"You're going to have to wait for a short while before we can head to the tower," Alara said to Gulny.
"Oh, wow," Tara said. "Seriously?"
"He has to," Nithia said.
Gulny walked closer to us. "I don't understand. What's going on?"
"It's okay," Alara said. "He'll make it quick." She looked at me. "Right?"
"For fuck's sake," I said. "This is crazy."
Alara walked over to Monica and took her by the hand. She brought her over to me. She took my hand and placed it over Monica's. "It's okay, you two."
She left Monica and me staring at each other awkwardly, and she went to Gulny, placing her arm around his shoulder, turning him away from us. "Why don't you tell me more about your father…and maybe anything else you know about the tower, and the person living there." She looked back over his shoulder. "Nithia, Tara, you two should come listen to Gulny. She guided him down the slope away from Monica and me.
I glanced at Tara and Nithia. I felt dumbfounded at what was happening. Tara winked at me before jogging to join Alara and the young man.
Nithia walked over to us. She gazed into each of our eyes in turn. "You two take all the time you need." She turned to me again. "Den, you treat her right, okay?"
What the fuck. This is not happening.
I must have looked like a deer hit with headlights.
"Den?" Nithia said. "Are you alright?"
Monica wrapped her arm around my waist. "It's okay, Nithia. He'll be fine. I've done this before."
I still couldn't manage a response, but I saw Nithia smile, then she walked away. I turned my eyes to Monica. She sniffed and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "I've thought about this for a long time," she said. "But I put it off, because…"
I regained my composure and listened to hear her finish.
"Because I don't want to lose you," she said.
I almost lost it right there, but I rolled my lips inward and kept them pressed tight. When I heard her say those words, I realized I felt the same way. I'd kept my distance from her out of respect for her wishes, but I never actually played out the idea that she would really leave Galderia someday. Even when she brought it up before, I didn't think about what it would be like when she finally left.
"I don't want to lose you either, but you're right to want to go home," I said. "Your family, your friends, Sydney, I'm sure they all miss you."
"What about your family?"
I shook my head and it was clear she knew I meant they'd passed away.
"Brothers? Sisters?" she said.
"I'm an only child." I headed off her next question. "And I was too busy with work and school to keep any close friends."
"That's sad."
"Maybe, but I didn't notice at the time." I glanced back to where Alara and the others had gone down the slope out of sight. "But here it's different." I looked down at myself. "I'm different."
"Well," she said. "I'm happy for you, that you have so much here. But I was kinda into you before you changed." She looked at my chest for a split second. "Not that it isn't nice."
"Thanks. I'm pretty sure you know I was into you too, back in Austin."
She laughed. "You were into my body."
I laughed with her. "I almost was, there in my apartment." I looked up and around. "Until all this happened."
She looked around too. "Yeah. Fucking weird, huh?"
"Yeah." I nodded.
She touched the side of my face and leaned in a little closer. "I wish you could go home with me."
"I don't think that's possible. If it is, I don't know how."
"Will you promise me one thing?"
"What's that?"
"If you ever find a way to return, you'll at least think about it?"
Wow. She really is into me. No denying I'm drawn to her too.
"I promise."
"Good," she said. "Now, you've got a job to do."
I looked back toward where Alara and the others had been. "Yeah. Not looking forward to it."
She gently slapped my cheek. "I meant right here, you stud."
I felt my face warm. "Oh, right. That I'm up for."
"Oh?" She reached down and placed her hand around my manhood.
I stared at her breasts, well, at her shirt where her breasts were.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"It's just that I've never seen them before, but you have no idea how many times in class I've thought them."
And Sydney's. I knew not to say that, though.
"Now's your chance," she said. "Oh, and I'll let you in on a little secret."
"What's that?"
"I knew."
"You knew?"
"Yeah. Why do you think Sydney and I wore those boobsy outfits?"
"New favorite word," I said.
