Chapter 83.5: Wedding Day (2)

Eli POV

Going down the main road and past the wide arch of the dorm's main entrance, I zipped right with my wheels to get past the curious bystanders until I got to the three houses that made up the scion's houses to the right of the main entrance. Going through the wrought iron gate and up to the cave-like overhang of Ryan's home entrance, I walked up the stone steps, past the thick wooden beams and up to the immaculate oak door. A loud knock and it was less than a minute before a maid came to the door to answer. A few more minutes and she had successfully retrieved Ryan. The man's green eyes looked at me with new found wonder. While he wore his typical blue and white striped student robes, he had very high-quality leather gloves and some sturdy steel toe boots for his feet.  

"Hey, Eli. I was wondering… I've heard some rumors and there was the announcement with the papers put on the board but it's so absurd. Do you really-"  

A small tunnel of wind, stone, fire, and water sprung up between my two hands in front of him. Those green eyes went wide as saucers as his jaw slacked. The strands of his black hair fell over his sharp cheek bones with no resistance or attempt to put them back.  

"Yes, and all the dual elements aside." I said casually. "But I am still only one person and right now I need to be in two places at once. You remember that favor I asked for?"  

It took a moment, but he finally snapped out of the daze. 

"I… Yeah, of course." He said in a stunned tone.  

"On the left side of town, they are making some housing for a new batch of people coming in. I need you to help make the foundations and brick work to help it along." I said. 

The dazed expression passed and in its place was a raised eyebrow. 

"Peasant housing?" He asked incredulously. 

"Yes" I responded swiftly. He strummed his finger on the door frame for a moment taking in that single word. 

"Um… Alright, I'll get down there." He said. I gave a light nod with the helmet obstructing his face for a moment. 

Heading back down towards the Kelton quarter, I noticed Salamede standing on the street corner by herself with the two chests and no cart around. Pushing through the crowd, she turned to me when I came into view.  

"Ah, Eli!" She called as I approached. "The guild representative and the patriarch were getting ready to leave when one of the senior guild members came by. The military base needs the civilians out now. In exchange, they agreed to let us use one of the carriages and its guard on the way back for the rest of the day if we need to at no charge. They're leaving now but I didn't feel comfortable answering for you." 

I gave a light nod as I squeezed her side affectionately before picking up my chest and heading towards the bridge entrance with her beside me. 

"I understand. Let's see how quickly we can get this over with." I said. When we came to the main road, there was a long line of iron plated carriages along the bridge. Moving to the front, we got the occasional odd look from a swordsman, archer, and adventurer who made up the typical teams deployed by the guild. When we came up to the end of the bridge, I saw the patriarch, guild head Mason, and the captain who oversaw the men currently manning the wall and burning corpses in a pyre off to the left. All three were talking back and forth until they saw us approach.  

"Ah, sir caster." The captain called "I suppose you'll be heading out then?"  

"Aye. No entourage to watch me to make sure I don't associate with anyone?" I asked casually

"Nah. Miss Agatha was the one who heckled him into doing that and we're stretched too thin to be giving you a whole squad right now. She'll just have to be content with the protections as is." The captain said with a grimace showing through his thick black beard.

"All right, lad. Our previous trips have pretty much cleared the dead from the main road from here to about a mile out" The guild master said, his grimace showing between his two mostly black lamb chops. "We have a carriage in the middle for you. The roads are pretty clear right now but so many people moving all at once tends to attract the dead's attention when they think they can get at them."  

"The dead can think?" I asked. 

A simple shrug that moved his sash of wands was all he could give me before the captain answered.  

"It's hard to tell." The captain said. "They attack in a mindless wave at towns first but if that fails, they hang back and meander around. Sometimes they even display an almost animal like intelligence and sometimes they walk into spikes right in front of them. It seems to mostly depend on how much magic they've had to bolster them and it's not always so obvious how much that is." 

My curiosity sated, I headed back towards the middle of the caravan. As the river underneath the bridge, ever increasing its foul smell from the already cramped quarters of the warehouses upstream, rolled on beneath us we eventually came up to the carriage with no one inside it and hopped in through the back. 

I left my hammer on the opposite carriage bench with Salamede putting her smooth steel spear beside it. We lay against the rough wood of the bench as the crude window cut into the metal wall to our left showed a grey sky. Despite how heated we got back home, we were both content to merely lean on each other as we waited for the caravan to get moving. It took only a few more minutes before a loud call was heard from guild master Mason. With a sudden jerk forward, we were off as the passing pyre of firewood and burning bodies flashed by for a brief moment of red flame and heat. After that was a flash of stone wall and the spike pits on either side of the mini drawbridge as the green countryside opened up.  

The trees were making fast progress into the ground now as the tallest of them was only twice the height of a man, leaving the air heavier with the stench of the undead than it should have been. Occasionally, a carriage further ahead would pull off to the side to deal with some of the undead coming out of the quickly shrinking woods. All of the carriages ahead of us were eventually pulled to the side and it was our turn to meet the opponent.

We met the small squad of five shambling corpses a few yards from the carriage as the driver behind us gripped the sword at his hip even as the horses, immaculately trained, stood still with no panic in the eyes that showed below their armor. I zipped forward and took out three of the enemy with a single swing as the boosters took me far past the group. Salamede lacked the hesitation she first had on our first few ventures together and stabbed one the remaining ones through the head before stepping back and swiping the legs out from beneath the other. Another quick stab and the threat was over.

