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Kelda doesn't even bother hiding her stare as you disrobe fully. She offers a silent smile and slides into the tub next to you.
The hot water is quite refreshing, and a welcome change to weeks of being on the open road. You feel your muscles relaxing and stress fading away.
The wild woman slips an arm around your shoulders. "So... bath first? Or shall we... have a bit of fun?"
"Oh?" Ameiko glances over at you as you ask her your question. "...well, I am alright. Mostly."
"It's just..." The bardess' face screws up in thought for a moment before she sighs. "...Valeria, I've got a question to ask you."
She taps the snake tattoo on her arm & shoulder. "Do you want to know why I got this?"
"Well it looks like the Queen of the North star, has more places in mind for you to see. And I for one am happy to be on the journey with you."
Koya chuckles and offers you a motherly hug. "Likewise."
"Now, there's something else I've been meaning to ask you." Koya gives you a knowing smirk. "I'm sure you've noticed how most of the others have been gettin' cozy with one another, yes?"
"The way you taught me how to study people it would be hard not to." Kasha replies with a grin.
So it does have something to do with that tattoo. she thought to herself.
"I've been wondering about it. Although now I'm starting to think the story behind it's not the heartwarming tale of teenage rebellion I always assumed."
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Their room. Together.
"I suddenly feel like the little lost fox you found in the woods." Haru says as she gathers her belongings from the floor beside the table. "And I have to remind myself, I'm a grown fox now... and hope yous ee that."
"The way you taught me how to study people it would be hard not to." Kasha replies with a grin.
Koya nods and her grin turns into a serious thin line. "Well, I was just wondering if you were feeling alright with all that. Jealousy ain't exactly a fun thing to experience."
Kasha is silent for a moment, letting out a sigh. "I'd be lying if I said seeing them didn't bring up a twinge of....I don't now.....loneliness maybe? But I'm happy to see my friends happy. Missed opportunities or lost moments are just that I suppose."
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Kelda doesn't even bother hiding her stare as you disrobe fully. She offers a silent smile and slides into the tub next to you.
The hot water is quite refreshing, and a welcome change to weeks of being on the open road. You feel your muscles relaxing and stress fading away.
The wild woman slips an arm around your shoulders. "So... bath first? Or shall we... have a bit of fun?"
Still blushing a little looked at her and reached up to caress her cheek for a moment.
"Fun first... definitely that."
He said kissing her and letting himeself be drawn into her charms and embrace.
Their room. Together.
"I suddenly feel like the little lost fox you found in the woods." Haru says as she gathers her belongings from the floor beside the table. "And I have to remind myself, I'm a grown fox now... and hope you see that."
Shalelu helps you gather your things and leads you up the stairs. "I do. And every time I watch you in action, I feel proud to have helped you along."
She doesn't say much until the two of you find your room--"Room 339". This room is furnished with two beds, with a curtained window giving you a view of one of Kalsgard's side streets. A simple desk is in the corner with a chair before it, and on the wall between the beds is a painting of a snow-covered pine forest. Strangely, the room smells like soap--it must have been cleaned just before you arrived.
Shalelu sits down at the edge of one of the beds and kicks her boots off. "Hmm."
Haru happily steps out of her own shoes. Then she shudders. A ripple passes through her body as she resumes her natural shape, a long bushy tail appearing as if from no where.
"Its like taking off a corset." the bard says with a laugh.
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Kelda licks her lips, and without another word, she pounces on you...
--------
"I've been wondering about it. Although now I'm starting to think the story behind it's not the heartwarming tale of teenage rebellion I always assumed."
Ameiko half-shrugs and leans against the corridor wall. "Well, you're half-right..."
"I never told you about how I got into adventuring, did I?" There's no trace of humour on Ameiko's face--only uncertainty and regret. "It was about nine years ago..."
"I was about sixteen years old, and my home life wasn't exactly storybook--Dad and Tsuto hated each other's guts, and I was stuck with the job of looking after him. Eventually, at some point I just... well, snapped." Ameiko sighs. "Living with him with only the help to keep me company was just too depressing for me to continue going along with."
