Acolyte of the Pleasure Goddess Ch. 04

"Are you..." gasped Delyssa, "Are you as good with your blade as you are with your cock?"

Brynwa grunted. Delyssa had her hands wrapped about her partner's shoulder and could feel the sweat growing under her fingers across Brynwa's back, the fighter's muscles tense but steady as she increased her pace.

With one hand still planted next to Delyssa, Brynwa shifted the other onto Delyssa's chest, not so much squeezing her breast as smothering it. Even just the partial weight of the fighter was enough to pin Delyssa to the ground, and she clutched frantically at her other nipple, tugging at it as she pushed her chest up against the fighter's hand.

She was sopping. Each back-thrust of the phallus out of her came with a small splash. The leather straps about Brynwa's groin were darkened by it, and both of their thighs were dripping. Already, the wood of the cock was warming through its friction with her insides.

Brynwa accelerated again, up to a frantic, racing speed. With each entrance of her rigid cock, the climactic pressure within Delyssa grew, every thrust a step towards that blissful peak.

"Ah, I'm close," Delyssa said, her voice soft and fully an octave above her normal register.

At her words, Brynwa dropped on top of Delyssa, both hands pulling at her breasts, with most of her weight resting on her elbows, which were thrown out to the sides. Somehow, she managed to thrust faster still, the slap of hip against hip and the wet splash of her ejaculate almost continuous beneath the pedal of Brynwa's fucking.

One hand clasped beneath Brynwa's own, the other tangled within the fighter's hair, Delyssa felt herself reach the crest of that upward climb. Brynwa did not relent, maintaining that athletic pace.

She lost control as she came. First, her legs came up to wrap about Brynwa's waist. She held there as her orgasm continued to build, until the flexing, urgent demand from her cunt shook her loose, legs quaking as she herself thrust back against Brynwa's pistoning cock. Her climax reached her head and she cried out, eyes rolling back into her head. She stopped seeing, though later she could not remember if she had shut her eyes in ecstasy or if her vision was simply blotted out with pleasure.

Her orgasm lasted a minute, emanating out from her loins in waves that shook her legs and curled her fingers and toes. Brynwa slowed her pace but continued, deep and powerful thrusts that jerked Delyssa's whole body back.

Brynwa grabbed Delyssa's hips and lifted, planting a bare foot next to the acolyte's chest. In a kneeling position, the huge fighter held Delyssa's lower body in the air, now thrusting down into her upturned cunt. As her orgasm began to fade, the thrusting inside her took on a more acute, intense thrill. The splashes and trickles of her fluids now ran down her stomach, and she clutched at her breasts, holding them still as she was rocked back with each push of the cock within her, nipples clamped between her thumbs and forefingers. Brynwa was grunting with each thrust now, a low huff subdivided in time by the downward slap of her hips.

"Oh, Goddess," Delyssa cried, the simmer of passion within her already starting to rise again.

The warrior sat backwards and heaved Delyssa into her lap, still connected by the glistening phallus. "More?" the fighter asked.

"Yes," said Delyssa, her voice as shaky as the rest of her.

Brynwa thrust her hips up into Delyssa, who could now assist by riding the cock herself. The two were forehead to forehead, resting against each other. Their breathing synchronized; Delyssa's breasts pressed against the coarse leather of Brynwa's chest wrap.

"That ritual you do every morning," Brynwa huffed, exerting herself too much to make the statement into a question.

"The one to ward me," she replied, equally unable to do anything but gasp out her reply.

"You usually do it off the path a ways," Brynwa said, each word escaping through gritted teeth. "This morning I was coming back from a piss and saw you. From behind. I saw your whole cunt in the morning light. And that tight little asshole, bent over."

Delyssa groaned, the fighter's language coarser than what was encouraged at the Temple, her words lighting a new fire in the acolyte.

"I like that ritual," Brynwa continued. "But I don't see you praying to your goddess much."

Delyssa buried her head in the fighter's neck. "Brynwa," she said in between unsteady breaths, "we are praying right now."

Suddenly, without warning, she was coming again, a new orgasm erupting out of her, rolling upwards in the wake of the previous one. For but a fraction of a heartbeat, she once more lost her sight. This time, however, she was gifted vision.

