Goblore Pt. 03

That got her attention. Keela momentarily took a break from staring poisoned daggers into Huntress to focus on the blacksmith. "How much?"

"10% of the weight."

She laughed. "It's my boat. This doesn't happen without me. 40%."

Kalvis threw up his hands. "Almost half? We'll have nothing with which to defend ourselves!" He closed his eyes, visibly calmed, then opened them. "15%."

"I'm not budging. Miri and I will be fine regardless of how this 'fight' with the Folk goes."

Jesse could tell this was going to end with a poor outcome if he didn't intervene. Either she'd demand too much and they'd be fucked or she'd refuse outright. He took a gamble.

"What if I had a way to make your raft faster?"

Keela turned to him. The first time she'd looked at him during the whole conversation. "What do you know about sailing, pinkboy?"

"I know you'd encounter less drag heading upwind if you added a centreboard."

Her mouth scrunched up. "I have no idea what that is."

"It's a little slotted board you slide in the middle of your boat. If your raft is flat-bottomed, might want two. Creates lift, limits drag, keeps you from having to fight the wind when you're trying to sail in something other than directly downwind."

Blank stare. "You want me to...cut a hole in my boat?"

"Okay, it's like this." He grabbed some of the chalk she was using to mark individual crates and drew a crude boat on the side of one. In the bottom, he drew a little ridge at a 45 degree angle to the perpendicular. "Similar to your rudder board, but for a different purpose. The centreboard provides a counterforce that allows you to steer at sharper angles to the wind."

"Wouldn't that make it harder to steer in shallow waters?"

"Yeah, that's why it's retractable. Like this." With a few more chalk diagrams, he was able to convey the general idea. It was one of the dozen other half-cocked ideas he came across while trying to record everything he could find that might possibly come in handy somewhere along the line.

She moved her hand over the chalk outline. "And you're just giving this to me right now? If you're not bullshitting me, and if this works, you just gave away a huge bargaining chip."

Jesse shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe I increased the speed of the only supply vessel this little village has for the benefit of everyone. That's not the only thing I can find in my pocket library. Help us, take 20% of the steel we salvage, and we can work together to make your raft the best thing on the water."

They set a date, did some preliminary planning with a crude map of the area, and the rest of the team left. Jesse hung back to discuss the upgrades he had at least a basic grasp of for the raft. They had to be relatively cheap in terms of labour and time. While discussing ways to get more fabric to make a proper sail, her fluffy eared compatriot strolled in with a bowl of stew.

"I believe you've yet to meet my first mate. Vash, this is Jesse. Jesse, Vash."

The Vulperi gave a single wave of the hand with a spoon in it, heading off into the back without saying a word.

"Does she ever shut up?" Jesse asked sarcastically.

"She takes a while to warm up to people. Frankly she trusts faster than I do. Speaking of which," Keela reached down and pulled out the dagger from her leg sheath and put it on the table in front of her, "Let's talk about why you're really here."

He frowned. "I'm not a spy. I'm not even from around here!"

"That's what you say. But you look far too much like Folk to be coincidence. I'll go along with your plan, but if there's even the HINT of you endangering this village, or more importantly, my precious Miri, I will cut you from stem to stern. Do we understand each other?" Both their gazes fell upon her knife. It was notched and scratched in places from well use, but the metal glinted and looked to have been sharpened recently. It was not something he wanted to imagine shoved into his 'stern'.

"I understand, but, again, not here to get anyone hurt."

She nodded, but her expression made it clear she didn't believe him. He took his leave, backing up out of the room while Keela made a show of using the dagger to file down a fingernail.

***

The sun had come and gone, and Jesse's hair still dripped from a quick swim he took to clean off. The eager eyes of the villagers were getting hard to ignore. While he never considered himself a looker, he was beginning to feel like the cover art of some cheesy romance novel. He was grateful for the opportunity to get out of sight to talk with Vee, where they could wax platonic about the serious, life or death issues that assailed them. After a while, they took the discussion back to his place.

"So how long will you be gone?" Vee asked. An hour spent sorting out the plans for the remaining week's worth of time before the Folk return. There was so much to do and not enough time to do it. Papers and instructions on a dozen topics lay strewn about the desk, the floor, and just about everywhere else. The only place free was the bed, which after a long day of digging, looked painfully inviting.

