Terrible Company Ch. 02

"Tell ya wha'," Mathilda said, as she settled on her stool. "You don' pretend yer happy to see me, an' Ah won' pretend Ah'm not just here for the pint."

"Oh come now," Flynn piped in. "It was a long day for everyone. Even Iona needs to unwind from time to time." She gave the Elf a little smirk. The Elf raised an eyebrow and sipped her mead in indignation.

"Gotta be careful gettin' an elf to unwind. Tha' whole race is a bit unhinged if ye ask me," Mathilda said as she picked up her mug. "Live in trees long enough, an' yer bound ta be nuts." The Dwarf guffawed at her own joke and took a swig of her beer. Sighing happily, she wiped the foam from her chin. "Ahhh, now 'at's tha stuff. Can ya believe that bastard cut me off?"

Iona narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. "Doesn't he know you shouldn't cut off a Dwarf? They're already so short."

Mathilda barked, spilling a bit of her beer into her lap as she laughed. "Ah di'int know ya had it in ya, Elf!"

Paesa cleared her throat, and leaned a little closer to the Dwarf. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? We're always so busy at the Temple, and I never get the chance."

"A'course, lass. Fire away."

Paesa took a deep breath. Mathilda took a long sip and watched her over the rim. "So Rhogan...."

"Dwarven God of Booze. Technically, God of Liquor, Ale, Beer, an' Spirits, but 'at's a mouthful."

"Not wine?" Paesa asked.

"Wine is for sissies," she scoffed.

"I cannot," Flynn said, staring at Iona, "for the life of me, stop thinking about you and Garress."

"The fruity man?" Mathilda asked.

"I..." Iona paused to swallow. "I healed his hand."

"All night long," Flynn added with a smirk.

"See, 'at's why we don't hang out more," Mathilda said, frowning and shaking her head. "You lot are weird."

Flynn licked her lips. "Healer Iona, would you do me the honor of showing me the technique you used with him?" Iona spewed a bit of the sip she'd just taken back into her cup of mead, and blushed. "I can't get it out of my head."

"Of... of course..." The two of them politely nodded to their bewildered co-workers, and stood up with furtive grins.

"If it took all night," Mathilda shouted, "Ah hardly think it's worth learnin'." She shook her head and turned back to Paesa. "Ah know they 'ave their own ways'a doin' things, an' Ah know ya share the same Goddess as Flynn, but... it shou'nt take all night to heal a hand. Not 'less ya gotta grow it back from a stump or some such."

Paesa nodded and took a huge gulp of her ale. "So, Rhogan. I wouldn't have thought a God of Booze would have much need for a healer."

"Never had a hangover, Lass?"

Paesa's eyebrows rose as she nodded slowly.

"Most Dwarves hold with Verhot, may his forgefire never be quenched," she added by rote, "or Faeran the Builder, but every last one of 'em prays to Rhogan when they're bent o'er a bucket in the wee hours."

"It sounds like you'd be in high demand. What brought you here, away from your people then?"

"Ah think the sonnavabitch 'ad his sights set a wee bit higher for me, if ya know wha' Ah'm sayin'."

"You do a wonderful job," Paesa rushed, sensing her moment. "I like watching you work the most, to be honest."

"That's sweet, lass." Mathilda tilted her head back, draining the last of her mug.

"Is the alcohol always a part of it?"

"That miserable bastard finds it's easier to work on 'em who drink of his cup, or some such drivel." She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Ah've got blessed moonshine, an' holy hooch. The sacramental ale is my fav'rite. Tastes like home."

"That is... actually fascinating..." Paesa took a sip of her ale while Mathilda stood up on her stool and reached across the table to grab Iona and Flynn's mugs. "Is any of it used for actual... like... worship?"

"Bein' drunk is worship, lass."

"Well you're very good at it," Paesa said with a nervous smile.

"At drinkin'?" Mathilda scoffed. "Ah outta be. Been doin' it since b'fore Ah knew how ta walk." She gave Iona's cup a hesitant sip, and frowned. "Or were ya sayin Ah'm good at bein' drunk?"

"What? No! I mean..." Paesa winced and sighed. "Nevermind." She shook her mug, feeling just the tiniest dregs sloshing at the bottom. "Um, Mathilda?"

The Dwarf drained Iona's cup in one go and slammed it back down on the table. "Yes, lass?"

Paesa bit her lip, her nervousness growing. "I think I'm ready to go home, but it's kind of far, and..."

"You want Ah should walk ya home, dear?"

"If it's not too much trouble!"

"Pretty thing like yerself? S'probably fer the best," she said, as she crawled backwards down her stool. "Wouldn't want some drunken sod ta drag ya into an alley an have 'is way with ya! Or worse!" Mathilda laughed uproariously. Paesa forced a small laugh, her nervousness graduating to full-on anxiety. "Come on, lass."

