Changing Camps

Sarahi was awakened by a soft kiss above her nose, and the feel of someone lightly massaging one of her front paws. She blinked her eyes open to find Nayeli sitting up, still naked from the night before, and smiling at her fondly. "Thank you," the priestess whispered as soon as the Sha'khari opened her eyes, "I'm sorry I didn't say anything last night. I was exhausted."

Sarahi looked her up and down carefully. "Are you really alright?"

The Lioness nodded firmly, smile widening. "Better than alright," she whispered again, "I have not been this content with my life in over eight years...no, much longer than that, actually. I pray the Authority will forgive my doubts, and bless what I felt was a punishment that included you," the priestess leaned forward again to kiss her companion on the forehead.

The Sha'khari sat up carefully, trying not to jostle the canvas and announce to the camp that they were stirring. "Was he that good? Really?" she tilted her head a little disbelievingly...and found her doubt justified when the priestess had to stifle a laugh in the blanket.

"He hardly knew what he was doing," she whispered fondly, "Clumsy, uncertain...I'm quite sure I was his first, though that's no concern to me. That was the first time of all my experiences where everything felt right inside, like it was how that act always should have been. I have never been more satisfied. But please don't tell him," she added quickly, "I'm sure it would disappoint him to hear it."

"I promise," Sarahi agreed quickly, head still tilted dubiously, "Though I'm surprised he wasn't...rougher."

"Oh, he tried his best," Nayeli nodded, "But he really didn't know how to go about it effectively. I screamed as much as I could stand just to avoid discouraging him."

"_That's_why it sounded so awful?" Sarahi asked, a little louder than she mean to, and Nayeli quickly placed a hand over her mouth, though she nodded quickly.

"Yes, yes, I'm very sorry," the priestess apologized earnestly, hugging Sarahi around the neck, "I must have worried you all terribly! It was selfish, but I didn't want him to stop after finally going at it with all he had." She held the embrace for a few minutes longer, rubbing her cheek affectionately and gratefully against Sarahi's, until the Sha'khari began to wonder if she'd accidentally seduced the priestess herself. "We should go get dressed," Nayeli acknowledged finally, "Before he wonders why I'm sleeping so late." Sarahi agreed with a nod, and they quietly untangled themselves from the blanket and Nayeli slipped through the flap.

She almost ran right into Oro's chest, jerking upright as soon as she realized how close he'd been to the tent for heavens-only-knew how long. "Sleep well?" he sneered, as dour as ever.

Nayeli released the breath she'd started holding in her surprise and nodded. "Very," she answered aloud, and honestly, lowering her hands to their customary position in front of her tummy, despite still being naked as her birthday within easy reach of his touch.

"Good," the Rabbit remarked curtly, "Enjoy it a little longer. Or share some more gossip. We're staying here today."

Nayeli winced slightly at the accusation, though she was almost certain he was only saying it to get under her skin like any other day, rather than out of a particular displeasure with anything she'd said. "For what purpose?" the Lioness asked, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Assessment," Oro answered, causing her to tilt her head, "Princess there picked up a spear when we left the main camp," he pointed at the Sha'khari waiting quietly and patiently behind the tent flap for them to make room for her to exit, "I assume she means to use it at some point, either to protect the rest of you or in a desperate attempt to kill me. If that's the case, I'd like it to be a fight I can get excited over, so I want to see what she's got."

The priestess frowned at him, certain he was just making an excuse to assert his dominance once more...violently. "She would never do such, and you know it," the Lioness insisted quietly, hoping he would have to sense to remember the vows she had bound them _all_to and what it would mean for any of them to earnestly attempt to kill him.

Oro didn't seem to care. "I want to see what she's got," he growled a second time, taking a firm grip on the scabbard of his own sword, "Is that a problem?"

"No," came the firm answer from behind the priestess, "I will be happy to show you, husband." She made the word drip with every bit of insult he poured into her own title...and it made the Rabbit smile.