Jesse shrugged. "It shouldn't be more than three days. If we take more than that, it won't be worth anything."

She nodded. "It'll be dangerous out there. The Wolven, now the Folk. Gods only know what else. Could be worth it to take some time and...reflect."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Reflect on what?"

Vee casually strolled over to his bed. He noticed for the first time that she wasn't wearing the usual skirt underneath her apron. Bare green thigh made parts of him stir.

"Oh, you know," she said, sliding down onto the furry blanket and spreading her legs. The apron came off, and Jesse caught sight of her pussy for the first time. Instead of behaving bashfully, like he had before, he held her gaze, "Think about all the things you're going to be fighting for out there. What you'll be risking your safety for."

Her blouse came undone, revealing her breasts. Despite her diminutive size, she was perfectly proportioned.

"Vee, are you sure?"

"Jesse," she purred. The scientist, the dispassionate observer was gone. She slid two fingers down to her clit and gave it a few gentle circling strokes, "We've been playing around enough. It's for the good of everyone. I like you. I think you like me. Why don't we do something for us?"

There was surely a reason why they shouldn't fuck. Why he shouldn't take this woman and stuff her to the brim. But for the life of him, he couldn't think of it.

In a flash he was on his feet, shucking off his clothes. She stared up at him with a fierce, evident hunger. Her lower lips began to dew with excitement, her need now physically manifesting and make her eagerness all the more clear. Vee wanted him like she wanted to eat or breathe, and he was happy to oblige.

He was already hard as a rock when he fell upon her. His mouth seized hers, claimed her as its property. Their tongues danced, his hands falling around her to keep her close. The size discrepancy would have always made sex a little different from his previous partners, but in this moment he saw it opened up all new avenues to explore. He bent his knees, holding her in both arms, and lifted. She rose off the bed, still locking lips as he returned to his feet. She couldn't have been more than forty or fifty pounds, but the day of labour made his arm muscles sing. He ignored it, though. There were some things that were worth it. He pulled his mouth back for a moment and grinned.

"Do you mind if I try something?" he said, looking down to indicate where his erection pressed against her inner thigh.

"Fuck, why not?" she said, wrapping her arms around him as best she could.

Gently, he eased her down onto his cock. She breathed in sharply when he slipped inside, her negligible nails digging into his skin in a not-unpleasant way.

"You okay?" he asked when she was about a third of the way down.

"Abso-fucking-lutely I'm okay," she said, shaking a little, "I've never done this with a tall person before. Gods there's so much of you!"

He grinned. That was never a bad thing to hear from a partner, but he was sure the effect was magnified thanks to their respective sizes. He pulled her back up and repeated the motion, her eagerness coating his shaft with a glistening sheen. The thought occured to him that he was using her like a sextoy, and he had to tense up to keep from exploding in her right there. The moment passed, he worked himself up to a steady pace, dropping her down then lifting her up, stuffing her like she was a cheap pocket pussy.

"I suppose...I should tell you..." Vee said through heavy breathing, "That some Kith have a...ngh...special sense for when they're...ah...seeded."

He was way too into it to stop fucking her, but he did slow down. "What do you mean?"

"When our bodies sense seed, they climax...we can't help it!" she whined.

"You're kidding right? Cum makes you cum?"

She nodded shakily. "So, y'know, for your information, if you shoot inside me, I'll lose my mind."

"You little slut, you're trying to trick me into knocking you up, aren't you?" He punctuated his question with a slap of his bare ass cheeks. She squeaked, but the heat in her eyes only grew. So she was a kinky little thing, Jesse though, that was good to know.

"Is it working?"

"You tell me," he shot back, and shoved her down deep inside. Her body stretched impossibly around his cock, and most of his deep disappeared inside. After a few throbs inside her, he pulled out again. It felt so fucking good to be inside a woman again. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed it, doubly so without a condom.

That familiar tension built up in his waist. His pace sped up as he chased the tipping point.

"Getting close," he huffed, pace slowing as he mustered the last of his control.

"Do it," she moaned, her chubby legs wrapping around his waist, "Leave it in. Cum inside me."

