Going Feet First Ch. 05

"What are you-" Dee gasped as she started pushing the assassin away.

"Proposition me," Petra whispered, her longer arm dipping deeper in the hybrid's cleft as soon as she felt the tail rise just a little bit.

"What?" Dee's nervousness was clear in her voice as she squeaked.

"The guard is coming, you're a harlot, proposition me as you would a male. Be loud."

The hybrid blinked at Petra, but imagining her as a male groping her this way at least helped make the connection in her mind.

"Five silvers for a stroke, twenty if you want to get personal," she declared in voice audible enough to bring the attention of the archer across the street.

That bowman looked to the cloaked figure roaming Dee's body with his hands and cracked a smile. Shaking his head he stood up and dusted off the back of his leather pants while working some life into his legs. After adjusting the quiver on his back, he turned and climbed down the other side of the roof, a heavy whump sounding as he jumped to the next building over. At the same time, the clinking armor that had been approaching stopped and began moving away as the guard returned to whatever he had been doing before.

The two women waited for a bit longer, listening for any sign of movement other than the few people still walking the street alongside Fretheim's estate. When no suspicious footfall or clatter of metal caught their ear, Petra withdrew her hands from Dee's body and took a step back, paying little mind to the dampness on her fingers, though the musky scent was nice.

"We should be clear now," she whispered.

With a subtle red tint to her cheeks, Dee gave a nod and fixed the waistline of her pants. She followed as Petra ventured deeper into the alleyway until it came to a "T" intersection where the Neko turned left back in the direction of Fretheim's estate.

"So, umm, w-why didn't we just come here straight off?" Dee asked. "I-I mean and avoid... you know... the whole, you rubbing your hand around my pussy."

With a sly grin, Petra dropped her cloak and came to the edge of the shadows concealing the alleyway where she had a full view of Fretheim's manor. In the darkness with her pitch-black fur, she doubted any human would be able to see her and so long as her company stayed far enough back, she, too, would remain out of sight.

"They were suspicious enough of us entering the other passage," Petra answered, again in a whisper. "Entering this path so close to a place well-guarded would bring company regardless of whether you were sucking some man's horn or not."

"Oh... I guess so... you're the expert with this..."

Glancing back on Dee and seeing how she kept her eyes down with a shamed looked hovering over her, Petra had to stifle her chuckle. "First time a woman touched you like that?"

Pausing a moment while still not making eye contact, Dee eventually nodded.

"I've... kissed women, but they always back off when I tell them I charge extra... it just... felt weird. I'm not sure I like it at all."

Now smiling uncontrollably, Petra looked back at Fretheim's manor and focused on the routes his guards took as they patrolled the grounds.

"You are so much like my underling when I had begun training her in the arts of the Shadow Stalker. She was uncomfortable with my touch at first, but it took only one ravishing night to break her of that inhibition."

"Only one-? Wait, Shadow-!" Dee's voice threatened to crack and she immediately clasped both hands over her mouth.

Petra's eyes widened at the realization of the error she had just made.

Her claws peeked out from her fingertips and prepared to erupt from her fingers at a moment's notice. She slowly turned to face her possible problem with her leg muscles flexing and ready to pounce. Provided she covered the body well, the guards shouldn't find it at least until morning, and even then she would just be another dead body in a city. With what she said for the guards to hear, few of them would likely care.

"Shadow Stalkers? You are one of them?" the Hybrid muttered in a low voice, her hands still covering her mouth. "But they're... they're..."

"Ra'zorlichs?" the assassin finished in a voiceless whisper.

Nodding, Dee continued, "You said you weren't..."

Rolling her fingers to crack her knuckles, Petra answered, "I am not. By way of Nekonian law I was sentenced to servitude after I was captured while on a mission of assassination. All my connection to my old clan died then. As my master was an ally of the Willher and accepted among their tribe, my allegiance became sealed to them by his association. Do you see this collar burdening my neck?"

