A Hero's Rebirth Ch. 06

Opheira walked with a number of the maidens of Hratha Vorith. Each of them led a mount, and I recognized at least Jauna.

"You weren't planning on abandoning your partners, were you?" Opheira demanded. "They aren't a Banthir you can just take milk from and leave to wander the plains. Until they release you, they would be most distressed to be left behind."

I remembered what Opheira had said about being abandoned, and I'd rather take the great feline with me than take a urine bath from the big cat, so with a smile I just scratched behind Jauna's ears.

"I didn't want to assume the gift was permanent." I assured her, "But your generosity is most appreciated."

"They can keep Irsivir company!" Risavis laughed.

"The Wo-High Elves have a stable?" I asked her.

"Well, it is not as well manned as the stables here. But many of the battle maidens have our Dire Wolves or other companions. They have a denning tree and I think all our new companions could enjoy it there. Except perhaps the hiersver, but I'm sure we can find one of the unused aviaries that could have its entrances expanded for them, and they can roost on the terrace until the entrance is properly adjusted for them." Risavis explained.

That sounded like a plausible plan, and I could see that the declaration was a relief to Opheira.

"This is a good arrangement indeed." She said, then turned to Mavrin and Sevrina. "Now those two have yet to select mates. So come spring, they may venture out to find mates. Don't be concerned if they do. Within a week they will either return alone or with a mate. They won't be mating for a few seasons, but remember when the time comes that you shouldn't fret."

They nodded their acknowledgment.

"I'll send word to send a Wayfarer to bring us home." Sevrina volunteered.

She began her incantations, and I could tell Laliera was getting nervous.

"Have you left the plains before?" I asked.

"No, master," She replied. "I was only 65 years of age when the Massacre made such travel too perilous."

"The forests of Ealphamir are very different, but you'll do fine," I told her. "You have all your sisters to help you."

She looked at the other matrons, the maidens, and Amura. The only one not fair of skin was Amura and Amura's blue skin was different enough from Laliera's chocolate brown that I don't think it helped. Even my skin, tan as it was, was still far fairer than hers. At least she had the advantage of knowing they were all children of the same gods. Her features matched those of her fair cousins, and even if the color of her skin was different, she might as well have been made from the same mold.

"And I'm here to help you," I assured her.

She smiled, "You are sentimental. I like it."

I chuckled.

A moment later a pair of Wood Elven maidens, wearing caster robes, appeared.

"We have been sent to return you to Ealphamir." One informed us, looking over the group and counting heads. "Horithin, are you able to take half?"

"I should be able to manage." The second caster agreed after doing a count herself.

"Should?" I asked. "What happens if you can't?"

She nodded solemnly, "We will be sure to employ teleportation that if it fails, will leave you where you are. And we will send for another to assist us. It is just... the animals are hard to teleport. It takes the effort to teleport five individuals to teleport one of them."

I was somewhat comforted.

They stood on opposite ends of the group and began their incantations. Their fingers drew mystical symbols in the air, which remained as a white glowing mark until they finished their chant, together, and clapped their hands together.

The world blurred together, as it had each time I'd teleported before. We arrived in Ealphamir, and, to her great embarrassment, Flendreir announced our presence by losing her last meal.

Anbethir hurried to comfort her and help her as she tried to avoid further retching, and Laliera whispered. "I am glad I was not the one with the weakest stomach... but I nearly joined her."

I chuckled.

Teleportation was incredibly convenient, but it would be too perfect if it had no drawbacks. I mean, the fact that it could get hijacked and drop you in any god-forsaken spot, or worse, a god-forsaken drop, was its own complication. The additional fact that teleporting made Flendreir violently ill made teleporting directly to the frontlines with her less than ideal.

I immediately felt the joy of the matrons who had been forced to remain when feeling my presence so close. I almost went straight to them, but we had our partners to take care of. It took a while to get the mounts down to the dens that Risavis had talked about. Irsivir and the friror were fine walking on the not entirely steady walkways, but the grass drakes were not fans. Mavrin and Sevrina just climbed on their hiersver and took to the skies, headed in the direction of our home.

