Knocks had come during the sex, and more insistently, and he’d ignored them every time. It seemed that Ariella was overwhelmed with the feelings, and hadn’t noticed, or hadn’t cared. If the latter, he was proud of her, and a little proud of himself. If the former, he’d made her insensate with pleasure and that wasn’t easy to do.

Ash was busy cuddling with a lizard girl and collecting up a nice bounty of free xp, pointedly ignoring the boys at the door. Kirith had eventually broken free of her paralysis but hadn’t disturbed them where they were cuddling at the door.

“Were you serious about the babies?” If it was just a way for her to enhance the eroticism of the encounter, she’d succeeded handily, but he didn’t think it was.

Ariella’s scales flushed a darker, duller color. Embarrassment maybe.  “You… don’t mind, do you?”

“I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, but I have a lot of responsibility, and a clutch of eggs… I don’t know if I can hack being a father to a hundred little lizard kids.” He tried to make this sound humorous and like he wasn’t as terrified as he was, and failed.

“Oh! No, it’s all right. I won’t have more than five eggs, first off. As a society we don’t stay with our initial mates. Females raise the clutch for just a few days before the babies come under the care of the female members of the clan.”

This introduced questions he wasn’t prepared to hear the answers to, so he let it go. Hopefully her babies had some kind of marking that made it clear they weren’t going to hook up with their siblings or cousins when they came of age.

“You’re not needed for the care and raising of the brood,” she said.

He wasn’t entirely sure whether to be offended or relieved, so he settled on a bit of both.

From there it was time to skim the read out this time, enjoying the number of orgasms he’d given the gecko girl, enjoying the boost in Relationship points, which was pushing him closer to Journeyman level 7 in both of his classes. He was also enjoying the idea of 2 rare and 4 uncommon rewards, though he couldn’t see slotting any of them directly into his action deck right this moment. Since his deck only had a few uncommon cards at all, and his highest was an ultra rare, he was feeling spoiled and like it was going to take a whole lot more sex before he could craft any cards worth keeping.

He couldn’t hide a smile at the extra xp he got for ‘a non-partner watching against her will’ who was also ‘attempting to do him harm’. He was quietly thankful this was a one-time only xp reward, but less quietly thankful that it netted him a double rare reward card, and a holographic full-art card at that.

This one was the only one he seriously considered immediately throwing into his deck, Soothing Sayings. Using the power of poetry and prophecy, the Bard ability allowed him to blanket purge allies of conditions like the paralysis he’d put Kirith under, and also perform a minor healing to those same allies. After a bit more consideration, he chose to put it in the deck. He had one consumable get-out-of-jail card, and he didn’t want to fish around through his inventory looking for a replacement for the consumable once he had used it. He also liked the near connection to the word ‘soothsayer.’

“Thank you,” Ariella told him in a small, timid voice.

“What? Thank you.”

“You were totally justified in getting angry at Kirith or me. I don’t know how you stopped her like that, but it’s… impressive.”

He got up on his elbows to have a look at Kirith, who had two palms pressed into her eyes like she was trying to un-see him fucking her adventure party friend.

“You’re welcome I guess,” he said.

“I know I’m also… I’m not an angelus,” she said.

“I don’t know why you think that makes you less than her, but it’s nonsense.”

“All the males want to get with her,” she said, drawing a sharp glance from Kirith. The angelus was red in the face, a blotchy red, though whether from embarrassment, rage, sorrow or guilt he couldn’t tell. It was possible she was any combination of the four, or even all four, and he didn’t care which.

Ariella went on. “And if they’re interested in me, she would just… show up, and just draw them away.” She was in the middle of showing him her gecko fingers, which spread out and oozed an oily fluid that allowed her to stick to surfaces.

“Yeah,” he said, “she’s a real piece of work, isn’t she? Where I come from, if a girl did that to another, she’d get punished.” Again a sharp glance from Kirith, who had sunk to the carpeted floor and was crawling toward the door. “Some brutal throat fucking and anal punishment, after a lot of spanking.”

Kirith reacted as if she’d just been swatted on the ass, and cringed.

“Are you interested in coming with my group?” he asked. “I think I can rustle up a set of wings. We could really use someone like you, and I happen to like the feel of your body.”

“Really?”

“You give the best blowjob,” he said. “Don’t shy away, it’s true. It’s unreal how good it is. Nobody makes me orgasm with their mouth like that. You should be proud. Frankly, I’m amazed.”

Kirith had finally reached the door, and got a hand on the knob.

“You don’t have to say yes,” he said, stroking the ridge of her backbone. “I told you earlier, I’m not monogamous, and that can freak some people out. It’s okay if you just want to make this a one time thing.”

“You… want that?”

“I want you around,” he said. “I want to make you scream. Often. But I understand my lifestyle isn’t for everybody.”

“Oh.” The conflict written on her scaly features was a little disappointing, but he knew deeper down that he would have some of his partners decide against what he was offering. He couldn’t fault her for not wanting to share.

