Chapter 33:
As the sun began to peek over the horizon, Sarah Mertens walked into the laboratory to find the place empty. Everything was gone. The prototype, its control box, and all the jugs of fuel she'd brewed up–along with her annoying lab-partner. A shiver of alarm went through her. Blargetha was missing. She was supposed to be watching over the irritating bitch and keeping her out of trouble. She'd spent the night in the nursery, staring at walls and thinking unhappy thoughts. She'd honestly been getting little in the way of work done the last few days... weeks? She was letting people down, and she knew it.
Striding into the space, her keen eyes scanned the scene, picking out a scrap of paper from a computer printout tucked under a piece of broken fuel-pump on Blargetha's workbench. Changing course, the tall beauty went up to the table and slipped the paper out from under the jagged piece of metal. It was Blargetha's handwriting. "Gone to the proving ground. See you at ten." Sarah frowned at the page. What did this mean? She was a little afraid of what the bitch was up to. The prototype was fitted with weapons strong enough to kill a humanoid from a thousand feet in the air.
Rushing out of the room, she started dialing up friends and family, going down the line until she got to Finn. Mostly she got mailboxes. It was early enough in the day that some of the family was still in the shower. Others might be already on their way to the proving ground. Her husband was due to arrive home within the hour. The phone rang for several minutes and rang some more. When voice-mail picked up, the android-woman hung up and dialed again. Finally, Finn answered. "Sarah," he greeted her. His voice sounded strained and mildly irritated. "Blargetha's gone to the proving ground alone," she said. "I think she left last night." "I told her to take the prototype to the proving ground," he replied. "Where have you been? She said she hadn't seen you in two days..." Sarah flushed to her hair.
Finn said, "I'm going to be at the proving ground in an hour. The cabinet needs to see some progress. Please make sure that the demonstration is a success." There was a lot riding on this. He was supposed to be protecting Ooo from aliens. They needed those weapons. Soon. "I-I'll be there," Sarah replied. She hung up and rushed for the stairs, her heart pounding with worry. She was failing. She had been so worried about the future, she was failing the present. Arriving in the garage, she took the first vehicle she came to, tearing out of the garage and out onto the streets as if hell was chasing her.
Behind her, the presumptive heir to the throne awoke to the surprise of a second body in bed with him. Bill the Human had gone to sleep in Olesia's arms after a long day on the line dealing with the usual from his dad's Epic Princess Problem. The trouble of the day was the noise from the Elbownians and their friends on the council about simply moving into the bandit lands and taking them over. The Bandit Kingdoms had been trouble since before Billy was born. His dad had fought in a couple of ugly wars there with Jake at his side, when one bandit-lord or another got out of pocket and decided that they would make moves on their neighbors. Naturally, the princesses thought that moving the Elbownians into the power-vacuum there would be the perfect solution. They'd get to stop paying to take care of Bathilde's peeps, and the bandits would get smashed down.
Billy had brutally disabused them of the notion. He'd even dared Bonnie's wrath to shut the whole business down. She'd screamed at him for over an hour in private chambers after the showdown. He'd simply cut her off at the knees by pointing out the very real reality that she would be guilty of stealing from those people–taking their land at the point of a gun for somebody else's benefit. There were a lot of people there who weren't raising hell. The Bandit Lands were the crossroads of the civilized kingdoms with peeps from Warrior Kingdom, Dons from Engagement Ring Kingdom, and farmers out of Purple Kingdom all doing their best to make a living on land that was broken, mountainous, and often barren. After he pointed out the unfairness and cruelty of taking their shit, Bonnie had stormed out in tears, making him feel pretty fucking awful, but he'd stuck to his guns.
Olesia had greeted him at home with a nice dinner to help him relax after the misery he'd been through. He'd been wound up and miserable, and all he'd really ended up doing after that was sitting there, staring into space, and all but ignoring her. In the end, the elemental girl had dragged him off to her room to sleep, using the warmth of her body to ease his taught and aching muscles. That was how he'd drifted off–with the heat of O's body against his back.
He'd awakened to the strange, herbal scent of Abeiuwa's body under his very nose–her plump tits practically staring him in the eye. It was a helluva wake-up for a man who'd been expecting fireworks. Far from screaming though, Abeiuwa had yawned, crawled out of bed, and insisted he go out on a run with her. Returning to the suite they shared, he'd found Olesia dressed and waiting with breakfast. Saying nothing at all about that, Abeiuwa helped herself before jumping in the shower.