Nayeli sighed, stepping aside to let the Sha'khari out of the confined space. "Can it at least wait until we've been through a town? We need a larger tent, or a second one, and we didn't bring enough food to go for more than a few days without restocking."

Oro gnashed his teeth...then said something through Gorgorond to the kobolds, who quickly discussed something among themselves before hissing an answer back. This was followed by another couple of brief exchanges before Oro seemed satisfied with the answer. "Fine," the Rabbit growled, "Pack up, then. There's a town a little more west from here, and a place in the mountains south of that where we could make a temporary base."

After a little more planning, it was decided that one of the kobolds would take Nayeli and the twins to the town, since Diya's scent was weak enough not to cause a stir even among humans, while the other kobold lead Oro and the other Ferruda to the place in the mountains where they intended to set up camp. The Rabbit and larger Ferruda would secure the area and pick a place to pitch the much larger tent Nayeli would purchase in town (among other things), if possible.

It was very nearly dark by the time the two groups joined again. Sarahi and the kobold had found a suitably wide clearing with a spring nearby, and the group had already set up a cooking fire. Tuli was in the midst of making a modest soup, which was about the extent of her cooking skills. Oro was growing impatient, and had taken to cutting down small trees for his own amusement, widening the clearing in the process. There was enough felled wood around the edge of the camp to build a small cottage...or maybe a palisade...by the time another familiar kobold came scurrying through the broken limbs, calling out to Nayeli and the twins nearby when it found Oro.

"About fusking time," the Rabbit growled as the priestess came into view through the trees, "What kept you?"

"The townsfolk are understandably wary of outsiders, and especially Ferruda. The inn has become riddled with soldiers, some of whom fled the battle and might have recognized me. In short, we had to be very cautious, so it took time," Nayeli explained, then added with a sigh, "And...I cannot swear that we were not followed as we left."

The Rabbit flashed a vicious smile. "Oh, I certainly hope you were!" he growled aloud to the trees, "We'll be camping here all night! And possibly for the next several days! It'd be a great opportunity to ambush us!"

The priestess shook her head as her husband addressed the growing shadows around the clearing, openly inviting an attempt on their lives. Maybe it would be soldiers seeking revenge for their fallen companions. Maybe it would be bandits eying their equipment and foodstuffs. Either way, Gorgorond would feast. Even she was not worried about that. "Will you help me put this down?" she asked quietly, shrugging the hefty bundle of canvas and poles roped across her shoulders, "We barely got it on my back in the first place."

Since the sky sported no threat of rain, they enjoyed dinner and a rest for their tired feet before going about setting up the large canopy tent, not nearly as big as the one they'd shared in the military camp but easily enough to hold them all side-by-side and the packs besides. The moon was bright in the sky by the time they finished getting it stable enough to be comfortable in. "Well...that's going to take some practice in better light," Nayeli sighed as she tightened up an anchor-line for the third time, "But it will suffice."

"Finally," Oro grumbled, pushing off from the tree he'd been leaning against for the last hour or so, watching them fumble about with poles and ropes with a scowl. Snatching up the spear propped against Sarahi's pack, he tossed it to the surprised Sha'khari. "Time for your test."

"Now?" the former princess quirked a brow.

The Rabbit drew and leveled his sword...at Nayeli. "It's her fault for wanting to change camps first. And taking so long with the fusking shopping. So now you will be tested by moonlight...which is fine, because we suffer more ambushes by night than daylight anyway. Now follow me, or so help me I'll add your tail to the soup!" he barked, stomping off toward the edge of the clearing.

Gnashing her teeth, Sarahi took a firm grip on her weapon and began to follow, but was caught by Nayeli before she could take two steps. Quickly and quietly, the priestess knelt down at Sarahi's side and tied a bracelet of jade beads around the Sha'khari's back ankle. "A healing charm," she explained quickly as Sarahi looked askance, "It won't regrow limbs or anything, but minor cuts should mend and be safe from infection." She rocked her head thoughtfully for a second, as if debating whether there was something else that needed to be said as she walked a few paces with Sarahi, to avoid making Oro suspicious by the delay. "If it comes to it," the priestess finally whispered before taking her leave, "Remember to scream. It will help appease him."

