TRC - Searching for the Sky Ch. 16

The mage laughed. "Anytime we are free and you are wanting some fun with me, just ask. Not having you with me for two weeks showed me how much I've come to rely on you. Not just as something I use to store my stuff but as a companion as well." He reached out and gently wrapped his fingers around her waist, getting a startled squeak from the avatar. "I didn't tell you this with all of the commotion when we first arrived," he gave the sprite a light kiss on her cheek, "but I really missed you while I was gone."

Ria flushed in embarrassment, meaning her face and most of the top half of her body went nearly invisible. He could barely make out that her lips were moving but no sound came from the tiny woman. A moment later she vanished completely.

Realizing that the sprite had returned to her bag, Kal chuckled and continued on towards camp.

---

Sera was pacing back and forth across the main area when Kal arrived. Her shoulders sagged and she let out a huge sigh of relief upon seeing him step into the tent. A second later she stood up straight, her expression going neutral as she addressed him. "Welcome back," she said in a stiff tone.

"What happened Sera?" he asked stopping at the bottom of the steps.

"Nothing! I didn't even touch the woman!"

"I know that. I can still talk to her, remember? I'm wondering how a strong, independent woman who lived by herself for years and fended off countless attackers has become so terrified of being away from me."

"Kal... when I agreed to go with you, you became my world. I grew up in those caves, I know them better than anything. You are my lifeline up here on the surface. You were supposed to teach me how to hunt and live up here. Instead, you ran away," she looked down and mumbled, "just like all the others."

"I'm here in front of you right now, aren't I? Twice I've left and come back as promised, even if it was a bit later than expected. I understand that I'm a bit different from the others who came and attacked you. But I really need you to find some of that independence again or we won't be able to travel together."

"What do you mean? Are you leaving again?" she asked, a hint of panic seeping into her voice.

"Yes," he said flatly. "I have to hunt to replenish our food stores. I will need to return to the Dwarves in a few days to talk to their lead engineer. I'll need to visit the bazaar as well to pick up any other foods I can't hunt for. Apart from all those reasons, the human settlements are not friendly toward women like you and Kuto. If I need to go into them, you won't be able to follow and it's entirely possible that I may be there for weeks. I need to know that you are going to be okay without me. I need to know that if I end up dying a week or a month from now, you will be able to take care of yourself."

Much like when he and Kuto first arrived, he walked over to the gorgon and put his arms around her. Confused but elated, Sera tentatively returned the hug, "I also need you to forgive me for leaving you so soon. I had no idea I had become so important to you, or that you were so ill-equipped for life up here. Living up here my entire life and seeing how well you had survived down there, I made a lot of assumptions about your abilities and knowledge."

"You aren't making me feel better," she grumbled into his chest.

Kal gave a small laugh. "It wasn't meant as an insult. Just a difference in experiences. If our situations were reversed, I might feel much like you do."

"Liar," said Sera, "you weren't even uncomfortable being down there with me, but I'll let it pass."

"Admittedly, I've spent a fair amount of time in caves over the last couple of years.

"You need me to be less dependent upon you," she said stepping back from him and fighting down the stray thought that he was just saying that so he could leave her for good. "How do we do that?"

"First off, by getting you acclimated to being outside," he said, standing off to one side and gesturing toward the tent's entrance.

Fear immediately filled the gorgon's face and she began to breathe quicker until Kal stepped in front of her again, blocking her view.

The mage frowned, "That's from me throwing you out yesterday... isn't it?"

Sera nodded in response as her breathing returned to normal. "I tried a couple of times while you were gone, but I'm back to where I started when Ria began helping me get over my fear."

"And now just the sight sets you off," he stated. The gorgon nodded in response a moment later.

"I have to go back and talk to the dwarves in a couple of days, once everything is settled with them we will just be waiting for Kuto to wake up before we get out on the road. That doesn't give you a lot of time to get over this fear, so let's get to work."

Kal worked with Sera the rest of the day but progress was slow and only came in small increments. By sunset, she was only feeling uncomfortable looking outside, but that could have been from the lack of light and color making things similar to being underground.

