Chapter 21

Edited by: Old Fart

Kal carefully set his pack with its precious contents on Ikuno’s bed.

“It feels good to be home,” he said heading over to the small cubby so he could relieve himself after the trip back from Felli’s cave.

“I think that’s the first time you’ve ever called this ‘home’” said Ikuno as she dug through Kal’s pack and retrieved the pouch with his extra crystals in it. She went into the library and got her own pouch off the shelf, trading out the ones she and Kal had used to power their speed spells to get back quicker and grabbing an extra to replace the one Kal had given Felli and Rone so they could use their bathroom’s features.

Ikuno had been mildly annoyed that Kal had given away one of her crystals, but she quickly dismissed it since he and Gerda had brought back quite a few large crystals from the mana golem’s cave. With Gerda’s help, the oni figured that they would be able to produce some fairly large flawless crystals, an endeavor that she would likely never attempt on her own because of the danger.

Seeing Gerda quickly and confidently shape the one that went into Perra’s necklace had been a surprise, as was Kal shearing the tip off the mana golem’s spear. Up until then, Ikuno had been under the impression that only a fully charged crystal could be shaped with magic, one that wasn’t completely full would just absorb whatever spell you were using. Because of that, the process took a fully charged crystal and a fair amount of magic, make a mistake and the sudden release of all that energy would be the last mistake you needed to worry about. There were quite a few examples over the lands she had traveled of wizard towers or holds turning into small craters with cutting magic crystals being the most likely culprit.

When she had asked Gerda about it later, the golem had explained shearing the crystals along the lines created by their natural structure actually took very little force and as such very little magic, making the whole process far safer than what Ikuno had believed possible. As a magic-user, the oni couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy from the prospect of trading her small collection of near flawless gems for some of even higher quality.

When Kal came out of the small restroom doing up his belt she passed the pouch and crystal for his vambrace off to him, “My turn,” she said.

As Ikuno did her business, Kal restocked their rations from what she had on the shelves and traded out his heavier clothes for the trip to Felli’s nest with something lighter and more suited for the last leg of their journey. He also took a few minutes to check in with the girls. Aradelle sent back that she was laying on one of her petals watching a small herd of deer grazing in her clearing, her appreciation that she didn’t feel the need to take one for food came across very strongly. She blew him a kiss and let him know that she was looking forward to seeing him soon, hopefully with Perra.

Bea was relaxing in her nest with her chitin bodice unhooked and pulled off to the side running her hands over her flat stomach. Though Kal couldn’t tell from the images he got from her, she let him know that she could just barely feel where her baby bump was starting. She also sent a warning to him that she had become extremely thirsty for something besides water or nectar. Since communicating through the bond worked more on images and feelings Kal found himself dealing with Bea’s strong desire to taste his cum, leaving him making a strange face and trying to clean a flavor off his tongue that wasn’t actually there. If he were to taste himself he much preferred it mixed with one of the girl’s juices, as had occasionally happened in the past when he went down on them after filling them up earlier or a passionate kiss after he’d finished in their mouth. He was glad the women enjoyed it so much, but it didn’t do anything for him.

Ikuno chuckled as she stepped back out into the living area, “That’s our man, willing to make the big sacrifices for the sake of keeping his women happy.”

Kal didn’t realize the thought had been so strong he had broadcast it to the others. “You hardly have room to complain, you’ve been on the receiving end of that a few times,” he grumped.

She bent down and kissed him, “I wasn’t teasing you, dear. That was honest appreciation that you don’t get bent out of shape about such things and put our pleasures in front of your own discomfort.”

“Oops, sorry,” he said looking slightly embarrassed.

“Nothing to be sorry for, I can see how what I said could come across as teasing. Are we about ready to go?”

“Just a moment,” Kal reached out to Gerda but with as far away as she was all he could tell was that she was on her way back with Sandy. It seemed like such an odd name until Gerda clarified that those weren’t their real names but actually their rock types, which would change as they got older. Sandy was the youngest of Gerda’s sisters and the rocky parts of her body were made of sandstone, Bas’s body was composed of Basalt, and Marble was self-explanatory. Gerda had felt that it should be their decision whether to give their true names or not.

