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The Shroud was hot and bright this spring.
Beasts picked through the trees with their young in tow, sunlight piercing the canopy in thick shafts. Wailers wandered the roads on patrol but Tsimh was deep where the paths didn't go now, making her way through bushes and brush. A hunt bill promised a fierce monster and a great bounty for slaying it, but its tracks had run cold and now her focus was on setting camp to have a base to reach out from without having to head back to Bentbranch.
First, though, she wanted dearly to be rid of dust and leaves and everything else that had settled on her.
The miqo'te Warrior of Light wandered a while, taking in a pack of deer where they went through the woods and birds swooping overhead to bring wriggling grubs back to their nests. Chicks chirped and cubs brayed, the sounds of spring all around her. And above it all, soon came the welcome bubbling she had her ears perked up for.
Tsimh followed the spring's bubbling to its source, picking through the trees and undergrowth until soil gave way to stone. Rocks lay nestled around where the water broke free of the earth, pooling in what might have started as a crater before running down one side in a stream to disappear back into the Shroud. But the miqo'te stopped, for the splashes she'd assumed the work of an animal easily chased off had another source entirely.
A familiar man stood with his back to her, naked as his nameday and up to his knees in the water. His dusky skin glistened in the sunlight and dripped where he washed, droplets running slowly down his toned back to a pert rump. The viera was lithe, arms and legs honed by travel and adventure, black fur and hair down where the water weighed on it. He hummed a tune as he bathed, one she didn't know but the voice was so very familiar indeed. Splashing as he bent down for more he poured more water across his hair and rubbed it through, fingers dancing over his ears to tug out the dust and dirt.
Tsimh took a step without realising, eyes on Erenville where he crouched in the pool. Her foot found a twig, a branch, something that snapped. Everything went slow as the sound rung in her ears, louder than anything, making her jump before she caught up with what she'd done. The rava man's ears twitched sharply, head turning before the rest of him. A golden eye transfixed her, dark lips parted with surprise.
He turned halfway before he stopped, shoulder facing her, face turned to her. Now she could see the front of him and what a front it was, nothing to hide him from eyes that couldn't help but wander off his face, drawn by what swayed and dripped. A carpet of down covered his chest, his black nipples peeking through it where they stood pebbled. Tsimh followed that trail down across fine muscles and a flat belly to where it joined the rather thicker but still short bush around the base of his manhood. That was soft and even so it drew her like a magnet, watching it stop swaying from his sharp turn, the balls beneath furry and full resting against his thigh. More downy hair adorned his legs right to where they disappeared beneath the water, likely all the way to his feet at her guess.
The delicious sight left her speechless, breathless, frozen.
Erenville smiled.
“Fancy seeing you out in the Shroud,” he said, as though he were not utterly naked to her eyes. The sheer boldness of it completely disarmed her of anything she might have replied.
“Erenville?” Tsimh finally mustered.
He chuckled. “Yes, it is I.”
She managed to look at his face. “I didn't expect to find you here.”
“The Forum is most insistent that we have a specimen of a particular kind of vilekin found only in the Gelmorran ruins for Labyrinthos,” he explained, “and so, here I am.”
“Naked.”
“Naked,” he agreed. “I did not realize it was customary to bathe clothed in the Shroud.”
Tsimh bristled at his sarcasm. “You could at least be a little less brazen about it!”
He shrugged and turned away, looking over his shoulder. “Do not tell me the Warrior of Light has never had to make do with what water she can find?”
The keeper of the moon shook her head. “No, of course.”
He smiled at that admission. “And you were never chanced upon?”
“Once or twice,” she conceded. “But I never just stood there and flaunted myself!”
Erenville chuckled. “We adventurers must needs grow accustomed to uncomfortable situations, must we not? I lost any shame about my body long ago through experience.” He gestured at the forest. “How odd we must seem to the wildlife that we cover ourselves so.”
His words stirred memories, the days when she still lived with a close-knit group of families in the La Noscean rainforest. She'd bathed happily with the other women then, no shame, nothing hidden.
Erenville cocked his head. “If you were after a wash of your own I will not be much longer. Though, I do not mind sharing if you don't?”
