Lustia. A world where gods and goddesses bless mortals with powers, great and small. A world where violence has been largely replaced with sex. A world of sexfighting, romance, magic, and adventure. What follows is a recounting of a story from this land.
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"Once upon a time, a famine swept the land, a sickness killing the crops swept on the wind by a spirit of plague.
"The people despaired, and prayed to the goddesses that bless the land, and their prayers were answered, for a goddess came down to earth and blessed their crops with health, to fight off the disease.
"It helped, for a time. The sickness still killed some crops, if not all of them, and the villages went from prosperous to barely scraping by, but things stopped getting worse.
"But the goddess saw the people suffering, and could bear it no longer, so she descended to the earth once more, this time to fight the plague spirit directly. She wove warriors from the wheat to help her in her battle, and the people saw her miracles and swore to aid her.
"But the plague spirit was a willy foe. It wove warriors from the dead grass, and promised power in exchange for being aided, and some people coveted it's power and swore to fight by it's side.
"The goddess and the spirit, as well as their followers, met in battle. It was fierce and vicious, but after three days and three nights, the goddess prevailed, in no small part due to the help of the people of the villages.
"After the battle ended, the plague spirit defeated at the goddess's feet, she took the spirit as her spoils and thanked the people for their help, blessing their crops again, to ensure a bountiful harvest.
"We commemorate the goddess who saved us by this festival. We eat and drink in thanks for her blessings, and make offerings. So make sure to eat your veggies as well as your sweets, children! Both are gifts from the goddess, and it wouldn't be nice to not be grateful, would it?"
The matron stood up from the log she was sitting on, and the children gathered before her dispersed, going to join their parents for the journey ahead.
To her side, a young woman named Ashley stood up as well, excited for the coming festival.
She had many reasons to be excited. There was the obvious fact that the festival meant she could get all sorts of food and wares from the neighboring villages, which was rather rare, but she was also excited to meet the people of the other villages as well. After all, at twenty two years old, she had several years to sexfight people, and her village was not that big. New challengers meant a change of pace, but also a chance that she could find someone who could at least make her feel good before she inevitably milked them dry.
Because as it turns out, being a talented sexfighter is not good when you lack a way to challenge equal foes.
But most importantly, she would be meeting Bella.
Bella was Ashley's best friend, ever since they met at the festival when Ashley was seven and Bella was six, and hit it off.
They only met once every five years, with the occasional letter whenever the traders headed that way (messaging Bella was a wonderful motivation to learn to write and read, even though many of the village youth never bothered to), but she could never forget the bright, cheerful girl who she ran around with all day.
She occupied herself for the hour with reminiscing about Bella and the last festival, until at last, they arrived at the festival.
There were stalls everywhere, selling all manner of sweets, drinks, ornaments, even some books. Ashley helped her parents set up their stall selling milk, cheeses, cream and other milk related products, took a bottle of honeyed milk, and went exploring.
After a bit of searching, she was hugged from behind. "Hi." Bella whispered, putting her head on Ashley's shoulder.
"Hi." Ashley answered, and pried herself out of the hug. "Here, for you." She handed over the bottle she took.
"Aww, thank you!" Bella cooed, laid down the bottle, and hugged Ashley again. Now that her hands were free, Ashley hugged back just as tightly, the two taking a moment to enjoy their closeness.
"Have you explored the whole festival yet?" Bella grabbed Ashley's arm as soon as they let go of each other, pulling her along.
When Ashley shook her head, Bella continued. "I found a place off to the side where the adults are standing guard, saying only adults can come in. Let's sneak in!"
"Bella." Ashley interrupted her with a chuckle. "We are adults now. We don't need to sneak in."
"Oh. Right." Bella shook her head awkwardly. "S-still! Even more reason to go check it out, no?"
Ashley nodded, letting herself be pulled along. She didn't really care what would be there. Getting to experience it with Bella was quite enough for her to be satisfied.
They arrived, were allowed inside after the adults guarding the entry both confirmed the girls were adults, rounded a corner, and found a nest of debauchery. There were multiple rings, all occupied with sexfights between rivals and lovers and anything inbetween.
One of the adults turned to the two girls. "Are you new here?" He asked cheerfully.
When they nodded, he motioned for them to follow as he began talking:
"You know the myth, I'm sure. And you know blessings are mostly used to sexfight. So, obviously, the goddess and the spirit had a sexfight, and we can't exactly honor the goddess without acknowledging her battle.
"So we do this! Now, girls, are you here as two separate individuals, looking for opponents, or as a couple?"