5-All Those Males

The poison eventually healed up, and the UI told me I'd gained a point of the Grit skill for pushing through the pain to get the job done. It gave me some experience in my Tough attribute.

This was good, because I was probably well behind Auralla in her skills and attributes.

The orange-skinned beauty stayed with me to make sure she didn't have to apply more of her healing salve or make me drink any more of that awful antidote, and it felt very odd having someone so beautiful (and so nude) stick around for lil old me.

I was used to my time alone, by a hefty amount, but her calm, cheerful acceptance of such a strange situation helped settle me. It didn't help my libido, so I tried not to stare too much while she talked.

I wanted to ask if I could travel with her, at least as far as Sunspire, but wasn't sure if I could just come out and request that. Sure we had… several times, but that didn't make us buddies.

Embarrassment warred with a hint of anxiousness. Between the brood swarm and the jiddara, and all the other unknown dangers out there, I needed help. Another part of me told the first part about how stupid I was being: she'd offered to heal me up, had actually then done so without asking anything of me, okay that wasn't entirely true, she'd asked me to get all up in her.

I massaged my forehead. It was like when I saw a beautiful woman my brain just turned to white noise. I had to do this. So, after a nice deep breath, I blurted out, "Auralla?"

She turned and regarded me with the frank and open face a goddess would envy. The rest of her was begging me to get another eyeful, but I kept my gaze on her heart-shaped face.

"I know I just got here, and we just met, and then essence sharing and such, but there's, is there any way I can ask you for some help?"

She didn't hesitate. "Sure."

"Sure?"

She nodded. "I can't just leave you out here to die, can I?" Then she bit one lip in an unconsciously sexy way and tapped one finger on her nose. "There's a problem though. Sunspire wouldn't have you. Neither of the other two villages would either. They might just kill you. But there's… there's Surrek." Disgust colored her expression, but in a flash it was gone.

"I can go to Sunspire. Meet your leaders. Learn a little, and then they can help me figure out the best path."

A complicated series of emotions passed over her face quickly. Finally though, she brightened, explaining that the Domi would know what to do.

You have made a close observation!

the message burbled.

You've gained a tier in the Empathy skill. It's clear that Auralla is conflicted over the idea of bringing you back to Sunspire, and it might help to uncover why. You've also gained experience toward your Charming attribute, which remains at one star.

This also left me wondering if the

Drifter's Mark

on her neck would disappear if I did perish out here, alone. If her power had increased, she had a vested interest in keeping me alive.

I hoped. The evidence to back this up was the fact that she hadn't turned around and immediately killed me, but that wasn't irrefutable.

We took the Mack. Her companion, who was named Truffy, clambered up the hood of Mack, leaving several scratches in the paint job, over the curving portion of the small sleeper cabin, and onto the flat trailer top. I laughed over the idea of the resale value going down. Ha, there was absolutely no way I'd be selling Mack now.

With Auralla staring in utter incomprehension, which I found very cute, I showed her how to open the door, and felt like a proper gentleman for holding it open for her.

She climbed into the cab, wide-eyed at everything.

"Come on, baby," I muttered to her, patting the hood as I headed back around to get in. "Start up for me, okay? Impress the girl."

Luckily she started right up, and I had to chuckle at Auralla nearly falling into my bed in the sleeper section. She peered around, sniffed everything (probably a bad idea) and stared in wonder at the compartment of cold that was my mini-fridge.

Unless I found a way to replicate batteries and diesel fuel, Mack wasn't long for this world. That was something to consider.

Auralla gave me simple directions: head toward the largest floating mountain in the distant range, until I saw the spire. Simple enough, which was good, because aside from dodging slowly around some of the huge furry creatures, I could turn my thoughts to other very important matters.

I took stock of changes since meeting Auralla. My stats now reflected the change in abilities, which reflected the change in my relationship. Clever, Sly, Quick and Tough were all boosted by two stars instead of one. Attune had tiered up out of Normal and was now the first star of Bronze. And no joke, I could see the mountain range to the south clearly now. The stat boosts were real.

By now, my stats looked a great deal more respectable than when I'd started, though increasing my Fierce was definitely on my to-do list.

Attuned— Bronze *

Clever— Bronze*

Charming— Normal*

Fierce— Normal*

Quick— Bronze*

Sly— Normal***

Tough— Normal**

A little question mark next to Quick, Attuned and Clever explained that I couldn't increase them beyond the first star of Bronze until the rest were at Bronze.

