Swords, Sorcery, and Sex in the World of Greyhawk - Chapter 4 - Part 1

Chapter 4: Transformations - Part 1

Two cycles later, the six learned why Casmir had cautioned Steve the pick might break. Near the end of the work-cycle Ademek was prying a node out of the face when the handle of his pick snapped. He stumbled, holding the broken shaft with a look of dismay.

"Tough luck for him." Wenzel said, as Ademek left for camp, cursing. That night, Casmir took out the gray leather book he used to keep his daily log.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Ademic said angrily. The six looked on curiously.

"Are you going to charge him for that?" Maria asked.

"Of course? You pay for your food and your gear. He breaks my pick, he pays for it. You think I should pay for his mistake?"

"But it was an accident. It could happen to anyone."

"It happens to all of us sooner or later." Wenzel shrugged. "Bad luck for Ademek though, happened to him last season too."

"But it happens to everyone?"

"Mrena, why are you asking this?" The other diggers looked on curiously as Casmir interrogated Maria. They'd all felt the sting of a broken pick and felt for Adamek.

"Look. How long do picks last?" Maria pressed the issue.

"Depends." Casmir replied, looking skeptical. The other watched, wondering where Maria was going with this.

"On average."

"Huh?

"Okay. How many picks do you bring each season."

"Hm. ten or eleven, I suppose."

"Good. Now how many do you have to replace each season."

"Depends."

"Arghh." Maria exhaled slowly. "How many last season?"

"Two."

"And the season before?"

"Hm. Three."

"Okay, let's say that in two seasons you have to buy five shovels. Okay?"

"Well, sure."

"Now. This season you have seven diggers. What about last season?"

"Eight."

"So. Two seasons, fifteen diggers..."

"Ahh." Ashley nodded her head, seeing what Maria intended, but Casmir didn't.

"No, some worked both seasons."

"Just humor me, alright. Pretend all fifteen of your workers were different. That means one pick broke for every three workers. Instead of charging whoever happened to be using the pick when it broke, why don't you charge all of your diggers one-third the cost of a pick each season. That way they know how much they'll have to pay, they won't have to stress about getting a good pick each night, and you'll still get your money." Maria leaned back, crossing her arms across her ample chest. "What do you think?"

"But I didn't break anything. Why should I have to pay?" Wenzel interrupted.

"Look, all picks eventually break, right? It's just a matter of who is unlucky enough to be holding on to it when it breaks. This way the cost is spread fairly and you don't have to worry about which pick you get."

"What if we break four picks this season?" Casmir said.

"Some seasons you'll break four, some two, and they'll even out. Just because the average is three doesn't mean three will break each year."

"Why not?"

"Because probability is lumpy with this few trials." Ashley leaned over to explain. Casmir stared at her like she'd announced that a goat ate her moon rocket.

"You're not helping, Ashley." Maria said, exasperated. "Casmir, if you'd keep good records you could figure it out exactly how much to take each year so you don't lose money and no digger gets unfairly singled out."

"I've written down every time someone breaks a pick for twenty-three years now." Casmir said, eyeing Maria thoughtfully. His main concern was getting his money, but he'd been a digger himself for long enough to know that a reputation for fairness mattered when it came to hiring good diggers.

"Sounds like you know something about numbers. Why don't you and I take a look at what we've got, hm, Mrena?" He rose, one hand beckoning Maria to follow him. She looked at Erica, who shrugged, and rose to follow him. Waving her to sit inside his lean-to, Casmir pulled out several more log books.

"These are the last three seasons - daily dig records, what I spent in town, and what I sold."

"Wow. You don't waste time do you?" Maria asked rhetorically as she opened the first one. It turned out to be a scrawled list of events and amounts in chronological order, with no organizing scheme that she could see.

"You are a scribe?"

"A scribe? No, I study accounting. You know, how to keep financial records." Maria shook her head absently, still marveling at the logbook.

"Yes, a scribe!" Casmir said excitedly. "Why didn't you say so? You should have been working on these records, not picking mushrooms and sorting ore chips."

"Really?" Maria turned to look at him, interest piqued. Staying in camp to organize his records sounded so much better than going out into those stinking tunnels.

"Absolutely!" Casmir said, giving her a gap-toothed grin.

"Well then...do you have any fresh log books? That I could transfer these numbers into?"

"Oh. Um. Yeah. Let me get it." He hurried out to the baggage pile. The others looked on curiously from their seats around the hearthstone.

When he returned with the new logbook, she took it and stretched out on his bedroll, two logbooks open and a charcoal pencil in hand. Leafing through the old one she started scrawling notes.

"Let's see, we'll need asset and depreciation accounts for the equipment...maybe we'll call consumables food supplies instead of office supplies...an intangible asset account for the claim stake...salaries are going to be...at least there's no FICA deductions..." She mumbled to herself. She liked accounting, the satisfaction from getting all her numbers in the right place and seeing her totals balance the way they should when she was done. The best part was counting her own money - she loved that. But other people's money was fun to track too. Getting Casmir's books properly organized would take some time, but it would sure beat crawling around in the dark for stupid mushrooms.

She lost herself in the numbers, while the others finished their meals and chatted tiredly. It wasn't until Erica came to tell her that she was going to bed that Maria realized how late it was. She told Erica that she'd be there as soon as she finished journalizing the sales records from last season she was looking at.

Before she could finish her work, though, Maria felt Casmir lie down on the bedroll next to her. When she didn't look up, he put one hand on the small of her back.

"Mrena. Ye work very hard." He said quietly. His hand slid around the curve of her side, telling her what he wanted. She rolled over, facing him. His face was inches away from hers, and his arm lay heavily on her hips.

