TRC - Searching for the Sky Ch. 18

He was relieved to be distracted from that train of thought by a light knock coming from the room's entrance. Standing, Kal looked over at his trousers for a moment before shrugging and stepping over to see what this person wanted. Before greeting his visitor, he made an illusory black curtain behind him to hide Sera and the rest of the room.

As he cracked the door and peeked out, he was treated to the sight of one of the inn's barmaids standing outside. Of more interest was the woman's unlaced bodice and the large breasts that were proudly on display.

Since she certainly wasn't being bashful, he figured it was unnecessary for him as well.

"Can I help you?" he asked, letting the door swing wide.

The woman was a little startled by the man being naked from the waist down but quickly regained her composure. "The innkeeper sent me up here to see if there might be any way I could help you and your lady friend enjoy your time here."

Kal was confused. "We seem to be enjoying ourselves quite a bit, though I appreciate the offer."

Sighing the woman explained, "What he's really wanting me to do is see if I can help you two finish up any quicker. A number of our local patrons have already gone home. Either from the noise or because they've gotten all randy from listening to you. I wasn't even supposed to be working but the girls who were out on the floor have both been assigned to customers for the night."

As the woman spoke, she kept glancing at his crotch. Kal was enjoying the attention and could hardly blame her interest, he could still feel some dampness remaining after his last bout with the gorgon. He wasn't going to look down and check, but he imagined that remaining wetness made his cock shimmer in the lamplight of the hallway. While Sera was certainly willing to clean him after sex, he was still hesitant about putting his prick in her mouth knowing there were large and very poisonous fangs tucked up into the woman's palate behind her normal teeth.

Ria flitted through the illusion and sat on his shoulder, startling the barmaid. She'd been so distracted she hadn't noticed the rest of the room was hidden.

"Sera probably wouldn't mind, if that's what you are worried about. She didn't have any issues with Kuto, and you explained to her before that you had many women already. I could wake her up and ask if you want," said the sprite.

Kal nodded toward the sprite before smiling at the barmaid. "I greatly appreciate the offer, but I'll have to pass. We'll try to keep things down for the rest of the night."

The woman glanced at the sprite. "Didn't she say that your friend was asleep?"

The mage nodded, "She had her fun earlier when things got loud. I'll be waking her up to have my fun before I retire for the evening. Thank you again and have a good night," he said closing the door as the woman's eyes widened at what he just said. They somehow managed to get wider as she glanced down just before the door clicked shut. Thoughts of how he planned on waking Sera had him about half-erect by the time he said goodbye to the barmaid.

Kal faintly made out a grumbled, "Would have been a lot better if you said yes," through the door followed by a bunch of shuffling that was probably the woman making herself presentable before she walked off.

"I'm surprised, Kal. I thought you would accept. I'm certain she would have been fine with bending over right here for you so you wouldn't have risked her seeing Sera."

"The temptation was certainly there. Those were some wonderful tits and more than big enough to wrap around me. Hell, they might be big enough to wrap around Bren," he said as he returned to the table and sat down, hissing for a second as a couple of his more sensitive body parts touched the cool wood again. "Anyway, I hope I'm not being naïve here, but I would like for the women I'm with to mean something... that didn't quite come out like I meant it."

"You want it to be more than just emptying your balls in a wet hole," Ria looked down at her groin, "or maybe not so wet."

"You are much more to me than a not-so-wet hole. But yes, I'd prefer my dalliances to be more than just a way to empty my balls. Since I have you and Sera, I'd much rather consider the options I care about first before sleeping with some prostitute that I'm going to want to have some connection with afterward."

"What do you mean by that last part?" asked Ria as she resumed her perch on the stack of books she had been sitting on earlier.

Kal had picked up a book but laid it back down without opening it. "If I had my way, Shella and her pack would be living with Dax and hers, I've entertained the idea many times of inviting them to Aradelle's forest so they would be close enough to visit easily. I may still do that once we get back with Ikuno. Silma is another one. I'm hoping that once we get our city in the mountain up and running that I will be able to find a place for her. Then look at what I did with the mushroom girl. I could have left her alone and she probably would have been fine as Gerda said. Instead, I pulled her into my little circle. Even the girl at the door, I was already thinking of ways to send her off to Kahrin and Bren so I could keep her nearby."

