Trouble With Horns

21: Hot bath

We’d managed to fight our way through the corridors to where Rora said there was a courtyard, but now we had to open the door in front of us and step out into who knows what. I looked up at Rora, searching her beautiful angular face for some hint that she had a plan. Even if the plan was to pause for a moment and make out. Especially if her plan was to make out. Could that please be the plan? Her lips looked so kissable as she spoke to me, the way they curved and moved as she formed words, her tongue dancing in tantalizing flashes between them. Oh, she was talking to me. Right.

"Um… sorry, but can you start over?" I asked in embarrassment, dragging my gaze off her lips and back to her gorgeous glowing eyes.

I could still see little flecks of colour and shape within them despite their inner light attempting to wash it all out in ruddy orange-white light. I felt like I’d stared into those eyes for years longer than the few days we’d really spent in each other’s company. I trusted them, the way they shifted to express emotion, there was just something I knew and believed in about them.

Although, if we went by pure hours and minutes spent in one another’s company, we were probably further ahead than most couples after their third or fourth date. Like, how long did people even spend doing the whole back and forth dating thing before they realised they… had caught feelings. I didn’t know, I’d only ever been in the one relationship, and in that one we’d had feelings for each other before we’d agreed to date. Wait, she’d been talking again.

“Okay, new plan,” I said with an apologetic sigh.

“You don’t like my one?” she asked, looking a little hurt.

“No no, I’d love to hear it, but I can’t concentrate on what you’re saying until I do this,” I explained matter of factly.

Unleashing my hunger for her across my expression, I closed the small distance between us. Placing my hands gently on her hips, I leaned languidly up to kiss her. This kiss was different to the one I’d teased out of her earlier. I was leading it, and I led her slow and careful. I wanted to somehow express just how much I was thinking about her. How incredible her eyes were, how I loved the feel of her soft hair running through my fingers, how damn kissable her lips always looked. I didn’t flick my tongue in or anything like that, it was just soft lips pressing and brushing against one another.

As the kiss went on, the surging ache in my chest and stomach that rose to meet it caused my head to spin and my legs to quiver. Fuck this girl was incredible. How had I randomly met someone so perfect? I’d literally dropped out of the sky next to her. It was crazy when you thought about it, like some goddess had decided that Rora and I should hang out for a bit, see what happened. I just wished it was more real than a VR romance.

When I finally pulled back, what seemed like an hour later, but was probably… well actually you never knew with really good kisses, I was feeling a little more sated. Like I could concentrate for a bit. Maybe.

“Okay, sorry. I was having trouble concentrating on what you were saying because I was too distracted by wanting to kiss you. You can um, explain the plan now,” I said as innocently as I could manage.

“Having trouble? Tami, you are trouble… like, trouble with horns or something,” she said breathlessly, absently running a finger down one of my horns. Gosh that felt funny. Hey, wait, when did I go demon mode? Did I accidentally Demon while I was kissing her? Or was I already in demon mode when we started? I could never keep track of these things.

“I guess. I like to pretend I’m less trouble and more... entertaining,” I smirked, cheekily running a finger up the inside of her thigh.

“Alright, enough of that, until we get somewhere safe,” she squeaked, pushing my finger away before it got to where it wanted to be. “Time for the plan.”

“Sure, the plan to get somewhere safe so my finger can continue on its quest,” I nodded sagely.

“Damn Tami, take that libido and like dial it back some would you? I’m getting horny just from your aura or something. Down girl,” Rora laughed, pushing me back against the far wall with a hand. “Stay there.”

“Mroowww,” I winked suggestively.

“Okay, I think that our plan should be this,” she started, then gave me a suspicious look down her arm. “Are you listening?”

I gave her a bobble-headed nod.