Tsimh snapped back from the past, suddenly hot. He hadn't meant it as a challenge but there was too much between them for her not to take it as such, the glint in his eyes as he looked at her mischievous. There'd been too much the whole time, the Forum's secrecy those first few bells in Labyrinthos, the concern about Meteion and all else the second. And before she could catch up and they could have it out, he was gone, off around the globe once more.
Only to turn up here.
“I don't mind,” she said, shrugging off her pack and setting it down. “So long as you don't ogle.”
“Gleaner's honor,” he replied with that grin, lifting a hand in oath before obediently looking away. Even so Tsimh turned her back, the image of his fine rump lingering and making wetness trickle teasingly through her folds. She bit her lip and stifled a hiss as a fang pricked it, starting to strip before she could have second thoughts. Jerkin followed by leggings joined her boots and socks in the grass, her smalls swiftly following to leave a messy pile by the pack. She turned back to find the rava still looking away, washing himself rather slowly while she made her way to the spring. Bare feet dodged stones and sticks before plunging into the water, a shiver running through her at the sudden coolness and her tail stiffening.
“How long have you been here?” the miqo'te asked, stepping in until the water was just above her knees.
“Only two days,” Erenville replied. “I had hoped to find guidance in Gridania, but all who know the ruins well either fell during the Final Days or else are about their duties in the Shroud. I have been following one but she continues to wander ahead before I can catch up.” The viera chuckled. “Tis well she does, else I might not have met you here.”
Tsimh looked at him, scooping water over herself. “You sound pleased that I am,” she grinned.
“Why would I not be?” the rava shrugged. “I had hoped to see if you learned how to impersonate a toad better since last time.”
She laughed. “Don't mock me, Erenville!”
“Fine, fine,” he nodded. “I hoped we could talk without conspiracy and the apocalypse looming over us.”
Her breath caught, but he stayed resolutely turned away. His hands were still as were hers. “What about?”
“Do not tell me you are blind to it,” he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “Us, of course. Fellow travelers, and more, I should like. I dare to think that you would as well.”
Tsimh found only sarcasm but settled on it. “Well, I've already seen you naked, so that's closer than most men have gotten.”
Erenville laughed again. “Is that so? Then dare I ask if I might steal a peek?”
Tsimh eyed him, seeing how his muscles tensed and he shivered. She could smell him too when she waded a step closer, the musk she'd so dearly missed and it was all the more pronounced without the dust of the road and the scent of his clothes to hide it. “Yes,” the miqo'te breathed, and watched his head slowly crane around. She stood open to his eyes, the golden irises meeting hers first before Erenville looked down her body.
To say he studied her was an understatement, he took in her every facet intently with too much emotion in it for that. If she was his subject then it was one he relished, looking her over with the excitement of a schoolboy handed something forbidden and told he could read openly. His ears twitched with youthful glee, eyes caressing her neck, her breasts, her belly, her hips, her slit, tender and delicate in their exploration.
Oh Menphina, she wanted to feel his hands charting the same course.
“To your liking?” the miqo'te asked, tail coiling with a little anxiety when he failed to speak.
“So much that I was at a loss for words,” he finally said, grinning at her. “Was a peek all I was allowed, or-”
“Turn around and look all you like, Erenville,” Tsimh laughed, sharing the grin as he spun and laid himself bare to her as well. His cock was harder than before, the head starting to peek from under the skin and a droplet dripping from its tip.
“Thank you for your courtesy,” the rava smiled. “I say we are even again, now.” The grin turned playful as he put a finger to his lips in thought. “Although, it is because of you and yours that my fellow gleaners and I must no longer toil every hour of every day preparing to flee the star, so I suppose I must still owe you something.”
The miqo'te grinned. “And how do you plan to repay that debt?” she purred.
“I must put the question to you, I think,” he said. “How ought I begin to redress the balance?”
She knew what he wanted, because it was what she wanted as well. “You come here, to begin,” the Warrior of Light said. “This is long overdue, you rogue.”
