I was beginning to think Cherry had been wrong.

When we were leaving the shrines, they'd told us they had a feeling we should take the path leading out of Nymphara's temple and up toward the mountains. They'd said it with such determination it seemed as if it was some prescience granted them by the goddess herself. But we'd been walking for hours and our path kept climbing upward, getting steeper and rockier. 

We weren't in the mountains proper. The range that reminded me of the Rocky Mountains still loomed a ways off, and we caught site of them now and then between jagged stone peaks. But the foothills had become a lot more than just hills. We'd had to fight of a few packs of wolves and a flock of black and red vulture-like birds, but they'd been pretty easy considering our current level and we got through every battle fairly unscathed.

I trailed in the back with Sulin. She still didn't feel like one of us, and Mack kept saying she wanted her gone. But she never pushed the topic of Sulin leaving too hard. And at times, like when fighting off a flock of vicious flying monsters, I think she realized it was ridiculous to get rid of our only archer. I might have even been willing to stand up for Sulin and put her position in the party to a vote, but everything was up in the air right now. For all we knew, we could reach a town by nightfall and have to make a decision on whether we remain a party or not.

It was hard to imagine going our separate ways, but what if Jonathan and Ellie wanted to split off? I owed them some loyalty. Yet, what about Yarrow? Would she come with me? Would I end up going with her? Would the party just splinter with everyone going off on their own or as couples? It didn't seem that far-fetched. Trogia and Mack rubbed a lot of us the wrong way. Sulin really kept to herself. And Crystal had recently grown sullen and quiet. 

These troubling thoughts were one of the reasons I enjoyed the quiet, walking with Sulin rather than the joking and ribbing going on up ahead. The other reason was I was finding it difficult to control myself around Yarrow. I might get a bonus for being erect in battle (this was now even more embarrassing because of the kilt I wore) but I didn't get any benefit just walking through the country side. Although that didn't stop me from getting a hard-on just about every time I saw her.

I know that her patronage with the Nymphara had something to do with it. She was a lot curvier now and her skin had a rich, healthy sheen to it that hadn't been their before. But that was only part of it. 

She'd also grown in confidence. Maybe confidence wasn't the right word. Maybe I should say she'd become  ...

No. As a supportive boyfriend, I'm going to go with confidence. 

Since this morning, every battle we went into, no matter how simplistic and quick, she whipped on the invisibility ring and shed her clothes. And when the battle took awhile to complete, she finished fighting it naked, after the ring's power wore off. (Trust me, I was using my special skill then.) Even just walking with her, she'd covertly flash me a glimpse of her butt cheek or a better view of her now ample breasts. A smile would creep across her face as my eyes bugged out of my head.

Did she know how much it made me want to jump her and take her whether everyone was watching or not?

I was broken out of my thoughts by some commotion from the front of the group.

"Sounds like we're reaching the top," Sulin said. I peered to see the others but the front of the party was a good forty feet away and lost to a wispy mist that was clung to the stones. Sulin saw me straining and told me what I wasn't seeing. "They're boosting each other up to a ledge."

I still couldn't make out anything, but I guess you had to have good vision to be an archer. When we finally caught up to the others, only Crystal and Mack were left. The narrow trail we were on ended in a sheer cliff, but the solid wall of stone that had been flanking our right side for the last hour was lower here. I could just about look over the top and see a hilly plane dotted with boulders and covered here and there with scrubby grass. It was impossible to tell how far it extended. The mist drifted over the ground and built into a dense curtain farther out. 

Our friends were waiting a short distance away, but when Yarrow saw me peering up at them, she came over.

"Coming up?" she asked, lifting her robe out. The shadows kept me from seeing anything, but the hint of what was lurking in there made me flush with heat.

From beside me, Mack said, "Well, hello! Here let me give you a boost, but I can't promise my hand won't slip up your skirt."

This shook me from my lustful stupor, I said to Mack, "Maybe I should be the one lifting you up."

"Fine by me. Just be sure you slip your hand up my skirt."