He knew he probably shouldn't. That he wasn't exactly father material, that this whole madcap scheme was a terrible idea. But a deeper, primal need rose to the fore, eager for the chance to finally be sated. Here was an eager partner begging to be stuffed full of his seed. A gorgeous, fertile woman was begging to be bred by him. His lust addled mind couldn't resist that opportunity.

He shoved her down as deep as he could and let go.

Vee cried out as hot, sticky spunk pulsed inside her. True to her word, her muscles clenched down in sympathetic orgasm. It coated her insides, jetting out only after she reached her limit. He dragged out his own orgasm by lifting her up and down again, slowly, milking his cock with her body.

"Fuuuck," Jesse said, exhaling with the word. Vee was insensate, her eyelids fluttering. He gently pulled her off his flagging erection and settled her gently down onto the bed. Unplugging himself let a gush of cream flow out of her overstuffed hole. He was almost proud of that. Jesse settled down on the bed next to her, cradling her head in his weary arm and waiting for her to cum down from her orgasmic high.

"Whoa..." she said in a thready voice, shaking her head to clear it. "That was a lot. I guess it had been too long."

"Same. Well, a proper fucking at least. Thank you for letting me do that. Christ, I think I'm just about empty."

"Hey, I enjoyed it too. Definitely seeing the advantages of having a much bigger partner."

They cuddled in silence for a while. Vee wasn't the partner he would have thought he wanted back on Earth. She smelled of oil and ozone, she wore unflattering work clothes most of the time and never touched makeup. But she was smart, thoughtful, and terrifically cute. If there was a more perfect woman out there, he hadn't found her.

"So..." he said after a while, "That whole thing about climaxing instantly when your body senses cum...was that real?"

She gave a light shrug. "That's a hypothesis. Would you like to run another test to further confirm the result?"

He pulled her into another kiss. It turned out he had some more left in him after all.

***

Jesse was still thinking of the night with Vee when he boarded the raft. He wore his first new outfit, his old clothes mercifully given a chance to be washed. Zixie had worked night and day to make something of a much larger size than she was used to, something that he was incredibly grateful for. The shirt was nice and breezy, done in a kind of earthy green colour. Humorously, the fabric she'd used was a dull beige. He'd travelled infinite light-years to a strange universe...only to end up in khakis. He did wish that it wasn't so tight around the crotch, but knowing her, that might have been intentional.

Despite it being the crack of dawn, he was far from the first one there at the dock. His old adventuring partner leaned up against the warehouse wall.

"Have fun?" Huntress asked. She had her bow slung on her pack, unstrung for the journey but likely no more than a minute of shucking gear and restringing away from a deadly volley.

He blushed. "We weren't THAT loud, were we?"

"Let's put it this way: my house is on the village's outskirts and I still got woken up. I sleep pretty lightly, though. Never know who's..." Huntress drifted off, her eyes following Keela's form as she carried a heavy box into the warehouse.

"Taking off some of the ballast. If it's the amount of steel you're promising, I don't want to have to chuck it overboard just to get under way."

Jesse nodded, but Huntress just glared. When the raft captain went back down the stairs to the dock, he whispered. "What's with you and her? Did you date or something?"

The look she shot at him could curdle milk.

"We don't see eye to eye on many things. I find her worldview repulsive."

"And I," Keela said, peeking out from around the corner, "Hate you too!" She made a show of clomping down the wooden steps to let them know she was really leaving this time.

"She seems pretty self-sufficient. I would have thought you would appreciate having someone like that around."

Huntress shook her head. "The world's made worse by opportunists like her. You might have noticed some of us wear the emblems of our gods around our necks. She wears the cog of Cevaria, goddess of greed."

"Of commerce," Kalvis corrected, "And the forge, and discovery." He carried two heavy buckets full of tools, and Jesse moved to pick one up. The blacksmith gave him a thankful nod, and the three of them stepped down the stairs to join Keela by the raft.

"She chooses her totem well. It's people like her that made me sail halfway across the world in the first place. Civilization," she said, somehow making the last word sound like a curse. At the sight of the raft and its captain, she raised her voice. "The Folk damned this world with their dreams of empire. People like Keela would do the same given the chance. I have nothing but contempt for her and her kind."

