It has been around two months since we parted from Thultu, and it is now the dead of winter. I have had a special blanket made for CoCo and special jackets for Sky and Kenji for our travels in this cold environment. They had a special enchantment to prevent frost damage while keeping the wearer a warm temperature. Kenji's jacket was quite the purchase since it was a huge custom order for the magic item smithy. Sky's order was also a very custom order but he is super tiny so that wasn't as big a deal. They all look very good on them. The jacket for Sky was yellow which looks good on his black form and blue form. Kenji's was black with brown fur for accents that coordinated with his coloring and his spots. He has one for both of his sizes. CoCo's horse blanket is green and purple which goes well with her brown fur. It looks really good under the saddle, too. Lysara and I had similar jackets made for ourselves. During our travels, Lysara was impressed by my campfire knowledge. I told her that Hector had also taught me a few mercenary travel tips. Apparently my mother told him to teach me everything he knows. One of those tips was to make a ramp for the firewood and gravity would make logs fall as logs burned up so we wouldn't have to tend to it overnight. The campfire has to stay lit all night to make sure snow doesn't stick to the tent and make it collapse and bury us alive.
We get to a town and before we can get settled in an inn here, I get bumped pretty hard by a kid. Lysara, without skipping a beat asks, "Check for your purse." I check and say, "It is missing. Hey Kenji, follow that child. I will catch up to you." He nods and heads off immediately in pursuit. I turn to Lysara, "Why don't you get our room and I'll meet you after I settle with the kid?" Lysara says, "Ok. Be careful, boo. See you soon." I ran after Kenji. Feeling the direction he is coming from. I run through some back alleys and catch him. The wolf child is surrounded by town guards holding him down saying, "Restrain him!" The leader appears to be a leopard man with a claw scar over his right eye. It also appears that he is blind out of that eye as well. The other two were lizardmen; one had green scales the other had red scales. The red lizardman guard gets their binds out to restrain the wolf kid that stole my purse. Kenji says while licking his paw pretending to be a regular house cat, "Ari, they said they are going to sell that wolf child into slavery."
I call out, authoritatively, "Stop! Unhand the child!" The green lizard guard said, "This child was caught stealing and needs to be taken in for questioning." I replied while approaching them, "Is that what they call selling children into slavery, now?" They have cold sweat dripping down their faces and the guard scoffs, "I don't know what you are talking about. We are guards who keep the pea-" I interject, "Cut the shit. My familiar already snitched on you guys. Now you surrender peacefully and come with me to answer some questions if you want to live." The guard laughs, "Guess we can just take her, too. What can a little human girl do to us anyways?" Kenji asks with his tail wagging playfully, "Can I play, Ari?" I tell Kenji loud enough for them to hear while removing his jacket so it doesn't rip, "We only need one alive for questioning. Try to keep the blood to a minimum if you can." I say as I wink at him.
Kenji chuckles as he grows and he growls a very intimidating growl at his full size overflowing with bloodlust in this alley. Two of the guards passed out in fear and the leader, who was terrified, dropped his weapon and surrendered immediately. We handcuffed all of the guards with the cuffs they carried on their person while confiscating the keys and brought the leader with us. I throw my cloak on him and tell him, "You better behave if you don't want to end up as Kenji's dinner." He gulps and nods in understanding. We leave the other two here for now. I will report them to the guards assuming they aren't corrupt as well but at least we have one in our own custody. Kenji turns back small and he comes to me and I bend down, and say quietly while putting his jacket back on so he doesn't get cold, "Good job, Kenji. It is like you read my mind. That was perfectly executed." Kenji purrs while rubbing up against me, "Well I am the king after all."
The wolf child bashfully approaches me, and hands my purse back. "I am sorry for stealing from you, miss. Thank you for saving me. I owe you my life." I finally get a good look at him and he has cute, mismatched eyes. One eye is amber and the other is blue. They look really beautiful with his light gray fur. He perks up a little bit, "So what about your familiar? Does he have the ability to grow?" I replied while securing my purse on my person, "Yes. More accurately he has the ability to control his size. His original size is the giant form you saw earlier. He is actually the king of the mountain pass." The kid has a gleam in his eye, "That is sooo cool!" Our prisoner went pale, "How did a puny human like you tame the strongest beast in the mountain pass?" I replied back looking at the leopard man like he is garbage with my noble elegance, "That is none of your business." I turn to the kid wearing a lot softer and warmer expression, "I can tell you later when this loser isn't around." The kid giggles.
We get to the inn and the innkeeper sees us and totally gets jittery when she sees the town guard handcuffed under the cloak in a brief moment and him acting squirrely and suspicious. I flick a gold coin to her and put my finger to my mouth with a wink and she nods in understanding. We get to the room and I fill Lysara in and she goes in her bag and grabs her crop, rope and a chair that is in the room. She then says while smacking the crop on her hand, "I am great at extracting information. Just leave it to me." She erects the anti-eaves dropping tool and a barrier separates her and him from us and she ties him up and gets started.
