A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 19: Return

Author's Note:

A Drow's Dilemma began as a one-on-one roleplaying project and has been converted into a chapter-by-chapter format for weekly posting with the permission and assistance from my partner. It will contain a considerable amount of sexual themes such as femdom, lesbian, straight, 'reverse' rape, BDSM, group sex, romance, and other themes. The main goal of the story, however, is to tell an epic tale of adventures, gods and goddesses, fae, and nymphomaniacs. This episode and every episode to come will be available for free on Literotica for the foreseeable future.

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Episode Nineteen: Return

Carlotta stayed where she was for the rest of their night in their makeshift camp between the town and the clearing where the orcs had been. She woke first, having not had her sleep interrupted. The human sat up, forgetting that she wasn't wearing a shirt. She blinked down at herself, then grabbed her corset and put it on before anyone else could see.

Selene was next of the women to open her eyes. She wasn't as peaceful as the human. It was bright and uncomfortable, and she wasn't initially sure where she was. Someone was holding her, just sleeping. She could count on one hand the people she'd actually slept with, just as her older cousin could. Oh. It was her older cousin. That made more sense. The younger drow rolled out of bed, grabbed her robe, and put it back on without the human's embarrassed haste.

"Come on you two." Selene said as she nudged their feet with her foot. Her voice was still a bit irritable, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.

Caleldir sat up too rapidly, which caused the blankets covering his nether regions to fall away, exposing himself for the world to see. His face turned a burning red, and he started to put on his clothing as quick as he could without making the same bizarre mistakes as he had yesterday morning. Then again, what was he worried about? All three women he was with had seen him naked before, in fact, they had all either had sex with him or at least seen him have sex. So any modesty he might have thought he had was far past. Sighing, he stopped moving feverishly, and quietly dressed himself like a normal person, neither flaunting nor hiding. "Good morning, everyone." He said as pleasantly as he could. He still sounded rather self-conscious.

After that, the camp had to be packed up, and a breakfast of bear jerky, roots, and nuts eaten. Then, it was back on the road. Ashyr was perfectly happy to lead them in silence. The sounds of nature had been her only companion for most of the last couple decades; she was used to it. She knew exactly where the town was -- more or less. These woods weren't entirely unfamiliar to her.

"Thanks to our new supplies, we do not need to rest or camp as much today." Caleldir said, "Still, I admit I am rather lost, and do not know how far it is to the town. Do you think we will make it by tonight, or will we be camping out again?"

Ashyr looked to the sun, and then stole a glance toward Carlotta. The human was, quite frankly, slowing them down. It didn't help that she occasionally got distracted by random reagents she found growing near their path. Ashyr was sure all the plants she gathered would be very valuable to them later so she didn't say anything about it. Selene, on the other hand, was growing irritable again. "If we keep focused, we can probably get back just past nightfall. We'll need to pick up the pace a little, though." Ashyr informed them after some thought.

"Then let's go." Selene said. She shot a glare over to Carlotta.

The venomous expression was not lost on the human. "I'm going as fast as I can. You try having short legs." It probably didn't help much that the redhead was a bit of an out of shape alcoholic. The human just happened to enjoy a youthful body with a high metabolism.

"Play nice, cousin dearest." Ashyr warned.

"It is not Carlotta's fault that she has trouble keeping up with our pace." Caleldir said in his own defense of the human. "But she cannot keep up the same pace as we can." He looked towards Selene. "You do not happen to have any sort of magical tricks that could help with that, do you? Perhaps some enchantment to bolster her physical abilities, increase her speed, or just make her weightless so we can carry her without inconvenience? If not, we will just have to walk a bit slower. Enjoy the forest for a bit longer."

Selene let out another one of her extraordinarily put-upon sighs. She was not accustomed to using magic for the benefit of anyone, let alone some lowly little human who should learn to keep up with the Lolth-damned adults. "Yes. I suppose I can help." Then she paused, concentrated for a few seconds, then an invisible disk was conjured about five feet away from her.

Ashyr recognized the magic immediately, and didn't hesitate to throw her blankets on top of the thing. They floated in mid-air, only sliding slightly into the middle of the... whatever it was that held them up. "Your chair, Lady Carlotta." Ashyr said with a grand gesture. It was an echo of something she'd seen Caleldir do on several occasions. She clearly thought it was vastly amusing.