"Your father called," said the plump girl, when the tall princess had gone. "There's some big meeting out at the Banana Guard's drill-field. Ten-sharp. He said not to be late." "Thanks," he mumbled. Pushing back from the table, the big man headed for one of the showers, wondering as he did, what he was going to do with this and wondering how Noemi and Rags were going to react.
As Billy stood in the shower, rehearsing explanations for his current situation, a far more unpleasant encounter was taking place south and east of the Candy Kingdom. The Royal Train was sitting on a siding outside a sleepy village waiting on a visit from the King's unpleasant ally. Finn had seen little of his spymaster since they'd parted ways after getting out of the quarantine room. He'd reasoned that he'd told the Lady of Spies what he wanted, and he expected she'd be getting about doing it. Now he had something more urgent that he needed.
The Agent Princess found her erstwhile master sitting in a corner of his private car with the gadgets that his princesses had built for him. There were many amongst her people who hungered to be able to tap into the communications between the King and his tame princesses. Some were allies of hers. Others were bitter enemies. Orzsebet herself ached to know some of what he was up to. It would have helped her deal with him if she knew what he was planning.
"You called," Orzsebet muttered? She sounded irritated. Ignoring her attitude, Finn nodded. The private car was empty around them. Simone had flown back to Wizard City to deal with the latest foolishness there. Cherry had gotten off the train in the middle of the night on an empty platform in the middle of nowhere and disappeared. He knew what that was about. She was going to be dealing with the ugly that was the Underworld. It wasn't his wife that had left them. It was the Capo di tutti Capi that had gotten off his train. Finn was alone. Again. He was supposed to be the richest man in the world, but he felt worse than the poorest right now.
"I need information," he said. The thin woman glared at him. What did he think she was doing? Throwing a phone on the table between them, the big man said, "that belonged to the former Consort of Bee Kingdom. He arranged to hand over his wife to agents of the Bandit Princess..." It was the same icy dead calm that gave her the willies. Former. Likely the former consort had become a corpse. "It's easier to ask questions when they're alive," muttered the Agent Princess. His face flushed, telling her that she was right. "You should leave such matters to me," Orzsebet murmured. "I was left with little choice," Finn retorted.
Nodding at the phone, the big man said, "his contacts and other information are there. I know you have contacts with InterFone..." The tall woman kept her face carefully neutral. The truth was that InterFone was one of a number of businesses the FIRM kept a controlling interest in. Oh, the princesses thought they controlled InterFone. Bonnibel Bubblegum thought that she controlled it by virtue of the technology she had provided. The Grid-Face People thought that they controlled it by virtue of the infrastructure they'd built, transporting the transmitters all over Ooo. The Privy Council even appointed the president of InterFone. Of course, like Orzsebet, said president was always groomed by the FIRM, his or her rise carefully engineered.
"Pull what you can out of the phone," said the King. "I need to know where the Queen Bee might have been taken. Leave no stone unturned." Taking the phone, the skinny spy slipped it into her pocket, announcing, "as you wish." She turned to go. "Who hit you," he asked," and why?" The thin woman stopped where she was. "It's internal business," she replied. "Not your concern." Without a further word, she started walking, heading up the aisle to the door. As her hand grasped the knob, a whisper at her ear announced, "the Lady of Spies is my creature. That makes it my business. You can go, Orzsebet."
When she glanced back, he was still in his seat. Terror filled her heart at the shocking reminder of his power, and she fumbled with the door for several moments before finally managing to get it open. Not long after she'd left the train, the engine began to chug, straining against the weight of the carriages as the train moved off. Orzsebet's fingers stroked the phone in her pocket, as she thought of how it might have happened. She thought of the twisted construct attached to his elbow twining itself about the hapless Consort. And twisting. A shudder went down her spine as she turned to go.
Back in the Candy Kingdom, Sarah came tearing up to the Banana Guard's drill field with a squeal of brakes and the roar of an overworked engine. Barely taking the time to shut the truck off, she jumped out and went rushing across the field. Blargetha heard rather than saw the android-girl arrive. She was busy setting up the control-pedestal and far more invested in that than the her irritating partner's antics. For a machine, the android was behaving in an irritatingly irrational manner.
Something had come loose in the control pedestal during the move over from the lab, and the younger slime-princess had her face buried in the guts of the machine. Sarah came striding up to find dozens of Banana Guards out in the field, setting up arrays of targets. Nearer to hand, their deadly toy sat on a cradle on the back of a trailer, hitched up to the back of a second Banana-Guard truck. Her mind was in a bit of turmoil as she approached. She'd checked the source-code for tricks. She'd checked the wiring for traps that her evil counterpart might have inserted. You checked the design, she thought. Honestly, she hadn't always been present when Blargetha was writing code or soldering boards.