Erenville grinned wider and waded to her until they were front to front, all on show, all open to one another. He raised his arms, golden eyes seeking permission, a nod from her granting him leave to take her by the hips. “Rogue, am I?” he purred. “Twas you skulking about Labyrinthos, misleading a gleaner just going about his duties-”
She stood on her tiptoes and shut him up with a kiss, fierce and greedy and longing, tongues coming into play almost immediately. Oh, the sounds, so raw, so primal, the very song of wanting, needing, his hands sliding so his arms could hold her too with his fingers gripping her sides, her own on his back and giving that delectable rump of his a squeeze. He groaned at that right into her mouth and Tsimh purred back, his name a muffled thing from her lips that gave way to a gasp when he reached down and stroked her tail with a firm grip.
She was warm and wet and wanting, every ilm of her surrendering without a fight to how dearly she wanted this man. Another stroke of her tail made her shiver in his arms, sighing his name against his mouth and digging her fingers in until he made a sweet little sound in turn.
“Aren't you glad that I did?” she teased breathlessly when they parted.
He grinned cheekily. “Mmm, mayhap.” His thumb found her tailbone and rubbed, tugging a little whine out of Tsimh. “I had heard that miqo'te were sensitive there. Thank you for letting me put rumor to the test, Tsimh.”
Her eyes fluttered closed and her head tipped, his lips and teeth brushing over her chin. He stayed resolutely standing though, not yet moving on to the rest of her but taking his time. His thumb pressed a little harder and the keeper groaned, nuzzling against his mouth. “Erenville...”
With a chuckle he spun her around so fast the water splashed around her knees, her arms yanked off of him only to grope back for his thighs. Tsimh clung to him, dizzy from the sudden motion. “If I am redressing the balance, then I suppose I should simply let you relax, mmm?” the rava crooned into her ear, blowing into it after. She shivered again at the feel of his breath on the shell of it, gasping when his tongue traced up a sheer edge. Her tail lashed his legs like a whip with excitement but it didn't deter him, the tip smacking the water as the length coiled.
Tsimh breathed his name as his tongue went up the other ear, hands following the course she'd hoped for them to wander. He wrapped his arms up under hers, fingers resting on her collarbone a moment while his mouth lavished her ears with care. Then they began to slide down, the tips resting delicately on her skin. Dark brown fingers stroked over olive brown flesh, each set of digits so close together until they parted to follow each side of her cleavage. The miqo'te huffed a chuckle at that and felt his grin in her hair, his palms pressing on her pebbled nipples then cupping her breasts. The rava dug his fingers in slowly and kneaded, so delicate and careful and studious in his approach, each squeeze and stroke making sparks run through her body. They pooled between her legs, teasing her wetter and wetter while he left kisses and licks all over her hair and ears.
“Erenville, Twelve...” she moaned.
“Good?” he whispered against the back of an ear, receiving a nod and a nuzzle against that lovely mouth for his answer. He smirked and his next squeeze came harder, pulling a gasp from the Warrior of Light's lips. Slowly his hands slid down and let her hard nipples pop free from under his palms only to have his thumbs take over, rubbing circles on the peaks of them. In turn Tsimh clung to his legs tighter, tail stroking over him and finding his cock swelling more and more.
“Oh, you want me?” the keeper teased.
“Gods, I do,” he purred back, flicking her nipples with his thumbs. She whined at that, rump pressing back against his hips and starting to grind on his length. She wanted to hear him whine and groan as well but he gave her no such pleasure, tutting instead. “Oh, Tsimh, how shall I ever settle my debt to you if you continue to give me reason to feel indebted?” He nipped her ear, a gasp torn from her mouth at that and her hips stilling.
“Then you had best work faster...” the keeper groaned.
“But then how can I be sure that I am treating you right?” Erenville smiled, but one hand dipped down regardless. His fingertips danced over her belly, leaving goosebumps in their wake. Meanwhile his thumb continued to tease her nipple, flicking and rubbing it, fingers kneading her breast in a steady rhythm. Tsimh let herself moan for him, loving every touch, eagerly awaiting more and especially the moment when his fingers would go between her legs and inevitably push inside her. He was fully hard by now, pressing against her even without her pushing back, but if he had any thoughts of his own pleasure he put them aside to focus solely on her. He traced around her belly button with a finger and crooned against her hair, another lick up an ear making her shiver.
