Chapter 13

Kal was a panicky wreck by the time Gerda brought them back up onto the trail not far from Ikuno’s pool. He had failed to realize that, even though Gerda ‘flew’ through the stone at a good pace, the trip back to Ikuno’s cave would still take nearly a full hour. With no means of communicating with Gerda, he had no choice but to deal with his phobia and wait until they resurfaced.

Once he had gotten his wits about him and recovered from the journey, he explained to Ikuno and Gerda what the issue was. Ikuno’s solution was predictable, stripping him down and pushing him into Gerda’s arms for a naked make-out session as they sunk down into the stone below. After some time being distracted from his surroundings by dueling tongues and heavy petting with the golem girl, he reemerged slightly more comfortable with the situation. However, Kal still wasn’t sold on the prospect of spending hours at a time moving through miles of solid stone. When Gerda agreed to surface every so often, so he could get an occasional breath of fresh air, he was at least no longer terrified of the idea.

Kal was planning on heading straight home as soon as they got back to the cave. Unfortunately, his insistence on leaving disrupted Ikuno’s plans. She had hoped that he would be staying for a little bit but couldn’t fault him for wanting to rush home with his mother’s deteriorating health. Despite wanting to wait for the more familiar surroundings of her cavern, Ikuno took a few moments to describe in detail what had happened up to the point Gerda had disappeared with him. At times the expression on the oni’s face had been more telling, and terrifying, than her portrayal of the events. By the time she finished her account Kal was visibly shaken. Once he had collected himself they made their way down the trail.

Kal dug around in his pack for the partially drained crystal as they walked from the pool to Ikuno’s cave. The oni had left it in there once she no longer needed it since she wasn’t able to charge it at the time. When they reached the end of the trail Gerda didn’t want to step off of the mountain onto the dirt and grass so she and Ikuno had stopped there to talk. Briefly interrupting, Kal asked Ikuno if she would refill the crystal. It shone brightly as it recharged with a touch to her horns, once she handed it back to him he was ready to go.

Stamina and Haste runes glowed and spun up respectively on his vambrace as he pointed himself towards home. Gerda’s eyes widened in surprise as Kal bent his knees slightly before leaning forward then speeding off to the west.

Ikuno threw an arm over the golem’s shoulders, getting one of the slowest startled responses the oni had seen in her life, directing Gerda off the trail and into her cave saying, “So, tell me about these sisters of yours.”

Kal made short work of what was normally a two-hour trek back to his farm. As he approached he let himself slow down by cutting power to the runes. A small racket from inside the barn told him Perra was likely working in there as he jogged the rest of the way to the house.

Opening the front door, he found his mother already standing in front of her chair, having recognized the sound of his boots walking up the front steps. Without speaking he stepped over and wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m okay mother, see?” he said as she sobbed quietly into his chest, she responded by giving him a small squeeze. After a few moments, they separated and Kal helped her back into her chair before taking a seat nearby.

“Perra said you were stolen away by a rock golem and that Ikuno was going to rescue you, I’m guessing she succeeded?” his mother asked.

“Mostly, though the golem and I had come to an agreement before Ikuno arrived. She did bring along a translation spell that made communicating with Gerda much easier.”

“Gerda? You are on a first name basis with this girl already?” she noted Kal’s slight blush and continued on, “I see, you are more than acquaintances, aren’t you. How does Ikuno feel about all of this?” she asked.

Kal thought for a moment about the choices he made outside Gerda’s cavern. With a sigh, he decided that he could also do away with keeping secrets from his mother about his life outside the farm.

“Yes, that was part of the deal,” he said in a level tone. “She would let me go if I promised to come back and see her every so often. Ikuno is from a land far to the east, in her culture, a man having many women is seen as a sign of power and virility, she actually encourages it.”

“What about Perra? She’s coming of age soon and it’s obvious that she has her sights set on you.”

“Perra was there when Ikuno told me about how it would be wise for me to build relationships with many monster girls, as it would help me in the long run as a mage.”

“Curious, how so?”

