A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 17: Intense

Author's Note:

A Drow's Dilemma began as a one-on-one roleplaying project and has been converted into a chapter-by-chapter format for weekly posting with the permission and assistance from my partner. It will contain a considerable amount of sexual themes such as femdom, lesbian, straight, 'reverse' rape, BDSM, group sex, romance, and other themes. The main goal of the story, however, is to tell an epic tale of adventures, gods and goddesses, fae, and nymphomaniacs. This episode and every episode to come will be available for free on Literotica for the foreseeable future.

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Episode Seventeen: Intense

Caleldir lay there next to Ashyr for some time, looking up at the top of tent, watching the interplay of light and shadow as the group outside lit the campfire. The big orc had apparently had success in his hunting trip. Caleldir realized that he was extremely hungry. "Well..." he whispered. "I hate to leave this, but perhaps we should help with dinner? And by help, I mean eat it?"

"Yeah. I'm really hungry." Ashyr agreed with a sigh. She sat up, looked at her belongings thoughtfully, then pulled on her shirt and nothing else.

With that, he gently disentangled himself and efficiently dressed in the padded wool that he wore under his armor, then exited the tent. "Need any help cooking?" He asked cheerfully.

The big orc gave Caleldir a flat look. The deer was roasting in chunks over the fire already, and looked well on its way toward being ready to eat. "You waited long enough. There's nothing more to be done." He accused. There was no real hostility in his voice, though.

The big guy had settled down next to the fire just outside his tent. It looked as if he would barely fit in the thing, though it would easily fit any three of the others. Zarag sat cross-legged next to the other orc, which happened to also be next to the human. She only looked slightly uncomfortable, but the orc was ignoring her completely. Zarag was still more focused on the dead female. Selene was also sitting between the fire and her tent. She had a sour look on her face, and was poking at the flames with a stick. All four looked up with Cal emerged from the tent. Carlotta gave him an amused smile, but the rest of them had varying degrees of grumpiness written across their faces.

Ashyr exited the tent and looked around at everyone with amusement. "Everyone's so lively!" She said with obvious sarcasm. Her spirits had been lifted quite noticeably. She sat cross-legged next to the big orc and winked up at him. He grunted back at her, but, unless she was very much mistaken, she saw amusement flicker across his tusked mouth and pig eyes.

Caleldir sniffed the deer. "Hmm. I can think of somethings that I can, in fact, do to help. Just roasting it is good, but I am sure that it could use a few spices. I have a few wild herbs in my pack that can help bring out the flavor, but I will probably be mostly reliant on Prestidigitation. Such a useful magic..." With that he began to busy himself around the deer chunks. By busying himself with the cooking, he could try to ignore the general gloom that was nearly omnipresent in the camp. At least Carlotta was not upset.

"So..." Caleldir broke the silence. "Do we have any plans at this time?"

"Yes. What are you going to do with Ungrai?" Ashyr asked. It occurred to her after that question like that could get her into trouble. Oh well.

Zarag shot her a dirty look, then turned a glaring eye back at the food in his hand and proceeded to eat it like the deer had offended his ancestors. The big orc gave her a contemplative look. Then he shrugged his huge shoulders. "Zarag has mourned her. He thinks we should put her on a pyre. I will not mourn her. We need her. I will find someone in my homeland who can bring her back. I do not think she will mind."

"No." Ashyr agreed. "I don't think she will." She stared into the fire for a time, remembering the dead she wished she could see again. The dead she knew better than to resurrect.

A strange light appeared in Caleldir's eyes. This was an area he understood well. Perhaps too well. Like Ashyr, his mind went back to Celeste. Even now, with his cavalier attitude towards violations of the natural order when it came to mortality, he only vaguely understood Ashyr's reluctance to try something similar with the pretty blonde. No necromancy he understood, but... He shrugged. "If you wish, I can try to speak with her ghost on the matter. I have some skill in that area."

"What would her ghost tell us?" Zarag asked. He was suddenly paying more attention to Caleldir.

Meanwhile, Carlotta, the big orc, and Ashyr were paying more attention to food than what went on between Zarag and Caleldir. They came to the conclusion together that it was ready to be eaten. All had difficult days with not enough food to sustain them through it. They efficiently passed the food around in a rare show of racial cooperation. The human seemed to relax further with every non-hostile action from the guy who was twice (perhaps even three times) her size.

