“I’m fine, I’m here. I won’t leave you.”
Gwen shook and cried, and clung to me as I held her and rubbed her back and sides. My ardor which had been close to the boiling point from that kiss, backed off as it was slightly displaced by concern, caring, and a deep protective feeling that rose in my chest.
My heart was pounding, as she claimed another kiss. This one more languid, drawn out, yet just as passionate, just with far softer and sweeter emotions.
“I’m sorry.”
She slid to the side and off my body, and then cuddled into me and I held her gently and started to caress her hair. The look in her gorgeous green eyes told me the commitment we shared to wait and be sure was hanging by a thread. Both of us wanted the sweet embrace our passion had so clearly offered, but something held her back, and held me back. If either of us faltered and made a move, I was sure the other would be swept away by the tide. We were at the limits of our resistance, but I resisted the impulse born of powerful instinct, shallow emotion, and lustful chemistry.
I didn’t want our first time, or our decision to sleep together for the first time, to be decided by an instinctual and powerful need for comfort. She was vulnerable in that moment, and not taking advantage of it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. She was so beautiful, sexy, and vibrant, and not just on the outside. The clear desire in her eyes for me made that even more powerful. My body was certainly on board with that plan, but my heart and mind resisted.
I wanted our first time together to be based on our love, and a future that we saw travelling together. Not a desperate coupling based on a need to feel alive and forget something horrible. I was sure that would happen in the future again, a need to make love and experience a joining merely to cry out against the dark and in a desperate affirmation of life. And that was okay, in the future we could give into that need, it was even normal… just, not for our first time. I knew we’d both regret it in the morning, if we gave in to it now.
She said, “I’m sorry, I know it doesn’t make sense. It was so awful. I knew you’d be back. But… you were burned, blackened, and the smell of it drove it home. Your… eyes, they were empty. There was more than that too, when we retrieved your gear… it was so visceral. I felt like I’d lost a piece of myself, and I feared you’d never be back.”
I held her and kissed the top of her head, while I played with her hair and massaged her back. Her hand too, was busy running over my chest, down my arm, and up over my face. The look in her eyes was vulnerable, and her slightly parted lips looked eminently kissable. But I refrained, afraid that would be the final straw so to speak.
“I’ll always come back,” I whispered in promise.
She giggle-sobbed, “You’d better. Just hold me please.”
“As long as you want…”
I sure as hell didn’t mind holding her. Even if it was frustrating on one base level, her body in my arms filled me with so many positive emotions and feelings it was hard to sort it all out. I just knew I was falling for her, and falling hard…
Chapter Twenty
When I woke up the next morning, it was to chestnut hair in my face, with my arm around her body and resting on her stomach, as we spooned. We must have fallen asleep last night before she moved back to her bed, but I couldn’t quite figure out how we got into that position, because last I remembered she had her head on my shoulder with me on my back. I… we, must have done it in our sleep.
She made cute noises as I sat up, and I couldn’t help but watch her sleep for a few moments. She was breathtaking, lissome, cute, strong willed and powerful, but not afraid to show vulnerability. What exactly was I waiting for? I don’t mean the sex, I meant I was falling for her hard. It was hard to imagine my life without her in it. Sure, we’d only known each other for a week, but we were around each other constantly, supporting each other, protecting each other. It was… intense, not like dating in the other world, where it would take months to get to the same place, or even spend the same amount of time together.
I’d been holding back, waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for her to stop putting her best foot forward. But… I started to think that wouldn’t happen. She wasn’t perfect, no one was, but it was also impossible to hide who we really were from each other. Not under so much pressure, and not when we spent almost every minute together. I already knew who she was.
I already loved her. Forget falling, I’d already landed on my nose. It was such a simple realization, but one that filled me with tenderness and awe.
I pushed all that down, and crossed my legs as I sat up. After ten seconds of staring I’d started to feel like a creep, so… time for some meditation…
“Good morning.”
