Drachne Ch. 03

Raltin had managed to resist completely sucking anyone's soul out through their face, so far. He'd left them merely extremely traumatised and blubbering about the wrath of the gods.

It was beginning to feel like they might be able to live like this.

A tail crept close to the edge of her box, and her golden eyes flickered across it, considering the intentional provocation. Her little beast, trying to tempt her to play with him.

She had to admit, she was still aching from their earlier game. All her muscles sore from things that they hadn't done before. However, he was probably the opposite. Aching to get back inside her.

She was the neko dumb enough to fall for an incubus.

"If Cookie ends up with kittens, our lives will get ridiculously difficult. He understands that, doesn't he?" She batted the tail away.

Raltin sighed and nodded, "Sorry. I'm... Starving. I don't know what's got into me."

"Incubus has lost his virginity." She giggled, "Everywhere he looks, he sees little cookies. Snacks for the hungry soul. She isn't that surprised... Has he found them any work?"

"Not without a bell. And a fake is a gold bar." He shrugged, "Our choices seem to be begging and theft. Not much else, I'm sorry."

Cookie sat up, ears flicking back and forth, "Someone is watching them. They smell... Wild."

"I was noticed by the local pickpocket gang." Raltin sighed heavily, "The leader is human, if you'd believe it. A human controls the people like us who have no choice. Don't those bastards get content to control everything else?"

She sniffed, and growled towards the wildling, her eyes flashing a dangerous golden as she did. The quarter-elf took off running from their hiding place.

Cookie started cleaning herself, licking the backs of her hands and preening at her ears. "We will have to join, sooner or later. Loyalty as firm as our stomachs are full. The game is to survive, Raltin. That's all it is, for now."

"My magic isn't something that they'll want to let go of, once they get hold of it." He disagreed.

She rolled her eyes, "Nor is Cookie's! She isn't saying she wants it. She's saying they don't have a choice. It's playing for keeps with a bunch of thieves, or trying our luck in the forests. You slept in the rain before? It sucks."

The incubus considered her carefully, "You slept in the rain, often, Cookie?"

"She wasn't always a temple brat." Cookie snorted, and then let out a deep sigh. "She was a nomad, Raltin. Not all neko tribes died in the war, but they all suffered. Cookie's clan couldn't feed her, so they left her at temple. But Cookie has magic, even if she sucks with it. Means she can remember lives of her parents. Surviving in rainforests. Hunted by big bad arachne."

She shuddered, pulling into her box and glaring over the edge at him, "She's not going out there."

"You're aware the arachne is even rarer than I am, right?" Raltin said in amusement, "Most people think that they're nothing more than a myth. A big spider, sure, but a beastkind?"

"Cookie met one."

He blinked his red eyes in shock, "Say again?"

"It tried to pretend not to see her, and Cookie didn't want to admit it, either." She shrugged, "In the temple. There was a hidden room with a spider's web bigger than our bunks. Temple had a pet arachne, or at least a halfbreed. Sometimes, when Cookie followed the Raltin, she could see it out of the corner of her eye. It smelled like... Death. Angry death."

Raltin shuddered, "I don't know if I believe you, but that is a terrifying thought if even a shadow of truth can be found in it. Why didn't you tell ghost stories when the elves did?"

The cat shrugged, "Elves too stupid to know if something really scary. They think we're all beastkinds. A generation ago, Cookie's kind had an empire as big as the Golden Mountain. Elves are meant to have long memories, but they don't respect Cookie. Don't think of kitties as anything but little monsters."

His tail flopped into her box, and he glumly put his head in his hands, "I'm a souleater. I lose control, people die. Those bitches didn't show me any respect, either."

She crept closer, purring, "She loves her souleater. He sacrificed everything for her."

"I want you." He growled huskily, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I'm not safe to mess with, Cookie. I keep dreaming about it, us, even though I'm awake."

"Cookie doesn't mind." She purred, lifting her head and looking at him with her bright eyes, "She has already gone beyond tempting death for him. She owns him, now. Her incubus."

His gaze was filled with lust and made her body feel all kinds of tingling things.

She slunk out of the box, her thighs going around his hips as she kissed at the weathered skin of his face, purring deeply as she did.

