Ormiss, mercifully, did not seem like he was much into small talk. Once he was involved in his little magic puzzle-thing, he was consumed with it, his hands moving like a lace-maker's. Ethat, still pinned by chains, watched with open interest. Itek chirped to me, clicking his beak, until I went over to him and pressed my face into his feathered ruff. He curled his big head down around me as best he could with all the chains and muzzles, clicking and chirping.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to get to you." I rubbed my cheek into his ruff.
He clicked and purred, then carefully knuckled down as best he could, negotiating his chains, and purred expectantly. I settled against his ruff, keeping one eye on Korr. Ethat shifted against his chains, trying to roll onto his belly without actually rolling on his belly and breaking his vigil over his brother, but I didn't need to hear him speak to know he was insanely jealous Itek was cuddling with me.
Itek made a deep purr-crooning noise, and shifted his big ruff so it squished me like a broody hen.
Ethat growled.
I pushed Itek back and hissed, "Don't pick fights."
Itek chuckled. Ethat growled. I peeked out from under Itek's feathers at Asund. He rested on his chest, muzzle on his forepaws, staring straight ahead.
But he rolled one eye at me and wagged his tail very slowly.
Ethat stretched his neck more, made a grunting noise, and focused on Ormiss' magic. Itek chuckled and chirped once. Asund panted a canine laugh.
Tons of shit talk. All the shit talk. I couldn't tell if Ormiss deliberately ignored them or was so engrossed with whatever magic thing he was doing he wasn't paying attention. I found myself staring at him, taking in the way the magic snaked around his toned, shaped arms and fingers, and he deftly wove it into some pattern with sharp, sure, movements.
I couldn't even read. I could sound out a couple of letters. Here I was surrounded by all these powerful, high-bred shifters. Even Asund could run circles around me. Thank goodness nobody had asked me what are you good at? Because apparently I wasn't a good fuck (Lucretia was... even in my dreams, I hadn't been a magical tumble), I couldn't read, I didn't have magic, I didn't even know what kind of shifter I was.
I knew how to make bread, though. And I guess you could say I wasn't a coward.
I shifted spots to go sit with Ethat for a few minutes. He nudged me towards his brother. I carefully curled up against Korr's side, hoping I wasn't laying on a broken rib or bruise. I rested my cheek against his hot scaled hide and stroked his scales.
Eventually the door to the prison opened and a small group of hippocamps entered. Ormiss twisted, balancing his creation on upstretched fingers. I lifted my head off Korr and realized I was damp with sweat—I'd fallen asleep against him and he was so hot I had started sweating.
There were four guards with tridents, one hippocamp wearing a necklace of small vials and many shells and such, and a tool belt around his waist, and two meeker assistants carrying more items. ToolBelt hippocamp did not look amused.
"Eaon," Ormiss greeted him, somehow lifting himself to his feet and pivoting around without stumbling or using his hands to balance at all. As deft and smooth as if he'd turned around in water. He gracefully flicked his wrist and the ball of magic twirled about and disappeared into his necklaces, and his hair swished around his hips.
"Ormiss," Eaon said, "What are you doing here?"
"Keeping my consort company while she keeps vigil over another consort," Ormiss said. He gestured for me, took my hand and held it up slightly, nodded to me, then told the new guy, "Theia, this is Healer Eaon. Eaon, my consort, Theia. And her other consorts, Korr, Itek, Ethat, and Asund. But we do not discuss Asund."
Asund growled.
Eaon case a look at me. "She is rather bedraggled. You have done your consort no favors."
"She has run herself ragged over other concerns," Ormiss said with a hint of a bristle.
"And now I presume I must concern myself with their names. As if caring for land-dwellers was not tax enough," Eaon sighed slightly, rolling his eyes towards Ormiss.
"Eaon is serves the royal court at the behest of the Queen," Ormiss told me. "He generally considers himself above commoner fluids and the wounds of prisoners. He's wrong, of course."
"Am I?" Eaon inquired just as not-nicely.
Ormiss walked up to Eaon. The other hippocamp didn't budge. Ormiss moved around him, then snapped close and shoved something into the healer's back. Eaon's eyes bugged out, and he arched, but didn't try to escape. Ormiss growled, "If you ever address my consort with that tone again, you will drown in bile and vomit. Do not test me."
"The Queen has all but banished you," Eaon hissed. He raised one hand and flicked green magic across his fingers. "I could end you, fool."
"If you think I am foolish enough to lay hands on a healer unprepared, or walk this palace unprepared, you are the fool." Ormiss shoved him forward. Eaon stumbled, spun around, and growled. Ormiss tossed his hair back into place and stared the other male down. "I have bene prepared to defend my consort since the moment I entered the Churn and I realized she would not be among our nobility. Every moment has been devoted to her eventual service and safety. The moment is now here. I am not unprepared. You are. Now do your job, Eaon, before I find some other use for you."
