Chapter 13: Watch

The rest of the day was spent hunting and gathering supplies for the next few days of travel. The twins took Laura hunting and after several hours they had secured a young deer and within a few more hours they had skinned and prepared most of the meat for the rest of the journey. If nothing else they said we could probably sell what we didn’t eat to an inn and the skin could be sold to a tanner’s shop. I spent the day praying and exploring my powers that I had been blessed with.

I started by testing my offensive abilities.

I found a tree a little way from the campsite and willed the energy to my arms. It encased my hands like gloves and I felt I could shape it into whatever I wanted, if I could concentrate on it enough. With my fists glowing in radiant energy, I punched a hole in the nearest tree, sending splinters everywhere and disintegrating most of what I had actually touched. I felt the reserve of energy deplete by about a tenth and frowned. That wasn’t sustainable.

So I tried to shape the energy into a glowing sword. It took a lot of concentration to focus on the shape and in addition, it didn’t have any weight, so it was very off-putting. But when I swung it against the tree it cut into the wood easily, though it still took a lot of energy.

Laura came back from hunting with the girls and they dragged a small deer between them into the campsite. As the girls skinned the animal Laura took a look at the scorch marks I’d put in the trees.

“Someone’s been busy.”

“I burned up too quickly with my fight with the Knights, I thought I'd see if I could control my abilities.”

She nodded approvingly and asked me to show her what I’d been trying. After I’d punched a tree and shown her my magic formed into a blade, she smiled knowingly.

“I have something that might help...”

Laura took the sword that I had claimed from one of the deceased knights and handed it to me. Instead of creating a new blade with magic, she told me to imagine Bambinae’s power running along the blade and infusing it, strengthening it.

I thought about it. Imagined it. And charged the sword with my magic.

It melted instantly.

The twins giggled at the ruined sword drooping as the energy coursing through it heated it into a sloppy mess. Even Laura chuckled and went to fetch another one of the Knight’s swords.

But I did learn something. The amount of power I channelled into the sword was no more than I had used in my punch. So only a fraction of that was actually needed to imbue the sword with magic.

I tried again with a second sword, this time I trickled energy into the blade and it began to glow slightly. I added some more, then some more. I was up to about a tenth of a regular punch, about one percent of my total power. Then two percent. By three percent of my total, about a third of the power of my punches, I noticed the blade begin to droop and, when I released my power, and the magic had dissipated about a minute later, the sword had a distinct banana shape.

“OK,” I said, satisfied, “I think I know where the limit is likely to be. I’m going to try and infuse a new sword and then hit a tree with it.”

I lit my sword with about two percent energy and raised it above my head, ready to strike. But to my confusion, the energy stayed exactly where it was when I moved the sword, the sword simply left it behind.

“Uhhh. I think I broke reality...” I stammered as I looked at the sword-shaped outline of magic floating in front of me.

Laura agreed, and suggested I try to imagine the power moving with my sword, as I had obviously been doing that with my fists. One hour, and a massive headache, later and I could move the divine power with the sword slowly as I made a figure eight.

“This is so much harder than with my fists.”

“It’s probably to do with the sword not being a natural extension of your body.”

I agreed but Asha looked up from the deer at the two of us strangely.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?”

Laura and I didn’t understand what she was getting at.

“Well... you only need to infuse your sword when it hits your target, right? Why not just time it to happen when you hit your target?”

We stared at her aghast and then turned to each other sheepishly.

“We should have thought of that,” I said.

“We totally should have,” Laura agreed.

I aimed the sword at the tree and swung it, charging it with a flash of energy as it hit the bark. In repeating tries, I found that sometimes I charged the sword too early and left the energy hovering next to the tree.

Other times, I added the power too late and I ended up either bouncing the sword off the tree and again leaving the magic silhouette next to the tree, or embedding the sword in the tree and blowing out a chunk of wood a moment later.

Now the second outcome wasn’t bad, but I had a feeling that there was a sweet spot that I wasn’t quite getting. I practiced most of the day and, towards the afternoon, I managed once to activate the energy at exactly that right time. On that one perfect occasion, all four of us stared in amazement as the sword passed through the trunk of the tree without any resistance. The flash of light where the sword passed continued to burn as, with an immense crash, the several tonnes of tree fell to the earth; thankfully, away from the camp.