“Kirith will just be going then. Isn’t that right, Kirith?”

The angelus turned such a look of vile misery on him that he almost felt bad for her. Yeah, well, fuck her. She deserved to feel a fraction of what she’d forced on Ariella, and all her victims.

“I’m going,” she practically whispered.

“And you’re going to keep your friends out there?” he asked lightly.

Maybe Kirith thought he was going to kill Ariella if she got the guys in here. Or maybe she had learned a lesson. “I’m keeping them out.”

The boys did not appreciate him poaching one of theirs, though they didn’t seem as concerned about the situation as they might have if he’d poached their honey trap angelus. When she exited the room he could quite clearly hear the conversation through the door.

“No,” Kirith told them. “No, we’re not doing it. We’re not.”

“That guy’s a fucking Bard,” the Dwarf announced angrily.

“What, he fuck with your mind or something?” another of them demanded. “We’ll go in there and ruin his day.”

“You can’t, and you won’t,” Kirith said. “Got it?”

Some grumbling.

“You promise me you won’t do anything to that guy.”

More grumbling, but this time in affirmatives.

“Yes what?” she demanded.

“Yes, Mistress,” they all said, some sulking more than others.

That was a bit of a surprise to Ash. He had thought they were taking turns running a train on her, and had her as an unwilling slave to join their merry little band. Instead she was the one running the show, and using the guys to threaten her potential mates with death if they didn’t fork over the coolest cards.

It was a sobering moment. He had just assumed her to be complicit but hate the situation, or at best be suffering from some Stockholm syndrome, where she had grown used to the idea of doing something distasteful. Instead she was the ringleader, and for whatever reason that really pissed him off all the more.

“Don’t…” Ariella begged, from where she was still stretched out on the bed, half covered by blankets. “Please. It’s not worth it and you’ll only get yourself killed.”

“I’ve died before,” he growled. “It’s not a big deal.”

The words should’ve shocked him. They would’ve been bonkers to hear in the old world. Instead he meant them. He could die again, and again, and if need be, again after that, and not regret it.

Ariella didn’t know that. She sat up and wrapped her arms around him, then squeezed tight. “All the more reason not to pick a fight. They’re way higher level than you, and they know how to handle guys who think they can take on four at once.”

They’d never dealt with Ash Phoenix though. 

He should’ve let it go. This place was a Save Point and nobody should’ve been able to do one another harm here. This wasn’t his business. He couldn’t solve all the world’s problems. Also, Tinniel wasn’t even out of Beginner and doing this would certainly catapult him beyond Journeyman and into Expert.

Somehow though they were perpetrating crimes against people in this Save Point area, which was uncool. He wanted to teach these people a lesson, but wasn’t entirely clear on how.

It turned out all he had to do was wait.

 

***

 

Lucifer and Jezebel expressed confusion over his choice to stay another night, but he felt like Beaver had more to offer. Likewise, Rachel and Tinniel didn’t understand the need to stick around this one horse town. Although he ordered another day and night here, not really knowing exactly what he was hoping to have happen, he knew that it was the right thing to do.

Ash enjoyed creature comforts in Beaver, Utah, or Bevandria, as it was now known, though it pushed the last of his savings to their limits. They stuck around enough for a warm meal, a warm bed, and another thoroughly enjoyable romp with Ariella. Her scales did have a bit of chameleon to them, with her brightening every time she got near an excellent orgasm, remaining that brilliant spring green and vermillion, and finally dulling back once she realized they weren’t going to stay together to enjoy this. They discussed her life here, and they eventually did get around to her telling him all about her clan in the delta. Delta was not code for vagina.

It was from a song he’d listened to in the before times.

He considered giving her a taste of the spork, and finding out what he life had been like before the world had gone slantways, but he decided against it. If she wasn’t comfortable, like Tinniel wasn’t, with his lifestyle, it wasn’t going to be fun to have her following him around so she could recall whatever had happened with her previous life. That life was gone, and though he treasured those memories for himself, he wasn’t sure about really building a circle of devotees who depended on him to remember something they couldn’t ever have again.

As for Waffles, his doggo familiar was tasked with entirely too much babysitting time, and Ash popped in through his senses a few times to enjoy playtime with the baby. He was thankful that Lucy and Jez were elsewhere getting their freak on, or they were waiting for the baby to sleep.

Rachel’s report, as she settled in on his other side a few hours later, was that her ears had been talked off, and needed surgical reattachment. She then lamented that the room smelled like sex and she hadn’t had any… since the day prior. She calmed down as soon as she realized this fact, and they shared a chuckle. She spent a bit of time fingering the gemstone on her necklace, then brightened.

She further informed him that they were still well provisioned, and that the card shop didn’t have anything of decent use that they could afford. She still hadn’t found the right daggers to handle demons, but if they were lucky, she wouldn’t have to; Ashley, Evie, Zirennia, Aria and the twins would have the other tainted spots handled by the time they came back.

