Bolt Action Serenade

If you asked me to describe a generic old orc woman, a few of the things that I’d come up with would have matched Dekarru. Gray hair, old scars, wrinkles. But mostly she defied expectation in that regard. Her gray hair was in a long loose braid that reached her hips and gave the feeling of a kindly mature caregiver. The scars were small and few and seemed more from mundane causes than from battle. The wrinkles were far less pronounced than one might imagine and didn’t really detract from her appearance as much as just made her seem more confident for exposing them all.

She had dark, pale, green skin, bright brown eyes with flecks of light green, and very dark green nipples on full breasts with just the lightest bit of sag. Her figure said she was still physically active and I could make out some muscle tone in her arms and legs which she seemed happy to let me stare at. And I was happy to stare. Maybe I had a thing for older women, between Helanna and Dekarru there was at least the beginnings of a pattern.

The seer spent a good amount of time with Jaina, giving her healing lessons. While they seemed to have different specific Spells and Skills, the general use of them seemed mostly the same. But sometimes she spent time making salves and brews for gods know what purposes. During those periods she would usually have me help grind or chop or otherwise prepare things Luvetra would bring from outings she took whenever we stopped, the tall woman apparently quite talented at finding various ingredients for the shaman. I got to know Dekarru and Willow Creek better during these periods and she proved herself to be the biggest tease of the entire group. Taking sadistic pleasure in seeing me squirm while we talked and worked.

Between readying powders, oils, and the like, I asked her questions and she was happy to answer most of them.

“So you all speak oteva really well, is Willow Creek a current or former Hegemony vassal?”

She snorted and let out a barking laugh, apparently that was a hilarious question. “Green Mother’s dripping milky tits, neither! Oteva is just common on most of the continent, we’d be speaking in tagakra if you understood it! We’ve never been under anyone’s thumb! Though about two hundred years back the Empire tried.”

“How did that go?”

She turned to me and grinned a wicked grin that said ‘very poorly for them’ and I swallowed. “The Hegemony actually sent an envoy to the Empire when they found out, warning them not to try. You see, the Silan Otev tried it themselves near a thousand years back and that ended with a treaty after only a few months. So they tried to warn the Empire that they were going to choke on their ambitions.”

“Don’t they hate each other? Why warn enemies?”

“Because they knew the Empire would ignore it. Then afterwards the Hegemony could say ‘I told you so’ and embarrass them further. But back to the invasion. Fifty thousand Imperial soldiers marched on the Streaming Plains with one of their high priests to bless the war for their god. They thought because we were scattered villages and nomads we were just a few simple primitives they could crush one tribe at a time. Same as the Hegemony long before.”

“But they were wrong, of course.” I nodded, it sounded like a familiar story to me somehow.

“Three hundred thousand Willow Creek warriors and shaman fell upon the army. The Empire broke and ran almost immediately. But none escaped alive as their path was blocked by a Wild Hunt two hundred strong.”

“A Wild Hunt?”

“Fae-Lords sometimes make sort of… half-Champions from mortals, lesser fae, monsters, and animals. They are very, very strong even without being true Champions. They are used for various means of amusements for their creators, but often small groups of them are made to stalk and terrify someone that got on the Fae-Lord’s bad side. These groups are called a Wild Hunt. To answer your next question, Fae like having fun, fae like nature, fae like disregarding societal politeness. So there is a Fae-Lord in the area that really likes those of us that follow the Green Mother’s Path. They were upset at the idea of some Imperial priests forcing us to wear clothes and do all that decorum and tact nonsense.”

I snorted. “That sounds a bit far fetched, the scale at least. Hundreds of thousands of orcs and a giant Wild Hunt? Probably exaggerations, right?”

She raised a brow at me “Nope. I was there. Saw it all with my own two eyes and helped take those Imperial pricks down myself.” I stared at her and she laughed. “Certain classes have Skills that extend lifespans. I’m more than three hundred years old.”

“Damn, I hope I look half as good at your age.” I whistled, very visibly giving her a look over just to drive the words home.

“I am a being of eternal charm after all.” she said with a grin.