Clutched in Brynwa's arms, the warrior's wooden phallus deep within her, Delyssa saw someplace else. A shadowy tomb, walls of dark stone. There was little light to see by, just enough of a glow to make out the gestures of shapes, the implication of movement at the edge of darkness. With shocking clarity, Delyssa could see the source of the faint illumination: a tall woman, bronze-skinned, curly-haired, and naked but for a metal chest piece, an item more jewelry than clothing. It consisted of two ornate golden cups engraved with silver filigree, that swirled up to contain the woman's breasts, though the garment's curves pointedly revealed the nipples -- it appeared somewhat as two delicate hands grasping her chest from behind. There was no indication of what was adhering the piece to her skin, and as the woman turned away from Delyssa's perspective, she saw that the metal twisted up around her shoulder blades, two independent and disconnected pieces of gold.

The woman walked towards a stone box propped upright against the wall -- a sarcophagus, its lid sliding silently open at her approach. She stepped inside and turned around. The lid withdrew back across the coffin, and the woman looked directly at Delyssa, one arm beckoning towards her before being swallowed by the stone.

Delyssa jolted forward, knocking her forehead against Brynwa's collarbone. The warrior was still inside her, the wooden cock pressing in and filling her out. Brynwa was clutching her, no longer thrusting. Delyssa looked up into the fighter's face to see it flushed and twisted with worry.

"Are you alright?" Brynwa asked. "You were out again, but this time it was... different."

Delyssa had to take deep breaths to compose herself. She found her body strangely still, as if all that caused her to tremor before had evaporated out of her body. "I saw something, some sort of... clairvoyance. A vision of a tomb in the darkness."

The look of concern on Brynwa's face deepened. "Is that, uh, normal for your religion?"

She shook her head. "No, not as far as I'm aware. We have some who pursue a more oracular path, but it's rare, and not something I ever sought out." She stood and wobbled, Brynwa's slick wooden cock falling out of her with a final splash. They both were damp with sweat, smelling of sex. She shook her head at the ruination of their baths. Brynwa sprung up to steady her, somehow managing to stand upright and stable despite the fighter's exertions, as if she had not spent the last few moments pounding away at her with incredible vigor.

"I'm fine," said Delyssa as she gained her footing.

"I'm surprised you can stand at all after that," said Brynwa, with more than a touch of pride in the fighter's voice.

"We servants of Shevlana are made of stern stuff, I think you'll find," Delyssa said. She was feeling a little light-headed.

"Are you sure you're alright? Was that vision real, or just something I fucked out of you? That happens, you know. Sometimes people see things..." the fighter trailed off as Delyssa shook her head.

"I think it was both real and something you fucked out of me. Now that I think about it, there was a minor miracle the last time I had a cock in me, too."

"Oh?"

"Well, a blind member of my order was fucking me from behind as I leaned upon a shrine to my goddess, and as we both came, he regained his sight, and the wax candles on the altar turned to gold as a holy light filled the chamber."

"Oh..." Brynwa's eyes were wide, clearly racing with imagination.

"Perhaps the goddess is paying special attention to me," Delyssa smirked. She intended to sound flirtatious, but instead Brynwa jumped as if shocked.

"Any other religion, any other god," the fighter said, shaking her head, "and the idea of keeping a close eye on a companion of mine would be enough to send me fleeing to the hills. Things never work out well for those who earn the focus of the gods. But for you? With your goddess? I'll forget that you said that."

Delyssa smiled to cover up her worry. "I'm sure it's nothing epic," she said.

"'Epic?' You're talking like an adventurer already."

"Say, I realize I've been discourteous to you," Delyssa said, trying not to be too obvious in her attempt to shift the conversation elsewhere.

Confusion replaced the look of worry on Brynwa's face. "How so?"

"Well, you've brought me three releases so far, and I haven't yet returned the favor." Delyssa reached forward near the base of the wooden cock strapped to Brynwa's groin, but the fighter stepped back.

"You already gave me what I wanted," Brynwa said.

The moment between them lingered. Delyssa could feel that there was something unsaid, unrecognized within the fighter, but did not know how to approach it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a stream of unintelligible curses from the brush. Peering out the reeds was Cenhera, face red, hands covering both of her large eyes.

"Vael told me to come fetch you, we're getting ready to depart. Ach, I cannot believe you two. Bryn, you better put that thing away."

Brynwa waggled her hips, bouncing the phallus from side to side. "Maybe I'll keep wearing it on under my trousers," the fighter said, winking at Delyssa. "I've done it before."

"If you two caveworms are done playing, we have a quest to do," Cenhera said, closing the reeds once more and slinking off back to their camp.

