“You know, I always heard that horses were supposed to be scared of demons,” Victor said as he finished tying the horse to the wagon.
“That’s just a story idiots like to pass around,” Jezzy said, smiling as she pet the horse that he had gone into town to rent.
She made a happy sound and shifted in place.
Jezzy giggled. “See? She likes me. She knows I’m nice.”
“We ‘monsters’, even succubi from another realm, tend to be more in tune with nature, which includes animals of all kinds,” Fiona said. She set her load into the back of the cart and proceeded to tie it down.
“Well, not all succubi,” Jezzy said. “One girl I knew was just terrified of birds. She was utterly convinced they were watching her. Planning something. I was so nervous when I first saw birds, because I’d only ever heard what she had to say about them. But they’re just...birds.”
“They don’t really have a plan beyond ‘eat’ and ‘sleep’,” Victor agreed as he finished up.
Fiona slithered up behind him. “And ‘mate’,” she murmured in his ear, wrapping her arms around him. She slowly slipped a hand down the front of his pants.
He exhaled sharply, feeling her large, bare breasts pressing against his back. “Yes...that too,” he managed.
“You’re getting bolder,” Jezzy grinned. She stepped away from the horse and up to him, and now he was surrounded by them. She settled her hands on his hips, grinning fiercely as she stared down at him with her glowing pink eyes.
“You both are...so tall,” Victor murmured.
“I love how much you like that about us,” Jezzy replied. “Can I tempt you to take a break? Do naughty things behind that tree over there?’
“You can but you shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re sending me in there to try and talk Hazel into some fun and I’d rather save it for the potential foursome or threesome, depending on how much Fiona wants to watch,” he replied.
“I won’t know until we’re actually in the moment,” Fiona murmured. She sighed and took her hand out of his pants. “And that’s fair enough.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Jezzy said. She gave him a kiss, then stepped back. “I like this horse, but it’s too bad we had to spend so much coin on it…”
“We had to,” he replied, “we can’t very well have you hauling this into town. People would lose their minds. Now, I should really get to work selling this stuff off. The sooner I get to it, the sooner I’ll be back. Hopefully with Hazel.”
“Unless there’s some kind of emergency, I imagine she will come back with you once she knows I’m back around,” Jezzy replied.
“I hope so.” He kissed them both and then hopped up onto the cart.
Getting settled, he began guiding the horse and they started the slow roll into the township proper. He took the opportunity to just relax for a little bit. That was what yesterday was supposed to have been: relaxation.
Only it hadn’t.
Not that he was complaining, exactly.
After the long day of getting everything back from the abandoned mine, the four of them had decided to just take it easy for a bit. But when all four people involved in ‘taking it easy’ were horny, and one of them was a succubus, there tended to be a lot of sex happening. And what was supposed to be a day of rest had turned into a lot of exciting lovemaking.
Victor yawned and rubbed at his eyes as he tried to rouse himself.
Velena had finally parted ways with them last night. Fiona said she tended to get flighty after spending too much time in one place, and sure enough, she’d sort of just left after a quick and abrupt goodbye.
Fiona had told him not to take it personally, and in truth he could respect the feeling.
Victor reached into his pocket and checked that the parchment was still there. It was. They had actually done the responsible thing after she’d left and made a complete list of everything they needed to finish repairing the inn.
Tools, nails, lumber, doors, windows, furniture, and a bunch of other odds and ends.
He was pretty confident they wouldn’t get it all. In truth, they’d be lucky to get half of it, even with the haul from the mine, but it would be another big step forward and they weren’t exactly in a rush to get this done.
As the Hinterland drifted by to either side of him, he found his thoughts drifting. Today was the first day he’d had of alone time in what felt like a while. And now that he was by himself and relatively safe, he could think more on where his life had taken him.
It had brought him to strange places over the years.
Mostly good places, some really, really bad places. At times he felt like he was leading his own life, but at others he felt like he was as helpless to control the course of his existence as a shipwreck victim clinging desperately to a piece of driftwood in a storm.
Victor had gone a lot of places, seen a great deal, had many adventures, but he never really thought he’d end up in the Hinterlands, romantically involved with not one, but two monster girls, repairing an old inn.
Unlikely didn’t seem like a strong enough word to describe the situation.
This, however unlikely it seemed, felt different than every other adventure he’d found himself in over the years.
An adventurer’s life was, by default, a wanderer’s life.
But there was an extra layer of intensity to that fact when the adventurer had no home to return to. Victor had actually encountered many adventurers who intended to return to their home village and settle back down some day. And even some who did return and stay for a season out of the year. There were some who intended to adventure until they died, but they were rare.
It always seemed to him that the adventurers who had no home to return to were of that last variety, but he supposed it was possible that he had simply met those adventurers and spoken with them at a point before they did eventually settle down.
Was that what he intended to do here?
Could he live out his days in an inn situated in the Hinter?
The fact that he didn’t immediately think no was giving him a bit of anxiety, and he couldn’t even figure out why.
Was it because he had grown so used to the idea that, eventually, he would move on?
It could be that simple, but he somehow doubted that it was.
As Hearth Haven came into view, Victor pushed the thoughts from his head. For the moment, he had a very long stretch of bargaining, negotiating and, perhaps, intimidating in front of him, depending on how much the merchants thought they could take advantage of him. He wasn’t really prone to that last one, but…
He wasn’t above it.
He needed a clear head for this next part, Fiona and Jezzy were relying on him.
…
Victor reined in his temper. “No,” he repeated, “I don’t want that one. Just these.”
“Are you sure?” the shopkeeper asked again.
