Love in a Portable Hole

A gentle touch brought Princess Lucy out of her restless sleep. "Ahh! Who's there!" she called into the dim light, disoriented by her surroundings. She saw Bruce standing beside her cot, touching her shoulder to bring her to wakefulness. I must have fallen asleep while waiting for him. I can't believe I slept through my own escape!

"Are we safe?" she asked after regaining her composure.

"So far, your Highness. We have made it out of Heslen amidst the confusion. We are now a few hours outside of the city to the south. Anyone searching outside would likely focus on the northwestern routes that lead more directly to your father's realm."

Lucy felt a great relief sweep through her, a sheer joy at an escape that she had feared impossible. She smiled radiantly at Bruce, and leapt into his arms to hug him fiercely. His return smile shared in that joy, and he showed no reluctance in holding her so closely. "Oh thank you! Thank God!"

She looked up to read his lips, and he continued from the closer proximity.

"I plan on blending in as a disappointed wedding guest from Aradat for the next several days, then purchase supplies and play the part of a poor traveling merchant and head south even more, going around the Kreslyn Mountains towards Yeslyn, and thence to Gilead. From there we can safely travel back to your father's kingdom and you may see your family. It will be necessary for you to stay inside the Portable Hole until we pass over the mountains – they will have some of your clothes and likely some of your hair, and could try a Tracing Spell. While inside here, they won't be able to find you. Plus, if they are searching for a beautiful princess and only see a plain male merchant, all the better."

His posture placed him above her, and after holding her gaze while speaking he seemed to instinctively glanced down at her outfit, which was still as revealing as ever. His eyes seemed to slightly widen as he looked at her clearly revealed and lushious bosom, and then jerked his eyes upwards as if afraid of impropriety.

"Ah, I will buy you some clothes in Aradat. I don't have anything now except this blanket, and I recommend using that for sleeping. When we get into the mountains, it could get cold. Even with the portable hole, some cold air will get in, and you will need a way to stay warm. I do have some warming balms over there – I used them during my journey over the mountains."

As he spoke, his eyes seemed to once again move unconsciously down to gaze at her cleavage and the promise of more that her dress gave. He snapped his head up, clearly realizing what he had done, and flushed. Lucy smiled at his embarrassment and hugged him again.

"I would happily go naked for weeks if it meant a successful escape. Think nothing of it, I am sure I will be fine."

She felt a quick twitch in his hips when she said the work 'naked' and realized that he had visualized her naked, perhaps involuntarily, and his body had reacted with approval. Wouldn't be too hard to visualize me naked after seeing me in this outfit; besides, he's cute. That thick brown hair and strong build is a good start, but really, it's those blue eyes... He pulled away from her, probably in an effort to hide his large and still growing bulge too late and headed towards the black hole to the outside world.

"I will try and make some more progress today towards Aradat – we should make it there by tomorrow. Once we get some, ah, supplies, then we can change course. Rest well, my Lady."

She gave him a shy smile and watched him disappear, with the exit following shortly thereafter. She sighed and lay back on the cot, running the conversation over and over in her mind, enjoying the nuances and revelations. He clearly desires me. And I can't deny that I'm attracted to him. Now we're going to tromp through the woods together...hmm, this keeps getting better and better! With nothing to do but wait, Princess Lucy draped the blanket over her and looked forward to dreaming of her dashing rescuer, and perhaps a bit of self encouragement to heighten the fantasy.

Lucy snapped out a pleasant dream by a rough touch on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Bruce leaning over her and then sliding to his knees beside the bed. The dim magical light revealed the horrible sight of blood streaking down his face from a cut along his hairline, gashes across his chest and stomach, and a deep puncture would in his left shoulder. She sat up with a scream and saw more cuts on his legs.

Bruce grabbed her with a bloody hand and began to speak in a wheezy voice, "Ambushed by Wulfgar's men. They cornered me and asked about you – they figured out I helped you. Tracked me somehow, but not magically."

How does he know? She thought.

