Niriel and the Squire Ch. 02

Author's note: Hope you like it! I'm working on Part 3 now, which will be a bit more action-packed if I can pull it off.

Part 2 - Niriel and the Knight

Will was nervous in a way he hadn't felt since his first real battle many moons ago. He had been gone from Hearthstone Keep for over a year since he met Niriel, the dryad who had changed his life in so many ways. He had promised to return the month after and he knew she had been expecting him. Life, however, had had other plans. He was finally back and master of his own destiny now. Will she still want me or even remember me after all this time? he mused.

He thought of their first meeting now as he set up his camp on the far side of the clearing where her oak tree stood and the small lake lay. He had disturbed her bathing, preventing her from slipping away into the forest as the shy dryads were wont to do. She had been the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, appearing as a young woman with a lush figure, apparently in her early twenties by human count. Only her slightly pointed ears had given her away as something other than human until she revealed her body to him. She was a mixture of male and female, having the breasts, vagina and appearance of a female along with a fully functional cock and balls. Apparently this was possible--but not common--for dryads, the majority being pure females.

He had been startled of course, but somehow not repelled and he had still desired to have sex with her as a woman. She had made a bargain with him then. He allowed her to have anal sex with him, in return for helping him to develop physically himself, growing his manhood and his body generally.

She had fucked him hard and deep and her magic had been strong. Over the course of a month he had grown 3 inches, developed enviable muscle tone and his member had become much longer and thicker. It had been tricky to conceal such growth from his fellow squires at the time and he chuckled as he remembered hunching his posture, avoiding communal baths and working out like a berserker for weeks to account for his new strength. They had eventually accepted his story of being from a late-blooming family. A lie more believeable than the truth, he thought with a grin.

But then, just before he could visit her again; he was called up to fight along with all his fellows. Orcs were massing to the south and east of the mountains and an invasion was expected. But all that was history now. He was back to stay and had come here to her home at his first opportunity, bent on reconnecting with the 'woman' who had haunted his dreams for over a year.

He finished pitching his tent and sat cross-legged on a fur lined blanket looking out across the clearing. It was mid-winter now. Snow blanketed the leafless branches of the trees all around. Small drifts had gathered around the tree trunks and the pool of water where his adventures had begun was frozen over. All seemed quiet and lifeless. He saw no signs of Niriel's presence, but didn't expect to either. He had read every legend he could find on the subject of dryads over the last year and knew them to be almost impossible to track when they wished to conceal themselves.

He pondered the legends and tales of the wood nymphs now as the afternoon shadows lengthened. Some stories said that they had been created by the ancient Elves in a previous age of the world; called into physical form from the trees themselves. Others that they were the result of the moon goddess coupling with a satyr under a tree.

Whatever their origins, the legends about dryads agreed on some things: they were solitary, wary of other beings but with strong natural magical abilities that they used to defend their territory. They were bound somehow to their trees and emerged only rarely in physical form, which was invariably that of a beautiful human or elven woman.

I'll ask her the truth of it myself, he decided. But will she even speak to me, let alone answer such questions? Could she even somehow take her gifts back? He shivered at the thought of being small and weak again. He had to know how she felt about him though, no matter the cost.

He decided not to light a fire, knowing that dryads hated it and never used it themselves. He pulled out some strips of dried mutton and ate them cold... Dryads ate no meat, but he was damned if he'd starve out here while he waited.

His meal finished and the short northern day coming to an end; he rolled himself in a double thickness of wool and fur blankets and, shivering only occasionally, fell asleep in his tent. Tomorrow night the moon would be full, and he wanted to be here the whole day before so as not to miss her if she chose to come out of the tree.

* * *

Niriel knew someone was camping in her clearing, but her senses while merged with the tree were tuned very differently to her bodily form. She couldn't make out who it was or even see them as such. She was aware of the human presence chemically and vibrationally as the tree's leaves breathed in the air and its roots spread through the ground.