“She gave the example of: I could sail out onto the sea, slay a giant squid, then collect its ink or trade some intimate time with a squid girl for ink of roughly the same quality or better.”

Kal could tell that his mother didn’t fully approve of her son having relationships with multiple women. She sighed and picked up her knitting, “How do you plan on dealing with it if you have children with them?” His mother looked up at his face when he was silent, then brought her knitting needles down to her lap, “Kal ... No...”

“Sorry, mother, but the answer is yes, Aradelle and I have a daughter together. If you can’t deal with your first granddaughter being an alarune I understand. However, if you are okay with it then I’d like to take you to her little grove in a few weeks when she starts to sprout.”

Kal’s mother stared at him, blinking repeatedly as she processed everything he just said.

“Sprout? Are you joking?” she asked cautiously.

Kal shook his head, “Not at all, you can ask Perra when she comes in since she was there for the birth. Admittedly, it was a little strange to see my first-born child as a large seed instead of a baby.”

“Little?” his mother asked.

“Perhaps that’s understating things a, but Ikuno has been adamant that I need to be able to adapt to new information and situations quickly once I strike out on my own. Downplaying things seems to help me do just that.”

“Really? What other things have you been ‘downplaying’,” she asked.

Kal sighed, all or nothing he figured, and he was already in this far. The Haste rune on his vambrace lit up and started spinning but he never activated it, “This rune here, is mine. Not ‘I drew it’ or ‘I found it in a book’. To my knowledge, this exact rune doesn’t exist anywhere else. Ikuno says that she has never seen anything like it.” His mother was staring in wonder at the spinning rune. He had shown it to her before, but it seemed so much more amazing now that she knew her son had constructed this particular piece of magic.

He let her absorb that for a moment before letting the rune fade and speaking again, “The other thing I’m keeping from you...”

Her eyes left the fading rune and met his, “You said ‘other’ not ‘last’,” it was a statement, not a question.

Kal nodded, “I won’t betray Ikuno’s trust, mother, I’m sure she has her reasons for only wanting you to know her name and nothing else. The other thing I’m keeping from you is that Ikuno and Gerda belong to me.”

His mother’s eyes narrowed, “How do you mean?”

“Exactly as I said, as far as they are concerned they belong to me. I’m still learning how this whole thing works, and to be honest, Gerda was a complete surprise. Between us there is some kind of magical bond that allows me to tell them what to do, to a certain extent.”

Kal’s mother didn’t seem happy with his explanation, her eyes narrowing further, “Sounds awfully close to slavery.”

Kal shook his head, “It’s nothing of the sort, since I claimed Ikuno she has gone against my wishes many times. When I asked her about it she told me that if she has a good enough reason she could ignore what I told her. This was to keep people from using the bond to force someone to rob a noble or make them strip naked in the middle of town. In retrospect, she did have a good reason each time, I just couldn’t see it at that particular moment. The bond really just makes them look out for my best interests and nudges them towards doing what I want without forcing them. So no, it’s nothing like slavery.”

“Meaning, that you can’t tell Ikuno to come here so I could finally meet her.”

Kal shook his head, “I could order her to do it, but I’m absolutely certain that her reasons are solid enough that she could just tell me ‘no’.”

“Hmph,” said his mother and picked up her knitting again, but only for a moment before giving Kal a suspicious look. “Why are you telling me all this now?”

Kal took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “I nearly died up on the mountain the day I went missing.” His mother gasped. “Ikuno told me the story about what happened after I got knocked out. I’d been ripped to shreds by an exploding rock, had my chest caved in, legs broken, back broken, and head severely messed up. Ikuno managed to heal me but nearly lost her fingers in the process when a lightning bolt struck her healing spell. The way she understands it, the lightning over-charged the healing spells getting me out of danger and partially healing her fingers. She finished them up with this,” the healing rune lit up dimly.

Kal stared down at the rune, “I think that was the closest I’ve ever come to death. Even when Emrick was rearranging my face I wasn’t worried that he wanted me dead. It scared the hell out of me listening to Ikuno and hearing the fear in her voice as she described how badly I was hurt. It got me thinking, ‘what if I hadn’t made it?’ If that were the case, someone else would have had to tell you all of this, I didn’t want that.”

