How to Train Your Orkhai Ch. 06

"...I'm sure you were," Lanica mumbled without any sincere interest in the girl's words - she was far too busy inspecting the container to care. It wasn't very heavy, and the patterns on the precious metal were very impressively done with only some marginal scratching marring the surface. "This looks close enough. Gotta admit, I'm impressed - well done," she smirked, glancing upwards and not missing that happy lip bite on the orkhai's flustered face. The catgirl's next words made that face a few touches paler, however: "What else was there, anyway? You haven't forgotten the deal, right?"

Reading Tarai's face, it was pretty clear she had indeed not forgotten the deal. It was even clearer that she was about to share some news the neko was going to hate, however. "...I r-really, really looked, but e-everything I found was b-broken," the half-elf admitted, barely able to look at Lanica's face as the latter's bafflement left eyes widening by the second. Retrieving a broken hand mirror from one of her trouser's pockets, the girl apologetically showed it. "T-this is about as good as it gets - I-I tried, believe me!"

"Going through all of this and we've got nothing to show for it - fuck!" the neko's frustrations boiled over with a sharp curse, making the orkhai flinch and cast her gaze to the ground in shame - which wasn't exactly what Lanica wanted. There wasn't anything to be gained from making the girl feel like garbage, and she wasn't a sadist. Sighing through gritted teeth and with clenched fists, she looked up to the towering half-elf with a bitter smile. "... Hey, I know it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself, because there's no way in hell I'm gonna do that either, 'kay?"

Her words seemed to resonate with Tarai, judging by the surprise on her face and the shy little nod that followed thereafter. "O-okay..." she replied, quietly but sincerely. "I... I-I think it's time to leave, though." Rising to her feet slowly, she handled Lanica like she was made from eggshells and cobwebs. "Do you think you can walk...?"

Well-intentioned as the orkhai was, Lanica was not about to be seen as some dainty little thing! "I'm not that fragile, okay?!" she huffed, leaping from the orkhai's arms and landing gracefully on her feet a few yards away. With a defiant look over her shoulder, she took a few demonstrative steps. "What're you waiting for, huh? Let's ditch this place!"

...Is what she would've said had her sentence not been interrupted midway by a short cry when exhaustion caught up with her and her legs simply refused to listen anymore. Her eyes closed reflexively, but before the stubborn catgirl could hit the wet ground Tarai caught her. "...Okay, I'm carrying you," the orkhai decided for her, clearly putting up quite the effort not to giggle.

"...fine..." Lanica grumbled quietly, her ears drooping against her skull in deflated defeat. As much as it hurt her pride, the neko was forced to admit that Tarai may've had a point. "Mark my words, though: the moment I can feel my legs I am walking, got it?!"

Tarai was wise enough not to speak, instead just biting her lip as she helped the beastkin back in the position she'd been in before on her back. Resting her head on the orkhai, Lanica at least managed to make herself somewhat comfortable - that the half-orc was so strong, large and sturdy that she could support her like she was a bag of feathers definitely helped there, admittedly. "Well, what are you waiting for?" the catgirl huffed, blinking through her tired eyes and doing her utmost best to ignore just how stimulating it was to even just have Tarai's head between her overly sensitive thighs - hopefully the beast's aphrodisiac would wear off soon, but even if it didn't commanding the orkhai around might at least distract her. "Come on, daylight's burning!"

Probably.

How late was it, anyway...?

"It'll be nice to dry off soon!" Tarai sighed, clutching the box carefully before taking the first, long steps. That was a sentiment Lanica agreed with wholeheartedly. "Well, after we brave the stream again, anyway..."

"Fuck."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rubbing her hands over her bare arms quickly, Tarai fought back the urge to shiver. She was cold. Being in soaked clothes for as long as she'd been had been wearing on her for a while now, but it was wading through all that water yet again that really sapped all the heat from her body.

"Can't wait for a nice campfire..." the tall girl mumbled mostly to herself, going over her stashed-away luggage to make sure everything was still there. The sooner they left this place, the better. Her knuckles tensed as she couldn't help but think of the moment where she'd found Lanica again and again. That... that red-hot rage that came over her, the way her body pummeled the beast without her even consciously thinking about it....And worst of all, the thrill it'd given her.