Seeing the harlot's eyes glance down a moment before returning to meet her gaze, Petra continued. "This is the sealing bind. It is a fabric cast from pure magic that cannot be cut, burned, torn, or removed in anyway. It is the symbol of the sentence binding me to my master that was wound around my neck by Necela herself. I am no Ra'zorlich. In their eyes: I am dead. In my eyes: they are my master's foes. They are no more my clan than they are yours, half-breed."

For the longest time Dee stood and stared at that collar with a bewildered look. It had seemed to the assassin that she had become lost in thought, or shock, considering what she had just been told. Whether or not a there would be a corpse in this alley come sunrise was now in her own hands as Petra would not hesitate to defend her anonymity.

"I should've known..." Dee finally whispered lowering her hands from her mouth, provoking Petra's claws from her fingertips. "You look just like what they tell in the stories. A Shadow Stalker: black death coming from the night, ruthless in your task, determined to meet your ends with any means..."

"With claws sharper than blades and hearts as cold and hard as the steel band that binds our hair," Petra finished, her tail unconsciously batting at the steel ring holding her hair braid together. "It was our own spies that spread those tales, to spread fear of the league that I no longer lead."

No longer lead...? Dee repeated in her head.

Her knees were shaky as she faced off with the legendary assassin. Images of what mangled corpse she could end up as were running rampant through her mind as Petra made a clear show of flexing her clawed hands. Whatever words left her mouth now would determine whether or not she would live in the next few moments.

Biting down on the side of her cheek, Dee glanced back at Fretheim's manor across the street behind the Shadow Stalker. Her thoughts dwelled over the man inside. The evil contained within the red brick walls and the common goal he became between her with the dark terror of Atzla before her.

One evil, or another. Both could end her on a whim or find a way to destroy her life. But only one of them had any inclination to help her and answer the prayer she had whispered to herself for so long. If they were still allies.

"Are you going to kill me?" Dee asked.

With a scowl Petra answered, "If I had reason to, I would have already. Why? Do you intend to betray me to your city?"

Remembering the swiftness of the assassin's actions when she caught Zuriel spying on them earlier that eve, the Hybrid swallowed a lump in her throat and shook her head. "No."

"Then nothing has changed." The Shadow Stalker drew in her claws. "We continue on as we were. We can sort out these new details when we return to your home."

Dee just blinked as Petra turned around to face Fretheim's manor, folding her arms as her tail shifted semi-rigidly between her legs. The assassin didn't take a second look at the Hybrid she had considered a threat moments ago as her thoughts focused on the guards on the perimeter. Though she could sense the uneasiness of her half-blood assistant, the probable questions on her mind, they had spoken enough. Even with them taking the precaution of keeping their voices low, it was a wonder no guard had heard their words.

If one had, she would have had the opportunity to let off some steam and show Dee how she had made the right choice.

...

The moon was high and the last of the civilian population had cleared the street, though Petra still watched her target's estate from her shadowed alley. Behind her she could hear Dee's light breathing as the Hybrid napped while leaning against the side of a barrel. She disappointed Petra in her failure to stay awake, but at least she didn't snore or make any noise when asleep.

Around the walls of Fretheim's home the guardsman also seemed to tire. Several of the men at stationary posts along the front wall often shook out their heads or extremities, or performed some random exercise in order to stave off their fatigue. The pair of cavalrymen patrolling the perimeter yawned as they paced their horses and continued once again around the grounds. Only the archer in his position above the manor's front doors seemed to stay alert, though Petra often saw him disappear inside the house and come back out with food or drink.

The three foot patrols supplementing the mounted patrol slowed in their walk around the grounds. Single guards posted at each corner of the privacy wall leaned up against the barrier at their backs or took a seat on the sidewalk.

Sloppy and undisciplined, I like it, Petra thought.

Given all she had observed for the past few zetrans, the former Shadow Stalker spied the opportunities presented by the watching guards. She saw several holes in their route in which, provided she could remain undetected, could allow her to slip onto the grounds and approach the house. But not tonight.

Holding in her own yawn, she turned to Dee behind her, crouching down and placing a hand on her shoulder and the other over her mouth. She gave her a sudden jerk and the Hybrid snapped awake, both her hands coming to the one clasped over her mouth as panic had her heart pounding inside her chest.

