A Long Time from Home Ch. 03

I lighted the candle under it, placed a bowl on top and poured as much of the liquid into the tea warmer bowl as it could hold, added a few more slices of lemon and carried it into the living room, where I placed it on a table.

When I turned around, I discovered Alice was observing me from her place by the other table. "That smells good!"

"Yes." I agreed. "And it should remove the scent of sex from the room as well."

"Oh. Good thinking." She rose from her seat and walked over to study the bowl. "What's in it?

"Just lemon, thyme and rosemary." I said with a shrug. "It's an old trick."

"Nice." She let a hand run down my back and pinched my towel-covered butt. "This is nice also."

I returned the favour with a smile "Take care or you will not get much writing done."

She signed, "Unfortunately I have to do it." Something caught her eye and she pointed at the window. "Look out there."

The rocky hills behind the house were clearly visible from the window and she pointed at a spot, where the green sides of the hill were interrupted by a patch in a lighter colour.

"You were laying in the bushes below that rockslide." She sent me a smile "At first we thought you had been hurt in the slide, but you didn't have a mark on you. So, we went with the next thing, which was you had been very, very drunk... and that is why we didn't call the police or doctors. As for why you were naked, I have no clue."

The spot she was referring to was about fifty yards away and a lot closer than I had understood from her story last night. It was basically in the backyard, meaning I could go get my things earlier than I had expected.

"Hmm... I will go look at it, while you write."

Now it was her turn to be surprised. "Dressed in nothing but a towel?"

Laughing I slapped her butt and slightly pulled at her bikini. "There's ten times as much cloth in this towel than in what you're wearing."

She looked as if she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. Giving up she smiled "Have a nice walk then."

"And may your writing be successful."

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The rockslide had almost hidden the entrance to the tunnel, but it was only a small layer of rocks, and it didn't take long to remove enough for me to clear the opening.

Naturally, it was dark in there, so I used Vis Meditation to activate Oculos Cati (Baylon: Eyes of the Cat), a Vis power that enabled me to see as well in the dark as a cat, and carefully entered the cave.

The roof of the cave looked like it could fall down at any moment, making me hurry through the tunnel to the end of the cave.

It wasn't idle curiosity that made me go in there: One of the only ways to keep values secure over a longer period of time, was to hide them and I had done that many times during the years.

Not only when leaving an area, but also when going into a trance, since the only sense that works in a trance is hearing and even that is dramatically reduced. You can't feel anything, so if you're found and those people don't make a lot of noise or try to kill you, they could steal everything and walk away, without you discovering it before you wake up.

Consequently, whenever I go into a trance, I always hide my belongings and wear the cheapest clothes possible.

Looking at the wall behind the place where I had meditated, I used an Ars Mentalis trick to pulverize a four-foot block, revealing a small room behind the wall, where I had hidden my belongings.

At a glance, I could see that some of them were in good shape, while other things had turned to dust, including my lute, composite bow and every magical item I owned.

Highly irritating as it was, it wasn't really a surprise. Unless specially designed not to, permanent magic drew power from the item it was imbedded in and thus the drain would eventually consume the item. This process normally takes around two to three thousand years and had never been a problem. Now, it meant my magical tings were gone forever.

The first item I took out was my sword, which was safely encased in the black bdel scabbard. The leather wrapping on the scabbard was gone, rotted away by time, but besides that, the sword looked as good as new. Like the other things that had survived the passage of time, bdel wasn't a magical material by itself, but as it took magic to make and work bdel, I guess that one could call it magical assisted crafting. The same could be said about the sword itself.

Unlike most Baylon swords, this one wasn't made from the golden and magical metal Orichalcum, but from a light and hard metal-glass alloy called adamant.

Adamant resembled polished silver, except it had organic looking lines curving their way in the blade like veins in wood.

As with bdel, making anything of adamant involved a considerable amount of power as well as time and the result was one of the best blades ever. It's incredible strong, yet flexible, doesn't rust or corrode and if anything could harm the razor-sharp edge, I haven't found it yet.

