How to Train Your Orkhai Ch. 05

It's been a while, but here's another chapter for you to (hopefully) enjoy! As a word of warning I forgot to give two chapters ago, however: there is some futa content in this one! If you don't mind this, I'd love to hear any thoughts and criticisms that you might feel like sharing - but for now, let's get on with the story!

Swaying back and forth, starboard to portside, up and down... The ship's rocking certainly made Lanica feel a little queasy. Still, watching the waves crash against the ship's hull and the salt in the air seemed to help a bit. "Sure beats most of the people here - do those humans even bathe, anyway?!" the catgirl thought, a scowl passing over her face. "If all of them had a proper sense of smell like a neko's, the world would be a better place."

The beastkin leaned forward against the railing, enjoying the breeze brushing against her face as she glanced sideways - towards the amazonian girl at her side who watched the water with a big smile on her face. "Doesn't take much to amuse her, it'd seem," Lanica scoffed inwardly, but... she did have to admit it looked good on the orkhai, that joy.

"Do you think we might see a mermaid?" Tarai asked, those pretty mismatched eyes seeking out the catgirl's.

"Might be hard to see from here, really - why dontcha swim and look for one?" the catgirl snarked. Far from disheartened by the response, the orkhai's smile only deepened with a soft laugh.

"Well... it's a lot of water for me to search all by myself," the tall girl pointed out as a little blush came to her cheeks. "I'd definitely be able to use a hand, you know..."

The thought sent a shiver down Lanica's tail, and not the good kind. "Oh no. No, no, no..." she quickly answered with a brush of her hand, as if dismissing the entire sea. "'S far as I'm concerned, we'd better get some solid land under our feet - the sooner the better! Water's really not for me, you hear?"

Tarai's brow furrowed in thought for just a moment before her lips parted in understanding. "...O-oh, you can't swim?" she guessed, and the fact that the thought apparently hadn't crossed the girl's mind was enough to make Lanica mentally roll her eyes. Even so, the beastkin couldn't help but feel the smallest bit of embarrassment.

"...No, I can't," Lanica admitted, glancing away annoyedly. "No one ever bothered to teach me, and I'd be damned before jumping in a creek on my own, okay! ...Besides, it's not like there's much reason when you live in a city," the catgirl reasoned, not entirely sure why she was feeling so defensive over an innocent remark. With a sigh, she looked at her companion again. "Not like you, anyhow - did your people teach you? Does your clan travel the Dreadsea?"

Shaking her head, the orkhai looked around the ship a bit. "We've always traveled along its coasts if we had to - this is actually my first time on a boat!" Tarai shared, clearly a bit excited by the fact. "And yeah, they did teach me. All of us from a young age, actually." Shy as the girl usually was, the pride in her eyes that came with her words surprised Lanica a little. "Being able to swim comes in handy when there's few - if any - roads in the wilds, so my parents and sister showed me how to stay afloat the moment I became old enough," she recalled, the memories apparently bringing a small, sheepish grin with them. "...Actually learning how to swim took a while longer, but..."

When the next words left Lanica waiting for a bit too long, the catgirl stepped a little closer. All she had to do was stare up a bit and she could enjoy the sight of that demure girl's face reddening so amusingly. "...But what?" she asked expectantly, somewhat curious about whatever the dense orkhai was struggling to spit out.

"...I-I could teach you," Tarai offered with a tremble in her voice - and as she turned to look at the tall girl, the catgirl had to admit she wasn't expecting the girl to actually be looking at her. Anxious and demure, it seemed the orkhai wasn't completely spineless...

Not entirely sure what to make of it, Lanica put on a little smirk for her 'girlfriend'. "...Sure, one day," the beastkin relented, leaning against the railing. "That said, the Dreadsea'd be a shoddy place to learn it, dontcha think?"

Smiling happily when the catgirl accepted her offer, Tarai nodded, her eyes drifting away to the roiling waves once more. For a few, long moments, the two just stood there together, peaceful despite the busy deck and the crashing water. "...Do you think they would call it the Dreadsea too?" the orkhai asked, her gaze clouded in thought. "The mermaids, I mean - if these waters are their home, would they fear it enough to call it that...?"

