Rune Guard 02

~~~

This work of fiction is part of a series; if you did not already read the preceding chapters, please do that before starting this one. My world may not necessarily conform to your preconceived notions; don't hold that against me; the joy is in the journey. As I have mentioned before, this is a story with a little sex - not the other way around.

~~~

~~~ Emmit's Room ~~~

The trader stripped down to his small-clothes and slipped under the covers. He closed his eyes and his thoughts went, immediately, to the Tempest - the short, blonde lightning-mage who had turned out to be a talented potter.

His mind replayed her salacious comments from earlier in the day - and how her words had made his old dick stiff. He pushed down his hardening cock and rolled to his side, shoving away those tempting thoughts, and focusing on sleep for the coming trip.

He had already nodded off when his door eased open, light footsteps approached, and a body slid into his bed.

"Stop!" he growled.

Lolla attempted to shush him.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Thanking you," she replied.

"Up! Out!" he yelled.

She climbed out from under the covers and stood beside the bed.

He moved past her, opened the door, and bellowed, "Derik, meet us in the dining room."

~~~ Dining Room ~~~

I hurried out of my bedroom, wondering what was going on. I arrived at the dining room to find Emmit - also in his bed-clothes - and Lolla (completely naked).

I couldn't help but stare at her - all of her - she was everything I'd imagined. The little tuft of golden-blonde hair above her sex even looked like one of her spell-bursts.

She watched my eyes as I cataloged her every feature. When I finally looked back at her face, she was grinning at me - completely unashamed of her nakedness. I caught her eyes settling on my stiffening manhood.

"Right!" Emmit said, drawing our attention to him. "I had not expected this to involve me but - now that it has - I want everything to be perfectly clear."

I glanced at Lolla. Based on her appearance and Emmit's statement, she must have been crawling into his bed. She saw my look, shrugged, and focused back on our boss.

"Sex is not coin. It cannot be bartered or traded or used for payment."

"The opposite of everything I've known up 'til now," Lolla mumbled.

"In this house..." Emmit went on, "it can be offered..."

"Requested?" Lolla asked.

"If you ask nicely and then only once - not incessantly," he replied.

She smirked, but nodded.

Emmit went on, saying, "It is freely given - by mutual consent of both parties - and is not any sort of payment - and holds no demands."

"My mam withheld it from my pa when she wanted something," Lolla said.

"Mine too," I agreed. "She used it as thanks more often, but withheld it if pa wasn't listening."

Lolla nodded.

"Marriage is... different," Emmit said.

"Have you been married?" Lolla asked.

He shook his head and said, "No, but we're not talking about that anyway."

"So," Lolla asked, "can I offer you my pussy as 'thank you' for hiring me?"

"Pussy?" I asked her.

She slid a finger into the bottom of her sex and said, "Pussy, cunt, snatch, vagina, honey-pot,..." She pointed at my tented breech-cloth and said, "Peter, cock, penis, dick, schlong,..."

"Schlong?" I asked.

Emmit cleared his throat.

Lolla shrugged and whispered, "That's what he called it. I sucked it. He paid for my dinner."

Emmit cleared his throat again and we turned back to him.

"Do you have something to ward against pregnancy?" Emmit asked Lolla.

"No," she said. "I avoid sex whenever possible and - when it's not possible - I make them pull out before they cum."

"Cum?" I asked.

Lolla raised her eyebrows at me, but turned back to Emmit. "I was going to make an exception for you, if you were interested," she told him.

He nodded and said, "I appreciate that, but I think I'm a little old to be a father at this point. If you truly are of a mind to spend the night in my bed, we'll come up with an alternative - at least for now."

"I appreciate all that you've done for me, Emmit. All that you ARE doing for me - and what you've promised me."

"I understand that," he replied. "Let me, first, say that your offer is extremely generous and - while I would be lying to say that I wasn't interested - I don't want you to feel any obligation whatsoever to share yourself with me. I accept your thanks and you can go to your own bed."

"If I come to yours, can you tell me about the alternative that you talked about?" she inquired.

"Yes," he said, smiling and slipping past her to return to his room.

"Goodnight, Derik," she said, as she slipped away to follow him.

