Going Feet First Ch. 06

At those words the bundled Elf flinched and cast her eyes guiltily to the side. "He loves me. The Charm wears away in zetrans. He stayed with me long after it would have worn away. He still does."

"Oh? How do you know?" Val asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Celia paused, biting her lip.

"You don't, do you?" Val asked, one brow raised. "Can't accept the fact that he is a corpse now, but he is. Your Neko girl-friend with the black fur confirmed it."

The green-haired Elf froze with her eyes opened to their fullest. Not even her lungs were moving as her mind registered what she had just heard. That her Galen was gone.

He wasn't. He couldn't be. She shook her head and suckled on her lower lip where she bit through the skin.

"You lie," she said flatly, voice teetering on the edge of a pout. "Tanza gave me her visions. I've seen the time when Galen comes for me... Not all of it but... he is. And when he arrives, he will kill the slaver men. Pretayus, Fretheim... Even you, Val."

"Even me?" she repeated, a touch of surprise to her tone as she sat up straight.

"He will do anything to protect me. With how you acted at the river, he would attack if you got in his way. He could kill you..." She swallowed a lump in her throat. "You would need to come back, Val. The real you has to come back. The you that belonged with our clan ten years ago. The clan-sister that loved me those nights when the chastity spell lifted from us. Please. I still love you, Val. I still want you safe."

The other Elf was taken back, blinking in wonder. Her breath fell silent and a shamed look dawned on her face as she said. "I... I am safe... Love... Even if your Galen comes, Pretayus has safe guarded me against things you wouldn't imagine."

Still curled up in her blanket, Celia probed, "Has he fought back a troll?"

Val's eyes narrowed as their gazes met again. "Has your Galen?"

Celia's eyes fell to the floor, a smile somehow creeping its way onto her lips as she thought back to a day only a short time ago. "It was the way we met. I was... out... wandering, and needed a rest and what I thought a rock to sit down upon was actually a troll's thumb. Running only got me so far before I was snatched up in its hands and nearly squished. Galen came then. He showed just in time to fell the troll and save my life."

An unsure look crossed Val's face as she went into thought while listening to her former clan-sister. "And if Galen is coming for you... Pretayus may not be enough to protect me if I appear a threat to him."

"Your 'Master' can't, he could get you killed if he puts you between me and Galen. I don't want that to happen. I don't want Galen to hurt you because of me. I want him to trust you; to bring you home to the clan and regain everything you've lost."

Val pursed her lips and paused as her eyes fell to the floor. Somehow she seemed nervous, her hands fidgeting in a fashion Celia recognized. She was torn between choices.

"I'll try to keep my distance when Galen comes, then," she finally muttered in a low voice. "But to earn his trust... I think I may know how."

A hopeful look spawned on Celia's face as she drew her blanket cocoon back from her head.

"There is a journal that Pretayus keeps. It has the names and locations of all his customers. If I showed Galen where our other captured sisters are, would he trust me?"

Celia shrugged with an unsure look. "We'd find out on the new moon. I think if I talk to him, he will."

Again, Val fell into silence as she thought things over.

"Are you really with his child, truly?" She asked

"I don't know yet," Celia answered. "The night before all this started was the night he laid with me for the first time, and became my first time."

"First time with a male," Val quipped, making Celia giggle.

"With a male," she echoed. "We were so deep in bliss we forgot the potential of our union and he spent himself inside me."

She shuddered with a euphoric look. "I still feel his heat sometimes, that divine pleasure of him filling me, pressing into my core... his seed erupting into me... I never came with such a rush in my life..."

Without noticing Celia had brought one hand to her cheek, sighing against it while her other hand pressed between her thighs. When her awareness came about, her bright, white eyes blinking in realization, a red tint heated her cheeks and she quickly looked away to the floor. "Sorry, Val."

Her sister chuckled in reply. "Don't apologize. Males are what we are born for, and love just makes everything better."

"It does..." Celia agreed with a longing look before they sat in silence, the two of them staring at their feet.

"I have to go back downstairs now," Val said as she rose. "They will be expecting me."

Celia nodded slowly with a sigh and gloom to her face. "May Necela bless, Sister."