I gave her a look that made clear that under no circumstances I'd be doing that. Still, while pushing her up to the flat top of the hill, my hand accidentally found itself on her plump round ass. This earned me a leer and a wink. 

I got Sulin up next, this time I was extra careful of how I positioned my hands. I didn't think she would be nearly as accepting of a groping.

"Then their were two," Crystal said. "How should we do this?"

"It makes sense that you go first." I'd be able to reach the top on my own, and Crystal could grab hold of me and haul me up. The problem was she was built like a block of granite, and I wasn't sure I had the strength to give her a leg up as I did with the others the others. In the end, I went down on all fours, so she could use my back as stepping stool. When she had a foot planted between my shoulders, I did my best to raise myself and give her a few more inches of height. With a lot of grunting and scrambling as well as some lifting help from above, she finally got herself up. When the time came, she had very little trouble pulling me up with her hands around my forearms.

"Well, now what?" Yarrow asked the group, glancing around the area. There really didn't seem to be one direction that was better than the other.

Cherry said, "It might be my imagination, but I'm sensing a worn trail in the stone. We could follow that?"

We all looked at one another, but no one had a better option to propose."

Mack said in a saccharine-sweet voice, "I guess we will all follow our cute, little Cherry-Blossom."

Cherry glared at her, "I really can't wait until we're calling you Mittens."

Mack pretended to laugh this off, but a look of concern crossed her face.

Yarrow came up to me and clasped my hand, "Stay close. I don't want to lose you in this fog."

* * *

"Hello! Blossom! Mack! Anyone! Hello!" Yarrow called out.

We hadn't lost each other but we had managed to lose everyone else. I'm not even sure how it happened. We'd been pretty good about keeping tabs on everyone. Admittedly it hadn't been much of a problem at first. The mist swirled in tendrils around the boulders and blocked our vision now and then but it was mostly clear. But after a little while we were walking in a thick shroud of it. Maybe half-an-hour of tumbling around in it, the two of noticed we were alone.

I sat down with my back against a rock. My head was feeling fuzzy. Not in a bad way, but in a really good way. It reminded me of the painkillers I was on after the car accident. I began laughing, then realized I was laughing and stopped.

"Could the fog be doing something to us?" I asked, my voice sounding like an echo in my own ears.

"Crap! Why didn't I think of that?" Yarrow said. She paused for a couple of seconds. "Crap! We have negative buffs on us. Intellect, Harmony, and Stamina or all down. It must be the fog. Let me consult the archives."

I waited, my mind doing pleasant somersaults. Now that I was aware of it, there was no doubt this had a narcotic effect. But as a result of the narcotic affect it was impossible to be worried or annoyed by it.

After some indeterminate amount of time, Yarrow plopped down on the ground next to me. "It's no use. I don't know where to look. There's too much information in those archives. And I can't really concentrate."

"I guess this is pretty bad," I said, but for some reason found the statement hilarious. 

"It's not all bad," Yarrow said. "I think this is the first time we've been alone. Really alone. Not just in a separate room."

Then, I felt her lips and tongue trying to find purchase on my mouth. My laughter stopped and I returned her eager sloppy kisses.

She climbed onto my lap, and I realized her robe was gone. My hands felt her smooth supple back and worked their way to her front. Yarrow's breasts, once pleasant little handfuls, now overflowed in my palms. She pulled my kilt out of the way and the coarse fabric burned as it was yanked roughly across my skin. My cock was in her hand, and she positioned herself above it.

"Wait," I said.

"Why?"

I couldn't think of any good reasons. In the ensuing silence, her entrance took in my tip. Slowly, my shaft was engulfed in her hot, wet inner skin as she let herself slide down on top of it. 

"Uuung," I breathed as her pelvis settled on my groin. "I've wanted you so badly. All day you've been driving me crazy."

"I know," she said. "I've so wanted to be touched." She kissed my jaw. "Held." She kissed my neck. "Fucked." She kissed the hollow of my throat.