***

Paesa meandered down the streets, weaving from side to side. She was more than buzzed, but not enough to have so much trouble walking straight. It was Mathilda, who had a death grip on the cinch at the waist of Paesa's dress, who dragged her back and forth. The Dwarf was beyond intoxicated, grumbling none too softly under her breath about a great many things; the nerve of certain bartenders, the audacity of stoolmakers, and the shameful behavior of what seemed to be every male Dwarf who passed through Jonehn. For her part, Paesa merely smiled appreciatively. Her second thoughts about the endeavor had come and gone, along with third, fourth, and fifth. She paused outside the darkened wheelwright's shop and took a deep breath. If she didn't do it right then, she never would.

Mathilda stopped and turned back to her. "Ya alright, lass?"

"I, uhm..."

"If you need to blow, Ah'd appreciate it if ya went a bit down an alley. 'at kinda thing's contagious."

"Well, I..." Paesa wrung her hands in front of her.

"Dun worry, Lass. Ah'll be within earshot 'n'case some dastardly ne'erdowell gets 'is mitts on ya."

"I... I was just curious. How come..." She trailed off as she tried to find a tactful way to broach the subject. "I um..."

"Are ye gonna be sick, lass?"

"No! I..." She sighed, and took a deep breath. "The room I rent is behind this shop. Would you like to come inside?"

"No, Ah was hopin' to get home and do a bit more worshippin', if ya get me?"

"I-I have some mead," Paesa pushed. "Please?"

"So formal," Mathilda scoffed. "How can Ah say no ta tha'?"

Paesa licked her lips, took two steps further, and stopped. "It's for sex. I'm inviting you in for sex."

"Two thins'," Mathilda said, shoring up against the wall. "One, wha' ye've heard about Dwarven women is true. We are phenomenal in the sack. Ah can understand the appeal. B'lieve me." She blinked again and held up three fingers. "Two, ye've had too much ta' drink lass. Don't be silly."

Paesa pouted. "You don't think I'm attractive?"

"Wha'? No!" Mathilda held up a fourth finger. "It's no' that. I mean... I'm flattered, an' yer a lovely lass an' all. It's just..." The Dwarf's brow furrowed at a loss of words in the face of Paesa's disappointment. Mathilda suddenly threw her hands up in exacerbation. "Blast it all, who am I ta be turnin' down a poke. It's no' like me nethers've had any company but me 'and recently."

Paesa smiled as she turned, and fished her ring of keys from the pouch in the front of her dress. The Dwarf tottered along behind her, humming something she didn't recognize but enjoyed all the same. She felt the hem of her dress rising up her calves as she turned the handle and gasped.

"It was gonna come off sooner rather than later, lass," Mathilda said, smirking as they stepped into the darkened room.

As soon as the door was shut, the dress was over her waist. Paesa struggled to reach behind to unfasten it while Mathilda's hand rode up between her thighs. After a few seconds of awkward fumbling, she managed to loosen two of the buttons and lift. Mathilda pushed her back against the wall as soon as her arms were clear of the blue-and-white cotton, leaving her in just her bloomers.

"Ah'll say this fer you humans," the Dwarf said. "You're tha perfect height."

Paesa moaned as the Dwarf leaned into her, and began to lick at her breast. Mathilda's hand massaged her outer lips through the soft cloth, and Paesa distantly wondered what she had been waiting for. Her hands, desperate for some way to interact, slid along Mathilda's neck and shoulders. Mathilda's other hand slid against the small of her back.

"You poor dear," Mathilda whispered breathily over Paesa's spit-slick nipple. "Ah'm goin' ta ruin you for men." Paesa cried out, biting down on her lip as she tried to think about how thin the walls were. Mathilda's hand withdrew, and the apprentice felt her bloomers fall around her ankles.

There are fingers between my lips, Paesa thought frantically. Fingers that are not my own! Her eyes rolled wildly as Mathilda poked, rubbed, licked, bit, and suckled. She was so overwhelmed by stimulation that she felt like she was drowning in pleasure. She instinctively wrapped a leg around the smaller woman to brace herself. Mathilda growled in appreciation, her fingers and tongue attacking her more aggressively. Paesa felt her hips start grinding against the Dwarf's hands, desperate for release, as if possessed of a will all their own.

"These are just lovely li'l things," Mathilda mumbled.

Paesa gasped as she felt her breast sucked deeper into warmth and wetness, and at teeth that bit so delicately. She let out a throaty moan as two fingers pushed inside of her while the thumb kept pressure on her button.

"Ah'm honored, lass. Ah thin' Ah just popped tha' for the first time, di'int Ah?"

