The Journey of Alanna

Alanna's heart was racing, and nothing she did was slowing it down. She had long since washed up and returned to the manor, but no matter how much she repeated to herself that what happened wasn't a big deal, it was Liriel's idea after all, it wasn't pushing down the sheer giddiness she felt at all. Even now she could still taste Liriel, sweetened by grapes, on her lips.

Yiva had met her in the kitchen. Apparently the manor maintained a strict dinner protocol. The Singor family ate first, waited on by the maids, then the staff ate afterwards. Alanna noticed that Yiva had a few lines in her face, much like Headmistress Sonya. She had heard Elves didn't really age the same way other races did. They could become scarred and calloused like any other when exposed to battle or hard labor, but few of them would ever truly age. Lines in their face is all that could show how long they have walked the earth, all the way up until around their 400th birthday, when they'd pass from natural causes. Alanna felt humbled by the idea that Yiva must have been serving the Singor family for a very long time.

However, Yiva would not give her much time to mull over the age of the Singor household, instead putting her to work carrying plates to the dinner table. Yiva selected the lighter plates, thankfully, the experienced maids took the heavier ones. She could hardly believe the feast they were serving. A large cake dotted with cloudberries, a roasted hog, a salad more colorful than any pastry plate and a pitcher of fragrant wine. It was rather shocking then that they appeared to be setting the table for only three people.

After the table was set the maids lined up along the wall, hands folded over their apron, which Yiva instructed Alanna to emulate.

The doors to the dining room opened and in walked four elves. One an elven woman with silver hair, wearing a long green dress in a style Alanna didn't recognize, save from the cover of books. One was an elven gentleman in an expensive suit, with short, stylish blond hair. The last two were undoubtedly Liriel and Alistar, the former having changed clothes into a longer, humbler dress with the same color palette as her previous one, the former still wearing his uniform.

The man took his place at the head of the long dining room table, with Liriel and the silver-haired woman on each side of him.

After they sat down, the silver-haired woman appraised the line of maids, before doing a double take when her eyes found Alanna at the end of the line.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked, venom in her words despite the dulcet tone of her voice.

The gentlemen looked to the maids, his brow already furrowed with frustration. When he saw Alanna he beckoned her over.

"You. Who are you?" he asked gruffly. He continued to stuff a white kerchief into the neck of his suit, preparing for dinner as though nothing was wrong. "I've never seen you before, and I know we haven't been hiring. You're clearly not a spy or an assassin either. Anyone with half a brain wouldn't have hired beastfolk for that job. Speak quickly."

Put on the place like that Alanna stumbled over her words. "S-Sir, I was hired to-today. By Lady L-Liriel."

That made the man stop. "Excuse me?" he asked, finally looking at Alanna. His green eyes widened as he got a good look at her this time, looking at her up and down before turning to Liriel. "Liriel, what on earth were you thinking?! You do not have the authority to hire staff! Especially not... Them!"

"We only hire Elves to work at the manor," the silver haired woman chided, her face a mask of composure.

Alanna's heart dropped, but Alistar was quick to jump into the situation.

"I fear that it was my doing, Lord Giullis."

"You?!" Giullis responded in outrage. "I expect my rebellious daughter to pull a stunt like this, but you, Alistar? What could have possibly possessed you to hire a beastfolk into my service? You know how my poor, old mother feels about them!"

If the silver-haired woman had been the one spoken about, she gave no sign. Three of the maids had walked up to the table and were filling each person's plates and glasses with food, and the silver-haired woman took the opportunity to pop a cherry in her mouth, chewing daintily while the argument grew. Liriel apparently adopted much the same attitude, not seeming to be concerned at all.

"Sir, I fear I had your explicit permission to hire this girl on," Alistar responded in his usual deadpan manner.

"My permission?!" Giullis stood up, taking off his kerchief and slamming it onto the table. "I have not given you permission to hire new staff in the last quarter-century!" he said, his face reddening in anger. "And what is this outfit?!" he asked, shaking a hand in Alanna's direction.

"It is unseemly," the silver-haired woman interjected.

"It is!" Giullis agreed loudly.

Alistar faced Lord Giullis directly.

