Chapter 7

Rising early Kat was up and noticed that Seth was seated at the table with his back slightly to the rest of the room. She slowly approached but she could hear him softly talking to himself. She tried to wait but eventually she got curious.

"I know Marie, but we're almost done here ... you don't think you'll go early do you? Oh, not really ... Dusty met his first ghoul yesterday ... he'll be ok, but he was out cold again ... I better run everyone will be up soon. I love you," said Seth.

He was just turning around putting something in his pocket as he saw her slowly getting closer to her table.

Seth jumped at her approach, but Kat smiled at him and chose to ignore what he had done. Whatever he was doing wasn't anything major if he was talking about loving someone. While she couldn't see magic aura's like mages could she "normally" had a good feel for who was a mage and who wasn't, even though Tyrell got past her defenses.

It seemed that only Battlemages had a magic that she could feel and for some reason it made her feel like she just needed one time with one and power like she had never felt before would be hers. But she had nothing to base that wild thought on. Just a feeling based on how it felt being with mages.

"So did you sleep well?" asked Kat taking a seat across from a slightly flushing Seth at the table.

"Yes I did thanks, and you?" asked Seth as the flush started to recede.

He was hoping by her actions she didn't see what he was doing. While Dusty's phones were just starting to be a rage, not everyone had one and theirs were special and had different features, and he didn't want to have to go through the explanation of how they worked every time that someone saw him with one.

"So what happened with Dusty yesterday?" asked Kat more curious about Dusty than at what Seth was doing.

Aric also used to do things like pass out like this, sometimes for days, but Brianna never would elaborate on what was happening to him and Kat was really curious.

"Exhaustion. He worked hard yesterday to save us all and he's just tired. He'll be good as new soon," said Seth smiling.

Kat thought briefly about flirting with Seth to see if he would elaborate on that because between Seth and Dusty she was sure that she could, but she really needed Dusty's help and possibly Seth's.

And if Suzan heard about her doing that it would definitely retard Suzan's efforts and that would bleed over and possibly cause Dusty to become unwilling. This was too important for her to screw up.

Frustrated, but determined not to show it, Kat forced herself to smile at the brief explanation and accept it. She was dying to know, but not at the cost of humanity.

Though try as she might, she found she was thinking about a different way to ask the question when Suzan came to the table and took a seat next to Seth. She looked tired, but still pleasantly attractive.

Kat was wondering how she was able to pull that off. As she concentrated on her face she was sure she couldn't be older than her mid to early twenties at best, yet she had a practiced ease that said she was an old hand with a weapon.

"How's our boy?" asked Seth smiling at Suzan.

"Sleeping. Based on how he was tossing and turning last night I'm pretty sure that he'll soon be up and around by this afternoon," said Suzan smiling.

"That's good. So all we have left to do is see the King here and make our report. Then we're all good to head home, right?" asked Seth smiling big.

Seth found that he really wanted to get back to his wife.

While he was anxious about leaving her along, pregnancy agreed with her, and she seemed to chase him all over the house for sex. She seemed to be up for just about anything and worked hard to make sure he was too.

Seth now found that after being gone from Marie for this long he was missing all that steady loving that he had been getting since the start of this pregnancy. He was sure that she was also missing it by now as well.

"Well, as soon as Dusty is up yes, but if it's too late we'll still need to wait until tomorrow morning. Even though it was a request by our King, and even though you're his representative, since Dusty's worked so hard to save us I'm sure he'd like talk to the King here to get more information."

"He'll want that information; he needs to report it back to the council so they know what was going on. Since it was a Lich they will want to be informed. They like to keep track of all magical threats that have happened incase they come back again, like in this case," said Suzan.

At that Kat interrupted them.

"Uhm, I need to bring this up because I really need to talk to you all and now is as good of time as any. I could definitely use your help. When I found you both I was on a journey to locate someone to help me in something of grave importance, and thankfully I found you all," said Kat smiling.

"Uhhhmm, what would that be exactly?" asked Seth not likening where this was going.

It sounded like she wanted to delay his return to Marie.

"Well it's this; I really need your help to prevent a war. It seems that the Dragon's are planning on attacking the land of men using the excuse it's to prevent men from preying on them," said Kat

"WHAT! How can you know that," said Seth unbelieving.

He fixed Kat with a stare.

Looking around to make sure that the few patrons that were up for breakfast didn't hear them, Kat then took a deep breath before she looked at them both in turn.

"I don't know why, maybe sharing the fear of death with someone makes me feel this way, but I feel I can trust you. Though I have need of Dusty most of all, I really need to make use of a Battlemage in the worst way," said Kat as she looked at them.

