Surfacing Ch. 06

*My, my, this is going to be fun.*

I couldn't move very much and further avoid detection so the view was not ideal, but I could not suppress my smile as I focused on his hands and what he revealed. He freed his scrotum as well as his member and barely caressed it before he started stroking with efficiency and a surprising speed; he wasn't going to be luxuriating in this but rising to his peak as quickly as possible. He grimaced and closed his eyes, his expression all wolfish aggression as he leaned on his left arm against the trunk, his right hand seeming intent on absolutely throttling his jutting cock.

I could make out more genital hair than I was used to—the balls especially so, but also the wiry sprout of pitch black crowning his penis and seeming to spread onto his thighs as well. The head of his member, the only part not consistently enclosed in his big hand, was a very deep, purplish-red color when it wasn't covered briefly by a flushed foreskin that moved with his hand. Redness beneath his skin began creeping up his neck and into his face, as it had before in the middle of his practice. A few individual muscles seemed to flex or shift in his back as I watched.

"Katha anath shubis," he growled low, a bit of spittle touching his lip and chin, and by tone alone I had the guess that he'd said something extremely lewd in his own tongue.

I smiled.

The breeze shifted slightly and I caught a whiff of the heated musk coming from him. If I had tried to convince myself I was merely observing him in a vulnerable moment and enjoying the power I had over him, to explain why I was aroused...oddly, it was not quite that simple.

The aggressive growls and strokes also brought to mind Shyntre in the library as he'd been resisting me, blatantly defying me in trying to steal his own orgasm. I still felt a surge of excitement remembering how I'd eventually gotten him to submit...and yet I still hit my head under the table after we were finished.

In addition, the flushed tone of Kurn's pale skin reminded me strongly of Tamuril and the way her pretty, gilded, pink petals between her thighs had darkened to a fuller rose under stress.

I did not want Kurn, but I was aching, and I did want to fuck...

*...Ku's ummat...* I thought. *Sounds like a decent curse for this.*

I had to rub myself through my leathers, trying to soothe my own flushed and lonely folds, as I watched for the payoff to my spying. I did not have to wait long.

"Teez shar-...sharmuta...ku's!" he groaned, closing his eyes even tighter and lifting his chin slightly. His spine straightened and his hips moved forward a bit as he paused with his mouth open. The first spurt of white semen marked the tree trunk in a long line, and a second soon followed. He resumed stroking with a few more smaller bursts, further coating the tree, seeming to be squeezing every drop of pleasure and spunk from his purple-red rod.

I was glad those on the Surface did not have the senses that I did; my heart rate and the stark spike of heat in my body may have given me away. I swallowed as my mouth was a bit dry, and I forced myself to stop touching my sex as Kurn again looked around and listened, gingerly tucking in his tender parts and securing trousers before finally donning his belt and shirt. The red stone around his neck caught my eye again just before it was hidden from view. Eventually he lifted his heavy sword and strode away back toward the camp.

Though I'd planned to leave and try to make it back ahead of him, I hesitated now. I watched with my heart still thudding in my ears, staring at the tree stained with fresh, white cum. I felt inexplicably anxious, like time was running out or I was missing some opportunity...

I slipped down from the branches and pulled out one of my limited, small, grey cloths. I drew a dagger and cut a smaller piece off of it, put the dagger and most of the rest of the cloth away. My footfall was nearly silent as I approached the spot where Kurn had been standing to masturbate. Nothing in the forest disturbed me as I calmly, perhaps a bit eagerly, wiped up some of the semen onto the patch and rubbed the cloth together to spread it thin so it would dry. I would add it to my tools.

I held the damp patch with two fingers and touched myself the other hand and murmured a pleasant, inarticulate sound as my sex tingled more strongly here, in this very location, than it had in the branches. My nose was still able to detect the potent scent as I held the patch above my head and braced against the same tree, in a similar stance.

I found that I could rub hard enough on my sex through my leathers to climax in a few short moments. It was abrupt, quick but strong, surging through my gut like a fist; my knees weakened as I stayed leaning against the tree. I made no sound during it, but gasped quietly as I came down, and I, too, needed to look around, to listen, for a sentient audience.

I trusted my ears to a farther extent than Human ones, and I believed I was alone.

