The Elven Village

"W-wait up! This is a bad idea!" Celeria took careful steps in the forest, her bare feet deftly jumping from stone to root to avoid the muddy floor. Her companion, Peonie, was walking ahead of her. "Are you ignoring the skull on the map? You don't draw a skull for fun, it means to stay out!"

"No, but unlike the map makers, I have an elven friend! I'm sure they'll let us stay without any issues."

"Who needs more stuffy elves anyway? Camping is great! Let's take the long way out of the County."

"No!" Peonie turned around. Her refined face was pouting. "Camping is awful. I'm tired of sleeping on hard ground and eating nothing but mushrooms and berries! I want a bed, and I want a decent meal!"

"H-hey now, why didn't you say so? Here's a piece of elven wisdom for you. See this bark? Not only is it edible, but it's delicious!"

Celeria's sharp nails ripped a piece of loose bark from the tree at her side. She shoved it into her mouth without looking. Her teeth made horrible crunching sounds while trying to break down their lumpy meal. With a deep grimace, Celeria forced herself to swallow her impromptu snack.

"S-see? Yummy!" Celeria said, rubbing her belly unconvincingly. Her voice sounded scratchier than usual.

"Look, I know you are embarrassed about your fellow elves seeing you like this, but we are going to the hidden elven village, and that's final."

Celeria was only wearing the green leotard, having not had an opportunity to acquire more clothes while on the run from the Count's guard. The fabric squeezed her curves tightly, leaving little of her curvy body to the imagination. Her athletic legs and toned arms stick out of the sleeveless garment entirely.

The elf groaned and began to follow her partner. Humans were so stubborn.

"If we are doing this, we are doing this right. Put your hair like this." Celeria brushed Peonie's smooth hair forward until it covered her ears. "And try to squint as much as possible. Your eyes should never be wide open. Don't let anyone know you are human, ok? Promise me."

Peonie rolled her eyes. "I promise."

"Look, this is more serious than you think. I know I'm cool and all, but not all of the other elves share my outlook toward the… young races. Especially in backwater villages without real contact with humanity in centuries."

"You telling me that you were the only one in your village that didn't hate humans?"

"The opposite. Everyone thought I was borderline xenophobic." Celeria stopped to pat down a tree trunk in search of something.

"What?"

"Here it is! Follow me..." Celeria found a rope ladder hidden among the vines and climbed up.

"Wait, where's the village?" Celeria pointed upwards towards the hanging bridges and tree houses that dotted the upper level of the forest. The dumbstruck human began to follow her elven friend.

"Amazing," Peonie leaned over the edge of a suspended rope bridge to stare at the forest from the vantage point of a soaring eagle. She gazed sideways at the wooden homes sticking out of the tree trunks like giant bird nests. It was a surreal experience.

"Close your mouth, it's not that impressive. See that building over there?" Celeria pointed at a platform sprawling in a circle around the biggest tree. A thatch roof provided respite from the sun and rain, but no walls divided the common areas. "That looks like the local assembly hall. We should be able to get a meal there."

The two adventurers went into a dining area, tree stumps doing the part of chairs and tables. They sat down, and at Celeria's behest, an elven woman served them food.

The other elves were hard at work with their chores; chopping wood, doing carpentry, harvesting berries, some were singing a choir to to a growing tree, but they still had the time to spare Celeria's powerful legs a passing glance. Everyone in the village wore clothes made out of leather, leaves, and twigs. Her skimpy outfit didn't find much approval in the traditionalist town.

Peonie stared down at the bowl in front of her. It had a hearty meal composed of steamed mushrooms, berries, and … a bit of bark. "This looks… edible? How much for the meal?"

"Peonie, don't!"

"We have to pay for our food, Celeria. Is this enough?" Peonie put a copper coin on the table.

The beautiful elven cook stared at the coin with suspicion. She grabbed it, took a whiff of it, and even bit it. "What is this piece of metal? Why are you giving it to me?

"A coin? To pay-Hmf!" Celeria shoved a handful of bark down Peonie's mouth to shut her up.

"An art project! My friend here is super proud of her metalwork. She can't help but share it with everyone she meets."

"Wait a minute. Is this a …human?" The elf finally noticed the face on the coin. "Look at it with his stubby ears and round eyes. He looks pretty cute. You are a very talented artist!"

Peonie managed to swallow the bark with some effort. "Whoa, it tasted good…Hmm, thank you? But, I didn't really-Hmph!"

"Here, you got to try these mushrooms!" Celeria practically punched a fistful of food into Peonie's mouth.

"See? The ears are not pointy. That is how you can tell for sure that this is a human." The elven cook called her companions over to show the coin around.

"…like that?" One of the cooks pointed at Peonie. Her hair had moved with Celeria's strike. Her ears were visible.

"Yes… A HUMAN?"

"Oh no," Celeria jumped out of her chair and grabbed Peonie's wrist. "Quick, we have to run before… too late."

