Grouping Up

Mary was getting bored with crafting by early afternoon. So, she was glad when she received a communication from Flora. “Mary, I was wondering if one or more of you could make your way to Harper’s Haven to help with the quest. Aubrey is not in the best state after retrieving the idol.”

“I can try to get there. I’ll see if Chloe would like to come along. Ellen is out on a set of solo tasks. I did notice Aubrey seemed drunk when she last spoke with me.”

While waiting for further communication from Flora, Mary went to talk with Chloe. “Hey Chloe, Flora would like it if we could meet up with her in Harper’s Haven.”

“I don’t know, I would sort of rather continue working on making traps for the base. I’m worried about what would happen if our base is discovered. We have scant protections.”

“I guess I can ride over there alone.”

“You sure that is wise?” Chloe asked, “You don’t really have any defensive capabilities, and your identity has been exposed.”

“My identity is easy to fix.” Mary changed her hair color to a light chestnut, her eye color to hazel, and slightly altered her facial features.

Chloe was shocked. “Okay, I can definitely see that confusing people.”

“Plus, I was a vixen before. Now I’m just a woman. Though… I was wondering if we could do something… I want to copy one of your TFs. Not that I just want to do that because of that, but…”

Chloe rolled her eyes and pulled Mary into a kiss. “You don’t have to be so awkward about it. But I’m guessing you are waiting on another message from Flora, right?” Mary nodded. “Then finish that. Then we can go at each other like bunnies in heat.” Chloe kissed Mary again and then gently pushed Mary away and went back to crafting.

A minute later, Mary got another message from Flora. “Aubrey is definitely drunk. It would be best if Chloe came. Our new orc allies say they spotted a dragon heading west. So either Sam or Mark could be in the area, possibly the whole other team.”

“Well, shit. Okay, I’ll drag her along. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Okay, Chloe, you’re coming with me. It’s possible that the other team will be there.”

“Fine.” Chloe set down the dildos she was fastening into a spike trap. “Still want to have that fun, first, or is that off the table?”

Mary grabbed Chloe this time, pulling her into a kiss and then pushing her off her stool onto the floor. “I’m going to make this quick because we have places to be.” Mary pulled off Chloe’s pants and panties. Then Mary grabbed a dildo off of Chloe’s workbench. She pushed both of Chloe’s legs apart. Mary started licking Chloe’s slit and clitoris.”

“Oh, Mary, yeah, right there.” Chloe stifled moans of pleasure as Mary continued. Once Chloe’s slit was good and wet, Mary thrust the dildo into her hard. “HOLY FUCK!” The combination of Chloe’s TF turning pain into pleasure and the dildo’s sensitivity increasing effect sent a massive wave of pleasure throughout Chloe’s body, causing her to orgasm after the third thrust into her. “CHRIST MARY! Give a girl some warning!”

Mary reached up to grab Chloe’s face and calmly, but sternly said, “No. Have you forgotten you are my little fucktoy? I will play with you however I want. If it wasn’t a problem for the challenge, I would leave you plugged with this dildo for the rest of the day.” Mary pulled the dildo out of Chloe. “Now prepare for round two.” Mary extended her tongue into Chloe. Once inside, she thickened her tongue to fill Chloe completely, while also creating bumps on her tongue to create areas of increased pressure. Mary twirled around her tongue, causing Chloe to flail about.

Mary used one hand to simultaneously massage Chloe’s clit. “Mary, please, mercy. I… I can’t take much more of this.” Chloe said breathily. Mary was tempted to slow down and drag this out, but she remembered she had somewhere to be. So Mary granted her mercy. While continuing to tongue fuck Chloe, she reached up and teased Chloe’s nipples. Once they were nice and hard, she pinched down on them and then twisted. “MOTHER FUCKER!” Chloe exclaimed as her hips bucked, and then a tremor ran through her body as she was brought to climax a second time.