She looked puzzled.
"Boobsy," I said. "Thanks for that."
"You know what's better than that?"
I was wide-eyed, waiting for her to tell me.
"These," she said, pulling off her shirt.
She was right. I could tell, even with her bra still on.
As I stared at the glory that was one of the finalists in the Best Boobs contest I'd held back in our college class—in my head—she went a step further, bribing the judge. She didn't bother to reach around to undo the clasp of her bra, which was one of those soft girlie-looking ones that only covered the bottom half of her breasts. Instead, she put her fingers on the bottom edge of the runneth-over cups and pulled them up and away from her boobs for the win.
I stared at her magnificent breasts, the power of speech only coming back to me after a few seconds. "So much better than boobsy."
"I'm glad you like them," she said. "Now…" She looked past my head, apparently making sure the others had gone far enough away from us. "Why don't we finish what we started back in your apartment?"
I took off my shirt and then paused to watch her remove her pants and underwear. I appreciated her sense of style below, classy, understated, just enough to paint the way.
"Your turn," she said.
I looked down and realized I hadn't finished undressing. I'd been mesmerized at seeing what I'd only imagined for so long.
She waited patiently while I took off my boots and pants and undershorts. Then she looked behind her at the ground. "Well, it's not the best spot. Is it?"
I had no idea. The quality of the ground hadn't crossed my mind. All I could think about was her naked body and how much I wanted her on me, or me on her. I wasn't going to be picky.
"You know what?" she said.
I shook my head, waiting for our naked embrace, but I forced myself to wait for her words to come out, in case she had some directions for me, or something.
"You're a big strong guy now." She looked at my arms. "I bet you wouldn't have any trouble holding me. Would you?"
I glanced at my arms. Before I could think, say, or do anything else, she jumped on me, landing on me just above my waist and wrapping her legs around me. I instinctively grabbed her thighs, and she put her arms around my neck.
"There," she said. "I'm not too heavy. Am I?"
I shook my head. It wasn't difficult at all to hold her thanks to my new herculean body.
"Good." She glanced down between us. "I can feel you're ready down there."
I was. Very ready.
She rocked her ass back and forth and squirmed a little to get herself into position. I felt us line up nicely and she must have too, because she eased herself down onto me.
I felt a giant grin stretch across my face, but I couldn't have stopped it if I'd tried.
She kissed me and licked me with the tip of her tongue as she pulled her lips back. "Give it to me, Den."
When I heard her use my new name, it made me feel good somehow…or maybe I was confusing that with the fact that her naked body was pressed against mine and she was undulating from her waist down, rolling and rocking her hips and pressing her ass into my hands which I'd shifted up f
rom her thighs.
I widened my stance to keep steady myself, as she worked herself over me on onto me. We carried on like that until both our bodies were dripping with sweat. I was leaning back at least a couple feet and she pressed her hands down onto my abs to help bounce herself up and down until both of us finally cried out in ecstasy. I caught a glimpse of her eyes as we looked at one another. Then she vanished.
Chapter 20
None of us said anything for the first minute as we began the trek back across the plains toward the distant tower. I felt stronger than I had in several days, and I knew that was from Monica releasing the magical energy from her body, returning it to me just as she returned to Earth. I didn't mention how good I felt physically. I didn't think to do so would be appropriate, given we'd just lost her—though she was safe in Austin now—and given the fact we were on our way to attempt a rescue which I knew might be too little too late for the young Balinite's father.
Besides, when Monica opened up to me just before we did the deed, it made me acknowledge the depth of my feelings for her. She'd grown on me, since the days I'd merely ogled her breasts in class. Seeing her up close over the last many miles, doing her part to help me and the rest of us, made me look deeper than her beautiful exterior. So, as we walked through the tall grass toward the tower of doom Alara warned us to avoid, I felt a little sad she wasn't with us.
"Where's your friend," Gulny said.
I glared at him.