She saw Suzan visibly stiffen, but Suzan didn't say anything. Kat tried not to smile as she realized how that sounded.

"No, not like that, I'm sorry that came out wrong. Look, without going into a lot of detail that I won't explain anyway, I was born human although I have changed into something far more as I became a very powerful magic user. But now because of my power I was also invalidated as being the one to and now I was asked to find someone else instead."

"So now I needed to find someone who could do what I could not, and the Battlemage fits this bill perfectly. So I have need of him to fulfill the last request of an Ancient Black Dragon," said Kat.

"How do we know you are telling us the truth like Seth asked?" asked Suzan.

"Seth, I need you to trust me for a second. My ability to do this won't work on Suzan because she's a woman, but I need to show you something," said Kat.

Sitting closer to Seth, and having him watch her warily, Kat said "Surely a big strong man like you isn't afraid of a small girl?"

"I watched you blast rock yesterday. That weak routine won't wash with me," said Seth.

"Touché. How about because I bet Suzan over there can harm me before I can harm you," said Kat with a smile.

She saw Suzan nod out of the corner of her eye and Seth nodded at her.

Kat put one of her hands on Seth's head and closed her eyes.

Seth, while his eyes were opened, suddenly had the world seem to explode on him. Suddenly he "was" Kat and he was reliving some things she had seen. He could see what happened when she came upon the Dragon. He saw it talking to her.

He didn't have access to the whole conversation, because Kat filtered it, but he had access to all the sensations. Seth felt her emotional state and watched as she cried while she burned the dead dragon so that it couldn't be found.

Gasping as he briefly blinked, Seth put both hands on the table and lurched backwards away from her outstretched hand. Suzan saw that but waited to see what happened. To her, Kat had only touched Seth for no more than a few seconds.

"She's telling the truth. There was a Dragon and it was huge. How did you do that?" asked Seth looking at her.

"I can share emotions and sights that I've seen, but only with men. Its not that I don't want to share with women, but that my power to share things that I've seen only seems to work on men. What you saw is all that I am willing to share, but I needed to show you what I saw so that you would know that I told the truth," said Kat.

"So what is the issue you need help with exactly?" asked Suzan, believing Seth's reaction.

"While the Dragons are upset that men have been preying on them over the centuries, the thing that they are the most upset over is the fact that of all the deaths a single man was able to kill one of there number using magic."

"Something like a few deaths here and there did not used to bother them before. Their reasoning before was that if humans killed a Dragon it was because either it was too young or ready to die. Dragon's should not be able to be killed in their prime.

"But the one who they call the "Champion of Man" did, and he did it by himself, so because of that the Dragons, after much debate, have decided to do something about humans. You may know the last champion better as the Battlemage Aric Griffith. He killed one to save his wife in their home town and he is often praised for it.

"Some of the Dragons want to wipe man out and just be done with it, and others want to talk with humans and come to an accord. I was asked by one of the ones who wanted to talk with humans to complete her mission of finding another champion of men again to speak with the Dragon's on man's behalf. So as you can see, Dusty is the best choice.

"Safe passage was agreed upon for the champion and any who accompany him, or her, to talk about why humans should be spared. But if that wasn't challenging enough, to find someone willing to brave a room full of Dragon's, I have been given a time limit in which this has to happen. If we don't answer their challenge then no where in the world will be safe from Dragon raids or attacks," said Kat.

"What is that time limit?" asked Seth.

"It was originally three months, but I'm down to a little less than two and a half because of searching for several weeks already," said Kat.

"We need Dusty in on this for sure if we need to move that quick then. What about Tyrell? He seemed like a good man and looked to be good in a fight if it comes to that," said Seth as he looked at Kat.

"No there is something with Tyrell. I can't explain it, but with my power I also get feelings about people, well males really. He worked well with us, but he's hiding something because I can feel it from him. He worked out well for someone that we needed, but this is too important to trust he doesn't have an ulterior motive for his actions," said Kat looking serious.

Seth didn't like it because in the initial conversation things were too vague, but if Kat didn't want Tyrell there and she said he made her uncomfortable, then he wouldn't push the issue.

Suzan found she was curious why Kat's power didn't work on women. She wondered which part of her power and why that was. Yesterday it certainly worked on the ghouls and for healing when she had to spot heal. So she was curious why more intimate things were more specific.

"Well let's wait for Dusty. We'll need him before we go any further. Once he wakes up some time today or tomorrow we'll need to move quickly. Let's not tell Tyrell about this in case I'm right and he wants to follow us. Let's split up and then meet in the next town the day after the King's audience," smiled Kat.