Looking to my right as I faced the carriage, I saw the other carriages behind us having some trouble. A few of the undead packs were closer to seven or ten strong that kept pushing the regular guild members back but the higher up members, put at every other carriage to help those ahead and behind them, dispatched their enemies pretty easily. No one seemed to be on the verge of death as the combatants weren't scared farmers with pitchforks and crude spears this time, but it was still taking time to put the undead down one at a time and time was not a resource I had the means to waste.

"Salamede, let's see if we can speed up the other groups work. I want to be back in town by mid-afternoon at the latest." I said. She nodded and followed me back to our carriage before I talked with the driver.

"Good sir, we want to help the other carriages, but I assume you still need us here to protect you?"

"Yes, very much so." He said with a bead of sweat running down his tan skin and now nervous brown eyes.

"All right." I said, walking away from the carriage while keeping my eyes on Salamede. "Stay here and protect him while I see if I can get the rest of the carriages moving."

She nodded as I activated all of the boosters. The small trees and grass zipped by as a whistle was heard from the steel and wood moving like a diving hawk over the land, the original motif that inspired the design. The first group was on the other side of the carriage with three teens using spears and swords to keep a group of eight at bay until another more experienced member came by.

As I zipped past the carriage horse, it wasn't until I was nearly on top of them that the first rotting head turned to me and that was all the reaction four of them got before I slammed into them with the iron hammer. The sickening crunch of bone and flying bodies sent the younger teens shirking back, two men and a young brunette, but before they could say anything, I moved on to the next problem area. The carriage behind this one had a particularly bad pack of eleven undead against a team of four with one being an elite member, a swordsman wearing full plate armor with iron sword and shield, who was trying to keep the three teens from panicking while they wrapped bandages around a pretty chewed up member by the carriage.

Looking to the ditch on my left, I saw a particularly large rock the size of a chest. Using a basic earth spell, I lifted it out of the air and launched it at the small crowd of undead. The faint whistle as it sailed through the air drew all the eyes present, but it was already landing amongst the undead before the first head could turn. Three corpses got their hips and legs destroyed as the menace turned towards me. Unfortunately, they were still too close to the armored man for me to do a booster powered swing so I had the wheels pulled up and did some more manual back and forth.

When the five undead started shambling and crawling up to me, I used the iron balls attached to chains above my arms to attack the left most one's ability to walk. Sending its leg flying, the thing landed on the ground with a thud and was forced to crawl on the ground with its other friend as the two other crawlers pulled themselves towards the guild members with another walker. The others were brought low as I slowly moved back and took out their legs one wet crunch at a time.

As I bashed their heads in, the last one on the right had its head stabbed through with the guild member having seen to his opponents. That task finished, I put my wheels back down and quickly moved to help the injured member by the carriage as the iron balls spun back into a mere foot of outstretched cable. These lower members had at most a metal chest or shoulder piece with the rest of the body being protected with leather armor. The swords and daggers they typically favored meant the spears they were provided were swung and jabbed with little to no accuracy or skill. The one guild member laying on the ground by the carriage had his leather armor chewed on and the iron shoulder guard was pretty much the only part of him that didn't have a bite or scratch on it.

"I'm surprised they let people as young as you out here." I said as I applied a healing spell to the young man with blood covering his leather armor and the white shirt beneath it.

"Hey!" The younger blond woman to my right squeaked indignantly. "You're barely two or three years older than us."

"Age isn't all in the bones, missy." I replied mockingly as the wounds on the man began healing. She huffed, but as the other man was heading over to the man in plate armor, she put her hands around my shoulders.

"Everyone at the guild has been talking about some quad element mage. There was a board posting about it and you have the purple eyes of the person described. Are you…"

"Yes, I am. Keep him on light duty, I can heal the body, but he may not be mentally ready to get back in it for a while." I responded as I got back up and looked further down the small line of carriages. The ones ahead were pulling off now and the last two behind this one were close to finishing their opponents. As I turned to head back to my carriage, the blond got in my way, her green eyes screaming 'fuck me' louder than if she had yelled the words.

"I-I can't let you go just yet. You saved our lives you did. Perhaps I could come back to your carriage and thank you properly." She said with blushing tan skin over her white undershirt and her spear swayed with the turning of her hips.

"I'll take it up with my fiancé." I said as I moved past her.

"F…fiancé?" She squeaked behind me as I took off towards my own carriage.

The grey overcast sky was the only thing that seemed unchanged as I zipped forward towards my carriage stay on the left side of the road. Off to the left were a few more corpses on the ground than there had been before as Salamede stood by the horse helping watch the left side as the driver scanned the right side.

"All right, we're good to go." I called ahead. Salamede nodded went through the back of the armored carriage with me stopping to get the wheels up before moving in. She sat on the left bench while I sat on the right across from her as I used flame magic to burn away bits of rotting flesh that stuck in-between the plates of our armor and on the corners of our weapons.

"Well, you were right about it only being the start. The last group had a blond in it who asked to come back to my carriage when I told her I was a quad mage. She was practically quivering when she asked." I said dryly as I burned out one chunk of smelly skin from between Salamede's left knee plate.

"Yeah. She's in the guild and that place is where all the people too poor to be merchants or nobles go if they don't want to barely scrape by as peasants. Getting a child from you would set her on a path towards riches and comfort only typically afforded to nobles. Probably more if the government sets up a special stipend for women who bear your children" Salamede said like a woman who didn't just hear some other female tried to bed her future husband.

