Kiravi's Travelogue Ch. 10

I opened my mouth to speak to try and ask her what was happening, but I couldn't form a coherent thought while my eyes took in her divinely touched form. Instead, she uttered something between her halting gasps, "More!"

The word struck me like a physical force, and Leotie finally noticed what I'd realized. Either she was just as ensnared by Serina's beauty and magic as I was, or just didn't care because she arched her back and craned her neck to look at me again, "More, Kiravi. Please, more."

I snarled at her, finally releasing her trapped arms, but only long enough to squat down behind her and slip my arms between her legs and under her muscular thighs. I picked her up as if she weighed nothing, she squealed with surprise and lust, and she desperately threw her arms up and back around my neck to steady herself. I slid back into her, both of us groaning as if my cock had always belonged inside her. She held onto me for dear life but turned her face to mine and kissed me as wildly and deeply as she ever had, every breath holding a tiny and desperate whimper.

My lust was a real, tangible thing, coiling around my guts and my conduit like a rattlesnake, but I couldn't be concerned about that. Bending my knees, carrying Leotie's weight under her spread knees, I bounced her onto my length again and again, faster and faster. Within only one or two thrusts, I was pounding as deeply into her as I'd ever had, the ache in my muscles forgotten as the lust slithered it's way further into me. The need churned inside of me and sent me hurtling towards the edge with no thoughts spared for the magic or Serina's sudden change.

"Yes, Kiravi, yes," Leotie whimpered with her face buried in the hollow of my neck. "Gods...yes...yours," I felt her tense, every muscle in her body squeezing and contracting, from her clenching wetness down to her curling toes, "Fuck, fuck! Youurrssss!" She shrieked and bit into the meat of my neck while her tension and pleasure all burst from her. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on my own impending explosion.

"More," I heard from somewhere far too close, and my eyes snapped back open. Serina was kneeling in front of us, her skin pulsing so brightly that it hurt to gaze upon her. Leotie's nectar steamed where it'd sprayed all across her face and naked chest, and her eyes were two points of impossible light that seemed to sear into my mind. "More," her voice had that echoing quality again, reverberating to my very core, "I need to exist. More."

Shock rippled through me, but the tendrils of lust had already taken me too close to the edge. I roared into the dim, cold air, desperately trying to keep Leotie aloft as the explosion overwhelmed me. The first molten jet of my seed burst into my huntress, so intense it was almost painful. Golden points of light burst through my vision, and I had no idea if they were real or figments of whatever Serina had done to this place.

A feeling like scalding water, but somehow with pain replaced by ecstasy, seared across my hardness and my legs. Serina -- but not Serina, and whatever she was at that moment -- had reached up and pulled me from Leotie's depths. She stroked me with a look that I could only describe as desperation on her changed face, panting with need. My flesh glowed as brightly as hers, and so did the first ribbon of seed that splashed out across her cheek. Another lashed across her other cheek, and another splattered across her parted lips and dainty chin. Again. Another. With every eruption, her glow intensified but also flickered like a terrifying gale blowing across a campfire. Finally, her face twisted with pure lust, and she screamed with enough power to physically push Leotie and me backward half a step.

She was changing. Becoming. Something more but somehow the same.

And then it was over. Her glow guttered and faded, trickling out of her in fat green droplets that tumbled upwards amongst the treetops. The three of us panted, coated in sweat and grime and suddenly cold in the dying light.

"I...I was," Serina panted, settling her plump ass onto her ankles, "I don't know what I was...doing."

Something stirred in me at the way she so simply gazed up at us with her features glazed by the products of our lust. Even so, a tiny voice crowed in the back of my mind, questioning her explanation. She didn't know what she was doing? Or, perhaps...well, dear readers, the thought sprang through my mind that maybe she didn't know who she was becoming.

A small part of me may have thought that at the time, a thought amplified over the distance of years, but the lust-fogged and youthful version of myself that was making those decisions thought little of it.

"No matter," I grunted, easing Leotie down to the ground and looking down at Serina, "darling, you were amazing. Amazing. You always are."

Leotie, despite her surrender and the way she panted desperately, still slapped my arm, "And I wasn't?"