"May Necela bless."

Val went to the door and gave it two sharp raps. The door opened a hair, the guard peering in before he opened it the rest and permitted Pretayus' Elf to leave. Then the door shut, Celia's ears drooping again as the lock clicked into place.

Her Sister's footsteps continued on down the hall along with the guard that had been with her. When she couldn't hear them anymore, Celia let out her breath and looked to the window. Alone again.

She unwrapped herself from her blanket and lay down on her bed, shutting her eyes to sleep. Tomorrow she would find out if she had a child, and what fate awaited her in the future. Her toes curled at the thought of what was to happen should her belly prove empty.

Please let me carry... I don't want Pretayus to hurt me... I don't want to be like Val...

Tack tack tack.

Celia sat up in a flash. Something was tapping at her window. Yet before she could investigate, it threw itself open to permit a black fog to roll into her room. Her mouth opened to scream only for a hand encased in black leather to reach out and grab onto her face. And from there the rest of the body began to appear.

First was the face of a human woman with hair white like the clouds and eyes black like shadow. Then the leather armor that covered her body formed, the toughened hide stained black to match her eyes. As the last of her limbs formed, so did a solitary finger pressing over her lips.

"Sshhhhh, quiet girl. I'm not going to hurt you."

The Tree Elf blinked, her breathing heavy. Even with her extremely limited grasp of the common tongue she was able to understand the words "quiet" and "not hurt you." The latter still didn't help ease her uncontrollable fear sending her body into a quiver.

The fog pulled away from the intruder, twirling around the room and shutting the window before shrinking down into solid black ball beside her on the bed. From there it changed again, Celia's eyes going wide as it morphed into the shape of wolf pup no bigger than her hand.

"Do you speak the common tongue around here?"

Celia had to force herself to look away from the shadow pup beside her so she could engage the woman's stare.

Speak common tongue... she repeated in her mind, thinking a moment more before she shook her head the best she could considering her mouth was still in the other's grasp. A yelp escaped her when the shapeshifter hopped into her lap, staring up at her with all-too-innocent eyes.

"Hmm, this is going to be real fun," the woman declared to the pup. She pulled her hand back from Celia's face, slowly, while again pressing the shushing finger to her mouth.

"Speak," she ordered.

The Elf was still shaking horribly, but after mentally translating that solitary word, she swallowed and asked in her native tongue, "Do you speak Tree Elf?"

The leather clad warrior frowned and quirked her mouth, "That sounds like some garbled, backwoods High Elf language, girl. Tell me you speak more than gibberish."

Celia again held a look of confusion after the woman's short rant. If her native language didn't work, she'd have to try for something more common.

"Nekonian?" she asked, her hands unconsciously hugging onto the pup.

"There we go, that's something I speak," her mysterious guest declared with a grin.

"What do you want?" Celia asked, her voice shrill as she still quivered in fear.

"Your name, first, then tea and cookies as we talk about the lovely storm that's rolling in."

A chuckle escaped the woman as Celia looked to the window and back at her just as confused as ever. "What storm?"

She only giggled again. "My favourite kind. Tell me, what's your name? We can chat while Xerivan fetches the tea and cookies."

Before the Tree-Elf could question Xerivan's identity, the pup dissolved out of her arms. Forming into a black cloud it slipped away between the floorboards much to Celia's awe. A pair of snapping fingers brought her jaw up off the floor and her attention back to the woman before her.

"Don't mind him, he's harmless. I asked you your name."

Blinking, wide-eyed and bewildered, Celia muttered her answer.

"Nice to meet you, Celia. I'm Haru. Do you know that name?"

The Tree Elf shook her head in the negative.

"Huh, well then. I'll have you know I am a devout follower of the orders set by our Goddesses and as I have come here tonight, I find myself disgusted by the state of affairs I have discovered."

Haru leaned back and fell into a sitting position just as Xerivan's fog erupted from the floor below to catch her. The demon formed a high-backed chair, rippling with demonic thorns up the sides and boasting a carving that mimicked a dragon's skull at the head.