The girls whooped in astonishment and excitement and Laura chuckled and whistled through her teeth.

“Well done Mathew, now do it again.”

I tried, oh how I tried. But despite my best efforts, I ran out of power before I could repeat such a perfect hit. But, with a sweaty brow and a felled tree, I figured I had earned a break and so I sat on a log and watched the twins expertly carve up the deer for dinner. I was glad that they knew how, because my butchery skills were basic at best, and probably laughable by this world’s standards.

Come the evening, we had camp bread and roast venison for dinner and I had to admit, this was fun. Camping outdoors with three amazingly beautiful women, two of whom had declared their willingness to fulfil my every desire, was definitely enjoyable.

“We need to talk about setting a watch.” Laura informed us. “We’ve been lucky up until now, even with how safe this area generally is. However, tomorrow night we will be close enough to Westfall to be in range of bandits and common thieves. It would do us good to set a two hour watch tonight to practice.”

I agreed wholeheartedly. “We didn’t have the people before, but now we do I agree; we totally should.”

Laura put Asha on first, followed by myself and then Erica and finally herself. She argued that the last watch was the most difficult and also the most likely to see an ambush and therefore she should take it as she was the most experienced. We all agreed and I made sure I let Laura know that I appreciated her experience in this area.

I was making a conscious decision to defer to Laura in matters where she was the expert. I had a feeling that she had struggled to gain respect as the only woman in a unit of Knights, despite the obvious fact that she was good with the sword and with medicine. I didn’t want her to feel I was a chauvinistic pig, which was difficult because I had the twins fawning over me and that, understandably, would lead to certain assumptions. But I had to try nonetheless.

There was a little chatter, but eventually we lay down and went to sleep, Laura on one side of the fire and Erica and I on the other. Erica cuddled into me closely and rubbed my head again. She whispered to me quietly.

“Do you need me Master?” she kissed me sensually on my neck and I could tell she wanted to pleasure me like they had the night before, maybe even go further. I could feel the warmth of her breath on my skin, but something in her tone was uncertain.
"I don’t even know how to do this. But I want to learn. With you."
My heart clenched—there it was, the truth beneath the desire. She was just as scared as I was.

Oh, I wanted to. But with Laura so close and being able to see and hear everything, I thought it imprudent.

“I want you, Erica. But it would be unkind to subject Laura to that. She would feel uncomfortable hearing us, even if she didn’t see us.”

My gorgeous brunette elf pouted her beautiful lips at me and I kissed them in small silly peppery kisses until she smiled.

“Let’s get some sleep whilst we can. There’s plenty of time to make love to you when we have the privacy of a room in Westfall.”

Erica grinned. “I look forward to that, Master.”

I blacked out for a few hours, not realising how absolutely exhausted I was. There were no dreams, nothing but the dark and the pull of necessary sleep. Using Bambinae's magic had been more tiring than I thought. However, what must have been a few hours later, I found myself smiling and happy, only to awaken to the most pleasant feeling below my waist.

A set of beautiful emerald eyes looked down on me as Asha smiled with her hand on my crotch massaging me tenderly over my pants. I couldn’t believe this was happening. This was bold. More bold than I would have expected from her. Something was wrong here. Or if not wrong, something that I had never encountered before.

“Time to wake up, Master.” she spoke the last word huskily and full of desire. I’d tried to hide how much the thought of a willing sex slave aroused me. I knew it was wrong, but the fantasy was still erotic. Despite how much I was trying to hide it, she seemed to know.

“Can I pleasure you, Master?”

I froze

“Uh…”

Her face fell.

I rushed on to avoid her getting hurt. “No, no. It’s not that I don’t want you. You are wonderful. The problem is me. I can’t understand WHY you’d want to do these wonderful things for me.”

She hung her head. There it was. THERE was the shame. I knew it! I KNEW I’d screwed her up the previous night. I was fuming. She thought her self-worth was tied to pleasing me and I’d fucked up her impressionable mind when she was at her most vulnerable.

I’d never been more angry with myself.