"You're my darling too, you know. I could've been talking to either of you." I danced away from the issue with years of practice. Holding Leotie steady with one arm, I helped Serina up with the other. "I, um, Serina...what was, um," I struggled to think, to articulate just how confusing and strange our lives and her journey were becoming. Instead, like the unreal gloom that'd descended on the glade, the words and the confusion that spawned them were already skittering away. The memory was there, the sights and the feeling, but the need to make it make sense faded with every heartbeat.

Serina smiled, like the beautiful young maiden she was, "It was nothing, lover. Let's go get cleaned up," by the time we'd cleaned the days worth of grime and the results of our lust from us, our meal was cold, but we didn't care.

Another week passed in toil, study, and sparring. After finding a style she liked, Leotie grew more dangerous with the sword, and I earned dozens of discolored bruises from her aggressive methods. Hers did too, of course, so we took to wearing the stiff, quilted armor we'd purchased in the Seleyo. We took to other weapons, too, teaching ourselves how to combat blades with spears and vice versa, even fashioning false knives from pieces of wood to jab and slash at each other with.

Life was good. Simple, in its own way. We woke up tired but warm and happy and went to sleep exhausted and aching but satisfied.

With Serina's help and encouragement, I went back into the forest with a new ax and magic churning in my conduit. "I'm feeling it today," I murmured to her and myself. "I'm feeling loose," I popped my neck and stretched my shoulders. We'd spent the early morning hours lazily taking care of each other, first with hands and then lips and tongues. To this day, all these years later, I remember the look on Leotie's face as Serina's skilled little mouth brought Leotie to orgasm, even as she choked herself on my cock and did her best to gulp down my hot seed.

"Are you feeling focused?" She asked me with a smile in her voice.

"More than ever," I chuckled back at her, "For a few hours, at least, I'll be able to think about something other than taking care of your supple little body."

"Oh really," she purred, trotting ahead of me and over-exaggerating the sway in her step.

What, I pondered, had happened to the meek little woman from that insignificant little village, and who had replaced her? "Keep on with that, and you'll be getting more, and far less tender, attentions from me."

"That's usually Leotie's desire," she said and smirked at me over her shoulder, eyes flashing and hair flicking across her skin. "Though I'm beginning to consider it."

I blinked and shook my head. Yes, things were definitely changing. If I hadn't already had her, I would've been taking her against a thick oak tree in the next few moments.

Instead, I stopped in front of a fair-sized pine tree, straight and tall, with most of the branches sprouting well above my head. "I think I'm ready," I muttered.

"You're ready. Plus, I'm here in case you start another fire." She smiled and rubbed my arm.

I grinned back and turned to face the tree. The ax's short handle was smooth and warm in my hand, and I ran my thumb back and forth along the knapped flint of its head. Surprising myself, I found that I could focus just on the wood, the loamy dirt beneath my feet, the faint feeling of the morning breeze on my skin. My conduit uncoiled, swirled in my gut, and I could feel Serina's presence close by.

I focused, murmuring the words from Quisirlay's spellbook again and again, and my magic unfurled and flowed into the stone ax. The tool thrummed between my fingers, and I opened my eyes and stared at the tree. Then, everything fell away but my magic, my hand, my feet rooted firmly, and my target.

The swing was true, powerful, and the magic rushed out of my soul, through the ax, to explode through the wood.

Smoke, embers, and motes of my raw and yellowish magic swirled around the splintered wood. Sensation rushed back into my mind, the smell of smoke and the echoing crack of magic lingering between the trees. The tree groaned and swayed, and I tensed until I realized it was toppling away from the two of us. With another thunderous crash, it plowed down through the surrounding trees.

"Amazing," Serina murmured, "And you have an entire book of magic, just like that?"

My limbs trembled from the euphoric rush of magic and hot blood, and in that moment I felt like I could become an arch-wizard one day, cloistered in my own palace. "I do. And you'll help me learn them?"

She stepped towards me, putting her small hand on my chest, "Maybe I'll learn them all first?"

We chuckled together, heady excitement flooding through us at the thought of the power I could wield and control. Our arms brushed and caressed each other's, our breath steaming and curling around us in the cool morning air. Perhaps it was the time to take her against a tree.

As my lips hungrily pressed against hers, another sound echoed through the forest.

"Leotie again," Serina whispered and poured.

