A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 78: Sparring

Their bodies together quickly became a tangle of limbs as Selene returned the favor of Althaia finally stimulating her sex. The drow's fingers, however, stayed at the nymph's clit and began to rub slow circles against the sensitive flesh. The soft, pleased sounds from the drow joined the sounds of splashing water.

While Althaia could be extremely noisy, recently she had adopted a policy of near-complete silence when it came to enjoying sex. But she could at least match Selene's appreciative volume. Taking the cue from Selene (she had oft noted that women tended to touch other women in the way that they liked being touched themselves as a subconscious clue at their desires) she moved her other hand down to stimulate her clitoris while her first hand stayed rubbing in and out of her. Nimble as Althaia was with her fingers, she managed to make it work fairly well. All the while she felt her own orgasm building up.

Faced with dual stimulation and a body already quick to orgasm, it wasn't long after Althaia's other hand joined the first that Selene felt that burning sensation of oncoming orgasm. Her own motions against the nymph's sex became more insistent until her hand spasmed and could no longer move. Not that Selene noticed. No, her world was an explosion of pleasure.

Not having the same level of 'excitability' as Selene at the best of times, Althaia was close to, but not at, orgasm when the drow could no longer continue. No matter, Althaia was more of a giver than a taker anyway. So, she pulled her hands away from Selene's pussy and wrapped her arms around the drow's body, pulling her in for a tender kiss.

Had she not been so distracted with her so recent orgasm, Selene very likely would have refused to kiss Althaia. But her whole body felt languid and warm with that deadly combination of warm water, an excellent massage, and near-divine afterglow. So without thinking, Selene returned the tender kiss with her own languid, thoughtless motions.

Knowing well not to press her position too much, Althaia did not let the kiss drag on very long, ending it when she could sense that Selene still wanted just the smallest bit more. Instead, she stretched her form and let out insistent sighs, enjoying as Selene returned her fingers to her sex and took her all the way to release. She tightened her thighs firmly around Selene's fingers as she silently cried out her orgasm, releasing her when she was finished.

For a little while, she was silent. "We should wash and get some sleep." She finally sighed in a pleased tone.

"Yes, I am quite tired." Selene agreed. And she was. It hadn't been a particularly taxing day, but it got late before Selene was convinced to go to Althaia. The drow gave the door out of her room a contemplative look, then her gaze moved toward the bed already so close to her. Yeah. She could afford one night away from Caleldir. Selene got up, magicked the water away from her body, and got into Althaia's bed. Turns out, staying with the nymph for a night wasn't so bad after all.

--

Ashyr heaved a relieved sigh when Selene finally shut the door behind her and presumably went to visit Althaia. Ashyr had been afraid that her cousin would dig in her heels and refuse. Then everyone would have to deal with the blow up when Selene found out about Althaia's plans the hard way. But thankfully, with Caleldir's help, Selene was on her way. Which meant it was time to celebrate, and perhaps 'thank' Caleldir for all his help. Oh yes. This should be fun. And she knew just how to begin.

"Hey, love? Have you been practicing fighting recently?" Ashyr said as she turned to him with her version of an innocent expression.

"I have been practicing the best way to run away from lustful rusalka, and techniques for escaping the arms of amorous fae," Caleldir said wryly. "Stabbing means failure rather than success in that particular scenario." It was a very dry joke, but he saw Ashyr smirk anyway. "I would definitely be open to a sparring match. Although, what was this important thing that Althaia needed to tell Selene? Anything I am allowed to know about?"

Her nigh ever-present grin faltered slightly. "No. But you will be filled in tomorrow. It's something Althaia herself needs to say." She said as she took his hand and began to lead Caleldir towards the indoor sparring chamber made for training on rainy days.

Judging by Ashyr's expression, whatever it was that Althaia had to say was serious. Caleldir nodded. "Then I will not inquire further. But it probably involves something weirdly sexual. Everything these days does." Granted, Caleldir had recovered from his time with the rusalka, but still, they were on his mind an unhealthy amount these days. Mostly because he wanted to escape next time. But, training with Ashyr would be a welcome change. And probably a very effective way of preparing too. Oh, and there was the Underdark to worry about. About three days more of rest until they needed to head down there.

