Chapter 64: Make the Nymph Cry

“Do they see us?” I asked my beautiful moon elf companion, squinting at the sight of the fae women of these woods. It was a dumb question. The three beauties were clearly too preoccupied with one another’s company to take note of us as we exited the brambles—this place was too serene, too inaccessible to non-faerie types for them to keep their guards up.

And yet here I was. I’d made it through, and with only a simple battle—not even a particularly tough one, if I was honest. It begged the question—why was I ‘tested’ so lackadaisically? I had expected riddles and puzzles and interviews from the Archfey based on what Etherea and spouted earlier.

Etherea, for her part, seemed equally surprised to be here already. “No, they can’t see us. But they will. We must find a way to get over to them.”

“Something feels off about this,” I grunted, looking around at all the greenery in this emerald clearing. “Are we sure they’re the genuine article?”

She shot me a bewildered glance. “Whatever do you mean, hero?”

I shrugged. “Just seems like that ‘challenge’ in the Bramblepath was a bit underwhelming, really. That’s all.”

“Ah,” she said. “That. Well, fae are monster girls like most others. They can get an impression of the quality of a visitor simply from a glance in much the same way that Bonny or Autumn or your holstaurs knew at first blush that you were special.”

I furrowed my brow and tussled my hair in reflection. “So they went easy on me cuz I seem like a nice guy?”

The moon elf shrugged, brushing her own white hair back behind her blue shoulder. “It’s one guess, anyway.”

Satisfied for the moment, I set my eyes back on the matter at hand. Two bark-skinned dryads, with long tangly locks that were essentially a mess of writhing green vines, doted upon a flaxen haired creature of enigmatic beauty. The golden tresses of the nymph spilled out over the lap of one of one of the dryad sisters while the other massaged her feet.

The first dryad, the one playing with the nymph’s hair as she lay across her lap, had white eyes void of pupils. Her skin looked like polished maplewood covered with thin papery bark. She had the unmistakable shape of a buxom woman, but I wondered how it would actually feel to touch her.

The second dryad looked much the same. The primary differentiating feature was that her hair was tied in what could only be described as pigtails. Of the two, she seemed the most chatty, her musical voice occupying much of the nymph’s attention as she gibbered about one thing or another.

And yes, the dryads had nipples.

“I feel like we’re going to be interrupting something,” I grimaced as we approached the lake.

“Fae have little sense of privacy, hero,” Etherea giggled. “They will likely be alarmed to see you, but we will clear the matter up as expediently as possible.”

I nodded. “Okay,” I grunted. “Let’s go introduce ourselves then.

“And how will we get over there? Swim?” I didn’t think it was meant to be a mocking question, but it kind of came out like that.

I chuckled. “Let me carry you,” I said, my voice low.

“Ohhh, I’ll take any excuse for that,” Etherea cooed, and she swung her arms around my head and lifted her legs as I supported her back the underside of her knees with my arms. “But… now what?”

I closed my eyes, focusing again on my Dragoner quality. If I could do it before, I can do it now, I thought. Sure enough, a wide span of scaly wings extended from my back—red, I noted, to match the scales on my chest. It hurt less this time.

Etherea’s eyes went wide with wonder. “Incredible,” she managed.

“No, you,” I winked.

I took off, floating across the pond like an angel holding a princess, thinking I must be quite the sight. It didn’t take long for the three denizens of the woods I had set my sights on to take notice of us as we hovered over to them. We did not get the reaction I expected, however.

“Dark fiend!” a dryad hissed, rushing to her feet. A flurry of vines extended from her palm, whipping at me and plucking me out of the air. I landed with a splash in the water, Etherea and I entirely soaked in just an instant.

I growled, letting my wings recede and treading up to the surface. I was perhaps ten feet from shore, and I quickly pulled Etherea back in my arms.

"It's fine, hero," she said. "I can swim."

I let her go and called out to the attackers. "Please don't harm us!" I shouted to the dryads and the nymph as they stood on their embankment, glaring at us in fear and anger as though we were monsters. I was half expecting one of them to jump out into the water to try and continue the battle. Instead, two white-eyed dryads and the golden-haired nymph stared back in silence, not making another move, all wearing heavy frowns.

"We are not dark fae or demons or anything of the kind," Etherea called out as we splashed about in the crystal clear lake. "Please, allow us to come speak with you."

The nymph cocked her head. I could see her more clearly from where I was, especially now that she was facing me directly. She was a creature of indescribable beauty, her skin the color of cream. Her eyes, though, were unlike any other I had ever seen. They were huge and the hue of a glowing emerald, and her hair, which flowed out to her waist, was as shining and golden as the sun. On her head she wore a bramble crown, like a little tiara. A sheer white vestment hung off her breasts down to her knees.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her face contorted into a skeptical pout, and the dryads' faces echoed her question.

