Ghost Chime
#2 of Where The Wind Takes Him
Despite all that had happened, and despite how confused I was I was somewhat relived as well. At least I wasn't alone anymore. I was accompanied everywhere by Amanthos, he would randomly cradle me in his arms and nuzzle me from time to time. I felt my independence, my humanity wither away when he did this. But I didn't care, I couldn't resist his embrace, I couldn't resist him when he started undressing me that night either.
It was still raining out on the ocean and he took me. I found it surprising how such a huge, powerful and muscular creature could be so gentle. That night he didn't pull out of me and we remained in that same position until he awakened. I woke up to his gradual thrusting and then he made love to me again. It felt even better than before, he was incredibly slow and every time I was about to climax, he stopped and then started again when I calmed down a little. Apparently it was even harder for him to control himself because he was sweating profusely. It lasted for at least an hour, we were both drenched in perspiration. For some reason I began to nip at his abdomen, his musk was tangy and I buried my face in his belly. I seemed to be doing the exact thing he wanted me to do because he let out a content growl and in response tensed his muscles slightly. I started chewing at his abdomen, grazing it with my bottom teeth. This made him go crazy. Apparently dragons were sensitive in that area, a few seconds of chewing made him climax into me, making me release as well.
After several minutes of panting he picked me up and took me to a smaller room adjacent to his. It was the bath. For a bath on a ship it was pretty large, then again considering his size it would prove merely comfortable. He filled it up with hot water and took a dark blue vial from a shelf nearby and merely added one drop of its contents to the small pool. The water turned aquamarine and the room was filled with the smell of rain.
He slowly sank into the pool holding me and there was a stone bench inside of it that he sat on, I sat between his legs. The water rose to my chin, and to the area just below his pectorals. We both rinsed by ducking under water. After that he started gently raking his claw through my hair and he held me to his chest, I could hear his heartbeat. His muscles tensed up again and he started purring, hissing and letting his black tongue hang out.
Obviously, it precipitated to sex... in the bathtub.
Somehow we both emerged from the room squeaky clean because I do NOT recall any scrubbing going on (except maybe that thing he did with his tail but that really wouldn't have done anything). It probably was the substance in the vial that did it.
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That day we arrived in Abathia, on the port of the great city of Mahakume. It was breathtaking, ivory towers, hanging gardens, aquifers. It was deemed the "Jewel of Aparthanti" - that being the region it resided in. Amanthos told me about his profession. He was a master of a guild called "Hameth Arime" he told me it was a term in old draconic language that no other race would immediately understand. He made his money and fame by doing contracts, and treasure hunting and occasionally entering fighting tournaments.
The city was vast, and he along with most of the crew of the ship had to head to a village several miles away for one of the contracts. Others with different types of contracts stayed behind. He carried me through the city despite my insistence on walking. He knew I was incredibly tired, and apparently news had spread fast among the crew because I would catch them winking at me or smiling at me every so often.
As he walked he told me the history of Mahakume. The city was seventeen thousand years old. It was built from the humongous palace and then outward, in different artistic styles, which represented the ages of thought. It was truly amazing. Our destination was the village of Krale.
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The group of ten, minus Nasume entered what seemed to be a vast ghost town. Nasume had noticed many, many gravestones on the way to this place. They were on the border of entering the region of Loth, which was basically a huge graveyard. "Is this an abandoned village?" He asked shakily.
"Almost." Said a nearby fox. "It used to be a bustling town of mostly humans about fifty years ago but then a bunch of APA members attacked the place and viciously slaughtered most of the residents. The few that survived gathered into the middle and waited for them to attack again. The historical text says that the APA members were simply killed but folks say that the humans tore out their souls and trapped them in a vault somewhere past the border."
Nasume was shocked. "Wow... that's horrible. How old is the APA exactly?"
"About 20,000 years old."
"Humans...sucked out their souls?"
"Yes, it's rumored that humans possess abilities that anthros do not, this simply inspires more hate towards them... but only among the fools." The fox added with a wink.
"So what is the contract for here?"
Amanthos answered this time. "A rather large tomb just beyond the border is crawling with undead creatures, we are to kill them and investigate the source of the disturbance."
"Um...wow..."
Amanthos grinned "However, I am leaving you in the village where you will be safe from harm."
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Nasume was left in an empty house in the center of the village where it was safe. The village population was consisted of humans that avoided Amanthos and his group but accepted Nasume with open arms. Amid the whole town, there were twice as many houses as people, this included infants. Some people would sleep in a different house every day but it was always near the center of the town. The place was haunted by dark and evil spirits that would drive one mad, or even physically harm someone. Wards, which were candles with white flame, were set around the perimeter of the town to protect from evil spirits. These mere candles didn't protect from the stronger spirits though, which is why the people of the village learned spiritual magic for such an occurrence. Jobs were assigned to the people, such as chiming, wailing and tolling. Chiming would weaken the spirit, wailing was to drive the spirit away and tolling was to put it to rest.
Nasume was fascinated because spiritual magic was considered dead or useless. Primarily because it was often humans who mastered it and it was humans who discovered it. For several hours he lay on the bed in his room waiting for them to get back.