It almost annoyed Cookie how much Raltin was trying to hold back from her. They had already been cast into the Void to die, for all intents and purposes. What was wrong with enjoying themselves a bit in their final days?

A flash of red fur moved in the corner of her vision, but the neko wasn't going to be distracted from her man, even if it was a fucking kitsune.

She could feel him rising to the occasion, and rewarded him by rubbing her hips against him. Still only lightly kissing at his cheeks, nipping at his chin. Encouraging and tempting him, trying to get him to buy into this.

His tail snaked around her waist, gripping her firmly as he raised her slightly into the air, as his other hand took a hold of her underwear and discarded the garment into her box.

She let out a deep miaow instinctively, before her eyes bugged as he shoved her back down. Piercing her in a single thrust that went all the way into her soft depths.

She whimpered, aching as she felt herself tightening up around his rigidness. "F-fuck. He's impatient."

Raltin's tongue quested into her mouth, flicking fast as he explored her mouth with a hungry excitement. Cookie willingly playing with the quicksilver-like forked limb that flashed around inside her mouth.

She might not have another mouth to compare him to, but she didn't have a doubt that he was a better kisser than any elf could hope to be. His tongue was too agile, too slippery.

She really wanted to try letting him eat out her at some point. Getting tongue fucked sounded exciting as frick.

She was aware of a dull glow to his eyes as his tail lifted her up gently, making her moan, before it slammed her back down again. Impaling her and making her whine with joy.

She enjoyed the shit out of being manhandled by him, feeling her hips bruising with his repetitive and violent thrusts into her depths. Making her sensitive parts go from tingling to creaming with no efforts at all.

It only added ti the excitement that she knew she was in danger, like this.

His tail could carve her in half, or he could choose to use her slickness as she came atop of him to dip into her soul. His tongue in her mouth could slip down her throat without warning.

She was completely and utterly at his mercy, and that thought had her gushing.

Cookie tried to assist his thrusts, putting her hands on his bare chest. Raltin seemed to disapprove, his tail tightening around her and nearly lifting her off him with each movement.

He wanted to be the one fucking her, and she was okay with that.

The cat increased the volume of her moans, focusing on the feeling of each of his violent invasions. It wasn't long before her legs were trembling by his sides.

The incubus' hands reached up, and began to toy with her breasts, making her arch her back for him. His thumbs playing gently over the sensitive nubs. "Squeeze. Firmer." The catgirl hissed.

He obliged, massaging her sensitive breasts as he continued to lift and drop her up and down his length. Beginning to overstimulate her with his ministrations.

Cookie moved her hands from his chest, to holding onto his horns as he fucked her. Gently scratching the delicate material with his thrusts into her, making him growl deeply.

"My kitten." He snarled as he plumbed her depths.

Her weakly shaking legs immediately cramped up, her eyes widened, and her back arched. The neko cried out loudly, her voice echoing throughout the alleyways as you flushed all over his cock.

"Your. Naughty. Kitten." She punctuated his thrusts, still holding onto his horns as she quivered on top of him. Caterwauling in the depths of her orgasm.

Raltin dragged her down, embedding her firmly, before brushing his teeth against her cheek. "M-mine."

He wasn't cumming with her.

Oh, shit.

Raltin's eyes took on a deep and angry light that made her feel nervous, even with him still inside her very wet little pussy. He wasn't just looking at her with one kind of lust, now.

His tail tightened painfully around her middle, and his growl moved from one of possession, to one of hunger.

Cookie whined in fear.

His pupils vanished, leaving only a glowing redness. Raltin mindlessly growled, and this time she felt a truly disturbing yank to her gut, like he was trying to rip her out of her body.

The neko felt her slim grip on her magic vanish, and then the pain hit her. A searing agony as her head screamed, the tug now more feeling like she was being bitch-slapped by a tauran.

"R-ral-tin!" She screamed, trying to drag him back from the instincts he had lost himself inside.

Barbs sprang up inside her causing her to squeal in pain as he latched onto her. The incubus growling even deeper, as he gave up his last sense of reality and tried to take her soul.

"That's... Boring." A new voice whispered.

---

The scent of the arachne was unmistakable, now. The pervasive stench of an evil that would kill Flick as soon as look at her. She might technically be a bitch, but she wasn't a dumb bitch.

