Come Get Me, Fwin

Arousal blossomed from my pelvis, spurred by my fantasy and not reality. This felt like a betrayal too, and yet I felt powerless to stop it. My fantasies had been hijacked by the shadow mage, somehow. How could he do that, when my fantasies were always overflowing and limitless? And now, even now, weeks since I'd seen him, he still claimed them.

Gods, how I hated him.

No, that wasn't true. If I hated Fwin, it would be easy to let him go. Instead, I was fascinated by his mysteries. I didn't really know if I would even like him, if I met him in the real world, but I couldn't stop thinking that I would. That the fire that burned in my abdomen would be fanned to even greater heights in reality.

I was so ready to be done with this obsession. I suckled at my husband's cock like a babe, chest tightened by guilt and unfulfillable desire. I still felt like a traitor as I swallowed his orgasm.

"Thank you," he sighed, pulling me up again, fondling my creamy white breasts and furry hobbit ass, one hand delving into the folds of my pussy.

I rocked into him, whimpering quietly, working myself to orgasm. It wouldn't come, though. Not until, with wrenching shame, I imagined Fwin between my legs instead. Cursing myself, I finally fell asleep.

Early the next morning, when I tired of lying awake in bed, I returned to Truna with my bottle of breath.

"Already? Th' desire must be strong."

"I hate keeping secrets, too," I shrugged, handing her the glass full of air.

"Come," Truna said and turned, leading me into the back of the guild to her private rooms.

I followed her through a thick wooden door and down a short hall to a small room filled with various mysterious plants and powders and jars of unidentifiable things. Truna collected several items from around the room and set them on the square table centered in the room.

She set up a crucible first, then dropped in a dram of whisky. Taking a pestle and mortar, she ground up what appeared to be a tiny mummified bird into a fine powder. Lighting the flame under the crucible, she tossed the powder into the flames, which flickered pink and set of shooting sparks. Truna pulled three black petals from a dried flower and dropped them into the simmering alcohol, then added a cakey blue powder and finally, a speck of something too small to see.

There was a small puff of yellow smoke and Truna cut off the flame. The liquid mixture cooled into a waxy residue that the witch rolled into a small sphere. Taking my bottle, she placed the sphere in her palm then slapped it over the wax plug. The sphere popped into the bottle, defying physics.

Handing me the bottle, she said, "Let it soak 'til the sun peaks, then swallow it. Ya must take it afore dusk, or it willna work and ya willna be able ta make another."

"Thank you," I bobbed my head minutely as I accepted the bottle.

Truna shrugged and led the way out back to the main lounge, "G'luck with ya dwarf's demon, hobbit," she said as I left her.

I got the distinct impression that Truna thought I should not swallow the magic orb. Gorey, also, didn't think I should do it. I bet that Fwin wouldn't want me to take it either. Well, none of them were in my head, so too fucking bad.

Gorey was cooking breakfast when I got home. Our hobbit hole was filled with the sweet aroma of pancakes and the fatty undertone of bacon grease. My husband was standing shirtless in the kitchen, a spatula in one hand and a pot in the other, handle wrapped with a towel.

"Morning dearheart," He smiled at me as I came in.

Love filled me. This was why I was going to take that magic sphere and cut out just a little bit of my heart. For this lovely man who happily cooked breakfast and was always ready with a smile. Despite my confession of the night before, he was ready to move forward without spite or further accusation.

I was already forgetting the pain of his explosion days ago. But, that was dangerous too, I reminded myself. Because it was easy to sink into the comfort of shallow contentment, that was how I'd been tempted before, I was beginning to suspect. We needed to be stronger, to be bound tighter, to have deep roots, as well as the sprawling surface tendrils that would keep a tree stable in all but the most brutal of winds.

Well, I'd let a brutal wind into my heart, and now I was going to fix it. I watched the sun anxiously all morning, and it did not go unnoticed.

"Everything OK?" Gorey asked, more than once, coming over to hold me and stroke my hair with worry.

"Yes, I'm fine," I twisted the truth, as I still could not shake the insane temptation to chuck the little bottle into the trash, go to bed, and call for Fwin. But soon, I'd be rid of that desire, and that was good.