She blushed, but her smile was wide and she boldly held my eyes.
“Oops?”
I snickered, and leaned down to steal a kiss.
“Do you really think I minded?”
She bit her lip, “Maybe not, but I don’t want to be a tease, to either of us.”
I smiled, and considered telling her how I felt, but the time didn’t feel right. Maybe I overthought things too much, but her embarrassment about sleeping against me all night didn’t exactly make a romantic moment.
“I know, but you needed me last night, and I needed you. So, don’t worry about it. Breakfast?”
I got up, and slipped on my robes, rings, and amulet. When I turned back to her she was staring.
“Gwen?”
She asked, “You needed me?”
I nodded, “Why so surprised.”
She tilted her head, “You were a perfect gentleman…” she trailed off.
I grinned, “Our first time won’t be because of overwrought emotions, and vulnerability.”
Her eyes narrowed in mock annoyance, “You sound very sure of yourself.”
I supposed my comment had been a bit too sure, considering she hadn’t invited me into her bed yet in that way. I decided to bluff.
I winked, “Of course, you can’t possibly resist me.”
She laughed, but she didn’t deny it.
I shrugged, and said in a more serious tone, “More sure of us, than of me.”
Her eyes widened, and then softened. She got out of bed and started to put on her armor, I helped her put on the bracers as usual. Her breath caught, when I gathered her voluminous chestnut curls, and held her hair up as she put on her amulet.
She said, “I still wonder, since I’m the only woman in sight.”
I spun her around, and kissed her forehead, “I don’t.”
She smirked, “There you go again, sounding so sure.”
Oh, screw it. It was killing me to keep it inside. My heart started to pound both in excitement and fear of rejection as I opened my mouth.
“I love you Gwen, and as long as you’ll have me by your side, there will never be another, could never be another. I’ve never met another woman like you, and you’re everything I didn’t know I needed.”
Her breath caught, and several emotions flashed across her face. Her mouth opened, closed, and then she lunged.
Somehow, I was on the floor on my back, and she was kissing me. Her tackling me was becoming a habit.
“Violent woman,” I half-heartedly accused as the kiss broke, my wide grin belying my words. It was more than apparent, that my words and sincerity had assuaged her doubts, at least for the moment.
She said breathily, “I love you too, but I didn’t realize it until yesterday. You also have horrible timing.”
She got up, and I got to my feet as well.
“I do?”
She nodded, and said teasingly, “You should have said it last night, think of all the fun we could’ve had, and we don’t have time this morning.”
Then she winked at me saucily, and strutted out of the cottage. Damn, she was so amazing, there also wouldn’t be any dull moments. I also didn’t think she was serious, last night wasn’t the time for it, but I was pretty sure our relationship was going to
the next level later that night. That idea kind of scrambled my brains, and I followed her out the door, and over to the firepit.
There were tables and chairs out there now, about ten feet from the large fire pit and smoker. It had a wood floor too, with several poles to support the roof covering. I gathered up some breakfast on a plate, and joined Gwen at the table.
We all said our good mornings, and chatted about day to day stuff. Gwen who had slowly lost her reserve from the beginning, and had started to occasionally touch my arm or side, was rather more physically affectionate and demonstrative than ever before. As if my words, and the depth of my commitment had smashed down the final walls she had up between us. She was… intoxicating in a word. We weren’t kissing or anything like that, not in front of the others, but whenever her hand had a spare moment she was touching me somewhere. I enjoyed it a great deal.
The others obviously noticed it, but no one commented on it. Although, if the look in Lyre’s eyes meant anything, she’d be pulling Gwen aside to question her at the first opportunity. I’d grown a friendship between Lyre and I, but Gwen and her were even closer.
Once breakfast was finished, we took the time to clean up, and it wasn’t very long before Rylla showed up with her rolled up map. She joined us at the table, and unrolled it as she took a seat next to Wynn. It looked more complete than yesterday, and there were notations next to the undead cave we’d cleared out yesterday.