A shiver ran through Sarahi at the implication, but she nodded her understanding before trotting off to catch up to Oro. He wasn't so much leading her somewhere as looking for somewhere suitable, probably another clearing like the one they'd made camp in. "So you mean to teach me how to use a spear," she remarked as they wandered between the trees, occasionally having trouble keeping track of his dark fur in the shadows cast by the moonlight, "Forgive my surprise, but--"

She was interrupted by his scoff. "Teach you? Do I look like I know the first thing about teaching anyone anything? I didn't go enlist in the military to learn the sword or any nonsense like that."

Sarahi frowned, for once not surprised by this admission, but now more suspicious than ever of his intent. "Then...where are we really going?"

"About here," he answered, turning a bit to the left, to where the trees opened up into a small meadow at the edge of the mountains, "Where you can swing that thing as wildly as you like without fusking branches getting in the way."

"So we're just going to fight," the Sha'khari determined grimly, lowering the spear toward his back before she'd even got good and into the open.

The Rabbit nodded as he began unbuckling the belt his sword hung from. "More or less. You're going to learn the same way I did: I'll beat the snot out of you until you figure out how to avoid getting the snot beat out of you. Then I'll beat the crap out of you until you manage to avoid that, too. Then I'll knock the teeth out--"

"I understand," she sighed, "This is my punishment for setting you off yesterday. I will try to be...satisfying."

He scowled at her, more for interrupting his savory speech than what she said in return. "I will punish you," Oro growled as he used a bit of rope from his pocket to strap the rings of the sheath to the cross-guard of his sword, "When you deliberately disobey me, or make some half-hearted attempt to kill me. It will involve scars, and possibly an amputation."

"And if I make a whole-hearted attempt to kill you?" she asked, already cautiously pacing outside the edge of his reach.

"Well that's why we're here, isn't it?" Oro smirked, aiming his sword-turned-baton right back along the shaft of her spear, "So when you make that attempt, it will be exciting enough that I won't need to punish you."

She jabbed at him a couple of times, hoping to test his reaction time. Oro didn't even attempt to block, as each short thrust pulled back well shy of touching him. With a sneer, he rushed in, right alongside the shaft of her spear, and hammered the hilt of his sword into her ribs hard enough to rock her whole body to the side and drive the air from her lungs. "See, that's exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to punish you. When you come at me, you'd better be trying to run me through, or I'll make you regret wasting the energy."

Sucking air through her teeth and covering her bruised side, Sarahi tried to dash away and put a little space between them again, but Oro caught her back leg, hauling her back to where he could stab at her torso, and swatted aside the swing she made at his head before rapping her knuckles so hard she dropped the spear and couldn't close her fists. "Not so fast. I haven't explained the rules yet," he smirked again as she tried to shake the pain out of her hands. "Not that there are many. You're going to make your best effort to hit me. I'm going to make you regret every mistake you make in the effort. When you get tired of it, you won't make them anymore. When I get tired of it, I'm going to pin you to the ground and fusk you. When I get tired of_that_, we'll go back to camp. Is all of that clear?"

Sarahi sighed as the sting retreated from her hands and her breathing eased again. Looking down at the spear at her feet, she reluctantly leaned down and picked it up again. "As my husband, it is your right and privilege to deflower me as you like. As the monster you are, I don't believe I could stop you by any amount of effort, even if you weren't within your rights. If I can at least make you work hard for it," she growled, setting her feet and leveling the spear at him again, "I will be satisfied."

"Heh...work hard, then," Oro answered, rushing headlong into her again.

He disarmed her at least a dozen times in the first ten minutes alone. He bruised her sides and her arms and her legs and even her face. He was as quick as every stereotype about his species suggested, but worse than that: he was abominably strong, simply man-handling her weapon out of her hands or bodily tossing her off from her feet. He barely used his own weapon at all, except to rattle hers. Still...and even he offered her a begrudging modicum of respect for this...still she sparred with him for a solid hour, beaten and breathless and never once coming close to his skin.

