Chapter 171 - One Hundred And Seventy-One: The Wood's Edge

Celine looked up and thanked me for helping her down. She wasn't even going to ask to be fed. At this rate it would be more dangerous to leave her in that state than it would be to be preoccupied feeding her for a while.

We were going to stay here until the others came for us, if we were found by the rest of the harpies there was little that the three of us would be able to do other than run away. Celine would struggle to do even that right now.

I had to help her. Enna might think it was a little strange, but I needed to ask her to keep a lookout. I had no choice. She already looked a little on edge, peering into the dark forest.

I made my way to where she was standing. "Can I ask you a favour?"

She spun round and shrugged. "A favour? I suppose that depends on what it is."

"Can you take watch?"

"I can if you want, but what are you doing? You can't be considering going to sleep already. Even with a watch, that isn't a good idea right now."

"No not that…" I winced. "I need to feed Celine, so I'm going to be occupied for a while."

"Feed Celine? I suppose she is a succubus, but should a master be feeding his servant like that. Shouldn't she be out hunting for food?"

"Yeah, she can't, and we have an arrangement. It's another long story."

"I won't enquire any further. Very well, I'll keep watch. Just try to keep it short and try not to get too distracted. There's no telling if we'll need to make a run for it."

"I will."

Enna took a few steps deep into the wood, turning her back on us as she kept lookout. That conversation turned out to be easier than I had thought. I suppose she could sympathise. I walked back to the tree where Celine was sat resting.

She looked up as she heard me approach. "What was that all about?"

"I was just checking she would keep an eye on things for me while we take care of things here."

"Master?"

"You need to feed."

She shook her head. "I was supposed to wait until we meet up with the rest of the group. The others, they said…"

I loosened my belt. "I'm telling you it's okay to do it now."

She shuffled back weakly. "But…"

"Look, we'll be quick. Before the others get here. They'll never know and even if they did, this is my decision."

"Okay then."

She didn't look entirely sure. I had to wonder exactly what the others had said to her, it seems they had been firm about it. She tentatively undid my fly and reached inside. The as soon as my dick was in her hand, all her reticence disappeared.

She leant over and hungrily started sucking away. Ah it felt good, even if I was only doing this because she needed it. I leant back against the tree and ran my fingers through her hair while she took her fill. I had completely lost track of our surroundings.

Then Enna called out. "There's someone out there!"

I turned my head to the direction of the shout just in time to see a figure emerging from the darkness. As they drew closer, I could make out more than just their outline.

The approaching figure spoke. "You've good eyesight for a harpy!"

They stepped out of the shadows and into the dim moonlight that shone through the gaps in the thinner trees here.

It was Altria and she already had her bow trained on Enna. "Are you the one that is helping Theo?"

Enna lifted her hands up in the air. "I am! I'm on your side, please don't shoot!"

I called out from the edge of the wood. "Altria! She's a friend!"

Altria spun her head in my direction, her bow still trained on Enna and then she saw us. Celine was still busily getting her fill of my energy.

She almost immediately dropped her guard and broke into a fit a laughter. "Why didn't I guess that's what you would be doing?"

"I… She needed to feed. It was my idea. I wasn't going to make her wait!" I stuttered.

Altria laughed even harder than before. "Sorry, it's fine. I don't mind and it makes sense if she isn't completely spent. You might just want to finish that up before the other arrive. They wanted her to wait until we all joined up."

I sighed. "Where are they?"

"I ran ahead, but they can't be that far behind."

I turned back to Celine. "Did you hear that?"

She stopped for a moment and looked up. "I did, it's okay, I've had enough for now."

She slowly wiped the side of her mouth, readjusted her hair a little and sat up. I quickly pulled my trousers back up and then got to my feet. Altria had already turned her attention back to Enna by the time I joined them.

She wasn't aiming her bow at her anymore, but she had her gaze fixed intently on her. "I could guess what happened, but are you going to explain this one?" She asked.

I rushed over to the pair. "This is Enna… She helped me escape, she brought me here."

Altria finally looked away and turned to me. "What's the deal, can we trust her? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess it's the same situation as with Celine and Aetherin…"

I laughed awkwardly. "You guessed right… The harpies have a particular way of treating male prisoners. Lucky really, it provided the opening I needed."

Finally, Altria relaxed. "I see… Well, I won't ask anything else. I expect the others will want to know every last detail when they arrive. I leave the questions to them."

Altria stepped away from Enna, joining me and Celine near the wood's edge. She looked out on the final section of the plain. I couldn't see what she was looking at in the darkness, I could only guess. All I knew was that somewhere out there was our goal. The loan mountain and the shrine located there.

Enna was still in the woods, peering into the darkness. "Um… Should I still be the only one keeping watch?"

The three of us turned back from the forest's edge.

I walked over to join her. "No, we should all probably keep a look out.".

Altria scanned they area she had approached from, seemingly spotting something. "Looks like we won't be here for much longer."

"What?" I asked.

"The others, they're here."

I stared into the darkness between the trees and couldn't see anything at first. Then four figures emerged from the night. I soon recognised it was the rest of the girls. Beth, Liz, Aetherin and Serin had all re joined us safely.

As they drew closer, Beth ran forward and threw her arms around me. "You're safe!" She was squeezing me tightly.

I hugged her back. "Yeah, somehow I made it out of that okay."

"I was so worried when you were taken off into the air like that."

"So was I!"

"Be careful in future."

"I will, but I'm not sure how I could've stopped it."

Beth finally stopped squeezing me as Serin joined us.

Serin smiled as our eyes met. "I'm glad you made it here safely. We were worried!"

"Thanks."

Aetherin joined us after the other two. "I'm happy to see that you are in one piece."

Liz just laughed at this. "Seriously Theo, you should've seen them. They were all so worried that something was going to happen to you. I was worried that they were all going to break down!"

"Hey, you were concerned too!" Beth added.

"True I was. He's a valuable specimen it would have been unfortunate if anything had happened to him."

"Like that's all you were worried about!"

In the end I couldn't help but laugh too.

It was Serin that brought things back to business again. "I know we've only just been reunited, but we have a lot to discuss before we make our next move."

This brought everyone back to their senses.

"Right… Shouldn't we try to cover as much ground from the forest before dawn?" I asked.

"If we're still going to try for the shrine we should."

"We can't be considering turning back now?"

"I don't want to, but the situation has changed. We're going to struggle to make it across that open plain without being spotted by those harpies again. We also need to discuss her before we make our next move, whatever it is." She said turning to Enna.

Enna looked nervous as everyone's gazes fell on her. "Hi everyone, uh nice to meet you." She said weakly.

I decided to take the initiative. "She's coming with us!"

Serin was massaging her forehead. "Ugh, I knew you were going to say something like that."

"Sorry…"

"So, I suppose she is the one that Celine told us about? The one that helped you escape."

I nodded. "She is."

Serin sighed. "I want to avoid that whole discussion again, so I'm just going to ask. Did you use that skill on her?"

"I did."

"And I suppose she's going to be wanted by her own kind once they find out how she helped you?"

"I expect so."

"Then it would be wrong of us to leave her behind… I don't have any problem bringing her with us, as long as no one else does?" She asked turning to the others.

There was silence for a moment, but no one openly objected.

Serin took this as acceptance. "But just so you know, things are going to be very difficult once we head back to our own domain."

"I know."

I was just relieved they agreed.