“I didn't know viera groomed their mates...”
Erenville chuckled. “With ears such as ours it seems only natural. And even hyur find reason to play with a lover's ears, I have heard.”
“Mmm, very true,” the keeper purred, a shiver running down her spine at the feel of him sucking the ear's tip. “Oh, Menphina, you're wonderful...”
“I only wish I could have done this sooner,” he breathed, stroking lower. His fingers dipped into the dark purple of her bush, not yet at her slit, in fact skirting carefully around it. Tsimh whined at the teasing but he held his course, stroking over her thighs. “But alas, duty got in the way even if it would seem fate wished for more.”
“Make up for lost time then,” Tsimh smiled, feeling his mouth wander down at last. Erenville huffed a laugh and kissed over her cheek and jaw, burying his lips against her neck. She gasped with delight at the feel of his tongue stroking her throat, the licks so warm and tender, his hand at last moving back up her thigh. He stroked up the inside of her leg to cup her mound finally, fingers tracing across her soaked lips.
“I never did imagine I could be worthy to have the Warrior of Light like this,” the rava chuckled. “I never could have seen it that day in Labyrinthos.”
“I wanted you as soon as I saw you...”
She felt him raise an eyebrow, whimpering when his lovely mouth left her neck. “As wantonly as that?”
She rocked her hips against his hand, aching for more than the feather-light brushes of his fingertip over her lips. “You are... a very handsome man...”
“I am glad to hear you think so,” Erenville smiled, kissing her neck and deigning to dip a finger in. Tsimh arched back against him as it stroked over her petals, giving each and every one of her folds his attention. Still he skirted around her nub though, able to take her apart well enough with his mouth on her neck and his hand at her breast and his finger exploring her most sacred place. She mewled and moaned for him, not caring who else or what else might hear, only knowing his arms, his mouth, his cock all pressed against her.
“Oh, Erenville!” the Warrior of Light gasped aloud when a second finger pushed in, folds gripping his digits tight and drenching them in warm slick. He purred his delight into a kiss, a nip, daring to suck on her neck just a little. Deeper the fingers went, pressing into her entrance and stroking over her walls. He knew what he was doing, she was sure of that, expertly finding her sensitive spots and teasing them until she was melting in his grip. Her nectar dripped down her thighs from around his playing fingers, each thrust and curl of the digits squelching inside her sodden core.
“So wet,” he teased lightly. Tsimh growled and rubbed back on his length, feeling him rock his hips at last. He was leaking his pre as well, surely aching yet still he focused solely on her. Part of the keeper was touched, but the ache in her loins was too much and she wanted him too keenly now.
“Enough,” she groaned, and he made a sweet little sound of pure surprise. His fingers obediently stilled and he cocked his head, drawing back to look at her with those golden eyes.
“Was that too much?” he asked, the concern in his voice making her heart flutter in her chest. If she'd thought there was only lust to his feelings for her, that settled any doubts. Tsimh shook her head.
“No,” she said, finding a grin. “I just think I'd like to do more than just take what you give now.”
Erenville grinned back at her. “You are more than welcome to reciprocate, then.” Reciprocate she did, lunging into him. The kisses were greedy, fierce and clumsy, teeth and cheeks knocking, bodies rubbing together. She wrapped her tail tight around him and kissed furiously down his chest, nuzzling her cheek on his down and sighing at the feel of it, the musk of him. He purred and stayed standing while she let the water go up over her belly where she knelt in the spring, his cock and balls right there in her face once she knelt.
“Mine,” she breathed, staring up at him and feeling a thrill at the possessiveness she felt. His grin widened.
“Yours,” he agreed, stroking hair back out of her eyes. Tsimh leaned in to kiss his tip first, her fingers wrapping around the shaft. He was between four and five ilms long, thicker than she'd had before, a groan escaping the rava at last when her fingers squeezed on his base. Too pent up to be as patient as him she took him between her lips right down to where the head gave way to the shaft, eyes on his when she sucked his whole tip. Erenville tipped his head back to groan her name, his hairy legs shaking with the pleasure.