Just to wrap things up Kal decided to check on Perra if he could. He quickly withdrew upon finding that she was working out in the field, pissed off because he wasn’t there to help, sweating from the heat, cranky, cramping, and worst of all, horny. His and Ikuno’s fun in the shower seemed to have bled through to the young woman yesterday, combined with the vivid impression he had sent her at Rone’s farm she was almost obsessing about feeling Kal’s cock in her ass.

Kal didn’t quite back off quickly enough and a moment later he heard, “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!” almost as plainly as if Perra had been standing next to him along with the image of her about to take off the pendant and put it in one of the pockets on the front of her work dress. A moment later his connection with the girl went dead. Kal and Ikuno stared wide-eyed at each other until a couple of seconds later when he felt her presence again along with the equivalent of a mumbled, “Sorry. Stay out,” before the connection with Perra faded until Kal could barely tell it was there.

Ikuno chuckled at the poor girl’s predicament and picked her pack up, “Ready to go?” she said looking back at Kal who was staring intently at her. A second later her eyes widened as his presence in her mind seemed to fade. “Kal! Stop that!” she nearly yelled, her face starting to get panicked.

“Sorry!” he said looking sincerely apologetic as the bond returned to normal and the oni relaxed. “I didn’t know that would actually work!”

“What did you do?” she asked.

Kal searched for a good description for a few seconds before replying, “You heard Perra yell at me a minute ago,” Ikuno nodded, “now it’s like she’s whispering but way over there,” he said pointing towards the back of Ikuno’s library. “I wanted to see if I could do the same thing.”

Ikuno’s annoyance was plain, “Congratulations, you can do it. Now don’t ever do it again,” she said with finality. “When our bond faded like that it felt like you were dying even though you were standing right there.”

“I’m so sorry, Ikuno.”

The oni sighed, “Don’t be, I wasn’t aware you could do that either or I would have let you know. Promise me no more shocks like that please?” Kal nodded, still feeling bad for what he had done even if it was by accident. “Are we ready to go now?”

Kal did a quick final check and shouldered his pack, “Lead the way.”

As Ikuno came nearer to the eastern mountain pass and the road that ran through it, she let Kal down off her back so they could approach quietly. They didn’t want to go barreling across the road and run into, in the very literal sense, a merchant caravan. They were also being extra cautious because this was a prime area for bandit raids on those tired from the trek through the pass. Ikuno’s mood turned fouler the closer they got to the road.

“What’s wrong Ikuno,” Kal finally asked, seeing the scowl on her face as the road came into view through the trees.

“Bad memories, ones I thankfully have not had to repeat since I met you,” she said. “To be honest, Kal, I don’t want to tell you, but maybe talking to someone besides ‘Dell will help. Some of us monster girls are slaves to our nature. Felli and I spoke about it before we came to wake you up that morning. She chose that cave so that her ‘husbands’ wouldn’t be able to run away, at the same time she couldn’t blame them for trying to escape. She would wait until she was almost mad with lust before taking a new man and from her descriptions the experiences weren’t pleasant for them.”

Ikuno sighed, “Before you, I was hardly any different. The men I took to bed were little more than victims and I was no better than my green-skinned kin, nearly fucking them to death before letting them go. For that reason, I stopped taking men from the villages as soon as I found another source. The villages in the area were young still and they needed their men” They stopped just inside the last row of trees and carefully looked up and down the road before quickly crossing. Once hidden in the forest again she continued her story. “Instead, I started hunting bandits and this area was my favorite hunting grounds. I’d find a party, determine that they were actually bandits and not some band of adventurers who happened to camp in the wrong area, and pick which one I was going to take with me. After that, I’d wade in with my club and take them all out but the bandit I wanted. Out of worry that it might bring the Order down on my head, I never used magic to kill them. I’d take him and one of his friend’s corpses along with, stop by the pitcher plant girl and drop the corpse in telling the living one that if he didn’t please me that would be his fate as well.”