“Good, okay, I’m going to open the door and immediately teleport out there. They probably have crossbows and spells trained on that door, so if I teleport out of the way of it all, it should be fine. Anyway, you’ll be down in that nook off the hallway, waiting for all those crossbows to be wildly flinging around trying to stop me from killing them all. Then, you’ll do that whole, explodey punch out of nowhere from like four hundred meters away thing, yeah?” she asked, her eyes having lit up more and more as she talked.

Damn, I wish I was half as smart as this chick.

“Yeah, I can do that,” I said, my mind finally focusing on the impending fight, rather than what may lay beyond that.

Squinting at me, she asked, "Are you sure? You're acting almost drunk."

"Yeah, I'm good," I nodded, schooling my expression as much as I was able to.

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I didn't want to admit that I was acting like an idiot because I was teetering on the edge of being overwhelmed by the utter, raw feelings of arousal, affection, safety and relief I felt now that I was standing beside her again. She'd look at me like I was a weirdo probably. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I was skipping and dancing just for the sheer giddy fact that I could.

My head was just generally a whirl of half formed thoughts and surging emotions. Was it the fact that my first experiences as a girl were fighting beside her, or was there something more going on? What else could there be?

“Alright, let’s do this,” she said with determination, and I nodded, making my way five or so meters down the hallway to duck into the nook she’d pointed out.

I couldn’t help peeking out of it though. I wanted to watch Rora in action. She looked back for a moment to smile at me, then squared her shoulders, raised her hand… and the door exploded outwards as a searingly bright lance of raw heat burst from her hand. Wow, I guess that was the ability she made?

Almost as soon as she’d cast it, she was gone, the space she’d occupied seeming to shudder for a moment with the force of her teleportation. Seconds later, and it was filled with half a dozen crossbow bolts and one or two bolts of magic. I ducked quickly out of the way, only narrowly avoiding having a piercing added to my face as a bolt ricocheted past.

Damn, they really had been lying in wait!

I heard the start of fighting outside, and rushed to do my part before something bad happened to Rora. I stepped out into the corridor and rushed to the entrance, looking out into the courtyard. It was hectic. It looked like our… delay, had caused them to get anxious. Several of them were dead outside the door like they had been about to open it and ask if we were going to come join the party or not. Maybe our delay with the kiss actually worked in our favour?

The courtyard was about two dozen paces per side, with an upper viewing gallery that was accessible via stairs to my right. It looked like this place served as a training yard of some kind, although it was now filled with the sounds of Rora teleporting and cries of fear from her victims. I had a lot of room to manouver here, and I decided that now as the time to start fucking with the laws of physics really, really hard.

Rora was currently on the upper level dealing with all the crossbowmen up there, which left all the close and personal folk down on the ground floor to me and my fists. One guy had noticed me, turning his shield and spear to face me with grim determination. No frontal assault I guess… I gave him a smirk, as a courtesy. I had to give him a little warning after all.

I noted where he stood in my mind, then turned my back to him. Charging up my speed boost and readied my momentum shift ability. With a whoosh of displaced air, I flashed past him at high speed, just slightly to his left, but before my dash was complete, I kicked off the ground slightly and brought my knee up, then reversed my momentum. Suddenly, my charge was taking me back towards him, rather than harmlessly past.

My knee impacted with brutal force directly into the small of his back, breaking his it with a harsh crackling pop of bone and cartilage. I wasn’t done though, his friends were taking notice. I grabbed his spear and dashed quickly sideways as the others brought their own spears to bear on me. My dash turned into a leap that took me into the air, my wings beating frantically to keep me aloft for the few seconds it took me to throw the spear down at another guy.

The spear punched down diagonally through his collarbone, pinning him to the sandy practice ground floor like a bug to a pinboard. Except… it didn’t kill him, and he started screaming really loud, attracting frantic friends who tried to help him. I almost felt bad as I dove back down, slamming into the back of someone trying to get the pinned guy free. Completely ignoring my earlier vow to be clean about my fighting, I reached down with my clawed hand and tore his throat out.

With that kill, the odds on the ground floor were suddenly looking a little one sided. There was only three of them left now! Not counting the bug.

