Shipshape

by Trey Myr

  I was too close to see much below her chest, but I could glimpse toned abs and pale blue pubic hair. She only gave me a couple of minutes to look, and then her hands grabbed the back of my neck and pulled my head into her prodigious chest. She smelled of sweat and metal and a sweet musk that was different than a human woman’s and yet just as appealing, and my hands rose almost on their own to touch and grab and feel her. Her skin was smooth as silk and yielded just enough to feel soft over the iron hard muscle beneath, and she moaned in approval as I explored her.

  I got my feet under me and used the extra leverage to shove her on her back, and she laughed approvingly when I grabbed and squeezed her left breast and took the right nipple into my mouth.

  “Rougher!” she cried and her legs wrapped around me just below my shoulders, squeezing me with an almost crushing force. “I’m a lot tougher than your human girls, and you need to work if you want me to feel iiiiuuungh!” Her words trailed off into a moan when I caught her left nipple between my thumb and forefinger and twisted it while at the same time sucking hard on her right.

  Marjory threw her weight sideways and rolled us over, ending up with me on my back and her sitting on my chest and before I could get my bearing she moved up and her hot wet womanhood was in my face. I’d never had a woman sit on my face before, but I knew what she wanted, and set about to give it to her. I licked tentatively at her nether lips, and the enticing tangy taste, coupled to her approving moans, encouraged me to explore further. I grabbed Marjory’s large behind with both of my hands and lost myself completely in the feeling of her womanhood, licking at her channel and nub, guided by her moans, and before long I felt her start to shudder uncontrollably, and redoubled my efforts to extend her pleasure for as long as possible.

  She came down what felt like an eternity later, and immediately stood up and began to pull at my pants, revealing my rock hard erection. She wasted no time at all, not even enough to pull my pants all the way before she crouched down over me and grabbed my member with her hand to guide it inside her. She was hotter and tighter than any human woman I’d ever been with, but she was so wet that I slid inside up to my hilt with barely any effort.

  I took almost all my willpower not to finish immediately at the feel of her hot, tight channel around me, and if she’d kept moving I never would have lasted. But she stopped with me fully inside her and took a while to get used to the feeling of having me inside her, giving me precious seconds to get at least some control back.

  “Ooooh,” she moaned, and I could see that her eyes were closed as she savored the sensation. “Definitely bigger than a dwarf.”

  She rose up slowly until only my tip was still inside her, and then came down fast until I was once again all the way inside. Her slick tightness felt heavenly, and I moaned out loud.

  “Like that, do you?” she asked warmly, and repeated the maneuver.

  “Very much,” I managed to articulate, but that seemed to be the most coherent I could be at that moment.

  She laughed in joy and started to speed up, riding me faster and faster. I could see her massive breasts bouncing up and down as she moved, and managed to bring my hands up to grab and squeeze at them, earning me an approving moan from the beautiful dwarf. A moan that changed into a scream of pleasure as she came again when I twisted her nipples roughly.

  The sensation was getting too much for me, and I could feel the churning in my guts that told me I was getting very close to joining her.

  “I can’t hold off!” I managed to cry when Marjory came down from her high, and she quickly rose up, leaving me hanging out in the cold.

  Only for a few seconds though, since before I could even protest I was inside her equally warm mouth, and she was bobbing her head and sucking, and the combination was finally too much for me, and I lost myself to bliss when I felt myself start to fill her mouth with my seed.

  ✽✽✽

  There wasn’t actually room for two people in either my cabin or Marjory’s place in the hold, so we ended up staying on the deck.

  “This would have been a lot more comfortable in a bed in the Rukh,” Marjory admonished as she was lying next to me, her leg draped over my abdomen and her head resting on my chest.

  “You’ve been with Mable just two days before. I was sure you were into girls!”

  “So was I, but it turns out that what I’m really into is people without a bush on their faces.”

  “That’s...”

  “… a little problematic in a dwarf city, which is why I’ve mostly been with dwarf girls so far, and why I went after Mable first chance I got. Got to say though, now that I’ve tried both, I really do prefer male equipment, when it doesn’t come with a face tree.”

  We fell silent after that, just enjoying each other’s presence for a while longer, when Marjory suddenly said “If you’re the captain of the boat, and I’m the only officer aboard, does that make me the first mate?”

  “Ugh,” I groaned and flipped her so she was on her back and I was on top of her. “You’ll pay for that one!”

  It turns out that dwarves are very ticklish, and Marjory started giggling and squirming as she tried to escape. Not that she tried very hard, of course. She was more than strong enough to push me away if she was really trying. The giggling and squirming, however, caused certain parts of her to jiggle in a very enticing way, and before long I realized that I wasn’t quite as satiated as I thought.

  Chapter 10 - Raiders

  A while later. I ended up taking Marjory’s advice about the earthstone. I had the Sailor and four maxed out Deckhands, as well as a maxed out Archer, and after some quick calculations I thought I could make good use of the vim. I started by Unshaping one of the Deckhands, and using its vim and the earthstone to rank up a second one.

