Danica Pt. 10

"It is enough," he responded and smiled.

To the dwarves she said, "I see for you long years, great battles, the comfort of your kin, strong sons and daughters who bear your names with pride and honor..." She paused and laughed a moment before finishing, "...And a great deal of ale and spirits."

The two dwarves glanced at each other with wide grins. "That's fer soundin' like a fine destimitatchy ta me," Griffith said with an explosive laugh.

Everyone laughed with them as Nara moved next to Cheron, "I see someone of your order, another who serves Heraklan. This person guides you to another level of spirituality, and sexuality. I see many men and women sharing themselves with you and this other -- and great blessing from your god."

Cheron smiled and squared her shoulders. "Praises unto Heraklan." Danica noticed something passing between the two women as they looked into each other's eyes. Danica quivered with desire upon seeing the obvious recognition and likeminded thoughts shared in that momentary glance.

Nara moved to Danica and said, "I see bonds long firm in you broken. Bonds of your own forging, but without the knowledge you had made them. Those bonds were tempered by someone close to you -- though they had no intention of causing them. These bonds have been broken by bonds of another type. These bonds may be broken as well. I see an intertwining of your destiny with that of Celes, but your destiny is clouded, even as is hers. I fear I can tell you little more."

The revelations surprised Danica. Nara's voice in her mind surprised her even more. I also sense your powers of the mind. We shall speak of this in the halls of our minds when time permits and we are alone.

Danica found her mind whirling through the revelations for the remainder of the evening, as the companions got to know the two new members of their fellowship.

Danica spoke with Cheron about keeping Terran occupied, and the cleric proved willing to put off her conquest of the sisters for a night. She had yet to find out what mysteries Terran hid beneath his robes, anyhow. Bear and Janelle naturally went together to their rooms, obviously practicing for those many children Nara had predicted. Brandon's eyes followed Mara from the moment she finished her dance, and the two of them left together after a brief, private conversation.

Looks like you'll be getting a private dance tonight, Danica thought with amusement.

Venaru went to his quarters alone, obviously still lost in thought about the end of his mysterious quest. Nara came and sat down with Danica, the redhead sitting lost in thought once everyone else left.

"There is one other thing I sensed about you when I touched you," Nara whispered, reaching under the table to lay her hand on Danica's thigh. Danica looked up into Nara's eyes and shuddered when she saw the desire there, mirrored by her own now that Nara's touch awakened her to the world around once more.

Nara led Danica to her new room in the fortress shortly thereafter. Once there, the seer quickly undressed Danica. She smiled and caressed Danica's body as she revealed it to her eyes, ending by running her fingers over Danica's nether lips. Nara brought her fingers to her lips and tasted Danica's juices with a satisfied moan.

Nara then undressed as well. Danica admired the woman's body as Nara slowly revealed it. Nara had large, firm breasts, with small areoles surrounding her stiff nipples. Danica couldn't help thinking that they would be perfect to wrap her lips around and flick with her tongue. Only the narrowest strip of hair adorned Nara's mound, pointing toward her dark and glistening lips below.

Nara moved forward and pressed against Danica, kissing her passionately. Danica reveled in the feeling of warmth and their breasts pressed against each other. Nara lay Danica down on the bed and slid between her legs with a sigh of anticipation. She slipped her tongue out of her mouth and softly washed it over Danica's folds. Danica moaned in bliss and watched the beautiful dark-haired woman lick her pussy.

Nara used gentle strokes, exploring Danica thoroughly. Her tongue touched Danica everywhere -- so softly and gently. Nara maintained her slow pace for many long minutes, but Danica never grew frustrated or anxious. Nara's tongue steadily built Danica's fires ever higher. Danica arched her back and gasped as the slow building fires within her surged white-hot under the seer's gentle tongue caress.

When Danica came, she emitted a soft, "Oh," and a long, high-pitched moan. Her back arched gently up off the bed and she could feel the flow of her cum as it oozed from her into Nara's still lapping mouth. Nara's gentle caresses kept Danica coming for minutes rather than seconds, a constant soft glow of ecstasy that caused Danica's eyes to roll back in her head.

