Dawn had broken, and the sun had traveled across the sky, but now it was falling, and it would soon paint the land red with the color of dusk. The weight of night was pulling down on the fiery yellow sphere, but I felt a weight off my own shoulder. My job was now done; the assassin didn't have the courage to take this journey on her own, so I had to convince her just as I did with the others who objected to the whole enterprise, but in the end I'd call it a success. Just as a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Minte's presence was much lighter as well; you couldn't tell by looking, but you could feel it.

 

Now that my primary objective was complete, I was free to move onto secondary matters. Or so I thought.

 

     “This will probably be the last time you have to visit your home town... Don't you have anything else to see? Anyone else to meet?”

 

I turn around and face the cloaked mantis standing behind me. She looks up at me through the shadows cast by her hood and stares at me with her stoney indigo eyes. I scratched the back of my head in vexation, and my eyes find their way upward toward the sky. Chills run down my body as a greater shadow covers the market square. Clouds were pulling over the city like a blanket, and they were not the snowy clouds of the morning but grey and stormy. The market would probably close early, and the roads and woods would be muddy and unsuitable for walking upon.

 

     “I'm serious,” I said, trying to sound sterner. “I'm just doing some shopping; grabbing some supplies in town before I meet back up with my friends... If I had the chance but didn't bring back some choice dried meat... Rose would never let me hear the end of it...”

 

I look back down, but the girl hadn't budged. The two of us standing in the middle of the street with people moving by and around us stood out, and I became increasingly aware of their stares.

 

     “Alright, have it your way,” I resigned and threw my hands up into the air. “I'm the one who said it after all. I can't tell you what to.”

 

I visited shop after shop, but the shadow of the girl never left me. Every time I looked behind me I saw her no further than a couple footsteps behind me. I could feel her presence like a pang in the back of my head that I couldn't shake. An uncomfortable feeling that something lay just behind your head and could touch you at any moment, but never did. My eyes were constantly drawn to what seemed like a nervous tic, her hands reaching up for her neck.

 

     “Hey, good sir!” A man's voice calls out from the market din. “You have the airs of a man who can appreciate the finer wares of this market. Here I have the finest silks from the four corners of the empire. Ingenious and luxurious products of the Master Ceerly himself.”

 

With that one name, he had my attention. The shady looking merchant with a silly beret like hat on his head and small eyes waved his hands over a collection folded silks of all colors. I noticed Minte's attention was for once not on me but on some silly puppet shows on the other side of the market. Maybe she was too shy to join them?... No matter.

 

I picked up one of the red silks rolls, thin and not terribly long. It wasn't anything more than a ribbon. It was a very fine piece, but it was the smallest out of all them by far.

 

     “That little guy costs only twenty gold.”

 

That sounds outrageous even to me.

 

     “Or, I have these others, five gold.” He says, patting down the other folded silks.

 

I smelled a rat. I took the two ends of the ribbon and pulled on them. Flexible, tough as steel. Like spider silk. The merchant protested when I did so, but he couldn't stop me when I grabbed on his other silks and did the same, only for it to rip and tear with ease. His face went wide with shock, then rage, but before he could speak, I had some words of my own.

 

     “You know, I actually know Ceerly.”

 

His anger abated then died. It was replaced with apprehension.

 

     “I've seen a lot of his silks. This red one here seems to be one... But these others...” I mused.

 

They were not spider silk. They were faulty and cheap knockoffs.

 

     “W-well-” The merchant blustered.

 

“Doing business by putting a real work of Ceerly as very expensive bait and then switch... You're not trying to sell cheap knock offs, are you?”

 

     “Of course not, I-... How about a discount?”

 

I turn my head to look down the street and spot some armored men patrolling the market, “Oh, hey. I better ask the guards what they think of-”

 

     “Big discount!” He screams, getting the attention of some passersby who look as they continue on.

 

I hold up the red one, the real one and speak clearly, “Two gold for this one.”

