text stringlengths 0 41.4k |
|---|
"How can we help?" Tav asked as Astarion shook his head no. |
"That thing just shocked you and now you are offering to help?" He whispered. |
"Uhhh, I’m not a thing. I’m a wizard," the voice overheard. "And if you have any knowledge of magic, you could try to focus its power on that side of the portal. Then you should be able to pull me through." |
Astarion shook his head again, but she waved him off. She turned back towards the portal, careful not to get her hands too close this time. She concentrated all her focus on the portal, willing it in her mind to stabilize and let the man through. "Alright, here goes nothing," she took the man’s hand. She pulled much to... |
"Oh I’m terribly sorry," the man apologized, untangling himself from her with a deep blush on his face. He helped her up and began brushing dirt off her body, when Astarion stepped in. |
"You’ll alright, aren’t you," He asked brushing some non-existent dirt from her arms. He felt a strange sense of jealousy as the man tried to attend to her. |
"I’m fine," she waved them both away. |
"If I had known my rescuer was so lovely, I would have conjured some flowers," Gale smiled at her. "I’m Gale of Waterdeep. Wizard extraordinaire." Astarion rolled his eyes. |
Before Tav could introduce herself to Gale, their tadpoles connected. It was a slightly less sensual experience this round, but she nonetheless saw the Weave through Gale’s eyes and the sensuality he manifested in it. Her skin tingled with the unbridled power she might achieve. He saw the creative hunger in her, fulfil... |
"Another infected?" Tav held her head. The connections were starting to take a toll, her head was still throbbing from this one. |
"What happened back there?" Gale asked. "I didn’t hurt you, did I?" |
"It’s the tadpoles. They find some way to connect with each other, but it feels like they have to burrow in your skull to do it." |
"Strange. I’d never seen anything described like that in the texts I’ve read. I saw into your mind. I apologize if it was any way intrusive." |
"I’ve experienced it with the others as well," she explained, glancing at both Astarion and Shadowheart. |
"Very interesting," Gale nodded. "It showed me something that might be considered secret, but I feel compelled to ask." Astarion perked up, listening closely. "Are you the writer of Sorcerous Sultries?" |
"What the Hells is that?" Astarion looked at Gale confused. He was hoping to hear some dirt on her. |
"Why it’s only the best modern collection of verses about the intimate lives of wizards and sorcerers. Quite humorous, if I do say so myself." |
"Thank you," Tav blushed. "I just wish it had sold more copies." |
"Wizards can be a humorless bunch," Gale reassured her. "If we survive this, I would love to discuss some tips. I only dabble in poetry at the moment, but I do enjoy it quite a bit." |
"Can we get back to the topic at hand," Astarion interrupted. "Our survival!" |
"Yes, sorry," Gale collected himself. "The tadpoles. Well, we have approximately seven days before total ceremorphosis, but we should expect changes within the next day or two. The process with be slow at first and then a rapid deterioration before we are finally reborn as mindflayers." |
"Seven days?" Astarion exclaimed. "That’s all the time we have?" |
"Give or take," Gale nodded. "I don’t believe anyone has ever set a dayglass to track it. Which is why it’s imperative we find a healer as soon as possible." |
"It will be dark before we know it," Shadowheart looked up at the position of the sun. "We need to find shelter for the night and more importantly, food. I know I haven’t eaten in days." |
"As I was falling, I recalled seeing a structure quite near to here. It would’ve been my destination if I hadn’t been plummeting to the ground and ended up stuck in the portal." |
"Let’s go then," Shadowheart encouraged them. |
"I was subsisting on this most of the day while I was stuck," Gale pulled a thin, hard length of dried sausage from his sleeve. "I’m happy to share while we journey on." |
"I’m hungry, but not enough to eat sleeve meat," Astarion refused. Even if he didn’t subsist only on blood and the occasional alcoholic beverage, there was no way he was touching that. |
"Thank you Gale," Tav accepted a small piece. Astarion gave her a disgusted look, but she ignored it. Shadowheart also refused and they began to walk east towards the area Gale had seen the building. |