"I ran away from home, and signed up with an adventuring group based out of Sandpoint. They were led by one of the kindest priests of Shelyn I ever met--one Alder Vhiski." She smiles in remembrance. "It was through him that I met Sandru, in fact. We both wanted a chance to get away from home and see the world."
"Our group ran around Varisia for a good few months, pursuing bands of goblins raiding farms, exploring old ruins, and getting enough cash together to perhaps retire early. We had a good thing going--Alder was the one who inspired me to become a bard in the first place, in fact." She looks at the samisen on her back.
"...It didn't last." The bardess' face falls again. "Our group heard of a local mine in the southern Fogscar Mountains that some local lord wanted to open again. He hired us to clear it out." The weight of the memory seems to be causing Ameiko some grief... she starts to sit down, sliding down the wall.
--------
Shalelu looks you over once more as you shift back to your vulpine form. "Never thought much of corsets--they're too restricting, and uncomfortable to wear."
She slips out of her leather armours and lies back on the bed with a sigh. She stares at the ceiling for a bit. "Haru, do you think I focus on work too much?"
It hurt to see Ameiko reliving those memories. Any anxiety she felt from her feelings for the bardess disappeared at the sight and she sat down next to her. She put her hand on Ameiko's shoulder to try and reassure her, but didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say and the few things that came to mind felt too much like they'd be making light of what she already guessed had happened.
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Haru begins stripping out of her clothing. This part isn't awkward. While it might have new meaning, she and the ranger have bathed together before.
"When I was younger, I thought you and Ameiko were secretly lovers." Haru admits, taking the long way around to answer the question. "I realized in time that you didn't have a lover because you were all about what you did. And you do it so well! The people of Sandpoint and the entire Lost Coast owe you a thousand times over. For goblins and what you did during the Runelord quest and..."
Haru sits down next to Shalelu.
"I do think, sometimes, you spend so much time being Shalelu the ranger you may have never learned what it likes to be Shalelu the person."
"I'd be lying if I said seeing them didn't bring up a twinge of....I don't now.....loneliness maybe? But I'm happy to see my friends happy. Missed opportunities or lost moments are just that I suppose."
Koya nods in understanding. "That's always good to hear."
"Now, I've been curious... with all this goin' on, have you given any thought as to what sort of person you'd like to settle up with?"
-----------
"I do think, sometimes, you spend so much time being Shalelu the ranger you may have never learned what it's like to be Shalelu the person."
Shalelu is quiet for a while as she ponders your answer. "...and, well, you'd have a point there."
"For a long time, I felt like I had something to prove." She sits up in bed next to you. "No matter how many goblins I shot dead or people I rescued, it felt more like I was putting off sitting down and really thinking about what I want out of life. Hells, I even served a stint as captain of a military unit at one time and I still didn't feel much better about myself."
"Oh, that's right--I never told you about my time with Crying Leaf's military."
-----------
Ameiko gives you a grateful look as you sit down next to her. "Yeah... we were expecting a gang of goblins, or kobolds, or perhaps even derro when we delved into the mine."
"What we found instead..." The bardess leans into you. "...it was a family of degenerate cannibals."
"Bastards were smart. They let us think the mine was empty until we were in too deep to immediately run like the hells opened up." Ameiko bites her lip and wipes her eyes with her sleeve. "Alder, though... he stood up and took charge of getting us out."
"I have no idea how long our group spent down there, dodging deathtraps and clashing with them at almost every turn." She looks down at the floor. "If it weren't for Alder, we'd all have died down there, had our skins flayed off and eaten. And odds are, given our luck, it wouldn't have happened in that order."
"Which brings us back to this." She taps the tattoo. "The patriarch of the cannibal clan was a druid of some skill, and he loved snakes. He and his pet were half the reason we almost didn't escape--the snake he kept with him was almost as large as a man."