I turned my head, and it was good that I did, dear readers, for I saw a handful of hunters edging towards us. They must've been following the track we'd found down out of the mountains, just as Leotie had said. The crack and thunder of my experimentation must've alerted them. My sword was back in the village, but I still had my magic and the ax, and the wooden haft creaked as my grip tightened.

"Stay behind me," I said, eyes never leaving the new arrivals.

"I won't run if that's what you're thinking," she whispered back but still edged behind me.

My mind raced as I studied the hunters and the stand around us. We had a chance to run and flee back towards the village, but there wasn't anything more defensible there than here amongst the trees. Leotie was gods-knew-where, so we were on our own for the moment.

Two were Enges, another appeared to be a full Bhakhuri, two more were half-breeds, and the last was an avian-looking Qulki. Just as the totems in the wilderness had shown. It was smaller than the Archian we'd seen in Serina's memories, but it nonetheless bore a striking resemblance. Reddish-brown quills flowed back from the crown of its angular head and down along its arms and limbs, and slightly lighter scales covered the rest of its slender and wiry body.

Golden, predatory eyes studied me, and I stared right back. They all had similar trappings as Leotie had worn when we'd first met, though with a bit more fur and hide to protect against the chilled winter air. Darts hung loosely at their sides, but their faces held much less aggression and instead something approaching fearful curiosity.

The Qulki said something, tawny-colored beak clicking with every syllable, but none of it made even the remotest sense. I wished, again, that Leotie was close by: to lend her ear to whatever language this band was using, to be an extra spear-arm if things went sideways, and for me to know that she was safe. Someone else spoke, one of the half-Men, but it still sounded more like chirps and staccato barks than words.

I grunted, thinking of which one I'd take out first if and when things went wrong, and I was reminded of that first spasm of violence all those weeks before in Juniper Valley. "I don't suppose any of you speak Anghoreti?" I called out.

Most kept creeping forward, but the Qulki paused and blinked with those huge golden eyes. It chirped something else to the others before turning to look at me, "Anghoret?" He raised his dart slightly, and I tensed. "How many?"

I slowly raised my free hand, which had the added benefit of meaning I was ready to launch a spell, and held up three fingers, "Three. One is out hunting."

The hunters stopped moving forward, but the Enges started fanning out to the sides. "We don't mean any harm," I said, but the blood was beginning to hammer in my ears, and sweat beaded at my temples despite the chill.

"Magic?" The Qulki asked, gesturing at the faintly smoking tree. I nodded. "You serve...the Undying One?"

"Who's that?" Serina called out, her eyes burning bright and fingers digging into my upper arm.

"We don't serve anyone," I said with as much stone in my voice that I could muster. I hoped it sounded more legitimate than ridiculous.

The Qulki turned and rattled orders out to the others. The Bhakhuri and one of the Enges snapped back, but the Qulki waved a taloned hand at them. "Anghoret. Not...unusual. But you don't stink of the Undying One. Why are you here?" He pointed over our shoulders, through the mists and towards the village. "In our land?"

The same flurry of sudden and diplomatic need as I'd felt on the riverbank at Atala surged through me, "You are Kroyu?"

"How do you know that name?"

"How do you know Anghoreti?" I smirked but shrugged my shoulders affably. "Our third speaks to the Kwarzi, and they told us your name." A thought had entered my mind, a connection between Itca's casually brutal words, my tenuous grasp on my homeland's history, and the diverse band that stood before me.

He -- I assume he was a he -- bristled. Quite literally, as his quills clattered against each other. "My father is an exile. Cast out by your King Jerra."

"King Jerra is dead," I said reflexively. "And we are exiles, cast out by ear and rebellion." I finally lowered my hand and used it to point back at the village, "We happened upon this place. And we decided to fill it with everything that we could possibly provide."

"Let us show you," Serina said, moving from behind me and smiling like the dawn.

The Qulki sighed and flared the quills along his neck before rattling something off to one of the Men and the Bhakhuri. He turned to glare at us, "I told them to go and let the others know that we found you. In case you are a liar."

I pressed, "How many more of you are there, exiled from Anghoret?"

"Enough, stranger, to handle any treachery on your part." He snapped, "Now go, show us what you've done at the village."