Also, I was starting to see and smell magic. I knew how that sounded, but there was no other explanation for the faint rainbow colored tendrils of wispy, cloud-like stuff flitting through the air, and also the bunch of it coalescing around the floating rock. The excess drifted up off into the sky. It was hard to make out clearly, as it was like looking at heat haze drifting by at certain points. Around the floating boulder it was more pronounced… when Auralla said I was magic, maybe it had something to do with me getting up close and touching that boulder for several minutes. I'd certainly felt better after being close to it for a time.

Just like my sense of smell, I was able to calm it down a little, shut it out.

Importantly, I had to increase my tier. I wasn't sure how to do that beyond getting everything to Bronze one star, and Auralla was no help. She knew a lot of things about this world: the sex magic part, the domination-or-power-sharing part, the various beasts, landmarks, names of cities and villages. But she was definitely inexperienced when it came down to moving up in tier, abilities themselves, and I didn't bother to ask her about the relationships aspect I was looking at. It seemed like the stuff I saw as explicitly video gamey was just a part of her natural world.

I didn't want to spoil things by letting her in on my interest in continuing to be near her.

Honestly, that part was easy to figure out: I could see every bit of her, even while clothed, and every bit of her was appealing. The sex was great, and the conversation was quietly adorable. I liked her earnest eagerness and the way her eyes got bigger when I explained something she found strange.

She wanted to know all about earth: the village (cities), the huts (buildings), the beasts and the birds, what we did without magic, how it was even close to possible to be roughly fifty percent male and fifty percent female population.

It was hard to get through any amount of the earth experience without stumbling over a dozen things she didn't understand and simply couldn't comprehend without sixty-five other things being explained. Buildings as far as the eye could see? Roads made of rock? She was astonished to learn that Mack didn't run on magic, but when I tried to explain, I faltered and just went with 'magic liquid' that turned to fire inside the engine.

I tried to explain the internet, and that was an absolute disaster, leading me to laugh at my own inability to get through the concepts. I ended up leaving it at 'you can learn anything on earth from this rectangle in my pocket' and chuckled again at her skeptical look

Still, she kept coming back to was the ratio of males to females on earth, and she was flabbergasted at the idea of fifty fifty. That part set her staring off into the middle distance to contemplate.

"So each male just takes a single female?" she asked in wonder.

"Ah… no. Some people stay single for a long time." How long, she asked? "Well, some people stay single until they're… I don't know, twenty-five?"

"The women?"

I nodded.

"How do they manage to evade

all those males

?"

The implications of that were sobering. It was like I was a limited commodity on this planet, but also something like an apex predator or a venomous snake with the ability to hypnotise people. Fascinating plus dangerous.

I explained that, since there was no 'essence sharing' magic, the only function of Dom-sub society was for kicks. If you were into it, you offered to be someone's submissive, or you offered to dominate someone looking to be your bottom. And that was just the beginnings of various kinks. I glanced at her feet on Mack's dashboard and I snorted laughter.

"What is it?" she asked, smiling easily.

I explained that the

all those males

bit was funny, but inwardly I had to wonder about this new place yet again. "Auralla, what would you say is the proportion of males to females here?"

"Here?" she asked.

"Your village." She was tight-lipped again, and she stiffened in her seat, so I took a different tack. "Okay, outside of your village. Let's say your average city." She'd mentioned the word

Surrek

but I didn't want to see that look on her gorgeous face again. "How many males per female, or vice versa?"

She chewed on this for a moment. "Perhaps ten females to a male, if my Domi tells true. I have never been to the city… I have no will to become a slave."

Her Domi was one of several leaders of Sunspire, a wise woman of some repute. Sunspire itself was a village of nearly five hundred people, and at times of monster attack, magic fluctuation or attack by the city folk, would become a nomadic village. They were able to use their abilities and resources to travel hundreds of miles to places where they could be safe.

I ended up gaining another instance of Empathy, and my relationship with Auralla increased a third time. I looked, and now a half of the second star of Charming had been filled in. It was nice to see quick progression… if I knew anything about video games, that wouldn't last. The first bunch of level ups would come quickly, and then turn into a bit of a grind.

Directly on its heels, I gained a point of Knowledge: Ethetria, and received experience in my Clever attribute. Nice.

We continued to talk, but it was clear she was dumbstruck regarding all the cultural differences between America (or the whole earth, for that matter) and Ethetria. The big shaggy cow things were called doluss. They were very good for furs and fur trading, but they were a bugger to kill. Very difficult.

"Because of the magical shielding," I said, and told her the story of the jiddara nearly killing me.