Then, with a beautiful woman pressed against him, he left Tinniel to sleep in her own room snuggled up against Waffles. He drifted off soon after. 

The morning found the rain had slackened but not stopped. This produced a magnificent series of rainbows due to the rising sun. Both of the ladies joined him in staring out the large, retractable wall of the tavern, which had been accordioned down and piled up to one side to provide fresh air and views like this. Set against the valley, the little town of Bevandria was lush and green, and clouded with misty, low-hanging clouds to one side, and syrupy golden sunlight on the other.

The spork in his inventory radiated its customary power, giving him the knowledge that he wasn’t in Utah anymore, Toto. Everyone else believed Bevandria was their lives, and always had been. They believed that cards were magic or coins or gems, and monsters were everywhere. This was the way the world worked. No tablets, no phones, no pesky heating bills or doing taxes every year. A simpler life, and at the same time more brutal.

Ash made sure to take out any gems the Deck Erector had generated and combine them into better rarity gems. So far he’d gotten several aquamarines, an opal, a topaz, a ruby, and two emeralds. All those duplicates became Cut versions of themselves, and the two cut aquamarines he combined into a Polished Aquamarine. Two of those would become a Superior, and after that… well, he’d find out. He was excited to see where this gemstone situation and the imbuing of gems would lead.

“What are we doing sticking around?” Tinniel asked over breakfast.

Ash couldn’t quite answer that question, but felt like it wasn’t yet time. He hoped this was Diamonds and Lucky, as opposed to simple indecisiveness. He wanted Ariella to appear, or even better, Kirith, and for the group of simps under her command to attack him while he had his awesome Rogue at the ready.

It didn’t happen. Weirdly, after another day of lounging around, giving Lucy and Jezebel space to do their sex as sparrows or long-tailed lemurs or whatever, he finally caved and made preparations to leave.

After all, Kirith, Ariella and the boys had left sometime during the previous day.

They set off after a hearty breakfast of bacon, freshly-baked bread, cheese and his choice of red wine or ale, getting altitude and at the same time sort of floating in the still-pattering rain. Although they were soon soaked, the warmth of the late morning kept them from being too miserable. Rachel, who hated being wet, kept her complaints to a minimum. Ash, meanwhile, lamented that Ariella decided she’d rather stick with the assholes who’d denied her a sex life.

And then they were off.

Flying ate up the kilometers quickly, though not nearly as fast as using the Wind Runner. He wanted to stop for the first Random Encounter, which he was informed was a Treasure Trove, another Journeyman level encounter.

“Are you sure?” Tinniel asked.

“I think so,” he said. “It’ll be a good place for you to get some xp and level up from Amateur. This will be a lot better than getting an Expert level encounter.

They swung down and toward a place that ended up being a swamp. Below the tree line, the humidity rose a ton, and the place was best described with a single word: squelching. Everything appeared to be fetid, tinged with blue green, and smelled worse than it looked. And it all just so happened to look dripping wet.

“We’re going to set a guard here,” he said, and landed on a grassy tussock about the size of a center court circle in basketball. All around them, trees rose straight out of the water, dangling moss and full of leaves. They blotted out all light, save a few poetic rays of sunshine.

Waffles made his triumphant and joyous reappearance. Tinniel shrieked again in pure joy and accepted several very wet face licks

“Keep your eyes peeled,” he said. “This looks like an ambush predator’s wet dream.”

Tinniel wrinkled her adorable little fey nose. “Gross.”

“You don’t have to touch the ground,” Rachel observed.

The wingpacks were best suited to movement, and did not handle hovering well. They’d all quickly gotten used to the flying part, but much more slowly gotten used to the landing part. One thing that was not part of the whole experience was hovering in place.

“Okay,” he announced. “Like before, I’m going to try and keep away from the action. Rachel runs point—”

“Nope,” Rachel said.

“I’m pretty sure I said Rachel runs point.”

She got closer, probably what was supposed to be uncomfortably close, and scowled at him. “Look, I know things between us bedroom wise are pretty, um, yeah, but my dungeon experiences with Throdric were all, how do I put this? They were the absolute fucking worst. I’m a Rogue, and I’m never running point in a dungeon ever again.”

He blinked, remembering that of course she’d been dragged along by Throdric, that turning into a succubus hadn’t been her intention, and that she might be submissive, but she was still here willingly.

If only Ariella had come along. He was still pretty bummed that she’d only been a one-and-done. He really liked her attitude, exuberance, and the Monk thing. He would have liked to see her in action.

“Okay, I’ll take point.”

It was at this point that Kirith and her merry band landed.  Kirith was first, alighting gently beside a stumbling drow Cleric, while the half-elf Warlock and the orren Mauler both came down on nearby earthy bits of the swamp. The Warlock touched down with billowing robes, while the orren smashed into the grassy hillock like a meteor. The thing grumbled and got to its feet, amber eyes glittering with menace.