I went to my room, slid under the covers, and replayed our conversation in my head. I had just started to nod off when I heard Lolla yell, "Fuck!" After that, it got quiet and soon my eyes reclosed and I fell asleep.

~~~

In the morning, I smelled breakfast cooking and arrived at the dining room to find Lolla - still completely naked. Her hair looked like she'd just walked out of a windstorm. She was holding a mug of coffee to her lips.

"Go, put some clothes on, Tempest," Emmit growled at her.

Lolla growled back, but stood to her feet. My eyes took in all of her. She prowled over, kissed me hard, and went to her room. I gasped for air as I turned to watch her amazing little butt quiver as her short legs carried her down the hallway.

Just as she returned, Emmit brought the food to the table. I had filled our mugs and set our places. Emmit began talking as I took my first bite.

"I was thinking about our arrangement," he told Lolla.

"Me too," she replied.

"Go ahead then," he told her.

"Thanks," she said. "I think we should split the pots five ways. One for your supplies, two for your rune-work, three for Derik, four for me, and five for you - for everything else you give us."

"I don't 'give'," he said. "That brings up what I was going to say."

"Okay," she said, stopping to listen.

"You will be traveling with us so I will - no doubt - come to depend on you to help protect us. In addition to the pots, you should probably collect a share for that."

She waved his words away, "You'll be paying for me to eat and for rooms..."

"You will have your own whenever possible," he told her.

She waved him off again, and continued, "If anything, you'll get attacked more because you have a delicate female in your party."

"Delicate!" I guffawed.

She hit me. I had half-expected it, but she just about knocked the mug from my hands.

"I'll deal with that," Emmit said. "We can call it a fair trade - you provide protection; I provide room and board. As for the pots - those are trade goods."

"You're being nice and giving Derik a share when he's already expected to guard the cargo," she said.

Emmit nodded.

"I still think you should have a separate share for trading them - and overseeing the whole thing."

He looked at me.

"She's not wrong. You're being unfair to yourself and more than fair to us. Hell, I was just trying to escape a life of feeding horses in exchange for the right to sleep in the hay-loft. I have coins in my wallet, a warm bed, and you're teaching me runes. I should be paying you."

Emmit thought for a minute and finally said, "Fine. You will still need to do chores around here for room and board."

Lolla nodded.

"Then we're agreed," he said. "Now, eat while it's halfway warm."

After breakfast, Emmit left us to do the dishes and went to his workshop. When he returned, he made sure the table was clean and dried - and then he unrolled a hand-drawn map on it.

He showed us where we were, where I had lived, and where we'd be traveling. We would make a loop around the map and return home. Primarily, the first trip would be for securing resources. I wondered how many of those resources were to replace the supplies that he was using in order to teach me rune-work.

After our initial circuit, we would return home, take several months to craft more trading-goods, and then we would begin a longer trip.

I wasn't sure how much all of the goods were going to be worth but I was beginning to wonder if Lolla and I would be enough of a security team to defend Emmit, Grizzle, and the wagon. Then again, once we had completed the first trip, we would have probably grown stronger, gotten smarter, and advanced our skills. Maybe we'd be more prepared than I thought - when it actually came time to defend Emmit on a real trading-run.

The rune-maker went over the map a second time, pointing out where we'd be stopping, and telling us what we would be collecting - as well as what it was used for (if we didn't already know).

He said that most things were like the snakes, the frogs, the locusts, and the lizards. For those, we would capture them, put them in the sleep jars, and bring them home. In cases where we were dealing with larger animals, we would attempt to take what we needed without engaging them directly - or harming them more than was necessary. Primarily, though, he assured us, we were to look out for one another and make sure everyone stayed safe.

Emmit had a few more tasks that he needed to complete before we could start loading up for our trip. He tasked me with three things: crafting a spit-marker for Lolla, teaching her the runes for "watch" - as well as how to use it to set a ward to know when somebody passed in front of it. After that, I was supposed to go get Grizzle and make sure we had a small bag of grain to travel with us. He warned me to be sure to grab my supplies and notebook. He told me that I would be designing a rune-glyph for Lolla.