Only after I was walking back did the oddness of it all strike me. The energy had felt...strange. And why had I smeared a cloth with Kurn's seed? I did not know any arcane or religious magic myself, only the in-born focus to bring light or darkness at will, and that had become a common trait among the Noble-bred Drow.

What use would I have for a sample like this? I doubted even Gavin would really care to find a use for it...

My head felt light for a moment and then I smelled blood, and deep rock. I felt nauseous in the presence of Drider guts. I stopped and all I saw was the Underdark in my mind's eye; the trees and the scents had disappeared. Something tugged hard at my head and in my chest, like there was a hook there, and I heard a scream. Then I heard quite a few more.

I didn't think I made any noise but when I became aware that I could finally blink dry eyes, I also found my gloved fingers dug deeply into the soil, like claws hooked in meat. A moment later I understood that I was on my knees in the brush. The cloth with Kurn's semen on it was hanging off a tiny branch, and it was mostly dry.

My spiders were on my bracers, and they were agitated. They were looking for the danger but not finding a target to bite.

I sucked in a breath against the fading pain in my chest and I blinked again against the strengthening light, trying to grasp how much time had passed. I looked East. The Sun was above the horizon. Not much time, but longer than I could account for what seemed to be missing. Slowly I removed my stiff fingers from the earth and brushed off the dirt.

*Come, babies, back in the pouch, the Sun rises...*

I coaxed them back somewhere safe and rose carefully to my feet. I wanted to leave that male-essence, that stained scrap of cloth, right where it was, but as I took a step, I stopped again. Biting my lower lip, I reached down to pluck it up and tuck it at the bottom of my cloth pouch.

"Elf!" I heard Rithal call from camp.

I blinked again as the Surface world seemed much more vivid and real than it had a moment ago, as if all the scents and colors I hadn't seen for a few moments jumped me at once.

"ELF! Where are ye?!"

*Damn it.*

I had to circle a bit so as not to seem to come from the same place as Kurn, but I had to hurry. The men had everything ready to go and Kurn was even already mounted on his stallion as I jogged back into the camp.

"Finished with your 'Drow things,' demoness?" he asked, with a look that gave me a fair hint who he might have been thinking about as he stroked off on that tree trunk.

I smiled. "Quite, Hellhound."

Gavin had taken to reluctantly offering an arm so I could pull myself up on the horse behind him when there wasn't an obvious place to stand it near for me to climb aboard. As I settled myself now and shifted my rump to get straight, Gavin looked over his shoulder. It was for long enough that I looked up as well and met the one dark eye I could see.

"What?"

"Your aura has shifted again."

Gavin had been slowly teaching me about auras, and about how to "hold in" whatever energy was actually sensible to the Surface-dwelling mages that wasn't so plain in the Underdark. I found it difficult, though I kept practicing out of necessity. He was the only one interested in telling me the truth on whether it was working, considering Sarilis and Castis had both said exactly nothing.

And why would they? It was to their advantage that I be so ignorant.

Now the apprentice said that my aura had "shifted?"

"What do you mean, 'again'?"

He started following the others, dead last as usual, kicking his mare forward but keeping distance so we could talk. "It has changed a few times, Sirana. I don't know why. There are shadows in your aura. That is as best I can explain it. It could be natural to your race, but still, when those shadows surface, your aura becomes unbalanced and warps."

Gavin had a peculiar advantage over even another mage such as Castis, in that he could see two distinct kinds of auras, according to him: the 'life' aura that came to him as a necromancer, and the more 'magical' aura that helped him see the potential or the training in another mage, as he had mentioned before.

All living beings had life energy; I even saw some version of it in the Underdark with my sensitive eyes, but it also created an aura that Gavin could sense yet I could not. In contrast, only those who studied magic could see magic, and far beyond the vague, brain-tickling sense that I got. I understood his description of life auras much better than the magical ones, despite his claim that I was a "creature of magic" and played on both his gifts with those "shadows."

Was Gavin saying that he could not differentiate between the two in any elf, or just me? I was immensely curious how he might see Gaelan, who was a magic user, compared to Jael, who wasn't? How might he see Tamuril, an elf and a druid but of a different race entirely? It was very interesting to ponder...

