The morning after.

Authors announcement: Hello everyone, I have returned! I am feeling considerably better after my time away, and am ready to start posting chapters again. With everything pretty much back to normal post covid, my free time has practically gone up in smoke. For that reason, in the future I'm not going to stick to a set schedule, but write as and when I can.

As a side note, I am still not 100% on this chapter as some on the writing feels much choppier than normal, but I decided to go ahead and post anyway as planned, then go back and edit things later. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Love and kisses, H.B.

The soft light of dawn dapples the canvas roof above as my eyes slowly peel open. I yawn hugely, my efforts at stretching entirely thwarted by two soft and rather warm weights resting either side of me, the sleeping forms of Lisa and Melody.

I can’t help the smile that crosses my lips as memories of yesterday’s night of debauchery play in my head. Night of debauchery was not that far off, something about this place had done wonders for my sexual stamina. I’d had to take a brief break after round two to recover (if Melody pushing me back down and ordering Lisa to sit on my face could be considered a brake) but things had only escalated from there.

After our initial time together, Melody seemed more than happy to let Lisa join in on the fun, something I had no objection to whatsoever. Throughout I had respected Lisa’s wish to wait, instead, my sister and I heaped attention on our harpy lover, much to her evident enjoyment.

Glancing down at my bed-mates, I got the distinct impression that neither would be waking for a while. Both women looked content, with small smiles on their beautiful faces. The realities of the situation were beginning to catch up with me, and I couldn’t help the core of nerves beginning to form in my chest. I was going to be a father.

The thought is unreal, and more than a little scary. But laying still, enjoying the warm embrace of my two wonderful lovers and thinking things through help calm me a lot. Did I regret last night? No, not at all. In fact, I had no regrets. I was going to have a daughter, a daughter who would one day become the leader of her people. It certainly helped that the process of making her had been a lot of fun too…

Feeling a lot better about things and hopeful for the future, my mind moves to less heavy topics. I have no intention of waking the sleeping beauties up, at least not yet, but I knew I wouldn’t be getting back to sleep either. So, to kill time, I did the earth equivalent of scrolling through reddit on my phone; I opened up my interface.

Over the past day or so, I’d actually been wrestling with a thought. I loved receiving notifications; it improved my mood seeing every time I improved a skill, or gained Exp. But, as much as I enjoyed them, over the past couple of days I’d found myself hording them, then reading them in one big go.

I decided then and there that this was something I needed to change. Perfectly good bonuses were sitting idle in limbo, the Attributes provided not applying until they’d been read. For a time, I considered why I’d been putting my notifications off. ‘What can I change to make them less intrusive when they do occur?’ Soon, my mind settled on, if not the whole answer, then at least part of it. There was simply too much goddamned information.

Learning that I was 1% better at so and so, or that I’d earned a chunk of Exp, both of these were interesting, at least to me, and were the type of thing I absolutely loved to read into whenever I had the time, but day to day? It was far too much. And so, I came to a decision. I needed to simplify things. Five minutes later, I was satisfied with my changes. Holding my breath, I opened my notifications.

0----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0

Your Skill in Perception has increased to 6.

Your Skill in Leadership has increased to 11.

Your Skill in Water Magic has increased to 7.

The Spell, ‘Minor Ice Spike’, has increased to level 4.

The Spell, ‘Minor Ice Shard’, has increased to level 5.

Your Skill in Polearms has increased to 5.

Your Skill in Persuasion has increased to 7.

Your Skill in Analyse has increased to 5.

Your Skill in Life Magic has increased to 9.

The Spell, ‘Minor Heal’, has increased to level 9.

Your Skill in Looting has increased to 4.

Gained: 34CP, 12SP, x1 unknown potion.

Your party has defeated the following in combat: x5 goblin scouts.

Your Skill in Hugging has increased to 7.

Your Skill in Survival has increased to 5.

Exp gained

Progress to next level: 39%

0----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0

‘Ok, much better.’ I nod, satisfied with the change. The information was concise, and much easier to digest. Whilst there were more notifications waiting in the wings, and no doubt quite a few achievements, I held off for now. Despite a mild curiosity, I had the distinct feeling that going any further would **** me to confirm if I wanted to take Hedonist or not, and that was something I wanted to avoid until all my family were together.

The second (and arguably more pressing) reason was the warm, wet tongue teasing the underside of my rapidly hardening member. With a soft moan, I push the notification window aside. Reaching out, I run my fingers through the silken hair of my older sister, who smiles up at me, her face full of warmth. “Morning, Adam.”