Back home, she wouldn't have given the balding old man a second glance, but she wasn't there any more. Casmir wasn't that bad, Maria decided. He hadn't taken a bath in weeks, probably, and his smell filled the small space, but she hadn't taken a bath either, and it wasn't unpleasant anymore, not really. His mutton-chops did look silly, but she'd seen him without his shirt often enough to know that his taut muscles could have belonged to any frat boy on campus. His hands felt strong on her body as he pressed her down onto his bedroll.

"But the others are right out there!" Maria whispered.

"So?" Casmir asked. One hand slipped under her shirt, making slow circles around her breast.

"They'll hear us." She replied, but she didn't push him away.

"They're adults." He shrugged. "They know what it sounds like." He loosened his leggings.

"But..." The little voice that sounded like Maria's catholic mother told her to say no, but her resistance was crumbling under his hand's assault on her breasts.

Kneeling at her side, his cock hung over her breasts and looked like a pink banana, not especially large, but with a definite curve.

"It's crooked." Maria giggled and pulled his hips closer to her face.

"Mrena!" Casmir looked hurt.

"I like it." She punctuating her retort with a loud slurp as she ran her tongue from base to tip. When she ran out of cock to lick, her face turned upwards, looking Casmir in the eye as she swirled the tip around

"Oh!" Casmir stiffened, her words forgotten.

Maria cupped the head of his cock in her mouth while she fondled his balls, rolling each between her fingers. Pulling back, she looked up at him and smiled, but his eyes were closed in bliss. She gave another long lick from the base upward, leaving her tongue on the sensitive spot just below the tip, flicking it from side to side.

Dropping her head between his legs she took his balls in her mouth, rolling them around with her tongue as she jacked his cock with her hand. He jerked in her grasp, reflexively trying to thrust into her strokes. Deciding she'd toyed with him enough she sat up and he collapsed on his back.

"Like that, baby?" She leaned over him.

"Mrena..." Casmir sighed.

"Don't get many blowjobs, huh?"

"Blow-job?" Casmir looked confused.

"Like this." Maria said with a sly smile as she lowered her head to his dick, letting it slide between her puckered lips. Her cheeks hollowed as she sucked, bobbing her head up and down on his cock. Casmir wasn't a virgin, but weeks without sex don't leave a man with much stamina.

"Ohhh." Casmir groaned as his hips stiffened and he filled Maria's mouth with his cum. She didn't miss a beat, sucking out every last bit of cream.

Suddenly he rolled over, pinning Maria with his weight, and she smiled at the lust in his eyes. She could feel his cock between their bodies, pressing into her belly, and she ground her hips against him. He explored her face with his lips, kissing her cheeks, behind her ears, and down her neck. Tilting her head back she presented herself to him, reveling in the excitement coursing through her body. When she felt his hand on her inner thigh, she gladly spread her legs for him.

He held his stiff cock and steered it between her nether lips. "Mrena..." Casmir sighed as he sunk into her completely, stopping to rest with his belly on her soft abdomen. She had lost weight, but still had a plump tummy.

With their bodies jammed together, each motion brushed her clit against his hairy crotch. Impatient, she began grinding her hips up and down his abdomen, finding a motion that kept pressure on her clit and moved him in and out of her wet hole.

"Uh...Uh" Maria grunted as Casmir's thrusts gained urgency and his cock swelled inside her.

He cried out as she felt him quiver. Inside her pussy she could feel his cum spurt out as his body jerked in orgasm. For a long moment he remained poised above her, as his hips moved in little thrusts and his cock pulsed, cum draining into her womb. When it was done he collapsed onto her chest, panting.

"uh, Casmir?" She asked. "I can't.. breathe..." She managed.

Laughing, he rolled off her. His cock slide out and over her thigh, leaving a wet trail.

She reached out a hand to his shrinking penis, covered in sticky white paste. "Come here, baby." She said to it. Sitting up on one elbow, she lowered her head to his crotch, engulfing him with her mouth. A moment's hard sucking and she had him clean.

"Ahhhh..." He sighed, watching her. "You know, Mrena, now I see Jascar's plan. Before we left One-eye Cove I burned two whole boxes of incense at the _____ Grotto, twice what I usually do. I poured a whole bottle of ____ on the ground before the Shrine of ______. I had a feeling this would be a big strike; if Lord Jascar was going to bless me with one, this was the trip. But...when the Kith hit us I...I doubted. I thought that after all this, maybe he didn't care about me, that I wouldn't even bring enough back to pay off the claim stake, and I'd end up where I started, digging someone else's claim."

"Mmm" Maria murmured vaguely, tracing his bulging pectorals with her fingernails.

"And then...you all came along. I still don't understand you sometimes, but...now I see that Jascar himself must have sent you.

"Mmm?" Maria prompted, curious now.

"I mean, your friends have been a big help too. Especially Stefan. He's...well, he's turning into a first-rate digger. And Piotr is a good worker, too. But you, Mrena. You are truly a gift from the Lord himself."

"Oh, Caz." Maria smiled at the compliment.

"I mean it." He turned his head to face her. "You can do things with numbers that I've never seen anyone in One-eye Cove do."

"And that's not the only thing I can do, is it?" Maria asked, her fingernails drifting south, across his belly, to nestle among the hair at the base of his cock. Her head tilted towards him, meeting his lips in a kiss.

"Little Pichka..." Casmir said, deep in his throat, as her hand cupped his balls in a warm blanket.

"Pichka?" Maria murmured.

"It means...." His hand pressed between her legs and he smiled.

"Want to try again, baby?" Maria replied, nipping at his ear.

Growling, he rolled on top of her, pressing her into the furs with his weight. Maria giggled as she felt him harden against her thigh, and her giggles turned to moans as he slipped inside.

Continued in 4: Transformations - Part 2

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