I waited until an hour past midday, to make sure I was well within the effective timing. Then, I took out the bottle with trembling hands and unstoppered it. The scent of moldy flowers and whiskey tickled my nose as I tapped the orb out into my palm.

"What's that?" my daughter asked, eyeing me from behind her book.

"Just a little medicine," I replied with a smile, before pressing the sphere with one finger into the back of my throat and choking it down.

I coughed a little as I swallowed and my daughter put her book down to come and pat my back, worriedly.

"Are you OK, Mommy?"

"I'm fine," I pulled her into a hug and tickled her stomach with my fingers, making her laugh.

Before she even got up to return to her reading, I'd forgotten all about Fwin, like a great weight had been lifted from me. I breathed a deep sigh of relief and settled back into my chair, feeling truly content for the first time since I'd said goodbye to my strange shadow dreams, which even now were fading from my memory.

My thoughts cleared and I recalled my mission, to exorcise my husband's demon. I needed a dwarven priest, I figured. Well, the best place to find someone like that would be down at the Adventurers' Guild. But not today. Today, I wanted to just enjoy my family.

That evening, Gorey held me in his arms tightly, "It's my fault, that you felt you need something else."

"I don't know," I answered. "But, I do know that when you explode it makes me afraid to talk to you about things, and maybe it's because we don't talk about everything that I couldn't talk to you about the shadow walking. Maybe if I had, it wouldn't have gone so far..."

"It hurts, you know. This hurts," he said. "I don't know why you felt you had to go looking for someone else."

"But I wasn't looking," I protested, "I was just enjoying an adventure, and it snuck up on me. I guess I could have taken more precautions, but I didn't think it was possible that I could be tempted to stray."

"You always said you hated cheaters, like your father," Gorey mused, no longer listening to me.

I sighed and closed my eyes. Maybe it was the demon that closed his ears? I would exorcise it, I vowed.

We were silent a long time before Gorey spoke again, "How could you do that, sleeping right next to me? How could you go off in your mind with someone else?"

I frowned, "But I always fantasize, about everything."

In my own head, I admitted that I felt guilty about thinking about Fwin when I was with Gorey, but I guess I couldn't let go of all my secrets because I didn't say it out loud. And besides, I'd fixed that problem with Truna's pill.

"That mage was a manipulative smooth talker, you know that right? He was just trying to fuck you, then he'd drop you like a rock. We're not so attractive people, you know."

I sighed as I remembered catching Fwin stroking himself behind a bush on the plains, which I was relieved to find no longer stirred arousal. Considering that memory, I had a hard time seeing Fwin as a serial womanizer. On another level I was vaguely irritated by Gorey's implication that I wasn't able to attract and hold the attention of another guy. But, I knew that was just the jealousy talking, so I tried not to take it personally.

"What did you think?" Gorey continued, unbothered by my silence, "Did you think that you'd go off and make some big happy family with his kids and ours?" He scoffed.

"No," I replied. I'd deliberately not thought about any possibility of a future at all.

It was, after all, exactly as unlikely as my husband pointed out that some crazy unprecedented attraction to some person I barely knew, who lived who even knew where, would turn into anything other than drama and heart ache. As evidenced by the current situation, actually. I huffed at myself, I should have either stopped it sooner or let it go faster or maybe just kept my secrets better.

"Do you regret that I told you?" I asked Gorey.

"No," he answered.

I fell asleep thinking that we were both really overdramatic people who probably belonged with each other just for that reason. After all, nothing happened. Except you wanted it to, my brain helpfully supplied. Thankfully that thought was not followed by the urge to whisper the words to call Fwin, as it would have the night before.

The next afternoon I went down to the Adventurers' Guild in search of the right type of priest. I nodded cordially to Truna as I made my way through the lounge. She eyed me carefully, then shook her head, dismissing me.

I found Burgg downstairs for once, drinking a tankard of ale as he listened to someone singing lewdly, and poorly. I sat down next to him, not interrupting.

Lost a coin in my pocket

Then went digging after it

Found a salami instead

Thought I'd go eat it in bed

Pretty Mauli followed me

Saying she was so hungry

Told her I'd give her my meat

She said, "Oh, what a nice treat!"

