Kail rolled his eyes and looked at Tion. “He really can’t be that dumb, can he?” Before Tion could reply, he turned to look at Conway. “You stay here and keep us safe, dummy. You are as big as a house, after all.” Mock irritation dripped from his voice and briefly stained the quilt that covered the bed before it evaporated. Kail pushed Tion over and scooted out of the way to make room. He patted the empty space between them. “And since you didn’t have sense enough to stoke the fire, you can keep us warm too.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want—”
Green fire flashed in the dim room as Kail growled.
“Best do as he says, Conway,” Tion interjected. “You know how he gets.”
Conway nodded and came back to the bed. He set the lamp down and stripped quickly before climbing gingerly over Tion. As he settled back, Tion drew the quilt up to Conway’s chin and slipped his arm across the human’s broad expanse of chest. He could feel Conway’s rapidly beating heart slow down just as Kail’s hand met his beneath the covers. Tion clasped it and felt his own heart all but burst with love and pride for his partner. The glow it produced bathed and mingled with similar light from his bedmates, and he settled back happily into the crook of Conway’s arm. Kail did the same, and Conway sighed deeply.
“Thanks, guys.”
Kail squeezed Tion’s hand, and the mutual glow brightened. “Go to sleep, Oaf.”
“Yes, Kail.”
“Why did you do it?” Tion asked. Conway had risen early to stack firewood for the kitchen as part of his daily chores, leaving the sprites to start their day a bit later.
“Do what?” Kail asked, nipping at Tion’s right ear.
“Don’t be an ass. You know perfectly well what.” Tion rolled on top of Kail and ground their hips together. Kail wrapped his arms around his partner’s waist and held him close.
“Yeah, I know,” Kail replied, burying his face against Tion’s neck. “But I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.”
Tion raised himself up on his forearms and stared down into his partner’s face. He arched his back and slowly slid his dick along the length of Kail’s stomach. “Well, I am asking, and if you want this to be anything more than a reminder of what you’re missing, you’ll answer.”
Kail shuddered and grabbed Tion’s butt. “Okay, I’ll answer!” he said, laughing. “Just don’t leave.”
Tion relaxed against Kail’s chest with a sigh. After a long moment of silence, he said, “Well? Are you going to tell me?”
Kail nodded silently, biting his lip. “It’s because I realized he’s braver than I am.”
Tion lifted his head, surprised. “What?”
“Don’t rub it in, Tion,” Kail grumped. “It’s just that he admitted he was afraid, which is more than I’ve been able to do.”
Tion lay his head back down and snugged his arms along Kail’s body. “Do you have any idea how much I love you right now, mister?”
“Hopefully enough to fuck me into the middle of next week,” Kail said… hopefully.
Tion lifted his head again, surprise written in large letters across his forehead. “Wait, what? You want to catch this time?”
Kail nodded, kissing the letters away. “Yeah. I’m feeling all girly right now.”
Tion laughed. “I’ll have you know it takes a real sprite to take it up the ass,” he said, planting kisses along Kail’s body as he worked his way down. Tiny roses sprang up on Kail’s chest and stomach, and he laughed. “That tickles,” he said as he brushed them away.
“Does this?” Tion settled himself between Kail’s legs, pushing them apart to make room. He bent his head and enveloped Kail’s dick with the heat of his mouth. Kail’s back arched, and Tion swallowed him down.
“Oh! I… ah… no!” Kail cried as Tion licked and slathered his partner’s straining dick. His head bobbed, alternately sucking and blowing cool air, making Kail buck and writhe.
“I didn’t think so,” Tion said, pushing Kail’s knees to his chest. “How about this?” He tilted his head to snuffle Kail’s balls out of the way before lapping at his partner’s pink, inviting hole.
“Oh, shit, no!” Kail cried out and grabbed his knees, opening himself wider to Tion’s attention.
Tion snorted with laughter as he opened the little jar Kail had used on him the night before. “Bad choice of words, Kail.” He slathered pale blue cream on his dick and spread the excess across Kail’s hole, sliding a couple of fingers in and out as he teased his partner’s southern sentry into submission. “Are you ready?”
“Are you kidding?” Kail spread his legs wide, and Tion settled himself closer. When the head of his dick touched Kail’s colorful pucker, his partner gasped, clutched at his arms. and wrapped his legs around Tion’s waist. “Fuck me, Tion. Fuck me into next week.”
Tion pressed his advantage, sliding himself slowly into Kail’s body. Kail clutched harder and snarled. “Get in here, Boy. I’m not a fucking virgin.” Lust suffused his skin as he dug his heels into Tion’s ass, begging him forward.
Tion snapped his hips and slammed his dick home. Kail shuddered and bucked as Tion thrust himself in and out, almost to the point of escape before slamming home again. Kail spread his knees and dug his heels into the cleft of Tion’s ass, driving him deeper. Tion settled his weight against Kail’s stomach, capturing and compressing his dick between them.
The rhythm they set pummeled the bed to creaking protest, punctuated by Kail’s grunts each time Tion’s dick rang the bell buried deep inside his body, and Tion felt the jerky spasms clutching at his cock that signaled Kail’s imminent release.