The den keepers were surprised, to say the least, by the arrival of three big cats and the swarm of the grass drakes. They were able to find places for them all and the creatures seemed content, but the maidens working the den seemed less than pleased.

"Drakes are a mess!' one maiden muttered. "These drakes alone will double our work to keep the den clean."

"We will do our best to see that you are assigned new help," Tavorwen assured them, which alleviated their objections somewhat.

The creatures themselves seemed well pleased with their new living arrangements. The friror had claimed an area to themselves, in an unused part of the den. The grass drakes however seemed grouped together as near the entrance as they could, and I couldn't tell if that was an effort on the part of the den keepers or the drakes, but the drakes seemed happy.

With the matter of our companions mostly settled, we returned at last to our home.

As we ascended the stairs from the forest floor, where the den was located, I found myself having to wait for the elves of my household to catch up. Laliera was discovering that stairs used different muscles than she was accustomed to, but she was not about to be left behind. I just found the steps to be... effortless. My legs were unbothered as they lifted me the distance from the forest floor to the level of the actual city and I felt like I could have kept climbing into the clouds if the stairs had continued.

Once everyone reached the city level, they all managed okay. As I watched Laliera, I wondered for a second why Amura hadn't struggled so much. A glance at the Shadow Elf maiden revealed, to my horror, that she was walking just as gingerly, the same muscles in her upper legs doubtlessly burning, but she had pushed hard to keep up and not said a thing.

How much has she just dealt with? I wondered.

As a slave, her well-being had probably been the least of anyone's concerns. She was probably used to pushing through whatever was asked of her and not being able to speak up, let alone having people wanting to hear what she thought.

I resolved to talk to her about it, but in private, so she could say what she wanted without worrying what the others said.

Our arrival at the home tree was greeted with jubilation.

"Welcome, home Master!"

There were demands for tales from our days in the plains, and Laliera was welcomed, for the most part, with open arms.

"A new... matron, from the plains?" Diamiutar noted. "Should I not have been consulted before adding a matron to the house?"

Laliera seemed nervous for a second until Tavorwen clarified.

"She may not be wearing her armor just now, but I assure you, she is a daughter of battle. And as head battle matron, I agreed to accept a battle matron from among the daughters of the plains." Tavorwen corrected.

"Oh? That's well then." Diamiutar relented.

"It is strange to me that a daughter of the savage plains would desire a place in our enlightened society." Heilantu mused.

I was not about to let that fly.

"Heilantu, that was out of line." I snapped. "As far as I saw and am concerned the Wild Elves of these plains are just as civilized and enlightened as the Wood Elves, if not more so. No one in my house will speak down to a member of ANY of the other races of elves. I don't care if it's a Wild Elf, Sea Elf, or even a Shadow Elf trying to kill us, looking down on anyone just because they aren't like you is pointless at best, and breeds division, conflict, and at worst, could lead us to underestimating the value of an ally or the danger of the enemy."

She'd said something about Amura too, when she first joined the household. I was trying to build unity between the elven peoples, not cause strife, and having a matron who thought it was okay to take cheap shots like that was not something I could allow.

The matron's eyes widened in shock. Her mouth worked and I could feel her embarrassment, but it only matched the embarrassment she'd caused Laliera. Luckily, by jumping to her defense so quickly, I had seemed to help significantly with Laliera's problem, now I just needed to fix things with Heilantu and we could try to put that faux pas behind us.

"Besides, you should practice being the amazing role model for our child that I know you can be," I told her.

The elves who had accompanied me, other than Laliera, knew that Heilantu was pregnant, but if Narusil's reaction was anything to go off of, Heilantu would, as of yet, be unaware.

Heilantu didn't miss my meaning, and her hand went to her lower stomach. "Then it's true? I am with child?"

I nodded.

Congratulations were had all around and Heilantu had to sit.

"I had hoped when I didn't purge, and the craving for your attention didn't return... but... to have it confirmed." Heilantu cried, overwhelmed with happiness and pride, though the shame she held at the back of her mind told me the lesson had not been missed.

"We should send for a priestess!" Narusil declared in excitement. "See if Heilantu bears a son or daughter!"