 

     “That's! I-....” He goes silent then grumbles angrily before reaching his hand out.

 

I pass over the two coins, pocket the silk and walk away. Ceerly has most likely passed away by now. The last thing this world needs is his memory and hard work being trampled upon like that. Especially when the world hears of his passing and guys like this start charging twice as much.

 

When I turned around, the mantis was gone. Perhaps she had finally remembered something she had to do, or maybe she had finally decided to move on? I shrugged my shoulders and felt a drop of water on my face. It seems the clouds would break in under an hour, and the grey clouds are starting to gather and turn black. I was already weighed down with satchels slung over my shoulder filled with tools and meat, so I decided I'd have to spend the night in town rather than rough it outside.

 

Finding inns was easy. Getting an open room at one that looked like the place was cleaned regularly was hard. Finally, I got a key for a nice bed and breakfast looking establishment and lumbered my way up to the second floor and into the first room on the right. The door swung shut behind me; I dropped everything I was carrying on the floor with a thud and slipped out of my cloak which was already quite damp. A hand reached from behind my right side, and I reflexively let it take hold of my cloak.

 

     “Thanks...”

 

Wait a second.

 

I turned around, and Minte was standing there looking up at me with a blank expression on her face as she held my cloak.

 

     “Holy shi-!” I screamed and nearly fell over backwards when I jumped from the spot. “Where the hell did- how did you-... No. Never mind.”

 

What did she want now? I thought she might have finally gone her own way after stalking me for nearly a week... And no doubt tracking me down for sometime before we met. Either she knew somehow where I was going, or she was actually behind me the whole time so she never actually left. Both possibilities scared me out of my wits.

 

     “If you were looking for a place to stay, and you were going to follow me, I would have just gotten a bigger room.”

 

Her slightly damp cloak was already hung over the back of the one chair by the room's lone window. I looked back to the girl standing by the door, motionless and emotionless as ever. Except when I looked at her this second time she broke eye contact and looked away off to the side. Her hand came up and scratched her neck, just like she had been doing all day. Maybe she had been doing it earlier too...

 

There were scratch marks from her fingers, but there were also scars in the tissues around her neck. It had been encased in super tight leather for years. I heard she had ripped the skin tight collar off with her bare hands. It was a rather ugly sight to behold. Which is odd, because these monsters are always anything but. All as if by design. I fished the red ribbon out from my pocket.

 

     “I don't know if it hurts or you're just self conscious about it.... But here. Take this.” I say as I hold the ribbon out to the girl.

 

She looks back over in my direction and then down at the ribbon in my hand. Her delicate gloved hand reaches out. I very nearly pull back when I look further up her arm and see the scythe still attached to her wrist, folded back against her forearm. My flinch causes her to stop and flinch as well, but I hold steady, and she eventually, after a moment of hesitation, reaches out and pulls the ribbon from my grip.

 

I walked over to the table by the window and grabbed a vase full of flowers. I yanked them out, laid them back on the table and dipped my thumb into the vase, soaking it in water. I then turned back and walked up to the mantis who was still staring blankly at the ribbon in her hand.

 

     “You also don't have to worry about what it looked like back there. You might not show it; but believe me, I can feel it... Close your eyes.”

 

She looked up at me, didn't mutter a word, but then did as I asked. I took my wet thumb and rubbed it under her eye. Then I dabbed my thumb back into the vase and rubbed my thumb under her other eye. After going back and doing each once more I stepped back. She opened her eyes, then raised one hand to her face and dabbed her fingers against the water flowing down her cheeks.

 

“That's what you wanted to do but couldn't, right?” I said gently with a smile.

 

I turned around, picked up my bought goods off the floor and let them rest under the table. I put the flowers back in the vase and set it all back as it was before. But when I turned around, I saw Minte standing as she typically is but with the red ribbon tied in a four leafed bow tie around her neck. It was wide enough to cover the scars left behind by the collar, but I was more impressed that she managed that all in less than ten seconds while I wasn't looking. I continued looking up, and our eyes met again, only I noticed her stoney face had a tinge of red blush to her cheeks. I felt my heart thump, and I looked away and upward on instinct. It was then I noticed her antennae.

