After the Second Fall Pt. 03.3

As she pushed her bowl away, much too full for another bite, she erred by making eye contact with one of the throng, who took it as a sign to introduce himself. "Nice to know you," she replied politely when the man finished -- this was a second mistake. Immediately personal details started being shouted across the space: names, occupations, relations, birthdays, several lewd suggestions, and at least one marriage proposal.

It was all quite flattering in a way, but overwhelming, and Esther decided she was ready to leave. Leaving the cloak for the Mayor to carry, she began pushing toward the door, gently at first and then more diligently. A man smacked her rear and she gave him a hard stare; a second one, emboldened by the first, grabbed her breast defiantly, sneering up at the Esther's cold eyes. She laid him low with a well placed elbow to the side of his head and suddenly the shoving got more intense as patrons tried to gain distance. Even Esther had a moment of panic when it felt like she was going to be pushed off her feet, but it passed quickly as she regained her footing -- then she was out the door.

Mayor Harryx emerged half a hundred beats later, pulling Esther's accoster through the crowd by his collar, the man still unconscious. He whistled shrilly and a couple uniformed guards hustled over; after a brief explanation, they each grabbed a wrist and pulled the man away toward the center of the square.

"Are you okay?" Harryx asked hurriedly, jogging over to Esther.

She looked down at him curiously. "Of course. Why?"

"Oh, I was afraid-- Well, never mind. Listen, maybe we should get you back to your apartment."

"Absolutely not," Esther replied immediately. "I was promised a day out and I have no intention of a little tussle taking that away."

"A little tussle... you broke his nose, and maybe his cheek. His eye was already turning colors."

Esther shrugged. "Well, he obviously bit off more than he could chew."

Harryx looked up at her, awed by her raw confidence, trying to decide if her readily apparent ability to break him into pieces made her any less attractive. "If I propose marriage to you right now, are you going to break my nose, too?"

She grinned and hooked her arm through his. "Not unless you try to touch me before I tell you to."

"Wait -- you're going to tell me to touch you?"

Chapter 21

"Wait, wait, stop! I can't take anymore."

"Quit whining, you big baby," Esther replied sharply before taking Carlos' penis back in her mouth. She sucked forcefully on his swelling member and he pushed at her head, aching for relief, but she was much stronger. She paused again. "You wanted me, so what are you complaining about?"

"Too sensitive," he argued, trying to stay calm as she returned to her ministrations. "Too sensitive!" Esther squeezed his testicles, which brought an entirely new sound out of the Mayor's already hoarse throat. "I need time to recover. Give me half a bell, please. Esther, please, give me half a bell."

Rolling her eyes, Esther took one more long suck, squeezing the head with her lips to elicit another whine, then let it go with a pop. Harryx groaned in relief and immediately rolled onto his side to curl into a ball. "Fine, but after you get hard again, no more excuses."

"Yes, ma'am," he managed.

Esther slid up the bed and spread her long, long legs, then kicked him in the rump. "Get up here." Carlos uncurled himself and gingerly got onto his knees, realizing that Esther had spread herself wide for him, her arms laying delicately above her head, her enormous breasts spread delightfully.

"My Lord," he muttered without even realizing it. Suddenly, his eyes went wide and he looked down as his member betrayed him, beginning to harden; panic showed in his face. "No, no, I'm not ready yet."

Esther laughed loudly, one hand on her stomach and another covering her mouth; the jostling of her tits only sealed Carlos' fate as his penis reached near-full hardness. Esther sat up and grabbed the protuberance, pulling the smaller man forward. "We'll take care of you in a little while. For now, I want you to eat me -- understand?"

Carlos nodded eagerly, relief evident on his face as he leaned forward. Hands on the back of his head surprised him and he barely had the opportunity to take a breath before his face was roughly shoved against Esther's beautiful pink pussy.

To say Esther was a demanding lover would be a dramatic understatement, yet when Carlos woke the following morning, exhausted, bruised, and chafed raw in spots, he couldn't remember ever feeling so unburdened or generally happy. Until he tried to stand and realized his right leg wouldn't support his weight; he was just glad nobody was around to witness him crawling to the bathroom.

After a brief wash, and feeling mostly steady on his feet, he returned to find Esther awake and waiting for him, a fairly evil smile on her achingly beautiful lips. "More," she said, spreading herself wide once again.