Lolla was tasked with going through Emmit's small collection of weapons to find something for herself. He thought that she might have more control over her lightning magic if she had something to focus it with. He told her to find whatever she felt comfortable carrying and fighting with.

She passed me - from the storage room - heading outside - with a cudgel of some kind that looked like it was the handle to a mace or something. The chain and the spiked ball were gone but the wooden rod was capped in cold iron on both ends. There was some kind of thin strip of metal running down either side of the handle that connected the tips.

Curious to see what she was up to, I followed her outside, towards the garden. She found a gourd, set it on a post, stepped back several paces, and pointed one end of the rod at it. I could tell she was gathering her magic. Suddenly, a burst of lightning, as big as my fist, raced from the tip of her weapon to the gourd. The hard-skinned fruit was no match for the mage's attack. It exploded. The explosion actually destroyed most of the gourd - there wasn't that much detritus thrown around by the blast. I heard the door open and turned to see Emmit taking in the scene - and the grin on Lolla's face.

"Derik, get your staff," he called out. "Lolla, take him to the other side of the wall and try to hit him from twice that distance."

"As long as he doesn't swat it back at me," she complained.

"That's fine," he agreed. "We'll work on that later."

Emmit walked as far as the wall. He was waiting there when I hurried past him to join Lolla.

She looked a little nervous as she held up her armored wooden wand. Honestly, after seeing what she'd done to the gourd, I wasn't feeling overly confident. I nodded to her.

She fidgeted from one foot to the other and then launched a ball of lightning at me. It was faster than before. Emmit asked her about it and she said she thought so too. I used the staff to deflect the shot into the ground.

The next time, she fired two - high and low. The low one, I sent to the ground again but I was slow getting to the second one and it shot straight up, into the air. All three of us watched it zoom away.

"Where will that end up?" Lolla asked Emmit.

"No clue," he said. "Do they have mass - or do they fly forever?"

"I... I don't know," she admitted.

"Shoot one towards the last town we came through," he told her.

She fired one to the south. After a hundred yards or so, it started losing altitude and then drove into the ground at an angle.

We looked back at Emmit.

"Assuming it doesn't explode before it returns," he said, "I would say it'll come down somewhere near Derik."

"Good," Lolla said, launching two more balls of lightning at me.

Feeling more confident this time, I deflected these with my hand - one to the left and one to the right. The one to the left hit an invisible wall above Emmit's fence and exploded. The second one headed for the trees near the road. It fell into the grass before it arrived.

"Enough," Emmit called out. "How does it feel?" he asked Lolla.

"I never imagined that a stick would help that much," she replied. "I feel like I have so much more control."

"Good. Derik will develop a rune for you and your weapon - like I made for him. The two of you can test it until you get what you want and then we'll make it permanent."

"Spit-marker?" I asked.

"Initially, yes," he replied. "Once you've done that for a couple days, I'll get you some weak ink that lasts a week or so. We'll do that for a couple weeks. By the time you're finished making alterations with that design, you should be ready for your first real rune-work."

I nodded.

I jumped as Lolla's ball of lightning hit the ground 10 feet to my right and scared the life out of me.

Emmit stifled a chortle; the Tempest held her sides and laughed.

I headed back towards the house. We still needed to get loaded up for our trip.

Lolla passed me as she pranced towards the house, blasting targets both real and imaginary along the way.

"Mind the windows, short-stuff," Emmit called out.

She giggled - but started picking targets that were farther from the house.

"Collect up as many eggs as you can find. We'll eat those for a few days."

She waved, stowed her wand, and headed for the chicken coop.

"In addition to the rune-work we already talked about," Emmit said, "work on figuring out how to get your canteen to produce cold water with a touch of mana."

I went to my room, grabbed my pack, and loaded my clothes into it. I went to the store room and got a bedroll, a waterproof cloak, and a piece of canvas. From the library, I gathered my apprentice rune-maker supplies and my notebook. I stopped in the workroom and quickly made a spit-marker for Lolla.

I met her in the kitchen. There, I showed her the rune for "watch", and I had her make the rune on the kitchen wall with the spit-marker. She touched a bit of mana to it and I walked in front of it so she could see what it told her. She nodded and tucked the marker away in her pockets.

