Mind to mind secrets in the bath, and an intruder

When you HAVE SEX, on a 7-9:

• Your sex attracts hostile forces, monsters, or enemies of Boarbristle. Gain +1 XP and describe the lurking threat. Next: GET OUT OF DANGER.

You soak in steaming water in the copper tub of House Beavertail's secret guest suite, sitting facing Tess Lectura, with the waterline right below your nipples. Your prominent nipples, both of you. Your gaze is locked with Tess's, your bare eyes facing Tess's flame-framed glasses. Tess holds her forefinger to your forehead, and you hold your forefinger to hers. You feel your auras mingling, sensations sloshing back and forth between you. Your heartbeat and breathing has a single rhythm.

One mind, one heart, one vision.

Was that you or Tess?

One breath, one bone, one blood.

Tess, must be Tess.

No ire, no fear, no competition.

Tess. But it might as well be Morgan.

You imagine your fingernails flexing out like kitten claws. A ripple of soundless laughter flows back and forth between you and Tess.

Tess narrows her eyes behind her glasses. Secrets, she sends.

Your mind opens like a flower. Images bloom.

Oh, Fay, you sense from Tess, Oh my.

Golondrina entangled with you and Morgan upon a bed, a flame-haired Amazon connected by fingers, tongues, cunt and arse. Golondrina straining with climax, the muscles in her back standing out as her hips rock in waves of joy. Golondrina soaring in dragonform upon the updrafts of her faraway mountains.

Your thought, echoed a half-moment later from Tess, Dragonfucker.

Secret is, secret stays, Tess sends.

Tess's pupils expand to pools of darkness behind her glasses. Her memories reach out and capture your mind, and you're there, her memories now yours.

A wet wall of flesh clutches you from behind from toes to mid-back, pulsing and flexing against you, squeezing you against your sex partner, the daring and mercurial Jason Argo from House Leontes. A long, leading conversation about your talent for transformation magic had brought you here, wonderfully full of his cock, as the hot walls of flesh squeeze you together. There's a rumbling sigh from across the landscape of your third partner's body from her distant lips. Jason had charmed Dorothy, Boarbristle's half-giantess Porter, to open her very personal love grotto as your trysting place. With your Transformation shrinking you and Jason to ragdoll size, Dorothy's cunt is a strait, taut binding around you, hot and alive with Dorothy's pleasure, pulsing, rippling, squeezing as Dorothy enjoys sharing the excitement of a fucking couple filling her fully.

"Oh DARLING ones," Dorothy says, her brassy voice rippling through you like gusts of wild wind riffling the pages of a book. "You feel so GOOD. So GOOD when you MOVE. SO good INSIDE me. YES, dears, FUCK. FUCK. LOVE each OTHER and let me FEEL your JOY inside. INSIDE me. YES."

Dorothy's shaggy red bush curtains you and Jason Argo like the tall grass of a meadow. Her clitoris, a slick, swollen, head-sized ruddy pearl, looms over your shoulder, throbbing, like a hooded priestess nodding as she blesses your fuck. You and Jason are slippery all over with Dorothy's juices. When you were first getting situated, Dorothy had suddenly moaned, clamped down, and showered you with a sudden ejaculation, sweet, rank, and heavy.

It's difficult for you and Jason to work up a good rhythm, held inside Dorothy's cunt as you are, but your hips are deep enough inside Dorothy that you have a bit of room to thrust and grind at each other. With a little squirming round and a lot of moaning from Dorothy, Jason finds his footing and braces himself so he can give you a good steady string of thrusts. "Yes, yes, yes, harder," you direct Jason, "Almost there, almost there, there, there, there, there, THERE!"

You explode in climax, throwing your arms out wide and whipping your head back to smack right smartly into Dorothy's clit.

The earth moves. Your body tilts. A roar fills your entire world, Dorothy's climactic scream cutting through your flesh, making the air in your lungs vibrate with a heart-shaking throb. Hot blasts of ejaculate drench the back of your head. Dorothy's cunt clamps down and pain joins your pleasure as your ribs crack.

You blink back to yourself. Fay. Sitting in the bath with Tess. You lean backward, withdrawing your fingertip from Tess's forehead. Tess is breathing hard, her face flushed, perspiration streaming from her forehead down her cheeks.

"Well, that was something," you croak in Tess's direction. Your pulse hammers in your ears. Beads of sweat roll down into your eyes. Your clit and your nipples ache, hard-swollen and throbbing with your pulse.

"I can still feel it," Tess says. "You cracked me open, Fay. It's like it just happened to me."

"I can tell," you say. "I tip my hat, Miss Lectura, you have the better of me."

"Haha, at least this time I just got the orgasm without the broken ribs," Tess says. She gives you a long look.

"Popped your top, missy," you say, laughing. "And if you can remember it that well, you don't need to get your ribs cracked again."

"Well, I'd know better now," Tess says. "It was a dare. And having Jason Argo after me for being Tess the Transformer, that was flattering."

"Sounds like he was a user," you say.