"I never ended up catching your name," Gale strode beside Tav, prepared to pester her with more questions about poetry. "I doubt you go by your Sorcerous Sultries pseudonym, Jayne Irenicunts." Astarion stifled a laugh at the terrible pun, pretending to cough. |
"Feel free to call me Tav," she smiled as Astarion frowned. |
Daylight was fading quickly as the tadpoled adventurers searched for a place to rest before nightfall. As they walked in the direction Gale had seen the building, he politely requested a song from Tav. She obliged and began to sing a slow, melodious song in Elvish. To anyone unfamiliar with the language, including Gale... |
"Quite the timely choice of song. I can’t help but feel in a similar way," Astarion gave her a demure smile. |
"Oh how I wish I spoke the language," Gale enthused. "Yet the melody tells so much of the story itself. Hopefully our fates aren’t sealed like the warrior in the song." |
"Let us hope not," Shadowheart also suppressed a laugh at his expense. Gale continued on discussing rhyme schemes and various other aspects of verse which Tav humored politely. |
They eventually found the building Gale had seen, overgrown by the wilderness. It was an ancient chapel, whose patron god had long faded away with time. It had seen recent activity, however, as a resting spot for other travelers. They were able to salvage some imperfect but useful supplies from it and went about settli... |
"Why don’t we divide our forces before it gets much later?" Astarion suggested. "Lady Brandywine and I can gather water and wood for a fire, if you two can handle the food." |
"Not confident in your hunting skills, Astarion?" Shadowheart mocked. |
"My food comes to me, my dear," he grinned arrogantly. |
"And perhaps she’d prefer the company of someone who didn’t have a knife at her throat this morning." |
"You did what now?" Gale joined the conversation, having just returned from relieving himself outside. |
"It was a misunderstanding," Astarion conceded. "You don’t mind, do you?" He looked at Tav, who was enjoying their back and forth. |
"Wood and water will be fine," she slung a bucket over her elbow, handing him the other. Astarion followed her back outside, aiming a triumphant sneer at Shadowheart as they departed. |
"I figured you needed a moment away from your number one fan," he smirked as they began their search. |
"Hardly even close to number one," she laughed. "He hasn’t even offered me a wildly inappropriate, expensive gift yet. The sleeve meat was just inappropriate." |
"Oh is that common for you?" He raised an eyebrow. "Expensive gifts from suitors?" |
She took the dagger from her belt and handed it to him. It was a fine blade made by a very skilled craftsman. It had a glittering violet gem at the end of the hilt that perfectly matched her eyes. "Look through the pommel," she instructed. |
He did as she asked, holding the gem to his eye. A crude caricature of a naked dwarf had been etched into the base of the hilt. He held a smith’s hammer on his shoulder and an even larger one between his legs. "Disgusting," he laughed, handing it back to her. "You kept it?" |
"He was one of the best smiths in Sundabar. Of course I kept it, even if I still shudder at the poem he included about not being able to poke me so the next best thing was my enemies," she made a little face. "But Gale doesn’t seem so bad. Knowledgeable about the mindflayers at least. Less about poetry." |
"I’ve never met a wizard I trusted," he continued. "You should do the same." |
"Who says I trust him?" |
"You were practically slavering over him." |
"You sound a little jealous," she challenged him. |
"Jealous?" He guffawed. "Why? Because you let him call you Tav. Because you sang a song for him he couldn’t even understand?" His voice was slightly flustered and this amused her. |
"He may have asked for a song, but I wasn’t singing it for him." |
"No?" He demurred, repeating some of the lyrics to the song in Common, losing some of their elegance. "My time’s not long, but my loins are aflame. Gods grant me a lover to be dead under.’ That sounded like a personal request to me." |
Perhaps he was a little jealous of her attention to the wizard, but was also enjoying goading her. His past seductions had typically been easy targets. He could ease a little of his overwhelming guilt by blaming them for being weak and easily pliable. She was a little more clever, even if her eyes betrayed how much she... |
"That pretty head of yours is awfully thick sometimes," she muttered to herself, striding ahead of him and ending the conversation. He let her sulk walking in front of him for a while, only catching back up with her when she stopped abruptly above a hill that led down into a thick woodland. "Do you- hear that?" She smi... |