"I might guess that you are more unsettled this morning than most," he said now. "Did you see something? A spirit, perhaps?"

I felt my lips tighten but licked and relaxed them a moment later. I was irritated that I'd been on my way to forgetting that...episode, yet Gavin could see something, could tell something about me, and he had reminded me.

I couldn't explain it, I didn't want to remember, and I did not want to dwell on it now; my change in pattern had already caused the others in front of us to look behind themselves at us more often than the previous nine days. It was a vulnerability.

I shook my head in bewilderment even though Gavin couldn't see it. I kept my voice low and near his shoulder. "Why would you think a spirit of all things?"

He paused before he spoke. "I see them sometimes. And shadows. Started in the graveyard outside the monastery when I was young."

I didn't even know what to ask at first, but this allowed me to dwell more on the apprentice than myself. "The talent is natural? You did not study to... specialize your inborn magic?"

I thought I could hear a very small smile in his tone. "You perhaps recall, I mentioned that I know more than Sarilis realizes."

Well, it might explain why someone might *want* to study that realm of the dark arts where sexual pleasure was a burden... Still, I frowned, trying to make some link here I didn't understand. "And you seeing spirits has what to do with my aura shifting?"

"You seemed...Afraid. For a moment."

If I had to guess, I would say that he changed his mind on the word he'd been about to use.

"No predawn spirit or glimpse of something immaterial?"

"...No. I cannot see spirits like that, Gavin."

"Did you see any danger we should know about?"

"No," I replied more firmly.

"Alright."

He seemed willing to drop it and I spent the quiet turning it over in my mind.

Afraid? And this was something he could sense in my aura? That wasn't helpful to my situation.

"Did you see spirits last night, Gavin?"

He shook his head. "We are still far from any settlement and not traveling the road. There are fewer occurrences the more remote one is and not all spirits linger."

"Unless it's an abandoned dwarven Tower on a ley line intersection far from anywhere."

Again, I thought I could hear a smile in his dry tone. "Well, yes. They are all welcomed there."

******

Rithal took the lead to get us through the last, treacherous pass before, I was told, the land would change rapidly to rolling hills and a short stretch of flatter terrain for a while before we re-entered a different chain of mountains farther to the South. They said the names, and I noted them, but they differed from what Rausery and Shyntre had noted on those scrolls. They would no doubt change again and were of temporary use. It might not even be worth updating the maps, so long as we understood how the land changed over distance relative to our portal.

I also enjoyed the moment where I imagined being present in the library again to tell my wizard exactly that thought.

"Nae, not that way," Rithal grumbled to the much younger, if much larger, Ma'ab leader as Gavin and I caught up to where the group had paused at a split. "There're clear markings."

"I see none."

"Ye aren't dwarven."

I looked about with interest, wondering what markings Rithal was seeing and what they meant. Perhaps—

Now that was interesting. How could the Hellhound not see it?

"That stone, there?" I asked, indicating one that cast a curious shadow. It was possible that it would maintain a straight edge that pointed down a particular ravine regardless of the position of the Sun.

Rithal blinked at me in surprise, but nodded. "Aye. Bit of a labyrinth here, but they cut th'stone to point the way."

"Which way?" I asked.

"Sanctuary," he grunted. "But only if yer welcome. We won't be."

"Suggests we go the opposite way," Gavin said quietly.

Mathias glanced at him then nodded. "That should lead us out on the West side, shouldn't it?"

"Aye."

"Well, then," Castis smiled. "Lead on, Rithal."

Kurn frowned at his brother Ma'ab and the mage's smile faded. The Hellhound looked at the rest of us one at a time and nodded deliberately. "Let us continue."

"Heavens forbid we fart without his approval," Gavin muttered into his chest and I had no trouble hiding my expression as I pressed my forehead onto his back and chortled.

The horses moved in single file over stony ground, again picking their way over rougher terrain like the first two days, though we were much lower in elevation. This was going to be a long one in direct Sun with the bare, grey and brown stone radiating the heat it absorbed, the only vegetation scrubby spindles of brush and weed.

I did my best to keep watch above and behind us as I could—the high ledges above concerned me, seeing as this less traveled area was still claimed territory, unlike most of the forested area we'd just left. Rithal seemed sure we were far enough from the stronghold and not worth more than a glance from the sentries since we were going in the opposite direction, but we had only his word to go on.

