Chapter 7

Kal sat on the top step of his porch with his arms around Perra as she leaned back against his chest.

“Ada is due any day now and Master Ellis is ecstatic to the point of annoying the hell out of everyone at the inn,” said Perra, giggling. A moment later her face fell, “Marda’s sister finally arrived a couple of weeks ago and has been doing her best to terrorize the townsfolk into denouncing you and having you removed from the council. With all of the people you healed before you left, she hasn’t been able to get much traction. So far, she’s been thrown out of the Inn and removed from a house where she and Lulen were delivering a child for saying hateful things about you, which has not improved your image in her mind. Kahrin also yelled at her right in the middle of town one day, telling her that she and Bren weren’t going to start trying for their own until you come back.”

Kal looked down in surprise, “They’re going to wait for me?”

Perra nodded, “She told Elta that a woman holding so much loathing for a good man has no business being around her when her child comes into the world. Later on, Kahrin told me that she and Bren already decided long ago that they want you and Lulen to take care of the delivery when it’s time. Since you were the ones to save her sister she thinks her chances are best with you two. She just used it as another chance to get under the cleric’s skin.

“I’ll be honest with you Kal, much as I hate the idea of hitting someone after what Emrick did to me, I’ve really wanted to slap the hell out of her. If I weren’t pregnant I probably would have. She has a couple of sympathizers and I think they act as lookouts for when I come into town, it seems like I’m never there long before she shows up. At least with you and Kahrin, it was because she wanted to sleep with you. Elta just wants to scream at me for being a heretic because I’m carrying your child.” Perra giggled again, “I can only imagine what her reaction would if she found out her sister in law was a harpy.”

“How are Rone, Marda, and Felli taking this?” Kal asked.

“Felli doesn’t like that she can’t help out on the farm and is especially upset that she can’t fawn over Marda’s little boy. At the same time, she understands this is how things have to be for her to keep being a part of Rone’s life.

“Unfortunately, Elta is just as in love with her new nephew as the harpy and none of them ever know when she will show up. The other day Felli stopped by and got the boys to go out in the woods and make a small clearing for her to land when she brings Rone home from the mountain. Just before that, Marda’s sister was visiting when those two were coming back to the farm. Marda noticed them first and managed to distract her sister long enough for Felli to drop Rone off and high-tail it back into the woods. With the clearing, they can land out of sight and he can tell his sister-in-law that he was working out in the woods or something.

“While she was here, Felli also gave an update on the caves, she expects that she and the girls will have everything cleaned up within a month. Any ideas of what you are going to do with them next?”

Kal stared off into the distance for a moment, thinking. “Not really. From my travels, I’d say roads would be next on the list but that isn’t really feasible with where it’s located. Since she knows stone and rock better than anyone, I was thinking about asking Gerda if she had any ideas. If we made tunnels that wound up the inside of the mountain we’d have to worry about breaking one of the lines that run down to the crystal cavern. A road going up the side of the mountain might take days to traverse and snow may be an issue in winter. Either one would also have to be carved out of solid rock which might take years for anyone besides Gerda and her sisters.”

“What about dwarves?” Perra asked.

“I imagine dwarves could get things done a bit quicker, but it would still take a long time.”

“Would you be interested in talking to some of them?”

Kal looked down at the woman in front of him, “Possibly, why?”

“Gerda is coming to meet you at the crossroads where Dax and her pack are planning on turning south. Bea wanted to go along but Adalena is a bit too much of a handful right now to be flying with, butterfly girls don’t have the same ability to make other things lighter the way harpies do.”

“Not that I’m complaining, but you still haven’t told me why.”

“Dammit, I shouldn’t have said anything, “she muttered, “she wanted that to be a surprise, so I’ll let her explain why when you see her. All I will tell you is that it involves Sandy and dwarves.

“Wait ... Gerda came to see you?” he asked.

