The Best Medicine Ch. 04

That was when those in the RV heard a commotion from inside the gas station's convenience store. Doreen was screaming, and there was the sound of breaking glass. Jack heard it and rushed outside with the other werehyenas, warning Vanesse to stay put.

Vanesse did not want to hide. She was tired of these people putting themselves on the line for her. She moved towards the door, but the flash of pain behind her eyes returned with a vengeance and actually caused her to stumble and sit down.

"I'm not going to be a coward anymore," she said, a little more firmly. Then she stood up. The pain had gone, though she was feeling a little woozy. She moved towards the door one more time, but stopped when the door opened and a masked-figure dressed in green stepped inside. It was one of the Elvish Royal Hunters.

"Princess," the man said softly but firmly, "we are here to rescue you. Please follow me." The man looked confused when Vanesse shook her head.

"Don't want to go," she said, taking another unsteady step forward.

"They've drugged her," the Hunter said to someone standing behind him. "They'll pay for --"

"No, not drugged," Vanesse said, though she was having problems convincing herself. Her body did not seem to want to move quite properly. "Just . . . these people did not kidnap me. They --" She wobbled a bit. "-- rescued me."

"Grab her," came a second voice, "and quickly! We can't keep those vermin distracted forever."

"I'm sorry Princess, but we have to go now," the first Hunter said, grabbing her wrist and yanking her toward the outside.

"No!" she shouted, planting her feet. "I don't want to --"

Someone clamped a cloth over the Princess's mouth.

"I'm sorry your highness," came a murky voice, "but we can't have you --"

Vanesse did not hear the rest, as her body went limp in her new captor's arms.

Farmer erupted from the forest just in time to see a car screech to a halt and a small group of masked figures were dragging an unconscious Vanesse towards the back seat. She let out a set of barks to communicate to the whole pack, bringing them back to the parking area. Then, she saw Vanesse's head come up.

What happened next was more than a bit . . . unnerving. Vanesse's limp body seemed to come alive. The Princess snapped her head back, breaking the nose of the man holding her with a rather audible "crunch." She spun out of his grasp, ducked, did a leg sweep that sent him plummeting to the ground in a less than dignified fashion.

Farmer was dumbstruck for one of the few times in recent memory. 'When the hell did she learn that?' she thought. She moved forward to help, but she might as well have just pulled up a lawn chair and taken a nap.

The Princess grabbed a cloth from her captor's hand before he ever hit the ground. She raised up and shoved it into a second captor's face while simultaneously launching a snap kick at a third Hunter's midsection. When the third Hunter bent over after having the wind kicked out of him, Vanesse snapped her heel up and caught him in the face with it.

The second Hunter had gone to lullaby land, so Vanesse dropped him and shoved the chemical-filled cloth into a fourth Hunter's face while wrapping her arms around him in a sleeper hold. She jumped up, still holding onto Hunter four, and mule-kicked Hunter One again for good measure.

"What the hell?!" Alani said as she emerged from the convenience store. They had subdued a "customer" who had turned out to be a bounty hunter in disguise, and she had come out to rescue to the Princess, only to find the Princess really did not seem to need anyone's help.

"That's . . . that's not possible," Jack whispered.

"What?" Alani asked.

"She's fighting with her eyes closed."

Alani looked closer and found her comrade's assessment to be correct. "And --"

"She's fighting like --."

"That's not --"

"I know." But possible or not, Jack could not take his eyes off the sweet, curvaceous woman with white-blonde hair who he had never seen move like that . . . well, move like that.

It only took another few seconds for Vanesse to finish off her rescuers, leaving her standing on a pile of unconscious Royal Hunters. Then she just stood there. Her body started to waiver a little bit, even as Farmer approached.

"Vanesse? Are you okay?"

The Princess's face was mostly still, and her eyes remained closed, but her mouth was moving. It made a few odd shapes, then a sound came out. The sound started as a gurgling hiss, and then --

"Catch me," were the only words uttered before the Princess's legs gave out and gravity overcame her.

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In another place . . .

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Vanesse was dreaming again. At least, she was fairly certain that she was dreaming. She was sitting in a garden that she vaguely remembered. Well, vaguely at first. Then she realized that it was one of the courtyard gardens at the Battle-Dancer Academy. She had gone to visit Trina shortly after her first sexual encounter, when she had needed someone to talk to and she was afraid to tell her parents. Trina had sat next to her and teased her about her insecurities until Vanesse had succumbed and smiled.