Soon everyone had a hunk of meat in their hands. Selene took a moment to cast a detect poison spell with a look of suspicion written across her face. Everything must have been in order, since she proceeded to take a bite of the meat and chew on it thoughtfully. Then she frowned, somehow making the expression on of approval. The orcs, human, and other drow didn't even hesitate before stuffing their faces with varying degrees of decorum.

The food distributed, Caleldir turned his attention back to the conversation he was having with Zarag about Ungrai. He shrugged. "I cannot say for certain what she will say. It really depends on what she was like before death. Some ghosts are incoherent messes, only prevented from lashing out at everyone by virtue of their corporeality. Some are serene, pleased to be going home to live with their gods. Other ghosts are depressed, and fall to despair because of their own deaths. Still others leap at the chance to talk to the living, eagerly plotting their own resurrections. And finally there are those who are quite content to continue their existences as incorporeal unlives, otherwise going about business as usual. If Ungrai was a necromancer or something of nature, she will likely be pretty much exactly the same in death as in life, so a conversation with her ghost would be pretty much the same as one with her ordinary self." Realizing that he had talked long enough to let the venison in his hands start to go cold, Caleldir took a few bites. After swallowing the last one, he finished up with his soliloquy. "Although, if you wish for me to try to talk with her ghost, I recommend a blindfold. Looking at either me or ghost her might cause feelings of nausea, terror or permanent blindness in those without powerful resistance to magic. Others may be affected... differently."

"Then do this thing. I will have our sister's opinion on this." Zarag almost demanded. "Orag, if she does not want this I will burn her immediately." He said as he turned toward the big orc with a look of defiance.

"It will not change my opinion." The big orc - Orag - said firmly. "We took heavy casualties at Port Afron. We need her abilities. She can choose death later. Can you resurrect her, pale elf? Or can you only speak to her?"

Raising his hands out as if to ward away the two orc's anger, Caleldir responded in a non-confrontational tone. "I do not have any sort of skills in normal resurrection. I can command and bind incorporeal souls, but only some of the time." He closed his eyes. "I will speak with her, and if she does not want to return to her body, I will try to persuade her. My words may or may not have more weight than yours, depending on how coherent she is. If she is completely herself, you will be best suited to talk to her, if she is not, I will be."

Caleldir had learned at some point in the recent past that if he was killed by outside forces, his alter-ego took control of his body and laid waste to everything. But if he killed himself, he stayed in control. But without most of the skills of his alter ego, he was unable to do nearly the amount of damage. One of the things he did know how to do was summon and force ghosts to compliance. So, he pulled out a knife. "I will now begin. Those of you who do not wish to be affected by the terrifying visages of ghosts may wish to blindfold yourselves now. Some ghosts can have the same aura of potent fear as do powerful dragons." He looked around to see who took his advice. "And I am one of them."

"Carlotta. Go in your tent." Ashyr commanded. Her voice was not quite sharp, but it did make the human jump slightly. The redhead did as she was asked almost immediately. Caleldir did not make this process sound at all appealing.

The orcs took out pieces of cloth and tied them around their eyes. They seemed to know the drill, or at least knew not to question someone who was about to perform dark arts in their presence. Both seemed otherwise almost completely calm. This would not be the most horrifying thing they'd been privy to, Ashyr guessed. The drow chose to sit and watch without covering their eyes. They were just too curious.

Caleldir stabbed himself in the heart. Immediately, his skin and hair alike turned the same shade of bleached bone white, and his eyes glowed with a fierce wintry blue light. His features were twisted into those of alien beauty too fierce and terrible for mortal eyes, and his voice took on an implausibly deep, ringing tone of command that echoed as if in a stone tomb. "Ungrai P'Ina Lom Gra-Slaugh: I command your soul to take shape and appear before us."

Ashyr visibly winced when she saw Cal thrust the knife into his heart. It was irrational, she knew. She had seen him take a direct hit with lightning and he fully recovered after. But it still made her... anxious to see him injure himself in a way that would be fatal to almost everyone else. She watched him transform into his ghostly self for as long as she could, in the end, however, she chose to avert her eyes with an uncomfortable look on her face. Even after seeing this once before, it was more than a little overwhelming.

