In a safe place

Helena woke up slowly. She was wearing a large shirt and loose pants. Her sword was nearby on a table, as was her breast plate and grieves. The buckle on her breast plates had been fixed and the dents banged back into place so that it was serviceable again. She looked around but didn't recognize the room she was in. The bed was fairly large but the room had little in the way of furniture. There was a rickety wooden dresser and a table with a chair, but nothing else. Helena stirred to a sitting position just as the door opened and a familiar face came in.

"I'm so relieved to see you awake princess."

Tagryn stood in the doorway, a sad smile on his face as he looked her over. He had a cup of tea in his old hands and he brought it over to her and sat beside her.

"Here, drink this. I didn't expect you to be awake so soon or I would have brought two."

"T-thank you," Helena responded weakly as she took the tea and drank.

"I'm so glad to see you safe and awake. I... I examined you when they brought you back and... I'm so sorry princess. I should have gone with you. I could have stopped that nightmare..."

"No... The fault is mine Tagryn. I was tired and weak, so I made a mistake and didn't check to see if my enemy was dead. I paid for that mistake. The others? Paxia?"

"All well, thanks to you. Arthur has been recalled back to the castle and has been ordered to remain in command of the defenses. Natalie is working to help clean up the mess at the prison, and the others are doing their best to help where they can. The women you saved have already given birth and are recovering at the castle. The... children, were put down at the moment of birth of course."

"What did you mean about the prison?"

"Oh... Yes... While you were underground with your party, a large group of the monsters attacked the prison. It was overrun. Guards and prisoners alike either became breeding hosts or food. The survivors gathered help from nearby adventurers and a patrol of soldiers and a barricade was set up around it. General Thorston was placed in charge of the taking back the prison and saving who could be saved. Instead... He had engineers build some catapults and launched flaming pitch and boulders into the prison. He burnt the entire structure to the ground. There were no survivors."

"What? Surely father didn't stand for that?"

"No. Thorston was stripped of his rank and titles and has been left chained to post in the square. The families of the people lost in his attack were not kind to him. The entrance to the tunnels under the prison has been sealed and Knight Commander Riddel has taken over command of your project. She led an expedition into the tunnels yesterday but her team hasn't returned yet."

"Was she the one that saved me?"

"No. In fact, your father thinks you are dead. He has declared you lost to the creatures. Groban and Paxia, along with those three soldiers you saved were the real heroes. Those three grabbed a squad of their friends and went AWOL for three days to try and track what happened to you. Paxia and Groban gathered some adventurers and Brintley saw to the supplies, and then they all raided those tunnels and as much of the river as they could. When they finally found you... I heard that they took great pleasure in making sure the creature had a slow ****."

"So if father thinks I'm dead, then where am I?"

"Your father has sort of... lost some of his sanity after thinking he lost you. He blames himself. So we brought you here. This is Groban's house. He said there was no way you would be done fighting because of one loss, but your father would refuse to let you leave. So we brought you here and have been taking turns watching over you the past two days."

"Tagryn.... Thank you. Groban is right though. I'm not done fighting yet. Can you get word to Arthur and Natalie that I'm ok and will be back out there soon?"

"Yes your majesty. Just rest for a few days and get your strength back."

Tagryn fed her after that and stayed for a time to make sure she was ok. A few hours after he left, Groban came in, looking exhausted. The big Orc walked in to check on her and seemed a little shocked she was awake.

"I didn't know you were already up or I would have come home sooner. I'll get Brintley to bring you some cloths tomorrow."

"Yeah, I forgot to ask, but who dressed me?"

"Oh... That was me... I had some spare cloths in my pack so when we found you... I couldn't just leave you like that. Tagryn healed you as much as he could but we didn't have cloths for you. Your dad sort of had your room sealed and we couldn't smuggle anything out for you."

"I heard he has slipped a bit since..."

"Yeah. Helena... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you behind. Paxia told me that you pushed her out of the way. She washed out by the docks and barely managed to make it back to land. Then twenty minutes later we had a dead beast wash out but you weren't there. After that, everything went to hell and we couldn't do a thing to help. We couldn't find you. If Reese hadn't been so damn brave and defied orders, we may never have."

Helena shakily stood and walked over to her big friend. She stumbled on the way and Groban caught her in his arms and guided her back to the bed to sit beside her.

"Groban, its ok. You were a hero. You defeated a tentacle monster on your own and then carried one of the missing women to safety. I'm proud to have you as a friend and to have fought beside you."

Helena gave his thigh a reassuring pat. And then looked down at his muscular leg. His pants had a small rip where her hand had been, and through that hole she could see a fairly recent suction mark. Groban moved her hand away and started to stand.

"Was that from today?"

"Yes. It happened I went into the tunnels and killed a few more today. One got a grip on my leg for a moment, but I killed it."

"Did you take care of the venom? Its dangerous to leave that alone."

The big Orc was normally fearless but he looked away from her nervously.

"I haven't needed to take care of their venom even once. It doesn't affect me that much. I have a high libido anyway and their venom basically just feeds it a little. Ashlin gave me a blowjob that day to help, but really I was fine. I felt bad about it and confessed to her later but she just laughed and told me it was a reward for saving her."

"O-oh... I didn't know you were able to shrug off the venom."

Then something struck her and she reached out to gently grab his shirt.

"Can I reward my hero too?"

"Helena that's not needed. Really. I failed you."

"Groban... I was **** into my last sexual encounter. I'm choosing this one. Honestly... I need it. I need to feel in control again."