An Afternoon to Forget

The wind was rather strong that day. The sun was setting in the distance, the last rays of light barely illuminating the small village. Though maybe that was too big of a word for that meager bunch of houses in the middle of nowhere. There were probably less than an hundred people living there. Or rather, there used to be. The place was silent, eerily so even. The cold light of the lanter illuminated their path as they entered another house. What little furniture was there had been thrown around, and there were a few marks and cuts over the wooden walls. And, in a corner, a corpse. Or rather, a skeleton. A bit of dried blood was still around it, but not a single bit of flesh was left.

Thresh sighed.

"I am afraid our plans for the week have been mercilessly slaughtered"

"I sEe"

They had searched the whole place, but found only skeletons. The warden looked at a couple of crows resting atop a roof. Upon noticing his gaze, the birds flew away.

Many thanks, cornfield man. How am I supposed to spend the next days now?

"ShAll wE go BaCK?" Orianna asked.

"Might as well. There is nothing left for us here"

They could have gone searching for another settlement, or maybe even paid a visit to an actual city, but having had his plans crushed like did a number on his mood too. He could see nothing but boredom in the upcoming days. They headed to a nearby mountain, avoiding the roads as he didn't want to bother dealing with potential passersby, and in a couple of days of continued march they reached a small building lost in the middle of a forest. Technically, that was one of Ahri's houses, but as far as he knew she rarely went there, so the chances of stumbling into the fox were rather low. For better or for worse.

"Guess we will stay here for a short while" Thresh commented as he walked in "Just need to sort out a couple of things. You... keep yourself entertained in the meanwhile. Just do not wander off too far"

He had actually already decided where they were headed next, he was just waiting to get in the mood again before moving. Orianna, on her part, began walking around the small building. It was her first time there, though he doubted she was interested in the place itself. More likely, she just wanted to see if there were any small animals around. Thresh, on the other hand, entered the house. He hadn't been there that often himself, so while the building was quite small, he wasn't too familiar with it. There was a small kitchen of sort, a needlessly large bedroom, a couple more rooms, nothing he was interested in. And, a staircase going down.

Was there a basement here?

Wondering that, he headed downstairs. The steps were more than he had expected, and there were a few lit candles hung at regular intervals.

She is not here, is she?

He was in no mood for dealing with Ahri at the moment. Actually, he wasn't in the mood for anything. After a surprisingly long descent he reached a door and, beyond that, a most surprising sight. The room, illuminated by a few not so bright lanterns, was large, easily more than the combined four above and, with the only exception being a space large enough for a few pieces of furniture to fit into, was completely submerged. By the look of it the water was also quite deep in some parts. A sort of bathtub, he guessed? No, calling it "tub" sounded wrong given the size. There was a table with several empty bottles on it next to the door, but what he truly couldn't make sense of what the presence of a certain someone.

... what in the world is she doing here... ?

Thresh stared at Nami, lying unconscious against the table. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing, but couldn't. He never thought of her as someone who drank alcohol, let alone that much, nor had he ever seen her as someone who liked mountains. Taking a better look around, he noticed that there were two glasses on the table. Maybe she wasn't alone? No, he had searched the house and found noone. Maybe they were outside? He headed back up and walked out. It was starting to snow, but that didn't interest him. He walked around the house for a short while before finding Orianna, standing still in the middle of nothing, her gaze fixed on the sky, her finger extended as if to catch a snowflake or two. He stared at her for a while, pondering what to say, then decided to not bother her instead and headed back inside.

Nami was still lying there.

"Oy, minnow" he called as he shook her shoulder "I believe it is my duty as a respectable man to warn you that there is a deranged murderer nearby, you should probably keep an eye out for him. Hard to do that while sleeping"

The marai, however, didn't respond to that. He shook her harder, then, since she still wasn't waking up, he slapped her.

"... you are kidding me" he commented as that still didn't rouse her.