She began rocking against me. My hands rove, exploring every inch of her. Her arms, her waist, her thighs, her ass.

Picking up speed, she rose and fell against me. She was doing all the work. I sat there passively while she used me to pound herself into a frenzy. I brought my face to her chest and kissed and sucked her nipples and buried my face between her breasts.

"Ooooh! Ooooh! Ooooh!" she moaned. "I'm so glad I found myself alone with you."

"Me too. Nobody else would be this much fun."

"If I was with Blossom, I'm sure I'd do something stupid. Their such a little hottie now."

"Wah?"

But then, I had the mental image of them together, naked. The two sexiest women in the group sucking each others tongues. Cherry's tiny bubble-ass sitting on Yarrow's face. Yarrow pushing Cherry down on her back and diving between her legs, her head huge against the other girl's body. Yarrow's tongue gigantic as it pushed into her tight hole. 

"Oh, shit!" I screamed. "I'm cumming!"

She hurried her pace and rubbed herself with one hand. The tips of her fingers smacking against the base of my cock. 

"Gnnnn-haaaaaa!" I emptied into her with the sensation that my entire essence was being pushed out through my dick."

"Ahhhh-hoooo!" It was almost a breathless sigh from her as she stopped moving and leaned back, a look of perfect contentment on her face. 

It had seemed as though my eyes were only capable of focusing on her, but as my orgasm faded, I realized it was that all around us the empty white mist pressed in.

Yarrow stood up, her knees shaky. My eyes stared directly at her thighs and swollen sex. My load leaked from her obscenely.

"Up," she commanded, and I got up even though I didn't want to. Yarrow positioned herself against the boulder I'd rested on, her hands flat against it, her ass posed outward and her legs apart. "Again."

I was about to protest that I needed some recovery time, but apparently I didn't. Just the sight of her peach-shaped ass and that slutty tattoo on her back got me going again.

My cock was still soaked with our combined juices, and I thrust it back into her. With my hands on her hips, I pistoned her with it.

My conscious mind slipped away. The sex became raw and primitive. We might as well have been just two elks, a bull and his mate. I drove desperately into her, and she eagerly accepted me.

She looked over her shoulder at me. Her full lips were parted to release her panting breath. Her eyes were full of lust. It only made me give it to her harder.

I grunted, "Ung! Ung! Ung!" with each inward push, and she responded, "Ahn! Ahn! Ahn!"

Sweat dripped from my face and down my back. My hair had grown slick with it.

"I'm almost there," she whispered. "Do it!"

I barreled into her with my full length, nearly pulling completely out before slamming back in. Her ass slapped against my thighs and her breast swung wildly.

"Ooohh! Yeaaaa! Ahh-hhaaaa!" I exploded again. My balls hurt as though they were squeezing out every last drop of my cum.

I collapsed against her back, nuzzling her neck with my mouth.

We stayed like that for what felt like forever, until a disembodied voice in the fog said, "Are you two done yet?"

* * *

It turned out to be Sulin. She'd gotten separated too and had been wandering around by herself. 

"But then I heard strange animal noises and came to investigate," she'd told us. The expression on her face showing a touch of judgement. But she did apologize. "I'm sorry I interrupted, but when I gave you your space the first time time, you just started up again."

So, it turned out she'd been there nearly the entire time.

"You were just listening?" I asked.

"Not like I had much choice. I'm sure everyone on this mountainside was just listening. But if it makes you feel better, I spent most of the time in the archives to distract myself and to try and figure out how this fog was muddling our brains."

"Any luck?" Yarrow asked. I'd handed her her robe, but she didn't put it on. Just held it in her hands which covered her crotch but not much else.

Sulin was definitely trying not to look and you could tell she was uncomfortable. "It's a Wyvern."

"What's a wyvern?" I asked

"It's a two legged dragon. But what kind of Wyvern creates a drug fog?" she asked.

"Apparently the kind that now occupies Feronia. In the Bestiary, they're called Trippy Wyverns of all fucking things."