Tsimh stroked his thigh with her free hand while she sucked, slowly working her way down his shaft. Oh, gods he smelled good, that musk thick in her nose and making her wetter still, if that was even possible. The more of him she took between her lips the more she wanted him inside her, longing to let him have her in every way. But she kept going, eager to repay him for the wonderful touching first. As she approached his base the miqo'te slid her hand down to his balls, stroking them first before she gave them a squeeze.
“Tsimh!” he moaned, hand on her head but somehow he resisted the urge to press her down on him that he surely must have felt. She purred around him and he gasped, fingers clenching in her hair. The keeper wanted him to lose control, longed to make him wild for her, he wanted her, she could tell from how he bit his lip and throbbed and shuddered. Tsimh took him to the root and held him there, kneading his balls until his hips rocked up. He almost choked her with the force of the thrust but she felt only triumph when her mouth popped off of him, admiring how his shaft dripped and glistened with her spit.
They both panted and stared at each other, the water running around them undisturbed. Her tail stroked Erenville's leg and his fingers her ear in turn, gazes held, letting the moment be still and breaths be caught. They shared longing and adoration, lust and love, feelings they'd buried finally free to burn in their wild eyes.
“Take me,” Tsimh said first, husky and fierce.
“Yes,” Erenville answered, voice just as rough with feeling. She scrambled up him to her feet, another kiss, a quick fumble with each other. Erenville groaned against her mouth when she took him in hand and stroked him, cock firm as the stone to which she went next. Slowly, playfully she bent over the rock, tail coiling up and legs apart, glancing back over her shoulder. The rava stood frozen just a moment as stiff as his member, drinking her in with a little sound somewhere between whine and whimper, eyes fixed on her sodden sex where she had it laid bare to the air and to him. Tsimh felt the cool breeze on her hot cunt and groaned.
“Please, Erenville,” she gasped. Her voice snapped him into action and she swore she'd never seen him move so swiftly, pouncing at her like a wolf after prey. His hands took her by the hips again but swiftly climbed her body, passing her belly and her breasts, stopping under her arms. He trailed kisses up her spine too until their bodies were flush and his breath moved her hair, his very tip sliding against her slit with little rolls of his hips. “Oh, Menphina... inside, I need you...!”
“I need you,” he crooned so fiercely, a hand leaving her shoulder. He lined himself up with her entrance, pressing on it just a little before a whine from her had him pushing in. Almost immediately the miqo'te felt him, so thick, oh, gods, all her walls gripping and clenching on the sudden fullness, his mouth ravaging her nape as he surrendered to something primal. He was like one of the beasts he sought and studied, and she wanted nothing less, an animal herself with how she mewled and gasped and keened his name for the forest to hear.
Erenville's teeth stroked her skin and nipped, tongue licking, lips kissing, a messy trail of passion left all over her neck and shoulders. The rava took her to his hilt as steadily as he could manage, she was sure he longed to throw caution to the wind and rut like he was a beast and she his mate but somehow he kept himself in check in that regard. The stone scraped against her chest and rubbed on her nipples as the viera began his steady thrusts but it was so good she didn't care, clinging to the rock to let him have her as he wished. Erenville grunted against her neck and Tsimh shuddered, feeling him drive in to the hilt and arching against him when his tip hit deep inside her.
“Erenville!”
“Tsimh!” he crooned back, oh Menphina, how he said it. The thrusts grew rougher and fiercer, ramming home into her drenched core, his hands back down to her hips and digging in hard for leverage. His rhythm was relentless, the longing he'd held back slowly coming out like a river breaching a dam and rushing free where it had been held back. The rava grunted and purred into her neck, kissing her bruised skin, his chest pressing her back and keeping her bent over the rock, so utterly vulnerable to his lovemaking and she wanted nothing more than to be his.