I take the kid out immediately before he gets scarred for life and ask him as we leave the room, "So what makes a kid like you make a dangerous decision to steal from me?" His ears droop in a pitiful manner, "My mom is really sick and I need to buy medicine, but it is really expensive. My father and siblings were all sold into slavery on made up charges, and nobody could support us when she got sick. The only reason we weren't sold into slavery either is because my father shielded us when we were hiding and they didn't find us."
I reach down and pat him on the head, "You know, I actually have healing magic and can heal your mom for free. Why don't you take me to her? Afterwards we can report those assholes who tried to sell you." His ears perk up, "Really?" I assure him, "Yep. Lead the way kiddo- hey what is your name? My name is Ari." He replies, "My name is Leonardo, but my friends call me Leo." I ask, "Then can I call you Leo? Or is that too presumptuous of me?" He shakes his head, "You saved me earlier. You can DEFINITELY call me Leo. Hey I almost forgot. How did you tame the king of the mountain pass?"
I then tell him the filtered story giving him the gist of what happened. Obviously leaving the crown prince detail out since that was the most problematic detail. That and it is hard to talk about since it was so terrifying. Way more terrifying than almost losing my arm. That and we probably won't be meeting him again, so it is best if he doesn't learn too much that could put him in harms way. He then asks tilting his head in curiosity, "Did that leave a scar?" I nod smiling at how cute his little head tilt is, "Sure did. It is a pretty big scar too." He asks inquisitively with his eyes adorably sparkly, while trying to keep a serious expression, "Can I see it?" I stop walking and pull the collar of my jacket and that masculine top Lysara picked out to the side exposing my shoulder and the scar. He says completely dropping his serious facade for a moment and wagging his tail really fast, "Woah! That is so cool! I want to be a warrior of many scars and stories when I grow up, too!" I put my collar back in place, "I hope you become exactly who you want to be." I say as I reach down to pat him on the head. He then turns to continue guiding me to his house. He went back to his 'serious' face, but I can tell he is happy because his tail is wagging.
He takes me to his house where his mother is in bed with a bad fever and a cold washcloth on her forehead. I approach her and get right to business casting a heal spell. Her face loses the flushness and her eyes open. Leo runs to her side and hugs her, "How are you feeling mother? Are you healed now?" She nods, "I feel a lot better now. Was this human woman the one who saved me?" Leo crying happy tears, "Yes, mother. Miss Ari also saved me earlier from the guards who tried to sell me into slavery. I will follow her the rest of my days to pay for this debt." I cut in the conversation, "That won't be necessary. I am just glad to help. Plus, my path is a dangerous one. I may seem like a normal wandering priestess, but I am actually on the run from some very bad people. I wouldn't want you getting caught up in my dangerous situation, Leo."
His mother says wearing a worried expression looking at her son, "She is right. It is also the dead of winter. It would be foolish to travel with her this time of year." His ears and tail droop as he begs, "But mother, please." She shakes her head, "You still have a few years of growing up to do before you leave my house." He is still droopy and pouty. I reach over and pat him on the head, "Don't worry I can come back to visit when everything has blown over and it is safe again." He is still pouting very adorably. I then asked his mother, "Can I borrow your son for a little bit longer to report the incident from earlier, miss-?" She replies answering my inquiry, "Naki, and yes. Try and bring him back before nightfall please." "I will do my best, Miss Naki." I say as I wave to Naki as Leo and I head out and back to the alley where we confronted the guards.
They are still passed out and laying exactly where they were. I say, honestly surprised that they are still unconscious, "Goddess, how can they still be out cold? Are they just planning to sleep here?" Leo laughs. I am really glad I didn't have to hunt them down. That would have been a headache. I see a few people just going around these pieces of shit minding their own business. People in the slums really don't care about anybody. Really a good thing for us. I go up to them and smack them on the face to wake them up. Leo and I guide them to the guards tower in town.
We get there and tell the receptionist at the entrance the story. They appear to be taking it seriously and take two guards into custody. They start asking loudly, "Where is our leader? What did you do with him?" I replied, irritated at them for being loose-lipped, "None of your business." I look to the receptionist giving the one moment hand signal. These punks may have just ruined Lysara's interrogation. Now I have to spill the beans. I don't think I could lie in this situation. While waiting for those guards to be escorted out of ear shot. Once they are gone, I tell the receptionist that we were holding our own interrogation of the leader just in case the corruption in the guards was worse than anticipated and will return the guard once our investigations are complete. The receptionist buckles down hard in protest and says, "We can't have civilians conducting interrogations. Please escort us to where he is being held so we can take him into custody and conduct our own investigation into the matter."
I sigh and deflate a bit, "I understand." That probably means that there is probably more corruption here than I thought. Hopefully, Lysara has gotten the information already. She gets a few guards, and we head out to the inn. We get in and the leader guard is tied naked to a chair with the fancy rope knots she did on me but she tied up his penis instead while keeping him restrained. He looks passed out with drool hanging out of his mouth and his man fluids are everywhere. I already know she used her pheromones and the crop because of the red marks on his skin.