“Wait for me, Kail!” Tion cried out, flexing his butt faster. He felt color spread out from his hips and his chest, pale in the early morning light, and saw Kail’s color do the same. When their combined glow deepened to a dark rose, both sprites howled out their release, each clutching the other as they rode out the combined lovequake of their mutual reward.
Just as their bodies inevitably relaxed and Tion collapsed atop his love, someone screamed downstairs.
Tion tensed, but Kail held him close. “Never mind. It’s just Tildie, the cook. She probably saw a mouse.” Tion grinned and relaxed. Tildie’s fear of mice was a legend quickly learned. He kissed Kail’s cheeks and chin before centering on his lips.
They were still kissing when the door burst open and Conway charged the room. “It’s the woof! It’s the woof!”
6
Despite the obvious fear playing across his face, Conway blushed when Tion and Kail came downstairs. “Gee, guys, I’m sorry.”
Tion waved the sentiment away. “Never mind that, what about the woof?”
Conway nodded to a cluster of men sitting around a table near the fireplace. “The big one found a body this morning. He says it was the work of the woof.”
“How does he know that?” Kail demanded.
“Because the man’s face was missing.”
Tion saw Kail shudder and moved to stand closer. “Who was it, Conway?”
“Tildie’s husband, Tick. They’ve been together forever.”
Tion nodded. “Where is she now?”
“Em took her upstairs. She screamed when she heard the news.”
“We heard,” Kail said, and his eyes flashed. “What are they gonna do about it?”
Conway shook his head. “Nothing we can do, except stay out of the forest until the moon is bright again.”
“What do you mean, ‘we’?” Kail snapped. We’re just passing through, remember?”
Tion touched his partner’s arm, sliding his hand against the fine hairs and smoothing them down again. “Kail, he thinks we’re trapped here.”
“Why? We travel during the day and hole up at night. What’s the big deal?” Kail’s voice rose as he shouted.
Conway winced, but he held his gaze steady. “Kail, Tick was alive this morning when Tildie came to open the kitchen. He was milking their cow when she left.”
“But you said… I thought… Marvin….”
Kail seemed to deflate as understanding broke the dam of his resolve. “That’s not normal, is it? Normal for a woof, I mean?”
“No, lad.” Marvin came from behind them carrying a tray and pitcher. “In all the months since the woof came to plague us, it only hunted for three dark nights, and never anywhere but in the forest, until now.” He gestured with his tray toward the table, sloshing ale from his pitcher and splashing Kail’s head. “Come sit with us. Maybe you c’n add a bit to the discussion, bein’ magical creatures an’ all.”
Kail snorted. “The Oaf here is more magical than me, and he doesn't even believe it,” he said, mopping the dripping ale from his face and licking his fingers. He followed Marvin and sat down, a small angry sprite dwarfed by large humans. Except that Tion also knew he was a small frightened sprite, and his heart swelled for his partner’s bravery.
“I hope I find somebody like that someday.”
Tion started, shaken from his reverie by Conway’s comment. “Somebody like what?”
“Somebody who looks at me that way you look at him,” Conway said, tipping his head toward Kail.
Tion grinned. “He’s pretty damn special, despite his faults.” He gave Conway a one-armed hug and added, “So are you, you know. You’ll find someone someday, I know it.”
Conway looked down at Tion, his face a mixture of fear, embarrassment, and sadness. “I hope so, Tion. I hope we live that long.”
“It’s the woof! It’s the woof!”
The discussion around the table fell away to silence when a tow-headed human boy threw open the door of the inn and shouted. Bright sunlight streamed in around him, filling the room as he stood just outside the threshold.
“What are you on about, Aaron?” A beefy man half stood to glare at the boy. “Your papa is gonna tan your hide for telling woof tales again.”
“No, honest, Mr. Fribblehoff! Papa said to come get you, but yer Missus said you were here, and I can’t come in because I’m not old enough.”
Marvin gestured for the boy. “Get on in here, Aaron. We’ll make an exception this time, but if this is another one of your stories….” His fierce scowl gave the implied threat enough weight to make the boy tremble indecisively.
“Honestly! It’s times like this I’m glad we’ve no more childer of our own,” Em said, bustling in from the kitchen and taking the boy’s hand. “Stop beatin’ on him, Marvin. Can’t you see he’s afraid?” She led the boy over to a bench beside the fireplace, snatching a couple of scones and glaring at her husband as she passed the table. “Here now, Aaron. You get yourself on the outside of these and tell us all about it.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Aaron said, shaking his head, “but I have to find the butcher too. Papa wants him to look at something he found.”
“I’m right here, boy.” A skinny fellow stood up from the table. “What does he want me to see?”
“I dunno, sir. Papa found it floating in the mill stream.” Aaron bit into a scone. “I think he’s hoping you could tell what it is,” he said around a mouthful of crumbs.
“And he thinks the woof had something to do with it?”
Aaron nodded, wide-eyed. “I think it’s part of an arm, but Papa yelled at me to get going so I didn’t get a real good look.”
Em gasped, and the butcher blanched. The rest of the men stood up, alarmed.
