Two days had passed in the Dark Elf Town. Celedwin enjoyed the public bondage, and the Dark Elves' strange, sexually addicted symbiosis with humans. A philosopher said that the perfect parasite improves its host.
She wondered if this fit these monsters.
-Back at Centaur's Heart, rooftop.-
The tavern Celedwin stayed in had a new, modern roof made of concrete, flat, fenced with grooves inside the concrete flooring for rainwater. But it didn't rain much on the city anyway, its wizards directing most rainwater to the nearby dams and rivers. And this debauched, dark delightful city was the one the human girl stayed in, had quite the amiable weather.
So Celedwin brought a worn, second hand couch to the roof, to sleep on it like a bum after sampling the strange city's pleasures.
She was in a magical reverie, her eyes and mouth shimmering with ambient magic as she was in a torpid half-sleep. This sleep on the "terraced roof" idea was lovely, letting her drain mana directly from the sun and the winds to meditate and charge. Her room was ofted echoing with the sounds of moaning and bed creaks typical of monster girl cities, so she needed a safe location to focus.
But then, her mana rush was broken, again, by monsters.
"Dakerufustatto is nice once you get used to it."
The Zipangu-accented voice belonged to a young girl who meowed while pronouncing certain syllables. Hearing the voice, Celedwin sighed and stopped her magical torpor, lounging on the weary-looking, worn couch set on the rooftop. It was the place where she came to meditate, after all the dark delights she had seen and sampled: a bit of bondage, exhibitionism, some drugs, and even some sex. It felt annoying that this GODDAMN CAT managed to pursue her across the city and eventually, popped up at her side, wearing that SHIT EATING GRIN.
"Cheechy. What the hell are you doing on my rooftop haven?" When the Cheshire monster girl tilted her head, Celedwin went on with a quiet tone, emphasizing as if she was telling the story to Bilal, a brain-damaged child of a Imereti vizier back when she visited Seljuk Sultanate. The Imereti vizier, Rego, turned out to be a traitor anyway, and was stripped of his belongings and exiled once he tried to make himself the Sultan in a staged coup.
"I am a wizard. I need magic. I rest. You are disrupting that rest. I will be angry, Cheechy." She sipped her coffee, looking at the GRINNING cat with weary eyes, and repeated.
"I will freeze and toss you to the river, Cheechy. Do not disrupt me like that."
Cheechy, the annoying Cheshire, with her eyes twinkling and her lips pursed into a strange, wavy line, flashed a fang and patted the couch, snuggling to Celedwin's like a cat.
"Oh but I have news, human. I didn't come to advertise dark elf games so you indulge in your hidden fantasies here..." She rolled on the flat, concrete roof garden, looking up, her arms and legs splayed after several rolls.
"What is it..." Celedwin sighed, stopping her charging meditation.
"Mistress Yukara and some dark elf enchantress was talking about you." The cat's head bobbed, and lied back down, looking at the stars. "some...uh..." The Cheshire meowed. "Uh..." And she sighed, sounding like another meow. "About...uh...P-ROJECT!" Her eyes glinted as Cheechy remembered. "About channeling mana, something something Blizzard...something!"
Celedwin slammed her palm on the table where her coffee cup stood with unconcealed anger: "Just tell me what it is! Can't you remember?" Seeing her go "nya" and blink, Celedwin sighed. "How do they let you in the wizarding tower anyway?! Someone like you would probably blow up anything she tries..."
The Cheshire giggled, her purple-black fur rippling with her laughter. She patted her fluffy, meaty paws together and stretched. "I am not working magic! Can't you see? How is Cheshires like me useful there? Guess!"
Celedwin, after a minute of concentration, sighed in annoyment and realized.
"Counter-espionage, spying and popping up in my private areas." The double entendre made the Cheshire cat girl giggle.