Two cups of steaming tea emerged from the fog on black plates supported by dark tentacles coming out from behind the chair. The Witch took one of the drinks for herself while the other was offered to Celia. The Elf hesitantly accepted, taking the cup just before a dark plate full of cookies came forward as well.

Taking a sip from her tea as well as a pastry for herself to nibble on, Haru spoke again, "Despite my disgust, I've decided to poke around first to get some answers before drawing to conclusions. You look the honest type, the door to this room is locked from the outside, so you will be the one to whom I pose my questions. Why are you here?"

Curiously sniffing the tea before sipping, Celia inhaled sharply and nearly cried as a divinely sweet taste bathed her tongue in glorious succulence she had not tasted in months.

"Honey!" she gasped. "By Necela's good graces, honey!"

She didn't hesitate in taking another long drink, sighing in utter bliss at the flavor. Haru gave her a questioning look, then shook her head and gave a low chuckle.

"Been missing out on the spoils of this wealthy bastard?"

Smiling with content, Celia nodded and stared down at her cup. "I've been eating bread, water, and boiled greens for the past two weeks. I barely leave this room and I can't use my magic to grow something better because of Pretayus."

A grumble echoed out of Haru's chair, and the Witch was quick to offer up a cookie.

"Then here, get it while you can."

The Elf didn't hesitate to accept it and take a bite. Her whole jaw went slack as she let out a deep breath; the warm, sweet delight sending her into a state of pure bliss. Whatever this pastry was made of, she needed to get the recipe.

"Thank you. Thank you a hundred times. This is the greatest kindness I've seen in these lands," she said, looking up at Haru.

Raising a hand dismissively, the Witch grinned and replied, "You need not worry about it. If you wish, pay me back in answers. Like why you are here."

At once the Elf's gaze fell to her cup, the tips of her long ears sinking downward as she grasped it with both hands and drew it close to her stomach. "Because my kind is unique. I'm a Tree Elf of Atzla and Fretheim... he wanted me to be here as trophy slave I think. I only know what Pretayus told me."

Haru frowned and rubbed her chin, ignoring the grumble from her seat. "How'd he find you?"

Celia swallowed and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. "I was in Atzla when the slaver Pretayus roped me out of the bush. I strayed from my Galen a bit too far and then... Pretayus took me and brought me here. Galen fought to get me back, killed some. But Pretayus cut his horse out from under him and rode off to this city. The belief of me being with child is the only reason he hasn't tried to make me broken."

Haru's demon chair gave a low rumble as the Witch's eyes narrowed. With a tension drawing on the atmosphere around her she leaned back onto one arm and slouched in the seat, touching a contemplative finger to her chin.

"I see... And Pretayus... is he the one in the shiny mithril?"

Celia sipped her tea and nodded. "Yes. He is the slaver that has been roaming Astiko and Atzla for fifteen years. Four other Elves have been forced into his hands, and I make five."

After taking another sip from her cup, Haru set it aside and leaned in toward the elf. "Thank you for your co-operation, Celia. Before I go, I must ask, do you know if your Galen is still coming for you?"

Without even a moment's hesitation the Elf nodded. "He is. I've witnessed the visions of my elder and Necela herself set him on a mission to slay Pretayus."

Haru's eyes widened a bit, thinking back to her battle in the Drow tunnel. To the one human there that wasn't on her side.

"I know Galen will come here and do what he was set out to do. He isn't the kind that gives up."

"Indeed..." the Witch muttered, quirking her mouth. "Well, it has been a pleasure, Celia. For now, I must bid you farewell."

The Witch's chair exploded into a black fog, encompassing her body before darting out the window. The cookies were gone, same with her cup of tea. Any trace of her even being in the room vanished, leaving the Elf in awe. But after a pause to collect herself and close the window behind her mystery guest, Celia returned to bed and once again lay down to sleep. This time finding success.

.............

With sucking pop, a fresh bottle of wine was opened and the contents quickly poured into a pair of glasses. A blank, lifeless expression to her young face, the blonde elf set the bottle on a tray along with the filled glasses and picked the whole thing up with both hands. Moving with precise yet mechanical movements she climbed the steep, frigid steps out of the wine cellar and up into the kitchen. The cooks, resting in the corner playing cards, paid her little attention as she carried on through the normally hectic room into the dining room. A guard was there at the table, sitting fast asleep in a chair with his face planted in a half-finished plate of potatoes and sliced meat.

