Kiravi's Travelogue Ch. 09

Calm. Safe.

Niknik's voice purred in my thoughts before he bumped his blocky head into my knee. "Are you going to be alright?" Kiravi asked, eyes flicking back and forth between the guards and my trembling limbs.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," I murmured. "Let's just go to sleep so we can leave this place."

Sleep. I will watch.

Niknik cooed in my mind again, but no matter what I did, I couldn't put that ember of rage out of my mind. Twisting and turning under our blankets, despite my lovers' comforting warmth and Kiravi's strong arm, sleep never came to me. I eventually sat up, glaring through bleary eyes at two of the guards that still sneered at us in the dim firelight.

"I might as well do something useful," I grumbled to myself and to Niknik, quietly fumbling through my pack. An idea I'd had when I'd braided Serina's hair returned to my exhausted mind, and I fished out a battered piece of leather from my pack and Serina's needle set from hers.

Scraping and cutting and slicing with one of the dwindling number of knives I'd scavenged from Atala and cursing bitterly every time the blade flaked or slipped against the leather, I worked until the hearth fires and lamps had all but burned out. My hands ached and were sliced open by rogue flint chips in a dozen places, but I held up my handiwork and smiled with girlish sweetness.

My eyes narrowed and passed over the guards to ensure no one had seen such a non-predatory moment. Everyone -- even Niknik -- had fallen asleep as I'd worked. Smiling again, I scratched at his ears and cooed when he yawned and stretched his tight limbs.

The eastern sky bled with pre-dawn light, and I decided I didn't want to stay in this place any longer. "Wake up," I hissed, nudging Serina before jabbing Kiravi with my toes, "It's time to go. Now." Like the Akagi's infinite hells was I going to breathe the same air as these 'cultured' idiots any longer.

I suppose, perhaps, that my extreme fatigue had made me both irritable and irrational, but, as Kiravi always says: I didn't much care.

"Gods dammit woman, we finally get to sleep between four walls..." Kiravi grumbled but pulled himself out from underneath the blankets.

Serina uncoiled from beneath his burly arm, "Leotie," she yawned and stretched, and my eyes strayed to the way her dress clung to every bit of her. "You never came to bed last night."

I flushed with embarrassment at her innocent tone, "I, uh, I was making you something."

"You were ma-- ugh, now you're going to be tired and cranky all day," Kiravi groaned, feeling around for his shirt. So, of course, I kicked him in the leg for his rudeness.

"You should've slept, Leotie," Serina cooed but reached out to brush her fingers against my leg, "But thank you. What did you make for me?"

I held up the simple garment I'd roughly sewn from the old but soft leather. It was a bandeau just like mine, with leather thongs to tie it shut in the back. It was a little smaller, of course, since Serina was, um, more petite than me in more than one way. I'd seen the way she'd winced while running and bounding, and there also was no reason for her to keep sweating uncomfortably in that peasant girl's dress.

Her face lit up, and she held it in small hands, eyes flicking between the new garment and the one I wore. "Cover me up?"

Glaring at the snoring room of guards, I huddled close to hide her away from any bleary-eyed warrior. Kiravi, still grumbling but a bit more awake after splashing some water on his face, crowded around her other side. Serina peeled off that threadbare dress, and I tied on the bandeau for her, leaving her in the new garment and her breechcloth. She just kept smiling as she folded up that gray dress and her other belongings into her small pack.

Kiravi and I followed quickly, exhausted but eager to leave this decidedly unfriendly mud-shack outpost. I could see the slight hesitation in all of Kiravi's actions, born from more than just the last tendrils of sleepiness, and I knew he was torn about leaving the manufactured 'culture' and the thin veneer of 'society' that he'd been raised in. I'm not too proud to admit that I'd felt the exact same way in those weeks after my band had dissolved into dust on the hot desert wind. Alone with nothing but Niknik and the skills of my upbringing, I'd found my new home. Serina searched for meaning, but her journey, and mine and Kiravi's arms, were her new home. Kiravi was home with us as well, as our protector, strongman, and silver-tongued passport to the rest of our rapidly expanding world. He didn't understand that by then, I don't think.

But he would.

An Enges guard peered down at us from the top of the tower, silhouetted by a warming hearth fire. His breath swirled together with the blue smoke into the cold desert air. Serina and I both shivered, nearly bare, in the crisp air, but the sun would be up soon, and the struggle north into Gavic would warm us quickly enough. The young Enges nodded at us, beard twitching as he smiled beneath it. Perhaps it was the early morning hours, or days and leagues traveled with no sleep, but I smiled back.

