In which Elenora of the Sword is briefly interrupted in one of her preferred pastimes, ridding Perversia of its more grotesque inhabitants, and is told of a new task which she must fulfill. In addition we meet the human sword for hire Martin Riverknife, and learn of his feelings for his current employer, which leads to an unfortunate conflict.
In a glade less than two days ride from Shareem, Elenora of the Sword stripped herself of her ceremonial armour and unsheathed her sword. She passed the weapon playfully from one hand to the other, appreciating its deadly weight. Her keener than human ears told her that the four Beastmen were closing in on her, stalking through the thick shrubs that surrounded the glade. They grunted softly to each other, their brutal weapons drawn.
Elenora's breathing rose in anticipation. Her breasts, barely concealed beneath a flimsy cloth, rose and fell with a soft excitement, and her nipples hardened. She gripped her sword more tightly, stretched her legs.
She was already moist.
The four Beastmen clumsily observed her, red eyes cruelly assessing her. They were close enough to see her tall, almost naked form and the sword she carried, but not close enough to realize the danger they were in. To the obscene creatures that had been tracking her for the past few hours, Elenora - like all of her kind - appeared human, and was therefore no match for their strength and savagery. A single Beastman could slaughter four or five human soldiers, and a small group of the brutes could terrorize and destroy a defenseless village in a matter of hours.
Elenora gripped the sword more tightly, swinging it in a few lazy arcs, her anticipation building further. The four hesitated, sensing that something was wrong: A woman was standing alone in the forest, carrying only a sword. For the Beastmen, twisted nightmare creatures, the scourge of Perversia, the only correct response to this situation was, rape, torture, slaughter and eat - although not necessarily in that order.
But they waited.
The leader of the pack, a female obscenity with the head of a tusked pig and a stunted tail attached to a humanesque body, sniffed at the air. She gripped her barbed sword, clenched a muscled and viciously horned fist.
"Come on," Elenora muttered to herself.
Her arousal was becoming impatient. She longed to feel the impact of her sword on the necks of the vicious obscenities. She craved the sight of their blood and the sweet sound of their dying squeals and grunts. It was in her nature to find destroying the Beasts an erotic act. It was part of her design.
A sudden, soft voice from behind her interrupted Elenora's concentration.
"Daughter?"
Elenora scowled. There were only a few beings that were able to sneak up on her, and only one who had the right to call her daughter.
"This is not a good time," the Oncestone said. She frowned and turned to face the interloper.
Standing behind her, in the shadows between the trees, was a woman-shaped form, grown straight from the ground, a figure of mud, twigs, moss, small pebbled and leaves. The Goddess of Earth appeared naked, and the body of mud shifted and swirled slowly as she spoke with a soft earthy sound. A constant stream ran down from the mouth, around the breasts and down to its pussy, then curled around the legs and feet, to work its way back up from the ground from which it had grown.
It was an artful construct, the Elenora begrudgingly admitted, even if it exaggerated the size of the originals flesh and blood curves and overemphasized the Earth Goddesse's real allures. Her breasts and her pussy were all oversized.
Eleanora kneeled down and kissed the earthy feet of the Goddesses vessel. The Earth Goddesses reached down to and gently lifted Eleanora's chin, indicating that she should slowly rise. She perused Eleanora with pebbled eyes,
"Daughter," the goddess asked slyly, already knowing the answer, "are you in heat?"
The Goddess arched a twigged eyebrow. She playfully reached out to trace an earthen finger around Elenora's breast, resting it gently on her hardened nipple, and teasing down her stomach. The finger radiated an unnatural warmth, a hot sexual energy. Elenora, already aroused by the approaching battle, felt further inflamed. The Goddess stopped short at Eleonaras mound, pausing to gently stroke her blonde pubic hair, leaving traces of warm earth in it, a teasing smile around her lips.
"I am now," Elenora muttered softly, and she stepped towards the hand without intending to, wanting to pull it into her
The earthen hand fell away. The Goddess shifted backwards, leaving Elenora feeling simultaneously empty and hungry, like a Blueweed addict who has been promised a fix only to have it cruelly ripped away from them at the last instant.
Behind her, still crouched, the Beastmen waited, only able to see the back of Elenora from their position, the Goddesses earthen form hidden by the trees.
"I built your kind so well, did I not?"
"You were most generous in with your art," Elenora replied dutifully. The ache between her legs was overwhelming. The Goddess seemed to generate a special heat.