Mary pulled her tongue out and smirked down at Chloe, “You know if you keep calling me that, I’m going to have to punish you by making that true, you know.” Chloe’s already flushed face went even pinker at Mary’s words. “Which I can see you don’t have a problem with, which is good since, You, Are, Mine. I thought pink was Aubrey’s color, but it looks good on you, too.” Chloe didn’t respond, except to look away from Mary. Mary grabbed Chloe’s pants and panties and handed them to her. “Come on, we’ve got a ways to travel.”

Chloe stood and shimmied on her panties and then pants, asking, “So what TF did you want to copy?”

“Fairy Godmother.” With Mary’s declaration, she grew a pair of chestnut bunny ears and tail. “I figure that I will be eating you out every round to copy that from now on, by the way.”

“I look forward to it. Mary… not that I’m complaining, but has there been a reason you’ve been more possessive with me today and yesterday?” Chloe asked as she was packing up her things.

“Yes.” Mary nodded. “At least I think so. Chloe, you remember how yesterday I mentioned I had a hoard.”

“Yeah.” Chloe nodded, not quite sure where Mary was going with this.

“Well, you are part of that hoard. Yesterday, when you, Ellen, and Meribelle told me that Smug’s aura affected you, I was upset that it had affected any of you. I was PISSED that it had affected you in particular, Chloe. I was half tempted to go back to Smug and chew her out because of it.” Seeing that Chloe was done packing, Mary gestured that they should walk and talk.

“So, you really think of me as your possession?” Chloe asked in a tone that made it clear that there was some level of disapproval if that was the case.

“Not exactly.” Mary blushed slightly from embarrassment.

“Who else is part of your hoard, or is it all of us?”

“It isn’t all of you. Currently, it is: Allie, Sam, Laura, Merida, Ellen, and you.”

“I see… and what exactly are we a hoard of then?”

“Lovers.”

Chloe blinked in surprise. “Um… what? I mean, I guess that makes sense. I didn’t realize that Sam and you had had sex yet. I’m guessing Ellen, and you did on your date.”

“Sam and I haven’t had sex yet.”

“Then why… wait… are you saying that I’m on the list because you love me?”

“I don’t know. I do know I don’t want to let you go. I remember Laura talking with Mark about the same thing.” Mary felt a little uncomfortable. “Honestly, maybe, Chloe. I’m not sure. I know you are the only one I haven’t said ‘I love you’ to, that is on that list.”

Chloe seemed to take in the information a little awkwardly, too. “Well, don’t feel pressured. I definitely don’t want you to tell me that before you are certain you mean it. You mentioned earlier that I didn’t qualify for your new TF that requires us to love each other. I can say for certain that while I’m quite fond of you, and the sex is awesome, I’m not in love with you. I can say that because I know I’m in love with Aubrey. The feeling isn’t even close to the same. I do like you and what we are building, though, so please, don’t let it get you down if you realize you are in love with me.”

“Thanks.”

“Now, what favor are you planning on asking Cassandra for?”

“I haven’t decided yet, but since the large favor can come close to breaking the rules, I can likely ask her to intervene in a way to affect the LARP to our team's advantage.”

“Wait, you have all three favors? I already used one for Allie’s wedding.”

“Yep. I figured that would be the case. Hilde said I created a copy of the TF that was distinct from the original, and was pretty sure that if I copied the same TF after she had edited my copied TF, I would get the original version. I am fairly certain that limited uses of a TF will still apply to me over multiple copies, so I can’t get rid of Fairy Godmother and copy it again for a new set of favors.”

“Okay, that makes some amount of sense. Are you really going to use it to screw over the other team, though?”

“Chloe, Mark is going around as a dragon. Maybe a god as well. This isn’t any different from that. He is using the TFs he can copy to his team’s advantage. I will be doing the same. Honestly, as soon as we meet up with the others, I intend to eat out Flora, if we have time. I would say Aubrey, too, but given her current state, that won’t be happening for a while.”

“What do you mean by her current state?” Chloe asked as she was saddling a horse.

“She was drunk when she contacted me a little while ago. Not just a little tipsy either. I’m guessing part of the dungeon she was doing ended up involving drinking, and since she did it solo…”

“Ah. Yeah, best not then. How long is it going to take to get to Harper’s Haven?”