In typical Baylon manner, the style of the weapon was simple, but elegant as blade, handguard and pommel was one solid piece of adamant. The forward curved blade was one edged and the recurve design allowed the wielder to deliver blows with the power of an axe, while still having the long cutting edge of a sword and the ability to deliver stabbing attacks. It's short enough to be carried by the side and not on the back, but long enough to get a good reach, and the handle was long enough to allow for both one and two-handed use.

The design of the blade was so efficient, that Ancient Greek had used it for their Kopis, though they had copied the smaller Diucultro (Baylon: Long Knife), which had a similar blade design. Though less efficient, it was easier to craft in bronze and later in the low-quality iron they had used.

Thinking about the Diucultro made me take it out of the opening. Traditionally, old style bladed weapons were made in sets consisting of a sword and a long knife and mine was no different, as the sword had a smaller companion in the form of a Diucultro in the same design.

Unlike the sword, which was normally only used for combat, the long knife was both an off-hand weapon and a tool, and I had used it for just about everything, from constructing a shelter, chopping up meat or wood, to cutting my hair.

Just to be on the safe side, I drew both weapons from their scabbards to study the highly decorated blades and they was in pristine condition even after two thousand years.

With a satisfied smiled, I placed them on the ground and took out the last two weapons, which was my adamant throwing knives. Smaller than the long knife and with another blade design, they were made from the same materials and a quick examination showed that they too had survived the passage of time, which was good news.

Not that I expected to have much use for the ancient weapons in this modern world, but not only had they been in my family for generations, but they had also been my constant companions for most of my life and losing them would had been like losing something of myself.

Placing the knives next to the other weapons on the ground, I looked into the room again, taking stock of rest of my items.

Fortunately, my best clothes were made from a non-magical material called Iron Silk, which was a rare and expensive form for silk that, like Adamant, could only be made with use of magic.

Iron silk clothes were expensive, incredible durable and were expected to be handed down for generations.

Once made, it's almost impossible to cut and when hit, it stiffens and spreads the impact over a much greater area, thus lessening the damage to the wearer. Great against melee attack, good against arrows and adequate against a crossbow, I seriously doubted the effect would work against the slug-throwing 'guns' I had seen in Alice's mind the day before, but it was still better than nothing and it gave me something to wear.

I took out the clothes, dropped the towel and started to dress.

For once, I was glad I had preferred to wear trousers like the Scythians and Persians, because it meant that that now I only looked somewhat old fashioned, instead of being dressed in a toga, looking stupid.

That by the way was the exact reaction I had gotten for hundreds of years by the Greek and Romans, who considered my dark blue trousers barbaric and ridiculous, while draped clothes and togas was the only civilized way to dress.

The shirt was a plain white shirt of Egyptian design but made from iron silk instead of the usual Egyptian cotton.

Both my leather sandals and low boots had turned to dust, leaving me with nothing to put on my feet, but my Iron Silk coat looked like it was made yesterday. Since it was too hot to wear a coat and the bags had rotted away, I decided to use it to carry the rest of the things in.

There wasn't many, as everything made from wood, leather, iron or normal cloth was destroyed, while items made from gold, ivory, stone, bdel, adamant or iron silk remained.

In quick order, I placed the knives with their bdel scabbards, medical instruments and my ivory-and-gold toothbrush and comb, on the coat, followed by what I usually call 'my value pack'. The value pack was a collection of jewellery, gold coins and precious stones, all of which have a lot of value while being light enough to carry.

I kept it in an iron silk bag along with a few souvenirs from various places I've been or lived.

Dropping the last items into the coat, I rolled it into a bundle along with the towel, took the sword in the other hand and left the cave.

It wasn't much to show for a life that had spanned hundreds of years, but unless I could find the hidden cashes, I had placed all around the world, that was all that I had.

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When I came back to the house, Alice was not in the living room, so I walked to the room I had been sleeping in and placed the bundle on the bed.

