When Jadis woke the next morning, she found a couple of surprises waiting for her. The first was a pleasant one.
With all of her lovers piled into their bed together, it was hard to tell whose soft and pliant body she was holding close to her. Or rather, it was hard to know which was which when she had multiple bodies pressing up against her own selves mixed in with four other women all squished together in a warm and comfy tangle. However, there was one hard, long, slightly-sticky-at-the-tip piece that was mixed into the jumble that Jadis recognized. More specifically, she recognized it as not one of her own.
Running her fingers from base to tip, Syd drew a muffled moan from Aila. She’d had her freckled face buried in Dys’ shoulder, but as Syd continued to stroke her morning wood, she lifted her head to let out an open-mouthed gasp.
Jadis almost laughed. Aila’s face was awash with surprised shock. Combined with turning her head to look over her shoulder back at Syd plus her messy bed hair, Aila’s expression was one that she wished she could snap a picture of to hold onto forever. Alas, she would just have to content herself with playing with Aila’s cock.
“So, you’ve had it for more than a day now,” Syd whispered, grinning at Aila’s discomposed visage. “Are you still enjoying your new toy?”
“The way you’re touching it,” Aila murmured back, “you’re acting like it’s your toy.”
“Mm, well, my mother always taught me it’s important to share your toys with your friends.”
“Funny, my mother taught me to beat up people who touched my toys without permission.”
“So you want to beat me up now?” Syd grinned, leaning in closer to Aila.
“No,” Aila whispered back, moving her mouth so close to Syd’s they were practically touching. “You have permission.”
“Oh my gods will you two just start fucking already!”
Aila and Syd both sighed heavily at Kerr’s exclamation, the moment dispelled.
“Look, I’ll get you started and then you can take over from there,” Kerr told them as she crawled across everyone, drawing some grunts and yelps from the now waking women tangled on the bed. “Here, watch.”
With her naked body draped across Dys’ hip, Kerr reached down and grabbed ahold of Aila’s cock, pushing Syd’s hand out of the way. With one smooth motion, she ran her rough tongue along the underside, making Aila visibly shiver. As her mouth opened to engulf the redhead’s hard length, Aila’s left hand grabbed hold of one of Kerr’s horns and held the therion in place.
“I never said I gave you permission to play,” Aila sternly told Kerr, her face the picture of severity.
Kerr froze, her mouth open and tongue hanging out. Her green cat-like eyes widened and her slit pupils dilated as the two regarded each other. After a tense moment, Kerr’s tongue slipped back into her mouth and she grinned slyly up at Aila.
“Then you better punish me, huh?”
Just as Aila gripped Kerr’s horn tighter and began to move, another voice called out. This voice was deeper, definitively masculine, and very loud.
“Are you lot done fucking up there or are you going to make me wait all morning?”
“Shit,” Jadis cursed, her bodies instinctively scrambling up and out of bed at the unexpected interruption.
Naturally, with her three selves rapidly rising from the bed, all four of her lovers were tossed around as well. Poor Thea in particular, who had still been wrapped up in Jay’s arms, was taken for a ride as she found herself suddenly dangling several feet off the ground, clutching onto Jay’s shoulder.
It took Jadis a moment to realize that there was no strange man standing in her room, and another couple of seconds to place the voice.
“Noll?” Jay called out while grabbing hold of Thea’s waist and gently setting her down.
“Yes,” came the reply from the window that faced the back lot of the building.
Taking a look outside, Jay saw that the large therion man was standing in the back yard, a large mug of something steaming clutched in one clawed hand. He wasn’t facing the building and appeared to be walking in a large circle, pacing around the yard.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Jay called down, not bothering to cover her chest as she bent over to look out the window.
“Waiting impatiently,” he growled back, not bothering to look up at her.
“Fucking balls,” Jay slumped in the window, her head dropping.
“He is a, ah, direct sort of person, isn’t he?” Eir said while slipping a shirt on. “I suppose we shouldn’t keep him waiting.”
