Chapter Two:

Out of the Shadows, Part 1


The border guards open the gates of Melca's wall for you, allowing you and Khaytala to ride out on your diabolical mission. You keep your the hoods of your cloaks pulled tight over your faces until you're certain that you've dodged any enemy patrols in the area, whether from Vekmar or Nelin.

You make good time riding back toward the Great Forest, your horses galloping across the countryside as you head toward your next target. You follow roads and cross meadows, Khaytala leading the way for most of it. For all the intensive study you made of the local maps to give yourself a general idea of the lay of the land, it can't compare to someone who has personally travelled—and fought—her way across the length and breadth of it as Khaytala has.

Khaytala's affectionate presence also means that—unlike last time—feeding is no issue whatsoever. You can push yourself as hard as you like during the day, and indulge in enough passionate sex that your reserves never falter. And while the combination of hard travel and hard fucking might exhaust most mortals, Khaytala's stamina is on another level entirely. She shows no sign of it slowing her down in the slightest.

As a result, you spend the trip getting to know each other better. Now that you're both firmly on the same side, united in purpose, you're able to speak far more openly. You spend many days listening to Khaytala tell you stories about her life on the road, the wide array of things she's seen in various countries, both the fantastical and the intriguingly mundane.

You also spend many nights with your naked bodies intertwined as you share pillow talk, discussing all the sinful delights of the flesh that you can explore with her friends once they've been swayed to your way of thinking. It's a new world that you're guiding Khaytala into... and it's a world she takes to with a growing excitement and enthusiasm that belies her relative inexperience.

"Imagine it..." you tease her one night, as you bend her over on her hands and knees, mercilessly fucking her muscular body from behind. "Imagine what they'll think when they realize that you're helping me hunt them. Imagine their faces when they start to see friend after friend fall, and they realize there's nothing they can do to stop it. Imagine how they'll feel when they finally understand how much they've been denying themselves all this time. Imagine how we'll show it to them!"

"Oh goddesses!" You time those last words with a particularly deep thrust, and Khaytala comes explosively at the thought of whatever she's imagining herself doing to the other heroines. You fill her with your seed, then finally pull out, allowing her to slump over onto her back, breasts heaving as she pants for breath. She grins up at you, basking in the afterglow, drunk on the intoxicating blend of how deliciously depraved what you're about to do is... mixed with how deliriously delightful it will be for her friends once it is complete.

The trip takes a fair bit longer going overland than through the air, but eventually you reach the now-familiar borders of the Great Forest. Hopefully your corruption of Verika will be as successful as your previous venture in this region was.

As you join up to the forest road, the two of you slow your mounts. It's already getting late, so you decide to camp nearby and enter the forest proper in the morning. You set up a campfire, and as night falls the two of you sit in front of it, the flickering glow illuminating both of you as you sit next to each other.

Khaytala glances at you thoughtfully. "So... what is the plan when we run into Verika?"

"I suppose that depends on where we run into her," you muse, stirring the fire with a branch while you consider your options. "You mentioned that you'd visited her village village before, didn't you? And that you could take me there? We could just head there and meet her when she returns. That might allow us to lay some groundwork before she arrives. Talk to the people who live with her, learn some information, maybe even set up some situations we can use later."

Khaytala nods in agreement. "That could work. They know me there, and if I give you an introduction they should be friendly. Of course, another option would be to try and track her down on the road. See if we can find her on one of her patrols and start in on her right away."

True, that also might have its advantages. You wouldn't have as much preparation before encountering her, but it would maximize the time spent actually working on her directly. "A third option would be to lurk around the edges at first," you muse. "If we can find one of these elves while she's alone, away from the village, and convince her to aid us, we could gain a solid ally in their midst." It's not lost on Khaytala what that "convincing" will most likely involve, and you see her eyes light up in nervous excitement.

Going with that route probably won't give you the full breadth of avenues for investigation that looking around the elf village while you wait for Verika might. But a more loyal, dedicated agent could prove quite useful as well, depending on the situation. Without knowing exactly how events will play out it's difficult to guess, but they all seem to be live options based on what you've learned so far.

Either way, the time has come to hunt your next quarry. What is your first move going to be?