The trail opened up in front of them again as they got further from the road. Kal was thinking it was about time for him to climb up on Ikuno’s back but kept silent. Unlike many other stories she had told on their journeys, the oni wasn’t enjoying telling this one. In fairness, Kal wasn’t enjoying hearing it either but he understood it was something important she needed to tell him.

“Of course, I was lying to them. I’d take them back to my cave and take what I needed from them over the next few days, getting a decent performance for the first couple out of fear alone. Once they were too bruised and battered to get it up I’d drag them back to the pitcher plant girl for a final round of ecstasy before they died. It’s also how the pitcher plant developed a preference for ‘softened’ prey, which I’m sure Sir Michael didn’t appreciate.” A smile came to Ikuno’s lips at the memory, the first one since she started speaking.

“How many did you save?” asked Kal.

The oni was taken off guard by the question, “None of them, I killed every bandit I saw.”

“Not bandits. Merchants, adventurers, settlers, travelers, how many of them did you save trying to deal with your overwhelming lust over the century you’ve been here? Tens? Hundreds? Even thousands of people may have safely passed through this area just because you needed some dick.” He held up his hands to stall any attempts to interrupt him, “I won’t say that you weren’t a vicious bitch going about getting that dick. However, as upset as this has made you, I believe you didn’t take into account the unintentional good you have done.”

She stopped and stared down at him, “You realize I have been beating myself up ever since we got together over this dark period of my life.”

“I kind of assumed that from how you’ve been acting since we came to this area, so yes.”

“You realize that I’ve been worrying myself sick that you would judge me a horrible person for the things I did here.”

Kal nodded slowly, unsure where she was going with this.

“You realize that despite my personal anguish over this, your response was, ‘Wow! You were a vicious bitch back then!’ right after making me actually feel good about all of the horrible things I did.”

Kal gave her an uncertain smile, “Yes? ... Sorry? ... I really don’t know what to say here Ikuno. Did I do a good thing or a bad thing?”

The oni closed her eyes for a moment before answering, “You did a very good thing but in a way that makes me feel silly for spending months being worried about it.”

“So, I did a good thing, but I did it in a way that makes you feel bad. So, I did a bad thing too.”

“Yes ... No ... Wait... , “ said Ikuno, her face screwed up in confusion. Kal was having a hard time not laughing over how flustered she was. “Ah, fuck it! Nevermind!” she said throwing her hands in the air and striding down the trail. She only made it a few steps before realizing that Kal wasn’t following.

Looking back, she saw Kal standing in the same place. With an exaggerated sigh she knelt down, “Come on, it’s still a good way to Silma’s cave,”

Kal walked over and climbed up on Ikuno’s back, pointing forward he yelled, “Onward my good steed!” in a deep voice.

Ikuno turned her head to look at him, “You may want to wait until after you’ve been to one of the bigger cities before saying things like that.”

The joking smile on Kal’s face turned to confusion, “Why’s that?”

“A lot of humans think monster girls are strange. Wait till you get to a big city, you’ll find out that humans are far weirder. Haste rune please.”

Kal activated the rune and pushed the magic into Ikuno, “what does that have to do with calling you my steeeEEED!” he said gripping the oni tight as she took off running.

Ikuno yelled out over the wind whipping past them, “You’ll find out!”

“I must say I expected something more like your place when you mentioned her cave,” said Kal as he slipped off Ikuno’s back. He was looking over at a rock face that sloped away from them, on the surface was a fissure the shape of an eye turned on its side. It looked kind of like ... Kal shook his head to clear the thought, he was starting to believe he had sex on the brain a bit too much.

“How far is it to her cavern once we get inside?” he asked.

“As far as actual distance, I couldn’t tell you,” replied Ikuno, taking her pack from Kal and shouldering it. “The path runs mostly east as it descends and will likely take us the rest of the day to get there. There’s a fissure that extends all the way up to the surface that keeps good air circulating through the area where she makes her home. With luck, you won’t need that very much,” she said indicating the mask Kal was securing around his neck.

“I hope you are right, I prefer being able to talk to people,” he said as he finished with the mask and began pulling on his steel plated gloves. “Why not go to the fissure and try to find a path from there? It sounds like it would be a lot closer.”