“Fucking let him wait,” Dys grumbled, hands on hips. “We don’t have to do anything by his schedule.”
But the moment had been utterly ruined. There was no way they were going to be able to get their groove back on, especially not when they knew Noll was just outside and apparently entirely aware of what they were doing. Morning sex would have to wait for another day.
The group cleaned up and got dressed, though Jadis purposefully took longer than necessary just because she knew Noll was waiting. By the time all of her bodies got down the stairs, everyone else was already seated around the table and were helping themselves to a freshly made breakfast that a recently arrived Hans had whipped up. Fortunately, Hans was capable of making more than just meat pies and had provided them with plates of eggs and sausage.
Unfortunately, Noll was also sitting at the table.
“You really just show up wherever you want to, don’t you?” Dys flatly asked the man as he wolfed down a whole uncut sausage.
“Yes.”
If nothing else, Jadis couldn’t fault him for his honesty.
“What’s the plan for today?” Jay asked the table at large, deciding to just move on.
“We should probably focus on leveling Sabina up,” Aila advised while buttering a slice of bread. “The sooner we get her to level twenty the better.”
Noll made a grunt of surprise, but Jadis ignored it.
“The quickest way to do that is to let—let the three of us take her somewhere alone and just crush demons for a while. If everyone comes with us, the rate will be slowed by a fair bit.”
Jay had to catch herself halfway through her sentence before unintentionally revealing that her three selves weren’t triplet sisters to Noll. That was one secret she didn’t feel like sharing with the blunt man, much less his princely client.
“We can set up a base camp of sorts?” Eir suggested. “That way Kerr, Thea, Aila, and I can be nearby but not so close as to siphon off any of the experience you will gain from slaying demons.”
“And I can hunt some demons for us four to take down out there,” Kerr pointed out around a mouthful of eggs. “Cause I don’t want to just sit around doing fuck all.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jay agreed with a nod of her head.
Pausing, Jay turned to look at Noll.
“And you’re just going to follow us out there regardless of what we say, right?”
“Yes.”
Jay rolled her eyes.
“Fine, but if you’re coming, would you please try to keep back as much as you can? We don’t want you draining off any more experience than necessary.”
Noll’s lips curled, baring his fangs in what Jadis figured was his version of a grin. “Trust me, whelp. I’ve no need to steal your experience.”
Jadis had to assume that was probably very true.
“Any other business for the day?” Syd asked, making her feel a little like she was wrapping up a board meeting or something.
“We should bring those manticore quills to an alchemist,” Aila added after a moment. “We can sell them, or we can have them make some potent concoctions for the right price.”
“And don’t put that tail meat into one of your fucking pies, Hans!” Kerr shouted at the kitchen door where the silent man had disappeared. “Manticore needs to be grilled!”
With their plans for the day agreed upon, the team quickly finished their meal and got their gear on. It took some minutes to get her plate armor on three bodies and by the time she was back down the stairs, Noll had vanished. Jadis didn’t waste much time wondering where he’d gone, as she was sure she’d be seeing him again soon. Instead, the group split up and went to both sell the manticore quills and gather up Sabina.
Unsurprisingly, Jadis found Sabina in the communal workshop. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn that the smith lived in the forge. Though, now that she thought about it, she didn’t actually know what the half-elf’s living conditions were. Upon asking, Sabina easily explained that she rented a room in a nearby building that was owned by one of the crafting guilds. It was cramped, or so she said in far, far more words than necessary, but it was cheap and comfortable enough.
With that information, Jadis’ mind started going down the path of where she was supposed to put any new guild members who weren’t going to be joining her in her giant-sized bed. While Jadis was definitely picking up some vibes from Sabina that told her she was interested in her, there was no guarantee that their relationship would develop in that direction. More to the point, it wasn’t likely that every single person she recruited to join her mercenary company would be even remotely inclined towards that kind of set up. Jadis needed two more people to join her guild at a minimum. If they weren’t also Jadis’ lovers, which she felt was likely to be the case, she still needed to provide for them. She was no expert on the matter but based on everything she’d seen and heard so far, it was a guild’s duty to provide at least the option of living space for its members, even if they chose to find their own accommodations.
