On to Slann

I rode through the limbering Redwood trees onto the dirt road. Exiting the shade of the trees I immediately felt a wave of humidity roll over me. The sun was at its apex in the sky and the trees to the sides of the road offered no shade to travelers. Off in the distance, I saw Reina and Andreas. They seemed to have slowed down to a walk to let me catch up, but now Reina seemed to be keeping a 3-meter gap in between her and Andreas.

I spurred my horse after them. My grip on the reins tightened and I couldn’t stop kicking the horse with the stirrup. I moved one hand into my cloak to fondle my pouch. Good. It was still there. But I still couldn’t shake this restless feeling. It all started after I had ejaculated. My horse seemed to notice that something was off with me and slowed down to a trot. It started to shake its head in a panic, unsure if it should continue on or halt.

“Sorry, Jag. My bad,” I said in a soothing tone, attempting to calm him down. I placed a hand on his neck to comfort it. The jittery feeling seeped out of me like I was the one being comforted instead. My feet fell still in the stirrup and I felt a return to normal. There was no more uneasiness. Jag fell still and stared straight ahead. After I calmed him down I released my hand from Jag’s neck. Immediately the horse neighed to life and launched into a full sprint down the road. The earth rumbled mutters beneath the clopping of hooves. I gripped the reins as hard as possible to keep myself from being thrown off. The hot wind whipped my hair back from my face, but it was still cooler than baking in the sun. I had never ridden so fast before, the wind felt good. Jag sped down the dirt road towards where Reina and Andreas were waiting. At this pace, I would catch up in a dozen seconds. But where had this newfound speed come from, he was galloping faster than a warhorse, that shouldn’t be possible.

I dug my heels in and pulled back on the reins as hard as I could in order to keep Jag from flying by Reina and Andreas. The horse skidded to a halt in between them.

“Welcome back. Is your horse ok bro?” asked Andreas after witnessing my dramatic arrival.

“I think so, he’s just a little hyper at the moment,” I replied, still juggling the reins to keep Jag’s head still. He still occasionally danced around, letting out the rest of his excess energy.

“Right. By the way, did you feel that earthquake too?”

“Huh, an earthquake?” I searched my memory for a moment, “Oh right, I did. So that’s what it was. I had never experienced one before.” Back when Jag started to take off I remember the earth vibrating ever so slightly. Andreas gave me a considering look before shaking his head. He turned his head back forward and placed a hand to his chin, muttering something to himself.

Reina was riding to my left. Her face staring down towards the road, not even glancing towards me. Her cheeks were still slightly red from what had just happened.

“Reina. Could we talk? Away from Andreas.” I said the last part in a whisper, hoping Andreas wouldn’t hear. Luckily for me, he seemed to be lost in thought with his eyes focused on the road.

“Sure,” Reina nodded her head, but she still wouldn’t make eye contact with me. We slowed our horses down until we were out of earshot distance of Andreas.

“Um... about earlier,” Reina started the conversation for me. One of her hands was twirling her hair around her fingers and she looked at me sideways. “Andreas made me do… that. He threatened to leave if I didn’t do it. I would’ve never done it otherwise. You have to understand, I swear I’m not a pervert!” She gripped her hair and looked at me with pleading eyes. “You… don’t hate me now… do you?”

“I could never hate you, Reina. But I guess I understand it a little better now, the fact that you did it for us.” I scratched the back of my head. “I was just… surprised is all.” When we reached Slann we could ditch Andreas and stop all this nonsense. I wanted Reina to stop bending over for Andreas. Literally.

Reina brought her horse within a centimeter of mine and leaned into my chest, wrapping her arms around me. The scent of flowers drifted from her hair as she turned her cute face upwards to look at me. I twisted in my saddle a bit so I could return the hug better. Who knew that women’s bodies were so soft.

“I’m so glad.” A smile floated onto Reina’s lips. “Lewis really is so kind. You’re the only one for me.” When I heard those words my heart started to pound faster than it already was. It felt like it would beat out of my chest. Now was as good a time as ever. I decided to confess to her.

“Reina. I love you, please go out with me.” It took everything I had but I finally managed to say it. I held my breath in anticipation. Reina’s eyes widened and she pressed her head back into my chest.