Selene simply fled. She thought she could handle it. She really could not.

Ungrai's spirit walked into camp unceremoniously. The orc woman sat in the spot that the drow recently vacated. If anything, the dead girl looked bored. She did glance over to her body quite often, however. "Could you just tell them to get it over with?" Came her voice. The two male orcs could apparently hear her. All three fell into a conversation in their native tongue. It was mostly nothing of consequence. They all ended in agreement, however; they would resurrect Ungrai.

"Just- if any of you can keep my body from rotting, that would be great." She said, this time in common.

Caleldir replied to Ungrai in his normal voice, albeit a voice with something of an echo. "I have that ability." He stated. He floated over to her body, and put his hands on it. The corpse shriveled like a mummy, then with a loud crackle, turned to looking like an uninjured, though uncomfortably thin, sleeping woman. "That should do the trick." He said. He continued in his commanding voice. "Now, Ungrai, I bind you to this world, and then free you to move as you wish. You may rest until your awakening, or assist your comrades as a ghost." With that, he floated out of the camp to a nearby stand of trees, which went through a century of drought in twenty five seconds.

Ungrai looked horrified for a moment when she saw Caleldir do... whatever it was he did to her body. But then her spirit relaxed when she saw him return it to... well, normal would not be the word for it. In life, she had been a comfortable balance of muscular and fat - for an orc, anyway. She didn't seem to like that some of her curves were gone. With a ghostly sigh, she stood, inspected her corpse for a moment, and walked back into the forest.

Now back to normal, Caleldir stumbled back into camp and collapsed half dead next to Ashyr. "Water..." he gasped out. When he had had a drink, he sighed, putting his hand to his head. "Now I remember why I do not usually do that..." He fell into Ashyr's protective grip, unconscious.

"Zarag, could you help me get him into the tent?" Ashyr asked the smaller orc softly. There was no way that should could manage it herself.

The orc complied readily. At least he seemed to feel better after what Cal did. He hoisted the strange ghost creature up with casual ease and set him down inside the tent as if his weight was entirely inconsequential.

"Thank you." Ashyr said with one of her flirtatious winks and a casual brush of his elbow. Both gestures were ignored. Mostly.

Everyone except Orag went to their separate tents after that. Ashyr managed to get Caleldir into their bed and curled up next to him with her body between his torso and his arm, her head rested on his shoulder, and an arm and a leg draped across him. She did not sleep immediately. About a half hour later, Carlotta snuck out of her own tent and into Ashyr's. The human curled up to the drow's back and immediately dropped into a deep sleep. Only then did the drow follow her into dreamland. Both women slept topless.

One reason that Caleldir had avoided using his abilities in such a way, besides the more obvious downsides, was that his night was once more a panoply of nightmares. The ghostly woman from before appeared once more in his dream, this time at the tower full of withered harpies, where she looked around at the blasted forest with laughter, before turning her face to Port Afron.

Then, his dream shifted. A very tall, narrow albino elf with craggy features and obsidian spheres in place of his eyes stood on top of the mountain overlooking the ancient monastery. His face was expressionless: his black eyes unreadable. He shook his head, and turned away down the mountain.

--

When the damp of the morning settled around the camp, Caleldir's eyes fluttered open. His head was still pounding, and he was ravenously hungry. Once he got his perception under control again, he noticed Ashyr clinging to him. He relaxed. Then, he noticed Carlotta curled up against her. He tensed up a bit.

Ashyr's eyes fluttered open when she felt Caleldir's body tense, relax, and then tense again under her. She had apparently not suffered from her usual horrible nightmares this time. She looked up at him, the followed his gaze to where Carlotta slept. The only part she could really see of her was her mess of wild hair sticking above the blankets. She was turned away from the two of them, and seemed to be sleeping happily.

"I think she got cold." Ashyr whispered to him softly. "Or couldn't get over the orcs and Selene." She shrugged very slightly. "You okay?" the drow asked. She lifted a dark arm to brush against his face, lifting her body slightly to do so. "Do you need some more water? I think we have leftover food somewhere too." Frankly, she had no idea what he needed after pulling that stunt. She assumed it to be quite taxing. He'd died, after all.