"Lord Giullis," he began, and Alanna felt a cold shiver run down her spine. She recognized anger, but it was but the faintest undercurrent. The man was as hard to read as ever. "The morning, you will remember that after your last heated discussion with Lady Liriel, once the doctor left and warned you about your issues with your blood pressure, you ordered me, to, quote, 'Take Liriel into town and buy her whatever will shut her u-"

"Enough!" said Giullis, whose face had gone from absolute rage to distraught shame that not only did the entire staff now know about his health complications, but that his own words were being repeated back to him as well.

"Enough, you've made your point," he said, taking a deep breath and running his hand over his face. "I suppose I did give you permission, then."

Alistar bowed slightly in response.

"Whose idea was it to put her in that scandalous outfit?" Giullis continued, to which Liriel raised her hand.

"That was me, daddy!" she said excitedly. "After all, if this is my early not-birthday present, then she needed some proper gift wrap,right?"

As Giullis was fighting another outburst, she continued. "Sadly there's no way to return her. I adopted her from the orphanage, which means no backsies!"

"The orphanage?!" he asked, this time a mixture of disbelief and horror coursing through his voice.

"I have the contract right here," Alistar stated, taking the rolled-up parchment from his pocket and showing it to Giullis, who began to read feverishly for a few seconds. He then breathed a sigh of intense relief.

"Sweet Sylvarra, Liriel, you are going to give me a heart attack," he sighed. He took a different handkerchief from his coat pocket and dabbed his forehead. "At least this contract doesn't make her a legal part of the family. The family orchard would have wilted in shame!"

At that moment, Alanna felt as small as an ant, merely waiting to be inevitably crushed. She knew her whole future at the manor was now hanging by a thread.

"Daddy, you told Alistar that I could have anything I wanted, right?" Liriel asked matter-of-factly. "Well, I wanted her! She'll be cleaning my room and bringing me my meals from now on. Do you really not want me to be happy, daddy?" she asked, almost accusatory in her tone.

"Sweetheart, of course I want you to be happy," Giullis responded, his voice now weary.

"Then it's settled!" Liriel happily stated. "The new girl stays."

Giullis shot Alanna a look that seemed to fight between indignation and anxiety. He led out a long breath, then breathed in deeply.

"Okay. Fine, she stays. But," he said, pointing a finger at Alanna, but still facing Liriel. "If she causes any problems, she's out of here."

"Deal," Liriel responded.

"Yiva, I will have my meal in my office. I've had quite enough excitement for one day," Giullis stated as he pushed his seat back and walked out of the room.

"Right away, Lord Giullis," Yiva replied as she rapidly prepared three plates with Giullis' food and followed him.

The silver-haired woman gently dabbed her mouth with a kerchief before putting it down, getting up to leave as well. However, as she passed Alanna, she shot her an icy glance. The woman, tall and lithe, reminded Alanna of snow atop the peak of a jagged mountain. Beautiful, but both cold and unreachable.

Liriel giggled to herself as she moved on from her salad to the cake, having apparently little appetite for meat.

"Did you see the look on Daddy's face? I almost thought he was going to burst that forehead vein this time!"

"You should refrain from antagonizing your father, Lady Liriel," Alistar stated, having stayed behind after his lord left the room.

"Oh hush," she said. "He wanted me to be happy and I'm more than thrilled with my new assistant. As far as I'm concerned we both got what we wanted, he just doesn't see that yet."

Alanna felt relief that the argument over her stay had apparently ended in her favor, but she knew it had been a close call. Lady Liriel had been the only reason her life here could continue, and she resolved again to do whatever was needed of her. She looked at Liriel eat, nibbling more than biting, her table manners never wavering. What an angel, she thought.

A few minutes later Liriel was done eating. "New girl, you're coming with me for... Cleaning. My room is filthy," she said as she got up and began to head towards her room. Alanna followed her, already a bit faster at walking on her heels.

The sun was going down and a gentle twilight filtered into the manor through the windows. After the tension during dinner the manor seemed almost serene now, with only the gentle tapping of Liriel and her footsteps echoing down the halls.

When they got to her room Liriel halted, then looked behind her at Alanna and loudly cleared her throat.

"Oh, right away Mistress!" Alanna said as she quickly stepped forward and opened the door for Liriel.

"That's better," Liriel stated. She walked directly towards her dresser, opening the door and reaching in for something hidden behind the clothes. She pulled out a colorful feather duster, made with the feathers of some majestic red-plumed bird.