It was time to abandon this zombie. He'd be drawn to his mistress, anyways.

His grip on her wrist was still painfully tight, grinding her bones together with his stupid undead strength. However, she was no longer pissing herself at catching something climbing out of its grave.

She was pretty sure she'd got a handle on this elf. In life, he'd been a lord. Cruel and used to getting his own way. He'd played at sex with an arachne because he was an arrogant fuck, and paid the ultimate price.

She sniffed the air cautiously, "Close, now. What did you say she called herself?"

"Draaachne." He moaned, and in his bliss his grip weakened.

Flick's feet slammed into the side of his face and she was off. Hands and feet dragging at the soft soil as she shot through the forest, her forest, her tail wagging happily.

She jumped over tree trunks, and skidded beneath exposed roots. Twisting lithely as she exceeded the speed of an elf at full sprint, a broad grin appearing on her face as she felt the wind in her hair.

She couldn't help herself, letting out a happy little bawoo as she jumped off the top of a hill. The little raccoondog-girl skidding in the wet leaves at the bottom, practically dancing as she continued running.

She could feel the eyes of the rainforest on her, but none of it mattered. Nobody around could catch her. Nobody wanted to invoke the bad luck of catching her, either.

The leaf on her head stubbornly clung on as she went down onto all fours to charge through the reeds at the edge of a lake, before she burst out of them into a flying leap.

She landed lightly on one foot, pirouetting above the stepping stone, laughing to herself as she skipped across the water and back to a path that she knew well. Heading back towards her home.

The tanukiki scrambled up the worn hunting path, her knee-high leather boots creaking in protest. She spotted a few animals running, but she was too exhausted to give chase.

Once the adrenaline wore off, she was going to stop laughing and start snoring.

Flick smiled proudly as her hut came into view through the dense foliage. Her little house, so distant from the worries and concerns of the nearby elven territories. Her little haven from their laws and politics.

She bounded through the door, pausing to snag one of the pots set to catch the overnight rain and messily lapped up several mouthfuls, spilling most of it down her front.

She put the pot down on a rack above her set fireplace, bending down as she began to pant from her run. She cracked the flint stones together until the sparks caught, and then dropped them.

The tanukiki flopped backwards onto her bed, looking up at the ceiling as she continued to pant heavily.

That had been a close one. She'd been caught by a zombie, an arachne's plaything.Two days of walking around in the brush, getting him lost near the edge of her territory, before she'd found a way out.

Time to celebrate being alive!

She turned her eyes to the dried meats hanging from the top of her hut. Carefully eyeing off each one and trying to decide which one would be the best way to spoil herself.

She really liked the rabbit, but she didn't have much of that left. Catching those fast little fuckers was an exercise in frustration. Flick had never got the hang of a bow, preferring her own jaws when she was hunting.

She had a lot of wolf, but that tended to be irritatingly tough. Even after she turned it into jerky, most of it was still chewy muscle. Not a lot of fat on a wolf.

No deer left, despite the thought making her mouth water. The deer only moved through the area about twice a year, and she always forgot to save some for a treat, gorging herself on it.

That really only left the one choice.

Flick flipped off her bed, snagging the length of dried croc smoothly, before falling back onto her bed. Crossing her wrists as she hungrily gnawed into the meat between her hands.

Saltwater crocodile was leathery, but full of flavour. It was also fun to remember she was eating the fucker who had tried to drag her under. That animal hadn't realised just what he was picking a fight with when he started his death roll.

The tanukiki stared at her empty hands in betrayal as she realised she'd wolfed down the whole thing in a half dozen bites.

She did sometimes find herself jealous of the elves who passed through and the way they seemed to be able to savour their food. Until she remembered that they couldn't go hunting whenever they felt like it.

She lazily stretched for a moment, before a hunk of wolf went into her boiling pot and she crept into the doorway, looking out at the forest.

She felt like a seaweed kind of stew.

---

It had been two days since Drachne had recoiled into her cocoon. She felt stiff as she peeled the bark open. Stiff but full of vigour as she stretched, her entire body humming with renewed energy.

"My queen." The torug bowed to her.

Her abdomen throbbed and she felt the venom drool from her fangs as she looked at the insane fucker who hadn't left her side. The snake was nearby, too, from what her senses were telling her.