 

They wiggled and squirmed like creatures of their own. Each as thin as a pinky finger but at least forty centimeters in length. While her face was stoic as always, they moved freely rubbing against one another like the knees of an embarrassed school girl. When I looked back down, I noticed her eyes were also darting side to side nervously.

 

     “W-well-” I said, my voice cracking a bit. “I've got a bit of walking tomorrow. Better get some rest.”

 

I turned around and tried to make a dash for the bed, but I felt a weight press up against my back. Two small hands grabbed hold of my leather jerkin, and I felt the side of the girl's face press up against my back just below the neck, between my shoulder blades. I came to a stop, not just because I froze on the spot, but because she was also holding me back. It was such a delicate looking embrace, but she was a monster after all.

 

     “Uh, Minte?”

 

Her antennae started poking my back like fingers. They felt their way up my shoulders and then started tapping the back of neck. Sometimes they poked; other times they slid over my skin. Their pressure felt like fingers, but the texture was entirely unlike human skin. It was smooth chitin, segmented into hundreds of parts, each groove between the chitin gave it a feeling like the grooves between the rings of a tree. Every time they tapped me; I felt a shiver; a cold finger running slowly down my spine. I spun around on the spot to face the girl.

 

     “Hold on a-”

 

The feelers didn't stop. They were no longer tapping and tracing over my back and neck but now moved onto my cheeks, nose and chin. Her hands grabbed hold of the two halves of my jerkin, her legs locked in position and she held me steady to the spot. My eyes twitched and flinched as they continued to explore my face. I thought at any moment she might accidentally poke one of my eyes out with one of them, but she never did. They seem to move as though their goal was to map out my entire face, but they pulled back suddenly and fussed with one another. I look down and see the mantis' face blush even redder than before, even though her expression hasn't changed at all. One of her feelers then taps me on the lip and then pulls back quickly. She lets out a sigh from her mouth, the first sound she's made ever since sneaking into my room.

 

That sigh was spoken in a universal language; I knew all too well. This situation was about to get out of hand; the girl who was usually so in control was slipping, and I had to do something. Her antennae, after their initial retreat, came back and started poking against my lips again. Then they started rubbing and tracing back and forth along them as well.

 

     “Minte, sto-”

 

I reached out with one hand and grabbed hold of one antenna; it was a bad decision. It wasn't just a sigh that escaped through her nose this time; it was a full blown moan she stifled with her pursed lips. Her knees gave out, and she fell to the floor. I had to bend down with her so I wouldn't end up holding her up by her feeler that was squirming like mad in my grip. When I came to my senses, I let go and held onto the girl by her shoulders. She was shaking.

 

     “Whoa- Are you alright. Sorry, I didn't mean to-”

 

She was breathing heavily. Her hands let go of my jacket and moved over to her breast. She cupped one hand over the other and then pressed down on her chest, right over her heart. The elastic fabric of her bodysuit gave way, and the springy flesh of her modest chest squished underneath. Even through the chitinous armor covering her shoulder, I could feel heat radiating out of her. Monstrous instincts were taking over, and she looked up at me; her face stoney, but her eyes quivering. A moist and thin trial of drool escaped from the corner of her tight lipped mouth. Hot and heavy breaths escaped from her nose, and her cheeks were burning red.

 

Her hands moved away from her chest, and she slipped them underneath her chitinous shoulder pads to slip them off. The light armor that was covering her shoulders, breasts and sides of her waist dropped off and clattered to the floor in two pieces beside her. She suddenly looked far thinner and far more vulnerable. I barely noticed the scythes still attached to her arms, but her second mantid abdomen rising up from behind her, twitching in rhythm with her body, was impossible to miss. The membranes covering her insect wings which lay underneath squirmed and slid over top and against one another. The yellow sheen of her large compound eyes shimmied, and I felt the hundred fold compound eyes focus entirely on me, and two smaller ones hidden underneath her hair line on her forehead did the same.