The catgirl didn't answer immediately, instead looking at the girl who appeared to have a more poetic side to her than she'd first assumed. "One's home is not always..." Lanica began before cutting her sentence short, considering her words carefully. "...Might be that there are things in there that even they have to fear - 'sides, it's not like the surface is all roses and sunshine for us either."

"Maybe you're right," the orkhai agreed, but she didn't sound ready to give up on the idea just yet. "...Hopefully we can ask one in person, one day!"

Lanica could only chuckle at the thought. "As if we'd ever get to see one..." she thought. Let alone one that'd be willing to talk about something so menial.

As the neko quickly scanned the ship's deck just in case anyone was getting a bit too close to her belongings, she instead spotted someone familiar. An older troll, not particularly easy on the eyes that seemed to be arguing with a few others. "...Is that the guy with the cart?" Lanica wondered, in hindsight not being too surprised that they'd ended up on the same ship. "He seemed to be in a hurry, anyway. ...That means that other guy can't be far away."

Indeed, the catgirl didn't need to search for a long time to find the human he'd been travelling with a dozen paces away, eating a bowl of the same (rather bad) soup she and Tarai had been provided with. Glancing between him and the orkhai, Lanica began to think of a way to maybe open the girl up a smidge. "He did seem rather into her... It can't hurt to encourage her to try something new, can it?"

"...Say," she began, nudging the orkhai from her daydreams, "Didn't we see that guy before?"

"Hmm?" Tarai drew her eyes away from the sea, following Lanica's gaze. "Which gu... Oh, with the cart!" the orkhai recognized, understanding dawning on her face. "Thomas, I think? I'm glad they made it in time!"

Smirking, Lanica nodded his way. "Tobias, actually - he'd probably be glad to see you again, you know..."

Confused, the orkhai looked at her. "...Because I helped with that cart...? That wasn't that big of a deal, w-was it?" she asked.

"Pffff, you're selling yourself short!" the catgirl chided her with a poke in her side. "But no - I meant that he seemed to be, how should I say... rather interested in you, judging by the way he looked at you." Looking the tall girl over none-too-subtly, Lanica's slitted eyes glimmered deviously when they reached Tarai's face. "Can't really blame him for it, either - you've got a special kind of prettiness!"

"What...? I don't follow..." her girlfriend began, before her understanding dawned in her widening eyes and a fiery redness to her face followed soon thereafter. "Y-you mean l-like..."

"Like you're hot," Lanica interrupted matter-of-factly, thoroughly enjoying just how flustered those words made the towering half-orc. "You're tall, you're strong, and you're hot - easy to see why you'd draw attention. Like yours truly's..." the neko purred, pressing herself against Tarai. "But turnabout's fair play, so whatcha think of him? He's young and not too harsh on the eye, no?"

"N-no, but- but we're t-together!" Tarai stammered, clearly embarrassed and confused and uncertain all at once. "S-should we e-even...?

"Look at others? Why not - it's not like a bit of ogling can hurt, right?" Her voice was confident, as if the neko was saying the most undeniable thing in the world. Of course, that she genuinely believed it herself helped. "Besides... I think it's very important to get to know your feelings - your heart," Lanica shared, her words warm but serious. Judging by Tarai's expression, she wasn't entirely certain where the catgirl was going with this. "Guys aren't really my thing, but maybe you're a bit more... open-minded..."

The tall girl didn't know what to say - her mismatched eyes darted between the human and her girlfriend while her mouth opened as if to speak, but no coherent sentences came. "Y-you - I mean... He? He's h-handso- but..."

Stepping closer like a cat nearing her prey, the neko looked up to the pretty orkhai. It was time to go for the last step. "...If you could, would you sleep with him? If there'd be no strings attached, as long as you tell me all about it?"

Paying close attention indeed to Tarai's face, Lanica saw the uncertainty, the hesitation, the fear - and as she noticed with an inner smile, desire. "You... Y-you want that?" the girl answered in disbelief, her eyes wide. "W-wouldn't that be... be c-cheating? ...Again...?"

"Not if I'm okay with it," the catgirl promised, pulling Tarai's head down to plant a kiss on her lips. "You're my girlfriend - a bit of experimenting can't hurt! If anything, it's a way for me to get to know you better." Tiptoeing, Lanica brought her lips to the orkhai's pointy ears. "You'd make me very happy if you try this... Won't you do it?"