Perra laughed, “No, silly. We met when I went to go check on Eludora, though I think she might have been waiting for me. She and Aradelle have been pretty lonely since you left and both of them were affected by Ikuno leaving more than Bea or I. With Adalena, Bea can’t get over to see ‘Dell as much as she would like and usually that’s only to get something to eat before going back to her nest. She feels awful about it too because she was trying so hard to treat ‘Dell as more than a source of food. With her being a mother, their relationship has mostly gone back to how it was before. Aradelle, on the other hand, isn’t worried about it, saying that soon enough the little one will be eating leaves instead of milk and Bea will have plenty of time. She even has memories of her ancestors taking sleeping little ones down into their lower part while the adults up top had their fun.” Perra shrugged, “It seems weird to me, but then, I’m human. A lot of things monster girls do come across as strange.”

“You certainly seem to know quite a bit about what’s going on north of the mountains. I thought you couldn’t talk to the other girls with me so far away.”

Perra smiled up at him, “The boys didn’t feel like they were earning their pay with the girls making their work so easy, they’ve actually asked Ruto and the others to help out less with working the fields. Which means I have three harpies with lots of free time. On the days they aren’t helping Felli clean the caves, they carry messages between me Bea and Aradelle. Except for Ruce, her chick hatched last week. A word of warning, harpy babies are covered in super-soft down which makes them fun to cuddle and are insanely cute.” Perra’s voice went somber, “We were worried about Thom those first few days. He didn’t take his first child ‘hatching’ as opposed to ‘being born’ very well. He flipped out on the others pretty badly then ran off. Ruce was heartbroken but insisted that Ruto and Ghoss not go searching for him. A couple of days later he showed up again, looking like he’d been living in a cave and apologizing profusely.I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were all worried that he would run back to his family and tell them about how we live here. Bad as things were before Thom came back, I think it was good for showing Tain and Corben what to expect when it’s their turns, the other two girls haven’t decided which one is up next for having a chick.”

“And the men don’t have any say?”

Perra snorted, “Of course they have a say, and for both of them it was, ‘whatever makes the women happy.’”

Kal chuckled, “Smart men.”

“Speaking of smart men,” she said, standing up and descending the couple of steps to the ground before turning and glaring at him with her hands on her hips. “You are being impressively stupid about this whole thing with Daxas.”

Kal’s face went stony, “How am I...”

“When are you going to forgive her, Kal?” Perra interrupted. “You keep running away from the issue by coming here and bringing me along to distract you. I’m not blind, you’re traveling with six women and we’ve done this every six days. After the rant you went on about her the first night, it’s not hard to figure out that you’re avoiding her.

“Besides,” she looked down at the ground, “I ... I don’t want to do this anymore Kal. I love seeing you and spending time with you, but this all feels so,” she ran her hand over her flat stomach, “unnatural. Waking up from this hurts. Not physically, but it hurts my heart seeing you here then opening my eyes to an empty bed. I’d rather talk to you the way we did before, at least then I just missed you afterward.”

“I’ll admit, it’s been hard on me as well,” he said, his expression softening as she spoke, “but I don’t know how to forgive Dax.” The young mage hung his head, “believe me, I’ve tried. Every part of me tells me that he deserved it, that she was just protecting our child. More than that, she was protecting all of the women in my life. Alina pointed out that if he managed to kill me there was nothing to make Kogen uphold his promise of leaving the girls alone.” Kal held up a hand inspecting it, “I just can’t shake the image of the spear in his head with my hand on it and that cold, uncaring look on her face.”

“If you understand and agree with her reasons then what’s the problem?”

Kal laid back on the porch with his arms out to either side, “I don’t know. Kogen was a horrible person and I don’t feel bad that he’s dead. Yet, somehow I still feel ... betrayed.”

“I think I see what’s going on,” said Perra.

Kal lifted his head, “Please enlighten me because I’m feeling pretty lost right now, every ounce of logic I possess says I shouldn’t be pissed at Dax about this but yet I still am.”

“I’ve thought about this many times since I met you, but I don’t think Sir Michael had to die.”

Kal sat back up, “Where the hell did that come from?”