“Good morning,” Rylla said.
Wynn nodded, “Morning, what have you for us today?”
Rylla smiled, “Well, how about a slave mine and foundry?”
Wynn tilted his head, “Tell us.”
Rylla nodded, “As you know, a lot more elves were taken than were held at the cages by the cave. We’d assumed them dead, but last night we found a mine with a foundry outside, two miles west and a little north of the main tribal caves. The mine is filled with our people in chains, and they’re being forced to work. Right outside the mine is a large foundry to process the ore, where they’re separating the iron, and creating iron and steel ingots to be delivered to the main cave for their smiths to make weapons and arrow heads. We believe it’s the highest value target, we can rescue our enslaved people, and sabotage the mines and foundry to deny them more resources for weapons making.”
Wynn grunted, “That may make them attack full out.”
Rylla shrugged, “That’s kind of the point. We took away their undead capabilities, which would have dragged things out several months while they built up an undead army to assist them. If we destroy their weapon creation infrastructure, they won’t have a reason to hold back anymore. They’ll be less of them to face, at least fully armored or armed, and I thought we wanted to end the goblin’s generational threat as quickly as possible.”
Wynn nodded, “Agreed, that wasn’t an admonishment. If we’re successful, we can end this generations threat one way or the other in two or three more days.”
Rylla nodded, “The mine’s main entrance is on the south western side of the hill, which is all rocky terrain. Outside the main entrance about a hundred yards away, is the large foundry to purify and mold the metal into ingots. There is also a large barracks next to the foundry. From what we can tell, there are ninety goblins there in three shifts of thirty. One shift sleeping, one shift guarding in the mines and foundry, and the third shift doing who knows what goblins get up to in their time off. There is a second mine entrance on the western face, and we believe they’re connected.”
Gwen asked, “What about your people, where do they stay?”
Rylla sighed, “Chained to the wall in the mines. They sleep where they work on the stone floor. A few slaves are freed twice a day from their chains, and escorted with guards, to carry food, water, and a chamber pot so my people can eat, drink, and relieve themselves.”
Gwen’s face drained of blood, and her hand that had been caressing my leg tightened and her fingers dug deep into my flesh. It hurt, but I manfully ignored it.
Rylla smiled, picking up on her outraged tension.
“We’ll get them out.”
Wynn asked, “Anything else?”
Rylla shook her head.
Wynn nodded, “We need to be smart about this. I don’t particularly care for eighteen to one odds.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my mouth, and Lyre and Anlyth snickered.
Wynn grinned, “So phase one is simple enough, if we cause a ruckus we’ll be facing ninety goblins. Our best bet is sneaking into the barracks. It will probably be lightly guarded, one or two tops. No fire for this phase, or wind. Water, earth, and weapons should be subtle enough. No curses either Gwen, a war cry would be a bad idea. Point is, we need to get inside the barracks, and slit their throats in their sleep.”
That would work, sleeping and defenseless, deadly damage wouldn’t be an issue.
Lyre smirked, “Okay, down to twelve to one odds.”
Wynn sighed, “You didn’t used to be so cheeky.”
Lyre’s tinkling laugh was buoyant, “Just lucky I guess, Gwen’s a good influence.”
Wynn snickered when Gwen blushed and tried to look innocent.
“Alright, after those thirty are taken care of, we sneak back out and go to the mine next. If we make a racket outside, we’ll have the thirty off shift goblins on us fast, and others pouring out of the mine. That won’t work, we’ll be overwhelmed and forced to retreat. We need to invade the mine on the west entrance instead. There’ll be thirty goblins in there, but it will also be noisy as hell with a ton of elves beating on the walls with picks. That means we don’t have to face all thirty at once. They’ll be in smaller manageable groups. Not only that, but as we take them down, we can free our people and arm them with the dead goblin’s stuff.