"I-mmmmhhhhhhh?!" Paesa fought back a guttural moan as the Dwarf stabbed deeper. Her hips jerked back and forth, pleading with the fingers to go deeper.

"Yanno," Mathilda said softly, "another thing. Humans are so wonderfully fleshy. It's just softness all the way 'round." The hand pressed against Paesa's back slid down, and the Dwarf's little fingers sank into her cheek. Mathilda sighed happily as she buried her face in the girl's bosom, and Paesa slowly floated away.

For minutes on end, the fingers worked in and out of her womanhood. The thumb, pressed softly on that most sensitive spot, worked in tiny circles. A wetness crept down her thighs, and Paesa felt a... building anxiety. A tension her logical brain was aware would happen but still took her by surprise. Her breathing quickened, and her stomach began to flutter. She let out a long, warbling moan, and her ears filled with the sound of her pulse racing. Suddenly, Mathilda's fingers withdrew, and Paesa screamed as they pressed hard against her clit. The Dwarf swiped them back and forth quickly, and the anxiety rose sharply.

Her panting echoed loudly in the room. Louder and louder. Her upstairs neighbor thumped hard on the floor. Thump-thump-thump! Paesa squealed as she tried to clench everything, to bring her body back under control, and completely lost control of everything.

" 'at's right, lass! Sing it!"

Thump-thump-thump!

The apprentice was vaguely aware of how loud she was being, but only vaguely.

"Tell the heavens, lass!"

Paesa's throat was raspy and raw as she slumped in Mathilda's arms.

Her world shifted sideways somehow. Bouncing. Her head lolled as she sighed. She could just make out Mathilda smirking beside her, although at a really weird angle and it took her almost the entire time she was being carried to the bed to figure out she was being carried at all. Mathilda grunted softly as she set Paesa down.

"A woman's first time is no small thing," the Dwarf said, as she stumbled over and plucked a bottle off of the counter. "Are ye alright, lass?"

"I'm beautiful," Paesa drawled dreamily.

"Aye, that ye are." Mathilda chuckled as she ripped out the cork.

Paesa writhed on the sheets, relishing the way they clung to her sweat-covered skin. "Where did you learn how to do all that?"

"Learn? Lass, Ah'm a hundred and seven." She took a swig from the bottle, and came back over to stand at the foot of the bed. "Ah've 'ad thousands of orgasms. For a few years there, Ah ate more'n Ah drank, if ya know what Ah mean."

Paesa didn't, but couldn't quite manage to pull herself away from just feeling the waves running up and down her body.

"When Ah was twenty, my oldest sister pulled me aside an' taught me abou' my body."

"Your sister?" Paesa said, suddenly coming to and rising a bit off the bed.

"Aye. At the time, she maintained it was strictly a noble gesture, teachin' me about m'self 'an wha'not. Came to find out years later she 'adn't done the same for any of our other sisters." Mathilda took another swig, and gasped loudly as she lowered the bottle to her side. "Although in her defense, they all fall a bit farther down the hag side of the scale."

"That is..." Paesa didn't quite know what to make of it, but it did get her looking at Mathilda in a different light. The way her nose was round without being bulbous. The way her eyes glittered. The way her lips shined in the moonlight. The generous curves. Mathilda smiled softly, not quite looking at her while she ran through the fields of memories.

"She's no' a lecher mind. She waited 'til I was of age, an' she was gentle. She was abou' my age now at the time. Ah always thought that was a beautiful way to come into it, yanno? Told m'self Ah'd do the same, but our Da passed away a few years later, and Mum a few years after tha'. I was the last girl."

"I'm so sorry," Paesa whispered, unsure of what else to say, but Mathilda shook her head with a smile.

"Dinnae' be sorry, lass. This was... 'alf a century ago." She tilted the bottle back, draining the last of it, and tossed it down on a rug behind her. "Plus, it seems fate 'as 'anded me a pupil of my own."

Paesa bit her lip nervously. She was amazed at how eager she was to be shown. Mathilda pulled off her boots, and began untying the leather vest she wore over her shirt while she talked.

"It always throws me a bit when Ah see a human's pelt. Yer like a peach down there."

Paesa blinked slowly for a moment, slow to realize the grinning Dwarf was talking about her sex. When she did, she blushed.

"No no," Mathilda said, "it's lovely, that is. Perfectly pretty." The shorter woman finished unbuttoning her shirt and let it fall away. Paesa found herself staring at Mathilda's large nipples. The breasts themselves were a fair size, seeming much larger against Mathilda's short frame, but the nipples... Paesa swallowed hard.

"Allow me then," Mathilda said, as she unbuttoned her leggings, "ta show you what a woman looks like." Paesa frowned in confusion as the Dwarf let them fall. There was a long moment of silence as the apprentice stared, blinking.