It was then Nasume's boredom was disturbed by the sound of a tiny bell ringing behind him. It caused him to jump and turn around. Standing there was a little human girl who was about a foot shorter than Nasume. She had long black hair and evenly cut bangs. Her eyes were black and she had a blank look on her pale face. She wore a white kimono patterned with large blue flowers and in her hair she wore a white lotus. "How did you get in here?" Nasume asked, he could have sworn the door and windows were locked. The little girl was silent, she had an eerie glow about her. She pointed at an object on the shelf above the bed. It was an ornate black lantern with a candle in it and a small glass orb between the handle and the light chamber. Nasume waited for a second but she didn't top pointing at it. He then walked over to it and picked up the lantern then turned to look at the little girl. She stopped pointing at the shelf and she walked out of the house through the closed door.
Nasume gaped. She walked through solid matter. Was she a ghost? Nasume followed and opened the door and jumped when he saw her just outside of it. She motioned him to follow and he did. She led him outside the village luring him into a sort of trance.
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The tomb was dark and cold. Amanthos and his group had gone four levels deep. The tomb was vast and they had to battle many types of undead corporeal and incorporeal to get their way. They were taking a break at the moment. Amanthos set his huge sword down. Two mages had carried the equipment using shrinking and lightening spells. Amanthos sense dark magic through out the whole area and was worried about Nasume already. He was safer in the village with other humans than in the crypt with him or back in Mahakume all alone with mostly other anthros. Yet he had the creeping feeling that Nasume wasn't exactly safe at the moment. Then again he figured the human to scared and shy to venture out on his own. He had to brush his thoughts off as the distant shriek of a wraith was heard.
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The ghostly little girl had led Nasume to light his lantern using one of the spirit wards. The candle in the lantern was a spirit ward as well. She led him outside the town to a graveyard with several shrines place everywhere. She led him to a rather dark and squalid looking shrine that looked as if it were covered in a slimy black substance.
The little girl stopped in her tracks and pointed at the grimy looking shrine. Nasume looked at the little girl and cautiously proceeded to the shrine. As he neared the slime started forming little blobs that were pulsing. When he got within five feet of it the blobs started to make tiny little shrieks and turned into impish little creatures that were black and transparent. They had tiny white glowing dots for eyes and their heads trailed off in zigzags. They started hopping towards Nasume and they jabbed at his ankles with their prickly little fingers. He didn't know what to do so he just freaked out and started stomping on all of them.
It worked. They were all vanishing in puffs of smoke making popping noises. After several minutes of furious stomping, they were all gone. Nasume held the lantern close to him looking around on the ground for more. He jumped up when he felt a small tug on his sleeve. It was the little girl who was motioning towards the shrine, which was now normal looking. He walked towards it and saw an odd shaped candle that was unlit. It was white and was the shape of a lotus. She pointed at his lantern and then the candle. Nasume understood immediately. He used the candle in the lantern to light the lotus candle. The light revealed a name on the gravestone in the shrine; Kimime Ohanu.
The boy turned around and saw the little girl smiling at him. She raised her arm and was holding a tiny little bell between her index and thumb. When she started ringing it, wind rushed through the dark forest and the ringing sound multiplied, soon it sounded like thousands of chimes ringing at the same time. Nasume saw candles slowly lighting all across the graveyard and white flames, he could see them like stars in the sky. The ringing abruptly stopped and Nasume slowly looked at the little girl who he assumed to be Kimime.
"Kimime?" He asked to see if it was her.
She walked up to him and touched his forehead, thousands of images flashed through his mind, it was a completely different life, the last image he saw was of Kimime's body hanging from a dead tree. The sequence faded away and he saw the ghost's form, which was outlined in white light. The outline shrank along with the form into a tiny glowing orb in midair, which was wrapped in white flame. The tiny orb circled Nasume's head a few times, and after that he fainted.
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So I woke up in Amanthos arms several hours later. He found me in the graveyard slumped against the shrine with my right wrist wrapped in prayer beads and my left hand clutching the ornate lantern. He was angry with me but he was more relieved to find me ok and rather curious as to what the hell I was doing.
I wanted to know that too. He tried using his memory-scanning trick on me, he saw everything but the little girl and the weird little imp things. I told him the story and what happened but he didn't believe me and thought I may have had a weird dream. I kept the lantern and prayer beads with me.
He held me tight and wrapped his tail around our waists and veiled us in his wings that night. He didn't make love to me that night, he simply nuzzled me and curled around me stroking my hair. He waited for me to fall asleep again.
I was completely cynical about him up until that point. I had solidly thought he just valued me as a toy of some sort and would dispose of me once he would lose interest. I mean why would he love a wretched human like me? I'm fragile, my lifespan is 1/800 of his if I'm really lucky and by the time I reached forty he wouldn't have wanted me anymore. There probably was a way to fix that I figured but it was probably really tedious to get to. Why would a great dragon like him go through so much trouble for a human like me?
Despite all these thoughts, there was still the flickering spark of hope that perhaps he loved me...
Then again hope never got me anywhere....