"By the time we made it back to the surface, the only survivors of the whole fiasco were myself, Sandru, and Alder. We ran for the river, and by some grace of Desna, we found a rickety little rowboat we could use to escape. That's when the snake bit me. Twice." She coughs a little before managing to compose herself. "Alder pulled me to safety, and the snake killed him instead."
"All I could do was watch as the cannibals caught up to his corpse and started eating it as we sailed away."
"Gods, Ameiko," Valeria was shocked that she had gone through such an ordeal and put an arm around her shoulders, "I'm sorry. You think Alder's death was your fault?"
Ameiko sniffs. "Part of me certainly thought so."
"Sandru and I made it back to town, and told the lord what we found. He marshalled his forces, and they cleansed the mine--no mercy or quarter shown or given." Ameiko leans back against the wall and her jaw clenches. "We were told there wasn't enough left of our friends to bury."
"He gave us the money he promised us, and on the back of that and other treasures we found in our adventures, I bought the Rusty Dragon. Turned it into the pride of Sandpoint's adventuring scene, and settled down for a spell." A look of relief creeps onto the bardess' face. "I got this tattoo--" She pokes her snake tattoo again. "--about a month after I bought the Dragon. It was my way of honouring Alder's..."
She clears her throat. "...death."
"You and Alder were close, weren't you?"
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Ameiko is silent for a while before she finally replies. "Yes. The first time I'd ever been that way..."
"After I opened the Dragon, things settled down for a while--and in that time, quite a few people sought to try and woo me." She lets out a little chuckle. "Especially that one hero during the whole Runelord debacle--what was his name? Valeros? Of course, it didn't pan out--I think Shayliss got jealous and more or less dragged him off by his ear."
"But... well, none of them could replace him. It was just too soon."
She turns and looks into your eyes.
"And then I met you."
"Are you playing matchmaker?" Kasha asks with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.
"Honestly, I guess someone who can appreciate nature and the natural world." she replies a bit more seriously with a shrug."Someone with a good heart......it doesn't matter if they were......a boy or girl." she says blushing a bit "I've....had.....friends of both." she trails off turning a deep red.
This wasn't the kind of conversation she planned on having with her mother right this moment, though somewhere deep down it felt good to say aloud.
Valeria smiled a bit at the mention of Valeros, the man was... quite the character. And the mental image of Shayliss dragging him away didn't hurt either.
And then Ameiko mentioned meeting her. Her eyes widened slightly and the blush returned.
"M-me?" she stammered, the nervousness returning and her mind swirling too much for her to do anything about the arm around Ameiko's shoulders.
"No!" Haru cries out, surprised but pleased. She can feel things shifting and the social situation changing. Big sister becoming an equal. Perhaps more. Hopefully more. "Please tell me. I want to know everything."
Haru shifts, turning on the bed to give Shalelu her full attention.
Koya pats you on the back. "That's a good set of standards you've got there."
"Here's hopin' you'll stick to 'em."
She's about to say more when you're interrupted by a rapping on the window.
"Yes, you." Ameiko smiles at you and puts an arm around your shoulders in return. "You remind me of him in a couple of ways--you're smart, passionate about what you do, and when I got into trouble, you went down to the wire to get me out of it."
"And... well, you have an amazing pair of legs." She pointedly looks at the slit in your skirt.
Shalelu settles in on the bed and sighs. It's a sigh of relief and contentment--you get the impression that this might be the first time in a while that your mentor's allowed herself to just take a load off.
"It was back in the summer of '10... y'know, that season where there was that weird Blot over Riddleport?" The elf gives you a quizzical look. "I left Sandpoint for a few years because I was asked to come home to Crying Leaf--they needed my help with a military skirmish of some sort."
"The unit I was attached to was a scouting one--our job was to locate enemy encampments and report back. Our foes were quite strange to me... admittedly, I didn't know what I expected at the time. I mean, I'd expect my hometown's armed forces to be able to take care of goblins."
"As it turns out, our enemies were a band of elves, except they had skin blacker than the night sky and a streak of cruelty that'd give Chelaxians pause." The look in the ranger's eyes turns distant. "We clashed with them several times, each time getting closer and closer to discovering where they were striking from..."