 

With the armor no longer in the way, she pressed herself closer to me. Her forcefulness bowled me over onto my back as she now weighed down on me, rubbing her body on top of mine as though she were trying to bury herself. She was light as a feather, but she still had monstrous strength from somewhere. Her muscles were hydraulic like an insect's; it was easy for her to exert a tremendous amount of strength. Slow, but inevitable. Patient, but able to let loose and strike quickly with a burst of energy. I could feel two hard nubs at the tips of her breasts underneath her suit rub against my stomach. Her cheek rubbed against my chest and her feelers continued to poke and prod my face, seeking out my lips especially.

 

Minte finally lifted her weight off me and sat up straight, but her thighs pinched around my hips and held me to the ground. Her hands reached out for the tattered hem of her body suit that was like a skirt, and she started to slowly peel it up. It was skin tight and stuck with the sweat already covering her body. Another skin tight bit of elastic fabric covered flesh around her hips like a pair of low back panties. Slowly, her stomach, navel, ribs and then breasts were exposed to the air. Pale white with a pinkish hue, her human skin was only marred with the chitinous vambraces on her forearms with attached blades and the shinguard on each leg. Behind her, the mantid abdomen seemed ready to let fly its wings. It arched back and stood fully upright behind her back. As she pulled the suit over her head, the long sleeves and gloves covering her arms and hands slid off along with it, then she tossed it all aside. Only the bright red ribbon remained around her neck.

 

Her face was beet red, and she had trouble keeping eye contact; the same went for me. I was helpless to escape, but at the same time the smooth, unblemished and white skin of her stomach temped me. I unconsciously reached out and laid my hands on her hips and traced them up the curves of her waist. My hands came so close together, if they were twice the size, I might be able to touch my fingers together behind her near waspish waist. She sighed gently as my hands moved across her stomach and over her navel. When she leaned back down on top of me, my hands cupped her breasts, each B-cup fit perfectly in the palms of my hands.

 

Despite her erotic movements and moans and the provocative exploration of her antennae, I felt a tautness in her muscles. Her face was likewise just as tense and had barely changed at all from her usual blank expression. I felt a weight beyond just that of the girl sitting on top of me. The same pressure I felt coming from the girl over the past several days had returned. Something was bothering and tormenting her. There was still some scar present. One I just hadn't been able to see until now. My mind was getting hazy, but I forced myself to think and get beyond my libido which was quickly taking control of my senses.

 

Then it hit me. From memories long past. Another type of abuse that the girl had suffered through. Those memories were no doubt roiling inside her head right now. Perhaps she felt just as I did. I don't know why this keeps happening to me, I'd never consider myself a player, but I felt sincere feelings being thrust upon me by this girl, and I had no power to stop them. Something then eroded away my will to resist, and it eventually mingled with my own. I suppose that's just natural, being an animal and all that, but this girl was dealing with something even more powerful. The lust of her monstrous instincts were driving her on, but her past met it in a head on collision; the result was ugly.

 

I moved my hands back down her body and reached for the line of her blackish-green skintight panties, but her hands stopped me. It was just as I expected. Her body was being pulled in two directions just like her mind. What comes after all this is something that she's only ever associated with pain, humiliation, powerlessness and suffering. This... This was the last scar.

 

A man has to do, what a man has to do. A man that made a promise and a conviction to see something through, has to see it through.

 

My hands moved away from the line; and instead, I slipped them behind and grabbed hold of her buttocks in both my hands. My hands sunk into the flesh as I pulled her further up. She moaned quietly with each caress. I moved further to her thighs and massaged them gently. I worked all around her lower half and tried to work my way closer and closer; but every time I got to the line, it was like a barrier, and her mind rejected me, and her body pushed and pulled my hands away. She was starting to become distressed. The violent swings between her eroticism and brief moments of panic were taking their toll on her.