"Ok," she announced, "where are we at?" The slime princess waved her away. Sarah grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her away from the console. "Ok," she muttered, "that's really gross..." Shrinking her elongated face and eyeballs back to normal, the slime-princess retorted, "you had to stop me from working sweet-cheeks. You get what you get." "Blargetha," growled Hurletta! The younger sister rolled her eyes. What was she doing here? "Must you go out of your way to be offensive," the older sister demanded? "Working, 'Letta," Blargetha retorted, "but you don't know much about that, do you?"
For a wonder, Hurletta backed down. "Where are we at," she asked? "I have to present something to the Privy Council. Tomorrow." With a sigh and an irritated toss of her head, Blargetha retorted, "I told him to put them off..." As if she were in charge of this. "This isn't going to wait forever," Hurletta retorted. "We've been spending piles of money accumulating the things you asked for. This isn't just your neck, sister. It's everybody's." Dusting her face off, Blargetha replied, "the machine will fly, 'Letta. The control console is giving me trouble. My experience with electromagnetism is weak..." Sarah blushed. She was supposed to be working on the radio control circuits. She'd been... moping.
"What's it doing," asked the android-woman? "I think there's something loose inside," Blargetha replied. "Maybe a wave-guide... The signal's weak. The machine kept returning to its cradle on fail-safe..." "It flies," Hurletta burbled? Blargetha rolled her eyes. Hadn't she just said as much?! Spying Nadia strolling across the field towards them, Sarah murmured, "I have a solution..."
Finn arrived on the scene to find several of his wives and councilors gathered around the control console. Nearer to hand was Billy and Abeiuwa, who'd just gotten out of a car of their own. "Hey," he greeted his old flame. He'd been a little weirded out by the whole thing with Billy dating old girlfriends of his. Maybe it was something he'd passed on to his son. Now he was over it, and he wished the younger man the best of luck. "Finn," the Jungle Princess greeted him. "Glad to see you back, dad," Billy announced. Finn knew what that was about. His son was feeling the strain of holding down the fort, and he wanted to get 'out from under'. The King's expression suggested that maybe the job wasn't done. "We'll talk," said Finn, as he stepped off, headed across the field to where his wives and councilors were.
As they approached, Billy took note of several things. Blargetha was here. She was standing off to one side, wearing a dress that would have been fashionable if it wasn't splotched with grease and chemical stains. Her sister was hovering nearby, looking nervous and unhappy. And Sarah was standing behind the Grid-Face Princess, while a long cable ran between the port behind the android's ear and into the port on Princess Nadia's neck. "Ok," rumbled Billy. "That's weird..."
Things were about to get a little weirder. As Finn approached, Bonnie announced, "we're ready, Your Majesty." Lollipop was wielding a video-camera, while BMO stood by to edit the footage on the spot. Nothing was being left to chance. They'd spent a lot of money already on this effort, and they had supplies stacked up at Phoebe's secret weapons-works to build more of these things. "Let's do this," Finn announced, as if he saw two of his girls plugged into each other every day.
As Billy watched, Sarah closed her eyes. The heavy, barrel-shaped machine, with its stubby wings and x-shaped tail slowly rose from the trailer it rested on. Seeing that Billy was watching the thing, Blargetha declared, "we're aiming to have containers like the land-machines... We'll position them on the highest mountains..." It took a moment. Billy nodded, as he realized that it would be easier to reach space from the top of a mountain.
The machine rose slowly to a hundred feet, with several of the witness frowning and Hurletta voicing concerns that it was moving pretty slowly. "It's doing checkout, dummy," Blargetha snapped. "Walk before you can run. We don't have time to rebuild the thing if it faults..." The Slime Princess bristled, but Finn shushed her. In a machine voice, Sarah announced, "Flight Control checks complete. Fuel and Oil Pressure are positive. Anti-gravity generator is functioning in tolerance..." It was weird to hear her speaking that way. It reminded Billy of the days after the Dipped got run down.
Now the thing suddenly shot skyward. It turned its nose skyward, the engine in the rear ignited, and the thing tore out of there like a bat out of hell. It was lost to sight in moments. Hurletta squealed in fear! Had it gone out of control. "Gather-guide underway," Sarah announced in her machine voice. As she spoke, she began to turn Nadia this way and that, and Billy found himself remembering an absurd fact. Nadia kept radio antennae inside her breasts. His face went red hot as he realized how his stepmoms were controlling the flying machine.