Picking up the big round shield of the man I had just killed, I flung it at the next dude edge first. He used his own shield to deflect it, but I was already dashing past, then bending my trajectory so that my explosively charged fist was driven mercilessly into his exposed side. I was gone again into the air before any of his two friends could do anything about me. Being able to fly was overpowered!

Oh wait, I just had an idea!

I flew quickly over to where Rora’s path of destruction had left a dead crossbowman in her wake, and picked up the still loaded crossbow. Leaning over the edge of the railing, I did my best to sight at one of the two melee fighters left and fired. The bolt almost went wide, except that the dude dodged into my attack. That was a bit weird… MaTRON?

The last guy looked around at his rapidly falling comrades and threw down his arms, rushing for the door that Rora and I had burst out of just a minute or so previously. Alright then dude, you get to live.

I looked up to find my… friend? She was standing over the corpse of the last of the thugs that had been on the upper level like an angry war goddess, her legs spread wide for support and her sword held loose but ready at her side. I felt a warmth spread through my chest and center as I took in the sight. Fuck me. Please?

“Hey!” I called teasingly, “You can pose like a fucking goddess later, time to move?”

Walking over and brushing past me with that effortless confidence she had after she’d just killed things, she leaned down just long enough to murmur huskily in my ear, “You’re one to talk. That was some kiss.”

Oh dear. Be still my heart… seriously, I can’t concentrate when you’re making a racket playing my ribs like a damn xylophone.

Following along behind the War Goddess, we made our way to a place we could hop onto the roof of the main building.

I got my first good look at the city now, and it took my breath away. Most of it was built on the plains that ran along the side of the river, but a few miles away in the heart of the city, a monolith of stone rose like a defiant fist from the earth’s crust. It looked like it was almost two hundred meters tall, and atop its heights stood a building that was half castle and half palace. Well, one guess where the ruler of this country liked to hang out. Was this a monarchy? Probably, there were nobles after all.

“Damn,” I breathed, staring over at it.

“Yeah. Prince Gregori lives there, in all his glory,” Rora said, her voice dripping sarcasm as she picked her way across the rooftop towards the adjacent building.

“Not a cool guy then? Also, prince? Not king?” I asked curiously.

“Nah this place is a principality. I don’t know why it’s not a kingdom, maybe it’s not big enough or whatever? Maybe I’ll look up the definition later,” Rora said idly. “As for the man himself, he’s a pompous dickhead who’s more interested in parties than leading from what I’ve heard. His country is being infiltrated by a huge foreign power and he doesn’t seem to give a shit so long as the wine flows.”

“Damn… sounds like a piece of work,” I grimaced. “He’s got a cool castle though. Someone cool should take it from him.”

“It’s never been taken apparently, which I can understand… can’t see the way up from here, but it’s just a huge fuck off ramp,” she explained.

“Okay yeah, that doesn’t sound like the best way to spend your time,” I nodded, then casually looked down into the street.

My eyes went wide when I saw him staring up at us. The creepy guy with the thin lips and the broken nose. The guy they had called “Magus”, whatever that meant. He was glaring at us, surrounded by a troupe of equally angry looking Red Pin guards.

“Rora!” I hissed, pointing down at him.

“Fuck!” she swore, taking my hand and pulling me further back from the edge of the building.

Before I lost sight, I had the foresight for once to use the UI to try and get a read on who he was. His nametag said “???”, but his level… that… that was sixty two. Level sixty fucking two. Holy shit. I was lucky as all hell that he hadn’t gotten around to interrogating me.

“Rora,” I gulped as we began to move in the opposite direction as fast as we could. “He was level sixty two. He’s the guy who captured me.”

“Yeah. His name is Magus Yoll. He’s some sort of high ranking dude with those Red Pin people,” she said, her voice also sounding as worried as mine.

“Those Red Pin people are one hundred percent from Pagutum. They admitted it to me when they were fighting us and stuff,” I told her, moving up to rush along beside her.