When Nara lifted her head from Danica's still quivering sex, Danica sat up and kissed the brunette, tasting her juices on the woman's lips and tongue. Nara then lay down and parted her legs, stroking Danica's cheek and pulling her downward at the same time.

Danica's head swam from the woman's almost spicy scent of arousal as she slid between Nara's legs. The brunette tasted of a mixture of sweetness and spice as Danica softly lapped, trying to emulate Nara's actions only moments earlier.

Nara had other ideas, however, and she reached down to part her lips with one hand while pushing Danica's head down with strong pressure from her other hand. Danica moaned in her throat and hungrily lapped deep inside Nara's canal, gathering up the brunette's juices. Danica felt lightheaded from the taste and scent of the woman.

Nara ground her sex into Danica's face, urging her to greater efforts. Danica devoured the seer, sucking her lips and clit, probing deep inside with a stiff tongue, and wiggling her tongue back and forth against the woman's lips and walls.

Nara came with a scream of pleasure and a flood of cum gushing into Danica's face. Danica let out a muffled squeal of delight and lapped for the flow of spicy-sweet spicy juices. She kept her head between Nara's legs, bringing the seer to another gushing orgasm a few moments later.

Nara then lay Danica down again and devoured the redhead as hungrily as Danica had just done for her. Danica came in a pair of gushing orgasms on Nara's flickering, probing tongue. Nara gasped into Danica's folds as she brought on her own orgasm with her fingers while continuing to lap Danica's sex.

The two women collapsed together, trying to catch their breath. They kissed and caressed, feeling each other's hot bodies as they quivered and quaked through their aftershocks. Once the electric pulses died down into a warm afterglow, Danica heard Nara's voice in her mind.

You know how to please a woman well. It has been a very long time since I've had the pleasure of another woman's touch, Nara's mental voice said.

Danica answered with silent mind-speak as well, I've never had an orgasm like the first. It was so soft, and yet so intense at the same time.

Nara smiled and shivered as a soft aftershock coursed through her. The feeling of Nara quivering set off another quake in Danica as well. Nara spoke again into Danica's mind. We can speak now in safety, for none watching would know that we spoke in the halls of our minds. Any observer would think us simply lost in the afterglow of our pleasure. I know that one watches you from your thoughts and memories, and that you fear to reveal your powers to him.

Danica mentally asked, What did you mean about the bonds I had forged? I understand the bonds you speak of that bind me now -- they are Zoraster's doing.

Now that our minds are linked so intimately, I can see more of your past in your memories, which you repress. You always believed your sister to be more beautiful, more sensual, and more powerful than you could ever be. You unconsciously put up barriers in your mind that prevented you from exploring your own sexual desires and magical potential because of this. Zoraster's deception of you caused you to break the first, and in that breaking, your magical potential awakened as well. Likewise, your mental powers were awakened, and seem to grow stronger with each day.

Nara's mental explanation stunned Danica. Memories washed over Danica that revealed to her exactly where she had done just what Nara had said. She realized every word of it was true.

Devan is no more strong in the Art than you. I sense, in fact, the potential to far outstrip what I see in your mind as her strength of magic. Likewise, your beauty and sensuality is no less than hers. It is different, but her equal as well. It would have been an impossible choice between the two of you -- who to taste and be tasted by first -- if it were it not for the intriguing strength of your mind.

I want to explore those powers more, but I can't reveal them to the madman, Danica thought with a mental sigh.

So you should be wary. Though he fears nothing in his madness, he would surely dampen your mind to prevent you from using your powers if he knew of them. The misdirection of scrying around the wood is strong enough to surely foil his scrying on you. I find it highly unlikely that he knows much of what has occurred there except by the telling afterward. There, you might hone the visible aspects of your powers. I feel you may have the strength and aptitude to form the psionic blade.

Danica raised her eyebrows, but Nara cut off any questions. I will explain more when we are in the woods, and show you. It is a last defense of considerable strength, and a powerful weapon if you are able to use it as such. Now, let us enjoy each other's company and each other's taste more, she thought to Danica, adding a mental moan that nearly caused Danica to giggle.