His mother nodded, “Thank you Kal, though I can’t tell you how much the thought of losing you terrifies me, I appreciate that you were up front with everything going on in your life. Well ... almost everything,” she said smiling before going back to her knitting.

The sound of a crash from the direction of the barn, followed by some very unladylike cursing, came through the wall of the house, drawing the attention of mother and son. Kal stood as the complaining got closer, then went over to stand behind the front door as the Perra came around to the front of the house. There was a thump on the front step and Kal could almost see her looking down at his footprint for a moment before figuring out what it meant. Her next few steps across the porch sounded like she was running.

Perra threw the door open to see Kal standing there with his arms open, “Kal!” she yelled and threw her arms around his neck pulling his mouth to hers. Kal stiffened with shock for a moment before putting his arms around her. She had never kissed him on the mouth before.

Perra broke the kiss, “Mygoodnesswhendidyougetbacki’vebeensoworried. Mmph!” she said in a rush before kissing him again. Kal was surprised again as her tongue speared into his mouth but he recovered quicker this time and returned the kiss.

Suddenly, Perra froze. Wondering what was wrong Kal opened his eyes to see her staring at him, her face slowly going more and more crimson as she realized what she was doing. With laughter in his eyes, Kal gently started swirling the tip of his tongue around hers, then flicked it back and forth and up and down before swirling around it again. Perra finally broke out of her frozen state and gave a little shriek into his mouth before letting him go and bolting out the door. Kal hoped her cherry red face wasn’t all from embarrassment.

He turned around and saw his mother was attempting to give him a very cross look, but he could see the smile in her eyes. Kal gave her a sheepish grin in return and shrugged before stepping out the door. Pausing out on the porch, he began to set up a plan of things that needed to be done today, he still had a meeting to keep with Aradelle and was expecting to be gone tomorrow and the day after. Stamina and strength runes came to life as he stepped off the porch. Pushing a little bit of power into the speed rune as well he figured he could make quick work of his chores.

Kal was momentarily curious where Perra had disappeared off to, hoping she was having more fun than he was, wherever she happened to be. His little trick had left his trousers a bit on the drafty side. He really couldn’t wait till that girl’s birthday.

Since he had worked so hard to get everything done the day before, there wasn’t much left for Perra to take care of, so he saddled up Bonn and had the girl climb up behind him. They made their way towards Ikuno’s home with only one stop a little way off the normal path, so Kal could show Perra the small mound that Eludora lie beneath. After a couple of pats on the mound and encouraging words from each they hopped back on Bonn’s back and continued on their way to Ikuno’s.

During the journey, Kal filled the girl in on what had happened while he had been gone as well as letting Perra know that, except for Ikuno’s description, he was no longer keeping secrets from his mother. The only thing he left out was that Gerda was bonded to him, he wasn’t quite sure how to explain things when the situation seemed to contradict what Ikuno had told them about developing such a bond.

Perra had been looking forward to meeting Gerda ever since she heard about the golem and was disappointed to find she wasn’t waiting for them with Ikuno. The oni was standing just outside the cave entrance leaning against the stone wall with a travel pack on the ground beside her. Kal pulled Bonn up in front of Ikuno then him and Perra dismounted.

“Hello beautiful,” said Kal, “Are we taking the normal way today?” He couldn’t hide the hope in his voice.

Ikuno grinned, “Nope,” as she stepped away from the wall, “Your newest woman has a few surprises yet, she appears to be a bit of a geomancer too.” The oni waved her hand at a circular rune that had been carved into the rock right behind where she had been standing. Kal stepped forward to inspect it...

“Your newest woman?!” said Perra nearly yelling, “Does that mean what I think it means?”

Kal turned around to see Perra nearly bristling, “Yes it does Perra, for some reason she bonded with me. I didn’t want to tell you until I had a good idea how it happened since I doubted you would believe me.”

“My explanation is as good as any, right now,” said Ikuno.

Kal winced, “True.”