Dawn came on the day of the full moon and she incarnated silently on the far side of the tree and stretched all her limbs. To anyone watching it would look like lines and grooves in the bark shifted into the outline of a woman, which twisted and grew silently into a humanoid figure over a few seconds. She hadn't seen a human since Will discovered her and was curious but naturally cautious. She was also hungry and she could smell food in the man's tent from here. The meat didn't interest her, but he had nuts of some kind and dried fruit too.

She peeped around the trunk and considered her options. Perhaps she could wake a bear from hibernation to scare the fellow away. She reached out with her magical senses and found the nearest bear was too deep in hibernation to awake safely. A wolf-pack then, she thought and continued mentally surveying her domain. She had just found the leader of the local pack dozing in a cave half a league away when the man awoke and emerged from of his tent, stretching and yawning.

It was HIM, Will the squire! She'd know him anywhere despite how he'd changed. She had given him up for dead or lost to her months ago and here he was. She watched him while he did some exercises to warm up.

He was tall now, at least a hand's breadth more than before and he looked very strong and fast as he swung his sword and shield and moved around in a parody of battle. Some human soldiers' drill, she supposed. He had been boyishly handsome before, but was now very... manly was the only word she could think of as she admired him.

His hair was the same dark brown but thicker and longer. It was brushed back carelessly from his face and curled above the collar of his woolen vest. His eyes were the same pale blue but his beard was thicker and neatly trimmed into a short style around his mouth and on his chin.

He eventually finished his routine and looked around. "My Lady Niriel?" he called out.

He couldn't possibly have seen me! she thought, hiding behind the tree again. He's obviously expecting me though.

He called out again. "Are you even here anymore?" then he muttered. "Could she have moved to another tree?"

She was thinking what to do. She had thought he'd never return: either killed in battle in one the humans' ridiculous wars or maybe just ashamed of himself for letting her have her way with him.

He called out again: "Please show yourself Niriel, if you can hear me. I only want to talk. I'll be here all day, and every day of the full moon hereafter."

She silently cursed herself for allowing him to know the location of her home. There was no way to totally avoid him now, she knew. Goddess protect and guide me, she thought. She checked her leaf clothing was all where it should be and stepped out from behind her tree.

* * *

Will was turning back to his tent sadly when he sensed a presence behind him. He turned and stared. He thought it was her, but she looked different, VERY different. The features of her face were the same, wide full lips, a small nose and all the rest. Her skin though was as pale as the most sun-phobic court lady; her hair was snow white and bound up behind her head somehow into a complicated-looking plaited bun. She was dressed in what looked like tight pants and a coat, all made of overlapping brown, red and green leaves. Her feet were in boots of the same stuff, but hardly disturbed the snow as she walked towards him around the pond. Her deep green eyes were locked on him steadily and her expression was not one of happiness or welcome.

"So you've come back," she said shortly.

"My lady Niriel, is it really you?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Who else could it be?"

"You look so different I-"

"Oh, you mean my winter aspect. We change to match our environment you see. Helps us to stay hidden. Just wait until spring. I'll be green as a new blade of grass... Like it?" She was determined to keep him off balance until she had decided what to do with him.

"Very much!-"

"You look a little different yourself."

"Yes, I-"

"I thought I'd never see you again, you know."

"I'm so sorry I couldn't come bef-"

"I thought you were ashamed somehow of our little tryst. That you'd rather forget it, and me too."

Will took a step towards her. She took a step back.

"Never, my lady. I wasn't free to return until now. This is the first opportunity I have had since we... met last."

"Truly?"

"I swear it on my honor as a knight."

Her eyes narrowed, "I thought you were a squire."

"I was, but much has changed. Umm, look I promise to explain but right now... can I offer you some breakfast? DO you eat actually?"

Some of Niriel's suspicion evaporated. "Godess, yes, I'm starving!"

Will smiled to himself. Most legends said that angry dryads could be appeased with an offering of food. He opened the flap of his tent and beckoned her inside but she stood still and shook her head.

"I can't go in there and sit on a lot of dead animal skins."