“I was so terrified of Emrick back then that if my brother had asked me to sleep with Sir Michael so he could go running off with the knight, I probably would have agreed. My virginity would have been worth the price if it made the daily beatings stop.”

“That is ... awful, but I can see where you are coming from. However, I’m still not following how this pertains to me and Daxas.”

“Emrick never gave me that option, even though I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it, for the prospect of a better future.” Perra made a motion prompting Kal to speak.

He stared at her blankly for a second, “I’m not upset with her for killing him. I’m upset because she took away my say in the matter.”

“Not quite, but close.”

“What do you mean.”

“You had made your choice, it was just the wrong one. I honestly feel if she had given you a reason for what she was about to do before she killed him, you might not have this issue. Then you could have at least had the opportunity to stop her. On the other hand, you had already made one horribly bad decision, perhaps it was for the best she didn’t give you any warning.”

“So nice of you to tell me over and over that trying not to kill someone was the wrong way to go about things.”

“What did Lulen tell you, Kal?” said Perra coming back up the steps and looking down at him. “She said, ‘Choose wisely.’ I think that you took that as meaning, ‘Don’t kill.’ It’s not a bad way to look at things, I wholeheartedly agree with you putting the other slavers to sleep. I would guess most of them were in it for good, easy money with an added bonus of keeping their dicks wet. However, the way you described Kogen leads me to think that the man was genuinely evil. I don’t think your attempt to spare his life was ‘choosing wisely.’”

“There’s still a possibility that he could have decided to leave us alone. Look at Emrick, he never came back to harass you again.”

“Emrick is dead.”

“What!? How!?”

“Ikuno. She never told you because she didn’t know how you would react. The only reason she told me was that I asked one of the merchants from my hometown about him and they told me no one had seen him in months. I had a strange feeling that she might have something to do with his disappearance. The next time you went into town I visited Ikuno and asked if she knew about it. She apologized to me, but explained that she wasn’t going to leave someone like that waiting in the shadows to hurt those she cared about.”

“How on earth did that not get to me through our bond.”

Perra shrugged, “My guess is a mixture of not feeling guilty about it since she was just protecting the people she loved and that she gave them to the pitcher plant girl, technically they were still alive the last time she saw them. I’d like to mention that I’m happy this is a surprise to you, we all appreciate that you don’t go digging around inside our heads. The reason she kept it from you was that you had gone to the trouble of saving him and might be upset that your efforts went to waste, she certainly didn’t seem bothered that she had just killed two men.”

“Them? Two?”

“Duma as well. Urul got a pass since he made you laugh,” she was doing a poor job of hiding her smirk as she remembered Kal’s retelling of the fight before she arrived.

“You don’t seem terribly torn up about the fact that Ikuno killed your brother.”

“I was, but I was over it by the time I got back home. It’s hard to feel sorry for a man who sold you off to a knight then was going to pass you around to all of his friends. He obviously didn’t care about me anymore. All I did was return the favor and stopped caring about him. Besides,” smiling, she ran her hand over her belly, quickly stopping and frowning at her flat and work-toned stomach before looking back at Kal, “my bloodline will continue with our baby.”

Kal chuckled, “You really hate the fact that you don’t appear pregnant here don’t you?”

“I do,” she growled, pushing him back down onto the porch and straddling his hips. “But what I really hate is that this doesn’t feel any different from touching a chair or table with my hand,” she said grinding her crotch into the bulge in his pants.

Kal had a feeling that this was Kelthor’s revenge for putting his prick inside Rose before they left Carris forest. The wizard had mentioned that pain was dulled in the astral realm because it was just a representation of the damage done to the mind during combat. However, he happened to leave out that without a body there were none of the normal reactions to touch. When he and Perra attempted to have sex the first time he pulled her into his little astral pocket, sinking into her pussy was no more exciting than putting on a glove. It was there, and he could feel it, but there were no pleasurable feelings coming from the act. They tried a couple more times, just enjoying the closeness but quickly realized that the missing sensations made things too strange to be comfortable.