 

Her tenseness was getting worse and worse as she started to squirm. I too was getting desperate. I didn't know what would happen when these two tectonic forces in her heart came to a breaking point. The more fierce and forceful I got, the worse it got, so I forced myself to move slow again. My hands moved back to her buttocks, and I curled my fingers inward between the crack to cup them fully in my hands. Her mantid abdomen bounced up and down on top of my hands as my two index fingers both touched upon something, then it went rigid and stood straight up. Minte's whole body went rigid; and as I looked up at her face, her eyes actually widened in surprise. It wasn't an expression of fear and revulsion; it was one of innocent surprise.

 

I went on the offensive.

 

Reaching for the edge of the skin tight fabric, I sunk my left hand in and grabbed hold of it. I pulled it off to the side and then traced my right hand down the smooth silk crack until I reached a puckered nub of flesh. When my finger touched it, Minte's body jolted again. My index finger was coated in sweat, and I didn't hesitate in my attack as I plunged it inside. Her flesh squeezed down tightly around the base of my finger, and I felt spongy flesh in every direction while I curled my finger and swirled it around. I didn't know what I was doing, or where I was going, but I trusted what I was seeing on Minte's face. Her pursed lips opened; she panted through her open mouth as her face slackened after the initial shock had let up. Her eyes glistened, were wet and shimmered. I dared to step it up.

 

My index finger swirled around, and I slipped in my middle finger. With two fingers together I pulled them back, then thrust them forward again. The mantis arced her back and grit her teeth but started panting harder. She bent back like a bow; but when the tension released, she was hanging over me and staring into my eyes with her hazy, wet and unfocused eyes. The further I went, and more aggressive I became the wetter my fingers got. A pool of lubricant began to stain her underwear from the front to the back, and her sphincter began to relax. It was then I knew the stage was finally set.

 

I pulled my fingers free; and while she was still stunned and out of it, I fumbled with my jean zipper and flap of my underwear. I had long been at full attention and nearly at the point of bursting. I had trouble trying to jimmy, tuck and pull my member to freedom, but I finally released it from its cage. There was a quiet slap as my raging dick smacked against her lower cheeks, and I tried to steer and point it in the right direction. Minte's face was coming back to its senses at about the same time the tip of my glans, with guidance from my hands, found its way back to her entrance. It was already loose and ready, so it only took one daring plunge. My glans disappeared into her backside with ease. Minte let out a long erotic moan.

 

The pressure was unlike anything I expected. The incredibly tight muscle that was relaxed just a moment ago protested against the intrusion and pushed to try expelling it. It gripped hard on my most sensitive part just below the ridge of the glans, and I very nearly lost it all together, but I wasn't done yet. I grabbed hold of her butt with my hands and pulled her backwards while my hip pushed upward. Even though her weight was pulled down on me, her body still tried to push me away. I felt my cock bend as it explored the unknown depths and molded it into its shape. Minte's body lost all its strength and went limp; her body falling on top of mine. Along with her strength, her anus lost its resistance, and the rest of my penis slid in all the way to the base.

 

She was laying on top of me, her hands desperately seeking something to hold onto, found my shoulders which she squeezed tightly. The antennae on top of her head wildly sought me as well and started to caress my face and poke my lips, like it were a kiss to her. Her face buried into my chest and slid over my bandages which became increasingly wet with every drop of sweat burst out from underneath or rubbed off on me from Minte. The tightness around my base felt crushing. It was almost as if it would chop it off, but I pulled her body back with my hands cupped tightly on her ass and went with the flow of resistance from her body. Then I thrust up with my hips and pulled her back with me and started moving slowly like a piston.