"They didn't know about the portable hole. I was able to kill all of them before they could report anything back, but," he let out a racking cough, dripping more blood on the floor with every second, "I will not survive much longer. You must clothe yourself as best you can and flee directly into the mountains. Use the hole as shelter from the cold, and don't stop until you reach Gilead. They can track you magically, so move fast! Gilead will get you home."

A gurgle of blood came up with the last sentence, and Bruce fell back onto the floor, clearly exhausted. Lucy was frozen with shock, trying to understand the sights and news. The sight of the blood was making her dizzy, and she feared she would pass out. No! He needs me! I have to stay strong! He suddenly sat up again, gripping her arm.

"Hurry! I will go as far as I can towards Aradat, and they will think I meant to meet you there. It will give you precious hours of lead. Don't waste it! Find clothes, take the hole, go into the mountains!"

And with that, he fell back to the floor, gasping for breath. His demand for action spurred Lucy onward, and she realized what she must do.

"Don't be ridiculous. You are not going to die. You would think a smart hero would know something about the Princess he is rescuing." Lucy reached out and peeled the dark shirt away from the bloody ruin of his shoulder, revealing a well-muscled torso covered in gore. He groaned in pain as the shirt ripped out a partial blood clot from the shoulder wound, and passed out as more blood poured out onto the floor. The princess placed her hand on the wound, ignoring the blood, and used her Gift. The healing power swelling up and out of her, a rush that flooded out of her as it had so many times before back in the hospital her Mother had built.

To her shock, however, nothing happened. The power left her and suddenly vanished, as if it was never there! Lucy let out a loud cry of anger. She had never felt the like, and was at a loss. She stared at her bloody hand, confounded. Bruce looked up at her, aroused by her yell. "What was that?" he whispered, voice fading.

Lucy leaned down into his vision and replied, "I tried to heal you, but nothing happened! I don't understand. Did the collar ruin my healing Gift? It felt right! It should have worked!"

Bruce laughed weakly, then spit out some blood. "You would think a smart Princess would know something about her rescuer. I am a Null Mage, your Highness. I am immune to magic. I can, if I focus, allow magic to affect me. I must be awake for you to heal me. Keep me awake! Whatever it takes, just keep me awake!"

And with that, he grabbed hold of her hand and squeezed, focusing his eyes on her face. She tried again, summoning her power, and pushed it out through her hand into his shoulder wound. This time it worked, and she watched in joy as she knit the skin together and repaired the muscles underneath. Bruce groaned at the new pain of his body unnaturally binding itself together, and passed out again. The second he lost consciousness, the power ceased working. The shoulder's skin looked red and raw, like it was mostly healed but not quite there.

Lucy looked at his other wounds, which were serious cuts but nothing as life-threatening as the shoulder wound. He's lost a lot of blood, though. I need to heal him again. Lucy tried to rouse him by shaking him, but it did no good. Even vigorous shaking didn't make a difference. Remembering his instructions, she steeled herself and slapped him hard across the face. The blow cracked his head into the stone floor of the portable hole's secret room, and Bruce only twitched. Again frustrated and more than a little scared at the idea of him dying on the floor in front of her, Lucy thrust her fingers into an open cut on his side, pinching and squeezing. Bruce's eyes flew open and he gasped in pain, his hand flying to catch her wrist and jerk her hand away.

He stared at her for a moment, then awareness flooded into his eyes, and he nodded. "Yes, again." She pushed the healing power out, and added blood back into his system, and pulled some of the cuts together. Bruce stared down at his body's extraordinarily mending, clearly trying to use the pain of the healing as a focus to stay awake. He began weaving and then fell back to the floor, unable to stay conscious any longer.

The power cut off abruptly again, and Lucy examined her handiwork. He still had several cuts, but she had healed most and repaired the muscle damage underneath. His blood levels were close to normal, but she could see his pulse pounding rapidly in the veins of his neck, and he was flushed. I don't think he can take any more healing right now. It's too traumatic and he's so weak from the fight. Instead, Lucy resolved to patch him up through normal care and heal him completely when he was more rested.