Perra was getting impatient, “Out with it! What’s this explanation as to how something that is supposed to take ages managed to happen overnight and with the girl who kidnapped you?”

Kal winced again under the young girl’s gaze, “Ikuno thinks it’s because I was her first.”

He turned his head to the side and waited for the explosion. A few moments passed with no answer from Perra.

“That makes sense, some of us girls put a lot of emotion and trust into the person we choose to be our first,” she finally said.

Kal looked over in surprise to see Perra standing there staring at him with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Not the reaction you were expecting, Kal?”

“Not even remotely.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. So where is Gerda?” she asked Ikuno.

The oni indicated the carving once again, “Kal, would you do the honors?”

Kal studied the rune for a moment. He recognized the glyph in the middle as Sonor for sound, at the same time he didn’t. It was roughly the same shape but not quite what he was familiar with. He ran his hand over the sigil. It wasn’t until he thought about the likely purpose of the entire rune that it occurred to him.

“This is for sound traveling through the earth, isn’t it? Wait, not the earth, a solid, it’s for making a sound in solids. The one I’ve seen is for making sounds in the air. I’d bet that if I looked hard enough I’d find one of these for water too!” Kal was almost jumping up and down with excitement by the time he finished speaking.

“Settle down my young runesmith, what else do you see,” Ikuno asked.

“Direction is straight back, movement and time are tied together so the sound travels straight back for awhile, then ... this appears to be an activation sigil?” He looked over at Ikuno, “I don’t think we’ve run across any delayed activation runes in the book yet.”

“You won’t, I looked through the rest of the book last night. Either the author didn’t know about them or it was beyond his understanding when he put pen to paper. At a guess I would say the latter as I can’t imagine he would have never heard of it, delayed activation would be extremely handy for making traps and such. Even I have a spell that uses one, though it is somewhat advanced.”

“What spell is that?” Kal asked.

Ikuno summoned a magic circle in front of her hand but made certain not to activate it, “It’s a Fire Wall spell. You press it to the ground and columns of flame appear in rows out to each side, the delay gives you enough time to step away before it creates the wall.”

“That makes sense,” said Kal looking between Ikuno’s spell and the rune on the rock face.

“Glad it makes sense to you two,” said Perra from behind him, “when you get talking like that sometimes it feels like you are speaking a different language. Are you going to call Gerda now?”

“Give him a minute,” said Ikuno, “What else do you see Kal?”

“Let’s see... ‘source’ and ‘being’, so I guess that means the caster. ‘Voice’ ... no, ‘speak’ then ‘name’ and ‘word’ and finally, it has ‘merge’ in front of this waveform for the outermost circle. It seems odd though...” Kal dug into his pack for his inkwell and, using his telekinesis cantrip, drew out a couple of drops quickly forming them into a floating copy of the rune on the wall.

“If I move these to the center then replace the movement and time with an approximate distance instead, then finally the activation rune,” the floating ink moved according to his instructions. Unnoticed by Kal, Ikuno had moved over to stand next to Perra.

“There, that should work just as well. Hopefully a bit better,” said Kal as he laid the ink on the rock next to the original.

“Are you sure about that, Kal?” said Ikuno. “Some of these sigils you have never seen before, yet you are playing around with them thinking you can ‘improve’ them.”

Kal turned around to see her and Perra next to each other, a spot in the back of his mind thought it was odd that Ikuno had moved away but he quickly dismissed it. “I think I grasp what the rune is trying to do pretty well. I’m fairly confident this will work.” He turned back around and laid his hand over the rune he had made.

As the rune lit up beneath Kal’s hand Ikuno nudged Perra to get her attention then silently instructed the girl to take a few steps back and put her hands over her ears. Perra gave the oni a questioning look but did as Ikuno instructed. Kal leaned into the rune and said “Gerda.”

The sound was so loud that it blew Kal’s hair back as the stone answered, “GGGGEEEERRRR! ddddaaaa.” The word growing fainter as it raced off into the depths of the mountain.