She nodded, and for the life of me, I couldn't keep my eyes on where I was going. I'd come entirely too close to a herd of doluss, and had to put Mack in reverse to swing her wide of the great big beasts. Mack was my sweetpea, my baby doll, I loved her so, but goddamn she had the turning radius of a battleship.

I had an idea. "How close are we to Sunspire?" I asked, and again took in the reddish bronze of her skin, the faint outline of abs beneath that shirt which covered nothing, and the rainbow highlights in her shoulder-length hair. And again, because she was scorching hot, my groin reacted by stiffening in my jeans.

"Your Mack is very fast," she said. I'd been doing like fifteen to twenty miles an hour over the tall grass, afraid I'd blow out the suspension on a rock I couldn't see, or tip her over. I could ride a bicycle faster than this, but hey. She was used to going on foot. "If we continue, we should make Sunspire before the sun sets."

My anxiousness over Sunspire was growing, and something else was also growing. In my pants.

Auralla was easy to talk to, but when it came to suggesting getting freaky, I suddenly got the butterflies again. There was more, though.

A village full of magically powerful warrior ladies was an awesome thought, but also frightening. One person I could deal with, but multiple people always meant agendas and clashing wishes. Considerations of safety for their people. If they decided I was too much of a risk to leave alive…

I didn't want to turn Auralla into a tool, but I needed an ally, and right now the only thing I seemed to be able to offer her was a pleasure she never knew in her life.

Of course, it would be silly to think I wouldn't get anything out of the deal. Seeing the amazement and confusion and naiveté become pleasure was one of my new favorite activities. My ex had been super jaded, and Auralla was such a delightful contrast.

Okay. Deep breath, I told myself. I could do this. All I needed was the same sort of courage I'd used when facing the jiddara.

Stifling a chuckle at that, I plucked up my guts and reached over to take her hand, then placed a kiss on it. "What do you think about taking a break and sharing essence again?" I cocked a thumb back at the bed behind us, heart hammering in my chest, and in my ears. "We can bed down in an actual bed this time, instead of grass."

She giggled. "You see the joining as something enjoyable to pass the time, and nothing else? You're… addicted to essence sharing?"

That giggle was what did it. Confidence blossomed inside me.

"Damn right I am," I said, grinning, and flipped up the arm rest to bridge the gap between us. She shrieked laughter at my dark grin. "And besides, I haven't heard you complain yet."

The UI awarded me another point of Sway and increased my Charming experience, but I pushed that aside and got down to business.

I once again took the time to disrobe her and savor all the moments of doing so. Goddamn, if I was going to be in a life-or-death land, I was going to enjoy the moments that could be enjoyed. Also, I was going to corrupt, er, teach this poor innocent angel into the depraved depths of pleasure.

On the flip side, in the last two days I hadn't given a single thought to money, rent, the fact that I was single and my ex was still living in my shit apartment down in Ypsilanti, I didn't think about whether the trash would be taken out when I returned, or whether some asshole was going to cut me off on southbound I-75, or whether I'd hit black ice, or be stuck in traffic for four hours while crews pulled an overturned semi off the freeway to finally get people moving. I hadn't thought about the mind-numbing hours, and the fact that I'd been forced to cancel my AudioLand subscription in an attempt to cut costs, so I couldn't even listen to audiobooks during those long ass hours.

A massive weight had lifted, and boy did my erection really like it. This was close to the best already, better than my high school ex Lara. Here I didn't have to sneak around, trying to steer clear of parents who'd stop us. We were both eighteen and convinced we could do whatever we wanted, but I still felt the oppressive presence of my mother and father, or worse, her mother and step-father.

There was none of that. This was completely and totally free, and I reveled in it.

This time I encouraged Auralla to kneel between the two bucket seats while I was on the bed, and get better acquainted with The Czar.

Yeah, I know, some people have stupid nicknames for their cars, but I took my nickname fetish a step further.

Her naïveté and hesitance was all the cuter, like The Czar was some monster capable of eating her alive. This was her chance to touch, really touch, lick, kiss, and worship without any of the pressure that would descend on us once we arrived in Sunspire. That was for the future… for now it was Auralla's chance to do whatever she liked.

I guided her towards proper technique, and as soon as she got several simple instructions, it was like a switch had been flipped. I threw back my head and groaned in pleasure at the feel of her. That really seemed to change her attitude towards going down on me, because she pushed herself to the limit of how much she could get down her throat, as well as how long she could hold it there. The hot warmth sank down onto The Czar in slow, measured increments, like she was testing herself. She followed by

using her tongue in a way I don't think I'd ever felt before, extending it forward and back while I was fully in her mouth. I threaded my fingers into her hair and held her down there, swearing under my breath.