"My name is Etherea. This is Bucky Drake, an Apex Hero."

Their eyes perked open with a look of astonishment. "A hero?" said one dryad.

"An Apex Hero? Can it be?"

"Why have you come to the Darkwood?" asked the nymph, leaning on one hip in a most provocative manner. "What is it that you want?"

"Can we get out of the water first?" I pleaded. "It's not super comfy in here."

"It's cold," Etherea agreed, her teeth chattering.

The dryad with the hear vine-hair down gave her sister a look of annoyance. "We should kill them."

"No you shouldn't!" I countered. "We came a long way to meet her!" I said, pointing at the nymph.

"Meet me?" she asked. "I am the Lady of the Darkwood, the Nymph of Gem Lake. What business does a man, hero or not, have with me?"

"Let me get on that bank with you and I can show you," I said. "Please, my friend is cold."

She paused, her expression softening. She cheated a look at each of her friends. "I understand that you must be brave to have entered into the Darkwood and made it through the Bramblepath, so I will allow you to approach. But be warned—do not make any attempts on our lives or it will end poorly for you. Come, male."

Finally, I sighed to myself with relief. Etherea and I wasted no time in approaching their island, crawling upon the shore like shipwrecked wretches. I stood, helping Etherea to her feet at the same time.

"Now what is it that you need?" asked the nymph.

Fuck, but she was pretty. Being up close to her, I found I had a splitting headache just from looking into her eyes. It was hard, like staring into the sun.

I showed her my arms, hoping she'd get the idea. She did. Her eyes went wide, shimmering dewily as she saw the extent of my scarring.

"I see," she said quietly. "You have met a dragon."

I nodded. "I did."

"The last father of dragons was a wicked man. His ilk should be put down. I hope you ended the fiend's life," said the nymph, eyeing me carefully, squinting as though my answer might change her opinion of me one way or the other.

I sighed at that. "I did, actually," I admitted. For now I didn't want to offer any other information if I could avoid it, but she seemed instantly satisfied by my answer.

"So you need my tears," she nodded, looking at her two friends. "I do not like to cry—it's frankly uncomfortable. I dislike the way it feels." She balled her fists. "But if you are truly an Apex Hero, then perhaps it is worth a few tears to help you."

“Excellent,” I nodded with a polite smile, remaining gracious even dripping wet. “I’m in your debt.” I held out my arms, my eyes never leaving hers. The beautiful nymph wore only a sheer diaphanous toga that clung her breasts particularly nicely. She had pointed ears, not unlike an elf, but they angled more outward from the side of the head rather than pointing up and back.

She raised a single golden eyebrow. “Well?” she said, waiting for something, but I wasn’t sure what.

“Well, what?” I asked, trying not to sound too stupid.

“I can’t cry on command, Apex Hero Bucky Drake,” the nymph smirked. “You will need to make me cry.”

I winced. Etherea wasn’t joking. “Umm… okay, let me think.” We sat down on the green embankment, and I told them about Hachiko, a Japanese dog who waited for his master to come home every day for years after his master died. That didn’t work. Even Old Yeller got nary a response from her.

I moved on, then, regaling them of the plot for the Lord of the Rings, lingering hard on the ending, though cutting off before the Scouring of the Shire—Etherea was moved, and so was one of the dryads, but the nymph remained visibly unimpressed, studying me with a bored expression.

After I told her about the part in Fullmetal Alchemist where Maes Hughes died, I realized just what an icy soul I was working with, and Etherea, currently sobbing her eyes out, had a similar epiphany.

“Listen,” she started, “This isn’t working. It’s unfair to expect Bucky to make you cry. Isn’t there some way we can hurry this along? He has a family waiting for him. Newborn monster girls, even! Please, I beg you!”

The nymph sighed. “Alright,” she said. “Maybe we can come to some manner of agreement.”

“Slam your cock into her throat!” one of the dryads said excitedly, pounding her palm with her fist. It caught us all by surprise. “Stab her soft palate with your dick. That’ll make her tear up, for sure!”

My eyes were so wide I was worried they might just roll out of my head. The dryad in question wasn’t bad looking herself—hell, both of them were hot. They looked a bit like trees in the shape of women, though, and I had to wonder if they were fuckable at all. Didn’t matter, though—the nymph was my focus.

“I think you’ll find I’m amenable to the suggestion,” I said after a long pause.

“I—I’ve never done something like that,” the nymph said. “Will it hurt?”

I shrugged. “I’ve only been on the thrusting end, myself,” I confessed. “The girls I’ve done it with have all enjoyed it, for the most part, though.”

“I enjoy it,” Etherea nodded, her teeth still chattering. “Listen, though—before we go crazy with acts of carnality, let me use a bit of magic to dry us up.”

No one protested, so with a wave of her hands and a few whispered words, the water fell off our bodies all at once, and we were as dry as we had been before our little episode in the lake.