"Oh, er... out here then?" He rummaged in his pack for an apple and held it out to her.

She took it and sniffed it doubtfully, then took a small bite followed soon after by a much bigger one. Her full lips ran with the juice as she chewed and swallowed.

"Thank you, I haven't had one of these in a long time. I don't need to eat usually when they're ripe, and at this time of year they're all gone."

"They're grown in the castle orchard. We store lots of them in our cold rooms to eat over the winter. I have some dried fruits from the South too, perhaps you've never had them before up here in the North."

She looked at him a bit more warmly and was obviously considering what to do. Will stood patiently and waited. Eventually she said, "All right then, you can stay for breakfast at least. Let's go."

"Where to?"

"My winter lodgings. It's too cold out here."

"What about my tent?"

"Leave it here. Nothing will happen to it."

She walked off slowly, devouring the apple in a series of large bites.

By the time Will had collected his belongings, she was crossing the treeline and flicking away the apple's stem after consuming the fruit, seeds and all.

Will followed her as best he could after donning his pack, checking his sword in it's sheath and settling his shield over his shoulder.

* * *

It was difficult to keep up with her in the forest. Her steps never made a sound or so much as broke a twig. Her feet always seemed to find every clear patch of ground or stone poking out of the snow to tread on. When she did walk through snow her feet somehow did not dig in and leave tracks. From a few feet away he could barely make out where she ended and the trees began and he had to keep her close to avoid losing her entirely.

However, up close he had an excellent view of her rear end in it's tight leafy covering as she moved gracefully through the forest, totally in her element. She looked back and caught him staring at her bottom a few times, but apart from blushing slightly, she made no comment.

In about 5 minutes they had climbed into slightly rockier territory. The trees thinned and they came to a large jagged outcropping of stone that just poked out above the tallest trees around it. There was no snow around its base or on it's rocky surfaces. Niriel stopped and turned to him.

"This place is very important to me, Will. I'm trusting you never to reveal it to anyone."

"You have my word. But I thought you lived in the oak tree."

"Most of the year, yes. But in winter the tree can't support me fully and I have to stay out for several days every month. When I do, I come here."

"I see no house."

"It's not one of your human piles of bricks and logs. Follow me."

She walked up to the rock face, moved aside a bush, squatted down smoothly and... vanished. Or so it seemed.

Will hurried over and found that the bush hid a cave entrance behind a gap in the rock that was invisible from further away. He bent over and crawled through into a strange and magical space.

* * *

It was a cave as he expected, but not like any he'd ever been in before. The floor was of dry hard-packed sand with large smooth rocks scattered around randomly. Light came from what looked like a large crystal wedged into a gap in the natural rock roof. It was daylight, he realised, reflected and spread by the crystal's facets.

In the far corner he saw a thick mat of leaves and some kind of soft downy material he couldn't identify. A bed perhaps?

"How is it so warm in here?" he asked, shrugging off his shield, pack and cloak. He looked around in wonder.

Niriel sat cross-legged on a waist-high rock in the middle of the space, watching him curiously.

"There's a lot of heat down below us in the earth," she answered. "I encouraged tree roots to grow in certain ways and open paths for the heat to come up to the surface here. It's enough to make it liveable for a while."

"Amazing! And the crystal?"

"The tree roots dug it out for me. You're the first human to see this place, you know."

"I'm honoured, my lady."

"Do you have any more of those apples then?"

Will opened his pack and rooted around inside for a few moments. He took out some waxed cloth bags and wooden bowls and laid out food on one of the flatter boulders. There were apples, nuts, dried fruit of several kinds and water in a pewter flask. He didn't take out his jerked meat and cheese. All the legends agreed that dryads ate no animal products of any kind.

Niriel came over and joined him across the 'table'. They ate in silence for a while. Will was happy that Niriel seemed not to be hostile anymore but he couldn't relax. There was a tension in the air. Unresolved issues.

He finished his last few bites as Niriel stretched and sighed. "I haven't had such a feast in ages. Thank you Will."