  The earth-aligned Sailor was slightly shorter than the regular one, but significantly broader and heavier. It was wearing leather armor and carried a thick wooden cudgel in addition to a heavier version of the Sailor’s cutlass. I didn’t know the precise capabilities of this version, but it was clearly more suited for battle than the unaligned Shape, and I had a feeling the Sailor would do a better job on the wheel, but that the new Shape, which I named ‘Marine’ would be superior on the arbalest.

  Ignoring Marjory’s admittedly justified smugness, I Unshaped two more Deckhands, and ranked up the maxed out Archer. This rank up wasn’t as exciting as the Deckhands’, since while I’d never actually seen the Longbowman Shape before, I knew precisely what to expect. The Archer, which had previously been dressed in a simple brown shirt and trousers and carrying a short bow grew slightly taller. Its simple shoes turned into knee-high boots and the simple leather bracer covering its left arm turned into a full long leather glove, matching the one that appeared on its right. The biggest change, however, was the longbow the newly ranked up Shape was holding.

  Longbowmen could shoot further than their rank I version and their arrows struck with enough force to punch through armor. They also had a far bigger reservoir of vim, and could therefore shoot more arrows before needing to rest.

  The Longbowman left me with precisely enough vim to Shape two new Deckhands and bring me back up to a more or less full crew. With the two new Deckhands manning the rigging, the Sailor at the wheel and the Marine ready at the arbalest, I was free to watch for targets and threats, and we left the giant ant nest behind us.

  After sailing in the ant ravaged section of the wilds, we were starting to run low on provisions, and Marjory wanted to check up on her brothers, so I turned the Swift’s bow in the direction of Gerald’s Rest. It took us a week to leave the ants’ hunting zone, and the first indication that we were getting close to Gerald’s Rest was the return of my old and familiar nemeses.

  The first indication I had that we were under attack was a screech from one of my Hawks, followed by my Longbowman shooting at something that was too far away for me to see. I’d placed it, along with one of the rank I Archers between the wheel and the mast, with the rema
ining two Archers between the mast and the aft cabin, and a few seconds after the Hawk’s screech, it drew its bow and loosed an arrow towards the Swift’s starboard bow. A second and then a third arrow followed the first, and then the Longbowman turned to port, and I could now see the flying lizard diving towards us.

  It never even got close. Between Marjory’s cannon, the Longbowman and the Archers, the warped beast was riddled with holes before I could even give the order to get out of its dive path. It almost seemed a waste of time to stop and drain the vim from the two warped, after fighting the ant nest a week earlier, but I still stopped the Swift and disembarked. We were still a week away from Gerald’s Rest, and I took the time to butcher one of the lizards. Their meat was far from being the best I’d ever had, but they were still better than the dry jerky we’d been eating lately.

  Neither Marjory nor I was in a real hurry to get back to town, and we took our time and hunted more of the lizards and the wolves which were still fairly plentiful. I was getting close to having enough vim to rank up another Archer when we finally saw the Outpost in the distance.

  Or, at least, what remained of the Outpost.

  The wall facing the wilds had been breached. I couldn’t see any evidence for siege weapons, which meant that whoever attacked the soldiers was accompanied by massive warped or Shapes. The keep inside had been torn down to the ground, by something that must have had incredible strength, and the bodies of dead soldiers were strewn about in the courtyard wherever they fell. I couldn’t tell how long had passed since the attack, but it was long enough that animals had been at the bodies and I could smell the stench of death from my place at the Swift’s wheel.

  I’d heard nothing of warped large enough to do the kind of damage needed to take down the wall and keep in the vicinity, and there was really only one reason for raiders to attack an Outpost. To clear the passage into the settled lands. My first urge was to just keep sailing, to get clear of the horrid stench and get to Gerald’s Rest, which was the most logical target for the raiders. But unlike the old-worlder bones I’d found in the ruins, these people were alive mere weeks ago. The soldier I talked to when I first entered the wilds could easily be one of them.

  Whoever did this would have gotten to Gerald’s Rest long before we found the Outpost, and whatever happened there was already finished, but I still didn’t want to wait too long, and Marjory was anxious to ensure that her brothers were all right. Eventually, we settled down on leaving two Deckhands behind to bury the bodies. I’d pick them back up on the way back, or at worse Unshape them and reclaim the vim, and we wouldn’t be leaving the soldiers’ bodies outside for longer than they’d already been.

  I did take the time to look at the scene more closely before we left, and it struck me that I couldn’t see any bodies except the soldiers’. Whoever was responsible for the destruction, they either lost nobody during the battle, or they took the time to dispose of their own dead. Or they were using Shapes as their entire force, and I really didn’t like the implications of a powerful Shaper attacking and destroying an Outpost.

  ✽✽✽

  When I first sailed in the direction of the wilds it took me two days to get from Gerald’s Rest to the Outpost, but I was feeling a sense of urgency, and with the Sailor to take the wheel we could sail at night as easily as we could during the day, so by morning of the day after we found the Outpost we could see the walls of Gerald’s Rest. Even from far away, I could see that the town had suffered the same fate as the Outpost. The walls had been breached in numerous spots, and as we got closer I could see burned down husks in place of many of the town’s buildings.