“Owwwww,” said Kal holding his head and trying to stop the world from spinning. The noise had been so blaring and so intensely deep it made him dizzy, feeling like it had traveled straight to his bones and left them vibrating. About the time he got enough of his wits back to use his healing rune, Ikuno’s magic circle appeared next to his face and took care of his aching ears and head.

“Had a feeling that was going to happen,” said Ikuno when he could hear again.

“A little warning maybe?”

“Nope. You didn’t know these sigils and glyphs as well as the ones on your bracers, yet you thought you could do better without ever seeing how they worked. You were just begging for a lesson in humility. I will give you credit for figuring out how Gerda’s rune works without me showing you. Now do the exact same thing with hers.” Before doing as she asked Kal took out his inkwell and a piece of parchment, copying the rune for later study. After putting his writing supplies away, Kal placed his hand over the golem’s rune and charged it then spoke her name again.

As they waited for Gerda to appear Ikuno said, “She shouldn’t be long, she mostly just wanted to hear your voice as you summoned her. Gerda had me do the same last night and told me she would only respond to you and me.”

“What about Perra and Aradelle? We trust them,” he said looking over at Perra.

“I don’t think Perra is an option because she can’t be bonded to you the way we can, just not enough natural magic. With Aradelle even once you’ve claimed her there is still no solid stone around her for either Aradelle to summon her or Gerda to travel through. She can pass through dirt but too slowly to escape any hunters. Don’t underestimate her paranoia about being hunted for her eye, she will not take chances.”

“She took a chance on kidnapping Kal,” argued Perra.

“That was more desperation and opportunity. She’s nearly as strong as me, can pass through solid stone, and cover her entire body in an armor of living rock. Make me an ogre instead of an oni and Kal a normal man instead of a novice mage and what danger would we have really posed to her?”

“Fair point,” Perra conceded; she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned towards the trail leading up to the shower and pool. “I think she’s here.”

It was slightly disconcerting to the observers to watch Gerda walk out of the stone trail, like it was actually some trick of the light that this woman was appearing out of solid rock. Kal was pleased to see that she had opted for her more human looking form where the rocky parts of her body were flesh colored and barely thicker than her regular skin. Perra snorted and rolled her eyes as the trail revealed that Gerda had decided to go without her stone bikini, while in Kal’s mind her breasts had a rather pleasing bounce and sway as she walked. As the trail dipped below her thighs they could see that the bottom part of the bikini was missing as well.

Kal also took note of a slightly forced sway to her hips, like she wasn’t used to walking in such a manner. The motion looked familiar to him, only better suited for a larger body with long legs. He threw a questioning glance at Ikuno who did a poor job of feigning innocence. As the rocky trail dropped below Gerda’s knees she stepped out of the rock and onto it, walking the rest of the way down. During her short walk across the grass, she never got outside arm’s reach of the stone wall beside her.

Stopping in front of Kal she turned at an angle to him, thrusting her chest out and her hips back she reached up, putting her hands behind her neck then lifting them upward along with her hair and letting it fall back in a continuous sheet as she stretched. Kal knew for a fact he had seen Ikuno do the exact same pose, but it seemed to do a lot more for Gerda’s more cushioned body style opposed to the oni’s more muscular frame. Looking at him through eyes hooded with desire, she licked her lips and said, “Hello ... Master.”

Kal was horribly torn, he knew that she had gone to all this trouble for him and had put on an amazing little display, were it not for Perra’s presence and his meeting with Aradelle later he would likely be balls deep in the woman already. On the other hand, everything she had done was straight out of Ikuno’s repertoire and in contrast, it was plain to see that she was a rank amateur compared to the sultry blue woman. Perra unwittingly came to his rescue.

“What on earth was that noise that came out of her mouth?” asked the young girl.

Kal and Ikuno groaned and the golem girl visibly deflated as the mood broke.

“Perra!” Ikuno scolded the girl as Kal moved forward to give Gerda a hug, “she worked really hard on that last night!”

“Okay! I get that, and I’m sorry! To be honest it was ... pretty sexy. I just wasn’t expecting it to sound like Bonn walking across gravel when she talked,” she said waving a hand towards the edge of the clearing where the horse was grazing after Kal had startled him earlier.

