Chapter 5

A van.

Greg just stood where he was. A god damned van stood before him, defying every expectation built up over the previous week. No. Wait. Not a van. A small bus. Yet it wasn’t a bus. He rubbed his forehead. It was too early to be thinking of semantics like this. While it had the lines of a modern (to him) van, aerodynamic in its shape, it was as long as a small bus. But shorter in height. The tent collapsed behind him, wooden poles removed. It, and its contents, would comfortably fit inside.

That answered the question of how she got all that stuff here.

The morning was chilly, but refreshing. Remnants of the previous day’s rain were still visible, but the mud would turn back to hard earth by noon. The ledge, now that he could see it clearly, ran about a hundred feet long. He saw no road leading from it, which now begged the question how the hell Aada and her van got there.

“OK,” he finally said, watching Tiana help load the vehicle, “is there some road here I’m just missing, or does this thing fly?” He saw the women glance at each other. Probably deciding if they should have some fun at his expense. The answer was apparently ‘no’.

“It’s built for off road. We can get to the top that way.” Aada pointed left. Greg could just barely make out tracks. He nodded.

“So. We have both magic, and engines. Or is this a magic van?”

“I find most electronics ‘magic’.” Tiana tossed a crate of books into the van. “Magic at least makes sense.”

“So, electronics makes sense as well.” Aada wasn’t looking at Tiana, missing the glare sent her way. Greg decided he didn’t want to have this argument. However, he might get more info out of Aada than tight lipped Tiana.

“So. How advanced are your people? Where I’m from, we’ve traveled to space, have probes out to many of the planets and people living in orbit, if only a half dozen or so. We can turn sunlight and wind into power. You guys?”

The two women stopped what they were doing, exchanging another look. Aada gave a sigh as she went over to one end of the rolled up tent on the ground. She waited for Tiana to take the other end.

“Before The Fall? Not sure. Some of the Empires were so secretive. You never knew what was real, what they just claimed to make themselves look good. Now?” She grunted, lifting her half of the tent. The two staggered towards the rear of the van. “Don’t know.”

“It’s part of what I want to find out.” Tiana practically threw her end into the vehicle. She moved to help Aada. “We have no magic users in our village, and not much tech. No electricity, although I know of it. Leafbrother had a couple windmills that didn’t seem to be driving machines of gears. They might have made the stuff.”

Greg again put a hand to his forehead. It was like some bad Final Fantasy game. He hated it when they mixed genres.

“The place we’re going. Tech or magic?”

“A Goddess wants to see you. What do you think?”

“At this point,” he sighed, “I’m expecting the goddess to be in a machine.”

There was no back seat.

He wasn’t surprised. A single woman would naturally not need one. The result, however, was the three of them sitting on a seatbelt free bench seat, squished together in a way he wasn’t really comfortable with. Greg sat in the middle, Aada behind the wheel to his left. At least they weren’t British. British talking monkeys would be silly.

“Hang on.” Aada flipped a switch, the vehicle coming to life. It was a whine more than a rumble. He guessed either an electric motor or its equivalent. Greg was no car guy, so any further analysis could wait until he cared. Or the thing broke down. She moved a lever or two, seemed to push a floor pedal, and off they went.

Greg found himself sliding into Tiana, no real hand holds in the middle of the seat. She grabbed him, right hand holding his thigh while the left was on his shoulder. Another short turn, and both slid towards Aada. His arms went to the front edge of the seat, stopping him as his bare leg just touched hers. Looking out the front windshield, he saw trees start to go past rather quickly. Aada seemed to be gripping the wheel rather casually given the quick turns needed to avoid danger. A bump and a turn, he went back the other way.

Beat walking.

“Do we have a destination?”

“Up on the hill- well, it’s not hill, more higher ground- is a small town. We can get supplied for what’s next.”

“What were you doing out here?”

Aada looked at him. He just looked back. Someone was going to tell him what the hell was going on, even if it killed him. Her gaze drifted forward again, just in time for her to steer clear of a few more trees.

“Solitude. I just needed to get away. Reflect. Recharge. That hillside called to me, and, well, I answered.”

“I think we know why it called,” Tiana said. Her left hand was now on his thigh, half keeping his body at bay and half trying to ‘accidentally’ touch his cock. Aada nodded.

“Yes.”