"It's... braided," Paesa said, in a small and bewildered voice.

" 'at's classy, right there." Mathilda beamed, proudly displaying her beard. The Dwarf grinned as she planted a foot on the bed, and stepped up. "Ah use some special oils to give it shine." The young woman swallowed as Mathilda began to step over her, straddling her head, and the post-orgasmic fog began to clear in realization. " 'ere," she said, slowly settling down on her knees. " 'ave a look."

"H-Healer Mathilda, wait! I—"

Paesa barely managed a frantic breath before the Dwarf came to rest sex-to-mouth. "This was one of the first thins' my sister taught me, an' now Ah'm gonna teach you."

Paesa felt a wetness against her lips, and a strong smell flooded her nostrils. She looked up at Mathilda as the Dwarf's hands filtered into her hair, and whimpered as she felt the Healer grinding against her face.

"Tha's it, lass. Dive right into tha' Dwarven pie."

Paesa's lips stayed firmly closed. No matter how much she told herself that she'd chosen this tonight, and no matter how grateful she truly was to Mathilda, she couldn't bring herself to lick. She tapped urgently at Mathilda's thigh, trying to get the dwarf's attention, but the Healer just leaned into her.

"Use yer tongue more, lass. Get in there."

The woman's muffled protests fell on deaf ears. All her begging and pleading for naught. Slowly, more of Mathilda's weight pushed down against her, grinding against her mouth. The Dwarf's face was in shadow above her, and Paesa began to slap at the shorter woman's legs to no avail. Finally, she managed to get her hands under the Dwarf's ass and heave, and Mathilda fell forward. The young woman took several frantic gasps before she heard the Dwarf snoring.

***

"Sooooooooooooooo," Flynn said, sitting at her desk as Paesa walked in the door. "Did you..."

"The um... the end of the night is a little fuzzy?" Paesa brushed her hair back from her face and smiled nervously. "We did, I think?"

"Details, woman! Details!" Flynn set her elbows on her desk and her jaw in her palms.

Paesa licked her lips as she set her pack down at her desk, and shook her head. "It happened so fast. I mean, I was... kind of drunk, so I don't think that helped, but we were in the street... and then we were going into my room, and then she was inside me..."

Flynn giggled gleefully and clapped her hands. "And it was good?"

Paesa took a deep breath. "It was good," she said with a broad smile.

"It's funny," Flynn mused, looking up at the ceiling, "but I probably care more that you had a good first time than that someone finally getting Mathilda off will make work easier."

"Ooooooo," Paesa winced. "About that."

"She didn't?!"

"I... can't... remember," the apprentice said, shrugging. "I sorta remember her carrying me to bed..."

"Wooow," Flynn interjected.

"...and I sorta remember her above me..."

"Iona!" Flynn called.

"... and I awoke using her thigh as a pillow." Paesa wasn't sure what to make of the taste that had been, and still lingered faintly, on her tongue.

"That's Healer Iona," Iona said, as she came into the room, looking as statuesque as ever. Flynn's smile said volumes, however, and Paesa thought it was odd that she could read so much about what the two Healers had done the night before. "Are you alright, Child? Do you require any care after last night?"

Paesa shook her head. Even though she hadn't been able to arouse Mathilda before leaving, she'd been smiling since her eyes opened.

"Well," came a booming voice from the door just behind her. Paesa and the two Healers jumped and spun to see Mathilda, looking even more miserable than usual. "This is it, then."

"Good Morning, Healer Mathilda," Iona said, but Mathilda merely shook her head.

"M'afraid no', lass. My time here is done."

"You're leaving," Flynn said incredulously.

"That miserable sonnuvabitch gave me a vision in m'sleep. T'day's the day."

"That's terrible," Iona said, with only the barest fraction of sadness. "Are you sure you can't stay?"

"Positive," Mathilda grumbled. "Ah know ye'll miss me, an' Ah'm sorry Ah can't give notice for ya to find a replacement, but you lot know how it is with divine visions. 'E says go, so Ah've gotta go."

"And you're leaving right now?" Flynn asked, glancing at Paesa.

"Aye. Long goodbyes are no' my style, but this is brief even for me." She looked up at Paesa, and her miserable expression softened briefly. "Good luck, lass." She turned and headed back out into the street.

Flynn and Iona came out from around their desks to stand next to their apprentice, all three of them looking out the door as Mathilda yelled "Stop!" Everyone on the road stopped and turned, but Mathilda was already heading toward a Human woman with short, spiky blonde hair and an Orc woman with shaggy black hair.

"Let's go," she roared, as she started walking ahead of them. The Human and the Orc regarded each other in utter bewilderment.