  I sailed the Swift all the way into town. There didn’t seem to be any reason to try and hide it, and there didn’t seem to be anyone to hide it from. Bodies littered the streets. I could recognize ordinary townsmen, guards and scavengers according to their clothes, and they were clearly dead for less time than the ones at the Outpost. I still couldn’t find any bodies that looked out of place, and for long minutes, as we made our way towards the healer’s house where Marjory’s brothers should be, I could see no sign of anyone still living.

  I also couldn’t see anyone around my age. Not a single person above the age of late pubescence and below their late twenties could be found. Something bothered me about that particular age range, but I was too preoccupied with the destruction of my home town to give it serious thought.

  The healer’s home was still intact, but Granny Laurel’s body greeted us in the entrance. The old healer was still clutching her walking cane in her hand, and knowing her, I knew she would have stood up to whoever it was in an attempt to protect her patients. However futile she knew that attempt to be. We moved her body from the entrance to a couch she’d placed at the entrance to her home, for people who were waiting to see her. It felt more respectful than just stepping over her. Inside her home, it looked as if nothing had been touched. Bundles of dried herbs still hung from the ceiling, jars of preserved reagents stood untouched on shelves. Even what little jewelry Laurel was wearing hadn’t been taken.

  The dwarves, however, were gone. They should have been well enough to walk, and probably even fight, by the time of the attack, and in fact there were signs of struggle in the recovery room. But the two steam cannons sitting tidily where Marjory left them testified that the dwarves were once again caught unprepared, and were taken to wherever the rest of the town’s young men and women were taken.

  Marjory was quite literally fuming by the time we headed out. I could feel the heat coming off her from a meter away, and I could see small streams of vapor rising from her. She didn’t say a word, just picked up the two cannons and turned towards the door, and I wasn’t in the mood for conversation anyway, so I followed her in silence.

  Our next stop would be my brother’s bakery. We hadn’t been close since our parents died and we fought whenever we were in the same room, but he was getting close to thirty and I wanted, needed, to know if he was among the dead or the taken. I was also suddenly very happy I didn’t have any nephews or nieces.

  We were back at Granny Laurel’s entry room when we heard footsteps from outside.

  I only brought the Marine into the building with us, and the rest of my Shapes were scattered outside. I also didn’t give any of them the order to attack, since I was hoping to run into someone who could tell me what happened. I had the earth aligned Shape prepare its cudgel, in case whoever it was out there turned out to be one of the raiders, and I could see Marjory move sideways to have a clear shot at the door.

  I made sure that I was behind the Marine, and ordered it to open the door as soon as the footsteps drew closer. The person outside was still reaching for the latch when the door was opened, and flinched visibly at the sight of the large Shape. But then she saw me behind it, and I barely had enough time to make it stand down before my arms were full of a weeping, bedraggled Mable.

  It took long minutes, and some generous helpings from a flask of dwarven spirits Marjory produced from somewhere, to calm the serving girl enough to tell us what happened.

  “I… I was in the middle of the evening rush at the Boar, and and one of the guards, I think it was Jonathan, he came in and said they saw a large force approaching from the wild, and that everyone who could fight should go to the walls. I didn’t think much of it, since, you know, the town had been safe since old Gerald fought the bandits, and we had the Forresters, so whoever it was, they couldn’t really do much, could they?

  "We continued to serve the people who remained in the Boar, until we started hearing the booms, but then everyone left to see what was happening, and I went with them. There were huge monsters beating down on the walls. They reached almost to the top of the walls, and had gray skin and huge tusks, and I suddenly realized that I was only seeing them because there were holes in the walls, and that there were people streaming in through the holes.

  "That’s when I went back to the boar and hid in the little pantry where Henry keeps the really good
liquors. The one with the hidden door that only the serving girls who’d been there long enough to be trusted know how to open. There were fighting noises and people shouting outside, but I stayed in until everything was quiet, and then I stayed in some more, but I had to leave eventually to find water, and when I did everyone was dead and the raiders were gone, and I didn’t know what to do because I don’t know how to get to Whitecliff on my own, and I was hoping someone would come and find me and then I saw you and I recognized your coat and I came here and what are we going to do now?”

  She was back to crying after she got everything out, and I just held her as I thought about what she said. The monsters she described sounded like some variation of the Ogre Pattern, rather than any kind of warped. Ogres were expensive to Shape, and I hadn’t planned on using them in the near future, so I hadn’t memorized any of the different ranks and alignments, so I couldn’t recognize the specific Shapes that were used to attack Gerald’s Rest, but it also didn’t really matter.

  Whoever attacked the town had to be a Shaper, and a fairly powerful one. And a Shaper in league with raiders was bad news for everyone. Especially since while it seemed like the raiders didn’t actually loot the town, I had no illusion that they would have left the Forresters’ Patterns behind them. Which meant that this Shaper now had access to new Patterns, as well as the people who seemed to be missing.

  I was also bewildered about how the town fell so easily. Even against another Shaper, the Forresters should have been enough to defend the town. Darren alone had at least two rank III Shapes, and he wasn’t that much older than me. His father and aunt should have had a veritable army of powerful Shapes. But from what Mable said, the town fell in mere hours.