"That makes two of us," Lanica grumbled as she sat on the ground with the box at her side, slowly getting up to her feet. The orkhai's dark thoughts scattered, watching the neko from the corner of her eyes and ready to catch her if needed. If only she could do anything else to help the neko out, no matter how small... "'S there anything missing, then?"

Shaking her head, the half-elf hoisted her pack over her shoulders and put the mirror she'd picked up and the various foraged goods away. "Not as far as I can tell - I even counted the coins!" she shared, but her pleased smile faded into a worried frown when she saw just how unsteady the catgirl stood. "A-Are you sure you're okay to walk?"

"I'm fine," the beastgirl replied with a quiet hiss. "Just... need to start walking again, and I'll be right as rain before ya know it. 'Sides, it'd be a lot harder to negotiate convincingly if I'm clutching your back like a newborn." Okay, that was a part the half-elf had to admit she hadn't thought about. Then, with a soft grumble that Tarai only barely caught, "I just wish this rain fucked off..."

At this point, the half-orc had more than had her fill of the weather herself and simply had to agree. Checking her stuff one last time and finding it all satisfactory, she nimbly picked the box up before Lanica could grab it herself and cradled it in her arms. "I'll carry the burden for now, okay?" Tarai said with her most reassuring smile - Lanica looked like she wanted to argue about it first, but thought better of it. Maybe her smile worked!

"...Sure, you do that," the lithe neko relented, shrugging and lifting up the lantern instead. "But I will take the light, then." Not brooking any argument, Lanica cocked her head in the direction they had to go, her tail stiff with the desire to leave this place. "You probably don't wanna live here, I imagine...?"

"It's nice and roomy, but it does have a bit of a moisture problem..." the orkhai's playful response came, smiling wider when it elicited a short chuckle from the neko. "Seriously, though, I'm ready."

Tarai didn't doubt Lanica was even more sick of this cave than she herself, and the two began retracing their steps to the entrance in silence. Her eyes rarely left the shorter beastkin, worried as she was about her girlfriend, what'd happened and whether she'd even be able to walk for long after everything. "I know she said she's fine, but..." the half-elf worried, really wishing she could do more right now. The neko's expression seemed tense, yet focused - a look Tarai had seen before, when the beastkin was considering something important. "But what...?"

Distracted as she was by her own concern, the feeling of the heavy rainfall striking her face almost came as a surprise to Tarai. "Oh..." she sighed, taking her eyes off the catgirl and towards the green-ish black clouds. "I haven't seen rain like this in a while."

Lanica didn't answer. In fact, she really didn't appear to care much about the downpour, merely shielding her eyes as she looked in the distance - until the beastkin saw something that made her tail stiffen. "There!" she hissed, pointing over yonder.

Squinting, Tarai heard the salvagers' leader before he saw him. "THERE YOU ARE!" that gruff voice bellowed, growing louder with every step they took towards one another. "An' it looks like you've 'ad more luck than us," the nethemir noted contently, gesturing towards the box in the orkhai's arms.

"Luck isn't the word I'd use," Lanica hissed quietly, her limbs stiff with tension.

As they moved closer, two of the guy's underlings showed themselves, flanking their boss as the latter opened his hands expectantly. "Good 'elp's so hard to find," he grinned when Tarai handed it over, missing the catgirl's silent commands entirely. Swiftly inspecting the outside and confirming it was in fact still locked, the glee on the man's face was somewhat disconcerting after his earlier harshness. "Consider me impressed..."

The orkhai wasn't sure what to say, but Lanica didn't give her any time to think about it either. "And what do we get out of this?" she asked, her irises narrowed to slits. "We went above and beyond to get you that damn thing, but nothing worth as much as you promised survived - and that's to say nothing of the tentacle-beast you failed to mention. Your approval isn't enough for all that crap!"

The change on the man's face was immediate. The grin faded and his dark eyes looked down on the short neko. "Deal was you'd get to keep what was there, cat. I didn't know everything on that ship! If there was nothin' for you, that's not my problem - take it up with my employer tomorrow, huh?!" he sneered, his disdain for Tarai's girlfriend infuriatingly plain. 'Sides, you're lying... I bet those packs are loaded with loot and a dumb neko like you thinks she can get away with screwing me over!"