The human blinked. Then she pressed her hand down on the floating disk. It seemed sturdy enough. It didn't budge from its place about three feet from the ground. The blankets made it look downright comfortable. Ashyr helped her onto the thing.

"Can we go now?" Said the impatient Selene. The disk floated a consistent five feet behind her like a dog far more calm and obedient than Bard ever was. Now the shortest legs they had to worry about were Ashyr's, as she was a couple inches shorter than Selene was. The ranger made up for it with better stamina.

"Oh ho!" Caleldir exclaimed, impressed and wanting to encourage the clearly un-altruistic Selene into helping the party more. "That is an elegant solution indeed. I, at least, am very grateful to have a mage of your ability with us. Thank you for all your help; it is greatly appreciated."

"Do not pander to me, boy." Selene snapped back. She still sounded irritated. Apparently one night of comfort was not enough to cure the woman's surliness. It was to be expected, considering how much life seemed to hate her recently.

Ashyr snickered quietly -- though not quietly enough to go unnoticed by the rest of the party. This must have been something like being a third party to her own sometimes painfully awkward conversations with... well, everyone. For some reason, there really wasn't any place Ashyr could go where she didn't have strange cultural differences that made everyone feel uncomfortable.

----

After a few hours of keeping much better pace than before, Caleldir began to notice that the terrain around them was... different than he remembered. He scratched his head. Oh yes! On the way here he and Carlotta had not moved in a straight line: as they were following Ashyr's sometimes twisted trail rather than heading straight to the location they eventually found her at. Which was probably a good thing, as they found themselves in a distressing part of the forest. Obviously once lusher and more vibrant than its surroundings, the dense grove around a particularly rugged bit of terrain was now diseased. It was slimy and rotting, with the stench of grasping death and decay hanging about like thick mucus. No birds sang in the trees, although there were clouds of over-sized insects swarming in the air.

Both Ashyr and Bard grew uncomfortable the closer they got to the seemingly blighted portion of the forest. "We should go around this place." The drow ranger recommended. They weren't in THAT big of a hurry to get to the town. Ashyr was bold even for a drow, but she knew how to pick her battles. Bard whined his agreement. He'd stuck uncharacteristically close to his mistress as soon as he sensed the... wrongness about this part of the forest.

"Nonsense." Selene said firmly. She looked into the insect-ridden land with an arrogant gleam in her eye.

Then they fell into an argument in their native tongue. Mostly, it was about Ashyr accusing her of trying to show off in front of Caleldir. Selene responded by throwing more general insults at her older cousin, all of which did not seem to affect her. Then they were both boasting about their respective talents. Their words had a familiarity about them, as if this was not the first and would not be the last time they had this sort of conversation. Ashyr even seemed to be enjoying herself. Selene looked as irritated with the world as ever.

To Caleldir, listening to the natural cadence of Ashyr and Selene's native tongue was very helpful, as was learning the more modern words in it. Sadly though, as amusing as listening to the two Drow argue was, Caleldir felt he had to intervene at some point. "Ladies," he said in Undercommon, his accent now matching theirs perfectly, "Perhaps it would be better to go around. If for no other reason than that the smell is getting rather intolerable." He continued in Common. "Seriously, this place stinks, and we have no idea how large it is. Let us retreat to the edge, and travel around."

The rancid stench that Caleldir spoke of had started out rather slight, enough to be easily ignored, but as they traveled it grew in potency. Disturbingly, when they stopped, it continued to get worse. Then, the forest around them started to shake and sway, and a boiling, moist wind blasted across them. "That can't be good." Caleldir observed inanely.

It was not. A few seconds later, a huge multi-armed beast larger than four bears - apparently made of rotting vegetation, decaying animals, and living insects - came crashing through the woods, roaring at them. The creature took a swipe at Caleldir, who, predictably, did not dodge, and instead flew about forty yards away into a tree.

The three women scattered when the abomination came crashing through the forest. One of them screamed. Probably Carlotta. Definitely not Selene. Nope. The next noise was of shattered glass. The human had reflexively threw a bottle of extremely potent alcohol not for drinking (everyday) at the... whatever it was. It hit something hard on the horror and sprayed its contents everywhere.

