Druids!

"Ho travelers!"

The duo waving the Blue Fists to stop had a curious appearance: both wore green robes and leaned against gnarly quarterstaves. The man had his hood up and only his long, gray beard was visible. The woman had her hood down, revealing her lustrous black curls, though the lovely visage was somewhat broken by the way her lips were tightly closed and the angry scowl over her features. Neither had any weapons visible. Gamla, leading the convoy, pulled his stallion short, forcing everyone else to stop as well. Jax was busy stuffing his erect pride back in his trousers, so he missed the greetings but after climbing next to Connerad, he could listen in with ease and found out that the two were druids from Cedarspoke, the druids-only city hidden in the Gulthmere Forest and that they were tracking a thief of some sorts. The Fists had not seen nary a soul on the road so far and, despite the younger woman angrily whispering something to the older man, the druid in charge accepted that answer.

"We'll be in Starmantle well before nightfall", Gamla explained. "That's the most likely destination of your thief, old man. If he's not selling whatever he stole in Starmantle, he'll be getting a ship to Westgate, rather than risk overland travel. That's our plan as well", Issande continued the explanation. After a short discussion, the druids agreed to join with the Blue Fists - safety in numbers - and march together to the port town. No sooner had the decision been made than both druids shapeshifted into wolves and took up the lead, easily keeping ahead of the trotting horses.

His erection forgotten for a moment, Jax instead struck up a conversation with Connerad. He was quite curious of several things, if he was honest, and the grizzled dwarf cleric could not run away, busy as he was guiding the one-horse cart.

"Have you ever heard the name Beshaba", he started. Connerad shushed him immediately: "Shush lad, don't speak that name out loud!"

"Why? I've never heard of it before", Jax pressed on. The sturdy dwarf clutched his holy symbol before answering: "Black Bless is the goddess of misfortune and evil luck, of misfortune and mischief. Fools pray to her, in the hope of her averting her gaze from them but that is not the way of The Maid of Misfortune. Best to leave her be and to never mention her name lad".

Jax scratched his head: "But I thought Tymora was the goddess of luck" - he had no time to finish whatever thought he had going on as the cart heaved to a side, tossing him to ground and knocking the wind out of him. Connerad stopped the cart and climbed down to survey the damage - one wheel was buckled. The dwarf cursed like a sailor.

It took them an hour of work but with Gamla acting as a muscle-powered jack, Jax holding the wheel steady and Connerad hammering it back to shape, more-or-less, the cart was ridable again and they could resume their journey.

"Aye boy, you're right but the Lady Luck oversees dashing rogues and those who put it all on the line - she favours rogues and gamblers and heroes alike, dispensing both good and ill as fits the best. Capricious she might be, aye, but not malicious! Not so for Lady Doom who is as evil as she is chaotic, and she hates our Smiling Lady with the passion of a goddess. You think angering Issande or Milla is bad, you just wait until you anger a goddess!" Despite his grim words, Connerad laughed out loud at his own joke.

"Well, that makes sense I supposed, just that I had this strange dream and I think she was in it", Jax went on. Connerad took a long look at him before answering: "The matters of immortals should not be the concern of stable boys my lad, best put it out of your head. Instead, why don't you tell me how you got them frosty sorceresses to act all lovey-dovey with you?" The dwarf grinned. Jax couldn't resist and decided to grandstand a little:

"Ha! Only to be expected, after all it's quite normal for beautiful women to throw themselves at me!" He chuckled at his audacity and waited for the cleric to join in.

Instead, the dwarf merely nodded and lighted his pipe: "Aye lad, that's the truth. If I were a decade or two younger, I might be mighty envious of you but with age comes wisdom and wisdom tells me that a fate like yours brings as much misery as it brings merriment, mark my words".

Jax was dumb struck.

"What? No, I was joking, of course it isn't a truth! What are you saying?"

"A joke? Boy, will you next joke about the Sun rising from the east and setting in the west? You've a weird sense of humour if you think that stating out the plain truth is amusing", Connerad responded, waving his pipe at Jax, who threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Whatever! You've gone senile or worse", he bemoaned and slid back from the seat.

Only to come face to face with the piercing gazes of Kara and Tara, both having unveiled themselves.

"Do you find-" started Kara, "us beautiful Jax?" finished Tara.

"Uh-", Jax answered. "Uh, I-", he started again but got nowhere. The girls waited patiently for him to collect his wits. "Uh yes, of course, you are both very beautiful", Jax finally mastered his senses. The twins nodded in unison, clearly pleased. Jax lost what little calmness he had managed to scrape together, as the elves shed their robes, displaying their nakedness.

"We know that-" started Tara, "-to your eyes we might-", continued Kara, "-appear childish since we lack-", Tara kept going, "-the udders of human women, but-", Kara put it, "-we are quite mature enough-", insisted Tara, "-to please a man", finished Kara.

"Right", said Jax. Though his upper head seemed to have lost the track of current events, his lower head was fully enjoying the situation and made itself know by erecting a tent on his trousers. Jax decided to go along with it, as bizarre as it all seemed.

As the cart rolled on, Connerad kept filling his pipe, grinning at the enthusiasm of youngsters, as the sounds of passion echoed from the trees. "Poor boy, elves just do not get tired", he said to himself, making note of how Milla and Isserad had steadily moved their horses back and were now openly ogling the threesome.