The Dance of the Halflings Pt2
#141 of Exploration
For an hour, nothing did, although Simba reported in, telling us that the five of them had come to the other village, and were secretly observing those that were there. I had noticed a gravel road that wormed it's way through the village, past the inn, and towards this second village, I guess it was the local highway. But it was after the hour where things actually did happen. Because after the hour the halflings from the woods returned. To be truthful, maybe not all those who had been in the forest, but most of them.
And they all went into the inn underneath us. It was a great sized building, and I could hear welcomes from all sides. As drink was taken up, some of it alcoholic, some of it not, I heard the voice of Nicolas.
"Yes, we did enjoy ourselves, Harlo. And don't think your sarcastic voice goes amiss. There's naught wrong with those woods, although there was something very strange about last night."
The voice of the older Hobytla seemed amused." And what might that have been, Nicolas? The trees stood up and walked?"
Nicolas sighed." No, Harlo. But there were creatures in those woods. They walked on their hind legs like us, but not one of them was like us."
Harlo laughed."And I suppose these creatures joined in the proceedings?"
Nicolas replied, rather hurt," They did, actually. Two of them actually had musical talent, and played with us. The others can testify." There was a loud affirmation. But Harlo was unconvinced.
"And where are these precious creatures now?"
"They must have left during the night, we woke and they had gone."
"So, humour an old man, what did they look like?"
"One was taller than us, but much like us. A second was very black, and covered with fur. His ears were pointed and keen. The third was reptilian, and agile on his feet, climbing up and down the trees."
"And these creatures just happened to stumble across you?"
"Yes they did!" Nicolas was getting annoyed by half the inn's disbelief." There was even a red dragon amongst them."
"Now, now." Harlo laughed,"There's only one dragon around here, and that's green and unlikely to move." There was laughter, Harlo had scored a point, but Nicolas refused to be budged.
"I know about that hill, Harlo, but this one was red, eight foot tall if I were an inch, and with huge wings."
"We did warn you about eating wild berries, Nicolas." There was out cries from several at this, and Harlo shouted louder,"Enough! Please don't tell me any more stories. I would like to know this enchantment that over came you, but pray do not tire me with silly legends. Dragons indeed!"
I nudged Draco, and he dropped down off the building, next to the door, and curled up into sleep. I dropped down also, and took up the other side. No one saw us do this, everyone was either asleep or in the inn. Nicolas spoke firmly.
"I don't care what you say, I know what I saw."
"And I know that you youngsters have told many tales in the past." there was the sound of footsteps, and a middle aged hobbit walked out the door.
"I suppose you think you're clever." I said, leaning against the wall of the house, and the hobbit turned. He paled, and backed towards Draco, not having seen him.
"I wouldn't go that way, my dragon friend might be annoyed if you stepped on him." I heard Nicolas give an exclamation, as Harlo turned and saw Draco, apparently slumbering. He gave a yell of surprise and leapt away from the reptile. Nicolas rushed to the door and saw me. The halfling leapt up and embraced me around the middle, glad to see me again.
"Where did you go?" he smiled, looking up at me, while Harlo looked in stark astonishment.
"We have a job to do, and the others are searching for other villages. Me and Draco here were asked to follow you lot, except I think Draco's still recovering from last night." I smiled at the sight of several halflings coming to the door.
Draco yawned very widely, exposing all his razor teeth, and stretched his wings, uncurling briefly. Perhaps he hadn't gone to sleep after all, why was he still tired? Or maybe he was acting.
"Harlo, this is Alduin, and that is Draco. I told you, we met them."
The older hobbit, along with several in the door were unable to speak, looking at me and the dragon. Nicolas gently pulled the others back into the tavern, and I ducked my head and went in after them. Draco opened his eyes, saw I was moving, and got up onto all fours, giving me a wink, and walked on hands and knees, sidling into the inn, his wings brushing against the door frame. He lay down next to me, as I sat down beside a table, and gently blew a jet of flame in a sleepy way. This got everyone's attention, and then Draco went back to sleep.
The old devil, Draco didn't mind being held in awe by all these people, so he was acting for their benefit. But as I was given a glass of water, Nicolas spoke.
"Alduin, Harlo..."
"I was listening, Nicolas. Furthermore my melodica is in my bag, so if I can play quietly without disturbing scaly here, I'll show him myself."