"Hey! I take offense at the last one-NYA!" Cheechy purred, stretching and yawning. "I didn't pop up when you were taking a bath with a purple net on your head and scratching your back with a twig-ooops! Hee hee!" The cheshire girl giggled, her mostly human body shimmering and slowly fading into invisibility to avoid any punishment.
After a quiet moment, she disappeared, save for her grin in the air...
"YOU LITTLE-" Her hand flashed, launching an ice projectile from her fingertips at the translucent grin floating in the air. The Cheshire's grin disappeared as well.
"Nyehehehe!" With that, her presence felt disappearing.
"I'm getting a True Sight amulet first thing in the morning!"
Celedwin sighed, concentrating and getting back to her mana meditation.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Same rooftop.
Three days later.
Celedwin was done with her letter deliveries, and blankly watched the city with one hand in her pockets, hood pulled down, binoculars up in her right hand. Now standing quietly in her expensive wizard robes, her staff safely locked in the Yuki-Onna's beacon room, Celedwin thought of what to do: she would be teleported in a flash if she wanted, safe from harm.
She could help with magical engraving: not many people were deft as her in etching mana-rich ink to scrolls, wooden structures and furniture.
She could take up a trade. Relax, rest, and earn a bit of rent money.
Looking up, she waved at the squealing, laughing Manticore girl who seemed to be taking her husband for a joyride in her arms, the poor guy squeaking and begging her to slow down. Manticores were an enigma by themselves, looking like strongheaded monster girls with lionine paws, ears and scorpion tails topped with bat wings. They were believed to be cruel, but Celedwin came to know them as merely sexually aggressive, mischievious women who liked fun and fighting.
She tried to pronounce the name of the Dark Elf Town, which was a town all but in name, but a giant metropolis covered by strange misty trees and never-raining, silvery clouds: Schwarzstadt
Celedwin was from Western Frankia, bordering the monster girl empire itself: her accent made it sound funny even to herself.
"Ville Noire sounds much better than this...barbarians' tongue..." She chuckled to herself: even Lescatie had made Ulmic the official language, so Schwarzstadt was the name she was stuck with.
Of course, the rooftop refuge also gave a little bit of naughty bird's view to certain delights reserved for monster towns.
Naked running girls and women delivered mail, wearing nothing but a backpack and shoes, unashamed and focused on running as fast as possible, sometimes going as far as tossing the letters and scrolls with deadly accuracy at open windows. Their breasts bounced cutely in Celedwin's lenses, and she enjoyed watching their muscles contract and relax with each step in their marathon. Strangely, some of the mail slaves weren't actually slaves at all. Some lacked the tattoo "SLAVE" on their buttocks and didn't carry any collars.
She guessed correctly: Some women had grown to enjoy certain kinks in life, and actually volunteered for it. Their choice, Celedwin guessed, relaxing.
Celedwin watched them with lewd curiosity. It was amazing to see women that looked like Amazoness mamono run as slaves to deliver letters, but it was even better when they rested, not bothering to cover up their bodies and chatting up the townsfolk as if both sides were unbothered, ass and pussy in clear display. As they rested and left her sight, the street was taken by a coffle of naked women, each chained to the other by their steel neck collars. They were carrying trade goods on their backs, loaded to the brim and pulled along by a richly dressed dark elven merchant who gestured them to unload their backs to a boat waiting by the river canal. The women happily obliged, sighing in relaxation when the loads on their bodies, packages full of strange-looking, shimmering fruits piled on a merchant boat one by one. Their owner smiled, patted one of the women's cheek and pulled them by the hand, gesturing to a small inn, no doubt suggesting they should relax and eat.
Before they disappeared, the dark elf tossed a coin to a gaudy-feathered Harpy who was playing a strange, massive, stringed instrument.
Celedwin shifted her binoculars upwards, checking out some of the tavern or apartment rooms: certainly some lewd scenery to brighten up her morning relaxation would be seen, coffee cup steaming on the railing. With her other hand, Celedwin took a sip, and looked on.