She’d only just gotten the guild hall put together and it already felt like she needed to add an expansion.
Putting longer term thoughts aside, Jadis reunited with the rest of her companions at the city gates. Aila had elected to outright sell the majority of the manticore quills but had commissioned a couple of salves that used the rare ingredient that would work as both a healing agent and a painkiller. With Eir around, healing was generally well taken care of, but Aila liked to be prepared for the worst, a trait Jadis couldn’t find fault in.
Once they were all outside of the gates, Jadis discovered Noll waiting for them. Only instead of the shirtless ruffled mess that he’d been at breakfast, the therion was wearing a finely crafted set of armor with an inscribed breastplate, along with a heavy cloak made out of some animal’s pelt. The helmet he wore reminded Jadis of Kerr’s, with accommodations for his horns, but left his wolf-like jaws exposed. He also carried a large curved sword strapped to his side, giving him a far more martial appearance. Jadis was just about to comment on it when Sabina rushed towards the looming mercenary and started gushing like a schoolgirl at her favorite band’s concert.
“Is that an original Agatha Laurent!?” she cried out, causing Noll’s head to jerk back. “It’s so beautiful and amazing and I’ve only seen her work in person twice and both times nobility was wearing it because of course nobility could afford armor from one of the best smiths in the whole empire and I can’t believe the detail on those inscriptions they are so perfect! Can I touch?”
Noll stared down at the excited half-elf who was, to Jadis’ shock and amusement, actually clasping her hands together under her chin and dancing back and forth on her feet.
“…Fine.”
With permission granted, Sabina immediately began running her hands over Noll’s chest plate, carefully examining the craftsmanship. She even forced the bemused therion to raise his arms so she could look at the fittings and buckles on the sides.
“She’s passionate about her craft,” Jay said after letting Sabina have her fun for a while before eventually dragging her away from Noll.
“But it’s time we got a move on,” Dys continued. “Did you bring a horse?”
“No,” Noll snorted, giving Dys a look. “Can you even ride one?”
“No idea, never tried,” Dys shook her head. “Seems like it would be some kind of cruelty to the poor thing if I did.”
“Well, anyway, keep up if you can,” Syd said while letting Kerr latch onto her back.
“Keep up?” Noll repeated her words, yellow eyes running up and down her armored figure.
“Yup!” Syd nodded. “Because we aren’t giving you a free ride!”
With that announcement made clear, Jadis swept up her companions and launched into an aggressive sprint, charging down the northward road that led away from the city and into the Broken Hills. She didn’t resist the shout of excitement that welled up inside her chests as she thundered forward at a pace no human from Earth could hope to match without a motorized vehicle. Happily, Kerr and Sabina both joined her in the joyous exclamation, the thrill of running at such speeds contagious.
“How far back is he?” Jay asked Aila after a couple of minutes.
From where Aila sat in the crook of Jay’s arm, one of her own arms wrapped around Jay’s shoulder, it was easier for her to look back than for Jadis to try and turn one of her heads. As nice as the helmets were, they did put a restriction on her peripheral vision.
“About twenty feet,” Aila informed her after a moment.
“Oh fuck my biscuit,” Syd cursed as she did make the effort to look back and confirm Aila’s words.
Noll was running right behind her, easily keeping up with her blistering pace. He didn’t even look like he was trying particularly hard to maintain the speed they were going at. Why would he? Better question, why was she even surprised that the massively higher-level warrior was able to keep up with her?
“That’s a new one,” Kerr said, patting Syd on the top of her helmet. “I’m adding ‘fuck my biscuit’ to the collection. You should feel honored.”
“Thanks…”
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