She could hear the girl's breathing hitch, even swallowing quickly before giving a quick nod."...O-okay... I'll try it for... f-for you," Tarai relented, her voice quiet and nervous and yet... the catgirl could've sworn she heard some excitement in there as well. "What... what do I even do now...?"

"You're great," Lanica said, pulling back with a quick peck on her girlfriend's neck. A little, satisfied smirk curved her lips as she looked the anxious half-elf over, delighting in the wall-flower's adorable hesitation. "...If anyone'd told me that an orkhai could ever be this cute, I'd have called them mad," she couldn't help but think. Still, the beastkin supposed a little guidance wouldn't go amiss. "Wellllll... You could try talking to him, for starters. Maybe he'd appreciate the company!"

"W-what, right n-now?!" Tarai sputtered, her eyes wide as she brought a hand to her own face. "Do... do I even l-look good? ...Are my c-clothes okay?"

"With the way he looked at you earlier? Believe me, there's no way he'll say no if you ask for a bit of privacy - just the two of you," the neko purred confidently, doing her best to assuage the worst of the girl's fears. Trailing her eyes down to Tarai's top, she forced a wider smile for the orkhai's sake. "Your clothes are... fine, really," she lied through her teeth. "You're pretty enough to look good in anything."

Just saying that almost hurt. They weren't even close to fine, of course - Lanica loathed Tarai's choice of clothing, the unflattering rags doing absolutely nothing to enhance the girl's beauty with their complete lack of shapes, mediocre stitchwork and those horrid, dull colours. As much as she'd love to tell the orkhai that in no uncertain terms, however... there were always more subtle means. Means that required some alone time, which that human could hopefully provide. "'Sides, I'd wager it's what you're hiding underneath that he's much more interested in!"

The (mostly earnest) compliments seemed to help soothe Tarai's worries a bit, her lips even showing a little shy smile from Lanica's kind words. "Okay... If you r-really think it's for the best, I-I'll..." the orkhai took a deep breath, "I'll talk to h-him." She was gathering her nerves sooner than the neko expected, the beastkin had to admit. Mismatched eyes fixated on the guy for a bit before turning to her own again, and with a sheepish little grind Tarai nodded. "When we're d-done, I'll tell you everything!" she promised... and then she went for it.

"Good girl..." Lanica purred, leaning against the railing with her tail swaying contentedly. "Let's see what comes of this," she thought, her lips curling into a satisfied smirk as she saw the guy's head jolt up when Tarai approached - and immediately, his eyes widened when he realized just who stood before him. "He's got good taste, can't fault him for that. Let's hope he can actually keep her busy for a bit..."

After all, she needed to buy a bit of time, and seeing Tarai in those dreadful clothes only strengthened her resolve. That telling scent she'd caught from some of the small barrels promised a solution to deal with those, however... all she needed now was something to pry with, and something to fix the coming... accident.

A particularly powerful heave of the ship on the waves almost made her stomach do the exact same thing. "Ugh... No time like the present, I guess," Lanica sighed inwardly as her face scrunched up in annoyed discomfort, and then she decided to go prepare her little plot. All for a good cause...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Tobias opened the shabby door, Tarai's hope for a more... intimate setting were immediately crushed to dust. As it turned out, his room was no better than the one she shared with Lanica, right down to the same shoddy cots.

"It ain't much, but at least it's just the two of us," the human said apologetically, seemingly well aware of just how ill-suited the room probably was. "Rishar's not gonna show up for a while - not while there's still money to be lost with dice!"

He said it with such lightness and a smile that Tarai was fairly sure it was just a joke, but she nevertheless didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing. "Sounds like you've been working with him for longer than just today, right?" she asked, wanting to get to know the guy a bit better.

"Yeah, it's been almost two years now! He was complaining about his poor back, asked me for help while I was still a farmhand, and, well... here I am now, helping him with his peddling across the land," Tobias explained quickly, his sun-tanned face cracking an excited smile as he looked Tarai over. With a nod at the door, he gestured to one of the cots. "We, uh... we shouldn't push our luck, though - I'll tell you more later, but if you want to... you know..."

The human didn't finish his words, but Tarai knew exactly what he wanted... and she knew he was right. Better to do it quickly than risk anyone interrupting, after all. "O-okay," the blushing orkhai nodded, stepping back and gingerly closing the door before sliding the metal bolt on it in place with a satisfying clink. Stepping out of her shoes quickly, her hands then grasped her top, shy eyes fixed on the ground as she began to pull the garment over her head.

