Chapter 21: The New Normal + Moonlit Patrol

virgilknightley

"In the Age of Light, when the sun first shone and the dawn first blessed my kin,

The woods were in their infancy and the greenskins without sin,

But the moon was jealous of the sun and the praise  that it inspired,

So she cast a dark and wicked spell and awakened the dark fire,

Grim-Skull, the first Goblin Brood Queen, brought war upon the grove,

And the wood elves suffered casualties and wounds that never closed.

Before those days, when all were friends, the heroes were unneeded,

Then until the Age of Heroes came, our prayers all went unheeded.

Oh Apex Hero, best of us, what would you have us do?

The time for heroes comes again, and all eyes are on you."

Ivy and Sprinkle sang the ancient song to me as I lay, exhausted, in the bosom of the unicorn girl, the cotton candy aroma of her body seeping into my nostrils as we lazed beside the hearth after a long day of farmwork and forest patrolling. The words of the song were beautiful and enchanting at first, but they began to feel incredibly personal as the tune went on.

Despite the unspeakable, ethereal lilting of their voices, I found myself made anxious and curious by the tune, unable to merely sit and enjoy it. "This song is so old that you both know it without ever having met each other before," I noted, "but there aren't other Apex Heroes around, are there?"

Ivy leaned against Sprinkle's shoulder and gently stroked my scalp. Her palm opened and closed again and again like one of those head scratchers, and her nails were just sharp enough for the sensation to be complete and total bliss. She smiled down at me gently as Sprinkle continued to hum the tune. "You and those who came to Lusteria with you are not the first Apex Heroes in its history, and this is not the only Age of Heroes. There have been others before you, though they have long since passed, I fear."

Sprinkle stopped singing and looked down at me with a look of intense love on her face. "I want to bite your face," she said sweetly.

Ivy winced. So did I. "Please don't," I said uncomfortably. It wasn't at all an unusual outburst for her, and she never did anything without my permission, but she sure did have unusual ways of wanting to express her love.

"Sprinkle, sweetheart," Ivy said, putting an arm around the rainbow unicorn girl, "we talked about that, didn't we?"

"I know," she groaned, licking her lips. "But have you tasted his blood? It's otherworldly how good it is," she moaned, groping her own naked tit for a moment before getting herself under control.

We tried to introduce the concept of clothing to her, but after 700 years of going naked in the forest, she just couldn't get used to it all of a sudden. We compromised, saying that at least when Mercer or the new Apex Hero came to visit, she'd throw a cloak on, and she agreed, though as it turned out, Mercer couldn't see her anyway, and the Apex Hero was still a couple days away by the sound of things.

The door slid open and May Belle and Daisy joined us by the fireplace. "Who wants some herbal tea?" May Belle said, holding three cups carefully, two in her hands and one mashed between her huge breasts.

"I'll take that one," I said, pointing at the boob tea.

"I knew you would," she grinned. She set it down on the ground with the other two, and then picked it up again, positioning it against her nipple. "Daisy, sis, mind helping me?"

"He prefers my milk in his tea," Daisy said. "Just hand it over here. I'm already dribbling."

"What?! How dare you!" May Belle gasped. "Bucky, set her straight!'

"I'll take a little bit of this and a little bit of that," I grinned, pointing at each of them. It was a happy and easy compromise, and within moments both of them had squirted their lactations into my drink until it was practically overflowing and the herbal taste was almost entirely diminished. "Where's Autumn?"

"She and Etherea are spending some time together tonight, remember?" Daisy said. She lifted Gumi up off of the floor and started playfully poking and massaging the pink ooze. "They're drawing out proposals for the future of Tater Town based on some of your suggestions and their own. I expect we'll all have a meeting about it in the next couple days."

I grunted. "Right," I said.  I had pitched some ideas to Etherea and Autumn that they were both excited about, and since Scalia and Vania were the other two women in town who'd been here the longest after Etherea herself, they decided to bring the two women in for a meeting of the minds and see what they thought. It would very soon graduate to a whole town meeting once everyone had stamped their approval on the ideas, or settled on a few to go ahead with.

