A Few Slow Days

Authors Note: I just wanted to quickly announce that I have updated all of the AI generated character art with new images that are way better than the old versions. The style is pretty different, with less of a focus on realism, but I'm really happy with how they turned out.

“[There, that is it. The pump is now complete.]”

Krvavy raises an eyebrow as she looks down at their handiwork. The stone pump is not really what the barbarian expected. Granted, she doesn’t exactly know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t this. The thing looks vaguely like a handheld vacuum in size and shape, with a cone connecting to a tube that extends down into the well.

Positioned directly above the well is a mass of stone tubes, twisting and spiralling around each other, all held up by numerous stone arches extending from the walls. Reaching down into the watery pit is a single long and straight pipe, slowly narrowing towards the submerged tip.

The entire confusing mass is coated in carved runes, though even those look different to what Krvavy was expecting. She imagined that they would look like Nordic runes, as that is pretty much the stereotype for both runes and Dwarves. But what Inanna made is... rather different.

The writing is made up of various arranged lines and triangles, forming repeated patterns all over the pump. Krvavy has no idea if those patterns are letters, words, or just her mind trying to make sense of it all. But there isn’t just writing carved all over the twisting tubes, as there are also numerous straight lines trailing around, each one ending with a circle. It honestly looks a bit like circuitry...

“[You will have to wait a while to see it in action.]” Inanna states, pulling the barbarian from her thoughts.

“[Don’t want to turn it on before we have somewhere for the water to go?]” Krvavy guesses.

“[Correct. That would put it through a needless amount of stress.]” The Dwarf nods her head. “[We should construct the rest of the system first. That will be comparatively simple work, if rather time consuming.]”

“[Yeah, it’ll be a lot of digging...]” The barbarian sighs out.

“[Mhm.]” Inanna hums in agreement. “[If you don’t mind me asking, I’m curious about how you intend to deal with the waste?]”

Krvavy stares at the Dwarf for a few long seconds. “[Fuuuuck...]” She groans out. “[How did I not think about that...]”

“[What about a septic tank?]” Inanna suggests after a few moments. “[With that your Elf would be able to collect the waste and use it as fertilizer, if she chooses to do so.]”

“[Beryl already has a spell to put nutrients into the soil, so I don’t think she’d need that...]”

“[The only other option within our current means would be to direct it into the river that runs below your home.]” The Dwarf states.

Krvavy grimaces slightly. She doesn’t like the idea of polluting the lakes down in the grotto like that, even if they don’t exactly use that water for anything and considering how the amount would probably be pretty negligible compared to the size of the lakes...

“[I guess there isn’t any harm in doing that for the sinks and showers, as the hot springs flow down there anyway...]” The barbarian idly mutters. “[But... I’ll just leave that decision up to you. You know more about all this stuff than I do.]”

Inanna gives a curt nod. “[Then we should get started. We have a lot of work ahead of us.]”

“Good girl!”

Khalia bounds towards Krvavy, skidding to a stop in front of the barbarian and dropping a stick onto the ground. “Wuhf~!” She happily barks out.

“Such a good girl~!” The barbarian ruffles her Orc’s hair.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Thea dryly asks from off to the side as Krvavy picks up the stick and throws it again.

“I can’t spend all day moving bricks out of the hot spring. And I don’t have enough mana to keep digging, unless...?”

“No.” The silver-blonde brat immediately replies as she draws an arrow back on her crude bow. “Tch.” She unhappily clicks her tongue, having missed the target by quite a bit, the arrow sticking into the ground close to a few others.

“Come here, good girl~!” Krvavy scoops the panting Orc up into a hug. Khalia’s chest quickly rises and falls with each heavy breath, so rather than make her run after the stick again Krvavy decides to sit down and drag the Greenskin woman into her lap.

“I thought that you wanted her to walk on two legs, like a normal person.”

“I do.” The barbarian replies, cuddling her excited Orc puppy. “I’m just... letting her get away with running around on all fours when its playtime.”

“Hmph.” Thea audibly rolls her eyes as she draws back another arrow.

“What, do you want to be called a good girl too~?” Krvavy playfully asks her brat.

With a thwap the arrow goes flying away off to the side, landing in a bush nowhere near the empty target. “Ugh! Look at that! You made me miss!” Thea stomps her foot and turns to glare at Krvavy, her face flushed ever so slightly.

“Aww, sorry.” The barbarian insincerely apologizes, causing Thea to narrow her eyes. “I couldn’t help but notice that you levelled up earlier. Good girl~!”

The silver-blonde brat’s face turns bright red. “S-shut up! And stop scrying me all the time!”

“One more level and you’ll have the trait for Endurance.” Krvavy points out, ignoring Thea’s complaint. “Do you know where you’re going to be putting your points after that?”

“Oh, I bet you are going to tell me...” The girl grumbles out.

“Not really, no.” Krvavy shakes her head. “I do think that you should raise your Allure up to match your Charisma, which will only take one point each level once it gets caught up. But if you do that, then you’d still have five free points per level to put wherever you want.”

“So you are not going to just tell me where to put all of my attribute points each time I level up?” Thea skeptically asks.

The barbarian shakes her head “Nope. I might tell you what I think, but its ultimately your choice. You are a big girl, and can decide for yourself~.”

The bratty noble girl’s eye twitches at that playfully condescending remark. “Then... where do you think I should allocate my future points?”

“Well, beyond slowly getting everything up to twenty-five, you should probably focus on Mental and Social. Your magic uses Charisma and Allure, so it doesn’t hurt to keep increasing those. And, let’s be honest, you could really use a bit of a boost to your mental stats as well.”

“Yea–Hey! What do you – Ugh!” Seeing Krvavy’s wide smirk, Thea immediately begins to pout. “You... you big meany!”