"What are all of the little dots out there?" asked the gorgon. Kal had left the flap open for the time being and the cool autumn air wafted in, bringing the sounds of nocturnal forest animals along with. Sera was still a good distance from the entrance but had laid down on the carpet and was looking up at the darkened sky. Every so often she would scoot forward about a hand's width then stay there, looking outside until she felt comfortable to move again. It was slow, but it was still progress.

"Stars," answered Kal.

"That's it? Just 'stars.' What are they made of? How do they shine like that?"

Kal chuckled, "You'll have to be happy with 'just stars.' As to your other questions, I honestly don't know. I grew up hearing that they were the tears of a goddess, shed for all the suffering and hatred in the world and thrown up into the sky to remind us how much she cares. Ikuno told me that the explanations behind stars change from race to race and sometimes even from town to town. The dwarves believe that they are the sparks from their god forging the world on his anvil. The elves think that they are the notes to nature's song, hung in the sky for all to enjoy. Some nutcase wizard Ikuno met said they were giant balls of gas unimaginably far away. He even had diagrams and graphs that he called 'proof.' Ikuno said she was intrigued but didn't care to wait the half of a year he said it would take to see the results with her own eyes. What this tells me more than anything is: we don't know what they are."

The gorgon smiled, "I suppose it doesn't really matter. Down in the caves, there was a large one that I used to go visit on occasion that looked kind of like the sky does now. Worms that live up on the cave's roof let down sticky strings then make their tails glow to attract bugs. Not very pleasant since they are trying to catch a meal, but it was pretty to look at."

A small shudder ran through the mage as he momentarily imagined a lamia-like monster girl but with a glowing, grub-like hind end. It wasn't a pleasant image, but it got him wondering how the sticky fluid they used to catch prey might work as a base for some of his inks. Which led him to...

"Sera? Could I get some of your venom?" asked Kal.

"I suppose," she said turning away from the view outside to look at him. At the same time, she fought the knot forming in her stomach from the fears still running through her head. It was hard to shake the idea that if he got her venom then he wouldn't need her anymore and leave for good. She kept reminding herself that he kept coming back as he said he would. Kal saw none of this internal struggle as he went into his lab and began securing some pieces of soft leather over a ceramic bowl to simulate biting through skin.

Walking back out into the main area, he saw that the gorgon had fallen asleep, her serpents fanned out on the carpet around her head. He noticed as he put the bowl down that the snakes were still moving, indicating that she was likely still awake, though their movements were slow and lethargic. Putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a small shake got an annoyed hiss from some of the serpents but also informed him of the reason for her sluggishness. Looking over at the door he shook his head, the air coming in had cooled Sera's body. Were it anyone else then he would be in a panic, worried about the person dying on him, but with the gorgon being cold-blooded he just rolled her over on her back and lifted her in his arms before making his way to her room.

'Lucky bitch,' came the thought from Kuto when he decided to share some of his own body heat.

Laying her on the bed and stepping back out of the room to seal the tent for the night, he sent back, 'it's the quickest way to warm her back up. Besides, she put a lot of effort in today, waking up with a warm body beside her seems like a nice reward."

'Reward for who?'

'You're just annoyed it's not you.'

'Damn straight I am. I'm also annoyed that I haven't gotten any sleep since she did this to me. Not to mention that I should be home with Perra or close to it by now. It'll be damn near another week before I get to see her again. And... now I get to listen to you two fuck while I'm stuck like this because I doubt you will stick with what you said earlier.'

'If it happens, it happens. As I said, she's worked hard for the bit of progress she's made today. If she wants to, I won't stop her.' Earlier Sera had tried to distract him with more pleasurable activities. In response, Kal walked over to the tent's entrance and threw back the canvas flap. Pointing at the trunk of a random tree, he stated that the next time they did anything along those lines she would be pushed up against that. It seemed to work surprisingly well as an incentive.

Coming back into Sera's room, he sat the groggy woman up and carefully stripped off her clothes. Her serpents weren't cooperating as much as normal and seemed pissy in general.