“Goodm-ooooohhh” My reply is cut off as Lisa takes my length into her mouth, her nimble tongue sending ripples of pleasure through me. The corners of her lips twitch upwards at my evident enjoyment, then she reaches out, one hand wrapping around the root of my cock whilst the other gently cups my balls.

I attempt to stifle my moans in an effort not to wake Melody, but I clearly fail. The well-fucked harpy stirs, her eyes slowly opening as she peers at me sleepily. A beatific smile spreads across her face as her eyes lock on mine, replaced quickly by a look of mild confusion as a tiny moan slips out of my lips despite my best efforts. Propping herself on her knees, she glances behind her, spots Lisa hard at work diligently and audibly polishing wood, then grins.

“Havin fun without me, eh? Well, that won’t do.” I grin sheepishly, shrugging. Before I can phrase a proper reply, however, the harpy scoots closer and cocks a leg and straddles my head, facing Lisa. For the briefest instant, I get a close-up glimpse of the insatiable bird woman’s dripping sex. Then she lowers herself down, sitting on my face. Any thought I have of getting out of bed and on with my day is instantly quashed between soft, supple thighs, but can’t say I mind overly much.

“So, there’s some big bad demon on the other side of this forest that has destroyed a whole kingdom full of humans, and it just so happens to share my name?” Meldoy, firmly ensconced in her favourite seat in camp (my lap), thinks for a moment, then nods. “Pretty much, yeah.”

It had been fifteen minutes or so since Melody, Lisa, and I emerged from the tent. My sister and I had been rather sheepish, especially given the rather flushed looks levelled at us by the rest of our family (we hadn’t exactly been quiet). Melody had been a different story, proudly displaying the various hickeys she’d demanded I give her.

The hickeys, whilst slightly embarrassing, were definitely preferable to the alterative. ‘Bloody exhibitionists. What kind of community sees walking around town butt-naked liberally coated in cum as a badge of honour?' That thought had shortly been followed by another. ’And when can come to visit?’

Shaking my head to clear the thoughts, I tune back into the conversation just as Ash says, “That’s tooootally a coincidence, right? The fact that the best option for achieving, erm, some of our goals just so happens to have our brother picking a path with strong ties to demons. Nothing suspicious there! Not. At. All.”

Whilst Ash, Em, and Mum had initially been surprised when Melody had stared (and subsequently hadn’t stopped) talking, they had taken the revelation rather well. The fact that this probably didn’t appear on the top ten of world-shattering revelations or changes that had happened this week probably helped things along considerably.

After we’d made ourselves comfortable (or as comfortable as one can be with an insatiable bird woman with a bad habit of wiggling sat in your lap woman), and Melody had kept her promise, filling us in about the local area. Honestly, despite my hopes, the information had been a little underwhelming.

The forest we were just about to leave was huge, a truly colossal sea of trees that spanned several hundreds of kilometres. Without access to a map, the information Melody could provide was only vague at best.

For instance, there were peoples of a myriad of races that called this forest home, scattered all thought the forest. This list included, but was not limited to, at least three distinct types of Elves, several flavours of Beastkin, a race of deer-taurs that Melody didn’t know the proper name of, and a large and rather rambunctious population of non-corrupted Goblins. Whilst she could tell that such races lived in the forest, finding them would be a completely different matter.

One thing she did say stuck with me, however. “If you do meet anythin’ other than human out between the trees, don’t expect a warm welcome. Your kind if not known for its tolerance of anythin’ different, so I can’t say I blame anyone who comes across a human for stabbin’ first and askin’ questions never.” The topic had quickly shifted off of the surrounding races and on to this so-called lord of ash, which had been what prompted Ash’s initial question.

“Which leads me to what I wanted to talk about next.” All eyes now on me, I continue, “Whilst I do want to think that it is a coincidence, the last thing I want to do is sweep genuine issues under the rug. I haven’t checked yet, but I’ve probably completed the requirements for the quest that’ll let me become a Hedonist. The last time we talked, a certain flighty goddess promised me that she’d look into things for me by the time that I’ll be able to make a decision.”

“No doubt that information is ready to go, and obviously, I am more than happy to share. This will be a decision that effects all of us, including…” I blush, hugging the clearly curious harpy closer to me, “the future mother of my child, so I want all of us to know what we’re getting into and have a say on that, sound good?”

Four nods, and one confused but enthusiastic chirp. ‘Good enough for me.’ With a sense of trepidation, I bring up my menu and access the rest of my notifications.