"Wook at the wute lil wuman with her wuman nose. Boop, boop."

"She is so small! I bet she has not even lived through fifty winters yet!"

"Here, you look kind of skinny. Have another bowl on us! Eat as much as you want."

Peonie was surrounded by curious elves, more pouring in from the rest of the village. They stroked her hair, poked her face, and rubbed her chin. The woman sat in silence, her discomfort palpable.

"Err, Celeria? A bit of help?"

"Should have known she was your human," the cook told Celeria. "She moved too clumsily for an elf. Didn't smell like one either."

"W-what? Do I smell bad?" Peonie asked.

"Noooo! You smell great for a human, sweetie."

"Somehow, that's not reassuring."

"Then let us bathe you to make you smell like freshly-picked roses!"

Amidst a chorus of "yes!" and "great idea," the elven crowd grabbed Peonie and carried her overhead towards one of their bathhouses.

"A b-b-bath? Wait, hold on!" Celeria sighed as the crowd took Peonie away. She warned her this was a bad idea. Well, not much she could do against a mob. The elf sat on the bench and finished her meal.

Now with a full belly, Celeria began to follow Peonie's trail. Her friend's boot lay discarded on the floor. Her pants were a bit further along, then her other boot, her gambeson. It was a trail of clothes leading to a bathhouse carved inside a tree.

A crowd was waiting outside one of the few closed doors the hamlet had. "Excuse me, I got to go see my human," Celeria pushed the elves aside and entered the room.

Peonie was in a bath, and she was indeed naked. The human was blushing but didn't seem uncomfortable. Quite the opposite.

She was comfortably sitting with her eyes closed and her arms stretched around the rim of the wooden tub. Her firm breasts almost floated in the water, her brown nipples occasionally peeking above the waves.

Two strikingly beautiful, raven-haired twins were bathing her. One was scrubbing her long legs, the other massaging herbal shampoos into her chestnut hair.

"Aaaaah, I needed this," Peonie moaned.

Celeria crouched to whisper to Peonie's ear. "When I say go, you jump out the window. I'll cause a distraction. Keep running until you reach the ladder out of the village. This might be our only chance before things get worse."

Peonie opened her eyes. "No, I like it here. They treat me well."

"But is our only chance to-"

"To what? Go back to sleep on the forest floor, shivering every time the wind decides to blow?"

"You let your human sleep on the ground?! How could you?" the shampoo elf hugged Peonie, frowning at Celeria as she pressed the human's head against her bosom.

"You are a bad elf," her sister said. "Do not you worry, dearie. You will stay here with us. We know how to treat you right."

Peonie pretended to pout and nodded her head toward her caretakers. She raised a smug eyebrow at Celeria.

"You know what? Fine! Don't say I didn't warn you!" Celeria stormed away from the bath. Peonie scoffed. What could she know? She was probably just jealous she wasn't getting a massage from two elven beauties.

The bath continued for a while. The elves massaged and playfully cleaned the rest of Peonie's body, leaving no part un-scrubbed. Not even her stiff nipples or her hairless crotch, embarrassingly enough.

"The bath is done!" One of the sisters declared. Peonie stepped out of the water, and the two elves chanted a spell to envelop their wet human in a pleasant current of warm air. Peonie smelled like a bouquet of freshly picked flowers.

"Hmmm." Peonie enjoyed the sensation. When she was dry, she stared at the elves as if waiting for the next part. The elves just stared back with a smile. "Err, where are my clothes?"

"Oh, they were so dirty that we had to throw them away, but here, we have prepared a special human outfit for you!"

"Great, let me…what is this?" The elves proudly showed a little belt with two square cloths attached at opposite ends. It was a loincloth.

The sisters tied the belt around Peonies' waist. The little fabric hid just the essentials, barely covering the crack between her buttocks. "It fits perfectly!"

"Haha, good joke. You got me. But, seriously, where is the rest of the outfit?" Peonie asked, hugging her chest tightly.

"This is it! Our elders say this is all humans wear in your caves."

"Caves?! When was the last time they saw humans?"

"Some millennia ago, maybe? Not too long, in any case. Don't like it? Do not worry. We have another gift for you!"

"Thank goodness..."The girls clasped a collar around Peonie's neck. A sturdy leash ran from the back of the accessory to the delicate hands of her elven helpers. "…Really?!"

"Sorry, but some decades ago we also adopted another human. She was so cute with her little toy compass and quill!"

"But then she ran off in the middle of a walk! We have to make sure you stay close!"

"Yes. We do not want you wandering out to the scary forest alone, do we? Come, let us go back to the village!"

"W-w-wait! I can't go out like this!" The two elven beauties dragged Peonie out of the bath. The crowd was still waiting for her, cheering at the sight of their village's newest member.

Peonie froze in front of so many eyes. Her hands stood at her sides, letting the elves freely gaze at her nubile body. They weren't exactly ogling at her. More like admiring.

