Dark Crow Rising

Shooting up from my nightmare, drenched in a cold sweat, my fingers dig into the bed. I keep clenching my hands through the frame and the bedding as I pant excessively. My clawed hand comes to my head and I clutch it as my brain painfully throbs within, pounding my skull like a battering ram. Breathlessly hissing at the pain, I struggle to wipe my eyes clear of tears with my hard triplet of bug digits.

I try to steady my breathing to something more stable, but all I can manage is to make it less hysterically spastic...

Moving my clawed hand away from my face, I stare deeply at the dark, shelled mass as my three digits move. Moving the one about where my pinky used to be, I look away and spot a slender, tanned arm. It unwraps itself from my gut and I follow the length of it until I find its owner. I blink at what I see as what is clearly a she starts to move with a smile.

Coloured like and shaped like the petals of a red rose, her hair sways gently as she moves upwards. A pair of slim, pointy ears reveal themselves and I notice the pair of glowing bulbs dangling from her forehead. Lighting me up in a soft, warm, rose-coloured light, I start to shuffle away. I start to panic for a whole new, obviously silly reason.

Why am I sharing a bed with a woman as curvy as this!?

"A-eh!?" I let out as I fall out of the bed and roll out towards some kind of fabric wall. Shaking my head, I sit up just as she does. Having taken most of it with me, the parts of the quilt left on her start to fall. My eyes widen and my face heats up and I try to hide it by looking away and sticking my hands up.

I did not see her bountiful body in the slightest. I am not getting vague memories of soft skin and softer mounds against my body. She starts to giggle and move and a delicate touch comes upon my shaven head. Either she is trying to calm me down or she is entertaining herself...

I hope it's the latter as I do not intend to become the toy for some other creature!

"Stressful sleep, Champion?" she softly asks as she leans closer and closer towards me, bringing my arms down in the process. Placed between a rock and a hard place, I do not know where to put my eyes. Either, I stare deeply into these strange, black orbs or I spot... She rubs a finger along my forehead, wiping it clear of grime, muck and sweat.

Looking at myself, I get quite a clear view of how filthy I am. Dried blood, mud, everything, really. But, strangely, I can't see any bruises of note or any great injuries. I...

I don't understand, I know I was brutally beaten down...

"Champion?" she asks as her fingers guide me to look up by the chin. Looking into her eyes again, she smiles and lets go. Sitting at the edge of the bed, she starts to beckon me closer with a suggestive finger. For some reason, I slowly move up to her and she guides my head down onto her bare lap.

She strokes my head as my mind wanders all over the place in regard to my body, I try to distract myself. I look down at her legs as best as I can and see clearly that she is a needle-leg. Up close to them like this, I notice as well how, after the knee joint, it turns into a more bone-like material. My eyes dash across the quilt-covered carpet then I spot something white...

"Wait... Where's Vapooliar?" I ask as I shoot up slightly. Before I collapsed out there in the wilderness, I heard her voice. I saw a blurry figure in white and I heard the sounds only she could make. Powerful, sudden explosions in the air...

"The Valkinvar? I asked her to rest easy now. For she's accomplished what she set out to do." this woman explains to me as she tries to reel me back in.

I blink, having no idea what that could possibly mean, "What did she set out to do?"

"Find you, of course... And I can see why..." the woman answers as she leans in closer as her tone turns far sultrier. I quickly and nervously stand up and move away from her. Only to get a sudden build-up of blackness in my eyes and spasms in my legs. Latching onto a nearby set of draws, my fingers snap through the wood as the rose-haired woman supports me out of nowhere.

"I'm... I'm fine..." I mutter as my right arm holds her back. But, I am confused, I can barely feel her, she's got it pressed up between her... But I can barely feel any of it. It feels like I've been sleeping on it, but no pins or needles are coming.

There are only dull sensations in a pattern of lines on my open palm, slight openings...

I take a step away from her and clutch the arm tightly, though, her grip is not easy to escape. Her arms change their position and they wrap around me from behind along with her tail. Warm softness presses up against my back and bright light nearly blinds me on my left side. I turn my head to the right just as she starts to nuzzle my exposed neck.

She purrs and happily hums a tune against my skin, seemingly making it more sensitive than it should be. My still-normal hand stops her right before she can reach too far down. She moans her disappointment right against my cheek then she lets go. She walks away and I hear the bed bounce right after.

I turn to face her and immediately look away with a buzzing mind. She just had to choose a position that showed her body off the most, didn't she? Breasts are proudly being pushed forward by her tightly-knit arms. One leg is crossed over the other, showing off just how much leg meat there is to grab...

Strangely, my nightmares have one thing to be praised for and that's the fact I can't seem to ignore them. My mind keeps going back to them rather than the eager spearman sharing this tent with us. Noting my filthy state once again, I sniff my pits and hack a fake cough at the smell. Now that I can actually smell nice things in this tent, it's easy to see how bad I smell!

A draw slides open and a cloth comes into view in the woman's hands. Squeezing the seemingly dry piece, water starts to drip out of it and she wipes her front down. Mesmerised by the sight, I keep watching as she smiles. Dually-shaded, ivy light appears around her free hand and bubbles start to form as they touch the water...