Eaon snorted, paced back and forth a second, then made an exasperated noise and walked towards Korr. He gave me a very wide berth and did not look at me.
Itek clicked his beak. Asund chuffed a canine laugh. Ethat didn't make a sound and instead watched worriedly over his brother.
"You don't trust him?" I asked Ethat bluntly.
Ethat rippled his lips.
"Eaon takes his duties as Healer seriously," Ormiss said as he paced over to my side, "and he is exceptionally talented and can be trusted. He also has a sly dagger tongue that serves him well in court, save when he forgets who he spars with."
Eaon's assistants brought small bowls and two buckets of fresh water, and unrolled a long strip of some leather-like material lined with little pouches and vials. Eaon examined the large wound on Korr's chest, prodding around inside the hole. I had to look away. It wasn't the big hole that bothered me, it was the fact Korr didn't react at all. It must have been so painful.
Ethat watched with open worry. Even Asund looked concerned. Itek made a soft crooning noise.
I crouched down next to Ethat's head and absently stroked his horns while we both watched Eaon manipulated Korr's wound and fished around inside it, pulling out a thick bunch of goop that stank. Ethat made an anxious noise. Eaon swabbed around inside the wound and all the things healers generally do, trying to be gentle but it didn't matter: Korr didn't react to any of it.
"We should consider sending word to the dragons," Eaon ventured to Ormiss.
I clutched some of Ethat's fringe.
"Why?" Ormiss inquired.
"Because they know how to care best for a dragon, and I do not? This wound is badly infected and festering, but I don't know the best way to treat a dragon," Eaon twisted on his knees and looked me up and down. "Come here."
Itek stamped and clicked his teeth.
"I am not going to hurt her," Eaon said impatiently. He shoved his closest assistant out of the way. "Now come here."
I glanced at Ormiss. He nodded once, eyes narrowed.
I slid around Ethat and knelt next to the grouchy healer. Eaon handed me a clean sponge and pulled a bucket of water close to me.
"What am I supposed to do?" I asked him.
"Bathe the injury," Eaon said. He took the sponge, dipped it in the water, and gently held the sponge to Korr's shoulder so the water flowed over the wound. "You can handle that, correct?"
"Sure, but why me?"
Eaon sighed at my stupidity. "Because you are his consort, and your touch will bring him comfort. He knows you are here. He is simply too sick to respond. Your tenderness will bring him comfort, and such things aid healing."
"They do?"
He pushed the sponge back into my palm. "Yes. Always speak to a patient who is unconscious. They are here. They can hear you. They can feel your touch. It is comforting to them, and sometimes that is the small thing that tips the balance in their favor."
I dunked the sponge into the water and bathed Korr's shoulder the way Eaon had demonstrated. The water washed pink and gloopy out of the edges of the wound. I couldn't tell if Korr knew it was me or not, but it didn't hurt to try. Eaon showed me how to gently flush the wound inside but not touch any of the tissues with the sponge or my hand.
I washed until the entire bucket was gone. Eaon inspected my work. I winced as he manipulated the flesh to get a look inside. He studied it for a long time, then packed it full of a strong-smelling paste, and felt along Korr's shoulder. He nodded to himself, then told me, "I believe that helped him."
"Really?" I asked.
"He is resting more deeply. Comfort can heal," Eaon advised me. He stood up, and his assistants gathered his items, and without another word, he swept away out the door.
Ormiss cocked a brow. "Comfort. Interesting. I have never heard him say that before."
"Do you think it's bullshit?" I asked.
Itek clicked his beak: he thought it was bullshit.
"I've learned to never discount Eaon's strange ideas," Ormiss said. Heathen added, "I know you will resist, but we should return to my quarters. You will not help them exhausting yourself."
"I am not leaving them," I said stubbornly.
Ethat rumbled and Itek clicked his beak in his muzzle.
"They seem to feel differently," Ormiss said. "You are their consort. If I were them, I would not want you to remain in this place needlessly."
Ethat grumbled something like I hate to agree with the horsey-fish, but it's true.
Asund slicked his ears back.
Ormiss offered me his arm.
Reluctantly, I hugged/patted/caressed each consort as best I could, and they murmured encouragement that it was fine. Then Ormiss escorted me out of the dungeon.
"Your quarters?" I asked.
"Of course."
"What about mine?"
"They were not really yours. Mine are yours now."
Ormiss led me through the twisting hallways and corridors of the palace to a sumptuous wing overlooking a water garden that shone purple-silk under the perpetual twilight sky. His quarters were beautiful and vast, decorated in beautiful shells and glass and the floor was open woodwork with suspended pathways where water shifted and lapped gently as it flowed from an unseen source.