The robot zoomed down out of the sky, making simulated bombing runs against the target, swooping past at high speed. "Why doesn't it shoot," Blargetha demanded? "Nadia won't touch weapons," Finn rumbled. Sarah knew that. The two had become surprisingly close with Sarah often taking the cyborg princess's side of things. Again and again the thing climbed and dove at the targets, with Lollipop recording. Nadia was getting a little sweaty from the effort.
Finally, Finn announced, "BMO? Do we have enough footage to cut?" "Yes, Finn," said BMO. "I can create a thirty-minute video production." "Ok," said the King. Turning to his wives, Finn said, "shut it down." "Sending failsafe," Sarah replied. Moments later, with a shudder, Sarah looked up from what she'd been doing, releasing her grip on Nadia's shoulders. The machine came zooming up, juddering to a halt in mid-air. Slowly it settled onto its cradle with a soft, metallic clunk. Gently, Sarah eased the interface jack out of Nadia's neck. "Can you move," she asked? With a shiver, the cyborg raised her left arm. "Yeah," she said, "I'm fine." Unzipping to get some air on her overheated and sweaty boobies, the Grid-Face Princess showed just how fine she was. Abeiuwa elbowed Billy sharply, causing him to glance away.
The King blew out of there just as he'd blown in, likely heading back to his office. "Shouldn't you go too," Abeiuwa asked? Billy's face flushed at the reminder. Her eyes said it. Don't shirk. Giving her a peck on the cheek, the younger man said, "see you tonight. Hopefully." He too headed off, rushing after his dad. The older woman licked her lips as she watched that hard ass stride away from her. "Cougar," Nadia teased. The Mistress of the Southern Jungle gave her a harumph. "So, when do we make the exchange," asked the Grid-Face Princess? "In due time," Abeiuwa retorted. "I've sent orders to gather the material. You can rest assured that it will be ready when the machine is ready. When do you start building the nodes?" It was tit-for-tat, but that was the nature of their relationship. "Gimme' a few days to get the survey team on the ground," Nadia chuckled. "I'm not Fionna, after all."
The Ice-Prince exited his dad's office at seven that evening having eaten a pretty lousy dinner there at his dad's desk. He'd missed seeing Abeiuwa, and he'd had to give up his evening's phone-call with Rags, Noemi, and his kids. It was another unsubtle reminder of what was waiting on him if he was dumb enough to put a crown on his head. You're not going to get a choice, Bill, he thought. Kat was right. They weren't going to give him a choice. His dad had fought it tooth and nail. Looking back, Billy could see it. He could have been Warlord of Ooo the day he racked up the last alien corpse. They had been ready for it, Ooo's princess population–ready and willing to make the problems Finn's responsibility.
As Billy headed upstairs to try and find his ladies, Finn turned the other direction, headed downstairs. He was due to see 'Letta tonight. He'd missed going dancing with her. He'd promised he'd take her when he got out of that fucking quarantine ward, but he'd headed east to see Talia instead. After, he'd gone straight to Bee Kingdom. Likely, he'd be leaving again, and he wanted to give her a little time before the choice got taken away. Unfortunately, he had one last drill to take care of.
Heading down into the basement, the big man sought out the lab where Blargetha worked on the deadly secrets he'd set her to conjuring up. The flying war-machine had been a great success, but he wanted to make sure that they were ready to carry things forward. He wanted no delays. His mind wanted to conjure foes waiting out there in the great empty of space to steal the wretched secret buried in Ooo's heart.
Arriving at the door of the lab, he found the evil genius standing over a pile of the circuit-things with a cup of coffee in her hand. As he strolled in, her jury-rigged alarm tripped, alerting her to his presence. Turning to face him, she greeted him with a wary, "Finn..." "Blargetha," Finn replied, as he came striding up. "I trust that you're satisfied," she said. "We had a small malfunction with the control pedestal. Sarah..." "Where is Sarah," he asked? His eyes flicked to the room in the back, where Sarah had been closeting herself. The fallen princess gave him a harumph. "Sulking or something," she said. "I don't know why Bonnie decided she had to have emotions..." Finn glared at the plump woman. "You'd get better work out of her if she didn't, Finn," the slime-princess retorted. "She's been... fucking odd lately."