Louder the slap of his hips on her rump grew, tail tight around his body like a belt, a cord tying him to her so very firmly. He could have stepped out of it easily of course, but he didn't want to, lost in her, leaving his mark and his scent on her, burning the memory of him deep inside with every sharp thrust of that wonderfully thick cock that found her spot. Tsimh pressed herself into his chest when she arched back with ferocious spasms of pleasure, keening wordlessly, mind seared blank with the heat of him. All she could hear from him was her name so gloriously ragged as it came between panting and grunting and gasping, the sex so much better and so much realer than anything else. Was it the forest and the spring? Was it because it was him? Oh, she didn't know, didn't care, oh Menphina, let it last forever, she thought before the next thrust ripped her thoughts to pieces again.
The rava throbbed deep inside her, it felt like she stretched with every push of his cock and her body shuddered from the force of him. Clumsily Tsimh managed to get her hand between her legs, groaning where his rutting made the stone scrape her forearm but desperately pawing at her nub. Her fingers brushed where his drenched shaft pushed into her and he groaned.
“More?” he panted.
“Mmm!”
He purred at that and gave it to her, a hand going up to shield her breast from the stone's harsh embrace. His palm and fingers replaced that with rough groping, but it was far more welcome and far more pleasurable, her body arching and aching and throbbing with ecstasy. She was close, so godsdamned close, by Menphina she was almost there and oh he was too...
“Come!” she gasped out, breathless, her world spinning with how good he felt inside her and on her.
He grunted with the next thrust in lieu of or perhaps in answer, mouth pressed to her neck and kissing greedily, slamming into her three more times. He broke first but only just, her name a breathless desperate thing from his mouth, the first spurt of his seed so hot on her walls when it spurted out of him. The rava burst deep inside, filling her with so much, oh, he must have had weeks of it pent up. He gasped over and over into her skin, his thrusts erratic and clumsy while he spent himself in her. Tsimh threw her head back to wail at the canopy above, his name a strangled shriek of raw pleasure, her body shuddering and throbbing with wave after wave of levin.
Slowly yet all too soon she drifted back down and slumped over the rock, only Erenville's hand shielding her from its rough surface. The rava was what pressed her down, spent and panting against her back, his seed a hot mess so very deep inside her. She mumbled and moaned at all the sensations, sweat dripping over her skin and the little nips Erenville had made aching on her nape.
“Menphina...” she breathed a time later.
Erenville huffed a little chuckle, groaning as he lifted his head. “I think it was me, not her,” he teased.
She swatted him clumsily with her tail. “You wonderful man...”
He kissed her neck tenderly and they lay there a few moments more, sweaty and spent and aching but delighted and blissful all the same, basking in one another. Finally however the rock grew too uncomfortable, Erenville groaning as he moved his bruised hand. Slowly Tsimh pushed back against him, forcing him up and gritting her teeth as her sore body protested.
The rava went as she bade, finding his strength to help pull her up. They swayed and toppled, splashing heavily into the water in a messy heap and letting it wash back over them, Tsimh cuddling into his chest as they lay there. The spring cooled and soothed them both, the sweat, the seed and slick that leaked out of her when Erenville's soft cock slipped free all washing away.
“I waited so long for this,” Erenville whispered to her, kissing her hair. “Months. Thinking and hoping often.”
“Me too,” Tsimh sighed, nuzzling his chest. “I hoped we'd meet again, in Sharlayan or just... somewhere.”
He smiled. “Did you hope to come across me bathing nude in the Shroud?”
“Mayhap in a dream,” she smirked.
The rava chuckled. “A dream come true for us both, then.”
“It is,” the keeper smiled back. “What shall we do now? You still need to catch up to your Gelmorra guide.”
“That I do,” Erenville nodded. “Though the Forum does give we gleaners a good amount of leeway nowadays as thanks for our efforts leading up to the Final Days,” his smile turned mischievous, “and I suppose that it will be easier to search with two of us rather than just me.”
“Oh, indeed,” Tsimh grinned, “and you might well be a help in finding my quarry as well.”
The rava laughed. “A partnership, then?”
“A partnership,” she agreed, leaning up. He beamed wider and kissed her in answer, stroking down her side to her tail.
“Then shall we wash again,” the rava purred when they parted, “and then set about making camp?”
“Making camp to continue our work, or for another round?” she smirked.
Erenville winked. “I leave that in your hands, my Warrior of Light.”