“I considered that when planning this trip. First, I don’t know where the fissure breaks the surface or how big it is, I only know of it from what Silma told me, so we could end up wasting time finding it only to discover we can’t fit. Second, there are large razor-sharp pieces of obsidian all over the bottom so even if we found it on the surface, floating down would be extremely dangerous. Third, and probably most important, protecting ourselves from the heat of her cavern will put a big drain on our magic. As you know my immunity to hot and cold comes at a price,” she said tapping one of her golden horns. “Each time I’ve gone to see her I’ve been nearly empty by the time I got back to the surface. It’s likely that this will be a much longer visit than any of the others.”

“Good point,” said Kal, fighting down his nervousness. Ikuno had given him an idea of what to expect when they got to Silma’s home and now that they were about to enter the caves to take them there, anxiety was rearing its ugly head.

Ikuno could feel his fear through the bond and wanted to comfort him, but it had been Kal’s choice to do this. He had a very strong desire to get his first rune with ink powerful enough to actually go on his body and not the vambraces. Not all of the bandit victims she had told Kal about had gone to the pitcher plant, a few of them she had dragged down to Silma after meeting her, so the salamander could sate her needs as well. She knew what Kal was in for and couldn’t help being a bit scared for him herself.

To distract him she pulled a small vial out of a pouch on her pack. Pushing some magic into it, the potion inside began to glow a light red color. “Here, drink this,” she said, drawing his attention from his internal musings as she pushed it into his hand.

“What’s this?” he asked. Kal pulling out the stopper and took a small whiff before holding it away from himself and making a face showing just what he thought of the concoction.

“I told you to drink it, not smell it,” said Ikuno with an exasperated tone. “This will allow you to see in the dark as I do.”

“You want me to drink the whole thing? The last time you gave me a potion it was only a few drops.”

“That was to last you until you got back to your farm, this will give you night vision for the next two days.”

“I see,” he began unhooking his waterskin from his pack to wash the foul-smelling potion down with, but Ikuno stopped him. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said glaring at her.

“Sorry, Kal. No water for the next hour or it will dilute the potion and not last as long.”

Kal groaned then eyed up the vial before tipping his head back and dumping it into his mouth, swallowing quickly to try to keep it off his tongue. He wasn’t entirely successful. Once he had swallowed the last couple of drops he tilted his head forward again. With his eyes still closed as he dealt with the horrible taste, he stoppered the vial and handed it back to Ikuno. “That was awful,” he said when he could finally speak. Looking up at Ikuno he asked, “do I at least have neat looking red eyes like you now?”

“Kal, it’s full daylight out and my eyes are still green, the red is only visible in darkness.”

“I know, but I was hoping for something more immediate to make it worth the flavor.”

Ikuno just chuckled and started walking towards the entrance to the caves. Kal followed behind swishing spit around in mouth still trying to clean his palate.

Ikuno stopped once the cave ahead was no longer lit by light from the outside. Turning back, she looked at Kal. “There you go, glowing red eyes, just like you were hoping,” she said. A few seconds later the oni snorted with laughter. Kal was gazing intently at her, the floor, and the surrounding walls of the cave, almost as if expecting red beams of light to shoot out of his eyes.

He smiled at her when he was done staring at everything, “The way the runesmithing book explained it, I was thinking things were going to be all kind of strange colors. Near as I can tell you and I seem to be glowing a bit but everything else is the same.”

Ikuno nodded and started walking down the tunnel again, “What you were expecting is called infravision by the wizard who originally made the spell, it makes things a bunch of odd colors and things that give off heat are brighter than things that are colder. Not terribly useful in caves that are a uniform temperature. The potion I gave you is for something called darkvision, things that give off heat still seem brighter, but you can see a lot more detail and make out colors too.”

“Why use the other one then?” he asked.