"Likewise, zealot." Keela's voice was calm, almost sing-song, as she made her final preparations for the trip. "I don't hold to anyone so hypocritical as to enjoy the comforts of society while making a show of spurning its trappings. For a wild woman, you sure do enjoy our goods, our produce."

"I add to the soup pot with my bow and my hands. I've done more for this...Bah!" Huntress threw up her hands, dumped her pack on the raft, and stalked off.

"Are you two gonna...survive one another?" Jesse asked.

"If the price is right, I'll put up with anyone. I just enjoy riling her up. She takes herself far too seriously."

Kalvis dropped off his tools next to her pack. "I'd take her seriously too, given that she's the best shot with a bow in the entire village."

"I can take care of myself," Keela said, winking at Jesse. The memory of her threat still lingered. He swallowed hard. This was going to be a long boat ride...

They were close to setting off when he heard a familiar voice call out for them to wait. Stuttering steps on the ramp leading down to the boat dock made them all look up to see Vee running down, her arms wrapped around the crossbow Kalvis had made. Around her back, a quiver of bolts that jostles around loosely with her frantic pace.

"You almost forgot this!" she said, they stooped to catch her breath. He took the weapon and the quiver from her gently, set them aside, then picked her up in an embrace.

"Thank you Vee," he said, giving her an earnest kiss which she eagerly returned. Setting her back down, he looked behind him self-consciously to the varied reactions of those on board. Disgust from Huntress, a beaming grin from Kalvis, and wild disinterest from Vash. Keela pretended to roll her eyes, but the tiniest little smile curled at the side of her mouth.

"If you two squids are done sucking face," the raft's captain asked facetiously, "we're overdue to shove off."

"Just a sec," he said, examining the bolts. "You did these?"

She nodded. "Kalvis helped. They're bronze tips, not iron, but they should make someone think twice about messing with you."

He slotted it back into the quiver, slinging it over his shoulder. "You're a peach, Vee. Thank you, again. For everything."

Vee backed up the gangplank, which Jesse helped Vash to settle back into place on the raft. He gave her a final wave.

Vee folded her arms. "Come back safe, you hear me?" she said, then added after a laugh, "I can't read your godsdamned handwriting without you!"

***

They set sail with a party of eight in total. Jesse, Huntress, Kalvis, Keela, Vash, and three others. None had particularly applicable skillsets to scrapping a car, but they were hard workers and would be the muscle they'd need to complete their plan. There was Bee, a linguist who also served as one of the village's carpenters, Jeela, a limnologist with an interest in rivers and other inland water features, and Riri who was...

"What exactly was your specialty?" Jesse asked the Kith woman. Riri was short, even for her kind, and sported one of the village's few pair of glasses. She looked up from her notepad, briefly, before returning to a sketch.

"I was on this trip to study a family of amphibious quadrupeds who live along the coastlines of the Southern Ocean called the bliskask." Her voice was low, almost mournful. She held up the pad, and it showed a sort of long legged crocodile. Judging by the reedy plants for scale, the thing had to be at least a couple metres long.

"So you're a, what, bliskaskologist?"

"Sure. Unfortunately for me, we ended up in a part of the world without examples of bliskasks, so I'm here without much ability to contribute."

"Well, we're glad to have you on board," Jesse said, trying to add some pep to his voice. If she noticed, she didn't show it.

"Least it gets me out of the village," she mumbled, and went back to sketching.

Jesse took a turn on the oars, which were how they were getting up river. They were lucky the Wile had such a gentle current or this would have been a shitshow. Their little craft swung drunkenly from one side of the river to the other until they got a rhythm down that kept them in motion without dislocating a shoulder fighting the person on the other side. He handed off the oar after an hour to rest, deeply grateful that it would be much easier going with the current on their way back. He didn't want to try to paddle a raft loaded with heavy steel parts against the flow of water.

Past noon, the travelers enjoyed a light meal of fruit jam on a doughy flatbread. All he needed was some peanut butter and he'd have a dose of nostalgia for 3 AM meals at college, and the thought gave him yet another pang of regret. It hadn't really been that long since his car had flown through a tear in spacetime, but it had felt like months. Every moment filled with some alien idea, some new discovery. In some ways his life was more fulfilling than the IT job he'd had, but the absence of a million comforts and familiarities couldn't be ignored. PB&J. Air conditioning. Deodorant.