By the time the sun had struggled the extra distance over the Yavloni spur, we were halfway down the steep face of the ridge, and I'd taught Serina a few ways to colorfully swear in Bhakhuri. Despite the aches, blisters, and dozens of bleeding cuts, I was hard-pressed to hide a smile from Kiravi. We were home, all of us, the last scrap of a homeland that had rejected him behind us.

We managed to reach the stream Itca had mentioned before noontide. Serina needed another of her rests, panting beneath the green-trunks, and Niknik drank eagerly from the fast-running stream. I'd angled us towards an obvious ford, and the water frothed white over the slick rocks. Kiravi and I stood on the mossy banks, the spray from the rapids spritzing onto our skin to mingle with the sweat.

He furrowed his brow but didn't speak, so I spoke for him, "You've already traveled leagues further than you ever expected to, yes? Farther than anyone you've ever met, save Kapak." I waved at the shallow, fast-flowing water, "What's crossing one more stream?"

Kiravi chuckled and let that rugged and lopsided smile split his face. The easy mirth never reached his eyes, "Just one more stream, yes." His face wavered, "And one last day in Anghoret. Maybe forever?" He picked up a rounded stone, turned it over in his hands, before he tossed it into the water. "That was a piece of Anghoret, too, just like me. Now it's tumbling down a random stream, away from home, away from everything I've ever known." He picked up another rock, tossed it in with more anger. "I'm wanted for murder, I have a bounty on my head, and no home to return to."

Heat rose in my face, and I knew my chest was flushing as well. Anger at Kiravi's blind ignorance warred with the desire to hold him close, to soothe his hurt. "You are no stone, Kiravi," I whispered over the water, and his head came up and twisted in my direction, "You could never be the stone. If anything, you're the river," my voice rose, along with the confusing heat in my face. "Godsdammit, Kiravi, you're the mountain that the river springs from. The mountains and the rivers were there before Anghoret. They don't need Anghoret. They'll be there after Anghoret." I stabbed a finger into his chest and had to fight the urge to kiss him in the next moment, "You don't need to stay here any more than the mountain needs a stone."

That smile flickered back and forth on and off of his face, threatening to slip away entirely, "Like so many others, I feel you overestimate what I can do and who I am."

He'd said all of this before, that night when he finally and truly made me his, "You're an idiot, Kiravi. You've caught magic in your hands, laid low an entire rebellion with nothing but your anger and a stolen sword. Don't tell me that you aren't everything we all think you are." I smiled at him, growing closer to him, feeling the heat coming off of his skin. "Of course, you're a terrible fisherman, you can't hunt, and you blunder through the brush like a wild boar...but you're still more than just a mere stone."

"Don't forget he can make both of us scream," Serina said, bending over by the stream in breech-cloth and bandeau to fill a waterskin.

Both Kiravi and I could not concentrate on anything other than the view of Serina's ridiculously ample rear for a few long seconds.

"I've done some things, yes, but I'm out of anything to barter with, and those Gavican tribes won't care that I'm a noble. So we'll just be three out-of-place travelers in a foreign land."

"Three lovers, Kiravi," Serina murmured with a bashful smile, "We can feed ourselves, protect ourselves, and that winning smile of yours can get us out of anything else."

"And that sword arm," I added before kicking Kiravi in the shin for emphasis.

"Godsdammit woman, I wish you'd stop doing that," he winced but chuckled.

"And I wish you'd stop hesitating," I snapped back, "Now get that perky ass of yours across the river. We need to find somewhere to set up a camp that will last as long as we need to stay in Gavic." I shoved him, and he stumbled awkwardly into the shallows before losing his balance and falling onto his ass in the rushing water.

"Shedia's teeth! Dammit!" He thundered, but there was no real bite to his words, "You'll be paying for this later."

I laughed, but a different kind of heat flushed through me: I could only hope he made good on his threat that very night. Judging by the vacant way Serina stared at the water running off of his rippling chest, I think she was considering the same thing. Hopefully, we'd find a suitable site before I keeled over from exhaustion.

And, with that, we followed a dripping wet Anghoreti nobleman, a fledgling qhatuq, and a sometimes decent man across a babbling river, leaving one land and entering another.