“Aww, does my little princess want a hug~?” The barbarian playfully teases, holding an arm out invitingly.

Thea takes a deep breath and places her bow aside. With an angry glare, the blushing girl begins to stomp her way over.

“Good girl~!” Krvavy coos out, pulling Thea into a hug.

“Wuhf~!” Khalia barks out happily, nuzzling against the bratty girl now pressed against her.

“You are such a bully...” Thea quietly mumbles out.

“And you like that~.” The barbarian teases back, kissing her brat on the neck.

Thea’s blush slowly spreads down to her shoulders, though she doesn’t refute that or even try to leave this cuddling hug.

“Your garden is looking nice.”

“Eh!?” Beryl jumps up and spins around, her eyes wide in surprise. “Ya startled me, my dearest love.” She sighs out upon seeing Krvavy.

“I didn’t think that it was possible to sneak up on you.” Krvavy idly comments. “Are you alright?”

“Nnm...” Beryl shakes slightly as the barbarian’s large hand gently cups her chin.

“Don’t worry, my sweet berry.” Krvavy whispers out as she leans in towards her Elf, their lips almost touching. “You just have one more day.”

“Haahhh...” The tomboyish Wood Elf pants out as the Drakling abruptly pulls back.

“Is everything growing alright down here?” Krvavy asks, acting as if she didn’t just tease her Elf.

“Y-yes, my dearest love.” Beryl gasps out, shakily lowering herself back onto her knees and taking a few deep breaths. “There aren’t many weeds growin’ down ‘ere, but Ah still have ta keep an eye out.” She reaches out and grabs onto a stem just barely poking out of the ground, pulling it and a bunch of roots out from the soil.

“Not having any problems due to, you know, this all being in a cave without any direct sunlight?”

“A little, ta be honest.” The Elf admits. “Ah’m concerned tha’ they won’t grow as well as they could outside. But it isn’t all bad, as they are more sheltered in ‘ere. We won’t need ta worry about losing them ta a storm or a sudden frost.”

“Oh?” Krvavy raises an eyebrow. “I get not having to worry about storms, but what makes you so certain that frost isn’t an issue either? It isn’t exactly warm down here, away from the hot springs.”

“The plants in this grotto are a little more delicate than those outside.” Beryl replies. “Not enough ta suggest tha’ it won’t freeze durin’ the winter, just tha’ the frost won’t be as bad. O’ course, Ah do suspect tha’ snow coverin’ up the skylights and blockin’ out the sun will be a bigger issue than tha’. Though perhaps tha’ is wha’ keeps the warmth in...”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Though I’m not looking forwards to a few months of complete darkness...”

“Ah’m sure it won’t be tha’ bad.” The Wood Elf reassures, grabbing another small weed and uprooting it.

“Oh, while I’m here...” Krvavy changes the topic, prompting Beryl to turn and face her. “I’m not really sure if you could help, but I was wondering if it would be possible to have a bunch of plants in and around the river that flows down from the hot springs? We might end up having to connect the plumbing to it, and I don’t really want to pollute the lake with our, ahem, waste like that.”

“Hmm...” Beryl thinks for a moment. “It would definitely be possible, but Ah’m not sure if it is somethin’ we could really do. Fer one, the beds o’ the rivers are mostly stone, so there aren’t many places fer plants ta grow in them. But more importantly, those types o’ plants are a bit out o’ our reach. They would be more common in wetlands, and there are no wetlands anywhere near here.”

“Well, it didn’t hurt to ask.”

“My dearest love, Ah’m not sayin’ we can’t do tha’!” The Elf hastily adds. “Ah’m sure there are rushes and bulrushes around the rivers in the woods tha’ we could use. It’s just tha’ those might not be enough fer wha’ ya want.”

The barbarian simply shrugs her shoulders. “It’s better than nothing, right?”

“Aye.” Beryl nods back. “Ah’ll see wha’ Ah can find next time Ah’m out. Ya aren’t in a rush fer them, are ya?”

“Nah, not really.”

“Good, good.” The tanned Wood Elf idly replies, before the two of them fall into a comfortable silence, her lips curling into a gentle smile as she dreamily sighs out.

“My eyes are a bit further up than that~.” Krvavy playfully smirks as Beryl’s eyes suddenly jump up to meet her own.

“Ahh... Hah...” Beryl awkwardly laughs as a slight flush fills her cheeks. “Ah’m sorry, my dearest love.”

“Seriously, are you doing all right? I didn’t expect your punishment to be... this effective.”

“Don’t ya worry about me. Ah’m doin’ just fine.” The tanned tomboy claims as she does her best to ignore the juices trailing down her thighs.

“Mhm, sure.”

Beryl slowly sighs out. “Ah spend my days around numerous attractive women who are constantly baring their bodies. It is only natural tha’ Ah get aroused.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t get this pent up when I went on my little adventures.” Krvavy points out.

“O’ course not. Ah was allowed ta relieve myself. And Ah didn’t ‘ave ta deal with the extra temptations tha’ ya being around brings.” The Elf sighs out. “Every time Ah hear Thea’s screams o’ pleasure Ah can only imagine myself as the one squirmin’ beneath ya...”

“Fair enough.” Krvavy shrugs her shoulders. “I just didn’t realize you were so... horny. In general. Not just now specifically.”

“Neither did Ah.” Beryl gently replies, trying to keep eye contact as best she can. “Perhaps my body is simply tryin’ ta catch up on lost time? Or perhaps like Thea Ah too ‘ave been affected by yer lust, just not ta the same degree o’ course.”

“Well... I should probably get out of your hair then. Don’t want to make you slip up so close to the finish line.” The barbarian smirks a bit as she reaches out and ruffles Beryl’s short hair.

“Tha’ may be fer the best...” Beryl quietly breathes out.