Making Preparations for the journey

Silvan woke up first and quietly climbed out of bed. Tila was sleeping peacefully, and oddly enough, in one of his old shirts. They had both passed out naked together after making love, so she must have woke up some time during the night to get the shirt. Silvan found himself very pleased with the sight of his little cat girl cuddled up in bed in the over sized shirt. She was softly purring and had her nose buried in one of the sleeves. Yeah, he was starting to fall for her. He had no intention of stopping the brothel, but he might need to ask her to cut back on taking clients... But first he would need more girls to take her place. The Doll would be a step int he right direction.

Silvan quietly crept down the stairs after dressing and found Slippy in the kitchen, a potato floating inside her, slowly being digested. It was odd to see her actually eat, since she usually got her fill with her clients. Silvan waved to the slime and and looked around. Mona was usually up and cooking by now. He concentrated and drew on his bond to her, and found that she was sleeping soundly. Thanks to the bond, he could find the girls and sense their feelings no matter how far he was from them. Judging by the distance he felt from her right now, he guessed she passed out in whatever barn the "Party" had taken place in. He chuckled to himself and figured she would stumble back in sometime later in the afternoon.

But then he felt something odd. Opening himself to the bonds wasn't really a one girl thing. He would feel all of them at once. And he was feeling not three, but four women. He carefully touched upon the forth bond and found himself feeling Winona's content sleep. She was holding on to Andreas and felt very happy. Silvan hadn't thought it was possible, but somehow... Somehow he had tamed a human.... He decided that he would worry about that later, considering Winona had basically not changed at all.

Silvan went down the stairs and quietly left so he wouldn't wake up the sleeping lovers or the old man that Slippy had once again entertained the night before. It would just be Andreas and him on this trip, so Silvan could easily spring for supplies and horses for them. There was only one general store in the whole town, so his shopping options were limited. He pushed through he door and found a bored looking little red head sitting behind the counter. She perked up when she saw him, and Silvan wondered how much of a reputation he had now.

"Welcome, is there something I can do to help you?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for some supplies. I'm about to be leaving town for a week so that I can help a friend find some artifacts and possibly get a new girl for the brothel."

"Artifacts," asked the girl, a look of surprise crossing her face.

"Yeah, apparently a hidden stash from some long dead empire was found recently, but one of their Dolls is keeping people from exploring the cave. I'm to tame the doll and then my friend can explore the cave a bit."

"Soooo, its partly a treasure hunt?"

"Yeah, should be a good trip."

The girl became thoughtful for a moment before suddenly smiling broadly.

"Um, could I come? I want to have an adventure so badly and if there is treasure, I might be able to buy my way out of this little town! I can give you a discount on the supplies and I can be useful I promise!"

She suddenly pulled and odd device out from under the desk and held it out for him to see. It had a handle with a trigger and a barrel that opened on one end. There was also a slot for something to be put in.

"This is a Thunder Gun. Its a Dwarven device that can fire bursts of lightning with the proper runes placed in it. I managed to haggle for it and some runes a while back in the hopes I could go off on an adventure someday."

Silvan examined the gun for a few minutes before handing it back. He was a decent fighter with his knives, and Andreas was a capable fire mage, but having the added thunder magic would certainly be a boon. He would need some extra supplies for the girl, and another horse, but if the discount was good enough that wouldn't be a problem.

"Alright, but you have to pull your own weight on this trip."

"I will, I promise! Oh, my name is Pepper by the way."

"Nice to meet you Pepper. Tell you what, you get the supplies ready and I'll go see about the horses. We'll meet outside the brothel in about an hour."

Pepper agreed and took the money for supplies and he left. He knew a farmer down the road a bit that bred and sold horses to other farmers. Silvan managed to haggle for the horses, paying full price for one, half for the second and trading three free visits to the brothel for the third. All in all, Silvan managed to come out on both the horses and supplies better than he had hoped. He still had more than enough money for anything he or the girls could need, and didn't even have to dip into the funds for the brothel's upkeep.

When he rode up the the brothel a short time later, Andreas and Winona were just coming out, and Silvan's poor friend looked drained. Winona on the other hand was grinning like a little girl with her first crush and had a blush going on that gave away their morning activities. Andreas eyed the third horse for a moment as Silvan dismounted.

"I see you took the liberty of readying for our trip. You've come into some money I take it. Buy why the extra horse? Are you bringing that much in supplies?"

"No, we have a third in our party. The girl at the general store heard the word treasure and begged to come."

"Ah, I see. Well, it is hard to say how much the Yul will have left behind, but she is certainly welcome to some of it. I'm more interested in the academic value anyway." He then directed his attention to Winona who was hovering nearby.

"Thank you for the wonderful evening... And morning. When we return could I possibly...."

"Oh certainly! I'll be waiting for you." Winona was almost giddy with joy that Andreas was hoping to see her again. Silvan slightly opened the bond with her and had to **** it closed again after being struck by a wave of pleasure that nearly knocked him off his feet. She was almost as obsessed about Andreas as Tila was about him.

A few minutes later, Pepper arrived carrying several satchels worth of supplies. Introductions were made all around and soon the trio was setting off.