“A few hours. We might actually get there before the others, as we have a simpler route, if slightly longer. There is a road along the perimeter of the empire’s lands that takes us pretty close to Harper’s Haven.” Mary climbed onto her horse.

As Chloe climbed on her horse and they started their journey, she asked, “So, what were you going to copy from Aubrey?”

“Likely her pink boon. Though Shepherded is a good choice, too. Especially if I combined it with Merida’s Fake It Until You Make It. Though I don’t really want to pick either of those right now, as I’m pretty sure Mark would get some bleed-through on the things I learned.”

“Have you decided what you are going to do about Ethel?”

“That’s an abrupt topic change.”

“I didn’t have anything to add. So, Ethel?”

“I’m thinking we release her.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Obviously, we incapacitate her first and then transport her somewhere else. We can’t let her know the location of our base, but right now, no one is at the base with her. What if she can get out of her cell?”

“Please don’t jinx it like that.”

“I don’t think she will be able to, but the point stands. She’s a liability, and what does it gain us to hold her, besides denying her to the other team? Originally, I had planned on seducing her, literally. Make her realize Cassandra isn’t a benevolent goddess, and have her join us.”

“But you don’t want to do that now?”

“She’s attractive, sure, but as I told you last night, that was likely the brownies. It feels icky now. I figured we could get her infected with Mad Cow-Girl or something, so she doesn’t just go back to helping the other team while we also get rid of the liability.”

“That’s not a bad idea. Though I could probably come up with something better if you give me a couple of days.”

“Like what?”

“Well… my recipe book has some… unethical recipes to actually use on a real populace.” Mary raised an eyebrow as her eyes bulged. “As I said, on a real populace, it would be… well, evil to use them, but it isn’t a real populace.”

“What exactly are we talking about?”

“There are a few different plagues, though I don’t actually have all the ingredients for any of them, but there are a few tasks that reward those ingredients. No, what I have is something more like a dirty bomb, but a lewd version.”

“Chloe… I won’t stop you if you really feel like that’s the way to win the challenge, but… I would really prefer if you didn’t use those.”

“I only brought it up since you were thinking of using Ethel as a bioweapon.”

“That… That’s fair. I just feel bad keeping her locked up. Plus, something weird is going on. She got hold of a journal that I didn’t give her, but she said I did. I might be mistaken, but I think the journal is Daisy.”

“Why didn’t you check?”

“Because doing so would have required you to incapacitate her.”

“Ah. I guess it makes sense she isn’t being cooperative.”

“Yeah, I had considered giving her poorer quality food, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.”

“That’s because you’re a big softy. Also, what’s up with the tits? Did you get hit by the same cactus as Ellen?”

“No, I used Ellen’s boon to boost Andi’s and my breast size at the party I went to. I was actually thinking about boosting it a lot more in two days.”

“Why?”

“Well, I was thinking how advantageous it would be if, after the swap, Mary had breasts larger than Ellen's?”

“You would do that to yourself?”

Mary considered it. “Yeah, yeah, I would.”

~Ping~

Cassandra: No.

Mary laughed. “Cassandra is telling me not to bother. I guess that’s fair, after all, I could literally make myself immobile the evening before the swap, and that would screw them completely. I still might boost myself since I won’t have to deal with the consequences during the challenge and can just be Mark for the first half of the next round. The extra BP might be useful.”

“How do you think we are doing in the challenge?”

“I honestly don’t know. I think we will have a better idea if we actually end up facing the other team.” Chloe nodded. The two kept chatting as they rode to Harper’s Haven.

---

Flora and the others were heading towards Harper’s Haven. After the second time Aubrey fell off her horse, Meribelle was assigned to ride with her and keep her on the horse.

Aubrey tended to giggle randomly, while muttering random baas.

Merida said, “Are we sure we shuid be takin’ her wi’ us? Considerin’ the report aboot the dragon? If we engage the ither team wi’ her like this, she will likely be incapacitated.”