"She's not coming," Alara said.
"Oh." He raised his hand in front of him as if he was about to ask another question.
"No." Alara put her hand on his and pushed it down. "You don't need to ask anything else."
We walked through the grass for quite a while without anyone talking. I suspected everyone's thoughts were on the unknown danger the tower held waiting for us. The sun's light gave me comfort, as I clung to the idea that the giant spiders preferred to stay in the darkness of the thick forest. Still, I wondered if they'd make an exception for us. I kept a close watch all around us as we went, even checking behind us occasionally.
"So," I asked Gulny. "Is there a way in aside from knocking on the front door?"
"Show him the parchment," Alara said.
He pulled out a rolled up piece of paper, or parchment, I guess it was, from a hard leather tube tied by a leather strap to his belt, opposite his short sword. We stopped and he unrolled it and held it open with both hands for me to see.
"What exactly am I looking at?" I said. There was a rough sketch of the tower taking up the center third of the parchment. Around it were several symbols, such as those found on the key of an old map, but I didn't know what any of them meant. Each of them had a line drawn from it back to some point on the tower.
"I can read them," Tara said. She pointed to one of the symbols. "This is a water feed. There must be a spring underneath or nearby."
"That's right," Gulny said.
She pointed to another symbol. "And this is one of the foundation stones." She looked up at me. "Supports they placed under the tower. It's a builder's drawing."
"And it shows us a way inside." Gulny pointed to what looked like a small opening at the base, opposite the door. "I think it's a ventilation shaft."
What is this, Die Hard? I shook my head. And we know that didn't go so well.
Nithia peered over Tara's shoulder. "Oh, I see." She looked up at the tower, then back at the parchment. "Wait. Are you sure that's for this tower?"
"What do you mean?"I asked, comparing the distant tower with the drawing. "Oh, right. The top. And the windows."
"My father got this drawing from a reliable source in Hyrin," Gulny said. "And that tower is exactly where they said it would be."
"No, they're right," Alara said. "Look." She placed a finger on the drawing and pointed with her other hand to the tower across the field. "It's not the same tower."
"Maybe they rebuilt," Nithia said. "Or added on over the years."
"So, we have a drawing your dad got from a guy, who knew a guy, who worked for some lady, whose friend said this tower might be something like the one in your picture. Great."
When I stopped staring at the drawing and talking, everyone was silent, so I looked up at them.
"Sorry," I said, seeing everyone staring at me. "I got a little carried away. It was a movie…I mean a story I heard once. It was funny."
They kept staring at me.
"Okay, then," I said, looking toward the tower. "Let's give it a try. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky."
Gulny put away the drawing and we carried on toward the tower, eventually getting close enough to make me concerned about someone spotting us from one of the tower's windows.
We decided to take a path which took us out wide, away from the front of the tower, which had two of the three visible windows. The bottom third of the tower still sat in relative darkness. The sun hadn't entirely risen above the trees at the far end of the plains behind us.
"We need to move fast," I said, crouching like everyone else, using the high grass as partial cover. "When daylight fills this area, we'll be too easy to spot."
Alara and Tara nodded, and I gestured for everyone to follow me, hoping they could keep up. As best we could while staying low, we ran the arc I'd decided was necessary to keep anyone looking out one of the tower's windows from seeing us. Stealth felt more difficult, or at least troublesome, than swinging my sword at someone, but I had the others to think about, and unknown sorcery loomed over us.
We saw a silhouette appear in the window near the top of the tower. We ducked down as low as possible, staying still and silent. I watched the figure through the tall thick chest-high grass. I couldn't see if it was Ms. Thompson.
She must've landed near here to end up in there. I thought about how I was the lucky one, being transported directly—or almost directly—into Alara's and Nithia's arms. And their charms. I recalled that Monica and Sydney were dropped into the hands of Saber-Kong and Victoria into the clutches of Ruja Kurg. Was it just fate, or luck which dealt my hand so good and theirs so bad, I wondered.
