Love and Shkulaktoss - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The path leading down from the entrance of the White Mountain Clan's fortress to the foothills and then to the druids' shack by the lake was full of rocks, thorns, and briars. The old druid did not care, of course; she could pass through natural obstacles unimpeded. Katernin had attempted to clear away the worst of the rough terrain with a hatchet and pick axe, but at the same time she dared not do too much; she did not want to clear a path leading right to her secret meeting point, lest she tempt others to follow.

Despite her exhaustion and the rough terrain, she hurried there, and soon made it under the cover of night. There was no smoke coming from the hearth, no light inside; the druid was not home. All was quiet; the night sky was clear, illuminated by the light of the stars and a glowing gibbous moon. Slowly, Katernin crept to the barn behind the shack, and rapped upon its door in a familiar pattern: three times slowly, then twice quickly.

Three clicks of stone answered her from within. It was the signal.

Katernin threw open the door and through her dwarven darkvision she saw the familiar heat of Garauk's body. Unable to contain herself, she ran and leapt at him. He caught her, staggering with the sudden impact, but held her aloft and raised her into an embrace, kissing her deeply upon the lips. He tasted of garlic, and tomatoes, and a zesty spice of the sort used by humans that she didn't quite recognize. A scent of the same wafted up from a covered clay pot that he had set aside, and her stomach rumbled. She savored the taste of it on his lips, and kissed him deeper still, making a comical attempt to devour his face.

Garauk could only take that a few seconds before he set her down and pulled away, laughing. "My lady must be hungry?" he said.

"To starvation," Katernin said with a sigh. "The dumb mine fell in from the earthquakes last night, and it's been a hell of a day getting a bit dug out and the first few timbers braced." She set her lantern down on the floor and put in a bit of oil, then struck a firestick and lit it. Darkvision was sufficient to get by, but if she was going to look upon her true love, she wanted to do it by actual light.

"I know mammoth's not your favorite," Garauk said, and he handed her the clay pot and a wooden spoon, "but I think I made the best of it. Besides, there'll be little more mammoth after this; the landslide blocked off our hunters' best path to the valley."

"Don't care if it's mammoth," Katernin said, "I'd eat a badger's brains right now." She felt the strong, tender ache of deep affection as she stared at him gratefully. "Ye have my biggest thanks for bringing this, love." She sat down on a comfortable bed of fresh straw (the druid must not have been gone that long) and set in to devour the meal.

The mammoth meat in zesty tomato sauce over rice was actually surprisingly good, like an exotic dish from the far southern provinces where winter was short in the lowlands and warring kingdoms of humans ruled most of the lands. It was also, fortunately, braised to a state of tenderness that was soft enough for Katernin to nearly inhale in her ravenous state. She finished the contents of her waterskin along with it, and shared most of the contents of the wine bottle with Garauk as he watched her eat.

"I am led to understand that you didn't stop at the dining hall before coming here," Garauk said, his thick orcish accent over a rich purr of amusement. Katernin couldn't even bring herself to be self-conscious about eating so much in front of him. He understood it as a compliment, and didn't seem to mind her healthy dwarven figure.

"This one fella invited me to dinner after work," Katernin told him, smiling, as she set down the now-empty clay pot. "Ye thinking of getting jealous and fighting him for my love? He's a decent fella, but could maybe use a light ass-whipping on this subject."

Garauk shook his head. "I've already beaten him," he said. "You're here, aren't you?" His lips parted rakishly, showing his little lower fangs in a grin.

Katernin took another drink of wine and scooted in closer to him, resting her head on his lean chest. "Parents are asking about me marrying," she said. "I put them off, of course. Any chance ye could grow a beard, bleach your skin, and shrink a foot and a half in the next few months?"

Garauk didn't say anything. He stared out the window of the barn, into the well-lit night sky, with that pensive, soulful expression on his face, the one that made her always want to ask him what was on his mind, and then punch him when he replied "nothing much".

"Dare I ask," Katernin said in a flat drawl, "what ye've got on your mind right now?" Her tone left little doubt that she expected an answer that amounted largely to bullshit.

Garauk took a deep breath. "I'm not sure you want to know," he said, "and I'm not sure I should tell you all of it. But I will." His arm around her waist gave a squeeze, slid up to her ribs. "Father's also talking of marrying me off. To our fiercest warrior, Ullegh Zagroth."

A possessive streak seared through the base of Katernin's spine. Her back involuntarily bristled, and she could tell that Garauk felt her tense up. "Is he handsome?" she asked, and felt petty at once. It was one of those questions to which one answer was measurably the wrong one.

"It doesn't matter," Garauk said with a sigh. "He wouldn't be a good husband. And even if he was the most handsome, generous, loving man alive, I don't want him. I want you."

"And ye didn't want to tell me that?" Katernin said, scowling.

"Now you've gone tense," Garauk said. He got up and reached into his pack and produced a soft blanket of stitched together furs, which he unrolled upon the floor of the barn. "Take off your clothes and lie down on your belly. I'll help you with that."

"I'm all smelly from work," Katernin protested. "I haven't bathed yet." But she stood up and started stripping, folding her garments into a neat pile as she went. "But do tell me why it is ye didn't want to tell me that."