Flora said, “I asked Mary and Chloe to join us. I’m hoping that between the two of them, they might be able to neutralize the alcohol. Honestly, the fact that she is even conscious right now tells me her TFs and class have likely helped a lot already. I’m glad she only had the pink drinks because that, plus her healing hymn, is probably saving her.”

Hilde complained, “I still say we shouldn’t have let her do that alone.”

“She completed it, and that crown was a huge windfall for us. You heard what it does, beyond giving us near total control of the orc tribes. Slevia and I were planning while Aubrey was in there. Slevia was willing to agree to a bunch of things I asked for that she had been refusing the second Aubrey became warchief. Since she knew that Aubrey was following me.”

“Merida, could I please swap wiz Merigold or Mira? Aubrey is groping moi wiz 'er ‘air again, mon Dieu!”

“I don’t want the drunk bitch groping me up either! I’m not doing that fuck no!” Mira told Merida.

“I’ll dae it for a wee while,” Merigold said. Like that, Meribelle returned to Merida’s tails, and Merigold appeared behind Aubrey. Merigold grabbed Aubrey’s hair and started to braid it, so that she couldn’t grope her as easily.

Flora asked, “Now, Hilde, care to explain why the idol of gluttony looks like you with pig features?”

“Probably a bad joke by my sisters. They claim I’m a glutton just because I eat a lot. Especially sugary things.” Flora gave her a questioning look. “Okay, I do eat a lot. That is true.”

Merida added, “I noticed, at breakfast, ye’ve seemit tae aye hae thirds if no’ fourths.”

“Well, that’s because of my talent. The magic helps, but it still saps a lot of stamina and burns calories. I think my diet is something like 80 to 100 thousand calories a day. At least it used to be.”

“Used to?” Flora asked.

“Well… now it would be nice if I could just blow Mark, or eat out Mary. When the TF says that it is now my favorite meal, it isn’t close. Like, think about the most delicious meal or dessert you’ve ever had. It’s better than that. Plus, it's a full-course meal.”

Aubrey let out a slurred. “B’aaaa baaaa’a ba baa’aa’ baaaaaa ‘aa baaaaaaa… baa baaaaaa, baaa’?”

“I know.” Hilde nodded. “It isn’t the same. Don’t get me wrong, I’m tempted to let Ellen increase my size slightly so I can stock up on some, but it is the difference between leftovers and the original. Or maybe frozen vs. fresh pizza. The quality drops considerably if not from the source.”

Flora said, “Hold up a second, did you understand Aubrey’s baaing?”

Hilde nodded, “Yeah, so her TF compels her to baa instead of saying words, but the baas correspond to words. Her TF translates her intended words into the baas and then forces her to say the baas. Just like Merida’s Scottish TF. My messing with the code allows me to see the underlying magic of the TF.”

“Like all the time?”

“As long as I want to, yeah. I decided to get used to it I would just leave it on at all times. I figured my mastery of it might be critical to help my sister, so even if it is disorienting sometimes, I’m going to get used to it.”

“So what did Aubrey say?”

“That there was a vending machine that sells Mark’s cum, and as I said, it isn’t the same.”

Flora held up a hand, “Shhh! We’re getting close, keep a lookout for the other team, but also Mary and Chloe.”

The five rode towards the city. This city seemed to be home to Elves, fairies, and kemonomimi, primarily, with few normal humans. They were about to head towards the stables when a short chestnut-haired bunny-girl wearing a cloak approached them. “So, glad I caught you before you entered.”

Flora asked, “Do we know you?” Flora examined the short woman and had to admit she was insanely attractive, and she seemed familiar, but she didn’t recognize the woman.

“Right, I changed my face. It’s me, Mary.”

“I believe you, but damn, you look nothing like yourself.”

Mary pulled out another cloak, “Put this over Aubrey right now. I’ll lead you to where Chloe is.” Mary climbed up to ride with Hilde.

Merigold complied with Mary’s request, but Hilde asked, “Why does Aubrey need to hide her appearance?”

Mary shook her head. “Later, when we are all together and off the road.” Mary led them north, circling the city. They found Chloe waiting off the road, looking at travelers. They came up behind her. “Hey Chloe, I found them.”

