Chapter Text
Perhaps the most important lesson that I have learned in all of my journeys is to appreciate the friendships that you make along the way. There are many I have come to know as lovers, yet even our most intimate relationships paled in comparison to the ones I have made with those I consider friends. And while many of the friendships I have come to cherish over my long life have ended one way or another, I shall never forget them, for they are the most true of any relationships I have had.
-The Author
Tik Tik lay in the cart. The kobold aches from the burns sustained from a rogue fire elemental she tried to tame, yet the quick work of her new companions made sure that she survived. Around her sit Gimmegee, the studious gnome, Kera, the pious, yet short-tempered feline, and Cynwrig, heroic bug man. Tik Tik herself is bandaged from head to toe, snugly fitting in her new situation, but annoyed at her lack of movement.
"Something's bothering you, Kera," Cynwrig says, buzzing as the cart bumps along the road. "You've been getting more and more agitated the closer we get to this convent. Why is that?"
"Wouldn't you be upset by a place you're not welcome to anymore?"
"But, why aren't you welcome there? It's a place of healing and respect, isn't it? I thought everyone was welcome to rest at such places."
"Respect, maybe, for the people who don't betray their covenant."
"What," Gimmegee begins, "In all that is holy, are you even on about? I figured you'd be a little different, now that the Lily Nymph's control over you has faltered, but you're not even a recognizable person. So angry, so modest. All of it is just, it's not the Kera I knew when we were among the Flowers."
"It's what I'm supposed to be," Kera says, gripping onto the tattered and muddy habit, her whiskers jittering as she grits her teeth. "I'm supposed to be a good and devoted wife to Klaudus."
"The deity of feline kind? Oh, I see, yeah, you're of that order. Those crazy pusses who think they're part of his harem or something."
"It is not a harem!" Kera hisses. There is a moment of silence before she sits back, closing her eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry. It's just that all that I've been raised to know leads me down a road of excommunication. If I don't have my divine husband, I have nothing else."
"There are plenty of gods in the heavens," Gimmegee says. "And plenty of creeds that don't even deal with the divine themselves. If you really want to be someone's slave so badly, why don't you just go crawling back to the Nymph?"
"I will never be someone's slave! I chose upon reaching my first rite of adulthood, when my body became able to be a mother."
"You mean," Cynwrig says, "When you were just a kid with her first period?"
"How crass," Gimmegee says. "But yes, you catfolk become breeders pretty early in life, don't you? Your body may have been mature, but what about your mind?"
"What do you know of how my kind behaves?" Kera huffs.
"I've heard tales of feline perversity that made your Flower days seem like the norm of your kind. Guess you and your ilk are a bunch of prudes. Who knew?"
She shrugs. "Perhaps what you need," Gimmegee continues, "is to tell us lowly heathens exactly what your problem is."
"That," Kera says, "That would be a long story."
"We're on a long ride," Gimmegee says. "And, who knows?" She flips a page and winks at Tik Tik, "Maybe it will make for good material for Tik TIk's book?"
Tik Tik, having listened this entire time, feels a flutter as she looks over towards the gnome.
Kera coughs and sits up straight, her tail curling around to her lap, where she gently strokes it. "My story," she says, "is a private affair. I would thank you not to pry into matters that do not concern you."
Cynwrig pipes up. "But, we've battled together. We've survived trials together! I'll tell you my past if that makes it easier to tell yours. I have nothing to be afraid of, though it may be a stain upon my honor.
Gimmegee turns to yet another page and scribbles something down. "Well, as long as we're airing out some dirty laundry, I've got some of my own that might be interesting. "
Unlike Tik Tik, my education in the science of magic came from the prestigious Delarious Academy. The library there was so massive that it became the home of a sort of commune for many of the students learning there. We studied in those halls, we ate under the shelves, and we even slept in the dark corners when the midnight oil was not enough for our endless quest for knowledge.
But, despite being a prodigious student in magic, I am also a woman, and like any other woman, I have my own needs. Knowing I couldn't very well decide to go out of the library and risk losing precious time hitting the dating scene, I decided that I would relieve my concerns among the precious books that I so loved. So, I found myself a particularly thrilling encyclopedia of human anatomy and turned my attention to the description of the male. The way those words were sung to me, detailing how the blood rushed to the member, how their heads flare up to the perfect shape for most wombs they kiss, it was enough to get me heated rather quickly. I imagined myself taking in one of those strong human dicks, how they could spread apart a little gnome like myself, and I lifted the hems of my dress and lay back in my seat, brushing two fingers up between the legs of my stylish undergarments.
Oh, how I so brazenly exposed my legs that day, but really. No one would ever go there. Who, in the largest collection of magical knowledge in the world, would ever think to check on a collection of books about mundane biology? So, I was quite confident that I would not be disturbed. So bold was I that I unbuttoned my dress, imagining a strong human man reaching inside, fondling my breast.