"Little circle?"

Kal opened his mouth to answer but closed it a moment later with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Maybe you should think about doing that anyway, Kal. I was listening and it seemed like she didn't have as much say in her nighttime activities as Ellis, Kahrin, and Bren allow their barmaids. I don't think she wanted to be here until you waved that thing in her face. Of course, I could be wrong. You and Sera were pretty loud earlier and she may have just wanted to know what could make a woman scream like that."

"I didn't 'wave it in her face.'"

Ria laughed, "Like hell you didn't. Just because you didn't put her on her knees and shake in in front of her nose doesn't mean you weren't showing off."

"In fairness, she had her tits out when I opened the door."

Ria rolled her eyes, "Fine, she started it. Are you happy now?"

Kal picked up the book he was reading earlier and said haughtily, "Yes, I am." Before opening the book and holding it up to hide his smile.

---

Kal lied.

When he woke Sera up later by rolling her onto her back and sliding his cock in her, he did nothing to try to keep her quiet.

The innkeeper was not happy with them the next morning.

"If you come back tonight, I'm charging you extra for running off my customers."

Kal opened his mouth but Sera spoke first. "If we come back tonight then I won't hold back and be as loud as I want," she snapped, hints of her dwarvish accent seeping into the words of the hooded woman.

"You won't need to worry, we'll be back on the road tonight," said Kal while casting a confused glance at his companion. The innkeeper nodded before stomping off in a huff.

"Wait, Kal," said Ria as they turned to go.

"Yes?"

"I need your old pack and some silver, about eight should do."

"What for? And I might need my old pack if I go somewhere I can't take you."

"Then buy a new one! Just trust me on this."

"Okay, you can have my old pack and eight silver," he said, making it formal so the sprite could do whatever she had planned.

"Thank you!" the sprite flew up and planted a kiss right on his lips before zipping off into the back of the inn. Nine motes of light followed her.

"Never seen one of those be quite that affectionate," said one of the inn's other patrons who was sitting nearby enjoying their breakfast.

Kal just smiled back as an answer instead of mentioning that she had been much more 'affectionate' in the past. "Let's go, she'll catch up," he said to Sera before heading outside with the gorgon in tow.

The streets were still mostly empty this early in the morning. With so few people around, Kal decided to use the opportunity to ask Sera about her attitude toward the innkeeper.

"Did he do something to piss you off?" asked Kal.

"Who?"

"The innkeeper, I was worried you were about to bite his head off."

Kal saw the woman take a deep breath before answering. "Sorry about that, with everything you've been saying about how humans treat us... I guess I wanted a little bit of payback." More quietly, she continued, "And maybe to show them what they are missing by being so hateful toward monster girls."

"Ahh, so that's why you were being so loud last night."

Though he couldn't see it, Kal was certain the gorgon was blushing beneath her hood.

A high-pitched grunt as Ria pushed the inn's door open distracted him. A second later she flitted over and plopped down on his shoulder.

"What—"

"Shh, wait for it," said the little avatar as she stared at the inn's front door.

They didn't have long to wait. Less than a minute later, the woman who visited their room last night came bursting out of the inn with Kal's pack thrown over her shoulder and followed by curses and shouts from the innkeeper. Seeing Kal and Sera standing in the street, she rushed over and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a fierce kiss.

Releasing Kal, she stepped over to the gorgon and before anyone could react reached under the hood of Sera's cloak and tilted her head up before pressing her lips to the reptilian woman as well. A slight quiet hiss made the barmaid's eyes pop open to see a red blindfold with gold designs. Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she saw three snakes peering at her next to the woman's face out of the corner of her eye, their heads tilted in curiosity.

Sera wrapped her arms around the woman and held their mouths together as she attempted to shriek and get away.