I drew out my melodica, and began to play the melody of the Turkish Rondo by Mozart, a hideously fast piece that I had never played well on the piano, although I was playing both top and bottom on piano, but could manage on the two octave melodica.
This having finished, I then played Greensleeves, and then looked for confirmation from both Harlo and Nicolas. Nicolas was appreciative of the music, Harlo just looked astonished. Draco broke the moment.
"Alduin, I am trying to sleep, you continue playing I will have to wake up."
I leaned over, looking thoroughly amused. Nicolas waited on bated breath.
"Draco, just because you had sex with half a dozen halflings didn't mean everyone else did. Blame your libido for being too dominant before blaming my musical ability."
Draco chuckled,echoing a couple of the halflings who had seen the spectacle,"On the other hand, they enjoyed it, which is more than can be said for me listening to that."
"Owch." I replied sharply,"On the other hand, this is music, whereas you making someone moan on account of fucking them too hard isn't."
"Music to my ears." Draco sniggered, and Nicolas laughed.
"This is music to mine. Each to their own." I retaliated, and Draco shrugged and stretched briefly.
Harlo was several miles behind this, completely lost, but he did pick one thing up.
"This, dragon, had sex with some of you?"
"He did." Nicolas confirmed,"Although I didn't, because I had it with Alduin."
Draco chuckled again," He doesn't know what he's missing. I am quite open to any suggestion from any of you saying you want to be fucked by me."
"What about the other way round?" I stood up and leaned down innocently. Draco was unaware of this.
"Just see what happens." Draco replied, eyes still closed. I sat down next to him and placed a gentle hand on the dragon's tail, stroking it gently. Draco sighed, and I felt him twitch through his tail. Nicolas and a couple of the others from last night, including Nephredil, sat down on the floor next to me, taking draughts from their drinks. Draco gently flicked his tail onto my lap, so I didn't need to reach over him, and I stroked with both hands, running gently over the scales. Harlo sat down, looking rather timid of the pair of us. I made encouraging motions to stroke the dragon's spines, silently, and while Harlo did so with a certain amount of trepidation, Nicolas gently massaged the dragon's spines just below the head and around the neck.
Draco smiled, eyes still closed, and I felt a tremor of enjoyment run through him. So as the three of us massaged the reptile into relaxation, the others asked questions of both Nicolas and myself. Draco answered nearly anything put to him, and I was certainly informal. The halflings clustered closer, admiring the two of us. Even Harlo smiled amongst us, now he knew what we were like.
Nicolas finally asked Draco the question I was waiting for someone to ask. It was going to happen eventually, the only variable was who was going to ask.
"Draco, could you show me what I missed last night?"
Draco lifted his head, opening his eyes and looking at the halfling who was giving his neck spines a thoroughly pleasant rub down.
"Let me roll over."
We all stopped, and the dragon rolled on the spot, exposing his golden chest. His cock was erect, not surprising after what we had been doing, and while Loreia politely asked to make out with the dragon, Nicolas got up and stood astride the dragon's member. Most of the others were entranced by the sight, but there were some keener individuals who were beginning to strip down. I sat down with Draco's tail between my legs, though he didn't know it, and Nicolas gave out a loud moan as he let himself down onto Draco. Loreia lay on the dragon's handsome chest, and kissed him, something the reptile was not slow to respond to, and I pressed my own cock against the dragon's ass.
Seeing his already had two halflings on top of him, he couldn't react to me without throwing them off, but he broke off the kiss and looked at me.
"Alright, if you must." he admitted grudgingly, and smiling widely, I gently penetrated the dragon's tight ass. I could feel his muscles contract around my cock, unused to the sensation. His tail flicked, and I could feel it between my legs, brushing my ass with the base. The dragon was also, while making out with Loreia, fingering her pussy with one clawed finger, probing deeper. The other was holding the halfling close to him.
Nicolas was gently rising and falling on the dragon's cock, and I asked whether he wanted to make out with me. The halfling's response was sudden and passionate, and I returned it to him, one hand around his back, the other working his own member. I deliberately scraped along Draco's tail with every stroke back and forth, and Loreia was playing with the spines on the back of the dragon's head.
Nicolas was under a state of complete bliss, being stroked off, being taken up the ass by Draco, and in an intimate session with me, and I knew the halfling would be quick to orgasm. What I didn't expect was that Draco would go first.