 

Every time I moved, I felt my cock twist unnaturally, but every nerve was being stimulated from the surface to my core. Soon Minte couldn't control herself. Her quiet whimpers became moans; and when I looked down, and she looked up at me, her face was quickly becoming a mess. Her body twitched, and it took me by surprise when something tried to explode very suddenly from my loins. But the tightness around my base cause the pulse traveling down my member to come to a sudden stop. I felt a wave of pleasure and electricity run amok in my loins, but it was dry.

 

It drove me nuts.

 

Against my better judgement, I doubled and then doubled again my movements. My ejaculation had been denied, and I felt a beast deep down inside rebel. What had been denied met with reinforcements as my scrotum tucked up and prepared to fire again. Minte's body began to slacken more and more, and it would not stop me a second time as I moved freely, in and out, at my leisure. Her face was a complete mess now. The calm, cold and stoic expression on her face had been erased. She couldn't even keep her tongue inside her mouth, and drool mixed with the sweat pooling on my chest. While quiet erotic moans escaped from her lips, I grunted bestially, pounding away at her. A slapping sound echoed off the walls of the inn and our bodies pounding against the floor.

 

A second pulse came up from my core, muscles in my waist quivered, my toes curled, my teeth grit and my body tensed as I slammed her whole body backward on my rod one last time. Pushing myself as deep as I could go, I felt an explosion from my loins that could not be stopped. Pulse after pulse, throb after throb as I made quick short piston motions still as deep as her body would let me be.

 

Minte went wild in my embrace; the moan she was smothering could not be held back any longer. Her throat let out a sweet lyrical scream of pleasure, and her back arced as though she were struck by lightning. The inside of her rectum was being painted white. I emptied everything I had then pulled myself free with a 'pop'. My erect member stood tall between her cheeks while her body quivered, and my spunk oozed out freely as her anus puckered and tried to compose itself.

 

Her body quivered and shook, her face equal parts overtaken by lust and an expression of wonder. Her eyes were wide as her mind was racing, trying to understand what she was experiencing.

 

     I tentatively asked, “Minte, was that the first time you-?” A couple words were one too many, and I lost my voice.

 

My body went limp on the floor; her body did the same on top of me. I breathed heavily to catch my breath, but in the warm afterglow, with the sound of rain pitter-pattering against the glass window, I became aware of the cold hard floor. I scooted backward, sat upright and pressed my back against the side of the bed. I was still trying to catch my breath when two flashes of green blazed past my face. There were two thuds following a loud slicing sound. My body froze on instinct.

 

Beside my head, two scythes embedded themselves deep into the bed behind me. Straw and bird down seeped from the wounds like blood, and I slowly turned my head, terrified, toward the blades' owner. Minte's hands pushed off the floor, her blades swiveled freely on the points at her wrists. They hadn't even locked into place when the assassin slowly raised her lust ridden face at me. She looked back down, and I followed her gaze to my still erect penis. It still felt tender and sensitive to the cold air, and it was slightly limp, but it was alive and kicking, and the girl stared at in longingly.

 

I sensed danger, but razor sharp blades were on each side of my head. My shoulders would catch on them if I stood up, so I sat there, still as helpless as before. Her body crawled across the short distance that separated the two of us, her blades still stuck in the bed, and she dropped down on top of me. Her knees pinched against my waist again, and she sat her butt down on my thighs. A trail of white was still oozing out from her when she moved her hands over her abdomen and caressed it gently.

 

     “...Warm,” She said with a bit of a slur.

 

My own thighs were soon drenched. Her womanhood was flowing like a broken faucet, and a pungent and sweet feminine scent brimming with pheromones wafted into my nose. Terror washed away, and my senses became fuzzy. The tenseness of her body seemed to be gone, but too much medicine can be a poison. She was out of control, but my body had already stopped listening to me.

 

I looked at her once again, and she was smiling. It was a wry smile, there were traces of a familiar one to it, but it was lewd as well. It was missing every trapping of the innocence it only briefly reminded me of. My unfocused gaze was interrupted by my eyes flinching again as her antennae continued to poke and caress my face. One would greedily touch and caress my lip before the other one, as if with a separate mind of its own, pushed the other aside to take its place. Then it was as if they coiled, pushed and shoved one another in a fight. In my stupor, when one slipped between my teeth, my slack jaw closed shut gently and caught one of them in my teeth. She reacted as if she had stuck it into an electrical socket. Her body convulsed, and her hands hugged herself tightly as she squirmed on top of me.