Chief among the ideas was to begin having selected townspeople patrol with me in shifts. All they had to do was hang back while I killed monsters, or help if they were able, and as long as they contributed or helped me with buffs or assists in literally any feasible way while or shortly after the battle was going on, they'd receive a share of the XP. I figured leveling the townspeople was one way to protect ourselves from General Darkmaw and other incursions that might be coming in the near future.

I also presented a few other... suggestions. At Autumn's behest, a breeding program needed to start sooner or later. Since I arrived, Mercer had pretty much stuck only with his three marked girls, and according to the monster girls in town, he hadn't shown any interest in breeding in years. Since losing Silver Moon, who I realized later was his daughter, he apparently made it drunkenly known that he had lost interest altogether.

Rumor was that when I first met him, no one had even told him yet of Moon's death. He took that personally, and was preparing to pack up his belongings and move to Oak Post, a larger town just a couple days east of Tater Town. I couldn't blame the guy for feeling hurt, being kept on the outside of his own daughter's death, but from what it sounded like he'd had a falling out with Vale, Heather and Silver Moon's mom, a couple years before.

Long story short, a breeding program was needed, and I was expected to become the baby daddy to a lot of monster girls sooner or later. I wasn't exactly excited to begin fathering loads of children at once, but there was a need for seed and, indeed, I found myself with a monopoly on it. 

I'd talked long and hard with the girls I spent most of my time with, and the consensus we came to was that, as for them, as much as they all wanted to give me babies, now was not the time. The women in Tater Town would handle the rearing of their kids on their own, for the most part, while I did my hero stuff and spent most of my free time with the "core" girls of my harem. But I wanted to be able to raise my children with them, so as much as it stung, we all agreed to wait.

The only one it didn't sit well with was Daisy. She was more desperate to have a child than the others, to my surprise, but she was always craving my love and seemed to require it more than her sister to feel secure, so it wasn't all that out of character for her. Still, I had to refuse, even when she pulled me aside privately and proposed a scenario in which we could fake some kind of accident, maybe getting Autumn in on it to back us up with some lore as to how it happened; it was a bit tougher for a monster girl to conceive without the consent of her partner. Nice little magic fact about Lusteria. Anyway, Daisy wept bitterly at my refusal and wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the night. I still thought about it, days later.

The end result of that painful conversation was that I felt more urgency than ever before to take an active role in the shaping of this world's future, if for no other reason than that I could raise my children with confidence once the land was secure. To that end, I spent every day strategizing, training, and patrolling. Bonny and I spent a lot of time together sparring, and she was a good teacher. I had to hold back the use of my abilities, but she had technique that I sorely lacked.

I reflected on those matters quietly as I sipped my herbal beverage overloaded with holstaur milk and watched the beaming faces of the twins as they waited for my reaction as though it was a matter of suspense. "I mean it's obviously fucking delicious," I chuckled.

I stifled another laugh at their unnecessarily relieved-looking expressions, and sank back into my unicorn girl's bosom. "Sprinkle, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, my Bucky," she cooed, her glowing pink eyes suddenly excited from my attention.

"How are you taking to life in the Sanctuary?"

She looked like she was puzzling the question over, biting her lip adorably as her eyes rolled side to side. "I think I like it, but it's so strange," she said. "But being here is nice. Ivy, Autumn, and Daisy are quite patient with me, and May Belle is so sweet. And I don't really miss the forest all that much because you let me join you on your patrols every day."

That was just smart. With Ivy and Sprinkle with me, it was impossible to lose my way in the Watcher's Woods, and really fucking difficult to be surprised by any monsters or greenskin ambushers. They knew those forests like I knew their bodies--intimately, with an understanding honed from diligent, rigorous practice and exploration. And both of them were useful in combat situations, it turns out. The first time I saw Rainbow Sprinkle gore an orc with her horn, laughing maniacally as its blood cascaded onto her face, I knew that she'd be fine. She shook off powerful blows, not even registering the pain of them in any noticeable way, and licked her wounds to heal herself after each battle.

Still, her berserker-like battle prowess did make me nervous. Without armor or a shield, a single well-placed hit could kill her, so I tended to try and hold her back, at least for now, while Bonny worked on putting together some protection for both her and me in the form of armor. I really just wanted Sprinkle's neck, head, and heart protected, as anything else was trivial for her to heal, but a decapitating blow or an arrow to the heart or brain... I didn't want to find out how that would go down.