Danica felt Nara's desire flooding through the mental link they shared, and that served to fan her own desires to a high-burning flame as well. She soon slipped between Nara's legs to lap for another flood of the seer's juices. The link remained between them as Danica tasted the brunette, making the subsequent orgasms they both shared all the more powerful.

When they could bear each other's touch no longer, they collapsed into an exhausted slumber.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Mara joined Terran and Celes in the scrying the next day. The goblin raiders had attacked a farmstead during the night, and had attacked another with the first light of dawn. Celes and Mara scanned the countryside seeking the raiders, while Terran grimly observed the mounting forces in the woods preparing for battle.

Mara found the creatures about mid-afternoon, the monsters creeping up on a large farmstead and observing the farmers going warily about their chores with their eyes on the surrounding countryside. The farmers didn't see the well-concealed goblin raiders.

The three wizards emerged and informed everyone else of their discovery. Mara said that the goblins would attack at any moment. The creatures were nearly in a perfect position to launch an overwhelming surprise assault.

"Can you get us there before they attack?" Danica asked Celes.

"Aye, an' Mara kin add herself to the castin'. We'll none of us be so weak when we pop inta the midst this time," Celes answered.

The companions started gathering their equipment the moment the wizards revealed the news. In short order, all the companions were prepared. They joined hands and teleported to the farmstead.

The moment of disorientation everyone experienced from traveling magically was luckily matched by stunned expressions on the faces of the goblins when the group appeared in between the charging, howling creatures, and the men taking up hoes and scythes to defend their home.

Bows sang out and three of the creatures fell before they could recover their wits. Danica's fireball blackened another two, and singed a half dozen more.

The creatures immediately went into a full, scattered flight. The goblins wanted nothing to do with the formidable band that had suddenly appeared to spoil their fun. Brandon managed to block one and cut it down with his flashing sword. Janelle killed another with a long bowshot before it could escape. The rest were running too quickly, and in too many directions for the companions to bring more of them down.

Mara suddenly spoke words of magic and transformed into an eagle. She keened and spread her huge wings, leaping into the sky.

"My sister will track the creatures to find out where they lair. There, we shall finish their band," Nara said.

The farmers with their improvised weapons approached the companions once the goblins all vanished. One man stepped ahead of the others and said, "Thank you for your help. I don't think we could have stopped them."

Danica smiled and responded, "With any luck, they will have no chance to trouble you again. We mean to end their raiding permanently."

"Yer the Companions of the Forge, aren't you?" A boy on the verge of manhood asked.

Danica smiled and answered, "That's what I've heard we're being called."

The boy's face brightened for just a moment, and then turned downward into a scowl. "Kill a few of them for me. They ran off with my friend Anri an' her sis an' mom on Midwinter's day."

"They will pay for their crimes," Danica promised, a scowl on her own face as she thought about the captured women. "Hopefully, we will find your friend and her family to bring them all back home."

One of the farmers shared a look with Danica that echoed her own thoughts. If the women were alive, they might wish they weren't.

"C'mon boys. We gotta get these damn smelly things buried or the womenfolk are liable to never come out of the cellar," one of the farmers said.

"Burn them," Danica disagreed, thinking of the Necromancer and the monsters he already raised to stalk the wood.

The farmer raised his eyebrows, but responded, "Well, it's gonna raise a stink worsen' a turkey barn, but if you say burn 'em, we'll burn 'em. Let's get a pile of brush goin' over the other side of that hill."

"What should we do while we wait for Mara?" Bear asked.

"See to our weapons and get something to eat. It may take them some time to get back to their lair," Nara answered.

One of the farmers spoke up, "Boy, go run to the house an' get the women up and out 'fore supper burns. Tell 'em the Companions of the Forge themselves run the beasties off, an' they're needin' somethin' to fill their bellies."

The boy nodded and took off at a run to the house. The older man turned back to Danica and said, "Just head on up to the house. Our womenfolk are the best cooks for miles. When they hear they're makin' supper for the Companions, they'll make a meal fit for a King."