“HOLY SHIT!” Chloe said, clutching her chest. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

The six dismounted their horses and tied them where Mary and Chloe had tied their horses. Flora said, “Okay, so explain why we didn’t just stable our horse and enter the city?”

Mary pulled out a set of wanted posters. “These.” Mary passed around a set of posters of varying quality, showing all of them but Ellen. “Flora is the least accurate, which makes sense. Between your boon, making fewer people notice you, and you generally being sneaky ranged and having a hood to obscure your face, they just have a generic description to go on, really.”

Flora interrupted Mary, “Before you go on, can you or Chloe help sober up Aubrey?”

Mary and Chloe both nodded and started pulling out things. Chloe asked, “Mary, will your solution solve the problem?”

“No, it will remove the immediate haze on her mind, but she’ll get intoxicated again as he body processes more of the alcohol.”

“Perfect. I have something that will make her handle alcohol better. It should just result in her being tipsy instead of sloshed.” The two administered their products. Chloe just tipped a vial of liquid down Aubrey’s throat, while Mary had to let Aubrey suckle her teat.

Chloe looked at Mary, “That’s seriously the only way for that to work?”

“No, but it is the least egregious way. Holy cow, does this feel good.”

Aubrey let out a, “Ba baaaa baa baaa baaa baaaa.” in a complaining tone.

Hilde snorted out a laugh, and Mary turned to her with a questioning look. Hilde said, “Aubrey wanted to say, ‘I think you mean holy sheep.’”

Chloe snorted a laugh and smiled at Aubrey. “Glad you are at least partially back to normal love.”

Mary then said, “Okay, back to the discussion. Like I was saying, they have wanted posters. Flora is the least accurate. Merida’s is also a mess, but I think that’s because they are confusing Mira, Merigold, and what I looked like with her. They have decent likenesses of Chloe, Hilde, and what I looked like in Asherland, though not how I look right now. Aubrey… they actually have a near flawless picture of you, and you aren’t going to be happy as to why.” Mary handed two different wanted posters of Aubrey to her. The first looked like her right now, including her gear. The second looked like her, except her sheep features were replaced by cow ones, with a notice that read: ‘Mad Cow-Girl: if you see anyone with this likeness, report her to the authorities immediately. She is either a champion of Smug or afflicted with Mad Cow-Girl and is highly contagious. DO NOT ENGAGE!’

Aubrey was furious, “BAAA BAA BAAA! BAAAAAAA!” Aubrey got out her phone and sent a message to Cassandra.

Aubrey: WHAT THE FUCK! WHY DO THE COW-GIRLS ALL LOOK LIKE ME!

Cassandra: I mean, I thought it was obvious? Did you not look at the first idol closely? It was you as a cow-girl. Plus, the audience is eating this shit up.

Aubrey crushed the phone in her hand simply to find a new one between her breasts a moment later. She fished it out and put it away.

Flora said, “Well, I can sneak in and put the idol in place, but I’m not sure if I can prevent someone from stopping the desecration alone. This isn’t like the small village, with limited guards and clergy.”

The group heard the roar of the wind as something passed far overhead with speed. Mary recognized it instantly, or rather, recognized her instantly. “Well, shit. Sam’s here. I couldn’t make out the two on the back, but I think I know who they are by process of elimination.”

“What do you mean by the process of elimination?” Flora asked.

“Well, when I looked at them, I couldn’t help but think there goes part of my hoard, when looking at Sam, but I can tell the ones riding her aren’t part of my hoard. So it isn’t Allie or Laura. That makes sense if they were splitting up. I’m willing to bet they sent a team to deal with the Mad Cow-Girl outbreak. I would send Laura and myself to deal with that, plus whoever else I could. Primarily because Laura, and by proxy, me, should be immune to the disease. If I had to guess, Allie is also with Mark and Laura. Mostly because Isabella could make Allie something with her boon, but I don’t think she could make it for anyone else. That leaves Talia, Isa…” Mary furrowed her brows. “Isa… Ooookay… I apparently can’t say her name properly. So Talia, Isa, or Sadie are on Sam’s back.”

