by Jan Stryvant
Passage
Dan was surprised to awaken before the other three, especially after Lofn had stung him with her tail. They'd all skipped dinner, seeing as they had much more enjoyable things to do—or at least Dan had more enjoyable things to do to them.
Looking down at his belly, he saw he was still a bit 'thicker' than normal, but oddly enough, he also felt a little stronger as well. Bulbul had definitely given up the ghost sometime early on during the evening's activities, and the look of pure lust on Fawn's face when it had happened, as he was mounting her at the time, was still imprinted in his mind.
"That girl has some serious kinks," he muttered to himself as he headed for the shower.
"Yes, she does, doesn't she?" Fawn's mother said, coming into the bathroom wearing only a towel and giving him a good looking over.
For his part, he looked her over as well. Her mother may have a few more curves than her daughter, but Tanci was definitely something to look at, and apparently those parts of his anatomy south of the waistline were as impressed with what he was seeing as he was.
"Is that all that's left of him?" she asked, moving closer into his personal space and putting a hand on his belly.
"I'm not eating your husband," Dan said in a soft growl. "I don't think your daughter would appreciate that very much."
She looked up at him and smiled. "Neither would I, Daniel. But it would seem my husband had to leave early this morning for the valley that his father," she patted Dan's belly again, "used to run. You see, you killed Jonas's biggest enemy, and now he's taking our eldest son and several of our men to take it over."
"Oh, is he now?" Dan said, smiling down at her. He couldn't help it; he was starting to get ideas.
"Oh, he did," Tanci replied, letting the towel slide off of her body as she pressed up against him. "Would you mind if this little ewe were to help you get clean?"
Laughing, Dan pulled her into the shower stall. "Only if you help me get really dirty first!"
"Oh, I like the sound of that!" she said, wrapping her hand around his shaft as he turned on the water, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her. Tanci, he found, tasted of strawberries and cream. Her body had the same firm muscles underneath the pleasing softness that Fawn's had. He recalled Fawn telling him at some point that her mother was also a gifted dancer.
Pushing her back against the wall, he let his kisses trail down her neck to her chest, as he slid his hands lower to cup that nice, generous ass of hers. Sinking his fingers in, he lifted her up, letting her feet dangle slightly above the floor of the shower stall as he buried his fact in her lush tits, going to work with his lips and teeth.
Tanci responded by wrapping her legs around his hips and grabbing the back of his head, pulling him in against her chest with one hand, while the other slowly traced lines up and down his shaft with her fingernails. It wasn't long until she started to tug on his shaft while rolling her hips suggestively at him.
Looking up at her, he smiled and slowly lowered her body back down, as she guided him into her slit. Once he was deep inside her, she freed her arm from between them, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him as she ground her hips against him again.
Dan gave a soft growl as he began working himself in and out of her. The first thing he noted was that she had amazing muscle control. The second was that she was definitely stronger than she looked.
And a lot more demanding.
"Harder! Harder!" she panted as he did just that. "I want to feel your full belly pressing into mine! Oh, that was so hot watching you eat him! Fuck me, take me and fill me! Breed this little ewe, you big fucking bovera-eating monster!"
Dan growled a little louder and did just that. At least he knew where Fawn got her kinks from…then again, maybe all the sheep gals liked big, strong, dominating men who just might eat them?
"Better watch out I don't eat you!" he whispered in her ear as he pounded her hard against the tiles, and from the way she quaked and shivered on his shaft, he'd obviously set something off.
When he finally came inside her, she gave a soft cry that almost sounded like the bleat of a sheep as he filled her, holding himself deep inside her as her sex milked him.
When they finally separated, she dropped to her knees and teased him erect a second time using her hands and mouth, then turned around, braced herself against the back of the stall, and wiggled her butt at him.
He sighed and shook his head, but he took her all the same. Hard. Fast. And with a few threats of showing her the inside of this throat, which set her off all over again.