"Okay, I whispered," they're gone. "Let's move, but stay low."
We made our way around to the side of the tower, finding a shallow at the base, where the dirt had been cleared out between two large otherwise buried stone blocks—footings for the tower itself. Heavy wood beams stood vertically between the two large foundation stones. The bottoms of the wooden posts were buried in the dirt of the shallow and their tops terminated into horizontal beams. I saw faint light shining through the cracks of those beams.
"It's the floor," I said, keeping my voice low. I looked back to the others. Gulny was grinning. "Okay," I said. "You were right. Good job."
"So, what do we do?" Nithia asked.
I knew I could bust through the wood flooring. It looked old and worn out, but we were in stealth mode for a good reason. So, I didn't want to be rash.
"Tara," I said, "I'll lift you up. See if you can see through one of the cracks. See if anyone is in that room."
She nodded and squeezed past the others. She leaned over to my ear before I hoisted her up. "Make sure you get a good grip on my ass. I wouldn't want you to drop me." She drew her head back from my ear and raised her eyebrows at me.
"Keep it up and I'll drop you right here," I said.
Alara cleared her throat.
I turned around to her. "Sorry." I glanced to Gulny. He either hadn't heard Tara or had enough sense to keep it to himself.
"Hurry up," Nithia said, looking out toward the field and around the stone support which hid us all.
I clasped my hands and held them in front of me to form a step for Tara. She put her foot on my hands, then climbed up onto my shoulders. It took her a second to move herself around so her crotch wasn't in my face. It took me a few more seconds to remember what I was supposed to be doing after that. When I broke free from the spell of her scent, I took hold of her knees to support her and stepped onto the highest spot on t
he ground beneath the horizontal wood boards.
I couldn't tilt my head to see what she was doing, but after a few seconds of feeling her weight shift a little on my shoulders I asked, "See anyone?"
She didn't answer, but I felt her squirm, then her thighs tightened against my neck and the sides of my head as she raised herself up a little, placing her hand on top of my head for support. A moment later, I felt her legs loosen from my neck and her ass come down on me behind my head. She tapped me on my forehead. "Okay. Bring me down."
I went down to my knees and bent forward, so she could slide off me. I was slow to get up, rubbing my neck as I did.
She looked at me. "You okay?"
"I've had better," I said.
"Hmph." She gave me a pouting face, but I knew she was pretending.
"Anyone up there?" Alara asked.
Tara shook her head. "It looks like a cellar, but it's mostly empty. I think. It's really dark."
Nithia leaned back from the edge of the massive stone foundation block. "Are you sure there's no one?"
Tara shrugged. "I didn't hear anyone. And, I could make out most of what was in the room, just not the details."
"It's our best shot," I said. "Unless someone wants to go ring the doorbell."
"They have a bell?" Nithia said.
I shook my head. "I meant knock."
I decided to risk knocking loose one of the posts, so we could use it to climb up high enough to get reach the flooring.
"Stand back everyone." I waved my hand to indicate they should move out from under the tower, just in case taking out one of the posts ended up being a worse idea than I planned.
They moved back, and, after a moment to gird myself, I charged the post, slamming into it with my shoulder.
It broke clean through where I hit it and cracked both at the connection to the underside of the flooring above us and near the ground, pushing both the long top piece and the shorter bottom section forward. The break made a loud noise, but I counted on the thick stone and the dirt below—all of which formed a sort of cave-like enclosure—to absorb the sound, keeping anyone in the tower above from hearing our break-in attempt. The top piece clung to the horizontal beams, which were also busted now—like I'd hoped would happen. I'd stopped myself with my arms before plowing into the massive foundation stone. My shoulder hurt. I moved it and determined it was at most bruised.
Swing and Thrust: A Harem Fantasy (Sword and Sorority Book 2) Page 14