His gaze then moved to the table.

"... this is quite the mess" he commented as he began to move the glasses and bottles out of the way.

Then, once having made enough room, he grabbed the marai and placed her on the table. He stared at her chest for a few seconds to make sure she was actually still breathing, then headed to the stairs.

Step. Step. Step.

Stop.

Step. Step.

Stop.

Step. Step. Step.

Stop.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

Something clearly went wrong somewhere, as Thresh found himself at the table again. After a minute or two spent wondering if his feet were rioting, he placed the tip of his sickle over her cheek, the blade threatening to tear her skin. Then he stared at the tool in his hand for a couple of seconds before throwing it behind himself. It landed somewhere in the pool of water. Ignoring that, he instead placed his finger on her forehead.

"This should be where the tear opens when she sheds her skin..." he said to noone as he traced a line right in the middle of her face.

His hand then reached her neck, and his index and thumb found themselves on opposite sides of her throath. He applied a tiny bit of pressure, and felt the blood flowing within her veins. Then he moved his finger further down, reaching her chest, and placed his hand right over her heart.

Her beats were somewhat slow, but steady. He pushed his nail down, just enough to spill a single drop of blood from her pale skin, and brought it to his face. He then remained still for a while, before eventually removing her helmet and the plate she always wore below her waist and placing them on the floor, next to her staff. Then he turned her around and placed his fingers on her nape. Her scales gave him a completely different feeling compared to the more human-like part of her skin. They were harder, darker, colder, and yet smoother. He tried to push his nail down between two scales, but found more resistance than he had expected. He put more force into it, but stopped as soon as Nami let out a small groan.

Thresh froze for a couple of seconds, but after seeing that she was still asleep he moved his fingers down along her spine, feeling the outline of every vertebra, wondering what sound they would made if they were to crack.

I think it was around... here, maybe? he thought as his fingers reached her sides.

He placed both hands slightly above her waist, a short distance away from her backbone, and pushed down. Still slumbering, the marai let out a somewhat weird, albeith not totally unexpected, sound. While still pressing them down on her scales, Thresh moved his fingers in small circles as he traced them back up along her back, until he reached her shoulder blades. Resting his whole palms over her body, he started to rub them slowly but firmly over her shoulders, somewhat surprised himself at the pleasant feeling of her scales against his fleshless hands.

A short while later, Thresh began to drag his hands back down along her back, until he reached the beginning of her tail.

There was another point around... here? he wondered as he went through his memories before applying pressure with his thumbs on two points on her tail.

Nami's body reacted immediatly, and Thresh found her tail smacking him right on the face, sending him back a few feets as well as causing him to fall down.

"Blast it!" he hissed with a low voice as he rubbed his skull.

The marai turned around, and for a moment he thought she had woken up, but then he noticed that her eyes were still closed.

"That tail is as strong as her arms are skinny..." he pointed to himself as he got back on his feet and then closed in on the table again.

He stared for a brief moment, then placed a finger over her cheek. And then, slowly, he moved it over her lips.

Smaller than the fox's... and not as full...

Then, a bit hesitantly, he pushed his finger inside her mouth.

"... you really should never touch alcohol if this it the effect it has on you, minnow..."

He traced his index over her teeth, taking his time to get a good feel of the shape of each one.

"Quite sharp, I would say"

He then brushed against her tongue, and maybe because of that, he pulled his finger out and trailed it back to her chest. Moving her large necklace out of the way, he tried to get a feel of her ribs, but as it turned out, her breasts were kind of in the way. Well, not like he hadn't expected it. His mind went back, if only for a split second, to that time Ahri had forced herself -and him- on Nami. Not exactly one of his fondest memories. Then, when his mind came back to the present, he found his hands cupped around her breasts.

"... this is... surprisingly nice..." he commented, the difference between her exposed skin, her scales and the yellow membrane between the two combining into an unexpectedly pleasant feeling against his palms "Smaller than the fox's, but a bit firmer I would say..."