Frowning, his face gone to worry, the big man rumbled, "how... odd...?" "Angry when there's no reason to be, shirking her piece of the work... Hiding out from the rest of your peeps," said Blargetha. "It's damned odd for a machine..." It wasn't to Finn, but he didn't know what to do for what ailed his wife. It was a lot like Bonnie used to get when she was having a 'Shoko' moment, or like Marcie when she was thinking about her lonely, empty world. Unfortunately, he didn't even have time to track Sarah down to try and work on the problem. "Make sure the plans get to Fire Kingdom," he said. "Lollipop already took them," said the evil genius. "There's a set in the vaults. There's two sets headed by courier to Fire Kingdom." That last part came out in a nervous tone. Her usefulness was very close to its end.
With an evil grin, Finn slapped the plush princess on her big, curvy ass, making her yelp and almost drop the coffee. It was intended to terrorize her, but Blargetha gave him a strange, almost calculating look. "Is that all you're ever going to do," she asked? Finn's head whipped around. Those plump, pouty lips parted in a smile as she said, "you didn't even spank me–just slapped my ass..." Finn babbled something inarticulate, and she knew she had him buffaloed. Stepping in front of him, she reached out and straightened his tie, as she said, "slapping my ass is so pedestrian when you could do anything you wanted..." Glancing up at him, she said, "you could even order me to do what you wanted... maybe tell me to bend over that table... or lay down and spread it for you..."
The big man's face went red hot, not least because of his lust for Hurletta. Maja had made the two sisters into almost-perfect humanoid women, and he'd come to a point where he so wanted to fuck 'Letta. "You can rest for now, Princess Blargetha," the big man rumbled. "I'll have some of your things provided if you'd like." Without a further word, he turned and strode away. The plump princess watched him go with a smile on her face.
It was a disturbed Finn that walked into Hurletta's suite thirty minutes later. The mood was thick on him, and the Slime Princess could see it in his eyes. There was something bothering him–a lot actually. Maybe it was Breezy's abduction. Maybe it was the general atmosphere of lurking doom. They still had thousands of starving camped out on the border with his wife, daughter, and grandkids under chronic threat. They still had the Bandit Princess out there doing something. Or maybe it was something else. She wanted to get him to lay down his burdens, but she wasn't really sure how to do that without crossing some dangerous lines. That wasn't really what a man was supposed to do–empty himself in front of a woman, even when he'd known her for most of their collective life.
As Hurletta the Slime Princess bustled about, getting ready to go, Finn stood at the window, staring out at the darkened landscape of the Candy Kingdom. He might have been remembering earlier, happier times. It was hard to say. He didn't speak much, responding mostly in grunts and murmurs. Even when his date came out of the bedroom wearing something sexy, he hardly seemed to respond.
"You don't feel much like dancing," Hurletta murmured. It wasn't really a question. Flushing, Finn glanced away. "We don't have to go," she said. "I made a promise," he muttered. "Is that all I am to you," she asked? "A promise?" The big man's face darkened, and he studied her a moment. "Yes," he rumbled, "and no." The way he said it sounded conflicted. Staring into her eyes, the big man said, "I'm trapped by all the duties that pull at me, 'Letta. I'm trapped because I want, more than anything, to spend time with you because you've been my friend for years, and I haven't been much of a friend lately. I dump my work on you, and I blitz out of town because..." "...because you're the King, and the world is resting on your shoulders," Hurletta replied. They were getting somewhere.
Advancing on him, the plump woman replied, "I take the work and gladly because... well... It's a way to see you." Stopping within his space, the plush princess said, "I do the work because I love you, and you're struggling... The world is crushing you, and I can help, even if it's only a little." Those words were... disturbing. It was a disturbing echo of his earlier conversation with Blargetha, where she'd almost seemed to take a shot at him. Taking a chance, she slipped her arms around him and hugged him. Resting her chin on his shoulder, the plush pretty murmured, "we don't have to go anywhere. Let's just stay here." The big man found himself standing there, rocking back and forth with the plump woman. It reminded him, in a lot of ways, of the awkward way he used to dance before the desires of his wives and the pressures of being a figure in Bonnie's government.
Taking 'Letta into his arms, the big man began to twirl her around the room, holding her close to him, as he danced to the imaginary strains of her favorite dancing music. The Slime Princess let herself be swept away. It was almost magical the way he could do that to her. Finn could drive away the blues with just a couple of words–or a gesture like this. On his side, it was a pleasant moment for Finn as well. Between his worries over Breezy, the misery of constantly seeing people he cared for leave him, and the stress of his evil job, this was a beautiful moment for the King of Ooo. He was definitely enjoying this, in spite of the worry. Arms around his old, old friend, the big man lost himself in the feel of a woman in his arms.