"Hope you got some fire, Selene!" Carlotta called out before ducking behind the biggest tree she could find. Usually she caught the bottle on fire herself, but in her haste she'd forgotten. It was reasonable to assume that Selene could fix that problem.

"I have fire." Selene said with a haughty grin. She motioned with her hands. Then there was an extremely uncomfortable wave of heat and flash of light. A fireball roared through the forest and into the rotted creature. It roared with such force that the dying vegetation and slimy earth around it quaked and rumbled. The blast forced it to stumble back with smouldering bits of it breaking loose from it. The abomination turned towards Selene, anger in the mass of glowing insects that made up its eyes.

Meanwhile, Caleldir shakily stood up. "Ouch..." he grumbled. "That hurt." Forcing his attention away from his beating pain, he looked back towards the grove. He saw a flash of fire and heard a roar. "That thing is going to be going after Selene, now." He grumbled. "Well, time to do what I do best." He leapt towards the fight.

The monster ran closer to Selene, roaring as it did so, when Caleldir made a massive leap from a tree to the top of the creature. "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" He yelled in Sylvan, mesmerization woven into the words. The creature's reaction was predictable, as it reached up and grabbed him, then, opening its huge maw-like mouth, swallowed him.

Ashyr, who had hunkered down behind a bush and was waiting for a chance to strike, saw Cal fly through the air toward the beast -- which would have been impressive, had he not been immediately eaten. Gross. The drow did not envy his position. It was a potentially good tactic, she supposed. If he had enough room to move, he could attack from the inside. Still. Ugh. "Got another one of those, cousin?" Ashyr yelled over to Selene. Ashyr could have physically attacked the thing, but fireballs seemed so much more convenient.

"A couple more." Selene confirmed.

"Don't burn the forest down!" The human called out, having now likewise taken cover behind a tree. "My people might be pissed."

"I think this portion needs a little burning." Selene retorted.

Ashyr was inclined to agree with her cousin. Forests were not supposed to have... that in them. As fond as she was with all this surface nature, she knew that sometimes fire was cleansing. "Just try not to burn Cal! Actually- never mind. He'll need a good burning after being in there." Otherwise she would have to travel with the stink of that abomination's innards.

After eating Caleldir, the creature grunted contentedly and turned towards Selene once more. Just in time for another fireball to its 'face'. It roared again, and took a swing at Selene. Then it stopped, and starting twisting around and around in circles, grasping and tearing at itself while making noises of indescribable anger and pain. In the throes of perhaps one of the worst cases of indigestion in the history of ever, the abomination began literally ripping itself apart, throwing small bits of itself all around. It began stumbling into trees and rocks, shredding and destroying everything around itself. Then, it stopped, roared again, and fell apart.

Caleldir, wearing armor rusted beyond repair, masses of indescribable gunk, and nothing else, emerged from the mess. He started hacking up some vile goo. "Well, that was terrible." He wheezed. He dropped his sword, now a thin strand of rusted metal that eroded into dust and floated away in his hands. "That thing's stomach was the most corrosive environment I can imagine. Excuse me while I die." With that, he collapsed onto the pile of gunk, half-transparent.

As he did so, the forest around them began to heal. The terrible stench disappeared, replaced by the smell of apple-blossoms and freshly cut grass. The vile goo surrounding Caleldir, who was now completely naked (which enhanced his transparency rather disturbingly), turned into a mound of dried flowers and rich earth. After telling her companions to stay back, Ashyr approached and crouched just outside the mount of flowers to wait in anxious anticipation.

After a few long minutes, Caleldir sat up, only a little bit on the transparent side. "No worries folks! I survived! My most suicidally reckless move yet, and I survived!" The small bit of ground around him that had started to dry, returned to normal. He stood up proudly, putting his fists on his hips and striking a heroic pose. "I have killed the great beast by the power of..." He thought for a moment, a puzzled look covering his face. "Actually, I do not know. It was terrible in there."

Ashyr grinned up at him quite lecherously when she saw him stand in triumph. She also looked relieved.