She didn't become genuinely worried until he started looking bored. He rushed in passed the head of her spear, as he had become fond of doing, and in response she rose up to rake at him with her front paws. He got his sword in the way, but she latched onto the worn scabbard with her claws and drove all her weight down behind the spear above them, thrusting deep into his chest.

Sarahi blinked in surprise, a sense of relief mixed with triumph washing through her, and a smile was just cracking her lips when his hand caught her throat and wrenched her around, throwing her whole body to the ground just as he'd done on their wedding night, and sat astride her belly to hold the pressure on her throat. Disoriented and gasping in surprise, she was momentarily terrified to find him smiling above her with teeth that would intimidate a carnivore. "Do you have any idea how many men I have killed just as they were celebrating their victory?" he chuckled. Sarahi realized she was still clutching the shaft of her spear in her hands...what remained of it, anyway. The wood ended in a finely sawn stub, the head and every inch that had passed into him missing. It was then that she realized the trap, and the hopelessness of fighting him unawares. Her weapon had been eaten by his skin...consumed by the demon Gorgorond even as she thought she'd struck a debilitating blow.

"You have no more weapon," the Rabbit smirked, relaxing his grip and easing back his weight to allow her some breath, "So I suppose our little match is over. You remember what that means, right?"

A pit formed in her stomach, and a shuddering ran through her long, leonine body. But Sarahi laid her hands submissively in the grass, and rolled the rest of her body more comfortably onto its back, relaxing her legs and letting them spread in surrender. "I yield," she admitted quietly, "You may have your spoils."

His smile turned to a sneer, then a frown. "Next time, try to remember that you still have claws," he advised, apparently disappointed that she had already given up...but also beginning to feel the hour, himself. "Well then, which way do you want to be ravaged first?"

"Which way?" she blinked, confused and a little concerned at what new form of physical or emotional torture he was concocting.

"You've got these, don't you?" the Rabbit rudely (to say nothing of uncomfortably) nudged her sac with the end of his scabbard, "You're both...so I mean to fusk you like both kinds get fusked. But since you worked so hard, I'll let you pick which I start with. And this," he tapped the string of jade tied around her ankle, "Means I won't have to hold back at all. Yeah, don't think for an instant I didn't notice the priestess' charm on you. You would have blacked out in the first ten minutes on your own," he promised.

Sarahi felt near sick, and covered her face with her arm. "Gods preserve me," she muttered, "At least break me like a woman, you monster..."

"Gladly," he chuckled, unlacing her blouse and yanking it open roughly. Leaning down close to her neck, he drew in a long, deep breath through his nose...then growled, "The fusk is this?" Again Sarahi was forced to look at him, surprised, as he sat up on his knees. "Hands," he commanded, tapping his nose. Looking at them like she wasn't quite sure they were hers, Sarahi hesitantly cupped her palms around his muzzle. The long day and hard fight had left her sweaty and certain that her scent was strong.

"What kind of...fusking game...are you playing?" the Rabbit asked slowly, half muffled by her hands, as his eyes drooped closed. With a little effort, he leaned to one side, flopping on the ground next to her, trying in vain to glare at her accusingly. "Fusking...smell..."

Confused, but thanking every god that might have heard her prayer for this unexpected blessing, Sarahi took a moment to catch her own breath before getting her feet under her and hauling the sedated Rabbit onto her back. She then took another moment to be sure she had her bearings before trotting off quietly into the night, making her way back to the camp...

He had her on the ground again, trapped this time beneath the bare blade of his sword. Her hips ached from the hammering he'd given her pelvis when he broke her virginity, and no amount of magic could fully negate that sting. Sarahi gripped the grass beneath her back and braced herself, mind and body, as he lifted her bound ankles and sat on her tail to expose the other orifice on that end of her body. The Rabbit reached between her thighs with one hand to grasp the spike of pink flesh emerging from her sheath, despite her disgust and against her will. He stroked it to a full erection in a too-firm grip before plowing into her, drawing back on her shaft at the same time to drive deep into her posterior, and she screamed...