"Maybe if they invested more in roads and industry instead of trying to stud the mage men, things would be better." I grumbled sourly as I pulled back and looked out the crude window to the receding trees zooming past.

"One province tried that in the south western region. It was some harbor or heavy fishing area hit upon by a bad harvest from what I heard. Didn't cut them totally just reduced the local benefits but a day or two after the shipping companies pulled out completely. They helped ferry mages and magical resources from and to the central continent. They moved their operations to a northern neighbor before the week was out."

"And then the smiths packed up because of skyrocketing bar stock prices, which caused the farmers to lose money from more expensive farming equipment, and on and on it went. Am I right?" I said sourly.

"Aye. The travelling merchant said they never fully recovered from that even years later." Salamede said with a look downwards.

"I don't give a damn what their incentives or justifications are, I don't do absentee fatherhood." I said with crossed arms as I looked out the carriages back end toward the carriage a little bit behind us. The clack of metal across the wood floor turned my head towards Salamede, who was already crossing her legs around my waist and pulling up our helmets.

'Eli, if you wanted me to kiss you, just say so.' She said in a spirit connection, the heat in her voice unmistakable. I made no objections as our helmets were placed to the left and right. We spent the rest of the trip doing oral inspection until either a few minutes or an hour passed, and the carriage came to a stop.

"We've arrived!" The driver called.

We pulled away from each other with one last loud pop of our mouths. It took a long moment of looking at each other before we got our helmets on and went out the back of the carriage. Further up the road was a wall of grey stone in a wide circle, in the middle of which was a raised palisade to let traffic in from the main road. On both sides of the road were the rest of the carriages with their passengers disembarking and going through the main entrance while some stayed behind to keep watch for the carriages, the necessity of which was obvious from the small pile of rotting corpses around certain points of the outer wall.

Making our way through the crowd, we eventually came into the base as a line of guards vetted everyone coming through.

"Any ID's or papers?" One bored guard asked.

"They're fine." Guild master Mason called before I could say anything. The guard took a moment to recognize him before he stepped aside and let us pass as the other guild members produced various papers for inspection.

Going into the base proper, if felt like something between a proper camp and a refugee hovel. The bunkhouses ringing the wall and wooden towers at both entrances were made of sturdy enough wood beams and stone slabs, but in every corner in between them were masses of peasants. Most had decent clothes, but the lack of sanitation and food was obvious from the state of the small scattered camps and hungry faces.

"Let's get to work people!" Mason yelled from the porch of the officer's cabin on the right side of the base. We spent what felt like an hour moving pregnant women and the elderly into the carriages along with whatever meager possessions they managed to bring with them. It was near the tail end of helping move the peasant's belongings as we maneuvered around patrols of steel plated men that a new thorn appeared.

Out of the officer's cabin came two mage women. One was a raven-haired woman with a tall, thin frame beneath her blue robe, laced in gold and with white splashes showing waves. Her face was a bit wide with a button nose. To her right was a shorter blond woman with red painted leather, all of the finest make with gold inlay. The freckles on her face, thicker nose and more defined body provided a stark contrast to her companion. The only common feature between the two was the look of disgust at the peasants they were giving from the small house's porch.

From their right came a tired looking Mason who walked down the steps and towards us with a look of bearing bad news.

"Well, lads. We got some extra visitors and the base is short on the needed extra accommodations. They will be accompanying us back but… they're not going to ride in a carriage with peasants."

"Huh?" one of the male guild members said off to the left. "We barely have enough room as is."

"I know." Mason said, with his downward look only stopping as he put a hand to his forehead. "Some of the peasants are going to have to walk back."

I bit my lip to keep my suggestion of just knocking them out and laying them over the carriage chests from being spoken. It would be well into the night before we got back even if we made no detour to get the firewood and I did not feel like coming out here a third time.

"What is this base short on, carriages or horses?" I asked. This drew a surprised look from Mason, who took a moment to caress his lamb chops.

"Horses. They've been using them for messengers, and a few died from their wounds leaving some carriages with no means to pull them." He finally said.

"Then me and my wife can pull one of them. Going at full speed, we should actually be faster than the horses." I said. Mason got a little pale at the announcement, but whether it was from my offer or calling Salamede my wife, it wasn't clear.

"Um… Sure. The local commander should hand it over no problem considering how low on room they already are. We'll load it down with goods and have the Keltons put with you for protection when you leave the main group."

An audible sigh of relief went through the crowd as most of them got moving again. Although I noticed a few of the women looking sullenly at Salamede now.

It was another half hour before the empty carriage was brought out and loaded with a few goods and the Keltons who came along. The carriage in question was a bit longer than ours only it came without the metal sheeting. Loaded up with five of the Kelton men and an assortment of chests and bags, Salamede and I were waiting in a line of carriages to get going when the two mages finally walked past. With Salamede on the left and me on the right, we were in between the two protruding pieces of wood getting ready to pull it forward when they turned their gazes on us.

While merely content to roll their eyes at me dismissively, they seemed to be amused by Salamede being ready to pull the cart.

"A beast of burden in face and purpose." The raven haired one said as they both started walking by.

Using a quick earth spell, I shifted the dirt beneath her next step. The sudden shift caused her foot to slip out below her and landed her face first into the dirt. Even though she said nothing, I saw a look of amusement on the blond's face before she walked forward, followed shortly by the cursing water mage wiping the dirt of the off her ornate blue robe. I felt Salamede swat my arm but when I looked over to her, there was a smile playing across her mouth.