Ivy, using druidic magic, refused to wear any armor, though, but she seemed quick and nimble enough to avoid or absorb most damage, and her Barkskin 3 ability, which I had been eyeing myself recently, seemed to shrug off quite a lot, but she'd need to level up once more and put a skill point into it in order to train me, since you could only train a skill if you had it up to level 4.

"I'm glad to hear you're settling in well," I said. "I'm thinking about taking a quick moonlit ride with Blue before settling down for bed this evening. You girls all good on your own?" I asked.

"Yes, my Bucky," Sprinkle cooed, bending down and blessing me with a sweet forehead kiss. May Belle scooched up behind her and grabbed hold of her rainbow hair, starting to braid it. It was part of their evening ritual. They would take turns brushing and playing with each other's hair, and eventually fall asleep, one in the other's lap. It was incredibly cute, and I was elated to see everyone getting along with Sprinkle, willing to try to understand her for what she was, on her own terms. I could learn a lot from my girls and their patience. Even Daisy never gave so much as a stink-eye to the unicorn girl--unless she felt like she was hogging too much attention for too long.

"I'm fine here," Daisy said, but she slitted her eyes at me. "But don't be gone too long. Last night you were gone for ages. I worried myself sick!"

Before I could say anything, Ivy responded. "Actually, would you mind if I came with you?"

I twitched in slight surprise, but wasn't at all upset by the idea. "That could be fun," I said, reaching up to grab her hand. "Sure! You see better at night than I do anyway." It was an elf thing.

A done deal, within a couple minutes we were out the door. I summoned Blue with a shrill whistle and he dipped down from the clouds to receive me. I hopped up on his back, and then reached down, hoisting Ivy up behind me. Her warm arms wrapped around my waist, and I felt my heart thump as her nearly nude elven figure pressed up against me. 

"You ready?" I asked, but Blue didn't give her time to respond, taking off immediately. Ivy gripped me tighter, hoarsely gasping in my ear. I felt that kick of adrenaline you get when you take a hot chick to a movie theater and she shrinks in your arms at the scary parts of the flick. But Ivy was no high school bimbo, and she quickly adjusted.

"The view up here is incredible," she whispered, breathing warmth against my neck. "Thank you for this."

"Why didn't you ask sooner?" I wondered aloud. "I could show you the world, Ivy. Shining, shimmering, splendid."

I felt her eyelashes flutter against my neck in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Nothing," I chuckled. "That was more for me." I swooped Blue downward dramatically, looping in the air, trying to get that reaction out of her again, but she just held me tight and giggled.

"What a rush," she hummed happily. "You should bring me up here more often."

"I don't mind the company, but sometimes I gotta go alone, you know? Me time."

"I hope I didn't interrupt that," she said, a hint of worry in her voice, but I quickly swatted it aside.

"Not at all," I laughed. "Let me have the mornings, I can give you the nights, but be patient if the other girls start wanting rides, too."

"Daisy's afraid of heights," Ivy giggled. "I don't think I have to worry about her at least."

"Sprinkle might impale me with her horn in the dips," I responded, chuckling back at her. The wind swept our hair back as Blue plunged once more, as if to accentuate my point. "Getting blowjobs from her is logistically challenging, but we manage."

"I'm sure you do," she chuckled. "She's an odd one, but she's growing on me."

I nodded. "She means well. Just give her time."

"I will," she promised. "But I hate when she drinks monster blood so... erotically."

I shifted uneasily in the saddle. "I guess," I said, unwilling to admit that I kind of sort of didn't hate it.

Suddenly, I heard Ivy squeak in surprise. "Look! Down there!" she announced to me, pointing toward a tree-line of the Watcher's Woods. Half a dozen large four-legged figures were exiting the treeline, slinking into the fields outside of Tater Town, charging toward... the sanctuary!

"Hang on tight," I groaned.

"What are you going to do?"

I sighed, reaching to the side where my bow was slung, handing it to Ivy. "What heroes do."

virgilknightley