"It's okay," Nayeli's soothing voice shattered the dream, yanking Sarahi back into merciful reality. They were together in the tent, and alone. The light of late morning warmly illuminated the edges of the entry flap. Sarahi lay stretched on her side on the pair of large blankets they'd gotten her as a bedroll, and Nayeli was kneeling in front of her, hands gently cupping her cheeks as she came awake. The Sha'khari's front paws were latched, claws extended, on the priestess' arms...and she could feel the damp warmth of blood on her pads. "It's okay," the priestess repeated, rubbing Sarahi's cheeks gently as wakefulness and reason returned to her eyes.

"Merciful gods," the Sha'khari whispered, retracting her claws carefully, "I am so sorry! It was--"

"Night-terrors," Nayeli nodded with a sympathetic smile, "He tends to inspire those. Don't worry, you barely scratched me," she tried to reassure her companion, pulling the now-scarlet sleeves of her nightgown over the open wounds. Fishing her first-aid kit out of the bags stacked on one side of the tent, Nayeli had Sarahi help disinfect and bandage the cuts, being in places hard for her to reach on herself. "What happened last night?" she asked when they were done.

"What...did I tell you, when we got back to camp?" the Sha'khari asked in return, realizing she didn't remember anything clearly after starting off into the dark woods.

"Nothing intelligent," the priestess explained, "He was unconscious and you were close to the same. As soon as we got him off you, you stripped down, came in here, and went right to sleep," she indicated the interior of the tent and Sarahi's state of perfect undress, "You did mutter something about taking a spear or getting a spear, but there was no context to make sense of it, and you didn't bring your spear back with you."

"Oh, merciful gods," the former princess prayed again, laying her leonine body back down and pushing her long hair back from her face, "He shocked me. I thought I was ready for him, but he...he said he would take me like a male, since I have both parts. I was_not_ ready for that threat. Physically, mentally, emotionally...he beat me on every single level," she sighed.

Nayeli quirked a brow, rubbing her companion's back reassuringly. "He_said_ he'd take you like a male. But he didn't?"

"No," Sarahi shook her head, "My scent knocked him out while he was still talking about it. He wasn't aroused at all." Now she looked every bit as perplexed as Nayeli, as the implication settled into her thoughts as well. "Was it not my scent that excited him?"

They stared at each other for a moment, then Nayeli gestured for her to stay put while the Ferruda called in Tuli and Diya and explained the situation. "I...would like very much to know which one of us it is," the priestess confessed, "Would you each be willing to test yourselves on him, separately?"

Diya shrugged. "Sure, anything that'll help you. But if _I_get him excited, you might have a bigger problem on your hands..."

"Oo, I'll go first!" Tuli beamed, "Maybe then you won't have to. I've kind of been wanting to try my hand on him anyway."

The smaller halfbreed arched a dubious brow. "Really? All he ever gives us is insults, and you want to court that? I mean, Nayeli at least has reason to..."

"He might be a little nicer if one of us can actually get him worked up, you know?" the larger Ferruda insisted, already standing up and unlacing her blouse, "Bring him on!"

Diya blinked again, then giggled at her companion's strange enthusiasm. Tuli had not been this eager for anything since they'd met, and had apparently already forgotten how not nice he had been to Nayeli the first time. The priestess had to remind her to slow down and give her a chance to explain things to Oro...who was none-too-happy to hear why the busty Ferruda was waiting for him in the tent, after Nayeli and Sarahi got dressed and entered the open sunlight.

"You want me to go sniff her and see if she makes me horny?" the Rabbit sneered, "Why in Hell would I want to be horny?"

Listening from nearby, Diya's brain seemed to break at the question, as she stopped pretending to be mending clothes and just stared off into the empty sky. The answer seemed obvious to her...yet now that the question had been asked, she couldn't quite find words for it, or a reason they should be true. It had just always seemed obvious to her...and everyone she knew, so far as she could tell...that males liked being horny.

