but the race wasn't even close. By the time he reached the shoreline she was already dressed and was blowing him a kiss farewell. She easily beat him back to her home as well and Rowan did not see her again that evening, or the next morning when the caravan pulled out early on the coast road heading north to the coast fort and town of Glideuch.

***********

Back at the camp that night, Boyle didn't ask him where he had been for the last few hours. He had seen the delicate smile on Rowan's face and recognized it at once for what it was.

"So, was she better or worse than Cedany... or just different? I saw her sneak out of the ford-house hot upon your heels when you left for your swim. As far as I know, you'd never even kissed another girl other than Cedany before." Boyle asked, giving his pal a laughing poke.

"Mostly just different." Rowan admitted. "I'd traded some fun with a few other gals before Cedany," he admitted, "but never anything serious. When Cedany chose me I was content to never even look at another woman again. It was... different than it had been with her. Skill and experience counts, I guess. I enjoyed it while it happened... but now I'm starting to feel guilty, as if I had forsaken my former beloved. I know she wanted me to go on with enjoying life, but I just didn't think it would be this soon. I don't regret doing it really... but yet I sort of do, like I should have held out longer in her memory, or something."