Eventually, the carriages were all put in order and we took off. It took all eight boosters from both of us, but we eventually passed the line of carriages and zipped on ahead with some of the Kelton men giving one exclamation or curse. As we passed the carriage at the front, Mason was in the driver seat and nodded to us as we left the main group.

The universe seemed content to inflict no more misfortune on us, at least for the rest of the trip. While a light drizzle resumed, the undead had been reduced to just one or two scattered about and since the village we were visiting was mostly for firewood, there hadn't been as many bodies to attract scavengers as there had been in the other two. The main warehouse in the center of the village was actually of caked mud with a tile roof. Salamede and I stood watch as the men offloaded the wood into the two boxes of holding.

It was during this time that I happened to look back and saw the wood they were offloading.

"Salamede, why does the wood look…waxy?" I asked across the line of men.

"Kissen sap. The wood is soaked in a certain weeds pulp that makes it last longer and stay drier. Doesn't smell nice by any nose but between that and freezing to death, we decided it was worth the extra steps." She said casually as she took the knees out beneath one shambling corpse. It took only a half hour more before it was all loaded up and we headed out of the village. The tension bled away as we pulled out and it was then that I properly took in the dead silence of the place, not a bird, dogs bark, or yell for what was between a village and a small town.

Nothing but the soft wind playing over the roofs of empty houses and the growing patter of drizzling rain from the darkening overcast sky.

Our task, so delayed with bullshit and tedious human failings, was finally at an end. Pulling up to the bridges wall, the previous carriages had passed through and we made our way past the drawbridge with no fuss. Turning down to the right side of the road, we eventually got the cart down to the local harbor area. After we unloaded the two chests of holding with the men, I looked around in the street until I saw the Patriarch.

"Ah, caster sir." He called with a coat over his head as he came forward. "Good, good. No blood or bodies. I'm guessing the trip went fine then?" He asked as his green suit still got some drops of water along his shoulders.

"As could be hoped for or expected. Is that item ready?" I asked casually as I took my position back at the carriage.

"Um… to what are you referring?" He asked, his brown fur showing a raised eyebrow.

"The piece of rope that's going to make Salamede my wife." I said with the drizzle starting to form a proper rain as the droplets hovered and fell off the projection field just above my suit.

"Oh, of course. Rand was here earlier going over the legality of it. As long as you don't talk to anyone during the ceremony, you haven't technically associated with anyone. He had to go discuss it with a legal expert but for now, for right now, he can't stop you from doing it if he isn't sure what the limits are." He finished with one last look to the men getting out of the carriage.

Salamede gave a happy little clap and we quickly moved off to deliver the carriage to the new peasant housing on the left side of the academy. The main road was more clogged than usual but off in the distance I could make out several three-story houses like a wide apartment building a few dozen yards to the left of the academy wall. The structures were more stone in the walls than their compatriots and looking at them I saw Ryan working a wooden board enchanted to summon stone. It put in the top story walls on the last of the row of five houses, the only cover being a wide piece of rough cloth strung along the top to keep the rain out.

We pushed our way through the crowd of people, now a greater mix of hungry people looking over the food vendors with worried expressions as they vied for the food that would quickly be put out of their financial means to acquire if the rising prices I saw were anything to go by. As the rain fell on the huddle masses of hungry peasants and vendors, our odd carriage drew many raised eyebrows but most of the people used to us merely nodded and stepped aside while the newcomers couldn't seem to decide if they wanted to look at us or at the semi-mythical dwarves.

The traffic lessened as we got closer to the academy area where an odd deadland of traffic lay, the spot between the two worlds where anyone rich enough to be involved in the academy wouldn't be going out in this rain for the poorer items of the town but the people poor enough to have to go out and get their food or cloth couldn't afford anything that the academy offered, leading to this near empty section of road where the two places touched. From there it took only a few more minutes before we got to the new houses and the line of carts in front of them. Men and women moved their goods back and forth as children either played or looked out shuttered windows. I went up to the back of the line and called for one of the guards.

"These are goods from the peasants, make sure they get to where they need to go." I said as I moved away from the carriage with Salamede. "I'll check on Ryan and come back to the Kelton quarter." She nodded but stopped for a moment to pull my helmet down and give me a kiss. Pulling away, she then took off down the road without a word. I could only ogle the soft curves of her armor with a smile as she made her way over the empty section of road and back through the crowd.

Turning away, I made my way to the front of the carriage line and looked up the house to Ryan. He was putting the finishing touches on the wall of stone he had summoned and was molding sections of it to allow the men to put in the thick wooden beams that would support the roof.

"Ryan!" I called above.

He turned around and looked at me with a confused expression. The moment passed and when he realized he who he was looking at, he got a big smile.

"Well, well. It looks like that trip went a lot faster than I thought it would. I assume it's because of the association representatives." He called down like this was just another idle chat.

"Is that who they are? Well, the trip went fast more in spite of them rather than because of them."

"Hmm. I guess no one needed to ask what they had come for." Ryan said as he stroked his chin. His green eyes and suggestive face with sharp cheek bones left no doubt as to what he was referencing.

"I've heard the apples here are of a wonderous quality." I responded with a strained smile. Ryan merely snorted in response before looking over the roof again.

"A few more minutes and I'll be done." He said. I nodded and we both bid goodbye.

Making my way through the crowd, I headed back to the Kelton quarter.