"Oh, fuck," he responded, not sure if the predominant emotion he was feeling was excitement or fear.

When she finally released him the next morning at the insistence of a pair of concerned guards, after a second day of rigorous intimate activities and very little else, Carlos Harryx was a shell of his former self. Upon seeing his state, a doctor was called and the Mayor was soon taken away on a gurney while Esther looked on, more amused than actually concerned.

As the door closed, Esther let out a contented sigh, then went to clean herself. She had never been so insistent during sex before, but something about bedding the most powerful man in Marbelo made her want to exert her own dominance. It was a side of herself she hadn't known existed, but she enjoyed it immensely, even if she was tired after the fact.

After dressing, and knowing that Carlos wouldn't be around to stop her, she decided to explore the boundaries of her new pseudo-freedom. The room guards weren't present outside her door -- probably because they were helping tend to the Mayor -- so she made her way casually toward the market, relying on a hunch.

The walk was as expected, with many wide eyes, exclamations, and pointing fingers. When she started to feel overwhelmed, she thought of these people's elected Mayor on his knees begging for her to make him cum, shaking with need, and it brought a wide smile.

It was still early so the market hadn't yet filled up, but there were already dozens of citizens taking care of their morning shopping. Esther made her way to Micah's and stepped through the door, but got no further. "No!" the proprietor yelled, waving a finger at her before he started moving rapidly behind the counter; smiling to herself, Esther stepped back outside. Micah himself soon came out carrying a bowl for her. "Here is your soup, but no more coming inside my place. I can't afford to replace any more chairs."

"You should have replaced those chairs years ago," she said skeptically as she took the bowl, "but thank you for the stew anyway." She gave the man a warm smile and his facade cracked, just for a moment as a grin made itself known, before he turned on his heel and stormed back into the restaurant. "'Stew,' she says, after I spend two days telling all my customers we have to call it soup or the crazy blonde bitch will come and break all our skulls --"

Having enjoyed the theatrics, Esther looked around the market and decided that she didn't really need anything else, not that she could have purchased anything without local currency anyway. So instead of window shopping she enjoyed her meal as she meandered along the tour route that had been established for her: down to the river, along it's Western bank, over the pedestrian bridge, and back on the Eastern shore. She was almost to Marbelo's main road, which would take her back across the river and to the apartment, when she realized she was a block from the hospital.

A detour was definitely in order.

The receptionist wasn't open to letting Esther into the hospital, but short of stabbing her with a letter opener, there wasn't anything for him to do as she walked past the his desk and into the hallway beyond. She started peeking in every room she came to, generally trying to be the biggest nuisance possible, until the the man finally relented and led her begrudgingly to a small white and gray room on the second floor.

Tilly looked awful. Her mouth was swollen and her right arm and leg had been encased in heavy casts, then immobilized in traction. Thankfully, she was asleep. Undecided on what to do, Esther stood still long enough that two orderlies hustled in, determined to restore order. "Please," she said without turning around, "let me stay with my friend a little while. If she doesn't wake up soon I'll leave."

"It's alright, boys," a raspy voice said. "I'll talk with Ms. Walter for a while." After a dozen or so beats of whispered conversation, an elderly man dressed in white stepped forward next to Esther. "My name is Dr. Apison and Mathilda is under my care. She told me that you might come to visit -- I'm glad she was right," he finished kindly.

"How is she doing? No misdirection please."

The doctor chuckled. "Well, I'm pleased to tell you that I won't need misdirection in this case. Mathilda is doing very well, although we'll keep her mildly sedated for another couple days while the worst of the pain fades. We successfully built back up the tendons in her arm while cutting away the damaged tissue, so I expect she'll be able to regain much of the function. She probably won't be able to raise it above shoulder level, but it will be much better.

"I should mention that recovering from severe shoulder injuries is terrifically painful, but from my limited interactions with her, I believe Mathilda is tough enough to see the rehabilitation process through."

The doctor paused for a moment to see if Esther had questions, then continued. "As for her leg, I'm hoping for a full functional recovery. Her tibia -- that is, one of the bones in her lower leg -- healed very poorly after it was broken, but it wasn't nearly so large a challenge to correct from the medical standpoint as her arm. It may bother her a bit when the weather rolls in, but I think she'll learn to cope just like us older folks do."