"Don't scream," Kal whispered in her ear while placing a hand on the woman's back and holding her against the gorgon. "She's one of my lovers and will not hurt you."

It took a couple of seconds, but the barmaid fought down her panic and eventually nodded while looking over at the mage, her lips still pressed to Sera's.

Kal stood up straight from whispering in her ear while giving the woman a look of confusion. She shouldn't have accepted that she was kissing a monster girl so quickly.

Sera finally relaxed and let the woman pull away but Kal noted that a hand went to her blindfold just in case the woman changed her mind and called out for help.

Seeing the question in his eyes, the barmaid glanced nervously between them before speaking, "Th... there was a customer who had a catgirl with him. Kept hidden, like you," she said nodding to the gorgon. "He wanted to use my mouth because she couldn't, then wanted to watch as she and I..." she blushed bright red. "She was very nice, and we had a lot of fun that night." The woman took a step backwards, "I... I should go," she stammered before running off, Kal's overstuffed travel pack bouncing on her back as she made her way toward the southern road.

"Well, she's no fun. It was my idea and I was the only one who didn't get a kiss," Ria pouted.

Kal looked over at the sprite who had just landed on his shoulder again after being dislodged during their moment of excitement. "Mind explaining why we nearly ended up petrifying a serving wench?"

The sprite huffed, "There was no way I could have known she would want to show her appreciation to Sera as well. Anyway, I sent her to Kahrin and Bren. After you got back, you said they were looking for help. You reminded me of that when you mentioned her breasts were big enough to wrap around Bren. Once I found her I quickly told her how they do things as far as making extra money and suggested that she go to Telsin and talk with Kahrin. Yesterday, before I stopped coming out, I heard someone mention a small merchant's caravan headed south this morning. It should only take her an hour or two to catch up." After a slight pause, a quiet titter escaped the small avatar.

"What was that for?"

"I mentioned what you said last night. With Ada now married to Ellis and not knowing how chesty any of the new girls they've hired are, I thought that Bren might appreciate it." Accompanying her words, the sprite's chest ballooned out and she bounced a couple of times making them sway before they shrunk back into her body. She did things like that so rarely that he often forgot she had the ability and that she had looked extremely different when he first summoned her.

Kal was still scowling. "Thankfully things turned out alright and you managed to pick a woman who wouldn't lose her mind upon seeing a monster girl. I don't think I need to mention how lucky we just got." He turned back to Sera who had retreated back into her hood as soon as the woman left. "Are you okay?" he asked seeing her reaching up under the covering.

"Yes, I'm okay," she answered hastily putting her hand down as if caught doing something she shouldn't. "You've been telling me how much humans hate us and even want to kill us. I wasn't expecting to have one run up and kiss me. Not only that, but also finding out what I was and still being okay with me. Even if it was by chance as you said, it was still... nice," she finished quietly.

Kal leaned down and looked up into the hood. "Sounds like someone enjoyed that," he said wiggling his eyebrows at her before remembering she couldn't see him with the blindfold. The gorgon blushed and turned away.

"Hmm... if you enjoyed being kissed by a human girl so much, I might have to remind you how much fun it is to be kissed by a man." Kal looked around, the streets were starting to fill and they were getting curious looks for standing out in the middle of the main road. "But not now, let's go see the butcher."

---

The butcher could hardly believe his eyes when the mage showed him the cooling unit was working again. Leaving Sera out front with Ria, Kal and the man went back to the cooler to install and test the device.

He ended up making some significant changes to the setup. Removing the iron collet, he placed the cylinder in its final home and used geomancy to grow long, thick spikes out of it to hold it in place and deter any theft. The original system had been designed to switch out the two cylinders, one working while the other's crystal recharged. Unless the man planned on turning the room into an icebox, he would never need more than what the new crystal could provide. The ability to change between the two was now pointless, as was the iron collet.

The butcher tapped the face of the old unit. Using the floating rings as guides, he adjusted the one that Kal had repaired then tapped the third ring and brought it up slowly until the rune came to life and began draining the heat out of the room.

Kal immediately took notice. "Could you tell me what that innermost setting does? The one you used to turn it on."