The house in Haven had been huge and old and sort of carelessly large and thoughtless, but this was deliberate beauty unlike anything I'd ever seen.
Ormiss stood on the pathway leading towards a sitting area with a woven silk-and-reed carpet, strewn with pillows and with trays of food laid across its center. His expression seemed hooded and smoldering while all of him seemed tense and expectant, like he might need to move to action. "Does it please you?"
"It's beautiful," I said softly. I walked along another pathway—the whole room being split along paths so that the open scrollwork could display the water lapping underneath it, to the vast open wall that overlooked the water garden. More scrollwork, white marble, shaped plants, flowers in purple, white, pink, fountains carved of more white stone and sand.
"That is not what I asked," he said, coming up behind me. "I asked if it pleased you."
"Is there a difference?" I asked, still breathless at the beauty of it.
"Yes."
"Does it matter?"
"Yes."
He wasn't touching me, but his voice did, and my skin prickled, and tingling built between my thighs, and my nipples hardened. I swallowed hard, confused.
"Let me explain," he whispered by my ear, not touching me with anything but the softness of his breath, "I began to build this place for you when I entered the Churn. Only male hippocamp enter the Churn. We meditate on the Trinket to know our consort before they come to us, and we must succeed in building the perfect nest for them when we find them. So, Theia—"
I shivered as he breathed my name.
"—does this nest please you? Have I known you before knowing you? I am especially proud of the garden. Each swirl, each carving, each plant, was chosen for the shape of you I felt in the trinket. Did I succeed, or do I still have much to learn?"
Now he was just fishing for compliments. Just wanted me to tell him he'd done a good job.
But he had, so I had to tell him, "Both."
"A good answer. Would you like to bathe first or eat first?"
"Bathe, I suppose," I whispered. I met his gaze out of the corner of my eye. I licked my lips. He watched my tongue.
Then he snapped away and strode down the pathway towards the main area of the room. "This way."
He led me to another room beyond the main room. Two hallways ran in straight lines past the main room and opened into another space strewn with more pillows, but with shelves lining the front and back walls filled with books (books under the ocean?), scrolls, and things that seemed to be Ormiss' work. This clearly seemed to be his space, from the colors and other clues I couldn't explain. I touched the trinket between my breasts, needling my fingers on the points.
"Do you see something of interest?" he asked, standing in the doorway of the corridor.
"I see you," I said.
He gave me that smug, secret smile before heading into the next chamber.
This next chamber branched off in three directions, with a large, low bed in the centermost square. Across the corridor was another area overlooking some other part of the twilight garden, and to my left, a large, inset basin filled with water and framed with lanterns that dangled from the intricately-carved ceiling woven with flowering vines. Soaps and vials and other bathing items sat on low driftwood-fashioned benches.
The walls had been carved and painted with scenes from history in expansive murals, while lanterns of many colors hanging from braided chains and decorated with tassels and trimmings looped across the ceiling.
I had literally never seen anything more beautiful.
Fearful, I looked over my shoulder at Ormiss, who stood by the large basin, that secret, smug smile on his lips. He had removed his necklaces and gathered up his hair with skilled twists of his hands. "How?"
"Your dragons do not have similar magic? They just take you to your nest with them and inform you you may decorate it as you see fit? How... lazy."
"No, that isn't what happened," I said. We'd never had the conversation at all, and it'd been pointless, since we'd headed out for the enclave as soon as we'd pieced together we were all consorts. I had no idea what their customs were. "You're the only consort who has had the time to think about these things."
"Only Asund has that excuse. How long have the others had their trinkets? How long did they search for you?"
His heavy spell cracked. I turned around and glared at him. "Oh really. When did you figure out your consort wasn't a hippocamp you just hadn't met yet?"
He did not reply.
"Exactly. You didn't go out on land looking for me. You didn't go looking for your cousin either, did you?"
"I was the one who lead the search for her," he said coldly.
"I'm sorry, that was... nasty for me to say."
"Your point is well taken. You're right. I always assumed my consort would be a hippocamp. Which puzzles me," he ran his fingers along some dried seaplants decorating a nearby wall, "because as I decorated this place, I never felt my magic telling me anything that made me think anyone but a hippocamp would be pleased. A unique hippocamp, as we generally favor, well, you've seen my aunt's side of the palace. It is more... decorated. Yours is quieter, twilight stillness and starlight and gentle water. Yet," he smiled at me, "you are not gentle. Not really. But I never thought to myself what hippocamp would want this? Yours is white stone and soft lines and gentle light and twilight colors."