I can't believe I didn't make Leo wait outside, but it is too late now. He has seen everything now. Lysara sees the guards with me and the lady and they walk into the room and the receptionist lady goes, "What in the goddess's name happened here?" Lysara looks at me and I shake my head to tell her not to trust these guys Lysara without missing a beat then says, "I tried getting information out of him, but he didn't say anything. He was pretty resilient. You should definitely pay him more." She winks at me. The receptionist lady seems appalled by her lewd methods of interrogation, but can't seem to find the words. She is blushing in frustration as they untie him and get him dressed and take him out of the room.
Once they are gone I ask Lysara, "Now what did he really say because he was a scaredy cat that would not have lasted at all." She laughs really hard, "You are so right. He folded and told me everything. Sang like a rainbow song bird." Realizing I probably should take Leo home first before we talk about what the guard said, I say "Wait. Before you tell me all the details, let me take Leo here back home. I promised his mother I would return him before dark, and I don't want to be made a liar." Leo groans and then Lysara says wearing a sexy smirk that is drawing me in, "Sure thing, Ari. Can you pick up food on the way back?" I reply as I approach her answering her non-verbal summons, "Of course, my love." I say as I go in to give her a kiss and continue, "I love you, Lysara." "I love you too, Ari." She responds as she drags her hand across my arm affectionately. She says when I reach the door, "Don't worry,I'll clean up my mess while you are gone." As she gets some cleaning supplies out, and starts cleaning up that leopard man's fluids.
On our way back I ask Leo if he wants a treat or something on the way back. His eyes gleamed with excitement and asked, "Can I get a meat bun?" I giggle at his enthusiasm and say, "Sure thing. Just lead the way to the meat buns." I am sooooo glad he doesn't seem negatively affected by the tied up naked tortured man. It probably helped that he was a piece of shit that tried to sell him. We get to the meat bun stall, and I decide I will just treat everybody to these meat buns. So I buy enough for Naki, Lysara, Kenji, Leo and myself. I got a red bean bun for Sky and CoCo since they prefer those. We head to his house and I give him mother and Leo their meat buns and leave to go back to the inn where we all enjoy our buns.
When we are done eating, Lysara says, "So that one-eyed punk said that the leader of the human trafficking ring here in town was the Baron's son, the incubus Xalaris. Also, that he holds weekly masquerade slave auctions in secret locations. As long as one knows the location and has a mask, they are allowed entry. He also told me the location which they change frequently for security reasons to prevent being caught. He said that this weekend there will be an auction in a secret underground structure in the bougie part of town where wealthier people live. In an alley behind a really popular pastry shop." I put my hand to my chin as I think, "Now how should we handle the sting operation? There isn't much that the two of us can do on our own. Should we talk to the Baron himself? Wait... what if he is corrupt, too?" Lysara shakes her head, "From the information I have personally on Baron Lanareth, he seems like he would be a good person to report this to. We can go to the Lanareth's mansion in the morning and request an audience and present our findings and come up with a plan to capture the auction house, making sure to use our anti-eavesdropping tool. He will have more local resources and will be a huge asset." Lysara says as she crawls up to where I am chilling in bed while turning on the anti-eavesdropping barrier.
She reaches into her bag and pulls out the double dildo. I blush in anticipation remembering what this toy was for. Lysara purrs, "Ooooo. You smell so good right now. We haven't broken this toy in yet, and I think today is the day." She also grabs a bottle of lube out of her bag as well. She places them to the side and she starts kissing me all over tenderly. Slowly and with a tender passion. When she gets to my breasts she gently bites them barely breaking the skin. It hurts but in a pleasurable way and I moan.
She pulls out a phantom's kiss which turns me completely on and I am ready. Lysara knows that when her phantom's kiss activates that I AM READY at that point, since we have been together so many months at this point. She continues kissing me all over tenderly while I moan and squirm in anticipation. She giggles a naughty giggle after a while, "You smell deliciously frustrated. It is time for your reward for your patience like a good girl. She grabs the dildo and lubes up both sides. She inserts hers into her and she turns me on my side and holds my leg like the other times we used this position and slowly pushes the dildo into me so it can adjust.
Once it is in, she initiates her phantom's kiss again and I start to go crazy and move my hips and moan in pleasure. Lysara moves to my rhythm and we are both moaning. We progressively get rougher and rougher until we are both screaming in ecstasy. We orgasm at the same time and are roughly continuing to pump into each other through every wave of pleasure. We have done this position many times before (minus the dildo) but we have never orgasmed at the same time before. So this was new for us. After both of our climaxes come to an end, she pulls the dildo out of me and then out of herself and plops down next to me. She giggles and says, "I just realized that we forgot to take a bath today. We got a little distracted. Don't worry I will take full responsibility. Once I can move again in a few moments, I will pick you up and carry you to wash you myself." We cuddle for several minutes, then she turns off the barrier and carries me into the bathroom and we take a bath together before retiring for the evening.