Maybe it was all the stroking pre-sex. He broke off the kiss and gave a low rumble of delight, and Nicolas gasped as his ass filled to the brim with dragon semen. I finished not long afterwards, and as I did, I decided to go outside to map the place a bit better.
A couple of the hobbits stood by the door as I stepped onto the main street, and changed into my Raptor form. As I did there was several gasps from my small audience, and I ignited my hover engines. The path was too rough for a standard take off, so I rose slowly, being watched by the five or so halflings. Nephredil came down to me, and I changed back, seeing she wanted to speak to me.
"You have strange powers, Alduin."
"I do, most of them decidedly unnatural. How can I help?"
"I came to give you a gift. We thought you should have an instrument to practice, so if you came back you could play with us." she pulled from behind her a set of pan pipes, and offered it to me.
I was delighted, and I gently kissed her as I took them from her.
"Thank you, Nephredil. I am most honoured."
"We too are honoured by your presence, your skill with music is uncanny."
"Again, thank you. It comes with practice." Nephredil did a curtsey, and ran back into the tavern. I changed into my Raptor, and hovered back into the air, then gunning it and flying high into the atmosphere.
The next hour or so I flew back and forth, scanning huge areas of the surrounding countryside. I presume the halflings in the village Simba was watching heard me, because he certainly did, and he called me up to tell me so, but I charted a huge amount of land, townships, roads and all. I pulled off a fairly sneaky landing outside the tavern. About halflings were hanging around, and they watched as I changed and stretched.
"Draco, are you still in there?"
"I am, and Silverine said we can stay for a few more hours."
"Okay." I replied, thinking what to do. Nicholas came out of the tavern.
"Boy, can that dragon make love." the halfling sat down, and I laughed.
"We have all heard that one before, Nicolas.He is quite good at it. So what are you doing now?"
"I don't know, what are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking I should do something,do you play games?" Nicolas gave me a patronizing look suggesting I was asking the obvious.
"Specifically a game called Tag?"
"No, what's that?"
"It's very simple. One person is in, and he has to chase all the others playing until he touches one of them. The person he touched is the next person in, and then he has to chase until he "tags" someone else."
"Sounds fun." Nicolas sounded interested, and after a few minutes we had a group of about ten halflings and myself ready to play the game.
"So who starts in?"
"I do." I replied, before touching Nicholas and turning, running away," You are!" he looked briefly stunned, and the game started.
It wasn't a particularly fair game, if I'm to be honest. I was two feet taller than all of them, and could run a lot faster than they could, but what they lacked in acceleration they made up in stamina. My other advantage was my flexibility, the halflings became increasingly surprised at what I could do in terms of angles. I was caught off guard, and had the hobbit in at the time chasing me from in front, so I simply ran backwards, almost like I was falling constantly backwards being chased by this determined halfling.
That chase only ended when I backed into a hedge, and rather than be tagged I simply backward rolled over it. The hobbit followed, but had more trouble, so I had time to turn, vault another hedge and run over to Nicholas.
Eventually Draco and several other halflings came out of the tavern and watched, Draco was looking a little puffed, clearly the stamina of the halflings had given him a work out too. I was chased straight up the tavern steps by a halfling, and as I rushed past this new group, I spoke to Draco.
"Still functioning, Draco?"
The dragon managed a weak chuckle. "Ask me again in an hour." he watched as I leapt clean off the steps onto the grass, vault another hedge and back onto the gravel road. The halfling turned and ran straight back past Draco, and I heard the dragon offer some words of encouragement to the halfling.
"Face it, you aren't going to catch the tall one."
Then Silverine spoke on our waveband. "If we're all finished enjoying the halfling's company, we have to be going."
"Come on Silverine, land amongst us, these creatures don't mind us at all."
"If you insist, but after that we should be getting back." There was a whistle of distortion, and I looked confused.
"Silverine, you there? Silverine?" There was solid thump behind me, and I jerked in fright, turning around with my rifle swinging up.
Silverine was on one knee on the gravel road, one fist thrust into the ground and his wings arched. I lowered my rifle.
"Silverine, if you wanted to make them not scared of you, you have got to change your entrance tactics."
Nicholas sidled over to me, again a little nervous. "Is this Silverine, the one who didn't join us yesterday night?"
"It is, did my description do him justice?"