"Don't be shy." The elf tugged at the leash and Peonie's bare feet tumbled forward on their own. The elves in the crowd ruffled her hair, caressed the bottom of her chin, and rubbed whatever part of her body they could get a hold of.

All Peonie could do was squeak, which only helped to make the elves collectively say "aww" as they thought it was the cutest thing they had seen since the last human arrived in town.

"Does she have a name?" asked a tall elf rubbing her stomach.

"P-p-peon-"

"I think we will call her Blushy! On account of how much she blushes."

"P-please don't. My name is-"

"I hear humans blush when they love you. It is like purring for their kind," commented the elf woman massaging Peonie's neck.

"Awwwwww! She likes me!"

"I-I mean, you seem nice enough? If only you let me g-"

The elven sister stopped brushing the human's hair to hug Peonie. Her head got buried deep in elven cleavage. "Look! Even her ears are getting red! She must really like you!"

"It's decided! She will sleep with me. She can curl at the foot of my bed!"

"I-I am? I mean, no!"

The elven sisters tied Peonie's collar to a wooden beam behind her. "Now wait here, Blushy! We will gather everyone else in the village to introduce you properly! A true elven welcome."

One by one, the rest of the elves patted Peonie on the head and left the room, leaving behind a dazed and very confused human. When the door closed, she quickly pulled on her collar to try and get free. The knot was impressively resistant.

"Hi, Blushy. Still enjoying elven hospitality?" Celeria said, climbing into the window at the back of the room.

"Celeria! Argh!" Peonie tried to hug her friend, but the leash tugged her back. "Please! I'm sorry about before. You have to help me!"

"I don't know. Don't you want to stay for the welcome? Everyone gets to write their name on your body with multicolored dyes! It takes weeks to wash off. Such a wonderful tradition…"

"Celeria! Now is not the time!"

"What's that, Blushy? You said you wanted to keep ignoring me as you've been doing all day?"

"F-fine. I'm sorry I ignored your advice. You were right all along, as always. Happy?"

"Eh, good enough."

Celeria cut the leash with a knife she borrowed from the kitchen. "Now quick, follow me!" Celeria put her foot on the window, looked back, and… "I said hurry! What are you doing?"

"I can't go back to civilization wearing only a loincloth!" Peonie was scampering from one side of the room to another in a desperate search for clothing.

"There is no time!" Celeria doubled back to grab her wrist just as the door opened.

The raven-haired twins were back, each carrying a colorful bag of dyes. They gasped as soon as they saw Celeria dragging Peonie out the window.

"The foreigner is trying to steal back our human. Stop her!"

"Quick! Run!" Peonie obeyed and followed Celeria out the window.

Outside, they circled the platform atop the trees. A mob of villagers was waiting on both ends.

"It seems like there is no way out…" a crestfallen Peonie said. "I guess I should start getting used to my new name..."

"Save the moping for later, Blushy, I have an idea." Celeria jumped up and grabbed two vines from a tree branch. One for herself, one for Peonie. "Hold on tight, and don't let go until your feet touch the ground!"

Celeria jumped, disappearing under the dense foliage of the woods.

"Are you serious?"

"Here Blushy, Blushy!"

"Ahh!" Peonie jumped too. The air whipped against her face as she swung downwards. She kicked her legs, her loincloth fluttering madly and hiding exactly nothing of her soft behind or hairless womanhood.

Without fanfare, Peonie crashed onto a big pile of leaves on the ground. Celeria grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "Well, I think we are in the clear. Hopefully, this little experience taught you a valuable lesson."

Peonie got back to her feet and dusted her muddy knees. Despite getting away, she didn't seem too chipper. "I know… elves suck."

"What? No. The lesson is to always listen to me."

A leaf stubbornly clung to Peonie's brown nipple until the wind finally pushed it away. Peonie grabbed it midflight and tried to stick it back into her exposed breast. "Ugh, what I'm going to do now? I can't walk into town like this!"

"Hmm… maybe we can use your leash to tie some leaves around your chest? Make a flowery corset?"

Peonie sighed. "It's worth a try. But first, it's getting late. Let's find a place to make camp and think about this in the morning…"

"Get up."

"No, mom. I don't want to go pick mushrooms…" Celeria tried to toss the other side of her pile of leaves, but she stopped as her forehead found a sharp, cold object in her path. She opened her blue eyes to stare down at the pointy end of a spear.

"Ah!" Celeria awoke in a bolt and climbed to her feet. Five heavily armored men surrounded her.

"Eh, C-celeria. I'm afraid w-we have company," Peonie was already up. Her hands were in the air as a sword hovered in front of her bare chest.

Celeria recognized the green and yellow livery of the men's uniform. "The Count's guard! They found us."

"I-it seems that way."

Celeria put her hands up and grimaced. This wasn't a fight she could win barehanded. "I guess we are sleeping in the dungeon after all."

"Not quite. The Count has a proposal for you two adventurers."