"What?" He listened closely but heard only the soft roar of the wind. |
"Thank the Gods," she dashed down the hill with acrobatic grace. |
"Where are you going?" He called down to her without an answer. She had already disappeared down into the thick woods. |
He climbed down carefully, his soft suede shoes unfit for such a trek. The roar got louder as he climbed down, discovering it was in fact rushing water. The trees ended abruptly astride the bank of a large stream. A wide waterfall poured over a cliff nearby. She was nearby, having already stripped off her doublet and t... |
"Going in, of course," she grinned. She kicked off her last stocking and stepped daintily into the water, letting out a little cry as the cold water hit her skin. He watched as she waded up the stream and disappeared into the waterfall with another loud cry that sounded almost ecstatic. |
He hesitated for a moment, wondering if the tadpole would extend its protection to running water, as it had done with sunlight. He slipped off his shoes, tentatively dipping his toe into the flowing water. It didn’t burn him like acid, it was just a bit cold. He began to unbutton him doublet, hanging it up on a nearby ... |
She had stripped completely now, the beauty of her body fully revealed. The sun shone through the falls, casting prisms of color across her pale skin. He watched as she bent over, soaking her underclothes and wringing the water out. She knew he was there, but let him watch her. She wanted him to make the first move. Sh... |
He went to her in one smooth movement, his own hunger for her unable to be contained any longer. He gripped her tightly by the backside, pulling her in for a kiss. She melted in his arms, surrendering to him completely. |
The water had chilled her lips, but she quickly welcomed him into the warmth of her mouth. She tasted like the sour berries she’d been snacking on as they walked. Her fingers dug into the band of his underclothes, sliding them down and allowing his cock to spring free. She pressed her hips against it, grinding against ... |
Her hands began to wander up his back and he feared she might discover the scars that covered his upper back. Those would lead to questions he didn’t want to answer yet. He picked her up as a distraction and turned to lean back against the rock wall, preventing any further explorations. She wrapped an arm around the ba... |
Neither was a stranger to the art of love-making, but it had become almost perfunctory to them when they laid with others. It was a routine to seek pleasure, temporary comfort, a means to an end. This felt different to both of them. It was raw and animalistic. Their bodies had been fully attuned to one another’s. Ther... |
As they returned to themselves, they each began to feel a pang of anxiety rip through the warm afterglow of their connection. They’d both betrayed the promise they’d made to themselves to keep distant and cautious. Getting close to someone was a risk. This was a first stab of love and it opened the wound of past pain t... |
"That was almost worth the kidnapping and impending threat of death," he finally spoke in a casual tone to hide the feelings he was shoving deep inside himself. She gave him an equally casual chuckle as she rebuilt her mask of hypersexual indifference. If she’d spoken any words at the moment, they would have been true ... |
"Can I call you Tav now?" He asked, releasing his grip on her thighs and setting her back down in the water. The cold water jolted her back to reality and she found her opportunity to deny him a peek at her heart. |
"Do that to me again and you can call me whatever you want," she purred at him, running a finger down his chest. It was just sex, he didn’t want to love her, no one ever had. It was the tenet she repeated to herself whenever her heart began to open to someone. |
"I’m sure I can accommodate. After a decent meal, of course," he grinned at her, though his thoughts mirrored hers. |
She just wanted to use him, so he could use that to his advantage. The others clearly favored her, so she could protect him when his condition was inevitably revealed. Perhaps she might even be persuaded to be his first taste. He took the hand that she’d run down his chest and kissed it gently. It was one of his favori... |