But then she whispered. “I like being your slave.”

Wait. What?

She lifted her head and I could see a sort of self-determination in her eyes. “I was jealous of Erica. She was your slave. She was able to serve you. I didn’t understand why. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I never wanted to take anything from my sister. Ever.” She was speaking quickly, trying to get everything in before she could stop herself or maybe before I could.

“I’ve developed feelings for you too, Asha.” I admitted. But I’d completely misunderstood what she was saying.

“No, it’s not that. I mean yes; I think I love you.” She blushed as she realised what she had just admitted. “But I didn’t just want you. I wanted to serve you. The thing we did last night; I’d never felt that way before, I couldn’t describe it. But making you feel good made me feel alive. Made me feel like I could make someone’s world better. I could make your world better.”

I stared at her, trying to understand what she was saying to me.

She continued shyly. “I want you to pleasure me. I want to share that with you. I want you to be my first, eventually… when the time is right…” she blushed. “But I think the thing that makes me happiest…” Her voice dropped conspiratorially, “…the thing that made me… oh master… made me so wet down there… is that I AM your slave, that I DO belong to you. I don’t know… I… I’ve never been so… I don’t know the word. Fulfilled?”

I had no idea what to do with that. I couldn’t possibly know what to do with that. Was she enjoying submitting herself? I was panicking. I’d never studied sexual health beyond the basics. I had no idea about how to engage with a sexually submissive partner. My mind was reeling and whirring, and the young elf was looking at me with an increasing level of dread. I could see her beginning to assume that I thought that she was weird or damaged or something and the longer I took to speak, the greater her sense of rejection grew.

“I accept you!” I blurted out, if nothing else but to stop the spiral of uncomfortable silence.

She blinked at me with the beginnings of tears in her eyes. “What?”

I swallowed, hard and took a breath. “I… accept you as you are. Whatever your needs or whatever makes you happy, I accept you and will always stand by you.”

She frowned in a combination of relief and confusion. “You don’t think I’m weird? Laura seems to think I shouldn’t want to be a slave.”

I chuckled as I felt the tension release slightly. “No Asha. I’ve never been involved in a relationship like the one you just confessed you want. But I promise, when the time is right, we can work it out together. I’d like to work on our relationship together. How about that?”

Asha’s face brightened with the acceptance. “You mean that?”

I nodded, grinning from ear to ear at the beautiful, complicated young elf in front of me. “Yes, I do.”

Asha blushed a deep scarlet and whispered something I almost didn’t hear. “Then would you call me slave… you know… when we’re alone?”

She had to know I didn’t want to. That’s why she whispered it. She knew what that meant to me. But I was beginning to realise that this wasn’t about her indebted servitude anymore. If I had to guess from my extremely limited understanding, this was erotic submission. She wanted this.

I took a breath and decided to try it. I could always pull it back if it felt wrong or unhealthy. I pulled her towards me and kissed her gently. I whispered in her ear. “Only when we’re alone, slave.” Asha melted instantly in my arms and kissed me passionately. My guess was right, this innocent-looking elf girl was extremely aroused at the idea of being my sex slave. “Please call me that again, Master,” She purred.

“I loved the feel of your hands on my body last night, Slave.”

And I’m almost certain that she had a miniature orgasm at those words. When her breathing calmed and she’d kissed me again, she looked up with adoration in her eyes.

“Can I pleasure you, please master?”

I thought about it. I was sorely tempted. But my hormones were interrupted by Laura rolling over in her sleep. I sighed in resignation.

“No… it just wouldn’t be right with Laura right there. I said the same thing to Erica before.” I whispered. Asha pouted, but I could tell it was in good humour. She understood.

I sat up and kissed her gently. “I know you like it now. But…” her face dropped. “…but know that I won’t hold it against you if you change your mind. However it happens. I just want you to be happy.”

Asha moved off my lap and down to the bedroll, kissing my cheek.

“Then I should sleep now, Master. I hope you enjoyed the way I woke you.”

I stood and stretched as Asha curled into her already sleeping sister.

“You are a very good girl, Asha. You can wake me like that any time.”

Her eyes lit up at the praise and affirmation. “Is that an order, Master?”