“Baaa baaa!”

Everyone turned to Hilde. “She said, well, shit.”

“Aubrey, care to explain?” Mary asked.

“Baaaaaaaaa, ba baaaa baaaa ba baa baaa baaaaaaaa baa ba baaaa baaa, baa ba baa’a baaaa ba ba baaaa.”

Hilde translated, “Personally, I think Talia is the most dangerous one on their team, and I don’t think it is close.” Hilde then continued. “Personally, I agree with Aubrey. If she hits us with a time bubble, we could be in real trouble.”

Chloe asked, “Is she really that big of an issue? Also, from what we saw, isn’t it six vs three?”

Mary shook her head, “No. There’s the town guard on their side, too. Considering that Freya was a knight captain in Asherland, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is at least one notable NPC here, too. After all, not all of the idol quests can be easy.”

Flora nodded. “This quest was also between medium and very high risk. The variability was most likely based on whether any of the other team’s members showed up and how many. Mary, did you happen to find a way inside the walls for us?”

“Well, I could just walk in before, but I don’t think I could now.”

“Why not?”

“Sam’s there.” Flora rolled her hand for Mary to go on. “Well, considering I have a hoard and was able to tell that it was Sam and not Mark on instinct, I’m willing to bet that Sam will be able to identify me if she lays eyes on me. It wouldn’t surprise me if she could pick up my scent, too. I say that because Sam has called me her treasure before. If I have a hoard containing people, it isn’t a stretch that Sam has one, and it contains me. For the rest of you, though… I think Hilde and Merida can get in at a point around the northwest section of the wall. It has a fairly short distance from the tree line to the wall and is lightly guarded. Flora, you can obviously walk in.” Flora nodded. “Aubrey and Chloe, though, no chance.”

“Actually,” Chloe said, “One of us could probably get in, but I’m not sure how long we could remain inconspicuous. I can make one potion of invisibility. It lasts for ten minutes or until you take a hostile action.”

Hilde asked, “Do we want to try to assassinate the other team members? Flora, you could go in and find them, come get Merida, Aubrey, and me. We go in and hit them before they know what’s happening. It was pretty decent when Ellen and I did it.”

“Haud up.” Merida said, “Look, I’m no’ sayin’ it isn’t a decent plan. Juist… Cassandra explicitly said she wis balancin’ TFs tae some extent. There is nae way that the ither team has nae way tae detect hidden enemies. I’m no’ sayin’ a' o’ them or that it will negate yer boon entirely, Flora, but let's be real, if they dinnae hae somethin’ tae penetrate yer boon, that wuid almaist be unfair. They at least wuid hae tae hae access tae somethin’. I wuid guess that either Talia or Sadie wuid be the person tae hae that power, tae. Actually, could ye activate yer boon for a wee while? Allouin' me tae be unaffected.” Flora nodded, and everyone but Mary and Merida no longer registered her presence. “Chloe, Hilde, Aubrey, dae ony o’ ye smell somethin’ odd here?”

Each sniffed the air, and they shook their heads. Chloe replied, “What are we looking for? Our sense of smell isn’t as good as yours.”

Merida asked, “Chloe, please sniff here.” Merida indicated where Flora was standing, making Flora slightly uncomfortable as Chloe obliged.

“I do smell something. It does smell slightly different than the surroundings.” Flora reappeared inches from Chloe’s face. Chloe stepped back in surprise. “Whoa! Okay, I’m guessing that I was smelling Flora then.”

Merida nodded. “I thocht that micht be the case. Alsae, ye wur able tae actually connect the smell wi’ Flora, meanin’ that pairt o' her boon isn’t workin’ either. Sam has an excellent sense o' smell noo. She’ll pick ye up, Flora, if ye get ower close or are upwind frae her.”

“That’s good to know, but we aren’t abandoning this quest. So let’s take thirty minutes to an hour and come up with a plan. Aubrey, would you mind reaching out to Ellen? We might want the whole gang here.”