And so, he gladly followed her to sparring chamber. When they arrived there, he looked around, changing his clothing into padded training armor. "So... what sort of fighting are we to be practicing?" He asked.

She let go of his hand, got into a fighting stance in the middle of the floor, and summoned her weapons. "Just try to hit me for now. We can see how rusty you are." She said with a wild, excited grin.

"Just try to hit you," Caleldir said slowly. "Well, I suppose we can both summon completely non-damaging weapons, so no need to hold back." He took a deep breath and conjured two one-handed crossbows. He leaped back as he fired rapid shots right at her chest and her stomach.

Her eyes widened slightly when he summoned a ranged weapon instead of just charging in on her. But it seemed to be a delightful surprise, for she was still grinning. It became clear in the next couple of seconds that her fights with Phanuel hadn't just improved the aasimar's skills. Ashyr ducked and rolled and slashed the bolts out of the air, and not one was able to hit her. Yet. All the while she tried to close the gap between herself and Caleldir with each dodging motion.

Caleldir was faster than before. Much, much faster. He could practically fly, in fact. Actually, scratch that. He could straight-up fly. Not for very long, nor very efficiently, but he could. And so, with a burst of telekinetic energy to force her back, he propelled himself a fair distance into the air. And fired off another two bolts, just to be certain. She could reach him with a jump, but in the air, she would be vulnerable to telekinetic and bolt attacks alike.

Ashyr staggered back a couple of steps when the burst of invisible force hit her. "That doesn't count!" She said in reference to the telekinesis. "Since when could you fly?!" she called up at him even while she was slipping away from his bolt attacks. He was getting quite close, though.

"Since the monastery. Remember?" He reminded her. "I flew us off the tower. I am getting the hang of doing that again. And all is fair in love and war."

"That whole monastery stuff is kind of a blur," Ashyr admitted. It had not been a good time for her.

He could maintain flying for, like, thirty seconds at this time. So, soon enough, he began to slowly sink down. Realizing that he was going to fall, he sent off another burst of force, hoping that her spell resistance would fail this time too, and changed the crossbows for a sword and shield to try to ward away any attacks.

She was better prepared for the second blast of force, and it didn't even manage to move her. It did, however, make her pause for just a moment before she went on a full, aggressive attack with her twin blades at the sinking Caleldir.

Caleldir went from sinking slowly, as if under the effects of feather fall, to sinking very quickly indeed. Or being slammed to the ground, more like. He caught her black blade, Yin, he thought it was named, with his shield, but Yang he did not catch with his blade. More like he sort of deflected it from barely not hitting him. This was not off to the best start.

With an exultant look on her face, Ashyr pressed the attack even harder. Her actions became chaotic and single-minded. The sheer ferocity of her movements made up for the control that she abandoned. This was someone that she was allowed to pin and ravage, and she wanted to do so more than anything.

If Ashyr could go on a mad rampage for a few seconds, well, Caleldir could dip deeply into his reservoir of cunning and inspiration and burnt an entire fight's worth of inspiration in twelve seconds. His mind was opened on how best to avoid her attacks. He gained new insight on how best to weave past her defenses. And most of all, he did all of that twice as fast as normal.

Ashyr didn't expect the sudden, inspired boost in Caleldir's skill. It wasn't really something that she noticed him doing before. Unfortunately for her, she was already in the middle of an aggressive attack before she realized that she should probably back down and reassess the situation. So, right in the middle of an attack that left her right side wide open, she felt a solid hit land on that opening.

She had just challenged him to hit her, but now that he had, Ashyr wasn't quite done with the fight. No, there was a certain way she saw this going in her head and would try to damnedest to fulfill that. So she kept attacking. It quickly became clear that whatever surge of inspiration Caleldir had was gone now... or he was bluffing that it was gone... Just in case, she threw a couple of conservative attacks to test the proverbial waters.

Caleldir was clearly having some difficulty in warding off Ashyr's attacks now. He was not tired physically, but it was obvious that he was suffering from some odd mental fatigue. Try as he may, he could no longer quite manage to see through her pattern of attack. It had been effortless for a moment, and now it was unclear. So, it was back to supplementing his attacks with telekinesis. Silently, he picked up a wooden training sword from across the room and mentally hurled it at Ashyr from behind.