The other two nodded, but remained skeptical about what was needed of them.

Soon Tyrell joined them, he looked tired, but smiled at the others as he looked around. Suzan was quick to pickup on how Kat watched him and at times he looked at her when he thought she wasn't looking. Something happened between the two of them but neither one seemed to want to talk about it so she didn't bring it up.

Dusty didn't wake up for the better part of the day so after exploring a bit, the others called it a day and retired early. Suzan was confident that Dusty would be up early the following morning so everyone based their plans on talking to the King around that time.

With that they went to bed so they could finish this mission.

Sliding naked into bed like she normally did when it was the two of them, Suzan was lost in thought trying to figure out if Kat told the entire truth and if she did what was the angle with Tyrell. She spent most of the day avoiding him and he seemed to be doing the same with her.

That seemed strange because Kat was very confident in her ability to control men. Often Suzan watched how she managed to dissuade men away from pursuing her too hard. A few of the ways Suzan noted for later and planned to show Marilyn when she got older.

Kat's manner was one that left the men's pride intact and was a combination of flirty acceptance and firm refusal. Some of the more rowdy men who were both vulgar and crass still laughed off her refusal and didn't seem to be offended by her manner.

Suzan felt that Kat was far too young to have this much experience in handling men. She couldn't be more than eighteen seasons a best, but she was showing Suzan herself a few ways to handle attention.

While thinking about it, Suzan rolled to her left side and used one of her arms folded under her head to watch the moonlight out of the window. She wasn't tired, but if Kat was right they would be pushing it hard for the next few weeks and they need to rest when they could.

Suzan thought that it was a shame that Dusty was out still, a little sex was just what she really needed to help her sleep right now. She felt that she could use just a little something to mellow her out.

Suddenly an arm flopped over her and rested across her right arm. Then it started to gently stroke her arm.

Suzan smiled as she stroked it with her own hand. She could still hear the rhythmic breathing of Dusty and it still hadn't changed. She was sure that he was still sleeping off his power over usage, but knowing that even in his sleep he always wanted to touch her and only her, was something that comforted her.

Lost in thought, she was surprised when she could feel that because he was on his side he was now poking her with his wood. Though it had only been a couple of days she wished he was awake right now because she wouldn't turn down a good ride if given the chance.

Though he was clearly still sleeping, Dusty unexpectedly forced his other hand under Suzan where he quickly pulled her against him, started to fumble around feeling on her chest with his left as he slid his right under her arm, and he then started to rub and massage her large but very soft breasts.

Suzan found it very stimulating and tried not to make too much noise as she felt her nipples hardening from his attention. She hadn't planned it, but they were responding and setting up for him to play with.

She thought maybe a little stimulating action like this might help her sleep a bit better. It still wasn't sex, but it would feel good to have his hands on her and it would help relax her a bit. Suzan didn't think she was taking advantage of her husband since he was the one doing all the work.

This was a rare thing that he would do in his sleep, but over the seasons he had done it a few different times before. Often she was also sleep and she would awake to find him playing with her body.

Ever since she had the beauty treatment done to her, he seemed to always be touching her, and every time they had sex it felt like it did on their wedding night when Dusty's magic was running through her to save her life.

Suzan closed her eyes as Dusty again started to fumble around before he found her enlarged nipples and began to lightly tweak them both. He eventually switched to gently rolling them between his first and middle finger as he used an almost feather like touch to also gently rub his index finger across the tip in a circular motion.

She suppressed a shudder as best she could as he went from one extreme to the next, but she still knew she couldn't stop her body's reaction completely. If he kept doing this while he was sleeping she would definitely have that orgasm she wanted even though she thought before that she might not.

With her eyes firmly closed, she could feel it building and she had to admit it was just what she needed right now.

Suzan gently pumped her pelvis a few times in time to the rolling of her nipples as a soft moan escaped from her mouth. This really was what she needed and she was enjoying the feeling as he moved her along.

Dusty then released her top right breast, and she wondered why with a touch of disappointment, until she found that his right hand was now slowly sliding down her chest, across her flat stomach, to the valley in between her legs, where once he was there he began to massage her in pretty much the same way as his other hand was doing to her left breast.

Early on she almost stopped him from touching her down there, but the feeling of how he gently caressed her breasts and nipples earlier with both hands made it hard for her to want to stop him.

As it was, she was getting closer and closer to a soft and gentle orgasm while he played with her breast and she didn't want to admit to herself but she was really starting to seek its release the longer this went on.

By the time she made up her mind to stop him and started to reach for his hand, hoping that he might at least go back to playing with her breasts, he had already started massaging her in between her legs.