Druid Chronicle Ch. 06

Neive glanced at him again, he could read nothing from it, then she went back towards her tree. He led Karalie into Ephenome's courtyard.

Ephenome was waiting. Nearby, Antonella was also waiting in the water.

"How did it go?" the mermaid asked.

"It?"

"Ephenome told me."

He related the story to them both, then he introduced Karalie to Antonella officially and left the two of them together so Antonella could ask all the questions she had. He returned to Ephenome.

"She's right you know."

"Who is?"

"Karalie."

"About what?"

"None of us can leave here with you. You will have to go to town from time to time. You may have to deal directly with Sherra or others. Karalie can help."

"She worked for Sherra. Sherra sent her here."

"What did she do? Was she her sex toy?"

Orren laughed. Then he stopped abruptly. "I have no idea actually. Perhaps. She seems nice enough Phen, but I don't know if I can trust her. She's already misled us once."

"I can help with that."

They waited until Antonella had finished her interrogation and promised to return later with a book or tablet or whatever they had underwater. He had asked her to stay within the confines of the estate as much as possible. It extended a short way out into the sea and he was worried in general about what else might be happening in the world.

Karalie returned to the center of the courtyard.

"Tell me about your life as a sex toy." Ephenome asked.

"What of it?"

"You can be male or female?"

"Yes."

"But you cannot procreate through sex?"

"No. Not that I know of."

"Do you have orgasms? As either gender?"

"Not a physical one, no. I don't just reflect emotion though; I absorb and reflect."

"What are you saying?"

"I experience what my partner experiences, to a large extent."

"Come here and kiss me."

"Phen..." Orren protested.

Karalie was more prosaic about it. "As a man?"

The alraune shrugged. "If you prefer, you're fine as you are. I am open to all species, all genders."

Karalie walked forward, Ephenome tilted her flower to meet her, threw her arms around Karalie's neck and they kissed. It lasted for quite a while. He wondered if it had lasted as long the first time she had done that to him back in the southern jungle.

Afterwards Ephenome released her and Karalie staggered backwards a couple steps until Orren braced her. He remembered how that felt as well. Both of them seemed a little dazed. Orren found himself staring at Ephenome's lips and then her breasts.

"Uh, Phen, you've got the pheromones going." He was starting to sweat as well.

"Oh sorry. That mirroring effect is something."

"What was that for?" Karalie sounded sort of fuzzy.

"I was reading your intentions. You are hiding quite a lot."

Karalie smiled but didn't manage a response.

"However," Ephenome continued, "I can't tell that any of what you're hiding is a threat to us, or maybe even relevant to us."

Karalie was leaning into Orren now, looking up at him. "You're horny." She said. Her hand gripped his thigh.

Orren was somehow slightly embarrassed. "I don't know if that's me or... well, she's an alraune she can... you know. I wasn't expecting it."

Karalie continued, her words were a little bit slurred. "I have so many secrets but they're not really mine. I know other people's secrets, although lots of them are dead now but some of them aren't."

"Sex secrets?" Ephenome asked.

"Those and others too. Do you want to know some?"

"Yes." Ephenome answered.

"No, that's enough for now." Orren overruled her. He drew on power from his amulet and placed his hand on Karalie's head, dispelling some of the effects from the alraune's kiss, or at least weakening them.

Karalie stood up straighter. "That's a powerful kiss. They are always like that?"

He thought she meant alraunes but he decided to misinterpret it on purpose. "No, she has an amazing array of different kisses actually."

Ephenome winked at him and wriggled her shoulders which caused motion across her breasts.

Karalie seemed to have an epiphany. "You... her? You're together."

"We have been, yes." She was staring at him. "What? Is that surprising?"

"Well yes, no. I don't know. In there?" She pointed at Ephenome. "She could eat you."

"As could have you."

"I don't... I told you that would never happen. That's not how... It would be like you eating an entire deer."

"I've done that." Ephenome volunteered.

"Exactly, that's my point."

"Don't make her mad." Orren suggested.

"Okay..."

"Or Neive. Or Antonella. It's a dangerous bunch." He had never seen Antonella fight anything. She caught fish. He didn't know what else she did, but he felt like he shouldn't leave her out.

"They have no idea." Karalie said.

"Who? Idea of what?"

"You. Everyone thinks 'poor Orren, bad things happened to him and now he's a weird hermit in the jungle'. You're not though. What you did with the arrow before, and she's here." Karalie indicated Ephenome again, "...and you have a menagerie of sorts and people don't care about you because they think you don't have anything they want but if they did think that you did, they'd come after you because no one is afraid of you. They just feel sorry for you."

"I don't have anything that they want. They're right about that. I don't even want to have things that they want. I'm happy here like this and I want them to feel sorry for me because then they don't think of me as a threat or even as someone to deal with."