Something hit her on her shoulder blade. Ow. She pivoted to look for the second attacker before she realized it was Caleldir and his telekinesis again. From then on, she made sure to keep him between any other spare objects he could hurl at her. After that readjustment, it was back to a full-on attack. She needed to finish this before she got too tired; this wasn't the first semi-difficult spar she'd participated in that day.

Running through his mind, Caleldir went over a list of tricks that he could pull. A telekinetic rope to pull her off her feet. No... that would not work. Magic to blink around to her back. No, he did not have the inspiration. What if perhaps... *Clang!* his blade went skittering out of his hand.

Any decently skilled sword fighter would be insane to not exploit that opening she had created when she batted Caleldir's weapon away from him. Her instincts told her to go in for the kill. But this was Caleldir she was fighting, and it never truly felt like a good spar with him without some sort of grappling maneuver. So Ashyr dropped her weapons and went for the tackle.

Of all the attacks that Caleldir should have expected, that was definitely at the top of the list. Somehow though, he had not expected her to bull-rush him like that. He was taken completely off guard, and when she slammed into him, his weapons vanished as he dropped them. And he was barreled clean over, with her on top.

"Deja vu, eh?" He smiled up at her.

"Oh yeah," Ashyr agreed. "But this time I can do this:" Those words were barely out of her mouth before her lips pressed against Caleldir with a feverish hunger. It was like the first time they kissed, except Ashyr knew just where to hit to render him completely naked. It was under summoned armor, but she could fix that with a nice sharp knife at its weak points while she distracted him with that near brain-searing kiss.

Knowing Caleldir, he very much would have snarked at Ashyr, saying something rather wry and smart-alecky, but she stoppered that right up with that kiss. It was familiar, in fact. A replay of that first one, the kiss that had him run away, and Ashyr run away to get tied up by a half-mad Selene. The rest was history. This time though, he returned the kiss with skill and fervor. His feelings towards the matron-to-be were no longer mixed; they were unambiguously loving.

Oh, and he was naked now, for some reason. One of these days he should start wearing non-conjured undergarments.

Ashyr was naked as soon as he was, and that was when she finally broke their kiss to breathe. She had already been panting from a combination of physical exertion and arousal, so when her lips finally separated from him, her breath was ragged and gasping. She then sat up and shifted back a little until her pussy already dripping with arousal pressed against his already hard cock.

"Stressful day?" he whispered to her after gaining some slight control of his breath. She seemed a bit on edge, frustrated in fact. His hands slowly flowed across her body, feeling her back, her shoulders, her butt, her thighs.

"Yeah. 'Been aching to do this for days," came her breathless reply.

"I missed you too," Caleldir replied.

Her rubbing motions shifted until she was able to quickly engulf his cock. It was more than slick enough from her arousal to completely impale her in that one motion. Then she began riding him hard and fast. There was still a look of near animalistic aggression on her face. That, and ecstasy.

"It has been far too long since we were really together." Unlike in the past, Caleldir was pretty much done being a passive recipient of sex. Well, when he was having sex with a woman he liked or even loved, like Ashyr. So, he thrust up manfully into her in time with her own motions.

Ashyr was always a fan of a male who would participate in a hearty fuck. As riled up as she was, it didn't take too long for her to feel the beginnings of orgasm pool in her sex. It only made her go harder, faster, until finally, she spasmed against him. It made her fall forward onto his chest, happily panting.

With his usual impeccable timing, Caleldir was not too long after Ashyr in achieving his own release. He had not been as riled up as she was, but by the end of their loving little session, he definitely was. When she fell forward onto him, he put his arms around her dark back, squeezing her softly.

"I love you," she told him softly.

"I love you too," he replied. He did not know if it would ever stop being amazing how much the two drow had changed in the time he had known them. He chuckled. "Now I know why you locked the door. Did not want any humans coming in and interrupting this, eh? No Carlottas stopping by..."

"Nah, she's off tavern hopping and doing mischief with the rest of her party. I was going to join them again tonight but... I think I'll stay here with you," she responded. Then she rolled off of him and stood. In the next moment, she was dressed in her usual leather attire.