Surprised and not at all alright with his tone, Tarai's spine straightened and she began to stammer in protest, "N-no, there really was barely a-"

"Pay us what we're owed, bastard," Lanica snapped, the skies rumbling in anger and leaving the orkhai wordless.

Face reddening with outrage, the nethemir clenched a fist and gestured at the two girls. "I'll be thrice-damned before I'm gonna let anyone speak to me like that, you 'ear?! Show 'em what 'appens when some cat who-"

A bright, blinding bolt of lightning struck mere paces from Tarai, the deafening roar that followed crackling and booming, cutting off the man's tirade and drowning out even her own scream of fear entirely as the orkhai fell backwards. Time slowed to a crawl as chaotic thoughts flitted through her mind. Was she struck? Would she ever see her family again...?

And then, an ice-cold realisation ran down her spine. The bolt could have struck where the neko'd been! "Lanica?!" she cried out, her own voice rendered near-inaudibly through the horrible ringing in her ears as her eyes desperately sought to distinguish anything beyond the white light burned on her retinae. Three faint figures clutched their heads as they rolled through the sand - but as she blinked madly, the panicked orkhai didn't see Lanica among them, nor where she'd stood before. Shielding her face from the deluge, her fears grew and grew with every passing second - as the shock's afterimage started to fade ever so slightly, however, her vision returned too.

Then, she began to distinguish something. Something that filled her with a desperate hope - a slender, hunched-over silhouette limping away with an uneven gait... and with a tail swaying behind them. Tarai's legs began moving as if on their own as she called out her girlfriend's name, her heart hammering madly in her chest, in her head, in her everything. When the figure turned her head and those oh-so-familiar eyes looked at her with palpable relief, tears of joy ran down the orkhai's rain-soaked cheeks. "There you a-ar..." she heard the neko begin, but the beastkin collapsed before she could finish it.

"I'm here!" the half-elf shouted, catching up with her girlfriend in no time at all and wrapping her arms around the utterly exhausted catgirl. "I'm here..."

Clutching Lanica close to her chest, she saw the neko's eyelids flutter and fall under the weight - and as she passed out from tiredness, Tarai heard something hit the sand between them. "The box..." she saw, her eyes widening at the realisation. Lanica had taken it, and when the people at the beach would recover they'd no doubt come looking for the thief.

She couldn't let them find Lanica, but after everything that happened she couldn't just leave the box behind either, could she...? "She wouldn't want me to..." the orkhai knew, and despite her misgivings about the idea she picked up the lockbox herself. Most importantly, however, she had to get Lanica to safety, safety from the cold, from hunger, from people who'd no doubt want to hurt her.

Cradling the neko and lifting her with ease, Tarai didn't even look back as she left the beach behind.

She would keep Lanica safe - no matter what.

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

A burning branch cracked, casting the smallest of embers around - they were hard to see in the campfire's brightness, but Tarai'd spent too many hours of her life mesmerized by the flames not to notice. The gentle dancing of the fire, the soothing noises as the wood burned, the delightful heat that radiated on her mostly-naked body...

"This is so much better than being out in the rain," the gentle half-elf smiled, looking over to her girlfriend at her side - but there wasn't any joy in the neko's tense expression, who didn't even seem to have heard her. Even as the sight left her brow furrowing in concern, Tarai at least tried to look reassuring. Maybe she just needed some time... or failing that, a taste of what the orkhai was cooking! The sight of the roasting skewers, simmering broth and the neat leaf packets just filled her with excitement, and not just because she was hungry beyond belief... "Some food'll do wonders - you'll love it, I promise!"

Lanica didn't answer for a while, merely glancing over as she rested her head on her knees. "...It smells nice," the catgirl mumbled at last, but the half-orc just felt her heart wasn't entirely in it. Under any other circumstances Tarai'd start worrying her cooking wasn't appealing at all, but with everything that happened that day the orkhai understood the despondence. Shivering a bit, Lanica scooted just a bit closer to the fire, clutching her naked body that much tighter. "Really hoping those clothes dry soon, too!" she hissed, before seemingly realising just how tightly her slender fists were clenched. She loosened them, a resigned sigh escaping her lips. "I'm so tired of being this cold..."