Still, the Sun reflected off the lighter colored stone and I grew very hot within my black covering well before midday. This w was easily the highest temperature I'd been exposed to thus far on the Surface, and I had the added heat of Gavin's body and that of his mare to contend with as well. There was no good way for me to cool down; even removing my cloak would be a harsh trade for a near-complete loss of sight due to glare as I lost the shade of my hood.

I could feel how strands of my hair stuck to my forehead and I itched in places where I felt a trickle of moisture crawling down—my spine, my temples, beneath my breasts. The air was hot and dusty going into my lungs, and I felt drowsy despite my recent reverie. I frequently sipped from my waterskin, wetting my lips as my body demanded more than I could give it until I knew where the next source would come from.

"You are quiet," Gavin murmured at one point. "Are you well?"

"Fine," I responded. "The heat drains me."

He grunted. "Don't fall off."

I huffed a laugh. "I will not."

Nonetheless, it surprised me how my balance seemed to waver a few times and I knew the apprentice was well aware of each time that I suddenly tightened my hold on him. The weakness bothered me a fair bit, but as long as the horse's clopping steps remained consistent, danger was not imminent and I did have to fight the drowsiness.

After a time, I had to resort the worn sunblind I hadn't used since my acclimation, because I had to drop the hood and to expose my head to the open air to remain even half aware. Much of my peripheral vision was blocked by it but that did not matter now because I could see very little anyway. My ears opened up and became more sensitive in response, and my mind formed the general shape of the space around me based on the way sound travelled in this canyon.

I alternated between hood up and hood down, knowing Sunburned ears and face wouldn't be pleasant, but the distraction was unwelcome as I imagined a trap of collapsing stone for which the dwarves were known. Well...the Duergar, anyway. Still, a dwarf was a dwarf when they handled stone.

In the end, though, it wasn't a trap that broke the tension but an opportunity. Mathias had seen some sign of animal and, with Kurn's permission, moved on ahead to stalk it without our noise scaring it off.

I was still mostly blind as we continued on making that noise, but I became aware of a distant, welcome rushing sound as we approached the mouth of the canyon.

"Water," I murmured to Gavin.

He paused inexplicably and sounded terse. "Have you run out?"

"No..." I felt a bit bleary as I tried to catch up with him.

Ah. He thought I was demanding his.

"No, I hear water. A source."

"Where?" he asked, looking around.

"Left, I think. The sound is bouncing off the stone, but it is there. A waterfall."

"Odd," he commented, sounding doubtful. "We'd have followed a river through the canyon if there had been one."

"Perhaps it comes from beneath," I said. "If there is a dwarf stronghold not far from here, they must have water beneath."

"Hm."

By the smell trailing back to me, no one was exempt from feeling the heat. Perhaps that was why Gavin nudged his mare up to Rithal and said to him, "Sirana thinks she hears a waterfall."

"Yer kiddin,'" he grumped, probably looking at me, though my eyes were still closed behind my blind. "What in Gaul's bearded balls is that?"

"For snow," I said. "Works a bit with Sun as well."

"Well...there ain't been a waterfall near here that I know of. No river."

"Unless underground," I said, thinking it odd that a dwarf wouldn't think of such a thing.

He huffed. "Yes, but not even that I know."

"In how long? Land changes."

Such constant changes they were when exposed to elements such as this; the changes belowground were less frequent but more abrupt, marked by quakes or hot spots when the rock itself moved.

He grunted what sounded like an acknowledgement. "Forty years since."

"Worth checking, then," Gavin said.

Rithal nodded without further prodding and went up to Kurn to talk. I could hear them clearly though they kept the debate low and private. Castis and Mathias were between us and had to be straining to listen as well.

"Might have a source of water up ahead."

"Very good. Lead the way, dwarf."

"Might be needin' to let the Drow lead, Hellhound. She's the one who hears it."

The pause was deafening.

"You believe that? She hears something we all can't?"

"Don' be a fool. Think about where she comes from. Sound travels in the dark and bounces off stone, her ears are made for pinpointin' it."

"I don't trust her not to lead us somewhere we don't want to be."