When her eyes came to focus on Petra's face, she froze.

"We are leaving now," the assassin whispered.

The clawed hand was pulled from her face and the full-blood Neko grabbed her cloak off the ground as she stood up. Dee could still feel her face throb with each beat of her heart and did her best to settle her heavy breathing. With shaky hands she braced herself on the barrel and clambered to her feet.

"You get a- a," she sucked in a deep yawn as Petra fixed her hood over her head. "You get an idea of the guards' routes?"

"Yes. A few more nights, and I will have a way of entry."

With a nod, the Hybrid rubbed her eye with one hand while stretching out her other arm, "Great. I'm sorry for passing out."

The assassin shrugged, but then froze as the hairs on her back suddenly stood out on end. Frowning deeply, she turned around to face Fretheim's manor.

"It's nothing to worry yourself over..." she replied, her attention focusing elsewhere. "You are not used to scouting..."

"Something wrong?" Dee asked.

Petra's answer was silence as she scanned over the windows of the manor; her eyes narrow and her mouth quirked. Lights were going out all over the house while some guards were replaced by soldiers clearly fresh from a good nap. But two rooms remained lit as the rest went dark. One of them was the large room or hall on left side of the house on the first floor, and the other a small room on the third floor. Coincidently, this smaller room was the only one with its curtains open, and somebody just opened up the window.

In the blue-tinted moonlight, Petra couldn't rightly tell who was in the window, leaning out over the frame, but it looked female. And she seemed... familiar. Her hair was long, her skin a light color. Then, as dim as it was, the Shadow Stalker spotted it. The one thing she had kept in her mind the entire night.

A dim golden aura glowed off of the skin of the woman in that third floor window. Only one person Petra knew perpetually gave off this light, and the sight of her pulled a burden off the Neko's shoulder. At least until the Elf drew the attention of the cavalry men as they passed Petra's alleyway.

"Should we tell the lord the new Elf has her window open again?" she heard one of the horsemen say.

"Let her get some air. Poor knife-ear is locked up there all day, gotta let her have some comfort."

"Hmph, comfort. She is a knife-ear, we should be gettin' comfortable with her up in..." the horsemen rode out of range of Petra's ears before she could hear the rest.

Clenching her fists, Petra spun on her heel and stormed past Dee, grabbing the Hybrid's wrist and pulling her along.

"Ow- Petra?"

"We are leaving. If I stay here any longer, somebody will die and I will not make it clean."

........................

The cool night air was a welcome feeling on Celia's face as she knelt on the floor in front of her window. This one touch of freedom was something she knew to be short-lived before they came again to toss her back in her bed and close her window. Without any lock on the shutters she wondered how they expected her to not do this again. When they left she merely opened the window again and gazed out over Redding.

Laying her head in her arms on the window frame, she stared at the city beyond the walls of her prison. As terrifying as the impossible mess of wood, stone, and steel out there was, she found herself longing for the chance to explore it in the moonlight at a time when the masses hadn't turned the streets into a chaotic river of people. Few of which had bothered to look up and take notice of the Tree Elf sulking in her room on the top floor of the building.

A whole day she has been locked in this room, just watching, waiting, listening. Granted she had been well fed and given the chance to relieve herself, she still could not bear her social isolation. No one had come to her room to speak with her, they had only come in to shut her window and yell unintelligible words at her before leaving again. And they locked the door behind them every time. They even tried jiggling the knob to ensure it was secure.

Galen... where are you? Celia wondered, a tear tracing her cheek.

He couldn't still be under that horse which had fallen on him, could he? No, he is stronger than that, and Petra is with him. They would've pushed that poor beast aside... maybe Galen healed it if it was still alive. Then he would ride out the gates of this city and... and what would he do?

She saw the guards, the men in armor, the men with bows. They were everywhere at night just as the people where everywhere in the day. Galen would never blend in enough to be ignored. Just how was he going to get her out of here?