That done, he cleaned up quickly and left her there under the warm water, eyes closed and panting, looking quite sated.
"My mom's in there, isn't she?" Fawn said with a smirk as he came out of the bathroom, still drying himself off.
"Don't worry, I told her I wouldn't eat your father."
Fawn snorted. "Honestly? Up until a couple of days ago, I would have cheered if you did. But once Mom lowered the boom on him, he just accepted it, and even backed me on us being together.
"I mean, I still find him annoying at times, but I think Mom would be upset if anything happened to him."
"Well, right now I think I could use something to drink," Dan said with a yawn, tossing the towel onto the back of a chair. "Have you seen my pants?"
"I had someone take them off to be cleaned."
"Oh." Dan shrugged and walked towards the door.
"Daaaaniel," Fawn said.
"What?" he asked, turning to look at her.
"Every single gal in the village is probably just as hot for you as my mom is, after seeing you eat that guy. You're not walking around with your dong hanging out. Not unless you want to spend the entire day lining them up and banging 'em."
Dan grinned. "Maybe I want to spend the entire day banging them."
"No, no you don't," Olivia growled sleepily from the bed. "And just to make it clear, if you ever try to screw my mother, we will be having words."
Dan grinned and laughed. "So, pants?" he asked, looking around.
"I'll go get you something," Fawn said. "Right after I roust my mother from the shower so I can take one myself."
"So, where to next?" Dan asked as he sat at the table with the girls. Lofn and Olivia were sitting close on either side of him, while Fawn was playing footsie with him under the table. "Wrath's or Aella's?"
"Wrath's," Olivia said.
"Yes, Wrath's," Lofn agreed with a nod.
"Why?"
"Because Aella's home is pretty much a jungle," Olivia said. "It's either rainforest, tropical jungle, temperate jungle, or very heavy forest."
"Really?"
Olivia nodded. "I've been there. The only places there are any open fields are where somebody cut all the trees down to make one. And if you don't keep it clear, ten, fifteen years and it'll be trees again."
"That's one reason they have the tentacles," Lofn said. "To make it easier to hunt while climbing through everything."
"Same reason they can displace—both to hunt, and to not be hunted," Olivia added.
"Wait, something hunts displacera?" he asked, surprised.
"Used to, not anymore," Olivia said with a grin.
"And why not?"
"They killed them all."
"It happened all a very long time ago, Daniel," Lofn said. "It's just a legend to Aella's people. I think only the oldest of the old races have any records of it."
"Do you think Wrath will know how to find her?" he asked, picking up his drink to take another sip.
"Probably. They've been friends and lovers for a long time, but knowing Aella, she's probably heading for Wrath's father's home. We all know where her father's house is, so it's only logical that we all go there—and if nothing else, Aella's logical."
Dan nodded; it made sense. "And how do we get there from here?"
"There's a gateway portal one or two days' walk from here," Olivia said. "That's where we should start."
"Is there a faste
r way than walking?"
"Well, we could jog," Olivia said with a grin.
"Bovera is a tech-poor world," Fawn said with a sigh. "So unless you know some sort of traveling spell, then no. We're walking."
Dan looked at Lofn, who shook her head. "I usually fly when I have to travel any distance."
Dan sighed. "Walking it is. So will the portal take us to Varmal?"
"No, it'll take us to Zavaeni, and from there we'll go to Innsjo, and then I think there's a portal that will take us to Varmal, if I remember right."
He frowned. "I thought there were gateway portals from everywhere to everywhere?"
Olivia shook her head. "Not really. Oh, I'm sure there's a gateway to Varmal on this plane. In fact, I'm sure there's more than one. But there aren't any around here, at all.
"You see, the planes are laid out in some sort of mish-mash of order. Some planes are easy to connect to; some aren't. Some link to others easily; some don't. Some gateways can be used to travel to several planes, while some can only get to one, and maybe even only one place on that one plane. Here on Maidaanon, there aren't many portals, and they're spread out. It's easier to get here than it is to leave.