Lucy gathered up the ribbons of cloak that Bruce had worn and used it to sop up the blood covering the floor. She couldn't lift him onto the bed, so she pulled the mattress down onto the floor after she cleaned it, then dragged him onto it. His clothes remained bloody, so she took off his damaged pants and boots, leaving him with only his underwear on the mattress. She covered him with their only blanket and looked around for some way to bind his wounds.

The only cloth they had was his bloody shirt and pants, so she ripped the shirt into strips and applied the makeshift bandages to his arms, legs and torso where he had been cut by the swords of her enemies. After the long, exhausting work, Lucy stood up and examined her handiwork. Not bad for field dressings. Her eyes lingered on his mostly naked body, and really, just not bad. The smell of the blood was making her queasy, and she sat down on the cot frame to catch her balance. Realizing that it wouldn't get better unless she could get rid of it, she gathered the remaining spoiled clothes and went out the portal to the real world.

Lucy fought a gag reflex when the sight of the carnage outside the hole hit her eyes. Even in just bright moonlight, it was a vision of horror. The bodies of four men lay about on the ground in various states of disembowelment. She recognized three of them as part of Wulfgar's hunting troupe that had abducted her. A bloody sword, apparently Bruce's, lay next to the tree where he had placed the portable hole for the evening. She threw the bloody rags on the ground, then thought better, and used them to clean the sword. Then Lucy took the cloak off of one of her abductors Keegan, his name was; glad you are dead! and wrapped the bloody rags in the cloak. It took some willpower not to kick the dead bodies as the memories of her poor maids came to mind.

Most of the other clothing items were ruined, but she found a shirt and pants from the bodies that she thought would fit Bruce, and took another cloak for herself. Then Lucy tossed the clothing items inside the portable hole, wrapped her feet in scraps of cloth, and plucked at the portable the hole. She had never touched it before so she felt along the edges and there seemed to be some kind of rim, like a piece of paper. She peeled it off the tree and it became opaque, almost exactly like a black handkerchief, when she removed it. She folded it and held it tight in her hands, and then began running down the hillside to the road she could see between the pale sylvan shadows. It was cold, so cold that it felt like a thousand needles were stinging her, especially on her feet as the trod through the snow.

The road was stone, and marked with the passage of many travelers, and she thought it would be difficult for trackers to distinguish her footprints from the others. She followed the road for a while, keeping the shadowy mountains, snow glistening in the moonlight, to her left. The moments of adrenaline faded, and she found herself tired and cold and rather miserable. She tried to remind herself that she had no guards to help her now – she was on her own, perhaps for the first time in her life. Someone is depending on me for their life. I need to get Bruce away from where those bodies are if we have any chance to survive. The thought of someone depending on her, physically instead of just for her royal commands, was a new and heady thought. She was being tested in a way she never had been before. As God was her witness, she would not fail, especially after all Bruce had done for her!

Thinking about him was a pleasant distraction, and she allowed her mind to wander across all their interactions as she slipped and froze down the road in the icy landscape lit only by the moon. Now I understand so much more knowing that he is a Null Mage. No wonder he could take my obedience collar off me! And why he wasn't afraid of being tracked by magic. Lucy tried to focus on her situation, but somehow her mind kept wandering back to his luminous blue eyes, the concern on his face as he pled her to flee and leave him behind, his willingness to die for her. Now that is how a man should be she thought to herself.

She had worked at healing many times, but since her gift did now require anyone to remove clothes, this was the most she had seen of any patient. She found herself stumbling a few times and realized that she had been daydreaming of Bruce's muscular torso, the muscles on his calves that stood out so clearly, his sensual lips that had a distinctive curve on the top, uncovered by any mustache. I must stop this!

She trudged on, another two miles in dark. Every so often she had to summon her gift to heal cuts and the beginnings of frostbite, especially on her feet, now exposed with the rags ripped lower and lower. She paused to rest her aching feet, and saw a small stream trickling alongside the road beneath the snow. The stream must come from the mountains, and should carve a good path for me to follow up it. At least it'll be better than being on the road, let alone still in the midst of all those bodies!