My hopes, mostly, were dashed by the agonizing slog uphill on the northern side of the creek. Despite Kiravi's hesitations, there was nothing different about those draws and spurs of sandstone or the stands of trees and tangles of brush that covered them. Lush lands like those existed nowhere along the Nekoar where my tribe and band had lived, but I knew I could survive there and support my lovers as well. Dear readers -- ugh, what a phrase -- there was practically a bird on every tree branch! We could easily thrive there until Kiravi decided what to do next.

With the sun setting over the Choked Sea, Niknik and I picked out a small clearing surrounded by green-trunks and softly carpeted by moss and squat ferns. Some mighty tree had tumbled down here and torn a dozen other trunks down in its wake, and the elements and local animals had worn away all but the sun-bleached and splintered trunk. Dry wood, a tiny stream not thirty paces away, and soft flat ground: it was perfection.

Serina built a fire just as I'd taught her, and Kiravi lit it with his magic. Our hulking protector fetched water, and Niknik pounced on a fat but unfamiliar rodent with barely any effort. And what did I do? I crouched by the fire, scarcely able to even unpack my kit as two days of crushing effort and no sleep overwhelmed me. I barely tasted the stew and dough Serina cooked for us and only vaguely remembered Kiravi laying me down and covering me up with my thick blankets. A vague sense of disappointment flushed through me but was overcome and washed away by the consequences of my foolish desire to stay awake in the presence of those bastard guards.

Well, dearest readers, that disappointment was to be short-lived.

Some time later -- how much later, I wasn't sure -- something woke me from my deep stupor. I blinked, seeing the star-studded sky overhead and the dimming embers of our fire. The comforting weight of our blankets still settled over me, and I could feel the warmth of someone else under the same bundled wool. Frigid air pricked at my exposed face, battling the perfectly soft heat wrapped around me.

Serina's face was less than a hands length from mine, and it took me a few moments to realize that she wasn't sleeping. Her eyes were screwed shut, she was biting her bottom lip, and her breath was coming in ragged but rhythmic gasps. Long moments passed and, as consciousness and awareness slowly returned to me, I felt her body moving underneath the blankets to the same primal rhythm as her breath.

That handsome, beautiful bastard was fucking Serina right next to me! Without waking me! Without fucking me first!

Anger and lust swelled inside of me alongside my growing awareness of the camp around me. I may have been angry and jealous, but watching my lover quiver and gasp as Kiravi spooned her and took her lit a fire in my womb. By then, I could see the powerful silhouette of Kiravi behind her, arms wrapped tight around her petite body as he thrust away. Neither had noticed I'd awoken, their eyes tightly closed. Sweat beaded on their faces and their passionate breaths swirled around their exposed heads.

By the gods and the infinite Kwarzi, it was one of the most arousing things I've ever seen, before or since.

Slowly, quietly, I slunk underneath the blankets and closer to Serina. Her naked breasts brushed against mine, her small nipples as hard as the emeralds in my gaudy breastplate, but still she didn't realize I was awake. My own breath was getting shallow and fast, more so for every bit of her searing, sweaty skin that came up against mine.

I couldn't wait any longer, and my hands came up from my sides to caress the swell of her deliciously wide hips and her pert young breasts. My fingertips inadvertently brushed against Kiravi's thrusting hips, but even then, he didn't seem to notice anything while so lost in passion. I wriggled closer to Serina, all of our skin from shoulders to heaving breasts to our toned stomachs and legs touching all at once, and Serina's eyes finally came open.

Before she could give me away, I lunged forward and kissed her plump lips, capturing her surprised moan with my eager mouth. I don't know precisely why I was determined to remain hidden from Kiravi for as long as I could, even now, but I remember feeling a thrill at his ignorance and the secret Serina and I briefly shared. By that moment, as our tongues caressed and massaged each other, I could feel every one of Kiravi's rhythmic thrusts against her as if it were my body he was pounding into.

My eyes fluttered open and closed, Serina and I searching each other's feelings in those mere lustful gazes. To this day, I still find it fascinating to study Serina's changed eyes, the way the subtle texture of the magical glow betrays what my pupils and irises would. She was thrilled I'd joined in, loving being the center of our attention, and she was close to her release.