Greg didn’t notice when exactly they reached the top. The ground gradually leveled itself, trees limiting visibility. He just eventually realized they were driving horizontally.

They weren’t on a road. Nor, even, a path. If Aada had come from this direction, her tracks weren’t visible. As the hours passed, he realized she had really wanted solitude. No one hour trip into the woods for her.

And she had ended up in their path.

He didn’t really want to think about all that yet. Quests and such. Greg just wanted to go someplace and relax his legs. Get his bearings. Sit and figure all this out. Trying to do so now was just confusing his poor mind.

The lack of drugs was starting to affect him.

His eyes slid to Aada. Her right hand was now on his thigh, although he wasn’t sure she knew it, mirroring Tiana. A Druid. Magic user. Could she do something? Cast a spell? She seemed to be able to reach into his mind. But, did he want someone else in there? No. Not really. If they could help, though...

“Potty break.”

Aada brought the van to a stop in a field, pulling a few levers. Greg assumed one was the parking brake, the vehicle sliding back a foot before stopping. She gave him a quick smile, opening her door to get out. Tiana squeezed his thigh, her hand half on bare skin below his shorts. Her fingers extended to give the end of his dick a rub before retreating. He sighed. Wonderful.

He slipped out after Tiana, pausing a moment as his legs dangled a foot off the ground. With a focusing of his mind, he dropped down, hands holding both the door and the door frame. His legs shook as he stood there, head a little dizzy.

He hated changing positions like that.

“Here’s your cane.” Tiana was holding the black stick out to him. His eyes went to the necklace hanging down between her covered furry breasts. There were now three charms. He blinked. Still three. The cane, a sword, and now a pentagram. Had she bought one for each type of person she thought she’d gather in her quest? Did she KNOW she had done that?

Another question for another time.

“Thanks.” He took the cane, letting go of the van. He felt better. More in control. Greg looked around. “We’re still not there, I assume.”

She shook her head.

“Nope. It’s probably close enough to lunch time, though, for us to stop for awhile.”

He blinked. Had they been traveling that long? He looked up. There was the sun. Was it close to noon? He had no idea. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it before, so how high it could get was a mystery. He’d have to trust her.

Feeling his bladder complain, he set off to the edge of the field. Controlling such things had been difficult at times before, his body either deciding not to release on command, or that it needed no such permission from the likes of him. Greg could feel the urgency now. Maybe he could trick it into holding back for a minute. Otherwise, he sensed “close enough” would be good enough so far as his bladder went. He focused on a tree a little ways into the woods, while only partly considering his true destination, one right on the edge of the field. His eyes weren’t on the ground.

His right foot went into a depression.

It was more with frustration than pain that he went down, left hand pointlessly reaching out for support. He felt his right ankle twist as his left knee came down hard, followed by the right. An involuntary cry came out, hand releasing his cane as he tried to break his fall. He fell onto both hands, fingers extended.The ground, as he expected, was now dry, hard.

He hated falling.

“Greg!”

Tiana’s cry made him realize something else.

His bladder had decided this was close enough.

Greg let out a sigh as his shorts became soaked. He recalled the time this had happened in the hospital, his foolish decision to obey rules and call for a nurse to come watch him travel from the bed to the bathroom resulting in him not making it in time. At least it wasn’t running down his legs.

“Are you OK?” Tiana dropped to her knees beside him. He took a deep breath as her hand touched his face. Again he marveled at the feel and texture of her black skin. He let out a only slightly embarrassed sigh.

“I’m fine. My body took this opportunity to relieve itself and I turned my ankle, but otherwise I’m fine.”

Her expression became puzzled.

“What?”

“I pissed in my pants.”

Her head ducked down, a sound of understanding coming a moment later. She sat back up.

“Let’s sit you down.”

Carefully, she helped him remove his right foot from the hole. Using his left foot and both hands, he carefully turned over and sat. Tiana was immediately looking at his ankle, not touching it. Footsteps came to his ears.

“What’s the matter?” Aada came up, looking down. “Did he fall?”

“Stepped in a hole.” Tiana pointed. Aada nodded.

“Should have just given him a urinal. If I had one.” She knelt down. “Any container, actually, would have done. Let me see.” Her hands went to his ankle. Her palms were dark pink, like her nose. Softer than Tiana’s. A shot of pain went through him.