“I figured, but it’s good to know. That means he’s also high ranking over there in their empire. Strength with magic equals social status and rank over there,” she said, a frown creasing her smooth brow as she thought about something.

“Which means whatever is happening here is bigger than I first thought!” she blurted, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

“You’re excited about this?” I chuckled incredulously, her excitement brushing away my nervousness.

“This means we’ve probably stumbled on like… a region altering quest. I bet they are grooming this place for some sort of take over, be it diplomatic or military, and we’re going to be the ones to stop it! We’ll probably get all sorts of cool shit, as well as prestige and… this is what VR gaming is about!” she said, licking her lips and looking almost turned on by it all.

“So long as I get to hang out with you,” I murmured too quietly for her to hear.

We made our escape across the rooftops for a while before we hopped down into the streets. Apparently there were enough wild looking adventurers in the capital that we wouldn’t be harassed by the guard unless we made ourselves known, but she did tell me to go human mode to make sure.

Rora had rented the loft in a bakery to stay in, rather than going to an inn with all sorts of people around to watch and dob us in if they noticed something out of the ordinary. It took almost an hour and a half to reach the bakery, and I was starting to feel tired from all the crap I’d been through today.

We entered through a door in an alleyway rather than the front shop, and I looked around in tired interest at the place. It was made of stone, compared to the wood and plaster I’d gotten used to around here. I guess you did probably want to build a bakery out of stone, otherwise it might be prone to burning down.

“Rora,” I asked tiredly, “I need to wash and change really badly.”

“Yeah. The couple that run the bakery are letting me use their tub. They have a cistern of water attached to the ovens that might even have warm water… I’ll um, go up to the loft while you bathe… it’s that door there,” she said almost shyly, pointing out the door in question.

I followed her finger and found the room, seeing a wooden tub with a copper pipe and valve sticking out of the wall. Wow, plumbing? Damn! This place was great! I rushed over and filled the tub, relishing the hot water as if flowed between my fingers. Yes! Yes yes yes! I was going to get to have a hot bath!

I couldn’t help it, I giggled in excitement, rushing back to lock the door and then stripping as fast as I could. The wooden tub wasn’t the biggest, but I wasn’t a mammoth like I was in real life either, so I would fit into it if I pulled my legs up a bit. Well, I might not be a mammoth for much longer! I pulled a piece of cord from my inventory and carefully tied my hair up into a bun on my head, then stepped gingerly into the tub.

It was incredible, the feeling of the hot, almost too hot, water on my skin, and I let out a wholly too sexual moan of pleasure as I slipped in. Oh this was nice. I needed this. I washed my hair first. Then found a rough sea sponge and began to scrub myself, relishing the way it scraped off the dirt and grime from all the walking, being captured, and all the battles in between.

Unfortunately, the water grew filthy, and I didn't fancy hanging out in it much longer than I needed to scrub myself clean. Maybe later I could have a proper soak though…? I hopped out of the bath and dried myself with a spare shirt from my inventory, then got changed into new clothes. I needed more clothes. Maybe I could talk Rora into going to the market with me?

Just as I was leaving the bathroom to find the loft, I opened the door onto a kind looking middle aged woman wearing an apron covered in flour.

“Oh! Damn! I’m sorry!” I exclaimed, quickly pulling my arm back to keep the door from hitting her.

“Oh! You must be Aurora’s friend! Tami wasn’t it? Nice to meet you! I hope you enjoy your stay here. It might even be transformative! A bit of time in the oven and you’ll be feeling light and fluffy, just like a nice loaf of bread!” she smiled, and I saw the telltale twinkle of MaTRON behind her eyes.

“How is the baking going then?” I asked casually, trying to give her a prompt she could use through whatever that glass case was she’d talked about.

“It’s going fine! Far better than if it was left without a baker yes? Although, I’m trying something new, so I had to… procure, the instructions and recipe. Good thing I’m an exceedingly fast learner!” she smiled amicably, just the barest hint of amusement dancing behind her eyes. Oh she definitely knew I’d set that one up for her. I think… I think I actually kinda liked MaTRON.