"He is certainly big and intimidating." The halflings began to advance towards Silverine, who casually furled his wings and sat down. They really were like children, curious to a fault, they had just been a little stunned by such a violent entry. Draco had even sat up in surprise, and he had been watching the landing point. So he sent me a quick video of what happened.
Silverine arrived completely vertical, and seemed to not so much land as slam into the ground in a landing pose, the shockwave sent several small eddies of dust into the air. I was slightly impressed by this video in a few ways, because Draco flinched, I jerked about, but the halflings just turned and looked. We watched as the halflings sat around Silverine, asking questions of him. The Lupogriff was quite formal back to them, until Loreia, having experienced Draco, asked.
"What's your penis like?"
I think even Silverine was not expecting that, and before he could, Draco interrupted in Centralite.
"Silverine, I would be very careful about how you answer that. These halflings have a lot of stamina." the dragon said very firmly, and one of Silverine's eyes raised at the dragon. Then he turned back to the halflings.
"You know Draco over there? Mine is about the same size." Which was possibly the most diplomatic way to say it. I giggled quietly to myself, and walked into the forest to teleport. Normally I didn't care much whether I teleported in front of the native race or not, but these little creatures did not need to know. Once I was in some proper foliage, I hit the gem, and eventually landed back on Central.
It was Keen who was waiting at the arrival point for me, and for the love of me I could not really tell how I knew it was. I just knew.
"Hello, Alduin, how did it go?"
"It went quite well, Keen. The others are just packing up at the moment."
"Will you tell me, or run away?"
"Well, as long as I don't have to spend twenty minutes in a room with four of you, sure."
We walked, and I explained about the planet's inhabitants. The glower seemed to effortlessly reach into the database and take copies of my videos, although where he took them I did not know. There was not a "Glower" email listing in my glasses, I just presumed they had a hard drive they put all their stuff into. Typical human thinking. The glower was quite interested in the halflings.
"They are quite wonderful creatures, they work and play together, they live and then they die. They live in peace, we could vacation there and get on famously with them."
"You guys vacation?" Vacation what? I had a sudden mental image of a glower lying on a deck chair with a pina colada on a nearby table, and inwardly cursed my active imagination.
"I was being humorous. We have everything we need here, we do not need holidays." I sighed inwardly, in relief.
We came to one of the doors leading to the glower side of Central, and I stopped as Keen moved towards it.
"Keen, what would I see if I went in there?"
"Would you actually go in there, of your own will?"
There was a long pause, and Keen chuckled.
"I didn't think so, have fun Alduin." the glower went straight through the door without it opening. I cursed myself and continued on.
There were a lot of people in the food store as I entered, and I casually said hello to Valmeero and Sunrise as I pulled up a seat next to Gareth.
"What's with the big occasion?" I asked the fox. "Someone holding a party here?"
"Don't be a silly human." the fox replied, smiling," Central New Year is next week. It always tends to get a bit busier on the run up to New Year."
I had forgotten, again." It is...it's my fourth, isn't it? Geez, time flies."
"Well, you had been teaching us the haka for it."
"I know, it was just a moment of forgetfulness." I did not have to decide about my costume, I was wearing traditional Maori warrior dress, but I needed to have a talk with Abigail. My aircraft transformation was cool, but I needed some non-lethals to use, and for that I needed to talk with the lioness. I make a note on my glasses to talk to her later, and I teleported back home.
Ryan was already there, waving a sword.
"En garde, Alduin!" he shouted cheerfully, and I only just got the sword out of the sheath. We clashed blades, and circled, fighting furiously.
"How was your day, dearest?" I asked while ducking a thrust and changing to bionic form.
"It wasn't bad, we ran into a few interesting things, what about yourself?" he replied.
"We had quite a cushy place, these creatures about...so "I thrust at about halfling height, which he parried," high, which seemed to take to us quite naturally. They were quite cool."
"Some people get all the luck." Ryan rolled his eyes as he thrust. I caught the blade between my steel elbows, and looked up. Ryan grinned, and I rolled my eyes, letting go. He was in the process of unpacking after his trip, so we unpacked together. I moved over to my drawer and put the pan pipes in the cluttered drawer before closing it, and then turned back to Ryan.
He was quite excited in Central New Year, and I noticed he had obtained a plastic bag of clothing, which I casually did not ask him about. So after we had tidied up, I told Ryan I was having a power nap, and went into my room, collapsing on the bed. I was dead asleep within 2 minutes.