I considered what to do with the sword and ended up placing it on the top shelf in the closet, out of sight and reach of the children. The sword was sharp as a razor and there was no reason to invite accidents. The knives went the same way for the same reason.

Sorting through the items, l found what I was looking for: An adamant necklace with a gold pendent in the shape of a double-headed axe of the kind the Greeks had called a Labrys.

Smiling, I reached out with the power of my mind and cleaned both the necklace and the pendent, before putting it on. The most important of all Baylon symbols, it was both a holy symbol for the goddesses of Life and Death and the two Artes Potentia, Magica and Mentalis, so only priestesses or members of one of the two Ordo's could wear them.

Even more important for me, it was a gift from my parents, given to me after I was accepted into Ordo Mentalis. It was also one of the only things I had left from them since the rest disappeared along with Baylon.

I hid the necklace under my shirt and slid my 'value pack' under the bed, where it was out of sight: There was no way, I could explain how I got that stuff.

That done, I sat down and used some time to continue the work I had started yesterday, by connecting the word in the languages I knew, with the corresponding words, objects, meanings, and concepts I had gotten from Alice the day before.

Since the world of today was clearly more complicated than the world I went to sleep in, it took more effort than I was used to and some of the concepts simply gave me a headache.

I stopped when the headache became too strong and then relaxed until it had gone away again, before I decided to do something else and walked out of the room.

I was on my way up the stairs, when I heard a door opened somewhere else in the house, followed by the sound of bare feet against stone.

The sound of another door opening, and another person walking reached my ear and a moment later, I heard Alice say "Hey." Followed by a voice I recognized as Rita's.

Out of curiosity, I silently walked to the end of the stairs, where I could hear what they were saying without being visible to them.

While I did understand some of the words, it quickly became obvious that I needed to do more work, before I could follow a conversation in English, so I opened the door and walked into the living room.

The two women were standing in the opening to the kitchen and the conversation stopped as soon as they saw me. Rita turned out to be almost as tall as Alice and despite having slightly bigger breasts, her body was the same alluring blend of curvy fitness.

Now that I wasn't as hazy as I had been the day before, I could see she was a bit younger than Alice.

"I see you found your clothes." Stated Alice in her slow Latin and smiled, as she looked me over.

"Some of it at least." I replied and bowed slightly to Rita. "Hello again."

She looked unsure of how to respond, but then said "Hey."

"Now I've seen you both standing up, I'm starting to wonder if I accidently stumbled into the house of tall beauties."

"Thank you." Said Rita, before she looked at Alice and switched to English "Oh, I like him a lot!"

"Down girl. " Alice replied in the same language and with a grin. "But he does have a lot of charm to go with the looks."

My statement to Rita had not been a joke or even a compliment. Being taller than most Baylon women were, they were easily among the tallest human women I've ever seen, and I had a feeling that it was more than chance they were here together.

"Are all your friends this tall?"

First Alice looked confused, but then she laughed and nodded. "More or less. We play ... eh..." She used an English word, "...volleyball for the Trojans."

I blinked in surprise a few times. Thanks to the knowledge from Alice, I knew what volleyball was, but how that fitted with Troy was beyond me. "What? Trojans?"

Rita chuckled and said in Latin, "It's the name of the team. We play for our university."

Still slightly confused I reached out with my mind and read Rita's thoughts and more importantly the meaning behind those thoughts.

The university she was talking about was called University of Southern California. Apparently, all their athletics teams had references to Troy, with the men being called Trojans and the women was referred to as the Women of Troy.

Another thing I picked up was that most of the players on the team were extraordinarily tall, with more than half of them being my height and at least three of them were taller. This however was not the norm for the world today.

Having gotten the answer, I gently started to withdraw, but at the same time, Rita and Alice started a debate about the connection about the height of the players on their team.

That caused Rita to look at Alice and her mind was suddenly filled with pictures of the two of them together. Most of those mind images were ordinary, but in an instant, they started to get extremely erotic.