Esther grinned. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Of course. If I might ask, will some justice be done toward the person or people that did these things to her?"

"It won't be a problem -- Tilly took care of that herself."

"Is that so?" the doctor asked, to which he received a nod in reply. "Remarkable."

"She certainly is," replied Esther as she moved to sit down in a chair adjacent to the bed. "Is it acceptable for me to visit her?"

"Certainly. We find that patients often respond better to treatment, including therapy, when they have somebody to lean on."

"Thank you, Doctor. If you could let the guy at the front door know, I would appreciate it. I don't think he took a shine to me."

Chuckling, the doctor walked to the door. "One more thing that might interest you, Ms. Walter," he said, looking back over his shoulder, "the Mayor was brought in a little while ago. He's on the first floor at the end of the hall, in case you want to visit him as well."

Suddenly wary, Esther asked, "Will he be okay?"

Fighting to keep a straight face, Dr. Apison replied, "I'm not the attending physician, but I believe he'll be fine. Rumor is that he's quite dehydrated, and is also suffering from some rather unique bruising, and if that's the worst of it he'll make a full recovery."

"Good to know," Esther replied as her tension eased. "Thanks again, Doctor."

The physician waved his goodbye, still close to laughing, and closed the room's door behind him. Esther give a little laugh herself, then turned her attention back to Tilly, picking up her friend's uninjured hand.

Esther visited the hospital the next day, but Tilly was still unconscious and Carlos had checked himself out. 'Odd that he didn't come to see me,' Esther thought with a grin.

The following day Carlos still hadn't reappeared, but at least Tilly was finally awake. Esther sat bedside, holding her friend's hand and feeding her bits of chipped ice or sips of clear broth as the increasingly frail looking woman floated between discomfort and outright pain, depending on the time since the last dose of medication.

That night, Esther stayed at the hospital, eschewing an evening meal to make sure that Tilly received the necessary care. In the morning, having slept slumped forward over the bed, Esther woke to find an exceedingly stiff neck and moderately sore back; her focus shifted abruptly when she realized her companion's eyes were clear again. Although still uncomfortable, Tilly seemed to be doing better and managed half a smile for Esther.

"Welcome back. How's the pain?"

Tilly paused for a moment, then replied, "It hurts when I move."

"And when you don't move?"

Frowning, Tilly closed her eyes. "It hurts then, too."

Smiling gently, Esther took the smaller woman's hand. "I can ask the doctor to give you more medication."

Tilly shook her head. "Just keep holding my hand and I'll be fine. I'm sorry you had to stay all night."

The blonde's smile widened. "I didn't have to," she said, squeezing Tilly's hand tightly for a moment.

"Thank you, Esther, for staying with me. I know it was too much to ask."

"It's not so bad," Esther replied with a coy grin. "I managed to find something to pass the time when I'm not here with you." Tilly looked up curiously, so Esther recounted her experiences with Carlos in the city. When she got to the more explicit portion of her story, Tilly flushed. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, please keep going."

"You're sure?" Tilly nodded vehemently, then groaned at the result of at her exuberance. Esther waited until the wave of pain passed, then squeezed again and restarted the story. Given her friend's apparent thirst for detail, Esther's description became more granular. After explaining how Carlos inadvertently shot semen all over his own face, Tilly held up her hand.

"That's enough, Esther."

Surprised, Esther stared down at Tilly. "You don't want me to keep going? I hadn't even gotten to the good parts."

Tilly smiled tiredly. "I'm sorry -- I know you're trying to cheer me up, but it got a little too hard to believe."

Esther was not pleased and sat back with a harumph, folding her arms. "I didn't exaggerate at all. Well, not much anyway." The look she received in return was like that of a parent patiently hearing their child's latest tall tale.

Eyes narrowing, Esther popped to her feet. "Wait here," she stated firmly, then stomped out of the room, oblivious to Tilly's eye roll at her selection of words. A quarter bell later Esther returned triumphantly, towing an obviously uncomfortable young woman by the wrist; shortly afterward a man and another woman man hurried into the room.

"What's going on?" the second woman asked firmly.