"Thank you," Danica gratefully responded.

"Least we can do. Ya likely saved us all from their blades -- likely worse'n that for the womenfolk," the farmer said and then nodded to the gathered companions. He and the other farmers then went to their work of gathering up the goblins and a brush pile on which to burn the corpses.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

The women proved as good as reputed by their men, and the companions ate well. They spoke for a time about the raids of the creatures, and then moved on to lighter subjects.

Dusk crept over the land when Mara returned. "I have found their lair. They are in a cave just within the edge of the forest. They set no sentries outside, and they cover their tracks well. Smoke from their fires escapes from a natural chimney deeper in the wood. We would have had a great deal of difficulty finding them had they not led me there."

"We should try to sneak someone inside the cave under invisibility if possible, to learn the layout," Danica observed.

"I did so once the last of the goblins returned to the cave," Mara admitted. "The passages leading into the cave are very narrow. I doubt that Bear or Brandon will be able to enter. There are three chambers deeper within. The captured women are there, well guarded and alive." Mara said the last with an ominous note that echoed Danica's thoughts that the women would have likely preferred to die rather than face capture by the creatures.

"We'll need to find some way to coax them out of the cave them. We could wait nearby until they decide to venture out on their own, but I hate leaving those women to them for any longer," Danica said.

"There are three that lead them, and it appears they do not leave on the raids, if my understanding of the creature's tongue is not lacking. We may be forced to enter the caves to free the women from those three," Mara explained.

"We'll do what we have to. I believe I know a way to draw them out. Let's get going," Danica suggested.

The group thanked the farmers for their generosity, and then set out. The journey didn't take long, and they soon stood within sight of the wood's edge, near where Mara said the cave lie. The group stood on a small, rutted road leading to the South around the wood.

"The filthy things have a taste for human women, so let's whet their appetite," Danica began, to outline her plan to the group. "We'll all change our appearance slightly with illusions, and all of you..." Danica paused to indicate the men in the group, "...will wait nearby under cloak of invisibility. We'll set an apparent travel camp, and make no secret of our presence. We're near enough that it should entice the goblins. A group of apparently unattended females sleeping should be a welcome sight to the stinking things."

None in the group offered any disagreement, so the men went out in a circle around where the now disguised women set up their mock camp. The women all spread out their bedrolls and lay down, though none slept. They left their blankets loose, enabling them to throw the covers aside and spring to their feet instantly. All of the women kept their weapons close at hand, but well hidden.

Danica pretended to take the first watch, which would appear to consist of tending the fire in the small camp. She took pains not to appear attentive to the surrounding countryside, though in truth, her spells of warding around the area instantly revealed when anything moved nearby. She could feel every movement of the men and dwarves, and knew where they were at all times.

Barely two hours after sunset, Danica felt the first goblin brush against her wards. She raked the coals of the fire, sending sparks into the air -- the arranged signal to tell everyone to be ready.

Danica felt the tingles of thirty goblins passing into her warded area. The monsters moved closer, approaching with great stealth. She could not yet see or hear them, though she knew they were close.

She waited, looking into the light of the fire, as did the rest of the women. They wanted their eyes adjusted to light when the monsters attacked. The goblins paused, and Danica just barely caught the movement of one, or perhaps more, in her peripheral vision. The creatures lay down low to the ground, observing the apparently defenseless women.

Danica felt them creeping closer, apparently now satisfied that they had a camp full of sleeping and helpless females to capture. The monsters were all very close now, well within the circle of the men arrayed about them. Danica could feel the others creeping carefully into position.

At last, the goblins were all close enough. Danica spoke a word of magic and a globe of light suddenly sprang into being, illuminating a large area with bright light.

The women all rolled from their bedrolls and snatched up their weapons. The goblins howled and tried to adjust their night-accustomed eyes to the sudden light. Two of the monsters fell dead before they could even register what was happening. Bolts from Venaru and Feros' crossbows felled them instantly. Magical bolts from Celes, Danica, Terran, and Mara dropped four more. Cheron's devastating mace resounded against another's head, and it fell twitching to the ground as well.