“Back to me and Dax, what are your thoughts?”

“Call her into your room, forgive her for not warning you, then beg her forgiveness for being an idiot about it these past few weeks. After that, make love to her, don’t fuck her or even give the impression you might be. Make. Love. To. Her. Based upon what you have told me about the woman, I doubt she will go for this last part. I think you should try to bring her into the fold.”

“You want me to form a bond with her?” she was the last of his women he expected to suggest such a thing.

Perra nodded, “I can tell the distance in your relationship created by Kogen’s death has been hard on you, so I imagine that it’s been hard on her as well. You care too much about her, which means she belongs with the rest of us.”

“Why do you think she won’t accept?”

Perra shrugged, “Just a hunch.”

“Your ‘hunches’ can be frighteningly accurate since you got that pendant.”

She smiled, “If you think my guesses are impressive, just wait until you see the town when you return. You might not even recognize it by the time I’m done.” The young woman sighed, “It’s time for me to go back and for you to reconcile with Dax.”

Kal lifted himself up to kiss her, “I love you, Perra.”

“Love you too, Kal,” she replied before the mage sent her back to her body.

Kal sat up and looked around for a moment before releasing his concentration and the scene around him faded away into a bleak gray landscape. Closing his eyes, he willed himself back along the thread connecting him to his body.

Scents were always the first thing to assault his senses after one of these astral jaunts. Kelthor was able to add scents, breezes, background noises, and all kinds of other details to his astral pockets, but the man was also far older and more practiced. Kal didn’t have that level of mastery. For him, returning to the real world was sometimes harsh and abrupt. Opening his eyes, he immediately saw that the light in his room was brighter than expected and he could hear the low murmurs of women talking out by the fire pit. Judging by the number of voices he doubted more than an hour had gone by while he and Perra talked.

Turning his head, he regarded the empty bed beside him. Perra was right, Dax was supposed to be there next to him tonight and yet he was alone. Shaking his head, he threw his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his trousers. Shortly after, Kal stepped out into the main area and was met by a number of curious stares from Refia, Ria and a couple of the other dog girls who had yet to retire for the night. The sprite often stayed out until all of the women had gone to bed, enjoying the conversation and that the girls treated her like a person and not a thing.

“Dax?” he asked

“With Alina,” replied Refia, she and a couple of the other girls pointing in the direction of one of the rooms.

Nodding, Kal walked over and brazenly threw the flap covering the door open and stepping inside without announcing himself. As he walked over, Alina sat up in bed while Daxas stood from where she had been sitting on the side.

“You’re in the wrong room,” he said in low tones as he placed his hands on her hips and lifting her up, earning a surprised shriek from the woman. Throwing the wolf girl over his shoulder, he smiled at Alina and walked back out the door with his prize.

Partway through the area with the fire pit, an arm blocked his vision momentarily and he suddenly found himself reeling backwards as Daxas pushed herself off of him. Kal gave her a look of surprise and confusion once he regained his balance.

“Wrong room or not,” she growled, turning sharply and continuing on toward his door, “You don’t get to carry me around like a sack of potatoes in front of my girls.” Kal looked over at the dog girls and sprite, smiling wide before following after the woman. It was hard to take her attitude seriously when her tail was wagging with obvious happiness as she pushed the canvas flap aside and disappeared.

“About damn time,” said Alina from her doorway before heading back to bed. She only made it a few steps before turning back around and joining the girls by the fire. “If those two are having make-up sex I won’t be getting much sleep anyway,” she said with a sigh as she sat down with the rest.

“As long as he’s taking me to bed, he can carry me around like a sack of potatoes any time he wants,” mumbled Refia to laughter and agreement from the other women.

Inside Kal’s room, Daxas glared at the man while doing her best to repress the urge to throw her arms around him and cry with relief into his shoulder. “You’ve hardly spoken a word to me since Kogen and tonight I’m suddenly in the wrong room. What’s this all about Kal?”