“Yes. I love you too. I’ll go out with you.” Her voice was muffled as she said it into my chest but I heard it loud and clear. I began to smile uncontrollably, it felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“I’m so happy Lewis.”

“Yeah, me too.” I stroked her hair with my hand as she snuggled her face against my chest. One of my dreams had come true. I was finally going out with my childhood friend, Reina. She raised her head and wrapped her arms around my neck, leaning in to kiss me. My first kiss. It was a quick peck but I felt the softness of her lips if even for just a second. I wanted more but Reina put a finger to my lips.

“Later, ok? I want to ask you something first. Earlier… um... you came while watching Andreas take out the… buttplug, right?” She looked at me intently. My cheeks started to grow hot.

“Well… yeah, but… I couldn’t help it, it was a really erotic sight. I don’t know what got into me back there. I usually don’t cum that fast. I swear. Please believe me.” I quickly tried to justify myself, giving out whatever excuse came to mind. Reina giggled, “Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’m not shaming you for it. I’m your girlfriend now. I would never do that, I was just making sure.” Reina unwrapped her arms from me and settled herself back in her saddle.

“Because to be honest when Andreas took it out of my butt, I too... came a little. It felt really good.” Reina said while tapping her fingers together. “That you were also able to enjoy it makes me kind of happy. If you want,” Reina’s hand changed to make a circle in between her thumb and four fingers. Then she moved it up and down slowly in a gesture to suggest that she was jerking off an imaginary cock. “you can jerk off to it later, Andreas made sure to record it.” Her eyes narrowed down and a naughty grin formed on the edge of her lips.

What was Reina saying? When had she learned to talk and act like this? When had the change happened? The Reina I knew used to wear long skirts with modest dresses. Back in the village, whenever Pitt used to comment on the size of her breasts, she would glare at him and send him stalking off. And when perverted old man Jacob tried to cop a feel of her ass, she twisted his arm so hard he never tried it again.

“No… it’s okay Reina, the memory is good enough for me. And you don’t have let Andreas do anything to you anymore. Once we enter Slann we can leave him behind, and you can go back to wearing your old clothes.” I said with a smile. Sadness flashed across her eyes, if only for a moment, but I still caught it.

“Is there a problem?” I asked.

“I really don’t mind him touching me, Lewis, but if that’s what my boyfriend wants.” Reina gave off an ‘it can’t be helped’ expression and continued, “Also, I like these lighter clothes, anything more in this weather would be too hot… Plus... he said I looked sexy in them.” Reina muttered.

“Oh, I see. I guess that makes sense. Um, what was that last part? I couldn’t quite hear, sorry.” I barely just couldn’t make out the words she said at the end.

Suddenly Reina slapped her cheeks with both hands. “Nothing! Nothing at all. Okay. I’m good now.” What was that about? “Let’s go rejoin Andreas.”

“Oh. Okay.” I was hoping to spend some more alone time alone with Reina, especially since we had just started dating. Oh well, at least Reina wouldn’t let Andreas grope her anymore. It still felt too good to be true. I’ve wanted to date Reina ever since I could remember. We caught up with Andreas and continued down the dirt path. After an hour of traveling, the Modoc forest stopped and the dirt road merged onto a large stone road wide enough for 3 wagons to travel down it side by side. Along the stone road, we passed by merchant wagon trains with rag tagged guards and scattered farmers carrying sacks back to their homes. Farms lay all along the road and the farmland stretched as far as the eye could see.

It took another five hours of riding along that stone road until we finally saw Slann off on the horizon. The sky was an orange shade as the sun began to set, but I could see Slann clearly. A 10 meter stone wall surrounded hundreds of roofs and chimneys. At the center of the town was an even higher stone wall of about 15 meters that enclosed the small inner city of giant mansions and palaces. Symbols of the nobility.

“Wow, so that’s a city.” Reina breathed.

“It’s really nothing special,” Andreas said flatly. In response, Reina stuck her tongue out at him.

We approached the gate to find it closed. A lone guard leaned on the wall above the gate seeming unaware that we had even arrived.

“Watchman,” Andreas called out, “we want to enter the city. Open the gate.”

The man jumped at the sudden voice and leaned over the wall to look down at us. On closer look, the guard was quite overweight for someone who was tasked with guarding a city. He was balding with hair only on the sides of his head and had an untrimmed beard. The man’s face was just a little pudgy.