The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Laurius noted the awkward shifting he was doing. It took a minute to understand what he might be trying to attempt. He swallowed. The poor man painfully erect. He didn’t remember him looking so… large.

“Stand in the cavern opening. Hands on the wall either side of you,” he instructed. “Tell me your favorite plant out of any one you’ve grown. Tell me what it tastes like. Close your eyes when you do and don’t open them until I say.”

Laurius edged closer to him.

[Soran Nightblade]

Artisuren huffed a tight breath. The commands were starting to temper his fever, despite everything else. He pulled himself to his feet and crossed the cave to the entrance. His movements were slightly different before. He seemed markedly less helpless and desperate. Instead, he moved like a wounded predator, in pain and capable of violence. "Master," he warned, spreading his hands to the walls at either side. Other than the flaring rings on his horns, his dark, lithe body was a shadow against the brightness outside, and his neon eyes locked on Laurius. "It is n-not safe to touch me."

Despite his warning, he shivered and closed his eyes. "Spicemint. It was in the first dessert I ever tasted. Its flowers are blue, and last for months." He spoke like he was making bedroom promises and not describing herbs. The voices in his head were screaming something at him, but he didn't want to listen. His nerves were becoming more responsive thanks to Laurius's commands, which only allowed his hunger to flare up like a bonfire. It was safer before, when he was too weak to fight. If he tried to attack Laurius now,, he was no longer sure the pain would be enough to hobble him.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius approached slowly. He hesitantly reached out, but before he touched Ren he said, “Keep your eyes closed. Do not move. Think of a woman. A beautiful woman. Kindness in her eyes. Soft smile. Hair adorned in spicement flowers. She is with you,” he said, his fingertips brushing lightly down the ridge between Ren’s abs. For a second, he saw the vision painted in his mind. “She is touching you.” His fingertips circled Ren’s navel before arching downward. He tenderly curled his hand over Ren’s throbbing length and stroked along it gently, hoping to offer some relief.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren tried. He did his best to picture a Yurivis touching him, but it was no easy feat. There had only ever been Kishva. He was meant for her.

He had been chosen to exist solely for her pleasure. That was his purpose.

Who else could he possibly imagine touching him? The princess?

He remembered the woman's cries the night before... the sounds she'd dragged out of Thvoros. If she had accepted that lunatic, would she accept him too? He tested the image, pictured her pale moonlit hands caressing down his stomach, taking hold of him, requesting him. He pictured her with blue spiceflowers in her hair.

"Ah," he moaned, almost sounding startled when the sensation hit him. He flinched, keeping his eyes closed. His hips rocked forward, sliding himself through Laurius's fingers.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius swallowed hard, feeling heat swelling in him. He wondered what sort of woman he’d conjured, what sort of woman he liked. He hoped it was not the one who had cast him out.

He took his other hand and spit into his palm, shifting it to join the first, wrapping both snug around the large appendage, a sheath for him to thrust into.

He eased forward, his breath rolling across Ren’s chest. “She enjoys you. You can feel her breath in your skin. Her lips.” He dragged his across a pectoral. “Can you feel her?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren huffed. A Yurivis had never done something like this for him. His imagination faltered, but he slid between Laurius's fingers anyway. He pictured the breath on his skin, but when he tried to conjure a face, there were no features. He imagined her lips, but found himself dwelling on the warm rumble of his master's voice. "Yes," he half-lied, because he could certainly feel it, even if his imagery failed him. He thrust again in the man's hands, to the hilt. His length at the moment was enough to make any human nervous.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius took a nipple into his mouth and pinched it between his teeth. He was close enough that Ren’s hard length bumped him with each thrust. Gods it was massive. Is this what happened to them in Rut?

He had wondered already how the princess’s smaller frame could tolerate Havitharon under normal circumstances, but he couldn’t imagine her taking this. And yet… she had. She must have. The thought made him groan.

He wasn’t certain if it was wrong, but the image he had painted of Ren with the beautiful woman was of Ren and the princess. The idea of this—of Ren—with her. He little out a rattling breath.

“I’m watching her with you,” he murmured against Ren’s chest. His hands tightened around Ren’s length. “She is so tight around you, her teeth pinching your skin.” He took the nipple into his mouth again and bit.

[Soran Nightblade]

The sudden tightness and heat made his growl. "Yes," he groaned. His imagination tried to expand to include both Laurius and the princess, but his focus faltered again. He didn't need another male watching him with his Yurivis.

So why was it the princess he felt the desire to attack?

Who was she to entice his master? The real memory of Laurius and Tenara embraced on the beach came back to him. Envy simmered confusingly inside his scattered thoughts. He wasn't sure which of them he was jealous of. Despite that, her mouth and hands felt so, so good. He couldn't resent them. They were the only thing that didn't hurt right now. They were his world. He snarled again at the rapidly building sensations. "Agh.... Yurivis..." he cried out.