It was at this point where, looking down, Caleldir realized that he was naked. With a profoundly undignified high-pitched "AHH!" he fell into a crouching position and covered himself with his hands. A few seconds of amusement for the rest of the party (except for Selene, who looked like she was getting a headache) passed. Caleldir looked around himself again, and blinked. "Wait... all of you have already seen it before. There really is no point in covering up." He sighed. "Good thing I have access to better illusions now." He said with resignation. Waving his hand, his outfit from the party several nights ago appeared on him. He stepped off of the pile of dirt, and promptly lost his balance, crashing forward into Ashyr. "I really need more training." He muttered to her. "The practical kind, I am afraid."

The ranger was prepared for Caleldir lose his balance. He never seemed very steady after pulling a stunt like that. She wasn't quite expecting to feel his flesh as if he still were naked. That was... interesting. She bit her lip, then slid her hand down to briefly grope his ass. This was a good outfit. She liked this outfit. His skin did feel cold to the touch, though. Apparently that outfit was no protection from the elements.

A few more seconds was all Caleldir needed to be able to stand and walk on his own. He took a piece of bear jerky from Ashyr and looked around the forest. "This place has improved." He noted. "Well, I suppose that will be our good deed for the day. Shall we be on our way again?"

"I shall have to atone for that good deed later." Ashyr sighed. She grinned at him with affected ruefulness. Then she shook her head. The forest did look completely healed. It gave her a strange sort of satisfaction. Ashyr liked the forest. "Soon you'll have plenty of unbelievable true stories to tell everyone when you're bored." She told him fondly.

"To be honest, I already had a lot of completely unbelievable true stories to tell everyone." Caleldir stated matter-of-factly. "It is just that most of those stories revolve around things I would rather keep secret."

"Can we just go already?" Selene predictably asked them.

"Yes! Let us depart." Caleldir agreed. "If that floating platform is still functional, I think we can set off on a run now. We can still make town by sunset!" He thought for a moment, then amended his statement. "Provided, of course, that no other bizarre monsters of rot and destruction show up. The next one I am leaving to people who are better at not getting eaten."

----

Soon after the group departed the grove, two feminine figures peeked over a nearby rock outcropping. "They really did it." the first whispered. "Four brave heroes have freed us."

The second figure nodded. "With the rot gone, our strength is returning. We must reward them." A lustful smile passed over her face. "Did you see the male one naked? With looks that good, he has to be a relative of ours."

The first figure smiled, licking her lips. "Oh, I did see him. And the two dark elves - It has been too long since I have had toys like that in my possession." She sighed. "I love rewarding heroes!"

Both women giggled.

The first stood up. "When they leave the town, we shall have the forest guide them to us. They will be ours." The women vanished into the forest.

----

True to Caleldir's prediction, the four companions found themselves knocking on the gates to Carlotta's hometown just as the sun was beginning to set. "Well, that was an eventful trip." Caleldir observed.

"Who goes there?" Challenged a guard when he heard the knocking at the gate.

"It's me, Carlotta. And a couple friends." The redhead replied with a friendly smile.

The guard's face peered out at them through the tangle of vines and foliage that still blocked the entrance into the town. "Who's she?" He asked with suspicion. The eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar drow.

"Her?" Ashyr asked. "She's just my cousin coming for a visit. Don't worry, we probably won't stay very long."

"Fine. As long as there aren't a bunch more skeletons running after you." The guard said after a moment's deliberation.

Then a portion of the vines curled inward to make a space just large enough for the party to pass through one-by-one. "Let's get something to eat." Carlotta said. She looked excited to not have to eat any more bear jerky. The party agreed, and they went straight for the inn.

"Ah!" Caleldir said in a pleased tone as they entered. "I am so glad to see this place again. So many fond memories..." After saying this, he blushed intensely. He had just realized that pretty much all of those 'fond memories' were bizarrely sexual, and involved Ashyr in a variety of positions, but really only one state of dress. Rather tired, he sat down heavily at the table. Then, he grimaced. The wood felt rather strange against his bare bottom. His illusion kept him clothed, but he still felt naked. It was an awkward sensation. "I must be cursed." He muttered to the table. "Somehow, I keep losing all my clothing, armor, and weapons. It has begun to become something of a recurring inconvenience. Well, hopefully someone in this town will generously give me another set of clothing."