"Now we could go to Hediya, the home realm of the cerberus, and I think there's a portal from there to Varmal, but that would be a longer trip."
"So what are these places like?"
"Zavaeni is the Twilight realm," Lofn said. "It's not as bad as Amisra, the realm of darkness, but it is the home of vampires and other such things that can't stand the full light of day."
"And the other one?"
"Innsjo is more of a water world," Olivia said.
"Like that bad Costner movie?" Dan asked with a scowl.
Olivia and Fawn both laughed at that one. "No, that would be Kostvatn! It's like ninety-five percent water, with a scattering of small islands. Innsjo is just covered in lakes. They're everywhere. All different sizes. There aren't any oceans on Innsjo, but some of the lakes are huge. Things that like fresh water, or swamps, humidity, rain, that's what you'll find there."
"To think that a place like that connects to Varmal," Dan said, thinking of the deserts and the heat of Varmal.
"Actually, Innsjo is one of those places that has gateway portals to everywhere," Olivia continued. "It's supposed to be one of the easier realms to open gates from."
He nodded. "So when do we leave?"
"I'll talk to my mother about packing some supplies for us as soon as we're done eating," Fawn said. "Once that's done, we can go."
"Umm, yeah. Your mother…" he said, feeling embarrassed.
Fawn laughed. "I think it'd be best if you didn't cross her path again. I'm figuring out how manipulative she can be, and who the real power is in the family."
"Yeah, I think that'd be for the best," he agreed.
"Don't worry, Olivia and I will be sure to keep her and the others at bay," Lofn said with a chuckle.
"I just don't want to have to end up eating anybody else," Dan said with a crooked smile. "I don't know if I'd be able to fit them!"
They left around noon, on foot. A pair of youngsters, a boy and a girl, came along to tow the small cart that was carrying the bulk of their supplies. When they got to the gateway, they'd be sent back with the cart, and Dan and the girls carry everything from there.
As they wouldn't arrive at the gateway before tomorrow evening, that would make the first part of the trip easier, at least.
"You should reach out with your magic and touch them again," Olivia said after they'd left the village behind.
"Why?"
"So they'll know you're okay, and they'll know you're checking on them," Fawn said.
"Also, Wrath might be able to tell you're getting closer," Lofn added.
Dan nodded. That made sense. Putting a hand on Olivia as he walked along, he closed his eyes a moment and reached out, touching all of them, not just Wrath and Aella.
"Oh!" Fawn said, and Olivia started a moment under his hand.
"That feels…okay," Olivia said after a moment. "I think I'm getting used to it."
"I wasn't trying to pull any power; that might be why?" he said with a shrug. "I do need to practice with that one of these days. So we can both get used to it."
"You might as well start now with both of them," Lofn said, motioning towards Fawn and Olivia. "Not like we're going to be doing anything other than walking today."
"Good point. Plus I could use the practice casting spells," he agreed and worked his way through the combat spells he'd learned, though in this case he cast them on whatever bush or tree they happened to be passing. Once he got his power down to half, he took little bits from Fawn or Olivia. That not only gave them experience with what it would feel like, but enabled him to see how it affected them.
Other than Fawn getting horny, which was probably just Fawn and not the spells, it really didn't seem to do much of anything to either of them, until they got really low, then it made them feel hungry. But that was really about the extent of it.
The trip was otherwise uneventful. They had a small tent they'd borrowed to sleep in that night, which would go back with the cart. The gateway portal, when they got to it early the next day, was unoccupied.
"Before we go through," Olivia said, looking at Dan, "remember, it's twilight there; it's always twilight. You can see the stars, and when the moon is up, it's brighter. When it's down, it's darker, but never completely black."
"So there's no sun?"
"Nope."
"At all?"
"None."