Getting a puzzled look, Kasha goes over to the window, pulling back the drapes.
Haru, gently, places one hand on Shalelu's knee.
"It sounds awful."
Of course, Haru remembers the half-elf, Ameiko's brother, who was so wicked he encased his father while still alive in molten glass. It seems elves are capable of cruelty no matter what color their skin.
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Pulling back the curtains, you see an annoyed Spivey sitting on the windowsill.
"There you guys are! Why'd you ditch me back at the caravan?"
Shalelu nods. "It was."
"We tracked the elves to where they made their stronghold--an ancient, ruined elven city called Celwynvian." The ranger's face turns grim in remembrance. "We had them bottled up in there and were preparing to start flushing them out... and that's when some mercenaries from Riddleport came rolling in. The gnome was polite enough, but there was something about the half-elven warrior that put me off..."
She shakes her head. "Anyway, they volunteered to explore the city and drive out the elves inside." She drums her fingers on the bedspread. "And to their credit, they did an admirable job of it... even when the dragon the enemy struck a bargain with intervened."
"It took all of us to bring it down, but we did it." Her face adopts a look of triumph. "And, long story short, once we took the city back, I decided to go on my own way back to Sandpoint."
"And it was on my way back to Sandpoint that I found you, my little fox."
"You obviously saw death and ruin there but you also triumphed." Haru leans in, shoulder to shoulder, with Shalelu. "And you found a home. And now we're putting a friend on a throne and there will be an entire nation we can pick from if we succeed."
Haru's tail slowly sways back and forth behind her, lazily.
"I am your fox, Shalelu. Every since you found me in the forest. I just... I just had to grow up a little first. And you waited for me."
Shalelu leans into you, staring at the floor. "Indeed. And part of me is wondering just how likely it is that we will..."
She turns to look at you, her eyes half-closed. "But for now..."
...
...
She leans into you...
"Yes, you." Ameiko smiles at you and puts an arm around your shoulders in return. "You remind me of him in a couple of ways--you're smart, passionate about what you do, and when I got into trouble, you went down to the wire to get me out of it."
"And... well, you have an amazing pair of legs." She pointedly looks at the slit in your skirt.
The blush was just growing stronger on Valeria's face, though she did smile at the last bit and she couldn't help but lean into Ameiko a bit further. She stammered a bit before speaking again.
"Gods, I wish I had your skill for always knowing what to say. My brain's turned to mush. And I think you gave me a bit of mood whiplash by going that way after the story, too," she said with a nervous laugh.
"Well, I didn't want it to end on too depressing of a note before we hit the baths." Ameiko gives you a smirk. "And besides, all I'm doing is telling the truth."
"Now, come on." She moves to stand up and offers you a hand up. "I'm itching for a good dip."
Taking Ameiko's hand, she pulled herself up and followed the bardess down to the baths.
"Just a head's up; don't be surprised if I don't react to the bath heat. Being able to put up with more extreme temperatures does have some drawbacks."
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"I'll make sure to let the attendant know that." Ameiko nods in acknowledgement. "Now, let's--"
Her comment is cut off by the appearance of several disgruntled people walking down the hall, away from the bathhouse. She pulls you aside to let them pass, and as they pass you can see droplets of water clinging to their hair and dampening their clothes. Judging from their grumbling, it sounds like they left in a hurry.
"...huh. Wonder what's gotten them so grumpy." The bardess ponders as she leads you onward.
------------
When you reach the bathhouse, the first thing you notice is how steamy the place is. The ambient heat doesn't really bother you at all, but you can tell it's already making Ameiko perspire. A long window cut into the stone wall separating the changing room from the main bathing area shows a communal pool empty of guests...
...and you can hear the sounds of splashing and wild passion coming from one of the curtained alcoves nearby.