“So, a Fae-Lord on your side. Good friend to have?” I drew the subject back to the battle or else she was going to tease me back ten times as hard.

“Sometimes, they are mercurial beings, the fae. The Hegemony was a better friend. Once they realized they would never take us, they decided to just be good neighbors instead. This is less true right now, the war spilled over our borders a few times and so our armies have clashed. But there is no official conflict with us yet. Uvtrayl however, they came to us before they declared independence and asked us how we felt about it. They are good friends. Though I worry about this conflict between those children in charge.”

“Well hopefully I can convince them both I’m not a threat.” I sighed and crawled from the kitchen area to the cushion pit.

Dekarru joined me, sitting and resting against my side. Her skin was quite warm and felt extremely relaxing against me somehow. I figured it was a Skill of some sort. “Well, that’s assuming you really aren’t a threat to Uvtrayl.” I opened my mouth to protest and she put her finger over my lips. “Just because you aren’t one to Willow Creek, and just because you don’t want to be, doesn’t mean you don’t pose some danger to Uvtrayl and her people.”

I grunted and crossed my arms. “Fine, that’s true enough I suppose.” I just sat with the idea for a minute and stared at the ceiling.

“So, your lovers.” I turned to look at Dekarru with a raised eyebrow. “Carmilla, Jaina, this Helanna you talked about. They are your lovers, yes?”

“I mean…” I turned the words and ideas in my head over slowly, trying to make sure that what I said felt right, it was important when it was about them. “I have some trouble with that word. Um, love I mean. I’ve kinda dragged the word out of me a couple of times when talking about my feelings, but Jaina says I probably have emotional trauma from a failed romance that makes it hard for me. I can’t say I disagree.”

“Do you have sex with them without an emotional connection?” She just asked me bluntly.

“What? No, not at all! I… maybe I jumped into things with Jaina and Helanna, but I did have good feelings about them.” I shrugged and blushed, avoiding eye contact with the shaman.

“Just good feelings?”

“Well… and Carmilla said they were safe. Said they were a good match for us.”

“You trust your elemental completely then?” she asked, glancing up. Carmilla was on the roof of the vardo at the moment, hanging out with Luvetra and just enjoying the world in her new form.

“I have so many reasons to, she’s been my anchor since I woke up in that transport and I owe her so damned much, including my very life.” I glanced at the shaman and she gave me a look that said she knew there was more to it so I kept talking “I love her. I think maybe my go-, my patron might have done something that made us feel more strongly towards each other. But I don’t care. Even if my feelings for her were manipulated, I still have them and she’s given me nothing but reasons to embrace them.”

The old woman chuckled and patted my thigh. “What of you and Jaina?”

“I love her too, as does Carmilla. She’s been amazing and I am so damned happy to have her with me. And to head off the next question about Helanna, I don’t know. I think I was growing to love her but then she kept getting pulled away and we all got awkward about Jaina and-” I blinked as I remembered Jaina’s messed up buttons and blushing on the train. “Actually I think maybe those two were doing a lot better with each other just before we got separated.” I laughed. “Fuck, I want to love her. I do. But I can feel this lump in me that’s worried about it. I know at least part of the reason behind it from when I was still Lietri, but I think there might be more that I’m missing.”

“Do you think that knowing more about who you were will really change how you feel about Carmilla, or Jaina?” She asked softly and I knew what she was saying immediately.

“No, so it shouldn’t affect how I feel about Helanna either. So… I think I love her too.” I took a long, slow breath. “You have some kind of therapy Skills, don’t you?” I chuckled softly and covered my eyes by draping an arm over them as I laid back.

She let out a faux gasp of surprise “Miss Dreamsinger, that is a very personal question. I’m afraid I’ll have to insist you become far more intimate with me before I answer such a thing~” The second half of that was purred into my ear as her fingers slid up my thigh, then up my stomach and between my breasts to softly wrap around my neck “But don’t worry, I’ll wait till you’ve recovered enough to actually last with me.” she whispered close before nipping my ear lobe softly.

As my member throbbed to life she let out a cackle and pulled herself up. I let myself calm before I followed and got back to work with the cruel old seer on the next batch of salve ingredients.