Caleldir laughed. "That is not entirely what I meant," he said with amusement. "I was referring to that time when Carlotta walked in on us at the baths, back when I was someone who refused to 'perform' in front of an audience. How things have changed."

"I like an audience, but not tonight. Tonight, you're mine and mine alone. Anyway, I'm too tired for more sparring. We should go up to our room. It has a bed." The last part was said with a wink. Obviously.

Nodding, he followed her out of the room, his ordinary attire resumed as well. "Lead the way, fair drow maiden." He said with mischief. Maiden was probably not the best word to use for Ashyr.

"Isn't fair supposed to mean pale? I mean, I'm lighter than Selene is, but pale?" She scoffed, but there was a grin on her face when she looked back at him. She wasn't offended. Her hand entwined with his and together they walked back up the side stairs that the servants used, down the hall with the guest rooms, and through the door to their room.

"There are multiple meanings. It can mean pale. It can mean pretty. It can mean a place where people go to see prize animals and turnips and eat greasy food. It can also mean scrupulous." Caleldir was off on a tangent again. But he was happy to be holding hands with Ashyr, and glad to have a moment well and truly alone with her. Wry comments aside, he was still not all that fond of audiences. "Should we lock the door?" he asked. "Unless you think Selene will be back soon."

"She might decide to come back," Ashyr said with a shrug. "No one else will bother us." She sat down on a chair and began to remove the trinkets from her hair. They needed to be redone after all the activity that day. "Selene's been awfully clingy recently, hasn't she?"

Sighing, Caleldir sat down in a chair next to the fire and leaned back. "She has been. I do not mind it, but I think that she is lonely. She often talks about you, Ashyr, wondering about where you are, what you are doing, hoping you will come back to her. But I also think that the more her current pregnancy status sinks into her, the more cautious and close she gets."

"Oh," Came Ashyr's short reply. She was silent for a few more long seconds. "I've not been around you two much recently, have I?" She sighed, her crimson eyes fixed on the fire. "But it's not like I'm totally unavailable. She could just ask if she wants to spend more time." A crooked grin twitched at the corners of her lips. "And we'll all be stuck together for a few days at least once we leave Port Afron, anyway."

Caleldir returned her grin. "That is true. We will have a trip to make to the Underdark." His face fell. "I am not really certain about all that. I once visited the Blackdawn hold underneath Deusterra, but that was one of the farthest flung and least drow of all drow settlements. And a very tamed Underdark as well. I am not sure what to really expect in the Underdark proper."

Her grin completely disappeared. "Duskhaven City is diverse as drow cities go. And there are a lot of worse ones deeper into drow lands. Or at least worse when it comes to my people. Parts of the wilderness there are rough, but that's far more manageable than my people often are. But I won't lie, I'm not so sure about going back, either. If I had my way - if my brothers hadn't -" She rubbed at the back of her neck and sighed. "But I guess there's no use wishing for things like that."

"It is no use. You have a responsibility to your people, to your ancestors, to your city. You have an obligation." He sighed, then perked up, smiling. "But I will be there to help every step of the way! And I am still pretty darn close to immortal since although if my... alternate self dies, it would be game over, the cunning old bastard is nigh unkillable. So, we have that going for us. Hope you do not mind seeing me murdered a lot though, because that is probably a thing that is going to happen."

"I'll make sure that that isn't a problem," Ashyr responded with a determined set to her jaw. The thought of Caleldir actually dying had set her off. "If not me, then Selene. If not Selene, then Tsabdrin. I know that you and Goelon can handle yourself, but you won't have to do so alone if I have any say in it. Duskhaven needs you. I need you."

Caleldir smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "And I need you too, and will keep the lot of you from dying. If you do die, well, I will bind your ghost and revive you. No soul-shattering will happen on the Ghost-King's watch." He said that in a light tone, but his face soon turned very grave. He bowed his head.

"We have a long road ahead of us, I fear," he said softly.

She moved into his lap and curled up against him. It was so easy to do when she was so much shorter than him. "Will all this ever be over?" She said in a moment of uncertainty. But then she huffed a short burst of soft laughter. "Do we even want all this to be over? I complain, but I have to admit: adventure is far better than sitting around all year."