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I Want To Go Home 11
🕑 Added 2023-02-15 19:03:42 +0000 UTCMore Walking
It hadn’t taken too long to drag Ne’avo into the shade of a tree. Sure, she was tall and beefy, but I could manage her weight easily. Aara then asked the tree to provide her some water, using it both to rehydrate the dark elven woman and to mix with some powders to create a sort of healing balm.
As we waited for Ne’avo to regain consciousness, Sukura pulled me over to run through some sword drills. Both of us had to practice, but I needed to put in extra effort. I was a long way from ready to battle the forces of evil. Especially if they were going to be armed with blades of discordance.
“I did train a bit over night,” I offered. “I don’t have to sleep, after all.”
“Mhm. You’re not good enough to train totally on your own yet, though,” Sukura replied, her tone gentle but firm.
She kept that tone up as she fixed my posture and corrected my swings. While her voice and smile were gentler than her father, she still proved at least as much of a perfectionist as Chem had been. Until a discussion about a lesson he’d taught her caused her to tear up, and I found myself supporting her as she slumped into my shoulder. I took her over to the shade as well, deciding it was time she had something small to eat.
She’d finished the meal and regained her composure a bit before Ne’avo woke up again.
“I feel like someone tried to turn me into leather,” the dark elf mumbled.
“You were getting pretty close,” Aara muttered, seeming less worried about her bedside manner with this patient than she’d been with me.
“What were you doing out here, anyhow?” I asked.
“Oh… well, I think I made a wrong turn somewhere,” Ne’avo muttered, staring up at the tree branches above us. “Found my way out onto the savannah here while trying to… well, I ran into a cute centaur girl while trying to get my bearings, and maybe made a flirting comment she didn’t take very well.”
Sukura grimaced. “Did it have to do with ‘riding’?”
Ne’avo was, to my surprise, quiet. Which was all the answer any of us needed in order to let out tired groans. I’d only talked to a single centaur and I could tell that was questionable.
“I may have been honestly pretty lost and worried about getting back to a town on my own,” the elven woman muttere, nervously pushing her fingers together while still lying where Aara had been treating her. “I’m sort of running out of food… and, worse… hair gel.”
“Well, at least she doesn’t have an industrial strength hair dryer,” I muttered.
Which got confused looks from the three other girls. I waved them off, saying it wouldn’t really make sense to them, even if I explained it.
Ne’avo seemed happy to go back to being the centre of attention, as she began efforts to flirt with all three of us. Not the most successful efforts. Even if she’d focused on just one target. But efforts that showed impressive… I’ll call it ‘determination’.
She also had impressive physical resilience. Even Aara, who had been applying herbal magics, seemed surprised how quickly she’d hopped up and started walking.
Even if it had been in a random direction, and we’d had to redirect her towards our actual travel destination.
Once heading in the correct direction, she went right back to her efforts to woo us.
“You’re not really one for making a girl feel like she’s the world to you, are you?” Sukura asked, after Ne’avo had flirted with both her and Aara in a single sentence.
“Just as one should provide worship at the altars of all the gods, one should provide the same to all women. For all women are goddesses,” Ne’avo replied with what she surely felt was a knowing nod.
Aara and Sukura both glanced my way. I had no idea how to respond, so just gave a shrug.
Aara decided to return to poking at Ne’avo’s ego. She seemed to enjoy that.
“So, that means you consider yourself a goddess, then?”
Ne’avo stopped walking, falling behind us a bit before we realised she seemed to be needing a moment.
“I…” she said, barely audibly. “I sup—no. I am but a humble knight, wishing to provide women with the love they deserve. Yes.”
She punctuated that by striking one of her flexing poses. Aara and I both decided to keep walking at that point, not sure if we wanted to take her with us to the nearest outpost of civilization. We still had another day of travel to get there. Sukura caught up to us quickly, but it took Ne’avo a slight jog to manage it. She’d started much further behind.
“These muscles mean I can be useful,” she said, catching up. “I can carry things for you.”
“I can carry everything I need,” I replied.
“We will help you get to civilization, but then we must separate,” Aara said.
“Our mission is very dangerous,” Sukura added.
“I can handle danger. I’d gladly shield any of your beautiful ladies with my beefy body,” Ne’avo tried.
Aara seemed to honestly consider that. Whether it was out of her need for protection or a desire to see the loud elf get bonked around a bit, I wasn’t sure, but… the glint in Aara’s eyes left me with a suspicion. For being so adorable she had a dangerous streak.
Ne’avo attempted to offer further possible services, which ranged from questionable utility to us questioning her ability to perform them. Laundry, for instance, didn’t seem like a skill she had. Carrying firewood felt like a waste as long as we weren’t marching into the desert or the tundra. Massages seemed nice, but, again, we had no reason to think she knew what she was doing.
“I can… stand around and look pretty?” Ne’avo offered at last.
“Ok, I’ll admit that you can definitely do that,” I said. “But, again, I’m not su—”
“You think I’m pretty?” Ne’avo asked, her nightglasses somehow shimmering in the now setting sun.
I had to shrug. “You’re a tall buff woman with short hair, so… hard for me to say no to that, but… well… you…”
I looked to the others for help. Sukura clearly didn’t want to have to come out and say it.
“You are annoying with how much you talk and what you talk about,” Aara said.
“A… a little,” I added, trying to soften the blow.