"Take this and start cleaning. Don't stop unless I tell you to," Liriel said, her tone playful, but clearly not intending to allow any backtalk.

"Yes Mistress," Alanna said as she took the feather duster. This was something she knew how to do. Cleaning was one of those tasks Headmistress Sonya had drilled into every orphan under her care, if only so that they may find themselves in the same situation that Alanna was now in: Adopted for the purpose of doing domestic work rather than anything else.

The heels made it challenging to stay upright, but the cleaning itself was easy. Every surface received a light brushing, small dust bunnies soon clinging to the feathers of the duster.

However, Alanna was not content to simply clean only the obvious dust. For Lady Liriel she wanted to go above and beyond, so she decided to clean behind Liriel's nightstand as well. Without thinking she bent forward to reach behind the nightstand, only to immediately feel her mistake as her skirt rode so far up that her rear end was now on display for all to see. Nervous that she may have embarrassed Liriel, she attempted to correct by pulling her skirt down, but realized there just wasn't enough skirt to cover anything in this position.

Before she could right herself to figure out a different solution, a loud "whap" cracked across the room, followed immediately by a sting of pain on her buttocks. She yelped, nearly losing her balance again, before turning to see Liriel standing almost right behind her, smiling from pointy ear to pointy ear, a riding crop caught between her hands.

"Mistress, what are you doing?" she asked, mortified that she had been disciplined like some form of animal. "Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry, it's this skirt-"

"Hush," Liriel stated in response. "I didn't tell you to stop. Continue cleaning."

Humiliated, but undeterred from doing her duty, Alanna turned and slowly reached over again to clean behind the nightstand. This time, no strike was forthcoming, it seemed. She balanced herself with one hand on the nightstand, the other pushing the feather duster behind the nightstand to clean.

"Good," Liriel stated as Alanna thoroughly cleaned behind the nightstand. As she was about to finish, another crack, and another sting of pain across her backside. She squealed and turned, but Liriel simply pointed her towards the next object to be cleaned.

So it continued for several minutes. As she reached to clean above the dresser, another strike. As she cleaned behind the standing mirror, another, and again when she was on her knees cleaning beneath the bed. She couldn't figure out if this was some sort of punishment or not.

When she was done the room had been left spotless, but her cheeks burned, her lower ones with pain, her upper ones with embarrassment.

Liriel had taken position in front of the mirror. "Come here," she said, beckoning.

Alanna walked over towards her, and Liriel grabbed her by the arm, her eyes like a hungry animal as she turned Alanna to face away from the mirror and left her skirt up. "Look at that," she said, and Alanna obeyed, turning to see a criss-cross pattern of red stripes across her bottom, which was almost glowing red.

"That's a good look on you, new girl," Alanna stated hungrily. She squatted, her dress splaying out over the floor, grabbing Alanna's ass and massaging her roughly. There was some residual pain, but it quickly faded like fleeting wisps, replaced instead with butterflies thrashing in Alanna's stomach.

Without missing a beat on her massage Liriel looked up at Alanna and asked: "Aren't you going to thank your mistress?"

"T-Thank you, M-Mistress," Alanna stuttered, trying hard to get a coherent response out under this treatment.

"Oh, look at this," Liriel stated. She reached in between Alanna's legs and touched Alanna's folds right through her panties. Alanna's eyes went wide, not just with the sensation of touch in a place so sensitive, but due to the intense sensation of moisture down there. She looked to see Alanna bringing her fingers back, glistening with fluids. Her fluids.

"Well well, aren't we excited," Liriel teased.

"I'm-I'm so sorry, Mistress!" Alanna responded in a panic, struggling to comprehend how she could have wet herself. That hadn't happened in at least a decade, and she was mortified that it had happened in front of her mistress. She hadn't even felt anything until just now.

"Don't be stupid, this is normal," Alanna stated. She reached up and grabbed Alanna's panties by the sides, dragging them down to reveal several strands of feminine slime clinging to them from her womanhood.

"Allow Mistress to take care of that," she said, allowing the panties to drop to the floor. Her fingers then quested between Alanna's thighs, searching for her entrance. Alanna couldn't move, trapped between confusion and Liriel's paralyzing touch, she felt Liriel's fingertips brush up against the wetness leaking from her and then press inside.