 

I released the feeler from my teeth, and it retreated, but only to get the hell out of the way of Minte's face which can barreling forward. Our faces pressed together, connected at the lips, but that wasn't enough for long. Her hands grabbed hold of my cheeks, and her tongue plunged forward to pin down and twirl around my own. I returned the gesture, and we were soon both greedily trying to pull one another closer. We only pulled away when we both almost ran out of breath.

 

Minte's hands reached out for my shoulders, and she lifted her weight off me for just a moment before she dropped back down. It happened without a word of warning, but a different wet and tight feeling enveloped my penis. Instead of pushing me away, it pulled me in and refused to let go. I felt the muscles and vaginal walls tighten and coil around me. She was so wet and loose from the bout before that she slid back all the way to my base in a single motion. A long sigh escaped her lips, and her head nearly titled backward completely before rebounding so that her eyes could look right at me.

 

Her blades were still stuck in the bed, her hands were on my shoulders, so she lifted up with her legs to slide up and down my shaft. She moved slowly, much slower than before, but I was recovering quickly from her erotic display. I took the lead by sliding my shaft through my middle two fingers on my right hand, and I rested my thumb on her exposed and flushed clitoris. Another shock hit her hard. She must have felt as though she were going to float away, so her legs swept out and wrapped around my back. She held on so tightly that I didn't even feel her weight. Rocking my hips back and forth on the floor, I felt myself slip in and out. Her arms resting on my shoulder were not enough so she wrapped them around my neck and dug her fingers into my back to hold on as I continued to rock back and forth.

 

I felt her feelers comb through my hair as she rested her chin on my shoulder. My hips rocked back and forth faster and faster, and her whole body rose and fell with each thrust. The tightness I felt was far more orthodox, but it felt even hotter and more intense. Maybe it was because I was still so sensitive? It could have been because of the nature of her genitals. Either way, my exhaustion from before was but a distant memory as I was spurring myself closer and closer to letting loose another deluge of white. My pants became grunts; her sighs and moans reached the volume of screams of ecstasy. With my free hand, I had to cover her mouth so that the other people inside the inn wouldn't hear her. Minte's tongue snaked out from her mouth to coil and lick around my fingers when I did so.

 

Minte's hips were rocking back and forth in rhythm with my own. Every pulse and twitch in my nether regions started to match in harmony with the quivers within her pussy; and like waves, it all started to increase in intensity. She held tighter and tighter as I moved faster and faster until I finally reached the limit of my second wind. Like a backed up fire hose, a undulation through my member carried my seed, which fired like buckshot, inside Minte.

 

The heat already stirring inside her could prepare neither her nor me for what overwhelmed us both. I do not know where it all came from, but as Minte sucked and pulled on me like a vacuum, I didn't fail to deliver. She let out one last loud, muffled scream of ecstasy and nearly bit my fingers while doing so. I likewise took a deep breath and tried to control my want to let out a loud moan as pleasure ravaged my body. Like a kettle blowing steam, Minte's own body found an outlet; the membranes covering her wings flew wide open, and her two pairs of insect wings beat with a loud hum. A rush of wind pinned both of us to the ground as objects around the room were knocked over by the vibrating of her wings. When her muffled scream ended, so too did the rush of her wings which lazily went limp. Her abdomen membranes couldn't muster the strength to fold all back into place. Her beautiful glistening wings limped on the floor.

 

It felt like pieces of me were flowing in her; and soon, there wasn't enough room in her vagina or womb to accept me. A pool of white seeped out from where my penis and her labia met and started to pool on the floor. We had exhausted ourselves so much that we could not even fight gravity. Minte's blades folded back onto her forearms with a snick, and then we collapsed in a heap on the floor.