[Emora Deen]

“That’s it,” Laurius murmured, dragging his tongue over Ren’s skin, tasting salt and sea. He squeezed a little tighter around him. Laurius could tell by the strain in the being’s voice, by the tightening muscles of his belly, that he was close. “Come for her Ren. Spill inside your Yurivis.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren winced and raised his chin to the sky. His Yurivis? It felt off. It made no sense. But his body needed so badly to release. He thrust in several long, thorough strokes, achingly fast, until he stilled with a low, hoarse cry. His dick pulsed in Laurius's grip again and again, drenching the front of his body. Ren's breath caught with each release. His horns throbbed, but for the moment, even that was a kind of pleasure.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius watched Ren’s release with hunger and fascination. He had never seen a man spill so much. It was endless. His own body was covered in it. It soaked into his trousers. He’d have to bathe in the sea before meeting with the others.

But it had worked. It had worked! If he could keep this going… If he could keep this imaginary woman here to satiate Ren’s needs…

He stroked Ren for minutes. His climax was impossibly long. It rolled like waves through him.

When it seemed to end, Laurius released Ren. “Good. Good. She’ll be back. She’s resting. Give her moment.” He wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up, but he was willing to try anything to ease the phage’s suffering.

—-

Tenara paced the shore. The boat seemed to have put anchor down far beyond the reef. Maybe it was shallower than she thought. She still couldn’t see any banners to indicate where the ship was from, but it was their salvation either way.

She touched the ache in her shoulder where Havi had bitten her. She had asked for it without thinking how it would feel the next day. Even still, it made her smile when she ran her fingers over it, on display for anyone to see. A mark. His mark.

The sun had moved across the sky, and she thought she saw boats being lowered into the water.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren draped to his knees on the stone, his hands staying in contact with the narrow walls. He couldn't open his eyes, but his attention was focused on the man in front of him. "Thank you," he said, his voice aching with exhausted relief. "Thank you..." He didn't dare try to touch him. He leaned sideways, his face pressing into the stone. "You are so good at that," he murmured.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius reached out and touched the man’s head, stroking fingers across him tenderly. “You can weather this,” Laurius said. “Let me know when you need her again.”

Laurius conjured the imaginary woman off and on into the night. He was mystified at Ren’s stamina.

When night came, the water in the cave rose. Laurius had feared the tide would drown them, but it leveled off around their knees.

Laurius’s hands and mouth acted as the fictitious Yurivis the being needed. He lost count of how many times he’d conjured her. He had gotten creative with his descriptions, with his touch. But anytime he brought her, she was kind and soft and, in his mind, silver and starlight. After what Ren had been through with his last Yurivis, he deserved someone who would treat him gently.

Laurius’s own body ached for fulfillment, but it was Ren he cared to satisfy above all else.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Laaaaurius!"
"Mr. Marr!"

Artisuren's green eyes winced open where he lay slumped in the cave entrance. He'd been kneeling when he last passed out, and his arms still lay to his sides, attempting to touch the walls. He reached up to his head, and felt his horns. They were cooled. He traced fingers across the fresh black ring, slightly rougher in texture than the rest. It was over. He'd survived. His eyes tried to conjure tears, but just burned instead. His body felt like dried meat.

"Laurius!"
"Mr. Marr!"
"Ren!"

It sounded like there were voices, calling across the water. It felt like it took a lifetime just to raise his head and look out at the sea beyond the hidden crevice. Morning light sparkled across the water. Ren winced at it, head throbbing. There, a hundred feet off the rocks, was their lifeboat. The very one that carried them here. Merry and another figure were rowing the boat along the shoreline.

"Laurius!!"

Ren's attention fuzzed in and out. Laurius... Laurius?? He dragged himself up against the wall. "Here!" he called to the boat, as loud as he could through his raw vocal cords. His memory of the rut was patchy. He could remember periods of screaming, dangerously choreographed mating, and when the voices were at their worst, discussions of gardening that cost every brain cell he had left. He looked over his shoulder for the man who'd been his only lifeline for a day and a half.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius had fallen asleep sitting up against a craggy wall. He was lucky he hadn’t slipped down into the water, or he would have drowned.

He had fought sleep for so long, knowing he needed to be aware for his own safety but to also help Ren. Unfortunately, exhaustion won out.

The voices roused his weary mind. Merry’s was a familiar pitch rattling into the caves. He blinked his eyes open, his salt-burned eyes wincing at the light.

When it occurred to him that he was not dreaming, he clamored to his feet along the slick cave floor and squeezed into the opening with Ren. “Here! We’re here!!”

Then, worry choked him. His wild eyes flicked to Ren. “Is it… are you…Should I send them away?”