"But Sherra knows."

Orren shrugged. "No. I think she's aware I'm stronger than most people think but she doesn't know the extent and she only knows about Neive."

"Still that's leverage against you."

"No it isn't. That a druid associates with a dryad? That's to be expected. I'm comfortable in my arrangement with her. I'm not a threat to her, I'm possibly a resource. She's too clever to jeopardize that."

Karalie was quiet and thoughtful. Finally, she said, "Maybe you don't need me."

"We don't have to answer that today. You're a guest here for now so my only immediate concern is setting up a room for you to live in."

"That was your room I was in."

Orren nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I don't have many guests. Can you explain your sleeping habits to me?"

"The more I change, the more I have to sleep. If I'm relatively stable I stay awake for a day and a half at a time and then I sleep for about as long."

"So you'll be awake all night tonight?"

"Probably."

"Okay, I don't really have much to entertain you though. None of us are nocturnal by nature."

"I am accustomed to that. You don't need to entertain me."

Orren had to do the math a few days out. The full moon was approaching and Neive tended to be frisky around then. For whatever reason he felt somewhat self-conscious about that with Karalie around. Neither Antonella nor Ephenome could ever have a line of sight to the grass around Neive's tree.

He kept that in mind over the next couple days as he worked on constructing a guest bedroom which was really Karalie's room. He put her on the ground floor but the room in the back corner did not have a window, which she repeatedly insisted was fine with her. Antonella did considerable research on Karalie but did not come up with much. She had suggested she could return - go somewhere for further sources. Orren had been skeptical of her leaving the estate and the protection it afforded until they knew more about what was happening and to his great surprise, she acquiesced.

Karalie pressed him from time to time to work as an ambassador of sorts to anyone he needed to send someone too. It was slightly tempting because it meant he didn't need to leave the estate. The problem was, he couldn't think of anyone he might send someone to, other than Sherra and the hard truth was that he trusted Sherra as much as he trusted Karalie.

The very night he had finished Karalie's room, he awoke in his own bed. It was dark inside. The moon was full. He had somehow forgotten. Is that why he was awake now?

'Yes'. He couldn't hear Neive say it but he could feel her response. He slid out of bed reaching for clothes. But why bother? Why wear anything? He went naked up the stairs, forgetting until he reached the top that Karalie could be awake and about. There was no noise and no sign of her. All was still and the bright moonlight made long diagonal streaks across the floor of his great hall. He followed one of them to the door and went outside. At the dryad's tree he scanned the large looping vines that hung down for any sign of her. She was not visible but he could sense her proximity. She was behind him. He waited.

When she wrapped her arms around him from behind, he could tell she was naked as well. She smelled of her tree in a pleasant, fresh way. It used to remind him of being in forest cabins. Now it reminded him of her.

"You're late."

"Sorry."

"Oh!" Her fingers had run along his collar bone and she had found Ephenome's mark there next to her own. "I have competition." Her hand trailed down his chest and stomach and then lower, her fingers eventually curling around the erection he hadn't realized he had already.

"Eager?" She said.

He turned enough to see her without dislodging her grip. Her other hand was already between her own legs, her long middle finger teasing at her own obvious arousal.

"Speaking of eager..."

"No. Not speaking. Done speaking."

Orren took her hand from between her legs and made a show of deliberately sucking each finger one at a time. Her eyelids fluttered at that but she had not let go of his cock and her stroking was driving him mad.

He took her to her the ground where she was more than willing to go. As soon as he entered her his vision shifted unbidden to align with hers. He could see her lying beneath him as a bright outline on a much fainter speckled background. The grass. It gave him an idea. He had both hands in the grass on either side of her shoulders and as he slowly starting moving in and out he called on the grass. It responded, growing at an enhanced rate along her arms and lower legs, twining together once it had enough height to hold her down.

She went from quiet moans to brief laughter and back again. "You cannot win this game." She told him.

"I can if you let me." He replied.

She didn't say anything and he sped up his rhythm. She still had plenty of freedom to move her hips and she did so with abandon. He couldn't tell who reached their climax first but it was quick and savage for them both.

Afterwards, panting next to her he relaxed the grasses that ostensibly held her down. He looked around wondering how that had progressed so quickly.

"Mirroring?" He mused aloud.

"What?"

"I think Karalie is mirroring our emotions. Asleep or awake, even through that wall."

"She is not asleep if she was mirroring our emotions."

Orren laughed.

Neive threw an arm over him and moved closer. "No mirror. Just us and the moon. And you were late."

"I said I was sorry." He intended to roll halfway to meet her and kiss her but he found he couldn't. Grasses had wrapped around his arms and legs without him noticing it had happened. He relaxed rather than fight it.

"I can't properly make it up to you if I'm pinned down."

"We'll find a way."