Glancing up, Hurletta stared into his eyes a moment. Stepping back, she took hold of his arm and pulled him towards her bedroom. Alarms went off in the big man's head. This was no-bueno. At the same time, he was a little afraid of rejecting her. He'd rejected her over and over and over when they were young. He'd done his best to be nice about it, pretending that he didn't know what she was suggesting. Now, though...? He couldn't really pretend he didn't know why a girl was leading him towards her bedroom.
But there was a complication here.
The 'Letta who'd shamelessly thrown herself at him hadn't been victimized by a bunch of mercenaries. She hadn't lived through the hell of a war in captivity under threat of murder by her sister's allies. And Finn hadn't been both tempted and repelled. He was fucking tempted to bang the shit out of Hurletta and repelled to be having those thoughts about somebody who'd been through what she'd gone through. Toast went through it too, Finn, the big man reminded himself. He'd been shocked to have Toaster basically jump him in his office, and now he found himself remembering something Dr. P had said. Even the worst wounds could be healed if they didn't kill you.
Hundreds of miles away, Chelsea the Wax Hustler sat fuming. Fedir Brutko had been ducking getting involved in things the last few days, cursing the ogress the whole time. His mistress was almost casual with murder when she was in a mood like this, and the ogress had left him with the mess. In the end, no amount of ducking and dodging could work forever, though. After spending much of his time overseeing the movement of men and weapons to key places, the jumped-up bandit finally found himself with no more excuses for avoiding the summons.
The anger was in her eyes the moment he walked into her presence. Calm, the thug told himself. It was important to remain calm. If he was calm–if he made it seem that he was just doing the things she asked–he might keep his skin. Stopping just within reach of the evil harridan, the bandit offered, "the weapons are in place, my lady." Chelsea stopped right in her tracks. She'd been ready to gut him. She'd... been enraged. She'd thought he was ducking her. "And the men," she breathed. "Almost there," he said. "We've misplaced one company. Their travel papers had errors." Frowning, Chelsea growled, "but you'll have them in place? Yes?" "They will be in position, but we're still short the five-hundred men we were promised."
We. That was the key word. We're just one big happy army. Doing the Lady Chelsea's bidding. Getting shit done. We were going to go after the King of Ooo's jugular, while Fedir Brutko slipped away in the darkness to live another day. They were weeks out from executing her mad little plan. Assuming she had the guts to carry it forward without the ogress's help. Chelsea spat curses. Drumming on the table with her venomed nails, she muttered curses, as Fedir tried to ignore the poison stains on the furniture. "I'll find the men," she said at last. "Thank-you, Fedir. You are a good servant." The thug gave her a bow, risking murder. A tremor of fear touched him when she reached out and stroked his face. "We're going to win," she said. "I'm going to reward you for your good faith. Good night." No more than that. Straightening, Fedir Brutko forced his trembling body to walk slowly back across the room and out the door.
Back in the Candy Kingdom, Finn found himself laying on his side in the wet spot, staring into 'Letta's worried face. Girls. The bane of his existence. "Did you like it," Hurletta asked? The big man frowned at her in puzzlement. It wasn't usually the girl asking that question. Softly, the plump woman told him about the men who'd abused her and how they'd told her how worthless she was. When she'd dared to ask them why they kept coming back, they'd given her a cruel answer–because they could. Rolling the plump woman on her back, the big man put his lips to her ear and whispered, "it was wonderful." His hands caressed her flanks as he said it, making her shiver. "I had a good time with a beautiful girl," he said. The plump girl wrapped her arms around him and glued her lips to his the way she'd always longed to do it.
Hours later, the ringing of a phone awoke Finn the King. Whispering curses, he slipped out of bed and over to the pants he'd left on the table. Taking out his phone and flicking it open, he murmured, "go..." As Hurletta lay snoring, the King listened to the voice on the other end of the line as she laid out what she'd found. It was a lead on Breezy's whereabouts. It was the best information they'd found. "I'll be there in the morning," Finn announced, as he hung up. Fifteen minutes later, the King slipped silently out of the hotel suite, his bodyguard falling in at his back, leaving the sleeping princess in her bed alone. He intended to make her understand that, though, truthfully, he feared she understood it all too well.
Took me a while to finish this one. Work is, once again, bringing me grief. The war-machine now has an air-force. And Blargetha is looking for a new reason to keep breathing.