"Niriel, I owe you an explanation."

"It's alright, Will. I know it must have been difficult for you to accept what happened between us. You're not the type of man who wants to be... taken in that way. How is it you humans refer to it? To be the bottom for me?"

He blushed bright red. "No. It wasn't that. What you... we did was... wonderful," he said and sighed.

It was her turn to blush before she asked, "So what happened? Where have you been for a almost a year and a half?"

Will had so much to say he hardly knew where to start. He got up and began pacing back and forth as he told his tale.

* * *

"To start with I was all set to come back here the following month, but just a few days before we could meet again I was called up to fight along with all the other men at the castle. Our scouts reported that Orc tribes were mobilising for an invasion and the King wanted every sword in the land to repel them. Coming to you would have meant desertion in a time of war and Death if I'd been caught.

"My, err, growth was more or less complete by then and after I was split up from my old comrades from training no-one questioned me about my increased strength, speed or... umm, size."

She glanced down at his crotch and hid a smile behind her hand as he continued.

"It turned out to be a full scale invasion by just about all the tribes we've ever heard of. They threw everything they had at us and we were hard pressed for months. We fought many battles. I gained a modest reputation over the course of the year. I'd become quick, strong and able to keep my head when others would panic.

"We turned the tide and started winning eventually. We were pushing the green-skins back towards their holes in the mountains. Towards the end they tried a last big push in several places at once, to divide our forces.

"I was given command of a small force of men-at-arms and archers and entrusted to hold a pass while the King's main army fought elsewhere. We were 200 men all told, mostly raw recruits and a few veteran archers. We weren't really expecting trouble, but we got more than we could handle.

"A warband of the Blue-Skulls tribe attempted to force the pass and we found ourselves outnumbered 3 to 1 by ferocious war-painted fighters. They overwhelmed our outer defensive ditches and we had to flee our pallisaded fort. They were heedless of their losses, fearless and berserk.

"A forest began further down the valley not far from our position and I came up with a plan to defeat them, or at least allow us to escape. We couldn't outfight them in the open, so I had to hope we could outsmart them.

"I went ahead with most of the men into the forest to prepare a welcome for them and then our rear-guard pretended to flee into the woods, as if they had run out of arrows, courage or both.

"The Orcs thought we would be easy meat then and came in after us but we cut them down with arrows, sling-stones and some traps which I had constructed amongst the trees.

"In the end I slew the warband's chief in single combat. The men started calling me William Wildwood as a kind of nickname in honour of the day.

"The King knighted me soon after and I took the name Wildwood for my own. My sigil is an oak tree." He held up his tear-drop shaped shield left-handed and displayed it's front side to her.

Niriel saw a picture of an oak tree painted on a light green background. She looked more closely and saw that a woman's face -HER face she realized- could just be seen; formed cunningly from the twisting branches and leaves. She blushed again and Will grinned when he saw that she had noticed it.

"Everyone thinks it's because of the battle that made my name, but... it's really in your honour."

He dropped the shield, drew his sword slowly, turned its blade sideways and held it out to her on his open palms. "My lady, I have never forgotten you and I swear I never shall. I am, and always will be at your service in all ways."

He had been looking down at the ground as he said this and now raised his head to see her reaction. She was staring at the sword. Its cross guard was in the likeness of spreading tree branches, the handle was leather-wrapped with a pattern that resembled tree bark and the pommel looked like roots grasping a sphere of earth or rock.

The blade was covered in random wavy line patterns that almost resembled wood grain and it looked razor sharp. Niriel reached out towards it.

* * *

Niriel had listened to his tale with growing wonder. Her anger had already abated. His words, his sigil and his sword convinced her finally and she felt a warmth in her heart, spreading throughout her body as she realized that he loved her still.

She took the sword, kissed the flat of the blade and returned it to him.

"May it protect you always. Oh Will, how I've missed you!" she cried and stepped into his embrace.

"You forgive me then?" he said as he hugged her close.

Her only answer was to lean back, take his head in her hands and kiss him long and passionately.