"What are caveworms?" Delyssa asked as the pair began to dress themselves.

"I dunno. Either some weird pest that are always mating -- gods, I hope not -- or another perverted euphemism from the tunling." Contrary to her threat to Cenhera, Brynwa unbuckled the straps of her phallus and tossed it in a wet heap on top of her pack, equipping herself of her gear with professional speed. The warrior was ready around the same time Delyssa was, surprising the acolyte, since her gear was sparse indeed compared to the belts, buckles, armor, sheaths, and straps of Brynwa's inventory.

When they emerged from the tall grass into the clearing where they had made camp, they saw the scuffed the three mounts already brushed and saddled. Vael was already atop his massive warhorse, Dereac, whom Delyssa had grown to slightly fear. The paladin was pointedly fixing his gaze outward, at the thin trail that led back up higher into the hills. Cenhera was fixing her pack to her pony and kept casting glances backwards over her shoulder at the two.

The tension in clearing felt like walking into a wall. With what was increasingly clear was characteristic brusqueness, Brynwa strode right through it.

"What a brisk morning for exercise, eh Vael?" the fighter called as she went to her horse, Delyssa following in her footsteps.

Vael turned around in his saddle and stared at them as Brynwa swung up atop her mount and pulled Delyssa up before her.

"The roads have been oddly quiet of late," he said. "I wish to move quickly to make up for lost time, but I fear traveling recklessly. What are your thoughts?"

"We're still not that far from the main road," said Brynwa, and Delyssa was surprised by how quickly the fighter switched into a more professional mode. "It's possible that local patrols have kept these hills safe, and that's why we haven't run into anything yet. Regardless, my vote is for making haste to Ankreot, so we can get this delve over with."

"Or there's something nasty here that we haven't seen yet, and that's why everything's been so calm," said Cenhera. "Everything with sense has already fled."

Vael stroked his beard. "That is also my fear. Delyssa, what are your thoughts?"

Delyssa sat up from leaning back against the fighter. "Me? I don't know these lands."

Vael shrugged. "You are a member of our party, and I think that you should have a voice in our decisions. What pace should we set? Should we try to flee these hills to get back into the lowlands as quickly as possible, or go slowly with caution, in case anything lurks about?"

"This is her first quest," Cenhera said. "Surely she should let us make the decisions and just observe until she's ready."

"I don't disagree," Delyssa said.

The paladin held his gaze steady on her. "Until she starts to make decisions, she will never be ready."

She shifted in the saddle. "It seems that for whichever choice we make, the risk is whether or not we come across some enemy before we leave the hills, and what we are deciding is how prepared we wish to be for whatever it is."

"So, you agree that we should move with caution, then?" Cenhera said.

"Well..."

"Well?"

Delyssa gestured farther up the trail, to where the hills rose to sheer rock, high above them. "I don't have to be well-traveled to know that this is challenging terrain for the horses. Even if we do spot an enemy before it sees us, what do we do about it? If we move as quickly as possible, the horses will be slowed by the trail anyway, but at least we will minimize the amount of time spent at a disadvantage."

The other campaigners looked at one another, considering her words.

"Well reasoned," Vael admitted. "Though I still think these hills warrant caution."

"As do I," said Cenhera.

"I think we should hustle out of here," said Brynwa.

Vael sighed. "So, it seems that the votes are tied. Delyssa, would you like to do the honors?"

"For what?"

"Toss the coin," Brynwa told her. "To decide what we should do."

"Um. I think I'd rather have someone else do it."

Brynwa pulled a large, golden coin out her belt pouch and pressed it into Delyssa's hand. "Call it and toss it, cleric."

Delyssa looked at the coin. On one side was the profile of some bearded man she didn't recognize, wearing an ornate crown. On the reverse side was a dragon coiled about the edge of the coin.

"Which way is which?"

"Kings is us," said Brynwa. "Drakes is them."

Delyssa tossed the coin into the air and caught it, slapping it onto the back of her hand like she had heard campaigners would. Beneath the gazes of her companions, she slowly lifted her hand to reveal the coin.

"Kings," Brynwa announced.

"Very well," said Vael. "We make haste. Let us hurry out of here and hope nothing ill befalls us."