"That will probably take a while, I'm afraid," Tarai replied, an apologetic smile on her face that didn't reach her eyes. If there was any way she could help, she would - but how...

A thought struck as she saw the catgirl's hands rub over her legs absentmindedly. The same hands that made the strain from their regular training sessions fade away, that stroked and held her gently as her lover whispered sweet nothings to her. "Mother always taught that hands were made for draining stress..."

It'd been a few weeks since she last gave someone a massage, and she didn't even know if someone so much slighter than an ogre would enjoy it, but...

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained...?" Tarai thought, rubbing her hands nervously before beginning to crawl over to the tense beastkin. "H-hold still for a spell, please..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minding her own business by the fire as she was, Lanica wasn't expecting the pretty airhead to move over. Her ears twitched when the subtle noise of skin shuffling over stone reached them, her eyes looking up in bemusement. ""...What are you plotting?" the neko wondered, having been quite sure the orkhai had been busy cooking - although a quick sniff thankfully didn't catch anything even remotely burnt so far, which meant the food was probably fine.

Tarai's answer came with her warm, firm hands touching the catgirl's skin. "Can y-you lie down for m-me?" the amusingly shy amazon stammered while her arms moved downwards to the small of Lanica's back - and quite surprisingly to the neko, the taller girl even began gently guiding her in position without even waiting for an answer!

"Look, 'Rai..." the beastkin began, looking over her shoulder at the half-orc as the latter rubbed her thumbs besides her lower spine, "Now's not a good time - I'm just not really in the mood fo-"

Pressing down with a simple motion. That was all it took to render whatever Lanica had wanted to say as empty as the air that escaped her lips in a sharp gasp. Her thoughts scattered to the wind while the orkhai above her worked up her back, drowned out by the intense, yet strangely not unpleasant... well, not-quite-pain. It hurt the way a good stretch did, but vastly more powerful.

"O-oh wow," the neko faintly registered the half-elf's voice, "I don't think I've ever felt anyone's muscles so... wound up - like the string on my uncle's bow..."

"''S isn't that ba-oooh..." Lanica drawled, her tail curling as much as the finger's knuckle that took her breath away again with a well-aimed poke.

"Relax and let me handle that for a change," Tarai chirped cheerfully, a melodious giggle rolling from her lips. "You're in good... well, hands..."

Even if Lanica'd wanted to groan from that, she was far too busy groaning from those palms rubbing her sides, the digits kneading her muscles, the hands showing her a painfully delight she didn't know even existed! And Tarai was thorough, leaving no inch untreated as she slowly, methodically moved up the catgirl's spine. Wherever those hands worked their expert, merciless magic a warmth flowed forth, washing away the pain and with it a sense of weight that she hadn't even realised was there.

Tarai was muttering something to her, but the words didn't quite reach Lanica's mind, so distracted was the beastkin - it took conscious effort not to drool from the orkhai's touch reached her ribcage, and by the time the gorgeous amazing brilliant girl reached her tightly-wound shoulders and neck that got so much harder... Her body shivered shamelessly, twitching and gasping and whimpering as the stress of the last months was forcibly exorcized. "How the fuck is she this good?!"

Her eyes widened slightly when she felt two lips press against her cheek almost chastely, their plushness brushing lightly over her burning skin. The girl's large, toned form pressed against Lanica's own as she worked every bit of catgirl-stress that she could reach, even treating those slender arms when she deemed her work on the beastkin's back finished. "...Is this good for you...?" the dextrous masseur whispered in a twitching ear, nervous and hopeful. "Y-you can tell me if it isn't..."

"It's ahhh..." Lanica drawled, rubbing her head against Tarai's through some primal instincts she couldn't resist, "ahhmazinggg..."

Gasping quietly, the orkhai's absolute glee was plain even without having to look at her - not that the neko had quite the presence of mind to really do so. Soon, Tarai's hands treated her elbows, her forearms, her wrists... before ending at Lanica's, their fingers locking for a long, quiet moment.

Words would've hurt the moment for Lanica. Basking in the joy the massage brought her, she didn't want to have to put up an act and deal with the lovestruck half-elf's sappy words - but a silent embrace like this?