Chapter 24: A Sassed Gnoll

Ereza felt her heart start to race as she and Lukka were selected not to ride in the sling. She had suspected that Lukka would be pressed into... Well, last night, she had heard the muffled noises that Lukka had made. She had also heard the dragon-sized swallows, though Goren had tried to shelter her from them as much as he could. She trusted her older brother's judgment on what her emotional reaction should be to this situation, and he had been completely calm about it. When Lukka was revealed to be perfectly fine just a little later, she was glad that she had gone along with him. Even so, Ereza was afraid of everything about this after seeing so much in Buetarn.

Kashira lowered her head to Ereza. "I have not had a lot of opportunity to speak or interact with you, but I want to reassure you that I am safe for you and that I will keep you safe."

Ereza could see that Lukka looked perturbed about the situation as it was. She supposed that the gnoll had only just gotten herself clean from... from what she suspected would come next. It made her mouth a little dry just thinking about it, even with just her guesses. But she nodded, and with a little crack in her voice that she wished wasn't there, she said, "I know! You came a long way to come and save us, and you realized quickly that Lukka was helping us, even though you seemed, um, annoyed, by how you met."

The dragon chuckled. "To be fair, your brother did tell me not to scare the gnoll by putting my face in there like that, but I was truly not expecting an entire bottle of mini-brew, or that it would work on me even if she had something like that. Dragon scales are a good, tough shield against most things."

Ez watched Lukka blush and look away, and she nodded. "It makes sense."

Kashira continued with a soft, pleasant, smiling look to her. "So, I am going to take you to Arieton. I will get each of you a collar; then, there can be no more gnolls trying to claim you, or anything else, and it will help ensure you are safe from anyone daring to put their hands on you again. We might stay the winter in Arieton. If it feels like somewhere that is good, we may build some things for ourselves. If we do not like it, though, we will try somewhere else. I know that your brother wants to paint, and we have had a live demonstration of Lukka's skills. Is there something you want to do?"

Ereza blinked. What I want to do? She felt... maybe shocked? Had anyone ever really asked her what she wanted? She did not have an answer. Her mother had been talking about her trying to marry one of the land-owning farmer's sons, but...

The dragon slowly leaned in and touched her nose to her shoulder and chest, and Ez brought up her hands to tentatively touch the dragon's face. When Kashira spoke, it sent warm breath fluttering through her mostly white fluff. "Why don't you think on it for a time, and then you can tell me when you know? We have plenty of time."

Her heart fluttered as she nodded. "Thank you... I am glad... it is something you are considering..." She remembered how Lukka had reacted to a similar statement of powerlessness, and she blushed and looked away. "Well, I mean, you don't have to, and so it is meaningful that you want to."

Kashira smiled. "I understand, and I appreciate how thoughtful you are trying to be. I am also glad you are putting in such an effort to trust me. I am aware I am planning to do things most would find frightening with you, and even so, you are acting very open to me."

Ez flushed. "It helps that you came with my brother to rescue us. I am sure if I had met you under other circumstances, I would struggle more with, um, things."

Kashira's smile softened. "Well, keep in mind that it is perfectly all right for you to struggle if you need to in the next moments." And with that, she put a big paw around Ereza and pulled her into her chest, holding her close with a paw. Ereza's heart began to race as the dragon looked at Lukka. "All right, my dear gnolly, you first. You don't want to be followed so I'm going to be sure you leave no tracks... and you are bigger than cutie Ereza here, so you go in first."

Lukka flattened her ears and stared at the dragon, who just grinned at her smugly. "You think this is my idea of the best way to travel?" But as Kashira just watched her, she groaned. "I kind of hate you, lizard."

Kashira chuckled, and Lukka gave up and got undressed, partially because Ereza was looking at her with anxious eyes. She really was a pretty woman, with those big brown eyes, the long, brown hair, and the white fluff... Lukka shook her head and huffed. This is going to be tremendously awkward as is because we're going to both be without clothes... crammed... she couldn't even finish the thought. "I should have kept my damn mouth shut."

Kashira, the ever smug, snickered, and Lukka sighed. Once she was undressed, she put the clothes in the bag that was offered to her... but when that huge dragon mouth opened up over her, she couldn't help but crouch down and want to put her hands up over her head.

It hadn't been a good idea. It let Kashira scoop her partially balled-up body into her mouth in one smooth gesture.

Lukka's heart raced as the wet tongue squished against her fluff, the teeth couldn't close completely, light flooded in from every direction, and the tongue dragged along her front and curled around her back feet. There was a moment where the dragon seemed to definitely tease her, pressing with her tongue on her legs as if to make her ball up further.

The sweet, magic scent the dragon naturally had filled her nose, and she heard the loud, wet flexing of tongue muscle and awaiting throat drown out anything else she could have been hearing.

Then the dragon swallowed, and Lukka felt her head and shoulders push into that pillowy set of muscles just before the throat, and then she was pulled straight.

Like last time, the throat was tight; no part of her was left uncompressed by it, and her breasts dragged along the slick walls of it, shifting in slightly different directions from one another in a squeeze that was maddening because it was almost sensual. Almost, except that it awoke nearly every instinct and thought within her to terror. She could no longer see, but she could hear the dragon's heart beating, her lungs, and somewhere, faintly, her stomach groaning and gurgling.

There was that sharp squeezing press that shoved her to one side, and down she slipped, into the hoard belly she had only escaped for an hour at best. Two at most.

"Damn it," she complained, panting in the hot air now that she could breathe again. She felt all too familiar with the way the soft flesh was slick beneath her fingers, and the way the saliva on her fur blended with the damp of this space. The heartbeat felt like it was right above her head, and the heat, compared to outside, was nearly oppressive.

"All settled in, gnolly?"

"Shut up!" she said, and then she blushed harder. Maybe, just the smallest, tiniest bit, she was feeling maybe a lot defensive about this being her idea.

The dragon chuckled and flexed her belly, squishing her, and Lukka flailed until it got too tight to do so. When she stopped, it held; smothering seconds passed, and Lukka panted when it released. She huffed.

"All right, Lukka, I am going to add Ereza next, and you need to make sure that she ends up next to or on top of you, all right? I can't adjust your position; you will need to do it yourselves, and I am relying on you to hold each other in a way that doesn't hurt either of you when I do things like take off or land, yes?"

It was such a different tone after all that deliberate teasing of her about this being her idea that Lukka felt all kinds of blushes rushing to her cheeks about it. "Yeah, I got it," she said, trying not to think too many dumb thoughts at once.

Goren tried not to let anything show on his face when he heard the loud gulping that meant Lukka had been hoarded. He wanted to protest the idea of having Ereza join her, but then... he couldn't bear the idea of his jealousy being noticed, or even the idea that he might have to admit that he would prefer it if Kashira didn't do this to anyone else. He didn't want to be teased to death, after all.

Kashira was all grins about the sassing of and getting sassed by the gnoll. She is so completely adorable. I really hope that this will work out to be an excellent second chance for the darling. Truthfully, she looked forward to things settling down and not juggling four little cuties at the same time. She felt like her original and most precious bunbun was getting lost in the shuffle...

The sooner to Arieton, the sooner we can look to settle down, at least until the snow melts. There are nicer areas in town, or we can set up outside of it for a bit, where they won't be as exposed to the collars coming out of the Exotic Exchange. We can make this work for certain.

She lowered her head to Ereza. "All right, cutie, you're next. I want your clothes to be dry when I next let you out, so I also want you to take them off. Everything will be all right, yeah? I'll take care of you."

The poor, sweet thing managed to nod at her, even as she shivered and all her hair stood on end along her body.