“I’m completely, absolutely sure. And I promise, if I ever want that window, I will march promptly back to this store and purchase it.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
“All right. Well, it’s two hundred fifty coins even for the rest,” the shopkeeper said.
Victor nodded and dropped two of his one hundred coin pouches, his final two, in fact, and a fifty coin pouch on the counter between them. The merchant picked each up and weighed them in his hand, then peered inside, then made it all disappear behind the counter.
“Thanks for the business,” he said.
“Yep,” Victor replied, and picked up the first of the five windows he’d purchased. He had wanted more, but this was the last of his coin for now.
He began shifting them out to the cart.
The journey through town had lasted longer than he’d feared. It had been a complicated route along the cobblestone roads, making a stop at each of the varied places he needed to visit, to both sell and buy. Given he wasn’t as familiar with the town yet, it was a bit stop and start as he just went to the stores as he saw them.
And just about all of the merchants had been difficult in one way or another.
Given how much experience they all no doubt had with adventurers coming through, each had honed their skills to a fine art, able to extract much and give little in return. Victor had his own methods for dealing with their tactics, but at this point he was just getting sick of it. He wasn’t even thirty yet, but inside these stores he began to feel like a grumpy old man.
Victor noted that now that the shopkeeper had his coin, the man made no move to help load the leather-wrapped windows into the cart. Not that he particularly wanted help at this point, if he had one more poor interaction he was liable to do something regrettable, but it was just one more irritating thing on a long list of them.
Finally, he got the last window in and secured.
Before anything else could annoy him, Victor got up into the seat and set the horse towards Hazel’s place. He glanced skywards. The sun was a few hours past its highest point. He relaxed a little. Despite how long it had taken, there was still more than enough time to talk with Hazel, get out of the town, return the horse, and then get to the inn and relax.
And maybe do other things.
A few moments later, he brought the cart to a halt and put the horse in the shade. Walking in through the front door into the darkened shop, he felt a strange sensation. Not of anything magical, but of the passage of time.
With all that had happened, it felt like he’d been here last season, not last week.
“Well, look who’s back.”
Hazel was again standing behind the counter, this time working on a potion. She had a little cluster of small glass containers, each filled with a different kind of liquid, centered around one glass vial held upright.
“I missed you,” he replied, walking slowly closer, not wanting to mess up her work.
But she seemed a pro at it, able to continue on with the work and conversation and other distractions at the same time.
“Did you now?” she murmured, pouring some glowing blue liquid into the vial.
“Very much so.”
She laughed softly. “Took you long enough.”
“I was, uh, busy out there.”
“Oh were you now?” She picked up another glass bottle with a murky green liquid and swirled it around, then paused and sniffed. She looked up at him with her glowing eyes and a broader grin spread slowly across her beautiful face. “You found a girl with horns out there.”
“And a tail,” he replied. “Two girls with tails, actually.”
“Oh my.” She focused on the potion again. “One moment.” She carefully poured five drops of the green liquid into it, then began corking everything. “Care to share the details?”
“Well, there was a lot of fucking,” Victor replied.
“I figured as much.” She leaned down, putting the containers under the counter.
She was wearing an especially revealing shirt, and her pale breasts seemed to threaten to tumble out each time she leaned down.
“I found Jezzy,” he said.
She laughed. “Knew it! Knew that girl would find you. I was hoping she was back...hmm. Who is the other girl with a tail? Another succubus?”
“No, a viper named Fiona.”
“Oh my. Most men would admit to making love with a succubus, but I knew few men who would seek out a viper...fewer still who would openly admit to being intimate with one.” She picked up the vial and swirled it around gently a few times, then corked it and placed it under the counter. Hazel fixed him with a confident smile and an intense stare. “But I knew there was something special about you as soon as you walked in here...I’ve never met Fiona, but I do know of her. Jezzy has told me. She sounds sweet.”
“She really is,” he replied.
“Oh.” Hazel gave him a more appraising stare.
“What?”
“I’ve heard that tone before. You...are something truly special, aren’t you?”
He laughed awkwardly. “I...don’t know. Am I?”
“You traveled here from who knows how far away to fuck monster girls. Rare, but not unheard of,” she replied.
“How did you know, by the way?”
“I guessed. Just a strong feeling. But,” she continued, “I have come across almost no one who is willing to have a romantic relationship with monster girls. It’s difficult enough for most to contemplate building a life and sharing a home with a different race, but a village-dweller and a forest-dweller? Almost never.”
“Really? That rare?” he asked.
“Yes. I spent a lot of time traveling the land. Occasionally I still do. As a witch, I’m more accepted among the forest-dwellers. And yes, they tend to stay on their sides of the line.” She regained that smile. “Have you been with anyone else?”
“A harpy.”
“Oh my.”
“And a gekon adventuress.”
“You get around.”
“Apparently,” he replied.
“So, is that why you’re here?” she asked, putting her hands on her pleasantly sized hips.
“Yeah. I was hoping to get around to you. Jezzy said you can’t stay away from her and you’d do anything to be with her again, so I should use that as a lure to get you to come spend time with us out in the Hinter,” he said.
“Oh that pink bitch,” Hazel muttered, rolling her eyes. “She thinks she’s so great.”
“...she is,” Victor said. “Having been with her now, I feel like I can safely confirm that.”
Hazel laughed. “Yeah, but she’s still annoying!”
“Because she’s right?”
“Not as right as she thinks...but yes, I do want to get back with her. And I must say that the idea of taking you and her to bed at the same time is exceptionally appealing to me.” She looked around her shop. “Okay, go on and wait for me. I’ll wrap everything up here and then I will join you for some fun in the woods.”
“Very glad to hear that,” he said, heading for the exit.
This was going to be a really good night.