I couldn’t believe how much she was enjoying this submission act.

“I’ll… leave that decision up to you.”

Asha grinned. “Yes, Master.”

I sat on watch wondering about the development with Asha. Did it trouble me that she liked being treated like a submissive? Yeah... a bit; I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just a trauma response. Did I find it a massive turn on? Definitely. Yes. Tick that box.

But it wasn’t right, was it?

The problem was that I was getting the feeling that Asha really did enjoy being submissive. She seemed to get a lot of pleasure from pleasuring me and being owned. And if that made her feel good... I was ok with that in theory. I just really didn’t want to take advantage of her and be a bad guy. I vowed that, whatever happened during sex, I would always treat Asha with respect at all other times.

That’s the way it’s supposed to be! rang the conscience in my head. Don’t think for a moment you should be congratulated for that.

It wasn’t wrong.

Being on watch was kind of fun. I could sit and think quietly, watch the wildlife that approached the camp, listen to the sound of my two would-be lovers gently snoring and pray to Bambinae. It didn’t give me power like my prayers in the morning, but the conversational style of prayer was calming and good for the soul.

I felt the warmth of Bambinae when I prayed. It was a good feeling and positive feedback. It was good to know that my prayers were being heard. I prayed that my girls would be safe, that we would be successful in Westfall and apologised if I was doing anything wrong.

And by the time I had thought all that, done a round or two of the camp to check the perimeter and stoked the fire; it was time to wake Erica for her watch.

The girl roused relatively easily when I kissed her forehead and started stroking her head to wake her. She turned her head, kissed me more passionately and quietly rose from the bedroll, taking my hand and pulling me a short way from the other sleeping girls. She pulled me into a passionate kiss with her hands running over my chest, then to my waist and hurriedly moving down to my pants.

“Erica…” I warned her. “We should take things slow… make sure that…”

“I know… I know...” She interrupted me as she stopped despondently. My cock, already erect, was pushing against my trousers. “I know you wouldn’t ever force me to do something I didn’t want to.” Erica suddenly smiled again, her hands tracing over the front of my pants and stood on her tiptoes to whisper into my ear. “So when I tell you that I want you to cum all over my face; I want you to know I want it more than anything in the world.”

I chuckled and kissed her passionately but, when I didn’t do more than that, she pulled back and winked at me.

"You only have to say the word, master."
And Gods help me, I believed her.

Erica had one hand between her legs, playing with herself absentmindedly as she kissed me again. Her other hand was massaging my cock through my pants and, after resisting Asha earlier and now being accosted by her sister, I could barely think straight.

“Master, I’ve never even seen a man’s… manhood. But Jessie in the village told me her husband covered her with his seed and, ever since I heard about it, I wanted to do it. I couldn’t wait to feel a man’s… well… cum... all over me. And when you saved my life, I knew I wanted you to be that man. You don’t know how many times I’ve pleasured myself dreaming of this.”

I was frozen with desire. The way she was talking made my palms sweat, my heart race and my 19-year-old libido roar like furnace.

“Erica…” I warned. “We’ve only known each other a week.”

The elf looked dejectedly at the ground. “You saved my life twice. You kissed me. We held each other. I bared everything to you.” She sniffed angrily. “I haven’t even seen your manhood!”

I couldn’t stop smiling like a giddy teenager. If Asha was the sexual submissive, Erica knew what she wanted and took it. She was more dominant, and I was totally OK with that.

“Ok… but not now. Do we really want to rush it?” I challenged her, looking around the rough campsite. “Here? Muffled and trying not to wake the others?”

Her shoulders slumped in disappointment. Once she was done pouting I kissed her on her forehead and squeezed her tight little butt.

“I am the luckiest man on the face of the world. And you are responsible for that.” I told her.

Erica rolled her eyes at me, obviously frustrated, but accepting it nonetheless. “Go and get your sleep. I guess my master needs his rest.”

I kissed her again, wondering whether I was mad for turning down her advances, but the hour was late, and she wasn’t wrong; I needed to recover from the last few days. And with my manly needs thoroughly unsatisfied, I fell into a troubled and fitful sleep.