He approached. I held my ground, uncertain, torn between the hot urge in my core and the way my body begged for his, and resistance. He touched my hair, running it between his fingers, and studying me. "But now that I see you, I understand, but I also do not. You will be asked by those who's business and interest it is to judge my skills how pleased you are by your nest."
"And I'm to tell them quite pleased?"
"You are to tell them the truth. And if the truth is it is perfect, then that is what you should tell them."
"I am not good at court games, Ormiss. I can't even read."
"Then they will never suspect you are choosing your words with less than unrefined honesty." He removed his hand and walked back to the basin. He began to unsash the cloth at his hips.
Great. Just great. I was going to have to be naked with him.
He tossed his cloths over a bench and, perfect ass to me, descended stone steps into the basin.
Holy shit, this was not fair. The gods had granted me five physical specimens for consorts. I could not be equal to this.
"Are you coming?" Ormiss inquired as he settled against one of the basin walls, stretching his arms across the stone, knowing damn well how good he looked.
I pushed my dress off my shoulders and stepped out of it. His expression didn't change, but seemed to smolder more. The water was milky-white and strewn with petals from the flowers above it, so I couldn't see if anything was going on, and once I was in the water, it'd hide my body.
Besides, I really needed the bath. How hot could I be all gunky and grimy?
Ormiss swirled one finger in the water. A little more steam rose off it.
"Now you're just showing off," I told him.
"I'm guessing how hot you like your bathwater. Hippocamp tend to be a bit colder than surface-dwellers."
"Don't make yourself uncomfortable on my account." The water temperature was perfect around my ankles and felt amazing as it slid up my calves past my thighs.
"Too late."
Well, I couldn't see his situation under the milky water. I quickly submerged myself up to my neck.
I breathed out as pure bliss pushed over me.
Then I remembered who I was with and moved, quickly, to the other side of the basin, careful to keep my breasts below the water line. A small arrangement of soap and a sponge waited for me.
Guilty memories came with that sponge. My crotch moistened slicker than the water, and Korr telling me how he'd done things to the sponge after I had...
Ormiss watched as I soaped myself. Some stray tendrils of his hair floated on the water's surface.
"Do you have to stare at me?" I asked, smoothing soap through my hair.
"Yes."
I dunked water out of my hair and backed up against the wall.
He slid through the water towards me. I pushed against the wall. He rose out of the water, not touching me except some of the water dripping on me as he bent over me. None of his body touched me, but I sensed him in the water, and I wanted him to touch me. My core begged for him.
My four consorts were chained below and I was in a nice bath with this guy, and my pussy dared to be horny and wet? And my nipples hard and aching for him?
He studied me intently, noting all my scars, and then said, "I will not touch you until you ask."
"What?" Color burned on my cheeks.
"Another one of our customs," he said, looking at my breasts rising in the water, then back at my eyes. "Males do not presume. Oh, we will make what we want known, court her, dance for her, tease her, taunt her, but we never touch until she invites us into her body."
My eyes widened. "...never?"
He nodded, then pushed backwards towards his side of the basin. He held up his hands, then gripped the walls again. "So you have nothing to fear from me, my love. Just the irritation of a pining, persistent hippocamp stallion, but I assure you, I am completely harmless. I can't promise I won't be very obnoxious."
"Well, you already are obnoxious," I said.
He smirked.
"So every time I want sex I have to ask?" I asked him, not that I planned on asking (but I really wanted to...) but I just wanted to wrap my head around this.
"The first time, yes, so I know without a doubt what you want," he said, "and you can bid me not touch you further, if I have ceased to amuse you. Then you will have to re-grant permission."
"You know the others don't have that custom, right?"
"I know the rules for land-dwellers are very different. I have lived on land, and I do know something about courting land-dwelling females into my bed. Although I felt like an uncouth barbarian at times, I knew I had to learn those dances. My cousin was going to marry the Lord-Raven. I was under no illusion this would often require me to be on land, and I would not want anyone to think hippocamp are fools."
He trailed his finger in the water again. "Now, dear consort, is there something your mouth would like to ask me? Because I already know another set of your lips are whispering please."
/******
Peeps....
Oh my. :: fans self :: Ormiss. GET ME A BUCKET OF ICE WATER REAL QUICK, YA'ALL. I don't know which one of them is my favorite.
LUCKY WE DON'T HAVE TO CHOOSE, BECAUSE THIS ISN'T THAT KIND OF STORY. (Wait, you thought she was going to choose? HAHAHAHAHAHA. Get out of here with that...)
Someone called me WHOLESOME. Nobody has ever called me wholesome before. See me? This is me squishing on the inside. I'M WHOLESOME.
That said, I gotta go now and write a few thousand words of another reverse harem involving a trio of dragons and their human consort while they try to save two planets and engage in entirely not-wholesome recreation involving a latex body suit... ;)
~Merry
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