The Elf ignored him and moved to the open doors at the far end of the room. From there she crossed the hallway and stood at the next set of closed doors and righted her posture. Her movements swift and flawless, she held the tray at hip level with a single hand and knocked three times before retaking a firm grip on her tray.

In moments a Neko woman opened the door, her nude body on full display, and stepped aside to allow the Elf to carry on into the room. She set her tray down on a table set between two couches, making sure not to cover up the map spread across the table top. When the men had their drinks, she stepped back against the wall to wait until they called on her again.

"Tonight is going to be quite the tale in my journal entry," Fretheim muttered from his spot on one couch as he leaned in to grab his glass.

There was a wince that showed on his face, his free hand touching a bandage covering one of his stab wounds. As he sat back, another human woman—a blonde with bright, blue eyes—stepped forward to gently massage her fingers into his shoulders while a pouting look stuck to her face.

"Such is the result when you don't break in a bitch right," Pretayus growled as he glared at his waiting drink. "Amateurs get good people killed. Turn promise and potential into worthless wastes of flesh."

"I wouldn't blame her trainer," the nobleman muttered as he relaxed and let the massaging fingers sink into his muscles. "She'd been with me for nearly four years. I had grown complacent around her, relaxed. I let those nasty illusions of what's right and wrong contaminate her mind..."

He took another sip of his wine and smacked his lips. "No matter. We have a Drow in the locked room, a Tree Elf in the good girl's room, and the last pieces being set into place."

"So we leave tomorrow, at first light?" Pretayus wondered, motioning to the map.

The Slavemaster cocked an eyebrow when Fretheim shook his head. "Tomorrow night, as soon as my men get back."

"Get back?" Pretayus echoed, leaning forward. "From where?"

After another sip of his drink, Fretheim held his glass up and swished the red liquid around inside. "I was listening when you were talking to your Lycan friend after you got back earlier this eve. Something about the Demon's pet Neko being hauled off by the city guard for being a Ra'zorlich?"

"One that I know would not be easily broken," the Slavemaster challenged as he leaned in, squaring up his shoulders. "If you sent your men after her they are going to die. If she comes here, whether under their guard or not, I guarantee you will die!"

Looking up from his swirling glass, Fretheim asked, "Are you certain?"

"Short of chaining her to a wall and torturing her head until its hollow, you won't break her. I could, but that would require us not moving her to some mountain fortress for several weeks. The risks during transport are too high."

"But you could break her?"

Pretayus frowned. "I've brought many hearts and minds to heel, Cael, but hers would not crack so easily. I lost my first advantage when the guards took her away. Even if you succeed in getting her here, warriors like her do not break easy and the one assassin I've snapped before wound up taking the fast way down from a bell tower first chance she got."

"Then torture her head hollow. Cinisus is pleasurable enough," Fretheim stated casually motioning to the elven woman in the corner.

"If that's not done right, she has a chance of bouncing back," Pretayus grumbled. "And if I have to spend that much time and effort on Celia, the Drow, and the fur ball, then I will be asking for something more than the promised sum."

"Even if the money is there, you won't have the time."

Both men turned as Val closed the door to the room behind her. Pretayus' brow arched down as he looked at her, his eyes critically gazing over her. Despite this face he gave her, the Elf cane right to him, wrapping her arms around his chest and holding tight.

Trying to take the surprise out of his expression, the slaver returned the embrace as he asked, "I suspect Celia spoke of troubles."

"She's as naïve as ever," Val declared as her hands fell to his hips and she leaned back to look into his eyes. "But she knows what's happening next. My old clan leader could see the future, and the future said Galen isn't dead. You are. Celia slipped and mentioned waiting until the new moon and that is tomorrow night..."

With a sudden sniffle and a tear starting to glisten in the well of her eye, she swallowed and finished, "It wasn't a maybe about you dying..."