When I made my way around the bend and towards the usual meeting spot, I saw Salamede and the patriarch on a porch in front of the large houses. Even with a large crowd of Keltons in front of me and despite the fact she was standing a bit off to his left, Salamede instantly spotted me coming out of the back-alley way and then every head turned to look at me. As I came up the wooden steps, I saw Salamede standing in the middle of a large band of rope and in her hands was a quill with an ink jar on the porch. Recalling the details of the ceremony, I went to take the quill and paper from her. She looked at me with love so clear in her face, not even the helmet obstructing her nose and cheeks could block it.

'Honestly' The patriarch pouted in a spirit connection. 'I feel bad about marrying you two off like this. A mage, a quad element mage, marrying into the Kelton community should be something that has an entire day dedicated to it. Even more so for a mage who has already done so much for us.'

'Bah! A marriage is defined by how it is lived, not how it starts.' I dismissed his concerns through the spirit connection. I stared at the paper then looked out at the crowd. Strumming my steel covered fingers on the rail, I saw several men and a few women with scars along their snouts or about their arms, some new and some a few days old. Deciding on my contribution, I wrote it down on the paper.

"We gather here to recognize the tying of two souls together." The patriarch said as he turned to the crowd with a dramatic wave of his green suits right arm. "For this union to serve our community, any man that just so happens to step into the rope circle with Miss Salamede will now be considered for a union."

Salamede had written hers down first and dropped it on the floor. He picked it up and began speaking on our behalf.

"I promise to bear him twelve children, to raise them for each other and all of us." He read from the paper with an impressed nod as looks of approval went through the crowd. I then just happened to drop my paper on the floor in front of him and he picked it up to read from it.

"I swear to provide five wooden beds for the community, each enchanted with healing magic. They will provide physical restoration far greater than a healing elixir and as long as the ambient mana is maintained, will require no expense for their use."

This caused a wave of excited whispering and oohs amongst the crowd. I noticed quite a few who were sporting bandages on arms or on their faces seemed particularly excited. When I turned around Salamede was squirming in delight while the pudgy form of the Patriarch was content to look down with his left hand across his chest.

"You are truly a blessing" He whispered in a humbled tone before turning up and towards the crowd. "We have heard a proposition for the random couple who just happened to step into the rope circle. Are there any objections on the basis of health, ability or disposition? Let them come forward and be pelted with stones here and now"

That little breach of tradition sent a wave of laughter through the crowd. Down to the left I saw the small brown furred Kelton woman that was Salamede's mother looking on with a handkerchief wiping her white eyes.

"All conditions have been satisfied. Let the new couple go forward as husband and wife."

I followed Salamede's lead and picked up the rope and held it above our heads. The rain fell down on us and the crowd, but I paid it no mind as my heart fluttered with excitement. Looking at Salamede, I could see her face breaking apart with the happiest smile I had ever seen on it. Her face was streaked with rain and tears in between the helmet and I was just glad I had made her cry for a good reason this time. The stab of guilt at the memory was quickly repressed and we walked past the clapping crowd as we made our way towards the tower.

It was near the end of the crowd that Rand showed up.

"Ah, Eli good." He said with a wave to his right. Beside him was a thin man in a black robe being covered with a canopy carried by two other men.

"Eli No-Name." The man said. "I am a man of the law concerning censorship and I must applaud you for your innovative spirit. You did not talk to anyone during this ceremony nor was your name given during any of the vows."

He took a long moment of tapping his foot.

"I'll let it slide for now."

That produced a small cheer from the surrounding crowd.

"But…But. This will have to still be examined. Anything concerning you will be gone over to the smallest detail. I cannot promise that the marriage is valid, only that it cannot be immediately denied. Good day." He said before turning around with the rest of the guards. I gave a happy sigh and kept walking with my now wife.

"Oh, Tansen came by earlier. Told us about a big meeting tomorrow with all the major groups to figure out what to do." Salamede said as we moved across the stone road and onto the dirt path a little more quickly to get inside my tower.

"Does he know about us getting married?" I asked.

"Yep. Wished us well, in a spirit connection obviously. There's going to be a constant watch on us both from now on." She said in a put-out manner.

"They better not be watching for what I have planned." I said mischievously. She got a grin at that as we shuffled inside the door and onto the dark oak floor of my tower. The bits of bark were still scattered about but I immediately moved towards the hatch.

"I'll get a shower going so we can get the sweat off us then we can consummate this marriage." I said as I gave her steel bum a light swat. She giggled but looked at me with a raised eyebrow as I opened the hatch into the lower workshop. Going down the steps I saw the near finished forge on my right.

The deep graphite bowl was in a dip in the long plate of iron and in the near future, below it would be the shafts with heating coils. On the back side was to be the rack of copper spheres and wires that would power the thing but despite the constant whirring from the sphere powering the air piston and the few already in place for the forge, there was no other movement in the wide room. That was until Cell came from behind the far-left leg of the forge. His crystal head looked at me with anticipation and he jumped up towards me, sending me a wave of happiness as he rubbed against my cheek with his black mass of ever moving shapes flowing around the armor.

"Hey, how's it been Cell?" I asked him. I got general impressions of wires and the large heating coils being put in place. He seemed happy to see me, but he sensed the lust in my body and looked upwards at the hatch. He then sent me a few pictures of the other familiars and them going in the woods. Grateful for the time alone, I rubbed the sphere with shimmering lights in appreciation.

He headed to the left and up to the slab of stone in the wall that used to be the tunnel to the troll nest. Making a small hole upward for himself, he sent me one last wave of happiness in goodbye before I headed towards my main task. Down here was the tubes I had previously used for the shoulder cannons but those were useless now.