After a few minutes of awkwardly stepping over roots while keeping a careful eye out to prevent a dart from finding its way between my shoulder blades, we entered the Kroyu village. Serina and I waited stiffly as the hunters entered and inspected each of the huts. They chattered at each other briefly, and the Qulki trotted back over to us with an unreadable expression on his avian face.

"How long have you been here?" His voice was incredulous. "And there's only the three of you?"

Serina and I glanced at each other and smiled, "Yes. You'll meet the huntress soon."

My young lover had the brilliant idea to alert Leotie by casting her most ubiquitous spell as high above the village as she could, letting the sound echo far and wide and startling dozens of birds into the crisp air. While the hunters inventoried the piles of food and materials we'd gathered, Leotie came storming back into the village with Niknik. "How in the Akagi's hells do you expect me to fill these huts with smoked junco bird if you're scaring all of them off by fucking around back here?!" She barked at us before one of the hunters stuck his head out of one of the huts.

"Our Kroyu friends have arrived," I said diplomatically, gesturing with my eyes to get her to calm down, and quickly. "And they seem quite pleased by Serina's idea."

Her demeanor changed immediately, but she still placed herself near Serina and me and kept her hands on her atlatl and knife. "And what were the two of you doing when they got here?" She muttered to me while glaring at the hunters.

I smiled and crossed my arms, "Nothing untoward, lover. You'd be proud," I half-turned towards her, away from the huddled group of Kroyu. "I chopped down a tree with magic. Without starting a fire."

"I'm glad that's what you're thinking about," she grumbled, "There are gods know how many more of them on their way here, and all we know about them is that some of them are Anghoreti exiles."

Before I could add anything, the Qulki approached Leotie with careful hesitation, "You were the one who spoke with the Kwarzi? And learned our name?"

She nodded, her glare softening only slightly, "Yes."

He extended a taloned hand, "Can you...show me?"

"Show?" She muttered, "What are you...oh." She glanced at his hand before slowly bringing hers up to meet it.

"I don't have that gift," the Qulki said, "only my uncle does amongst the Kroyu."

Leotie nodded, uncomfortable, but closed her eyes and focused as she did every morning. My conduit tingled as the air rippled around Leotie. Serina brushed her fingers against my arm, her eyes burning brightly and speckled with the blue light tied to Leotie's magic.

The Qulki pulled his hand away and nodded slightly. "I understand," He looked between the three of us, "I am Gohika, son of the medicine man of the Kroyu. You will be under my protection until the elders and the Headman can speak to you. Now, please, I must prepare the village for the arrival of my people."

"What can we do to help?" Serina offered quickly before Leotie or I could come up with any kind of excuse.

"I'm sure Leotie has something fresh to offer up to the stewpot," I said with a nudge. My huntress scowled but nodded.

The hunters bustled about, fetching even more wood and chopping up the tree I'd felled. Some rebuilt the stone hearth-rings in the huts for at least twenty separate families. Serina was giddy and beaming, overjoyed that her idea had worked, but Leotie and I remained tense and uncertain. Who was this 'Undying One,' and why did they think I served him? Why was there a band of Anghoreti exiles in Gavic's borderlands, and were they the ones constantly battling Itca's now-dead border guards?

My questions had to wait as the first bands of the rest of the Kroyu began to arrive in the late afternoon. They were thin and bedraggled, most of their furs and hide garments thin and extensively patched together. Some were hunters, like the first six, and their weapons seemed even more primitive than those of the Anghoreti tribes. Little decoration adorned their kit, and mud and dust coated all of them in a thin film.

"I don't want to be here," Leotie grumbled from beside me, where we huddled against our borrowed hut. "This tribe is too big. It's no wonder they all look like they're going to fall over."

I sighed, but she did have a point. There were at least a hundred of them, with more trickling along the trail and into the open space at the center of the village. "It's too late to do anything now."

Leotie scoffed, "We could just leave. They wouldn't stop us."

"We spent all of that time and effort filling these huts with food. So why not wait and see what's happening?"

"I filled these huts, you mean," she sniped back.

"Stop," Serina whispered, "We're looking for a home, aren't we? What if Kiravi gets sick again, or you break a bone chasing a deer through the brush? What if something happens when I'm trying to meditate and seek the goddess? If they have healers and medicine men, that's something we can't do ourselves."