She drove an elbow into the man's throat, knocking him backwards so she could paste him against the tree with several well-aimed splats of her webbing. He just smiled at her.

Drachne clenched and unclenched her fists, and then clicked her fangs in irritation, "Fine. I'll listen. You mad bastard."

"We have been waiting for you to reclaim what is rightfully yours. Everything in this forest is yours." The man smiled off-kilter, "You are our queen. Everything you see, belongs to you. Palantok! Bring the offering!"

She spun, a hand catching the throat of the snake as he descended behind her. He fearlessly held up a platter of food towards her.

Drachne released him, and looked at the offering with derision. "Insects? I was raised by elves. I eat actual... Food. Don't you have some biscuits or something?"

"Forget the entree." The torug said tiredly, and the other one left, and when he came back he was carrying an entire wolf. The animal was unconscious, but still breathing.

Drachne heard the beating of the heart and started to drool.

---

Suleos heard the water shift and drip as the elf stepped out of the makeshift bath. Sindi speaking quietly, "I guess there's a hell of an age gap between us, isn't there? I'm nineteen. Barely old enough to take my father's debts. You're... Old enough you remember before the first elf was even born."

"The gap is quite substantial." He agreed with her, refusing to turn around.

She curled up, naked and wet, against his back, "I... Don't feel whole without you."

"You are determined. I have already confessed that I find you extremely attractive. But I do not wish to know your death." He shook his head.

Sindi sighed heavily, "You know that someone is hunting me, though. The one you killed won't be the only assassin. He worked for someone else. I still need you. And I can't pay you."

"I refuse your payment." He cut off her line of thinking, "I just freed you. Don't go straight to degrading yourself. Don't worry, I don't intend to let any harm come to you."

His goddess might never have spoken to him since the first time, but this was as clear as day. The kitsune expected, and required, him to stay and protect the elf. Their fates were intertwined.

He would find it entirely unsurprising to discover that the goddess had a hand in the misfortunes of the elf. Arranging for the two of them to meet, and then become one.

"Sorry... I'm used to being... Abandoned."

He took a steadying breath, "Like you felt, after I fell. You're a creature of grace and peace, Sindi. Incapable of seeing why someone would be threatened by your mere existence."

"A little."

Suleos rubbed his chin, "Corrupt lawmakers. Manipulative business keepers. Lying religious leaders. You are a threat to all of them, a threat that can expose their crimes just by being a witness."

She shivered, "Oh. That's... Everyone."

"Pretty much." He agreed, "Probably just safer to take you to another city and start over. Even if you do love this home."

The elf sniffed, speaking with a cracking voice, "They're just memories. Dad always told me it was more important to live. Live and survive."

The beginnings of an idea started to form in his mind. He did have a small estate in the capital he had earned a while back. It really wasn't much, but it would be enough to give her a fresh start.

She was elven, not exotic, so if she spoke the right way, acted the right way, then she would be welcomed into the society with open arms. She was a long way from it, today... But if he could make her into a lady, then her position would protect her.

All she needed was a title.

"You still feel that we are meant to be?"

She turned, arms going around his waist and hugging him, "The age gap really doesn't bug me, Sul. That I can't outlive you is a kind of ache. Being an elf, I sort of expected I'd be the one to get old, but I think I can deal with it, if you don't abandon me."

"I'm a lord, technically." He said slowly, "The Saint. If you were to become my wife, then you would share my title. I have a small house in the capital. None would dare to touch you, as long as they believed it."

She sucked in her breath, and then gently hit him, "You ass! That's the worst proposal I have ever heard! Can't you at least pretend to make it romantic?"

"Not really." He pointed out with amusement, "I thought you loved that about me?"

The elf sighed, "Yeah, not this time. So... I guess I should get dressed. So you can call the magistrate, again."

"My word is enough, so long as it is consummated. We can register once we arrive in the capital." He tried to word it gently but completely failed.

The elf laughed, "Can you please make it sound less clinical? At all? I'm not really... Feeling it. I mean, I was kinda hoping to convince you to bed me. But... I need me some romance."

He turned his waist, and picked her up easily. Rising as he swept the still dripping elf into his arms. He looked down at her adoringly, "Beautiful. It was a waste to leave you to menial labour in a tavern. You truly are beautiful."