Ikuno looked over at Kal, “I have one pearl left Kal. Do you think we should give it to Perra or wait and save it for Aradelle?”

“Perra,” said Kal holding a very contented looking golem in his arms, “unless something major changes, it’s going to be a long time before Gerda and Aradelle meet.”

Ikuno grabbed Perra’s hand and started pulling her towards the cave, “It’s going to take ten...”

“Twenty,” said Kal.

“ ... maybe twenty minutes to get all the components together and get the pearl ready for the translation spell.”

“Oh come on!” complained Perra, “it’s not like I don’t know what they’ll be doing out here.”

Ikuno rounded on the human girl, “Do you want to stay out here and watch, Perra? Do you want to watch as Kal’s hard cock slides in and out of a pussy that was virginal just yesterday?” Ikuno’s face was getting closer to Perra’s and her voice breathier with arousal. “Because I do, hell, I’ll even join in if they want, if not I’ll just find a spot nearby where I can watch as they get it on, sometimes it’s fun to just watch. Is that what you want Perra?”

Perra’s face had gone red but not from embarrassment or anger, she unconsciously was rubbing her thighs together and biting her lip as she cast quick glances over at Kal and Gerda, “Well, um...”

Ikuno grabbed her by the hand and dragged the girl into the cave, “Too bad, you’ll have to wait until your birthday,” she said laughing.

“Damn you Ikuno!” yelled Perra as she stumbled along trying to keep up with the larger woman’s strides.

Kal and Gerda both chuckled quietly at Perra’s ranting. He was going to have to do something special for the oni as thanks.

Kal lifted Gerda’s chin so she was looking at him, “Your little show was very nice, but I have something special planned with Aradelle today.”

“I know,” the golem said in her slow, halting manner, “Ikuno’s plan to keep you excited for Are-dell,” seemed like the translation spell was having a hard time with Aradelle’s name.

“Sounds like something Ikuno would do. What about you, how are you doing today?”

“Not sore anymore, want you, but don’t need you right now.”

Kal smiled, “I can work with that.” He turned and gently pushed Gerda up against the stone wall next to them. Kal started by kissing her soundly, his tongue exploring her mouth as she tentatively did the same. Leaving her mouth, he ran his lips across her neck and left a trail of small hickeys as he nibbled at the sensitive skin. Moving down he spent a good amount of time teasing and gently biting at her pebble like nipples, making her back arch as she thrust her breasts into him. Gerda was breathing hard and making small rocking motions with her hips as he teased his way across her belly. He lifted one leg and held it up behind the knee off to the side, his strength rune glowing lightly so he wouldn’t tire, and put one hand behind her bottom and tilted her hips forward angling her pussy towards him.

Kal traced the very edges of her folds with the tip of his tongue, making the golem girl reach down and tangle her fingers in his hair while letting out a long moan of pleasure. Suddenly, Kal ran into a problem.

As Gerda moaned in her grinding rock voice the translation spell repeated an emotionless, “Oh,” three times in Kal’s ear. Kal didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed at the situation, considering where his tongue was he thought it would be prudent to do neither. Instead, he looked up and gave her an apologetic look before raising a finger to her lips. Gerda sighed in acceptance and disappointment, holding her mouth tightly closed as Kal went back to work.

Kal attacked her clit lightly swirling his tongue around it trying to get the mood back, once she was breathing hard and flushed again he returned to teasing her folds. Kal quickly realized this was a very awkward angle for him, it worked much better with the taller oni. He had Gerda turn around and lean against the rock face with her legs spread. Kneeling behind her he brought a hand up to lightly brush her clit as he continued to tease her lips and dip his tongue inside her sex.

Kal learned something very interesting when he decided to take advantage of this position’s access to her bottom. As he ran his tongue around her pucker she let out a high-pitched screech from behind her closed lips. He thought since she liked that then perhaps she would enjoy having his tongue a bit deeper, but when Kal pressed against her back door she jerked away making a definitively negative noise. Confused but accepting, Kal went back to teasing the area around her rear entrance.