Ameiko's eyes widen and she barely stifles a bout of full-blown laughter. The nearby attendant is sitting at his post, reading a book and trying his absolute damnedest to ignore the cries of pleasure (and occasionally, one of pain) coming from deeper in the establishment.
Valeria's eyes widened even further as she recognised what she was hearing. "Do those voices belong to who I think they do?" she said; confusion, amusement and embarrassment all warring in her head with none of them coming out on top.
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Ameiko swallows and nods, barely keeping her composure. "...yep. They do."
The noises eventually die down, to the visible relief of the nearby attendant.
-------------
You're not sure whether you just survived the most erotic wrestling match you've ever had, or whether it was simply the wildest, roughest lovemaking you could have hoped for, but by the end of it, you're beaten, bruised, wholly spent, and somehow dirtier than you were when you first got in the tub.
The two of you made an absolute mess of the area around the tub--in fact, the tub is only three-quarters full of hot water now. The rest of it is splashed all around, and the bottles of shampoo and soap lie scattered about.
Kelda reclines next to you, a content smile on her face. "That was fun."
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"I guess Kelda and Subtlety aren't on speaking terms," she joked.
Pulling back the curtains, you see an annoyed Spivey sitting on the windowsill.
"There you guys are! Why'd you ditch me back at the caravan?"
"Oh I'm so sorry Spivey, we didn't mean to I swear! C'mon in." Kasha says giving the stunning little lyraken azata an apologetic smile.
Spivey flies in through the window and sits on the other bed. "Thanks. You know how long I was looking for you guys? Pretty long time!"
"And this city's sooo big... I mean, damn, I didn't think mortals could stand to build cities this big!" The lyrakien bounces up and down on the bed. "Soooo... what's been happening since you got here?"
"I'm pretty sure she's allergic to subtlety, Valeria." Ameiko whispers to you before moving to consult with the bath attendant. After a quick exchange of silvers, he gets up from his post and directs the two of you to a pair of unoccupied cubby-holes, where fluffy white robes and towels wait for you to change into.
"Oh, and... please keep the noise down, would you kindly?" The attendant asks, putting a hand to his temple and rubbing it. "And try not to make too much of a mess getting out."
"Not much, just talking, though we may have found a guide....I should say, not much with us....everybody else...." Kasha says with a chuckle.
Valeria tried not to laugh at the attendant's frustration as he directed them before starting to undo her boots (as much as she liked the look of boots that come up to mid-thigh, they were a pain to get on and off at times). Ameiko was probably going to be done changing before she even got started on her dress. And the thought of Ameiko getting undressed so close by didn't help matters.
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Finally, the kiss. The feel and taste of Shalelu as their lips meet. Haru's tail stands straight on end at the electric contact before it finally relaxes and she whispers.
"Don't turn off the lanterns. I want to see you the entire time. I need to know this isn't another dream."
"Not much, just talking, though we may have found a guide....I should say, not much with us....everybody else...." Kasha says with a chuckle.
Spivey blinks. "...everybody else is doing what? Lazing about?"
"It isn't, I promise." Shalelu whispers as she pulls you close and presses another kiss to your lips...
Ameiko seems to be taking her time getting changed, slipping off her boots with some effort before slowly taking off her belt and sliding her pants down to the damp stone floor. Her shirt follows suit, and she stretches once she's free of it.
She's still clad in white smallclothes as she slips into a robe and ties it. "Need some help there, Valeria?"
"Uhm...not exactly. From the looks of it some of our our companions have been getting closer over the course of your travels. Based on everyone's...moods out think at least a few of them are...indulging and admitting their feelings." Kasha explains.
"N-no, I'm fine - just tricky to get these started," she said, trying not to gawp and be distracted by Ameiko's state of undress.
Thankfully, she hadn't been lying about it just being hard to get them started and she'd finally gotten the boots off a moment later. She hurriedly removed her armoured dress and pulled the robe on, keeping her back to Ameiko so she wasn't distracted.
The robe clearly hadn't been designed for customers with tails, though, and she made sure to keep her tail hanging more-or-less straight down to avoid raising the back of the garment without thinking.