The snakes' poor attitude wasn't new to Kal. Back when he was growing up and learning about the dangers of the legless reptiles, a common theme was to leave them alone when the weather was chilly. Their lethargy made them more likely to lash out at possible threats.

Stripping down, he crawled in behind the woman and did his best impression of one of Sera's snakes, hissing as his skin contacted the gorgon's cold body. He'd dealt with his women using him to warm their cold bottoms on him many times but this was on another level.

'Serves you right,' came a sullen thought from Kuto.

Holding a hand out, he made one of his bracers float into it and cast his acclimation spell, his body warming to a comfortable temperature immediately. He paused for a moment before putting the leather vambrace back. Casting the spell again, this time he pushed the magic into the gorgon. She immediately matched his own body temperature, blinking repeatedly as her cold-induced torpor faded. Her serpents also became more lively, draping themselves over his head and shoulders and rubbing themselves against him in thanks. It still felt slightly weird to Kal, thinking of snakes being affectionate.

The serpents weren't the only ones feeling affectionate. Sera lifted a leg and reached between her legs. Finding his half-hard cock, she stroked it a few times before placing it at her entrance. She hadn't had much time to prepare and was still somewhat dry, but that was okay for what she had in mind. Very slowly she pushed back against him, careful not to hurt either of them with the lack of lubrication. When he was in as far as he could get in this position, she lowered her leg and found a comfortable position for sleeping.

"I'll take this as my reward, we can save the tree for later," she said.

Kal smiled and draped an arm over her, "I'm good with that..." His head suddenly came up, "Wait a second?! I didn't say that out loud!"

Sera giggled. "No, you didn't. But you have a tendency to whisper under your breath when you talk to the harpy. I may not have exceptional ears, but I have a lot of them."

Kal chuckled as he laid his head back down. "Fair enough," he said pressing into her a little further. He wondered for a moment if he could use Bea's dust to do something similar and have it last all night. Hmm...

---

Kuto's mood continued to deteriorate, but more out of annoyance with her predicament and lack of sleep than anything else. Kal didn't see any signs that she was becoming mentally unstable or breaking. Other than being sympathetic to her plight, he wasn't very worried about the bird-woman. Though her almost non-stop commentary that wavered between viciously snarky and graphically lewd was starting to get old.

Sera seemed to run into a wall once she made it to the steps leading up to the exit, no amount of cajoling, promises, cheering or affirmations could get her closer than arm's length to the outside. Mid-afternoon Kal put an end to their exercises. He then spent the next few minutes consoling the gorgon who was very upset with her perceived failure. Kal calmly explained to her that it was more because he noticed he was getting testy with her. He didn't want to lose his temper and potentially undo all their work.

The next morning Kal left early to make his way back to the Dwarven Kingdom. Olen was supposed to be back today, if what Magistrate Huldurn said was true, and he wanted to get his business concluded and get back to camp before nightfall this time. His last trip, he'd stayed at the inn just inside the realm's entrance and had been sorely tempted to take up one of the dwarven prostitutes on their offer of oral services. Not that he was particularly attracted to the stocky and generally small-breasted women, he was just very curious what it might be like. It didn't help that the women plied their trade in the buff except for a belt with a small knife and a couple of pouches as well out in the open once the main gates had closed. It was hard to ignore the ass swaying in his direction as one of them sucked off the man sitting at the table next to him. The fingers reaching back to play with herself as she worked the man's rod showed that she was doing this because she wanted to and not out of necessity like most prostitutes in human cities. When the man had finished, she turned around and made a similar offer to the mage, fully knowing what kind of show she had been putting on for him. It was fantastic advertising, to be honest. Pouting at his rejection, she wandered off in search of those more willing to part with their silver.

It was strange talking to a man who had just gotten a blowjob in front of him, but he knew how the Dwarven economy, or lack of economy, worked and was curious why there were dwarven women whoring themselves out.

"Simply put, because they enjoy it," said the man. "There's a guild of female dwarves who make their services available to all the rest. With no money to speak of down there, all those that join do it because they like it. Those that come up here to the inn are the ones that don't mind messing around with non-dwarves and use that to make a little more money for the Kingdom."