"Then what makes the moon shine?" Dan paused a moment, then looked at Fawn. "And don't say 'rednecks'."
"Aww!" Fawn pouted.
Olivia shrugged. "No idea. Remember, physics, magic, all that stuff may be mostly the same from plane to plane, but they're all different from each other in some very obvious ways. The point I want to make is this: anything that hunts in the darkness, or lives in it, will be there. It's not as bad as the darkness realm, where pretty much only the really nasty stuff lives, but there will still be predators. So keep your wits about you, and don't freak the first time we run into a vampire. If they're not bothering us, we don't bother them."
Dan nodded. "Got it."
"Now close your eyes. It's going to be dark there, and we need to be ready for it."
He nodded again, and everyone grabbed each other's hands; they all closed their eyes and waited a minute.
"Now, let's go through."
They walked forward together and stepped through at once. Opening his eyes immediately, he could see it was dark, and there were several people standing around, who turned to look at them. He grabbed his mace, and Olivia already had her sword out.
"There's a toll," one of them said.
"And how much is this toll?" Lofn asked.
One of them started to point at him, so he shifted into his aspect.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking I'm human," he said in a soft voice.
One of the people laughed. He could now see clearly, having shifted, that he was someone who looked very much like a human as well, though from the size of his canines, Dan was pretty sure he wasn't.
"Normally we ask for blood, a little from each of you," said the man who'd laughed. "Most bovera don't seem to mind. However, I don't think that's going to work today, as three of you are definitely not bovera and don't appear to be anyone I'd wish to tangle with."
"How about five kolik?" Fawn asked, speaking up. "One for each of us, and one for blood?"
"That would be acceptable."
Fawn got out the money, but Dan took it from her and stepped forward to pay the man.
"You know, I've heard rumors of ones like you, but never seen one before," he said as Dan paid him.
"Visiting my in-laws," Dan said with a shrug.
"Oh? Which one?"
"All of them," Dan said and slowly smiled. "Rakkys was particularly nice. I personally recommend it."
Dan noticed the other man's eyes wid
en just a little.
"Now I'm glad we didn't press matters. In fact, I'm surprised you offered to pay at all!"
"Somebody has to keep the riffraff out," Dan said with a smile and, motioning to the girls to lead the way, he followed, bringing up the rear.
"Damn, a sobek!" he heard one of them mutter.
"And a succubus!" another one said.
"At least they were polite," the man Dan had interacted with said.
"The God of the Night really favored us," the first voice replied. "He's for damn sure getting his coin when we get back to town!"
"What did they mean by that last comment?" he asked the girls when they'd gotten further away.
"It's traditional to add a tip for the God of the Night, which is typically referred to as 'one for blood'. You're supposed to give that one as an offering at one of the temples, and some do," Fawn told him.
"Tradition has it that when you make an offer to 'Blood' at a transaction, you're asking the God of the Night to bear witness to the good faith of your transaction," Olivia said. "Breaking such a transaction is rumored to bring the wrath of the god down upon you," Olivia added.
"Does it?" he asked.
"There sure are a lot of songs and tales about it," Olivia said with a chuckle. "I know I sure wouldn't want to break such a deal. Some of the gods take more active roles than others in their home realm. I think the reason for it in this realm is, without something to enforce the rules, things would quickly devolve into complete chaos."
"I'm surprised it hasn't already."
"There's only so long complete chaos can rule until someone or something comes along and makes some sort of order out of it," Lofn said. "It just has to be someone strong."
"Like a god?"
"When you're talking about an entire realm, I don't believe anything less could do it." Lofn looked over at him and smiled. "You're not thinking of taking over the entire world, now, are you Daniel?"
He laughed. "Just Sacramento," he paused a moment and then added, "and some of the surrounding area."
"You know, I bet Weson didn't go through with paying us," Fawn grumbled suddenly.
"He probably thinks I'm dead," Dan said with a smile. "I mean, what else could possibly have happened to me? Right?"