Put my pork in her pocket

The coin I lost was worth it

The song was ridiculous. Sung by the sad looking lad standing on the bar - who diligently mimed every described action, it was hilarious. I stifled my giggles so as not to miss any of the words. Burgg heard me trying not to laugh and grinned at me over the rim of his glass.

"How's it hanging?" I asked.

"Much better, now you're here," Burgg replied, "It's been a while."

"Hardly," I laughed, "I saw you last week."

"That's forever!"

I shook my head, "I need help finding someone. Well, a type of someone, not a specific person."

Burgg cocked his head at me, "I'll bite. What do you need, Kletara?"

"I need a dwarven priest."

"Hmm..." Burgg considered my request. "I might have something for you... Let me check on some things. Come back in a week and I should have an answer."

The next couple days passed quickly as I anticipated getting answers. It felt good to have a project, something to work towards. It seemed that Gorey sensed my change of mood, and he was energized by proxy. The topic of my near-miss affair and his monthly rages were forgotten in the normal activity of our lives.

Everything was so pleasantly calm and normal that I nearly forgot to go back to see Burgg the next week. It was only because a spark of jealousy ignited my husband's words that I remembered.

"I trust you," he said randomly one evening.

I frowned, confused. Then, the hazy memory became clear, Fwin and his inexplicable seduction. I looked at my husband, his face tired, yet determined. He was reminding himself, trying to let go of the unfounded suspicions that had haunted him, even in the light of this new revelation that not too long ago his suspicions had come perilously close to reality. Love for him filled my heart.

"I love you. I will always choose you," I said, going and kneeling before him, taking his hands in mine.

Gorey slid his hands around my back and lifted me, pulling me into him with a strong embrace. His arms felt like home. I couldn't imagine how I'd ever been tempted to stray. Which thought reminded me that the temptation had only ended because of Truna's magic. And I had only three weeks now to exorcise my husband's demon.

Burgg! I remembered I had to go check with him. I bounced up and kissed my husband, my tongue sweeping through his lips.

"I've got to head down to the Adventurers' Guild," I said.

"Now?" Gorey's expression turned bitter.

Oops, I realized too late that it probably had not been a good time to announce my need to return to the guild, and I'd probably said it in the wrong way as well. Was this why my husband was so constantly distrustful of me? Was it my fault for my unthinking abrupt ways?

After all, why shouldn't he trust me? I had given up something really enjoyable just for his sake. And now I was working hard to heal the rift in our marriage. I hadn't meant to tempt infidelity, after all. I worried over the problem as I made my way to the guild.

"Kletara!" Gurgg called to me when I stepped into the guild.

"Gurgg," I smiled and slid onto a bar stool next to him.

"I found you a dwarven priest, my girl. But you'll have to go collect him from Tilanria."

"That'll be a week there and back," I mused. "I'd better get going then!"

"Will you be going alone? I could find a lad to join you," Gurgg offered.

It was a kind offer. It was always best to travel in pairs or groups, especially when one was smaller and weaker than most others. But, the memory of Fwin and his unanticipated temptation made me cautious. It was an unwarranted caution, I was fairly certain. But I'd also been fairly certain that no one could ever really tempt me to infidelity, and I'd been thoroughly tempted. Better to not test those waters again, I decided.

"I think I'll go it alone," I replied, hoping it wasn't a mistake.

I stopped back in at my hobbit hole to pack and tell Gorey where I was going. I knew he wouldn't like the unexpected long absence, but it was the only chance I had to save our marriage. So, really, it was for his own good.

When I got home, Gorey was napping on his favorite chair, his belly popping up as he slumped over. I took a moment to admire him, my stout teddy bear. Well, except for those occasional rages, I frowned. But, I was going to fix that, and then everything would be perfect again. No, not again, more perfect than ever.

I gently shook Gorey's shoulder. He stirred and blinked up at me.

"I have to go to Tilrania to find a Dwarven priest," I said without preamble.

"What? Why?"

"So that he can exorcise your demons," I explained.

Gorey tilted his head up at me, "You think that will work?"

I nodded, "It has to."

"Be careful. It's been a while since you went adventuring," he said.

"It's only Tilrania. It'll be fine," I assured him.

I packed light, only what I could comfortably carry. Fortunately, it was warm, and in the dry season, so I didn't have to bring cold or wet weather gear. My adventuring pack was crumpled in the back of a closet, but still as durable and comfortable as I remembered.