Excitement rippled around the room, pausing only for a moment as all eyes turned to me. I realized they were awaiting permission, and I nodded to give it. Narusil stepped to the door, and her owl familiar quickly landed on her arm. A message was conjured and her familiar was on its way.

Laliera was intrigued, "You cannot be patient? You must pester the gods with questions to which you will learn the answers in due time?"

Diamiutar thought about it for a minute before replying, "Yes, the answer will be learned in time if the gods did not provide it, but the same could be said of healing, obtaining food, and many other things for which we request the god's aid. In all things, we ask our gods, and when they deem it worthy of their attention, they provide that which we request. If the gods did not wish to bear us this news, the spell would go unfulfilled."

Laliera nodded, "I suppose there is wisdom in that."

I spent the time waiting for the priestess to arrive telling the matrons who had stayed at the house of what had happened on the plains. Tavorwen sat to one side, writing letters and probably reports on the same things I was discussing. I hoped one of the things she was working on was the request for more workers down in the den to help with the additional work the grass drakes and the Friror were causing.

When my story reached Magnus's request, Diamiutar became thoughtful.

"We should have expected such a request." She mused. "Your capacity for reproduction is a boon to whatever society accepts it. We should expect at least one matron, perhaps more, from each of the other elven peoples. They would be fools to ask for any less... especially if your theory about the abundance of males in your progeny."

"Abundance of males?" Laliera asked with great interest.

"Well, Narusil bears him a son," Diamiutar explained. "When we marveled at the fortune of his first child being a male, Master Thomas informed us that in his world, among his people, males and females are born with almost equal frequency. We believe he brings that capacity to us, hence Narusil bearing his son."

"Half your people are male?" Laliera gasped.

I nodded.

"By Noriva's grace... that half my children might be males... This would be a cause for celebration indeed." Laliera breathed.

"So you can see our impatience to see if such a thing is true. It is not unheard of for a matron's first child to be male, but... we must wait and see what news the priestess brings." Diamiutar explained.

I finished the tale, how Laliera had won her spot as a matron and our bonding ceremony and the boons conferred on me there. I even told them of the perk I'd discovered relating to the boon of endurance.

"It is strange," Laliera noted. "You say 'endurance', but was not the boon a gift of 'endurance'?"

I looked at her for a second. "Oh, shit... um,... I hear the same word for each of those." I explained.

"Ah, that explains it," Narusil noted. "When you hear the word 'endurance' what does it mean to you?"

"Uh, well... the ability to do things without getting tired. The ability to be subjected to things for a long period of time without breaking or being overwhelmed. Or for something to not get worn down by time and weather." I explained, hoping I was hitting at least most of the elements.

"I can see why the magic translated 'endurance' that way," Laliera noted. "But 'endurance' means more than that. It is that, yes, but it also means to make greater. Like a meal with 'endurance' may feed more than a meal without it. Magic with 'endurance' will last longer and be more potent. A soldier with endurance may do the work of many, in less time. That is, likely, why your seed is multiplied. There are other means as well, but which meanings may apply, I do not know."

God, I needed to actually learn the elven language. This mess of dealing with everything I heard being put through magical Google Translate was a pain.

"So your seed has more 'endurance' now?" Lymarith breathed excitedly. "You already were doing the work of many masters, but now you may do more?"

"Well, when Laliera's elder was overseeing her first time, she underestimated how easy it is for you all to make me cum. I came into her hand, but then I was able to keep going, make love to her, and then make love to Anbethir as well." I told them. "Do you remember how I was failing to perform for Narusil right after making love to Diamiutar that first time? Well, that won't be a problem anymore."

That was greeted with almost as much excitement as the approaching priestess was causing.

"That's good!" Diamiutar breathed. "I was worried you would be overwhelmed if asked to take on too many more matrons from the sisters we have yet to visit, but if you have such capacity now, that is far less concerning."

It was then that the priestess arrived. Or should I say Priestesses? Three of them arrived, one that was a mature maiden, and two that looked younger, I'd say if they were human they would look to be roughly fourteen years old, but for elves to reach that level of maturity, they were probably over the age of 85.