The Princess turned her head, only to see her best friend there next to her. Even in her dream, tears welled up in the corners of Vanesse's eyes.

"I miss you," she said, her voice carrying through the warm air. Those sounds were almost tangible here, and she could see them tickling Trina's ears.

"I know," the memory of Trina replied. "But you shouldn't. I'm not so far gone."

"I wanted to die. I saw you lying in the snow and I just wanted . . . I don't know."

"It's okay. You know the one thing I never wanted was to make you unhappy."

"You didn't," Vanesse said, quickly getting on her knees and laying her head in Trina's lap. "Even when you were aggravating me, usually on purpose, you always made things better. I can't do this without you."

Trina stroked Vanesse's hair. "You don't have to. I gave you my Word that I would always look after you. Did you think dying would stop me?"

Vanesse looked up. "But you're gone. We buried you in the snow."

"I know," Trina said again. "Jack dug the grave. That was nice of him. Could you tell him that?"

"Yes, I can tell him. I . . . I wish I could make things easier. That I HAD made things easier for them. For him. He liked you. He respected you."

"I liked him to."

Vanesse grasped one of her friend's hands. "I need to say something," she started hurriedly. "I thought I'd never get a chance to tell you how I felt. About you, about what you said."

"Vanesse, you don't have to --"

"I do! I'm sorry I didn't say anything after Farmer told me that . . .you know --"

"That I loved you?" Trina replied. Even in the dream, her voice carried both a nervousness and a fondness that was unmistakable. "I was never going to tell you, you know. It was not my place to love a Princess. But I did, and if anyone were to tell you, I wish that it had been me."

"Why isn't it your place?"

"Because I can never be with you. It would have clouded my judgment. And besides," Trina said, looking away, "what would I have done when you rejected me? I don't think I could have handled how you would have looked at me."

"Why do you think I would have rejected you?"

"Because in fifteen years, you never once looked at me that way."

"For fifteen years, I was told that even thinking about that sort of thing was improper. Dirty. But I did, you know. I would see you training in the gym or running laps, and I would think about how amazing you looked. Then I would guilt myself into a frenzy for thinking such things."

"You shouldn't feel guilt. You just shouldn't--"

"Don't tell me I shouldn't see you like that. You said that you loved me, but the reason I didn't say anything back was because I don't know how to express what I feel. I desired you back when I thought I wasn't supposed to desire anyone. You meant more to me than anyone else. I just didn't know what that meant. Was it love? Maybe, maybe not, but it did mean something."

Trina looked back. "Yeah, it did."

Vanesse wanted to scream. "And now you're gone, and the only one I can tell this too is my fucking dream."

"When did you start cussing?" Trina said stoically. "It's really unbecoming of a Princess." She touched Vanesse's face. "And I'm not a dream. True, I'm IN your dream --"

"What? You're not making sense."

Trina suddenly looked completely and totally ashamed. "He didn't let me in."

"Who didn't let you in? Where?"

"The Dancer in White. He denied me entrance into the Great Hall."

That floored Vanesse. The Great Hall was the battle-dancer's version of an afterlife, where those who fell in guardianship or after a lifetime of doing their duty were allowed to finally dance for themselves. Trina had once explained, against her instructor's intent, that it was a place where they could finally just be selfish. They would listen to the sweetest music ever played and dance with their brethren. In the Great Hall, the wine was all sweet, the food was exquisite, and the company could be as sensual and sexual as you wanted it to be. No one was alone there, and partners were not only for dancing. And it was the Dancer in White that looked over everyone, the embodiment of the music that they all danced to.

"Why would . . . that was YOUR dream?" she asked, eyes wide. "Last night?"

Trina looked pained. "You saw my ascension. You saw my rejection. Somehow I failed. So I fell, and wound up here. In you."

Vanesse's mouth fell open. "Wait, so you're . . . not dead?"

"I don't know what I am. I just know that I woke up and could see what you saw and could feel what you felt.

The Princess's brain was gong a mile a minute. "That was you! The headaches and the weird feelings. You were trying to communicate with me."