As I sorted out my hair, the pigtailed dryad narrowed her eyes at me. “Did I see you sprout wings on your way over here?” she asked. “What was that about?”

I nodded. “To be completely transparent, I still don’t understand it myself, but I have the Shifter subclass feat—if that means anything to you.”

“It  doesn’t,” shrugged the dryad. “But it seems like you can shift into a dragon? That’s incredible.”

“Part of me, anyway—I still have yet to experiment much. I kinda sorta just woke up after three months of being asleep.”

The nymph’s eyes went wide. “Just like a fairy tale! Did someone kiss you to wake you up?”

I tittered at that. “My daughter woke me up by crawling over the gaping injury on my chest.”

“Hero,” Etherea interrupted me by smiling warmly and resting her hand atop my shoulder. “Her throat awaits. Surely you’d like to see your daughters soon, yes?”

I chuckled and cracked my knuckles. “Ever the taskmaster, Etherea,” I chided her playfully. “Alright, let’s go.”

“Okay, so, Ambrosia, sit on your calves and plant your knees in the grass,” said one of the dryads, clapping excitedly. “This will be so fun to watch.”

“You can participate any way you’d like,” I said. “Try to make it enjoyable for her—the first time can be a doozy, I imagine.”

The dryad nodded. “I’ll fondle her tits. Maplewood, you work her cunt with your vines.”

“Yes, sister,” the pigtailed one said submissively. It was easy to see who was really in charge here.

Ambrosia, the nymph  whose name I’d only just learned, knelt on the grass, and as she did so, a hundred flowers instantly bloomed out of nowhere, forming a circle of pinks, blues, oranges, reds, and whites around us. A swarm of fairies flew overhead, too, seeking a view of whatever was about to unfold. Some of them perched on tree branches. One even landed, to my dismay, atop my shoulder and just stayed there.

“Looks like we have an audience today,” Etherea giggled.

I grunted my disapproval of the fact, but there were more things at stake here than my personal comfort. I considered the throbbing pain of the dragon blood scars and clenched my jaw tightly.

Unbuckling my belt, in a series of quick motions I’d freed my cock from my pants. It flopped out, not yet at full mast, but it was still nothing to be ashamed of. The dryads certainly agreed.

“Whoa!” the pigtailed one said through a naughty giggle.

“This is… a hero’s cock?”

“An Apex Hero’s cock,” Etherea corrected her. “And Bucky’s is the best in all of Lusteria. You are privileged to see it.”

Ambrosia looked up at me with almost a fearful look in her eyes. “That slab is going in my throat?” she winced.

“Oh, come now, Ambrosia,” said the bossier dryad, “what’s the point in being shy? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity—to taste an Apex Hero’s cock, right in your own home.”

I wish I could buy the dryad a drink. What a wingman she turned out to be.

Ambrosia licked her lips as I caressed her silky, soft hair. She gripped my hips slowly, cautiously allowed her little mouth to take in my cockhead. With a silent groan, I guided her down onto the hard length of my cock, and the nymph sucked on it hungrily.

"Wow!" the dryads chimed together, their eyes glimmering with anticipation.

The little nymph bobbed on my dick timidly at first, only daring to take in about a third of its length. Then, once I encouraged her with a word or two, she began to take more of me into her throat. At last, I felt the tip tickle the back of her throat. Her emerald eyes went wide, and she gagged but gave no indication that she was ready to stop.

I kept going, meeting her bobbing rhythm with my own gentle thrusts. Drool dripped off her chin onto the bed of flowers beneath us. Her tongue worked hard, licking my shaft and pumping the underside with her eager hands. Soon enough she was taking the majority of my cock down into her throat.

The velvety textures of her gullet and tongue worked in tandem to cultivate an incredibly erotic experience. As this was going on, though, the lewdness was enhanced by the dryad sisters. The more dominant one used her hands and hair vines to knead the titflesh of the beautiful nymph while her sister's vines penetrated her slit, lifting up the bottom of her toga.

"Mmph," Ambrosia moaned softly as her eyes started to go dewy and fill with the haze of lust.

"I'm going to up the pace on my end, Ambrosia," I said. She nodded, her lips never leaving my cock.

"Fuck her throat, Apex Hero!" the dryad on her tits said. "Maplewood, get your vines as deep into her as you can. Really explore every corner of her cunt!"

The nymph's eyes suddenly went wide, and I knew that the pigtailed dryad was fulfilling her sister's wishes with aplomb. She squealed on my cock, and I saw my opportunity to totally overwhelm her and speed this thing along. I gripped Ambrosia's hair and thrust deep and hard, stabbing the back of her throat, inserting my cock so deep that if I came then I'd be blasting directly into her belly.

She gagged, and I saw glittery tears welling up in her eyes. "Good," I groaned. "You're taking it like a pro."