It had to be a resent memory because it was in the living room of this house and it started innocently with her view of Alice, who walked towards me dressed in the same short kimono-like dress, I had seen her in earlier.

As always it was somewhat strange to see the world through another person's eyes and feel what they had felt, but needing knowledge, I dived into the memory anyway.

A shiver ran through me as Alice sent me a wicked smile and pulled me in for a kiss. I kissed her back softly and slipped my arm around her waist, groaning into her mouth as my hard nipples pressed into the soft material of her silken robe.

Alice's hands slid around my naked back and started sliding up and down as her soft lips pressed into mine. Dropping my hands to her hips, I slid them down until I could feel her bare thighs. Parting my lips, I darted my tongue out and Alice sent another thrill through me when she eagerly opened her mouth to accept it.

The sensation of our tongues sliding across each other made me moan and feeling Alice's hard nipples poke me through the rope just made it better. Sliding my hands further, I let them slide over that firm ass, making her give off a little yelp, as I gave her cheek a hard squeeze.

In return, Alice rans her hands over my shoulders and down my side, sending tingles through me, before she worked her way between us and grabbed my tits.

Without breaking the kiss, I leaned back a little to give her room to work and then moaned into her mouth again as her strong hands squeezed them gently.

Her fingers sought my nipples and I moaned as she began rolling my aching nipples between her fingertips.

Alice broke the kiss and sent me another wicked and lustful smile. Then she bent down, and a moment later I groaned as her soft wet tongue made it way up and down my neck and shoulder, while her fingers stayed busy on my nipples.

In that position, I couldn't reach her wonderful ass anymore, so instead I let my hands glide up her side until I found her breasts, gently caressing them in return.

Alice's fingers were still toying with my nipples, but when her lips came closer, she moved the hands a bit.

I sighed in anticipation and shivered with pleasure when I felt her tongue slide across my nipple, teasing around it in a slow circle.

Removing a hand from her breasts, I grabbed the back of her neck and arched my back, shoving my nipple deeper into her mouth.

Alice grunted and swirled her tongue on the very tip before she sucked the nipple into her warm mouth, teasingly closing her teeth around it with careful tenderness.

I lost myself in the feeling and was taken by surprise, when I felt Karens curvy body pressing against mine from behind.

It was a welcome surprise, as she kissed the sensitive skin on my neck at the same time as her hands glided over the skin of my hips, going towards the front side.

I cried out in pleasure as her skilful fingers found my pussy and started to slide up and down. Without saying anything, she pressed her hand against my thighs, and I spread my legs out to give her better access.

Alice's treatment of me had made me dripping wet and I shivered as Karens slender fingers parted the lips of my pussy and slid between them, gliding over my clitoris on the way.

Almost by themselves, my hips started bucking against the strong hand and I could feel the familiar tingling sensation of an approaching orgasm.

Alice chuckled around my nipple and sucked a little harder, adding to the feeling.

Having wetted her fingers in my dripping pussy, Karen found my clitoris and started rolling it between her fingertips, making me moan higher.

I wanted to get off so badly, but right now I was sandwiched between the two and with the way they made me feel, I had no intention of moving.

Instead, I yelped, as Karen's slick fingers left my clitoris and plunged into my pussy, sending another shudder through me.

The fingers began to move faster, switching between making circles on my clitoris and pumping into me, while Alice expertly caressed my breasts, licking and mucking my nipples.

It was heaven.

I could feel my legs starting to tremble, as waves of pleasure went through me. Karen changed her tactics, trapping my clitoris between her fingers and slid up and down rapidly, sending me over the edge.

Waves of pleasure crashed though my body as I cried out and my hips bucked wildly against Karens hand and fingers. The feeling so intense, that I would have fallen if I hadn't been trapped between them.

Both Alice and Karen continued to pleasure me all the way through the orgasm, but then let up.

Alice straightened and the lust in her eyes were clear, as she hugged me tight, kissing Karen passionately at the same time.

I just stood there with shaking legs, hugging Alice and enjoying the feeling as the orgasm slowly faded.