"I just want our time together to be happy," Garauk said. "I wait for your messages so eagerly. Once or twice I've come here on my own, without hearing your message from the charm, just hoping you would happen to wander this way anyway. I... don't want to ruin this with sad feelings." His words hung in the air, and she saw him struggling. "But there's more sad news. Worse."

Katernin stepped out of her panties and stood naked before him, her body thick and buxom but toned and healthy. Her round breasts stood out, their large, dark pink nipples erect, and at her groin was a bush of dark golden curls. "Oh?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Talk among the warriors is that many want war," Garauk said. "If that happens, so many people, yours and mine, will die. I plan to do everything I can, and say anything to anyone, to try to keep that from happening." He scowled. "But they don't listen to me. Aside from this drive for war, so many of them are good and noble, and I count them as true friends. But they don't respect me; I'm only a cook."

"A worthy job," Katernin said, and she took her position on the fur blanket, feeling the soft furs tickling her breasts and belly. "Besides which, ye're also the High Chief's son."

"My father, the High Chief, respects me less than anyone," Garauk said, shaking his head. "And it appears that he also wants this war."

"Fuck," Katernin said, a bitter pit entering her stomach. "Forgive me for this, Garauk... but fuck your damned bloodthirsty people straight to hell."

"I'm sure many of them are bound for hell once war breaks out," Garauk said sadly, sitting down beside her. "See why I didn't want to talk about this?"

"Yes, I do," Katernin said. She sat up. "Just a moment." She took hold of the mostly-empty bottle of wine, and drank all but a mouthful of its remaining contents before handing it to Garauk. "Damn it."

Garauk finished the wine and then rolled the empty bottle aside. "Lay down," he told her, and she did. His hands touched her bare shoulders, his strong fingers pressing down, swirling forcefully through her tension, kneading the knots and pains of a day's hard labor from the aching muscles.

"Ahh, that feels good," Katernin murmured. She tried to clear her mind, to lose herself in the easing sensation of his touch. "Let's try to forget all this for now. This is our time."

"These moments are the most precious time of my life," Garauk said, his hands kneading between her shoulders, then traveling up to her neck, rubbing the stiffness out. It felt wonderful, and more time passed as he worked his way down to her lower back. When his fingers proved insufficient to undo a knot in her, he would roll his knuckles over her muscles with firm, even pressure throughout, then begin again with gentle swirls over the tender area that grew slowly in force and scope.

"This is dumb," Katernin protested, after failing to keep her mind off of the upsetting news. "Let's run off together, ye and I, and scratch ourselves out a shabby plantation somewhere in the south. Learn to grow plants out of the ground and raise up animals, and let the rest of them burn."

Garauk made a sad little groan. "I could almost see doing that, for my part," he said. "But you have a loving family, and a job where your talents are appreciated, and a place of honor in your clan." He sighed. "If you gave that all up for me, can you really tell me you'd never regret it, nor resent it?"

Katernin tried to deny it, and found that she couldn't. "Damn it all straight down to hell," she said bitterly. Garauk's hands were now at her buttocks, kneading them, spreading them, working the tension free from there. Her mind was distracted, momentarily, with the thought that he was seeing her fully exposed back there. He was the first man to ever have a clear, extended view of her asshole, and during the early days of their relationship, being seen like that had embarrassed her. Now, being exposed to him like this only amused her, or aroused her. Or both.

"That's better," Garauk said, feeling the tension leave her. "Just relax."

From her buttocks, his hands went all the way down to her feet. That was, in many ways, the most welcome part; her soles were hard as boiled leather from a lifetime of wearing work boots, but nevertheless they were filled with a tremendous ache from standing and working all day, then traveling here. Above them, he massaged her ankles, and then the powerful muscles at the back of her thighs. His fingers kneaded her thighs, drifting towards the inside, and then slowly crept higher and higher, until they were almost at her pussy. Then nothing.

Katernin was about to glance back over her shoulder, but then she felt the warm, wet presence of Garauk's lips kissing one of her buttocks, then the other. Then his hands held her, spread her, and she felt his hot breath on her pussy and asshole. "Garauk!" she protested. "Stop that! I've worked all day and traveled here without a bath! I'm filthy!"

"I don't mind," Garauk said. "I've missed you so much, Katernin."

Katernin bolted up to a sitting position and punched him, playfully, on the arm. "Be minding, ye damned nasty orc!" she said. "I'm a princess! Do ye think I'm the sort of lass to fuck a filthy man who puts his filthy mouth on filthy girls in filthy places like that?" She couldn't quite contain a smile as she rebuked him.

Garauk's knowing smile in reply was charmingly infuriating. "Do you want an honest answer?" he asked with a grin.

"I want a bath," Katernin said, "and then I want ye to do filthy things to my clean body with your own." She stood up and tugged at the hem of his woolen warrior-skirt. "Besides which, ye're wearing far too many clothes for my own liking at present."

"On that, we can agree," Garauk said. He took up the lantern. "Shall we go to the pond?"

Katernin took hold of the soap and then pursued him out of the barn, tugging at his clothes, running her hands over his delightfully firm, lean, rippling body, and pulling him down by his shaggy mop of moss-green hair into kisses every now and then as he struggled to keep hold of the lantern. Soon enough she had his woolen skirt off, exposing a full-shafted cock as thick as any dwarf's and longer than most, its thick foreskin covering its veined and ridged shaft as it hung over his loose-hanging balls beneath a patch of nearly-black hair.

Continued in Chapter 4

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