She pulled back, tears beginning to stream from her eyes. She panted hard, and though she spoke, feral moans punctuated every thought. "Please... ohhhh... give me a moment," she whimpered. I smirked, withdrew slightly and took another handful of her hair in my fist.

Now that she had stopped slurping my cock, I could actually hear the squelching of the vines as they tormented her cunt. She looked up at me with glossed over eyes, her mouth twitching in pleasure. She nodded.

In one swift motion I jammed myself deep inside her lips again. She gasped loudly, but her eyes shut tight. I repeated the process three times, each time ramming inside her mouth to the hilt and grinding my hips against her face. Each time, she released a guttural moan. By the fourth time, she couldn't contain herself any longer.

A thick river of spit leaked from between her lips, and some dribbled onto my balls. She groaned, yowling like a stray cat in a back alley all over my dick as she succumbed to her own orgasm, thanks to the ministrations of the dryad sisters. I watched with primal need as her face contorted and her body shuddered with ecstasy. As I hilted my cock deep in her gullet, she gagged. Ambrosia's throat contracted like a vise around my shaft, squeezing me so firmly I felt like she was trying to choke the life out of me.

With that, my balls teemed with their warning. The sensation of her throbbing throat combined with the sight of her tear and spit-soaked face looking up at me with unmitigated carnality—it was too much. I unleashed a veritable fire hose of cum, spewing into her mouth with abandon as I moaned loudly into the forest air, earning the applause of fairies and other fae creatures as they watched nearby. Thick ropes shot out of me, more than she could handle. Ambrosia hastily swallowed what she could manage, but soon my jizz was leaking from her lips in a lewd slurry of spit and spunk. My entire body tensed and my toes curled as the waves of heat spread throughout my veins.

"Fuck!" I groaned.

"Now, hero!" Etherea shouted, shaking me out of my pleasure-driven funk. "Her tears!"

The dryads withdrew, standing to watch what happened next. Ambrosia rubbed her eyes on my scarred arms, one arm at a time, before I could make any move myself. Instantly I felt like ice had been poured on a fresh burn. It was as painful a sensation as it was an immediate relief.

But the pain aspect quickly dissipated. Within seconds of her finishing her task, the scars stopped throbbing and burning, and their redness faded. They remained, still visible, but far less obvious. I knew, with instant surety, that the curse had been lifted.

“It worked!” I said. “I feel it! I feel… better!”

Ambrosia grinned up at me, along with her two dryad companions. “I’m happy to hear it, Apex Hero Bucky Drake.” Her words were normal, but her voice was wracked with exhaustion and hoarse, and cum, spit, and tears still dripped down her face. Her dress was half off, her tits popped out and exposed, and the lower part hiked up to expose her incredible pussy. Gawking, I instantly lost the plot of what was going on.

Thankfully, Etherea was there. “We cannot thank you enough. Your service today very well may contribute in no small way to the  salvation of Lusteria from the hands of the Dark Queens.”

Ambrosia stood and grinned, her beauty unlike anything else I’d ever seen. “It was worth a few tears, then,” she said. “Now, let us rest.”

“Oh,” I grunted awkwardly. “Actually, we should go. My marked girls will be wondering where I am and—”

“Marked girls? Excellent. Mark me as well and we shall leave at once.”

I blinked. “Uhh.” I exchanged an uncomfortable look with Etherea.

“Well, actually, he doesn’t have any markable points remaining,” Etherea lied, thinking fast. “And our town will worry the longer we’re away.”

The three women of the Darkwood scowled at me. “So you mean to leave?”

“Well—I mean, I suppose I can visit from time to time—”

“—Unacceptable. You belong to me now. Your other girls can wait.” Her look was suddenly severe.

“Well, what about my quest? I have to save Lusteria,” I pointed out.

“Save it from here.”

I squinted at her. “I’m not sure how that would work.”

Etherea leaned in close and gestured up at the sky. We were, after all, in a clearing. “Wings, hero. Your fucking wings, please.”

I nodded. With a single thought, my wings jutted out from my back and I took Etherea in my arms. We shot out into the sky, and narrowly dodged a swarm of angry fairies and the grasping vines of the dryad sisters as we made our escape.

“You cannot run, Apex Hero Bucky Drake!” cried Ambrosia as we made our escape. “I will find you, and bring you here, and claim you for eternity!”

As Etherea and I flew over the trees, we remained in silence for a few minutes until at last I felt secure that we had made our escape for now.

“So…” I started, trying to get a conversation going.

“Well, looks like you have a new admirer, hero,” Etherea giggled. “Let’s find Blue and get back home before anyone worries.”

“Agreed,” I said, my heart still racing. I looked down, feeling the wind on my legs and groin to an unexpected degree as we soared through the air. “Oh,” I grunted. “I forgot my pants.”