He then noticed that he could feel her heartbeat through her breast. Almost unconsciously, he began to fondle, or maybe massage, her chest, matching his motions to those of her heart. She moved around a tiny bit in response, but nothing more. For how long he kept doing that, Thresh wasn't sure -couldn't have been that long though- but at one point something made him stop.

A sound had come from the marai's mouth. He turned his gaze to her face, her eyes still closed. He had never heard it from her lips before, but he was nonetheless fairly sure that what just struck his ears was a moan. Weak and barely audible, but still. It was... moderately shocking, considering that he hadn't heard her moan once back during the... let's say the time the fox had the three of them spend togheter. Well, her silence back then surprised him quite a lot too, in all fairness.

... were her cheeks flushed?

"Still... this combination of texture and consistency sure is something..."

Then he moved one hand behind her head, around her nape, and pushed his finger down against her scales, looking for a certain spot.

"If I remember correctly, it was... somewhere... around... here..."

His nail then found a rather small, slightly softer scale, hidden below her... let's call it her hair. As he touched it, another moan escaped the sleeping marai's lips. And her eyelids twitched, if only for a mere instant. In response, Thresh unceremoniously let go of Nami and turned to the furniture. He opened a drawer, then another, then another, then turned to what vaguely resembled a wardrobe and opened it, finding a bountiful supply of bottles. He grabbed one -picked mostly at random- and looked at it. He could read the label, but he knew nothing of wines and the like, so that bottle was just as good as all the others for him. He uncorked it in a rather forceful, albeith practical, way then walked back to Nami, placed an arm behind her back and lifted her up a bit, her head in his hand.

"Time to drink, minnow" he almost hummed as he pushed the bottle against her lips, forcing it into her mouth and then raising it up, making the content flow down her throath.

A not so irrelevant amount of wine -if that really was wine- ended up running along her cheek, all the way down to her chest. Maybe because of that, Thresh grabbed another bottle after having emptied the first one and repeated the operation. Once he had finished, Nami looked... more asleep than before? Maybe.

"Very well, where were we again?"

He placed his index over her belly, roughly where the navel would be if she were human, and traced it to the left, leaving a small, red line over her skin, his nail cutting ever so slightly into her. He rested another finger over her body to get a better feel of her ribs, then placed his other hand behind her neck again and lifted her up a bit to get a more comfortable angle. He brought his nails up along her chest, leaving two small red lines in their wake.

Nami's body squirmed a bit as his fingers brushed against the softer scale hidden behind her head. After a brief pause, he closed his hand around her breast again and began to fondle it while scratching the part not covered by scales with his thumb, leaving more than a soft rash. At the same time, he scratched the soft scale behind her head. A somewhat weak, but also unrestrained, moan left her lips.

"First time I hear your voice like that, minnow" he commented as he kept savoring her unconscious body "Being so uninhibited is not like you"

Then he felt something beneath his hand slide. He noticed that the layer of scales covering her soft skin had retreated a bit, leaving her nipples exposed. It was the second time he had seen that happen, but it still was a rather odd sight to him. For one reason or another, he decided to turn her around, having her lie on her belly, and placed his fingers at the base of her spine, tracing his nails all the way up to her head alongside the bones, ending up scratching the soft scale as he reached it. He repeated the same motion a few times, and while his nails couldn't really leave a mark on her scales, he still liked the sound made by the friction. That, and Nami would let out a weak gasp or moan whenever he scratched the spot behind her head, and knowing how self-controlled Nami usually was -around him, at least- hearing her voice being released so freely had... a sort of charm to it.

Eventually, he turned her back around, his eyes running over her softer skin. His gaze stopped briefly over her currently truly bare chest, and then he placed his index between her breasts. Applying more pressure than before, he drew a line over her skin, a bit more blood than earlier spilling out.