"That's the one that sets the temperature, if it gets too cold in here then it shuts off and turns back on again when the room warms up."

After hearing what the butcher said he quickly ran through the spells he currently knew. No, there wasn't anything quite like this in his current spell list. All his spells were in the class of: Apply power, the effect happens. In some cases, it was also: More power makes a stronger effect. This one took the temperature, somehow compared it to the placement of the dot on the ring and decided whether or not to activate the rune and cool the room.

It was really no different than him putting another log in the stove at his house when the room got cold, but it felt surprisingly advanced, almost alive. Instead of just "doing a thing" it was choosing to do it. The mage immediately began wondering how far something like this could be taken.

Kal had done little more than put the rune to parchment last night, the couple of glyphs he didn't understand were jotted down without bothering to research what they were. He was regretting that at the moment. "I need to check and be sure I have this rune copied perfectly."

The butcher picked up the iron collet and led the way to the cooler door. "I'd give that to you, but I have plans for it until the crystal goes to hell." He said nodding at the stone cylinder.

"What's that?"

"Going to install it backwards in the main room of my house. Should save me a bunch on firewood this winter."

"That's... a really good idea. I may need to make one of these when I get home."

"Don't you wizards have some fancy way of heating those towers of yours already?"

"I don't have a tower. Not sure if I ever will. One I visited had a way to circulate the heat from a large hearth on the bottom floor, I never got to see it used since I was there during the warmer months."

The butcher had led them into the shop's back door and through the main processing area filled with thick wooden countertops with an assortment of knives at each station and a leather strop hanging nearby. He then pushed aside the leather curtain separating it from the storefront. "And here I thought... Menk! Leave that woman alone, she's with a customer and a good paying one at that."

Kal nearly shoved the man to the floor in his haste to check on Sera, afraid that he would find this Menk, whoever that was, solid as stone and toppling over onto the floor. He let out a nearly audible sigh of relief when the burly man's head turned to regard him and the butcher.

An idea came to him.

Giving a dramatic sigh, he said, "Oh thank goodness you're alive!"

Menk thought the mage was looking at the wrong person. "I was looking to get some puss, not kill anyone."

"I wasn't talking about her, she can handle herself quite well, I was more worried about you. My lady friend has a way with poisons and petrification magic. I was worried you might be a statue already, or worse, poisoned."

The large man regarded the mage with skepticism but still took a step away from the hooded woman, "How is being poisoned worse?"

"If you don't have an antidote or cleric nearby, poison is a long, slow, painful, death compared to being instantly turned to stone. Before you ask, if you did something bad enough for her to poison you; no, I wouldn't lift a finger to help you. I suggest you head out into the woods and find a nice monster girl if you really need a piece of ass."

"Are you crazy?! Those bitches would carry my ass off or eat me!"

"Hmm... I suppose you are right. I guess I'm still young enough to satisfy them," holding his arms out, the runes on his bracers lit up in sequence from one side to the other, "and strong enough to escape if they don't want to let me go."

The large man scowled at the young mage then looked over at the butcher. "I'll see you later for your payment," he growled, making his way to the door.

"Wait, Menk," the butcher reached into his pouch and flipped a silver coin at the man who caught it with a confused look. "You'll have to buy what you would normally get from me." He flipped two more coins at the man, coppers this time. "This gentleman here is heading out on a long journey and has bought nearly all my stock. Tell your brother and Dorik I'm in need of some meat." He turned to Kal, "Between the hunter, the swine rancher and the beef you saw hanging in the cooler, I should be up and running in a couple of days.

"For as much as he acts like a jerk, Menk takes care of collecting debts and payments as well as doing other running tasks for the people of the town. Shop owners like me really appreciate it since I can take care of business without having to close my store and leave. Since he's such a big man we can trust him to handle money as well, most people will think twice before bothering him.

"I lost my wife last year and my son stays at the local creche during the day. He's here to collect the meat I normally give them to feed the kids as payment but well..." he indicated his empty storefront which was devoid of any product since it was all inside Ria at the moment.