She noticed a strange coldness that still clung to his skin. Her own skin had warmed up quickly after their chilly drenching, so it felt odd that his hadn’t. She put it out of her mind for the moment and went to retrieve her underclothes, still damp but at least slightly cleaner. |
His own underpants had disappeared into the pool after she’d peeled them off him. Searching for them would provide him a good excuse to stay behind and find a fulfilling meal. "My dear, it seems in our haste, my underpants have gone missing," he announced as she retrieved her own and shook them out. |
"Oh no," she looked around the pool trying to spot them. |
"Why don’t you go on ahead with the firewood and I’ll look for them and can rejoin you with the water." |
"Are you sure? I can help you look." |
"I will manage," he gave her backside a little pat. "I wouldn’t want the others to think I’d stolen you away." |
"Alright then," she smiled and caressed his chin softly. "See you soon." |
She disappeared out of the side of the waterfall, avoiding most of the deluge. He saw no signs of his missing underpants anywhere in the pool and figured they must have drifted far enough to get caught downstream. He stood for moment, peeking out of the side of the waterfall to watch her. She redressed without her damp... |
He stalked the riverbank, both for his pants and an unfortunate creature out for a drink. He eventually found a beautiful doe grazing for foliage right near the stream. It only took a quick cantrip to stun the doe and then he filled himself with every drop of her blood. He felt renewed, deciding not to waste the corpse... |
Tav’s jaw dropped when Astarion returned to the chapel with a deer slung across his shoulders. She was certain he’d never spent a single day in the wilderness. He shone with confidence and virility. Astarion dropped the deer next to Shadowheart with a haughty smile. "Well this is unexpected," Shadowheart mirrored Tav’... |
"I will give you the honor of carving it then. I’m going to have a look around," he added. |
"I’ll help," Tav got up from her spot at the fire and took out her dagger. "Thank you Astarion." |
"Of course my dear, I want to make sure you are well fed." |
He disappeared down one of the hallways as they began to dress the deer. It would be a welcome addition to the ground birds Shadowheart and Gale had managed to kill. Tav had a distaste for blood, but found the corpse quite lacking, likely from the deep cut to its neck. The cut was smooth and precise, as if the animal h... |
There was something a little unsettling about him. Perhaps that was part of her attraction to him. She had a soft spot for the strange and unusual, her own charismatic personality a carefully crafted mask. |
She’d spent years refining it, only feeling safe to be herself when she was alone. |
Her mind continued to wander as she separated meat from bone. "Cold to the touch, utterly charming, unusual red eyes,’ she thought to herself. Vampire was the first word that entered her mind, but he had been out in the sun with them the entire day. The one thing she knew about vampires was that they despised the sun. ... |
She returned her mind to the task at hand, having nearly sliced her finger open with her dagger. They finished with the corpse and put some choice cuts onto the fire, placing the rest in a barrel of salt Gale had found. The meat would sustain them for quite a while. |
Astarion returned with some scavenged trinkets and a book, finding a comfortable spot by the fire. "Found something interesting to read?" Tav asked, adding another piece of wood to the fire. |
"Just a little story to keep my mind off you for a bit," he grinned devilishly. The fire made his eerie eyes even more apparent. |
"Perhaps I’ll have a look too," she smiled back, trying to hide the chill that had run down her spine. She looked through the other rooms in the chapel, returning with a stack of books in her arms. |
"Now that’s a woman after my own heart," Gale marveled until she began tearing pages out of the books. "Dear Gods, what are you doing?" |
"Not to worry, they are the blank pages," she reassured him. "I thought I might start a journal of our adventures, or perhaps my last words." |
"We’ve got time yet," Gale tried to sound reassuring, though the thought made him depressed. |
The meat was soon finished and they dined on it with boiled roots and a mash of berries. Astarion took a small serving, but Tav noticed that he did not touch it while he continued to read. She sat across from him, writing down a few verses, thoughts, and tiny sketches. She then started sketching him, catching his glanc... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.