Ne’avo nodded slowly, going quiet as we walked. It left me feeling bad, but… also, it was true. She was relentless. And all she did was flirt.
“Do you have other things you like to do? Besides romantic interests?” Sukura offered after a while.
“Well, there’s—no. That’s not…” Ne’avo said, her voice quiet. “I can tell you about my skincare routine?”
“I, um, think we’re good,” I replied.
We walked in silence for another hour or so, before setting up a camp. Ne’avo offered to take the first watch, but Aara insisted she needed her sleep. She had impressive endurance, but she still needed to recover. Besides, I was able to point out I didn’t need much sleep.
A fact that surprised Ne’avo. I tried to not go into detail, but then she asked about why I had wings now and… well, Sukura was the one who let it slip. She looked furiously embarrassed to have told my secret, but I gave a shrug. It didn’t matter that much.
“I just have to travel with you, then,” Ne’avo said. “Not only to join your retinue of wives, but to serve the duties of my blood.”
“Duties of—” I started to ask, but was cut off by the others.
“Wives?” Aara and Sukura asked in unison.
“Well, I’m sure you haven’t had a ceremony yet. Things are a bit topsy turvy, but it’s the plan, right?”
I found myself blushing. Marriage was not yet on my radar. I was barely even sure about dating either girl. Let alone talking about weddings.
Both Aara and Sukura began a reply, their statements crowding the air together. Yet they shared a common thread that increased my blush. Aara was ready to share due to my divine nature, while Sukura had merely been unsure about if Aara was willing to try a non-monogamous arrangement… and that was as far as they both got before stopping to let the other speak.
“Ah. So we’re all willing to share,” Ne’avo said with a grin.
“… you need to be willing to sleep, though,” Aara said sharply.
To my surprise, Ne’avo then removed her night glasses, revealing eyes that shimmered purple in the moonlight. Eyes that she then rolled. “Very well. But we will discuss this more.”
“Will we?” I all but whispered.
Aara gave me a pleading look, punctuated by a brief glance at Ne’avo. With the shimmer of her eyes in the dark I could follow it and realised she meant to talk it over without the elven woman there to try to worm her way into things.
That seemed reasonable, so I accepted it, and headed over to run through some more drills with my extra hours of wakefulness.
-
Ne’avo had been quieter the next day. Whether she’d smartened up or simply run out of pick up lines, I couldn’t say. Either way, it was a little after lunch that we spotted the ranch we were headed to. It sat within view of one of the scattered dwarven mountains that seemed so out of place from the rest of the savannah.
Watching the pegasi wander about in the large fenced area, I felt moved at their beauty. I’d never really been a horse girl (possibly from having missed that phase of girlhood completely), but these did have the advantage not just of wings, but of being zebra-like. Which was so much more interesting than a regular horse.
“Huh,” Ne’avo said, staring up at the mountain near us. “That must be Mount Adra’ak.”
“Uhh… maybe?” I replied, turning to Sukura.
“It should be,” she said.
I wasn’t sure how much it mattered, the mountain still being several kilometres away, but I was vaguely curious how Ne’avo could tell. I studied the mountain for a moment, before deciding it probably had a distinct enough shape. Especially as there probably weren’t too many isolated mountains in the world.
I turned, to ask Ne’avo if she had any particular ties to that mountain, only… she was gone.
“Ne’avo?” I asked, turning around in place to see where she went.
We were on flat ground, and the grass wasn’t that tall. So I couldn’t figure out where she could be hiding.
“Did you see where she went?” I asked, turning to the others.
Both of them were as surprised as I was to see Ne’avo had vanished.
“That… that doesn’t seem right,” Aara muttered, crouching down to sniff where the elven woman had been.
“You don’t… you don’t think she’s a spy or something, do you?” Sukura asked.
“It would be odd for a spy to not know where she was,” I offered. “Unless it wasn’t us she was looking for.”
“Either way, it’s reason to get going,” Aara said. “Before any trouble comes our way.”
I nodded, and followed the short gnollish girl towards the ranch house. As Aara had talked with the other druid more than either Sukura or myself we both decided to let her take the lead in talking to the ranch owner. Finding him took a little bit, as he was out tending to the pegasi on the far side of a hill (a ranch hand gave us the directions). But, once Aara got talking with him the owner seemed reasonable.
He, like the ranch hands we saw, was human. He had darker skin than Sukura, though if that was from natural complexion or a tan I could not say. Either way, he was kind and offered us a saddle and some saddle bags to go with the pegasus he offered.
“I’m not sure how to repay such kindness,” I said, as a few workers adjusted the saddle on the animal.
“A bird got here ahead of you. I’m no druid, but I understood who it was from… so I believe your small friend when she tells me you’re going to save the world. The druid of the sacred hill is one to trust, after all,” the rancher said. “The least I can do is offer a mount and some gear to help with your quest.”
“Well, thank you all the same,” I said.
“Do be kind to poor Tsuntse, that is all I ask,” the man said, indicating to the pegasus. “Remember that you are divine, while she is but an animal. She will need more rest than you.”
“I understand.”
Sukura was soon aboard the pegasus, while Aara was on my back. The ranch hands had offered her some leather string to tie around her forearms, allowing her to keep a hold even if she grew tired.
And then, with that, we were off.
I sincerely hoped the man could spare the majestic mount he’d given us. And that we weren’t about to drag the poor thing into mortal peril.