Nayeli was not so easily distracted. "I just want to know which of us it is," the priestess insisted, "To avoid anymore...misunderstandings. Will you please just take a deep whiff of her, for my peace of mind?"

Rolling his eyes, Oro muttered something about the lunacy of priests, and shoved through the flap to the tent. "He really indulges you, doesn't he?" Diya asked, while Sarahi just shook her head at the absurdity. Nayeli nodded with a grateful smile, watching the flap of the tent, awaiting the results with a peculiar anxiety.

"What in Hell do you think you're doing?" Oro asked in a low voice, just inside the tent. Tuli was waiting for him, sitting naked on one of the bedrolls, her face and breasts already flushed and no less than three fingers tucked up inside herself.

"It's stronger when we're aroused, right?" the Ferruda smiled, eyes half-closed and distant, "I wanted to be ready...especially if it works."

She could hear his knuckles pop as he tightened his grip on the scabbard at his side. "Idiot," Oro growled, pacing toward her, "As if I'd ever fusk you under anything but open sky, to taunt the Wind." Despite his ominous tone, she raised both hands to welcome him as he knelt down beside her...and seemed confused when he only seized one of her wrists. With a disgusted look, he sniffed briefly at the damp fingers she'd been indulging herself with, then pulled her arm aside and took a deep breath from her neck before shoving her back onto the bedroll. Tuli looked a little disappointed as he turned and stomped back out of the tent, and started to get dressed again with a sigh.

"I am hungry, sleepy, and disgusted," Oro announced as he emerged, giving irritated looks at Nayeli, "And you are out of luck."

The priestess, for her part, looked...more than a little disappointed. Diya put down the cloth and thread she'd been holding, and got to her feet. "I guess that makes it my turn, then," she volunteered, reaching for the hem of her shirt to pull it over her head. Oro's hand clamped painfully onto the top of her skull.

"Don't bother," the Rabbit growled, "I could barely smell you when you were right up in my nose. No chance you have _any_kind of effect on me."

"Ow!" the little half-breed winced, clutching at the wrist above her head, "It's worth a try, at least, right? For her sake?" Though the little Ferruda admittedly seemed more concerned about getting out of his painful grasp than satisfying anyone's curiosity at the moment. And that sentiment only doubled when he lifted her off the ground in that same grip, her feet kicking the open air between her squeals while he pressed his nose coldly into her neck and breathed deep, then licked her throat for good measure.

"See?" Oro huffed, dropping her onto her butt without warning, "Nothing." Rubbing her top and bottom both, Diya was just glad to be out of his hands again. The Rabbit crossed his arms and scowled at Nayeli. "Give it up. Whatever happened that night was a fluke, and one I don't care to repeat anyway. The only thing I get from any of you is tired. Now...I'm going to take a nap. I'll beat the crap out of the princess when I wake up," he promised, marching off to find a nice, hard rock to put his back against while he slept off the effects of Tuli's scent.

Nayeli just watched him go. "That man...," she sighed when he was well out of earshot, even for the demon. Diya, still massaging her skull, looked up at her sympathetically. She was used to dealing with this sort of thing by now, no doubt, but his words had to sting just the same, given what the priestess desired most. "Are you alright?" Nayeli asked, glancing down and gently rubbing between Diya's ears.

"That's my line," the smaller Ferruda answered. They had seen her smile slip in concern, and occasionally in anger...but this was the first time Diya could think of that she'd looked genuinely sad. "I'm sorry it didn't work."

"It's alright," the priestess answered, her soft smile returning as she knelt down at eye-level with Diya, "If there's one thing these long years have taught me, it's that disappointments breed perseverance, so long as they are not permitted to kill hope."

Diya frowned a little. "I hate to say Sarahi's right...but you are a little too forgiving," she warned softly, to which the priestess just smiled some more. Tuli, now fully dressed again, emerged from the tent, and they all occupied themselves around the camp, including packing and re-pitching the new tent in better form, until Oro returned from his nap.