Something occurred to me then, a question to pose, but I had no idea how to phrase it. It took me a moment, but I thought I had a good way to pose the question so that MaTRON could answer it.

“Say, could you take a look at my recipe for bread that gives bonuses to the alchemy profession would you? Do you think that bread would be okay? It seems that every time I’ve seen it, it was burning in the oven, almost on purpose. I’m worried there might be something wrong,” I said hesitantly, hoping she got what I was trying to say through all the weird roleplay code.

“Oh, sounds like there is definitely a problem with that recipe,” the baker lady tutted. “I’m working on a bread like that myself, and it’s a tough one. So many problems to gently tease out of the dough. Something about the ingredients that were put into the original recipe stink of a foulness.”

Interesting… now I just had to figure out what she meant. This was all really kinda hard. I wish I could talk to Rora about it… but that would also mean revealing who I was, who I had grown up as, and who I might be in the future. My situation was all far too fragile to face a potential rejection from Rora. Best to wait...

Pretending to think better of something, I told the baker lady, “I thought so too… I think I’ll come to you later with the recipe actually. I need to go and let my companion know the bath is free.”

“Of course, of course!” the baker lady said, waving me past. “You two seem like you’ve known each other forever hmm?”

Looking back, I quirked an eyebrow at MaTRON, trying to figure out what she was getting at now, “Uh, no… we met just a few weeks ago actually.”

“Oh really? I could have sworn… nevermind. You seem good for each other, that’s what matters isn’t it?” she smiled amicably.

I felt a little flutter of excitement bloom in my chest as she paired us together. That word, applied to myself and Rora… wow, it did powerful things to my heart. Things I wasn’t ready to face, things I wasn’t ready to fight for just yet. We’d only known each other a short time… and I didn’t know how she felt…

“T-thanks,” I mumbled, turning and rushing off before MaTRON could say any more weird overly thought provoking shit.

It took a little trial and error as far as doors went, but I found the staircase up into the loft, where I found Rora lazily reading a book, of all things. She looked so gorgeous as she lay there, concentrating on the pages. I stood and watched her face as her eyes tracked over the words on the page, again feeling the warm nervous fluttering in my chest that spoke of forming affections. Damn… damn, damn, damn. I did not need this shit. I liked it, but it was definitely not helpful.

“Hey,” I murmured, walking over and sitting on the bed she was lying in. The only bed in the loft.

She blinked, looking up at me like she was pulling her mind back from another world. “Hey…”

We sat there for several moments, each exploring the other’s eyes. I once again fought the feelings growing within me, feeling them surge and overflow as I stared into those pretty, intelligent eyes of hers. I found myself smiling almost involuntarily as I watched her, my emotions playing across my face even as I tried in vain to keep them contained.

“Bath is free,” I said at last, my voice sounding so soft I almost cried for how right it felt.

Talking to a pretty girl with a voice that matched who I was, caused altogether different and entirely welcome feelings of euphoria and rightness to crash across my mind like gentle waves on a beach. I realised that even if it wasn’t Rora, I might get to one day talk to a woman I loved in this voice, but... in reality, instead of Cora.

“Right, I’ll go wash,” she nodded, her cheeks lightly dusted with pink. She broke our eye contact and got out of the bed, carefully trying not to look at me again. I hoped I hadn’t weirded her out with that moment just then.

I was going to go and find something to eat, maybe take another look at my abilities, but I was starting to feel the weight of the day like a physical force pressing down on my body. I stripped back down to my underwear, and yes I know I could have just unequipped it, but it felt wrong to do that with normal clothing.

Once I was undressed, I slipped beneath the deceptively soft sheets of the bed and sighed in relief. What a fucking day. It wasn’t even dark outside yet, but I needed a nap for sure. I was out like a light before Rora even made it back from her bath.