"Greetings, and may the blessing of the Host be with you." The older one intoned with a bow, hand over her heart. The younger priestesses mimicked adorably.

"We received your request, and are here to fulfill it." The older priestess explained, "This would be a good opportunity for young Iethomear to gain experience with such magics if it is permissible."

"Of course." Heilantu agreed.

The two young elves looked close enough in age it was impossible to tell which was younger, but one of them stepped forward to Heilantu.

"You are the matron blessed with a child?" She requested in a light girlish voice, trying to sound professional.

"Yes, priestess," Heilantu replied with a smile.

"Then let us request of the gods." She declared.

The young priestess held her hands in front of her, outstretched like some statue of Jesus. "Hei amari to covair al so meiva cal aem veur." The young priestess chanted. Compared to when Gledril had performed the spell, the young priestess struggled with smooth pronunciation, but apparently, she was good enough.

Just like last time, small pinpricks of light began to twinkle around Heilantu's waist, they got to be a little brighter, like little LEDs floating in the air around her, and then a green light flashed, forming a now familiar nimbus of light.

"The gods have seen fit to bless you with a son." The priestess declared, trying not to bounce happily at the success of her spell.

While they maintained a facade of calm, my matrons were going crazy with excitement and jubilation on the inside.

"I know this must be a cause for great happiness for you. We will leave you to your celebrations." The older priestess declared, collecting the young maidens and departing.

As soon as the door closed, the celebrations began. Heilantu and Narusil embraced, tears flowing freely. Risavis and Nauveir began a sort of celebratory dance together. Benavur pulled me down and kissed me in excitement, before running off to talk to Sevrina, and most of the rest began talking excitedly to each other. Amura sat in a corner, her face blank. Laliera had to sit, sinking into a chair.

"Two sons..." She breathed.

The maidens were all in celebration. Ignamith joined Risavis and Nauveir in their dance and the others began rushing about. Tellarin, Valentrine, Sarvourn, and Diamiutar were immediately planning a celebratory meal. Zanantha pulled out a small instrument, somewhere between a flute and a piccolo in size, and began to play a jaunty tune that Ulamir put words to. I could tell my translation was not quite the same in syllable count and rhythm, but Ulamir had a beautiful voice.

I only got to listen to part of the first verse, however, before Diamiutar took my hand.

"Master forgive me, but I ache for you..." She breathed. "Please do not make me wait any longer. The maidens prepare our meal. We can go to your chambers and relieve my suffering."

I could feel that the degree to which she was craving me was only fairly deemed suffering. I remembered being told that some matrons, if they lost their master prematurely, ended up taking their own lives, and I could FEEL why. The gnawing hunger to be filled with my seed was like a fire in her, and there was only one way to fix it. A glance showed me Lymarith's gaze was locked onto me, and I could feel her need just as strong.

I took Diamiutar's hand and motioned to Lymarith, before leading Diamiutar down the hall to my bedroom.

It hadn't been bad, living in the underground homes the Wild Elves had been forced into by the war with the Shadow Elves, but being back home in my tree in Ealphamir was a relief.

"I have high hopes I'll be able to take care of both of you now," I told them.

"I pray you may." Lymarith groaned, "I know your absence was important, but it has been more than I could bear."

We stripped quickly, and with how badly the two neglected matrons needed me, they required no foreplay to be absolutely soaking wet. The smell of sex hit my nose as soon as their undergarments were removed and it was like I'd taken a shot of Viagra. My dick was hard as steel and ready to go. Diamiutar had a whole extra day she'd been forced to wait, so I laid her out on the bed and slid into her. She locked her heels around my ass and could barely do more than moan as I pumped into her cunt. She didn't care about the lesser orgasms that I tried to spoil my matrons with, all she wanted was sperm to slack the aching hunger in her womb.

Despite having fucked twice earlier in the day, my climax came on fast and hard, like I'd gone for days without getting laid. Diamiutar felt me begin to pulse and whimpered in anticipation. When the first jet of my sperm entered her womb, she groaned in satisfaction, her pleasure not the golden chime of a bell through our bond, but it was like I was standing inches from a great golden gong. Her hunger was immediately sated, as my semen flooded her.