I took one and replaced the sections with the earth enchantments with water ones, taking off my armor and stripping down to the plain white shirt and brown pants beneath while I did so. Molding it into the stone wall around the grotto to the left of the stairs, I crafted a crude makeshift shower head out of it. As I was testing the water temperature, trying for that ever-elusive middle ground between cold and skin melting, I heard the hatch open behind me.

"Eli?" Salamede called down.

"I'm almost done. That perfect balance is within sight." I responded as the sound of footsteps came up behind me.

"Sala-" I felt her body press against my back. But through the fabric I could feel her lack of clothing as she moved her hands around my sides. I suppressed the impulse to turn around as I continued working on the metal tube sticking out of the wall above the small pond of water that served as the entrance from the river.

"Salamede." I chided. "Did you unwrap my present before I could?"

There was a chuckle in my left ear as she pressed her considerable bust against my back again and did a little nibble on my lobe.

'I��ve waited too damn long. I want you now' She said coyly in a spirit connection.

'We are close my dear. This is a meal I intend to savor and I want us both to be well washed for it.' I said even as the tightness in my pants suggested otherwise. She seemed to notice and ran her hands over my member sending a shiver up my spine.

'Are you sure?' She asked in a heated tone.

'Yes. We will have all the time in the world once I finish this shower head. Get the soap ready and we can shower together.'

She gave a needy pout that made my blood boil with lust, but I held it in when she removed her hands from my groin, and I heard footsteps going upstairs. It took a few more agonizing minutes, but I eventually got the water and fire enchantments down to where they would put out a shower of hot water that suited my intended purpose.

Going back up the stairs, I opened the hatch to see Salamede dressed in a white under dress as she sat on the central boulder couch chewing on a long piece of Yook root, the yellow celery vegetable that prevented pregnancy in women. Her snout had a bit of the vegetable in front of it and the white stripe that ran up from her nose ridge.

"Is it ready?" She asked impatiently. I practically ran forward as I stopped resisting the heat in my body and gave in to my urges. Getting on top of her as she swallowed the last of the vegetable, I took her head in my hand and kissed her. For a long moment our tongues dueled before I pulled her up and hoisted her onto my chest as I walked down to the shower.

Her hands ran all over my body, taking particular care to undo the knot of my pants. I struggled to hold her and my pants up but once we were down in the small pond, I just pinned her to the wall as I fiddled with the tube. Once I hit the button, a shower of steamy water came out of the tubes' end and I felt Salamede jump as the sudden heat hit her.

"It's like Tansen's underground pool. So warm" She said excitedly. I took her lips for a moment as the water washed over us both.

'That's why we needed to get married.' I teased in a spirit connection. 'Else using this hot water craft would be far too inefficient to use for one person at a time.'

She puckered her lips and tried to slap me. But as she tried to get a hit in on my ribs or head, I looked down to her body. Her white underdress left nothing to the imagination with the water making it cling to her body like a second skin. While her grey fur ran down to the collar bone, the big orbs of her breasts stood out as distinctly human with the hard, brown nipples showing through the fabric. Salamede noticed I had stopped dodging to stare and put her hands to her hips.

'Like what you see?' She teased as she swung her chest back and forth. 'if so, I- eek!'

My blood was red hot and I couldn't take it anymore as I pulled at the legs of her dress. She tried to get up on one foot to help me remove her garment, but as we both desperately pulled at the cloth it kept getting stuck on either her horns or her standing foot. A few more seconds of struggling and the end of patience came. I got back up and grabbed her under dress by the open V of her chest and pulled it apart with a loud rip.

"Eli! My dress." Salamede squeaked, although not unhappily.

"I'll buy you another, I'll buy you a dozen, just give me your body right now!" I growled as I finished ripping the offending cloth in two. It fell into the water to reveal the beauty beneath.

Her body wasn't hard like a warrior, instead coming with bits of fat around the hips and belly. But that wouldn't have fit her anyway as the big pale orbs of her breasts would have been entirely impractical for such a lifestyle. I had felt them through cloth before but now saw them free. They were big enough to more than fill each of my palms, with hard brown nipples erect in excitement. Under the left breast and along her right hip were two moles each. Looking further down was the small bush of grey hair that was her vagina.

She had a body for making children and holding them on her hips.

And it was all mine for the taking.

"Eli, I kind of want to see what goods I've purchased as well." She said with an impatient tone as she blushed from my attention.

I huffed and took off my shirt and threw it behind me. I started working my pants but Salamede took my hands as she moved up to me through the hot water enveloping us.

"Now, now Eli. You got to unwrap your present now I get to unwrap mine." She reprimanded as she pulled my hands to the side.

Her hands worked the cord around my waist and let the brown pants fall down to reveal the tented white underwear. I kicked the pants down fully and as I did so Salamede started lowering herself. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she landed a kiss on my lips, then a light bite on my chin, then a kiss on my neck, then a small bite on my collar bone. She stopped for a moment to appreciate the small moans she was drawing out of me before continuing. Then her lips kissed above my left peck which was followed by a small bite on my nipple, not hard enough to hurt but it still sent a shiver up my spine. She kissed my abs and then bit my lower belly. When she finally got to above my pubes, she hooked a single finger around my underwear and worked them down until she had it just above my erection.

"Eli. Thank you." She said before she did one final pull. My erection swung out in front of her face and she took a moment to stare at it, taking in every ridge, vein, and curve like it was a painting she wanted to remember for the rest of her life. I kicked the unneeded shorts and pants away so that we both stood as clothed as any animal of the forest.