Kail struggled out from between the forest of bodies. “Are you sure, kid?”
Aaron nodded again, still wide-eyed.
“That settles it, then,” Marvin said. “Em, you go around the square and see if anybody’s missin’. We’ll take Aaron here back home wit’ us.” He looked at Conway. “I can’t ask it of ya, being a guest and all, but I’d be happy to know you’d go with her, make sure she’s safe an’ such.”
Conway glanced at Tion, who nodded. “Of course.” He lifted the heavy frying pan from its peg. “Just in case,” he said.
As the men clustered and filed out the door, Marvin turned to Kail. “You two coming? Bein’ magical and all, I mean?”
Kail scowled. “You keep saying that, don’t you.” He turned to find his partner standing behind him. “Tee?”
“Behind you all the way, lad. Let’s go.”
Kail nodded and followed Marvin out the door. Tion paused at the door long enough to look at Conway. “Keep the missus safe, Conway. I’m counting on you.”
Conway straightened his shoulders and hefted the skillet. “I’m on it.”
“Good man.” Tion ran to catch up with Kail.
Tion winced at the sound of a bare hand paddling boy butt as he and Kail exited the small dooryard of the Miller’s cottage and followed Marvin and the village men along the path leading to the square.
“Stupid kid,” Kail muttered. “That was no arm.”
“Obviously,” Tion replied, unaccountably irritated by his partner’s callousness. “But don’t you think that at a glance an imaginative boy might see it that way?”
Kail chuckled. “Sounds like his father’ll take care of his imagination.” Aaron’s wails were still clearly audible. “Kids,” he added, shaking his head.
Tion punched Kail’s arm, not lightly.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“For being an insensitive jerk!” Tion said.
“Me? I’m just minding my own business, walking along, and all of a sudden you slug me. Where’s your sensitivity, mister?”
Martin looked back over his shoulder at the bickering sprites. “Do I have to separate you two?”
Whatever reply the sprites might have made was overwhelmed by a loud crashing through the underbrush, followed by very human shouts of fear and pain. The villagers scattered like quail as something huge and hairy charged through them, knocking men aside with left and right swipes of its head as it thundered across the path. The limp body of a man Tion identified as the tanner flew through the air and landed on Kail, crushing him to the ground as easily as he might have crushed a flower.
“Kail!” Tion shouted, running to his partner’s side. “Kail, get up!” He tugged at the sprite’s arm, then gave up and began pushing at the dead weight of the human instead, trying to roll the body over. Kail groaned, and the sound was lost amidst the dwindling shouts and screams as the villagers scattered through the trees, every man for himself.
Tion pushed the tanner’s body over and bent to pull Kail to his feet. “Get up, Kail,” he hissed. “We have to get out of here!” As he straightened, drawing Kail to his feet, he saw the woof clearly for the first time.
It had stopped chasing villagers and stood in the middle of the path, swinging its head from side to side as though satisfied with the carnage it had caused. Huge shoulders dwarfed small hindquarters and supported a head easily as large as the sprites. Croggled teeth dripped foam and blood, and its elongated snout sniffed the air. Dank, shaggy fur swung as it turned in a slow circle, and Tion watched, horrified, as it carelessly flipped one of the village men over onto his back. The man’s single scream was cut off as the woof casually opened its mouth and bit his face off.
“Oh shit.” Kail’s voice was lifeless and defeated as he clutched at Tion. “I guess that really was an arm after all. Stupid kid.”
Tion nodded wordlessly, unable to tear his eyes away as the beast lifted its muzzle and howled at the sky. It lowered its head and licked the blood from its chops, and Tion clearly saw its hackles raise as it sniffed the air again. Slowly it turned its great head and stared directly at him. Malevolent red fire dripped from the woof’s eyes as it advanced on the sprites. Tiny licks of flame flared and died where the drips struck the ground. Tion saw the muscles of its shoulders flex and tighten as the woof paused and crouched, getting ready to pounce.
“I love you, Kail,” Tion said just as the beast sprang frighteningly high into the air. He pushed Kail away, hard, scant seconds before the animal could crash down upon them both.
“Hold!”
The word was impossibly loud, and Tion clapped his hands over his ears to block out
the sound. Only then did he realize he could clap his hands over his ears, and he opened his eyes cautiously, more than a little surprised he wasn’t seeing the world from the inside of a ravening woof.
“By the gods, boy, get your ass in gear! I can’t hold this fecking thing much longer!”
Startled, Tion turned to see a ragged-looking man holding his hands out before him. Blue light speared out from his palms and coalesced to a point above his head. He looked up to see the woof, caught as if frozen in blue ice directly above him. A single drop of malevolent red fire splashed his shoulder, and he yelped and ran.
“Tion!” Kail cried out, and Tion pivoted toward the sound of his voice. He crouched beside Kail, and together they watched as the man raised his hands, sweat pouring from his face in rivers, and the huge woof rose higher into the air. Sharply, the man dropped his arms, and the woof followed. The icy blue light shattered as the woof crashed headfirst into the ground. Its rigid body sagged bonelessly, and the red fire in its eyes extinguished.
Conway's Curse Page 4