The Princess trusted her instincts and followed the stream uphill for quite a ways, the distance difficult to judge in the moonlight. He must need me to use the various magic items he has, except the portable hole; that's why he asked me to touch the cloak. Thoughts of Bruce's revelation swirled in her mind as she stumbled through the dark woods.

After walking so far, and frequently using her Gift, Lucy felt herself nearing exhaustion. She found an old bole to conceal the portable hole, and placed it on the tree. The darkness of the portable hole was concealed by the darkness of the tree's curves, but there was no doubt that the hole was functioning. She pushed into it, and after a brief moment of dizziness found herself standing inside the hole.

Bruce was still on the mattress, unconscious, but shivering. He might be cold, or it might be shock from the wounds. He needs to get warm, quickly! Despite her aching feet and heavy eyelids, Lucy searched the hole again for anything to help. She examined again the odd liquid jars that were on the table, and saw one of them labeled "hot." She took off the cap and smelled, and enjoyed its spicy scent. These must be heating oils. I could use them to trap his body heat, then cover him with the blanket. Thrilled at having found a possible solution, Princess Lucy sat down next to Bruce's prone body.

First the back she thought to herself, and rolled him onto his stomach. She poured the liquid over his well-muscled back, and began rubbing it in. There were a few cuts that she had to avoid, but for the most part she was able to go quickly in spreading the oils. She felt the heat on her hands from them, so she trusted that they were indeed helping. She moved down to his legs and spread the oil along his calves and thigh, enjoying the feel of his muscles under her strong fingers.

Why rush? she thought to herself, and began to move more slowly, taking her time in sliding her hands up and down his body. His shivering died out, so she knew it was working. His underwear, his only clothing, seemed to be interfering. Really, I need to get everywhere she thought to herself with guilty rationalization. Lucy reflected that despite her worldly maidservants, who had told and shown her all sorts of interesting things about sex, she had never seen a grown man fully naked. He needs the help, I'm sure he won't mind...Lucy slid his leather underwear off, leaving his naked backside free.

She massaged it with the oils gently, enjoying the intimacy of the touch and the idea of her exploration. After several minutes, she rolled Bruce back over to the face-up position. His manhood was clearly visible, thick and waiting, and Lucy stared at it for several moments. What an unusual thing. So different... She caught herself, and began applying the heating oil to his cool skin. She spread it gently around his various cuts on his arms, then moved higher. She spent several minutes paying special attention to his wounded shoulder. Lucy enjoyed the rhythm of sliding her hands along his muscled chest, and found that she was rubbing her hips against his legs as she moved back and forth. It's so sensual to have him all to myself like this. I can do anything, and I don't have to be self-conscious or afraid. She spread her attentions to his legs, completing their coating and enjoying his masculine form.

Only one part left she thought to herself, and slid her hands up his inner thighs towards his groin. She gently moved around and near it, and looked up at his face as her hand slid across his pubic hair. Seeing no sign of movement or wakefulness, Lucy decided to indulge her curiosity and slid her hand up and along his flaccid shaft, feeling its texture and shape. Her hands and eyes explored, roaming about and feeling what she had only dreamed about as a girl.

Only a few minute's manipulation caused her to pause in consternation, because there was no doubt that Bruce's manhood was responding to her touch. It hardened beneath her fingers, signaling its response to the pleasure she was inadvertently giving. She again looked at Bruce's face, and realized that it wasn't a conscious reaction, but rather involuntary. Even in his sleep, he reacts to my touch. She continued to touch and caress his manhood, feeling a wetness building between her legs at the erotic intimacy and control she felt. Her well-oiled hand slid up and down his now-hard shaft, and his penis responded by growing ever more firm and long.

Mmm, now I understand why all my handmaidens loved to talk about the men. So hard, and its meant to be inside a woman – inside me. She felt herself so wet that she couldn't help it, and reached down and began rubbing her clit. Her fingers slid smoothly inside her lower lips and rubbed without friction because she was so wet. It felt so good! The heating oils added a pleasant zing and heat that increased her need far more than she had counted on. Suddenly, beyond all expecation for what this night had previously held, Princess Lucy was incredibly horny.