"That is so much better than before," I muttered.

She choked a bit when I let her up, but her very shiny eyes gleamed all the more from the praise. "This is done well?" she asked.

I felt a swell of affection for her eagerness. Now I wanted to do whatever needed doing to keep her by my side.

"You've done very well."

"I've never—"

I gave her a reassuring smile. "Everyone starts somewhere… now climb up here."

She was especially confused when she tried to climb onto the bed to one side of me, and I redirected her to just get on top of me. The confusion lasted only seconds, but it reinforced the cuteness overload I was feeling. I couldn't help a dumb grin from spreading across my dumb face at my pure dumb luck.

The Czar was once again sheathed, and Auralla froze with me inside her.

"Oh," she said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's… different. Oh!"

"Different how?"

"The… uh… angle! It's, uh…" She couldn't continue, especially not when I gripped her by the hips and brought her up, then back down again. This time she bit her lip. Her eyes flew open and stared at the wall, then wonderingly down at me. "I've never, uh! Never even… ohhhh."

I have to say, it was great fun making her stop talking by pounding at her from below. Once I got the right grip, I could just hold her a few inches above me, and give her a hammering from below. She nearly fell backwards, and instead regained her balance with her small hands on my chest, right on the

Beastmaster's Mark

.

"Stop… that!" she gasped, and barked out a pure laugh.

"Stop what?" I asked innocently.

"You know… exactly…"

I stopped her from speaking again.

"Never even what?" I asked again.

She swatted my shoulder, eyes gleaming with amusement, mouth open and breathing heavily. "You brute!" So I made her unable to talk again.

After a good five minutes, I readjusted our position, and took advantage of her warrior's fitness. She was built for speed and flexibility, and had no trouble getting her knees up around her ears. Folded in half like this, our faces were separated by a good foot of space, with her staring at me in utter incomprehension. She'd lost herself to the pleasure, and was just staring at me.

Was I some hero of ages come to educate her in the ways of pleasure? Was I an angel sent down from heaven? Was I instead a demon sent to tempt her down dark pathways of lust? Was I some kind of god who walked among men? It was great fun to interpret that single blank facial expression.

I guided her hands up to hold her ankles like this, so I could get better leverage, hands against the wall of the sleeper compartment. She did, with her mouth moving, fishlike. No sound came out.

It was like she was witnessing a towering tsunami for the first time, rooted to the spot. It was like watching a crevasse open up in the earth and swallow a whole town. It was the look the first scientists got when they realized the earth wasn't the center of the solar system. It was the look the scientists got when they realized the earth wasn't even the size of a grain of sand in a single galaxy amongst a million million galaxies.

Maybe I had a lot to learn about this place, but she had a lot to learn about this act. And, as long as she was here for that education, I was definitely here for it.

The pleasure was beyond what I'd ever felt before. The novelty of it was one reason, but she was incredibly tight and wet. The passion in her expression matched the pure revelation, and only leant to the intensity of the experience. I was frankly astonished at how little she knew. All of it was from me, and I gave her my all over, and over.

"So… deep!" she grunted at me at last.

It was. The Czar felt like he couldn't possibly encroach on her territory even a little bit more. The urge to unload all of myself into her rose, and rose further. I couldn't hold back anymore than I could keep the sun from rising. Ecstasy was already mine, but the climax was just over the horizon.

"It's essence time," I growled. "Where should I?"

"Wherever you want it," she responded breathlessly.

Okay, I'd always wanted to do this… after pulling free from her, I knelt over her and lined up right at her mouth. She opened up obediently, and I had time to think

for a girl who didn't want to be dominated, we sure are setting off down a pretty dom/sub road.

I growled, bit my lip, and came in her mouth. She closed her eyes and gulped it down.

We decided afterwards to stay the night here in the truck, one night before bringing her home, to the place where I was almost sure I wouldn't be welcome. I hoped it wouldn't come to me getting thrown out of Sunspire, or challenged to a duel or something. Unless Auralla was willing to talk, there was no way to know. Going in blind wasn't ideal.

Snuggling up against a warm body for the first time in, what… six months? Eight months. Anyway it was a lovely consolation prize, if I couldn't have answers. Auralla fell asleep almost instantly, beginning to snore lightly with me spooning her.

I stayed awake a while longer, listening to her sleep, feeling her in my arms, and hoping tomorrow went better than I figured it would.