A moan escaped Alanna's throat, unbidden, and Liriel hushed her. "Be quiet! Don't let anyone hear you," she said.

Alanna put a hand over her mouth and nodded, but it was like swimming up a waterfall. She felt two of Liriel's fingers slowly stretching her open, a sensation like lightning hitting her insides with every motion. She didn't stop until her fingers were inside up to the second joint, at which point some resistance prevented her from going further.

Alanna looked down to see Liriel blushing strongly, biting her lip in concentration as she started pumping her fingers in and out. This was a new storm of sensation entirely, and Alanna bit down on her own hand to stop herself from screaming.

She felt Liriel push her legs apart and she complied silently, spreading her feet to give her mistress easy access to her loins. It felt incredible. Alanna knew about sex on a theoretical level, but had never even experienced attraction to anyone, and it was only now sinking in that she was having sex with the most beautiful woman she had ever met.

A sensation started to build, starting in all the places Liriel was rubbing with her fingers and moving up to her belly, traveling up her spine and down her legs, making her shake uncontrollably.

"Mistress! Mistress!" she tried to beg, but it came out muffled from behind her hand. She couldn't risk moving it for she would almost certainly lose control over her voice.

Liriel smiled up at her, the most wonderful, serene smile Alanna had ever seen a person wear. Then, her fingers pressed up. All at once pure pleasure took control over Alanna's body. Her insides spasmed, a flood of her juices washing over Liriel's fingers and down her hand. Her legs jerked until she fell, crashing to the floor, her body twitching and trembling in the aftershocks of her first orgasm.

By the time Alanna's eyes were cleared of the static that had built up as she fought for air, she saw Lady Liriel licking her fingers clean. The sight sent another involuntary shiver through her whole body, as though it was begging for more. Liriel, however, had other plans.

She sat down on the side of her bed, pulling her dress up and sideways. Still she wore those silk socks, which reached all the way up to her thighs, and beyond there lay her womanhood, which was quite possibly even wetter than Alanna had been. Liriel hadn't been wearing underwear this whole time!

"Come here and please your mistress with your mouth," she said, spreading her legs wide.

"Y-yes Mistress," Alanna said. She crawled towards Liriel, legs too unsteady to walk, leveraging herself up towards Liriel's groin with her arms on the bed. The scent of Liriel hit her, all femininity with not a hint of sweat. It made her mouth water. Liriel helpfully placed a hand on her head and guided her in until she kissed Liriel's nether lips.

Like a starving woman given food, she began to lap up Liriel's sweet honey. Not wanting to miss even a single drop, she flattened her tongue against Liriel and slowly ran it up, enjoying not just the flavor of her juices but the texture of her skin as well.

Liriel groaned approvingly, her hand pressing down Alanna to keep her from escaping. Not that she wanted to.

"Yes!" Liriel breathed. "Focus... Focus on my clit!"

Alanna soon found out what Liriel meant, a hard nub that had sprung up between Liriel's folds. She ran her tongue over it directly and felt all of Liriel shiver around her. Another hand took hold of her head and pushed her down until her mouth was all the way over Liriel's sex.

Alanna grabbed hold of Liriel's rear to steady herself and resumed licking, drinking the fresh fluids leaking from Liriel while using her tongue to relentlessly tease Liriel's clit. She wasn't sure if she was doing things right, but Liriel soon began to voice her approval, loudly.

Liriel moaned throatily, moving her hips to grind herself on Alanna's tongue.

"More! More more!" she yelled, seemingly not remembering her own rule about being quiet, her moans rising in volume and pitch, until with a scream she clamped her thighs around Alanna's face. Fluid gushed over her mouth, and while Alanna did her best to swallow it Liriel was clearly more productive than she was, and soon her face, as well as the sock-clad thighs that surrounded it, were drenched in elf-juice.

Liriel fell onto her back, gasping for air. Allana sat on the floor, admiring her handiwork. The sight of Liriel, first drowning in pleasure and now basking in the afterglow, made her feel what she finally realized was love. Love for her savior. Love for her mistress.

"Mistress, I love you," Alanna said aloud, unable to hold her feelings within anymore.

Liriel pushed herself upright and gave Alanna an almost incredulous look. "You love me?" in a tone that was more incredulous than confused.