He stared at the light wound for a while, and as he did so Thresh had to fight back the urge to slide his whole hand underneath her skin through the fresh gap he had just opened. Drunk or not, low tolerance or whatever, he just couldn't picture her not waking up if he were to do something so... invasive. The thought was oh so alluring though, he found himself going through the process a few times over in his mind. When he finally snapped back, he traced his finger up along her neck, stopping on it for a while, then proceeded to her chin, and from there he moved to her lips. There was, by then, quite a fair bit of blood spilled over her body. Relatively, at least. He traced his nails over her lips, while his other hand moved to her chest.

Starting from the middle of her ribcage, he traced a red, damp line spiraling around her breast, moving upward until it reached her nipple. He poked it a bit, his other finger still going over her lips, as if to catch her voice when she occasionally let it out. Truth be told, however, he liked it more when her scales were still covering her chest. He just... found that more aesthetically pleasant.

... the current situation wasn't... so bad either though... he guessed... ?

Eventually his finger moved down along her belly, reaching all the way to her waist. Her scales had retreated there too, exposing -if only partially- her privates. A thought, or rather a question, crossed his mind, but for one reason or another he kicked it out of his head farily quickly. He did the same thing to a couple of other things that crossed the inside of his skull, before eventually resting his finger over her entrance and beginning to massage it.

Nami's body twitched a bit when he slid his finger inside. Managing to avoid any and all sort of comparisons, Thresh twisted his index around inside of her while moving his other finger close to her eyes. Her sleepy face looked quite... innocent, which made the whole situation worse. Or better, depending on the point of view.

He wondered how her black eyeballs would look in the palm of his hand. Then, a moan escaped her lips, diverting his mind to another kind of thoughts. She was squirming faintly, her tail swinging left and right a bit. Thresh was fairly experienced at what he was doing, something he had to thank -or condemn- Ahri for, and reading other's reactions to even faint stimulations was something he had learned from his... let's say standard hobby as well. That, and it wasn't the first time he touched Nami that way, though he had somewhat mixed feelings about that fact.

Time went by for quite a while more, the marai's breathing slowly growing more and more ragged, her moans becoming both louder and more frequent. Then, eventually, her body began to tremble slightly in anticipation. And at that point Thresh just... stopped.

"... what... in the world am I doing... ?" he asked himself as he stared at his own hands, then at the marai.

For several minutes, his gaze remained fixed on her, his eyes running over her flushed cheeks, her chest covered in light cuts, her partially retreated scales.

Eventually, Thresh turned around and headed upstairs, looking for something to wipe the blood with. He found a few rolls of paper, brought one back down and cleaned up both Nami and the table, then grabbed her and unceremoniously threw her into the water. Assuming his memory wasn't lying, he had once heard Vel'Koz say that marais recovered more quickly underwater. ... did he? Maybe. If he really did then -with a bit of luck- her cuts would heal while she was still knocked out and she would never suspect anything. He then left the house, buried the bloodstained paper somewhere and then stumbled into something. A small lizard of some sort which, by the look of it, had been squashed by Orianna. He looked around for a bit and found her staring at... nothing, apparently. There was quite a bit of snow on both her and the Ball, and for a brief moment he got worried, but then he noticed that the windup key on her back was still moving.

"Are you doing something right now?" he asked as he walked up to her, though he was fairly sure he already knew the question.

The Ball buzzed upon hearing his voice, but he ignored it.

"No, OrIAnNa iS nOT"

"Then we are leaving"

"WhERe tO?"

"There should be a small town nearby, we can go there"

Orianna didn't reply, and taking that as her not having anything against the proposal, he began walking, the mechanical sounds coming occasionally from her confirming that she was following him.

While he never turned around, his mind went back to the basement for a brief while.

... I have spent far too much time with the fox...

As they walked away, Orianna noticed that the warden's steps were a bit faster than usual.

Not sure what this was.

Anyway, thank you for reading.