I told her that I would gather the food supplies. She thanked me and went to get her pack and get her personal things ready. Emmit came in, asked me where Lolla was and then he helped me pack food while she got her things together.

Once the food was in the wagon, I threw my things in. Lolla returned as Emmit headed to pack his things. I sent Lolla off to the garden to see if there was anything we should harvest before we left while I went to get Grizzle.

The mule raised and lowered his head several times - indicating that he knew what was coming. He came over and nudged my shoulder before he passed through the gate. He waited for me while I closed it. I grabbed his harness and he used his muzzle to give me another "love pat".

"You'll have to ask Lolla, you old nag," I told him. "She went to check the garden. I don't have any treats."

She appeared, from around the corner, about that time, and he trotted over to her.

"Hello, Grizzle," she said, laughing. "Is Derik depriving you?"

The mule shook his head up and down and brayed at her.

"I'll give you a carrot now," she told him. "We'll save the rest for the trip."

He made his displeasure known, but accepted the bribe.

I stood at the front of the wagon, waiting. Grizzle came over, backed between the traces, and let me get him hooked into place.

"Such a good boy," I told him. "Tell Lolla you should get another carrot."

He brayed at her.

She laughed and brought him another treat. Then she headed to the wagon to drop the rest with the other food supplies. Once I finished getting Grizzle buckled in, Emmit was coming out of the house.

"I probably should have loaded the wares first," he said. "I'm not used to having help. Let me throw this in and then follow me to the store room. Once we've cleared the trade-goods from there, we'll grab the ones from the workshop."

"Anything from the kiln?" Lolla asked.

"You could grab a couple more of the last ones you made," he told her. "The rest are crated up in the shed. Shit! I guess we should start there!"

He spun on his heel and crossed the yard, heading towards the storage shed. As he unlocked the door, I steered Grizzle (and the wagon) over next to him.

"What if we put Lolla in the wagon, you hand me stuff and I'll hand it up to her?" I asked him.

He thought for a second and said, "I'll get in the wagon, Lolla hands stuff to you, and I'll place it. Once you two see how I organize it, we can do it your way."

I nodded.

Lolla headed inside the shed and hollered, "How much of this goes?"

"Everything."

"Shit!"

Emmit laughed.

For the next half-hour, I passed barrels, crates, and everything in between from Lolla to Emmit. When we had finished, the wagon was filled above the side-boards. There was some space at the back for Lolla to ride - and space in the front for our gear and the food - but the rest was filled with trading goods.

"I thought you said this was just a supply run?" I asked him.

"It is," he replied.

"How many wagons will we take next time?" I asked.

He laughed.

Grizzle shook his head up and down, braying, letting us know that one wagon was all he was planning to pull. I scratched his jaw and led him to the back of the house - where Emmit had headed inside - with Lolla following.

She returned with an armload and said, "He says we'll just stack it here and he'll help us load it after it's all out."

I nodded and hurried into the house, heading for the storeroom. It took us another half-hour to empty the house of everything we were taking. After that, Emmit started going down through a mental check-list to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything.

Since he hadn't had any cooking gear in the wagon when I helped him unload when I had arrived, I didn't grab any when I gathered my things. He hadn't grabbed it either. I ran back for that - as well as a waterproof cloak for Lolla. It would need to be shortened. That had me running back to grab a better sewing kit than the one that mom had sent with me. Once I collected that, he couldn't think of anything else that we needed.

Grizzle was anxiously prancing around by the time we headed out - towards the gate.

"He's probably been waiting to pee or poop," Emmit told me. "Once we're through the wall, I'll pull to the side and let him do his business. Since he didn't leave us a mess in the courtyard, find the old brute a carrot or something as a token of our gratitude."

I leaned behind the buck-board seat and rummaged through the garden produce to find him a good one.

"There's an apple tree near the road near the lake," Emmit told me. "Remind me when we get there and we'll grab a few for him - and us."

I nodded.

I shook my head and laughed at the long-eared beast as he stood there, chewing his carrot, as he dumped a huge pile of road-apples onto the grass by the lane. I scratched his forehead and he shook his head up and down at me. When he was done defecating, he stomped his foot at me, telling me that it was time to go. He bumped my shoulder with his head as I passed him to climb aboard. When I told him he was a jackass, he brayed at me in laughter.