Her white eyes looked up at me and appreciation was plastered across her face as she moved her legs beneath her and got on both her knees, causing a hypnotic swing of her breasts.

"Eli" She said as she grabbed both of my ass cheeks and pulled me forward. "Thank you for getting us the grain we needed to survive." Once that last word left her mouth, she put her head forward in a deliberate bob. Her tongue, a soft wetness that rubbed like a hot sponge, started at the left side of my stem and slowly worked its way up. My whole body tingled as the bolt of ecstasy she was sending through my loins methodically worked its way up to the head.

Raw need flooded my body as that softness felt like a fine silk working its way around the nerves in my dick. But Salamede never quickened her pace even as a smug look in her eyes told me she knew exactly what she was doing to me. Her tongue eventually got to the head and ended the long lick just before touching the mushroom at the end of my stem.

"Eli" She said again. "Thank you for saving us from the cold by getting us the firewood we would never have been able to retrieve without your gifts." She repeated the lick along the right side of my dick, drawing a hard growl and biting lip from me as she languorously worked her way up the side and making sure to look me in the eyes with that smug expression the whole time.

"Eli" She said, her breath now heated and coming in short bursts. "Thank you for offering such a wonderous gift for our community. One of such value that we can't and could never repay." Her tongue then did another long journey up the middle of my dick and I had had enough. My arms jerked forward to wrap around her head almost of their own will but Salamede seemed to have anticipated the move. Her hands caught mine and pulled them further back, making me bend my hips forward to maintain balance.

She took the opportunity to take even longer this time, slowly running her tongue along the underside of my loins and making sure to keep looking at the red, needy face I was no doubt making. When she finally stopped the lick, she kept me bent over backwards to keep my dick right in her face. I stood there for a moment taking in the hot shower water coming down on both of us as I felt her breath across my manhood.

"And, finally." She said with a smug tone of victory. "Thank you for helping a worthless Kelton woman stuck in the mud." Her mouth lazily opened as she moved above my dick and slowly took the entire length in her mouth. A small gasp escaped my lips as the wet heat slowly enveloped my manhood. When she had gotten down to my balls, she let my hands go to grab ahold of my hips.

Immediately correcting my stance, I leaned forward and put my hands around her head to fully push her down. But she needed no encouragement as her tongue did light pats and swipes across my mushroom making my stem go from iron hardness to diamond. She seemed content to leave the main length of my stem to her lips and cheeks as she kept her tongue dancing across the tip. My body now intended to reach its release as my hips moved back and forth with wild abandonment as I slid my dick in and out of her mouth with increasingly desperate thrusts.

Her horns knocked against my chest, but I paid no attention to the occasional poke or slap as I put my hands around the back of her head and neck and thrust with no thought in my head beyond that wet heat enveloping my dick. A few minutes or an hour later, I couldn't distinguish the flow of time as the electric pulse surged through my body, I had reached the precipice of my climax.

"Salamede." I growled with a look down at my wife, still working my dick like its balls held diamonds if she could only get to the bottom of the two tanks. "Unless you want to taste the inside of my balls as well, pull away."

I used the last vestiges of my self-control to let her head go. Instead of pulling away, she squeezed my thighs harder and attacked anew with a moan of pleasure as she proceeded to run her tongue up and down my stem in raw need for what it was going to deliver.

Given the all clear, I grabbed her head around her horns and put my hips into overdrive. With the animal part of my brain demanding to be sated, it took only a few more seconds before I felt the electric surge in my loins work its way through my whole body. The world went white as I felt the heat surging through my dick and I cried a guttural scream of pure ecstasy. When that white vision had passed, I started falling back down to earth. When I began feeling my muscles, hot from the shower and activity, another feeling that came through was the sensation of soft, wet heat around my spent man hood.

I was staring at the ceiling and when I looked down, I saw my wife still had my dick in her mouth and was dutifully swallowing its payload. I stood there, spell bound, until the last gulp was heard. But the damned woman still would not let my dick out of her mouth, instead deciding to run her tongue up and down it to clean any seed from its outside. After a few more moments, she then let it slide out with a wet pop from her mouth.

"Oh fuck." Was all I could say as she wiped her lips and looked up at me with self-satisfaction.

"Was that pleasing, dear husband?" She said coyly.

"Oh fuck" I offered in a biting example of wit as my frontal lobe struggled to re-engage.

"Pff. A quad mage rendered speechless. That's as good as any praise a woman could ask for." She said happily as she got back up to stand just a few inches from me.

I pulled her forward by the waist and felt her up and down. My only regret was the blowjob didn't leave me a lot of time to admire this beautiful body before me, something I now intended to address. My left hand took her left ass cheek while the right hand took a full palm of her breast. I was the hero of her community and I wanted to leverage that for all the groping and kissing I could. Lifting her up, I caught her right breasts nipple in my mouth, running my tongue over the hard dark marshmallow to a stream of cooing sounds.

"Geez, Eli. It's like I have a baby already." She said in a sultry tone. I got a large smile as I looked her in the eyes and let her down.

"Such wonderful sounds coming out of you, dear wife. I would definitely recommend everyone get a wife if they are as delicious as you."

She got a happy little smile at that as she put her hands down below to grasp my now recovered manhood.

"My oh my, he's already recovered. Keeping him down is going to be a full-time project I see." A light squeeze punctuated her last word.

"Please, honey, I am not so horrible a man as to demand all of the work be done by you." I said as I traced a kiss down her collar bone and put a hand to her soaked vagina.