 

I would have preferred a night's rest on a bed.... But... Oh well... With the mantis still wrapped around me, we both drifted away with the melancholic sound of rain applauding against the window pane.

 

***

 

The salamander sits in a foul mood next to the fire and pokes at it with a stick. Embers pop and fly out, many drift their way onto her, but it doesn't bother or affect her at all. She keeps looking toward the sky and watches the sun creep closer and closer to the horizon between the trees of the forest. It would be dusk soon. The fire raging on her tail has begun to outshine the camp fire as she grows more irate.

 

     “He said he'd be back by now,” She pouts.

 

An anubis sits with her legs crossed atop a log near the campfire. Her eyes are closed, and a golden staff balances on top of two outstretched paws. She does not stir from her meditation, but she answers the smouldering lizard.

 

     “Tis near dusk. Not dusk nor after.”

 

Leaning against a tree, some distance from the campfire, is a tall wyvern. With one wing in a sling and the other folded on top of it, she loiters in the shadows, purposefully, all in an effort to create an atmosphere to her liking. She speaks as well.

 

     “Believe in Master. No man with that much conviction on his face when he left can fail!” She says while trying to flex and clench the talons on her uninjured wing like a fist.

 

The Thorn Knight sighs and readies to pout again for the umpteenth time, but her tail kicks up suddenly, and her nose sniffs the air greedily. She leaps to her feet and turns her head into the northern woods.

 

     “Husband!” She shouts with glee.

 

Her crocodile eyes spot a man emerging from the woods in the exact direction she smelled him first. She runs toward him at full speed but suddenly comes to a halt in mid sprint. The man, Laven, limps and hobbles his was out of the brush but only because of something weighing him down. With arms wrapped around her husband's right arm, the assassin clings to him like a lover. So close that it makes it difficult for him to walk at all. Rose's jaw hangs slackened, she points her claw at the mantis and screams at her.

 

     “Hey! What do you think you're doing!”

 

     “No, Rose. Wait, calm down! I can explain-” Laven shouts and pleads as he waves his free hand wildly.

 

But she's not even addressing Laven, her ire is pointed directly at the assassin.

 

The anubis and wyvern had also perked up at the first sign of Laven; their emotions no less than that of Rose's, but their actions were by far more restrained. When they spot the assassin clinging to Laven's arm, their faces likewise slacken with surprise. Rose, however, is far less constrained and stomps her way up to Laven and tries to stare down the mantis. Her usual flightiness and shyness which caused her to flee  was not present, instead she merely hid behind Laven. Her emotionless face doesn't even flinch under the pressure of the Thorn Knight, while she ducks behind him. It starts to look like a game, as they move their faces in front and behind Laven in pursuit and fleeing of one another.

 

Shoshanah lets out a deep sigh, “I calculated that such a result was always possibility. There was always such a risk...” She cradles her face in the palm of her paw and mutters under her breath. “But Pharaoh, did you genuinely even attempt to avert this conclusion?”

 

The wyvern merely laughs jovially at the scene, oblivious and completely innocent of any deeper meaning to it. Rose seizes Laven by his left arm and clings to him just as closely. She then starts to pull him in her direction. Minte has none of it and stands her ground, resisting the salamander's pulls. The assassin presses her body even closer against Laven. This only infuriates Rose even more. Her tail erupts with the fires of jealously, and she presses in so close to Laven that his arm gets caught between her cleavage.

 

Poor Laven fears for his life and his arms that might tear off if the tug of war continues, so he desperately pleads for calm. One girl refuses to calm down; the other is silent but refuses to give up. Out of sight of everyone's eyes, the mantis's eyes are cast downward as she rocks back and forth while Laven is pulled to and fro. A thin and barely noticeable smile curls on her otherwise emotionless face. The antennae atop her head meet, curl inward at the tips, touch their base and bulge out at the middle.