Wollfen then turned and walked out hoping that maybe Dark and Loranda had come back early. He walked to the woman's quarters but it was empty. He let himself in and stoked the fire, kicked off his boots and lay across the bed width ways. Before he knew it he had dozed off.
Loranda leaned close to Wollfen's face and blew in his ear. He waved at whatever annoyance was there and continued sleeping. Loranda blew again and got the same response. She looked up at Dark and gave her a mischievous grin and Dark egged her on. Loranda was a lot of fun. Now she lay a hand softly across Wollfen’s eyes and began kissing him softly on the lips. Just enough to disturb him and arouse him from his sleep and as he did, thinking it was Dark kissed back. Dark who was sitting on the side of the bed couldn’t help but giggle and gave the game away. Wollfen lifted Loranda’s hand off his eyes and reacted. Lifting Loranda up bodily, he placed her beside him and gave her a hard look, but both the girls were laughing out loud now. Grumbling he gave a short comment.
“
I don’t know who should be punished, you Loranda for misleading me or you Dark for letting her.”
Then they both giggled again. He leaned back towards Dark and grabbed her pulling her to him then gave her a passionate kiss and pulled away a bit.
“
Now don’t you wish you were here doing that?” Dark winked.
“
But I am my love.” She grabbed his hair and pulled him close again, they kissed some more. Wollfen lay back and Dark straddled him kissing and nibbling at his lips, he was having trouble trying to speak.
“
Do you.. arhh.”
Wollfen stopped fighting his passionate mate and joined in, so much for saying hello, this was definitely better. Dark continued kissing and drifted down his neck and he turned his head to accommodate her. She was certainly being dominant this evening.
Wollfen opened his eyes and looked straight into Loranda’s face, she was lying on her belly next to him smiling back and staring. He frowned a little, reached across and pinched her nose shut. When she opened her mouth to breathe Wollfen stuck his free pinky finger into it.
“
Ack!” Loranda pulled away and slapped him on his upper arm.
“
You bastard not fair.” Dark put her five cents in.
“
Hey leave her be, she didn’t do anything, you aren’t being nice.” Wollfen was indignant.
“
Me?”
Now he picked Dark up and turned her over and kissed her up and down her face giving her deep kisses. Loranda got off the bed then.
“
Well you two are starting to get hot and heavy. I’ll leave you to it.” And she walked out closing the door behind her. Dark looked to Wollfen.
“
Did you hear, we are getting hot and heavy eh?” Wollfen looked about and then slipped a hand down the front of Dark’s pants,
“
Oh I think she may be right.” She gave a giggle then whispered into his ear.
“
That’s what I want baby, keep going. I’ve missed you so.”
Night and Madeira arrived back at the quarters to find Loranda sitting by herself in front of the fire as they entered, she looked up and smiled.
“
Hi guys.” Night looked around.
“
Where are the others?” Loranda stuck her thumb towards the bedroom over her shoulder.
“
They are saying hello to each other.”
“
Oh.”
Night understood immediately, but Madeira gave a quizzical look and Loranda explained by holding one hand in a circle and poking a finger in and out. Still Madeira was slow to catch on and finally Loranda held a finger to her lips and said quietly.
“
Listen.”
Then Madeira heard it, a repetitive knocking sound and the occasional moan, finally it clicked. Realizing how naive she must seem she could only roll her eyes crossly at herself. Loranda got up.
“
C’mon, we will leave these two love birds to finish. Let’s go get a drink.” Madeira shook her head.
“
Oh no, I couldn’t, I swore never again.” Loranda grabbed her arm as Night smiled leading them out the door.
“
You don’t have to drink that much again you know. Just be responsible about it.” The evening proved interesting for all of them.
The next morning saw Wollfen packing a bag on the back of a horse with Dark helping.
“
That was a nice dinner Raz put on last night wasn’t it?” Wollfen agreed.
“
Yes and I can tell you the entré was especially good.” Dark giggled and gave him a playful spank on the ass.
“
After dinner, dessert was just as good.” She winked.
They both had happy smiles that morning. Wollfen had set aside his thoughts on the troubles in the world and Dark was just very happy to have him back. It had only been a week and it had felt like the six-month trip he had been away for before. The last eight months had been very hard on both of them and right now this little break before the storm was a necessary one.
Wollfen walked back into the quarters and quietly went into the bedroom. On the other large bed three entangled girls lay in a deep sleep. Dark came up beside him and looked too. She whispered to him,
“
I thought Madeira wasn’t going to drink anymore.” Wollfen shook his head.
“
Who knows what those two got her to do this time. Madeira still hasn’t learned how to take care of herself in this type of environment.” Dark looked them up and down,
“
Do you suppose Madeira is becoming like them sexually?” Wollfen shook his head.
“
I doubt it. If anything did happen, she was probably too drunk to know what she was doing. You can smell them from here, they are rank. Let’s leave them be. We can leave them a note. Might be a good idea to let Night know she isn’t to do this to Madeira when we get back. I need her to return to Isogorr clear headed and focused.”
Dark went off to write a note for them and after she was finished she left it on the table for them and they exited quietly to let them sleep.
They pulled themselves up on their horses and Dark looked to Wollfen.
“
So where are we off to my love? You still haven’t told me?” Wollfen smiled.