She got a pursed lip but stopped after a moment.

"Actually, there is something I want you to do." She said as she turned around. Getting just up against the wall, she went down on her knees and hands as she lifted her ass in the air like a prize. The image my mind closely associated was a cat in heat presenting herself for mounting by her male suitor.

"Is this giving you any ideas about what I want, Eli?" She asked coyly.

With no need to ask twice, I walked forward and grabbed ahold of her magnificent ass cheeks. As I did so, I made sure to line up my erection with the quivering hole that was her womanhood. One massaging roll of my palm and I asked the question I need the answer to.

"Ok Salamede. But first, gentle or rough? How do you want it?"

She looked back at me and I could see she was going to tell me to do whatever I wanted. A squeeze of her ass and a raised eyebrow silenced that meaningless prattle. She bit her lip before she finally spit out what she wanted.

"Eli, I want you to fuck me like a horny huntsman meeting a five-copper whore in an abandoned forest." She demanded in a heated tone. A moment passed where I was taken aback at the colorful metaphor, but I dutifully slammed forward, getting my tip into her.

She gave a surprised squeal, but I grabbed her right arm and forced it behind her back. Holding her there for a moment, I gave her bum a hard smack. She let out a yelp as I used that moment to force myself deeper into her. That soft velvet of her channel squeezed me like a vice and I took a moment to savor the sensation. Pulling Salamede fully back, I used my free hand to give her left breast as hard a grope as I could manage as I bit her fur covered neck.

Her body reacted to all of this by vibrating with excitement. She looked back at me with lust in her eyes as her breasts swung back and forth from each thrust. A few more minutes of alternating between smacks and thrusts and I decided to see just how far she would let me go.

I made sure to constrict and contort her body against mine to project a sense of absolute dominance as I used my hips to force her against the wall, my arms to pull her torso in whatever position I wanted it, and my legs to overpower any attempts she made to get up. To provide some variation, I grabbed the back of her neck and forced her head against the wall as I pinched her nipples. When she gave a delightful little coo of wonder, I started doing harder and harder twists and squeezes to her ever-increasing delight.

I was using her body like a cheap sex doll and she was loving every minute of it. It was a while before she said anything but the sudden surge in warm liquid from her pussy and the shaking told me she had her first orgasm of the night. It was after calming down a little that she finally talked.

"Eli, I…OOOH! Eli, my horns" She said in a dreary tone that said she was barely lucid.

"What?"

"My horns! Grab them!" She demanded in a heated tone.

Taking a moment to go over the logistics of the request, I fully swept the legs out from under my wife. She squealed in delight as I held her in the air and lay her down on the floor. I pulled back and rubbed my hands together before seeing to the assigned quest. I was still inside her channel so when I leaned forward, it forced a bend in her back that finally stopped when I took ahold of her two ivory horns atop her head.

Grasping them, Salamede didn't react at first. But when I used this newfound leverage to move her head down, her breath came in short bursts as her womanhood shook. It took a few tries to get a good rhythm going but once I did, Salamede was a quivering pile of bliss. With each slam of my hips, I would pull her head back to meet the charge. When I lifted her up, she would use her free hands to grasp at my ass to make my dick go in her as deeply as possible.

It took only a few more minutes of my quivering wife's coos and wet heat from her pussy before I was ready to explode again. Taking the initiative, I forced her head down over the side of the small grotto puddle as I pressed my body fully against hers. It wasn't as intense this time, but the wave of release as I unfurled my seed into my wife was still incredible. I pressed our flesh together as hard as I could, I willed my orgasm to go on as long as I could, and Salamede constricted her pussy as hard as she could while this moment of life affirming ecstasy passed between husband and wife.

Sadly, the moment passed, leaving behind two sweaty, shaking bodies. I lay on top of her as the hot shower water continued falling down my back, panting as I took in her scent, touch and taste while making sure to feel every bit of flesh beneath me.

"Eli, you're a big fellow." Salamede said.

"Oh yeah, sorry." I said as I got off her. But I took a long moment to pull out of her to enjoy the sensation before I laid back down to rest beside my wife.

She instantly snuggled up to me and pressed her breasts against my chest. I took one of her big orbs with the nipple still hard and did another suck on it. A slight moan above me told me the action was not unwelcome.

"Really?" She said with an exhausted and dramatic raise of her head even as her hand went to caress my cheek. I let her tit fall from my mouth before I leaned back up and kissed her.

"I needed to do a thorough inspection. Those are going to be feeding my children some day and I had to make sure they were up to the task."

She swatted my arm with an indignant snort, but we were both too breathless to continue the banter. We took a moment just laying there as we gobbled down the air and love in each other's eyes. Salamede put her arms around my waist and chest before speaking again.

"I forgot the soap."

I laughed as I concentrated on just how good her body felt against my skin. Her nipples against the taught skin of my chest providing a particularly great pleasure as they rubbed back and forth with each breath.

"That was amazing, Eli. But we have to get ready for tomorrow." She said with a tone that wasn't fully convinced herself. I took the moment to kiss her.

"Indeed, my wife. We have a lot to do tomorrow." I said as we both reluctantly got up. She went upstairs to get the soap and returned after a few moments. A good half hour passed, filled with more kissing and rubbing of various parts, before we were fully washed and the water craft was finally turned off.

Our legs shaky and our energy well spent, we fumbled together some clothes to form a rough bed on the main floor behind the central boulder. Satisfied and drained, we drifted off to sleep without a single word spoken.