Kelpie Territory
ASH
As the horns blared signalling our departure out of the back gates, I took one last look at Fury Rekyr and Castle Fury, willing the swell of my cock to go down and the image of Daphne and the scandalous slits of her skirt far from my mind.
I’d not be able to ride the way I wanted to if the beast between my legs was made to carry me as well as ride. It goes without saying that when I speak beast I do not mean the horse that races beneath me. No. I mean… my beast.
However, that was hours ago, and now? My dick is still as hard as the Trail of Fallen Rock and I’m cursing myself for not insisting on that last dip into heaven before I left.
I would have bathed her and it would have been so lovely.
“Damn me,” I curse myself as my party and I finally traipse out of Rekyr lands and step beyond the Screaming Cliffs and toward the Legion of a Thousand Waterfalls, which is the only way around the Woodland Realm on this side of the river. Adding an entire three days ride to our travels is not ideal, but it must be done simply on the strength of keeping the Meadow King in the dark and away from my beautiful girl.
With him believing she’s his kin and being none the wiser, she is safe at the moment. Should he ever get an actual look at her though, I fear he will see the same similarities that I do. The freckling of her father and the tilt of him in her eyes.
Discovering that he, himself, is not her sire will likely lend him toward perilous ideals. Granting him thoughts of having her for his own. Or maybe even of punishing her for her mother’s infidelity.
Klyesque was right when she mentioned Daphne’s familiarities. The freckles and dark lashes are only among the most obvious, there are more that I have yet begun to pinpoint. Like her ability to see me in phantom form. None should be able to do that except for Shadow royalty. Add that little tidbit to the gift of the Shadow Steed years back and you have your answer.
The Shadow King meant them for her. For Daphne.
Somehow, he must have known that Clayeira would be birthing his child and not her husband’s.
He must have been sure about it when not all others were.
And… should Sylvie of Vael, Queen of Shadows, ever figure out that not only did her husband and the Meadow King’s wife sire a child, but that the child is still alive… we will need the Army of the Dead to stop her from coming after my little peasant. For the dead are the only things that Shadow Fae fear.
It will be dangerous for the lesser Fae that ride with me this day, because we are heading directly into Kelpie territory, where Cavern Sprites, and Hobgoblins roam free of allegiance. Only those with high magic will be truly untouchable, as Hobgoblins are not at all like their tamer cousins, Goblins. They are lethal and cunning and refuse to follow the order of any king or queen. Much like Kelpies, they refute any one ruler. They are independent and dare I say untamed. Feral.
It will not do to fight them with an ache in my balls and the horse that I ride will likely be a lot faster without having to carry the weight of my backbreaking dick.
I mean to say - I literally may have to make camp only to tear down the tent of my trousers on my bloody own.
Dionie laughs on my left, breathless alongside me as we ride. “Good to see that I am not the only one with... issues,” he chortles, eyeing my lap with his glamoured reptile sight.
My head snaps in his direction even as we pick up speed and I chuckle when a short perusal of him grants me the realization of his twin precarious state. “So you found yourself a wench after all,” I comment, impressed. “I hope I dragged you away from her.”
Dionie glares at nothing, keeping his eyes on the woods to the far left as we still follow the river. “Not a wench.”
“A lad?” I tease, knowing fully well that he means Petra, but playing as dumb as my attention allows. “I beg your pardon then.”
“Really?” Finn’s coarse garble finds us from the rear of our small convoy. “I had no idea you were into-”
“I am NOT into-” Dionie snarls over his shoulder “-I am speaking of Petra and our prince knows this.”
“Petra… ahhh, yes,” I pretend to finally get it, smiling crudely at the churn of the water on my right. “Good to know you’ve finally gotten over being scared of her.”
Dionie laughs, loud and proud. “You mistake me, Ash. For I am even more frightened of her now, then I have ever been.”
“Oh? And why is that?” I ask, slowing my steed as something swirling on the right of us and across the river garners my attention.
Finn giggles crassly, “Does she have teeth between her legs like a sprite might?”
Dionie ignores him, turning to me even as we gallop closer to the Marrow Woods. A copse of trees that stand like vaulted statues, appearing like blood red guardians, branched with bonelike features that bend over the road past the cliffs. “Because, like your own woman, she holds my heart and as much as I wanted to beg you to lock her away with your love, with our lady, I did not. But there is a reason I didn't.”
My jaw tightens and my eyes flash in his direction, studying him. Our lady? Really? She is a queen, but I’ll not be saying so in present company.
“Our lady?” Finn snorts behind us. “Speak for yourself, ogre. Our prince does not truly care for her. Her?! A human? She is no lady of mine.”
Finn’s disrespect rankles, but I do not admonish him for it. I will eventually, but not yet. It is much too soon to reveal my sweet little peasant for all that she is and is not. Especially while the Woodland Realm is still so near.
Perhaps I should have locked him in the dungeon, because I don’t know how many more comments like that one I will be willing to allow graze me.
“And what, pray tell, is your reason?” I feign care, rolling my eyes up into my head as once again I am slapped in the face with Dionie’s devotion to my sweet, voluptuous female.
Dionie goes on as if Finn never spoke at all. “Simply to empower her. To keep her feeling strong. I understand why you did what you did, Ash, I do,” Dionie admits, somewhat aggrievedly, “but are you not afraid that it might drive her away from you. Are you not afraid that she might…” he pauses, frowning at the sparkling red moss and thorn brush that serve as foliage for the falls and caves we are fast approaching, “... wander upon her own course?”
What in the Goddess damned devil?
“Ho!” I sound out, causing the plain gray steed I am seated upon to slow himself to a halt and the entirety of our ten man company to yield to a complete skidded stop.
I glare at him, my friend, my soldier. Watching with clear suspicion when he does not meet my eyes. My blood is beginning to boil and pump between my ears with the loudness of a thousand drums and right then I swear to myself, if Dionie lies to me, I’ll spear him with his very own sword.
“You know something,” I growl out. “What do you know?”
He grimaces and I believe he is just about to speak, just about to tell me something, but the sudden whistle of a trajectory leaving its notch stops him cold and he barely manages to duck in time for a homemade arrow to impale itself within a particularly thick Marrow tree directly behind his head.
Power sparks all around me, my magic surging to the surface as I realize the fun has just begun and I announce, “We are under attack!”