"And then," the Goddess continued accusingly, "you repay me by learning how to reproduce. You were not supposed to do that."
"Forgive the sins of my ancestors," Elenora continued. The conversation was a ritual that the Goddess never seemed to tire of.
"It made your kind soft."
"We were weakened, yet we multiplied," Eleanora returned.
"Hm," The earth statue said, as if she had never heard the argument before, "I suppose there is that. But I personally prefered you hard, and immortal, and few in number."
A reply was unnecessary. Malowen had kept the debate mercifully short this time.
"Well, anyway. Daughter, seeing you like this, all ready for battle reminds me that you really must come to Shareem and fight in the Arena. You would be an instant success."
"I do not care for exhibiting myself," Elenora replied.
The Earth Goddess looked at her in surprise, "Really?"
"My skills are put in service to the land, and are not for the sport of an audience. Truthfully, I cannot say that I approve of the arena. It seems a decadent innovation."
"Oh," the Goddess pouted, "I am surprised to find you so prude on this point. The arena provides a valuable release for many of our people. But very well...perhaps merely a private show, just the two of us. Yes," the Goddesses voice lowered to a seductive purr, "I would enjoy seeing that. We have a few of those brutes you enjoy slaughtering in captivity. You could put on quite a show. And afterwards...we could lie together."
Elenora's breath quickened. Had the Earth Goddess really just invited her to be touched once more by that hand, to feel that heat again, but in the flesh? Such a favour was inconceivable.
Her pussy grew wet and hot again, her stomach ached.
"Goddess," she said hoarsely, "I would be honoured."
"Im sure," Malowen said shifting her earth body into a coy position, "but first the Sisterhood has a task for you."
Elenora nodded, waiting, her breathing shallow.
"We need you to kill King Ypsil for us."
"Another assassination?" Elenora asked, disappointed.
This could take several weeks to complete, and that was several weeks before she would feel the Goddesses touch again.
"I'm afraid so," Malowen replied, "all diplomatic avenues have failed us. He is openly challenging the Sisterhood, and has become too powerful to be allowed to continue in this direction. His army alone now reaches over five thousands. He plans to declare complete independence from Shareem , and we believe that he has allied himself with the witch Barashta."
"That bitch?" Elenora asked vehemently, past wounds not forgotten, "why don't you send me after her?"
"Her time on this world is not long," the Goddess replied, "will you do this for us?"
"Of course, mother Earth," Elenora replied, "I am your willing servant in all things."
"Good girl," the earth statue replied. Leaning forward she placed a single gentle earthen kiss upon Elenora's lips. Elenora gasped as if she had been punched in the stomach, the sensation of the Earth Goddesses kiss overpowering her. A beetle slipped from the mouth of the Goddess and into Elenora's. Elenora felt it crawl along her tongue like an erotic charge. She swallowed it gratefully.
The goddess broke away from the kiss.
Behind her, Elenora could hear the grotesque beastmen readying themselves to charge her. They seemed a long way distant, the kiss just broken having left her disorientated.
"If that is true, then why can I sense the prescence of Martin Riverknife close by? Have you taken a new lover, Elenora? I have heard that Riverknife is very skilful in many aspects..."
Elenora glanced up at where Martin was hidden from view, taking cover in the trees above, her partner of the last few weeks. The Riverknife, a swordsman almost as skilled as herself was a human soldier for hire, a mercenary. Their paths had crossed by chance a few weeks earlier, and they had travelled together pursuing Elenoras goals, Riverknife waiving his usual fee for such services. Martin, just out of earshot, signalled to her quizzically, the muted conversation between his lover and a moving statue of earth a puzzlement to him. Elenora made a slight gesture with her fingers, that conveyed there was no danger, but he was not to interfere. Crouching in the tree above her, he relaxed the arrow from its bow, but continued to observe keenly.
"The Riverknife is here to aid me in my mission, nothing more," Elenora said, lying lightly to the Earth Goddess. She didn't care to have her latest sexual conquest to be the gossip of Shareem. Although as she glanced across at Martin again she realized once more that she was unsure, in this partnership, exactly who had conquered who. In every way, she was the superior of the mortal -- but somehow she never felt that she was. It was absurd, of course -- for all his skill, Martin was still only human, had little knowledge of the arts of magic, and yet...there was something about him. Something strangely indestructible in his personality, his good cheer and the way, after all the jokes and the battles and the sex, he would look into her eyes for just a second in a way that made her soul softly tremble.