"There are naked dwarven women running around willing to spread her legs for nothing more than because another dwarf asked?" This was not something that Sandy had mentioned about the stocky race's odd society and was yet another foreign concept to the young wizard. Then again, he was still having a difficult time wrapping his head around there being no money changing hands in the Kingdom proper. That didn't seem right at all.

After a moment's reflection, he decided he couldn't say much. There were a number of women in his little harem who would do the same, but only for him.

They continued talking for some time about the more alien aspects of dwarven society until the same dwarf who had taken care of the other man earlier came back.

"It's gettin' late and ye both been talkin' bout us dwarves all night. Interested in tryin' one o' us out fer the night? Three silver an' I'm yours till mornin'. Four and I'll take ye both if'n you're game."

The man set the silver on the table and stood up as Kal reluctantly declined. Looking over at the mage, the man said, "Our conversation has piqued my curiosity. If I see you before I leave I'll let you know how it went."

"Nothin' much ta tell. I might not be able ta wrap me legs about ya but we're a might bit stronger down there than yer scrawny humans or elves. Yer cock don't leave me quim or me arse until I let it," said the woman, throwing a saucy wink in Kal's direction before following the man back to his room.

He didn't see the man the next day and now that he was going back he didn't think he could manage another stay at the inn without at least satisfying his curiosity.

---

"Kal! Good to see you again!" said the Magistrate as he walked around his desk to shake the human's hand.

"Good to see you as well, Huldurn. I was hoping that I might get to speak with Olen if he is about."

The dwarf's face fell, "Sorry fer yer luck, but I got news this morning that it'll be three days to a week before he'll be available to speak to ye. He's tending ta some issues they're having with a bellows system over at the Great Forge."

Kal frowned, "If it's only a few more days then I can come back but I'm hoping to be gone in a week's time."

"I'll send news ta Olen concerning yer timetable. He's been wantin' ta do somethin' like this fer some time now and you humans are a bit touchier 'bout things like time than we dwarves."

"I greatly appreciate it. Also tell him that he may have access to two or three... knurl, burl, gnomish... dammit, what did Dûldin call her again?"

"Knurlaf?" offered the Magistrate.

"Yes! Knurlaf! He may have two of them to help out with construction, possibly three if I can convince Sandy, as well as a novice geomancer."

"No need to get yer mage friend involved," Huldurn said dismissively as he sat back down behind his desk. "Ye may have gotten me with the rubies, but I'm havin' a hard time believin' yer knowin' more than one golem."

"You know the one Dûldin has been accompanying is pregnant right?"

Huldurn's eyes narrowed, "Ye shouldn't be knowing that."

"Unless I'm the one that put it there."

"Yer pulling me beard."

Kal set the dwarf-sized chairs in front of Huldurn's desk off to either side. With a bit of geomancy, he raised a human-sized chair from the stone floor and sat down. "It's a beautiful beard, I wouldn't dare."

Huldurn looked at the stone chair and grunted. "I'll strongly suggest he get back in three days. No promises, repairs on the Great Forge are more important."

"That would be wonderful," replied Kal.

---

Though his meeting with the Magistrate went well, Kal was still despondent he hadn't been able to speak with the lead engineer. Unwilling to waste the trip, he made his way to the market with the intent of purchasing supplies before braving the throng of people flowing through the front entrance. Pickings were slim as the season for most vegetables had passed, leaving only the different types of gourds, tubers, and hardier leafy vegetables like cabbages. Making his way toward the main gate, he realized that he still had more time than expected left before he was due back.

Once he was a little way from the dwarven stronghold, he summoned Ria. "I have some extra time, up for another hunt?"

The little avatar blushed slightly as she thought about how the last one ended before nodding.

---

Sometimes luck was with him. Sometimes it wasn't. He was ready to call off his hunt after a couple hours of creeping quietly through the forest yielded nothing. Or nothing significant anyway, he flushed a couple of hares he could have taken but he was looking to replenish his stores and didn't feel that they were worth the time. He then berated himself for being too single-minded, those could have been tonight's supper.