“
Raz put me onto a log cabin down south that we can travel to in just under a day. It sits halfway up a mountain. He tells me it has spectacular views and is empty at present. I’m thinking it would be nice to stay there for the week with you.” Dark smiled back hearing that.
“
Are you serious? You mean it will be just you and me all alone for a week? I don’t believe it!” Wollfen gave her a look and leaned across in his saddle.
“
Give me a kiss and I’ll prove it to you.” She leaned towards him and he gave her the softest, most tender kiss she had felt in a long while.
“
Mm, I’m convinced, let’s go.”
Back in the enchanted lands Luthein came across a shocking discovery. It was a very old elven text buried within another book and there were only a few pages. What was of particular importance was it spoke of a prophecy and it was like nothing he had ever read before but the circumstances sounded so familiar.
He must have spent a good hour reading it over and over again trying to consider every permutation it could mean, but he kept coming back to the same one, the most obvious. He simply couldn’t believe what he was reading. Finally he decided it was time to go to King Elyssur and seek his counsel. It would take more than one head to mull over this new development and decide what to do with it.
Luthein made his way to the royal halls with the book in hand, he didn’t even separate the loose pages from where they had been hidden for who knew how many centuries? It had been by chance that they had been found. Upon approaching the guards, he spoke of his urgency in needing to speak to the King and he was ushered in almost immediately.
King Elyssur was busy dealing with matters of state discussing with and giving orders to a number of subordinates but as Luthein approached he waved them away to come back another time. He knew that for Luthein to come unannounced meant he had serious news.
“
Come Luthein, sit down and confer with me.”
Luthein sat and looked a little tense. The King was surprised to see him like this.
“
Tell me what you have found.” Luthein went to speak but thought better of it.
“
I think it’s best if you read this your highness. It tells the story better than I could.”
He held the book open and the loose pages were exposed for the King to take. King Elyssur sat back, opened them and began reading the old elven tongue carefully.
He was a bit rusty but he didn’t miss any of the meaning. As he read he would pause from time to time and his eyes would widen. Then he would look to Luthein who could only nod in confirmation. Finally he finished and looked up but he didn’t look at anything in particular. Instead he slowly rose and walked out to the balcony near him and stood there for a while looking out over his domain.
Eventually he came back inside and sat down again looking at Luthein.
“
You are not to tell Wollfen of this or any of his comrades either for that matter. None of them are to know what is written in this prophecy do you understand?” Luthein protested.
“
But my King, this speaks of the demise of our kind and it is to be at the hand of a great magic wielding human. Surely that is Wollfen himself?” The King shook his head.
“
No Luthein, it cannot be him and as such we cannot divulge this knowledge to him for it may stop him from doing what is necessary in saving this world. Do not worry. Wollfen is an agent of Lord Vincent and has the best interests of all races at heart. He cannot be the one spoken of in this prophecy.”
King Elyssur knew better though, but he would not divulge what he knew to Luthein. He folded the pages back up and replaced them from whence they came and looked at Luthein once more.
“
No one is to know of the existence of these pages until the time is right. I order you to place them in hiding until I give you a direct instruction to bring them forth once more, do you understand?” Luthein nodded.
“
Thy will be done your highness.”
He bowed as he took the book and retreated once more. The King turned back to the outside balcony but didn’t get up. All of a sudden he felt drained and lost.
The following week saw Wollfen and Dark return to Port Volarus and meet up with their companions once more. They did lunch together and chatted about the serenity of their time alone in the woods high up on that mountain. Loranda kept badgering them for explicit details of what they got up to all alone in that cabin.
All Dark would tell her was they talked, cuddled and shared some very special moments. Loranda wasn’t impressed, she had really hoped to get some gratuitous details. Wollfen addressed them all.
“
I want you all to know that even though all of us have been through so much in the past eight months that we have yet to face our biggest challenges.” They took greater note when he said that. “Also, over the coming weeks we will be facing forces like none you have ever seen. We mean to go to Isogorr and take on the Queen of the sorcs. She has a thousand sorcs behind her and will not be easy to defeat. Even if we do win out over her, we will be facing even greater challenges after that. So in saying so I must ask each and every one of you to decide for yourselves if you are in on this or if you wish to walk away. I will not hold it against you if you decide to do so. I, too, have had a lot of second thoughts on this over the last couple of days.”
He looked around at them and waited. All looked resolute and ready.
“
Thank you. I cannot demand you come with me or engage in what I am about to embark on, but the fact that you are all with me speaks volumes of your dedication. I could not ask for better friends.”
They nodded or smiled at him. The group understood this was the moment they had to stick together and see it out to the last, the final scenes of this war were about to be played out.
Wollfen stood and addressed them again,
“
Okay, I will tell you that I want all four of you to come with me to Isogorr to take on the Queen. Dark, can you tell me if Vaughn is going to be in on this? I haven’t seen him of late?”
“
I will find him and see, but knowing him, he will probably come along.”
“
No, I want to keep him back for now. I think he will prove more valuable when we go to Kassandrea afterward. I don’t know why but I feel it.” Dark nodded.
“
Alright, I’ll let him know he has to be prepared at short notice to move out.”
“
Alright people, time is growing short, make preparations for leaving on the morn, for then we all travel to the enchanted lands.”