Briefly closing his eyes, Caleldir let himself relax. Having a half-naked Ashyr pressed up against him was a pretty good way to wake up, all things considered (his morning wood certainly agreed). He just found Carlotta's presence awkward. "I am okay. This is not the first time I have pulled a similar stunt. It is easier when I have animal, or sentient, entities to consume to resurrect myself. Vegetation makes for a poor meal. I certainly could use some food and water."

Not quite pushing Ashyr off of him, he began to try to sit up. His head still hurt something fierce. "I am sorry for the trouble I have caused you here. Did you sleep well last night? As for me, I have slept the sleep of the dead. With some disturbing dreams thrown in." A flicker of a smile appeared on his face. "But that is all in the past. I will recover quickly."

The drow sat up when he did, and handed Caleldir her water skin. He accepted the water gratefully, drinking it all down rather quickly. He wiped his mouth. "Ah! That is much better."

"You know..." she murmured with one of her signature naughty grins. "If you have a headache, I know an excellent way to cure it." She was simply guessing about the state of his head. Ashyr did not fail to notice the state of his other head. Her hand brushed against his morning wood under the cover of the blankets. Carlotta was still asleep - or at least she was pretending to be. Ashyr neither knew nor cared which one it was.

Not surprisingly, Caleldir turned rather red. "With Carlotta right there?" He whispered. Then, he mentally smacked himself. That was an incredibly stupid question of his. Of course Ashyr would not care that Carlotta was there. She would happily invite her to the party.

There was movement on the outside of the tent. A shadow of the big orc and the smaller one passed across the tent. The wriggling, wagging figure of Bard approached Orag to receive a hearty scratch behind the ears. Then the three of them simply sat down and murmured inconsequential things to each other in orcish. Neither orc seemed to be in a hurry to get going, not especially now that they knew the state of Ungrai's soul and that her body would be better preserved.

Ashyr took a moment to pop her head outside the tent, grab a bundle of oiled cloth filled with leftover meat, wink at the two male orcs, then go back inside her tent. She didn't bother to put a shirt on for this. The drow quickly got back to where she had been sitting next to Cal partially under the blankets. Still no sign of awakening from Carlotta.

When Ashyr popped out of the tent for a moment, Caleldir briefly considered if he should wake Carlotta up, or let her sleep. He had not come to a decision by the time Ashyr returned. "Thank you!" He said happily. After finishing the meat, he stretched. "I feel like a new man now! Recovered from death and ready to face the new day!" His eyes snaked over to Carlotta. He could not quite tell with her under the blankets, but she seemed to be topless. A flush appeared on his face, and he looked away. "So... should we wake our friend?"

"I don't know." Ashyr responded with a grin, calling back to their briefly interrupted conversation. "She seems awfully comfortable." The drow began to press her lips against the pale skin of his neck. Her breasts also rubbed against him as she did this. "It would be a shame to wake her, I think." Her hand returned to his pants and caressed him gently, up and down.

He swallowed heavily, tried to force his breath and heartbeat to their regular tempos, and stiffened. In way more ways than one. He closed his eyes. "I suppose that it would be a shame. So we should probably not do anything that would make too much noise." Trying to forget about Carlotta, his right hand absentmindedly went up to stroke Ashyr's hair. With his other hand, he unconsciously unlaced his shirt in order to more easily shrug out of it. If Carlotta had not been there, he would have already shrugged himself out of his breeches as well, but he felt a bit too self-conscious to so readily get naked.

"I can be very quiet." She whispered in his ear. Ashyr helped him out of his shirt and set it aside gently. While one hand still stroked at his member, the other rose to feel the lean muscles of his back. She paused her actions momentarily to remove her pants, then began them anew. The hand at his crotch tentatively began to unlace his breeches. He looked nervous, but he allowed her to help remove his pants entirely.

"Really?" He whispered in reply, a bit of mischief in his tone. "You are usually quite the opposite. If you are too quiet, how do i am know I am doing what I am supposed to?" Caleldir had forgotten all about Carlotta. She was clearly asleep, and facing away, after all. Besides, a very small part of him that he was quite busy not acknowledging, actually relished the possibility that the pretty redhead might catch the two of them in the act.