The cupboard behind me starts to violently rattle.

Turning to face it, someone bursts out of it just in time. They're dressed in thick sheets of brown leather and a pair of bulbs with their yellow light go off at me. I look back at the other woman and her face shows nothing but an igniting explosion. Looking back down at the leather-covered person, they rise up as they spot the seed on a pedestal.

"THORNS! THORNS!" the rose-haired woman roars at the top of her lungs with spit-flinging fury. The leather-covered needle-leg freezes up and a group of four armoured ones burst into the tent. Two of them draw weapons and block the entrance while the other two snatch up the leather-covered one. Rising to her tips, the rose-haired woman approaches the captured needle-leg with a right furious expression.

The bulbs on one of the armoured needle-legs light up a bright pink.

The rose-haired woman's light up an even brighter rose-red and the group of four leave with the leather-dressed one.

The rose-haired woman turns to me, horrified, "I am so sorry, Champion! I would have thought you would be safe here in my bulb, but... I will put in even more effort to ensure the roots will stay away from you!"

"It's fine..." I answer quietly, confused and bewildered as to what is going on. What's a root? Why does it matter if she is near me? Why does she keep calling me 'Champion'!?

"No, no it is not, Champion! You deserve bett-"

"Please don't call me that." I interrupt as I clutch my still throbbing head, "My name is Nin, okay?"

"But, Champion, you have more than earned the title! We found you with the many dozens you saved and we have been told beforehand of your saving of our Gilded-Bark's unborn son!" she tries to explain and I blink slowly at her reasons for why I earned the title.

I frown at them as fists form.

She spoke as if I did any of that out of the kindness of my heart. As if I just did any of it selflessly... The seed was just suddenly thrust upon me and I immediately handed it off to someone else. And all those I put on the log, I did not save, I tried to force them back into the hive.

I tried to force them back into it!

She slowly starts to get up and comes close to me. When she reaches me, she pulls me in against her and aggressive snorts keep flattening her hair. Through the valleys of her scalp, I vent my anger like whistling, steam-packed pipes. She moves her head away just as I seem to calm down.

"Now... How about we get you cleaned up?" she asks as the sultry tone and suggestive smile return. Her sweet-scented breath blows over my face and it lingers in my nostrils like that honey did in my mouth, back at the camp. She presses her front against mine some more and I start to wiggle out of her grip. Snapping around, I keep my back end facing her.

She giggles and I take note of how she is enjoying this far too much!

Tearing up a cloth from the nearest source, she laughs gently as I cover up my crotch. Keeping it safe from her gaze, she tries to test me with her grip and I ward her off. Soft giggles leave her again and she wraps herself around my left arm. She starts to guide me towards the exit of the tent without even trying to get herself changed...

Silently, I go along with it with increasingly wider eyes. We're only taking steps at a time but it feels so much quicker and so much slower than that at the same time! Whatever Aahtha's involvements with my current circumstances are, as the Goddess of Pleasure... Nakedly striding outside isn't one of them!

"Woah, woah! Hold on! We aren't dressed yet!" I point out in disbelief at the crazy confident woman. However, wrapping herself with my arm, she sticks her hip out and rolls her eyes. She makes a little gesture as she looks me in the eye.

"So? It's not like I am a root, unlike that hideous thing from earlier. Besides, why wouldn't you want to show yourself off with me? Making others jealous with my good fortune is... An eagerly looked forward to circumstance..." she tells me as her lips move closer and closer to mine. As she does so, my grip on the cloth tightens as her grin lengthens.

"Public decency!? Ring any bells!?" I ask her loudly and she tilts her head at me.

"Public decency for the Ahnelges and all aelenvari flowers is to respect the beauty and strength of their superiors by basking in all its glory..." she clarifies to me as a hand spreads out across my chest and a leg braces itself on my cloth-holding hand... Claw...

"Okay... Um... Can we at least find something to cover this up then...?" I plead as of all the things my body has to show. This new arm of mine is something I do not want others to see. She smiles sweetly and nods gently.

"Of course, Champion. I will arrange for someone to deliver us a cloth to wrap up that arm in. If you are happy, so am I." she explains as she untangles her body from mine. Nodding as she does so, I try to keep my eyes away from her swaying hips and the tail framing her lower end. I direct my glare towards my crotch as it just can't seem to take a hint.

My mind is full of nightmares still but down here... It cannot take anything seriously...

Admittedly, it probably doesn't help that I am noticing what I am.

"Would you prefer to wait on your own... Or do you enjoy the company?" she asks as her head comes back into view. Running her fingers under her mounds, she highlights them for my eyes. I turn my flushed face away and my bare feet bounce and bounce.

I shake my head rapidly, "Loneliness!"

She shakes her head with bemused disappointment and disappears through the tent flaps. She keeps her tail in the tent, however, swishing it aggressively from side to side. On top of being able to see her shadow come through the fabric, I also see her body slightly. Looking away from her, I spot many, many more shadows.

The amount just keeps growing...

"Where in the name of the gods have I ended up?" I ask myself as I start to get nervous at the sizeable force of growing onlookers.