“Infravision can let you see through things to an extent. If you were hunting and there was a bush in front of you, infravision would allow you to see the rabbit hiding on the other side. With darkvision you wouldn’t see the rabbit until it came out from behind its cover. Also, imagine for a moment there’s a tunnel off to the side up ahead and some warm-blooded monster was waiting to ambush us. We would be able to see the reflection of their heat on the other wall with infravision. Again, we would just have to be cautious approaching the tunnel if using only darkvision.”

“They both sound like things I should eventually have on my bracers.”

Ikuno shook her head, “I think it would be wiser to have them only as a backup, if at all. With as little power as they take and as long as the spells last, it would probably be more useful to learn the drawn or held versions if you can manage.”

“Speaking of held spells, I’ve been practicing!” Kal held his hand out flat and Ikuno watched as the magic circle slowly formed above his palm. Gradually all of the sigils and glyphs filled in and with a final pulse of magic, the circle collapsed into a small flame that floated just above his palm.

“No broken fingers, I’m impressed,” said the oni with a smile.

“It’s only a cantrip level spell, but it’s a start,” he said tossing the flame from hand to hand before letting it fade. “No more flint and tinder needed for campfires!”

Ikuno rolled her eyes as they continued on their way.

“Well fuck,” said the oni as she studied the cave in before of them.

“Look up Ikuno,” said Kal pointing at the roof of the tunnel just before the collapsed section.

Turning her eyes to the ceiling, she saw the hand-sized gouges in the rock Kal was pointing at on the edge of the cave in. “It was intentional, which doesn’t make me feel any better but I’m glad you saw that. Can you check and see if I might be able to punch our way through?” she said summoning her club.

Kal filled himself with magic and peered intently at the rubble with his glowing eyes as he put a hand on one of the rocks and sent out a pulse of magic. Even after he could no longer see the pulse he could still sense it move through the stone. He removed his hand and looked at Ikuno, “No luck, it’s caved in as far away as I can follow.” The oni was giving him a strange look, “What?” he asked.

She reached out and teased his hair for a moment, “Give you some white hair and some jet-black skin, you’d make a handsome dark elf with those lavender eyes.”

Kal raised an eyebrow, “What on earth are you talking about?”

“Nothing,” she smiled, “There’s a side tunnel a little way back that we are probably supposed to take according to whatever caused the cave in.”

Kal cinched his gloves down, “I don’t like the idea that we are probably walking into a trap.”

“You don’t look like you are getting ready to run back to the surface.”

“Neither do you,” he said to the oni, “You know more about these tunnels and what we may encounter than I do. If you aren’t scared than neither am I.”

“Fair enough.” Ikuno dismissed her club held out her hand to cast the finder spell, “Take me to Silma,” she said, and the small purple flame went dancing off the way they had just come.

They retraced their steps and the little flame turned down the tunnel that Ikuno had expected. After walking for another hour the tunnel widened just before opening up into a large, roughly circular room.

Ikuno looked down, from the end of the tunnel to the floor of the room was a drop of about twice her height. It was easy to see that the room was not a natural structure both from its shape and from the unnaturally smooth floor. Leaning out of the tunnel and inspecting the walls, Ikuno saw hundreds of small marks left by the room’s creators. The work was far too shoddy to have been dwarves or elves, even orc and goblin stonemasons did better than what she was looking at. Based on the stonework alone she would have guessed at some lower intelligence animal but the near-perfect symmetry of the room suggested something with more brain power. At a bit of a loss, she turned to Kal who was now standing beside her.

“Looks like we found the trap. Unfortunately, I can’t tell what is trying to trap us,” she told him.

“It looks almost like some kind of arena. Any idea what might need this much room?”

“Nothing I can think of,” Ikuno replied deep in thought, “it doesn’t match anything I’ve encountered so far. I think we need to assume that whatever it is built this because it needs a fair amount of space, so it must be pretty large and yet still has to be small enough to fit through there,” she said pointing to a tunnel matching the one they were standing in on the other side of the room.

Kal nodded, “Shall we?” he asked, the strength rune on his bracer glowing.

“Normally I’d say no. However, we are on a timetable with this trip. Unless you can think of any reason not to...” Kal shook his head in response. “So be it,” she said and jumped down.