But I imagined it so vividly that it took me an actual moment to realize that, indeed, some man was fondling my breast. I hopped up from my seat and launched a spell at him, sending the pervert against the bookcase. But, to my horror, to my utter despair, it was not some random assaulting curr, but the Dean of Magical Studies himself, Professor Ambrose Donovan."
When he stared at me with those piercing blue eyes, I just had to lower my spell. He dusted off the collar of his open jacket, tugging at the loose collar, which showed the curling silver locks of his barrel chest. "Oh, of course..." I said to him. "A man of your stature must study both magic and physical aptitude to maintain that physique."
He chuckled and stepped up to me, and the force with which he pulled the dress from my shoulders and lifted me, pressing me to the wall, it was like magic in its own right. I was under his sway, well, not totally. As his salt-flecked goatee brushed over my neck, his lips finding their way to my skin, I muttered to him, "No, professor. This is improper. We can't do this."
But he continued, undoing my corset with his strong and commanding presence. The rush of air made my core heat up with need, and I knew he would be the one to give me what I wanted.
As he lowered his trousers and produced his massive tower. Oh, how large it was as it spread my womanhood with no regard for my well-being. Ooh, how I cried out, yet no one would come to my aid, and the most horrible, terrible thing of it all is that deep down, I enjoyed it.
"And that," Gimmegee says, "is my deepest shame."
"That Fiend!" Cynwrig says, his fists shaking. "To take advantage of a lady like that. Who does he think he is?"
"Eh?" Gimmegee blinks.
"You... you're greatest shame is being raped?" Kera gasps, aghast
"What? No! I wasn't. He didn't, I..."
"This injustice certainly shall not be unpunished!" Cynwrig says. "Point me in the direction of this academy, and I shall defeat him soundly."
"That's not what..." Gimmegee groans
"But wait..." Kera says. "Why were you wearing lacy undergarments and a corset if you were studying at your school? You weren't wearing anything like that when the Lily Nymph took you. Your underthings were rather drab."
"Well, that's because..." Gimmegee says, coughing into her hand, stalling for time.
"He stole your underwear as well!? The monster! I'll fly there post haste!" He opens his wings, buzzing and ready to fly right now.
"No, numbskull!" Kera says, grabbing one of his antennae. The little bug gasps and falls to his knees, two of his hands going between his knees, biting at his lower lip, his mandibles clacking in overdrive. Kera leans in and says to him. "It's because Gimmegee was embellishing things. That's not something that really happened, isn't it?"
Gimmegee sighs and shrugs. "Yes, you found me out. He wasn't so forceful on me. He was a perfect gentleman." She folds her arms over her chest and huffs, staring off towards the road behind them. "I was just trying to spice things up in my retelling of the story. Everyone gets so picky whenever someone talks about a man taking what they want..."
Kera lets go of Cynwrig's antenna and plops down next to Tik Tik again.
"I'm surprised you caught onto my little ruse, though," Gimmegee says. "You nun types are supposed to be not-so-well versed in the desires of the flesh."
Tik Tik grunts, straining to poke Kera with her toe, but with her whole body immobilized, she can hardly rock herself.
Distracted by the kobold's actions, Kera smiles down at the kobold with a sad sort of look. "I suppose, perhaps, being among the depraved has weighed heavily upon my heart. Even if you did embellish your tale, you did tell it from the heart. Very well, I shall tell my story, but not until I hear what Cynwrig has. Are we in agreement?"
"Perhaps just a taste to whet the appetite," Gimmegee says.
Kera shakes her head. "Very well. I shall answer you one question before you start your own tale, but choose your question wisely, as that will be all you're getting out of me until you tell me your story, and I deem them interesting enough to share my own."
"No fair!" Gimmegee complains.
Cynwrig hops up onto his seat. "But... but you said yourself that you are among the depraved. Why hide from us something that would embarrass you in front of others unless our story is sufficient for you?"
Kera smirks at that, a shiver visible upon her body as she flutters her eyes at the beetle. "Because, my dear friend, it is a sort of perverse joy I get in teasing the two of you. Now then, shall you begin?"
Gimmegee shoots a glare at Cynwrig, saying, "Good job, bug boy. Now, hurry up and tell your story, before we make it to the convent and she gets away with telling us nothing."
The little beetle stands up. "Very well..." he says. "I shall tell you an embarrassing story of my own to diffuse the tension in this conversation. But, where, then, shall I begin? At the very beginning of my quest? To my childhood, or at the start of this most intriguing encounter?"
Gimmegee writes down some notes, leaving Tik Tik to be the only one to notice Kera's tail as it slides out from her hand and goes behind her. Tik Tik can then feel it upon her bandaged leg, and though she is injured, the tender skin picks up the feeling a thousandfold. She fights back the urge to say anything or to yelp at the sensation. Despite not being in control, despite not asking for it, the kobold is infinitely curious as to what this shame-speaking catfolk had planned for her.