Esther, who had been about to speak to Tilly, turned and looked at the speaker, and seeing a white coat, released the first woman. "Good, you're a doctor, you can explain." She took the second woman's wrist and pulled her forward to the edge of the bed.

"What--" the doctor objected, but Esther spoke over her.

"I'm know, I know, I'm sorry," Esther rushed to quiet the woman. "I went about this all wrong, just give me a moment and I'll explain, yes?" The doctor looked suspicious, but nodded anyway seeing the tall blonde's earnestness. "My name is Esther and I'm here visiting from Rieckenberg with my friend Tilly. Well, she hasn't been feeling very good after all her surgeries, so I was telling her what I did the last few days, and she called me a liar."

"I did not," interjected Tilly.

"Okay, not directly, but you certainly implied it."

"I just said you were exaggerating."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Esther a little more loudly than she intended. "Sorry." She turned back to the doctor again. "The point is that I wasn't making stuff up.

"For the last few days, while Tilly's been recuperating, I was spending most of my time with Carlos Harryx."

Behind the doctor, the first woman gasped when she heard Carlos' last name.

Esther nodded to her. "Yes, Mayor Harryx. He showed me around the city and we eventually ended up having sex."

"A lot more than that," added the as-of-yet unidentified man.

The doctor shot him a dirty look, then asked, "But what does any of that have to do with pulling Marie up here?"

"I went down to the room where he was and a guy told me that she was his nurse."

"And?" the doctor persisted.

Turning to Nurse Marie, Esther said, "I was hoping you would tell my disbelieving friend that I was telling her the truth."

"How would I know?" Marie asked, her tone bordering on terror. "I don't know how he got so..."

A wicked smile lit Esther's face. "So... what? What was he?"

Seeing her colleague's dismay, the doctor intervened. "It doesn't matter what he was, because it's none of your business."

"I already know what he was," snapped back Esther, "because I'm the one that did it to him."

The doctor looked back and forth between the nurse and the huge woman standing in front of her, then stepped over to Marie, intending to have a private conversation with the mortified young woman, but Esther intervened. "No, no, no. No getting your stories straight. How about I tell you what Carlos and I did, and you can tell Tilly if it's consistent with what you saw, okay?"

Seeing that the doctor had no intention of complying, Esther walked to the two women and dropped to her knees, then sat back on her heels so that she was actually looking up at them both. "Please. I know it probably seems stupid and unnecessary, but my friend is in a lot of pain, and anything I can do to make her feel just a little better is worth trying. Right?"

"And you want to be right."

Rather than confirm the doctor's statement, Esther barreled onward. "Listen, I know she'll like my story, but she doesn't want to hear it because she thinks I'm making it up. She told me it's too unbelievable."

The doctor continued to look skeptical, and without another word took the nurse's elbow, leading her out into the hallway; the man looked like he was enjoying the drama, but chose to stay silent. From just outside the room came the sound of rapid, heated whispering, just below the level of hearing. After more than five hundred beats the two women came back in the room.

The doctor walked past Esther, who had gotten back to her feet, and on to the bed where Tilly was looking pale. "Hello again, Mathilda. How are you feeling?"

"Okay, Dr. Karoya."

"Pain?"

"Yes, but not so much that I can't stand it. I don't think it's as bad as when I first got hurt."

"Well that's something anyway," the doctor replied. "Are you sure you don't want medication? You look uncomfortable."

"Uh... it's mostly just this whole... situation. Esther is a wonderful friend, but she's very... spirited."

"So I've learned," Dr. Karoya responded wryly. "So why not let her tell you her story. It's not like you have a lot else to do."

Tilly rolled her eyes. "I did, for more than a bell, and it just got more and more... outrageous. The stuff she was telling me was harder to believe than the fairy tales I heard from my Mom when I was just a girl."

"Actually," replied the doctor, "it might not be so far fetched. It turns out the Mayor was here in the hospital and Marie was his nurse. His... hmmm... injuries might not be the best word given the context. His ailments were consistent with rigorous physical exertion over an extended period, as well as... vigorous sexual activity. Extremely vigorous."

"So it's true?" Tilly asked, regaining some of her color.

The doctor shrugged and looked to Esther, who started to grin in response, but tried not to let it show. "Maybe. She does look capable of some pretty athletic feats."