Celia let out a sigh and pulled herself away from the window, shutting it and flipping the little latch that kept them shut. She desperately wished to sleep, to fall into the depths of slumber and never return lest she did so in Galen's embrace. But whenever she laid her head upon her pillow, sleep became the wild hare she chased through the forest. It bounded and leaped from her grasp whenever she had come so close to catching it and falling into a slumber.

The Tree Elf unclasped her breast plate and let it fall to the floor, followed by her loin cloth and cloak. When she sat down on her bed, she shed her boots and crawled under her blanket. Even though her bed was soft and her blanket warm, she could only think of how much warmer it could be with her Galen in here with her. Or even Petra. She doubted the Neko would deny female companionship for a night.

Pulling her knees to her bare chest, a red-gold tint warmed Celia's cheeks as the saw in her mind the image of the three of them together in bed. Bodies curled one another, hands caressing or teasing... perhaps even something more... After all, her soldier seemed to enjoy the fire twins during his time at the Great Tree...

Celia eyes opened as she realized where her hand was. She pulled her fingers out from between her thighs and held them in front of her face to see juices coating her fingers. Out of mere curiosity she rolled onto her back, one hand coasting down her belly back to her slit.

At first touch she sucked in a breath and her pressed thighs together in reaction to that sudden shock surging up through her core. She felt lightning cast through her belly and her eyes peeled back. Goosebumps rippled over her skin with every hair on her bare body standing on end.

The chastising spell is gone, she reminded herself as she tenderly swept her middle finger over her sex. OOoooohh, I can finally feel this now...

Her toes curled when she drew her finger over her clit, stroking over the little nub and holding in her squeal. Nearly ninety years with little play left her womanly flower hungering, starving, for affection. Not even on the night she gave her innocence away did her desire call this heavily upon her for something to sate it.

Galen, forgive me in your absence...

Unwilling to hold back, the Elf pressed her middle and third fingers together and rubbed them over her dripping flower; her legs writhed as she did. Her finger tips moved in playful circles around her private lips, muscles in her backside tensing up every time she touched the pink flesh of her vulva.

Her juices flowed with her sensuous toying, her chest rapidly rising and falling with her hastening breath. She thought of Galen, of their night in that cave, of what she would want to do with him right now. Right at that moment.

He would be leaning over her body as he positioned his hips between her thighs. His young, lightened blue eyes staring enchantingly into her spirit as he brought his face closer to hers... His hot breath blowing against her jaw before he pressed his lips with hers... She could almost taste him on her lips.

Both her fingers plunged into her pussy just as he would push his cock inside her, digits delving deeper inside her as his manhood would in the joining their bodies. It took most of what she had to retain her silence at this point, and she pressed the back of her free hand against her mouth while her hips started to squirm. All to the image of the imaginary cock of her beloved thrusting in between her labia with an animal's ferocity.

Her breasts shifted back and forth on top her chest as she bucked her hips up to meet her plunging fingers. With a determined deftness she sent her fingertips poking her sweet spots while the pads of her hand rubbed against her clit. She had only realized now the advantage to her soft, supple skin, as it easily enveloped her pearl to caress it from every angle.

Whimpering echoed from Celia's throat as she clamped her jaw shut. As her hips writhed in the growing damp spot on her bed, her knees pressed together and her thighs squeezed down on her hands. Lightning tore throughout her body to set her glistening skin ablaze.

Still holding her love's image in her mind she pushed more furiously into her sex, feeling her belly winding up like a clock. With her entire lower body unable to keep still, constantly fidgeting and squirming with her fervent stokes into her pussy, she knew her countdown had begun.

Through her imagination she could see Galen, pumping his organ into her body as though tomorrow would be a day they would never see. Even as her fingers went deep to her core she replaced the feeling of her digits with what she remembered of his physical shape. His filling girth and erotic heat... how it pressed so deeply inside her. She remembered how his hips shifted and his dick grew just before-

Celia's legs seized up and her jaw clamped down as her dams burst open. Her eyes rolled back as the ecstasy of orgasm tore through her body. Doing her best to hold her mouth shut she let out a stifled scream as her hips thrust in to the air and her fingers dripped with her releasing juice. In this position she froze a moment while a twitch took over her torso and her toes curled around her sheets.