It felt strange to gear up after so long, but also good. I slipped my blow gun and darts into my sleeves. Checking my mental list one last time, patting my pockets. I nodded to myself, I was ready. I made my farewells, and went out the door.

The path to Tilrania took me through the forest and past the lumber yard. In my mind's eye, I saw Gorey there, slinging logs easily, covered in dirt and sweat. My heart swelled with love and determination. I would save him from his demons.

I was still in the woods when night fell. I found a small clearing within sight of the path and used a stick to clear stones and pine cones and twigs from a space big enough to sleep in. This was one time it was good to be small.

The night passed without incident, only the hooting of some owls and the occasional rustle of small animals breaking the silence. The next two nights in the forest were the same, and then I broke from the trees into the expansive farms that marked the edge of Tilrania. I still had four days to walk to get to the city, however.

These massive farms were worked by teams of golems who never needed to eat or sleep. Therefore, there were no houses as I walked, just endless rows of crops and clay men tending to them. I slept between the road and the farms, feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Despite my fears, I did not encounter any trouble. When I finally caught sight of it, the city of Tilrania was impressive. Clean, white, buildings with dark brown wood trim lined the streets with precision. Each was set at the exact same distance from the street, and each had the exact same width and spacing to each other. Each was the same height and built in the same design.

It was easy to get lost here, based on the architecture alone. However, with admirable foresight, the Tilranians had anticipated this with roads that had different types of pavement. Streets that went north-south were paved in brick, while those that went east-west were paved with stone. Streets that led to the city center were double the width of streets that did not. Signposts were neatly displayed at every single corner, without fail.

I turned down a double wide street. On these wide avenues, businesses lined both sides, whereas the narrower streets were for homes only. I scanned the signs displayed over the buildings' doors as I walked. I didn't have to go far to find what I was looking for.

I pushed open the heavy wooden door. It swung effortlessly inward, as well maintained and designed as everything in Tilrania. Inside, the room was well-lit, and of course, clean. The tables were lined up in neat rows and the drinkers were all seated at the exact same distance from the tables, save one. In the corner, actually sitting on a table eschewing the chairs altogether, was a dwarf.

Ale dribbled down his long brown beard and his eyes were merry under his massive bushy brows. He was chatting with a small group of morose looking men, each of them taking small sips of beer with arms that moved like clockwork.

I couldn't help it, I laughed. The sound carried, emphasizing how quiet the room really was. No head turned, except the dwarf's.

"You're not from around here," he noted drily.

"Neither are you," I retorted. "I am looking for you, though, if you're a priest."

The dwarf hopped off the table and walked over to me, bumping a chair askew on his way. One of the other patrons quickly corrected the position of the errant furniture.

"What can I do for you?"

"I need an exorcist for my husband. He's a dwarf, and he's got demons," I said, wasting no time.

"Ah?" the dwarf said with a new gleam in his eye. "That sounds far more interesting than trying to bring life to this hellhole. Let's go!"

I laughed again, the sound echoing oddly in the tavern. I shivered. It was creepy.

When we made it out on the street, I leaned over and whispered, "How can you stand it here?"

"Aye, it's an odd place. The ale is good though, and that can sustain a dwarf through anything."

We were nearly out of the city when it happened. I admit, I let down my guard now that I was no longer alone. Also, I never expected to encounter trouble in a city as well-organized and controlled as Tilrania.

The first sign was the click-clack of nails on stone as we were passing a crossroad. I turned my head towards the sound and saw nothing but empty streets. The hairs on my arms rose as I glanced up towards the roofs. Perhaps the sound had been claws on slate?

I snapped my eyes around and caught just a glimpse of a shadow soaring from one building across the entire wide avenue to another roof. Then, there was silence. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that the priest was watching the same roof. I carefully slid my blow gun free and readied it.

There was a faint clicking and then the shadow was falling towards us. I shot a dart at it, spun out of its trajectory, and loaded another. My adrenalin was pumping as I finally saw what had attacked us.

The gargoyle stood where the priest and I had been only moments before. My heart beat faster as I realized my darts would not penetrate the creatures stone-like skin. I filed through all the information in my head on gargoyles as I watched the creature.