Trina sighed. "Yeah. I can't seem to talk to you directly when you're awake, and last night I was too disoriented myself. I didn't even know what to tell you. So while you slept, I just sort of looked around and tried to figure out how you worked."

"How I worked? Wait, you were snooping around in my brain?" Vanesse felt her skin growing hot.

"I stayed away from your memories and private thoughts. Strangely, it's pretty easy to see what you consider private. I realized though that I could actually make you move. I had you sit up a few times overnight just to check. I practiced flexing some of your muscles."

"That's why I actually felt energized this morning, isn't it? You were exercising my body?"

"I think so. Then you got knocked out, so I took over. I hope you're not too angry at me about that."

"I got knocked out?"

"Elvish Royal Hunters? This ringing any bells?"

"That really happened? And you took control of my body?"

"Yes. You'll be fine. You just need to sleep off whatever it is that they dosed you with."

"You didn't hurt them, did you?"

"No. Well, a little, but no one got killed. They weren't going for the kill, so I think that Joker's Wild showed some restraint."

Vanesse felt her dream heart pounding. "So . . . you're still with me?"

"Yeah. I guess. I just wish I knew what I did wrong. Why won't they let me in?"

"I don't think he rejected you. It sounded like he . . . the guy that I saw was the Dancer in White?"

"Yes."

"I don't think that was a 'No.' I think it was a 'Not yet.' Maybe he just realized that I still needed you."

"But I've never heard of this happening! I'm not the first battle-dancer to die and leave the one she was guarding behind. It's kind of our job."

"Well, our relationship has never been exactly normal."

That got a smile out of Trina. "No, it really hasn't."

That was when it hit Vanesse like a full grown moose. "Trina, I'm still not sure that this is real, but --"

"But what?"

"But if it is, or even if I'm just imagining it, there's something I need to do."

"Which is?"

The Princess grabbed Trina's shirt and drew her face close to her battle-dancer's. "I want to be with you. Even if it's only in my dreams."

"No, we can't . . . Vanesse, this can't be undone. I'm in your mind now."

"You're in my heart. Whatever that means, you're there. And I don't want this to be undone." Vanesse didn't give her friend a chance to object. She just pushed her lips against Trina's and started to kiss.

Trina's body out-and-out betrayed her. Vanesse was just so soft, and her lips were inviting. She felt a tingling all over, which was odd since she did not technically even have a body. Her friend was much more aggressive than she imagined she might be. Maybe the Princess did really know what she wanted. Or maybe --

"What?" Vanesse asked huskily when Trina pulled away.

"How do I know that this isn't just you being thankful I'm still alive? Well, less dead than expected anyway."

Vanesse furrowed her eyebrows. "You don't believe me?"

Trina's chest heaved. "I want to. I just --"

The Princess covered the battle-dancer's mouth with a finger. "Do you want to see?"

"See what?"

"What I really think when I look at you?"

Trina opened her mouth to object, but then Vanesse started to conjure up memories. She saw . . . no, she felt what Vanesse had been feeling when she watched Jack and Trina together. She saw glimpse of herself through the Princess's eyes, working out, showering, or even just cracking a rare smile. There was fondness there. Maybe even the beginnings of love, but certainly more than just friendship.

Then the fantasies hit. The two of them in an enormous bed with red satin sheets, with Trina gripping Vanesse's hair and kissing her by firelight. Vanesse's body pressed against the wall of a truck-stop shower while her best friend ravished her with strong, lethal fingers. Trina dressed in --

Trina actually chuckled a bit, causing Vanesse to blush. "Where did you get THAT outfit from? That armor is completely impractical."

"It was in a magazine at a gas station. I think it was called 'Heavy Metal,' though I'm not sure what that meant."

"The fantasies all seem . . . new."

Vanesse nodded. "I always felt . . . things . . . for you. But it wasn't until we escaped and you and Farmer and Lillian made me realize that thinking about sex was okay . . . well, those feelings started to make sense. And I started to elaborate on them. A bit."

Trina was more surprised than she would have guessed possible. She had been pining for someone who she assumed she could not have and would never think of her "that way," but Vanesse's thoughts went far beyond simple curiosity.

"Did you ever, you know, think about me? Like that?" Vanesse asked.