Tobias' gasp as he watched that toned, bronze skin was revealed bit by bit flustered the orkhai even more, and yet the way his eyes widened at the sight equally filled Tarai with a certain warmth. "...Was Lanica right?" the girl asked herself, still not fully able to accept people might think her that enticing. Soon, her upper half was shrouded only by her bra and her trousers were well on their way to following suit.

"...W-wow," he finally managed to mutter, unable to take his gaze away from the body the demure girl was hiding. "You're just... wow."

He wasn't the best with words - that much was clear to Tarai. "...Harpies of a feather and all that," the girl recalled Morari's oft-spoken words with a smile. Now left in nothing but her underwear, her hands clutched nervously while she worked up the courage to look at his face. "...D-do you like i-it?"

"Like it...? You're j-just... breathtaking," the guy said in earnest shock, taking in every bit of the girl's natural beauty that she for some reason wasn't sharing with the world a bit more. Above all, it were her hips that seemed to captivate him - her hips and that irresistible swell of her ass. His pupils were like pinpricks when he realized he hadn't gotten naked himself yet - a mistake soon corrected by almost tearing them off and throwing them to the side until only some plain boxers were left. "Light, I can't wait any longer! ...Do you want to... you know, do the rest?" he asked with a silly, somewhat endearing grin.

For some reason, seeing that her partner was almost as awkward as she herself had been made Tarai feel a bit more confident. It was hard not to think of Amal, or rather, all the ways he was so different from the dominant drow. Inexperienced and uncertain... yet rather cute, in his own way - it helped that his slender body wasn't too hard on the eyes either! Stepping forward with nothing but a shy, if excited blush, Tarai figured a good first step was to sink to her knees and pull those boxers down... and not just because she was curious to see how much he'd be like the drow.

Looking up to him and smiling demurely, the girl's fingers grasped the fabric and slowly slid it down, inch by inch. "...I-I've been looking forward to this," Tarai admitted quietly, before her eyes found their way down to his groin again soon enough - and there was nothing hiding it anymore. Naked and clearly stiff already as it was, Tarai dropped his underwear unceremoniously and slid her hands up his legs, delicately grasping the base.

Tobias grunted softly at her touch, and the orkhai's head jolted upwards as she worried that she'd hurt him. "Not too bad. ...Right?" he asked, clearly trying to seem confident and yet the human didn't entirely convince the girl.

Returning to the task at hand - or in her hand, rather - Tarai didn't immediately answer, carefully pumping her hand up the member's length and comparing it to the only other real cock she'd seen up close... but it didn't take more than a cursory glance to see the rather stark differences. Whereas Amal's obsidian shaft stood proudly with quite a few uncovered inches when her hand had been wrapped around it, Tobias' paler member needed far less twisting with her wrist to stroke fully. While the human's dick warmed her palm nicely, it didn't make her stretch her fingers anywhere near as wide to grasp as that fat drow dick had done. And lastly, the orkhai couldn't help but wonder if the difference between those big, smooth elven nuts and the human's comparatively humble sack was meant to be quite so... noticeable.

Still, for all their differences, there was one aspect to Tobias that was no different from Amal - he was rock hard in her hand and ready for action. "He's still about as big as Lanica's toy, and that was more than enough," she decided, gently rubbing the bottom of his cock with her thumb - a simple enough motion, but an effective one judging by the way Tobias twitched. "It's nice enough for me..." the orkhai answered, blushing shyly as she looked up to him and gave that needy tip a slow lick. Her full lips pressed against the twitching shaft, kissing it almost chastely as her hands settled on his thighs "I like it."

Be it through distractedness or shyness, Tobias replied with little more than wide-eyed, excited staring and weak grunts as he swallowed his nerves. "Maybe he's scared to do the wrong thing...?" Tarai wondered, as she'd been in that situation more than once herself by now. The gentle foreplay went on for a bit, one slow lick or a calm stroke of her hands at a time, before she opened her mouth and engulfed the sensitive head between her soft pillows. Throwing his head back with the beginnings of a curse before he cut himself off, the human's enjoyment was plain as day as Tarai grew a bit more confident, beginning to take another inch or two as she started sucking in earnest.