#

"Haste" was an overstatement. As they crawled out of the plateau containing the river and into the higher elevation of the hills, the trails became little more than streams of loose rock that sent clatters of stones bouncing down behind them. Delyssa was not sure how stealthy they could even be had the coin flip come down the other way. Each step along the trail was accompanied by the echoes of gravel shifting beneath hooves.

Otherwise, the air was still, eerily so. As the river fell into the distance behind them, quickly lost among the high boulders and crags of the paths between stone, so too did the ambient nature sounds contained within. The birdsong and hum of insects and amphibians was quickly swallowed by the hills. The air became dry as they ascended, and Delyssa was glad to have re-stocked their water skins before leaving.

It was hours before Brynwa broke the silence, clearing her throat. "You're from Gra'tan, Delyssa. Do you know anything about this business with Dertath?"

The acolyte was jolted out of a daydream -- thinking as she often was of the Temple of Shevlana. "Hmm? Oh, no. I know very little of politics. I didn't even know that there was any conflict between the two cities until the day before I left."

"I can answer that one, for the causes of all wars are the same," Vael called back, twisting about in his saddle. "Though the particulars of this instance are especially disdainful. Dertath's queen -- the D'minessa -- was killed at the hands of her brother, who now rules as king. By all accounts he is a man of vile ambition and seeks to placate his many underlings by promising them land across the Riversea and musters his soldiers to secure it."

"So Dertath is invading. Could've just said that," said Brynwa.

"Well, brevity is always reductive. Not even my explanation described all of the causes. Gra'tani merchanteers are happy to use the conflict to war their caravans against one another. Dertath's other neighbors are funding Gra'tan's defense of the Emerald Bridge with weapons and mages just shoddy enough to keep Dertath interested in continuing the fight without gaining significant ground. It's a tenuous situation, to say the least."

"Shut up," said Cenhera.

Vael looked hurt. "Very well. I did not realize this subject bored you so. I had not even begun to describe how Princess T'sann has supposedly disappeared--"

"No, shut up! Listen."

Vael shut his mouth, and the party drew their mounts to a stop. Delyssa realized she was holding her breath.

"I thought I heard a voice."

"Like bandits?" hissed Brynwa, her hand on the hilt of her two-handed sword, sheathed along her horse's flank.

"Like one voice. Shhh."

The air was still, silent. The heavy snorts of the horses, the impatient shuffle of hooves echoed across the stone walls surrounding them. Brynwa's blade rasped against its scabbard as she drew it.

A shadow fell across them. Delyssa glanced up and went cold as she saw something huge silhouetted against the sun. The others saw the same and sprang into action.

"Against the wall, now!" Brynwa swung off the horse and yanked Delyssa down after her, throwing the acolyte towards the stone wall that flanked them. She pressed herself into its shadow and was relieved to see the others fill in alongside her, bringing the beasts as close as they were able. Vael had his sworn drawn, a gleaming silver blade. Cenhera had a dagger drawn and tucked behind her, looking about wildly in a crouch that kept her close to the ground. The creature passed overhead once more, its wide shadow racing across the ground.

"Did you see what it was?" Vael whispered to the others, who shook their heads.

There was a great beat of wings and the heavy thump of something monstrous landing out of sight on the ledge above them. The stone trembled with its footsteps, pebbles dancing about their feet.

"Scents travel far upon these dry winds and fill me with such hunger so as to lose my very mind a tortuous wrenching sensation that compels me to unfortunate ends--" A low, sonorous voice came from above that spoke without inflection or emotion. Its footsteps grew louder as it neared the ledge. Delyssa gripped her staff in both hands, hugging it close to her body, certain that she was hearing her thudding heart echo around the stone. She drove the staff's tip into the ground below her to keep from shaking. She had never felt as impotent as she did now.

"Ah but these travelers must be weary so and thin on the bone though fresh meat is rare and my appetite grows with every breath every beat of heart and wing every step and every blink I think that their deaths shall have both beauty and meaning insofar as a wretch such as I may perceive in between bites and claws the splash of lively blood against this dreary stone shall surely raise their spirits--"

Two massive talons crept over the ledge, sending chips of shale raining down as they dug into the stone. Slowly coming into view following its claws was a grotesquely large human head -- sunburned, cracked skin stretched gaunt over jutting bones. Its jaws were impossibly large and showed two rows of needle-like teeth. Behind its head were shoulder bristling with barbs, and was draped with shaggy, matted black hair. The monster reeked of rot and filth. It loomed directly over Delyssa, staring down at her with blank eyes, drooling through its gaping maw.