“Assuming nothing at all goes wrong, which is a bad assumption, we’ll be leaving the mines with over a hundred-armed elves, and the thirty off shift goblins will be the ones outnumbered at that point. Okay, nice dream, but chances are that eventually we’ll be discovered, and those thirty goblins will join us in the mines to hunt us down. Still, thin passages will help us overcome greater numbers, and they will split up to find us.
“As long as the first phase of the plan goes quietly, and we take out the barrack’s goblins in their sleep, we should be okay, even if stuff starts to go south later on in the plan we can improvise. If things go wrong in the barracks, we’re going to have to abort. Any questions, or ideas?”
Rylla said, “The barracks and foundry are at least fifty yards away from any cover. There’s no way you can sneak up to it without magic. I suggest three of my people accompany you for that phase of your plan, and then escort you to the western entrance.”
Wynn asked, “Three?”
Rylla nodded, “Gwen should be able to conceal herself and one other. Any more than that and she’ll run out of mana too fast.”
Gwen asked, “You have the Darkness Sphere?”
Rylla grinned, “All my scouts do, it’s imperative for our duties, and it’s why we’re never caught snooping. We all have bow, darkness, and one other skill that varies between us.”
Wynn nodded, “Alright, do you need sleep first?”
Rylla shook her head, “It’ll only be few hours, we can wait that long. We’ll leave you at the west mine entrance.”
Wynn asked, “Anything else?”
We all shook our heads. The plan was bold, and more than a bit of a gamble, but I couldn’t think of anything better…
Chapter Twenty-One
The eight of us were on the edge of the woods. Rylla was among the three who had joined us, and the other two, Merith and Sarlia, were a couple that bickered the whole way there, in an amusing and bantering way. They were quiet now though, as we looked out from our cover across the field. There were two goblins by the door to the barracks, but there was a problem.
“The barracks door faces the foundry, even if we take them out quietly, the guards in the foundry will notice they’re missi
ng pretty fast. I suggest we ignore those guards, and go in through a window on the opposite side.”
Wynn said, “Good idea Jason, only problem is the shutters are closed, and probably secured.”
Lyre said, “Air attacks might be noisy, but I can suppress sounds as well if we need to tear it open. It’ll also make sure we don’t make noise climbing in.”
Wynn grunted, “And the light?”
Rylla said, “I’ll cast a wall of darkness inside, no goblins will see or wake up from the light.”
We all exchanged glances.
Wynn nodded, “Let’s do this. If anything goes wrong, run like your lives depend on it.”
Yeah, because they probably would.
Gwen took my hand.
Wynn barked in a whisper, “Go.”
Gwen’s magic reached out and shrouded the both of us from sight, hearing, and scent as we sprinted out into the field in full daylight. She was strong, but the spell took a lot of mana, and we didn’t have time to dawdle. I ran full out, knowing Gwen could easily keep up with my quickest pace, and we stopped underneath the first window of the barracks. We were against the back wall, which shielded us both from view of the foundry, and from the mine itself.
Lyre did her thing, and Wynn put his fingers under the lip of the shutters, and pulled. It probably would have been loud, but I didn’t hear a thing as something gave a few seconds later. The shutters snapped open, and I peeked in to see darkness.
One by one we hopped up, and pulled ourselves through the window. The latch was busted, but Wynn pulled the window shutters closed, and the sun was blocked. The inky wall of darkness disappeared, and we were all very silent. We were in one large room, with thirty bunks. They must have been hot bunking the three shifts, and sharing beds. Guttural snores and deep breathing filled the room.
It was a grisly and ugly task, but we all split up into four pairs. One person to hold down the body, while the second covered the goblin’s mouth and slit their throat. Cutting their throats deeply meant the sounds of screams would just be a gurgle, but the thrashing would be loud if we didn’t hold them down. No one wanted them to wake up prematurely.
Gaia's Gambit: Evolution Online I (A LitRPG) Page 20