"I did feel a little, well, used up," Tess says. "I wouldn't do it again, but I suppose I'm glad...proud, maybe? Glad I did it." She pushes her damp orange hair back away from her glasses.

"How did you not end up in Leontes?" you ask. "That was daring."

"Haha, much too kinky for Leontes," Tess says. "It was foolish and brave enough, but, well..." she trails off into a giggle. "It was much too daring for me. Out of character, really. I was practically a little book mouse before that. Jason was such an inciter, a chaos angel. Good thing he transferred out before he burnt one of the Houses down."

"How long were you in the Infirmary?" you ask.

"It was between terms," Tess said. "So Miss Wormwood just kept me. I think she was bored, nothing much doing till the broom polo team came back and started bringing in their bumps and scrapes. I ended up feeling like her laboratory rat. How does it go, intelligences vast and cool and unsympathetic ?"

"Haha, sounds like her," you say. "Morgan rather likes her. Or at least enjoys her attentions? I'm not sure Morgan knows, herself. Nurse doesn't like the way I taste, so she bites me to dose me, or gives me a tonic or a philter and brusquely sends me on my way."

"I can't imagine why she doesn't like your taste," Tess says. "But there's no accounting for Lesser Gorgons. At least I think that's what Miss Wormwood is."

"So where do you think I could fit in at Happy Bunny House?" you ask Tess.

Tess laughs and shakes her head. "Just soak it in for a bit," she says. "They're genuinely nice here, and they won't push if you don't want to be social all the time. I mean, look at my House Service, I was a copyist in a bleak little study carrel, and happy as a squirrel stacking up nuts for the winter. But yes. Loaf in the common room. Pet the cats. Get hugs from Mommy Housemistress." She clears her throat. "But you do have a talent. Talents. Working with the first and second-years gave me the chance to get a rock-solid grounding. To turn my talent into a power I can rely on." She rolls her shoulders and tilts her head round in a circle. "Ahh. Anyway, you're actually not bad as a teacher of practicals, like broom."

"Right," you say. "I was convinced I didn't have the patience for being a teacher, but broom practicals kept me on the hop, and they didn't cringe when I tried to jolly them on. But I don't know that Teacher's Helper...well, I don't know, maybe Teacher's Helper for conjurations, but that's outside of House Beavertail in the proper sense."

"I know Hemstitch gave you a hard time when she was interviewing you," Tess says. "But she's perfectly fine to work with once she actually dives in. And now that you're a Beavertail, you're family. Hemstitch and Beeblossom work that way, and most everyone takes their cue from Tutor or Housemistress. Hmm. You know the other thing you'd be good at, here, would be working as a Prefect."

"Hahahahaha, me? A Prefect?" you scoff. "Henhouse, meet fox."

"Well, that's why I'm not a Prefect," Tess says. "You'd be an improvement on Susan Quaffle anyroads, and I think you'd take it seriously. Susan isn't actually empty-headed, but she's a bit dull. Prefect is a good way to get in with Hemstitch, you'll see more of her and you'll learn things. And if Tutor is behind you on something you want, you'll pretty much get it."

"So, teaching practicals," you recapitulate Tess's advice. "Prefect."

Tess adds, "Or, since you're solid with Conjurations, Housemistress was looking for someone to help with some garden plan she has. We're still chilly outside, but Beavertail does have a glasshouse for propagation and wintering, and Housemistress uses that sometimes to test garden magic before she brings it to the outer air. I know she's worked with Master Elbegast, if you're interested in devices. And..."

The floor jolts, sloshing a wave across the bathtub. Tess puts a finger to the temple of her glasses. They become great round lenses held in thick dark frames. Her eyes look disproportionately huge behind the glasses.

Tess holds a finger to her lips to ask for your silence, then touches it to your forehead.

Something's got in, she sends. We should go.

Not quite as safe as houses, then, you think.

Tess stands guard as you hurriedly dress, wet under your brown and gold Beavertail robes, then you stand watchfully, wand at the ready, while Tess puts herself back together. Your shoes are back in Tess's room.

When you lift one foot to blot it dry, you see a tiny crimson-red bead of blood on the sole. It slowly oozes out and then drops onto the floor.

You point to your foot. Tess's expression tightens and she grips her wand. She stares at the door out of the bathing room.

You put your robe on over your damp skin and take up your wand. The hair on the back of your neck prickles. There's something out there in the guest suite.

You have Ambition +2, Bravery -1, Cunning +2, Diligence +0; XP: 2
FRIEND: Morgan, who also owes you a FAVOR.
You have a date to HAVE SEX with Cook, who walks about in a mouthwatering scent cloud of cinnamon apple tart.

Roll +BRAVERY(-1) to GET OUT OF DANGER

⚅⚂ - 1 = 8

When you try to GET OUT OF DANGER, on a 7-9, you fend off the threat at a cost. Choose one:

• You're injured or exhausted by the effort. Gain +1 XP and a CONSEQUENCE.
• You have to call for help. Expend a FAVOR.
• You get away, but someone's still in danger. ENCOUNTER someone who can help. If you fail, GET OUT OF TROUBLE.