Kal landed next to her a moment later, his eyes again glowing purple instead of blue because of the darkvision potion. They cautiously made their way across the large room watching and listening for any signs of movement. Kal was just starting to hope that whatever made the room had moved on when they heard a noise behind them.

A large rust-colored section was detaching itself from the wall behind them, they watched as four armored legs pulled free of holes in the wall followed by four more on the other side of the creature. Its legs made an oddly metallic clanking noise as turned towards them. Two beady black eyes on stalks regarded Kal and Ikuno for a moment before it turned sideways and stretched up to the tunnel they had just dropped down from. With a good deal of scrabbling on the rock, it finally climbed up into the tunnel and hunkered down, effectively blocking any escape as it began loudly snapping its larger right claw.

“Giant crabs?” Kal had seen smaller freshwater crabs by streams and rivers but nothing this size. When it had stopped to look at them its eyes had nearly been level with his own and it was now taking up the entire tunnel, which had widened a fair amount before reaching the room they were in.

“Not giant, those live in the ocean, just very large. I would be excited about a good meal being delivered to us, but something doesn’t feel right,” she said, warily eyeing up the creature preventing their escape.

As Ikuno spoke the crab’s loud snapping was answered from the tunnel they had planned on exiting out of. Kal and Ikuno turned to face the new threat. Two more large, rust-colored crabs dropped to the floor in front of the runesmith and oni while a final large crustacean took up a guard position in the exit, much as the first one had.

As Kal backed away from the approaching crabs Ikuno summoned a magic circle and pressed it to the ground in front of her before quickly stepping back to where Kal was. A second later a swirling column of fire shot upwards to about the height of the tunnels and quickly spread off to either side creating a wall of flame. A staccato of snapping and clicking noises erupted from all four of the crabs, the one in the exit tunnel directed its attention to each of the other three while making the noises with its large and small pincers. Kal came to the sudden realization that they were communicating.

“They’re intelligent,” he said with a frown.

“I noticed,” said Ikuno, wearing the same expression. “If they mean us harm, and things certainly look that way, we will still have to kill them to get out of here.” A magic circle that Kal hadn’t seen since Ikuno’s fight with Sir Galen appeared in front of her hand. “The eye stalks and joints on the legs are a crab’s weak spots, they also have a very difficult time righting themselves if flipped on their back. What the... ?”

Kal was equally confused as the crabs walked through the wall of fire without giving the extreme heat the slightest consideration. He and Ikuno separated as the crustaceans finally cleared the flames, one of them slowly advanced on Kal as the other seemed to look between the human and the oni in confusion. Kal took the brief moment to remove his pack with its valuable cargo and toss it to Ikuno. Since her opponent had made no effort to engage her yet, she placed both their packs against the back wall before readying herself for battle.

Ikuno held her hand out and a crescent moon of energy shot out at the crab’s face striking the base of the eyestalk but almost immediately dissipating and doing almost no damage other than leaving a silvery streak on its reddish-brown shell. The crab’s eyestalks had withdrawn as the bolt struck, tucking away under the front lip of the shell. The oni scowled as they emerged unharmed. Two more of the moon-shaped cutters hit the front of the crab as the wall of fire behind it finally dissipated leaving a faintly glowing line in the floor from the heat. Ikuno had hoped that the first bolt’s ineffectiveness had been a fluke but quickly learned that wasn’t the case. The two most recent attacks again appeared to have no significant result other than leaving shimmering scars on its shell. Even stranger, after being attacked three times it still had yet to advance on her.

The crab in front of Kal seemed much more interested in him than the other was in Ikuno as it cautiously and purposefully bore down on him. Kal took advantage of its caution and tied his will to the floor directly in front of the crab. When it stepped over the trap, his strength rune shone brightly as he punched upwards. The stone column impacted the crustacean right behind its face and sent it flying end over end backwards. His relief at possibly flipping the crab onto its back was short lived as it tucked in its legs and made a roughly ball shape with its body as it flew through the air. When it landed with a metallic clang the momentum rolled it back into an upright position where it quickly spread out its legs and stood there a moment getting its bearings once again.