"Every day for ten years. I remember exactly what day it started. You had gone swimming in that ridiculous heated pool that you had them build just to see if they could do it, and then you were laying on the warming rock. The only thing between you and the world was a towel, and it just barely covered you. You were smiling and talking about someday resurrecting Milton Snavely Hershey to personally thank him for his contributions to bettering the world."

"I still say that's worth trying."

"He'd be a zombie. I seriously doubt he would even be able to grasp the concept of chocolate at that point. But you were just so happy and so beautiful and so damn sexy," Trina said, her voice hushed but heated.

Vanesse smiled, and her brain activated that memory. She was now lying on that very rock, with nothing but a towel between her and Trina's prying eyes. She lay her face on warm stone and watched what Trina did next. And she felt the heart in her other-world body thump a little louder when Trina's clothes began to dissolve by act of will, breaking apart and drifting away like golden flecks of dust on an imaginary breeze. Vanesse gazed upon the athletic, lean body that she had often looked at but had never truly seen. Never truly appreciated. And it was good.

Trina, on the other hand, had seen and imagined Vanesse's gorgeous curves in any number of compromising positions, but she still wanted to see more. She lay down on her side next to her friend, never breaking eye contact. She slowly peeled the towel down until it slid to the ground and left Trina's hand stroking the soft skin of the Princess's royal derriere.

Vanesse felt like she was on fire. Her body was aching with desires she had no name for, and Trina had barely touched her. "Kiss me," she whispered.

Trina smiled so widely she thought her face might break. "Say that again."

The Princess grinned shyly, but she rose to the challenge. "Kiss me."

The battle-dancer's lips touched those of the girl who would be Queen someday. Vanesse's mouth was untrained yet eager, and Trina had so much she wanted to do with it. Lips caressed one another, tongues danced, and breathing became harder.

"Again," Vanesse whispered after taking a moment to catch her breath. "Again" was becoming one of her favorite words.

Trina was more than happy to oblige, but this time she added a little something extra. As her mouth touched Vanesse's, her hand slid down past the buttocks, between the girl's legs, and she touched the wetness that lay between. And the gasp that Vanesse released into Trina's mouth was the sweetest air the battle-dancer had ever breathed.

She moved so that more of her weight was draped over the Princess's body, and pressed her a finger into her friend's sex, withdrawing it just as she pushed another one in. She started to alternate in a scissor-like motion, and also rained kisses down on the side and back of Vanesse's neck.

Vanesse's head was spinning like a carousel, unable to regain her equilibrium but having little desire to. She liked this. It was so strange to be having this moment completely within her dream, yet being with someone who might very well drive her out of her mind. She groaned as her pussy was teased mercilessly, she sighed when Trina pushed her hair away and kissed the nape of her neck, and she gasped some more when the battle-dancers hard nipples pressed into Vanesse's side.

There were so many things that Trina wanted to do with her friend, but there was one thing she wanted more than the rest, and that was to be staring straight into those beautiful, rose-colored eyes when she climaxed by Trina's hand. So she started kissing her way back around Vanesse's neck and along her jaw, until finally the Princess had to turn her head a little so that their lips could meet again. That was when the battle-dancer "made her move," so to speak, sinking her thumb into Vanesse's depths and rubbing the girl's clit with her fingertips.

"Ah ah ah," Vanesse said in a series of short breaths and sparks began to decorate her vision. When it came to sex, Trina was so different here than the werehyenas had been. Farmer and her brood were barbarians, forceful and powerful and delightful in their own way. But Trina was more like a fencer, with every movement elegant and purposeful and straight to the point. And she tortured Vanesse ever so wonderfully until --

"Trina, I . . ."

"Look at me, your Highness," the battle-dancer said. "Please."

It was not a difficult request to meet, at least in theory. Trina looked so excited to be doing what she was doing. But keeping her eyes open once the orgasm hit . . . Well, that was when things got more difficult. She was pretty sure that her eyes had rolled all the way back in her head, but damn it they stayed open!

"Oh my," the Princess said at last. "You just . . . I mean I just . . . damn!"

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Not yet." Vanesse took the lead this time, kissing Trina until she lost her breath. "Wait," she said, scrunching her eyebrows. "This is in my head. Why do I keep having breathing problems?"

Trina laughed. "Probably because you think you're supposed to. It's why we look like ourselves and talk like ourselves. We're just as much 'ourselves' here as we are out there. Well, as much as you are out there anyway."