I eased one hand down, down along her toned stomach until I felt the hard nub of her clit being forced into my fingertips by Kiravi's gradually quickening thrusts. She hissed inwardly, screwing her eyes shut again and biting her lower lip, hard. My other hand cupped her breast, palming her nipple briefly before rolling it back and forth between my fingers. Serina moaned, voice husky and low, and I felt her warm breath caressing my skin.

"Yes, cum for me, darling," I heard Kiravi grunt, his voice straining. "Scream for me, scream so loud you wake her up."

I smiled wolfishly, both at my own devious act and at the girlish joy I felt at knowing Kiravi was thinking of me even then. I rubbed at her even more insistently and, when her eyes opened just the tiniest fraction, I mouthed to her, "Cum for us."

And that was it.

I suppose I should've thought about the...spectacular results from Serina's orgasms, but I wasn't especially right-minded or focused on anything other than sudden and unexpected lust. A primal, screaming growl grew in Serina's chest, building just like the ruddy glow suffusing her tawny skin. Her body seized and spasmed, forcing her incomparable bottom against Kiravi and her delightful tits into my eager hands.

And then she spoiled the game, "Leotie, oh Leotie...I'm...I'm...ahhhh!" Light and magic poured from her eyes and out of her pores. It pulsed through me and my conduit and surely through Kiravi as well, but Serina had learned how to control the worst of it. Still, it felt like lightning rippling through my flesh and only fed the boiling heat in my womb.

Both Kiravi and I held Serina as the tremors of pleasure slowly dissipated inside her, heat and sweat pouring off of her. We looked at each other over her trembling shoulder, "You couldn't even wake me before you decided to take our little friend here?" I panted at Kiravi.

He chuckled, but by the way he furrowed his brow, it was obvious he was close to his own release. "Believe me, we tried. You were completely dead to the world."

"We did," Serina whispered, still trying to catch her breath while motes of magic winked out of existence around us. "I wanted...this," she ran a finger from my cheek, down my chest and between my heaving breasts. Her tiny hands tried their best to cup and massage my tits but were utterly overwhelmed by the task. She loved it, though, groping me just as I had her, lips attacking my neck before hungrily pressing back against my own waiting mouth. The false feelings of exclusion fell away as my second lover threw herself at me and draped her smaller body over and across mine with intertwined thighs and feet, with searching hands. Her magic arced faintly between us in tiny flashes of green and blue light, tingling with expectant heat all across my skin.

It was all a carefully deployed distraction, perhaps, or maybe it was just Serina in the throes of passion consuming my attention. Either way, it worked, and I didn't even notice Kiravi shuffling around under the blankets until I felt his throbbing length, dripping with Serina's nectar, brushing along my buttocks. It settled in the cleft of my ass, searing hot with his pent-up lust, and I froze, staring wide-eyed at Serina.

She smiled faintly, still floating down from her own explosion, realizing that Kiravi was about to take me just as he'd taken her.

Panting with need and expectation, I let Kiravi lift my muscular leg and bring his hips closer. His cock teased along my folds, and I whimpered despite myself. Gods, how I wanted him, craved his attentions in that moment while casting aside the spiteful rivalry we shared.

He kissed my neck more tenderly than I thought I wanted, but I melted at that simple act and pushed back against him. He slid a hand's length inside of me, opening up my dripping wetness, "Mmmnnhh, Kiravi," I moaned, gasping for lungfuls of air to quench the already growing fire inside of me. "Tell me I'm yours," I mewled like a teenage virgin, hating myself for feeling so weak but loving that he could overwhelm me so easily.

"You're mine," he grunted in my ear, pulling back slightly before surging forwards again, further and deeper. I loved how I always opened up so naturally to him, my womanhood pulling him in as if he were meant to be there, always. "My huntress. My Leotie."

"Our huntress," Serina said with a smile before her lips traced down my neck again and over the swell of my heaving breasts. Kiravi inexorably pushed further inside of me, and I opened to him even as my womanhood massaged and clenched around his beautiful intrusion. Her lips closed around one of my achingly stiff nipples, and I heard her murmur, "My goddess," before she suckled on me.

"Mmnnyyeess, I'm yours," I whimpered, my heart hammering in my chest and my vision tunneling towards a single point of infinite pleasure. My arms wrapped tightly around Serina, desperate for any sort of solidity as Kiravi skillfully reminded me just why I'd chosen him. But, instead, the devious little seeress snaked her free hand down between us and teased my aching clit with dainty fingers.